MELBOURNE, (AP):REALITY HIT home in Australian cricket ranks yesterday whenShane Warne and Glenn McGrath were missing from the list of 25 players awarded national contracts for the first time in more than a dozen years.
Warne, the leading wicket taker in Test cricket history, retired after the winning Ashes series against England in January.
McGrath finished his international career on the weekend by helping Australia win their third consecutive World Cup. He was the leading bowler in the World Cup in the Caribbean, setting records for most wickets at a single tournament and most career World Cup wickets.
Veteran batsmen Justin Langer and Damien Martyn also retired over the Australian summer, while New South Wales captain Simon Katich and former international paceman Michael Kasprowicz did not have their contracts renewed.
Of the six vacant spots filled for the 2007-08 season, most attention was on the replacement for legspinner Warne.
Cullen Bailey, 22, joined Dan Cullen, Test veteran Stuart MacGill and World Cup star Brad Hogg among the contracted players viewed as a possible replacement for Warne.
Cameron White, an all-rounder who bowls legspin, was also among the six new contracted players, along with all-rounder James Hopes, batsmen Chris Rogers and Adam Voges and swing bowler Ben Hilfenhaus.
Australia selector Andrew Hilditch said it would be a great challenge to replace the likes of McGrath and Warne, who were at the forefront of Test cricket for more than a decade.
Huge loss
"Shane Warne is just a huge loss to Australian cricket and it would be silly to underestimate what impact that will have," Hilditch said. "I don't want to underestimate the impact of (retirements of) the big players, I mean they have just been such great players, they will be a huge loss.
"It will be harder to win Test matches without them, that is just reality.
"But we have been planning - it had to happen at some stage and we hope we have got the planning right."
Jason Gillespie, who along with Kasprowicz has been on the outer since Australia lost the Ashesseries in England in 2005, had his contract renewed and is among a strong group of fast bowlers.
"This list of players still represents a very experienced group but also includes some exciting young talent that will ensure our reign as champions in both Test and one day cricket can continue," Hilditch said.
Australia's fast bowling stocks are deep despite the loss of McGrath.
"As with Shane, the retirement of Glenn McGrath leaves a huge hole for Australian cricket, but the squad contains some really exciting fast-bowling talent in Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson and now the addition to the contracted list of Ben Hilfenhaus for the first time," Hilditch said. "While it is still going to be a challenging time for Australian cricket, we consider it to be a very exciting one and are really confident that the group we have picked can help us to continue our dominance of world cricket."
Contracted players: Cullen Bailey, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Daniel Cullen, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, James Hopes, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Ricky Ponting, Chris Rogers, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White.
