2002-03 Annual R eport 2002-03 Annual R eport - Australian Sports ...

Back, left to right: Michael Clarke, Jimmy Maher, Martin Love, Andrew Bichel, Stuart MacGill, Bradley Hogg.
Middle, left to right: Tim Nielsen (Assistant Coach/Performance Analyst), Errol Alcott (Physiotherapist), Lucy Frostick (Team Massage Therapist), Darren Lehmann, Brett
Lee, Jason Gillespie, Brad Williams, Ashley Noffke, Jock Campbell (Physical Performance Manager), Jonathan Rose (Media Manager).
Front, left to right: Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath, John Buchanan (Coach), Ricky Ponting (Vice-captain), Stephen Waugh (Captain), Stephen Bernard (Team Manager),
Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer.
TRAVELEX TOUR OF THE WEST INDIES, 2002-03
Australia regained its place at the head of the International
Cricket Council’s Test World Championship ladder – lost before
Christmas when South Africa beat Pakistan – with a 3-1 series
win in the Caribbean, and then followed it up with a 4-3 victory
in the one-day series, confirming its status as World Champions
and setting a new mark for successive one-day wins at 21.
The West Indies did rally to take advantage of some signs of
tiredness among Australia’s players, and secured consolation
wins in both forms of the game. Their victory in the final Test in
Antigua broke the record for the highest-ever successful runchase
when they reached 7-418.
However, it was Australia that retained the Frank Worrell Trophy
and added the one-day silverware to its bulging trophy cabinet.
Both successes were fully deserved.
In the Test series, Stephen Waugh’s side scored its runs quickly
enough to dismiss the West Indies twice, and that time was
needed as all four Tests – in Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados and
Antigua – were played on pitches that offered the bowlers
precious little encouragement.
Ricky Ponting was the man to take the biggest advantage of
those surfaces as he totalled 523 runs in three Tests with scores
of 117, 42*, 206, 45 and 113 before illness, possibly induced by
fatigue from the amount of time he batted, cost him his place in
the final match. Ponting, who was named vice-captain of the
Test side instead of Adam Gilchrist, ahead of the tour, was
named player of the Test series.
Ponting was one of six Australian players to score at least one
hundred during the Test series. Justin Langer and Matthew
Hayden managed two each, while there was one apiece for
captain Stephen Waugh, Adam Gilchrist and Darren Lehmann,
the latter his first at the highest level. It meant Australia was
rarely short of runs.
Without the suspended Shane Warne and with Glenn McGrath
absent for the first two Tests as he stayed with his sick wife at
83
home, Australia had to look elsewhere for wickets and they
were provided, in the main, by fast-bowlers Jason Gillespie and
Brett Lee, and leg-spinner Stuart MacGill. That trio formed the
most potent parts of a five-man attack, as Australia opted to
break with recent selection policy by pushing Gilchrist up to
number six in the order to allow the inclusion of an extra bowler.
Gillespie topped the Test averages with 17 wickets, including his
150th in Tests during the win in Guyana. Lee also managed 17
wickets, while MacGill claimed 20 victims, the most by any
bowler in the Test series, including a match-winning haul of
nine wickets in Barbados. Andrew Bichel took 11 Test wickets as
well as claiming the prize scalp of Brian Lara seven times in
Test and one-day action during the tour.
The one-day squad won its series with victories in Jamaica
– twice – plus St Lucia and Trinidad, but once the prize was
secured, the players were unable to lift themselves sufficiently
for the final three matches against a West Indies line-up that
was playing for pride.
Andrew Symonds, along with Ponting, one of only two everpresents
in the one-day side, made the most runs – 275
– while Lee confirmed his new-found reputation as one of the
best one-day bowlers in the world with 11 wickets in six matches.
The West Indies relied heavily on Lara, appointed as captain for
the second time just prior to the tour, and he responded with
533 Test runs and 242 runs in the one-day series. Ramnaresh
Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul both averaged more than
40 in the Test series and both men topped three figures in the
epic run-chase in Antigua. For the most part, however, it was
the West Indies’ lack of a cutting edge with the ball that cost it
most dearly. Fast-bowler Jermaine Lawson emerged to take a
Test match hat-trick in Barbados, but he ended the series with
his bowling action under intense scrutiny.
Wavell Hinds, dropped after the second Test, bounced back to be
named player of the one-day series by scoring 352 runs in five
matches, while Chris Gayle scored 275 runs and took 11 wickets
with his off-spin.
T ravelex Tour of the West Indies, 2002-03