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Martyn declares open season

Source: The Australian - January 11, 2006

Test discard Damien Martyn has tossed his hat into the ring to win the role of Adam Gilchrist's opening partner at the World Cup next year following his explosive return to international cricket on Monday night.

Martyn, culled from the Test line-up after a disappointing Ashes series last year, blazed 96 from 56 balls playing in an unaccustomed opening role in Australia's inaugural Twenty20 full international against South Africa at the Gabba.

The match marked the 34 year old's first hit-out in Australia's colours since October's Super Series one-dayers against a World XI, and so impressed was captain Ricky Ponting that Martyn could be asked to retain a place at the top of the order.

With the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean just over 14 months away, selectors will use the triangular limited-overs tournament in Australia, and the return leg in South Africa, to hone their preferred team structure.

Since Gilchrist's long-time opening partner Matthew Hayden was deemed 'no longer required' in coloured clothes, Australia has backed fellow left hander Simon Katich.

But others, including Martyn and Michael Clarke, have shown they are capable of prospering against the new ball, and Ponting indicated in the wake of his team's Twenty20 triumph that his friend Martyn remained squarely in the reckoning.

"If he plays like he did (on Monday) night, he can open any time," Ponting said yesterday.

"He's got the shots you need to take on the new-ball attacks.

"Being able to step away and hit the ball over the off side, as he did, and he hit a few over the leg side, which was unusual for him. He played beautifully."

While batting, Martyn showed no deleterious effects of the fracture he sustained to his right ring finger in November that forced him to spend almost a month on the sidelines.

The only hint of the injury was the heavy tape he wore on the tip of the damaged digit, and the uncertainty he showed in failing to catch a fly ball in the infield - understandable given it was an identical scenario to that which caused the fracture.

In clubbing seven boundaries and five sixes in his sparkling innings, Martyn provided a timely reminder that he remains one of the game's sweetest ball strikers who is at his most damaging in the early overs when fielding restrictions are in place.

Martyn, who has not hidden his frustration at becoming the first scapegoat for Australia's indifferent batting during the Ashes, claimed he was happy to bat anywhere in the limited-overs order - including the opening role.

"It (opening) is enjoyable, especially in Twenty20 cricket," he said yesterday.

"If you're batting in the top three it certainly gives you an opportunity to make runs.

"I've done it before, it's been enjoyable, but at the moment my role has been batting at four.

"It's really whatever Rick (Ponting) and the selectors want ... I'll bat anywhere if I get a game."

Martyn dismissed suggestions his cavalier knock on Monday night, which was played in front of chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns, proved a point in his return to the international scene

"I don't think it's a comeback because I haven't been dropped from the one-day side," he said.

"I've been out of it playing state cricket, just watching.

"So it's great to come in. You're pretty fresh, having not been on the circuit for the last four or five months."

Martyn also put a positive spin on his axing from the Test team, which many critics believe was harsh given he had enjoyed the best form of his career in 2004.

He claimed that the chance to spend more time in Perth and play a mentoring role for some of the younger players on the Western Australia list had helped dull the pain of his enforced break.

"It's been less stressful, it's been enjoyable," he said of his four-month Test exile.

"It's all different things. I've spent Christmas at home for the first time in four or five years so there's always a positive to come from the negative of not being in the Test side.

"But you never give up on it (a recall). I won't sit here and say, 'no, I never want to play again'.

"You've got to be realistic. There's a chance, but a lot of things might have to happen so I don't really mull over it.

"If that's the last Test match I play, I certainly don't look back and have any regrets with what has happened."

- ANDREW RAMSEY