Waugh gives retirement the raw prawn

Steve Waugh, laughing off an English newspaper that depicted him as a prawn on a barbecue, has begun his fourth Ashes tour by revealing it might not be his last.

Waugh and his twin, Mark, turn 36 on Saturday but the Australian captain admitted his previously nominated retirement date of the 2003 World Cup was not set in stone.

"I'm not absolutely sure this is my last," he said before the Australian one-day squad's fitness and net sessions on the picturesque Worcestershire ground ahead of Friday's tour opener.

"Look, I'd like to go to another World Cup and try and retain our trophy and I may go beyond that - or I may go before that.

"I love playing cricket and playing cricket for Australia. Wearing that baggy green is something special, so I want to soak that up as long as I can."

The Mirror newspaper superimposed the heads of Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne atop three sizzling prawns on a barbecue beneath the back page headline: "Let's throw a few prawns on the barbie ... and watch England clean up the Ashes."

Waugh would not be baited.

"They don't look like Aussie prawns, they're not big enough," he told a packed press conference.

"It's a nice look, thanks very much - something to show the kids when I get back home."

With Test regulars Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Michael Slater, Justin Langer and the Waugh twins all over the age of 30, a changing of the guard in Australian cricket is only a few years away.

More than half the current one-day and Test players will not be back in England in four years, so an extension to Waugh's career would have obvious benefits to an evolving squad.

He claimed his sights on tour were set no farther than next month's one-day tournament against England and Pakistan, but his eyes lit up when talk turned to the Tests, which begin on July 5.

"I've got a gut feeling this series is going to be very competitive, very close, it will be exciting and we're here to play aggressive and positive cricket and win every Test match," he said.

"Getting that urn at the end of the series is very important to all Australians."

Asked the highlight of his Ashes career, Waugh said: "It hasn't come yet." Meanwhile, the ACB is yet to decide whether Australia will wear coloured or white clothing in the three-day fixture against Worcestershire.