DURBAN - South Africa cricket coach Graham Ford hopes fast bowler Allan Donald and batsman Jonty Rhodes will return from retirement for the two, three-Test series against world champions Australia at the end of the 2001-02 season.

"I'd love to have both available, of course. They are players of proven international ability and they are both match winners," Ford told Reuters here on Friday.

"It is also obvious how much respect they command from the opposition."

The problem for Ford and South African cricket is that both men have retired from the Test arena to play exclusively in one-day internationals.

Donald and Rhodes are determined to stay fit for the 2003 World Cup, after which both plan to retire from the game.

However, because the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) does not have separate contracts for one-day and Test players, both men were asked to be "technically" available for the two versions of the game when they signed new contracts in April.

"I'm not accepting finality either way," Ford said.

"There is a lot of time before the two series against Australia and a lot of cricket to be played between now and then.

"If we have to play Australia without either of them, then we'll support their replacements and still back ourselves to win."

Ford's caution about their respective return to the Test arena was, however, not matched by his predecessor as South Africa coach, former England and Kent all-rounder Bob Woolmer.

Woolmer believed Donald would almost certainly return to Test cricket, particularly with the lure of the home-and-away series against world champions Australia.

"His decision to play one-day internationals was based, I believe, on frustration at not being able to finish a Test without injury and not on a burning desire to give up the five-day game," Woolmer told Reuters.

"When the going gets tough against Australia, which it inevitably will do, and a place opens up in the bowling line-up, and Allan is fit, I expect he'll be desperate to help beat the Aussies in a Test series," Woolmer said.

South Africa play three Tests in Australia over the Christmas and New Year period before both teams fly to South Africa for three more Tests next February and March.

© 2001 AAP