News

Flintoff to miss warm-up game

A 12-man team, excluding Andrew Flintoff and Daniel Vettori, has been announced for the warm-up game against Victoria

Cricinfo staff
01-Oct-2005


Brian Lara has been named vice-captain of the World XI one-day team © Getty Images
A 12-man team, excluding Andrew Flintoff and Daniel Vettori, has been announced for the warm-up game against Victoria at the Junction Oval on October 2. Brian Lara has been named as vice-captain after Sachin Tendulkar's withdrawal from the tournament.
"Andrew [Flintoff] has played a lot of cricket lately at a high intensity so it didn't seem necessary to rush him into a game only two days after he has arrived in Melbourne," Sunil Gavaskar, the World XI team director, was quoted as saying in a media release. "Daniel [Vettori] is unlucky to miss out in this game but after tomorrow there are still two further training sessions before the first ODI at the Telstra Dome on Wednesday. We are very pleased to have nominated Brian Lara as our vice-captain. He has tremendous experience and will be able to provide invaluable support to our captain Shaun Pollock."
"I am honoured to have been asked to take on the role of vice-captain," said Lara. "I look forward to helping Shaun [Pollock] over the coming days as we look to gel together as a unit in time for the first match against Australia on Wednesday."
Team:
1 Shaun Pollock (capt), 2 Brian Lara (vice-capt), 3 Shahid Afridi, 4 Shoaib Akhtar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Chris Gayle, 7 Jacques Kallis, 8 Muttiah Muralitharan, 9 Makhaya Ntini, 10 Kevin Pietersen, 11 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 12 Virender Sehwag