Australia's Test captain Steve Waugh has confirmed that he is available for the forthcoming tour of the West Indies.
"Steve is available to tour West Indies," Australian Cricket Board spokesman Peter Young told Reuters on Saturday.
"He has advised chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns that he's available for selection. Steve will talk to the media tonight."
Waugh, 37, who has played 156 Tests, a world record he shares with fellow Australian Allan Border, has refused over the past two months to make clear if he would be available for the Caribbean tour which begins at the end of this month.
He was not selected for the one-day squad contesting the World Cup in southern Africa.
Australia's selectors will choose the tour squad on Sunday and are expected to announce the 15-man party on Monday.
Waugh is captaining New South Wales in the Australian interstate first-class championship final against Queensland in Brisbane. His recent form has been outstanding. In first-class cricket in Australia this season he has scored 899 runs at an average of 47.31, an aggregate bettered by only Queensland's Martin Love, who has 1,105 runs in one more match.
Waugh's most recent Test was against England in Sydney in January when he made 102 to equal Don Bradman's mark of 29 Test hundreds.
He became Test captain in the Caribbean in early 1999 after Mark Taylor retired. Later that year Australia started a world record run of 16 successive Test wins spanning almost two years before the side lost a series 2-1 in India.
