Present-day woes to recede as Colonial sets itself to take cricket back to the future

Forget for a moment the furore surrounding South African cricket in the wake of the match-fixing crisis. No need to worry about the prospect of Australia adding to any record-breaking streak either. Don't pay a second thought to the dangers of attempting to play cricket in eastern Australia's notoriously fluky weather at this time of year. All of these matters should be regarded merely as idle curiosities floating in the wind (err, or lack of it) as we enter a series which will be eminently notable for at least one other reason altogether.

By any measure, the three match battle between these two teams at Melbourne's state-of-the-art Colonial Stadium shapes as a rare piece of theatre, an unusual bookmark in the pages of cricketing history. Although international cricketers have variously engaged in exhibition matches in indoor venues, never before in cricket's history has a match with status as lofty as a one-day international been conducted under a roof.

For the stadium at the heart of this series, cricket represents the third sport to which it will have played host. 'Colonial', as it has come to be known in Australia since opening its doors and - occasionally - its retractable lid five months ago, is a facility which points to a new future in stadium design. Set in the rapidly growing Docklands precinct on the outskirts of Melbourne's central business district, it is quite an imposing venue. Superbly appointed - and encompassing features such as movable seating, four levels of viewing, its own nightclub, an array of bars, cafeterias and even a live television studio - its utility, in this country at least, remains unrivalled.

Of course, that is not to say that it has been by any means free of the sort of teething troubles that tend to beset any entity in its first year of life. Problems with the ground's water treatment systems; the development of long queues outside its gates as the result of ticketing mix-ups; the facility's temporary closure in June as the end result of several weeks of trouble with the quality of its turf; and structural concerns with the roof, have all been numbered among a catalogue of much-publicised mishaps which have earned for it scathing criticism from the media at different times. Complete success is accordingly far from a guarantee in the staging of these three games. What the stadium's performance is likely to facilitate one way or the other, though, is significantly greater scope for assessments to be made about cricket's adaptability to indoor confines and about the possibility that many more matches might well be arranged (particularly in traditionally wet months of the year) in such settings in the future.

In the recesses of Melbourne's winter, when another sport - Australian Rules football - dominates not only the back pages of the city's newspapers but some say its entire psyche too, cricket is clearly charting difficult new territory here. Pitted as it is in direct competition with a major football final across town at the MCG, the second of the three matches represents an especially bold attempt at attracting fans. Whatever the result, Australia's cricketing authorities can certainly expect immunity from the accusation - one almost generically applied to cricket administrators these days - that they have failed to embrace anything more than a narrow-minded, short term focus on this occasion.

As for the protagonists themselves, the strength of Australia's record over the last eighteen months will be sufficient to guarantee it strong favouritism. Nevertheless, all but a handful of its players - Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Michael Bevan and Ian Harvey have taken temporary leave from hectic county schedules in England - are likely to be underdone in terms of match practice and conditioning given that they have not played competitively since April. Even if the sheer professionalism of this side makes such consequences seem distinctly unlikely, much has also been made of the potential for disruption - not to mention the possibility that his own form might suffer - that will arise from Shane Warne's recent axing as vice-captain. Add to these factors the Australians' collectively high regard for South Africa as an opponent and the gripping nature of the two teams' recent struggles and the picture becomes blurred even more.

Not unexpectedly, the South Africans have, by their own high standards at least, experienced a relatively lean run of results of late. For the moment, the pressure of coming to terms with a troubled past clouds the present and the future. Notwithstanding how capably Shaun Pollock has assumed the reins at the head of the Proteas' line-up in the wake of Hansie Cronje's enforced departure, there is no doubt that the team still presents the look of being unsettled. Their battling seven run win over Sri Lanka in a Test at Kandy two weeks ago stands out as the highest peak to which their form has ascended over recent months. Ironically enough, their last series victory in either form of the game came in their last meeting with Australia - at home in April.

From Steve Waugh down, though, there remains a general acceptance that the South Africans represent the most significant among the challengers to Australia's status as world cricketing king-pin these days. If the home team in this series has a rival among its contemporaries when it comes to single-mindedly adhering to a plan, then undoubtedly the strongest candidate is South Africa. As so many of their games over recent years have proved, clashes between these two teams in the one-day arena rarely tend to be anything other than closely contested.

Even allowing for all of the misguided hype that tends to accompany the lead-up to many modern-day sporting events, it is within this overall context that the Super Challenge 2000 series possesses legitimate claims to at least some such fanfare. There is the odd doubt of course as to the wisdom of bringing more than half the players participating in this series into Australia and then out again almost as quickly. But this is a bold new move by cricketing administrators and commands much respect; however fleeting the experiment, the organisation of this series represents a welcome piece of innovation in the midst of turbulent times for the game. Although many aspects of the staging of the event make it a venture into the unknown, one thing is for certain. From start to finish, these will be three memorable matches.