da spicy bet： BRISBANE – Prolific Test run-getter Matthew Hayden is ready to deliverfor Australia in one-day cricket.
AAP23-Aug-2002BRISBANE – Prolific Test run-getter Matthew Hayden is ready to deliverfor Australia in one-day cricket.Despite Hayden’s record-breaking feats in the Test arena, he is yet toproduce similar performances for his country in the limited-overs arena.The Allan Border medallist has scored 2354 runs at 49.04 with eighthundreds from 30 Tests, including a record 1391 runs in the 2001calendar year.The 30-year-old has not been as dominant in limited overs internationalswith 1112 runs at 33.69 from 37 matches with one century.The powerful left-hander is confident he is on track to raise hisperformances in one-day cricket.”I know I have a role to play and that there is confidence in me to dothat,” he said as the Australians prepared today in Brisbane for nextweek’s tour of Kenya.Hayden said the tournament against Pakistan and Kenya in Africa and theICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka represented important stepping stonesfor Australia in its bid to retain the Ashes and the World Cup title.”We’ve been on a break for a while now – probably the longest we’ve hadoff in a decade – and it is great to be back in cricket time,” Haydensaid.”We’re starting what is going to be a nine-month campaign and it’s goingto be important to get our momentum going in these two tournaments.”Now that we know where we are going and what to expect, we can prepareaccordingly. You don’t just arrive somewhere and play.”Hayden said the players were pleased to be able to focus on the SriLankan tournament in the wake of the agreement reached between theAustralian Cricket Board and the Australian Cricketers Associationyesterday.”We’re fully behind that now,” he said.Hayden and the Australian players trained today on a specially preparedwicket at Allan Border Field, which was designed to replicate the typeof pitches they will encounter in Sri Lanka.”It should spin a bit more than the usual practice wickets so hopefullythe spinners will get a bit of turn and the batsmen can work on a fewthings,” he said.”I don’t know as much about what to expect in Kenya, although I knowthey do have good coffee.”Former Australian baseball manager Mike Young was a guest at training,the third time the one-time Olympic coach has helped prepare the playersfor one-day tournaments.The team is in camp until Monday when they leave for Kenya where theywill play a tri-series against Pakistan and Kenya.Meanwhile, the ACB is expected to announce the squad to prepare for thepostponed Test series against Pakistan in October within the next fewdays.The venue of the series is yet to be confirmed, with Sri Lanka andSharjah the most likely alternatives.Most interest in the Test squad will centre on whether nationalselectors retain Australian Test captain Steve Waugh and twin brotherMark, who were dumped from the one-day squad earlier this year.