Shane Warne has taken 708 Test wickets for Australia. David Gray / Reuters
Shane Warne has taken 708 Test wickets for Australia. David Gray / Reuters
Shane Warne has taken 708 Test wickets for Australia. David Gray / Reuters
Shane Warne has taken 708 Test wickets for Australia. David Gray / Reuters

Darren Lehmann eyes Ashes glory with help from Shane Warne


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New Australia coach Darren Lehmann would welcome Shane Warne into the Australia set-up.

Lehmann, who was on Monday unveiled as the successor to the sacked Micky Arthur, will take up the reins immediately and lead his side into an Ashes series against England.

Lehmann won the urn twice as a player with Warne and spent four years alongside him in the Victoria dressing room.

"We would love him [Warne] in the room. The past legends is what we are about," said Lehmann.

"Having guys involved in our current structure and having some sort of input. You don't have a guy take 700 Test wickets and not use him if he is around the place. He is always welcome as is anyone who has represented Australia in our dressing room. I will be after the past players to use their knowledge and guidance along the way.

"If he [Warne] is around, and I know he is commentating with Sky all the time, then we will certainly use him. I have had some great messages. They [past players] are an important part of what we are trying to create."

Victories have been hard to come by for the Australians recently with a 4-0 whitewash at the hands of India a major factor in Arthur's dismissal.

"We will get everything right on and off the field," said Lehmann. "It is important to talk about the game whether it be with a beer or a diet coke in your hand. I don't care. It is about learning the game and improving our skills on and off the field and that is what we are about.

"This journey over the next two months during the Ashes we will learn about ourselves as cricketers and people which is really important and performing at the level everyone would expect us to to back home. That is where that comes into it. Learning about where we can do things differently.

"Yes definitely we can still win the Ashes. The team is going to play in a certain way. We are going to play an aggressive brand of cricket that entertains people and fans and gets the job done on and off the field.

"I am excited by the challenge. I am looking forward to working with Michael [Clarke] closely and the other team members and look forward to them having success throughout this tour."

Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, has insisted the team are only looking forward despite admitting his shock at Arthur's sacking.

"For us as a group, and now for Darren, it is important we look forward to what we have ahead of us and our focused on having success on this tour," he said. "We need to stay focused on our performance and make sure we are performing much better than we have been on this tour and how we did on our last tour in India.

"Like everyone I was shocked at the time, I guess it was over the past 24 hours that I allowed it to sink in and for me to then keep my focus on what is important as a player."

Australia to drop rotation policy

Meanwhile, Australia are shelving their controversial rotation policy.

Described as "informed player management" by national selector John Inverarity, the policy designed to safeguard key players from burn-out has drawn heavy criticism from the media and a number of former internationals.

Struggling for form and beset by disciplinary issues, rotating players is a luxury the team cannot afford and Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland confirmed that the strongest available side would be selected throughout the Ashes.

"...looking ahead to the Ashes series in England and next [southern hemisphere] summer in Australia, you won't see any of that rotation policy, as you call it, in the fashion that we have in the past," Sutherland said on ABC radio.

"It's about providing opportunities to players for a team that's in transition, so the selectors can give players opportunities at international level and see how they cope with that and respond," he said.

"For well over a decade, the Australian selectors have adopted a policy of doing that, particularly with one-day cricket.

"I've got no doubt that will continue but for Ashes Test matches, we will day-in, day-out be picking our best team."

The decision is likely to be welcomed by Lehmann, who has been critical of the policy in the past.

Australia play a four-day tour match against Somerset from Wednesday before the first Test of the five-match Ashes series starts at Trent Bridge, Nottingham on July 10.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”