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Young opener Phil Hughes(left) - he made the plane!

Bruce Manly writes from Melbourne:

BRYCE McGain can be thankful his name is not Andrew Symonds after escaping serious punishment for missing the plane to South Africa. The Victorian leg-spinner missed his flight from Melbourne to join the team in Sydney on Monday. Apparently, he ‘over-slept’ and no-one noticed until they were at the airport.

Amazing. In the day of buses, roll calls, family saying goodbye, modern communications technology, this can happen. Doesn’t say much for management of the team!

McGain had to fly to South Africa via Hong Kong and did not arrive at the Potchefstroom team hotel until Tuesday morning - 12 hours after his teammates. The embarrassed 36-year-old faced the leadership group yesterday. The proceedings remain secret (as usual), but Cricket Australia indicated McGain received a slap on the knuckles for the offence.

McGain is yet to make his international debut but is considered the best leg-spinner in the country (so that’s why he got off?). He was robbed of a Test debut in India in October by a shoulder injury that required surgery. He has returned to form for Victoria and is a strong contender to make his debut in the first Test against Johannesburg starting next Thursday.

By contrast, Symonds was sent into exile after missing a team meeting last year, but he had a number of prior convictions for breaches of team rules. “It has all been dealt with internally,” team coach Tim Nielsen said yesterday. “We had a good chat with Bryce over the last 24 hours. We understand the situation and we looked after it. “As far as we are concerned it’s put to bed. We are happy with the situation and it’s all over.”

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