All posts by csb10.top

ScorecardGareth Hopkins scored his second century in less than a week to lead Auckland to an imposing total•Getty Images

After Jamie How struck the joint-second highest List A individual score on Wednesday, the Ford Trophy was treated to another high-scoring match when Auckland, after posting 383 in Eden Park, beat Wellington by 18 runs. The result pushed them to the top of the points table.Auckland, after being put into bat, lost opener Tim McIntosh for 8, before Anaru Kitchen and Gareth Hopkins put together a 218-run stand for the second wicket. When Kitchen fell for a career-best 131 off 107 balls, which included 11 fours and five sixes, Colin Munro was sent in as pinch-hitter, and he struck 38 off 14 balls. The rest of the batsmen chipped in to help push the total to an imposing 383 for 7 at the completion of their fifty overs.Gareth Hopkins scored his second century in less than a week, finishing with a career-best 142. Offspinner Jeetan Patel was the sole bright spot for Wellington, finishing with figures of 4 for 82.Wellington were dealt a big blow early on in their chase when opener Jesse Ryder was dismissed for 9. Opener Michael Papps did his best to anchor the innings, as Wellington strived to build substantial partnerships. Papps combined with Luke Ronchi in a 49-run second-wicket partnership, then followed it up with a fourth-wicket stand of 99 with James Franklin. Wellington tried to keep abreast of the required run-rate, but once Papps fell for 129 in the 40th over, their prospects of victory dimmed. Luke Woodcock struck 66 off 47 balls to help keep the chase alive, but Auckland were able to fish out the remaining wickets, as Wellington fell short of the target.

New Zealand fast bowler Ian Butler has admitted to having considered a move to England last year, a decision that would have involved abandoning his international career to play county cricket.Butler’s career has been dogged by injury, the most recent of which put him out of contention for the first Twenty20 against England in Auckland on February 9. He had picked up an ankle injury in the lead-up to the England series, during the warm-up games in Whangarei, meaning the wait for his first international game since December 2010 extended up until Tuesday’s T20.He has had a fine first-class 2012-13 season with Otago so far: he is second on the wickets charts at present, with 36 wickets from eight games at 23.52. But he did not have as good a season last year on and off the field, and that, Butler said, prompted him to consider the England move. “I would have signed over there for a county side and used my British passport [via his mother] like Hamish Marshall and guys like that have,” he told . “But I decided not to go. I didn’t pull out but I was almost about to sign.”I learned with Otago, you have to enjoy your cricket. As soon as you start taking that enjoyment out of it … like last year I had a few issues off the field and got dropped from my domestic T20 side and I didn’t even want to play cricket.”I started looking at using my British passport in England and things like that. When you’re playing in a team environment that you enjoy, and you enjoy playing for your mates and your country, you shouldn’t have to worry about what happens in the future.”Injury setbacks seemingly do not fluster Butler. Previously, after coming away from a one-dayer in 2004 with a bulging disc in his back, he was told by doctors that he would “never bowl again”. To that, he said: “You don’t believe everything the medical profession tells you.”Now, his focus is on Test cricket. The last of his eight Tests was way back in 2004 and he admits New Zealand’s fast-bowling stocks are quite full at the moment but he hopes success in one-day cricket can feed through to the longer format.”With the crop of bowlers we’ve got at the moment, I’d imagine there’s a few ahead of me. The aim now is to not give people opportunities to drop me. I don’t think I’ve ever bowled as well as I have this year. Four-day cricket is my favourite form of the game, it’s not something I’ve given up on, and I love playing it.”

The dispute over the lack of player payments in the BPL has intensified with Chamara Kapugedera confirming that he and other overseas players for Duronto Rajshahi had been set to boycott their match against Khulna Royal Bengals on Friday.Though a pullout was averted, a source close to the situation told ESPNcricinfo that foreign players from all franchises would stop playing in the BPL if they were not paid by Monday.Kapugedera and other overseas Rajshahi players were convinced to take the field just before the start of Friday’s afternoon game by BCB officials and the match began on time, though the players remain unpaid. The situation was so dire that the Rajshahi management had to request the match referee and the opposition captain to let them field an all-local line-up even after a delayed toss.”We were going to sit out this game,” Kapugedera said in the post-match press conference. “Most of the foreign guys who have been playing these games were doing so without being paid. We played to keep BCB’s respect and to give them a chance to pay. We needed to give them a point that we are not going to play without anything.”The foreign players, seven of us, were waiting for some confirmation from BCB that our first 25% money that they are due to pay us, will go to our accounts, or some certificate that’s already going. So we were just waiting for that. We didn’t get the money yet but the transaction is being made. Hopefully by Monday we will get the money.”Friday’s drama first became visible when Tamim Iqbal walked out for the toss, in place of Kapugedera who has been the captain in recent matches.ESPNcricinfo understands that although the Rajshahi management had sent out a team list with five overseas players (Charles Coventry, Dilshan Munaweera, Kapugedera, Sean Ervine and Ben Edmondson) in the playing eleven, they had to ask the match referee and the opposing captain Lou Vincent if the line-up could be changed later as there was a clear threat of a pull-out. Vincent agreed and the match referee went along with Tamim for the toss but the BCB managed to avoid a boycott.”By the time of the toss, we hadn’t received the confirmation so we were waiting for it,” Kapugedera said. “That’s why Tamim went to the toss because we were not sure if we are going to play. But before 20 minutes, we got the confirmation.”This season the BCB have taken up the responsibility to make all payments to players, and had asked the franchises to send them the money in three installments. The Rajshahi overseas players were given assurances by the BCB chairman that the first 25% will be given to them, but according to Kapugedera, time ran out.”We have held couple of meetings with the [Duronto Rajshahi] owners and chairman of BCB, and told them that we are not going to play if we don’t get paid.”We have played almost all the matches, we haven’t been paid anything. That’s what we told them, ‘What is the guarantee that we will get the money by the end of this tournament?'”As far as his decision to play this year’s BPL was concerned, Kapugedera said that BCB’s assurance ahead of the tournament that they would handle all payment convinced him to come to Bangladesh.”Our agents guaranteed us. The owners were very generous, promised us that we will get money. We didn’t have any doubts coming here. When we knew that everything will go through BCB, we have enough foundation to believe that nothing dramatic will be happening.”You can’t blame any one person, end of the day we had discussions. I think the problem is solved,” he said.Despite BCB’s promise, Kapugedera warned that if the money doesn’t arrive by Monday (February 11), the boycott would be enforced. “We haven’t seen anything yet. The players will stand the same position as today, if we don’t see anything in the bank accounts. But from what I have seen and heard today, there won’t be any issues on Monday.”

Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur has rounded on critics of the national team’s management of fast bowlers, taking particularly sharp aim at the contention that the selection panel is letting sports science make its decisions regarding who to choose.In a prolonged rebuttal of public and media views that there is confusion if not chaos around Australian team selection, Arthur revealed that a major factor behind Mitchell Starc’s withdrawal from the Boxing Day Test team was to avoid the flaring of a long-term ankle problem that will eventually require surgery and an extended lay-off from the game.He also confirmed that Michael Clarke, Matthew Wade and David Warner would return to the ODI team for the second phase of matches in Brisbane and Sydney on Friday and Sunday, and clarified that Usman Khawaja was dropped for Steve Smith under a pre-defined plan to give each batsman one game. Australia have been widely criticised by former players and sections of the public for fielding a “B-team” in the first two matches of the series, but Arthur went to considerable lengths to explain the intricacies of selection.”We’re very clear on who the best team is and who the best attack is,” Arthur said following Australia’s defeat in the second ODI in Adelaide. “I’ve been really annoyed and frustrated by some of the articles that have been going around. For me it’s common sense. Common sense prevails when we pick teams. We certainly don’t pick teams not to win any cricket games for Australia. Every time we pick a team we’re giving guys opportunities and picking what we think is the best side possible to go out and do the job and win.”It’s either very naive or just a little bit stubborn that people don’t understand what we’re doing. The example I’ve used is Black Caviar. When he runs a horse race, if they don’t feel he’s 100% right they don’t release him. We’ve done that with our bowlers, and over the year we’ve had three examples of quick bowlers basically rested, and that is all.”Ryan Harris in the West Indies, Mitchell Starc on Boxing Day and Peter Siddle at Perth. That’s the only time we have rested quick bowlers, and we’ve done that simply because we think they’re at risk. We want to play our guys all the time. With the amount of cricket we play these day’s it is impossible to keep the guys on the park in every single game. So we would not have a quick bowler at risk.”Starc’s absence from the Boxing Day Test team was a particular sore point, Starc himself stating his frustration at not being allowed to follow-up his match-clinching five wickets on the final day of the Hobart Test by playing on the biggest day of the Australian cricket calendar. But Arthur made it clear that there were more factors at play than a simple question of Starc’s workload.”If you take Mitchell Starc over the Boxing Day Test match, the information we’d got was that he was at risk. Then it’s up to us,” Arthur said. “The constant thought that sports scientists are picking the team is so far off the mark that it’s frightening. They give us information, the information is then left up to us to make that decision. Michael, myself and the selector on duty make the decision based on the information we’re given. When we get that information we will see if it holds up and if we think it’s not worth the risk.”Mitchell Starc plays three forms of the game. He had an ankle impingement, he’s got spurs that are going to require an operation at some stage. We’re hoping that will be a year down the line, but at some stage that is going to give in. There was no point in us playing him in a Boxing Day Test match and risk losing him for the one-day series and then for a tour of India. That would’ve been plain stupid.”Australia are facing one of the most demanding schedules ever set before an international team in 2013, with a four-Test tour of India to be followed by the Champions Trophy and then 10 consecutive Ashes Test matches in England and Australia. Arthur said the decisions made to withdraw fast bowlers or other players from the firing line for set periods reflected the calendar ahead.”Whenever we make those decisions, we make those decisions with a lot of thought into how we’re going to use our quick bowler and when we’re going to use him,” Arthur said. “I really want to get that out and put that on record, because I’m sick and tired of talking about it, and I’m certainly sick and tired of seeing some of the articles that are going around in the media at the moment.”A hamstring strain to Brad Haddin, meanwhile, has simplified the circumstances of Wade’s return to the squad as the national selectors prepare to strengthen their team for the next brace of matches in Brisbane and Sydney. That injury may now cause the selectors something of a headache should they still want to take Haddin on the India Test tour in early February. But for now it will allow Wade to return swiftly and smoothly to the ODI squad alongside other members of the Test team that were given a week’s rest following their exertions against South Africa and Sri Lanka.

On most occasions and in many ways, Delhi and Tamil Nadu have little in common. When they meet at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Saturday, though, much around them will be similar. This will be the fourth Ranji Trophy group stage game for both sides. Not only are they on equal points, Delhi and Tamil Nadu could also be equally piqued at having come away from one draw with a single point.Tamil Nadu’s opening match against Odisha in Cuttack had the better part of the game washed away due to rain. In their last match, Delhi couldn’t get across the line to snatch the first-innings points against an obdurate Baroda at home.The sole point of difference, though, is that Tamil Nadu have not been beaten this season. Delhi, a full-strength one no less, were defeated by UP in their season-opener in Ghaziabad. The best way for Delhi to put up any gap on the points table between the visitors and themselves is an outright win. Delhi certainly have the bowlers to do it; their most experienced and skillful, Ashish Nehra, however is an uncertain starter, even though he trained with the team on the eve of the match.Delhi’s winter has set in and theoretically, seaming conditions are said to be on offer in the first session of play. The main question, though, will be about which kind of Kotla pitch turns up at the game on Saturday: the familiar 22 yards that are respectfully built over a medieval graveyard or the oft-promised-but-never-seen Gabba-model with bounce and carry?In the past few seasons, when seeking an advantage for their seamers or getting their ground ready for an international fixture, Delhi have often shifted their Ranji venue to the Roshanara Club north of the city said to have the liveliest of pitches in the city. But no more, they say, because results have not really gone in the home team’s favour. Of the nine matches played at Roshanara, for which the DDCA has had to pay the private club a daily fee, Delhi have won merely three. Of the three matches played after that last win in December 2010, Delhi have been beaten by Railways, and have drawn against Mumbai and Haryana. It would appear that Roshanara has now lost its allure. All it remains now is for Kotla to gain some.Delhi have increased their squad to 15 with the introduction of Vaibhav Raval, who has scored three consecutive centuries for Delhi under-25s. At the time of reporting, M Vijay had not yet been released from Indian team to play for Tamil Nadu.

Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies wicketkeeper, believes that the presence of two attacking spinners in their line-up on pitches similar to the ones in the Caribbean will give West Indies useful attacking options in the two-Test series which begins in Dhaka on November 13.”The pitches here are similar to a lot of pitches back in the Caribbean. Slow and the ball spins a bit,” Ramdin said. “It will be to our advantage with Sunil Narine and Veerasammy Permaul, who’s on debut. If we go into the Test with two spinners, we’ll have to try and bowl them out.”This is West Indies’ third full tour to Bangladesh, having won the Test series in 2002 and 2011. On the first occasion, a four-man pace attack was enough to see off the hosts who were only in their third year of playing Test cricket. Last year, Fidel Edwards hurried the batsmen throughout the series but in the crucial second innings of the second Test, legspinner Devendra Bishoo took a five-for to finish off Bangladesh. This time West Indies not only have Narine and Permaul, but also the likes of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Narsingh Deonarine.”It is a good pitch at the stadium here [Mirpur, the venue of the first Test]. The bowlers will give us the wickets, Sunil Narine will be playing here for the first time. The pitches here will assist him and hopefully he’ll continue where he left off against New Zealand,” Ramdin said.The tourists, who arrived on Monday morning, will hold their first training session on Wednesday. They play a three-day practice match against the BCB XI from Thursday at the BKSP ground – West Indies’ first longer-format match in three months. However, unseasonal rain threatens the start of the game.”We have to take the batting practice in the three-day game and adapt to the conditions. I believe the guys have the capability of playing long innings. All of us have to go out there and express ourselves and get runs for the team,” he said.”We would like to win the series 2-0, but it all depends on the weather and how the practice game goes.”Ramdin mentioned that his finger injury, suffered while batting in a three-day practice match against Sagicor High Performance Centre on October 31, is healing after seven days of rehabilitation.The West Indies team has had a good year and after noticeable performances against Australia at home and in England, they beat New Zealand 2-0 in the Test series at home. The return of players like Chris Gayle has also added potency to the once fragile top order and with the recent win in the World Twenty20, expectations run high.”It is very important that we keep that momentum going,” he said. “We have played a lot of one-dayers and T20s in the past three months. It is very important that we start well. We have a number of good players back in the team like Chris Gayle, who scored a century against New Zealand.”Marlon Samuels did well, so did Sunil Narine. The experienced guys like Shiv Chanderpaul are here, hopefully these guys can give us the impetus to do well in the series.”

Somerset batsman Nick Compton hopes he has done enough to earn an England call-up for the tour of India despite an untimely back injury that has kept him sidelined just as the debate about top-order places has been sparked by the retirement of Andrew Strauss.Compton has the chance to give the selectors a final push when he returns for the last game of the season against Worcestershire this week and is currently among a group of top three batsmen vying for a tour spot alongside Michael Carberry, Joe Root and Varun Chopra, although it is still not confirmed when the squad will be named.Despite not playing since the England Lions game against Australia A at Old Trafford in early August, Compton remains the leading scorer in the country this season with 1339 first-class runs at 89.26 (almost 150 clear of second-placed James Hildreth). During a prolific start to the season, he came within touching distance to making 1000 runs before the end of May only to be thwarted by rain.While Carberry, Root and Chopra have continued to catch the eye with Championship and one-day runs, Compton has been forced to bide his time after suffering a bulging disc that flared up during the Australia A.”You get down, of course, you want to keep pushing, have a very strong finish to the season and make it impossible for them not to pick me,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I still hope my averages and the scores I’ve had over the last two seasons will go in my favour and they’ll see me as a strong contender. But, as they say, timing is everything and the timing of the injury wasn’t ideal. It’s never a good time, but coinciding with Strauss retiring means I was even more eager to get back to full fitness.””I’ve never had a back injury before and it’s not serious, just combination of stiffness and tightness then you get a bit of nerve pain,” he added. “With all the cricket we play, plus all the driving around in coaches, you aren’t really getting a proper chance to get rid of things like that and it’s a reminder to stay on top of things as much as you can.”Compton’s chances of getting on the plane to India probably hinge on whether the selectors want to blood youth or opt for an experienced county cricketer. One factor possibly in Compton’s favour is that if Jonny Bairstow and James Taylor both tour, after making Test debuts this season, the selectors may not want to take another young batsman like Root as well, especially if Kevin Pietersen remains absent.Now batting at No. 3 for Somerset, Compton was an opener for much of his career for Middlesex and believes the skills for each role are transferable – although it might just be that fact that could hinder his chances if Jonathan Trott is promoted up the order for the India series.”The top three is where you will face the best bowling so you have to have the technique for it,” he said. “The similarities are there; you can be in second ball or after two hours. As a No. 3 you have to be ready like an opener even though you don’t walk out straight away. It’s not a case of sitting back. It can be tough but it’s about being mentally ready, and for me it’s been about controlling my emotions.”Compton has started to flourish in the middle stage of his career, following the move from Middlesex to Somerset in 2010. Although his run-scoring feats this season are what have caught the attention, he also averaged a very solid 56.11 in 2011 and now feels as comfortable as he ever has in his batting.”When Jacques Kallis was playing against us earlier in the season he said he had not learnt his game fully until about 30. For me that was quite insightful,” he said. “I’ve had ups and downs during my career and now understand my game. I’m not saying that the young players aren’t ready or can’t be ready, but the ones that come in and excel from ball one are few and far between.”Alastair Cook springs to mind, Michael Clarke would be another but even they would probably say that they only understand their game fully now they are older. Some players learn their game at first-class level others evolve at Test level. I feel like my time is now and feel ready to step up.”

Scorecard
Simon Kerrigan’s spell helped earn England Lions a useful lead•Graham Morris

They are curious things, the wheels of fortune and opportunity. Just 27 days ago Lancashire’s Simon Kerrigan was bowling to Kevin Pietersen in a County Championship match at Guildford. Pietersen made 234 not out off 190 balls while the young spinner’s figures were 23-0-152-1.Immediately after that brutal Friday, Kerrigan sought advice from a bevvy of slow bowlers, salved his wounds and got on with the job of being a professional cricketer. In the same few weeks Pietersen has made a Test century studded with many jewels of unarguable brilliance and also bared his soul a couple of times. As a consequence it is a matter of major public debate where his cricket career is heading.As yet no one is even sure whether Kerrigan, 23, will play international cricket at all. But at least for an hour or two on Thursday afternoon he offered an exciting alternative to the Piet-and-Tweet shemozzle for cricket followers whose passion is stirred more by what happens on the field than by what occurs in cyberspace.Employing most of the skills beloved of spinners through the ages – drift, change of pace, flight and, not least, hard spin itself – Kerrigan took six wickets in 73 balls to help bowl out Australia A for 277 on the third day of the first unofficial Test at Old Trafford.Kerrigan, the Lancashire slow left-armer, had sent down 13 wicketless overs before he had Tim Paine athletically caught by Jonny Bairstow at slip for 19, and he ended the Australian innings he had helped to wreck with figures of 6 for 59 from 25.3 overs. Kerrigan is still learning the many skills of his craft and not so sullen art but he has the knack of getting good players out and doing so when it matters.Yet if the young twirler snares the headlines and the plaudits, Kent’s James Tredwell also deserves a massive amount of praise for helping England Lions gain a first innings lead of 38. Indeed, by close of play Tredwell had even taken on the role of nightwatchman helping Bairstow extend the Lions overall advantage to a healthy 196 going into the last day of the game.In the morning session Tredwell’s offspin bowling had been of a very high-class. He made the first breakthrough when he extracted a lot of bounce and a smidgeon of turn from the Manchester wicket to have Australia A skipper Ed Cowan caught behind off the glove for only the second 99 of his first-class career.Twelve overs later Tredwell had Michael Klinger snaffled by short leg Joe Root for 66. Hitting Kerrigan for a couple of sixes on Wednesday evening had no doubt given South Australian Klinger plenty of kicks; predictably, therefore, he was a victim of Root, 66.Despite Tredwell’s persistence, Australia A were reasonably placed on 207 for 3 at lunch and many were talking about the injustice of Cowan’s excellence not being rewarded with a century.An hour later all well-intentioned sympathetic thoughts had been abandoned as Kerrigan bagged three wickets in ten balls, including Test players Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Lyon with successive deliveries. Johnson gave a bat and pad catch to Root while Lyon was lbw on the back foot when completely deceived by a quicker ball.The innings was in free fall and no one had thought to pack a parachute. The end, from an antipodean perspective, was predictably grisly; the predominantly Lancastrian crowd, on the other hand, are never shy about enjoying Australian misfortune and they cheered every one of Kerrigan’s successes. For a moment or two they even forgot that Glen Chapple’s team had dropped into the relegation places in Division One of the County Championship.Cowan’s men collapsed from 214 for 3 to 231 for 8 in twelve overs; Tom Cooper’s unbeaten 26 staved off further embarrassment but his partners, Jon Holland and Jackson Bird, both fell to Kerrigan; Holland stumped by Craig Kieswetter, Bird taken by Bairstow at slip. It was eye-catching stuff, although Kerrigan’s successes were, in the view of his partner at least, no more than his due.”Simon’s picked up six wickets today and he fully deserved to,” said Tredwell, who had never even met him before the Lions squad gathered for the game at Old Trafford. “He bowls at a nice pace which makes it hard for the batter because there’s not much time to change your decision, particularly on a wicket offering a bit of turn.”Once it breaks and turns you want to be beating the batsman in his decision-making. Simon can also bowl cutter deliveries which on a real dry wicket can be really beneficial because on that surface some turn and some don’t. He can bowl in a variety of different ways on a variety of different pitches and he seems to have shown that even in this game.”And in the last session of the day there was yet more joy for the Manchester crowd, albeit that it came from two precociously talented Yorkshiremen. Bairstow and Root added 128 for the second wicket in less than 30 overs, both batsmen displaying a marvellous audacity and range of shot against a flagging attack.Bairstow has had a Test call already this summer. The day when Root dons a full England sweater cannot be too long delayed. For all that he was dismissed for a 104-ball 70, slicing Holland to Liam Davis, Root’s driving and timing had offered further evidence that he is a special talent.By the close England were 158 for 3, Eoin Morgan having been caught without scoring pulling Bird in the third over and Samit Patel taken at slip 15 minutes before stumps. On the final day the Manchester crowd have the prospect of seeing Bairstow resume on 73 not out, Cowan bat once more and England’s spinners in full cry on a turning wicket. You know something, it may be even be more fun than tweeting.

The Pakistan board has said that it has not sought a share of the revenue from the series in India later this year. Earlier this week, the two countries had agreed to a short limited-overs series in December, ending a five-year gap in bilateral relations.”Pakistan’s first priority was to revive ties with India and PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf was focussed on that. We wanted to take a start and for that we were negotiating since October last year,” Nadeem Sarwar, a PCB spokesman, said. “Such reports about the proposal of revenue sharing for India-Pakistan series have no relevance and do not express the views of the PCB. The revenue sharing thing never came under discussion.”The last bilateral series between the two was in late 2007, when Pakistan toured India. So, it is Pakistan’s turn to host a bilateral series between the two. But there has been no international cricket in the country between Full Member nations in Pakistan since the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus, and it is understood that India are not keen to play at a neutral venue, as has been the case with all Pakistan’s ‘home’ series since the attack. Subsequently, Ashraf had said earlier that India had the prerogative to decide on the dates and host the series, but the PCB would want the BCCI to share revenue because the PCB has apparently not yet recovered from the financial loss suffered when India pulled out of their planned tour in 2009.Also, in June, a deficit of 70 crore Pakistani rupees (US$7.5 million approx) was confirmed at the board’s governing council meet, and it was understood then that the PCB was looking at the India series, along with their proposed Twenty20 league, as means to overcome the shortfall.

David Hussey’s hopes of a belated call-up to the Australian Test team at the age of 34 are no longer as forlorn as they once seemed. John Inverarity, the national selector, has said that Hussey’s inclusion in the slimline Cricket Australia contract list for 2012-13 indicates he is, alongside the uncontracted Peter Forrest and George Bailey, at the front of the queue for Test batting places.On his arrival in the United Kingdom for Australia’s ODI tour, Hussey said he had never felt more comfortable in the national set-up than he did right now, and expressed optimism that he might still earn the baggy green cap that has eluded him over a prolific first-class batting career. At times he has been passed over for lesser credentialed batsmen, but Inverarity said that now he was as close as ever, needing to perform staunchly over the next 12 months to push his way in.”If you look at the middle order options should we need replacements,” Inverarity said. “We have got our top six at the moment but if you are looking for a middle order option and the ones that come very much to mind are Peter Forrest, George Bailey and David Hussey. They are the ones that are to the fore at the moment.”The dearth of highly performing young batsmen coming through the Australian system has been a cause of concern for some time, as indicated by the fact that Inverarity and his fellow selectors – the captain Michael Clarke excepted – chose only six specialist batsmen out of 17. The onus now is on Bailey, Forrest, Steve Smith and others including Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja to lift their standards.”It has been a case for many years in Australian history. Bradman in the 1930s, Neil Harvey, Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting, Doug Walters all these types of players coming through,” Inverarity said. “We would very much like to have some of those players emerging. We need more good young middle order batsmen coming through. At the moment they are not really obvious but we have some good back-up players in Bailey, Forrest and David Hussey.”In contrast to Hussey, Ed Cowan is a Test batsman, having now played seven matches, but did not receive a contract, partly due to his Test-only status, and partly because he is yet to fully grasp the spot he was given on Boxing Day against India. Inverarity is an unabashed fan of Cowan’s intelligence and even temper, and described him as an “integral” member of the Test XI.”Everyone must keep performing, but Ed is firmly in place as our opening batsman at the moment. He is firmly in place,” Inverarity said. “He is a fine young man, an intelligent man and he is an integral part of the test team. We have in as captain of the Australia A team and we think he has real leadership potential. He has four matches in England which will be terrific preparations for the Ashes the following season.”