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Reuters 18y

Cricket-Spinners relishing prospect of playing in Sydney

By Julian Linden

SYDNEY, Oct 12 - Spin bowling could supply the key
to the super test between Australia and the World XI starting on
Friday on a Sydney Cricket Ground pitch with a long tradition of
favouring slow bowlers.

Australia leg spinner Shane Warne said on Wednesday he was
relishing the prospect of seeing four of the world's best
spinners in action, including his great Sri Lankan rival Muttiah
Muralitharan.

"The more spinners the better," Warne told a news
conference. "One of the great things in the game is seeing a
batsman prepared to use his feet to a spin bowler. Everybody
likes seeing that.

"It's more fun bowling to those sort of players. It's good
cricket to watch. That and watching a fast bowler trying to
knock someone's head off I think are the two most exciting
things in cricket."

Stuart MacGill, also a leg spinner who did not play a single
test in the recent Ashes series after the Australian selectors
used Warne as the lone spinner, is almost certain to get his
chance this weekend.

The pair are regular partners in Sydney with 94 wickets
between them and MacGill is expecting more to come.

"This is where spin bowling is revered more than any other
place in Australia," he said.

Muralitharan and New Zealand's Daniel Vettori are also
relishing the prospect of playing their first tests on one of
the world's great spinning wickets.

Muralitharan has not played a test in Australia since 1995
after umpire Darrell Hair called him for throwing. The Sri
Lankan vowed never to visit the country again after Australian
Prime Minister John Howard called him a chucker but returned
earlier this year to play in the tsunami benefit match.

"I haven't played a test match for 10 years in Australia, so
it's a big challenge for me to do well here," he said.

"I only played two previous matches and got 300 runs for
three wickets...so I think hopefully my performance will be
better than that."

Vettori has played one-day matches in Sydney but never a
test and said he could not wait for the match to begin.

"It's pretty exciting, I think it's been a long time since
the New Zealand team played a test match here," he said.

"We normally get a couple of tests down in Hobart, maybe one
in Perth, so Sydney's a bit of a marquee event for us."

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