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Dilhara Fernando has been named in the 14-man Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XIsquad for the warm-up match against the Australians next week. Fernando gets a chance to prove his fitness ahead of the first Test in Galle.Fernando’s career has been plagued by injuries and this time he’s returning after recovering from a stress fracture in his back, the second time in a year. Fernando regained his place in the team for the third Test against England but broke down weeks later in the Provincial tournament.The President’s XI, which will be led by Russel Arnold, also includes Rangana Herath, the left-arm spinner, and legspinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi. Both bowlers are in contention for a place in the Test squad.The three-day practice match will also mark Shane Warne’s return tothe Australian side. It will be played from March 2 at the Colombo Cricket Club. The first Test starts on March 8 in Galle.Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI Squad
1 Russel Arnold (capt), 2 Avishka Gunawardana, 3 Saman Jayantha, 4 SajithFernando, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Lanka de Silva (wk), 7 Gayan Wijekoon, 8 Kaushal Lokuarachchi, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Ruchira Perera, 12 Omesh Wijesiriwardene, 13 Dhammika Sudarshana, 14 Muthumudalige Pushpakumara.

On a day of rapidly shifting events and wild rumours, which began early in the morning with the fallout of the previous day, the focus shifted from the umpiring in the Sydney Test to the three-Test ban imposed on Harbhajan Singh for racial abuse. The ball is now with the Indian board, which has come under increasing pressure from the Indian team – and highly charged public opinion at home – to take a tough stand on the issue and back Harbhajan.It is understood the players want the ban imposed on Harbhajan to be lifted before the next Test, in Perth; they feel there was insufficient evidence on which to find Harbhajan guilty. Sachin Tendulkar, the team’s senior-most player, is believed to have sent Sharad Pawar, the board president, a message saying the board should stand by Harbhajan and the team should play at Perth only if the ban is lifted.The board responded through several measures: it issued a statement saying it did not accept the ban and, later in the day, said it had filed an appeal with the ICC against it; it sought the withdrawal of Steve Bucknor from the Perth Test, where he is due to umpire. It also directed the Indian team to remain in Sydney instead of leaving for Canberra on Monday morning as scheduled.Though rumours of the team pulling out of the tour remained just that, with Cricket Australia saying it was satisfied that the matches would go ahead, Pawar struck a warning note. “We are giving serious thought to whether we should continue,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We feel that we must take action, enough is enough. We would like to keep an extremely good relationship with the Australian board. Our relationship is extremely cordial and we would like to continue that, but this [Harbhajan’s ban] is totally unacceptable.”It is believed the BCCI, which has called an emergency Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, will wait on that decision till it hears from the ICC.The day’s action began in Sydney, where the team was preparing to leave the Radisson Hotel for Canberra – where they are due to play a tour game from Thursday – by coach at 10.30am. However, instructions were issued to the contrary and the baggage was taken off the coach. Around 4.15pm, the media manager, MV Sridhar, confirmed the team had been instructed by the board to stay in Sydney till the formalities for Harbhajan’s appeal were completed. The players spent the day mostly in their rooms.An hour later Sridhar said the team had received the official document regarding Harbhajan’s ban, one where he was accused of a ‘monkey’ taunt against Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds. The team was intent on reading the detailed written order from the match referee, Mike Procter, to find out what the exact racism charges were.Around the same time the board, in New Delhi, released a statement expressing its intent to fight the allegations against Harbhajan. “The unfair allegation of racism against our player is wholly unacceptable,” the statement read. “The game of cricket is paramount but so too is the honour of India’s cricket team and every Indian. The BCCI is committed to protecting the country’s fair name. India’s national commitment is against racism. Our national struggle is based on values which negate racism.”The board also requested the ICC to replace Steve Bucknor from third Test in Perth following poor umpiring decisions in Sydney. That is still up in the air, though. An ICC spokesman invoked the playing conditions both teams signed up to before the series, saying: “Neither team has a right to object to an umpire’s appointment.” To remove Bucknor, the issue would have to be discussed and voted on by the ICC’s executive board, with a majority of members voting in favour of removing him.Soon after, Ricky Ponting added to the debate in an interview with Channel Nine, when he declined to reveal what was said between Harbhajan and Symonds on the field but offered a blunt assessment when asked if the situation “smacks of racism”. “I think that’s been proven,” Ponting said.Ponting also said he was surprised by the speculation that India’s tour might be cancelled and that they had not sent their players to Canberra as planned. “They’re entitled to do whatever they think is appropriate at the time but for me that would be a little bit extreme, I must admit,” he said.

Brad Hogg is a better bowler than when he last figured in a Test because he has added patience to his repertoire, according to Adam Gilchrist. Hogg’s chances of playing against India on Boxing Day grow with each episode of the Stuart MacGill injury saga and Gilchrist has been impressed with his form.”He’s more patient,” Gilchrist told AAP. “He doesn’t feel he has to produce the big deliveries to get a wicket, it’s going to be a build-up.”Often even in his one-day cricket he has proven that. In that first-class game I kept to him in Melbourne a few weeks ago, he definitely showed that patience and better understanding of what he can do to go about getting a wicket.”Hogg captured 8 for 83 in the Pura Cup match with Gilchrist behind the stumps, but he went wicketless against South Australia last week. Strong performances in the one-day side have kept Hogg in with a chance of reviving his four-Test career, which was last updated against Zimbabwe in 2003. At the World Cup he earned 21 wickets and on the tour of India the locals struggled to cope with his variation.”A lot of batsmen around the world can’t pick him,” Gilchrist said. “The Indians are definitely fine players of spin but certainly he has got a lethal wrong’un that is very difficult to pick.”

New Zealand have included openers Matthew Bell and Peter Fulton in the squad for the two-Test series against Bangladesh. Michael Papps, who opened with Craig Cumming in New Zealand’s recent tour of South Africa, has been dropped, while Cumming, who suffered multiple facial fractures after mistiming a hook off Dale Steyn in the second Test, is part of the 12-man squad.Bell last played in a Test in 2001 in Australia. But he has been picked based on his domestic form – 722 runs at 103.14, including a double-century in this season’s State Championship. John Bracewell had hinted at Bell’s selection a day before the squad was picked. And on being asked what he expected Bell to bring to the Test side, Bracewell told the , “Hopefully a large percentage of those 700 runs.”Scott Styris was dropped in favour of Fulton after averaging 14.75 in the two Tests against South Africa.Jamie How, included in the one-day side for the Chappell-Hadlee Series and against Bangladesh, missed out on a Test spot, while Sinclair, who replaced Cumming for the ODIs against South Africa, gets a call-up to the Test side.With Shane Bond out because of injury, New Zealand will go with Michael Mason, rather than Mark Gillespie, who was Bond’s replacement for the second Test in South Africa.Jeetan Patel will be added to the squad for the second Test in Wellington. The University Oval in Dunedin will be hosting its maiden Test when the two sides meet for the first Test on January 4.New Zealand squad
Matthew Bell, Craig Cumming, Mathew Sinclair, Stephen Fleming, Peter Fulton, Brendon McCullum (wk), Daniel Vettori, Chris Martin, Michael Mason, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram.

For a moment, it seemed it would end as it had opened. Pakistan’s tour to Australia began with a humiliating defeat at Perth and at first, today’s finale was hauntingly familiar. Eventually, Pakistan fought back just as they had done on Friday, and they pushed Australia most of the way. But once Adam Gilchrist and, in particular, Glenn McGrath had done what they do so well, the fight didn`t matter.It is a sign of how resoundingly McGrath has answered those who suggested he was finished, that there is now as much talk and applause – ironic though it may be – about his batting as there has always been about his bowling. It means that his primary function, and itseffectiveness, is once again unquestioned. He picked up five wickets today, throttling any notions of a fight at the very top of the order and snuffing out clear signs of it at the bottom.McGrath was always going to get one, if not two, of the top three out – he has made men with much better techniques than Kamran Akmaland Mohammad Hafeez look silly often enough. But it was his dismantling of the linchpin of Pakistan’s hopes, Inzamam ul Haq that bore testament to McGrath’s ability to rip the heart out of sides just when itmatters.He bowled two balls in what should now officially be rechristened the"Corridor of McGrath", both just short of a length with a slight hint of away movement outside off-stump, before pitching the third delivery much fuller and nipping it back. Traditionally a scratchy starter,Inzamam was trapped on the crease and plumb in front. Pakistan’s captain and star batsman, with five fifties and 364 runs inthe last seven matches, was gone, and the match, in essence,was over.At least Pakistan will not have to hire a rocket scientist to see where they went wrong. Today, as has been the case throughout the VB Series, they might as well not have had a top three. In eight matches, Pakistan tried three different opening combinations and three different No. 3s. Akmal, a gritty lower-order batsman and an increasingly impressive wicketkeeper, became an unlikely opener. Salman Butt, who had faded as the series went on, was replaced today by Taufeeq Umar, once a specialist Test opener but now playing his first international of any variety in almost a year.Shoaib Malik, fast becoming a sturdy upper-order fulcrum, was inexplicably shifted from that position in this tournament. Mohammad Hafeez, back in the side to make up for the loss of Malik’s bowling, instead took his batting place and barely bought a run. Given that neither Inzamam nor Youhana are keen to bat at No. 3, the refusal to let the proven Malik bat there was bewildering.If it seems a muddled policy, then it made for disastrous results as well; Pakistan’s "starts" in this series have been 30 for 2, 36 for 2, 38 for 3, 65 for 2, 41 for 2, 9 for 3, and 38 for 3. That they had managed to stay afloat this far had been due, almost entirely, to the efforts of Inzamam and, in particular, the lower-order of a revitalized Abdul Razzaq (is it the spinach?) and Shahid Afridi.It is a shame they crumbled again, for by doing apassable impression of Sri Lanka in the field, theyhad done wonderfully well to restrict Australia’sbatsmen for the second time in three days. Much of SriLanka’s success in ODIs, and some of it has come againstAustralia, has been based on the slow choke – a method that is effective on sluggish pitches with a number ofquickish spinners who aren’t really spinners. Theydart, rather than flight the ball; they often choosenot to extract significant turn, and they hurry through their overs, never allowing batsmen to settle.In the past, the likes of Jayasuriya, Chandana, Arnold and Dharmasena have successfully strangled Australian run-scoring in the middle overs, and today, the ebullient Afridi and Hafeez played the part admirably, first hauling back a Gilchrist-fuelled run-rate and then picking up crucial wickets in the middle order. They were backed up well by the seamers, and if Rana’s opening over lbw appeal against Gilchrist had been upheld, it might have made a difference (and despite what commentators have said, there have been more than a few appalling decisions in this series).Gilchrist’s hand was characteristically abnormal and crucial; on a pitch where many struggled to get the ball away, he started as if he was batting in the nets. A sumptuous straight drive, a stinging square cut and a spanked cover-drive – three boundaries in the first over and six (as well as a hooked six) in total where his team-mates combined to hit twelve in the 41 overs after his dismissal. He did his thing then, McGrath did it later.

MELBOURNE, Jan 27 AAP – Shane Warne has ruled himself out of contention for the Allan Border Medal, rating Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist the front-runners for Australian cricket’s highest individual honour.The Allan Border Medal, awarded to Australia’s best cricketer of the past 12 months in Tests and one-day internationals, will be presented tomorrow night in Melbourne.Warne is expected to be right in the frame for the award thanks to his Test match efforts in the past 12 months.He has taken 61 wickets in nine Tests at a miserly 18.54.But the master leg-spinner doesn’t think he’ll poll in the top three.”Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Matty Hayden – it’ll be one of those guys I presume who’ll win the Allan Border Medal,” Warne said.”I might get a few votes in the Test matches.”But I think ultimately it will be one of those three guys that will win the medal.”Helping Warne’s cause is the fact that under the 3-2-1 voting system byplayers, umpires and media, Test votes are weighted to reflect the factfewer Tests are played than one-day internationals.But Hayden remains raging favourite to win back-to-back medals after another stellar year with the bat in both forms of the game.The Queenslander has notched up six Test centuries, but his 1051 runs at an average of 61.82 is lower than Ponting’s Test return of 1068 runs at66.75.Hayden also has 1149 runs in one-day internationals this year at 63.83 to back his claims, higher than Ponting’s 780 runs at 41.05.Hayden also claimed the mantle of world’s best batsman in Test and one-day cricket, moving to the top of the PriceWaterhouse Coopers rankings for limited overs internationals.He joins Viv Richards, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar as the only players ever to have held both world No 1 rankings at the same time.Previous winners of the Allan Border Medal are Glenn McGrath (2000), Steve Waugh (2001) and Hayden last year.The Allan Border Medal function will also feature awards for Test player of the year, one-day player of the year and the young cricketer of the year.The young cricketer award is certain to be won by rising New South Welshman Michael Clarke, who impressed in his one-day international debut in Adelaide a fortnight ago.

Northern Districts and New Zealand pace bowler Simon Doull announced today that he will not be available for the remainder of the State Championship season.Though Doull has not ruled out a return to domestic one-day cricket next season, the statement issued by Northern Districts has the tone of a farewell tribute and suggests that Doull’s distinguished career is over.Work commitments, a relocation and physical wear and tear are given as Doull’s reasons for stepping aside.Doull made his debut for ND in the 1989/90 season, first playing Test cricket for New Zealand against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 1992/93.He went on to play 32 Tests, taking 98 wickets at an average of 29.30, placing him 11th in the list of New Zealand wicket-takers. One of the factors in Doull’s decision is an acceptance that he will not get the chance to reach a century of Test wickets.His best performance was seven for 65 against India at the Basin Reserve, Wellington on Boxing Day 1998. A superb display of swing bowling removed the top seven Indian batsmen, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.In all, Doull played in 99 first-class matches (falling just short of three figures seems to be a habit), taking 250 wickets at 28.93 and scoring 1938 runs at 19.58 with a single hundred, 108 against Canterbury at Lancaster Park in 1991/92.He represented New Zealand in 42 One-Day Internationals, taking 36 wickets. He also scored 172 runs at the healthy strike rate of 91.97.Doull won the Winsor Cup as the country’s best bowler in 1996/97.In the last two years he has reinvented himself as a swashbuckling, and sometimes devastating, pinch hitter at the top of the order in one-day cricket. Achieving a surprisingly high success rate, Doull’s batting has been decisive in a number of matches, most notably his recent dismantling of the England attack. His 47-ball 80 launched ND towards successful pursuit of the tourists’ 288.Doull’s announcement followed his omission from the Northern Districts team for today’s State Championship match against Central Districts in Hamilton, though there is no hint of sour grapes on Doull’s part. He has performed 12th man duties cheerfully enough.Northern Districts CEO John Turkington paid tribute to Doull.”Simon’s contribution to Northern Districts Cricket to this point has been exceptional. He has performed with the highest distinction in playing terms for both Northern Districts and New Zealand. He has also been a fantastic ambassador for the association in all off field activities.”In these professional times when it is so easy for players to change associations, his unquestioned loyalty to this association through his entire playing career is greatly appreciated and is indicative of the person he is. We look forward to Simon having a major role in the development of the next generation of Northern Districts’ quick bowlers.”

Warwickshire are concerned that Makhaya Ntini will not be allowed to play for them next season. Ntini, who took 23 wickets during South Africa’s tour of England, held talks with the club earlier this week before flying home.But to be able to play he needs to get permission from the South African board, as do all their contracted players. A Warwickshire spokesman said: “We’d like to see him here, he would like to be here, but the stumbling block could be the UCB. It is becoming more difficult with overseas players, particularly bowlers, because they do have a heavy workload.”Ntini has taken 123 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 29.69, and won the joint Man of the Match award at the second Test this summer after becoming the first South African to take ten wickets at Lord’s.The concerns about his move to Warwickshire follow more problems they have had this season with their overseas players. Corey Collymore was the latest player to join Waqar Younis after Shane Bond, Michael Clark and Collins Obuya were forced to withdraw.Meanwhile, Neil Smith, a former captain, and Melvyn Betts and Mo Sheikh are to be released at the end of the season, while Trevor Penney has been awarded an extension to his one-day contract.

Nottinghamshire ended weeks of speculation by confirming that they have signed Ryan Sidebottom on a three-year contract.Sidebottom, 25, left Yorkshire at the end of the summer after failing to secure a permanent place in the side. "I was bowling as well as I ever have done, was high in the national averages but was still not playing regularly in the first team," he explained. “Competition is fierce among the seamers at Headingley but I am very ambitious and want to get back into the England set-up.”The only way to do that is to take wickets week in week out and hopefully I’ll get the chance to do that at Nottinghamshire," he continued. “It’s a move to another Test ground where there’s a good squad combining talented youngsters with some quality experienced players and I’m really looking forward to getting started.””At Yorkshire, Ryan was competing in a seam attack where everyone is an international but he offered variety as a left-armer so I was very surprised when they agreed to release him," explained Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket. “We were in the market for a seamer and once I knew there was an opportunity to sign someone of his quality I had to target him as a top priority. He’s an outstanding bowler with an excellent record and the right attitude and I’m delighted he has chosen to come and join us at Notts.”Sidebottom is Nottinghmashire’s fourth new signing since the end of the season, joining Mark Ealham, Anurag Singh and David Alleyne at Trent Bridge.

Match abandoned
The first one-day international between England Under-19s and Bangladesh was abandoned without a ball being bowled, after heavy overnight rain saturated the pitch at Arundel. It was another frustrating day for the Bangladeshis, who had enjoyed the upper hand in the third and final Test at Cardiff, only for the weather to wreck that encounter.The teams now reconvene at Hove on Thursday, for what has now become a best-of-two matches affair.