Fit-again Australian paceman Doug Bollinger said yesterday he intends keeping quiet and letting key England batsman Kevin Pietersen’s ego get him out in next month’s Ashes series.
Left-armer Bollinger, who has recovered from a stomach muscle strain, has a reputation of sledging batsmen, but has his own plans to counter the dynamic hitting of Pietersen should he be selected to share the new ball.
He intends clamming up when bowling to Pietersen as he believes his sledging will only fire up the aggressive middle-order batsman.
“I don’t think I will say much to Kevin Pietersen because I think that’s what he likes,” Bollinger told reporters. “I think I might put him off his game by not saying anything and let his ego get him out.”
However, Bollinger admitted he would not be reticent in letting England’s other batsmen know his feelings in the heat of an Ashes battle.
“I tend to say a lot of things when I get angry and get a bit upset, and a bit hot and flustered, but we’re playing for the Ashes,” Bollinger said. “It’s a massive thing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to be part of my whole life and I’m sure it is for everyone else.”
Bollinger said he was over the stomach strain that forced him out of the second Test in India this month and was planning on a return to cricket in a fortnight.
HUGHES OUSTED
AFP, SYDNEY
Former Test fast bowler Merv Hughes has lost his place on Australia’s selection panel, Cricket Australia announced yesterday.
Hughes was squeezed out after the recent appointment of former Test skipper Greg Chappell as the country’s first full-time national talent manager and with it a role as a selector.
Cricket Australia’s board of directors yesterday unanimously confirmed the composition of the four-man panel, with David Boon, Chappell and Jamie Cox joining part-time chairman Andrew Hilditch. Following a meeting in Melbourne, the board said that four selectors was now the most appropriate size for the panel.
“After feedback from panel chairman Andrew Hilditch during today’s [Friday’s] meeting, the board unanimously decided that David Boon, Jamie Cox and Greg Chappell were the best people to join him on the four-member panel,” Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.
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