Australia reconsider India preparations

Australia will consider leaving early for their Test tour of India if they do not take part in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. The first Test in Bangalore begins on October 9, which is 11 days after the final in Lahore, but if Australia do not defend their Champions Trophy title they will have had very little cricket for three months.

The players have been home from the West Indies for more than a month and their only other commitment is a three-match ODI series against Bangladesh in Darwin starting on August 30. They have only one tour match scheduled in India and Stuart Clark said without warming up in Pakistan it would be tough to acclimatise to the subcontinental conditions.

"It's always hard going to India," Clark told the Sydney Morning Herald. "You really need to go there and familiarise yourself with the country, the wickets and the conditions.

"It's all good and well to train here but the conditions are so different sometimes that if we go a few days early that wouldn't bother me because I think it will be very important for my preparation to get acclimatised to those conditions. It can be very different and daunting but it's a challenge and if we go early it wouldn't hurt anyone."

Another option could be to hold a longer training camp in the lead-up to the India tour, where Australia will be aiming to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after regaining it on the subcontinent in 2004-05. The coach Tim Nielsen said something would need to be scheduled if Cricket Australia pulled out of the Champions Trophy.

"We're looking at it," Nielsen said. "At the moment the Champions Trophy is still going ahead, so we can only plan as if that is going to happen. The ideal situation won't be that we go to Darwin for one-dayers then home for two-and-a-half weeks then go to India. We will certainly have some other things on the go."