Hodge craves date in green

Australia's main one-day players are in India so it was left to a trio of fringe players to promote a summer series they might be watching from the sidelines. Given Australia's past form in the Champions Trophy, perhaps the big names were expected to be home already.

Whatever the case, Stuart Clark, Phil Jaques and Brad Hodge were asked to trudge to the MCG on a wet, miserable Melbourne morning as Cricket Australia made the announcement the Commonwealth Bank was the new major sponsor of this season's one-day international tri-series.

While Clark, who is recovering from a thigh injury as Mitchell Johnson performs in India, and Jaques were typically diplomatic, the irony of three players currently out of the national team being paraded in Australia's new dark green uniforms - which look more like warm-up gear with their gold Adidas racing stripes - was not lost on Hodge. "[The uniform is] real nice," he said. "It would be nice to wear it, for a change."

As the Cricket Australia chief executive officer James Sutherland watched on, the three stood tall and rigid for photos, looking like schoolboys trying desperately hard not to be the last one picked for a lunchtime game. And that is effectively what they were doing, after Ricky Ponting said this week few team changes were likely before the World Cup.

Hodge said his Pura Cup scores of 33, 86, 18 and 45 this season, plus a run-a-ball 68 in Victoria's only one-day match so far, were unlikely to earn him a recall. "[I'm] hitting the ball well," he said. "A couple of halfway scores but not the big scores I need, I suppose, to get my name back up in lights."

Last year's Boxing Day Test, when Hodge scored 7 and 24 on his home ground, still rates highly for him but he has not written off his chances of playing at the MCG Test this year. "I suppose you look back on it and think what a great success for a Victorian player to play in front of a Boxing Day crowd and I suppose I didn't really perform that well but it was nice to be able to walk out there," Hodge said. "It was a special moment and hopefully I can get another chance and rectify the performance."

Although Hodge and Jaques both played in the last Melbourne Test, Clark, their fast-bowling team-mate, could have the best shot of playing this year. But seeing a lone groundsman watching rain pour on to half a dozen uncovered MCG pitches was a timely reminder that Boxing Day - and the Commonwealth Bank Series - is more than seven weeks away and anything can happen in that time.