It may be deep in the heart of football season, but Australia has a home Test cricket series less than a month away. And all is not well.Glenn McGrath has been a champion for so long that we’ve been taking him for granted. Wind him up and watch those ungainly limbs somehow coalesce to deliver 5 1/2 ounces of red leather in exactly the spot batsmen don’t like. Time after time. Never missing a beat; a chronometer among fast bowlers.For a decade McGrath has been Australia’s pre-eminent new-ball specialist, and by most reckonings one of the greatest bowlers of all time. The figures don’t lie. In 95 Tests he has taken 430 wickets – second only to Shane Warne (517) among Australians, and sixth on the all-time list. With five more wickets he will have only Muttiah Muralitharan, Courtney Walsh and Warne ahead of him.McGrath’s signature delivery is the one that lands at an awkward length in the so-called “corridor of uncertainty” just outside the line of off-stump. He’s not all that quick, but he’s relentless, and it is reflected in not only the number of wickets he has taken, but in the strike rate (52.0) and average (21.71), which are exceptional. Time, however, is the master of all cricketers. Especially fast bowlers.McGrath is 34. He has now delivered that bit of leather 32,314 times in Tests and one-dayers. The sheer physical work has taken its toll, particularly on his ankles. Previously renowned for being injury-proof, McGrath had surgery twice last year, and has missed Australia’s past nine Test matches.The growths on his ankle bone were obviously restricting him before he opted for the scalpel. In the five preceding Tests, McGrath’s returns were ordinary – 10 wickets at an average of more than 36. The last two of those matches were against Test bunnies Bangladesh. And compared to Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill, he struggled. Plainly, McGrath is no longer the bowler he was.The question is, can he regain his old form? He had hoped to use Australia’s recent tour to strife-torn Zimbabwe as the springboard back to the top. But the Tests were cancelled, and the tour was reduced to three meaningless one-day internationals and practice matches against third rate sides.McGrath flew home this week with a sum total of 37 African overs under his belt and a threadbare return of 2-110. He declared it useful, but it was hardly encouraging. By the third match he had suffered the indignity of being relegated to change bowler behind Gillespie and the resurgent Michael Kasprowicz.McGrath himself thought that was a fair call, but said he was happy that he had improved with every outing, and was “not too far away” from full form.”The last one-dayer it was starting to feel really good,” he said. “The rhythm was coming back then and I think that with another couple of matches, the zip and everything would have come back. I’ll try to keep bowling the next couple of weeks and then hopefully I’ll be ready to go.”Fast-bowling coach Geoff Lawson is among those who are not so sure, arguing that McGrath has problems with his technique. “Technically he’s still making some errors that we don’t normally see from him,” he said. “He’s been taking a big step in, in his delivery. When he runs straight through he’s much better.”Lawson said the flaw was restricting McGrath’s ability to get his right shoulder far enough around, which robs him of both speed and accuracy.”I’ve haven’t seen him bowl so many wide balls and short balls for a long time,” Lawson said. “It’s just not there. He’s getting poor figures against people who can’t play that well, and that has to be a worry.”While it is dangerous to read too much into a tour like Zimbabwe, McGrath has been back in action for four months and still the engine is spluttering.He’s played a couple of grade matches, a Pura Cup match, a NSW Second XI match and the four games in Zimbabwe, sending down more than 130 overs.And while he says there hasn’t been much “ouch” in his ankle, neither has there been any Ooh-Aah in his bowling. “McGrath’s a very hard trainer, Lawson explained, "but when you get to that age, injuries are so much harder to come back from."Next stop for McGrath is an indoor net at the Sydney Cricket Ground, then the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. Net bowling is only part of the answer, and he knows it. So does Ricky Ponting.”It’s all about him getting his rhythm back in the middle,” Ponting said. “You can do as much bowling as you like in the nets, but it’s nowhere near as valuable as game practice is. He’s got a bit of work to do yet, but with 400-odd Test wickets to his name, I’m sure he’ll be back playing well again pretty soon.”When asked, Ponting said he expected to toss the new ball to McGrath when Australia plays Sri Lanka in Darwin on July 1. But only after an initial “maybe”. For the past 10 years there has been no maybe about it. Start of Test innings equals throw new ball to McGrath. No maybes. The skipper’s hesitation betrayed his concern.While in Zimbabwe, McGrath spoke of his ambition to reach 100 Tests, 500 wickets and to keep playing until the 2007 World Cup. It’s a tantalising thought, especially in days when cricketers are keen to extend their careers into their late 30s because they can earn sixand seven-figure sums a year.It may be all right for batsmen, but fast bowlers need to be exceptional to stand up to it. Which makes Courtney Walsh’s record all the more remarkable – he played well into his 39th year.In Zimbabwe, McGrath raised the prospect of winding back the speed, of mellowing into fast-medium in the style of Allan Donald, Dennis Lillee, and perhaps most effectively, Richard Hadlee. They substituted grunt for guile and continued to take quality wickets when age had stiffened their bones.McGrath, though, has never been an express bowler, and finds it difficult now to get much above 130kph. He is a more front-on style of bowler, and the transition might not be so easy.Gillespie, who has now assumed the mantle of Australia’s leading fast bowler, believes reports of McGrath’s demise as a new-ball bowler are premature.”He’s an opening bowler and he has been an opening bowler all his career,” Gillespie said. “No doubt, if the opportunity was there for him to have a different role he would embrace it and enjoy it. But I know he loves opening the bowling. It doesn’t bother me, he can open the bowling any time he likes.”

Australia’s back-to-form fast bowler Glenn McGrath has said that he will be targeting Sanath Jayasuriya’s wicket when Sri Lanka begin their chase for 312 on the third day of the first Test at the Marrara Oval tomorrow.McGrath roared back with 5 for 37 to knock Sri Lanka over for a paltry 97, and he is looking forward to repeating that performance in the second innings.”Their top three is probably their key – Atapattu, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara,” said McGrath. “We will be trying to make early inroads in there. Jayasuriya is always a big key to their batting line-up. He is probably the guy I’d target before the series. I want to get on top of him and knock him over a few times. If I can do that we could be well on our way to winning the series.”McGrath said he didn’t think the pitch would improve or change that much from its present condition overnight, and that it would be a big ask for Sri Lanka to score 312 – over 100 more than Australia managed in either innings – on it.”I think there will still be something on it with the new ball if you keep bowling in the right areas,” he explained. “It is still hard to score runs. It is a little bit slow and the ball is not coming off it. It’s hard work for the batsmen out in the middle with the new and the old ball. To win this match Sri Lanka’s got to bat very well.”Turning to Australia’s bowling, McGrath said: “We bowled pretty much to our plans on a wicket that is giving a little bit of assistance to the bowlers. We put enough pressure on them, put balls in the right area, and held our catches to knock ’em over for 97. It would be nice to do something similar in the second innings.”And he went on: “It is good to see a pitch being of some assistance for the bowlers. I think wickets around the world are getting good to bat on. When a side scores 400 runs in a day nobody says the wickets are not good for the bowlers. I don’t think many bowlers would be disappointed bowling on that kind of pitch.”McGrath said that he never doubted that he would regain fitness, and was confident that he could make a comeback from his ankle injury – although he admitted that at one point during the four-day warm-up game that preceded this Test he had seriously thought of retiring after he bowled disappointingly in the first innings. He said that it was his team-mate Justin Langer who got him thinking, when he told him that you don’t think of retirement until you hit rock-bottom.McGrath said that his comeback performance was inspired by the fact that he was only a few wickets away from passing fast bowlers Sir Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev’s individual records. “To get those five wickets and go past two legends of the game is a pretty big bonus to get my confidence back for the match,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for more.”Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper/batsman
Kumar Sangakkara had a good day behind the stumps at Darwin, taking four catches and pulling off a run-out in the Australian second innings of 201. But he admitted that it was a big challenge for Sri Lanka to chase 312 and win the Test.”When you look at the totals the two teams have got on this track it’s not been high. It’s going to be a challenge and most of the guys are looking forward to it,” he said. “They all want to do well. Basically we want to do what we do best. See the new ball off and then play your own game. Be positive and play to win. The pitch is very hard to read. It is better to go and see what it does and play accordingly. It is drier than it was yesterday. The pacies have got a little bit more bounce, but the movement’s been the same. It is up to us now to get the total.”Turning to his persona;l performance, Sangakkara said: “It’s always nice to take some catches. I felt good. It was one of my best days, taking four catches in an innings. It’s always good to have a chat with Ian Healy. who is an all-time great wicketkeeper. Ian spoke to me in Zimbabwe and in Morocco. He told me to keep it very simple and very basic. I have taken the best out of what he has told me.”

Adam Gilchrist has said that the Australian team will not work around Shane Warne’s attempt to break Muttiah Muralitharan’s Test record. With barely 24 hours to go for the start of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Darwin, Gilchrist, standing-in as captain for Ricky Ponting, said that focusing on the individual wasn’t the Australian way and that he’d be surprised if Warne disagreed with the stand.Muralitharan withdrew from the tour, leaving Warne with a tangible chance of reaching and overtaking Murali’s Test record of 527 wickets. But Gilchrist’s comments indicated that Warne would have to make the most of the opportunities he gets. He made a reference to Brian Lara’s recent record-busting effort and spoke about how it differed from Matthew Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe last year.”Ricky’s stated that very strongly around the time that Brian Lara went on to get that batting world record,” Gilchrist said in a press conference, referring to Ponting’s disapproval of the length of Lara’s innings. “It’s just not the way we play. Matty Hayden got that opportunity against Zimababwe some months ago as a result of the way we were playing – that is, because he batted so aggressively that he got it within five sessions.”So if you can achieve these personal milestones within our game plan then so be it,” Gilchrist added. “Warney is talented enough to do it, but I think it’s more about thinking about our process, getting that right towards winning the game, what will come with that is individual success and Shane is obviously paramount to us achieving that success.”Warne achieved phenomenal success on his return to international cricket after his 12-month drug ban, with a 26-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in three Tests. But a cancelled Test series against a feeble Zimbabwean side left him cold and short of Muralitharan’s mark, while Murali added considerably to his tally in Zimbabwe.

Kenya’s legspinner Collins Obuya will almost certainly miss the Champions Trophy in September after undergoing surgery to remove his appendix. He was rushed to hospital with stomach pains during Kenya’s match against Pakistan A on Monday.Obuya was instrumental in Kenya’s advance to the World Cup semi-finals last year, taking 5 for 24 in their vital group-stage victory over Sri Lanka. He was subsequently signed by Warwickshire as an overseas player for the 2003 season.”He is likely to be out of action for seven weeks. It is a great shame because Collins has played good one-day cricket for Kenya,” lamented Andy Moles, Kenya’s coach. “It’s very disappointing for the team as a whole and for Collins but he is definitely out of the triangular series and very doubtful for the Champions Trophy.”Kenya have already been weakened by the withdrawal of their captain, Maurice Odumbe, who has taken a break from cricket while answering match-fixing allegations.

Surely Jason Gillespie belongs on a motorbike. He could be in a gang of Hell’s Angels or Bandidos, riding around scaring young children. Instead he’s a cardholder for one of Australia’s most exclusive clubs: bowlers who have taken 200 Test wickets.Revving up with his heavy metal music, Gillespie is quickly overtaking some greats of the game. His impressive four-wicket haul today, a mix of control and wicked offcutters, leaves him within two victims of Ray Lindwall’s 228 after breezing passed Clarrie Grimmett (216) at Nagpur. It’s not a bad record for a bowler who thought his 50th wicket would be his last.As he lay next to Steve Waugh in a Sri Lankan hospital following their horrific collision in 1999, Gillespie doubted whether he would ever play another Test. He had added a broken leg to a bulging medical folder of back injuries. It took 14 months to return: Australia are glad he made it, especially on days like today.Glenn McGrath’s most regular opening partner, Gillespie has taken half the wickets and played in 43 fewer matches. Not a taker of regular five-fors, his 9 for 80 at Nagpur was his best match haul in a Test. It is strange that he doesn’t rip through batting orders more often, as he did with a frighteningly quick spell at Headingley in 1997, but he has often had to share the spoils with McGrath and Shane Warne. His has a tendency to chip in with three wickets – usually crucial ones.As in the song of his favourite band Metallica, he seeks and destroys the difficult batsmen. Marcus Trescothick has fallen to him seven times, Sachin Tendulkar six, and Rahul Dravid, Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart five each. Today it happened again. Tendulkar fell to a nick and left to Australian hoots and cheers, VVS Laxman played a similar shot, with less feet movement, and Mohammad Kaif offered none to a ball that cut back razor-sharply. India were 5 for 33, and Gillespie, whose first job was as a pizza boy, had delivered again. The debutant Nathan Hauritz then helped himself to the lower-order scraps.Gillespie also worked tirelessly in India in 2001, cutting the ball and beating the bat seemingly hundreds of times while collecting 13 wickets. It seemed a meagre reward. In the first Test in this series he started slowly but has since caught edges, clipped stumps and cannoned into pads. After seven innings he owns 20 wickets at 13.8, and a hold on the opposition top six.Today Gillespie looked ready to lead the attack when McGrath eventually sends down his final maiden. Before he leaves India it would be great to see him ride off with the motorbike – mullet blowing in the wind, helmet strapped over his goateed chin – that has been offered as a Man-of-the-Match prize. It is a perfect present for a deserving fast bowler.

Rod Marsh has stepped down from his role as the director of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s academy after four years in the role.He has decided not to renew his contract which will end in September next year. His tenure as England selector will also end at the same time, although he will continue in this post in the meantime.Marsh, 57, plans to return to his native Australia to spend time with his new grandchildren. He said he was interested in continuing to work in cricket, but it is likely that this will take the form of a part-time role, rather than on a full-time basis. Marsh, who is also an England selector at the moment, helped to set up the National Academy system and oversaw the establishment of the academy at Loughborough.”I have enjoyed every moment of my time at the ECB,” said Marsh. “When I took the position in October 2001 I made the statement that people had to be patient about the future of English cricket. Miracles don’t happen overnight. The England team is now in a position whereby it can command respect from all opposition, and I would expect that position to remain if not improve over the next few years.”Half of the 14-man England Test squad which is currently touring South Africa are products of the National Academy. Andrew Flintoff and Stephen Harmison are among the players to have benefited from the academy system.”Rod has been fantastic for the ECB, and cricket in England and Wales has benefited from him enormously,” said Hugh Morris, the ECB’s performance director and their acting chief executive. “His previous experience in Australia and India has been invaluable and he has worked hard to develop crucial links with all the county coaches.”Morris confirmed that the search for a successor for Marsh will begin some time in the new year.

Dennis Lillee has left his coaching post in Australia after a fallout with Australia cricket authorities, according to Sydney’s .Lillee, 55, who has helped shape the careers of many bowlers, including such established stars as Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath, had been involved with developing and coaching players for Australia for 15 years.”They didn’t want me to do the states, so I would have no contact with the ones who really need the help, the under-17s and -19s,” he told the newspaper. “They wanted me to focus on the academy and the Test players, and wanted to cut my days down from 30 to 15 per year and for me to take a discount on my daily rate.”I am disappointed from the point of view that I felt the work I was doing there was bearing fruit. I loved what I did there. I wrote to them and said ‘nothing goes down’ and I am not at all happy. But life moves on and I have got plenty to do.”Cricket Australia has advertised for the post at their Academy, and there are a number of coaches who learned their trade in Australia, but have gone elsewhere, such as Bennett King, who recently took over as West Indies chief coach. Others include Steve Rixon who is at Surrey, John Dyson, Sri Lanka’s coach, and Rod Marsh, who is head coach at England’s academy based in Loughborough.In the meantime, however, it is likely that Damien Fleming, the former swing bowler who retired 17 months ago and who shared some of Lillee’s duties, will take over in the interim.

The annual cricket match to commemorate the 1868 Aboriginal team that toured England has been scrapped for the next two summers, according to the Melbourne-based newspaper.”It’s gone straight on to the scrap-heap,” said Geoff Clark, the official at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) who came up with the idea of the match in the first place. The Australian government has tried to sack Clark, and to bring an end to ATSIC.In 2001, the first match, between the Prime Mininster’s XI and the ATSIC Chairman’s XI, was made memorable after Jason Gillespie was selected as captain of the ATSIC XI: he was the first Test cricketer to acknowledge an Aboriginal ancestry. At the time, John Howard, the Prime Minister, fully endorsed the fixture: “There are a lot of things that contribute towards the reconciliation process, and this is one of them.”

Inzamam-ul-Haq has urged Shoaib Akhtar to not get too carried away with the battle for pace with Brett Lee but concentrate on getting his rhythm right. Pakistan open their VB Series campaign against Australia at Hobart tomorrow and Akhtar could play a crucial role in getting them off to a good start.Lee rocked the West Indian batting line-up in the first game of the VB Series yesterday and his 3 for 36 helped Australia post an emphatic 116-run win at the MCG. Akhtar, who repeatedly reveals his desire to be the fastest bowler in the world and the match at Hobart could see the speed-gun coming under severe scrutiny.Inzamam, despite saying that the Lee-Shoaib pace showdown was an exciting prospect, wanted Akhtar to get a good rhythm going on what is expected to be a batting belter. “His main thing is to concentrate on line and length and how he performs, and not his competition on speed,” Inzamam told AAP. “It’s not a game of speed, he’s [Shoaib] definitely the world’s fastest bowler, but the main thing is line, length and swing.”Pakistan have also persistently suffered throughout the tour owing to their slow over-rate and Australia A were awarded six bonus runs in the Twenty20 game at Adelaide. Inzamam admitted that Akhtar’s long run-up, another hot topic of discussion all summer, made it hard for his fellow bowlers to get through their overs quickly, but he confident his side would complete their overs in time and avoid penalties. “Because Twenty20 is very small, that’s the problem,” Inzamam said. “Shoaib bowled four overs and we had very little time to cover this … but in 50 overs we’ll try really, really hard and hopefully we’ll cover that.”Pakistan tried out 15 players in their two warm-up matches against Australia A and they planned to announce the final XI in the morning of the game. The batting order has constantly been shuffled around and they had two different opening combinations in the practice matches. Shoaib Malik, the allrounder, was expected to play but he would not be allowed to bowl after his action was reported to the International Cricket Council.Inzamam was upbeat about his team’s chances and added, “The boys are really geared up and they’ve really worked hard and hopefully if we put some runs on the board and our bowling is also very effective … if we make 260, 270 runs, I think it will be a good game.”

Courtney Walsh has backed Glenn McGrath to make it for the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. Earlier, McGrath had declared his intention to participate in the tournament, saying that his fitness would not let him down. He captured 15 wickets at 11 apiece in the VB Series.Walsh praised McGrath’s match winning performance of 5 for 27 in the second final against Pakistan and reckoned that McGrath could maintain the form till the World Cup. “I think people carry on too much about age. It’s within his reach. It’s two years away and he has every chance if he looks after his body.”It also helps that Australia has a system that looks after the players and gives them a chance to rest,” quoted Walsh, who was in Sydney for a coaching assignment. “As long as he feels good and as long as he is doing a good job for the team, then he can carry on. It is interesting to have him around, especially because you need senior players there to help the younger guys.”Walsh’s verbal support was in stark contrast to Brian Lara’s claim last month that McGrath would not be fit enough to bowl in the 2007 World Cup. “He is a champion bowler but his age [McGrath will be 37 in 2007} could count against him. He’ll be an ageing fast bowler coming in to bowl on really nice batting tracks in the Caribbean,” Lara had said in January. “He might damage his reputation and frugal economy rate if he tried to help the world champions defend their Cup crown on flat wickets in the Caribbean.”Walsh has expressed huge respect for McGrath, who needs just 39 wickets to surpass Walsh’s record of 519 Test wickets. “McGrath is the best fast bowler in the world today – no question,” Walsh wrote in a newspaper column for . “I have a lot of respect for Glenn. He bowls well in any conditions and even when fatigued, his line and length rarely changes.”As a thinker, there is no better bowler. He can work a batsman out. I know Glenn is not far off my mark and he will go past me soon. I know he struggled a bit in the Caribbean. Looking at him here, you know he’s very much at peace with himself, very comfortable, and he’s doing the right things.”