Sydney, Dec. 6 : The Australian cricket selectors are under fire for treating New South Wales wrist spinner Beau Casson poorly.

Casson has been reduced to a Sydney club bowler only months after reaching an intoxicating high of becoming Australia''s 401st Test player in Barbados.

Casson, 25, is confused and struggling to deal with being passed over for Bryce McGain, Cameron White, Jason Krejza and Nathan Hauritz as Australia makes some inexplicable spin selections.

Earlier this year, Casson was being hailed as the answer to Australia''s great spin debate but the confidence of the sensitive youngster has been battered so badly he has just 1-304 from five first-class matches for NSW this season.

Sydney, Dec. 6 : Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has said that his team must take all steps to stop Proteas skipper Graeme Smith from enjoying a run feast during the summer Test series.

Watson believes that he has Smith’s number, having watched and played with him during the Indian Premier League for the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals.

He is almost a certain inclusion in the Australian squad for the first Test against South Africa in Perth that begins from December 17.

Watson said last night that getting on top of Smith would be the key to Australia winning the blockbuster three-Test series.

Sydney, Dec. 6 : Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza has failed a fitness test for Tasmania, putting a cloud over his chances of playing in the Perth Test against South Africa.

Krejza avoided the media as he hurried off the Bellerive Oval this morning after failing the test, telling team management to tell reporters he had gone home as he left the field for treatment and to re-fit an ankle brace.

Australia''s first Test against South Africa in Perth is less than two weeks away, starting on December 17.

Sydney, Dec. 6: Australian opener and New South Wales captain Simon Katich believes that Ricky Ponting will opt for a spinning option during the first Test against South Africa to be played at the WACA in Perth from December 17.

"Generally in the past we have played a spinner in Perth. Whether it''s been Stuey MacGill, Beau Casson or Nathan Hauritz. Whoever it is, we generally like to play one as it adds balance to the attack," news. com. au quoted Katich, as saying.

Sydney - An Australian rescue team was despatched to Papua New Guinea on Saturday after the Port Moresby government asked for help in searching for survivors of a mudslide in which at least 10 people have died.

Managers at Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp's Kianantu gold mine said that 10 people are dead and around 40 missing after heavy rains on Thursday triggered a mudslide that engulfed a village near the mine.

The Australian contingent includes sniffer dogs and paramedics. Spokesman Gary Littlewood told national broadcaster ABC that there was a chance some of the missing would be found alive.

SYDNEY, Dec. 5  -- Demand for taxpayer funded in-vitro fertilization among women over 40 in Australia has doubled in recent years, officials said.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph reported Friday that the number of women over 40 wishing to conceive has more than doubled government payments to IVF programs to $42.6 million in the last four years.

Michael Chapman from IVF Australia said the rate of successful pregnancy for women over 45 is "appalling," the newspaper said.

"We as doctors present the facts, and the facts are appalling, but if these patients insist that they could be the miracle, then we will go ahead," Chapman was quoted as saying.