We're greatest but need more balls: Deano

February 4, 2005

Limited-overs great Dean Jones believes the current Australian side is the greatest-ever one-day outfit, and only the "one white ball per innings" rule had prevented it reaching the 400-run mark.

Jones, who played 164 one-day matches and struck 6,068 runs between 1984 and 1994, told a Cricket Victoria function in Melbourne yesterday: "They're questioning the 400 mark now. We would never have thought that four or five years ago [but] it's down the track.

"Is there a chance for one of the guys to get a 200 in a match? There is, and there are certain grounds where you can do it."

Jones said for Australia to reach 400 would require a rule change by officials, who needed to allow two white balls to be used per innings.

"The biggest problem to get 400 is the white ball - it's just too soft to hit and it reverses [swings the other way late in the innings] a fair bit," he said. "I'd like to see two white balls being played."

The 400-run total is the next attainable goal for the best one-day sides as eight of the top 10 innings totals have been made in the past decade. Sri Lanka's total of 5-398 during the 1996 World Cup is the highest team score in a one-day international.

Australia have twice reached 359 from 50 overs - both against India, in the 2003 World Cup final and in the second tri-series final last summer.

Of Australia's five highest scores, four have come under Ricky Ponting's captaincy.

Jones dismissed the suggestion that Australia's current dominance made limited-overs cricket boring, saying it was up to the other nations to catch up, as was the case against the West Indies two decades ago.