| Tour of Sri Lanka 2003-04 Captain: Ricky Ponting | |
| | | | |
| Australia’s 75th Test tour (February - March 2004) Fourth Test-playing tour
of Sri
Lanka by Australia (previous
visit in 1999) | Cricket Australia agreed
to play two extra one-day internationals to help the cash-strapped Sri Lankan
Board raise an additional $A million. In return, Sri
Lanka would play two Test matches in the northern
states during Australia's
2004 winter. The Australians recovered from
their defeat by India
at home in the Australian summer 2003-04 and inflicted the first-ever
whitewash in a series (3 -nil) on Sri Lankan soil. However, none of Australia’s
victories in these three exciting Test matches was easy, and in each case
they trailed on first innings but were allowed to recover from what might
have been a losing position. Disadvantaged by batting second, Sri Lanka
always had to chase runs against Shane Warne. After his year-long ban for
taking a prohibited diuretic, Warne returned to the team. He was spinning the
ball more than ever and, given some dry pitches, captured 26 wickets in the
series. He became the second bowler (after Courtney Walsh) to take 500
wickets in Test cricket, just beating Muralitharan to the achievement. To compound his disappointment,
Muralitharan learned at the end of the series that I C C match referee Chris
Broad was reporting him for delivering his doosra with a suspect action. This
looked harsh given that Murali’s doosra had passed scrutiny by umpires long
enough to capture a total of 513 Test wickets. Earlier Mike Procter, ICC match
referee for the 2nd one-dayer, had fined Adam Gilchrist 50% of his match fee
for dissent against umpire Peter Manuel giving Andrew Symonds out lbw, a
level-one breach of the ICC's Code of Conduct. Manuel had quickly changed his
mind and called Symonds back. | Other
Australian Tours Previous
tour West Indies 2002-03 Next
tour India 2004-05 Next
tour of Sri Lanka 2011 | |
| Members
of the Test tour party (15 + 1) Opening
batsmen: Matthew
Hayden, Justin Langer Middle-order
batsmen: Ricky Ponting, Simon
Katich, Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds Wicket-keepers: Adam Gilchrist, Wade
Seccombe Spin
bowlers: Stuart MacGill, Shane
Warne Fast
bowlers: Jason
Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Brad
Williams, Brett Lee (replaced by Shaun Tait). | A C Gilchrist | WA ⋄ | 32 | WK LHB vice-captain | ODI | | J N
Gillespie | SA ⋄ | 28 | RFM | ODI | | M L Hayden | Qld ⋄ | 32 | LHB opener | ODI | | M S
Kaprowicz | Qld | 31 | RFM | ODI | | S M Katich | NSW | 28 | LHB | ODI | | J L Langer | WA ⋄ | 33 | LHB opener | | | B Lee | NSW | 27 | RF | ODI | | D S Lehmann | SA ⋄ | 34 | LHB SLA | | | D R Martyn | WA ⋄ | 32 | RHB | ODI | | S C G MacGill | NSW ⋄ | 32 | LBG | | | R T Ponting | Tas ⋄ | 29 | RHB captain | ODI | | W A Seccombe | Qld | 32 | reserve WK | | | A Symonds | Qld ⋄ | 28 | RHB RM | ODI | | S K Warne | Vic ⋄ | 34 | LBG | | | B A Williams | WA ⋄ | 29 | RFM | ODI | | Selected
for limited-overs squad only: | M G
Bevan (NSW ⋄) | ODI | | M J
Clarke (NSW ⋄) | ODI | | B J
Haddin (NSW ) | ODI | | I J Harvey (Vic ⋄) | ODI | | G B
Hogg (WA ⋄) | ODI |
| State representation Pura Cup
teams NSW New
South Wales (3) Qld Queensland
(4) SA South
Australia (2) Tas Tasmania
(1) Vic Victoria (1) WA Western
Australia (4) Average age of team at time of first Test match (8 March 2004) : 30 yrs
7 months ODI
- member of the squad for the Mobitel one-day
international series | |
| Test
Appearances made before the tour | Warne 107, Ponting
75, Langer 71, Gilchrist 51, Hayden 50,
Gillespie 49, Martyn 39, Lee 37,
MacGill 30, Kasprowicz 17, Lehmann 15,
Katich 6, Williams 3, Seccombe 0,
Symonds 0. | | |
| Tour
Officials | Steve Bernard | Manager | John Buchanan | Coach | Alex Kountouris | Physiotherapist | Jock Campbell | Fitness adviser | Tim Nielsen | Assistant coach/ performance analyst | Jonathan Rose | Media manager |
| | |
| Selectors | Trevor Hohns (chairman), Andrew Hilditch, David Boon, Allan Border. | | |
| Selection | One-day squad announced: 9 February
2004. Unavailable: Steve Waugh
(retired); Glenn McGrath had two
operations to remove bone spurs from his foot. Both he and Shane Warne were
just getting back to playing cricket but the chairman of selectors said “we
still need to see Glenn McGrath bowl in first-class match conditions before
he can be considered for selection.” Test tour party announced: 20 February 2004. Not selected : Michael Clarke
(for the Tests), Andy Bichel, Nathan Bracken, Shane Watson. | Time between selection of one-day squad and departure from Australia 5 days (9 - 14 February) | |
| Travel Melbourne Q Colombo | The team flew out of Melbourne on Saturday 14
February 2004. Ricky Ponting was not available for the press briefing held at
the Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo,
where questions were handled by the team manager. The Test specialists Langer, Lehmann, MacGill, Seccombe and
Warne flew in during the early hours of Saturday 28 February. Warne had played
in Sri Lanka
twelve years before on his first tour with the Australian team. | Time spent in Sri
Lanka 47 days (14 February - 1 April?) | |
| On-tour
selection | Ricky Ponting
(captain), John Buchanan (coach), Adam Gilchrist (vice-captain). | | |
| Reinforcements | During the warm-up match against a Sri Lanka President's XI Brett
Lee was taken to hospital with a sore left ankle. On 10 March it was decided to send him home
to be treated by an Australian specialist for inflammation at the back of his
ankle joint, and next day to call up Shaun
Tait - who did not get a game. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | a | ϯ Moratuwa | Sri Lanka Cricket President's XI (50 overs) | Won 5 w | b | § Dambulla | Sri Lanka (1st ODI | Won 84 r | c | § Dambulla | Sri Lanka (2nd ODI | Lost 1 r | d | § Colombo
(RPS) | Sri Lanka (3rd ODI) | Won 5 w | e | § Colombo
(RPS) | Sri Lanka (4th ODI) | Won 40 r | f | § Colombo
(SSC) | Sri Lanka (5th ODI) | Lost 3 w | g | Colombo (CCC) | Sri Lanka Cricket President's XI | Won 245 r | h | GALLE | SRI LANKA First Test | WON 197 r | i | KANDY | SRI LANKA Second Test | WON 27 r | j | COLOMBO (CCC) | SRI LANKA Third Test | WON 121 r |
| † not first-class § one-day international Time
spent in Sri Lanka
before First Test: 23 days (14 February - 8 March) | |
| Test
appearances on tour | 3 - Gilchrist,
Gillespie, Hayden, Kasprowicz,
Langer, Lehmann, Martyn,
Ponting, Warne. 2 - MacGill,
Symonds. 1 - Katich,
Williams. 0 - Lee,
Seccombe, Tait. | | |
| Match
appearances T Test match o one-day international x other match ⊕ T/20 international ∙ played for opposition W won L lost D drawn N no
result A abandoned u unknown
result | | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | A C Gilchrist | x | o | o | o | o | o | | T | T | T | J N
Gillespie | x | o | o | o | o | | | T | T | T | M L Hayden | x | o | o | o | o | | | T | T | T | M S
Kaprowicz | x | | | o | o | o | x | T | T | T | S M Katich | x | | | | | o | x | | | T | J L Langer | | | | | | | x | T | T | T | B Lee | x | o | o | | | o | x | | | | D S Lehmann | | | | | | | x | T | T | T | D R Martyn | x | o | o | o | o | o | | T | T | T | S C G MacGill | | | | | | | x | T | T | | R T Ponting | x | o | o | o | o | | x | T | T | T | W A Seccombe | | | | | | | x | | | | A Symonds | x | o | o | o | o | o | x | T | T | | S W
Tait | | | | | | | | | | | S K Warne | | | | | | | x | T | T | T | B A Williams | x | o | | | | o | x | | | T | M G Bevan | | o | o | o | o | o | | | | | M J Clarke | x | o | o | o | o | o | | | | | B J Haddin | | | | | | o | | | | | I J Harvey | x | | o | o | o | | | | | | G B Hogg | x | o | o | o | o | o | | | | | RESULTS | W | W | L | W | W | L | W | W | W | W |
| Australia’s six previous Test tour results: in West Indies 2003 (4 Tests) - won 3-1 in UAE v Pakistan 2002 (3 Tests) - won 3-0 in South Africa 2001-02 (3 Tests) - won 2-1 in England 2001 (5 Tests) - won 4-1 in India 2000-01 (3 Tests) - lost 1-2 in New Zealand 1999-00 (3 Tests) - won 3-0 | |
| Highlights | • Gilchrist equalled his own one-day
international record with six catches in the innings in the fourth ODI • Andrew Symonds, Man of the one-day Series,
scored 211 runs at an average of 105.5 • Shane Warne took ten wickets in his first
match back from suspension (5-116 and 5-43).
He went on to take 26 wickets at 20.03 in the Test series as well as becoming
the second bowler to pass 500 wickets in Test cricket • Darren Lehmann hit 129 in the 1st Test; also
scoring 153 in the third, as well as taking 3-50 and 3-42. • Justin Langer, cleared of bringing the game
into disrepute the night before, scored 166 in the third Test and in a sixth-wicket
partnership with Katich (86) of 218 runs, helped Australia recover from 5 for 98. | | |
| Tour
Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | Other first-class matches | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | ϯ Minor matches | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | § One-day internationals | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | - | All Matches | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | - |
| | |
| Return
to Australia Colombo Q Sydney | Bevan, Clarke, Haddin, Harvey and Hogg returned home after the
one-day series. Lee returned home during the first Test because of an ankle
injury. On 1 April the team returned to Australia. | Time away from Australia 48 days (14 February to 2 April?) | |
| Finances | ….. | | |
| Postscript | In terms of preparation for their tour of India six moths
later, coach John Buchanan described the series against Sri Lanka as ‘a
watershed' in the way the Australians adapted to conditions and played spin
bowling with a better mindset The University of Western
Australia carried out a biomechanical
investigation of Muralitharan’s doosra and found it illegal for straightening
his arm by more than the five degrees allowed, but questioned why he should
be singled out when many other finger spinners did the same. Having broken Courtney Walsh’s
record number of Test wickets in the Zimbabwe
series, Muralitharan refused to go on the return tour to Australia
four months later after John Howard publicly called Muralitharan a chucker. On 1 April Hashan Tillakaratne was sacked as Sri Lanka’s
Test skipper and Marvan Attapattu, already the one-day skipper, was appointed
Test captain in his place. | | |