Rodney Marsh, the former Australian Test wicketkeeper who is now head coach of the much-heralded Academy, has picked two over-age players in his squad for the four-day match at the Marist Park ground following England’s sensational victory over the Sheffield Shield holders, South Australia, in Adelaide earlier this week.
Marsh has called up the 25-year-old Jeremy Allen, a seamer who has already represented Western Australia at state level, and the 23-year-old Shawn Craig, a left-handed opener who scored a century against the Academy for Victoria 2nd XI last season, into his side after claiming his current crop are weaker than previous years.England will not name their side until the manager, David Graveney, the coach, Mike Gatting, and the captain, Adam Hollioake, have inspected the pitch, which is in an extinct volcano, after being prevented from doing so yesterday by overnight rain. Jason Gallian has recovered from a hand injury while Dean Headley may be rested.n Don Kenyon, 72, Worcestershire’s first County Championship winning captain, has died in hospital after being taken ill at a function at New Road. Kenyon, who played eight Tests for England, had been attending a members’ cricket evening to show a film of a world tour undertaken by the club during his playing days.Obituary, page 16. Having made protracted attempts to organise his own British challenge for 1997-98, the four-times Whitbread veteran Paul Standbridge is to join Dennis Conner’s American Toshiba Challenge as watch captain for Chris Dickson.

Standbridge joins the Australian navigator Andrew Cape and expects two more senior appointments in the near future.
Conner’s Bruce Farr-designed yacht is being built in the United States. The deck is already under construction but work on the hull will be delayed as long as possible to incorporate late modifications to the design and ideas.Dickson was close to winning the 1993-94 race at his first attempt until being dismasted on the leg from Uruguay to Fort Lauderdale. As the race was then calculated on total elapsed time, his chances immediately evaporated. In 1997-98 each leg will count separately to a points-based result.The eight yachts in the Clipper ‘96 race organised by Sir Robin Knox- Johnston for fare-paying crews, are expected to finish their transatlantic leg from Madeira for Fort Lauderdale over the next 24 hours led by Ariel, skippered by Raz Turner.Yves Parlier’s radically designed Aquitaine Innovations continues to lead the Vendee Globe single handed non-stop round-the-world race from Isabelle Autissier and Herve Laurent.. A good question about Evander Holyfield’s quite sensational defeat of Mike Tyson in Las Vegas last week to become a three-times world heavyweight champion is why was he almost completely written off in predictions. On the basis that anything can happen when heavyweights are in the ring, caution was advised here and there; but most people, including the majority in boxing, were convinced that Tyson would overwhelm the challenger and possibly put him in hospital.
Of 48 reporters, myself included, polled by a Las Vegas newspaper, only Ron Borges of the Boston Globe made out a case for Holyfield, predicting that he would win in the ninth round.

If not spot on, this brought Borges a great deal of attention.Borges – he bet $200 (pounds 125) on Holyfield at 12-1 – unlike some seekers of notoriety I have known, did not take what is known in the trade as a flier. Importantly, his faith in Holyfield sprang entirely from the application of logic. First, Holyfield’s immense will; then the fact that he had knocked over much larger men than Tyson, who had not been struck seriously since renewing his career in the ring. Borges also took into account the confidence he sensed when in conversation with the challenger. “The more I thought about it, the more I listened to Holyfield and his people, the more obvious his chances became,” Borges said.I am no less experienced than Borges in these matters but logic led me and many others up a different alley. For example, Mickey Duff, in last week’s Boxing News, said, “It’s an easy fight for Tyson and will last a maximum of four rounds, probably less There’s no contest.