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Outgoing spinner unsure about Test candidates
Hogg tips Cullen and Hauritz for ODI spot
Brydon Coverdale
February 27, 2008
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Nathan Hauritz has won a vote of confidence from Brad Hogg, who believes the New South Wales offspinner can replace him in Australia's one-day team
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The retiring Brad Hogg believes Dan Cullen and Nathan Hauritz will vie to be Australia's No. 1 limited-overs spinner in his absence, but he has no idea who should take the spot in Tests. Hogg, who is the incumbent after appearing in the series against India, would like a younger man to be given the chance in the five-day format.
"It's hard to say," he said when asked about his replacement. "There's young talent around. If a young fella gets a go and he knows he's going to get a real decent crack at it, anything can happen. Sometimes you perform better at international level than your state level. Just rising to occasions, some people love that bigger occasion."
The only slow bowler regularly troubling batsmen in the Pura Cup is Victoria's Bryce McGain, who turns 36 next month, while Stuart MacGill will be in contention when he fully recovers from his wrist problem. Cullen is in and out of South Australia's four-day squad, the Cricket Australia-contracted Cullen Bailey can't get a game for the Redbacks, and Beau Casson is preferred over Hauritz in the New South Wales Pura Cup team.
"At the end of the day, I leave, Warney left, you just have to make do with the stocks that you've got," Hogg said at the MCG. "Someone might come out like a Shane Warne and blitz international cricket. You never know what's around the corner."
While Hogg's position in the Test side was never permanent, he was the first choice in one-day internationals since his elevation in 2003 when Warne was suspended for drug use. He thinks it will be an offspinner who takes that role in the immediate future and hopes the selectors do not chop and change too much.
"Dan Cullen's bowling pretty well, and I think Nathan Hauritz from New South Wales has had a particularly good couple of years in one-day cricket," he said. "He was around at the time when Warney was having his injuries and so forth and it was between me and him at the time.
"It would be nice for him to get a run because he missed out back then. The selectors are going to have to bite the bullet and give someone a real good crack at it."
Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo
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