Cricket: Warne and Caddick Prepare for Comebacks

One is returning from a drugs ban, the other after back surgery, but Shane Warne and Andy Caddick must both feel that the next few days will see them relaunch their careers.

The flamboyant Australia leg-spinner's one-year exile ends on Tuesday and he is leaving nothing to chance. Warne, 34, looks slimmer than he has for years and has taken to privately hiring cricket grounds in Melbourne to dodge the terms of his suspension.

Caddick, one year older, is almost fit again after his operation and is not only intent on an England comeback but is also close to signing a four-year contract that will tie him to Somerset, whom he joined in 1991, until the end of his playing career.

Warne was back in the public eye this week at a golf pro-am before the start of the Heineken Open at Royal Melbourne. When he got out of his new seven-series BMW, somebody remarked that he looked "as slim as Damien Oliver". The Oliver in question is a champion Australian jockey. That's commitment for you.

Warne is down to 85kg (13st 5lb) and one can assume that he has done it without slimming aids provided by his mum. That was the explanation he gave for the pill-popping that caused him to be banished from last year's World Cup after testing positive for a diuretic commonly used to mask steroid abuse.

Cricket Australia has barred Warne from any official match or practice session, apart from charity or testimonial games, until his ban elapses. So he hired the Junction Oval in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, the venue of his second-XI comeback next week for Victoria against Queensland, and had a 45-minute muck-about on the square with friends. In other words, a full-scale practice in anything but name.

David Johnstone, St Kilda's chairman ("Just looking in . . . purely unofficial capacity" etc) said: "He seemed really happy. He looked in good form."

Australia's chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said of the comeback match: "I'm in Melbourne that day so I'll probably poke my nose in." He would be well advised to. Australia plan to name their Test squad for Sri Lanka around February 21, and indications are that Warne will be in it.

On the other hand Caddick, who is expected to announce his extended contract with Somerset shortly, knows he will have to work to win back his Test place. But after bowling in the nets again this week for the first time since surgery on a prolapsed disc, the seamer said: "I'd like to think I have another two years of Test cricket ahead of me."

After a careful remedial programme, Caddick has no qualms at the prospect of playing through to near 40. At the age of 35 he argues that his controlled pace is still as threatening as ever and there is no problem over his stamina. For their part, Somerset see him as the bowler who can revitalise the team.

Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan - umpire Venkat to most - is to retire from the ICC elite officials panel after 11 years. The 58-year-old former India captain's final game at international level will be the second Sri Lanka-Australia Test which starts on March 16.