SA Footy

Adelaide Strikers have delved deep into Australian cricket's spin bowling archives in their search for a left-arm spinner to replace the injured Jon Holland, trialling the long forgotten slow bowling of Brad Young and Mark Higgs.

Young last played for South Australia in 2003 and Higgs finished up with the Redbacks in 2005 before moving to play for the ACT in Canberra. Both had brief dalliances with the Australia team, Higgs picked for the 2000 ICC Trophy in Kenya and Young taking a hat-trick at the 1998 Commonwealth Games while also making six official ODI appearances. But one of the two now appears likely to emulate the comebacks of Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg in this summer's BBL, as the Strikers seek to fill one of two remaining holes in their squad.

While 39-year-old Young has been sighted at South Australia squad training this season, Higgs was flown down from Canberra to trial, and demonstrated a vast repertoire that includes both left-arm orthodox and over-the-wrist variations. He finished the trial match with five wickets.

"Both were good, Higgsy played in the game down here and he took some wickets and Brad's playing for the Grange cricket club and has been playing down the years," Strikers coach Darren Berry told ESPNcricinfo. "So they're both thereabouts, albeit being outside first-class cricket for a while. I'm prepared as always to have an open mind about where we go, we haven't made a decision on it yet, but those two are two that are under consideration.

"We've got two replacement players to find. We've taken Cameron Boyce on our list which we're excited about, we took him initially but we'll still look for one more as a replacement player."

smac wrote:Next thing you know he'll be picking a curator or something!