Hot shot Warner happy to rest for tough India Test – New Zealand want run-out review after odd dismissal

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SYDNEY, Jan 24, (Agencies): Australia’s player of the year David Warner has welcomed a rest before touring India next month saying it’s tough preparing for sub-continental conditions. Warner, who won back-to-back Allan Border medals on Monday night, has been excuseda from the three one-day games in New Zealand starting next week aft er a hectic southern summer. “We’re running ragged in the outfi eld … we’re giving everything we can, and I’ve run as hard as I can for every ball,” the 30-year-old told reporters after the medal ceremony. “So that does take its toll,” the opening batsman added.

Warner said he would fl y out on February 5, “So I’ve got a bit of time at home which is great”. “I’m grateful that you know Cricket Australia allowing me to get over some little niggles and having a little bit of rest at home to get me ready for India and there’s no excuses there.” Australia has won Test and one-day series against Pakistan aft er losses to South Africa and a tough tour of Sri Lanka and Warner admitted to feeling the strain. “I felt probably the fi rst two especially one-dayers this series with Pakistan, I’ve felt quite, not lazy, but my feet weren’t moving,” he said.

“Sometimes they don’t move at all, but they were just quite fatigued. Australia face Pakistan in Adelaide in their fi nal one-dayer on Th ursday having already wrapped up the series 3-1. With a need to get on the front foot batting in India, Warner said he could look forward to training aft er the break. “We are going to be working our backsides off physically and mentally as well before we even think about playing the game of cricket (in India),” the vice-captain said. “Th at’s what gets you mentally tough and ready for those conditions. It’s not the wicket it’s not the opposition, the conditions.

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New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has called for a review of run-out rules following the bizarre dismissal of Neil Wagner in the second Test against Bangladesh. Wagner grounded his bat before the ball hit the wickets but was given out because he had no part of his body nor bat on the ground when the bails came off . In the fraction of a second it took for the bails to be dislodged he was midstride with both feet in the air and had lift ed the bat off the ground. “It seems a little bit unfair,” Hesson said Tuesday, although the decision did not impact on the outcome of the game as New Zealand went on to win by nine wickets. Th e New Zealand argument was that if the bat touching the ground behind the line completes a single if the batsmen turn for another run, then it should also complete the single if it is the end of the scoring movement. “When your bat bounces over the line, once you’ve made your ground, that’s not really what the run-out’s all about,” Hesson said. “I personally think it (the rule) needs a bit of tinkering.”

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Former England batsman and current Glamorgan chief executive Hugh Morris has pitched for the inclusion of a Wales-based team in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) proposed new Twenty20 cricket competition. Plans to introduce an eight-team, city-based Twenty20 tournament have been pushed back until at least 2020, but Glamorgan told the BBC that having a team based in Cardiff would help boost the sport’s profi le in the country. “Th e growth and development of the game in Wales could be driven by this new competition,” the former test batsman said. “Th ere are one or two hurdles, but I fi rmly believe it’s the way to go.” “We’re going to fi ght really hard. We are the ‘Wales’ in the ‘England and Wales Cricket Board’. We have over three million people in the country and we feel there are audiences not engaged with cricket we can entice into the game.”

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Former Australian Test opener Chris Rogers is to return to English county championship side Somerset as both batting coach and player mentor for three months. Th e 39-year-old — who played 25 Tests scoring fi ve centuries of which four were against England — skippered Somerset to within a hairs breadth of their fi rst county championship last year — only to be denied by Middlesex. Rogers — whose contract with Somerset runs from March to June subject to his being granted a work visa — retired as a player aft er that narrow miss

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