Lancashire’s captain Warren Hegg believes that Graeme Hick is his team’s biggest obstacle, if they are to overcome Worcestershire and reach the final of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy.Hegg, speaking ahead of Saturday’s semi-final clash at New Road, warned that Hick is still capable of producing a match-defining innings. “The last time we played a semi-final at New Road he scored a century,” said Hegg, “and you can never be complacent with him around.”The good news for Lancashire is that they actually went on to win that last meeting, back in 1995. Wasim Akram made a rapid 64 in a late partnership with Hegg, as Lancashire won by three wickets. “It was one of the most memorable matches I’ve ever been involved in,” said Hegg, “and it was one of Wasim’s great performances.”We had no right to win, we didn’t have a chance until Wasim smacked their bowling around. I remember the crowd storming onto the field at the end after we’d won and someone pinched Gary Yates’s cap. I think he got it back but we stayed in the dressing-room celebrating for hours afterwards.”Looking ahead to Saturday, Hegg said he expected a similarly enthusiastic crowd. “We have players in top form but Worcestershire are having a good season as well and it could be just as tight again. They have made some good signings and have brought through players like Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali. The atmosphere should be terrific – just what you need for a big cup game.”Both teams have been lifted by the return of their Test players. Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson have been cleared by the ECB to take part in the match for Lancashire, while South Africa’s Andrew Hall has been given special permission to return for Worcestershire, by whom he had been signed as an overseas player before his call-up to the Test squad.

Both Michael Vaughan and Herschelle Gibbs moved up one place in the latest PriceWaterhouseCoopers Test ratings after scoring hundreds at Edgbaston, but the biggest gainer was Graeme Smith. His 277 and 85 in the Test ensured that he moved up a whopping 25 places, to No. 19. Vaughan and Gibbs swapped places with Sachin Tendulkar – who dropped to third spot – and Rahul Dravid, who is now ranked 10th.Darren Lehmann’s century against Bangladesh in the Test at Cairns moved him up 11 places to No. 47, while Steve Waugh climbed two spots to No 13. Habibul Bashar improved his rating to 575 points (No. 36) – the highest ever by a Bangladesh batsman.

Among the bowlers, Stuart MacGill climbed an impressive nine places to No. 7 after his haul of ten wickets against Bangladesh. However, Glenn McGrath’s lacklustre performance – he finished with 1 for 79 – ensured that he dropped a place to third spot. It also allowed meant Shaun Pollock stayed top of the rankings, despite taking only two wickets at Edgbaston. Meanwhile, Darren Gough, who played his first Test in nearly two years, made a reappearance in the top 20, at No. 19.

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“My job is to perform well, and despite that if they don’t pick you forinternational cricket I don’t know what you can do?” So says MushtaqAhmed, once an automatic selection for Pakistan, now the leading bowlerin this year’s English County Championship and heading fast for 100wickets.”Spin bowlers get better with age,” he continues, “and the best age isin your thirties.” That, of course, is Mushtaq’s age now, and he canhave had few better seasons than with Sussex, now surprise leaders inthe Championship.Whether or not Mushtaq is bowling the best of his career is difficult tojudge unless he gets back into the Pakistan team, and the noises fromthe selectors suggest that his chances are slim. They are backing youth,which means Danish Kaneria, the man who replaced Mushtaq in the middleof England’s last tour of Pakistan.But does Mushtaq have a case? There was a time, in the mid-1990s, whenhe vied with Shane Warne for the title of world’s best leggie, but Warnecontinued to rise while Mushtaq plummeted. His first problem came withthe arrival of Saqlain Mushtaq, a spinner who could take wickets andcheck the run rate. Saqlain is an ideal one-day bowler, and withPakistan’s emphasis on the shorter game, Mushtaq found himself squeezedout. Saqlain’s emergence coincided nicely with Pakistan’s match-fixingscandals, during which Mushtaq was accused and out of favour. Hisappearances became confined to when Pakistan played two spinners,although he continued to spin the ball prodigiously, with greatvariation. Mushtaq remained a threat, but the wickets dried up. Perhapshe was trying too hard.For the last two seasons he has been the leading wicket-taker inPakistan’s domestic cricket – but you wouldn’t know it. News ofPakistan’s domestic cricket travels little beyond the country’s ownborders … and not that much within them. But this season’s successwith Sussex has brought Mushtaq’s predicament to prominence.He is not alone. Saqlain too has lost his place; both of them sacrificedat the altar of youth. Nonetheless, while Pakistan’s officials do talkof Saqlain’s return, Mushtaq’s plight usually gets short shrift. Thecurrent axis of power – Rashid Latif (captain), Javed Miandad (coach)and Aamir Sohail (chairman of selectors) – wants a clean break from thepast, and will probably persevere with youngsters like Kaneria.Surprisingly Mushtaq had few favours from his friend Waqar Younis,during whose captaincy he played only once for Pakistan. He denies anybitterness towards Waqar, but clearly he is not impressed by histreatment. “When a man tries to keep his job he has to make a lot ofcompromises,” says Mushtaq. “I took a lot of wickets at the start of the2001 tour but I was dropped. When people get into the business ofsurvival, especially the leader, the team cannot get behind him. Youonly have to see what happened in the World Cup. Pakistan lost badly butthe team was not so bad.”There is too much liking and disliking in the selection for thePakistan team. Danish Kaneria has been tried inconsistently. They havedropped Saqlain too. They should give an explanation when people withgood records lose their place.”Mushtaq is a family man and, for the last two years, a devout Muslim whoprays five times a day. He has no expectations of Waqar Younis or RashidLatif or the Pakistan selectors. He has left his fate in the hands ofGod, and is determined to perform his best for Sussex and take them totheir first Championship title.”Allah has given me a lot of insight and blessing. We shouldn’t runafter material things. There are many millionaires who are not happywith life. And Allah never closes the door on people. I played well in acouple of matches for Surrey last season, and Sussex signed me. I have aone-year contract but I hope that will be increased and I hope to takeas many wickets as possible.”And what remains unsaid is that he wants to win his Test place back.Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore but raised in Rotherham, is deputy editor of the British Medical Journal

Paceman Paul Rofe bowled South Australia to a 56-run victory over Western Australia on the final day of the opening Pura Cup cricket match of the summer.Rofe picked up four of the five wickets to fall today at the WACA Ground and figures of 5-89 off 26.2 overs as WA was all out for 314 in its second innings.After resuming at 5-144, Marcus North (80) and Beau Casson (15) survived the opening hour and it looked like the Warriors would challenge the large total.But North fell in the first over after the second new ball was taken, just over half-an-hour before the interval.Rofe ended the 69-run sixth wicket stand by having the left-hander caught behind trying to drive through covers.Casson was struck in the chest in the next over by Shaun Tait (2-70) before the quick had him edging a ball to slips in his following over.The Warriors were 7-234 at lunch but Redbacks captain Greg Blewett made the unusual decision of not bowling the opening pair of Rofe and Tait straight after the interval.All-rounders Peter Worthington and Darren Wates gained in confidence and put together a century stand for the eighth wicket to put the Warriors in the frame for an unlikely victory.However, Wates tried to loft the ball once too often and his agricultural shot off Rofe’s bowling landed safely in the hands of Mark Cleary.Rofe then delivered another vital blow by removing Worthington (50) caught-and-bowled with the next delivery.The right-arm quick failed to grasp the ball cleanly at the first attempt, but it bobbed up kindly enough for him to turn around and complete the dismissal.No.11 Paul Wilson, who was playing with a fractured jaw after a Mick Miller bouncer smashed into his face on Monday, pushed the hat-trick ball for two.However, Rofe had Jo Angel (0) edging a simple catch to David Fitzgerald shortly after to secure the win.

The hot and humid weather at Mumbai not withstanding, conditions at the Wankhede Stadium were perfect for a typically high-scoring game of one-day cricket. The pitch had a smattering of grass spread evenly across the surface, but looked absolutely dry, suggesting that the grass would help more in binding the surface together for the entire 100 overs than in assisting the seamers. The other vital ingredient, the outfield, was in perfect shape too, with the grass cut fine to ensure that batsmen would get full value for their strokes.Rahul Dravid, who will lead India again after Sourav Ganguly was ruled out of the next two games as well, refused to speculate on the composition of the Indian team, but it is unlikely that any changes will be made from the line-up which beat Australia so convincingly at Gwalior. Though Ajit Agarkar had a disappointing opening spell, his crucial runs down the order should help him seal his place.Not surprisingly, Dravid spoke about the need to bowl better with the new ball, after Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden scored 81 off the first 15 overs in their previous encounter. “There is very little margin for error against players of such quality. We have to restrict the runs early so that the spinners can then bowl in tandem and pile on the pressure on the batsmen.”Smarting from a convincing defeat in the first match, the Australians will need to prove that, despite the absence of all their star bowlers, they are still capable of putting it across an almost full-strength Indian line-up. So far in this series, their second-string bowling attack has performed admirably, keeping the Indian batsmen in check for much of the first match, and then skittling out New Zealand in seamer-friendly conditions. Ricky Ponting made no secret of his displeasure with the batting display, and it is unlikely that a line-up which includes – apart from Ponting himself – Hayden, Gilchrist, Martyn and Bevan will misfire twice in three games.Encouragingly for the Australians, Brad Hogg proved that Australia have a spin weapon as well if conditions do become favourable for the spinners. Dravid made light of Hogg’s impressive spell at Gwalior – “We were in the consolidation phase of our innings and hence weren’t taking too many risks” – but Hogg impressed with his control and his ability to turn the ball both ways.Meanwhile, SK Nair, secretary of the Indian board, stated that the selectors would meet tomorrow to select the squad for the next three games. Ganguly might well be kept out, as he is still recovering from a surgery on an abscess, but if his extended spell at the nets is any indication, then Ashish Nehra is a strong prospect. Bowling from his full run-up, Nehra steamed in and bowled a testing spell to Mohammad Kaif and Parthiv Patel. Parthiv, in particular, was constantly in trouble, playing and missing, and edging a few.Also in the nets was Sachin Tendulkar, bowling some teasing medium pace, before coming out for a short stint with the bat. In his last three ODIs here, Tendulkar has scored just 47 runs. Time for the law of averages to take effect?India (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 Zaheer Khan.Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Michael Bevan, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Ian Harvey, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Andy Bichel, 10 Brad Williams, 11 Nathan Bracken.

The series remains all-square, and there’s everything to play for at the Sinhalese Sports Club. England are back on familiar ground as their three-Test series against Sri Lanka reaches its climax tomorrow (play starts 0430 GMT), and return to the scene of their triumph in 2001 with every reason to believe they can pull off another extraordinary series victory.After seeing off Muttiah Muralitharan and friends on the two pitches that ought to have suited Sri Lanka’s spin attack, England will be delighted that the SSC seems certain to offer more pace and swing to the faster bowlers. With due respect to Chaminda Vaas, that can only be good news for England’s seam-based attack, and Michael Vaughan has given every indication that he intends to field a better-balanced side that the one that held out for a draw at Kandy last week.The dilemma for England, however, is how best to climb through the window of opportunity that their labours have created. After playing with such patience and discipline for two Tests, they will have to tread a fine line between attacking intent and reckless abandon. And with that in mind, they face a tricky decision on which of their seven batsmen should be squeezed out in favour of an extra bowler.The only two men in line for the chop are Paul Collingwood, who has shown a cool head under fire and would be a reassuring presence at No. 5 if England lose the toss yet again and are forced to bat last, and Nasser Hussain, whose hot-headedness has created the talking point of the series so far. At the start of the series, it would have been unthinkable to enter such a crunch fixture without Hussain, the man who masterminded Sri Lanka’s last home defeat in 2001. But times they have a-changed.”We’ll have to decide whether we stick with the great experience of Nasser or take note of how well Paul has batted,” said Vaughan. “If you look at his dismissals, Nasser’s playing OK, and I always say that you are always only one innings away from a hundred. Nasser was unfortunate to be ill during the first Test, and he just needs some time in the middle.”Hussain’s time in the middle may just have run out for this tour, however. He has not been dropped by England since scoring a century against India at Edgbaston in 1996, but his ill-judged verbal assault on Muttiah Muralitharan has left him out on a limb. As England’s batsmen and tailenders demonstrated in fending off Murali for 96 overs at Kandy, it was the ability to read him from the pitch – not the lips – that was the key to England’s survival.Hussain’s alleged remarks had further implications within the England camp as well, as James Kirtley discovered when his bowling action was brought to the attention of Clive Lloyd after the match. Although Kirtley was eventually cleared, it was an unfortunate moment for the issue of chucking to be brought back onto the agenda.Kirtley is likely to retain his place tomorrow, on merit as much as through dressing-room solidarity, although the identity of his new-ball partner is less certain. The bold selection would be the fit-again James Anderson, a man who will go for plenty of runs but is the most likely source of unplayable deliveries. But with Andrew Flintoff complaining of a sore back in recent days, England are equally likely to turn to the indefatigable Matthew Hoggard to ensure that Flintoff’s workload is as light as possible.The spin pairing of Ashley Giles and Gareth Batty is unlikely to be altered, despite Batty’s relative ineffectiveness at Kandy and the attacking option that Robert Croft could provide. This has as much to do with Sri Lanka’s spinners as England’s – Batty’s excellent displays against Muralitharan have turned him into a key figure in England’s lower-middle order, and for all Croft’s proficiency with the bat, he cannot possibly make up in net sessions what Batty has learned through time in the middle.As usual between matches, Murali has spent the last three days with an ice pack strapped to his overworked shoulder, and no amount of positive spin from the Sri Lankan camp can disguise the fact that he is tired. He has already whirled his way through 164 overs this series, exactly twice as many as the next-busiest Sri Lankan, Kumar Dharmasena, and he was noticeably less effective in England’s second innings at Kandy.With that in mind, Sri Lanka are considering sending for the left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who was a success on the recent A tours of South Africa and India. Alternatively they may prefer to shuffle their reserves, which would mean recalling Upul Chandana in place of Dharmasena, and the fit-again Dilhara Fernando, to provide some extra new-ball firepower at the expense of his underused namesake, Dinusha.Whichever way you look at it, England are the team who hold the psychological high ground ahead of the third Test, even if they have yet to hold the upper hand in any of the matches to date. John Dyson, a coach whose mantra of positive play seems entirely at odds with the negativity of his captain, Hashan Tillakaratne, attempted to rock England’s boat yesterday with an astonishing tirade against their defensive approach in Kandy. But his words have been laughed off by England.Graham Thorpe, the man who secured the victory in 2001, was quick to respond. “We have got them under psychological pressure,” he claimed. “If we hadn’t been able to bowl them out on a green seamer on the final day in England, we would be very disappointed. I can’t see that it is any different for them.” Thorpe’s contributions at the SSC last time around were a pair of undefeated masterclasses on a turning, bouncing track, including the single finest century of his career. A repeat performance over the next few days would set England up for a very merry Christmas indeed.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Marvan Atapattu, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Hashan Tillakaratne (capt), 7 Thilan Samaraweera, 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.England (possible): 1 Michael Vaughan (capt), 2 Marcus Trescothick, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Graham Thorpe, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Gareth Batty, 9 Ashley Giles, 10 James Kirtley, 11 James Anderson.Andrew Miller, Wisden Cricinfo’s assistant editor, has accompanied England throughout their travels in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

DV Subba Rao, the man who conducted the inquiry set up to investigate the bribery scandal, has said in his report that there is prima facie evidence against Abhijit Kale to justify a deeper probe. A key element in his findings were the repeated phone calls made by Kale to the selectors concerned, Kiran More and Pranab Roy.A copy of Subba Rao’s report was presented by the BCCI counsel during the Mumbai High Court hearings regarding Kale’s plea to revoke his suspension. The report revealed More’s statement that Kale made phone calls to him in June and July, offering him Rs 10 lakhs (approximately US$21,900 ) for a place in the Indian side. Kale’s counsel, Janak Dwarkadas and Vineet Naik, countered this by claiming that Kale had merely wanted to apprise the selectors that “his shoulder injury had healed and he was fit to be included” in the team.Kale had allegedly also called Roy five times and had once met him at an airport in Mumbai to offer him the same amount of money. Roy apparently reprimanded Kale for making this “nuisance offer.”More also said that Kale’s mother had come to his house in Vadodara with an offer. He said, “Mrs Kale also visited my Baroda [the previous name of Vadodara] house in my absence and spoke to my wife.”More disregarded the visit, he said to Subba Rao, because he thought it to be the anxiety of a mother, and said that he had seen such obsessive behaviour in the relatives of other cricketers as well.Subba Rao recommended to the BCCI that they appoint another committee to “go into much more depth” in the matter. “A player persistenly phoning selectors is itself not proper,” he said, “and phoning for selection is worse. Kale’s mother visiting More’s Baroda residence further points the needle of suspicion against him.”To Kale’s claim that his mother had only gone to Vadodara to hand over his fitness certificate, Subba Rao observed that the journey from Thane – where she resides – to Vadodara is at least seven hours. “If it was only to give the letter certainly that could have been sent by post or fax.” Kale’s reply to this was that he could not get the fax number, which is why his mother made the trip.

At the end of first day of the first Test of the new year, India were 284 for three. It’s a position of some comfort, but India were anything but comfortable on their journey to the total. There was a catch off a no-ball, edges that didn’t carry, run-out chances, and dropped catches; all in all, a day of nerve-wracking cricket.Making the batsmen playBefore the match began, Steve Waugh empathised with the Indians, saying that he wouldn’t have liked facing Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie. The two bowlers lived up to Waugh’s words, picking up the only three wickets that fell today, and always looked close to making another breakthrough. Although Lee was profligate with runs, he showed more control, and made the batsmen play more, than Gillespie. In the morning session, nearly half of all deliveries Lee bowled were let through to the keeper. That changed dramatically after lunch, when he made the batsmen play four out of every five deliveries.

Bowling a line wide of the stumps negated the good length Gillespie pitched on, and the batsmen left nearly 30% of everything he threw at them. But Gillespie ended with the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, which came only when the batsmen were made to play at deliveries for sustained periods of time.Tendulkar’s on-side playIndia had lost two quick wickets when Sachin Tendulkar came out to bat. His own form wasn’t too reassuring, either. So far, Australia had worked to a plan; as long as they kept things tight, packing the off side with fielders, he would find ways to get himself out. But the Tendulkar who batted today was more resilient. Though he was troubled by Stuart MacGill, he played himself in, and didn’t try too hard to score runs on the off side. Instead, he took advantage of the 7-2 field, and scored a large number of his runs on the leg side, even though two-thirds off all the deliveries he faced were outside off stump.

Donald Bradman’s status as the Superman of Australian batsmanship lives on, with two of The Don’s most gargantuan knocks voted among the three greatest innings ever played by Australian cricketers.The historic poll, published in the latest edition of magazine, has been conducted among a selection panel of 30 cricket experts and former Australian Test players, representing every decade since the 1940s.Bradman’s 254 against England at Lord’s in 1930 – which he himself considered his most technically impeccable innings – was voted No. 1. In second place comes his team-mate Stan McCabe’s daring 232 at Trent Bridge in 1938, when McCabe farmed the strike and slaughtered the English bowling when all seemed lost. Third is Bradman’s 334 – including 309 in a single day – at Headingley, also made in his golden English summer of 1930.Of his innings voted the greatest ever, his 254 at Lord’s, Bradman wrote in his autobiography : “Practically without exception every ball went where it was intended.”Two innings from the modern era round up the top five. Dean Jones’s 210 in the tied Test at Chennai in 1986-87, when he batted for more than eight hours in exhausting heat and ultimately lost control of his bodily functions, was voted the fourth-greatest Australian innings. In fifth position comes Kim Hughes’s epic 100 not out against West Indies in the Boxing Day Test of 1981-82. The next highest score that day was 21.”The list encapsulates the most precious, tantalising, uniquely red-blooded traits of Australian batsmanship,” said Christian Ryan, the editor of . “Our voters were dazzled by the huge numbers and helter-skelter scoring rates of Don Bradman and Matthew Hayden. They were struck by the bravery under fire of Stan McCabe, Kim Hughes and Bill Lawry. And they were charmed by the pristine artistry of Mark Waugh, Greg Chappell and Victor Trumper.”Of the current Australian XI, Adam Gilchrist’s matchwinning 149 not out against Pakistan in Hobart four years ago is ranked the sixth-best Australian innings in history. At No. 7 is Steve Waugh’s 200 at Kingston in 1994-95, when Australia finally wrested the Frank Worrell Trophy off West Indies. Matthew Hayden’s world-record 380, accumulated against Zimbabwe at the start of this summer, is rated 10th best.Neil Harvey, with six innings in the top 50, figures more prominently than any other Australian batsman. Bradman and Steve Waugh (four each) are next best, followed by Ian Chappell and Doug Walters (three). A second McCabe innings – his unbeaten 187 in the opening Bodyline Test of 1932-33 – finished in eighth position.The poll is the largest of its kind undertaken in Australian cricket-publishing history. The 30-man selection panel includes former Test stars Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Ian Chappell, Mark Taylor, Ian Craig, Ian Healy, Geoff Lawson, Colin McDonald, Ashley Mallett, Rick McCosker and Sam Loxton.The latest edition of commemorates the 50 greatest innings with 50 classic essays by the leading cricket writers from Australia and the world.

Ajit Agarkar and Anil Kumble have returned to the Indian squad for the three-Test series against Pakistan. Both players missed the one-day series due to injuries – Kumble was nursing a shoulder strain, while Agarkar had a shin problem. There were few surprises in the 15-man line-up, with Yuvraj Singh grabbing the extra batsman’s spot, while Ramesh Powar and Murali Kartik, who were part of the one-day squad, were both retained.The first Test starts at Multan on March 28.Squad
Sourav Ganguly (capt), Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, L Balaji, Anil Kumble, Murali Kartik.