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Ata-ur-Rehman, the banned Pakistan fast bowler, has been reinstated on the official players’ list and can play from May 2007. Rehman, 30, was one of those implicated in Pakistan’s controversial match-fixing inquiry five years ago – he admitted to lying under oath after initial statements – and was serving a life ban from the game handed him by the ICC in 2000.”From May 2007, Ata will be free to play cricket as he wishes,” Malcolm Speed, the Chief Executive Officer of the ICC, clarified, “in England – league cricket, county cricket – or wherever he may be selected.”We’ve received no further application from any other player,” he said when asked about Mohammad Azharuddin. “the provision is been in place since 2003 to enable an application to be placed. If and when an application is made from any other player, we will deal with it in the same way.”

West Indies have suffered a blow ahead of next week’s first Test with the injury-enforced withdrawal of the batsman Wavell Hinds. Hinds broke the little finger on his left hand while fielding in the tourists’ opening tour match against Queensland on Thursday.A team spokesman said Hinds, the left-handed batsman with 44 Test appearances, had to keep the finger immobilised for ten days, which would also force him out of the three-day match against Victoria in Melbourne, starting on November 11. Hinds is not expected to be fit until the second Test in Hobart, beginning on November 17.The unavailability of Hinds, who averages 33.54 in Tests with five hundreds, will solve a selection riddle for West Indies over who will open the innings with the World XI one-day representative Chris Gayle. Devon Smith is now expected to partner Gayle for the first Test starting next Thursday.

The reaction to India’s current dip in form has been similar to the invective thrown at them before the start of the World Cup last year. Batsmen have been described as “playing like millionaires”, bowlers criticised for being “clueless”, and the attitude branded as “demoralised”.Two suggestions have been doing the rounds: the first is with regard to the batting order, where most have advocated a change in the opening combination. The other relates to picking a specialist wicketkeeper to relieve Rahul Dravid of his “burden behind the stumps”.The said: “Sourav Ganguly should continue to open the innings, with Yuvraj [Singh], and push Sehwag down the order, making very clear that it is not a demotion but an opportunity for him to show what he can do in the middle order.”The , meanwhile, called for a change but felt that Ganguly would be better off batting at No. 5 or 6, with Yuvraj and Sehwag opening the innings. also said that Ganguly should go down the order, and was critical of his “inflexibility when it comes to shifting the batting order. Despite his limitations while facing pacers, Ganguly insists on batting at the top.”On the Dravid issue, the wrote: “Dravid may toil manfully and quietly but the strain of the double duty is now clearly evident in his batting stats.”And there were other thoughts too. India’s decision to field first in the second match at The Oval prompted Kris Srikkanth, the former Indian opener, to write in the : “It is high time we made it a law that when a toss is won, we must bat. We Indians are very poor chasers and unless and until the conditions are totally in favour of bowling first, we must always choose to bat when the option to do so is ours.”Ganguly has all along insisted that it was just a matter of getting it right in one game and that the team’s fortunes were bound to improve. It probably takes about the same time for the reactions to swing to the other extreme. Over to Lord’s.

Dunstable:
Cumberland 370-6d & 198-3d v Bedfordshire 296-9 & 273-5
Bedfordshire won by 5 wickets
Bedfordshire 20, Cumberland 8March:
Cambridgeshire 414-7d & 67-0 v Suffolk 200 & 280
Cambridgeshire won by 10 wickets
Cambridgeshire 24, Suffolk 4Oxton:
Dorset 196 and 313-6d v Cheshire 258 and 255-4
Cheshire won by six wickets.Truro:
Cornwall 218 & 211-1d v Devon 218 & 138-6
Match drawn
Cornwall 9, Devon 9Luctonians:
Herefordshire 320-7d & 334-6 v Shropshire 536
Match drawn
Herefordshire 11, Shropshire 11Grantham:
Lincolnshire 308 & 296-5d v Norfolk 328 & 134
Lincolnshire won by 142 runs
Lincolnshire 23, Norfolk 8Jesmond:
Northumberland 322-6d & 260-9d v Staffordshire 303 & 162-8
Match drawn
Northumberland 10, Staffordshire 9Pontypridd:
Wiltshire 434-7 v Wales 130 & 298
Wiltshire won by an innings and 4 runs
Wiltshire 24, Wales 3

* Fergusson confirms on Tendulkar’s successful treatmentThere is good news on world’s premier batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s toeinjury. Dr Mark Fergusson, who treated Tendulkar at the JohannesburgSports Clinic over the past four days, said some adjustments had beenmade to his boots and the cricketer was feeling comfortable. Heconfirmed that Tendulkar will have “no problems” once he startsplaying again, reports the Press Trust of India.”We have made adjustments to the boots he will be wearing and alreadyhe has shown no signs of pain,” Fergusson said. Fergusson, anarthroscopic surgeon who has earlier successfully treated Anil Kumbleand Javagal Srinath, said the boots which are manufactured in SouthAfrica, have been approved by Tendulkar’s doctors in Mumbai.”With the changes to his boots he will have no problems. The right toewill not be troubled,” he said. Tendulkar should be able to practiceand play some matches in a couple of days and would be able toparticipate in a charity match in London scheduled for September 18,Fergusson said.”By the time the tour to South Africa starts, he would be ready toplay in all Tests,” he said. However, Tendulkar may have to undergoregular tests to ensure that he was in a fit condition, the doctorsaid.According to a PTI report on Friday, Tendulkar sounded positive abouthis rehabilitation, “my injury does not need treatment as such. Butthat part (right toe) has to be rested for some more time. Now thepain has reduced but I will have to continue wearing the newlyprescribed shoes which cushions the injured part.”* Imran Khan demands penalty on IndiaPakistan’s cricket celebrity Imran Khan turned politician todaydemanded India be penalsied for withdrawing from the Asian Testchampionship, reports the Press Trust of India.”Once a country agrees to play it must honour its commitment or elseshould be fined by the International Cricket Council,” Khan told AFPon Thursday.”Pakistan should boycott India until they come and play against us inPakistan,” said Khan, who is a former skipper of the national cricketteam and now heads his own political party, Movement for Justice.India were to play Pakistan in Lahore in September in what would havebeen the first Test match in Pakistan between the two rivals for morethan a decade.Imran Khan said”We toured India in 1999 and allowed India to mintmillions of dollars and now they have deprived us of huge money.”India competed in the inaugural Asian championship in 1999-2000, whichwas won by Pakistan. “I was thinking that both countries would moveforward after the summit and cricket was one front from where theycould have moved forward,” Khan said referring to the talks betweenIndian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President GenPervez Musharraf in Agra last month.* Twenty-two teams for Moin-Ud-Dowla Gold Cup Cricket TournamentThe MRF Buchi Babu Tournament winners New Zealand ‘A’ are amongst thetwenty two teams that would participate in the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold CupCricket tournament here from September 2 to 16. Shivlal Yadav, theHon. Secretary, Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), revealed this tothe reporters in Hyderabad on Friday.The tournament, to be played on a league-cum-knock out basis, hasattracted Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) led by Test star AjitAgarkar, New Zealand ‘A’, besides newcomers Assam Cricket Association(ACA) and others, reports the Press Trust of India.The teams would be divided into four groups and two toppers from eachgroup would enter the quarter finals knock-out pace. The semi-finalswould be played on September 14, while the finals would be a day andnight affair on September 16.The winner would be richer by Rupees One Lakh besides the coveted GoldCup, while the runner-up would get Rupees 50,000. The event is beingsponsored by Coromandal King, Yadav added.Teams: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hyderabad Cricket Association(HCA) XI, Karnataka, Chemplast, All India Association of Bankers(AIAB), Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), India Cements, Railways,Canara Bank, District-XI, Goa, Hyderabad, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB),Indian Bank, Vidarbha and Indian Airlines (IA) are among the teams totake part in the tournament.

While all the speculation over Tuesday’s selection committee meeting surrounds the appointment of a new captain for the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, the day’s agenda goes beyond that. They have to answer some tricky questions when they pick the one-day squad, the foremost being whether Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag have done enough to make a comeback. They will also have to see how to find room for Irfan Pathan.In the recent past the selectors have resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes to the limited-overs team, chopping and changing only when fitness issues arose. And there is one in front of them: Munaf Patel, who was drafted into the team in place of Sreesanth for the ODI series in England, fell well short of expectations. He managed no more than a handful of overs at decent pace and Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach, questioned the “intensity level” with which he was operating. The timing and manner of Prasad’s statements – openly to the media, midway through the series – were surprising but it’s indicative that the team may have run out of patience with Munaf.Munaf’s exit will likely afford Ajit Agarkar another chance in the one-day team, something that might otherwise have been in doubt.Irfan Pathan has rediscovered the swing that made him such a potent force when he arrived in international cricket and has made telling contributions with the bat and on the field for India A. Though he is far from back to his best – the rhythm and pace still need plenty of work – he is clearly on the road to rehabilitation. When Pathan was axed from the team his bowling had fallen apart, with no swing and no real pace making him cannon fodder for the batsmen.If the Pathan question is easily answered by Munaf’s exit, the selectors have a slightly more tricky task deciding on what to do with Sehwag and Harbhajan. Neither has performed exceptionally well in the ICC World Twenty20 but Harbhajan has been on the ball. He has bowled with control and good rhythm, and would surely have been pushing for a place had the two incumbent spinners, Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar, not done so outstandingly well in the last series.While the medium-pacers came in for some tap, both Powar and Chawla exerted great control over England’s batsmen. Even Kevin Pietersen, who has dominated spinners of the quality of Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, found it hard to get both Powar and Chawla away. Powar slowed things down cleverly while Chawla had the advantage of being able to bowl his legbreak and googly from the same line. The fact that both spinners held their own might just make it hard for Harbhajan to force his way back in.The question of Sehwag is more tricky. The fact that he doesn’t find a place in either the Test or one-day team makes things a bit difficult for Dilip Vengsarkar and company. It’s no secret that Sehwag was being groomed for the captaincy, the thinking being that he was the link between the Tendulkar-Ganguly-Dravid generation and the one that would succeed it. This fact kept Sehwag in the team longer than many expected, even after he lost form, but now the case for Sehwag might build again, with Dravid giving up the reins.This could spell the end for Rohit Sharma, who was in the squad but did not get a game in the seven-match series in England and is yet to find a place in the eleven in the ICC World Twenty20.Vengsarkar is tight-lipped about the selection, and it seems his colleagues aren’t fully in the loop when it comes to the captaincy question. All will be revealed on Tuesday, and though there is room for surprises, don’t be surprised if Vengsarkar doesn’t ring in too much change.

Michael Vaughan’s “small window of opportunity” for the Ashes has been rubbished by John Buchanan as a “smokescreen” after he consulted with Jason Gillespie, who recently returned from a stint with Yorkshire, on Vaughan’s condition.In reaction to Vaughan’s surprising suggestion that he would be fit to make the Boxing Day Test, Buchanan admitted he was far from surprised about the gossip. “I never bought into the will-he-won’t-he talk,” he told . “We will wait and see what squad they bring, and if some of what has been suggested about him playing in the Ashes has been a smokescreen. To us, this news wasn’t unexpected.”We haven’t been doing any specific scouting of him, but I have spoken to Jason a few times. He has been in and around the Yorkshire side and has been seeing how Vaughan is doing. We fully expect England to have a very similar side to the one that played in the last Ashes series.Vaughan’s comments regarding his dodgy knee have varied. Last month he declared that he had no chance of returning before the VB Series. In July, he suggested his career was over. A report in the has now quoted Vaughan as saying that playing in the Ashes was “definitely a target”.”A fit Vaughan is important, not just to England as a batsman, but also in the way that he leads,” Buchanan said. “I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to play in the Ashes.”

Amitabh Choudhury, the manager of the Indian side on their recent tour to Zimbabwe, has said he was “astonished” with Sourav Ganguly’s revelations to the media about goings on in the dressing-room and felt that he had “gone back on a deal”.”We all agreed that this was a matter that should stay between us and should not, under any circumstances, be discussed with the media,” Choudhury told . He said he asked Ganguly why he’d gone public, to which the captain replied that he’d responded to a journalist’s question.Tracing the origin of the whole crisis, Choudhury added that Chappell’s suggestion that Ganguly step down as captain was a “very remarkable thing to happen”. “Sourav then said that the coach had told him the reasons why he should step down as captain. First, his current form did not warrant his being in the team as captain. And second, that in the Mutare match he had left the field because the new ball had been taken by the Zimbabwe team.”In my opinion, the coach’s was an extraordinary decision. It should not have been taken during the tour. And it should be left for the national selection committee to look into it. I told Sourav that you have done the right thing by speaking your heart … I told him that he must keep cool. I will try to resolve the problem. I went to Rahul and told him the facts. Rahul agreed with me that any decision on matters related with the coach’s decision must not be taken on a tour. Then both Rahul and I went to Chappell and explained to him what effect his decision, if honoured, would have on the team. He did consider that he had made some suggestion to the captain.”Then all three of us went to Sourav and talked to him for 30 to 40 minutes. All four of us agreed on two things. One, the status quo being maintained with Sourav remaining captain. Two, all four of us keep the entire affair a closely guarded secret.”Choudhury didn’t want to comment on Chappell’s observation that Ganguly was mentally and physically not fit to be captain, but, added that his `tantrums and `uppishness’ might have irritated Chappell.

Scorecard
The West Indians continued to warm-up well ahead of next week’s first Test on the second day of their tour match against Sri Lanka A at Shenley. Resuming on 351 for 6, Ridley Jacobs and Omari Banks added a further 183 runs together as the West Indians declared at 534 for 7. Sri Lanka A then closed at 271 for 6, with Banks taking three of the wickets to fall.Just as they did yesterday, the West Indians managed to prove that they can score runs without Brian Lara, as Jacobs and Banks continued the run fest. Jacobs, resuming on 30 not out, finished unbeaten on 117, with 17 fours and a six. While Jacobs is a certain starter next week at Lord’s, Banks pushed his case with an entertaining 90 from 85 balls, with nine fours and six sixes. He put on a commanding stand with Banks until he was caught by Malintha Gajanayake off Thilan Thushara.Ramnaresh Sarwan, the acting captain, immediately closed the innings with West Indies at 534 for 7, after all five of the Sri Lanka bowlers finished with at least 90 runs against their names.However, Shantha Kalavitigoda and Ian Daniel proved they could live with the big boys too. They put on 92 for the opening wicket before Kalavitigoda was caught by Tino Best off Dwayne Bravo for 27. Daniel continued his good form on the tour, and he had made a quick 72 when Fidel Edwards had him caught by Bravo.Malintha Gajanayake and Jehan Mubarak carried on the good work, adding 78 together. Gajanayake, though, was caught by Devon Smith to give Best his first wicket of the match. Banks then followed up his impressive performance with the bat by grabbing three wickets. The first to go was Mubarak, caught by Dwaye Smith for 61. Then Bathiya Perera was snaffled behind by Jacobs for 19, and Kaushal Lokuarachchi was also caught, by Edwards for 10.Prasanna Jayawardene and Thushara were then left holding the fort at the close with Sri Lanka A still 263 runs behind.

Zimbabwe has confirmed its team for the first npower Test match versus England at Lord’s, beginning on Thursday 22 May. The 11 players selected are:Heath Streak, captain
Tatenda Taibu, vice captain and wicketkeeper
Dion Ebrahim
Mark Vermeulen
Stuart Carlisle
Grant Flower
Andy Blignaut
Travis Friend
Sean Ervine
Douglas Hondo
Ray Price
There are two changes from the team that drew with Sussex in the last lead up game at Hove. Seam bowling all rounder Travis Friend replaces Douglas Marillier, while pace bowler Douglas Hondo replaces Mluleki Nkala.Zimbabwe coach Geoff Marsh commented: “All 15 players were fit and available for selection. The final eleven gives us depth and variety in bowling, while the top order batting is supported by a number of genuine all round performers.”Despite losing a lot of play against Sussex our build up to the Test has gone well, with a win, a tie and a draw. Most of the batsmen have spent time in the middle and three have already produced big hundreds”.Captain Heath Streak added:”Our bowlers have all acclimatised pretty well to early-season English conditions and have delivered good spells in all three of the tour games. With unsettled weather forecast for Lord’s and a pitch that might favour the faster bowlers, the luxury of being able to call on five seam bowlers gives us plenty of options.”Streak will lead a five-pronged pace attack on a ground where he returned his best Test figures of 6-87, against England in 2000. Andy Blignaut, Douglas Hondo (12 wickets in two tour games to date), Sean Ervine and Travis Friend complete the seam attack. Ray Price provides contrast with left arm spin and will be backed up by fellow left armer Grant Flower.Three of the top order batsmen go into the Test with substantial centuries to their credit on tour: Grant Flower:130 v British Universities, Stuart Carlisle: 159 v Worcestershire and Mark Vermuelen:198 v Sussex.Nine of the starting line up are first class centurions (Hondo and Price being the exceptions).ZCU Media Contacts: Lovemore Banda, ZCU Communications Manager
Cell: + 44 (0)7818 881443
or
Mark Harrison, Media Consultant
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7776 182506