World Cup Cocktail

In a Q and A with Martin Devlin of Radio Sport, McCullum put the strong win against England down to his side's strong bowling performance. He said the break between the game last Friday and this Saturday's match was a good chance for the players to re-connect with families.

His son had asked to go to the England v Scotland game on one of his days off, so he took him along. "I said, 'You've got to be joking me' ... And I ended up spending about three hours watching the game at Hagley Park," he said, drawing much laughter from the crowd.

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Aussies to test new helmet

Australia's cricketers will get the opportunity to test a new helmet attachment designed in the aftermath of the Phillip Hughes tragedy, it was announced on Wednesday.

Cricket Australia high performance chief Pat Howard said that the clip-on attachment, manufactured by British company Masuri, is made of honeycomb plastic and foam and offers protection to the exposed back of the neck, the area where Hughes was hit in November last year.

Howard said that Masuri invested 240 hours of development time into "StemGuard".

Howard said Cricket Australia is working with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to ensure helmet standards set by the British Standards Institute are adopted worldwide.

Test player Hughes, 25, was wearing an outdated helmet when he was knocked unconscious by a bouncer and collapsed while batting for South Australia against New South Wales in Sydney on November 25.

He died two days later from bleeding on the brain, plunging the cricket world into mourning

Luck of the Irish for Joyce

Ireland's Ed Joyce had a lucky break as he survived the ball hitting the stumps while batting against the United Arab Emirates in a World Cup clash in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Amjad Javed thought he'd struck with his fourth ball when an inswinger beat left-hander Joyce's defence and caused the LED lights on the bails to flash.

But although the off-bail was disturbed, it landed back in its groove and Joyce, who stood his ground as seamer Javed celebrated prematurely, was not out.

Joyce, who was on 16 at the time with Ireland 35 for one in the 11th over, added insult to Javed's injury by driving the next ball down the ground for four.

Ireland were chasing a target of 279 for their second victory in as many Pool B games, having beaten the West Indies, after the UAE scored 278 for nine on the back of Shaiman Anwar's 106.

Next WC 40-over affair?

Test cricket could be reduced to four days, and the next World Cup curtailed to 40 overs a side, if wide-ranging discussions between the chairmen of the English counties and the ECB become firm proposals, and are ultimately adopted by the ICC.

The ideas are included in a discussion document - Strategy Conversation Summary - seen by ESPNcricinfo which details radical suggestions for change in the domestic and international game.

Another eye-catching aim - and one being driven forward most strongly - includes England establishing the English Premier League, a streamlined T20 competition involving eight or 10 teams, as "a dominant T20 tournament."

The implication - although it is not stated directly - is that England's international schedule could be trimmed to allow England players to take part in the EPL which would be seen as a serious rival - or addition - to the IPL and the fast-growing Big Bash League in Australia. There are also widespread changes suggested for the structure of domestic cricket in England and Wales.      --Compiled