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Opener ruled out for up to six weeks with injury suffered in Cape Town Test

Danyal Rasool04-Jan-2025Pakistan have suffered a significant blow after Saim Ayub was ruled out for “up to six weeks” with a right ankle fracture, sustained during the first morning of the Test in Cape Town.The diagnosis rules him out of Pakistan’s two Test matches against the West Indies later this month, as well as a tri-series against South Africa and New Zealand at home in February. It also means he is in a race against time to be fit for the Champions Trophy, which begins in Karachi in just over six weeks.The PCB said an MRI scan conducted on Friday “confirmed the fracture, which has been immobilised in an ankle medical moon boot”. Ayub will remain with the team until the end of the Test.Ayub had to be stretchered off the pitch in just the seventh over of the match, when Ryan Rickelton edged a delivery through the slips, sending Ayub off on a chase to deep third alongside Aamer Jamal. Jamal pulled it back in as Ayub stood poised to be the relay fielder, but lost his balance and twisted his ankle. He went down immediately and appeared in anguish holding the lower part of his leg as the physio rushed on.Despite prolonged treatment outside the boundary line, Ayub was unable to put any weight on his right ankle, and appeared to be in tears as he was placed on to a stretcher and taken off. He was later seen on crutches in the medical boot.The last few months have seen Ayub establish him as an all-format star for Pakistan, playing crucial roles in ODI series wins away in Australia, Zimbabwe as well as here in South Africa, where two hundreds in three matches saw him named the Player of the Series.

ECB chief executive cites market dynamics for growing gender pay gap amid PCA critcism

Vithushan Ehantharajah13-Dec-2024Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, says English cricket must not apologise for attracting the world’s best men’s players, as he faced down claims from the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) that Thursday’s upheaval to the Hundred’s pay structure for the 2025 season will only benefit overseas players.Top salaries in the men’s Hundred will rise from £125,000 to £200,000 (a 60% increase) and £100,000 to £120,000 (20%) for the second tier. However, the other four salary bands, which cover all but four players in 15-man squads, will receive hikes of between 3 and 5%.The announcement was greeted with disdain by the PCA, with interim-chief executive Daryl Mitchell stating he was “extremely concerned” at how the changes had been pushed through. Having been part of initial talks on how the injection of money would be spread across the board for the upcoming competition, Mitchell believed Thursday’s news reflected “a severe lack of communication and consultation”.Tymal Mills and Sam Billings, two players who have been ever-present since the Hundred’s inaugural season in 2021, took to X to voice their concerns. Billings, who captained Oval Invincibles to successive men’s titles, said: “Remarkable how a category gets a 60% increase yet most others get under 5%… Who has come up with this???”Speaking on Friday in Hamilton ahead of England’s third and final Test against New Zealand, Gould admitted he was taken aback by the PCA’s criticism, stating it was “not what I want to hear”. However, he held an unapologetic line about lifting the top brackets to court the best talent in the world, arguing that the dissenting voices had come from a “small section of male players”.”I don’t accept that,” Gould said, when asked if the top pay packets are almost exclusively reserved for overseas talent. “Because that band also includes central- and potentially contracted (England) players, so you’ve effectively got through that top band. And so, no, I don’t accept that at all.”Competition from overseas leagues, including Major League Cricket in the USA, has been a factor in the ECB’s approach to top-tier salaries, with Pat Cummins admitting to ESPNcricinfo that he hadn’t considered the Hundred when signing a lucrative four-year deal with San Francisco Unicorns last year.”This is a global market. We want the best players, irrespective of nationality. If you’re the best player, you’ll be paid the most,” Gould added. “You only have to look at the IPL and the differential and the spread. And if you look back over the last couple of years, we haven’t had as many of the best players in the world that we wanted in the men’s. We want more, and we’re not going to be apologetic in terms of our ambition to get them here.”Once we’re there, then the money is much easier to spread it throughout the squad. It is a very, very competitive market for a very small number of players, and we are not going to be pushed aside on that. We are going to compete, and we have to compete because we need the best players playing in our competition.”Gould also countered the PCA’s suggestions the ECB are guilty of widening the gender pay gap between the men’s and women’s competitions, citing market forces. While the top women’s bracket has increased by 30 percent, they will be earning three times less than their male counterparts. Next year, the difference in pay will have risen from £75,000 to £135,000.In 2022, the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) called for gender pay parity in the Hundred by 2025. The ECB pushed back on the timeframe as unrealistic in its response to the report, which Gould reiterated.”The gap has got bigger because of market dynamics,” he said. “That wasn’t a recommendation we said we could deliver on and we have been very up front on that. We have seen a significant increase in the salaries we have been able to put into the women’s game.”I’m really looking forward to the point that every county club in the country now has a women’s team. You know, I think in five years’ time, we’ll look back and go, ‘How did it take us this long?’ But I think that’s a really, really significant step for us.”Related

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Relations between the ECB and PCA are at an all-time low with disagreement over Hundred salaries following dissent over an issue regarding a new, more stringent No Object Certificate (NOC) policy.A group of domestic players have been blindsided by what they deem as legislation that restrict their earning opportunities. Those hamstrung by the new regulations are ones who have red-ball commitments written into their existing county deals.Though no NOCs have been rejected yet, with 80 handed out to male players in 2024 so far, a group of around 50 cricketers have floated the prospect of strike action in the form of boycotting the 2025 Hundred.Gould accepts there is nuance to the latest NOC stance, particularly for white-ball players with ad hoc agreements with their clubs. Tom Curran, for instance, has been on a white-ball contract with Surrey since 2022, but made two County Championship at the end of the 2024 season as the club negotiated other absences.Nevertheless, Gould believes the updated measures will “protect the sanctity” of county contracts. He also hopes a boycott does not come to fruition.”That may have been discussed on a call with with a variety of representatives, but I’ve heard nothing in that regard and I sincerely hope that’s that’s not the case.”

Fast bowler left out of table-toppers’ opening two T20 fixtures after fallow recent form

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2024Issy Wong, the England fast bowler, has joined Western Storm on loan for the Charlotte Edwards Cup after she was left out of the Central Sparks team for their first two matches of their T20 campaign.Wong, who turned 22 last week, played for England as recently as September and featured for Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League in March. But after a quiet start to the season in the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, she was not selected by the Sparks for their opening T20 fixtures and has pursued a move away.The ECB – who are Wong’s primary employer, as a centrally-contracted player – have approved her loan move to ensure she will be playing competitive cricket. Storm said in a statement: “The ECB have sanctioned the move to ensure fast bowler Wong is able to maximise her playing time over the coming weeks.”Wong played all three formats for England in the 2022 summer at the age of 20 and was one of the stars of the inaugural season of the WPL, taking 15 wickets to help Mumbai Indians to the title – including a hat-trick in the eliminator. But she has struggled for consistency since and has lost her place in England’s squads.This season, she has taken three wickets at 56.33 in five Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy fixtures and has also featured for an ECB Development XI against the touring Pakistan squad. She was a surprise omission from the Sparks’ T20 side, though they have won their opening two fixtures.Wong is likely to play a more prominent role for a Storm side who have lost their opening two matches and are currently without Lauren Filer, who is on England duty. She will also target more opportunities with the bat, having spent most of this season batting at No. 8 in 50-over cricket.

Ash Gardner: “We are really confident of being able to set any type of score and chase any down”

Andrew McGlashan07-Jul-2022Australia will look to push their boundaries in the T20 game with the format dominating the schedule over the next eight months, starting with the historic Commonwealth Games appearance at the end of July then building towards the defence of their T20 World Cup in South Africa in February 2023.The team, under new interim head coach Shelley Nitschke following Matthew Mott’s departure for the England men’s white-ball job, get back on the road next week when they head to Ireland for a tri-series involving the hosts and Pakistan which will provide preparation for the Games in Birmingham.While there has been significant change in the coaching staff – Ben Sawyer has also moved to coach New Zealand – the playing group remains the same as the one which secured the ODI World Cup in New Zealand. Australia’s dominant performances in that competition, where they went unbeaten and capped it off by scoring 356 for 5 in the final against England, were another example of how they have pushed themselves to new levels and it’s something they want to continue.Related

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“We’ve certainly spoken about it,” allrounder Ashleigh Gardner told ESPNcricinfo. “We haven’t really come to conclusions on what that total is that we are looking at, but I think 160 in most games, five or six years ago, would win you pretty much every match, where now because the women’s game has grown so much, 160 is a good total but it’s also chaseable.”I think we are probably looking at that as a minimum then if we try to push the boat out for 180 and be really clear how we want to chase those totals as well. With the side we have, we are really confident of being able to set any type of score and chase any down.”Shelley Nitschke has taken over the head coach role from Matthew Mott, but Australia’s overall philosophy is unlikely to change too much•Getty Images

Since January 2018, Australia have an average scoring rate of 8.37 when batting first in T20Is (which for a full 20 overs would equate to 167) while overall their figure is 7.90 runs per over. They twice scored 226 in that period (against England and Sri Lanka) and in the last T20 World Cup final they made 184 for 4 against India, but perhaps just as significant was their chase in the first Ashes T20I against England in January when they hunted down 170 with three overs to spare.”It’s something we have spoken about as a group and also within our skill groups as well, in terms of how do we get that little bit better and push the boundaries that little bit more than we have in the past,” captain Meg Lanning said. “We have got a couple of things we have been working on both as a team and individually as well.”It is going to look and feel slightly different with Shell in charge as opposed to Motty. But both [have] similar messaging in terms of how we want to play the game, take the game on, we certainly want to go out there and be aggressive and play with a lot of freedom.”On a personal level, Gardner is looking to tailor her game to the big challenges ahead which is two T20 prizes and the need to rejuvenate Sydney Sixers in the WBBL after missing the finals for the last three seasons.”Within in the Australia set-up it’s more like an enforcer role, whether it’s late in the innings, or to break open the game, or put the icing on it,” she said. “How I execute it each game will be different with the situation, but it’s about just having a really clear and simple mindset in those roles. They are quite challenging at times because people expect a lot of you to score boundaries as soon as you get out there.”The squad has had two training camps in Brisbane leading into heading overseas which has been a chance for everyone to settle in under Nitschke’s watch. A permanent appointment will not be made until later in the year although she remains the favourite.”I know the type of people who will probably apply for the job. Many coaches would want to be associated with our team because of how successful we’ve been and the players in there,” Gardner said. “Shell’s a great candidate as well, I’m really excited for her over this next little period, just being able to be the head coach with no real pressure of those job interviews and things like that. Hopefully we can put on some good displays of cricket for her and showcase what kind of coach she is.”And there’s the chance for a bit of history. “I know [the Commonwealth Games] is not something anyone thought they’d probably ever be involved in,” she said. “It’s going to be quite a cool experience to go over there and be part of Team Australia, and it not just be the cricket world but the whole sporting nation.”

Late drop cannot detract from Gloucestershire talisman’s fine all-round performance

ECB Reporters Network10-Apr-2022Ryan Higgins missed a caught-and-bowled chance in the final over as a thrilling LV=Insurance County Championship clash between Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire ended in a draw.Higgins, who had earlier made 139 as Gloucestershire set the hosts 299 to win, struck in successive balls to remove first Lewis McManus and then Gareth Berg as a nail-biting chase came down to the final over.Prior to his double strike Gloucestershire had six fielders on the boundary in the wake of an onslaught led by Rob Keogh’s 74 and Josh Cobb’s 36, but they finished with five slips in a late quest for victory.However, Higgins spilt a drive by Tom Taylor with four balls left and Northamptonshire hung on to deny the visitors on their return to Division One for the first time since 2005.Northamptonshire must also wait for their first win at this level since 2004, despite Saif Zaib’s 65 and Keogh’s heroics for the second time in the match having left them 66 off as many balls ahead of the breathless finish.Earlier, Ben Sanderson took three wickets including that of Higgins, returning 5 for 66 to set up the thrilling run chase.Gloucestershire began on 326 for 6 with centurion Higgins still at the crease, but perhaps conscious they would be a bowler light due to Naseem Shah’s shoulder injury, they showed precious little sign of wanting to press on towards a declaration.Higgins struck one early boundary but was otherwise becalmed by Sanderson who trapped the allrounder lbw for 139, before having Taylor caught behind.Zafar Gohar struck a glorious on-drive to go to 50, but Nathan Buck pinned him in front and Sanderson had Naseem caught in the deep to complete his fifer.Northamptonshire skipper Ricardo Vasconcelos got the chase off to a flyer with a couple of glorious drives and it wasn’t long before Gloucestershire turned to Gohar in search of inspiration. Bowling into the rough outside left-hander Emilio Gay’s off stump, Gohar unsettled the academy graduate.Taylor then struck on the stroke of lunch finding the edge of Vasconcelos’s bat to give James Bracey his sixth catch of the game. On the resumption, Gohar and Taylor cranked up the pressure with 36 dot balls, Gay top-edging an attempted sweep off the spinner just beyond the clutches of a fielder in a bid to break the shackles.Pressure told when Gay nicked one through to give Bracey, while Curran took 22 balls to get of the mark, making a skittish 18 before Gohar trapped him lbw.Gloucestershire couldn’t seize the moment, Keogh’s presence bringing a new calmness to Zaib as the pair regrouped before unfurling a string of boundaries immediately after tea which brought 40 runs in six overs as they began to sense an unlikely win.An eighth four took Zaib to a seventh first-class 50, but Miles Hammond interrupted the carnage somehow clinging onto a skier to end the allrounder’s innings on 65.Keogh kept up the charge hoisting Gohar over square leg for six to reach a second 50 of the match before the spinner gave him a life on 57 failing to hold on to a sharp caught and bowled opportunity.The reprieve appeared decisive as he and Cobb rattled up a 50-stand, but with victory in sight Gohar got Keogh to play too soon and chip a catch to mid-off.Cobb assumed the mantle, clubbing Gohar over long-on, only to perish trying to repeat the shot before the dramatic finale unfolded.

Nottinghamshire looked a different side to that spoken of as pre-season title contenders as their struggle for survival continued at Scarborough

Paul Edwards at Scarborough19-Aug-2019
The water is up to Nottinghamshire’s neck and very soon it will be little use their cricketers opposing the knock of the tide. So much was clear at tea on the second day of this game after Yorkshire’s openers had successfully extended their side’s 48-run first innings lead to 109 with a partnership that scarcely raised a ripple on the surface of the game.By close of play the advantage was 225 and Yorkshire should have wickets to spend in the search for quick runs sometime on the third afternoon. Having dismissed their hesitant visitors for 184 in the first half of the day, Steve Patterson’s team have now done the groundwork for the victory that will sustain their hopes of the title.And something like an hour after the cricketers had left the ground sleek, dark-suited figures were stalking across the outfield at North Marine Road as they made their way to the great marquee where a dinner celebrating this 133rd festival is being held. Scarborough has always been generous to Yorkshire cricket even in the relatively rare years when the White Rose did not prosper here. The talk this mellow evening will be of Fred and Brian, of Ray and Geoff, but perhaps there will also be a word for the current team who remain in the hunt for another pennant, even in a year when their performances have not forked lightning in the manner of their predecessors.So perhaps the diners will recall this day’s cricket, too. They might recall that while Duanne Olivier had bowled capably for his four wickets, Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance’s 108-run partnership had given them even more satisfaction in the perfect evening sunlight. Lyth’s cover-driving remains one of the joys of the English game and the only sorrow for neutrals was his dismissal for 81, caught at short fine leg off Liam Patterson-White, two overs before the close. Ballance, though, is unbeaten on 52 and one cannot be sanguine about the visitors’ prospects tomorrow afternoon.For already it seems clear that Nottinghamshire will have to score the biggest total of the match in order to win it. One’s mind went back to this second morning when Chris Nash’s batsmen had hopes of securing their own winning position. Those notions were all but destroyed in the first session when the visitors scored 90 runs but lost six wickets, some of them frittered on the sea air. It has been a theme of what is set to be a relegation season.And thoughts even returned to Cambridge in late March when Ben Duckett and Ben Slater put on 325 for their team’s first wicket. Yes, it was only the students, but the runs were far from given away. There was the heady scent of blossom in the city but hardly a tree was in the slightest leaf. Some folk were talking of Steven Mullaney’s team as title contenders. When did it become clear that four-day honours were not to be theirs? “Who turned the page?” asked the poet, Ian Hamilton. Perhaps things are never that clear in an English summer.Yet so much is right at Trent Bridge these days, apart from the cricket. The county boasts one of the finest yet most intimate grounds in the country and they are not short of money. Supporters pitch in, too. When officials decided not to continue with a yearbook the Nottingham Cricket Lovers’ Society stepped in and published the 2019 annual. It is a fine and modestly priced piece of work and one hopes it is continued but God knows what it will say about this year. One thinks of the lines Roy Campbell addressed to “Some South African Novelists”: “They use the snaffle and the curb all right, / But where’s the bloody horse?”There are Nottingham supporters at Scarborough, just as there were at Newclose and Tunbridge Wells this season. If they haven’t greatly enjoyed the cricket, they have at least visited some wonderful grounds. But such excursions are all the more pleasurable when your team is playing well and supporters from Caythorpe or Cuckney were right to be disappointed by the dismissals which smirched the morning. Slater can be excused; he was caught behind off Ben Coad’s first ball of the morning, a delivery which compelled the defensive push only to punish it with an edge to Jonny Tattersall.Others were culpable. Jake Libby’s ugly drive at a wideish ball from Olivier merely deflected the ball onto his off stump. Nash appeared in dominant form when hitting his seven fours but then played too soon at Olivier and was caught and bowled; he left after patting the pitch reproachfully. Joe Clarke prodded at a ball too far from his body and edged Coad to Tattersall; Duckett tried to cut a ball from Keshav Maharaj and was bowled off his pad. None of the errors glared at orthodoxy but they were enough. It is often the way when you are in the toils.There was respite for visiting supporters, though. It arrived in the combative form of Tom Moores, who hit Maharaj for a straight six before lunch and then twice more to the Popular Bank early in the afternoon session. Moores also took three fours off one Maharaj over and while he was batting there seemed a possibility that Nottinghamshire might achieve parity. But after making 48 off 49 balls he pushed jerkily at a ball from Olivier and nicked a catch to Tattersall. It had been an enjoyable innings but not one to change the shape of the game.For that we had to wait for Lyth and Ballance and their easeful strokes across a crystal evening.

A round-up of the Dhaka Premier League matches played on April 27, 2017

Mohammad Isam27-Apr-2017Prime Bank Cricket Club joined Gazi Group Cricketers at the top of the Dhaka Premier League points table after crushing Victoria Sporting Club by 130 runs at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar. Victoria are one of two teams who are still without a win in the league so far.
Mehedi Maruf’s third List-A century propped up Prime Bank to 283 after they elected to bat. He struck 12 boundaries and two sixes in his 103-ball 101. He added three 50-plus stands with fellow opener Nahidul Islam, their new Indian recruit Abhimanyu Easwaran and Zakir Hasan for the first, second and third wicket stands respectively, before falling in the 34th over.Victoria captain Monir Hossain took three wickets while Moinul Islam, Islamul Ahsan and Rubel Mia took two each. Victoria’s 284-chase didn’t take off, though. They lasted just 33.5 overs, with Shafiul Hayat’s 42 being the highest in the team’s 153 all out. Ariful Haque took three wickets while Al-Amin finished with two.Brothers Union took only three hours and 27 minutes to dismantle Partex Sporting Club and romp to a seven-wicket win at the BKSP-3 ground in Savar. It was their first win of the season, while Partex slumped to their fourth defeat in a row.Batting first, Brothers Union took only 30.5 overs to dismiss Partex for 102, with Sazzadul Haque, the No. 8 batsman, top-scoring with 42. Left-arm spinner Nihaduzzaman took four wickets while Nayeem Hasan and Kazi Kamrul Islam, who turned himself into a left-arm spinner from being a left-arm quick midway through his career, took two wickets each.Brothers Union then took only 17.5 overs to complete the win. Farhad Hossain remained unbeaten on 35 off 36 balls with two fours and three sixes.Mohammedan Sporting Club went back to winning ways by beating Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan Samity by four wickets inFatullah.Batting first, Khelaghar were bowled out for 189 runs in 45.4 overs, with Robiul Islam Robi and Amit Majumder scoring a bulk of the runs . Robiul struck seven fours and a six in his 73-ball 63 while Majumder made 53 off 62 balls. Enamul Haque jnr took three wickets while there was two each for Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Mohammad Azim and Taijul Islam.Mohammedan finished up the chase in 44.5 overs with captain Raqibul Hasan anchoring a faltering chase with an unbeaten 76. They had slipped to 94 for five in the 21st over but Raqibul struck six fours and three sixes in his 92-ball innings, and shared a crucial 64-run unbroken seventh-wicket stand with Taijul – who contributed 14 important runs – to take his team to victory. Robiul took three wickets.

Batsman Lahiru Thirimanne has left Sri Lanka’s ongoing tour of England after sustaining a lower-back strain, which restricted his movement

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Jun-2016Batsman Lahiru Thirimanne has left Sri Lanka’s ongoing tour of England after sustaining a lower-back strain, which restricted his movement. Wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella, who was in England already with the A team, has joined the national squad as Thirimanne’s replacement. Thirimanne played all three Tests, but had not played in the ODIs – against Ireland or England – on the tour.Angelo Mathews and wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal are nursing hamstring injuries, but have been named in the XI for the third ODI in Bristol. An SLC statement said seam-bowling allrounder Farveez Maharoof is also “sporting an injury to his left hand”, though he too continues to play.Dickwella had been in Sri Lanka’s Test squad, but did not play a game. He has played one ODI – in India in 2014 – four Tests and three T20 internationals.

Neither of the three captains from Group B teams were short of confidence, but it was Ihsanullah, the Afghanistan Under-19 captain, who firmly said his team has set sights on the title

Mohammad Isam20-Jan-2016Neither of the three captains from Group B teams, Ihsanullah, Abraash Khan and Charith Asalanka, were short of confidence, but it was the Afghanistan Under-19 captain who firmly said that his team has set sights on the title.Ihsanullah, the younger brother of Nawroz Mangal, drew confidence from Afghanistan’s series win against Pakistan in October 2014, and said that the Under-19 side looked up to the senior team.”We beat Pakistan in their home so we hope we can beat them and top our group. We dream of winning the trophy, ,” Ihsanullah said. “Obviously, we are inspired by the national team and wish to play for them. Our future is so bright so now we are looking for this achievement. All our national players are heroes. There’s nothing in Afghanistan but cricket is getting very big, because of them.”Sri Lanka’s Asalanka, meanwhile, was wary of the expectations with his country having never won the Under-19 World Cup.”I think all teams will have target to win the World Cup,” he said. “I will have the responsibility to bring the trophy home. If I can, it will be for the first time, and it will be a big thing. I think it is a tough group. Canada, Afghanistan and Pakistan are good sides.”Abraash, the Canada captain, said that they were keen to get past the group stage for the first time and give a good account of themselves.
“Our goal is to make the second round in this tournament,” he said. I know Canada has played many World Cups in the past, I played in the last one.”We never made the second round. If we really believe in our preparations, we can make it. We don’t play that much cricket. Sometimes it is good to be an underdog. People don’t expect you to do well. We are trying to change opinions in the World Cup.”Abraash took inspiration from offspinner Nikhil Dutta who has featured in the BPL and CPL, and said that Canada’s participation in the regional tournament in West Indies held them in good stead.”Nikhil and I are from the same club. We have played in the same team, Abraash said.” It is good to see him making big strides and hopefully we can all follow his footsteps. We won one game out of six in the West Indies regional tournament. It was a good tournament to prepare for the World Cup because it is a step up for us.”Abraash also identified Davy Jacobs, who has played for Eagles, Free State and Mumbai Indians among other teams, as a key figure.”Davy Jacobs is in my club,” Abraash said. He is not with the national body but he is the head coach in the Ontario Cricket Academy. We trained with him all winter and played with him all summer as well.”

Ricky Ponting has called Michael Clarke a definite starter for Friday’s first Test against New Zealand in Wellington

Cricinfo staff13-Mar-2010Michael Clarke will join Australia’s Test squad in New Zealand on Monday after ending his personal leave to deal with the breakdown of his two-year engagement. Clarke has confirmed his departure with Cricket Australia and a spokesman told Cricinfo he would fly from Sydney on Monday morning with the five-day specialists.Clarke, the vice-captain, has been at home since leaving the one-day squad early last week and will be pleased to exit the intense local spotlight. Ricky Ponting is looking forward to getting his deputy back and Michael Hussey has said any sledging of Clarke’s personal situation by the New Zealanders would be “going a little bit too far”.”I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see really,” Hussey told reporters in Wellington. “He’s such a mentally tough person. He’ll be fine. It’s important we don’t get caught up in that by-play.”Phillip Hughes, Steven Smith, Simon Katich and Marcus North will fly to Wellington with Clarke, who finalised his travel plans with Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s deputy, over the weekend. Ponting is confident Clarke will not have any problems readjusting to life in the Test side and he is a definite starter at the Basin Reserve on Friday.”He’ll get himself prepared for the first Test,” Ponting said after losing the final match of the one-day series. “It’s obviously been a tough time for him the last few days at home.”All the guys here have given as much support as possible and he was given as much time as he needed to get everything sorted at home. He’ll come back for us as the vice-captain and an experienced player in the Test side.”