Warne Retiring (confirmed)

[aussie1st]

Yes he'll be truely missed, there is a story that always floats about in the Channel 9 team where a few kids were at at the cricket playing their own cricket game and then Warne came onto bowl and these kids were off watching the cricket again. That just what Warne has done for bowling.

 

[Skater]

I just had a thought.... just imagine if Warne gets injured before the next test and has to retire on 699 wickets!

He would probably bowl in a wheelchair if he had to.

 

[manee]

And still get wickets

 

[mattfb]

And still get wickets

only if he had a red wheel chair

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Bring on Stewy MacGill. Probaly the most underated player ever.

 

[Sureshot]

He'll be 38 and a half by the next Ashes.

Aussie youth set-up>*

 

[.::Stevo::.]

ha, didnt relise he was that old. Damn.... I feel sorry for that bloke though, he could of been a star if he had of been born in any other country. Just happened to be born at the same time as Shane Warne, unlucky lol

 

[usy]

lol they should make him captain for the last test.. he was a great player. (still is)

 

[mehkar]

yeah ........But they will not make him I am sure

 

[plympilgrim]

warne was a great player to the game, perhaps the best ever? He will be surely missed but thre is still Murali who is going to overtake him soon. But the people who will not be missing him is the england team

 

[Kal-El]

Warney is the best there ever was in terms of bowling. We shouldn't bring MacGill in, no point. He'll be gone in a couple of years.

 

[The Spin]

If you don't bring MacGill in, who do you bring in? All your other spin bowlers are just young prospects. I'd use MacGill until you see one of the young guys is going to be really good

 

[Ponting_14]

MacGill should get a shoot IMO. He's ready and who's out there right now who can come in?

 

[Simbazz]

Making Warne captain is a pointless thing anyways.

It has been said many times that Warne is the man who pulls Pontings strings.

If Warne wants a fielder in a certain position Ponting very rarely disagrees. Warne i a very experienced and knowledgable man, and to use his knowledge on the field for Ponting will be missed, as really there is Warne who is looked to more on the field than Ponting

 

[Ponting_14]

MacGill still in selectors' plans

Cricinfo staff

December 30, 2006

Despite being overlooked for the Australian squad for the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney, Andrew Hilditch, Australia's chief selector, has insisted that Stuart MacGill remains in the thinking of the selection panel.

MacGill missed out as Australia chose to name an unchanged bowling attack for the final Test. Australia now have no Test assignments until next summer, a gap of nearly 11 months, by which time MacGill will be approaching his 37th birthday. By then, with Shane Warne having left the scene, Australia may well be considering younger spinning options in Dan Cullen, the off-spinner, and Cullen Bailey, a legspinner, reasoned The Sydney Morning Herald.

The paper cited "occasional" instances of bad behaviour, and a recent suspension by his state side for an altercation with an umpire in grade cricket, as factors in a bleak future. But Hilditch maintained in a statement that MacGill was still in contention. "The national selection panel carefully considered the possibility of naming a 13 for the Sydney Test to give us an extra spinning option. Stuart MacGill was carefully considered for that position and remains very much in the thoughts of the national selection panel."

Over the years, MacGill has become something of a Sydney fixture, a ground traditionally suited to spinners. He has played in eight of the last ten Sydney Tests and his numbers (53 wickets at under 25) are better than even Warne's (62 wickets in 13 Tests at over 27) at the ground.

That record was, however, balanced against the excellent performances of the current attack through the Ashes, as Hilditch explained. "However, to include two specialist spinners in Sydney would've meant changing the attack which has performed so well in the first four Tests and has been an integral part of Australia's successful regaining of the Ashes.

"After considering this, the selection panel thought it appropriate to remain with the same 12 and the same balance of the attack for the Sydney Test. Although Sydney traditionally will lend support to the spinners, we consider a three-man pace bowling attack (Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark) with Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds to bowl spin is well balanced and suited to the conditions we are likely to encounter in Sydney."

MacGill is two short of 200 Test wickets from his 40 Tests, and in the last series he played for Australia, against Bangladesh in April this year, he picked up 17 wickets. The legspinner insisted just over a week ago that he was still happy to play on for another "two to three years."

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/274420.html