Cricket: Waugh spoilt for choice before first one-dayer

MELBOURNE - Skipper Steve Waugh is wrestling with the selection of his Australian team ahead of today's opening cricket one-dayer against South Africa here.

Waugh is spoilt for choice with the 13 players at his disposal and said he was having difficulty coming up with a side to take on Shaun Pollock's Proteas under the closed roof of Melbourne's Colonial Stadium.

"It's a bit of a nightmare at the moment, I don't know who to pick," Waugh said.

"I have 13 blokes and I keep tossing around different teams and every team is very strong and who misses out is going to be really unlucky.

"The first question I have to work out is whether to play three quicks [bowlers] or a couple of allrounders, but that's not an easy question to answer because I'm not exactly sure how that wicket's going to play."

Waugh will have to decide whether to use his pace attack trio of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie, or fit his two all-rounders, Andrew Symonds and Shane Lee, into his bowling attack.

Waugh, conscious of cricket's battered image in the wake of the Hansie Cronje bribery scandal, wants to put on a good show for what is cricket's first-ever match played indoors.

"We hope we don't have to regain too much [public trust], but it's been a terrible year for cricket and the things that have gone on will be remembered in the history of the game," he said.

"I feel a bit short-changed by the people that have cheapened the game and the image and the great name of the game for their own good. It's disappointing and the focus has been taken away from the high percentage of guys who are out there trying 100 per cent of the time.

"It's disappointing that people have put their own personal interest ahead of the game, but we have to get on with the game and make sure that it doesn't happen again.

"All the [cricket-playing] countries now have an extra incentive to show people that they're giving it their best and that they can believe in their cricketers."

Australian squad:

Steve Waugh (capt), Michael Bevan, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Brett Lee, Shane Lee, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh.