Hadlee to come to his own party afterall

Richard Hadlee will attend the Chappell-Hadlee series after Cricket Australia moved quickly to make sure he was invited following an oversight which left he and his younger brother Dayle off the invitation list.

He will now be present for all three matches, which means pulling out of a prior engagement in Invercargill, New Zealand, for the opener in Adelaide next Friday.

CA's chief executive James Sutherland phoned him on Thursday to clear up the situation, at which point Hadlee agreed to attend. "I'll be going across and it is good that the family is represented," he told the Dominion Post after. "It is logical, it's a nice touch by them, a nice gesture. As James Sutherland said yesterday, it was a misunderstanding."

Hadlee had arranged to attend a New Zealand Cricket function in Invercargill but has been excused to watch the three-match one-dayers between Australia and New Zealand which run until December 20 in Hobart.