14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

SYDNEY, May 13: Australia's tour of Zimbabwe this month was not a waste of time for Test cricket's premier team, coach John Buchanan said here on Thursday.

The Australians left for the troubled African republic expecting to face a drastically-weakened Zimbabwe team with 15 of the country's leading players locked in dispute with their national body.

The tour looms as potentially one of the greatest mis-matches in international cricket if the festering dispute over team selection is not resolved quickly. But Buchanan said if the Australian team went with the mindset that the two Tests and three One-day Internationals were going to be a romp it would be the wrong approach.

"I think there's a danger in all of that talk that they are a weak side and we are going to finish off the games early and players are going to fuel their statistics," said Buchanan before the team's departure at Sydney Airport on Thursday.

"I think if any side goes on tour with that state of mind, they are vulnerable. "Our job is just to go there, get ourselves prepared to play the best cricket we can and then the results should always look after themselves."

Buchanan said the tour wasn't a waste of time and stressed it was important partly because it would help the development of younger players, like 20-year-old leg-spinner Cameron White, and give pace spearhead Glenn McGrath his return to international cricket from a long-term ankle injury.

It was also only Ricky Ponting's second opportunity to captain both the Test and one-day teams abroad. "And because of Zimbabwe cricket, it's important that we are able to take a team of the calibre of Australia and the players that we have, I think to demonstrate some of the skills of the game," Buchanan said.

Opening batsman Justin Langer made it clear the Australians had no intention of going easy if Zimbabwe continued to field an under strength team. "When we get there, whoever we play, we'll make sure we play really well and beat them heavily," Langer said.

Despite the political issues swirling around the tour, Buchanan said the Australians were only interested in the sporting aspect of the trip. "Ultimately, we go there as a cricket team, we don't go there as politicians or trying to make a whole range of decisions on an issue that we know probably very little about," he said. -AFP