Graham Manou replaces injured Paine for remaining ODI’s

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: October 30, 2009

commentComment     Email This Post Email This Post     Printable version

New Delhi: South Australian Graham Manou will be flying down to India to join the Australian team, replacing the injured Tim Paine who broke his finger during Australia’s drubbing in the second one-dayer. Manou is due to fly to Delhi on Thursday night and will land in time for the third one-dayer of the seven match series to be played in New Delhi on Saturday.

Manou was busy watching movies when the news was announced that Paine will be returning back home. He went to the state training as usual and ran into Jamie Cox, a national selector, who asked him to pack his bags and get ready to go to India.

“It’s straight into the cauldron of one of the toughest environments in world cricket,” he said. “It’s going to be a fantastic challenge and hopefully I can learn from it and bring the experience back to our group.” He will also be able to pass on some tips to his partner Tamsyn Lewis, the middle-distance runner, who is looking towards the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year.

“After this experience and the Ashes, you could say you could be pretty happy, but I’ll certainly be wanting more,” he said. “Fingers crossed this part of the tour goes well.”

Manou, 30, is a Cricket Australia contracted player. He last played in the Ashes series early this year when Brad Haddin got injured. His call up will now allow Shaun Marsh to go back to the top of the order and Manou can bat in the lower middle order. Paine has done well in whatever opportunities he has got at opening the batting, preventing a quick return for Marsh after a series of hamstring injuries. He fractured a ring finger taking a Peter Siddle delivery in the 99-run loss to India on Wednesday.

“Graham richly deserves this opportunity following his Ashes debut and his successful domestic season last year in all forms of the game,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. The main competition for Manou came from Chris Hartley, who was called to play a tour game in England when both Haddin and Manou were injured.

Hartley has started at the top of the order in Queensland’s past two FR Cup matches and posted half-centuries, but the selectors have kept faith in Manou. The South Australian captain is a middle order batsman and is considered one of the best wicket-keepers in Australia.

Haddin is not quite ready for international responsibilities after a finger surgery following the injury he picked up in England and will play instead in a one-day match for New South Wales on Sunday. “It is premature for Brad to resume cricket for Australia,” Hilditch said, “having not played first-class cricket since The Oval Ashes Test.”

Paine’s injury adds to a horror run for the Australians, who have concerns over Brett Lee and James Hopes, and had Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken and Callum Ferguson unavailable for the tour.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


WPSN comments




Related News Headlines

Cricketain Latest