Waugh sees 'confrontations' on India tour

Julian Linden

Steve Waugh's all-conquering cricketers flew out of Australia on Tuesday for a tour of India and a chance to cement their claim as one of the greatest teams in the sport's history.

Waugh's triumphant side have already climbed the twin peaks of Test and one-day cricket during their unbeaten Australian summer. They won all 15 matches during the 2000-01 domestic season, including a historic 5-0 clean sweep of their Test series against the West Indies and all 10 of their matches in the triangular limited-overs tournament with the West Indies and Zimbabwe.

They extended their world record of consecutive Tests wins to 15 and are just four matches away from equalising the one-day record of 14 games without defeat they set this time last year.

But Waugh, who achieved a personal milestone on Monday when he was named as Australia's player of the year, has made no secret that he views the Indian series as the ultimate challenge of his side's test of greatness.

Australia in recent years have beaten every major cricket-playing nation in the world both home and away but have not won a series in India since 1969.

"The Indian series will be the big one and the one we'll be judged on," Waugh said.

"If we don't perform over there then possibly we're not as good as other sides that have won there in other eras."

Speaking to reporters before the team's departure from Melbourne airport, Waugh added some spice to the tour by taking a swipe at Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.

"He'll have them fired up so you'll see a bit of a different series to the usual Australia-India, there's going to be a lot of confrontations," Waugh said.

"I don't think there'll be verbal stuff but there'll be two teams out there giving it their best shot."

Waugh hit out at suggestions by former Indian Test player Navjot Singh Sidhu that local curators should doctor the pitches to suit the home team, saying it was against the spirit of the game.

"The groundsman's job is to produce the best wicket he can and then let the players go out there and play on it," Waugh said.

"If you're not good enough to cope with different conditions then you shouldn't be there."

Australia suffered a major blow just before the tour when paceman Brett Lee was ruled out with an elbow injury but he was replaced in the 14-man squad with tireless swing bowler Michael Kasprowicz.

Kasprowicz will share the fast bowling duties with Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming, who missed the Test series against the West Indies this summer with neck and finger injuries, and Jason Gillespie, who passed a late fitness test for a hamstring injury.

Australia chose champion leg-spinner Shane Warne and the versatile Colin Miller as their slow bowlers, leaving out the unlucky Stuart MacGill, who had a successful Test series against West Indies, while Warne recovered from a finger injury.

The first of three Tests starts on February 27 in Bombay after two warm-up matches. The Tests will be followed by five one-dayers.

The Australian squad: Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, Michael Kasprowicz, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Colin Miller, Ricky Ponting, Michael Slater, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh.

Mail Cricket Editor