No-one should believe for a minute that too many of professional boxing's idiosyncracies have easy application to cricket.

But the Australian Cricket Board might well have been excused for giving the likes of promoter Don King a call recently, nonetheless. Because the budding contest between Australia and South Africa genuinely deserves about as much hype, hysteria and fanfare as a cricket series can be afforded.

Insofar as a heavyweight battle in the sport exists, then this is undoubtedly it.

Not only does this clash bring together several of the world's finest contemporary players, but also international cricket's two most powerful and two most enduringly successful teams.

The battle to reach cricket's Everest is to be played across three Australian centres - Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney - in the space of three weeks, before shifting back to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban for further encounters in February and March.

And, by the end of it all, either Australia will have clung on to its official post as the world's number one team or the rumble in the jungle will have created a shift in international cricket's power base.

For the Australians' part, maintenance of top spot will represent no easy assignment. Not only do they have to win each of the two series to retain control of the ICC Test Championship title, but they have to suddenly find a path back to their victorious ways after an uncharacteristically lean run in a rain-ravaged home series against New Zealand.

Though it's clearly foolish to ever start penning any kind of obituary for Steve Waugh's team, criticism has already been quick to follow the 0-0 series draw with its trans-Tasman rivals. Old lines about complacency, a decline in the standard of Australian domestic cricket, and the age of the side itself have swiftly made their traditional return across various parts of the world.

Among the more pointed of the barbs, key bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have even been singled out for unflattering attention. Which probably goes to show, more than anything else, how eagerly anticipated Australia's demise remains in some quarters.

Rumours of Australian death are still grossly exaggerated, though. In the four years since it last diced with South Africa, only Bangladesh - which it has never met - and Sri Lanka have remained outside its circle of victims. Its ability to demoralise and crush an opponent still remains its calling card.

Steve Waugh leads a batting line-up as prolific and aggressive as ever; and even the unlikely opening pairing of Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden has enjoyed great early success in producing sizeable partnerships for the likes of Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist to build upon.

The bowling is similarly first-rate, with McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee forming an excellent three-pronged pace unit. Champion leg spinner Warne is there to lend a hand too, and it's conceivable that the likes of Andy Bichel and Stuart MacGill might be drafted in to the line-up as well at various stages of the two series.

South Africa has only won twice in Adelaide, twice in Melbourne, and once in Sydney in the course of Test match history which, as the contest commences, adds yet another dimension to the Australians' oft-imposed aura of superiority.

Yet, for as much as has been made of the Australians' alleged edge in a number of departments, there's no sense that the Proteas are as ready to buckle as other sides might have been.

Reportedly, they even come armed with advice on how to deal with sledging from no less canny a mind than Pat Symcox, the former off spinner cum resolute batsman and mastermind of knowing how to find a way beneath an opponent's skin.

Traditionally, the South Africans' batting has been identified as an Achilles heel. But, as great as the Australians' bowling attack might be, it's hard to spot too many soft targets in the Proteas' line-up these days.

Gary Kirsten and the rejuvenated Herschelle Gibbs form a dangerous opening combination, there can be few doubts about Jacques Kallis' claim to the mantle as one of the world's most accomplished contemporary strokemakers, and there is exciting new blood emerging in the likes of Neil McKenzie and Jacques Rudolph. Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock add a further dimension with significant all-round skills and Mark Boucher is one of the most potent wicketkeeper-batsmen around. Even the tail, such that it exists, can generally be relied upon for runs.

Depth in bowling resources may be more of a problem. Pollock is one of the world's finest pace bowling practitioners and will prove a handful for whoever is unlucky enough to face him at anything close to his best. But critical to the outcome will be his capacity to receive support.

Allan Donald has enjoyed only a limited preparation; Nantie Hayward has the capacity to be erratic; Makhaya Ntini has claimed only four wickets from his last five Tests; and left arm spinner Claude Henderson is still inexperienced at the elite level.

Yet, as New Zealand's bowlers showed, sustained pressure on the Australian middle order can occasionally produce unexpected results. And, in South Africa, the Australians will confront a team as well placed as any to maintain its intensity and workrate for long periods.

There is no obvious favourite, just as there are no obvious clues as to which team has enjoyed the better preparation for the series. For neither team, ironically, seems quite at the height of its powers as the battle reaches its starting point at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow. But an awful lot can change in the space of six Tests.

So many questions and, for once for the followers of each of these two great teams, some genuine uncertainty about the answers.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd