February 06, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 17, 1428

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MELBOURNE, Feb 5: New Australia coach Tim Nielsen said the future of the world's leading cricket team was in safe hands even after the retirement of some of the game's highest profile names.

Nielsen said Australian cricket was strong enough to cope without Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer.

The trio, as well as batsman Damien Martyn, made their final appearances for the Test side during the 5-0 Ashes whitewash of England, while the clock is also ticking on the Test careers of 35-year-olds Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.

“We've seen a lot of talented players, (but) you can't replace superstars,” Nielsen said.

“You're talking about some of the best players in the history of the game in terms of those two (Warne and McGrath).

You can't expect two guys to come in and take over their workload and their results.”

Leg-spinner Warne hung up his boots after reaching a world record mark of 708 Test victims at the end of the Ashes demolition while McGrath quit the five-day game as the most successful pace bowler in the game's history with 563 scalps.

Nielsen said Australia should not expect to find direct replacements for the two, and rely on team effort to continue their run of success in all formats of the game.

“We need to be conscious that we have 12 or 15 players and move forward together as a group and get 1200 wickets in maybe bits and pieces, not in outstanding persons as we had in Warne and McGrath.

“We're not silly enough to think someone will walk in and take their spot. As we've seen in the past we never knew Warne was going to be as great until he played and you never know who the next great player will be.

“I can't imagine we'll have another Warne but ideally we'll have another player that comes along and takes a lot of Test wickets.”

As the head coach at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane since 2005, Nielsen knows more than most about the emerging talent.

“There's a lot of young players coming through. The great thing has been this year we've seen a lot of them stand up and perform consistently well at first-class level.

“(Ben) Hilfenhaus and (Adam) Voges have been rewarded for their performances and have been recognised by the National Selection Panel.

“These are the guys that have now graduated and are playing regular one-day cricket. The big challenge for them will be to graduate to the Test arena and have the same sort of impact.”—Reuters