Australia ready to target Vaughan

Australia coach John Buchanan said his team would target reinstated England captain Michael Vaughan in the upcoming one-day series.

Vaughan returns to the England side after a year out of action because of knee surgery.

"We'll try to exploit any deficiency, whether it's technical, physical, mental or tactical," Buchanan said.

"If we understand that Michael's struggling physically, then that will be one area we will like to target."

He called for Australia to be even more ruthless than in the Test series, which they won 5-0, when they take on England and New Zealand in the triangular tournament.

Buchanan said it was important for Australia to head to the World Cup in the Caribbean with the potential rivals' form in pieces.

"Once we get to the West Indies we would have liked to have set a gap between us and two of the teams we'll face over there," he said.

"We'd like to have them in some form of disarray before they got there."

Australia play England in a Twenty20 International in Sydney on Tuesday before the one-day series starts on 12 January.

Honours even, says Aussie coach

Australia coach John Buchanan felt it was a case of honours even after England ended the first day of the final Ashes Test on 234-4 in Sydney.

"We would have liked one or two more wickets but England played pretty resolutely. It's about even-stevens, I think," said Buchanan.

"We were all scratching our heads at the play and misses but that happens on a wicket that offers a little bit.

"Bell obviously hung around and did a pretty good job for their side."

Highlights: Fifth Test - Day One
Interview: Australia coach John Buchanan

Australia, who went into the match with a 4-0 lead in the series and chasing only the second whitewash in Ashes history, have a number of big-name players retiring from Test cricket after the match.

Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer are all hanging up their whites and it is also Buchanan's last Test as coach, but he said Australia were remaining focused on the task in hand.
"I think they're all holding together pretty well. Each does it in their own way," said Buchanan.

"Alfie's (Langer) showing his feelings a little more I suppose, Glenn's just a bit of a larrikin and Warney's Warney.

"This is his stage and he generally handles those things pretty well.

"There's a reasonable amount of emotion in the dressing room but we're trying to channel that in the right way.

"We've still got a job to do, that's the main thing.

"They're playing for their country, it's a Test match and that's what they're really trying to put their mind to."

Sydney has a reputation as a spinners' wicket and Buchanan has no doubt that it will turn as the match progresses.

"It's a dry wicket, slowish, with little bit of movement for the new ball, but I think obviously the turn will come into the game as it goes along," he said.

"It really depends on the weather too of course. It wasn't too flash this morning and I think the forecast is still not that good, but we'll get plenty of cricket in to get a result.

"There's no doubt it will turn. We've got a quality spinner and it will be interesting to see how (Monty) Panesar performs through the course of the game here."

Buck deserves the credit, says Ponting

Australian captain Ricky Ponting has praised the work of coach John Buchanan for much of the team's success and believes his successor has an enormous role to fill.

While the headlines ahead of Tuesday's fifth and final Ashes Test against England have been dominated by the retirements of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer, Buchanan will also be the team coach for his last Test match.

Buchanan, 53, will stand down after the World Cup in the Caribbean in April and a search is underway for his replacement.

Ponting's supportive comments come after leading England batsman Kevin Pietersen claimed the Australian coach was not respected by his own team.

"He's not very well respected from what I can gather in the Australian ranks so I'm not going to worry too much about what he says," Pietersen said in a retort to Buchanan's claim this week that he was not a team player.

"He's going after the World Cup as well so that might be a good thing for Australia and for everybody."

Buchanan has the exceptional record of 68 wins in 89 Tests in charge, and having started with 15 successive victories in 1999-2001, could finish his coaching reign with 12 straight victories in the Sydney Test.

Ponting said Buchanan and his support staff had long been overlooked but deserved to share the team's achievements.

"They have to accept some of the accolades that come the team's way," Ponting said.

"You look at the standard of cricket that we've been able to play over a long period of time.

"Just before John took over and certainly right through his stint as coach we've played some amazing cricket.

"Even this current run, we've won 11 matches on the trot. That doesn't happen every day either.

"Absolutely the coach has got to take a lot of the credit for that.

"He's been coaching a very skilled and very talented team. What you've seen some of those players do has been a lot of the time pretty extraordinary, so he's got to take a lot of the credit for that."

Cricket Australia (CA) is likely to consider former Australian player Tom Moody, currently coaching Sri Lanka, and one of Buchanan's former assistant coaches Tim Nielsen to replace Buchanan.

Langer, who announced his Test retirement Monday, also hailed Buchanan and described him as "the great visionary".

"I've learned so much from John Buchanan," Langer said.

"He's an outstanding person and an outstanding coach. His vision was monumental in the success we've had over the last few years."

Meanwhile, SCG head curator Tom Parker said the Test wicket had a good covering of grass and moisture.

"I've been monitoring the moisture in this pitch, just keeping it topped up to keep the seal in the pitch," Parker said Monday.

"I think it will be fine. There will be no more moisture than you would normally see in the pitch.

"The ball will probably move around for the first session and a half, especially if we get the cloudy conditions here at the SCG.

"You've seen that when it's cloudy, the ball seems to swing through the air a bit and then it should settle down and by day two it'll be a good batting pitch and then on day three you'll start to see the turn come into the game."

Morning showers have been forecast for Tuesday's opening day of the Test, but conditions are expected to be fine for the last three days.