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The local slogan for the Ashes is “It’s definitely on!” Finally, after 15 months of build-up, it’s definitely here. When the toss-winning captain chooses to bat on a fast Gabba pitch on Thursday morning the most hyped series will begin and the players will be the happiest of all.Both captains – and teams – have tired of questions and are ready to start answering with performances. “We just want to get started,” an impatient Andrew Flintoff said. “Now it’s time to get on the pitch and start going. It’s nice that it’s over.”But can the series live up to the 2005 model? And will the disappointment be justified if it doesn’t? It seems impossible that five Tests, which have already attracted record-breaking sales, could satisfy lead-up coverage that has continued to rise like floodwaters.Ricky Ponting has the most heavily magnified job in Australia as he begins a campaign that will define his career as captain. One Ashes loss was sloppy, but a second would be an etching no amount of minnow-belting could erase. Since The Oval last September Australia have won 11 of 12 Tests and their toughest contests came from South Africa, who are currently ranked sixth, and Bangladesh at the end of an exhausting stretch.Both sides’ preparations have suffered blips but England will offer Australia their greatest assignment since the 2-1 failure that sparked a boom of interest in both countries. Ponting has been a career cricketer since he was 16 and his heartbeat remains settled for run-of-the-mill matches. This time even he has been influenced by the occasion.

“The excitement is starting to overflow for everybody,” Ponting said. “I think it’s important that we keep a check on that. Not to get too carried away with things and not to try to make things happen too quickly.” England won the big moments at home last year and none will be larger than the opening session.Flintoff was the key cast member and he has grabbed another role by adding captaincy to his allrounder status. Pour in his recovery from an ankle injury and he faces an unenviable task to carry his nation.”The 2005 win was a huge achievement,” he said. “To have the opportunity to defend them in Australia is even bigger. If we can pull it off it will be something amazing.”England’s biggest decision hovers over whether to push for the extra batting credentials of Ashley Giles or the more aggressive bowling of Monty Panesar. Left-arm spin has not been Australia’s favourite method over the past decade and the choice will give a guide to England’s outlook for the series.Australia were forced into some restructuring due to Shane Watson’s hamstring injury, which gave Michael Clarke a chance and trimmed the attack from five bowlers to four. Shaun Tait was dropped from the squad on Wednesday and the final space will be fought between Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson. Clark’s experience and his Man-of-the-Series performance in South Africa last March give him the edge over the uncapped Johnson.The pitch will suit the fast men and the curator Kevin Mitchell junior tipped the surface to be the quickest of his tenure. It will have the usual green tinges but the captain who wins the toss will not follow Nasser Hussain’s mistake of 2002-03.”Since the rebuild of the stadium in 2000 it’s the quickest it’s been,” Mitchell said. “It will have early life, although I’m not sure how long it will last.” Mitchell could have been speaking about the series as a whole.Australia (possible) 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Justin Langer, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Michael Clarke, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Glenn McGrath.England (possible) 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Andrew Flintoff (capt), 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 James Anderson.

As has often been the case in recent years, Pakistan’s build-up for a major international assignment has been disrupted by an off-field ruckus, and not for the first time a certain Shoaib Akhtar has held centre stage. Shoaib is now cooling his heels back home, and the victim of his alleged assault, Mohammad Asif, will have to lead the way with the ball as Pakistan look to end a run of underwhelming performances at the global level that dates back to 1999.Bat play: Few of the Scottish players are household names but some will remember Gavin Hamilton’s performances at the 1999 World Cup. The squad also has Dougie Brown, whose county career as an allrounder began 15 years ago. Neil McCallum and Ryan Watson, the captain, are others to watch for.For Pakistan, this is a step into the unknown, the first time in a decade that they have gone into a competition of this magnitude without either Inzamam-ul-Haq or Mohammad Yousuf. Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir will lead the bludgeon brigade but just as vital will be the contributions from the two nudgers and accumulators in the middle order, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan.Wrecking ball: John Blain, who once tried his luck with Falkirk in Scottish football, and Craig Wright, the former captain, will be key with the ball, as will a young off-break bowler, Majid Haq, with roots in Pakistan.With Shoaib gone, Asif and Umar Gul will most likely be Pakistan’s new-ball pairing, with Iftikhar Anjum and Yasir Arafat providing the back-up. Malik, Afridi and Abdur Rehman are the spin options, and there could also be a place for the all-round abilities of Mohammad Hafeez.Keep your eyes on: Afridi should be a star in this format, as will Nazir. Pakistan also boast one of the strongest bowling line-ups in the competition, and this gentle opener will set them up perfectly for a tilt against India on Friday.Shop talk: “We have got a number of batsmen who can score quickly. That’s a great strength that we have. Someone like Afridi can get a 50 off 15 balls. He can hit the best bowling attack all over. We have a very strong battling line-up. They all play attacking cricket. If Pakistan play to their potential, they can be an extremely dangerous side.” – Geoff Lawson, the Pakistan coach, on his team’s chances.Pitching it right: Bright sunshine is predicted for Tuesday, and Pakistan’s bowlers will doubtless enjoy the pace and bounce on offer at Kingsmead. The batting looks less formidable, but it’s unlikely that Scotland possess the arsenal to ask too many questions.

TeamsPakistan (likely): Imran Nazir, Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik (capt), Shahid Afridi, Misbah ul Haq, Yasir Arafat, Iftikhar Anjum, Mohammad Asif, Umer Gul

Scotland (from): Ryan Watson (capt), Fraser Watts, Dougie Brown, John Blain, GavinHamilton, Navdeep Poonia, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum, Qasim Sheikh, Colin Smith (wk),Craig Wright, Dewald Nel, Gordon Drummond, Ross Lyons, Majid Haq

Rahul Dravid’s 100th Test turned out to be a bitterly disappointing one, and at the post-match press conference, the captain admitted that his decision to field first at Mumbai was a mistake. However, he stressed that the result could still have been a better one had the top-order batsmen done their job.”Yes, in hindsight when you look at the result of the game definitely I would have changed the decision I made right upfront,” he stated. Clarifying the reasons for the move, he said: “We’d taken five bowlers, and we had three seamers, and we thought there’d be a bit more bounce and seam movement early. We thought we could get a few wickets there, restrict them to a low score, and then bat big in the first innings to set the game up. It didn’t do as much as we expected in the first session, they batted well, and once they’d got 270 for 3 on the first day we knew we were on the back foot.”Dravid refused to accept, though, that the decision at the toss was the major reason for the defeat. “Obviously the decision to bowl wasn’t the right one, but having said that we could have lost the toss and we would have fielded in any case. We could have played much better cricket, especially our batting in both innings, I think the top-order batting has let us down right through the series. We did well to recover to 279, but then again in the second innings I don’t think this was a 100-all-out wicket.”Going into the final day, Dravid indicated that he was satisfied with the position India were in. “I was very happy with the way we bowled yesterday. Our bowlers did a great job to restrict them and I was very happy with the situation as it was in the morning. I thought if we could get to lunch and to tea with wickets in hand, we could really have a crack at the target in the last session. It’s not easy to chase 300 in the last innings especially in India when the ball is turning and a bit of reverse-swing happening. I think we did ok till lunch. Then losing those two wickets in the first two overs after lunch was really the killer blow.”After Dravid’s and Tendulkar’s dismissal, the rest of the Indian batting caved in a shockingly spineless display. Dravid attributed that to “wrong options under pressure”. “Some of the shots we played weren’t up to mark, but when you’re put under pressure that can happen sometimes.”Expectedly, the move to go into the game with five bowlers came in for comment, but Dravid stressed the need to move in that direction, especially if the aim was to start winning outside India. “We feel that going ahead and looking at some of our results in away series, five bowlers is quite important to our combination. You can argue that if we had only four bowlers we might have given more runs in the first innings, or we wouldn’t have been able to bowl as well as we did in the second. We do weigh the pros and cons of six batsmen, but if we want to win a series abroad and if we want to be competitive as a team as England have shown in the Ashes and even here, then we do need five bowlers.”Along with top-order batting, the other area of serious concern for India was their catching: of the 16 chances missed in the game, ten were from Indian fielders, and Dravid admitted that the performance in the field was a let-down. “The situation would have been quite different had we held our catches. We’re working on it. With a few changes in our combinations, some of the fielders in specialist positions have moved out and the boys not fielding in specialist positions have to work on it. We have five batsmen, so all of them should be good catchers; we can’t expect bowlers to be catching in the slips.”The big finds of the series were Munaf Patel, who took 10 wickets at 21.70, and Sreesanth (nine at 25.66). Dravid had a word of praise for them, and also for Anil Kumble and Wasim Jaffer. “Our bowlers – Munaf and Sreesanth – came good for us. They showed good spirit and it’s a good sign for the future. A group of three-four bowlers are bowling with good pace, in good areas, showing good attitude. So that’s one of the pluses in the series. Anil bowled brilliantly and batted well too, while Wasim looked composed as an opener.”Finally, he was all praise for Andrew Flintoff, England’s captain and Man of the Series. “He was phenomenal and truly deserved the Man-of-the-Series award. Every time he went out, he scored runs, was their best bowler on view right through the series and kept coming hard. I think he did a great job as a captain in his first series and he’s truly shown why is the greatest allrounder in the world at the moment.”

The abysmal showing and the humiliating experiences of the Indianteam in England in 1974 brought back hideous memories of the 1936tour. On the field the visitors went down to heavy defeats; offthe field there were numerous seamy incidents making it arguablythe worst tour ever undertaken by an Indian team.Sunil Gavaskar put it all succinctly when he wrote in : “It was a totally disastrous series and the tour wasone of the worst I had made. There was no such thing as teamspirit. Instead there were a lot of petty squabbles that didn’tdo anybody any good. The many incidents that gave the team such abad name didn’t help. It was all extremely frustrating.”And yet when the team landed in England in April, there were noindications that the tour would end in such an unmitigateddisaster. The nucleus of the 1971 side seemed very much intact.The captain was still Ajit Wadekar, the spin quartet was at itpeak and the batting remained strong. Sure, the Indians would betouring in the wetter first half and not in the drier second halfas was the case in 1971. This was one factor reckoned to beagainst the visitors. But not even the most cynical Indiancricket follower could have bargained for what really happened.England won the first Test at Manchester by 113 runs. But the endcame in the 13th of the 20 mandatory overs so it was after a gamefight that India went down. But in the second Test at Lord’s,India touched an all time low. They conceded 629 runs, which wasthe highest England total at the game’s headquarters and thehighest by them against India. On the third day, India repliedwith 302. Following on, the Indian batting touched rock bottom.In just 77 minutes, they were bowled out for 42, their lowestever Test score and the lowest-ever total at Lord’s. The marginof defeat, an innings and 285 runs was the second biggest thatIndia have suffered. From one disaster the Indians stumbled on toanother.In the third Test at Birmingham, India went down by an inningsand 78 runs inside three days and after taking only two wickets.This was only the third time that a team was winning a Test afterlosing only two wickets, the earlier occasions being in 1924 and1958. To cricket fans who had seen their team pull off two greataway triumphs in the West Indies and England in 1971 and thenfollow it up by defeating England at home in 1972-73 it was toomuch to swallow. The batting had crumbled, the fielding hadwilted and the famed spinners had been mastered.As if the heavy defeats were not bad enough, stories of riftsbetween players and factions in the team made the rounds. Therewere also unsavoury incidents concerning the team at a partyhosted by the Indian High Commissioner in London. And around thistime, shiplifting charges were made out against Sudhir Naik.In India, the mood was predictably ugly and there were stories ofWadekar’s house being stoned and the 1971 Victory Bat, erected atIndore to commemorate the triumph three years before, beingdefaced. As it to symbolise the lack of team spirit and thefactionalism, the players came back in batches.Predictably enough, there were very few gains. Gavaskar, GundappaViswanath and Farookh Engineer did reasonably well under thecircumstances. Gavaskar’s 101 in bowler-friendly conditions atOld Trafford is considered to be among his greatest knocks.Generally, however, the batsmen came a cropper against theswinging ball, their technical limitations being exposed. EvenEknath Solkar, the eternal fighter, found it difficult to getruns, averaging less than 20 while Wadekar with 82 runs in sixinnings, was a total failure.The bowling too was a disaster with the spin quartet anything butmenacing. Compared to the 37 wickets that Bishan Bedi, BhagwatChandrasekhar and Sinivas Venkatraghavan took three years before,this time the four of them shared just 15 and at enormous cost.The tour results also showed the team in poor light. Out of 18matches, three were won, four lost and 11 drawn. The team alsolost both the one-day internationals at the end of the tourincidentally the first two such games that India played. Gavaskarlived up to his reputation by getting 993 runs at an average of41.37. Naik, Wadekar, Viswanath and Solkar all topped the 700-runmark. But for younger players like Brijesh Patel and Gopal Bose,the tour was a disaster.Bedi emerged as the leading wicket-taker with 53 but Chandra’stally fell from 50 in 1971 to 26 this time and Venkat’s declinewas even sharper 63 to 18. And all of them including Prasanna,were very expensive. Abid Ali’s all-round showing was a minorsilver lining.Against such weak-kneed opposition, England had a whale of a timein the Tests. Mike Denness got hundreds in successive Tests, JohnEdrich, Dennis Amiss, Keith Fletcher and Tony Greig also hitcenturies, David Lloyd hammered an unbeaten 214 in only hissecond Test and Geoff Arnold (4 for 19) and Chris Old (5 for 21)caused the debacle at Lord’s. The rout was total, complete andabsolute and there could not be any excuses for such a feebleshowing.

The domestic first-class champions from India and Pakistan will clash in a four-day cricket match later this month, the Indian board confirmed today.The match between Uttar Pradesh, India’s Ranji Trophy winners and Sialkot, Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy champions, will be held in Dharamsala from September 27 to 30, Niranjan Shah, the secretary of the Indian board (BCCI) told Cricinfo.However, until yesterday the Pakistan board hadn’t been informed of the new date. “The schedule has been negotiated by our chairman with the BCCI,” Saleem Altaf, Director operations, PCB, told Cricinfo. “The match has already been postponed by a year and the PCB is very keen to go ahead with the match whatever the date. This is a good idea to have matches between the two domestic champions and we would like for it to go ahead.”The game was initially supposed to have been played between September 19 and 22. But it’s been learnt that the Indian board were keen to postpone it since three players from Uttar Pradesh (Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and Rudra Pratap Singh) would be representing India in the DLF Cup at Malaysia at that point.Sialkot too might have missed some of their key players, including the likes of Mohammad Asif, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik had the game began on September 19, as the Pakistan board were keen that they get a break after the tour of England to be ready for the Champions Trophy in October.It will be a revival of sorts for Indo-Pak first-class rivalry. The Super Wills Cup was held in 1989 when United Bank Limited (UBL) took on Delhi, the Ranji Trophy champions that year. The next edition was played between Wills XI from India and Habib Bank at the Feroz Shah Kotla at Delhi.The game between UBL and Delhi is significant because it heralded the arrival of one of the most destructive bowlers of all time, Waqar Younis. Imran Khan, the legendary Pakistan captain, was down with viral fever and watching the game on television when he spotted a young fast bowler troubling the Delhi batsmen. Imran immediately drove down to the venue, and made sure the youngster was picked up for the forthcoming Sharjah tour. Eight days later, the 17-year old opened the Pakistan bowling with Wasim Akram at Sharjah against West Indies.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to grant Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi interim bail in relation to the black-buck hunting incident that he was allegedly involved in.The court has also issued a notice to the Haryana government to produce all documents pertaining to the case by Friday, according to a report by the Press Trust of India. Pataudi has been missing from his Delhi residence for more than a week and has not been contactable.”No interim order will be passed,” vacation judge Justice Rajive Bhalle is quoted as having told Dinesh Mathur, Pataudi’s counsel, in response to Mathur pressing for anticipatory bail for his client.To add to Pataudi’s woes, the Haryana Wildlife Department has said that he had disputed trophies in his possession. “Pataudi’s Ibrahim Palace housed at least 12 trophies of deer species about which he has no certificate to authenticate when he inherited them,” KL Minhas, the chief wildlife warden, is quoted as saying. Minhas also described Pataudi as a “habitual hunter”, saying: “The former cricketer is in the habit of hunting regularly in areas of Jhajjar district with the association of local people.”The wildlife department added that it would conduct tests on the trophies in an attempt to investigate the matter further.

Scorecard

Andrew Flintoff made a lively and successful return to competitive cricket following his ankle injury, with three wickets in a brilliant spell of bowling to help Lancashire beat Nottinghamshire by seven wickets.Flintoff was cleared by the England management to play in two Twenty20 matches for Lancashire, and a Championship game on July 18 in order to regain match fitness ahead of the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford on July 27. And here today, at Old Trafford, he looked back to his fearsome best showing no signs of the ankle injury which kept him out of England’s one-day series against Sri Lanka.The greasy pitch at Manchester was tailor-made for Flintoff who, like a bulldog released from his kennel, roared into Leicestershire’s top-order who had no answer to his pace and bounce. Graeme Swann, opening the innings, feathered one which climbed disconcertingly towards his neck; Paul Franks fished without moving his feet and David Alleyne, stuck in his crease to counter the pace, trod on his stumps to give Flintoff figures of 3 for 4 from his three overs.Not to be outdone, Dominic Cork took the Man-of-the-Match award with a similarly excellent spell. Bowling into a stiff wind, he picked up 4 for 16. At one stage, Nottinghamshire were in the perilous position of 14 for 5 until David Hussey (30) and Gareth Clough rescued their innings somewhat to haul their side up to 91.It was never a total Lancashire could fear, though, and thanks to a powerful unbeaten 62 from Stuart Law, they were home by seven wickets with overs to spare.

After continuous suspense for the last 48 hours the Indian board’s AGM has finally begun in Kolkata. Central minister Sharad Pawar was nominated as candidate for the post of president by the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association.All of yesterday, the opposing lobby supporting Pawar had accused the ruling dispensation under Jagmohan Dalmiya and Ranbir Singh Mahendra of trying to scupper the elections. With the leaking of Greg Chappell’s scathing email on Saurav Ganguly sent to the BCCI to a Bengali daily, supposedly close to Dalmiya, another dimension has been added to the snowballing crisis in Indian cricket.But even as the AGM gets underway the Dalmiya-Mahendra faction have filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court seeking its adjournment. Their argument is that the three observers appointed by the court do not have the right to overrule decisions made by the board president at least in the conduct of the AGM.On Thursday, the Kolkata High Court had stayed the AGM which was originally scheduled for 12.30 PM yesterday. Justice Soumitra Sen ruled that a three member panel – comprising former chief justices of India K N Singh and M M Punthi, and retired Supreme Court justice S C Sen — will act as observers and preside over the election process.The AGM did assemble briefly yesterday with one of the observers — Justice S C Sen — in the chair but was later adjourned. The official version is that the meeting has been adjourned and will be held again after the other two observers arrive in town. The opposing lobby has, on the other hand, said that the meeting could only have been “adjourned” if it had been convened in the first place.In his ruling Justice Soumitra Sen has ordered that all disputes regarding eligibility and disqualification of voters for the BCCI elections would be decided by the three-member panel before the election begins. In case of differences in opinion among the observers, the majority decision would be valid, the judge added. According to Justice Sen the entire problem is a result of the absence of specific and clear election rules.Pawar, who had lost a closely-fought election to the present incumbent Ranbir Singh Mahendra last year, has decided to contest again.According to PTI, Farooq Abdullah, president of the JKCA which has nominated Pawar, “A good consensus was worked out 15 days back. It was decided that Mahendra will continue for another year following which Pawar would take over the reigns in 2006. The Dalmiya group initially agreed to it but later went back on its word and said that they wanted Mahendra to be in the post till he completed his three-year tenure.”Earlier, the Madras High Court had dismissed a petition filed by a Chennai-based club thus initally paving the way for the elections to be held today itself.The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, run by AC Muthiah, who are opposed to the present dispensation run by Dalmiya, had moved the Madras High Court to pre-empt Mahendra from crucially tilting the scales by being both chair and candidate for the AGM. But the Kolkata-based Kalighat Club, affiliated to the Dalmiya-led Cricket Association of Bengal moved the Calcutta High Court and got it to appoint an observer of its own.

Australia vice-captain Tahlia McGrath has admitted she is going through the toughest period of her career, low on confidence after a difficult World Cup.Left without a ODI or T20 World Cup trophy for the first time in eight years, Australia return to the field in February with a home multi-format series against India.Dumped out of the ODI World Cup by eventual-champions India in the semi-finals last month, Australia’s next global event is a T20 World Cup in England in June.McGrath finds herself at an interesting juncture, having deputised for Alyssa Healy and led the team 15 times since 2022. She and Ashleigh Gardner are the two main options to replace Healy as captain when the wicketkeeper retires.But at the same time McGrath is open with her own form struggles, after limited opportunities with bat and ball in a World Cup where she scored 69 runs at 13.75.”Cricket’s a pretty brutal game and it’s very much based around confidence,” McGrath said.  “And when it’s not going your way, the world gets pretty big on you. I definitely underperformed and felt the pressure a bit.”Asked if it had been the toughest period of her career, the 30-year-old indicated it was.”Probably. I think you add captaincy into that, you add time away from home,” McGrath said. “And, obviously, when you lose a World Cup, it’s pretty hard to get over as well. It’s been a challenging time.”As much as I was doing everything possible to get us playing some finals cricket [in the WBBL], I was hanging out for a bit of a break.”McGrath opted against nominating for next month’s WPL in India, allowing her a rare stint with South Australia before the multi-format series against India.She has also refrained from picking up a bat since the WBBL ended a fortnight ago, ahead of 50-over cricket resuming for South Australia next month.”It’s properly distancing myself at the moment,” she said. “There’s not much point in me picking up a bat.”I wouldn’t achieve much. So, it’s get away from the game, go for walks along the beach, play a bit of golf, see some friends and family.  And just refresh, get that energy back and put in the work after Christmas.”McGrath has spent the past year adapting to playing as a No.7 in ODIs and No.6 in T20Is, leaving her batting in just half of Australia’s World Cup games. But the desire remains to go back up the order, where she has previously starred.”I’m a very team-first person, and love being in the XI and contributing,” McGrath said. “I haven’t quite nailed that No.7 spot, so I probably need to go away and do a bit of work on that and make that my own first of all. Then once I can do that, try and get myself up the order.”

Chris Rogers has confirmed he will play for Victoria in 2008-09, ending days of speculation after he left Western Australia and was chased by the Bushrangers, South Australia and Queensland. The announcement completes an eventful week for Rogers, who was axed from Cricket Australia’s 25-man squad of contracted players on Wednesday.Rogers left the Warriors because he felt “stale” after a decade in Perth. He was also frustrated by the lack of opportunities he was given in their one-day side, which contributed to him losing his national contract as he was considered a Test-only player.”The decision to leave the WACA and my home town of Perth was not one I made lightly,” Rogers said. “I have many fond memories of my time there and wish to thank all those who have helped me achieve what I have so far in my career.”Equally, I’m looking forward to a fresh start with Victoria. They’ve proved they’re a quality side in making each of the three interstate finals and I’m really keen to make a strong contribution to the top order, and more generally within the squad. I feel I have plenty to offer the Bushrangers and will also be doing my best to create further opportunities with the Australian team.”Rogers, 30, made his Test debut at the WACA in January, scoring 4 and 15. He finished the Pura Cup season with 744 runs at 43.76 in 2007-08, a year after compiling an imposing 1202 runs at 70.70. However, the national selectors chose only two specialist openers in their squad for the next year, Phil Jaques and Matthew Hayden, and they believe other contracted players like Simon Katich, Shaun Marsh and Brad Hodge could also step into the role.Rogers, who is in England preparing for a county season with Derbyshire, adds significant strength to Victoria’s top order. The Bushrangers lost the Pura Cup final to New South Wales and their opening combination was the least stable part of the side all summer.Cameron White, the Victoria captain, said Rogers would be a valuable addition. “The top of the order in four-day cricket is somewhere we’ve probably struggled to find some consistency,” White said. “Hopefully he would give us that. He’s a player that’s played Test cricket for Australia now, he’s a proven player.”David Hussey, one of the state’s middle-order stars, described Rogers as a “classy batsman”. “[He is a] quality player, quality bloke,” Hussey said, “and would fit into our culture perfectly.”