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New Zealand have been invited to take part in a one-day series involving Australia and England in 2006-07, but Martin Snedden, New Zealand’s cricket chief, has declined to discuss the matter until Australia finalises its Ashes schedule.Australia host England for the Ashes in November-December of 2006, and have offered New Zealand a spot for the VB Series in January, reports the . New Zealand’s inclusion will be important to its World Cup campaign, considering the quality of cricket Australia and England will offer them.At it stands, New Zealand are scheduled to play 15 one-day internationals between the end of this summer and the World Cup in March of 2007; however, their participation in the tri-series guarantees them eight additional matches, barring the best-of-three finals.For New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Australia, the problem remains penciling in the annual Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. One possibility could be doubling the two – the first three games between the trans-Tasman rivals in the VB Series counting as the Chappell-Hadlee series – but this carries the risk of weakening the appeal of the annual match-up. Other options include hosting the event after the VB Series or squeezing it between the ICC Champions Trophy in India in November 2006 and the Ashes Brisbane Test beginning November 23.A nine-day period remains during the second and third Ashes Tests, but Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, has voiced his displeasure at the idea of fitting the Chappell-Hadlee series in there.Australia won this year’s edition in New Zealand 2-1, which threw up two of the most thrilling contests seen between the two teams.

ScorecardMashonaland, shocked by their position at the bottom of the heap after three successive defeats, invited rebel players Trevor Gripper and Neil Ferreira, both of whom have been doing well playing club cricket, to strengthen their battered team; it is not yet known whether Zimbabwe Cricket approved their selection.In the event, the pair almost certainly made the different between victory and defeat for Mashonaland, who beat Manicaland by 14 runs with just four balls to spare at Mutare Sports Club. Ferreira, opening the innings, made a solid 45, while Gripper made a sound 71 batting at four. With Barney Rogers, who was captain in the absence of Tatenda Taibu who was preparing England’s visit with national squad, scoring a brisk 35 and Chamu Chibhabha making an undefeated half-century from 41 balls, Mashonaland reached a daunting total of 280 for five wickets. Blessing Mahwire had bowled very well but took none for 41; in contrast, Waddington Mwayenga was erratic but took three wickets at a cost of 86 runs in 10 overs.In reply, Manicaland fought hard being three wickets down for 46 and then six for 140. Only Piet Rinke of the top order flourished, with 61, before Mahwire hitting a belligerent 37 from number six. But the most surprising innings came from Patrick Gada, who nearly turned the match. Gada, normally cautious, hit 62 off just 49 balls. He received good support from the rest of the lower order, but in the final over Manicaland fell just short.
ScorecardA good team performance from Matabeleland ensured that they maintained momentum in the 2004-05 Faithwear Series, as they completed their fourth successive victory, a 58-run win over Midlands at Kwekwe Sports Club.Matabeleland began badly after deciding to bat, losing their first four wickets for 43 runs before Charles Coventry batted with for 44 to steadied the ship with determined 44. Sean Williams provided the finishing touches, hitting 61 from 63 balls to boost the total to 222. Ian Nicolson, bowling with more discipline than usual, and Innocent Chinyoka took three wickets each.Midlands’s chase began well, as Alester Maregwede, made 37 off 37 in an quick opening stand of 58. Midlands then reached 132 with only three wickets down, but they proceeded to lose their last seven wickets falling for only 32 runs, a disastrous collapse. Left-arm spinner Keith Dabengwa was its architect-in-chief with four for 20, and ensured that after a brief scare, Matabeleland triumphed again.

Paul Collingwood should be back in action in four weeks time. He has missed the whole of the season so far after dislocating his shoulder in a pre-season friendly match for Durham.However, the good news for Durham and England is that he is on his way back: “I’m ahead of schedule," he said. "I haven’t put a final date on when I want to be coming back but I’d say it will be three or four weeks’ time."And Collingwood has got his sights on an international comeback too. “I think we’ve got three four-day games in September and I hope I can get in there and stake a claim for the Bangladesh tour.”I need to be 100% fit to go to Bangladesh. I need to train on the bike, on the training ground – and in the nets on my technique.”Then I need to get out in the centre and get some overs under my belt. I’m nearly there now – I can see light at the end of the tunnel.”

Another abject surrender by India saw them slump to their ninthconsecutive one-day final loss at Kingsmead, Durban, on Friday. ShaunPollock’s men, in sharp contrast, were magnificent in carrying outtheir game plan on the field and they rightfully walked away withevery award on offer.

I would lay the blame for this defeat squarely on the shoulders of theIndian batsmen. The overnight rain in Durban had meant that there wasdampness in the pitch and the ball was stopping with disconcertingregularity on its way to the batsmen. I felt then that a score of 230to 240 would have proved a challenging target for the South Africans,who had decided to chase. The Indian middle-order, however, for theumpteenth time failed to rise to the occasion following the earlydismissals of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, and our final scoreof 183 was always going to be inadequate.The defeat has proved yet again our almost absolute reliance on Sachinand Sourav. Let me place a few facts to drive home the obvious. It wasSachin’s unbeaten 124 and Sourav’s unbeaten 63 that sealed India’slast win in a one-day final on 13 November 1998 against Zimbabwe inSharjah. India’s failure to win a one-day trophy since then has a lotto do with the fact that the two premier batsmen have managed to scoreonly a little over 350 runs among them in the last nine finals. This,incidentally, includes the ICC KnockOut final at Nairobi in October2000 when Ganguly made a brilliant hundred only to see Chris Cairnscome up with an equally superlative effort to guide New Zealand to afamous win.In all fairness to Sachin and Sourav though we cannot expect them todeliver on every occasion. The rest of the batting too has to pulltheir collective weight whenever the magnificent duo fails. The highsuccess percentage of top teams like South Africa and Australia has alot to do with the fact that their middleand late-order deliver evenwhen their openers fail. But sadly this has never been the case withIndia.

On Friday, all we needed was for someone to give Rahul Dravid company.Virender Sehwag looked good while making 34 but he perished when Indiawere expecting a long innings from him. Reetinder Sodhi also showedattitude while making a gutsy 22 but the others seemed to have thrownin the towel even before they made their way out to the middle. Theirbody language showed that they had no stomach for a fight and thismeant India couldn’t even play out the allotted 50 overs.What the performance proves is that we have not yet learnt to play asa team. If you ask me, unless that happens, we cannot seize the bigmoment and make it our own. Our batsmen will also have to learn toplay international-level fast bowling. As of now, with the honourableexception of Sachin, Rahul and VVS Laxman, I don’t see any of thecurrent lot succeeding against the South African quicks in the Tests.Our willow-wielders must also master the art of running between thewickets. On Friday, almost all of our batsmen ran at a pace that wouldhave been more in keeping with an early morning jog by the beach. Theymust also learn when to run and when not to, ensuring that they avoidthe kind of dismissal that befell Javagal Srinath. Every wicket andevery run counts in the international arena and this sort of laxrunning is truly unpardonable.I have held for long that the lack of a quality all-rounder has beenanother major reason for India’s poor performance in recent times. Ifyou look back, a lot of our success in our golden era in one-daycricket, the early 1980s, was due to the fact that we had quite a fewquality all-rounders. Reetinder Singh Sodhi, who currently fills theslot, has loads of attitude but he has to improve his batting andbowling in a big way if he is to be classed in the same bracket asthose fine cricketers with whom I had the honour of playing.It might be stating the obvious again but the fielding too has toimprove by leaps and bounds (tongue-firmly-in-cheek). At Durban, wesaw Laxman dropping Kirsten when the latter was on 23 and later Kumbledropping Kallis at third man. No team can afford such mistakes even inthe normal run of play leave alone when they are defending what was atbest a modest target.The Indian skipper has said in the post-match press conference that heis still looking for solutions that would end the almost three-yearlong one-day title drought. I can only empathise with Sourav. WhatDurban has shown is that even the darkest of clouds might suddenlydisappear; Indian cricket’s worries though will not.

Mushfiqur Rahim, Bangladesh’s Test captain, has said that the upcoming two-Test series will be his side’s best chance to beat Australia. Mushfiqur drew comparisons between the current team and the one that pushed Australia more than nine years ago in Fatullah.”This is the biggest chance to beat Australia,” Mushfiqur said. “We will definitely try to give more than our 100% in both Tests.”Bangladesh have been excellent in one-day cricket since late 2014, winning four bilateral ODI series in a row against Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and South Africa. In Tests, they won 3-0 against Zimbabwe and lost one Test to Pakistan in May this year; the others were all rain-affected drawn games.The Australia series is Bangladesh’s last international assignment in 2015, and Mushfiqur wants to cap the year with another high.”It would be a great way to end the year [with a win]. In 2006 they had the greatest team of all time. At that time we were long way from even thinking about beating them, and some even questioned whether we can play for four days,” he said.”If that team can go close to beating them [in the first Test in Fatullah], why can’t this team beat them? A win won’t be impossible if we can play five days. I hope we become like our ODI side. Our cricket has come to such a stage that expectations are a bit more these days.”Part of the reason for the rising expectations has been Mashrafe Mortaza’s captaincy, and in particular his backing of the pace attack. Since taking over as limited-overs captain last year, Mashrafe has regularly employed Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain in a three-man pace attack. Mustafizur Rahman’s unprecedented early success has forced the team management to pick four pace bowlers at times, but the same can’t be said about the languishing Test pacers.Mushfiqur is hoping that the added choices in the ODI bowling attack can adapt well to Tests . Taskin and Rubel are part of the Bangladesh A team that will play three one-dayers and two three-day games in India from this week. Shafiul Islam and Al-Amin Hossain are also in the Bangladesh A squad.”We have choices in pace bowling, which is great news for Bangladesh cricket. A lot of matches this year were won by pace bowlers. If we can combine pace and spin and our batsmen do well, the series against Australia will be a good one.”We hope that the Bangladesh A team does well. Those of us who are playing in the NCL, will also try to give good performances although we are playing just one game. I hope everyone makes the best use of it. We are mentally focused from now.”Mushfiqur was also wary of the threat of Australia, who find themselves shorn of experience following the retirements of Ryan Harris, Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers, Brad Haddin, and Shane Watson.Mushfiqur, however, said that his side would focus on their strengths and consistency: “They are suddenly not going to lose because they are a young side. The top-class players from India and South Africa came here but lost. We played good cricket and were consistent, enabling us to win. We have to do well the things in which we are good at.Mushfiqur also identified his opposite number – Steven Smith – as Australia’s ‘main’ man”It was expected that they would rest Johnson and Hazlewood. They have two new cricketers but we will know about them soon enough,” he said. “They may be a young team, we can’t forget this is Australia. In these conditions, Smith is their main cricketer. And Maxwell is making a comeback after playing in the UAE. We will try to keep these two under pressure and get them out quickly.”Mushfiqur said that the threat posed by Nathan Lyon would be tackled the same way Bangladesh nullified South Africa legspinner Imran Tahir, who took just two wickets in the ODI series in July.”They are not weak in playing spin. Look at Nathan Lyon’s record,” Mushfiqur said. “He is among the top-three spinners in the world. He is effective against left-handers and we have a few of them. We have made some plans for him, something similar to what we did against Imran Tahir.”Australia are scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on September 28. The first Test, in Chittagong, will begin on October 9.

MCC 199 and 110 for 6 beat New South Wales 180 and 128 by four wickets
ScorecardMany leading players were absent from both elevens, for while MCC left out Jardine, Allen, Sutcliffe, Voce, Larwood and Paynter, New South Wales were without O’Reilly, Oldfield, McCabe, Hird, Bill and Theak. The match was naturally robbed of much of its importance, but about 25,000 were present on the opening day when the home side made 169 for 5 after losing their first four wickets for 68 runs. The feature of the opening day’s play was the partnership of 101 between Brown, aged 19, and Rowe, a left-handed batsman who is only 17, and some excellent bowling by Mitchell, who began by taking three wickets for 12 runs. Brown, who took three hours over his runs, made some beautiful cuts and was strong on the leg side. Rowe scored much more rapidly, and when play was abandoned for the day owing to bad light, had scored 67 in 74 minutes. Earlier in the afternoon rain caused the cricket to be held up for three quarters of an hour.On the second day, on a rain-damaged wicket, the batsmen found runs very difficult to obtain. The last five NSW wickets fell for 11 runs. Wyatt played excellent cricket for his runs and with Verity added 71 for the third wicket, while Leyland and Brown made some big hits off Chilvers, both claiming a six, but with the tail failing MCC’s lead was only 19. However, before play ended NSW lost Fingleton for 36.Considering the difficulty of the wicket Bradman’s innings of 71 was a splendid effort. Playing with care he punished any loose ball most effectively. He was eventually caught at short leg off Hammond, who bowled his off breaks with great effect and frequently got the ball to rise to a nasty height, and had four short legs very close in. At one time MCC looked to be in danger of defeat as six wickets were down for 70, but Tate hit out well and with Brown as his partner the necessary runs were obtained. Chilvers was the best of the NSW bowlers, some of his balls turning very quickly from leg. Howell, a fast medium bowler with an offbreak, is a son of the old Australian Test cricketer who took all ten Surrey wickets at the Oval in 1899.

Greg Chappell wasn’t a happy man after a game in which India had SouthAfrica in deep strife at 76 for 6, and yet managed to capitulate to an106-run defeat. He insisted that there was no easy answers and no obvioussolutions as the team continued on the downward spiral in the one-daygame. After winning 21 of 29 matches last season, they have managed justthree wins from 14 matches since.”We were outplayed in all departments of the game,” said Chappell, whoadded that the dropped catches – South Africa took all their chances -made all the difference. “We are not playing well enough. That’s the basicproblem. Too many players are out of form, key players are not doing well.”I am not sure whether there is a solution other than working hard. Wehave to try and turn things around. It has got to come from the players.They’ve got to dig deep and find a way to do it.”He refused to single out individuals for criticism, and said that tacticslike trying Dinesh Karthik in the middle order would continue to beemployed until a corner was turned. “We are struggling and we need to trysomething different,” he said. “Indian batting teams with bettercredentials have struggled under these conditions before. The ballbouncing between waist and chest is not something that happens regularlyin India. It takes some adjusting and I don’t think we are doing it wellat the moment.”There has got to be a big physical and big mental effort. We’ve got intowinning positions but haven’t finished them off. There are some criticalareas where we are falling off. We missed a few opportunities after theywere 76 for 6 and that was the turning point of the game.”When asked whether the failure of the other batsmen to deliver heaped evenmore pressure on Rahul Dravid’s shoulders, Chappell said: “It puts a lotof pressure on the captain, but then again that comes with the territory.There’s a lot of responsibility on him. He’s a key player and he’sexpected to do well. But he needs support. You can’t rely on one or twoplayers. There has to be a consistent effort from the team.”Following the 157-run defeat at Kingsmead, there had been calls inparliament for Chappell to be sacked. When asked about such remarks, hesaid, tongue firmly in cheek, “They are entitled to make any comment theylike. That’s what they are paid to do in parliament.” As for the fans,whose mood turns uglier with each reverse, he could only say: “There’s notmuch you can say at this stage. This is the squad we’ve got till the endof the series, and we’ve got to work hard.”At the moment, hard work alone looks unlikely to salvage this series. Aflash of inspiration like that provided by Justin Kemp today is what the team iscrying out for, but in these conditions, it’s hard to see where it’s goingto come from.

Ricky Ponting expects to assume greater responsibility when Australia’sregenerating team begin their three-Test assignment against West Indies atBrisbane on Thursday. The post-Ashes clear-out has given the home side ashiny look over the past month and another fresh coat was confirmed withNathan Bracken picked ahead of Stuart MacGill.Australia’s line-up suddenly has a strangely unfamiliar feel following theadditions of Hussey, Bracken and Watson, and the withdrawal of Justin Langerwith a rib fracture on Tuesday. “They may be less experienced at Test level,but they’ve all got a lot of experience under their belts and been aroundthe Australian structure for a while,” Ponting said. “There’s a slightlydifferent feel with players like Martyn, Gillespie and Kasprowicz not in theside and Langer out.”Shane Watson was confirmed as the side’s allrounder and Ponting hoped thesquad would remain settled over the summer. “There’s more responsibility onthe batters to put their hand up with some of the inexperience in the middleorder,” he said. “Shane is going to be given a run and Bracken is in goodform and has a great record up here.” The pitch shows tinges of green andMacGill will be released to play for New South Wales in Perth on Friday.West Indies delayed finalising their side but will have a full bowlingcontingent to pick from after the fast men recovered from niggles sufferedin the lead-up and during the Queensland game. However, the players werealready concerned by reports here and in the Caribbean that they will bewhipping boys for Australia and Shivnarine Chanderpaul hoped they would useit as motivation.”Australia are a strong team but we have a good team also,” he said. “We’vebeaten them in the Caribbean chasing a huge total and I know we can win outhere.”Catching was an area of concern after last week’s warm-up and on Tuesday theplayers received 100 each at training, where there were no net bowlersprovided. “The guys are gelling and helping each other, it’s a wonderfulsight,” Chanderpaul said. “Obviously we want to win and go out there andplay some tough cricket.”Ponting was wary of the West Indies threat and after viewing footage oftheir inexperienced attack said they would be treated with respect. “We knowthey are a very dangerous side and we’ve spoken about that,” he said. “Thebatting is very good with quality down the list and their bowling can bedangerous.”

Hamilton Masakadza was surprisingly included in Zimbabwe’s 16-man squad for the first two one-day internationals against England, to be played at Harare Sports Club on November 26 and 28.The last time Masakadza, 21, played a competitive match was in 2002, since when he has been in South Africa studying at university. In 2001 he became the then-youngest player to score a century on Test debut, against West Indies.The rest of the selections were as expected, with recent one-day form being the main criterion.Zimbabwe squad
Dion Ebrahim, Brendan Taylor, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Hamilton Masakadza, Mark Vermeulen, Tatenda Taibu (capt and wk), Elton Chigumbura, Vusi Sibanda, Donald Samunderu, Douglas Hondo, Tinashe Panyangara, Mluleki Nkala, Chris Mpofu, Edward Rainsford, Prosper Utseya, Gavin Ewing.

Fidel Edwards, the 21-year-old fast bowler from Barbados, was named in the XI to take on Sri Lanka in the second Test, which starts on Friday at Sabina Park, Kingston. Edwards, who has played just one first-class match for Barbados, will make his debut on a pitch which is expected to offer plenty of support to the fast bowlers.The half-brother of Pedro Collins, Edwards’s slinging round-arm action has been compared to Jeff Thomson’s, and his inswinging yorkers have reminded talent-spotters of Waqar Younis in his pomp. Edwards was named the Most Improved Bowler in the Shell Cricket Academy, Grenada. Dr Rudi Webster, the Academy Director, has rated him among the most disciplined players to have attended the academy.The squad announced by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) had two other Barbadian quick bowlers, Corey Collymore and Vasbert Drakes. Merv Dillon was dropped, after going wicketless in the rain-hit first Test at St Lucia.Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan team are all set to ring in the changes after their disappointing performance in the first Test. Poor fielding, the absence of another back-up bowler and the inability of the top-order batsmen to get runs once they had settled in, all contributed to West Indies gaining the upperhand at St Lucia.Duleep Mendis, the interim coach, said that with the pitch here expected to assist fast bowlers, Sri Lanka would definitely opt for a third seamer at the expense of a batsman. Darshana Gamage is likely to win the third-seamer’s spot ahead of the inexperienced left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara, while Thilan Samaraweera will probably be dropped. Samaraweera did not impress much in his 109 minutes at the wicket for 11 runs and Brian Lara took him to the cleaners in his eight overs of gentle offspin, which cost him 53 runs.The other area of concern is the wicketkeeping of Romesh Kaluwitharana, who found out just how costly it could be to offer Lara a second chance. Kaluwitharana missed a stumping opportunity off Muttiah Muralitharan on the fifth morning when Lara was on 93. Lara ended up scoring his fifth double-century, and his fifth hundred in seven Tests against Sri Lanka. Kaluwitharana has been in reasonable form with the bat though – his failure in St Lucia was the result of a poor decision – and that might save him from getting the axe.The West Indian batting revolves largely around Lara. Their total of 477 was largely made up of two partnerships totalling 310 runs which involved Lara. His mastery of Muralitharan is another cause for worry for Tillakaratne.Lara has called for a result-oriented pitch and the inclusion of anadditional pace bowler to the West Indies squad at the expense of awicketkeeper-batsman clearly indicates that the pitch will assist the quick bowlers. If that is the case, Sri Lanka have a more penetrative attack to exploit the wicket. Vaas bowled superbly – but without much luck – on the placid pitch at St Lucia, while Prabath Nissanka is perhaps the quickest bowler Sri Lanka have had since Dilhara Fernando.Lara has admitted that his team’s bowling was a continuing worry. “We need to start getting 20 wickets in Test matches consistently. That’s what we are looking for, the right combination and the right set of guys to take West Indies into the future. Fidel falls into that category.”The Test also brings together Muralitharan and Australian umpire Darrell Hair for the first time in a Test since Hair called Muralitharan for chucking at Melbourne in 1995. Hair did officiate in Sri Lanka’s VB Series matches last year, though.Teams
West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Wavell Hinds, 3 Brian Lara (capt), 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 7 Omari Banks, 8 Vasbert Drakes, 9 Jerome Taylor, 10 Corey Collymore, 11 Fidel Edwards.Sri Lanka (from) Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Hashan Tillakaratne (capt), RomeshKaluwitharana (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kumar Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Prabath Nissanka, Darshana Gamage.Umpires Darrell Hair (Aus) and Russell Tiffin (Zim)Match Referee Wasim Raja (Pak)