Cricket: Danger man poses threat

ENGLAND WILL face a player who scored two 50s on his first- class debut in his only previous appearance against them when they take on Zimbabwe in a Wills International Cup warm- up match today. England were on the 1994 Ashes tour when Murray Goodwin twice went past the half-century mark for Western Australia in Perth after being thrown in at the deep end.

Now Goodwin, born in Zimbabwe but brought up Down Under, wants to show the kind of form he has produced in Test cricket - an average of 55 since his debut in January - against Adam Hollioake's one-day side.

Goodwin, who also averages 45 in limited-overs internationals, said: "It was a great feeling to make my debut against an international team and face bowlers like Devon Malcolm, Phil DeFreitas, Martin McCague and Joey Benjamin."

Hollioake is desperate to play today after the last two scheduled practice sessions at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday were washed out. His side face South Africa on Sunday and he admitted: "We have had a short period of time to try and get things going, but the two practice matches will help and in between we will practice hard to get a good team spirit going.

"The squad is young and very keen and what you sometimes lack in experience you can make up for with enthusiasm."

Andrew Symonds, Australia's English-born ex-Gloucestershire batsman, yesterday replaced the injured Tom Moody in his country's squad for the ICC Trophy tournament in Bangladesh.

Moody was forced to withdraw after aggravating a knee injury suffered during the Commonwealth Games tournament in Kuala Lumpur.

Symonds will make his international debut in the limited overs competition - a mini-World Cup involving all nine Test-playing nations - which gets under way in Dhaka on Saturday.

Symonds, who hit four Sheffield Shield centuries last season, will join other squad members Adam Gilchrist, Brendon Julian and Damien Martyn on a flight on Sunday immediately after the final day of the Queensland v West Australia Sheffield Shield match.

AUSTRALIA SQUAD: S R Waugh (capt), M E Waugh, M G Bevan, D W Fleming, A C Gilchrist, B P Julian, M S Kasprowicz, D S Lehmann, D R Martyn , G D McGrath, R T Ponting, G R Robertson, A Symonds, B Young.