Waugh confident he'll be fit

Steve Waugh has said that he is confident of playing in the second Test in Trinidad which starts on Saturday (April 19), despite a gashed hand which required six stitches. Waugh split the webbing between his index and middle fingers as he attempted to stop a drive from Devon Smith on the third day of the Georgetown Test. "It's sore," Waugh admitted. "It's going to be sore for a week. You still have to be able to hold a bat properly and I have to be able to do justice to my position in the side."

A spokesman for the Australian team was more cautious. "At the moment it's a matter of seeing how it heals up," he said. "The general consensus is that he will play. To say he's doubtful is probably too strong. It's really more a question of the pain than anything else."

If it's just pain then there is little doubt that Waugh, renowned for his toughness, will captain the side. As he told reporters who queried whether he would be fit: "It's a Test match, isn't it?"