McGrath happy with rotation policy

Glenn McGrath is a believer in Australia's controversial one-day rotation policy even though he wanted to play in Sunday's hometown loss against Sri Lanka. McGrath spent the day running drinks at the SCG as Nathan Bracken, his New South Wales team-mate, Brett Dorey and James Hopes were preferred.

"It's never good," McGrath told Sydney radio station 2KY. "I don't like sitting there watching even at the best of times, let alone when we are not winning, so yeah, it was quite frustrating."

Sri Lanka thrashed Australia for 309 with Sanath Jayasuriya storming to a 96-ball 114, and while Bracken was economical with 2 for 40, Australia missed their long-term leader. Dorey was Supersubbed after going for 35 from four overs and Hopes, who scored a late 43, leaked 65 from six.

"Obviously I'd prefer to play in front of the home crowd, but if you look at the squad we've got the majority of fast bowlers are from New South Wales," he said. "Given the choice I'd prefer to play every game I could. But at the end of the day I am happy to do what's best for the team and hopefully best for me in the long run."

The rotational policy has been a regular aspect under the reign of Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, and McGrath said he was happy with it. "You will have the odd game off, rested, rotated, whatever you want to call it," he said. "We do it every single year.

"We've got a long summer ahead of us. We've got a squad of 15 players and you don't want 11 or 12 playing the whole time. At the end of the day it isn't the 11 that are out there, it's the squad that are going to win us this competition."