Ponting a doubt for first Test

Ricky Ponting will make a late decision about his availability for Thursday's first Test against Sri Lanka at Darwin, after flying 2000 miles south to Launceston, Tasmania, to visit two critically ill members of his extended family.

According to a report in the Australian newspaper, Cricket Australia officials remain adamant that Ponting will be back in time for the match, although Ponting himself is less convinced and will not be making a decision until he has consulted with his family.

Should he choose to sit out the match, then the captaincy would pass to Adam Gilchrist for the third time in his career, while the call would have to go out for a stand-in batsman, given that both the extra players in Australia's 13-man squad, Shaun Tait and Stuart MacGill, are bowlers.

According to the paper, the most likely beneficiary would be Victoria's Matthew Elliott, who scored seven centuries while amassing 1381 runs at 81.24 in the Pura Cup runs last season. Elliott is currently playing for Glamorgan in the County Championship, where he has added a further two centuries in eight matches. He played the last of his 20 Tests in Barbados in 1998-99, and although more normally chosen as an opener, has played at No. 3 on three previous occasions.

MacGill was himself a late replacement for the fast bowler, Brad Williams, and arrived in Darwin at 4am after abandoning his holiday in Venice. As the only Australian to refuse to tour Zimbabwe, MacGill had feared for his future in Test cricket, and so was just grateful to be back in the squad. "I wouldn't be surprised if I just had a suntan after a couple of weeks," he said of his prospects of getting a game, "but you can't really complain about that, can you?"