Australia’s preparations for the upcoming Test series against South Africa were dealt a blow with injuries to Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson, as well as Pat Cummins. But while Rob Quiney, Andrew McDonald, Usman Khawaja and Alex Doolan were touted as possible replacements for Ponting and Watson, Mike Hussey expressed his willingness to move up the order and make up for their absence.
“I’m happy to do whatever is asked of me,” said Hussey. “Whatever Michael (Clarke) and the coaches want or whatever the team needs, I’m more than happy. As long as I’m in there I don’t mind. Let’s hope, fingers crossed, Shane’s going to be okay.” Australia preparations for South Africa haven’t been the best, with many players heading straight to play for their club sides in the Champions League Twenty20 in October, right after World Twenty20 2012 in Sri Lanka.
James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, however, assured supporters that the team coaching staff was “meticulous” in their preparation for the three-Test series.
“People are perfectly entitled to ask questions (about player management),” said Sutherland to ABC. “But at the same time they should have confidence that people involved are doing everything they can.
“We have really coordinated the effort between state associations and Cricket Australia management and medical staff, conditioning staff, to ensure that the preparation of players for international cricket is as good as it possibly can be in the circumstances.
“That’s a constant evolution but it’s one of the findings that came out of the team performance review 12 months ago, to try and coordinate that even better.” Sutherland credited Pat Howard, Australia’s high performance manager, for taking Australia to a new level in terms of individual fitness of players. “I think that Pat Howard and his team have made some giant strides in that regard over the last few months,” said Sutherland. “I think that we are continuing to take that to a new level, certainly in my experience as chief executive the planning around each individual player is at a higher and more sophisticated level than I’ve ever seen.”
Sutherland also said that Australia weren’t at a disadvantage as South Africa had players heading into the Test off the back of playing Twenty20 cricket too. “It’s not as if we’re operating in our own little vacuum,” said Sutherland. “Other countries face the same challenges and same problems and let’s see how well prepared the South Africans are for Test cricket next week.”
