SYDNEY, Jan 16: Leg-spinner Shane Warne was named Wednesday as Australia vice-captain for Thursday’s triangular series match against New Zealand, boosting his chances of succeeding Steve Waugh as national captain.

Warne, 32, who was stripped of the vice-captaincy two years ago because of an off-field indiscretion, takes over from wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist who has withdrawn for family reasons.

“It’s a huge honour to be back as vice-captain,” Warne said.

“I’m not looking too far ahead — this is only for one game, it’s just a fill-in game until Gilly gets back.

“But it’s nice to be thought of in a leadership role by the selectors and the board.”

Waugh, 36, will play on until at least the 2003 World Cup in South Africa but has publicly left his options open for playing for several more years in Tests and One-day Internationals.

“When Gilly took over from me the ACB (Australian Cricket Board) said the door wasn’t closed and I suppose this proves that it’s not closed,” Warne said.

“There’s lots of candidates in the team, lots of senior players, lots of experienced guys, so to be appointed vice-captain when there’s so many candidates is a great honour.

“The thing I’m happy with is that I’m still in the frame.”

Meanwhile, security will be tightened to avoid a repeat of unruly crowd behaviour for Thursday match.

The crackdown on cricket hooligans follows 36 arrests and nearly 500 expulsions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Australia’s match with New Zealand last Friday night.

Police say there will be extra officers on duty at the Sydney match, and possibly some in plain clothes.

The International Cricket Council said they were concerned by the incidents at the MCG which forced a stoppage in play with beer cans and bottles thrown on to the field.

Police said Wednesday they would also check the bags of every person going into the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) for the match and would patrol nearby pubs.

Karen Grega, the general manager of Marketing and Media for the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust, said there had been a marked improvement in crowd behaviour at the SCG since the introduction of by-laws in 1997 when hefty fines and bans of up to 12 months were introduced as punishments.

Donald to have X-ray: South Africa’s excellent start to the triangular limited overs series suffered a setback Wednesday when it was revealed that fast bowler Allan Donald would have X-rays on a possible broken finger.

The Proteas have beaten Australia and New Zealand in their opening two matches of the tournament and face the Kiwis in Brisbane Saturday.

“There’s quite a bit of swelling and we’ve got three days to check it out so he’ll go for an X-ray to determine what’s wrong with it,” South Africa captain Shaun Pollock said.

“An X-ray is always a precaution in that situation and then you’ve got to wait and see, but finger injuries tend to recover quite quickly.”

Donald, 35, hurt his finger attempting a caught and bowled chance offered by Kiwi all-rounder Chris Cairns in Tuesday’s match.

The veteran paceman has battled stomach and foot injuries in recent months.

Pollock added that number three batsman Jacques Kallis, who missed the win over New Zealand in Hobart because of an ankle injury, was expected to be fit to play Saturday.

The skipper said his players had moved on from their recent 3-0 Test series loss to Australia.

“We’re not worried about the Tests now...we’ve put that behind us and we’re being as positive as we can be,” Pollock said.

South Africa face Australia Sunday, also in Brisbane.

—Reuters/AFP