Danny
25-08-2005, 06:53 AM
Hopefully NOT a sign that McGrath is just getting too old for international cricket. Sure he's bowling is world class but that's no good if he can't get on the park at 100%.
McGrath injury a worry
By Robert Craddock
August 25, 2005
FOXSPORTS
AUSTRALIA'S cavalier plan to launch a smash and grab raid for the Ashes is in danger of backfiring because to an elbow injury to Glenn McGrath.
McGrath has a strained right elbow and remains under a cloud for tonight's fourth Ashes Test at rain-swept Trent Bridge. Though he is confident of playing, and probably will, there are major doubts over whether he will be at full capacity, a grave setback for Australia in a game in which they have chosen two strike bowlers, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait.
Australia was considering increasing the workload on McGrath and Shane Warne to allow the two expressmen to be unleashed in short attacking blitz's, so the injury is a savage blow to a team hoping to put the Ashes under lock and key with a win here.
Tait, 22, will complete the extraordinary rise from third grade bowler in South Australian district cricket to Test gamble within four years while Michael Kasprowicz will play if McGrath withdraws, meaning Jason Gillespie has slipped from second to fifth in the pace pecking order this tour.
McGrath felt soreness in his bowling elbow after the side's Tuesday training session and went to London for scans for an injury that flared during the last Test and again when he bowled a bouncer in the last tour game at Northamptonshire.
Scans revealed "irritation" but no major damage, but Australia physiotherapist Errol Alcott admitted there was a chance McGrath could aggravate the injury in the match.
"That's always an area of concern, starting a player with a problem, then it's always what can happen during a Test match," Alcott said.
"We don't want that situation to arise if we can avoid it."
Tait will be given a licence to hunt heads and thump toes at the birthplace of Bodyline bowling.
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And he will have no qualms about dispensing physical pain when he joins Lee in Australia's fastest pace pairing since Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson 30 years ago.
"You don't go out there and aim to kill the batsmen," said Tait, promoted an hour after he shattered Justin Langer's groin protector into five pieces with a wild full toss in the nets.
"But there's times when you need to hit the batsman to put him off his game and put the rest of the blokes coming in off their game.
"If the guys on the sidelines are seeing their blokes with their heads cut open and that sort of stuff they're not going to want to come out there."
England: M Trescothick, A Strauss, M Vaughan (c), I Bell, K Pietersen, A Flintoff, G Jones, A Giles, S Harmison, M Hoggard, S Jones.
Australia: J Langer, M Hayden, R Ponting (c), D Martyn, M Clarke, S Katich, A Gilchrist, S Warne, B Lee, S Tait, G McGrath.
The Courier-Mail
McGrath injury a worry
By Robert Craddock
August 25, 2005
FOXSPORTS
AUSTRALIA'S cavalier plan to launch a smash and grab raid for the Ashes is in danger of backfiring because to an elbow injury to Glenn McGrath.
McGrath has a strained right elbow and remains under a cloud for tonight's fourth Ashes Test at rain-swept Trent Bridge. Though he is confident of playing, and probably will, there are major doubts over whether he will be at full capacity, a grave setback for Australia in a game in which they have chosen two strike bowlers, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait.
Australia was considering increasing the workload on McGrath and Shane Warne to allow the two expressmen to be unleashed in short attacking blitz's, so the injury is a savage blow to a team hoping to put the Ashes under lock and key with a win here.
Tait, 22, will complete the extraordinary rise from third grade bowler in South Australian district cricket to Test gamble within four years while Michael Kasprowicz will play if McGrath withdraws, meaning Jason Gillespie has slipped from second to fifth in the pace pecking order this tour.
McGrath felt soreness in his bowling elbow after the side's Tuesday training session and went to London for scans for an injury that flared during the last Test and again when he bowled a bouncer in the last tour game at Northamptonshire.
Scans revealed "irritation" but no major damage, but Australia physiotherapist Errol Alcott admitted there was a chance McGrath could aggravate the injury in the match.
"That's always an area of concern, starting a player with a problem, then it's always what can happen during a Test match," Alcott said.
"We don't want that situation to arise if we can avoid it."
Tait will be given a licence to hunt heads and thump toes at the birthplace of Bodyline bowling.
Advertisement:
And he will have no qualms about dispensing physical pain when he joins Lee in Australia's fastest pace pairing since Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson 30 years ago.
"You don't go out there and aim to kill the batsmen," said Tait, promoted an hour after he shattered Justin Langer's groin protector into five pieces with a wild full toss in the nets.
"But there's times when you need to hit the batsman to put him off his game and put the rest of the blokes coming in off their game.
"If the guys on the sidelines are seeing their blokes with their heads cut open and that sort of stuff they're not going to want to come out there."
England: M Trescothick, A Strauss, M Vaughan (c), I Bell, K Pietersen, A Flintoff, G Jones, A Giles, S Harmison, M Hoggard, S Jones.
Australia: J Langer, M Hayden, R Ponting (c), D Martyn, M Clarke, S Katich, A Gilchrist, S Warne, B Lee, S Tait, G McGrath.
The Courier-Mail