Stewart relishes return to the MCG (14 January 1999)

14 January 1999

Stewart relishes return to the MCG

By Paul Newman in Melbourne

ALEC STEWART indulged himself in a different sporting passion yesterday before England began their build-up for what is likely to be one of the highlights of their protracted one-day series.

Latest estimates predict a crowd of 80,000 for tomorrow's match against Australia at the MCG, a stage most cricketers can only dream of and one on which England will attempt to prolong their perfect start to this triangular competition.

Stewart, a tennis fan, took advantage of his day off yesterday to watch Tim Henman continue his preparations for the Australian Open by losing to local hero Mark Philippoussis in the warm-up tournament here. Then the England captain looked forward to a match which will not only be played in front of a huge crowd but is also expected to take place in temperatures approaching 40C. "The bigger the crowd, the better," said Stewart. "Every player should want to take part in a game like this."

Stewart is one of three survivors, along with Neil Fairbrother and Graeme Hick, from the 1992 World Cup side who played in the final against Pakistan at the MCG and feels that plans are progressing well for England to launch a similar World Cup challenge this year after the huge disappointment of 1996 on the Indian sub-continent.

"We were very poor in the last World Cup, as bad as we've played," said Stewart. "It wasn't that we didn't have a plan, just that everybody had overtaken us and we'd played so little cricket to 50-over international rules. We have to get it right this time and a game plan is in place to the point where people don't have to ask where they have to go in the field - they just automatically head for their place."

England, with two wins from two games, need another four victories from their remaining eight games to be sure of a place in the final and are likely to make one change from the team who defeated Sri Lanka in Brisbane on Monday. Nasser Hussain or John Crawley could come in for Mark Alleyne or Dean Headley to provide extra depth to the batting.

Most of the England players took to the golf course yesterday and will today watch videos of Australia's convincing win against Sri Lanka in Sydney after morning practice at the MCG. England were keeping a close eye on Fairbrother to make sure the batting hero of their opening two wins did not inflict too many rigours on his battle-hardened hamstrings.

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