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Match facts

January 19, 2013
Start time 2000 (0000GMT)Chris Gayle has understood his responsibility is not just to be explosive, but also play the anchor•WICB Media

Big Picture

On paper, on form and based on the personnel Jamaica look favourites against Guyana, who had to scramble to a last-ball finish on Friday night against the Windward Islands. Incidentally, Guyana, who won the tournament in 2010, showed the same desperation in their first match, when they skipped past Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) by two wickets, scoring the winning run off the final delivery.In contrast Jamaica, apart from just one defeat in the beginning against Barbados, notched up three victories and a tie, finishing the preliminary rounds on a dominant note with a resounding victory against CCC. Chris Gayle, playing his first match of the tournament, ruthlessly exploited the inexperienced bowling, while racing to the tournament’s fastest fifty in 26 balls, in addition to hitting a record nine sixes. Gayle thus filled the void in the batting as no batsman had scored a fifty yet for Jamaica.Importantly, Gayle carries that aura of a match-winner regardless of his form and Guyana, in their current state, would obviously would be wary. It is not just Gayle, who is bound to occupy Guyana’s minds tomorrow. The Jamaican left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie has been aggressive with the new ball while simultaneously playing on the batsman’s mind with his clever change of pace. Though he has just eight wickets, the numbers only betray his dominance over the batsmen.Unfortunately for Guyana, not one player has shown consistent form. Chanderpaul scored a half-century, but he picked an injury on Friday. Ramnaresh Sarwan has been disappointing, scoring just 37 runs in six matches. The allrounder Christopher Barnwell has been the most consistent, whose spirited performances with both bat and ball have played a big hand in pushing Guyana into the playoffs.

Form guide

(most recent first, completed matches only)Jamaica: WWTWL
Guyana WWLLW

In the spotlight

Chris Gayle will walk into the beautiful Beausejour Stadium for the second successive evening, knowing he will have to once again provide the momentum to the Jamaican batting and remain its mainstay. Recent dip in form aside, one big facet of Gayle’s game that has changed in the last couple of years is that he wants to stay long at the crease. So often you will now see him hanging around tapping the ball early on harmlessly before unraveling those massive arms and the sending the ball deep into the stands. Gayle has understood his responsibility is not just to be explosive, but also play the anchor. With the Australia tour round the corner, Gayle will be hungry for runs and dominance.Devendra Bishoo was not so long ago the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year (2011). He was even the Man-of-the-Series in the 2010 edition of the Caribbean T20 when Guyana won. But last year, he lost his spot in the West Indies team and is now on the fringes. On Saturday he could be in a face-off with Gayle and will need to stand up to the task.

Team news

With a final berth at stake Jamaica might be keen to get back their most economical bowler, the legspinner Odean Brown ahead of the offspinner Yannick Elliott.Jamaica (probable): 1 Chris Gayle, 2 David Bernard, 3 Tamar Lambert (capt), 4 Nkrumah Bonner, 5 Danza Hyatt, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Aldane Thomas (wk), 8 Nikita Miller, 9 Krishmar Santokie, 10 Sheldon Cotterrell, 11 Odean Brown/Yannick ElliottChanderpaul pulled a leg muscle while batting against Windward Islands and doubts will persist about his selection till the toss.Guyana (probable): 1 Derwin Christian (wk), 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul/Trevon Griffith, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Narsingh Deonarine, 5 Leon Johnson, 6 Christopher Barnwell, 7 Royston Crandon, 8 Steven Jacobs, 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Veerasammy Permaul (capt), 11 Ronsford Beaton

Stats and trivia

From all the innings, shots, wickets and catches Mahela Jayawardene oversawas captain of Sri Lanka in 2012, his favourite moment was an instance ofexceptional gall from Lahiru Thirimanne. Sri Lanka were five runs short of victory in Pallekele in their first Super Eights match of the World Twenty20, but they only had two balls remaining, with Tim Southee at thebowling crease, delivering one of the spells of the tournament. Thirimanne,fresh from the dugout, had not managed a convincing stroke from either ofthe balls he had faced, yet on the penultimate delivery of Sri Lanka’sinnings, he knelt and played a scoop he had never tried before ininternational cricket, sending Southee’s yorker over short fine leg forfour, and the stadium into raptures.”For Lahiru to have the courage to do that and back himself was fantastic,”Jayawardene said months later, while reflecting on the year’s events. “Ithink among the young group, he has that mindset to handle those reallytough situations.” Courage, self-belief, fortitude. They are the samevirtues that fashioned Thirimanne’s 91 in Sydney, and provided the backboneof Sri Lanka’s first innings after the team had shown little of the abovewith the bat in their last Test.Not many of the 26,000 at the SCG knew Thirimanne upon his arrival at thecrease, and until five days before the match, he had no idea he would beplaying a New Year Test either. Yet, when he departed short of thethree-figure score he deserved, the stadium rose to give him a warmovation. They only need to think back to last year’s Test to recall knocksthat dwarf Thirimanne’s 91 in heft, skill and allure, but there was much toenjoy about the steel in his defense and the defiance in his strokes, andthey did not withhold their appreciation. Perhaps the crowd had also heardon their earpiece radios by then, that Thirimanne had stepped off a planeonly 36 hours before his innings began.If Thirimanne was not nervous when he arrived at the crease, the lbw shoutand referral off his first ball certainly would have put him on edge. “Ithought that was out,” he said at the end of the day, but he did not allowthat rattling introduction detract from focus or technique. He leftpositively and even early in his innings, his scoring strokes were assured.As he grew more accustomed to the pace of the pitch, he drove the quicks onthe front foot with the same comfort with which he dispatched Nathan Lyonthrough the offside, leaning back. Australia cannot have had long toanalyse footage of Thirimanne to deduct a plan of attack, but if there areglaring vulnerabilities in his game, he did well to hide them. Few SriLankan batsmen graduate from the domestic system without a major weaknessthat must be ironed out at the top level.Thirimanne had replaced Kumar Sangakkara, and the bent-knee cover drive he wielded with increasing command throughout the day bore strong parallels to Sangakkara’s signature stroke, only it was less clean. Like Thirimanne, Sangakkara had a limited range of strokes once, but a strong mind andtireless work ethic transformed him into one of the greats of the moderngame. It is encouraging that Thirimanne already seems to possess an irontemperament, but he would do well to emulate the hunger and commitmentSangakkara has ridden to acclaim, if he is to make good on the potentialhis innings made plain.Before receiving the call from Sri Lanka’s selectors, Thirimanne’s lastmatch was at the Nondescripts Cricket Club in Colombo, where even the likesof Mitchell Johnson might find getting the ball above chest height afruitless pursuit. The SCG may be the least daunting Australian venue forSri Lanka, but the bounce and carry in the pitch on day one is a worldremoved from the featherbed on which he scratched out a limited overshalf-century a week ago, and he has had just one training session toadjust to batting in conditions that have not flattered his teammates inthe first two Tests. Uncluttered by the baggage of the Melbourne massacreperhaps, Thirimanne relied on resilience to compensate for unfamiliarity.”It was a bit difficult to adjust, but it’s all about mindset,” he said.”You have to adapt to any conditions quickly if you want to playinternational cricket. Whether we are playing ODIs or Test we have to getour mindset right. I adapted really well today. I am disappointed to havemissed a hundred, but I’m happy with my performance.”Just as Rangana Herath has shown Sri Lanka there is life after MuttiahMuralitharan, there are signs from the likes of Thirimanne and DineshChandimal that Sri Lanka can be hopeful about their batting beyond thecareers of the four ageing men who have begun winding down their careers.On day one in Sydney, a 23-year-old propelled Sri Lanka towardsrespectability with spunk and composure. The visitors may still be placedpoorly in the match, with a second-string pace attack now tasked withreining Australia in, but fans at home will take even more pleasure inThirimanne’s innings than the SCG crowd that witnessed it, becausesuddenly, the future does not look so bleak.

MS Dhoni praised the efforts of his team in the field after India comfortably won the opening Twenty20 in Pune by five wickets. England began well with the bat, through Alex Hales and Luke Wright, before Yuvraj Singh took three wickets to knock the stuffing out of the innings.India’s fielding, which was often shoddy during the Test series, also improved considerably with Ajinkya Rahane claiming three out-field catches and Virat Kohli taking a superb, low, effort at long-on. With Suresh Raina also back in the team there was a far more athletic appearance to India and Dhoni did not have to shield so many slower movers.The turning point of the match came in the 13th over when Yuvraj, who had already removed Wright, bowled Hales for 56 off 35 balls and two deliveries later had Eoin Morgan, the England captain and leading Twenty20 batsman, caught at long-on. Yuvraj later added 38 off 21 balls which included picking off Danny Briggs’ only over for 18.”Yuvraj was brilliant. He bowled really well and at the right pace,” Dhoni said. “I felt each and every bowler, apart from Yuvraj, bowled at least one bad over in the game. But I’m overall very happy with the performance.””And the fielding, which I wanted the team to do well. I thought we did brilliantly.”The pressure was on the bowlers,” he added. “The way Hales started – he went after the bowlers – that was the difficult part. We all know it’s a bit easier to score against the new ball on the sub-continent, particularly in India. It was important from the eighth over that we tried to bring the team back into the game.”Morgan was left frustrated by the way England’s batted faded from the position of 89 for 1 in the 11th over. They were also below their best with the ball where they conceded 10 wides after Jade Dernbach set the tone with three in his first over.”We got off to a great start. Alex Hales played tremendously well along with Luke Wright but in that middle period we failed to kick on and score. That positivity wasn’t there in our batting and we lacked about 15 or 20.”We never seemed to get going again. We continually lost wickets, which is a shame because because the start we had, we were on for a good score. We always thought we were in the game. We lacked a small bit of discipline in our bowling but we were always up against it with that score on the board.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAn unbeaten 85-run partnership between Dane Vilas and Justin Ontong in 8.2 overs took Cape Cobras to a seven-wicket win against Lions with one over to spare in a tight chase in a 37-overs-a-side contest Potchefstroom.After a wet outfield had delayed the start, the overs were reduced, and an opening partnership of 92 and a sixth-wicket stand of 80 in 6.1 overs at the death helped Lions put up a strong 245 for 5. Opener Stephen Cook scored a half-century, but the more impactful innings came from Chris Morris, who scored an unbeaten 49 off 25 deliveries. But, the strong total proved to be insufficient.Opener Richard Levi began the chase well for Cape Cobras, with 37 off 28 deliveries including six fours and a six. Zander de Bruyn, in the eighth over, removed him, and his partner Andrew Puttick soon after to leave them at 62 for 2 in the 12th over. Middle-order batsmen Stiaan van Zyl and Vilas steadied the innings, adding 99 in 16.3 overs. But when van Zyl was dismissed, the required run rate had climbed up to 9.23 runs per over.Captain Ontong smashed an unbeaten 52 off 27 deliveries, and with Vilas (78* off 71), helped seal the chase. With the win, Cobras occupy the second spot, and boost their chances of taking a play-off position. Lions, who are at the top of the table, weren’t affected much by this defeat.
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA quick, unbeaten century by Titans captain Martin van Jaarsveld and an aggressive half-century from wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn guided their side to a comfortable seven-wicket victory against Warriors in Benoni. After left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe and seamer Albie Morkel, with seven wickets between them, helped restrict Warriors to 241 for 9, van Jaarsveld and Kuhn struck a 142-run partnership to take their side home in the 42nd over.Warriors, after choosing to bat, kept losing wickets regularly. Van der Merwe and Morkel claimed the top-order wickets, reducing them to 166 for 6 in the 37th over. But an eighth-wicket partnership between Ayabulela Gqamane and Basheeru-Deen Walters of 46 in seven overs took them past the 200-run mark. Captain Davy Jacobs was Warriors’ highest scorer with a quick 51.Titans began their chase steadily through their openers, who put on 41 in nine overs. Two wickets then fell quickly, before the big partnership. When Heino Kuhn was dismissed, Titans were 191 for 3, and in control of the chase. The victory was complete with 8.4 overs to spare.The win pushed Titans to the third spot on the points table, boosting their chances for one of the two play-off places. Warriors’ lie at the bottom with seven points from as many games.
ScorecardThe game between Knights and Dolphins in Pietermaritzburg was washed out without a ball being bowled. Both teams received two points each.This is the Dolphins’ third abandoned game, and this has hurt their chances of claiming a play-off spot.

Andrew Flintoff has hit out at suggestions that his professional boxing debut at 34, more than two years since his retirement from international cricket, is little more than a TV publicity stunt.Flintoff will make his professional debut at the Manchester Arena against Richard Dawson – a little-known American pugilist, not the former England spinner – amid widespread criticism from the boxing fraternity and fears within cricket for his welfare.The boxing promoter, Frank Warren, has described Flintoff’s debut as “car crash TV”, while another promoter, Frank Maloney, has called it a “scandal”. Colin Hart, the highly-regarded boxing correspondent of The Sun, has dubbed him Foolish Freddie and said he did not know whether to laugh or cry.But Flintoff, who claims to have lost 45lbs (20.4kgs) in weight during a training camp which has been filmed for a three-part TV series, insists he could not have withstood four months of intensive training is his intentions were not to succeed in his new career.”You couldn’t go through this for a TV stunt,” he said. “If I was looking for a publicity stunt I’d have picked something easier. There has been criticism of things I’ve done in the past. I’m just getting my head down and doing the best I can.”I appreciate that people want to protect the sport they’re involved in. I’d be the same with cricket. I’m hoping this is something where boxing is celebrated because it’s not my intention to cheapen the sport or show it up.Flintoff had been due to announce his opponent on Friday but Dawson, who has won his two fights on points, jumped the gun by confirming that it was him.A spokesman for Dawson was quoted as saying: “It will be a wonderful experience. We respect Mr Flintoff as an athlete and from everything we’ve read he appears to be a well -conditioned athlete. However, he does not appear to have any fight experience and even though we know he has been training with some of the best in the business, that is not the same as being in a prize fight.”Flintoff, who is training under the supervision of the former WBA featherweight champion, Barry McGuigan, claims to have given up beer to get himself in shape, will contest four two-minute rounds against Dawson, who has won both of his bouts.McGuigan said: “What we’re doing is the opposite of cheapening the sport, it’s promoting it. You see the pain and anguish Freddie goes through. How can that be negative in promoting the sport? To say it cheapens boxing is a complete and utter load of nonsense. Freddie has worked his nuts off and we’re promoting the sport in a very positive way.”Even McGuigan accepted at a private screening of the forthcoming TV series that Flintoff, who played 79 Tests and 141 ODIs for England, was not a natural and was technically limited.Since retirement, he has been a captain on sports panel show , the celebrity face of Morrisons supermarket, a guest commentator (briefly) on the world darts championships and star of Freddie Flintoff vs The World, in which, according to promotional material, you could watch “cricketing legend and ultimate bloke Freddie Flintoff try his hand at some of the most extreme sports and challenges on offer around the world”.He has his limits, though, vowing never to do or on which several former England cricketers have appeared, currently including Michael Vaughan.

New Zealand came into this series after a miserable time in the Caribbean and were expected to be pummelled by an Indian side that has built up an enviable home record over the past decade. The feeble capitulation in Hyderabad seemed to confirm the fears about a one-sided series, though every New Zealand player routinely talked about scrapping hard and showing fight. It seemed idle talk a week ago but at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, New Zealand pushed India all the way before going down by five wickets.Even after Ross Taylor’s power-packed century on the first day, the expectation was that New Zealand’s challenge would fade away. However, Tim Southee’s career-best effort gained them a first-innings lead and right till the final session of the Test, New Zealand were in with a chance of a first Test win in India since 1988.”If we’re brutally honest, we would have liked to score a few more runs in that first innings to put pressure on India,” Ross Taylor said, when asked where the match was lost. “We’d like to have restricted them to a few less. I wouldn’t put it down to just one little moment. It was just, we lost the Test match over time.”With India five down, and nearly 100 away from victory, New Zealand had a real chance but Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, two batsmen renowned for their ability in one-day chases, successful shepherded India’s pursuit. “The bowlers tried their heart out,” Taylor said. “They bowled a lot of overs in a short period of time. You have to give credit to Kohli and Dhoni, they batted very well.”The result means New Zealand have lost four successive Tests over the past six weeks, two of them after being ahead halfway through the game. “The last match was a heavy loss. In Jamaica they had to score a record chase to win, so I wouldn’t say that wasn’t a hard win. We had a good sniff – we just lost it in one session in Jamaica and Antigua. And here, India had to get, I think, their fourth or fifth highest run chase ever. We tried our best, it still hurts but hopefully we can improve from this.”Despite the 2-0 series defeat, New Zealand had several things to be happy about, with the performance of their young trio of quick bowlers in the unfamiliar conditions of the subcontinent top of the list. Trent Boult belied his boyish looks by bowling with pace and hostility without getting the reward for his efforts, Southee hasn’t played more than four Tests at a stretch since his debut in 2008 but made his case for a permanent place in Bangalore, while Doug Bracewell showed his ability to bowl the outswinger and contribute with the bat in the lower order. All of them are in their early 20s, and could form a potent attack over the years.”It’s exciting for new Zealand cricket,” Taylor said. “We’ve got a young bowler in Adam Milne who is turning up as well. We play half our games away – they won’t be as bouncy. But on bouncier wickets back home, I’m sure they’ll thrive.”With other fast bowlers like Neil Wagner and Mark Gillespie also queuing up for a Test place, the future of 37-year-old Chris Martin, who led the attack for several years, looks bleak. “Who’s that at No.11, we want Chris Martin,” read a poster at the Chinnaswamy Stadium after he was left out for the Bangalore Test, though Taylor stressed that it wasn’t the end of the road for Martin.”I think with young fast bowlers, they need someone to learn off. There’s going to be times in the next few months that Chris will play and there’ll be times when he might not play at all,” he said. “We have a tour to Sri Lanka coming up but also a tour to South Africa and in New Zealand where we could go in with four quicks. So he’s still got a part to play with New Zealand cricket.”

Of all the Full Member nations at the Under-19 World Cup in Australia, New Zealand have had the least international experience since the previous tournament in 2010. And unlike South Africa, who also didn’t tour extensively, New Zealand’s cricketers have not had an extensive preparatory camp at home. The last week, spent getting used to off-season conditions in Queensland, has been the crux of their immediate preparation.They lost their first warm-up match comprehensively to South Africa before getting past Nepal by 19 runs in the second. They had two unofficial practice games before that as well and won both, against West Indies and Scotland. Considering their senior squad went to the Caribbean without a prior training camp, it was perhaps unfeasible for the Under-19s to expect to have one.”We’ve just come out of winter, so that’s been a challenge,” their coach Matt Horne said of their preparations. “We had selected a wider squad, probably 18 months ago, to work towards this, based around camps, players working in their own state associations. We had a trial process throughout the summer, which finished with selection for a [Quadrangular] series last April in Townsville. We adjusted programmes [to improve performance] and the players went back to their own associations and worked throughout the winter.”New Zealand are familiar with Townsville, where the business end of the World Cup will be held. They were here for a Quadrangular Series involving Australia, England and India in April, when they won one game and lost four. To get to Townsville again, however, they’ll have to finish in the top two of their group in Buderim, which is based further south in the Sunshine Coast.”Ideally, yes,” said Horne, when asked if New Zealand could have done with more exposure. “We’ve had winter and haven’t played for four months. We’re quite well resourced by New Zealand Cricket but we obviously can’t compete with the resources available to some countries. We’re hoping to put a programme in place that is more robust, that allows regular series against different countries.”New Zealand’s tournament opener on Sunday is against Scotland, a team that failed to make it to the previous two Under-19 World Cups but have arrived in Australia by winning 13 out of 14 qualifying matches.”This Under-19 team has had a couple of overseas tours over the last couple of years,” Craig Wright, who’s coached Scotland Under-19 for five years, said. “Obviously finances are tight, but we’re certainly trying to build on what we can do and the experiences we’re trying to give these guys from a coaching and competitive point of view, in terms of touring and getting them to play matches at a higher level.”Scotland had announced their World Cup squad as early as June and at the time Wright had said that players who “made a real contribution to the success of the team up to this point” had missed out. When asked how large the pool of Under-19 cricketers in the country was, he said: “Cricket’s probably a slightly more popular game in Scotland than people give it credit for. But when it comes to picking national teams, we’re probably picking from pools of maybe 20 players who are good enough to play at the international level. There’s obviously a lot more players who are that age who play club cricket.”This Under-19 team, we picked from about 18 or 19 who I felt were good enough to be involved here. So we were picking from a wider pool. It wasn’t a case of picking the best 10 or 11 and a few making up the numbers. We actually had two or three guys who were a little unlucky not to get involved in the squad. It tends to fluctuate; some years you have more strength and depth than others.”Scotland have been training for an extra week on the Sunshine Coast because their summer at home was wet and hindered preparations. They were bruised by Bangladesh in the first warm-up, but their top-order fought hard in the defeat against Australia, with Mathew Cross scoring a century.”We’ve come here focused on trying to play good cricket, trying to be competitive,” Wright said. “We have emphasised the point that the lads should try to enjoy the experience and learn from it. Hopefully the two things will go hand in hand. We hope some of them, as many as possible, go on to represent Scotland at senior level. But it’s very important they take everything they can from this experience, both on and off the field.”Scotland beat Afghanistan in the qualifiers for the World Cup, so they’ll be confident of getting past them again. Pakistan will probably be beyond them, so that leaves New Zealand. An upset on Sunday could make Scotland’s campaign.

Abdul Qadir, the former Pakistan legspinner, has said he rues the fact that the Lahore-born Imran Tahir went on to play for South Africa and not Pakistan. Tahir had met Qadir in Lahore on Tuesday, and will remain in Pakistan for the rest of the week, for personalised training sessions in preparation for South Africa’s tour of England in July.The pair had worked on increasing the variations in Tahir’s bowling. “He is here to enhance his variations, and sought my guidelines regarding the finger googly and using flight as a weapon,” Qadir told ESPNcricinfo. “He is very keen to learn more and I love to help him, because he applies what I teach him. I have only shared the googly information with him and Shahid Afridi.”Qadir is confident of Tahir making an impression in England. “England [have always] struggled against spin bowling a lot, but once it comes to their home conditions, they are good. I have shared my past experiences with Tahir, told him how to counter English batsman in their own conditions … I am optimistic that he will make an impact with his improved bowling.”Tahir, who has played seven Tests for South Africa, played cricket in Pakistan from 1996 to 2006. “My relations with Imran aren’t something new,” Qadir said. “I’ve know this boy since he was playing in the Under-19 team here; he had tremendous talent and I was urging the [Pakistan] board to try him. I still regret not having this boy in Pakistan colours, but I am proud of him.”Tahir was once part of the Pakistan A team and was one of the popular legspinners on the Pakistani domestic circuit in 90s. He was team-mates with Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq in 1996, in the Under-19 squad that played against England and Australia.”He has played an ample amount of cricket in Pakistan, it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t have him playing for Pakistan,” Qadir said. “He was so hardworking and a good learner, and always wanted to play cricket on the big stage. He eventually got there, where he always wanted to get.”This is not the first time he has come up to me for tips, he was consistently in touch with me and always visits me when he is here in Lahore.”

Should Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey fail to reach the 2013 Ashes, there are another two Australian thirtysomethings, slightly younger, with enormous experience of how to bat in England. At the age of 34, David Hussey has not played a Test and Chris Rogers has played just one, but both have made themselves very much at home on UK surfaces, and are as familiar with Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann as any participant in the past few Ashes encounters.It would be a move from far left-field by Australia’s selectors to entertain the thought of choosing either Rogers or Hussey for 2013, not to mention a strategy more short-term than long. But they remain in the wings, still holding out the faintest hope that their years of finding the right way to play in England might one day prove useful.Hussey is part of Australia’s ODI squad currently training in Leicester, and said he felt a greater chance of playing Test cricket under the current selection panel led by John Inverarity than he ever had in the days of Andrew Hilditch’s former regime. “I think the new selection committee is going to select the best players available at any one time. I have not given up hope of playing Test cricket,” Hussey said. “If I did not believe I could not play Test cricket I probably would not be playing or probably follow the Twenty20 leagues around the world but that is still a goal for me. Playing Test cricket for your country is still the ultimate.”I just had a very good one-on-one meeting with the coach and it is probably the most comfortable I have felt in the environment. You always try your best to help your team to as many wins as possible. I actually feel that I have a few credits in the bank now. Hopefully I don’t need to use them in the short term.”Since he took over the role of national selector following last year’s Argus review recommendations, Inverarity has repeatedly insisted that Test cricket is closed to no-one. Selection discussions have occasionally thrown up more experienced names – Simon Katich’s name was mentioned as a potential Test opener against India before the panel settled on Ed Cowan, for instance – and there is a greater desire to select the best and most thoughtful team for the task at hand, rather than hoping for younger players to grow into their roles.Instead, potential Test batsman are being tried via the avenue of ODIs, meaning Peter Forrest, George Bailey and Steve Smith are the three with the Ashes most firmly in their minds. However none can call on the years of county batting that Hussey and Rogers have accumulated. Hussey made the county grounds of Nottinghamshire and Sussex his own, while Rogers has prospered for Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and now Middlesex.”I am hoping the Aussie selectors realise that Chris and myself, Phil Hughes is making a lot of runs for Worcester as well, are doing the right things in county cricket and have played a lot of cricket over here as well,” Hussey said of Rogers and himself. “Playing county cricket is a big advantage for Chris and myself and hopefully it is looked upon for future series.”I would not have got back in the ODI team last summer if they did not pick on form. I had a really good Big Bash and I think that helped getting back in the one-day team and I thought I may as well grab every opportunity because it might well be the last.”Since his brother Michael’s Test debut in 2005, David Hussey has continued to accumulate runs for Victoria at home and a range of county and club sides abroad. He has learned to deal with feeling unwanted at Test match level. Irrespective of his international future, Hussey will do his best as a bulwark of the ODI team on this tour, and pass on as much knowledge to the aforementioned younger batsmen as he can. The bowlers, too, are likely to be offered a few suggestions.”You always get disappointed when selection comes around,” Hussey said. “You sort of sit back and hope you are going to be a on a tour playing for your country. All you have to do is to keep churning out the runs and I was probably at an unfortunate time where Australia had so many good batters.”[But] I have played a lot of county cricket over here, I think it is seven or eight years and playing all over the country and getting used to the conditions. So it is up to me to pass on some knowledge about wickets especially to our younger bowlers and how to bowl and what bowling I didn’t like to face.”21.50pm: This story was amended to correct the fact that Chris Rogers has played one Test

December 17, 2011
News – Bangladesh to tour Pakistan in April 2012
March 4, 2012
News – BCB ‘satisfied’ with Pakistan security arrangements
March 7, 2012
News – ICC frames plan for ‘unsafe’ series
March 19, 2012
News – Bilateral ties hinge on tour of Pakistan
March 21, 2012
Rob Steen – International cricket in Pakistan? You gotta be…
April 15, 2012
News – Pakistan to tour Bangladesh at month end
April 15, 2012
News – Pakistan ‘ready’ to host international cricket
April 18, 2012
News – Pakistan tour hit by logistical issues
April 19, 2012
News – Pakistan presents ICC its security plan
April 19, 2012
News – Tour postponed after court order