MICKEY Arthur believes Australia can be the world’s best Test side within two years.

The Australian coach, who touched down at Perth Airport yesterday, described the recent series whitewash against India as the toughest he’s encountered in his coaching career, with the suspension of four players making the miserable tour even worse.
But Arthur said the banishment of Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja for not submitting feedback forms had set the team on course for steep improvement.
“Hopefully this is the foundation for something good,” Arthur said. “If we had our time again we’d do exactly the same thing. We could have gone and just carried on and we would have been third in the world comfortably. We don’t accept that.”
Australia’s capitulation in India was their worst series defeat since losing 5-1 to England in 1978-79.
But Arthur is steadfast in his belief that fourth-placed Australia can take the number one mantle, even with back-to-back Ashes series against the second-ranked England over the next 12 months followed by an away series against Test Championship leaders South Africa in early 2014.
“We want to get ourselves to number one in the world and give ourselves the best possible opportunity to do that,” he said.
“We’ve put some stuff in place that we think can get that team there over the next 24 months.”