Battle of Australia promises plenty for all

CRICKET: Civil wars and family feuds. Sports fans love them but players find them a test of their nerve.

So said Matthew Hayden (pictured) in his autobiography Standing My Ground, and he should know.

Hayden was a part of the spicy 50-over series in Australia 25 years ago when Australia A joined Australia, England and Zimbabwe in a competition which, when two Australian sides played each other, was on for young and old and even those aged in between.

The Australia versus Australia theme will be revived in a different form this week in a four-dayer in Southampton before Australia’s 16-man Ashes party is named.

There’s no doubt the pressure of playing for cherished Ashes berths will bring a special competitive spark but it may still have the feel of your local schoolboys carnival compared to the fruitier moments of the four Australia-Australia A clashes in the summer of 1994-95. Hayden, in an A team including Greg Blewett, Ricky Ponting and Merv Hughes, knew how to “press the buttons” of the top team and admitted he found the temptation “too hard to refuse”. The most intense exchange came when Glenn McGrath shouldered Hayden as he ran between wickets, prompting Hayden to say something like, if McGrath ever tried that again he would hit him back.

This week’s showdown is not expected to have such hot blood coursing through it but it will still have a pressure all of its own.

Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Peter Handscomb and Michael Neser will bat or bowl knowing that one false move could cost them the only chance they may ever get to make an Ashes tour.