Waugh has a go at Ganguly

Waugh has a go at Ganguly
Agence France Presse

MELBOURNE, February 13: Australian captain Steve Waugh expects the Test series against India to be more confrontational than ever, and he went on the front foot here on Tuesday by criticising Indian captain Saurav Ganguly.

The Australians left for India today for a three-Tests and five one-dayer series, with a series win on the sub-continent regarded as a major challenge after 15 successive Test wins.

India was one of the teams defeated in the record winning streak, and Waugh raised that when asked what he thought of Ganguly.

‘‘I find some of his comments a bit strange, saying we’ve only played weak sides to win our 15 Test matches in a row,’’ Waugh said.

‘‘He forgot they were one of those sides, so as a leader of a side, it’s not a real good thing to say about your own side.

‘‘He’ll have them fired up so you’ll see a bit of a different series to the usual Australia-India, there’s going to be a lot of confrontations good types of confrontations.

‘‘I don’t think there’ll be verbal stuff but there’ll be two teams out there giving it their best shot.

‘‘We’ll be happy to accommodate them if they want to do it that (verbal) way.’’Waugh and Ganguly had exchanged words through the media about the Australian captain’s intimation his Indian counterpart was influencing pitch preparation to benefit his team an accusation he denied.

Waugh yesterday proposed at a meeting of Test captains that such influence should be officially prohibited.

‘‘There wasn’t any dissent about it, I brought it up and they (captains) thought it was a pretty good idea,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s not in the code of conduct, but I think it will be next year.

‘‘It will stop that temptation to say to the groundsman I’d like a turning pitch or a bouncy wicket.

‘‘The groundsman’s job is to produce the best wicket he can and then the players go out there and play on it.

‘‘If you’re not good enough to cope with different conditions then you shouldn’t be there.’’

Waugh said the Australians would try to get on top of the Indians on the first day of the Tests to deflate the opposition and silence the potentially rowdy crowd.‘‘They’re a very confident side when they get on a roll, the crowd gets behind them and they can get motivated by crowd support,’’ Waugh said.

‘‘We’ve got to stay calm and relaxed in pressure situations, last time we got rushed into it.

‘‘It’s easy to get dragged along with the emotion of the crowd and rush your game and then you’re playing at the Indians’ pace.’’

He said he’d be satisfied with a 1-0 or 2-1 series win and was not fussed with trying to extend the winning streak.

‘‘I really believe we’re going to play our best cricket in India and following that in England we’ve done really well but the best part is about to come.’’

‘India is where we’re going to be judged’
Steve Waugh said his ‘Cricketer of the Year Award’ and his team’s record-breaking spell would count for little if they lost in India.

Waugh, who beat twin brother Mark by one vote, had already discarded the result of Monday’s poll. ‘‘India is where we are all going to be judged and we know that and we want to make sure that is a good tour,’’ he said.

‘‘The Australian season was fantastic but to me I have been looking forward to the Indian tour for a long time and, to be honest, if we don’t win in India, much of what happened in Australia won’t mean a lot to me and a lot of the guys.

‘‘We are going full steam ahead for the Indian tour and I’m hoping that’s where we are going to play our best cricket.’’ The Australians arrive in India Wednesday and kick off their campaign with a three-day match against India ‘A’ in Nagpur. The first Test gets underway in Mumbai on February 27 with the second and third Tests to be played back-to-back in Kolkata and Chennai.

The Test series will be followed by five limited-overs matches.

-- Agence France Presse