!New Zealand Vs Australia House !**

December

11 Twenty20 International, Perth

14 1st ODI, Adelaide

16 2nd ODI, Sydney

20 3rd ODI, Hobart

ABOUT THE TEAMS

AUSTRALIA

Recovery taking longer than expected

Bond to miss Chappell-Hadlee defence

Cricinfo staff

December 3, 2007

New Zealand will be without Shane Bond until February at least Getty Images

Shane Bond will miss this month's Chappell-Hadlee Series after his recovery from an abdominal tear has taken longer than expected. New Zealand are set to maintain the same 14-man one-day squad which narrowly lost the one-dayers to South Africa, the national selector Richard Hadlee told the Dominion Post. James Franklin remains out following knee surgery.

Bond, the fast bowler, will also be unavailable for Bangladesh's visit in January, all of which he finds "frustrating". He picked up the problem in November, during New Zealand's injury-hit tour of South Africa where they won one match out of seven. They lost both Tests, the Twenty20, the one-day series 2-1 and even the warm-up.

He said it was exhausting to come back from yet another injury and feared for his future in the game should he keep picking up problems. "It's worn me down," he told Radio Sport on Tuesday. "I've spent a lot of time rehab-ing. There are a lot things I want to achieve and to be realistic, I can't expect cricket to keep supporting me if I am going to continue to get injured, so it's frustrating."

He is now aiming to recover for England's visit in February and March, when they will play five one-dayers and three Tests. In his absence, Kyle Mills has filled in well and impressed Hadlee. "Mills has been outstanding," he told the Dominion Post. "With Bond out, he has stepped up magnificently." Mills was named Man of the Series in South Africa for his nine wickets at 11.33.

He will now lead the attack for New Zealand's defence of the Chappell-Hadlee title in Australia after their 3-0 cleansweep last season. The first of the three one-dayers is at the Adelaide Oval on December 14.

Squad Lou Vincent, Jamie How, Mathew Sinclair, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Brendon McCullum (wk), Gareth Hopkins, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (capt), Kyle Mills, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel, Michael Mason, Chris Martin.

Cricinfo

Hero snubbed for Chappell-Hadlee Series

Hadlee not invited to his own party

Cricinfo staff

December 3, 2007

Howzat?: Richard Hadlee has been overlooked for his family's own trophy Getty Images

Richard Hadlee has not been asked to the tournament named after his family, the Chappell-Hadlee Series, which takes place in Australia this month. He and his younger brother Dayle, who also played for New Zealand, have been left off Cricket Australia's invite list for the three-match series starting in Adelaide on December 14.

"You would think there would be some representation from either family, particularly when your name is attached to something, but nothing has happened," Hadlee told the Dominion Post.

He would be unavailable for the Adelaide match anyway, as he will now attend a New Zealand Cricket Players' Association charity event in Invercargill instead. But he said his brother could be an equally decent representative. "It is a family thing," he said, "it is not about me."

New Zealand Cricket's chief executive Justin Vaughan believes the slight was accidental, suggesting that the tournament's infancy - this will be its fourth series - was the reason for the oversight. "I don't think this is a deliberate snub, but it is something both us and Cricket Australia have to address," Vaughan said.

"I think we need to make a conscious effort to invite someone from the Chappell family when we host it and Cricket Australia has to make a conscious effort to invite someone from the Hadlee family."

CA's chief executive James Sutherland said Hadlee hadn't been invited because they were told he couldn't make it. "I know through my office we've made inquiries about Sir Richard's availability to be at the Chappell-Hadlee matches and we were led to believe that he wasn't available," Sutherland told AAP. "But if he is available we would of course be absolutely delighted to have him at matches, as we have previously at other Chappell-Hadlee matches."

Sutherland also rejected suggestions that CA might look to scrap the series. "It's something that continues to grow with interest and as we know it's actually one of the trophies at the moment that the Australian team doesn't hold and I know the boys are very keen to get that back."

Cricinfo

Ponting sets sights on Chappell-Hadlee Trophy

Symonds likely for New Zealand ODIs

Cricinfo staff

November 22, 2007

Australia believe Andrew Symonds should be fit for their next international series Getty Images

Ricky Ponting is confident Andrew Symonds will be fit for Australia's push to regain the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, which begins on December 14. Symonds hurt his ankle while batting in the first innings of the Hobart Test and took no further part in the match after posting his half-century.

"We've got three weeks before the Chappell-Hadlee, I would imagine he would be right for those," Ponting told AAP. "If you look at the way he has batted in the last couple of games, he has gone out when we were looking at declaring and got 50 off 50 balls both times.

"We know how destructive he can be and we saw that in Melbourne last year, that magnificent [Test] hundred he made there. It's not only his bowling. He gives us a fair bit with the bat and he can give us a lot in the field as well. He's a pretty vital cog in our team at the moment so we hope he can be back on the park pretty quickly."

Ponting is keen to regain the trophy after New Zealand surprised Australia with a 3-0 series win in February. During that tour Australia rested Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, leaving Michael Hussey in charge of an under-strength side that came up against some impressive New Zealand batting.

However, New Zealand's results so far on their South Africa tour - they lost both Tests and failed to post 200 in any innings - suggest they are not in the same kind of form as earlier this year. "New Zealand right at the moment they've got a few injuries as well," Ponting said. "Shane Bond is down and Jacob Oram is down. A few of their guys have gone down over in South Africa."

Ponting said a 3-0 result had not reflected the closeness of the February series. "There was a lot spoken about in that series about probably how badly we went," Ponting said. "If you actually look at the games I don't think we played that badly at all. We scored 340 and 350 in a couple of those games and lost. There's extra motivation there."

New Zealand's tour opens with a Twenty20 international in Perth on December 11. The three-match Chappell-Hadlee Series follows with games in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart before Australia switch back into five-day mode for the Boxing Day Test against India.

Cricinfo

Annual match used for Chappell-Hadlee warm-up

New Zealand step in to fill Lilac Hill fixture

Cricinfo staff

July 13, 2007

The 18th Lilac Hill game will go ahead with New Zealand playing the Cricket Australia Chairman's XI Getty Images

New Zealand will prepare for the Chappell-Hadlee Series in December by appearing in the annual Lilac Hill fixture in Western Australia. The 18th edition of the match was in doubt due to the altered international calendar, but New Zealand agreed to use the game against the Cricket Australia Chairman's XI on December 7 to assist their defence of the trophy.

"We are ecstatic that the Lilac Hill tradition, which has spanned almost two decades, will continue," Graeme Wood, the Western Australian Cricket Association chief executive, said. New Zealand have a Twenty20 International against Australia at the WACA on December 11 before the first of three Chappell-Hadlee games starting in Adelaide on December 14.

Michael Brown, the Cricket Australia manger of operations, was pleased New Zealand Cricket had agreed to keep the game on the summer schedule. "I'm sure this traditional fixture will again be one of the highlights of the summer in Western Australia," he said. Sri Lanka will play two Tests in Australia in November, but India's delayed arrival means the first of the four Tests will begin in Melbourne on Boxing Day.

Cricinfo

hope to see good match😛

Kiwis are acting so childish!!!! Just coz Tait troubled them in that match, they have started calling him a chucker!!!!