Lehmann named South Australian captain for next season

Darren Lehmann has been reappointed as South Australia's captain for the 2004-05 season, despite international commitments meaning that he will rarely be available to play for his state. It means the captaincy role during matches will mainly be filled by Graham Manou, the wicketkeeper, who was named as Lehmann's deputy. Manou replaced Greg Blewett, who was the vice-captain last season.

Manou, 25, has played 45 first-class matches for South Australia, taking 136 catches and 12 stumpings, and has a batting average of 18.05. He scored his maiden first-class century last season. Manou captains his Adelaide grade side, but said he was surprised to be named state vice-captain. "The first thing that came over my body was goosebumps," Manou said. "It was just so much excitement, it's just an absolute honour."

Paul Nobes, the chairman of selectors, said that Manou was an obvious choice after extensively interviewing players and coaching staff. "Graham Manou's name came up regularly about being a leader and being a future leader, so it really worked out pretty naturally."

He stated that Blewett was unhappy when told he had lost the job. "He's disappointed ... I just explained that we were going in a new direction and Graham was the man and we'd spoken to a lot of people and they saw Graham as a leader."

He said the selectors toyed with the idea of not reappointing Lehmann because of his Australian team commitments, but decided that would be unfair. "If Darren was available for the full 10 games would he be the captain? [He would] therefore we had no intention of penalising him for playing for Australia."

Manou said he did not foresee any tension captaining Blewett. "He's always going to lead by example as he has all throughout his career," he said. "I think it will be a fantastic opportunity for me to have someone like Blewie there."