Ricky Ponting is Australia's all-time leader with 41 tons in his career, but one man who believes his record tally could be threatened is Warner's former Test opening partner and NSW batsman Ed Cowan.

"I think time will show these two to be two of the greatest ever players to play for Australia," Cowan told a Cricket NSW luncheon at the SCG on day two. "Dave's 30 now, Steve is 27 ... Steve has scored 17 hundreds in 3½ years. The first one was halfway through 2013.

Two of the greatest: Steve Smith and David Warner. Photo: Getty Images

"The game at times will change and turn from a luck point of view, but if he keeps going this way he's certainly got 40 Test hundreds in him."

Among the guests at the lunch in the Victor Trumper Stand was former Test player Bob "Dutchy" Holland and his wife, Carolyn, who were both bashed at a Lake Macquarie cricket ground in August but have recovered well.

Andre Russell may have played last game for Sydney Thunder

Sydney Thunder star import Andre Russell may have played his last game for the Big Bash team this season.

Russell was battling a painful knee injury that was threatening to put an early end to his Big Bash League campaign before he suffered a hamstring injury on Wednesday night and was taken from Spotless Stadium on a medicab.

Russell was due to have scans on his right knee after the Thunder's clash with the Melbourne Stars.

Russell's potentially season-ending injuries are another blow to the western Sydney franchise's troubled title defence. Russell has been unable to recapture the form that made him one of the revelations of BBL5, and though he says his injury has not helped, he is refusing to use it as an excuse.

"Because I performed in the past with pain in my leg and arms, I'm getting the pain but I'm still trying to perform – it's just not happening," Russell said.

Pay war on menu

David Peever, Cricket Australia's chairman, hasn't been heard from since the pay dispute between the governing body and the Australian Cricketers' Association blew up last month but we're told he had a couple of skidders delivered to him on the subject when he was interviewed on stage at Wednesday's University of NSW Test breakfast by Jim Maxwell.

And we had to chuckle when we were told the next up on stage at the breakfast was Simon Katich,  the former Test opener and now player relations manager with the ACA, who represents the other side of a divide with CA over negotiations for a new memorandum of understanding. Those talks were  postponed by CA after relations between the two parties went backwards last month but James Sutherland, the CA chief executive, is confident they will get back on track.

"It is a little bit of a misnomer about talks being abandoned and what have you," Sutherland told ABC Grandstand on Wednesday. "What happened was there was a meeting that was cancelled prior to Christmas and the schedule of meetings for January and beyond is absolutely as is. Nothing has changed from that perspective. So I think everyone is looking forward to recommencing discussions in the middle of this month and we will get on with it."

Hawke eye

The ACA has made plenty of noise about the schedule and they found an ally of sorts on Wednesday when Katich and Maxwell, who is back on the Test cricket airwaves this week after suffering a stroke last year, interviewed Bob Hawke on the national broadcaster. The former prime minister prompted laughter from Steve Smith and Australian coach Darren Lehmann when he was pictured on the big screen at the SCG downing a beer on the balcony of the SCG Trust suite.

Always entertaining: Former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke. Photo: Channel Nine

It's not the first time Hawkey, now 87, has delighted the masses by skolling a schooner at the cricket but this time he was also being filmed for an upcoming 60 Minutes feature. Before being wheeled out of the ground in a wheelchair the ex-PM told Maxwell and Katich that "there is too much cricket" these days. "I've always been in favour of players getting well paid, but I think money has taken over the game," he said. Asked whether he would consider being a mediator in the CA-ACA stoush he shot back: "I think my fees would be too high."

On the case 

Still on former PMs and across the other side of the ground at CA's day-two function in the Trumper Stand, the presence of John Howard did not go missing. He lost his glasses case and after an announcement was made in the room it was all hands on deck to hunt it down. After Hawke's big screen appearance Howard was also egged on by those seated in the bay in front to drain his drink as well.