‘Sandshoe crusher’ knocks Border

Press, 13 December 1985, Page 32

‘Sandshoe crusher’ knocks Border

NZPA-AAP Adelaide An unknown 18-year-old fast bowler sent the Australian cricket captain, Allan Border, from the practice nets to the physiotherapist on the eve of the first test against India at Adelaide Oval. At his pre-test press conference yesterday Border displayed the scars of an encounter with David Burgess, a ground staff bowler, who put sleepy Mount Compass on the map. Brought in to give the Australians extra work, Burgess — who plays with the Mount Compass cricket club — gave Border a “sandshoe crusher” and the captain had to be helped to the dressing room for treat-

ment. Border had taken a hard knock on the leg from Queensland’s test fast bowler Craig McDermott a few balls earlier. He was still in discomfort yesterday afternoon as he talked to journalists while seated on a cane chair with a pressure bandage and a woollen sock covering his right foot. “The crack from McDermott is the sort you get used to, but this one caught me,” said Border, who had decided to dispense with a precautionary X-ray. Border’s injury hangs over a newly structured side trying to gain credibility in the eyes of many, including the paying public

— the South Australian Cricket Association, could report the sale of only about 600 reserved seats for day one of the first test. This time last season Border took the helm from Kim Hughes at Adelaide for the third test won by the West Indies by 191 runs, in the one-hundredth test played at the ground. On that occasion he was carrying a hand injury and a new-found responsibility. Today he has the task of steering Australia back on to the track again after successive series losses against the West Indies, England and New Zealand. “If we get beaten by the Indians then we are at the bottom of the barrel,” said

Border, but he defended his team saying: “It’s a new series, we have put the New Zealand loss behind us. Border admitted that the lack of success was getting to some of the regular members of the side. “We pick up the papers at breakfast time together and the lack of favourable comment gets to us. We are not that bad, but we have responsibilities to fulfil to ourselves and the Australian public.” Border said the Australians were letting themselves down in basic things. "Our confidence has taken a battering," he said. “In the Kiwi test we caught a bloke (Richard Hadlee), and he got us on the hop.

“There is something wrong with us if we haven’t learned a lesson from that — we have to take a leaf out of their cricket and occupy the crease longer and build innings." The squads are.— Australia: Wayne Phillips, Robbie Kerr, David Boon, Allan Border (captain), Greg Ritchie, David Hookes (vicecaptain), Greg Matthews, Merv Hughes, Ray Bright, Craig McDermott, Dave Gilbert, Geoff Marsh. India: Sunil Gavaskar, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Mohinder Annanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev (captain), Roger Binny, Syed Kirmani, Chetan Sharma, Laxman Shivaramakrishnan, Nandial Yadav.