AFTER the 5-0 destruction of England during the Ashes series, things have all gone rather pear-shaped for Australia.
In the wake of losing the tri-nations series one-day international final to Andrew Flintoff's side, there was further embarrassment in store at the hands of New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee one-day series.
So, on a five-match losing streak with
the World Cup in the Caribbean fast approaching, should the defending champions have reason to fear another red-face day at the hands of Scotland on March 14 in St Kitts?
Surely not, Craig Wright's side are unlikely to seriously trouble a team with Australia's strength in depth. That's certainly the impression Aussie skipper, Ricky Ponting is giving, the player already having glossed over the danger from the minnows in his group, along with Holland.
He's looking forward to his team's final Group A game - a mouth-watering clash with in-form South Africa on March 24.
Ponting, who flew out of Sydney for the Caribbean with his squad yesterday, acknowledged that the showdown with Graeme Smith's side would be the litmus test for his out-of-form team.
"South Africa will be a big game and we've had some great games of one-day cricket against them over the last five or six years," he said. "In the last series over there, it came down to the last game and we got 430 and lost."
Ponting said South Africa should be in positive mood.
"They've played some very good one-day cricket of late against Pakistan , so they'll be pretty confident," he said. "But I know we match up well against any other team."
The countries have had some epic World Cup battles, notably the 1999 semi-final in England when South Africa threw away what had looked certain victory in the last over to leave the match tied and Australia through to the final.
Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds is hoping to be fit to face the South Africans after making a rapid recovery from shoulder surgery. "Hopefully, I'll take part in that match," he said. "I've been trying to get a bit of strength and bulk back into the muscle and I'm ahead of schedule."
Ponting's main concern was making sure Symonds did not try to rush back too soon.
"The only thing that is going to be hard is restraining him a little bit," Ponting said.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council has confirmed that the organisation will "target test" players for banned substances in the tournament.
Malcolm Speed has announced that, in addition to the standard four random tests at each match, 17 fixtures will be picked by the ICC for additional testing.
The decision to target test has been taken in the wake of Pakistan players Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif testing positive for banned substances last year.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) withdrew the two players from the ICC Champions Trophy in October as a result of internal tests, but the PCB's subsequent banning of the pair was overturned on appeal.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is still challenging that result with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
And, perhaps conveniently, the Pakistan cricket board announced today that both Akhtar and Asif have been ruled out of the World Cup due to injury.
Shoaib, who has played just one test and four one-dayers since last February due to fitness concerns, has been unable to recover from a knee injury that forced him to be sent back from South Africa last month.
Asif has been carrying a niggling elbow problem since that tour and the pair were receiving treatment in London but neither will be fit enough to participate in their campaign which starts on March 13 against hosts the West Indies.
The full article contains 641 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
