Matthew Hayden says he plans to keep playing one-day international cricket despite the emergence of Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson as the openers most likely to take Australia to the next World Cup. Hayden turns 37 next month and with the World Cup two and a half years away the chances of him taking part are slim.

Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen said earlier this month the selectors would need to sit down with Hayden and map out his one-day future, although he would not be forced out of the team before he was ready. For Hayden, that time has not yet come.

“The big thing is I haven’t lost my passion for one-day cricket and while I’m performing there, I’ll keep playing it,” Hayden told the Sunday Herald Sun. “The significant part of my decision is whether Matthew Hayden is affecting the team negatively in the run to the World Cup?

“I don’t see that being a consideration yet. I’m as motivated now as I’ve ever been. That’s really driving my insatiable appetite for runs.”

Hayden’s recent one-day form is strong and in the past 12 months he has made 634 ODI runs at 42.26. However, his lingering achilles tendon injury not only allowed Marsh and Watson to forge a successful partnership in the West Indies, it also raised speculation over how long Hayden could stay fit enough for international cricket.

“Everyone is kind of expecting me to fall over and to be honest I don’t feel like that at all,” he said. “I feel I’m hitting the ball as well as I ever have. I’ll know when the time is right to walk away.”

Source :http://content-www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/371580.html

DONALD Bradman broke another record yesterday — seven years after his death.

The great cricketer’s first Test match bat was sold for A145000. That’s US121938 and R982298, although experts predict that before the end of the week it could have moved on for over R1-million.

The price is a record for a bat.

The bat went up for auction yesterday in Melbourne.

It was bought by an undisclosed Australian buyer. It is believed the buyer was acting for a mysterious third person.

The bat was signed by the entire 1928-29 Australian team as well as the English team, who won the series 4-1. It is not only the original ownership of the bat that makes it valuable, but also the signatures. Among the English players were legends of the game, Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe, who were one of the most famous opening pairs in cricket; Wally Hammond; Percy Chapman, who was England captain; and Doug- las Jardine and Harold Larwood, who would achieve notoriety in the next England tour of Australia, the famous “Bodyline” series.

“This is a record price for a cricket bat and there were several bidders, all of them within Australia, hoping to win the auction,” a spokeswoman for Melbourne’s Leski Auctions said.

The bat did not see much action in the first Test in Brisbane in 1928-29 — Bradman scored just 18 and 1 in England’s 675-run win.

Bradman was dropped after his inauspicious debut, and he later donated the bat to a competition run by a Sydney newspaper to raise money for a children’s hospital.

However, he was brought back into the Australian team for the subsequent Test matches. In the third Test, at Melbourne, he scored 79 and his first Test hundred, 112. In the fourth Test, he made 40 and 58 at Sydney and in the fifth, also in Melbourne, he scored 123 and an unbeaten 37.

Bradman, who died in 2001 aged 92, is Australia’s greatest sporting legend and has a Test batting average of 99.94 some 60 years after his last match.
Source :http://www.thetimes.co.za/Sport/Article.aspx?id=849863

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian captain Ricky Ponting said Sunday he was hopeful next month’s four-Test cricket series with India will be played in the right spirit.

The 15-man Australian squad left here late Sunday with only four players armed with Test match experience in India.

The nations were embroiled in an acrimonious series in Australia this year with Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh banned for three matches for allegedly racially abusing Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds during the second Test in Sydney in January.

The suspension was later overturned following an appeal hearing, but the relations between the two sides deteriorated as senior Australian batsman Matthew Hayden called Harbhajan an “obnoxious weed” on radio during the subsequent one-day series.

Ponting said a number of major issues would be discussed by the teams during the traditional pre-series referees meeting and he was hopeful next month’s matches would be played in the right spirit.

“There’s been a very healthy rivalry between India and Australia in one-day and Test cricket and our last few Test encounters have been very good and some very close results,” Ponting told reporters before the team’s departure.

“Hopefully, this is another great series played in the right spirit.”

Ponting said although he had security concerns on his mind in the wake of a suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed 53 people and wounded 266 in neighbouring Pakistan, he expressed no reservations about security issues in India.

But Ponting admitted security was on his mind as he said farewell to his wife and baby daughter.

“I’ve done it all day today, I’ve had a lot of discussions with my wife today about those exact issues,” Ponting said.

“Our advice was not to go to Pakistan and the advice that we received the last few weeks to tour India has been positive.”

Ponting said he was determined to address his own poor record in India, having scored only one 50 in 14 Test innings there and averaging just 12 as opposed to his career mark of 58.

“I’ve had a couple of disappointing Test series (in India). In 2001, I made next to no runs,” Ponting said.

“The last series over there that we won, I broke my thumb and missed the first three Tests and came back for the last one, and that was the only one we lost.

“It’s certainly a void in my cricket resume in India and I’m obviously hoping to rectify that over the next six or seven weeks.”

Ponting said the series represented a great challenge for Australia’s cricketers.

“There’s no doubt they (India) have got a lot more experience than we have going into this series,” he said.

“But I think we made too much of the conditions in India a lot of the time before we get there.

“I think quite often the less that you talk about it and the more you just get to understand it, the people and the conditions, the better off you are over there.”

Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said substantial planning had gone into the Indian series.

“The tour of India is an icon series for the Australian team and the selection process has been a highly detailed exercise,” Hilditch said.

“A lot of planning has gone in to how we want to play against the Indian team and how we go about that in Indian conditions.”

Australia’s opening Test against India starts in Bangalore on October 9.

Source :http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5isHbmhLgOCQJlwtpLD1QDw6EYJig

Arsonists have caused £1,500-worth of damage to Workington Cricket Club and team kits.

The fire at Valentine Ground, is believed to have started between 7pm and 8pm yesterday.

Volunteers said a container holding children’s and adults’ kit and equipment had been completely destroyed.

Police confirmed an arson incident at the club had been reported to them. They believe a wicket was set on fire between 7pm and 8pm.

Fire officers said they were called to the scene at 7.50pm.

Malcolm Wood, club development officer, said: “We are gutted. The container held equipment for the kids and ground equipment for the games.

“It has suffered substantial smoke damage. Somebody set fire to something outside. It’s burnt our nets, children’s gear, clothes, cables and marquees. We don’t use them unless they are match days.

“I think it is about £1,200 and £1,500 worth of damage. Three years ago the covers were slashed, but we have never had anything like this before.

“Through the summer between 80 and 120 kids use the club. We have six junior teams and three adult teams using the equipment.”

He added that the next time the kit would need to be used is October 3, so they will have to salvage what they can.

He said: “Some has been smoke damaged. At the moment we are not sure what we are allowed to touch until it is checked by the insurers.”

Anyone with information about the incident can contact Cumbria police on 0845 3300 247 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Source :http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/crime/1.240473