Australian Team for Hong Kong Sixes announced

Cricket Australia (CA) today announced the squad to compete in the annual Hong Kong Cricket Sixes tournament.

Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence senior coach and former international player John Davison will travel with the team in the role of playing coach.

The tournament is played over two days – Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 November – with the final played on Sunday afternoon.

The team will be managed by the Western Australia Cricket Association’s High Performance Manager Doug Harris and leaves for Hong Kong on Thursday November 6 ahead of their first match on November 8.

The Australian team is: John Davison (c), Brendan Drew, John Hastings, Michael Hill, Stephen O’Keefe, Nathan Reardon, David Warner.

Davison will be joined by some of the country’s best up-and-coming cricketers such as Victorian Michael Hill who captained Australia’s under-19 ICC World Cup team last year.

Nathan Reardon and spinner Steve O’Keefe were members of last year’s team, with speedsters Brendan Drew and John Hastings, and all-rounder David Warner joining them in the squad for the 2008 tournament.

The Hong Kong sixes tournament will again see the inclusion of an All-Star team for 2008, which will include recently retired Australian player Justin Langer, along with former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming.

Also playing in the All-Star team is West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul and England seamer Matthew Hoggard.

The eight competing teams have been drawn into two pools for the first round-robin stage of the tournament.

Bradman Group: India, Pakistan, England, South Africa
Sobers Group: Australia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, All-Stars

Australia plays Sri Lanka in the opening match of the tournament followed by Hong Kong and the All-Stars before moving to second-round matches on Sunday.

The Hong Kong International Cricket Sixes tournament has been held since 1992.