Cricket365

Clark: We're Not Interested In Losing

Friday 5th September 2008

Australia paceman Stuart Clark said his team would not show any mercy in Saturday's third and final one-day international against Bangladesh in Darwin despite already clinching the series.

Asked if the Aussies were planning a series sweep, Clark quipped: "I would've thought so, I'm not sure we're all that interested in losing.

"I'd like to see if we could do another number on (Bangladesh) and hopefully get them out for not many, or if we bat first, make a lot of runs."

Clark, who moved up 12 places to number 19 in the latest one-day bowling rankings, said playing and training in Darwin's heat would provide a good warm-up for the humidity Australia could expect to face in India for next month's four-Test series, but their pace bowlers would find it difficult on spin-friendly Indian pitches.

"The heat is similar ... India's a place of its own, but it's good preparation heading into that series," he said.

Clark rated the importance of beating India on foreign turf "a very close second" to defeating England for the Ashes, underlining the two sides' competitive past, but dismissed an ongoing sense of ill-feeling between the nations.

He said: "There'll be a little bit of competitiveness, which I'd hope was in any game of cricket or any sporting match between two countries, but I wouldn't have thought there'd be too much niggle as far as the nasty stuff (is concerned)."

Clark also defended absent star Andrew Symonds, who was sent home before the current series after missing a compulsory team meeting to go fishing.

"Symonds is such a larger than life character," he said. "As much as that stuff happened, people still love to see him playing cricket and people love playing against him and competing with him."