Nelson Clare: Australia open way for one-day specialists (26 August 1997)

Tuesday 26 August 1997

Australia open way for one-day specialists

By Nelson Clare

AUSTRALIA are to field specialist one-day international teams as part of a drive to win the 1999 World Cup. Yester- day`s announcement by the Australian Cricket Board accelerates the trend towards changing between players for the vastly different requirements of Test and single-day competitions.

Australia have used different players during home series, and in South Africa last year they replaced several of their Test squad with new blood for the one-day series.

On longer, more expensive, tours, such as the just-finished Ashes series, they usually pick one squad to cover both one-day matches and Tests.

"Success in the 1999 one-day World Cup in England is a major short-term goal in regard to selection policy for one- day internationals," said ACB chairman Denis Rogers in a statement.

"In line with this change in selection policy, the chairman of selectors will now link up by tele-conference or video conference with the tour selectors when the Australian team are overseas." There has been widespread criticism of the selection procedures on tours and the changes, particularly con- cerning the separate one-day and Test sides, will place further pressure on Australian captain Mark Taylor.

Mal Speed, the ACB chief executive, said selectors would decide who was captain. "Ultimately that will become a matter for the selectors who choose the teams," he said.

"What has been said is that one-day cricket and Test cricket are quite separate, and the selectors are to pick the best team for whichever form of cricket is being played," he added.

"If that means that some players play Test cricket and not oneday cricket, or vice versa, that will be the result of the decision.

"What this does, to an extent, is formalise the process of recognising that the two forms of cricket are clearly different, and where it`s appropriate the selectors are directed to select the specialists."

Graham Thorpe, England`s man of the Ashes series, has moved up to second place in the Coopers and Lybrand Test ratings behind Australia`s Steve Waugh. Thorpe has gained 15 places during the summer, while Mike Atherton and Mark Waugh have both dropped out of the top 10.

Glenn McGrath`s outstanding form with the ball has improved his rating, but the Australian pace bowler has not been able to overtake Curtly Ambrose in the bowlers` list. Jason Gillespie has shot up from 39th to 12th.

Coopers & Lybrand Ratings

Batting

1, S R Waugh (Australia); 2, G P Thorpe (England); 3, S R Tendulkar; 4, S Chanderpaul (W Indies); 5, S T Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka); 6, B C Lara (W Indies); 7, B M McMillan (S Africa); 8, R S Dravid (India); 9, Saeed Anwar (Pakistan); 10, D J Cullinan (S Africa).

Bowling

1, C E L Ambrose (W Indies); 2, G D McGrath (Australia); 3, A A Donald (S Africa); 4, S K Warne (Australia); 5, Wasim Akram (Pakistan); 6, H H Streak (Zimbabwe); 7, Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan); 8, I R Bishop (W Indies); 9, S B Doull (NZ); 10, P R Reiffel (Australia).

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)