McGrath flies back home to sick wife

MELBOURNE: Fast bowler Glenn McGrath left the Australian Test cricket squad en route to their West Indies cricket tour and was returning home for family reasons, the Australian Cricket Board said yesterday.

McGrath was on a stopover in London when he received medical advice about his wife, Jane. McGrath’s manager Warren Craig said Jane McGrath was not suffering a recurrence of breast cancer. She had a mastectomy after suffering from breast cancer for the first time in 1997. “It definitely is not breast cancer,” Craig told the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday. “It is linked, however. The condition is basically a derivative of that, but it can be treated. It is serious without being overly serious.”

The Australian squad was due to arrive in Georgetown, Guyana yesterday for a four-Test series against the West Indies starting April 14. McGrath has taken 422 wickets in 91 Test matches and 277 wickets in 214 limited-overs internationals, including 21 wickets during Australia’s successful World Cup defence in South Africa last month. His seven wickets for 15 runs  against Namibia is a World Cup bowling record.