DARWIN, Australia, 18 July 2003 — The Australian team was working on cleaning up its much-criticized sledging reputation, skipper Steve Waugh said here yesterday.

The top-ranked cricket nation are also rated number one as on-field sledgers and today’s Test with Bangladesh here is Australia’s first home match since the eruptions in the fourth Test against the West Indies in May. Premier pace bowler Glenn McGrath was widely condemned for his mid-pitch rage at West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan during the Antigua Test.

The images of McGrath finger-pointing and screaming at Sarwan over something he apparently said prompted Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland to tell captain Waugh to rein in his players’ emotions.

The confrontations during the Antiguan Test, including a face-to-face clash between rival captains Waugh and Brian Lara on the second day, raised questions about Australia’s ability to control its emotions in tight matches. Waugh said he did not expect any of that kind of behavior tainting today’s first-ever Test with Bangladesh at the new Marrara Oval Test venue.

“As a general rule the team is pretty well behaved on the field,” Waugh said yesterday. “The teams we play respect us and we respect them, occasionally things do happen but we’re trying to rectify that.

“We have some things to work on, we’ve talked about that, we’ve talked about that for the last couple of years, but occasionally things get out of control.

“We’ve spoken about it as a group, it’s about taking responsibility for the actions you perform out on the field and it’s up to every individual. It’s not something that has cropped up recently.”

Waugh and his team received damaging publicity over the McGrath-Sarwan confrontation, for which McGrath has apologized.

McGrath admitted his outburst didn’t do Australia any good in the cricket world but he did not believe the world champions could be labeled sore losers.

Former International Cricket Council (ICC) president Malcolm Gray said in the wake of the McGrath incident that Australia was a world leader in sledging.

Asked at the time if Australia had a bad reputation, he said: “Definitely, no doubt... Australians are not liked around the world. “The messages we were getting was that the Australian public and the Australian press felt it was way over the top ... this time the Australian people believed the actions were beyond the pale.”

Kanpur Unsure of Hosting

First New Zealand Test

Indian cricket authorities may have to shift the first Test against New Zealand in October from Kanpur because of poor ground conditions.

The freshly re-laid pitch at Green Park was in bad shape, a 25-meter stretch of the stadium wall collapsed following heavy rain and trucks clearing the debris have damaged the sodden outfield, a local cricket official said yesterday. “We are not sure whether we will be able to hold the Test,” Jyoti Bajpai, secretary of the regional Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, told Reuters by telephone from Kanpur.