ANTIGUA: CRICKET - Queensland's Hopes could replace injured Watson at World Cup

We have got James Hopes as a shadow player for Shane Watson," Australian chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, told reporters in St John's, Antigua on Wednesday (April 4). Hilditch added: "The intention and the expectation is that Shane will recover and play a vital part in the World Cup." Watson has a long history of injury problems and left the field in the second stage Super Eights game against Bangladesh last Saturday with a calf strain. He is not expected to be available for selection until the semi-finals on April 24 and 25, assuming Australia get that far. Australia wicketkeeper and opening batsman Adam Gilchrist looked forward to Sunday's Super Eight match against England, saying: "England have shown that they can seemingly be out of sorts and all washed up so to speak as a group and then they turn it around. They turned us on our heads. That can happen even more drastically in a one-off game. We've got to try to keep our momentum going. But our discussions haven't been about the summer or revenge or anything like that. It's a whole new ball game here and a new competition.

ITN Source | April 6, 2007

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