go_hodgey
School Cricketer
Australia announce Trans Tasman Challenge
Today, Cricket Australia announced that it would be hosting New Zealand as part of the Trans Tasman Challenge. The tour will include a three match one day series and a five match test series, to be held all across Australia. Earlier, Mark Taylor interviewed Australian captain Ricky Ponting to get his opinion on the new series.
ABOVE - Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting
MT: Good morning everyone, here with me is Ricky Ponting, captain of the Australian Cricket team. So Ricky, are you excited about the recently announced Trans Tasman Challenge?
RP: Absolutely Mark, I'm thrilled about the chance to play against our Kiwi rivals.
MT: Good to hear, obviously the New Zealand team is going to be a massive challenge for an Australian team without Warne and McGrath, but what about the absence of Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist?
RP: It's obviously going to be a challenge without such talented batsmen, but I believe we have enough talent coming in to help us win the series. We've got Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Chris Rogers, Phil Jaques, Cameron White, Brad Hodge and others who are all willing to come up and play at the top level.
MT: What about wicket-keeping? Will the team be going with the obvious choice of Brad Haddin or is there going to be a suprise?
RP: Barring any major injuries to Brad, he'll be our starting wicket-keeper. He's already proven himself as both a batsman and a keeper and now he get's his chance to prove himself at the test level against some top quality opposition.
MT: How's the bowling coming? Are we going to see any changes from recent tours or will Stuart Clark, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson be the mainstays of the bowling attack?
RP: It's likely that their will be no major changes to our bowling lineup, but with the quality of the New Zealand batting attack, with names such as How, Taylor, Vincent and co, we'll have to have our attack at full strength.
MT: Who is there in the New Zealand lineup that has caused any head scratching?
RP: We've obviously got to keep our eyes on Jacob Oram, Shane Bond and their captain, Daniel Vettori, as they are all dangerous players that need to be contained.
MT: Thanks for you time Ricky. Good luck for the tour ahead.
RP: No worries Mark, we'll try and give the Aussies something to cheer about.
Only recently, one of Australia's major banks was named as the sponsor of the series, the Commonwealth Bank. As part of the sponsorship deal, the Bank will be providing $5000 to be granted to the player who takes catch of the series as voted on by the viewers.
ABOVE - The Commonwealth Bank was recently named as sponsor of the Trans Tasman Challenge.
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), well good luck with this story. Nice presentation, look forward to reading more 
. I'm hoping to get the fixtures up sometime tomorrow when I have time. BTW (by the way) 
