Bungled catch puts Warne out for two months

The cricket ground at Punt Road, Melbourne is surrounded by advertising hoardings all conveying the slogan "Drink, drive, bloody idiot" - part of the Victorian Government's long-running and successful road safety campaign. Yesterday, however, the description of "bloody idiot" could have been used to describe some of the events on the field.

There was the suicidal stroke play which saw the downfall of several of the New South Wales batsmen in the Pura Cup game against Victoria. In particular, there was the foolish attempt at a lofted on-drive by Mark Waugh which went miles into the air...

And this brings us to the case of the first slip who stands beneath this lofted ball, which hits the tip of his outstretched fingers, rebounds straight upwards into the air, and is caught at the second attempt. The initial impact of the ball, as it turns out, causes a fracture to the slip fielder's knuckle...

And this, while the wicketkeeper is also chasing after the ball, complete with gloves of course, and is made to keep out of the road of a catch that should have been his.

The slip fieldsman was Shane Warne. The bungled catch has resulted in a fracture which will keep Australia's all-time leading wicket-taker out of the game for six to eight weeks - and that means missing the first three Tests against the West Indies in November and December.

And it was a catch that should have been left for the safe hands of Victorian wicketkeeper Darren Berry.

Warne left the field soon after taking the catch yesterday afternoon to have precautionary x-rays at a local hospital. These revealed a break to the first joint of the ring finger of his right (bowling) hand. He will require surgery, which will probably take place over the weekend.

Warne's injury will be a blow to himself, a blow to his many fans, and a blow to his chances of staying within reach of Courtney Walsh's ever-expanding world record number of wickets. However, it is not necessarily cause for encouragement for the West Indian camp.

Shane Warne's replacement in the Australian team for the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy series will almost certainly be Stuart MacGill. The New South Wales leg-spinner is no stranger to the West Indians, having played in the 1999 Test series in the Caribbean, taking 12 wickets at 29.33 in the four Tests and overshadowing his more illustrious leg-spin team-mate. Warne was in fact dropped to twelfth man for the last Test of that series while MacGill retained his place.

This afternoon, at Punt Road, MacGill displayed some of the form that shows why he has been such an able replacement for Warne when needed over the past couple of years. In one spell during the mid-afternoon session on the third day today of the Pura Cup game, MacGill took three Victorian wickets in the space of ten deliveries to give NSW the ascendancy.

MacGill beat Jason Arnberger with a well-flighted top-spinner which yorked the batsman. He took a brilliant reflex return catch to remove Ian Harvey, and then produced a sharply turning leg-break to bowl Shawn Craig.

Warne told reporters this morning that he is working towards a return to the Australian team for the Fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground beginning on Boxing Day, December 26. If MacGill gets early success in the series, Warne might not get a look in at all.