Cameron White might be out of form at the elite level, but he regained his touch with 147 in Melbourne's grade cricket on Saturday. And he nearly had to do it on a pitch that was the wrong length.

Don Bradman's Invincibles famously played on a pitch that was two yards short when they stopped over in Ceylon on the way to England in 1948. Ian Johnson became suspicious and had the pitch measured, and it was found to be only 20 yards long.

In this weekend's case, it was too long. The match between Prahran and White's side, Richmond, was brought to a pause in the second over when the Prahran and sometime Victoria allrounder Daniel Salpietro raised doubts about whethere the stumps had been placed too far back at either end.

"We bowled two overs with a pitch 24 metres [approximately 26 yards] long before we had to re-measure the pitch and start again half an hour later," White said. "The bowlers thought there was something a bit wrong. They got the tape measure out and found it was too long.

"There you go. The things that happen in club cricket!"

A statue of Shane Warne has been unveiled outside the MCG © Getty Images

It’s hard to imagine that Shane Warne could look any more bronzed than he does at the moment. But it has been achieved by the sculptor Louis Laumen, whose statue of Warne has been unveiled outside the MCG. The first in a series of statues to be known as the Avenue of Legends, the Warne likeness sits outside the members’ entrance.

Warne was on hand on Thursday to reveal the sculpture, which he had not seen himself until the grand unveiling. The statue shows Warne in his classic delivery stride, ready to let rip with a legbreak. “It looks like a legspinner,” Warne said of his action, “so Daryll [Cullinan] would struggle with it.”

Back in 1997, a much chubbier Warne was unimpressed when asked by a journalist at a touring Madame Tussauds exhibition in Melbourne if he wished he looked a bit more like his slimmer wax likeness. The MCG statue shows Warne at his playing weight, complete with earring, and Warne joked that “It’s 300kg, the statue, so I’m a little bit lighter at 78kg.”

Warne’s fiancée Liz Hurley was at the ceremony, along with the couple’s collective four children, and Warne’s parents and brother Jason, a man who Warne admits he has still never dismissed in the nets. Warne reflected on visiting the MCG with Jason when they were kids, heckling Norman Cowans as he ran through Australia’s batting line-up in the thrilling 1982-83 Ashes Test, won by England by three runs.

As a player at the ground, his highlights included a hat-trick against England when Devon Malcolm came out wearing so much padding “he looked like Robocop”, but it was an early MCG memory that Warne said stood out the most.

“I think back to 1992 Boxing Day Test match, the West Indies needed about 300 or so that day to win,” he said. “Phil Simmons got a hundred and played really well. Just before lunch I bowled a flipper to Richie Richardson and bowled him. We won the Test match and I got 7 for 52. It was a pretty amazing experience. I remember Dad down in the dressing rooms with Molly Meldrum and Merv squirting champagne and David Boon singing the song. It’s nearly 20 years ago now.”

Time flies, but the statue means Warne will be forever immortalised at the MCG.

Matthew Hayden made a splash with his promotion of the Mongoose during the IPL but he’s gone back to the old-fashioned bat for the Big Bash League. Well, not quite. Old-fashioned bats don’t cost five-figure sums, which is what Hayden’s bat is worth, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. The four bats Hayden will use during the BBL have their backs painted by a Tiwi Island artist. And when the tournament is over, they will be auctioned to raise money for a school.

Shane Warne’s cooking injury, a burnt finger that has put in doubt his Big Bash participation, has made him one of many who will suffer kitchen-related incidents over the festive season.

Springing on the opportunity for some publicity, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) have asked Warne to help push their Christmas safety campaign.

Following his accident, which Warne revealed on Twitter, he posted another message: “Ps no more trying to be a master chef! Stop and by a bacon roll on the way to the ground next time - silly Shane !"

And the LFB responded: “@warne888 we agree you should have got a bacon roll instead! Back our xmas 'Have a takeaway' campaign.”

Ron Dobson, the LFB commissioner, said: “I’m not for one minute suggesting that Shane Warne had too much to drink when he burnt his hand but we know that many people will start fires or have accidents in their kitchen this Christmas after having a few too many drinks. If you’ve had too much to drink, don’t go home thinking you’re on MasterChef.

“Too many fires start when someone has passed out, leaving a pizza in the oven or a pan on the hob and it can be fatal. If people are planning a big night out, they should plan on having a takeaway on the way home. Shane should back our campaign so that he can help prevent other people being as silly as him.”

Those watching Australia’s pre-Test nets at the Bellerive Oval on Thursday could have been forgiven for think Waqar Younis was giving the Australian batsmen a workout. It was in fact umpire Aleem Dar, a dead ringer for former Pakistan fast bowler, who was sending down a few fast ones at Michael Clarke and David Warner. You could call it an unequal battle, given the fact that Dar is third umpire for the Test, and he was treated with due deference – Warner even curbing his instincts to pull the couple of bouncers he received.

Dar, officially the world’s best umpire, is more than a Sunday bowler. He bowled legspin in a 12-year first-class career in Pakistan and has a full-fledged Astroturf nets on the roof of his house. But bowling in the Australia nets is possibly tempting fate, the rate at which Aussie bowlers are getting crocked - there could be a strong temptation to pull in a Waqar lookalike and hope for the best.

Monty Panesar has looked slightly out of place a few times during his career – at extra cover for example – but there may have been a few giggles when he lined up alongside the New South Wales Waratahs rugby team for a training session.

Panesar was put through fitness drills alongside 19 stone, six foot four, Wycliff Palu, before having a sledge strapped to his waist and running six stone weights up and down the pitch. No sweat for Monty. “That was a good training session actually,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I was trying to keep up with a couple of the guys there and it was good, I really enjoyed it.”

''I think more than anything when you're cross-fertilising in sports it stimulates your own thinking," said Panesar, who is playing for Randwick-Petersham in Sydney. "'The [Waratahs'] professionalism and their fitness levels are really high and … I've been to their building and seen the facilities, it's just amazing to see what they provide and the facilities they've got and how professional they are in terms of their own sport.''

If he gets a chance to face Pakistan next month they'd better watch out.

Filling the hours and days between games can often be quite a chore for cricketers on tour, but the Australian A squad have been treated to some remarkable experiences on their trip to Zimbabwe. Ahead of the four-day game against Zimbabwe XI in Harare, they spent a day and a half at Antelope Park in the central highveld, Mitchell Starc describing the experience of walking through the bush with lion cubs in his tour blog.

Such an amazing, beautiful animal, these two lion cubs played with each other, climbed trees and wandered through the bush as we walk side by side with them. The experience is definitely one I’m sure none of us will ever forget. After all who can say they’ve walked through the bush side by side with the King of Beasts!

Shane Warne has been synonymous with the MCG for the best part of two decades, and now he's set to become a much more permanent fixture at the venue. Warne was in Melbourne in Monday to be measured up for a statue to join other bronzed legends such as Don Bradman and Keith Miller outside the MCG.

And it was a much slimmer-looking Warne who had his measurements taken, compared to the chubby legspinner who took 129 of his 1319 first-class wickets at the MCG, his home ground. The MCC's sculptor Louis Laumen met with Warne, who will join Bill Ponsford, Dennis Lillee and several AFL stars and Olympians in being honoured with an MCG statue.

"Just finished measurement sitting for my statue at the mighty MCG," Warne tweeted on Monday. "Feel very privileged and honoured to join so many amazing and wonderful sportsmen in the way of a statue at the mcg - thankyou - humbled!"

And at least this statue, which is expected to be unveiled on Boxing Day, isn't subject to the whims of party politics. Last year, the Victorian premier John Brumby proposed renaming the Junction Oval, Victoria's second cricket venue, as the Shane Warne Oval, but his government lost November's election and it became unclear whether the new government would honour the commitment.

Not for the first time in Michael Clarke’s career, it’s not just his batting form that is provoking debate with off-field issues adding to the pressure on Australia’s stand-in captain. Twitter has again been to the fore after he responded to a strong article by an Australian journalist by tweeting he should “take a chill pill.”

The journalist wasn’t impressed that Clarke has been using Twitter to try and get Steve Smith a date for the Allan Border Medal next month while he continues to struggle for form. Clarke, who has had a low approval rating from the Australian public this summer, admitted that in an ideal world things he did away from the cricket pitch weren't such an issue, but knows it is part of being a prominent sportsman.

“Don’t get me wrong, I wish it wasn’t there,” he said. “But with our job it’s part of what we do. The most important thing for is that we are winning. Individual scrutiny comes and goes, at the moment I’m copping a little bit of stick.

“When it comes to cricket fair enough because I’ve not been performing as well as I’d like. I continue to say it’s part and parcel of what comes with it. Everyone wishes it didn’t happen, but what can you do? You have to accept that.” Or maybe he could tweet it as well.

As he wades through an extended run of indifferent form, Michael Clarke has endured criticism on a variety of fronts in recent times but he surely couldn’t have expected to be offered some free batting advice from a teenage stowaway during a press conference at the indoor cricket nets at Hobart's Bellerive Oval.

Daniel Brew, a 17-year-old from the Geelong suburb of Grovedale, snuck into the event and laid low for the first few minutes before piping up with: "I've noticed something Michael, you're pushing at the ball too much. What are you going to do about that?"

To his credit, Clarke responded in unflappable manner. "I'm pushing at the ball too much? You should be a batting coach," Clarke smiled. "What do you think I should do about it?"

Brew, who has helped out as an assistant coaching with his local team, suggested he should "not reach for it so much". Clarke, still smiling, responded: "Okay I'll try that today in the nets. Thank you."

Andrew Hilditch may not believe Nathan Hauritz’s record in India is “excellent” after all. It has emerged that Hilditch’s press-release ghost added the description in the rush to have the selection chairman’s comments ready for yesterday morning’s World Cup squad announcement.

Hauritz was the sole specialist spinner in the outfit, according to Hilditch, because his "one-day record in India is excellent". This was despite Hauritz, who was ignored for the Ashes, managing only four wickets in seven matches at 70.75 in the country, although his economy rate was strong.

The comments were written instead by Phillip Pope, Cricket Australia’s public affairs manager, and approved by Hilditch when he skimmed the release before a 4am flight to Sydney for the announcement. "Off the field we are not perfect," Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s public affairs general manager, told AAP. “Sometimes you get an outside edge or drop a catch." It’s been hard to keep track of the number of catches Hilditch’s panel has missed over the past year.

What does Hugh Jackman have to do with cricket? Er, good question, actually. But he is a fan, and thus Cricket Australia have enlisted his help to count down to the first ball of the Ashes series.

There are 50 days left until until the contest kicks off at the Gabba and Jackman, in a video message on the CA website, says the wait is agonising. "It's kind of like watching the English bat, really," he says, "just waiting for something to happen."

He's pretty confident the urn will return to Australian hands. But if they don't regain the prize, a few of their players could become ex-men.

Victoria’s squad was forced into the brace position to prepare for a possible crash landing when its plane had problems on the descent into Adelaide on Monday. The 17 players were coming back from a Twenty20 tournament in Darwin when told the pilots were unsure if the front wheels of the landing gear had come down.

“Very nerve racking!,” Andrew McDonald tweeted. “Just got down safely! Very shaken! Fire engines on run way.”

It was a bumpy landing but the players were home in Melbourne by the end of the night. Their next journey is to South Africa for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament, which starts on September 10.

Thinking ahead: Brett Lee © Getty Images

Brett Lee the bowler is fading but Brett Lee the musician is taking off. His two-man outfit White Shoe Theory has eight bookings for an upcoming trip to India and he is hoping for more.

Lee does the back-up vocals and plays bass while his mate Mick Vawdon is the front man. ''I'd love for music to be my future - who doesn't want to be a rock star,” Lee said in the Sun-Herald. ''It is my passion, no doubt about that. I've always joked that I was a musician who used his sport to prop himself up but this could be a real chance to make a go of things.”

Cricket is still No.1 for Lee, though. After a couple of years of injuries he is desperate to get back and is training five days a week. “I’m really pushing myself.”

Shane Warne was nicknamed “Hollywood” early in his career, back when he complained his life was like a soap opera. He could be more like Oprah if he guest hosts a variety television show in Australia later in the year.

The Sunday Herald Sun reported Warne would be involved in the light entertainment show for Channel 9. "We will have the top bands and interviews with big names who are coming out for the Ashes, like Mick Jagger and Michael Parkinson,” an insider told the paper.

"Warney has great contacts and will attract the best talent. All the celebrities love him. Only last week he was at the races with Liz Hurley in the UK."

It’s not quite as impressive as Paul the octopus predicting World Cup results, but meteorologists are already getting in on the act to tip the outcome of this year’s Ashes series. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia nearly always win the Ashes in summers when El Nino conditions have prevailed for the first half of the year.

Not since Bodyline have England claimed the urn in Australia after El Nino. The conditions bring lower than average rainfall across south-eastern Australia, which climate scientist Manoj Joshi believes helps dry out pitches to provide more bounce and spin.

On the other hand, Australia have won only five of 13 Ashes series after La Nina weather conditions. That means this year’s El Nino event might help Australia, although it depends on how quickly an expected La Nina comes along.

If that all sounds a bit too complicated, the alternative is simple. Just find an octopus who likes cricket.

Tim Nielsen had a near-perfect summer as Australia’s coach but his tour to New Zealand began with a funny slip of the tongue at Wellington Airport. "To be honest, we haven't had a huge amount of sex ... um, success, the last two times we've travelled here," he said, triggering off muffled laughs among his listeners. Nielsen grimaced, smiled and went on: "We lost in 2007 and we might have even lost in 2005, so we're looking to right the ship here on this tour and keep our run going."

Nielsen finished without any more slips and had a request: "Could you wipe the sex bit, I don't really want the wife hearing that." Unlikely, considering how mundane majority of press conferences are.

© Getty Images

Anyone who heard Bill Lawry’s acceptance speech after being inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on Monday night could have been forgiven for thinking they were listening to a parody by the Twelfth Man. Lawry brought the house down at the Allan Border Medal ceremony with a speech that could easily have come from the Bill Lawry, This is Your Life album.

On that classic expletive-filled recording, Lawry’s fictionalised wife can’t make it to his big night because it clashes with an important bowls tournament. And as it turns out, it wasn’t that far from the mark, as the real-life Lawry explained that his wife Joy hadn’t joined him for his Hall of Fame honour.

“She’s not here tonight because she’s got no time for the Australian Cricket Board because they treated us like second-rate citizens back then, the wives in particular,” Lawry said. “She’s stood firm for 50 years and she’s not going to budge and good luck to her.”

He also made mention of his fellow Hall of Fame inductee Graham McKenzie, who as a 19-year-old set out for his first Ashes tour in 1961 with his mother asking Richie Benaud to keep an eye on him. Benaud reportedly saw the bevy of young beauties surrounding McKenzie before they set sail and replied that he looked quite capable of looking after himself.

Lawry shared a cabin with McKenzie on the ship and confirmed Benaud’s assessment of their new team-mate. “We were at sea for 21 days and I spent 14 nights sleeping in the bloody life-raft. McKenzie was just absolutely magnificent!”

The stories of Doug Walters’ smoking habits are almost as legendary as those of his batting. He wouldn’t go out anywhere without four packets of cigarettes on hand, and once on tour had a tailor make him a jacket with four pockets just to carry his load. He sometimes lit up a smoke and left it burning in the ashtray in the change-rooms before he went out to bat, just in case he didn’t last long.

He reckons he’d average 50 cigarettes a day but if he’d got up early, it could have been as many as 70 or 80. It was a habit that began 43 years ago thanks to a combination of working for a cigarette company and getting free rations, and army boot camp. But after an estimated 785,300 smokes since the 1960s, Walters has given cigarettes the flick thanks to laser therapy.

"When I was lying there I thought, gee I can't wait till this is over and I can get downstairs to have a smoke," Walters told the Sunday Telegraph. "Then I got downstairs and didn't really feel like one so I told myself, 'I'll wait till I get up to the bus stop.' (Walters had caught the bus to the city to avoid traffic.) Then I said, 'I'll wait till I get home.' But it never happened; I just never felt like one again."

But the other vices for which Walters is famous – having a drink and a bet on the horses – remain part of his life. "I'm not getting any treatment for beer and I still like a bet,” Walters said, “but now I can afford to put on a few more.”

Having ended his lean patch by scoring 502 runs in six Tests this season, the smile is back on Michael Hussey’s face. One thing he isn’t too pleased about, though, is his nickname – Mr Cricket. It was given to him during his time with Northamptonshire and when a journalist addressed Hussey as “Mr Cricket” in Brisbane on Wednesday, he was quick to react. “I don't really like the nickname,” Hussey said. “But it's the sort of nickname that if you show everyone you dislike it so much they're going to keep calling you it. So I try and ignore it as much as possible.”

Ricky Ponting’s Baggy Green cap has been delivered to Hobart ahead of Thursday’s third Test against Pakistan, after undergoing a much-needed facelift at the hands of Sydney seamstress Myung Park.

The cap is not the original that Ponting received on his debut against Sri Lanka at Perth in December 1995 – that was stolen on his return from a subsequent tour of Sri Lanka four years later. Nevertheless, he’s still owned it for more than a decade, and has worn it for 114 of his 141 Test appearances.

"They've had to shave a little bit off it,” Ponting told reporters in Hobart. “It's a little bit shorter in the peak but it's come back in good order, so hopefully I'll get the rest of my playing days out of that cap.”

"It looks different in appearance because of the peak being a bit shorter and they've pulled the coat of arms at the front down over it a little bit, so I've just had to almost massage it back into shape. It had been in a bag flattened and squashed and it looked a bit out of shape. I just had to massage it back into shape a little bit, but it's come up pretty good."

Shane Watson’s current purple patch may have a lot to do with the Blues. With 722 runs in the 8 Tests where he’s opened, Shane Watson has been among Australia's most successful batsmen in recent series but to get there he’s had to overcome a string of injuries – including stress fractures, hamstring and calf problems. Staying away from the game wasn't easy but it was here that music, specifically the blues, became his therapy. A late starter – he apparently bought his first guitar at 24 – he’s making up for lost time and, when he’s not strumming the blues he’s reading up about the great artistes. "It's really been the music that hit home to me the most," Watson told The Daily Telegraph. "It's the best thing I've done in my life for a number of reasons. There was a time previous to that, that cricket was my whole and sole existence. I knew I needed some balance in my life. At times cricket was absolutely everything. I had nothing outside of cricket. That's been a big part to me, to discover things outside my obsession with being the best cricketer I can possibly be." His current favourite is the Clapton standard Crossroads, a fitting song for someone whose career is set to take off.

He may not be part of the Boxing Day Test anymore, but Shane Warne’s “spinners” could just be the rage this Christmas. Following in the footsteps of Brett Lee, pop star Kylie Minogue and tennis legend Bjorn Borg, Warne has created a sports-inspired men’s underwear range aptly called “The Spinners”. Always a colourful character, Warne’s collection reflects his flamboyance. Gone are the traditional whites and in come bold colours and stripes in trendy fitted trunks and hipster briefs. “The Spinners” range which also includes socks has released just in time for the Christmas buying spree.

Remember Jason Krejza? If you don’t, he’s a tall Australian offspinner who made his Test debut a year ago in Nagpur and took 12 for 358 against India. Krejza played another Test but has since been forgotten by most people, but not all.

There’s a group in Australia lobbying for Krejza’s return to the national team and they called for the public to observe 12 minutes silence on November 10, in remembrance of the Indian batsmen Krejza felled in 2008.

"[It's] to think about and reflect upon those 12 wickets, those glorious 12 wickets in Nagpur and to think about the impact Jason Krejza can make on the national side," group spokesman Ben McKay said. There’s a Facebook group too – “Concerned Tasmanians for Jason Krejza" – with 231 members at the last time of checking.

"Some of the best specimens running around in cricket have the bodies of a Greek Adonis, but we can't get them on the park to bowl,” says Rixon, who feels bowlers are spending too much time pumping iron instead of running in at the nets. Walters agreed with Rixon that the training methods need to be reworked. Lawson, also a former Pakistan coach, rubbished suggestions of workload saying, "Brett Lee has hardly played any cricket for two years, so you wouldn't think that was from overuse. When I was coach of Pakistan we looked at every injury systematically and how our fitness people were dealing with it."

Two victories in different continents on the same night is quite an effort. A few hours before Simon Katich’s New South Wales outplayed Victoria in Delhi, an episode of Celebrity MasterChef featuring Katich aired on Australian TV. And what’s more, Katich was triumphant over his competitors, comedian Wendy Harmer and fashion designer Alex Perry.

Katich first prepared his signature dish, crispy salmon with wilted spinach and mashed potato, and then wowed the judges when he was asked to prepare a restaurant-quality ten-layer crepe cake. His crepes got him over the line and the victory was all the more impressive given that Katich has the disadvantage of having no sense of smell.

"Everyone thinks that not having a sense of smell must hold me back when I'm cooking, and especially when I'm tasting food, but I feel like my palette is no different,” he said. “When I describe a dish it's no different to anyone else. The only problem I have is I don't know when something is burning.”

Katich was taught to cook by his mother and whenever he’s at home he does most of the cooking for himself and his wife Georgie. He now finds himself in the semi-finals of the cooking show, along with Olympic swimmer Eamon Sullivan and INXS band member Kirk Pengilly.

In other television news, Shane Warne has reportedly accepted the role as the new presenter of Top Gear Australia, taking on the Jeremy Clarkson position in the Channel Nine version of the show. Perhaps his baked beans on toast weren't quite up to MasterChef standards.

Move over ice baths, deep-heat massages and resistance training - the new form of treatment could be "baggy-green therapy". Ask Australia’s opener Phil Jaques, who has turned to his Test cap to help him recover from a third operation to fix a bulging disc in his lower back. Jaques said he would would look at his baggy green in the lead-up to the operation to draw strength from it; post-op, he would look at the bottle-green fabric and national crest before heading off to the gym or pool for more conventional recuperative measures. ''I was really hungry to get back,'' Jaques told The Sydney Morning Herald. ''I'm still desperate to play for Australia again; there was no way I could have gone through everything I did if I didn't have that desire.''

	© Getty Images

No, it's not a new Australian reality TV show where contestants compete to drink the most beers and grow the most impressive facial hair while stranded on a tropical island (although that idea has some merit). Australia's federal communications minister Stephen Conroy caused the Senate to erupt into laughter by accidentally referring to Tasmania's Bruny Island as "Boony Island".

"Senator Bushby for example has complained that Telstra should not be allowed to remove pay phones from Boony island ... Bruny island, there's a typo here," Senator Conroy said. AAP reported that "it took some time for the Senate to calm down after Senator Conroy's inadvertent tribute to Boon".

The idea of renaming the island off the coast of Hobart after Boon, one of the most popular Tasmanian figures, would no doubt have plenty of fans. There's probably a Facebook campaign being launched as we speak. You can guarantee that most Australians would be more familiar with Boon than the man after which the island was named - the eighteenth-century French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux.

Life has come a full circle barely few months into international cricket for Australian opener Phillip Hughes. After a sensational debut series in South Africa, he failed to live up to the hype in the Ashes and was expectedly dumped after two Tests. The determination to set things right has led him to set up an appointment with Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai on Monday. Hughes is in India to train in Nagpur under the guidance of his coach Neil D'Costa, who’s the head coach of a local academy. Hughes stresses that he will get the most out of Tendulkar, even if it takes the whole night.

"I'll chew his ear off,” Hughes told the Australian. “I've got questions about a lot of things that I want to ask him. I like getting around and talking to the guys who have been around for a long time." Keep an eye on Twitter for updates.

Andrew Symonds is serving out his suspension from the Australian team by training with his hometown rugby side, the Broncos, who are gunning for their 18th straight final in the National Rugby League. Symonds is famously passionate about rugby - to the extent of shoulder-charging a spectator who invaded the field at the Gabba - and one of his most recent public appearances was at a Gold Coast Titans game soon after flying back from England following his ban.

Broncos coach Ivan Henjak said he was happy to have Symonds’ international experience at hand and said he was not a disruption to his players. “It’s been nothing but positive from my end, I’m very happy to have him here,” Henjak was quoted as saying in Australia’s Daily Telegraph. “… having his presence around is good for everyone. He has a wealth of experience of playing top-level sport, he has a lot to offer. He’s played cricket at highest level. That experience is invaluable, no matter what sport you play.”

Symonds, who was banned by Cricket Australia after breaking a alcohol ban just before the World Twenty20 in England, has said he considered switching sports and joining the Broncos back in 2002. But an unexpected Australian call-up to the World Cup squad in 2003 made him stay with cricket.

John Howard must be spitting out his tea in disgust at the comments of his successor as Australia’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd. Howard is the ultimate cricket tragic and his green-and-gold tracksuit will no doubt be his outfit of choice during the upcoming Ashes series.

While Rudd is also a cricket fan, he this week teetered dangerously on the edge of being labelled un-Australian – one of Howard’s favourite terms – when asked in a radio interview who was his favourite athlete. Rudd surely would say Don Bradman … surely. Or at least an Australian icon from another sport.

But this was Rudd’s response: “I can't go past Garry Sobers. There you go." Rudd cited Sobers’ unbeaten 254 for the Rest of the World at the MCG and his six sixes in an over of county cricket. “I thought, this guy has got the gift, the gift of the gods about him," Rudd said. "So there you go, he's not an Australian. Garry Sobers."

It's almost grounds for impeachment. At least Rudd knows he’ll always be welcome in Barbados.

Andrew Symonds' playing future could become clearer in the coming weeks following the arrival of his agent to England. Matt Fearon will meet with county officials to gauge their interest in signing Symonds for next year's Twenty20 Cup and P20 competitions. Symonds is already committed to Deccan Chargers for the next IPL season, and is considering offers from at least one South African Pro20 franchise. The allrounder, who will feature on Australia's 60 Minutes programme this week, could also play for Queensland, despite turning down a central contract from his home state.

A streaker once felt the brunt of Andrew Symonds’ strength when he was on the wrong end of a shoulder charge at the Gabba. Symonds was always keen to put that power into action on the rugby field, so much so that he once considered quitting cricket to try out for the Brisbane Broncos.

Now that he doesn’t hold a Cricket Australia contract, Symonds is free to pursue activities that would have been considered too risky for a professional cricketer. It didn’t take him long to indulge his passion for rugby, playing against a Men of League All-Stars team including Steve Renouf, Marcus Bai and Ben Kennedy on the weekend.

The Courier-Mail reported that Symonds played wing for the first half and was given a jeer by the crowd when he dropped the first pass that came to him but then performed well. "I couldn't sleep last night," Symonds said.

There were a few impressive moments from Symonds, including when he closed in on Bai, a former rugby league star, and laid a strong tackle. "One thing I will say about him is that he is very strong," Bai said. "I thought I would bump him off, but I couldn't."

When Melbourne police get called into one of the city’s pokey alleys it’s not usually for a happy reason. But on Friday there were smiles all round as police took part in a laneway cricket match with members of the Indian community as a show of harmony following the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia.

Cricket Victoria helped organise the event and Brad Hodge was the star attraction at the game, which took place in an arty graffiti-lined lane, and he took special delight in sending down a couple of quicker balls at the police. When he reverted to offspin a ball sailed back over his head and into the crowd of onlookers, so it was lucky the result was secondary to the message Hodge and the other participants were aiming to send.

“Whenever any Australian cricketers go to India, we’re welcomed with open arms,” Hodge said. “Today is about standing alongside Indians who’ve come to Australia and letting them know that we welcome them, and value highly their contribution to our country.”

Amit Menghani, the president of the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, said: "It is wonderful to see such a positive initiative from the cricket community and the Victorian Police. Recent weeks have been extremely tough so it’s most heartening to see cricket helping reinforce the need for mutual understanding and respect. There remains work to be done but even little events like these can go a long way.”

Hodge’s participation was even more appreciated given that his wife Meg is due to give birth “any time now”. In fact, a trip to the maternity ward is so close that Victoria’s coach Greg Shipperd was on standby, ready to step into Hodge’s role in the game should the batsman get an urgent phone-call.

He might not have played a game in the IPL, but Glenn McGrath will be remembered forever in his home town of Narromine. McGrath will be the subject of a life-size bronze statue that is certain to attract interest from local birds, who will be keen to drop in on the fast bowler known as ‘Pigeon’.

The Sun-Herald reports the work will cost more than A$70,000 and will be unveiled next month. McGrath grew up in the western New South Wales town before heading to Sydney and turning into one of the game’s greatest bowlers. His reputation didn’t impress Delhi, who didn’t call on him at all in South Africa.

Australia haven’t had a match-winning spinner since Shane Warne hung up his boots after the last Ashes series and the situation is serious enough to warrant calling a ‘spin summit’ next month to discuss the issue. The country’s spin bowling experts – including Terry Jenner, Warne’s mentor, and John Davison, the spin bowling coach at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence (COE) - will meet at the COE in Brisbane to find a solution for the lack of quality spinners in all formats. According to AAP, the reluctance of captains to use attacking spinners is the reason for the lack of spin options. Australian selectors are expected to pick Nathan Hauritz, a containing offspinner, for the Ashes ahead of more attacking spinners like Jason Krejza and Bryce McGain. But Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, felt “attacking” was an over-rated term, saying "to assert pressure from one end is attacking cricket". That, presumably, will be up for discussion at Brisbane as well.

	The Mekong Cricket Ground? © Getty Images

If the ICC is keen to expand into the Chinese market this might be a good start. According to a report on the Herald Sun website the Melbourne Cricket Ground was to be rebranded the Mekong Cricket Ground “following an audacious naming rights bid by a Chinese construction giant”.

After Melbourne’s other major stadium, the Docklands ground, was renamed Etihad Stadium earlier this year the new MCG moniker was just a bit too much for the patriotic pride of some readers. More than 200 comments had been posted on the story by midday Melbourne time.

More than 200 people submitted feedback to the newspaper’s website. "Let's just give up this whole country to the Asians and be done with it," posted "Mister Master. "What did our diggers fight and die for in the past wars?” he continued, ignoring the minor fact that the Chinese were actually on the Allies' side.

Other readers were alert to the fact that it was April Fool’s Day. It might have helped that the paper quoted a spokeswoman going by the name April Fulton.

Don Bradman seemingly knew everything about Australian cricket during decades as a player, administrator, selector and national hero, but he had no idea about the value of his surname. The issue has been discussed in the Supreme Court, with Bradman’s son John suing a law firm for using his father’s eight-letter moniker as "a brand name, like Mickey Mouse".

"He said that he really had no idea that his name would have the commercial value, which it apparently has, and agreed that a fair benefit should flow to the family," the Australian reported John Bradman writing to the firm in 1998. "He also said that while he can contain the use of his name during his lifetime, after his death he would like the family to have a fair say in its use."

When the wives and girlfriends joined the touring squad in Cape Town over the weekend, most of the Australian players indulged in a bit of romantic sightseeing or some retail therapy. If the men were holding bags they were likely Prada or Louis Vuitton. Not so for Mitchell Johnson.

His girlfriend Jessica Bratich enjoys a bit of fashion, as she revealed at the Allan Border Medal, but she also happens to be a karate champion. While he was enjoying a break from Test cricket this week, Johnson found himself holding a punching bag for Bratich and things got a little dangerous for Australia’s key bowler.

“She actually did punch me in the gut yesterday,” Johnson said on Monday. “She was doing 30 punches really quickly and as she was getting a bit slower she hit me in the gut. I might have said something, I don’t know.

“She’s looking to go to the world titles next year in Serbia. She’s got a few tournaments this year. I think there’s one in India as well. It’s a funny thing, she’s wanted to come to India with me on a few occasions but hasn’t had the chance so I think she’d enjoy it.”

At least Johnson could laugh about his hit to the stomach. There wasn’t a smile on Michael Clarke’s face on Monday when he took a ball to the, ah, midriff during Australia’s net session at Newlands and went down like a sack of particularly tender potatoes.

Perhaps Johnson and Clarke can have a debate about whether it’s more embarrassing to be felled by your girlfriend or by a bowling machine. Feeding the balls into the machine was none other than Steve Bernard, the former first-class fast bowler who is now Australia’s team manager. It seems that “Brute” Bernard is still living up to his nickname.

	Peter Siddle used to do the yelling from the crowd, now he's being heckled himself © Getty Images

Peter Siddle is learning that what goes around comes around. Ten years ago he used to sit at the MCG and join in the nasty chants about opposition players. Now he’s on the receiving end. “Siddle’s a wanker” has become something of a series catchphrase in South Africa. The fans would never admit it but it’s a perverse mark of respect.

Richard Hadlee was the target of similar jeers in Australia during the 1980s and Siddle recalls handing out the same treatment to Courtney Walsh. There was a fitting symmetry when Siddle ran in to the rhythm of the chants in South Africa; Walsh was watching on from the commentary box.

“It is a bit weird. I was always watching the Test matches where they were getting into Warney or Merv Hughes,” Siddle said. “I remember actually going to the Boxing Day Test and even joining in when they were getting into whatever player. It might be Courtney Walsh or anyone down on the boundary there in bay 13, getting into them.

“It is sort of weird actually being out on the field and there's chanting and they are getting into you. I was thinking, ten years ago I was doing the same thing. It has been fun and interesting and it's just something I've got to deal with I guess.”

Siddle has become something of a cult figure in South Africa, where one particular newspaper is obsessed with his so-called “man boobs”. Man boobs, muscle, what’s the difference. It’s splitting hairs. As long as he realises the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

	Australia's Sarah Andrews backs up during the game on the Gold Coast © Cricket Australia

Beach cricket in summer is as Australian as winning World Cups.

Matthew Hayden ensured the men’s team made it three in a row in 2007 and the women’s side will attempt back-to-back successes when the 2009 global tournament begins in New South Wales on Saturday.

Hayden donned the board shorts and joined the Australian stars Ellyse Perry, Alex Blackwell, Delissa Kimmince and Sarah Andrews in a beach game at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast, where the Roxy Pro surfing event is about to be held.

The opposition was some of the world’s best on the waves, including Layne Beachley, the seven-times world champion, Steph Gilmore, Jessi Miley-Dyer, Sally Fitzgibbons and Sam Cornish.

Over the next week things will get more serious for the cricketers. Their first match of the World Cup is on Sunday against New Zealand.

It seemed so spur of the moment. Adam Voges’ brilliant juggling catch on the long-on boundary to remove Brendon McCullum in the second-last over was the difference between victory and defeat for Australia. Had he stumbled over the boundary with the ball in hand, a six would have been called and New Zealand would almost certainly have won.

Instead, Voges lobbed the ball high back into play as he fell backwards, then tripped over the boundary as he crawled back onto the field to complete the take. He was part juggler, part tightrope walker and was cool enough to pull off the act in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

But circus-goers don’t see the hours of practice and neither had most of the Sydney fans seen Voges try a similar trick a fortnight ago in a state one-day game. On that occasion Queensland’s Nathan Reardon slammed the ball towards long-off and Voges took it cleanly while backing back, but again was going to fall over the boundary.

His Western Australia colleague Theo Doropoulos had also made good ground and was near the ball, so Voges lobbed it towards him and Doropoulos was credited with the catch. But like any good showman, Voges wasn’t about to be upstaged and turned the duet into a solo act at the SCG.

	Michael Slater can’t remember the last time he picked up a bat © Getty Images

Sydney physiotherapists are in for a hectic evening. Mark Taylor and Michael Slater are among a long list of Australian sporting celebrities old and new to volunteer their services for a charity Twenty20 match at the SCG on February 22 to raise money for the victims of the Victorian bushfires.

Speaking at the launch of the event, Slater conceded he could not remember the last time he picked up a bat, while Taylor estimated he had played a solitary match in five years. But the former opening duo believes aching muscles are a small price to pay for the bushfire relief appeal, which has already raised millions for the injured and displaced.

"I'm not sure what kind of nick I'm in," Taylor admitted. "I haven't tried for a while." Taylor and Steve Waugh will captain sides that will be easily recognisable to Australian audiences.

Glenn McGrath, Moises Henriques, David Warner and Nathan Bracken will fine tune their Indian Premier League preparations in a match that will feature Australian rugby union internationals Lote Tuqiri and Phil Waugh, rugby league players Braith Anasta and Anthony Minichiello, surfers Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson and boxer Anthony Mundine. The match will be staged by the SCG Trust and Cricket NSW and will begin at 5pm.

It sounds like a line from a Seinfeld episode. There’s been slippage. Those were the words of the delightfully named Rodney Cavalier, the chairman of the SCG Trust, in describing the recent conduct and appearance of that famous group of rascals, the SCG members.

The trust was so concerned that it sent its members a letter in the lead-up to Sunday’s ODI warning them that they risked fines, court appearances and suspension of their membership if they acted up. "At the most recent one-day match a fight broke out in the members' area,” Cavalier said in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The trust takes the view that members should be setting a higher standard than the public. That's why they're entrusted with full-strength beer. They're also expected to set a higher standard of clothing and footwear. There's been slippage.”

His words were backed up by an 85-year-old member unhappy with the modern dress standards and lack of decorum from his younger colleagues. "In the old days you wouldn't get in without a jacket," he said.

Back then, the fights took place on the Hill, not in the Members. "My father said on the Hill you could see a wrestling match, a fight and some theatre,” he said. “Then some cricket would erupt.”

Ah, the good old days. Damn that slippage.

Phillip Hughes’ hometown of Macksville cannot wait for him to make his Test debut in South Africa. The anticipation of him donning the baggy green will result in the town’s local pub being packed to capacity on February 26, the first day of the Johannesburg Test. “It will be chock-a-block,” the pub manager Ben Padtridge told the Sydney Morning Herald. “There is talk around town of having a Phillip Hughes Day, everyone is loving it.”

News of Hughes’ selection was announced on the staffroom loudspeaker at his school Macksville High. His mentor Neil D’Costa singled out Hughes’ discipline as his greatest strength. “When he needs to rest, he will rest. When he needs to stay away from people, he will,” D’Costa said. “He is the type of guy that likes to go for a walk by himself and likes to go and fish.”

	Haroon Lorgat and David Morgan check out the mace that has lived in Melbourne for the best part of eight years © Getty Images

The Australian public is losing confidence in their Test team and it seems that the ICC doesn’t have much faith either. The president David Morgan and the chief executive Haroon Lorgat were in Melbourne on Wednesday to confiscate the Test Championship mace.

But hang on. Aren’t Australia still the No. 1 team in the world? Only a series victory to South Africa in South Africa next month would give them the top spot.

When asked if it was a little presumptuous to remove the mace so early, Morgan said it needed to be in South Africa just in case. “I think it has to be at the destination where it could possibly change hands,” Morgan said.

The silver and gold-plated mace was designed to resemble a cricket stump topped by a big orb. The stump end has potential as a poking device and the globe could be an effective clubbing weapon as well, and as the men inspected the mace, Lorgat decided maybe he could use it at the ICC’s headquarters in Dubai.

“It could be a tool to get some things done around the office,” Lorgat said. There are probably some cricket fans around the world who would be happy with that ...

	Allan Border was seeing double at his awards night © Getty Images

People with unusual names know how frustrating it is to have them mispronounced. There’s no excuse when you mangle it yourself and in any case, “Allan” should be pretty straightforward.

But when Allan Border was on stage to present the medal that bears his name, he stumbled embarrassingly on the part of the announcement that should have come naturally. Somehow his own name came out sounding like “Addle” or “Annal”.

When the ripple of polite laughter died down he corrected himself and announced that there was a tie between Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke. The following day, Border explained the cause of his confusion.

“I looked down at the card and I saw the two names there,” Border said. “It caught me by surprise.”

	Simon and Georgie Katich at the Allan Border Medal © Getty Images

The pre-count favourite Mitchell Johnson missed out on the Allan Border Medal in Melbourne on Monday and he even failed to win a title that should have been his in a canter.

Channel Nine polled the women at the awards night to find the sexiest player featured in the Men of Cricket charity calendar.

The winner was, rather surprisingly, Simon Katich. Unlike Johnson and Shane Watson, who show off their waxed and oiled chests, Katich goes for the natural look, with a hairy chest. Even his wife Georgie couldn’t believe that her man had won the vote.

“I’m shocked to be honest,” she said. “I didn’t know there was a lot of love for the fur.”

On the night, Katich also had a decent supply of facial stubble, as he often does on the field. Then he offered up a little too much information.

“As the boys in the dressing room know, it’s not just limited to my chest or my face.”

	Shane Warne at the 2009 Australian Open in Melbourne © Getty Images

Two years after his retirement from Test cricket and Shane Warne's celebrity shows no signs of abating. In fact, he still rivals A-list celebrities the world over. The former Australian legspinner, amid growing speculation of another reunion with ex-wife Simone, has asked the police to get rid of that famous celebrity parasite: the paparazzi photographer.

The Herald Sun reported that Warne has lodged a complaint against Jamie Fawcett, a famous celeb snapper who's been involved in a harassment row with Nicole Kidman previously. Warne was apparently angered by photos taken of his three children - Brooke, Jackson and Summer - during a recent family day out on the beach. The photos subsequently appeared in a women's magazine.

Warne confronted the photographer recently as well. "He did say to me at one stage that he'd rung the police and knew all about me," Fawcett said. "But I'm very careful about how I follow celebrities these days. Whilst I and my colleagues do a lot of work in relation to Shane Warne, we keep it all very low-key. In fact, I could almost say that on 95% of occasions he actually wouldn't know we were there.

"I don't badger celebs." Of course not. Warne is just an ordinary leggie.

Tasmanian No 11 Tim Macdonald isn’t going to be on his team-mate Brett Geeves’ Christmas list this year. For the second time in this season’s Sheffield Shield, Macdonald has managed to leave Geeves stranded on 99, tantalizingly short of his maiden first-class century.

The first offence was against Victoria in November last year and Geeves vented on his blog on the Tasmanian Cricket Association’s website. “Can I start this blog by apologising for Tim MacDonald’s woeful display of playing short pitch bowling?” Geeves wrote. “Yes I’m angry. 99 no and the number eleven gloves a short ball from a guy who is into his 50th over of the match. Clinton McKay won't mind me saying he wasn't bowling his quickest. Sore groins, ankles barking at him saying, "Why don't we ever get any tucan pie?" Duck the ball Tim!!”

The second occasion was during the ongoing contest against New South Wales: Macdonald left Geeves left high and dry on 99 off only 113 balls. He hadn’t updated his blog yet when last checked …

Signatures on Indian Cricket League contracts continue to have lasting effects in Australia. First Jason Gillespie was banned from coaching at the Australian Centre of Excellence and the same thing has happened to Stuart Law.

Law, a former Queensland captain, has not played first-class cricket in Australia since 2004, but was told he could accept a position as batting coach at the Academy only if he stopped playing in the ICL. "I can't see what the problem is,” Law said in the Courier-Mail. “If the ICL was pinching young players like Alister McDermott to play then I could understand Cricket Australia getting upset about it.

“But guys who haven't played Shield cricket for a number of years ... what's the problem? The ICC are trying to sort this out and the ICL is happy to talk, but the IPL are making us lepers in the community."

	The heatwave hits Melbourne as a family enjoy beach cricket © Getty Images

Club cricketers the world over – especially those in England – are used to playing in the cold and the wet, but the current heatwave blasting parts of Australia has proved too much for even the hardy locals.

A day after the organisers defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic had to pull out of the Australian Open in Melbourne with heat cramps, South Australia took the decision to scrap most of the state’s men’s and women’s grade cricket because of the abnormal conditions.
With temperatures well into the 40s – so hot that insects were dropping dead in their thousands at the Melbourne tennis – the news might be seen as a sign that Australians are going as soft as their national team’s bowling attack.

But Cricket Victoria showed that the old hard approach remains. A senior CV official, sitting in his air conditioned office no doubt, dismissively brushed aside a request from South Australia that the start time of the Sheffield Shield game at the MCG be brought forward to 9am to try to avoid the worst of the day’s heat. More drinks, less whinging was the gist of his reply as he took another ice-cold can from his desk-side fridge.

Shane Warne has helped revive the art of leg spin, sell millions of copies of News of the World and make ‘blond and overweight’ a combination irresistible to women. Now he is luring men – the beer-drinking, sports-loving kind – to Melbourne theatres through the smash hit musical based on his life.

Eddie Perfect, the actor playing Warne in ‘Shane Warne – The Musical’, says Warne is someone who has fascinated Australia, and come to typify the best and worst of the country. "We're getting guys dragging their girlfriends to the theatre, which is the opposite of how it usually works," Perfect told AFP. "You see young blokes making their way to their seats carrying armfuls of beers for their mates, just like they do at the cricket.”

Perfect said the new faces in the audience had upset some in the traditional group but it was for the best. “It's like Reformation theatre when people were buying oranges to throw at the actors - why shouldn't they have fun?"

There have been suggestions of taking the production to London and even India and Perfect is keen to go international. He said not much would have to be changed in the current musical to suit the English audience since Warne was as popular in England as he was in Australia. But the chance to play in India excited him. "It'd be a blast. We could turn every number into a huge Bollywood production."

Two hat-tricks are taken by team-mates in the same game and the match ends in a tie. Sounds like a quirky cricket tale but that was exactly the scenario when South Launceston's Under-16 side played the North-East Bushrangers at Scottsdale recently. Shaun Field, 15, and Ben Jackson, 16, opened the bowling for their club, and each took their first-ever hat-tricks in the game, as well as their maiden five-fors.

While both boys were elated by their hat-tricks, South Launceston U-16 coach Peter Linger, who has played cricket for 35, said he had never seen anything like it. South Launceston were set a target of 169, and the match went down to the wire with two runs required off the last ball. However, they could only manage a single. The stuff of dreams. Well sort of.

	Greg Matthews, who is now 49, still has his tricks © Getty Images

Greg Matthews, the former Test offspinner, talks a great game – and still bowls one. In the lead-up to Phil Jaques’ return from back surgery, Matthews, 49, let the Test opener know he would be in for a tough time during Sutherland’s first grade match against Sydney University.

“Phil is a great batsman," Matthews said. "I'll give him an hour to get a feel for things, but that's it. If Stuart Clark or Mitch Cook don't roll him, hopefully the old man can come on and get lucky."

Matthews didn’t give Jaques a chance to get his eye in. After one over from Clark late in the day, Matthews arrived and had Jaques lbw with his first ball, which he said was a skidder.

Did Matthews, who now has a grey beard and round figure, feel sorry for Jaques? "Not for one millisecond do I feel anything other than elation,'' Matthews said in the Sunday Telegraph. "Phil is going to play 50 more Tests. He's got it all in front of him.”

So sometimes it’s a bit hard to make sense of Andrew Symonds, but his radio interview with Australian comedians Roy and HG on Triple M on Friday was particularly hard to work out. He was talking about New South Wales’ decision to hire Brendon McCullum for their Twenty20 final and Cricket Australia will decipher the recording to determine whether Symonds should be punished.

“They're trying to use him [McCullum] as the out because he's a Kiwi,” Symonds said. "Yep, we love to hate them, but he's the lump of s..., sorry, lump of cow dirt, that people are thinking of. Now to get away from that, the actual topic is about playing cricket and getting into a final.

"To get yourself to that position and if you haven't brought anybody in, personally I wouldn't be changing a winning team. It doesn't matter about McCullum, mate, he could have been Irish, he still would have got it.” Are you keeping up?

“It's not his fault, he's doing his job and trying to earn a wage. But what happened here is an injustice. I said Daniel Smith, his opposite number, was going to miss out. But they said this morning that Daniel Smith is going to play, but at the end of day somebody is still going to miss out.'' Something is definitely missing.

It’s not quite the equivalent of convincing Merv Hughes to shave off his moustache but it’s close. For five years dreadlocks have been a key part of Andrew Symonds’ image but now he is gearing up to them chopped off for charity.

As part of the World’s Greatest Shave, which raises money for the Leukaemia Foundation, Symonds will get rid of the locks on live TV on February 14.

It remains to be seen whether it will be akin to Samson losing his hair, although the publicity shy Symonds sees at least one benefit. "I am looking forward to it,” he said. “I will be able to sneak around a little bit more.”

Australia are currently clinging on to the No. 1 ranking in Tests and will be dethroned only if they lose the upcoming three-Test series in South Africa. The ICC, however, have taken the Test Championship trophy away from Australia to their headquarters in Dubai in anticipation that it could change hands.

Australia have held the trophy ever since it was introduced in 2001 apart from a few months in 2003 when South Africa were briefly No 1. "We have held it ever since the ICC Test rankings were introduced in May 2001, so apart from the four months in 2003 it's been with us," CA spokesman Peter Young was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald. "Our building [Cricket Australia’s office in Melbourne] was designed around the trophy. We are most certainly planning to bring it back with us from South Africa. If that does not eventuate we may have to get some Polyfilla and fill the space in our foyer."

The ICC will present the trophy to the No 1 Test team at the end of Australia’s Test tour to South Africa.

Matthew Hayden and Harbhajan Singh have had a few spats and Hayden revealed after his retirement when it all began.

“I loved playing the people who geed me up, tell me I can't do something - that's what he [Harbhajan] told me the first time we met,” Hayden told the Sun-Herald. Australia was playing a practice match and he said, 'I hope you get picked for Australia.' He didn't know, but in that game I was trying to rotate the strike really defensively so I didn't show him any of my key strategies before the Test. I was batting rubbish and he had every right to say what he did. My comeback to him was saying, 'We'll see.' That's all I said.

“First ball he bowled in the Test, I ran down and hit him over the top of mid-off. I said, 'OK, there's my answer.' Because there's a language barrier, I think it may have sounded to him more offensive than it really was. There was always a real tension between us, but I respect what he's done in his career. And in his life, he has looked after his entire family. I respect that.”