Australia odds 1/17 to crush Bangladesh

DARWIN: Bookma-kers are offering odds of 17-1 on Australia’s chances of winning the first Test against Bangladesh inside a single day.

Some former Australian internationals, opposed to Bangladesh’s sudden elevation to Test status, have urged the country’s current crop of players to take up the challenge to prove the Asians do not deserve their place among the game’s elite. But captain Steve Waugh has still urged his players to treat the tourists similarly to their other opponents. “We expect it to be a Test match and we’re going to play as hard as we can,” Waugh said. “We’re going to play as if it’s going to be a tough Test match.”

Australia beat England inside three days to wrap up the Ashes in the last Australian summer but such is the enormous gulf between Bang-ladesh, who have never won a Test, that an even quicker victory does not seem impossible. The result of their two-Test series already seems a foregone conclusion but Waugh has been keen to play down the prospects of a landslide win. He stopped short of saying Bangladesh had any chance of winning the series but said they could be more competitive than most people think. “Bangladesh may play well and you never know, that’s what sport is all about,” he said. The first Test starts in Darwin on Friday with the second game starting a week later in Cairns.