Sydney, Dec 15 : Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke has reinforced the worth of a spinner in Perth, despite the WACA's reputation as a spin bowler's graveyard.

Clarke insisted, though, that the decision on whether to play Jason Krejza instead of a fourth paceman would not be coloured by the result of last January's Perth Test, in which the home team fielded four quicks only for India to win by 72 runs, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

History has not been kind to spinners in Perth, where Indian legend Bishan Bedi is the only slow bowler to have claimed 10 wickets in a match, and the great Shane Warne did not gather more than six victims in a Test.

In the Ashes Test of 2006-07, Adam Gilchrist took a frightening fancy to Monty Panesar in shooting to the second-fastest century in history, although the Englishman withstood the onslaught to finish with 8-237 for the match.

"I think the advantage about spin bowling here, compared to, say Melbourne and Sydney, is that you get more bounce, so there is a chance of you getting nicks as a spinner," said Clarke, who had to bowl his left-arm spin to lift the over rate in Perth last summer.

"You can go the journey, you can go for a lot of runs. As you have seen, Gilly smashed Monty when we played England here. But being a spin bowler, that is part and parcel of your job. It doesn't matter where you play. If you don''t get it quite right and you get a batsman who is quite positive, you can go for a lot of runs."

"But I still believe there is certainly a place at the WACA for spin bowling," Clarke added.

At least Krejza - who is favoured to play ahead of Shane Watson or Peter Siddle - has experienced such an attack, having survived a Virender Sehwag storm to claim the remarkable figures of 12-358 on debut in Nagpur last month.

The 25-year-old is in line to play his first Test on Australian soil, against South Africa, who also want to play a spinner, subject to the fitness of Paul Harris. (ANI)