Sydney, May 1:

Fresh from a record third World Cup win, Australia’s cricket authorities on Tuesday turned their attention to replacing several retiring stars with young talent.

Four spinners aiming for the key spot left vacant by Shane Warne’s retirement from the Australian Test team were named in Australia’s list of 25 contracted players for the 2007-08.

They are World Cup star Brad Hogg, youngster Dan Cullen, veteran Stuart MacGill and 22-year-old Cullen Bailey, who has claimed 54 wickets in 17 first-class matches.

Bailey was one of six new names on the list. The others are batsmen Chris Rogers and Adam Voges, swinger Ben Hilfenhaus and all-rounders James Hopes and Cameron White.

Glenn McGrath, Warne, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer retired, while seamer Michael Kasprowicz and batsman Simon Katich were cut from the list. Chief selector Andrew Hilditch said Australia faced a great challenge in the wake of the retirements. “This list of players still represents a very experienced group but also includes some exciting young talent that will ensure our reign as champions in both Test and one-day cricket can continue,” Hilditch said.

“The retirement of Shane Warne is a significant issue for Australian cricket. While he is obviously irreplaceable, we are pleased that we have experienced spinners in Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg. We will also look to Cullen Bailey and Dan Cullen to continue with their exciting development and realise their potential.”

The retirement of paceman McGrath also left “a huge hole”, Hilditch said, but the new squad had exciting fast-bowling talent in Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus.

“While it is still going to be a challenging time for us, we consider it to be a very exciting one and are really confident that the group we have picked can help us to continue our dominance.”

“I don’t want to underestimate the impact of (retirements of) the big players, I mean they have just been such great players, they will be a huge loss. It will be harder to win Testwithout them, that is just reality.”