Warne may consider Ashes return

Former world leading Test wicket taker Shane Warne has hinted at a possible return to international cricket for next year`s Ashes tour of England.The Australian legspinner, who retired from the international arena at the end of the 5-0 Ashes victory over England in early 2007 and has since retired from first class cricket, is playing in a domestic Twenty20 competition in India.The 38-year-old, however, said he would return for the Ashes next year, if he was needed."If Australia really needed me and there was no one else around, and Ricky (Ponting) thought I could do the job, you would weigh up the options," Warne was quoted as saying in a newspaper."If Stuey (Stuart) MacGill fell over and broke his leg, and there were no other spinners around, and Ricky came out and said, `Mate, can you please help us out for this one-off tour? We need you`, that is something I would weigh up."Warne, who said he had grown tired of travelling and retired to spend more time with his children, said he felt he could still perform at the top level though did concede a return would be a "fairytale".
"If I wanted to keep playing I don`t think there would be an issue with me being the number one spinner and performing," he said."I would still love to be playing international cricket, and miss it because I devoted 20 years to first-class cricket. It is a big part of my life.”"If you could just turn up and play Test cricket, that would be cool. I would definitely consider that."Australia captain Ponting, who is in Jamaica preparing for the first Test against West Indies, however, said he had not heard from Warne about a possible return to Test cricket."He has never mentioned that to me about coming back for the Ashes and I don`t think that will happen," Ponting was reported as saying in a newspaper."We all knew when he retired it wasn`t anything to do with his bowling, we knew he could keep bowling well for a number of years if he wanted to."Ponting also backed MacGill to be the main spin option for the Ashes tour."If his (MacGill) body stays right, there is no doubt that he is the best wicket-taking spinner in Australia," Ponting added."So, if he keeps himself fit and has the desire and passion to keep playing cricket then I`m pretty sure he would be good enough to get the Ashes job done."

Lifting of $5 million cap hypothetical: Modi

Indian Premier League Chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi on Monday described talks of lifting the $5 million cap forcing each of the eight franchise teams to limit their players' buying power for next year's edition as "hypothetical". "All players have been bought (by the franchise owners) for three years. All the teams probably have eight foreign players. It's hypothetical (to say) cap will be lifted. The cap is applicable for years two and three," he said. Reports that the cap may be raised by the IPL authorities has fuelled speculations that England batsman Kevin Pietersen would be signed up for an astronomical sum by one of the franchises. Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has expressed his opposition to lifting of the $5 mn cap as he felt that the scrapping of this benchmark for salaries could lead to robbing the Twenty20 League of its competitive edge as franchises with money power would go on a buying spree. "I have heard there may be no salary cap, but I am not sure if that will be good for the IPL," Ponting was quoted as saying in Herald Sun . "The more I have thought about it, it might be detrimental to the whole set-up. We want good, competitive cricket with lots of international players playing good, close games," he said.