McGrath eyes perfect one-day finish

Glenn McGrath has waved goodbye to Tests but he is planning a perfect end to his playing career by lifting a third consecutive World Cup trophy. McGrath will begin the one-day road to the Caribbean when Australia start the CB Series with a game against England at the MCG on Friday.

While he said anything he achieved now would "be hard to top five-nil in the Ashes", he still has lofty goals to chase. "To win the World Cup - three in a row - would be something that's pretty amazing and something that may never be achieved again," he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. "In the last World Cup, I felt we could go through unbeaten and we did that.

"I'll be approaching this one the same way. To look around the rest of the team at the moment gives you so much confidence as well."

Australia completed their Test dominance of England last week and started the limited-overs campaign in similar style with a 77-run win in the Twenty20 at Sydney on Tuesday. McGrath missed that game but is back in the squad for the month-long tri-series also involving New Zealand.

McGrath, who has 342 one-day wickets, has achieved almost everything during his 13-year career but he still wants to complete a perfect game. "Basically it means I bowl every ball where I want to bowl, and everything I try comes off," he told the paper. "The closest I came was the first game in New Zealand in 2005.

"I reckon there was one ball I would've changed. The rest I was happy with." McGrath had figures of 4 for 16 from 9.4 overs as Australia won by 10 runs.

"It's still always the ultimate goal to play the perfect game. I haven't achieved that yet and that's what I'm always striving for. It would be great to bowl it in the World Cup final, but if not, at least I'm always trying to improve."