The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: Aussies brimming with confidence

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Australia's captain Ricky Ponting - file

Australia are brimming with confidence ahead of a three-day tour match against Jamaica, which bowls off at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Sta-dium today, as they continue preparations to face the West Indies later this month.

After arriving on Monday, the world's number one ranked team finished off a two-hour training session at Sabina Park yesterday, which included light fielding practice and some time in the nets.

"It was good today, the batsmen went out there and got what they needed and everyone is confident headed down to Trelawny," Australia media manager Lucky Patterson told The STAR.

With only four members of the team, including captain Ricky Ponting, having previously toured the West Indies before and six players having never played a Test match outside Australia, the team is, as far as touring goes, an inexperienced one. However, according to Patterson, that is of little concern as all the players have already settled and are now simply focused on doing well.

READY FOR THE TOUR

"The new players have all settled really well in the team environment and they got a lot of practice in the three days here so far, plus we have just come out of a camp in Brisbane so everyone is pretty well, settled and ready for a tour of the West Indies," he said.

Despite facing a vastly less experienced Jamaica squad today, which features several players who haven't played first-class cricket, Patterson is looking forward to a tough game from the home squad.

"It will be a good opportunity for the boys to get back into some match practice after what has been a reasonably long break," he said.

"Some of them have been playing in the Indian Premier League but others haven't been involved in any competitive cricket at all for a little while, so it will be fantastic for the batsmen and the bowlers to get out there again in some match conditions against what we hope will be some strong competition," he added.

The Digicel home series between West Indies and Australia will have three Test matches. The first will begin at Sabina Park in Jamaica from May 22-26. The series will then move to the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua from May 30-June 3 and then to the Kensington Oval in Barbados from June 12-16.

There will also be five one-day internationals, beginning at Arnos Vale, St Vincent, on June 24, then the Grenada National Stadium on June 27 and 29, Warner Park, St Kitts, between July 4 and 6 and then a Twenty20 International at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on June 20.