Onions ruled out for three months with back injury

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 21(ANI): England fast bowler Graham Onions has been ruled out for up to three months due to a back injury and will now miss the upcoming series against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Onions has been out of action since he was forced to return home from England’s tour of Bangladesh with the injury in March.

The 27-year-old underwent scans on his back earlier this week, which confirmed that the injury was worse than feared.

“I am naturally incredibly disappointed to miss the bulk of the domestic season and am still hopeful that with rest I can be back on the field nearer to the end of the summer,” The Telegraph quoted Onions, as saying.

“The ECB medical team has been very supportive and all I can do is be patient, work hard on my rehabilitation programme and focus on my number one goal which is to be fully fit and available for selection for the Ashes tour to Australia,” he added.

Onions also underwent surgery on Thursday at a London hospital to repair a cartilage in his left knee. (ANI)

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Twenty20′s serious business now: Clarke

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When Australia’s Michael Clarke took part in the first ever international Twenty20 match, against New Zealand five years ago, the emphasis was very much on “fun”.

New Zealand players dressed up in retro kit, with some sporting hairstyles more associated with the 1960s and 70s.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting made 98 as his side won by 44 runs in Auckland but questioned whether the “novelty” of Twenty20 would endure.

The emphasis in Australian cricket remained very much on Tests and one-day internationals so that the side’s defeat by outsiders Zimbabwe at the inaugural World Twenty20 in Cape Town was brushed aside by Australian fans.

Australia was well beaten by India in the 2007 semi-final and at last year’s edition in England, it was knocked out in three days after defeats by the West Indies and Sri Lanka.

But that exit was overshadowed by the context of an Ashes tour and when Ponting announced he was retiring from international Twenty20, there was a general sense of relief the star batsman would still be available to play ‘proper’ cricket for his country.

However, with Clarke now at the helm in this format, Australia began its 2010 World Twenty20 campaign with a 34-run win over defending champions Pakistan on Sunday.

And top order batsman Clarke said the advent of the tournament had led to a change in Australian attitudes towards Twenty20.

“I think now there’s a world championship, that plays a big part,” he said.

“When I played in my first Twenty20 match, we played against New Zealand and they were growing moustaches, not cutting their hair and wearing 1960s outfits to play the games.

“Everybody is taking the game a lot more seriously now and in tournaments like this, you want to do well. We haven’t done as well as we would like but we’ve started well.”

Australia completes its group program against Bangladesh in Barbados on Wednesday and, having seen his team lose to Zimbabwe in a warm-up fixture, Clarke was adamant he would not be underestimating Bangladesh.

“It just shows in this form of the game, you have to be at your best, it doesn’t matter who you are playing against,” he said.

“We certainly won’t be taking Bangladesh lightly. They’ve got some wonderful Twenty20 players who are very aggressive with the bat.”

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‘T20 open to corruption’

April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Only 10 months after Pakistan captain Younus Khan held the Twenty20 World Cup aloft at Lord’s, a third edition of the global tournament opens in the West Indies on Friday.

The rapid growth of Twenty20 cricket has fuelled fears that the game is open to corruption akin to the match-fixing scandal which rocked the summer game of the British Commonwealth at the end of the 1990s.

WHAT ARE THESE FEARS?

Because of its all-action nature, with wickets tumbling and runs scored at breakneck speed, Twenty20 cricket is particularly susceptible to spot-fixing in which matches are not necessarily fixed but individual events within the game are.

Tim May, the chief executive of the international players’ union FICA, is one of several influential figures in the game who believes that the number of Twenty20 matches now being played could tempt players to take money from bookmakers in return for spot-fixing.

HOW DOES SPOT-FIXING WORK?

Spot-fixing involves a player agreeing to under-perform. For example, a bowler might deliberately bowl consecutive wides in his second over or a batsman could make sure he does not reach double figures. So much happens so quickly in a Twenty20 match that individual performances can soon be forgotten or dismissed as inconsequential.

WHO BENEFITS?

Betting on cricket matches televised in India is a hugely lucrative business. Fortunes can be made if a gambler knows in advance what a particular bowler or batsman is going to do. Bets are placed on every delivery in a 50- or 20-overs match.

Only betting on horse racing at trackside is allowed in India but in practice around half of a market worth billions of dollars is estimated to be illegal betting, mostly on cricket.

WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE OF SPOT-FIXING?

Rumours have abounded since the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) two years ago although nobody has ever been charged. During last year’s Ashes tour of England an Australian player reported that he had been approached by a suspected illegal bookmaker in the team’s London hotel.

Former England captain Michael Atherton, who is now the cricket correspondent for The Times, said in his column on Thursday that one leading former international had told him categorically that spot-fixing was a regular occurrence.

WHAT WAS THE MATCH-FIXING SCANDAL?

Three international captains Hansie Cronje (South Africa), Salim Malik (Pakistan) and Mohammed Azharuddin (India) were banned for life in 2000 for helping to influence the results of matches.

Match-fixing had become established in one-day cricket in the 1990s and suspicion centred, in particular, on the one-day tournaments staged at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

As a result of its investigations the International Cricket Council (ICC) founded its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) to monitor all international matches. The ACSU monitored the IPL tournament in India this year but not the second in South Africa last year because the Indian board thought the fee charged by the ICC was too high.

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Lee could return in June, says his physio

April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, April 29 (IANS) Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee is ‘shattered’ by his latest injury but he could return to the side by June, team physio Alex Kountouris says.

The 33-year-old paceman broke down with a strain of the pronator teres muscle in his right forearm during Tuesday’s World Twenty20 warm-up game against Zimbabwe in St Lucia.

‘He was very disappointed, gutted,’ Kountouris was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Lee will be replaced by Ryan Harris who is preparing to board a flight from Brisbane to the Caribbean.

Lee heads to Sydney for more scans to assess his recovery time, which Kountouris says could be five weeks.

‘If he wants to come back from this he can,’ Kountouris says.

‘The common factor (in Lee’s injuries) is he has got to come back and he has got to do something that is very difficult to do at the best of times and he’s trying to do it with a body that is being rehabilitated.’

‘It’s whether he wants to keep doing it and so far he has It’s (injury) serious enough to send him home, but I think as a long-term injury it shouldn’t be that serious,’ he said.

Lee hasn’t represented Australia since a one-day game against India in October 2009.

His past two Australian summers have been ruined by ankle and elbow surgery. He also failed to play a Test on the 2009 Ashes tour after suffering a side strain and has since retired from the five-day game.

He was unable to complete his Indian Premier League this year because of a fractured thumb.

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Q+A – Twenty20 format raises fixing temptations, officials fear

April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Only 10 months after Pakistan captain Younus Khan held the Twenty20 World Cup aloft at Lord’s, a third edition of the global tournament opens in the West Indies on Friday.

The rapid growth of Twenty20 cricket has fuelled fears that the game is open to corruption akin to the match-fixing scandal which rocked the summer game of the British Commonwealth at the end of the 1990s.

WHAT ARE THESE FEARS?

Because of its all-action nature, with wickets tumbling and runs scored at breakneck speed, Twenty20 cricket is particularly susceptible to “spot-fixing” in which matches are not necessarily fixed but individual events within the game are.

Tim May, the chief executive of the international players’ union FICA, is one of several influential figures in the game who believes that the number of Twenty20 matches now being played could tempt players to take money from bookmakers in return for spot-fixing.

HOW DOES SPOT-FIXING WORK?

Spot-fixing involves a player agreeing to under-perform. For example, a bowler might deliberately bowl consecutive wides in his second over or a batsman could make sure he does not reach double figures. So much happens so quickly in a Twenty20 match that individual performances can soon be forgotten or dismissed as inconsequential.

WHO BENEFITS?

Betting on cricket matches televised in India is a hugely lucrative business. Fortunes can be made if a gambler knows in advance what a particular bowler or batsman is going to do. Bets are placed on every delivery in a 50- or 20-overs match.

Only betting on horse racing at trackside is allowed in India but in practice around half of a market worth billions of dollars is estimated to be illegal betting, mostly on cricket.

WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE OF SPOT-FIXING?

Rumours have abounded since the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) two years ago although nobody has ever been charged. During last year’s Ashes tour of England an Australian player reported that he had been approached by a suspected illegal bookmaker in the team’s London hotel.

Former England captain Michael Atherton, who is now the cricket correspondent for The Times, said in his column on Thursday that one leading former international had told him “categorically” that spot-fixing was a regular occurrence.

WHAT WAS THE MATCH-FIXING SCANDAL?

Three international captains Hansie Cronje (South Africa), Salim Malik (Pakistan) and Mohammed Azharuddin (India) were banned for life in 2000 for helping to influence the results of matches.

Match-fixing had become established in one-day cricket in the 1990s and suspicion centred, in particular, on the one-day tournaments staged at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

As a result of its investigations the International Cricket Council (ICC) founded its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) to monitor all international matches. The ACSU monitored the IPL tournament in India this year but not the second in South Africa last year because the Indian board thought the fee charged by the ICC was too high.

(Editing by Clare Fallon; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Milestones galore expected in Hamilton Test

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Hamilton (New Zealand), Mar. 26 (ANI): Saturday”s second cricket Test between Australia and New Zealand will be a milestone game for both teams.

Australian batsmen Mike Hussey and Simon Katich, who were junior rivals in Perth at the age of nine, will play their 50th Test matches alongside each other.

Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori will celebrate his 100th Test match.

Katich has scored seven centuries in his past 26 Tests, but the opener isn”t in the mood to be backing himself for a return to England for the 2013 Ashes tour just yet.

“I wouldn”t look that far in front,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Katich, who broke back into the Test team in 2008 after two-and-a-half years back in state cricket for NSW, as saying.

“In the last couple of years I”ve taken it year by year. If you get too far in front of yourself in this game, it can come back to haunt you,” he added.

“That”s one thing time out of the team certainly put things in perspective. It made me realise every chance I get, I just look at the next Test. I know it”s a cliché, but it”s all you can do, once you do get older. You can”t hide the greys. It catches up with everyone,” he said.

Hussey, who recalled having tears in his eyes upon his debut in Brisbane in 2005, is not making any grand statements either on his Test future.

“I”m similar to Kat. I just can”t get over that I”m playing my 50th Test,” said Hussey, also 34.

“So, I want to really enjoy this one and I don”t like to look too far ahead … because the game can jump up and bite you so quickly. I don”t like to look too far back either,” he added.

“I just really want to do well in this 50th Test which I”m still pinching myself that I”ve got the opportunity to play,” Hussey said. (ANI)

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Katich inspired by Hussey’s consistency

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Hamilton, Mar 25(ANI): Australian opener Simon Katich has said he has been significantly inspired by his team-mate Mike Hussey, as they prepare to play their 50th Test matches alongside each other against New Zealand, from Saturday.

Katich and Hussey were former state team-mates with Western Australia, until Katich moved on to be New South Wales skipper.

“Probably three years ago I didn”t think I”d play Test cricket again. It”s different for Huss. He has been a constant in the team for the last four years and he has been outstanding,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Katich, as saying.

“I certainly got a lot of inspiration out of that, seeing him do so well and he deserves every success he”s had because he has worked so hard to get here and when he grabbed his opportunity, he grabbed it with both hands.”

“There”s no doubt there”s a huge amount of respect there for what he has achieved,” he added.

Katich debuted at 25 and was considered a long-term Test player until a poor 2005 Ashes tour led to his axing, and it was only through record-breaking efforts for New South Wales that he forced his way back in during 2008.

The 34-year-old has scored 3600 runs in his 49 Test matches at an average of 45.57. He has scored nine centuries and 20 half-centuries with the highest of 157 against West Indies in 2008.

He also has 21 wickets to his name, which includes 6/65 in the 2nd innings against Zimbabwe in 2001 Sydney Test. (ANI)

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Cook”s success as skipper in Bangladesh may allow ECB to consider squad rotation

March 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar.20 (ANI): Alastair Cook”s success as stand-in England captain has paved the way for more players to be pulled out of tours.

If Cook delivers a clean sweep of one-day and Test victories over Bangladesh, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) could give serious thought to squad rotation and resting key men, The Mirror reports.

ECB Managing Director Hugh Morris said: “The bottom line is that we have to manage the workloads of our players because of the amount of cricket being played internationally now. That is reflected in the sort of selection decision we have made for this tour and over the next 12 months.”

“Looking ahead to the Ashes tour followed immediately by the World Cup, there is an enormous amount of cricket being played and we need to make sure that the captain of the England team is fit and absolutely ready for those two challenges,” Morris said.

“Alastair has done really well. He is one of the youngest England captains ever. It is a big responsibility on his shoulders and you want to see someone growing as a leader and getting more confident which he has done,” he added. (ANI)

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Ponting plans to undertake 2013 Ashes tour of England

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sep.13 (ANI): Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has made it clear he wants to return to England for the 2013 Ashes.

Ponting said that having made the decision to retire from Twenty20 cricket internationally, he was hopeful about prolonging his Test career and making it to the 2013 Ashes squad.

“It’s hopefully going to give me a better opportunity to be able to do that and come back here,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.

Ponting, who would be 38 by then, further said: When I made that announcement, it was about me wanting to play at the level I feel I can play at in 50-over cricket and Test cricket. With 20-over international cricket there at the moment it was just making it harder to be physically fit and mentally sharp for every game that I was playing.

I looked at the itinerary very closely and over the next 12 months it’s an opportunity to have up to another four-week break. That’s going to hold me in good stead down the track.” (ANI)

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Clarke rules out coming to India to play in Champions League

September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Sep 8 (ANI): Australian Twenty20 captain Michael Clarke has declared himself unavailable for New South Wales for the inaugural Champions League cricket tournament to be played in India next month.

The tournament brings together 12 teams from around the world, divided into four groups of three. The top two teams in each group advance to another round robin stage, with the top two then qualifying for the semi-finals.

Clarke cited his heavy playing workload with the national team in opting out of the lucrative tournament starting on October 8.

The Blues on Tuesday named all of their other big guns for the tournament including Simon Katich Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, David Warner, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz, Phil Hughes, Brad Haddin and Moises Henriques.

Wicketkeeper Haddin’s participation is subject to a medical clearance on the finger he injured during the recent Ashes tour, the AAP reports.

If Haddin is ruled out, Daniel Smith will replace him. The team will be captained by Katich.

The Blues represent Australia in the tournament along with Victoria, who they beat in last season’s domestic Twenty20 final.

They have been initially grouped with English T20 champion Sussex and South African runners-up the Diamond Eagles. (ANI)

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Injured Haddin to miss Champions Trophy

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, Sep 3 (ANI): Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has been officially ruled out of Australia’s Champions Trophy title defence in South Africa later this month because of a broken finger.

The New South Wales gloveman had surgery on the ring finger of his left hand after returning home from Australia’s unsuccessful Ashes tour.

“After discussion with Brad’s surgeon and the Cricket Australia medical staff, it is clear Brad will not have recovered sufficiently for him to be considered for any part of the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa,” team doctor Trefor James said on Thursday.

Haddin said he was disappointed to miss the series but at least the surgery had been a success, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“My finger will be 100 per cent when the recovery period is finalised. I am aiming to be available for selection for the one-day series in India (in October),” he said.

“In the past I have been able to recover from finger injuries and surgery very quickly and I am hopeful this will again be the case,” he added.

Australia have asked the International Cricket Council to allow Tasmania’s Tim Paine to replace Haddin in their 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy. (ANI)

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Ponting says he’s ready to play under Michael Clarke

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, Aug.27 (ANI): Australian cricket skipper Ricky Ponting has returned home and declared he would not walk away from international cricket even if he was stripped of his captaincy. He said he would be happy to play under deputy Michael Clarke.

Ponting said the stunning Ashes loss had made him more determined than ever to shine with the bat and restore Australia to its status as a world cricketing power.

Ponting, who arrived in Sydney just after 7 p.m., said he accepted responsibility for the 2-1 series defeat – team selections remained a sticking point with critics – before hinting he would play on if Cricket Australia officials elevated Clarke to the top job.

“I still think I’ve got a lot to offer the team as a batsman and captain and leader. If that’s with a ‘c’ next to my name well and good, if not, I still think I’ve got a lot to offer, particularly to the younger guys who are in and around our set-up. I’m not immune to anything, criticism, I’m trying to do the best possible job I can and at the moment I feel I’m the best person to take this team forward,” The Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

“If it ever gets to the stage if I think I’m not … can I play without being captain, absolutely. love the game and every opportunity I’ve had to play and captain Australia, and that makes me more driven now to do it better next time when I get the chance,” he added.

Ponting still managed a smile as he fronted a large press contingent at the airport and was far from bitter given the hammering he had copped by the press on both sides of the globe.

He will take a couple of weeks to unwind with his family before he returns midway through the one-day series against England and then leads Australia into the Champions Trophy in South Africa later next month.

Ditching the shorter forms of the game could be one way to preserve his career, Ponting said, with the 2013 Ashes tour still an option.

Ponting said proof he was already looking to the future was a meeting he had with Clarke, coach Tim Nielsen and Cricket Australia’s Michael Brown in the team hotel a day after the loss at The Oval. (ANI)

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Playing Ashes tour of 2013 is achievable, says Ponting

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Aug 26 (ANI): Ricky Ponting, who become the first Australian captain to surrender the Ashes twice to England in England, has said that he is determined to play the Ashes tour of 2013, even if he is no longer captaining the side.

Australian fans back home want Ponting to be replaced as skipper by his deputy Michael Clarke, after the team lost three of their past five series and slipped this week from first to fourth on the Test rankings.

Ponting’s captaincy role appears safe for now, but fears of Australia’s all-time leading run scorer quitting the game when he eventually loses the leadership role may be unfounded, The Age reports.

“Having a pretty bitter and sour taste in my mouth at the end of that Test match, I’d love to be able to go back and give it one more crack,” Ponting said.

“I’ve got to worry about that the next 12 or 18 months and see if all that hunger or commitment is still there. Right at the moment it most definitely is. It’s probably higher right now than ever before. Who knows, 2013 might be something achievable,” he said.

Asked if handing Clarke the captaincy for the Twenty20 and one-day teams to preserve himself for Test cricket would be an option in the future, Ponting said he was open to the idea.

“If that’s the way that I or others outside of what I’m thinking decide (is) the right way to go, there’s absolutely no reason why that couldn’t happen,” said Ponting.

“It has happened in the past with Australian teams. It is happening with other teams around the world right at the moment. Paul Collingwood is captain of the England Twenty20 team and Andrew Strauss is captain of the one-day and Test cricket teams.

Ponting said he hoped talk of him playing in 2013, as a player only was hypothetical.

“I still think I’ve got a lot to offer the team, as a batsman and as a captain and as a leader. If it ends up getting to the point where I’m not the captain, my hunger and determination to keep playing this game are as good as ever,” he said. (ANI)

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‘Hughes is twice as tough as I was,’ says Steve Waugh

July 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, July 16 (ANI): Former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh has declared that opener Phillip Hughes is twice as tough as he was at the same age, as the young Australian continues his gruelling Ashes examination on cricket’s most prestigious stage.

Waugh overcame a weakness against short-pitched bowling early in his career and Hughes faces a similar challenge, especially if England include Steve Harmison in their attack for the second Test, starting at Lord’s today.

Hughes sought advice from the great batsman about the secrets to success in England at a cricket function following his stunning debut series in South Africa earlier this year.

Like Hughes, Waugh was thrown into international cricket at the age of 20 and came of age on the 1989 Ashes tour, plundering 393 runs before England managed to dismiss him.

“The great thing about him is he is so mentally tough for a 20-year-old. I certainly wasn’t half as tough at that age. He is a very together kid, he loves cricket [and] he wants to make a name for himself at this level,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Waugh, as saying.

Hughes’s trademark is the powerful punch through point but Harmison made him look very uncomfortable with bouncers in the tour game against England Lions and Andrew Flintoff employed the same tactics in the first Test.

However, Waugh said: “He doesn’t care how he looks, it’s just how many runs he’s going to get and he’s going to get a lot of runs. If people think he’s got some sort of weakness mentally or technically and they take their foot off the pedal, they will pay the same price South Africa did.

“I know he is really still when he hits the ball, he’s got a great eye and he has played that way for 10 or 12 years. He knows his game better than anyone.”

Waugh also predicted that Ricky Ponting would break Allan Border’s longstanding Australian runs record during the second Test. Ponting needs 65 runs to eclipse Border’s mark of 11,174 career runs following his commanding 150 in the first Test in Cardiff.

Waugh, who is the only Australian other than Border and Ponting to have cracked the 10,000-run barrier, said he could tell by Ponting’s ruthless performance in Cardiff that the skipper would not rest until the Ashes were retained. (ANI)

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Oz cricket WAGs won’t back down over Ashes tour controversy

July 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, July 5 (ANI): Australian bowler Mitchell Johnson’s fiancee has hit back at the controversy surrounding the inclusion of WAGs in Ashes Tour.

Jessica Bratich, who recently got engaged to Johnson and is also a karate champ, branded the controversy ‘ridiculous’.

“The boys are away four and a half months,” News.com.au quoted Bratich as saying.

“Mitch goes from there straight to South Africa so they’re actually away for six months.

“I think it’s a bit ridiculous to think we’re not going to go over there and support them,” she added.

Model Lara Bingle was also seen defying the critics who had said that they should stay at home, as she joined fiance Michael Clarke for an evening stroll from the team hotel to nearby Italian restaurant Little Venice.

Cricket Australia is supporting partners and children attending the first two Tests, attracting criticism from some former players.

Australian Test star Michael Slater had said he believed the WAGs would be a distraction.

He also had slammed Cricket Australia for inviting WAGs to the Ashes planning camp at Coolum in Queensland.

“In terms of the preparation, when you’re coming up with your strategy you don’t need the partners there,” he said at the time.

Bratich said: “Mitch likes having me there. I enjoy watching the games and it’s always nice to have someone to come home to after a game.

“What everyone else says is irrelevant really.

“Cricket Australia are supporting us as well. So I think that’s important – they’re encouraging family life.” (ANI)

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Warne rates Australian squad

July 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, July 4(ANI): With the Ashes series scheduled to begin in less than a week’s time, former Australian spin legend Shane Warne has rated each player of the Australian squad.

Warne has indicated that captain Ricky Ponting is the mainstay of the batting line-up, who would be full of motivation on his fourth Ashes tour. Warne maintained that Ponting would lift the urn.

Warne expressed confidence about openers Simon Katich and Phil Hughes. He remarked both players are unpredictable, unorthodox and super-effective, the Courier Mail reports.

Warne admired Katich for cementing his place in the side, while Hughes was seen as the new superstar of the squad.

“Katich was in and out of the side for a lot of his career, but over the past 12 to 18 months, has really stepped up and nailed his spot as opener,” said Warne.

Meanwhile, senior players Mike Hussey, vice-captain Michael Clarke and all-rounder Shane Watson were seen as the backbone of the squad, whom the entire team can rely upon when under pressure.

Warne expects experienced bowlers Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark to play a vital role.

“If he (Lee) is bowling fast and the ball is swinging he will form a formidable new-ball partnership with Johnson. Like Johnson, too, he is good for some lower-order runs,” said Warne.

Warne also believed that inexperienced players -Marcus North, Graham Manou, Andrew McDonald, Nathan Hauritz and Peter Siddle- would come of age in the tournament to provide a good and regarded them as Australia’s secret weapon for the tournament. (ANI)

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Hilditch does an encore with no Oz selector present during Australia’s warm up game

June 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, June 25 (ANI): Australia’s chief selector Andrew Hilditch is at the centre of another controversy, with no selector being present to watch a pre-Ashes “bowl-off”.

No selector was there to watch comeback pacers Brett Lee and Stuart Clark waiting to make their bids for Ashes spots in the four-day match against county side Sussex.

Hilditch will not arrive in Britain until the day before Australia’s second and last pre-Ashes tour match, against the England Lions starting on July 1 in Worcester, The Herald Sun reports.

Team officials said there had never been a plan for Hilditch to be at the Sussex game, and he would be receiving regular reports from skipper Ricky Ponting and coach Tim Nielsen.

But with selector David Boon heading home after Australia’s ill-fated Twenty20 World Cup campaign, Lee and his fellow bowlers would have hardly been delighted they had to push their claims without a selector on duty.

Hilditch came under heavy fire in the summer when he was photographed walking his dog on an Adelaide beach as Matthew Hayden was fighting to save his career in the SCG Test against South Africa.

Hilditch, who earns a hefty Cricket Australia retainer for his part-time role, is coming under increasing scrutiny, with Cricket Australia’s board recently recommending the appointment of a full-time chairman to the national panel.

It means Hilditch may be forced to choose between his job as an Adelaide solicitor and the selection role, the paper reports. (ANI)

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Hodge, Ferguson favourites to replace injured Watson in Oz Ashes squad

June 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, June 24 (ANI): Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has said that he is prepared to call up a batting replacement to the Ashes squad because of Shane Watson’s knee injury.

The injury-hit all rounder was ruled out of the four-day tour match starting on Wednesday against Sussex in Hove after undergoing scans on his knee on Tuesday.

Brad Hodge and Callum Ferguson are considered to be at the front of the queue if Watson’s injury means selectors need to bring in a new batsman, FOX Sports reported.

“We might have to do that. One of the discussions that we had this afternoon was about particularly if we happened to have for some unknown reason a batter hurt themselves in this game, then we could be a little bit short,” Ponting said.

“But we certainly have to consider that and the other thing to consider is that Shane was probably picked as the spare batsman on the tour,” he added.

Meanwhile, pacer Brett Lee has been handed the opportunity to resurrect his Test career in the tour match in Hove.

Ponting said it was vital for all of the players to make a positive start to their Ashes campaign. “I think it is crucial for all of us, no more for Brett than anybody else it is the start of the Ashes tour for us,” he said.

“As a batting group all the guys want to get out there and spend as much time out in the middle and make runs and get used to the conditions considering that they might be reasonably similar to what we get in the first Test in Cardiff and as a bowling group.

“Those four quicks that we have got playing the game and Nathan Hauritz, they want to make the most of every opportunity they get,” Ponting added.

Pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson has been rested from the fixture.

It leaves Lee, Stuart Clark, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus fighting it out for the remaining fast bowling spots for the first Ashes Test in Cardiff starting July 8. (ANI)

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Ponting says he loves Leicester

June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, June 23 (ANI): Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has said that he loves Leicester, where his team has been based after their early exit from the Twenty20 World Cup.

The skipper further said that Australian players are perfectly prepared for their Ashes tour.

Ponting and his team spent a week in the East Midlands city after their shock early exit. The Australians have been based in Leicester for a 12-day training camp and their captain admits they are desperate to play a competitive game again, even though the fact that it is now 12-a-side means the fixture has lost its first class status.

“Some of my comments about Leicester were taken the wrong way. There weren’t any positives about us going to Leicester because it meant we were out of the tournament early – it was nothing to do with the place,” The Sun quoted Ponting, as saying.

“But we got the best practice facilities we could have hoped for and the nets were great,” he added.

Australia begin their tour tomorrow with a four-day match against Sussex. And Ponting said: “There is a lot of excitement.” (ANI)

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