In an unprecedented move in English cricket, Duncan Fletcher yesterday confirmed that James Anderson and Liam Plunkett – both of whom have been injured this season – could play in the final round of Championship matches for counties other than their own to assess their fitness ahead of England’s tour of Australia.Lancashire, still gunning for the title, could not be expected to field a match-unfit Anderson; nor Durham to select Plunkett in their relegation match against Yorkshire. Instead, other counties who have nothing at stake, will be asked to field the two players which is essentially an extension of the loan system; Oliver Newby, Lancashire’s fast bowler, played for Nottinghamshire on loan last year while Alamgir Sheriyar, contracted to Kent, was lent to Worcestershire.The move clearly hints that Fletcher wants both players in his squad of 16 to tour Australia and the coach, speaking to , confirmed there would be a number of reserves stationed at Perth, with two coaching staff. Fletcher and the England selectors will announce their Ashes squad on Tuesday, before which the likely England players will all undergo a medical at Loughbourgh on Monday.As ever, Fletcher remains tight-lipped and noncommittal regarding the England captaincy, although he did express his long-standing doubt over the immense pressure captaincy would put on Andrew Flintoff. “It’s always been my concern that it’s a lot to ask.”Possible England squad
Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Read, Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Monty Panesar, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett and James Anderson.

Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s bowling coach, is being lined up to join New South Wales after the World Cup according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.Dave Gilbert, NSW’s chief executive, has already said that he wants Waqar to replace Anthony Stewart, who recently left to take charge of Wellington in New Zealand.”It would be great to work full-time in NSW,” Waqar said. “I am very much interested in the job. When I finish my contract with Pakistan I will speak to David [Gilbert].”

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Nick Jewell and Brad Hodge made the most of their time at the crease as Victoria and Tasmania played out a predictable draw at the MCG. The Tigers reached 518, passing Victoria’s 429 in the morning session, and then it was glorified batting practice for the Bushrangers as the captains ignored the chance to manufacture a result on the sunniest day of a rain-affected game.After bowling well for no return on Thursday, Shane Warne gave Victoria the sniff of a first-innings lead by snaring Brett Geeves caught and bowled for 18. When Brendan Drew played down the wrong line and was bowled by Gerard Denton for 3, Tasmania were 8 for 427 and still needed three runs to pass Victoria.Daniel Marsh made sure the Tigers took the two points, then he and Adam Griffith (47) frustrated the Bushrangers, adding 86 for the tenth wicket. Victoria were willing to let Marsh take singles – they had eight fieldsmen on the boundary – and attack Griffith and finally Warne had the No. 11 caught at mid-on, leaving Marsh stranded on 95.With no pressure to push for a result, Jewell took the opportunity to post his second first-class century, making 100 not out, while Hodge followed on from his first-innings 153 with an unbeaten 66. Ricky Ponting tested some bodyline-style tactics, encouraging his fast men to bowl short deliveries from around the wicket with two legslips in place, but no catch was forthcoming. Late in the day the match degenerated as the fast bowler Geeves tried his offspin.Jewell was pleased with his century, especially considering the legside attack Ponting had used. “It’s pretty hard to score if you don’t really play the hook shot,” Jewell said. “It’s not one of my preferred shots. I prefer to just ride them around the corner or get underneath them.” He said the Bushrangers were surprised by the way the match petered out. “We were actually expecting them to declare behind and for us to set them a chase,” Jewell said.By taking first-innings points Tasmania put themselves two points clear of New South Wales on the Pura Cup table, although the Blues have played one fewer game.

Kevin Pietersen will not bat at No.4 in the first Test despite the absence of Marcus Trescothick at the top of the order. Andrew Flintoff said Pietersen would fill the No.5 position even though he has a better record further up the batting list.”Kevin has proven that he can bat at Test cricket,” Flintoff told . “He’s got a fantastic record. We think for the strength of this side we’re better suited with Kevin batting at five. It’s just the dynamics of the team. We’re happy with Kevin at five.”Pietersen averages 46.85 from 15 innings batting at No.5 compared to 53.88 from 17 innings at No.4. Flintoff’s words indicate Paul Collingwood could get the job at No.4, a move that would be a backward step for England, according to Darren Lehmann, who captained South Australia in a tour match against the visitors on the weekend.”He’s the key,” Lehmann said. “He’ll take Australia on. And he should bat at No.4 because of Trescothick going home. The big thing for him will be that the grounds are a lot bigger. In England the grounds are so small that Pietersen and some of the other batsmen hit Warne and Lee for a lot of sixes. The Australians will bounce him a lot.” reported Pietersen acknowledged he would be the target for short-pitched bowling. “There’s been a lot made of it and it’s going to happen whether you bat at one or 11,” Pietersen said. “Nowadays it doesn’t matter. You’re going to get it.” After his century in last week’s tour match against New South Wales, Pietersen admitted a skied hook shot off Brett Lee early in his innings had almost brought him undone. “I know it was a bit of a naughty shot,” he said. “It’s the way I have been training, the way I have been playing.”

“You had to be awake to play Shane Warne”, Sachin Tendulkar said today, a smile on his face, as he looked back on the rivalry between two of the longest-serving players in Test cricket. Tendulkar and Warne enjoyed some memorable contests, with Warne onceadmitting that Tendulkar’s batting – especially in the series in India in 1998 – gave him nightmares, and at his press conference today singled out Tendulkar and Brian Lara as the two toughest batsmen of his era.Asked what made Warne so special, Tendulkar pointed to his legendary accuracy and a spirit that remained unbowed no matter how tough the situation. “You had to be awake. There was no breathing space at all”, he told the media as the Indian team limbered up for the second Test at Kingsmead. “Warne being such a fierce competitor, you knew that at no stage could you bat him out of the game. He was always coming back at you. That kept me on my toes.””He’s been a great ambassador for cricket, and Australia. He’s a good friend of mine and it’s unfortunate that he’s retiring. We’ll all miss his quality bowling. It’s been a treatto watch.”According to Tendulkar, Warne would always command a special place in thegame’s annals. “He’s surely one of the greatest players to have playedthis game,” he said. “Above all, I think he’s a wonderful person. He’s agood friend and what he’s been able to achieve for Australia is somethingspecial. There are not many guys who can stand next to him and say thatthey have done similar things. You don’t get to see such cricketers everyday.”While most rate Warne as the greatest slow bowler of his or any other era,Tendulkar preferred to think of him as one part of a triumvirate thatrejuvenated spin bowling after some lean years in the 1980s. “He’scertainly been one of the top spinners,” said Tendulkar. “Another greatspinner is playing in my team, Anil Kumble, and then there’s Muralitharan.These three spinners are the best, and anyone would want to have them inthe side.”For years, his tussles with Warne were among the game’s marquee contests,and Tendulkar said that there would be several great memories. “We’vealways had good competition, and shared some nice humour. I remember thefirst time I scored a hundred against him in one-day cricket, in SriLanka. I hit him for a six, and he said something. I didn’t really followwhat he said because I started walking towards the square-leg umpire. Icaught up with him after the game and told him: ‘Now you can tell me whatyou wanted to say on the field’. We shared a joke, and since then we’vebeen good friends.”India are scheduled to tour Australia in a year’s time, and Tendulkar wasasked if the game would be poorer for the personal rivalry having come toan end. “I’ve always said that it’s not about Shane Warne and Sachin,” hesaid. “It’s Australia and India. People like to build up these things. Intime to come, there will be someone else.”I’ve already sent a message to him,” he said. “I want to wish him all thevery best. And above all, good health.”

Tama Canning, the allrounder who has played four ODIs for New Zealand, has announced his retirement at the age of 29, following a disciplinary breach. He renounced his contract with Auckland, his state side, after questions were raised about his conduct and commitment during their State Championship match against Northern Districts at Eden Park last week.Canning, the overnight batsman, reported late on the final day with a hangover, showing up barely 20 minutes before the first ball was to be bowled. Though he picked up seven wickets, he failed miserably with the bat, with scores of 0 and 1, as his side crumbled to a 318-run defeat. His actions irked the team management and his team-mates.This was his second breach following an incident in an Auckland nightclub last year, and though he claimed no recollection of the offence, he was fined by the Players’ Association. Andrew Eade, Auckland Cricket chief executive, told the that they were yet to discuss at that stage whether his contract would be cancelled.”There was an incident at the last game,” Eade said. “We held a hearing following the incident, which is what we do in situations like that, and it hadn’t reached the stage of deciding what we were going to do as a flow-on from the incident. Tama himself decided, because he’s had a bit of a history of difficulties with commitments I guess, that it was time for him to retire.”Heath Mills, the Players’ Association manager, added that Canning had struggled to meet his obligations as a professional cricketer, thereby prompting him to retire and look for a career outside cricket. Canning has moved back to Perth, his former base.Canning was named the Auckland Player of the Year in 2003 after a good season in which he took 46 wickets in the State Championship at an average of 21.97, breaking John Bracewell’s haul of 43 in 1986-87. He also scored 451 runs, averaging 37.58.

Kenya has been waiting for this, but it was only when Samir Inamdar,their chairman, received rapturous applause for his speech that werealised just how much the World Cricket League means to the country.”I think I speak on behalf of many associates that, to many a fullmember – perhaps even a cricketer – the cream of Associate cricketremains a mysterious enigma,” he said at the WCL opening ceremony, atParklands in Nairobi. “No one really knows how good they are, how wellthey will perform in the World Cup. Over the next two weeks we standto learn just how good they are and that alone is a huge step forward.The eyes of the world will be on us today.”Inamdar was speaking at a lavish, marquee ceremony in the district ofParklands on the eve of the first match between Kenya and Bermudatomorrow. Cultural dancers, local to the district, performed adazzling display of hamstring-tweaking manoeuvres to a large audience,made up of the six participating teams, media, administrators andalmost anyone with even the vaguest connection to cricket in Kenya.There was a strong sense from the group of people collected that herethey all were “in it together,” fighting the once spiritless cause oflower-tier cricket. Recognition at last.”Kenya is proud to host this event because, for too long, the countryhas been in the news for precisely the wrong reasons,” Inamdar said.”I’m not prepared to dwell on the past, but what I do say is we havemade enormous progress in the way our cricket is managed. But we arestill not out of the woods and an enormous amount of work remains tobe done. We are in for an exciting time in the next 10-12 days.”It is too early for congratulatory back-slapping – the opening game ofthe tournament is still some 12 hours away. But tonight confirmed thezeal and fervour for cricket in Kenya. Win lose or draw, it is animmensely encouraging sign for the future.

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Jagadeesh Arunkumar, the Assam captain, resurrected his side from 5 for 3 with a most scintillating hundred and sealed a five-wicket win over Orissa at Cuttack. In just 147 deliveries, Arunkumar slammed 154 not out, and added an unbeaten 144 with Zakaria Zuffri, the wicketkeeper, who contributed a vital 95-ball 54. Niranjan Behera (90) and Subit Biswal (56) steered Orissa to 253 for 4, and Debasis Mohanty grabbed two quick wickets for nothing, but it was Arunkumar’s day all the way.
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Barring Rowland hit a second consecutive unbeaten century and Bharat Chipli shrugged off a first-ball duck yesterday to slam a rapid ton of his own as Karnataka surged to an eight-wicket win over Goa in Secunderabad. Just a day after Rowland hit 101 not out in another easy run chase, against Kerala, he was back to business as Karnataka overhauled a total of 224 in 32.4 overs. Vinay Kumar, B Akhil and Sunil Joshi accounted for nine batsmen to dismiss Goa cheaply, despite fifties from Robin D’Souza and Shadab Jakati, before Chipli and Rowland added 174 at over seven an over to complete a big win.
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Fluent half-centuries from opener Srikkanth Anirudha and veteran Hemang Badani carried Tamil Nadu to their second success in as many days as they eased to an eight-wicket win over Hyderabad at Uppal. VVS Laxman stroked his second consecutive half-century to prop Hyderabad to 188 for 8, but it was a total that proved too easy for the tourists. Anirudha, 19, collected 13 boundaries in a career-best 74 off 67 balls, while Badani remained unbeaten on 67 as the tourists got home in the 37th over. TN collected five points from this victory to put them right on top of the points table.
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PV Manikandan, the hard-hitting batsman, took 23 off one over in a brutal 50-ball 76 to help Kerala clinch a three-wicket win over Andhra in Secunderabad. Set 239 to win after the spin combo of Sreekumar Nair and Sadanandan Anish pegged back a good top-order offensive, Kerala overcame a shaky start. Somasetty Suresh hit a patient 71 and Nair 44 from 72, but it was Manikandan’s brutal attack down the order, and a breezy 26-run eighth wicket stand, that took Kerala across the finish line.
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Jharkhand got their East Zone campaign off to a winning start by defeating Tripura by 68 runs at Bhubaneshwar. Put into bat, Jharkand made 221 for 9 with Manish Vardhan getting a round 50 at the top and Santosh Lal his maiden limited-overs fifty lower down. Vineet Jain, the veteran right-arm medium-pacer, had fine figures of 4 for 25 from his ten overs. The Jharkhand left-arm spin combo of Shahbaz Nadeem and Arun Vidyarthi then shared six wickets between themselves to bowl Tripura out for 153 in 40.5 overs, with no batsman crossing 24.The bad news continued for fans in Kanpur, as for the second consecutive day, two matches – Rajasthan v Railways and Uttar Pradesh v Vidarbha – were abandoned without a ball being bowled owing to the severe cold rains lashing across north India.

Zimbabwe are pinning their faith on the unpredictable nature of one-day cricket as the 2007 World Cup prepares to get underway in the West Indies. Zimbabwe’s coach, Kevin Curran, told Cricinfo on the eve of the squad’s departure from Harare: “Anything can happen in one-day cricket, and when it does it’s up to your players to perform on the day, we’ve had the players to do so in the past.”Although they have been perennial underdogs and have won only eight of their past 42 World Cup games, history shows Zimbabwe have a knack of upsetting more fancied opponents. They beat Australia by 13 runs in their debut World Cup match in Nottingham in 1983, thanks to the exploits of their captain (and current England coach) Duncan Fletcher, not to mention Curran himself, who scored 27 and picked up the valuable wicket of Allan Border.And in 1992, after losing 18 consecutive World Cup matches over a nine-year period, Zimbabwe beat the eventual finalists, England, by nine runs at Albury in Australia in 1992. They then followed that by beating South Africa by 48 runs in Chelmsford in 1999, a result which was instrumental in South Africa’s elimination after they tied their semi-final with Australia.At this year’s World Cup, Zimbabwe are pitted in Group D and will take on Ireland before facing Pakistan and West Indies, with Curran hopeful his team will prove competitive. “We won’t be taking Ireland lightly because they have guys who have played at a decent standard of cricket,” Curran said, “but I’d like to think we could beat them on our day.”West Indies have great players like Brian Lara and Chris Gayle, but they can’t fire every time. And as we’ve seen in Pakistan’s series in South Africa [which South Africa won 3-1], they can be very average. We know we have to win two games to have a realistic chance of reaching the Super Eight round.”Disputes with administrators have drained most of the experienced players out of Zimbabwe, and as a result, the batsman Stuart Matsikenyeri is the only member of the squad who has featured in a previous World Cup. Curran tried to impart a positive spin to Zimbabwe’s lack of experience saying: “Sometimes you can use that to your advantage, West Indies and Pakistan will be under pressure to play well against us, while our guys can go out and play with a bit of flair and hopefully produce the goods.”Zimbabwe play two warm up games at Arnos Vale in St Vincent prior to the main tournament which starts on March 13. The Zimbabwean’s first warm-up is against the wounded Australians on March 6, followed by Bermuda on the 8th. Zimbabwe leave for the Caribbean on Wednesday.

The new system of payments formulated by the Board for Control of Cricket in India for members of the Indian team has three components, and includes performance-linked clauses. The details, as revealed to Cricinfo by Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, add up to a significant increase for a winning team.The basic match fee will be the same for all: Rs 100,000 (US$ 2332) for each one-day international, Rs 200,000 for each Test.There will also be individual results-based incentives for players: For ODIs, both home and away, each member of the playing eleven will receive Rs 300,000 for each match won; reserves will get 50% of that.For Test matches at home, the payment will be Rs 500,000 per win per player and Rs 300,000 each for a draw. Away Tests will fetch each player Rs 600,000 for a win and Rs 400,000 for a draw. Again, reserves will get 50% of these figures in each case.There will also be team bonuses linked to results. For one-day matches, the squad will receive Rs 5,000,000 for each series won in India and Rs 7,500,000 for each series won abroad. Winning a Test series will fetch the squad Rs 15,000,000 (US$ 349,882).There will also be a flat, common retainer fee, Shetty said, to replace the graded system of contracts. However, the board has not yet decided on the quantum of that fee.