MELBOURNE, March 17: Steve Waugh, who was last week considering retirement, will lead Australia on their four-Test tour of the West Indies starting later this month, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) announced on Monday.

ACB selectors named Test cricket’s third-leading run-scorer as skipper of a squad of 15 that is based on the team that beat England 4-1 in the Ashes series which finished in January.

However, one-day captain Ricky Ponting, 28, has moved a step closer to replacing 37-year-old Waugh as skipper of both teams with his elevation to Test vice-captain.

The move was not a reflection on Adam Gilchrist’s performance in the vice-captaincy role in both forms of the game, because the wicket-keeper/batsman had been and would continue to be a terrific leader, ACB chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said.

“It’s a very difficult tour and we’re quite pleased to have Stephen Waugh available and leading the side,” Hohns told reporters in Brisbane.

“If anything was to happen on tour to Stephen, injury-wise or whatever, Ricky would be the person that we would want to captain the Australian side.

“We thought it was the logical progression that he’s captaining the one-day squad and doing such a very good job we thought it sensible that Ricky should be the vice-captain.”

Australia included leg-spinner Stuart MacGill in place of Shane Warne, who last month was banned for one year for a doping offence.

MacGill, 32, played the last two games of the Ashes series when Australia’s leading wicket-taker was unavailable because of a shoulder injury. MacGill has taken 94 wickets in 19 Tests.

The fiery slow bowler was himself suspended from two New South Wales matches after an outburst towards an umpire last month and has also been reprimanded in the past by Australian team management and a Test match referee for disciplinary problems.

“Stuart is aware of the problems he has caused, not just this season, but in the seasons gone by,” Hohns told reporters.

“He knows he has a little bit of work to do within the team environment and I’m sure he will be addressing those problems.”

Jason Gillespie has been selected but must pass a fitness test after the fast bowler was sent home from the World Cup in southern Africa earlier this month with a heel injury.

The uncapped Ashley Noffke, an Ashes tourist in 2001, was named as a back-up paceman.

Left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg, who played one Test against India in 1996-97, was also included after impressing the selectors at the World Cup.

Queensland batsman Martin Love, who broke into Australia’s side with 95 runs at 47.50 in the fourth and fifth Ashes Tests when Darren Lehmann was injured, was also chosen.

Waugh, who has equalled Allan Border’s world record of 156 Tests, ended more than two months of intense speculation about his playing future by announcing on Saturday he was available for the tour.

Waugh hit a boundary from the last ball of the second day’s play of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney to equal Don Bradman’s Australian record of 29 Test hundreds, trailing only former India captains Sunil Gavaskar (34) and Sachin Tendulkar (31).

Dropped from the national one-day side a year ago, the 1999 World Cup-winning skipper has spent the past two months leading New South Wales to the Australian interstate one-day and first-class championship double, scoring two centuries and a double hundred in recent games.

The squad leaves Australia on March 31. The first Test in Guyana starts on April 10.

Squad: Steve Waugh (captain), Ricky Ponting (vice-captain), Andy Bichel, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie (subject to fitness test), Matthew Hayden, Brad Hogg, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Martin Love, Darren Lehmann, Stuart MacGill, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ashley Noffke.

Itinerary:

April 5-7: v GCB President’s XI (Georgetown).

April 10-14: First Test (Georgetown).

April 19-23: Second Test (Port-of-Spain).

April 26-28: v UWI Vice Chancellor’s XI (Cave Hill, Barbados).

May 1-5: Third Test (Bridgetown).

May 9-13: Fourth Test (St John’s).

May 17: 1st One-day International (Kingston).

May 18: 2nd One-day International (Kingston).

May 21: Third One-day International (Castries, St Lucia).

May 24: Fourth One-day International (Port-of-Spain).

May 25: Fifth One-day International (Port-of-Spain).

May 30: Sixth One-day International (St George’s).

June 1: Seventh One-day International (St George’s).—Reuters/AFP