Finch plays down World Cup security concerns

LONDON, Thursday: Australia one-day captain Aaron Finch said everything had been put in place to protect disgraced pair Steve Smith and David Warner during the World Cup in England.

Former skipper Smith and fellow star batsman Warner only returned to international duty earlier this month after completing one-year bans for their roles in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

A report in the Daily Mirror newspaper on Thursday said Warner’s manager had sought security assurances from Cricket Australia, with the batsman’s wife wanting to give birth to their third child in Britain.

But Finch was confident both Smith and Warner would be able to concentrate on their cricket. -AFP