Darren Lehmann could miss the next six weeks of South Australia’s season after suffering a hamstring injury in the Twenty20 victory over Queensland at Adelaide on Wednesday night.Lehmann retired hurt on 26 and scans today showed a grade two strain, which is expected to rule him out of the state’s next two rounds of games. A South Australia spokeswoman said Lehmann would undergo rehabilitation for the next four to six weeks.The injury is a severe blow for South Australia, who are last on the Pura and FR cup tables and also missed reaching the final of the Twenty20 tournament. Lehmann has been a crucial performer for the Redbacks with 378 Pura Cup runs at 42 in five matches and 273 one-day runs at 68.25.South Australia’s selectors were forced to restructure their squads for the fixtures against Western Australia in Perth next week following injuries to Lehmann and Cameron Borgas. Graham Manou has been promoted to captain for the one-day game on Wednesday in a 13-man squad that includes Jason Borgas, the older brother of Cameron Borgas, Ben Cameron and James Smith, an 18-year-old batsman from West Torrens.Cameron, Jason Borgas, Tom Plant and Ryan Harris have also been named in the Pura Cup squad, which will be led by Matthew Elliott, to play the Warriors from January 19. Shaun Tait has been picked in both outfits after recovering from a hamstring strain.South Australia FR Cup squad Matthew Elliott, Daniel Harris, Mark Cosgrove, Jason Borgas, James Smith, Ben Cameron, Graham Manou (capt, wk), Ken Skewes, Nathan Adcock, Jason Gillespie, Ryan Harris, Dan Cullen, Shaun Tait.South Australia Pura Cup squad Matthew Elliott (capt), Tom Plant, Mark Cosgrove, Daniel Harris, Jason Borgas, Ben Cameron, Shane Deitz (wk), Ryan Harris, Jason Gillespie, Dan Cullen, Paul Rofe, Cullen Bailey, Shaun Tait.

Friday Kasteni was the only surprise name in Zimbabwe’s 15-man squad for the World Cup.Kasteni, an 18-year-old left-hand batsman, made his debut against Bangladesh last weekend, and while he only made 9, the selectors seem to have been impressed by his A-team performances and even if he does not get a game in the Caribbean, they see him as a player for the future. His inclusion is at the expense of Hamilton Masakadza who made only 42 runs against Bangladesh and was dropped for the last match of the series.Tawanda Mupariwa, Zimbabwe’s leading fast bowler, was included even though he did not play against Bangladesh. He was left out of the tour to Bangladesh last year because of a knee injury but has since recovered. Brendan Taylor, who continues to try the patience of the selectors both on and off the field, was retained even though he made only 23 runs in three matches.Blessing Mahwire, who was expected to be included, was left out after falling ill with pneumonia, while hard-hitting batsman Charles Coventry ruled himself out of contention after failing to report for camp ahead of the Bangladesh series.Zimbabwe Squad Prosper Utseya (capt), Gary Brent, Chamu Chibhabha, Elton Chigumbura, Keith Dabengwa, Terry Duffin, Anthony Ireland, Friday Kasteni, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Christopher Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Ed Rainsford, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams.

As his former team-mates prepare to jet off to the Caribbean for the World Cup, England’s discarded wicketkeeper, Geraint Jones, is about to head in the other direction. He is heading for the country of his birth, Papua New Guinea, as part of a 17-man MCC touring squad.The MCC, the world’s most active cricket club, will play three matches against the Papua New Guinea national team, including a Twenty20 encounter. The players will then transfer their attentions to New Zealand, where they are set to play four matches in Christchurch and Queenstown, before moving on to Auckland for the final two-day game of the tour.After his dispiriting Ashes campaign, which effectively ended after the Ashes had been surrendered in the third Test at Perth, Jones returned to Brisbane where he helped his former club Beenleigh-Logan (with whom he had been a regular before moving permanently to England in 2002) reach their first grade final since 1998.”I am really looking forward to visiting Papua New Guinea and New Zealand with MCC,” said Jones. “I’m back among the runs at club level and am hoping to make some more on tour. I believe the England wicketkeeper’s job is still up for grabs and scoring runs for MCC, and for Kent, can put my name in the frame.”The squad also includes Jones county colleague, the England A offspinner James Tredwell, as well as three members of the Glamorgan first team – Michael Powell, David Harrison, and Mark Wallace. Mark Lawson, the Yorkshire and England Under-19 legspinner, and Simon Hawk, formerly of Durham UCCE, are other notable inclusions.”I am delighted that so many professional players, including Geraint Jones, have made themselves available for this tour,” said John Stephenson, MCC’s Head of Cricket. “I’m sure that the younger guys will enjoy playing alongside such experienced cricketers, and will benefit greatly from it.”MCC last toured New Zealand in 2002, and Papua New Guinea in 2003. The Club will donate $3,750, in partnership with the International Cricket Council, to the authorities in Papua New Guinea for investment in the local cricket infrastructure.Tour party Mark Rollinson (manager), Luke Marshall (capt), Ben Claypole, Danny Evans, Matthew Eyles, David Harrison, Simon Hawk, Geraint Jones, Ronnie Kotkamp, Mark Lawson, Scott McHardy, Michael Powell, James Tredwell, Mark Wallace, Peter Heseltine (physio), Barrie Leadbeater (umpire), Don Shelley (scorer)

John Davison, the captain of Canada, fears for the future of his adopted country’s progress as a cricket nation unless a more professional set-up is put in place.”The most important thing for Canadian cricket is that we get some sort of infrastructure in place,” Davison said. “The Canadian Cricket Association doesn’t have anyone who is employed by the association. It’s basically done on a voluntary basis.Most of Canada’s squad at the World Cup discovered cricket overseas. Sunil Dhaniram, the 38-year-old left-arm spinner, played for Guyana and Anderson Cummins, the 40-year-old fast bowlerm represented West Indies at the 1992 World Cup. However, Davison – who, at the 2003 World Cup, secured his place in history by scoring the fastest World Cup century, off 67 balls, against the West Indies – insisted homegrown players were coming through the ranks.”There are definitely talented players in the country. We need them to be coached properly and brought through a system.” He also felt that Canada needed a proper system for bringing through players: “If we want to compete at this level we are going to have to be semi-professional at least if not professional.”Canada, with just one full-time professional in opener Geoff Barnett, who plays for New Zealand’s Central Districts, bounced back from a seven-wicket loss in their World Cup opener by Kenya, with a creditable display in a 51-run defeat by England in St. Lucia. Chasing 280, they finished on 228 for 7 – their highest World Cup score – and it was a notable achievement for a team featuring a salesman, a telephone technician and a teacher among a variety of full-time occupations. Dhaniram, a fork-lift truck driver by profession, had a match to remember when he picked up three wickets for seven runs in 11 balls to spark an England middle-order collapse.Davison said he would be around for a little while longer yet, even suggesting he could play in the next World Cup, in 2011, at the age of 40. “We’ve got a four-day game coming up against Ireland in the Intercontinental Cup in May and I’ll definitely be playing in that. And I’ll believe I’ll play in the next [World Cup] qualifiers in two years’ time and after that we’ll see how we go.”Davison added that Canada and all the other associate or junior nations at the World Cup could take heart from Ireland’s shock win against Pakistan. “I thought they were brilliant,” he said. “The way they fielded, the catching in the slips and the way the skipper [Trent Johnson] polished it off with a six, was great. We are good mates with most of the associate nations and we were on their side.”Canada have one more game to go, against New Zealand on March 22 in St. Lucia.

Habibul Bashar has hit out at World Cup killjoys who bemoan the absence of India and Pakistan, saying the sub-continental giants do not have a right to be in the finals.”Someone asked me whether the World Cup has become stale after the exit of India and Pakistan,” Bashar wrote in his column in the . “It seems that at any cost India and Pakistan should be included in the Super Eight. They are not saying that India and Pakistan lost two out of their three first round matches.”They don’t have the right to play in the Super Eight. If this attitude persists, one should organise ‘Top Ranking Cup’ instead of the World Cup, where the teams will play according to their rankings. The World Cup is not a property of one or two teams. It belongs to every one and the best team will win the Cup.”Bashar was clearly irked after Bangladesh pulled off a major upset by beating South Africa by 67 runs. He wrote in the Bengali daily that the win would silence some of the “noises” heard after Bangladesh lost their first two matches of the Super Eights.”I think this victory will stop all these things,” Bashar said. “Instead of spoiling the show, Bangladesh has made the World Cup more interesting. There are now plenty of teams now fighting for the semi-finals.”We have a bright chance to play the semi-final if we can beat England. The English team has some good players but they are not playing well in the World Cup. So it will not be impossible to beat them.”Bangladesh meet England in their next match at Barbados on Wednesday, followed by Ireland and West Indies at the same venue.

It’s a move that Ricky Ponting has branded a bit rich. Justin Langer has called for no more sledging in county cricket – despite having areputation within the Australia set-up as a bit of a chatterbox.”There must be two Justin Langers in the world I think,” Ponting, the Australian captain, told newspaper when informedof Langer’s call. “I don’t know what’s happened there. But I know thelittle fella was never too far away from it if something was going on.”Langer, who recently retired from Tests but has taken up his positionat Somerset again, told newspaper: “I don’t believein it and it is something that has disturbed me over the years, particularly when Glenn McGrath and Ramnaresh Sarwan were involved inan ugly incident in 2003.” That incident involved an offensivereference to McGrath’s wife, Jane.There is only a small distinction between what’s acceptable and what isn’t in Langer’s book. “If the batsman comes out and the fieldersshout to the bowler, ‘He doesn’t like playing out-swingers’, then thatis a part of cricket, but there is a fine line between that and gamesmanship.”

Shrinking playing areas and the discolouration of white balls in one-day matches are some of the issues Mark Taylor hopes to raise with the ICC’s new cricket committee. One of four Australians one the committee – the others are Tim May, Tom Moody and Simon Taufel – Taylor believes it is a good move to have input from all sectors of the game.”The ICC wanted people a bit more involved in the game than just having two delegates from each member country,” Taylor told . “They want people who see it from different points of view.”The 13-member group will meet for the first time at Dubai later this month and Taylor anticipated lively discussion on several issues. “One thing we’re all trying to get right is the white ball in one-day cricket,” he said. “That is something I’m sure will spark a lot of debate.”There has already been quite a bit of chat in cricket circles about that. Whether we should use a new ball from each end or change the ball at a given time during the innings just to make it easier for people to see.”Taylor was also keen to address the perception that batsmen now had too much of an advantage because boundaries had been brought in more and more in recent years. “It seems to me we’re one of the very few sports I can think of where the venue has got smaller and yet the players are hitting the ball further,” he said. “If you look at golf they’re hitting the ball further, but they’re making the courses longer.”We seem to have gone the other way with ropes and the standardisation of grounds. We’re making the boundaries shorter and yet the players are faster and fitter than during my time in the game and are hitting the ball further. I’m not so sure that’s good for the bowlers.”Taufel, who has been named the ICC’s Umpire of the Year for the last three years, hopes to use his position on the committee to push for the removal of restrictions on umpires officiating in Tests involving their own country. Taufel said there was so much scrutiny of umpires these days that such a rule was no longer necessary.”We’ve now reached a stage where we’ve gone beyond the possibility of bias,” Taufel told the ABC. “We’re just as professional as we can be and there is no room for bias. We’re all judged on our performances by the video and so maybe that perception of bias can now be overlooked.”

West Indies hope Fidel Edwards can carry on from where he left off at Old Trafford as they look to restore some pride in the final Test against England. Although 2-0 down in the four-match contest, West Indies will be aiming to build on their improved showing in a 60-run third Test defeat when the series finale starts at Riverside on Friday.Old Trafford saw the return to Test cricket of Edwards, whose extra pace gave West Indies a physical threat they’d otherwise lacked so far this series. Often erratic, Edwards has an indifferent record of 67 wickets in 26 Tests at an expensive average of nearly 44 apiece.But he bowled better in Manchester than match figures of 4 for 148 in 32.1 overs would suggest. “The timing was right for Fidel in that Test match,” David Moore, the West Indies coach said. “He came in and bowled on a wicket that was hard and had a lot of bounce. He’d been short of top-quality cricket, so he needed some time to find his feet.”However, Moore stressed Edwards’s pace was part of an overall bowling strategy. “If Fidel is making them jump around a bit, we need someone down the other end to be putting pressure on as well,” he said. “Corey Collymore is very much an unsung player for us. He’s our top wicket-taker, he just keeps chipping away with a very good economy rate.”West Indies’ batting was bolstered last time by a defiant second innings 116 not out from Shivnarine Chanderpaul – their first century of the series – who’d missed the record innings and 283 run defeat in the second Test at Headingley with a knee injury. Moore said other players needed to follow Chanderpaul’s lead if West Indies were to achieve what be only a third win in 39 Tests.”We’ve got players who are getting good starts and not going on, from getting 40 or 50 to 80 or 100,” he said. The stand-in skipper Daren Ganga would relish a fifty after being lbw for five and nought to Steve Harmison at Old Trafford.”Daren’s an excellent tactician and excellent captain,” said Moore. “Unfortunately we haven’t seen the best of his batting yet, but over the last six to eight months he’s been averaging 40-plus, so I’m hoping his batting will come good for us.”

David Morgan, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, will succeed Ray Mali as the president of the ICC, it was announced today. Morgan, whose appointment was decided at the ICC’s annual conference will begin his two-year tenure in June 2008, when Mali’s stint as chairman comes to an end.Sharad Pawar, the president of the Indian board, will succeed Morgan in June 2010.Morgan will now become the president-elect while Pawar takes over as vice-president. Pawar will become the president-elect and retain his post of vice-president once Morgan takes charge. Morgan will also be expected to give up his ECB role in keeping with ICC policy that the president and the person chosen to succeed him should not represent a Member at the same time as holding those offices. Pawar will do likewise with his role within the BCCI in 12 months.The ICC’s governance review committee decided to limit presidential terms to two years with no option of a third year in office. It also decided to revert to the rotation system previously employed to select future ICC presidents. The rotation will now take place between six groups/regions: England/West Indies; India/Sri Lanka; Australia/New Zealand; Pakistan/Bangladesh; South Africa/Zimbabwe; Associates/AffiliatesIn a statement released by the ICC, Morgan said his priority over the next few weeks would be to complete his work with the ECB and work out a succession procedure.Pawar reacted to the decision by saying: “I am happy with the approach taken by the governance review committee to resolve the issue of succession and I believe David Morgan and myself have readily accepted those proposals in a sporting manner.”Other decisions taken by the ICC

Volume of cricket

The ICC board noted the views of the ICC cricket committee in relation to this matter and directed ICC management to produce a draft international program which should:

Ireland have announced their A team to play Denmark and MCC.Andrew White will captain a strong squad – nine of the 13 have senior international experience. The four new faces are Phil Eaglestone, Peter Connell, Andrew Poynter, and Reinhardt Strydom.Eaglestone has impressed opening the bowling for Strabane in the past two seasons, while Connell has played a pivotal role in the North Down attack.Poynter, who is on Middlesex’s books, was part of the Ireland Under-19 team in Sri Lanka last year, and also played for the Under-23 side last week in Glasgow. Strydom has been in prolific form for North County.The Denmark matches are at Stormont on Saturday and Muckamore on Sunday, while the MCC come to Malahide for a three-day match which starts on July 31.Andrew White (capt), Kenny Carroll, Peter Connell, Alex Cusack, Phil Eaglestone, Thinus Fourie, Dominick Joyce, Gary Kidd, Ryan Haire, Andrew Poynter, Reinhardt Strydom, Roger Whelan, Gary Wilson (wk).