LANCASHIRE Evening Telegraph columnist Shane Lee has been handed a shock call into Australia's plans for the final Test.
The Enfield professional was called up with Shaun Young after Brendon Julian suffered a fracture in his left wrist to follow the withdrawals of Jason Gillespie and Paul Reiffel from the tour.
They will both play in tomorrow's final Tetley Challenge match of the tour against Kent at Canterbury.
New South Wales all-rounder Lee has enjoyed a fairytale return to the Australian ranks having previously won eight one-day international caps.
"It's almost comic book stuff, going from playing in the leagues to possibly playing in a Test is wonderful although I'm not trying to think much beyond the Kent match," he said.
"I'm going to have to adjust pretty quickly because the wickets in the leagues tend to be a bit slow but I'm looking forward to joining up with the rest of the lads. "I put a few bets on Australia at the start of the series and I got a lot of ribbing from the Enfield guys when we lost the one-dayers and the first Test but thankfully we have pulled it back now."
Former Australia captain Allan Border wants spinner Shane Warne to reject lucrative offers from English county clubs to concentrate on winning Test matches on the Subcontinent.
Warne, who has just helped his country win the Ashes for a record fifth straight time, has been the courted by Sussex and Lancashire and has expressed interest in playing in the county championship.
But with current captain Mark Taylor proclaiming Australia as the world's best team, his predecessor Border believes Warne must help his side to victory in India and Pakistan to back up those claims.
"To be quite honest, I'd prefer to see him not go and play county cricket," said the former Essex batsman. "We've let countless others go over there, me included, so it will be hard to stop him.
"But given the workload he is under and what's expected in the future I'd like to see him put the feet up and watch a bit of football."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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