Cricket: Lillee to make his final bow

PAKISTAN'S BATSMEN will have to cope with a double Lillee attack when they open their Australian tour in October at Perth.

The fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee, 50, and his son Adam, 25, will team up together when they play for an Australian Cricket Board Chairman's XI in a one-day match against the touring Pakistan side on 26 October. It is likely to be Lillee Snr's final farewell appearance.

The man who took 355 Test wickets retired from the first-class ranks more than 10 years ago, but has made a brief comeback each summer to appear in the traditional festival match at Lilac Hill Park, Caversham, in the Swan Valley area of Western Australia.

Lillee was delighted that the match provided the ideal opportunity for him to play alongside Adam, a pace bowler with a fluid action similar to his father's. "It will be a nice way for me to bow out of the game," he said. "I just hope that my ageing knees will hold out, and that the crowd will not put too much pressure on the lad."

Sri Lanka's cricket authorities have suspended their former captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, pending a disciplinary inquiry. Ranatunga has been asked to explain why he participated in an exhibition match in Canada earlier this month without permission from the Sri Lankan Cricket Board.