Bogdanovic may lead British battle for respect

Belgrade-born left-hander ranked No 459 in line for Davis Cup debut against world No 1 Hewitt

The four lowly ranked players who will fly the flag for Britain in the World Group first-round Davis Cup tie against Australia this weekend would give their eye teeth to play the likes of Lleyton Hewitt on the tour, Jeremy Bates, the British team coach, declared yesterday.

Whether the quartet feel quite so keen to pit themselves against the world No 1 at the International Tennis Centre here this weekend is less clear. The British captain, Roger Taylor, has yet to name his team for the three-day tie which starts on Friday, but, with the players looking likely to face one a heavy defeat, selection is looking suspiciously like a poisoned chalice.

Arvind Parmar, Miles Maclagan, Alex Bogdanovic and Alan Mackin, with combined world rankings of 1,397, are the best that Taylor can muster against a full-strength Australian squad which include Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis (a former top 10 player), and Todd Woodbridge, still one of the world's best doubles specialists.

Taylor, who will finalise his team tomorrow, finds himself in this unenviable position because both Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski are injured, while the British No 3, Martin Lee, is recovering from knee surgery.

While Taylor and Bates try their best to put a gloss on what promises to be a monumental mismatch, the players must feel like Christians about to be tossed to the lions before a baying Australian crowd. The prospect that they might not win a single game, might struggle even to win points on their serve, must be giving them sleepless nights. But Bates insisted yesterday that team spirit was "very good".

"We're over here playing a great Davis Cup nation and they all want to be here," he said. "I hope somebody will step up and come up with the performance of a lifetime." Taylor, asked whether this was the biggest challenge he had ever faced as captain, simply answered "yes". He added: "It's exciting and it's different."

Parmar, whose No 161 ranking makes him the leading member of the team, is familiar with the stresses of being thrown in at the deep end to represent Queen and Country. In a tie against Ecuador at Wimbledon in 2000, he was two sets up in the deciding rubber against Giovanni Lapentti, a teenager who had never before played on grass. He crumbled and lost in five sets.

At his next Davis Cup outing, against Thailand last year, Parmar was heavily defeated in the dead rubber by Danai Udomchoke, a virtual nonentity. It is not clear whether he has fully recovered from those two experiences, and Taylor would only say that he was playing well and "in good spirits".

Taylor may decide to bypass Parmar for the singles and take a punt on Bogdanovic, the 18-year-old national champion. The Belgrade-born left-hander, ranked No 459, could be joined in the singles rubbers by Mackin, the world No 333. Mackin, a Scot, is comfortable on clay, the surface that the Australians chose when they thought they faced more fearsome opposition.

Circumstances have changed, but the Australian captain, John Fitzgerald, has vowed to show no mercy to the pitifully depleted British team. He is still smarting from Australia's first-round defeat to Argentina last year and refuses to take victory for granted. "I'm going to pick a team that's going to win, and that's my priority, big time," he said. "The thought of Argentina is still bright in my mind."

The Britons have been practising on the freshly laid clay court at Homebush since they arrived in Australia a week ago, while trying to acclimatise to the hot and humid conditions. Bates said: "We've been putting in long sessions, three or four hours a day, playing lots of sets and doubles and clay court drills, and also spending time in the gym." He agreed that playing Hewitt was a daunting prospect, but added: "All four of them would like to be playing Hewitt or players of that level week in, week out, and they don't. Here they will be up against him."

Taylor has more or less accepted that Hewitt is unbeatable and is concentrating his thoughts on the singles matches against Philippoussis or Wayne Arthurs, depending on whom Fitzgerald decides to field. The best, though, that he can hope for this weekend is a not too ignominious defeat.

"If we come up with a fighting performance, it will be a reward in itself," Taylor said. He acknowledged that nerves would play their part. "The players have to handle that. We've been talking tactics, we've been talking about playing on clay, but there's no magic formula. This is an opportunity that they would not normally have got. It should be something they all look back on as part of a learning curve."