The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Melbourne

The Australian cricket team's preparation for the first test against India beginning Wednesday was sideswiped by criticism from former players. Vice captain Adam

Gilchrist says his side is "a little bit sick" of it.

Retired leg spinner Shane Warne and ex-Australia captain Ian Chappell criticized former national coach John Buchanan in newspaper stories over the past several days. Both have been critical of Buchanan in the past, and Chappell said on the weekend that his daughter might have done a better job of leading the Australian team.

Last week, Warne said Australian cricket was in danger of becoming arrogant and he labeled Buchanan as "a goose." "There's been a lot said in the paper t this week it seems," Gilchrist said.

"It (the national team) is an elite club and we've always felt a major characteristic of being in that club is to show respect. It just seems that some guys in retirement have lost that.

"I'm not sure why people are getting personal about things in the press and publicly t. I think we, as a group, are just getting a little bit sick of a lot of the negative comment being afforded towards us or the people involved with the cricket team."

Australia held an optional workout Tuesday, with team officials yet to decide on a bowling lineup for the opener.

Former captain Sourav Ganguly is expected to become the sixth Indian player to reach the 100-test milestone, following Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid.

India has never won a test series in Australia, but leading Indian batsman V.V.S. Laxman said his side needs to match Australia's aggression if it has any chance of winning the four-test series.

"The most important thing is you have to play aggressive cricket against them," he said. "Whenever we've played aggressive cricket against them, we have done well t you have to play to your potential.

"The moment you give them a slight edge, they'll walk over you, so it's important you just come out and play your natural game of cricket, like we do."

Gilchrist said he expects India to come out firing. "It will be hard-fought, they're a team that has said they want to take the challenge up to us in an aggressive manner," Gilchrist said.

Fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground - 75,000 are expected on the first day - could be banned for life if found guilty of racially taunting players and fellow fans during the match.

Cricket Australia announced that undercover surveillance officers and video cameras will be placed in several parts of the ground to keep an eye on the fans and eject those who make racists comments or display banners and placards with racist slogans.

Teams:

Australia (one to be omitted): Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist (vice captain), Phil Jaques, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Brad Hogg, Michael Clarke.

India (squad): Anil Kumble (captain), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (vice captain), Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Wasim Jaffer, Ishant Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh, Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Kaarthick, Pankaj Singh.

Reuters, Port Elizabeth

Chris Gayle faces an anxious wait to discover whether he will be fit to captain West Indies in the first test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Gayle, who has missed six matches since he injured a hamstring in the second one-day international against Zimbabwe in Harare on Dec. 2, said a decision on his fitness had been deferred until the morning of the match.

"I feel pretty good but there's still uncertainty and I'll have to assess it on match day," Gayle told a news conference in Port Elizabeth on Monday.

Opening batsman Gayle, a stalwart of 68 tests, will captain West Indies for the first time in a test if he is passed fit.

"I can't remember sitting out of cricket for so long before, and you've just got to accept it and move on," Gayle said.

"But it's very frustrating because you want to be out there with the guys."

West Indies go into the match on the back of a 10-wicket loss to South Africa A in East London on Friday.

"That was disappointing but we have to look past it and get into the right frame of mind for this very important game," Gayle said.

That result has led to predictions of a series win for South Africa, who have won their last four test rubbers.

West Indies coach John Dyson did not accept that view.

"I don't think it matters what people say, the only thing that matters is the next ball," Dyson told a news conference.

"South Africa have been playing some terrific cricket, but that's gone.

"Maybe when that next ball is bowled their form won't be as good. Maybe they'll bowl a few more loose balls, maybe they'll nick a few."

South Africa will end 2007 in second place in the ICC rankings after starting the year in fifth place.

"We've won our last four test series and for me that's more encouraging than the ranking," captain Graeme Smith said.

"But going up to number two shows that we have been playing good cricket."

Squads:

South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Andre Nel, Paul Harris, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini.

West Indies: Chris Gayle (captain), Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Fidel Edwards, Daren Ganga, Rawl Lewis, Runako Morton, Brenton Parchment, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.

AFP, Melbourne

India are considering playing two spinners to capitalise on their batting depth to pressure Australia in Wednesday's opening match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, skipper Anil Kumble said Tuesday.

Kumble, fresh from leading India to a home series triumph over Pakistan, said the team would be playing to their strengths and are contemplating using both spinners, himself and Harbhajan Singh, to go after the 20 Australian wickets and victory.

"Yes, there is a case for playing two spinners, but it all depends on how the pitch looks the morning of the match t we will take a final call tomorrow morning," Kumble told his match- eve press conference here Tuesday.

The Indians have been talking up their chances of inflicting their first series win in Australia and Australia's first home series defeat in 14 years.

To do that, Kumble said India would focus on their own strengths to bring off their pinnacle achievement against the world Test champions in the four- Test series.

"I think the key to winning any Test match is to score runs and, if you have runs on the board, then any team can get under pressure," he said. "That will be the thing, try and get runs on the board so you can put pressure on the opposition and get 20 wickets."

"If we play to our strength, our batting is definitely our strength, (and) I know our batters can fire," he added. "We have the potential to do that (and) it's important for us to stick with our strengths and do the job."

The Melbourne Cricket Ground wicket is expected to favour the fast bowlers early, before it starts taking turn later in the Boxing Day Test match.

"It is important to get the momentum early on," Kumble said. "But, having said that, in Test cricket you still have time to catch up."

Kumble, the third all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests with 584 wickets, said he was looking forward to the challenge of humbling Australia on their home pitches.

"It's a very important tour for all of us," Kumble said. "Personally, at least for me, this definitely will be my last tour of Australia with the Indian team so it will be very special to go back with a victory.

"It's a challenge, but I think we've all really done well to accept that challenge and we're ready for it," he said. "I think we have a good chance to do well and get the right result."

Batsman Sourav Ganguly, who was skipper when India won the famous 2001 series on the subcontinent 2-1 and then when the tourists retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 1-1 series draw here in 2003/04, said India were the best test Australia would get.

"If you look at the record for the last five or six years, in Test cricket we have competed with them, beaten them, so it's going to be a good series," Ganguly said. "We know they're a tough side whether it's home or away, but we also have the side to play well.

Reuters, Buenos Aires

Former Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona says he wants to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a leading U.S. foe, local media reported on Monday.

Maradona, an outspoken critic of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, gave a signed soccer shirt to an Iranian diplomat on Saturday after a game in the televised Showbol tournament of mini-matches.

Maradona, 47, is an admirer of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and he said this month he wanted a tattoo of Hugo Chavez, the fiery left-wing president of Venezuela and an ally of Iran.

Karate competition on December 30

Sports Reporter

Dhaka District Sports Association will arrange a karate competition for selection on December 30 marking the upcoming 21st National Karate Competition, which will be arranged by Bangladesh Karate Federation under auspices of Bank Asia.

The karatekas of Dhaka district have been invited to take part in the competition.

Interested participants, who are eager to compete in the competition have been requested to send their names at the office room of Bangladesh Karate Federation by December 29.

AFP, Melbourne

Skipper Ricky Ponting is certain the Australian bowling attack still pack a punch in the post- Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath era and will prove it against India in the Boxing Day Test.

Pace spearhead Brett Lee shoulders a heavy responsibility leading an inexperienced bowling attack at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but Ponting said there is more variety in the current crop.

This will be the first major examination for Australia's bowlers since the retirement earlier this year of leg-spinner Warne (708 wickets) and paceman McGrath (563), who are in Test cricket's all-time top four.

Ponting and selectors want more time to analyse a MCG wicket, which has had its preparation hampered by rain over the past week.

With conditions likely to favour fast bowling on the first morning, Australia must decide between using a four-prong pace attack for the first time in almost 16 years, or going in with wrist-spinner Brad Hogg and three quicks.

Left-armer Mitchell Johnson and tearaway Shaun Tait will battle for the third pace spot if Hogg plays.

Regardless of which attack Australia get as they chase a 15th successive Test victory, Ponting said he was confident it would be more dangerous and boast more variety than the ones which struggled to bowl India out in the corresponding home series four years ago, when McGrath was injured and Warne was suspended.

Ponting said spearhead Brett Lee was in career-best form, after a man-of-the-series performance against Sri Lanka last month, Stuart Clark's record was among the best in the world and Johnson had been impressive.