October 31 Thursday 2002
Ex-England stars take heart from Waugh axing

SYDNEY: Australian selectors' decision to drop Mark Waugh from the Test side has been welcomed in England cricket circles as exposing a chink in the world champions' armoury.

Waugh savoured batting against England, averaging 50.09 from 29 Tests, but was axed after he contributed only 80 runs in four innings during the recent series win over Pakistan.

While former England internationals Derek Pringle, Tony Greig and Angus Fraser would concede Waugh's omission is unlikely to radically alter Australia's chances of winning an eighth successive Ashes series, they have stressed the promotion of Darren Lehmann can work in England's favour. Pringle, writing for Britain's Daily Telegraph, feels England must take heart from Lehmann's suspect performances the last time he played Test cricket --- in the Ashes series four years ago -- and the manner in which county champions Yorkshire were relegated under his captaincy.

The former Essex medium-pacer wrote: "A left-hander, Lehmann would probably have played more than 30 Tests in another era, and there is a feeling his call-up is belated reward for a prolific first-class career forever stalled on the cusp of greatness. "Yet despite Lehmann's impressive weight of runs, here is a man who helped Yorkshire from champions to relegation last summer, a point England would do well to remember along with his nervous batting in the last Ashes series in Australia four years ago."

Greig, now a television commentator, added that skipper Nasser Hussain must stress the benefits of Australia's decision to his beleaguered side. "I'd take it as one up to England if I were captain," he said. "It is positive from England's view. I can't see Darren Lehmann is going to be any more frightening than Mark Waugh."