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Go the Oz boys!

Australian cricket rarely passes up an opportunity to win a trophy. In recent years, Australia has won all of the major trophies on offer: It has held the Ashes since 1989, won the Sir Frank Worrell trophy in 1995 and retained it twice, and also claimed the hastily-arranged Southern Cross trophy by winning the inaugural one-off Test against Zimbabwe last month.

Added to that is the one-day World Cup win this year, after losing the final to Sri Lanka in 1996. And although there is no silverware on offer, Australia has defeated both South Africa and Pakistan at home and away, nations unofficially ranked No. 2 and 3 in the world respectively.

However, there is one prize Australia is yet to lay its hands on: The Border-Gavaskar trophy. Inaugurated in 1996 for Test series between India and Australia, India claimed the trophy first by winning the one-off Test in Delhi in '96 and then retained it with a comprehensive 2-1 series victory in 1998. Now, finally, India has returned to Australian shores and the Aussies have their best chance yet to defeat the only team they have not conquered in the past 5 years.

India, one of the giants of subcontinental cricket, is touring Australia for the first time in 8 seasons. The extended gap between tours is viewed as something of a tragedy, partly because Australia hasn't had a shot at beating India on home soil in that period, but mostly because we have been denied an opportunity to witness Sachin Tendulkar's skills in front of us for so long. That is not to disrespect India's other stars, since we are keen to se them up close too. But Tendulkar's reputation precedes him, and it is a chance to watch him in action that makes a series with India so enticing.

Australia has always been aware of how good Tendulkar is since his two centuries in the 1991-'92 series as an 18-year-old. However, it is doubtful that his might was fully appreciated here until he took Australia, and Shane Warne, apart in 1998.

That series opened a lot of eyes Down Under, even though it did not receive all the attention it could have due to the fact it was an overseas tour rather than a home season. The blitz which followed in the one-day series in India and Sharjah prompted Steve Waugh to say that Tendulkar was the best there has been since Bradman.

His comment immediately after an onslaught like that is not surprising, but whether the opinion of the Australian captain still holds is moot. Either way, how Tendulkar performs in this forthcoming Test series will carry more weight with Australian audiences than anything he has achieved in the past.

Unfair though that is, Australia's home summer is given more attention and significance than away tours. Lose away, and it is a hiccup. Lose at home, and it is a disaster worthy of extensive post-mortems.

If Tendulkar continues his dominance from early last year, then he will be seen as the champion that he is and probably the best batsman in the world. Should he fail, his status will fall in the eyes of most Australian fans and the impression will be "He may dominate the others, but we have his measure".

Anything in between should maintain the status quo, which is him being simply regarded as one of the best bats in contemporary cricket.

The media method of treating a star player from an opposing side is generally to build him up as a world-beater or someone badly out of form. When Brian Lara toured with the West Indies in '96-'97, it was the latter; with Tendulkar it is the former. What he does with the bat and, more significantly, who dismisses him and how is likely to receive a great deal of scrutiny, particularly if the lucky bowler happens to be either Shane Warne or Glenn McGrath.

When Warne dismissed Tendulkar cheaply in the first innings of the Chennai Test in '98, the criticism levelled at him for playing a reckless shot was severe. When future "reckless" shots continued to race to the boundary for the remainder of that series, the praise was overflowing. Such is likely to be the case with the Australian media. Should Tendulkar do something truly outstanding, then there may well be many in agreeance that he is indeed the best since Bradman. Right now, he is recognised merely as one of the best of the current crop, albeit the most talented.

Although Warne was hammered in the '98 series, his performance too in the upcoming clash is what Australians will remember. Should he claim a stack of wickets and Tendulkar's scalp be among those, well, then, 1998 was an aberration and he had a sore shoulder anyway. If the Indians and Tendulkar continue to play Warne with ease and he has a fruitless series even in peak form, then the fact will be he is ineffective against India and Tendulkar is simply too good, as history has already shown. Warne may not think he has anything to prove, but we are waiting for him to demonstrate that he can cause headaches for Sachin and perform creditably against India.

Naturally, most of the focus is on Tendulkar v Warne, but what may ultimately be of more interest to the purists is the battle between Tendulkar and Glenn McGrath, arguably the best batsman and bowler in the world at this point in time. McGrath targets the best batsman in the opposing team as the man he wants to take down, and with India here Tendulkar is obviously that man.

Significantly, Glenn McGrath was absent with a groin injury when these sides last met in Tests and Michael Kasprowicz, who led the attack then, is now in a more suitable role as third seamer. There is very little history to gauge who has had the better of whom between Tendulkar and McGrath. Their biggest clash to date was in the Super Six of the World Cup, when McGrath was a convincing winner by virtue of the fact he got Tendulkar for a duck.

"Pigeon" McGrath has not yet hit peak form this summer but if he rediscovers his rhythm against India, the tourists could be in for a difficult time. McGrath has had some great clashes with Brian Lara both here and in the Caribbean which determined those series, so his contest with Tendulkar and also Dravid shapes as a pivotal in the context of the series.

McGrath has a reputation for being a bad boy on the cricket field but if you are expecting sledging from the fast bowler you may be disappointed. Tendulkar is regarded by the Australians as being "off limits" in that area of the game, because he has been revealed to be impervious to the verbal barrage as it only spurs him on to greater heights.

More than winning back the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the compelling aspect of having India in our country is to witness first-hand, or at least from close range, the players known by reputation only. How good is Ramesh? Will he be found out on our wickets? Who are Bharadwaj and Gandhi? Will Kumble be successful in Australian conditions, and how good a paceman is Srinath? All of these are largely unknown to us.

It may come as a surprise to India's fans, but even established stars like Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly will have some Australian cricket enthusiasts flicking through the profiles in the pages of their ABC Cricket magazines to find out exactly who these guys are. Due to the paucity of Indian cricket coverage and international cricket in general in Australia, the majority of India's players are just names on a scorecard to the regular Aussie cricket fan, at best.

Even to the ardent follower, nearly all of India's players are known only by what has been seen on the '98 tour and at the World Cup. The last Indian tour to this country was just too long ago. Suffice to say, India knows a lot more about Australian players than Australia does about Indian players. Your average Aussie supporter would not know that India has recently played New Zealand in a Test series, much less what the scoreline was.

Due to the outstanding performances in the series with Pakistan, the second half of the Test summer has a lot to live up to. With the defeat of Pakistan, victory against India is expected. Because of previous results, however, India are afforded considerable respect and Australians are slightly wary of what they can do.

In the end, the attraction of India is to see its talented players, particularly the batsmen, with our own eyes and on our own pitches. That comes before winning the Border-Gavaskar trophy but, of course, we want to see it added to our growing collection, too.