London, July 31 (IANS) England skipper Andrew Strauss’s sporting gesture to allow Australia replace its injured wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, moments before the start of the long-delayed third Test at Edgbaston, has drawn praised by all and sundry including Australian coach Tim Nielsen.
Strauss gave Australia permission to select reserve wicket-keeper Graham Manou for an extra-ordinary last minute Test debut after the team management discovered the seriousness of a finger injury to Haddin suffered during warm-ups and sent him to hospital for x-rays.

The Law 2 of cricket states: “Each captain shall nominate his players in writing to one of the umpires before the toss. No player may be changed after the nomination without the consent of the opposing captain.”

Australian team manager Steve Bernard spoke to match referee Jeff Crowe about the late change and was directed to meet with Strauss, who readily agreed.

Nielsen, hailed England’s “fine gesture” and is likely to ease the tension between the two sides after the second Test at Lord’s where Strauss claimed a catch at first slip which television replays suggested had hit the grass first.

Asked whether he would have demonstrated similar largesse had the roles been reversed, Nielsen said: “I like to think yes I would. I’m certain I would. In the end it was a fine gesture.

“We used the English team doctor to assess Brad’s finger, and the process worked really well. Strauss was within his rights to have refused, but for the game’s sake we’re now going to have 11 fit blokes on each team, so I expect we would have done the same thing.”

Haddin, who hit a century in the first Test at Cardiff and a rearguard 80 in the defeat at Lord’s, was keen to play through the pain, but Nielsen said: “We were concerned that if he had played he would have had to have it injected every hour to keep because it was quite a significant crack in his finger. By playing with a fracture there was a chance he could have made it a lot worse.”

The incident brought back uncomfortable memories of the twisted ankle that ruled Glenn McGrath out of the corresponding fixture here four years ago, when Haddin himself inadvertently rolled a stray ball into the seamer’s path.