Loss of form not due to technique -- Mark

Loss of form not due to technique -- Mark
AGENCIES

PERTH, DECEMBER 15: Mark Waugh hopes to avoid the selection axe. ``I've had a good career, but I still think I've got a lot of cricket left in me,'' he said Waugh.

The 34-year-old has reached 13 just three times in his past 14 Test innings and if the drought continues then even the support of the likes of former National captain Mark Taylor and Prime Minister John Howard may not be enough to save him.

``I haven't really thought about whether that will be it if I'm not selected (for the second Test),'' Waugh said. ``I'm only a cricketer and it's a spot in a cricket team -- it would be nice to be there on Boxing Day, but it's up to the selectors.''

Waugh said watching videos of his batting in the nets convinced him it was reasons other than faltering technique which contributed to his loss of form. Waugh scored a century in the opening Test of the summer in Brisbane, but managed just five runs in three other innings against Pakistan and then made five and eight in the first Test against India.

He has aTest career average of 41.30, with 17 centuries, but has scored only 439 runs at 23.10 in his last 12 Tests.

Australian captain Steve Waugh said he hoped his twin brother would follow the lead of Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting and fight his way back into form. ``Everyone has had a rough trot, Justin (Langer) was copping it, Ricky (Ponting) was copping it and now it's Mark's turn,'' Steve Waugh said.

``Before the Hobart Test everyone was saying Justin should be dropped and I said he would be all right and he then got two hundreds and the same with Ricky Ponting before Perth.''