Prime minister's tour offer not a solution

Prime Minister John Howard's offer to pay the $2 million fine Cricket Australia (CA) would incur should it refuse to tour Zimbabwe in September may only further complicate an already difficult and delicate situation, writes Malcolm Conn in The Australian.

Also in The Australian, Conn says that "it is the intense jousting for places in the national team that should help keep Australia at the top of the tree. But the secret of more World Cup success is to mix the old and the new, to keep more players than the team loses."