Clarke fighting to be fit for MCG Test:

Lankans injury free and rarin’ to go

Sanga looking to go past 10,000 Test runs:

Elmo Rodrigopulle - Reporting from Australia

While the Sri Lankan squad is fit and well and rarin’ to go in the Boxing Day Test at the holy land of Australian cricket – the Melbourne Cricket Ground tomorrow, Australia are frantically working to get their skipper Michael Clarke ready to don whites and not miss this vital Test.

At the time of writing Clarke who is nursing a hamstring strain is uncertain and if ruled out, then the burden of captaincy will fall on the broad shouldered, big hitting all rounder Shane Watson to don the captaincy garb.

Watson did not have a good game in the First Test. His form with the bat was poor with scores of 5 and 30. But he was given a long bowl by Clarke and bowled economically.

Khawaja comeback

If Clarke is missing, then left hander Usman Khawaja will make a comeback. Khawaja batted with success in the practice game against Sri Lanka at the Manuka Oval in Canberra with a half century and is in cracking form.

The good news about the MCG wicket is that it will be a sporting one, unlike the Bellerive Oval wicket which turned out to be a minefield to bat on, on the final day. According to the MCG curator David Sandurski the wicket will allow an even contest between bat and ball.

That the Sri Lankan cricketers are free of niggles and injuries is credit to trainer former Peterite fast man Mario Villayarayen who has been keeping a close watch on the players and showing them how to stay fit and injury free.

Still smarting

The Sri Lankan cricketers are still smarting over the bouncer bowled by Sri Lanka Cricket, where they have accused Captain Mahela Jayawardene and Manager Charith Senenayake of having breached their contracts by sending an article direct to a newspaper.

Me thinks that this was not the time for the SLC to have released that statement considering that the team, is here and gearing to attempt to win their first ever Test match on Australian soil and rewrite history. It has upset their focus.

Recover from setback

The consensus here is that the SLC should have initially set up a probe to catch the mole who leaked out the confidential letter sent to Sri Lanka Cricket by Captain Jayewardene requesting that a percentage of the monies paid to the players be set aside for the support and ground staff that helped in conducting the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

SLC should have played straight and waited for the tour to end and not rushed things and upset the team. It is hoped that the team will recover from this setback and enter the field at the MCG in a positive frame of mind.

Another milestone that awaits former captain Kumar Sangakkara at the MCG is the scoring his 10,000 run in Test cricket. He is just 40 runs short and if he was to score those runs a deafening cheer awaits him what with a house of 65 thousand spectators expected to pack the venue with the majority of them being Sri Lankan supporters.

The 35-year old Sangakkara has scored 9960 runs in 114 Tests which is dotted with 30 centuries. If and when Sangakkara goes past that dream mark he will join a select band of batsmen who have joined the 10,000-run club. Skipper Mahela Jayawardene reached that dream land first.

Questions raised

At the time of writing, the Australian cricket set up is not on a good wicket. While the decision to play Clarke will be held back till the morning of the match, the rotation policy of cricket, where they have decided to rest Mitchell Starc and debut Jackson Bird has raised questions.

When it looked as though the Lankans would stall the victory rush by Australia in the First Test at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart it was Starc who with a sudden hostile spell who blew over the Lankans to give them a 137-run win.

Melbourne, Monday.