Panesar unlucky in eventful return

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THE rehabilitation of Monty Panesar became complete on Thursday when the quirky spinner played his first Test since being fined by police for urinating on bouncers at a Brighton nightclub last August.

Panesar, who failed to play a Test during Australia's recent Ashes tour despite dry and doctored wickets, was included for the second Test in Adelaide along with debutant all-rounder Ben Stokes, 22, as replacements for Jonathan Trott and Chris Tremlett.

The selection of Panesar was thoroughly endorsed by fellow spinner Graeme Swann.

"Monty's Monty. He's always been a bit left field and a bit different to everyone else and it's one of the reasons we love him so much," said Swann.

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"We don't care what's happened in the last 12 months off the field. He's one of the boys and we embrace him as ever and we love seeing him do well."

A traditionally conservative team under captain Alastair Cook and coach Andy Flower, choosing two spinners was a bold move on a dry pitch as England attempts to recover from its 381-run thumbing in Brisbane.

Captain Michael Clarke will be counting his blessings that he won the toss and batted because scoring will be difficult batting last on Adelaide's new slow drop-in wicket.

"I loved it, I love it when two spinners play. It's how all cricket should be played, a minimum of two spinners per team and slow, low turning wickets. It was great," said Swann, who received those wickets in England and now Adelaide.

Panesar finished with 1-68 from 24 overs but he should have had two wickets when Michael Carberry dropped a sitter of a catch at backward point from a Brad Haddin cut late in the day.

The left-arm spinner bowled one of the deliveries of the day, turning past the outside edge of Steve Smith's bat to bowl him when he was just six.

"I thought his bowling was excellent," Swann said of Panesar.

"It's never easy coming back into a team because obviously a lot of spotlight goes on you, a lot of expectation. So I thought he applied himself really well.

"It was a beauty to get his wicket. He could have had two by the end which was unfortunate. He did the job that we wanted him to do and that's all Monty ever does, he just turns up and plays his game."

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Clarke, Bailey limit day one damage

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BELLIGERENT Stuart Broad's screaming send-off to George Bailey late Thursday highlighted England's satisfaction at wrenching the second Test back from Australia.

Broad's rant was matched by a crescendo from the Barmy Army and a celebration from its trumpeter Billy Cooper, signalling that England finished ahead on the opening day in Adelaide with Australia 5-273 at stumps.

While Broad clearly ignored the "it's important we play in the right way" plea from his captain Alastair Cook a day earlier, there was enormous jubilation after Bailey was well caught hooking by Graeme Swann at backward square leg for 53.

Australia's top scorer Chris Rogers (72) was unconcerned by the sledging.

"A lot has been said but I don't think either side is upset about it. It is pretty good," Rogers said.

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"I didn't see excessive sledging or anything like that. It is still very competitive between the two sides but you expect that."

Michael Clarke stares down Jimmy Anderson in the final session. Picture: Scott Barbour.

Fighting to come back from a 381-run demolition in Brisbane, England would be in a position of total domination if they could catch.

A middle order collapse of 3-19 could have been so much worse if Joe Root had taken a lunging catch at mid-wicket off Michael Clarke from Graeme Swann when the Australian captain was just 18.

And Michael Carberry dropped a sitter at backward point off Brad Haddin late in the day when the Australian wicket-keeper cut hard at the recalled Monty Panesar.

Clarke was unbeaten on a subdued 48 at stumps and Haddin seven.

Rogers was delighted to see the catches go down.

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"Particularly first innings runs, it could prove to be quite crucial so we still have to field well and catch them but those chances have helped us and to have Michael going out there tomorrow morning, that is massive for us," he said.

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"Anytime you drop him he is going to try and make you pay."

As Australia's only world class batsman Clarke is England's prize wicket and no more so than in Adelaide, where he averages over 100 with five centuries in eight Tests, including 230 against South Africa last season.

A brave Bailey counterattack saved Australia the embarrassment of yet another collective batting failure but it proved more cameo than killer blow.

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The Tasmanian captain smacked three sixes in his first half century and the third of the innings as Australia recovered from 4-174 at tea but no one pushed on for a hundred.

Playing just his second Test Bailey, 31, dominated an 83-run partnership with Clarke.

In Brisbane he hit two sixes during the first Test and yesterday Bailey twice lifted Panesar back over his head and beyond the boundary.

But it was the nonchalant swing over square leg off a short ball from Broad with the second new ball which brought the near-capacity crowd of almost 34,000 to full voice as Bailey notched 50.

It was also the reason that Broad gave Bailey such a gob full when he succumbed to the same shot a short time later.

And this when it appeared England had adopted a restrained attitude to sledging after the nasty scenes which marred the end of the first Test.

Even serial sledger Jimmy Anderson did no more than smile when he took a fine caught and bowled to dismiss Shane Watson for 51.

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Short-lived slaughter job for Bailey

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GEORGE Bailey used sheep as fieldsman when batting on his family farm and for a while on Thursday made England feel like lambs to the slaughter.

Bailey's early batting skills were honed on a farm outside Launceston where he placed feed in key fielding spots in an attempt to lure sheep there.

The main difference between those days and England's fielding effort was that the sheep were better at catching.

Bailey versus England was a rousing contest with honours finishing about even when he was caught at square leg for 53 off Stuart Broad who gave him a fierce send-off.

It was a provocative innings because it raised the question of just what is Australia looking for in its Test batsmen.

Since Mike Hussey retired - and Matt Hayden and Justin Langer before him - Australia has become consumed with the search for the long-innings Test player who starts batting and dawn with a hell-bent ambition to last until stumps.

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But modern cricket just is not churning out this sort of player. Australia may be looking for something that does not exist.

Even Hayden admitted at the end of his career that repeated exposure to the shorter forms of the game had corrupted his thoughts processes for the long innings.

Maybe cricket has to get its head around the fact that innings are constructed differently these days and the way of the future will be storm troopers like Bailey who, in his two Test career, has scored five sixes.

England captain Alastair Cook, by comparison, scored 2047 Test runs before he hit his first.

STOKED UP

England all-rounder Ben Stokes did not set the Adelaide Oval alight in his Test debut but was no damp squib either.

In his first spell as an international bowler Stokes pushed the speedometre to a highly honourable 142.9kph which was faster than any England bowler managed in the first Test.

New Zealand born Stokes is the son of former Kiwi rugby league international Ged Stokes who used to sneak out of boarding school on Saturday mornings to play rugby league for Canterbury, often returning returning to get his backside caned by angry house-masters.

"Sometimes it bled,'' Stokes senior said.

STAR BUCK

IN his own, quirky homespun, way Rogers is a fine role model for the youngsters queuing up to elbow him into retirement.

By no standards is the old timer pretty to watch.

At age 36 you can see him almost fight the ageing process every innings.

He is probably not the player he was in his prime yet he scraps and scratches, kicks and bites his way through.

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Quality spin still bothers him and Thursday was the seventh time Graeme Swann has bagged him in his seven Test career.

But when the ball enters his favourite scoring zone for his pet cut shot it's almost as if the sirens ring, the heavens open and he feels young again.

There is a touch of the Allan Border about him in the way he is prepared to done the blue overalls every innings.

Australia went through a period a decade ago where it hoped every new batsman would be a long-serving Test player but in these turbulent times it has accepted there are openings for industrious players who can make a neat 20 contribution before. Rogers is one of those men.

DRS into play

STANDBY for the DRS system to storm onto centre stage in the second Test.

The DRS system effectively put its feet up at the Gabba Test with not a single lbw verdict given on the high bouncing Gabba next.

But low bouncing Adelaide is a far different proposition.

Amazingly there are still no lbw decisions in the series but don't worry ... they are coming.

A BIT PITCHY

The controversial Adelaide Oval pitch cannot be mentioned in the same breath as the first Test deck at the Gabba but it still got a first day pass mark.

With just enough turn to keep the slow bowlers interested it at least gave something to one form of bowler and the first day scoreline of 5-273 tells of a surprisingly even contest between bat and ball.

England were bold in choosing two spinners but the longer this Test goes the more sense that decision may make.

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Srama drama in Smith saga

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ANOTHER Queensland-based NRL talent is on the verge of asking his club for a release and the drama could end up solving Melbourne Storm's Cameron Smith dilemma.

Three NRL teams are already circling disgruntled Gold Coast Titans rake Matt Srama, who has been relegated down their pecking order despite playing through injury on a minimum-wage contract.

One of those clubs is understood to be the Storm, who will need a quality rake if Smith signs with the Brisbane Broncos for 2015 as widely expected.

Srama was recently told he won't be the Titans' starting hooker next season because of his form last year, even though that form was due to the busted shoulders the Titans asked him to persevere through.

Off-contract at the end of 2014, Srama is considering asking for an early release to prove his value now he is behind Beau Falloon and potentially even 21-year-old Sam Irwin.

The Canberra Raiders are favourites to snare him as Ricky Stuart believes he has State of Origin potential.

However, sources told The Courier-Mail the Storm have also shown interest and if Cameron Smith moves north to the Broncos they would be prepared to take him this season so he could learn from the Maroons star.

Cameron Smith playing for the Storm. Source: News Limited

Srama is not in Smith's class but would leave the Storm with salary cap space to chase another star.

However, Storm football manager Frank Ponissi said his club had not discussed Srama and was adamant that despite rumours to the contrary Smith had not signed elsewhere.

"Don't get me wrong he is a talented player but his name has not come up here," he said.

"This is another case of someone throwing more drama in the Cameron Smith negotiations.

"Smith just got back and we will let him be with his family and not put pressure on him."

Srama played every game with pain-killing injections last season when several months off would have been far better for his long-term career.

The Titans have missed the finals three seasons in a row and could regret their dismissive attitude towards Srama who is viewed in league circles as one of the strongest players in the league pound for pound.

The Manly Sea Eagles have also contacted his management with their hooker Matt Ballin turning 30 in January.

"There's a few clubs interested but I won't say which ones," Srama's manager Paul Sutton said.

"A few clubs still have room for 2014 but we are looking more at 2015 right now.

"He's a quality player and clubs recognise that."

Srama was in the Titans' starting team for the majority of last season, before coach John Cartwright chose Falloon ahead of him for the last four rounds.

They only won one of those games.

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Souths talk rock bottom with Dick

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DICK Johnson hit his rock, and consequently his rock bottom, 10 years before Adam Reynolds was born.

Which is why, right now, here in a private room on the second floor of Souths Juniors, the greying V8 legend is providing the gun Rabbitohs halfback with some Bathurst 1000 background.

Explaining not only to Reynolds but the entire Souths squad how that rock, that moment on Mount Panorama way back in 1980, was something like his equivalent of twice being rolled one game short of an NRL Grand Final.

"We mortgaged the house, sacrificed everything to run that car,'' Johnson explains of a moment that has come to define him.

V8 legend Dick Johnson pictured with Nathan Merrit, Adam Reynolds and coach Michael Macguire. Source: News Limited

"It's why that crash, it should've been the end of me."

And continuing, Johnson walks this mob of tattooed tyros through the years of debt, the years of repairing cars in his own garage that were behind him not just competing on that particular Bathurst 1000 weekend, but leading it.

The battling Queenslander suddenly ready to collect on all those years of sacrifice when, coming up through The Cutting with a white flag waving and tow truck on track, he swerved . . . only to hit a rock whose mysterious presence is up there with the JFK assassination.

"It should've ruined him,'' explains Souths coach Michael Maquire, the self-confessed petrol head who approached Johnson about speaking after reading his recently-released biography.

"But that's the thing about Dick, he's spent a lifetime fighting back."

V8 legend Dick Johnson pictured with Nathan Merrit, Adam Reynolds and coach Michael Macguire. Source: News Limited

Indeed, with Johnson in town for the Sydney 500, Maguire knew there was no better man to help ready the Bunnies for 2014.

Understanding that be it a boulder, bankruptcy or that brutal Bathurst treeline smash, time and again this legendary Ford driver has overcome.

A truth recognised even by that halfback born 10 years too late to see it.

"Past couple of years, yeah, we've come close to a Grand Final, had some broken hearts,'' Reynolds shrugs.

"But nothing in life needs to be a negative if you take something from it."

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Ashes masking cricket's ugly side

Graeme Swann and Matt Prior celebrate a moment of joy in the Ashes. Pic: Sarah Reed Source: Sarah Reed / News Limited

THE history, tradition and pulling power of Ashes contests camouflages the fragile state of cricket in most other countries and the sorry state of its administration.

Then there is the game's dark underworld, which continues inducing players into match and spot fixing despite the many millions of dollars spent over the years on the International Cricket Council's largely invisible anti-corruption unit.

Contrast the opening day of the second Test in Adelaide and its near sell-out crowd at a spectacular new venue with what took place at the University Oval in Dunedin on Thursday.

As the once mighty West Indies were forced to follow-on by a particularly modest New Zealand team in front of a meagre crowd, NZ Cricket chief executive David White responded to reports that former international players were being investigated by the ICC's ACU for alleged corruption. No players have been charged with any offence.

NZ cricketer Lou Vincent, pictured handballing a football, is under investigation by the ICC. Source: News Limited

The players under investigation, Chris Cairns, Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey, all played together in the privately run and now defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20 tournament for the Chandigarh Lions.

It was superseded by the Indian Premier League (IPL), run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The IPL's first commissioner, Lalit Modi, who later fell out badly with the BCCI, was successfully sued by Cairns in London's High Court after accusing the former Kiwi all-rounder of corruption on Twitter. Cairns was awarded almost $200,000 damages.

He was commentating on the Test in Dunedin on Thursday but left the ground once his name became public.

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The ICL and IPL have been dogged by allegations of corruption.

Earlier this year former Indian fast bowler Sreesanth and three domestic Indian players were found guilty of corruption in the IPL following a BCCI investigation, while two other players were found guilty of failing to report approaches from illegal bookmakers.

The players were amongst 39 people arrested by Delhi police on corruption charges, with most believed to be illegal bookmakers.

Also arrested was the son-in-law of BCCI president N.Srinivasan.

In a massive conflict of interest Srinivasan is also owner of IPL franchise the Chennai Super Kings although his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan ran it.

Chris Cairns is swamped by the media after being named as a player under investigation for fixing. Photo: Geoff Dale Source: Getty Images

In Dunedin White dead-batted a tense, impromptu media conference, claiming he could not comment because it was an ongoing ICC investigation.

"We have been aware of this investigation for a number of months and we are shocked and surprised by the allegations," White said.

"Shockedand surprised" appeared to reinforce the perception that cricket's corruption is somehow a sub-continental problem, which of course it is not.

The first head of the ACU, former London police chief Lord Condon, identified India as the engine room of match-fixing and betting in his inaugural report 13 years ago.

Yet the tentacles stretch everywhere.

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We may have been shocked and surprised in 1999 when it was exposed that the then Australian Cricket Board had secretly fined Shane Warne and Mark Waugh for selling information to illegal bookmakers five years earlier. There was no allegation of match-fixing against Warne and Waugh.

We may have been shocked in 2000 when a cornered Hansie Cronje admitted to match-fixing and his illegal Indian bookmaker later gave police a list of prominent players from around the world he claimed to have dealt with.

Nothing was proved against those players.

But more than a decade on no one should be shocked and surprised these latest allegations.

The shock and surprise will be if the ICC's ACU actually does something substantial.

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