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| April 4, 2003 | Friday | Safar 1, 1424 |
Williams temporary replacement for McGrath
MELBOURNE, April 3: Uncapped Brad Williams will join the Australia squad for the West Indies tour as a temporary replacement for paceman Glenn McGrath, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) said on Thursday.
McGrath, 33, left Steve Waugh’s team in London en route to Guyana earlier this week and caught a flight back to Sydney to comfort his wife Jane, who has cancer. Scans for a back injury revealed her illness.
“Jane McGrath has been diagnosed with a secondary cancer infection in her hip. All indications are that with treatment, she will have a full recovery,” the ACB said in a statement.
The four-Test series starts on April 10 in Guyana. Fast bowler Williams will leave Brisbane on Thursday and is expected to join the squad on Sunday, the ACB said.
“It is an unfortunate situation confronting the McGrath family and it was important for Glenn to return home to be with his wife Jane,” Australia chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said in the ACB statement.
“With (batsman) Damien Martyn (who has a broken finger) joining the squad later in the tour and (opening bowler) Jason Gillespie’s recent recovery from a heel problem, we felt it was necessary to call in another player to boost the bowling stocks.”
ACB chief executive James Sutherland told reporters in Melbourne: “There’s certainly no pressure on our part for him (McGrath) to rush any decisions on when or how he gets back.”
Australia are already without Test cricket’s second-leading wicket-taker after leg-spinner Shane Warne, who has taken 491 wickets, received a 12-month doping suspension in February.
McGrath is Australia’s second-leading wicket-taker with 422 victims at an average of 21.45 from 91 Tests. The lanky paceman was expected to be Australia’s key weapon in dismissing West Indies captain Brian Lara cheaply.
“Obviously I’m pleased to be given the chance to head across to the West Indies and will do my best to help Australia, but certainly our thoughts are with the McGraths at the moment,” said Williams, 28, who has played six One-day Internationals.
Jane McGrath, a 36-year-old mother of two, successfully battled breast cancer five years ago.—Reuters
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