December 25, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 20, 1423

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MELBOURNE, Dec 24: The dead fourth Ashes cricket Test offers differing pressures to Australian captain Steve Waugh and his English counterpart Nasser Hussain.

The Ashes are long gone for England: 11 playing days was all it took for the Australian juggernaut to wrap up the series in the third Test in Perth against the crisis-prone Englishmen.

All England have left to play for is pride, while Australia are chasing only their second five-nil Ashes series sweep since 1920-21.

Yet the showpiece Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground — the biggest day of the Australian cricket calendar with upwards of 80,000 fans expected — is a study of two captains under pressure.

For Hussain it is the ignominy of more pain from a tour which has steadily gone downhill since the first match at Perth’s Lilac Hill on Oct 22.

But even for 154-Test veteran Waugh there is the personal challenge of proving that he still has it as a Test batsman to prolong his glorious career beyond the New Year Fifth Test against the Englishmen in Sydney.

Australia’s selectors have informed 37-year-old Waugh that his selection beyond the fifth Ashes Test is not guaranteed, a symbolic tap on the shoulder that his time to step down is near.

Whether the flinty Steve Waugh heeds the call is another matter. He has already spoken of playing on to tour India in 2004.

Waugh is one of the great Test match cricketers. He is 160 runs away from becoming only the third batsman to score more than 10,000 runs in Tests, joining compatriot Allan Border (11,174) and India’s Sunil Gavaskar (10,122).

He has found it difficult to amass runs in a prodigious-scoring Australian batting order which has only batted for three and a half innings out of a possible six in this one-sided series.

Hussain has been fending off calls to resign as England skipper amid the mounting chaos of a losing side, beset by injuries and inadequate replacements.

But Hussain talks up a great fight.

“The way I look at it is: tell the boys they have 10 days to turn around the Test match tour, to go out there and beat Australia in a Test match,” Hussain said leading up to the Melbourne Test.

“There is still a chance left to achieve something very positive by beating Australia in a Test match. The Test series might be lost but we have got to move on from that.”

Australia will be without their talismanic leg-spinner Shane Warne, who is racing against time with a shoulder injury to be fit to play in the February-March World Cup in southern Africa.

Warne captured 14 wickets in the opening three Tests to take his career tally to 491, second only to West Indian Courtney Walsh, but his misfortune has opened the door for his more-than-capable understudy Stuart MacGill.

The 31-year-old MacGill has a super record against England, taking 27 wickets in four matches at 17.70. In 17 Tests overall he has claimed 82 wickets at 25.01.

On performances Australia do not lose that much, if at all, with the wiles of MacGill in the starting eleven and in his only Test at the MCG he returned match figures of 7-142 in the corresponding Test of the last Ashes series here.

He will be eagerly looking forward to bowling against England in the fifth Test on his home Sydney pitch, where he has snared 26 wickets in just three matches.

There was another opportunity for a change in the Australian team with Martin Love on Tuesday summoned as cover for Darren Lehmann.

Love is on standby following Lehmann’s admission to hospital with an acute infection in his right leg. Love has already scored two double-centuries against England this summer for Queensland and Australia ‘A’.

England batsmen Michael Vaughan and John Crawley are both likely to be passed fit to play at the MCG.

Crawley missed the second and third Tests with a hip injury, while Vaughan sat out the first four limited-overs matches after he was hit in the shoulder by Jason Gillespie in Adelaide.

Paceman Alex Tudor has just about recovered after being struck over an eye by a Brett Lee bouncer in Perth, while fellow quick Andy Caddick (knee) will be tested in the nets over Christmas Day.

Veteran wicket-keeper/batsman Alec Stewart has a bruised hand and is yet to prove his fitness for the match.

Teams (from):

Australia: Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Steve Waugh (captain), Darren Lehmann or Martin Love, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Glenn McGrath.

England: Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain (captain), Robert Key, John Crawley, Alec Stewart, Paul Collingwood, Craig White, Alex Tudor, Andy Caddick, Steve Harmison, Richard Dawson, James Anderson.—AFP