SYDNEY (Reuters)
Shane Warne has been named as Australia vice-captain for Thursday's VB Series match against New Zealand, boosting his chances of succeeding Steve Waugh as national captain.

Warne, 32, who was stripped of the vice-captaincy two years ago because of an off-field indiscretion, takes over from wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist who has withdrawn for family reasons.

"It's a huge honour to be back as vice-captain," Warne said. "I'm not looking too far ahead - this is only for one game, it's just a fill-in game until Gilly gets back. But it's nice to be thought of in a leadership role by the selectors and the board."

Waugh, 36, will play on until at least the 2003 World Cup in South Africa but has publicly left his options open for playing for several more years in Tests and limited overs internationals.

"When Gilly took over from me the ACB (Australian Cricket Board) said the door wasn't closed and I suppose this proves that it's not closed," Warne said.

"There's lots of candidates in the team, lots of senior players, lots of experienced guys, so to be appointed vice-captain when there's so many candidates is a great honour. The thing I'm happy with is that I'm still in the frame."

Waugh said Australia, who are bottom of the standings after losing their opening matches to New Zealand and South Africa respectively, had got what they deserved.

"We haven't played well enough and we've lost both games," Waugh said. "That's a bit of gee-up for all the guys in the team. We've got to show more respect for the game and for our own individual efforts.

"We realise we haven't played to our potential, we haven't played to our game plans, we've strayed away from that and we've paid the price and rightly so. We've lost both games, we weren't good enough. I believe we're good enough to come back and good enough to win the next match and the next one after that."

Waugh defended Australia's current policy of resting key players as part of a rotational policy. "The top 14 will be juggled around. I don't see any reason why it should change," Waugh said. "New ideas and new concepts are always going to meet with some disapproval when things go wrong.

"But I have faith and belief in the concept and it's towards the bigger picture of the World Cup. That's not to say we're not keen to win these matches, we are."

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