- FILE
Lara ... looks forward to helping Pollock.
FORMER WEST Indies captain Brian Lara has been appointed vice-captain of the ICC World XI one-day team following the withdrawal from the squad of Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar.
World XI team director Sunil Gavaskar made the announcement yesterday as the ICC World XI team prepared for today's warm-up match against Victoria at the Junction Oval, St Kilda.
"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, Gavaskar said.
Lara said he was delighted to have been handed the responsibility.
HONOURED
"I am honoured to have been asked to take on the role of vice-captain. I look forward to helping Shaun over the coming days as we look to gel together as a unit in time for the first match against Australia on Wednesday," said Lara.
A 12-man team has been picked to take on Victoria from which a SuperSub will be confirmed before the toss. Andrew Flintoff and Daniel Vettori are the two players who will sit out the match.
Commenting on their omission, Gavaskar said: "Andrew 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.
"Daniel 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."
During the event, team selection is determined by the team director, coach and captain. Gavaskar was also chairman of the six-man selection panel for the ICC World XI.
The Johnnie Walker Super Series comprises three one-day internationals at Telstra Dome in Melbourne on October 5, 7 and 9 followed by a six-day Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground from October 14 to 19.
The ICC World XI ODI team for today's match (from): Shaun Pollock (capt), Brian Lara (vice-capt), Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Rahul Dravid, Chris Gayle, Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Makhaya Ntini, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara and Virender Sehwag.
Meanwhile, Australia's top cricketers made rare appearances for their clubs yesterday, with mixed results.
Michael Clarke (146 runs for Sydney's Western Suburbs), fast bowler Brett Lee (4-29 for Sydney's Mosman) and legspinner Shane Warne (3-42 for Melbourne's St. Kilda) were the standouts as Australian players prepared for three limited-overs matches against a World XI side in Melbourne and a later Test in Sydney.
Below-par batting, rare wickets and injury plagued many of the Australians' return following their 2-1 Ashes series loss to England last month.
Dumped Australian batsman Damien Martyn, playing for South Perth in Western Australia, was caught at mid-on for four against University.
Dropped paceman Michael Kasprowicz limped off with a hamstring injury having taken 1-19 off 10.3 overs for University of Queensland while South Austra-lian Jason Gillespie failed to take a wicket in Adelaide's loss Saturday.
Australian Test opener Matthew Hayden also struggled with the bat, dismissed for just four runs in his match for Valley in Brisbane.
