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Volatile spinner told to keep the peace Posted: Sunday December 09, 2001 9:52 AMPERTH, Australia (AP) -- Stuart MacGill and Shane Warne will never be close friends. But MacGill, the newest recruit to the Australian cricket team, has been told to get along with his fellow legspinner. Selection chairman Trevor Hohns said Sunday he gave MacGill a stern talk before naming him in the 12-man squad for the first test against South Africa starting in Adelaide on Friday. MacGill and Warne aren't close on or off the field and MacGill also has a history of not being able to manage his anger, once bumping with an opposing team's 12th man. "I've spoken to Stuart and told him the other players don't have to fit in with him -- he has to fit in with them," Hohns said. "It's up to him to work it out." He said Warne and MacGill were expected to cast aside personal differences. "They are both highly paid professional sports people who are expected to do a job for Australia," he said. "It's up to them to put any personal issues aside and get on with it." MacGill, at least initially, showed he had heeded the message, describing Warne as the "best spinner of all time" and playing down his much superior bowling figures in tests when they've played together. The two leggies haven't played in the same team for nearly three years but with the Adelaide Oval pitch expected to take plenty of spin there's a strong chance they will both be in the playing 11. In their five tests together, MacGill has 24 wickets at 19.33 while Warne has been left to pick up the scraps with seven wickets at 77.85. MacGill, who said at the beginning of the season that his only chance of national selection would be if Warne was injured, played down the significance of that imbalance. "I wouldn't say that I have out-bowled him, he's the best spinner of all time," said MacGill. "Statistically I've picked up some wickets but wickets are often created by the person up the other end and it's no accident." The pair haven't played in the same team since the third test in the West Indies in March 1999. Australia lost that match to fall behind 2-1 in the four-test series and Warne was dropped for the next game as Australia gambled on MacGill and Colin Miller for the final match, which Australia won to level the series. MacGill's other 11 tests have come in Warne's absence through injury. The 30-year-old MacGill has played 16 tests for 75 wickets at an average of 25.03 and a strike rate of one wicket every 50 balls -- one of the best in Australian test history. MacGill, who made his debut in the Adelaide test against South Africa in 1997, was shocked by his recall. "I didn't dream of getting selected for this match," he said. "I was angling for the Sydney (third) test." The other factor working against MacGill in recent years has been his temper. He was banned for life from a minor league in England for a fight with a rival player and, earlier this year, he was fined 750 US dlrs for an outburst against an umpire in a domestic match. In Adelaide last year he escaped with a warning from the match referee after a collision with West Indies 12th man Ramnaresh Sarwan. He was also fined $750 by Australian management when he verbally abused a croupier at a Sri Lankan casino. On another occasion he threw the ball at his club captain for not implementing a field setting he wanted.
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