Christmas festivities put on hold for huffing Englishmen (24 December 1998)

24 December 1998

Christmas festivities put on hold for huffing Englishmen

AFP

MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec 24 (AFP) - England's embattled cricketers will forsake the Christmas tree Friday to spend the morning as they have for most of the past two months: chasing leather.

England will be sweating through fielding training with temperatures forecast to reach 37 Celsius (98F) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in preparation for the Boxing Day Test against Australia.

Christmas Day is just another day on the touring calendar for England, although morale has been lifted by the arrival of wives and girlfriends for the festive season.

But it is also the eve of one of cricket's biggest days, the opening of the Boxing Day Test -- the fourth in the series which Australia lead 2-0.

More than 70,000 people are expected to follow tradition and crowd Australian cricket's oldest Test venue on Saturday even though Australia have already retained the Ashes after three Tests. The first was drawn.

Australia's Test squad will gather at the team hotel Friday before a low-key training session in the afternoon to run off the Christmas lunch.

One man certain not to over-indulge is pace spearhead Glenn McGrath, who must prove his fitness after missing training Thursday with a virus.