If Glenn [McGrath] doesn't go to South Africa Jason [Gillespie] is a must. He has been there twice before and done well. If they don't take him then I think it's the wrong mix. They need some experience there. Brett [Lee] has held up magnificently but if Glenn wasn't there you would need some experience.

We've got some experienced blokes back, we're lucky enough to have Matthew Elliott come across, Jason back, Greg Blewett and myself, so that gives us some sort of basis with experience, and mix that with young guys we'll expect to play well, and we will play well.

We all belong to South Africa, and South Africa belongs to us all.

In South Africa, we speak English and sometimes Afrikaans, sometimes Zulu, sometimes Xhosa.

Matthew has stood up day in and day out for England over the past couple of years.

[Australia have been extraordinarily adept at keeping players fit, their injury management having been as far ahead of the rest of the world as their batting, bowling and fielding. The best-known monument to Errol Alcott is Steve Waugh's comeback hundred at the Oval four years ago, but the physiotherapist's life's work has been in preventive medicine. Alcott was the first, for instance, to insist on ice baths for players at the end of each day's play to aid recovery.] When I first started they put the beers on ice, ... Now they put the players on ice.