Story Australian International Season - The New Era

[MWaugh]

Australian International Season Announced

The upcoming Australian international cricket season was announced today at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Attended by Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting, vice captain Michael Clarke, chief executive officer James Southerland and coach Tim Nielson, the upcoming season signals a changing of the guard in Australian international team.

Fresh from a demoralising 2-1 test series defeat to South Africa on home shores, the test squad face a battle to hold on to their number 1 test ranking against the proteas. Also under pressure is the one day team, who suffered a further series loss to South Africa, and battled out an unconvincing 2-2 series draw against New Zealand.

With the Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Glenn McGrath era a thing of the distant past, Australia begin their series without the services of long serving test opener Matthew Hayden, the Queenslander having announced his retirement at the completion of the completed test series.

The Australian?s will tour South Africa, in a bid to retain their current ranking of the worlds number 1 test playing nation.

The 17 man Australian Squad was announced as follows:


1. Ricky Ponting (c)
2. Michael Clarke (vc)
3. Simon Katich
4. Phillip Hughes
5. Michael Hussey
6. David Hussey
7. Marcus North
8. Luke Ronchi
9. James Hopes
10. Cameron White
11. Mitchell Johnson
12. Peter Siddle
13. Doug Bollinger
14. Ben Hilfenhaus
15. Shaun Tait
16. Bryce McGain
17. Jason Krejza

The biggest news being that New South Wales youngster Phillip Hughes is the new inclusion in the team, taking the place of retired veteran Matthew Hayden. When questioned about the selection captain Ricky Ponting appeared confident in Hughes.

?I?ve only seen Phillip play on a small number of occasions but he?s obviously got a lot of talent. He?s scored heavily this summer for New South Wales and I think this signals the change in the Australian test team.?

The squad selection also highlights a significant lack of depth in the Australian bowling stocks. With pace duo Brett Lee and Stuart Clark absent through injury, Australia have been forced to rely on Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle, with Bollinger, Shaun Tait and Ben Hilfenhaus preparing to battle for the vacant spot. Australia have also chosen two specialist spinners in their squad in with 36 year old leg spinner Bryce McGain and Indian off spinning hero Jason Krejza.

?It?s a mistake we?ve learnt from in the Indian tour. We suffered having only one spinner and now we have 2 quality spinners to choose from. Our pace attack is somewhat depleted from losing Binga and Stuey Clark but I have every confidence in our attack.?

Australia will then commence a 3 match one day international series with the proteas before travelling to England, where they will face off against the arch enemy, England in a bid to retain the ashes.

(Ricky Ponting speaks ahead of the upcoming international calender)

 

[Highlander999]

HAHAHA, first post, get it up ya everyone else

Great to see you back now. Gonna be awesome. Aussies are going to thrash Sri Lanka as all Lanka have these days are Mendis and Murali. I would like to see a lot of Hughes as well

Good luck

 

[Roofrom50]

Strangely enough Nathan Bracken wasn't picked for the squad? He could be handy in the ODI matches a little later on, as he could sit out the Tests.

Good looking young group of players, will be good to see how Hughes goes, i hope it tears it up.
Good preso man, loving it

 

[MWaugh]

thanks for the response guys. @ roo - the ODI squad will be named after the tests. bracken will definately be included in that

 

[surendar]

Good luck to this story I am sure, the story forum is going to become even more active after you made an entry with this story :happy

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Well would be an entertaining test series vs the Lankans. Hope Aussies start winning again..Great start mate and really as Suren said the story forums is gonna be more active now..

 

[mattfb]

Awesome start mate, great to see you back! Good squad there, I'm delighted Hughesy is included! Good stuff mate, kiu!

 

[carn tigez]

Great start to the story mate, I'm looking forward to the Aussies knocking you off here

 

[Jaztheman]

Hughes is included, which is good in my opinion and the team is looking quite strong. Great start to the new story, mWaugh, looking forward to this alot.

 

[Kiko_97]

A great start to what should be another classic. I will be following this one closely. Good luck with this.

 

[MWaugh]

my apologies, im having some dramas with the player editor and the sri lankan squad. the fixtures have now been amended to the current format, ill follow the 09 season as the australians are.

thanks

 

[Roofrom50]

no worries mate, take as much time as ya need

 

[mattfb]

Take your time mate, no rush!

 

[treva]

Really looking forward to this. We can only hope this is somewhere near the standard of your last one, and if it is, then it's going to be brilliant.

Also, sorry to edit your first post, but I can't stand that imageshack text they put at the bottom. Just delete the URL bits and the second IMG tag and it's all gone.