McCullum lashes out at Tait for pre-match comment

Sydney, Dec 16 (UNI) Continuing the Kiwi onslaught against Shaun Tait, Brendon McCullum lashed out at the Aussie pace sensation for commenting that the New Zealand batsman looked uncomfortable while facing his fiery brand of pace bowling.

''If he's Glenn McGrath, he can probably throw comments like that out there, but my only advice would be to maybe get a few more statistics behind him before he starts mouthing off," the New Zealand vice-captain said. ''While McGrath was very good at talking it up he also had some unbelievable statistics behind him.'' ''I just thought it was a bit reckless from 'Taity'. He's a good bloke, but he's only played 15 games.'' It was the second attack on the Aussie speedster by the New Zealand players this week. They had earlier claimed that the pacer from South Australia had a suspect bowling action.

McCullum had, however, no problems with Tait's bowling action.

''The guy bowls fast and you can't shirk it,'' he said. ''For me, it's another opportunity to test myself.'' The Kiwi wicket-keeper went on to claim that he has spotted a weakness in Tait's bowling.

''I'm sure in the long run he's going to be a very good bowler, but at the moment there's still signs you can expose him,'' he said.

''That's what I'm looking at trying to do, trying to exploit the weaknesses that he does have and make sure we can try to gain some ascendancy from there.'' Tait, who had scalped three wickets in the opening match of the Chappell-Hadlee series at Adelaide, had made the comment before the second match of the series which was to be played here today.

UNI