MacGill fears Test career over

2007-10-30 11:25

Sydney - Stuart MacGill admits his 40 Test career will be over if he is left out of the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane next week.

"If they're not going to pick me at the Gabba, then they're not going to pick me," MacGill said on Tuesday.

MacGill, who hopes to take over from the retired Shane Warne when the Australian team is announced on Thursday, said the Brisbane pitch traditionally favoured a wrist-spin bowler, and was the logical place for him to play.

"The Gabba is very good to bowl spin on. It bounces, it turns, it's fast ... you get results there," MacGill said.

"If you beat someone, they're beaten. There's no way out."

MacGill's strike rate in Brisbane is slightly below his career average.

In three Tests at the ground against England, West Indies and India, the 36-year-old leg-spinner has taken 11 wickets at 26, compared with his career average of five wickets per Test at an average of 27.

Warne took 68 wickets in 11 Tests at the Gabba, at an average of just over 20.

MacGill has not played for Australia since taking 16 wickets in a two-Test series in Bangladesh in April 2006.

MacGill, who has 198 Test wickets, has no doubts he is good enough to take plenty more.

"I know for a fact that when I'm bowling well I'm good enough to play for anyone," he said.

"I know that I'm improving. I'm simplifying as a bowler and that's what comes with age.

"That's why spin bowlers get better with age, because they realise that most of what people say to them doesn't matter.

"Batsmen have to rely on their eye. I have to rely on my brain, and fortunately that's not degenerating very quickly at the moment."

MacGill is resigned that his elite playing career will be over should he not get chosen later this week.

"I'll be disappointed because it'll probably be a good indicator that I'm not going to play again," he said.

"But I'm very, very comfortable with everything that I've achieved to this point, so I think it would be a bit wrong for me to be too upset about missing out.

"I've got a lot of things that I want to achieve for New South Wales and that's keeping me in the game at the moment," he said.

- AFP