A new Australia

Australia will start the one-day series in South Africa from March 22 with the maximum number of questions over its form and future since Steve Waugh assumed the one-day captaincy four years ago. Making the uncertainty of the reigning World Cup champions particularly unusual is that it is entirely self-imposed.

Typically, transformation is precipitated by a period of unacceptably poor performances. For the Australian selectors, all it took was one mediocre tournament in which the team won half its matches and the suspicion that it was in need of new direction.

No one can accuse them of not having a plan. It seems that despite an unparalleled winning record (36 wins from last 50 games) the selectors were seeking to regenerate an aging team and missing the lucrative home finals provided the first convenient excuse.

With the World Cup a year away, the seven-match one-day series in the host nation, South Africa, followed by three in Zimbabwe was viewed as the perfect time and place to begin planning ahead. While the length of time between now and the tournament allows for emergency personnel or leadership changes if anything misfires, Australia's World Cup preparation is officially underway.

In itself, the three changes to the squad that failed to make the home tri-series finals is not especially radical. The surprise is that two of those changes are players worth a combined 569 games of ODI experience and one or both have been fixtures in the team since 1986. An Australian one-day team without a Waugh will be like a cricket match without stumps. They are part of the environment.

Considering Steve moulded all aspects of the Australian team to his beliefs, the greatest impact of their sackings is undoubtedly not the loss of either he or Mark as batsmen - neither seemed as integral as they once were, mainly because they are no longer depended upon as much - but of Steve as captain and both as senior dressing room figures. Their absence leaves the one-day team, if not branching off in an entirely new direction, then at least heading into the unknown.

Nobody can know be sure how temperamental 27-year-old Ricky Ponting, with minimal leadership experience, can manage the limited-overs half of Australia's two cricket teams. Unlike the veteran Waugh, in Ponting's tenure as an international cricketer he has not experienced any truly depressed times team-wise, and how he copes if and when they occur is the great unknown. It would have been that way for whoever replaced Waugh, as no one else has played in the eighties.

The direct impact of the changes is this: Ponting replaces Steve Waugh as captain, Hayden replaces Mark Waugh as specialist opener, and Shane Watson becomes the middle order bat and all-rounder that Steve Waugh used to be.

Shane who? The 20-year-old Watson has seemingly been earmarked to become the new face of Australian cricket. A youth star and cricket academy product, Watson controversially defected from his native Queensland last season to win an immediate place in the Tasmanian team. An all-rounder, he has exhibited rare confidence for a young Australian player, quoted recently as saying his goal was to "bat at No. 4 and bowl first change" when most young players when asked where they would like to play would typically say "anywhere they want me to bat."

Having only been on the first-class scene two seasons, Watson is virtually unknown to Australian cricket audiences. More advanced as a batsman than fast-medium bowler at this point, his first-class statistics (13 matches, batting average 43.81; 36 wickets at 24) are undeniably impressive.

There can be no greater pressure on promising young cricketers than if they are all-rounders, as they inevitably draw comparisons to whoever the last great was. In Australia's case, it was Keith Miller in the 1950s. Evidently seen as both a future Test and one-day player, Watson was included as the 15th player in the Test squad to South Africa to gain experience with the national team. With the one-day team, he is likely to be tested immediately at No. 7.

The other young player selected, 20-year-old off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, will probably play a role similar to that of Watson with the Test squad. In an expanded squad of 15, he is there as the "project" player, someone targeted for development as a future national player. On last year's Ashes tour, left-arm quick Nathan Bracken filled a similar role, replaced by another young seamer in Ashley Noffke when he was hurt.

Since Shane Warne was retained - every player was supposed to have been scrutinised, and after taking 6 wickets at 54 in home ODIs it's hard to believe there was not at least some debate about Warne's future - Hauritz's opportunities will probably be limited, as Australia are unlikely to play two spinners in any game. But if the goal is for him to be part of the World Cup squad, a back up in case Warne breaks down or loses form, then he should play at some point to gain experience.

28-year-old opener Jimmy Maher has been a prolific scorer for Queensland at domestic level and it appears his selection as reserve opener is reward for that. Despite Gilchrist's poor run as an opener recently, he is still the best option at the top of the order, able to propel Australia to an explosive start on any given day. If he were to drop down the order to allow Maher to open, another batsman would have to be dropped, an unfavourable proposition. One suspects Maher is there as cover for Hayden, or in case Gilchrist's role as an opener does become untenable.

Since winning belated selection to Australia's one-day squad in India after his superlative Test series there, Matthew Hayden has suffered from lack of opportunity or inconsistent selection. He has a superb record as a domestic one-day opener, looked perfectly capable of carrying over his Test form in the one-dayers in India, but with Waugh-Gilchrist the preferred combination has found opportunities scarce.

In last year's tri-series in England - where he had an ordinary tour anyway - Hayden could only manage eight runs from three outings. Then in the home tournament, he got rotated in for two matches, failed to capitalise under pressure with scores of 10 and 10, and was dropped. Now that he should receive a fair opportunity to prove himself in more than a handful of successive games, there is no obvious reason why he should not be just as successful as a one-day batsman, if he can find a comfortable game plan.

Australia's bowling attack, which also disappointed at times during the home tri-series, has survived selectorial scrutiny. Happily, it is identical to the Test attack, with McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne the ideal combination, with Bichel as reserve paceman and Hauritz the second spinner. In fact, the only Test squad members not part of the one-day party - aside from the Waughs - are Langer and the luckless Stuart MacGill.

Langer, still with a reputation as a defensive batsman even though that has not been justified at Test level for two years now, cannot find a place, while MacGill has a potentially excellent ODI career stuck in stats is behind Warne as it is in Tests. In three ODIs, MacGill has 6 wickets at 17.5, and for a leg-spinner whose control is sometimes wayward has an outstanding domestic limited-overs record of 85 wickets at 19.85. With two leg-spinners an impossibility and young players rightly favoured over old, his chance may never come.

Australia's one-day all-rounders have typically been serviceable rather than exceptional. The retired Tom Moody played an under-rated role at the last World Cup and since then Australia has vacillated between Ian Harvey, Andrew Symonds and Shane Lee. Harvey is a useful bowler whose batting has disappointed, Symonds a genuine batsman whose medium pace or off-spin bowling is manufactured rather than natural, and Shane Lee's skills are better balanced but he has never quite excelled enough in either discipline to become a permanent player. Of the three, Symonds has been the most poorly treated, apparently left out on the basis of a mere three innings.

Now, there is the untried Watson, and while Harvey is the other all-rounder in the squad it does appear that the position is Watson's to lose.

One other recalled player is Darren Lehmann, who returned for the final preliminary game of the tri-series, made a calm 49 not out, and has earned another opportunity as a one-day player. Widely regarded as the best batsman in Australia not playing Test cricket, the 32-year-old Lehmann has squandered chances before and should be keen to secure a role ahead of younger players. Despite his age and lack of fielding prowess, Australia is better for his inclusion. Perhaps the only negative is that his selection means Australia's top six contains four left-handers.

So with several areas of uncertainty - Ponting's captaincy foremost, Watson' s ability to adjust to international cricket and how the loss of the experienced Waughs affects the batting and leadership generally - the immediate future of the Australian one-day team suddenly hinges on the next 10 ODIs. With the selectors having deliberately sought rejuvenation as they prepare a side for the World Cup, all players are in the unfamiliar position of having to prove themselves again. They have done so before.

Ideal 'new' Australian XI:
Adam Gilchrist,
Matthew Hayden,
Ricky Ponting (c),
Damien Martyn,
Darren Lehmann,
Michael Bevan,
Shane Watson,
Shane Warne,
Brett Lee,
Jason Gillespie,
Glenn McGrath.

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