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Shane Watson is confident he’ll be fit for the World Cup as he tries to put the disappointment of missing the Ashes series behind him. He’d been penciled in to take the No. 6 role before breaking down ahead of the first Test at Brisbane and when he re-injured himself in a domestic one-day match he was ruled out of the series.His place initially went to Michael Clarke and when Damien Martyn retired following the Adelaide Test Andrew Symonds was drafted in, cracking his maiden Test century at the MCG. However, Watson now wants to move on and focus on the challenges ahead.”It’s a massive opportunity missed,” he told the . “Roy’s [Symonds] performances have definitely taken the opportunity away from me, but there is a changing of the guard and hopefully I will get my chance at Test level.”If there is an opportunity I will be raring to go. The main thing is I still believe in myself. I feel a lot more comfortable in international cricket, but when you get injured you leave the door open for other people.”Watson is aiming to return to action later in January and be available for the latter part of the Commonwealth Bank Series. Australia then have a three-match Chappell-Hadlee series in New Zealand before the World Cup.”That is my goal now, to make sure I’m right to be picked for the World Cup,” Watson said. “This has been the most frustrating injury of my career. It should have been only three or four weeks but it’s dragged on and on.”

ScorecardA masterful innings from Phil Jaques provided the platform for New South Wales’ comprehensive victory against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.Batting first, the Blues’ run-rate was kept in check for much of their innings, thanks to tight bowling from the Redbacks. Jason Gillespie and Paul Rofe were controlled and limited the run-scoring opportunities under overcast skies until Mark Cleary’s introduction brought more adventurous strokeplay.Corey Richards paid the price for a second, overly ambitious attempt at driving Cleary but Jaques found good support in Dominic Thornely (76). The pair put on an unbroken stand of 171 for the fifth wicket, including 114 in the last ten overs. Jaques crashed 11 fours and four sixes in his unbeaten 158 – his second knock exceeding 150 in the competition this season – as New South Wales reached a competitive 4 for 282 from their 50 overs.South Australia were rocked by the early dismissal of Shane Deitz in the first over of their reply, followed by Graham Manou in the third, both falling to Stuart Clark. Stumbling at 4 for 52, Darren Lehmann (43) joined Mark Cosgrove (76) to put on 108 for the fifth wicket, but they represented the Redbacks’ final chance of reaching the Blues’ total. Wickets continued to tumble, with Michael Clarke (3-27) snaffling three cheap ones to take the Blues home by 73 runs.

Glamorgan officials have acted quickly to try and play down suggestions that Simon Jones is on the move following recent comments hinting that he is considering his options.”We spoke to Simon on Friday and we’ll have a big chat with him when he comes back in January,” Mike Fatkin, the county’s chief executive, told the Western Mail. “Any issues he has he can air them then.”On Wednesday, Jones told reporters that there was “a little bit of doubt in my mind” over his plans. He continued: “I cannot be approached by another county because I am not out of contract, but there are options open. I am not saying I am going and I am not saying I am staying. I am just thinking about it and trying to do what is best for me.”Fatkin said that he was “sympathetic about his [Jones’s] position” but added that “he could have worded things a bit differently than he did.”Jones’s main gripe appeared to be that he was not a part of Glamorgan’s one-day side, with just 10 appearances in six seasons. “He obviously wants to play more one-day cricket,” admitted Fatkin, “but there has to be a balance struck between his personal ambitions and the success of the Glamorgan side in one-day cricket. You have to remember that we won the national league without him.”We have to understand Simon’s career development path,” Fatkin told the Western Mail, “but we want him to remain here. He’s Welsh and I’m sure deep down he would prefer to be with us. We would like to sign him for another two years.”

Pakistan will be represented at next week’s women’s tournament in the Netherlands, despite the fact that the Pakistan Cricket Board’s team will not be taking part.One of the messiest situations in world cricket, albeit domestic, has not been resolved despite the best intentions of Pakistan’s judiciary, and cricket administrators on both sides of a bitter row that has broken out in Pakistan over who has the right to run the women’s game in that country. A team chosen by the PCB was refused entry into the Netherlands competition, and would not have been able to compete anyway because it was refused visas to the Netherlands.This was because the International Women’s Cricket Council continues to recognise the Pakistan Women’s Cricket Control Association as the body most representative of women’s cricket in that country and had sent the invitation to compete to them.IWCC president Christine Brierley, who will see her Council vote next week on whether they should be integrated into the International Cricket Council, said the PWCCA team was expected to participate as they, like the other competing countries, had paid their entry fee.”I have received no legal advice at this point of time that says that the legal action brought by the PWCCA against the PCB has been resolved,” Brierley said. “I also have received no official government statement that advises the IWCC that the PWCCA is no longer the recognised body to represent the interests of Pakistan women’s cricket. This is an essential requirement of IWCC membership.”Curiously, the PCB perceived an enquiry from Brierley to them regarding the outcome of legal consultation between the parties in the dispute as a signal that some sort of impasse had been overcome.But Brierley said that both the parties in Pakistan had been told that a report on the dispute was to be discussed at the IWCC’s next meeting on July 24.”We cannot cease or change membership of the IWCC unless it complies with the IWCC rules and the PWCCA membership is assessed according to the criteria of membership. Both the PCB and the PWCCA have a copy of the criteria of membership. It does not assist world cricket and the IWCC to be continually involved in what is essentially a domestic matter for Pakistan cricket,” she said.The Pakistan Cricket Board’s reaction to their side’s exclusion from the tournament has been to demand that the PWCCA side not be allowed to use the word Pakistan to describe themselves at the tournament.Trouble between the two parties has been ongoing since last year when the Pakistan High Court ruled that the PCB was the body best suited to run women’s cricket and asked that the two bodies get together to sort the matter out. However, when the PCB started arranging trial matches an approach to the Court by the PWCCA achieved agreement that the PCB had acted outside of its mandate.The situation flared again recently when the PCB claimed that a resolution had been achieved. However, the PWCCA claimed the PCB was guilty of contempt of court.One of the organisers of the PWCCA, Shaiza Khan, took the PCB to task for what she claimed were “totally wrong and absolutely baseless” comments. She accused the PCB of “intransigence” over its treatment of court orders and said it appeared “to be demonstrating a sense of utter irresponsibility.”A restraining order had been placed on the PCB by the High Court ofMr Sana Ateeq Khan. When the PCB appeared to break that order by claiming differences had been resolved the PWCCA then asked for a contempt of court to be considered.

In his latest exclusive diary entry for CricInfo, Alec Stewart confirms his availability for the rest of the present series, and adds his voice to calls for Australia to take the original Ashes urn home.Any series that I take part in, or game that I play in – whether it’s for England, Surrey or whoever, I want to win, and look forward to winning. It’s the sixth time I’ve played in an Ashes series, and the sixth time I haven’t won the Ashes. Two things have really disappointed me this time. Firstly, we haven’t been able to pick our strongest side; that’s not an excuse, it’s a fact. More disappointingly, we haven’t played to the level that I know we’re capable of reaching, which brought us success in the five series leading up to the Ashes.As to the Trent Bridge game itself, the talk in the papers was about bad decisions, but they happen. Throughout the game’s history, umpires’ decisions, shots played by batsmen, balls delivered by bowlers, haven’t always been right.Once we lost Michael Atherton on Friday it was extraordinary how quickly the wickets went down. We’d had a good partnership going and then lost four wickets, which put a massive dent in our chances of posting a winning total of 250-plus. They had a bit of a scare at 80 for 3 with Steve Waugh getting injured, but Mark Waugh and Damien Martyn dashed our hopes of victory with a positive display of batting.As always when we lose the Ashes, which is currently every other year, the media and others look to re-build English cricket. “Everything’s wrong with it, no one can play, get rid of all this lot and start again.” If you sit down and look at what’s happened, and how we move forward, my name will crop up as the oldest cricketer in the England side. But I think it was Linford Christie who said that age is just a number – you should always be picking players on ability. At the same time, you should be looking to improve the side and have an eye on the future. I’m still very much available to play in the next two Test matches. I’ve had a chat with David Graveney this morning about that, and will be meeting him again soon to talk about the future. Thoughts of retirement are not in my mind at present.In the short term, it would be nice if the selectors were able to pick from the strongest available squad for Headingley. That’s obviously subject to Hussain, Thorpe, Vaughan and Hoggard all being available. We can then see how we compete against them. I don’t want people saying the series is dead. Both Australian and England players are on record as saying that any Test match they play is just as important, whether the series is dead or alive. As to the wider picture, we should bring in players here and there, but not go for a wholesale upheaval. We’ve all talked about the huge gulf between county and Test cricket. The jump from county cricket to a Test match against Australia is the biggest, so for any new player it’s going to be hard. We need to keep looking for the players with the potential to make the step up.Personally I believe that Australia should now take the original Ashes urn back home. They deserve it, and the Australian public should have the chance to see exactly what their team’s been winning, possibly on display in the ACB offices.

Canterbury’s Shell Trophy fixture with Central Districts moved gloomilytowards a conclusion at Village Green today.Play was delayed until 4.45pm by heavy overnight rain. The groundsmen had towork hard to get the pitch ready when the rain stopped at 2.00pm.Any hopes of a brighter Cantabrian dawn were dashed by suicidal batting asthe home team’s spirits fell as quickly as the afternoon clouds had risen.They eventually closed on 63/3.Martyn Sigley had previously breezily smashed Chris Martin all round theground to add 29 of the 30 CD runs scored in just 20 minutes after theresumption.Carl Anderson and Stephen Cunis removed the tailenders, but Canterbury werefaced with scoring 246 to make the Stags bat again.Harley James and Jarrod Englefield both went in dull fashion. James droveairily at Gareth West and was caught by Mark Douglas at slip for two.Englefield completed a miserable match by getting run out after being sentback by Robbie Frew.Garry MacDonald, Canterbury’s coach, had a darker and darker demeanour ashis side failed to weather the CD storm. If it wasn’t for three missedchances in the slips before the score had reached 30, Cantabrian tearsmight have flooded the carefully mopped ground.Golden-arm Oram then struck a lightning bolt through Canterbury’s thunderstorm. Stead flashed a cut, and Oram had struck, with Mathew Sinclair takingthe catch at gully.Little rays of sunshine from Michael Papps, fresh from three ducks in a row,batted Canterbury through to the close with Frew. The Darfield-borndraughtsman was also missed when he gloved a hook off Oram. A big lbw shoutfrom the same bowler was a close shave too for Frew, who ended 23 not out.As the light failed Canterbury paddled away across the damp outfield toclose at a dismal 63/3.MacDonald spoke exclusively to CricInfo today at a rainy Village Green inChristchurch, citing staleness as his reason to move on. “I’ve had fouryears now and it’s probably time to do something else. I think it’s good forthe players, after the amount of time I’ve been with them, to have someoneelse. It freshens them and I got to make sure I don’t get stale myself.”Canterbury have won just one competitive game in 10 during 2000/01. Theylie bottom of both the Shell Trophy and Shell Cup.The failure of Canterbury’s young players to “kick on” has been as much as adisappointment as Canterbury’s Black Caps refusal to play domestic cricket.This was highlighted by Mathew Sinclair and Jacob Oram’s appearances forCentral Districts, while Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan pronouncedthemselves unavailable for the ongoing bottom of the table Trophy clash.Canterbury’s second-string top order collapsed to eight for five in thislatest Trophy game, with MacDonald, a former Canterbury player, commenting”we keep losing clumps of wickets. We’ve been losing four at a time, instrong positions as well, which has been putting us on the back foot.””We’ve been off the pace in both competitions. In the Cup our bowling hasbeen very inconsistent. Our batting has been, well, usually we’ve got enoughruns for a Canterbury team to defend. Our fielding and catching has beenaverage. That’s got to go up and the bowling’s got to be tighter.”The positives this season have been few. Promising performances against theZimbabwe tourists now mean little, with the lack of success in domesticcricket the benchmark MacDonald is judged on.Canterbury won the Shell Cup twice in three seasons under MacDonald, buthave finished bottom in the Shell Trophy in each of the last two years,having won it in 1997/98.While MacDonald is hoping to do some specialist spin bowling coaching- “I’ma bit young to retire yet”- there is no word on a successor, whose big hopemust be to have a full complement of internationals at his disposal.Michael Sharpe, successful coach of Canterbury second XI, is a possibilityas a replacement, having served the same apprenticeship as MacDonald and hispredecessor, Dennis Aberhart.Ben Harris, Canterbury selector and brother of Chris, from the localcandidates, has had his name mentioned in connection with the soon to bevacant post too.The seconds won the National Provincial competition under Canterbury Countrymainstay and Canterbury selector, Sharpe. The Rangiora-born formerprovincial seamer was a member of the successful Canterbury team of thenineties. Whether he would take the role, with so much knowledge of itschallenges as well as its high points remains to be seen.

Pakistan’s national selection committee have named 28 players for the two-day high-performance camp to be held in Karachi from January 12. The camp consists of players who have impressed during the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy this season and will allow selectors to gauge the level of backup they have ahead of a heavy season.The players chosen include Sohail Khan, the right-arm fast-medium bowler, who, while grabbing 65 wickets in his debut season, broke Fazal Mahmood’s record of the best bowling figures in a Pakistani first-class match with figures of 16 for 189 against Water and Power Development Authority. Wahab Riaz, Rauf Akbar and Junaid Zia, the other top wicket-takers of the season have also been invited to the camp.The camp also features the 17-year-old Umar Akmal, the younger brother of Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran. He has amassed 849 runs in eight matches in his debut season, including scores of 248 and an unbeaten 186. Khurram Manzoor, the only player to cross 1000-run mark this season, Naumanullah and Shoaib Khan, the other notable scorers of the season, will also get a chance to impress the selectors.The two-day camp precedes two tour matches against the visiting Zimbabwe side before the five-match ODI series.Camp attendees
Nasir Jamshed, Khurram Manzoor, Afaq Raheem, Shoaib Khan, Usman Tariq, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Shahdab Kabir, Naumanullah, Asif Zakir, Kamran Hussain, Yasir Shah, Rizwan Ahmed, Salman Ahmed, Zulfiqar Jan, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Juniad Zia, Rauf Akbar, Azharullah, Samiullah Niazi, Fahad Masood, Tanvir Ahmed, Azaz Cheema, Mohammad Aslam, Imad Wasim, Ahmed Shahzad, Umar Amin

After the Table-Mountain high of the opening day, it was a case of themorning after for most of the Indians. A promising position was squanderedwith the bat, and an erratic bowling performance then allowed Graeme Smithand Hashim Amla to build up some real momentum in the closing stages ofplay.Dinesh Karthik played his part behind the stumps, and will certainly havea bigger role to play once Anil Kumble settles in on a pitch that alreadyhas significant rough patches. For the moment though, he can reflect onhis opening-day display, a doughty four-hour innings that spanned 170balls and realised 63 runs. A poor decision ended it, but by then, Karthikand Wasim Jaffer had already added 153 for the first wicket, the bestopening stand by any team against South Africa in more than two years.”It was very challenging opening the innings and playing great bowlerslike Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini,” said Karthik, speaking after thesecond day’s play at Newlands. “To get off to a good start boosted myconfidence and my self-esteem.”Though the pitch bore more resemblance to the ones that he left behindback home, opening was still a stiff test of Karthik’s technique,especially when it came to choosing which balls to play. “As an opener,it’s important that you trust your technique because if you feel there’s aproblem, you might not be able to handle good balls,” he said. “You’ve gotto trust your technique if you want to bat out a session. It’s not an easything to do but hopefully, I’ll keep getting better.”

When the series began, the prospect of opening in Cape Town would havebeen far from his mind, given that there were three specialist openers inthe squad. But with Virender Sehwag’s poor form forcing him down theorder, and Gautam Gambhir short of match practice, it was left to Karthikto face the new-ball flak with Jaffer. “The night before the game, RahulDravid told me to be prepared, saying: ‘You might be asked to open’. So,when he told me the next morning that I’d be opening, I was prepared.”According to Karthik, there had been no doubts in his mind when he wasasked to do the job, nor was there a feeling that he was being made asacrificial lamb. “It’s important to be a team man,” he said. “At the endof the day, you have to do what the team wants you to do. That’s how wehave been brought up; not to play selfish cricket.”For a man playing his first Test in over 15 months, he certainly camethrough the ordeal with reputation enhanced. The hard work starts now. Thefirst step can often be fuelled by adrenaline, but an encore needs farmore strength of character.

ScorecardT

he yo-yo effect at the top of the Standard Bank table continued as the Eagles soared back into the lead after a four-wicket win over the Dolphins at Durban.Having won the toss and batted first the Dolphins made heavy weather ofa difficult pitch, getting only 182 in their allotted 45 overs. At 88 for 5 in the 26th over things did notlook too bright for them but Ahmed Amla, scoring 71 not out, andDuncan Brown, scoring an unbeaten 41, put together a 94-run unbroken sixth-wicket partnership, of which 40 runs came off the final five overs, allowing the Dolphins to reach a reasonable score. As it turned out, it proved to be 15 to 20 runs short in the end.The Eagles also struggled at the top of their innings, losing fivewickets in the first 20 overs with only 62 on the board. Ryan McLarenand Ryan Bailey, both scoring 40, then put on 86 runs for the sixthwicket as the Eagles clawed their way back into the match, allowingJohan van der Wath the freedom to hit 23 runs off 24 balls to take theEagles to victory with five balls to spare.The Dolphins gave away 27 extras, 14 of which were no-ballsand wides, and will have to bowl with far more discipline if they are to be a contender for the trophy.

The Indian team has landed in Dhaka under moderately heightened security following the death threat from an Islamic militant group. They arrived without fanfare or scares, but to a throng of curious locals who were waiting in the hundreds outside the Zia International Airport. They emerged first from the aircraft and were taken to a VIP room, where the necessary paperwork and formalities were completed. They then boarded a bus through a private exit, and, with police escort, were driven to their hotel.While the security arrangements were slightly more elaborate than those in India, it was not quite to the dramatic scale of India’s recent tour to Pakistan. There, the streets were cleared each time the team ventured from their hotel. In Pakistan the motorcade was an imposing one, with motorcycle outriders, police jeeps and army rangers with mounted submachine guns flanking the team bus. Here, a couple of simple escort vehicles sufficed, and at no point was the normal flow of traffic interrupted by the local police.Sourav Ganguly spent a quick few minutes on arrival, answering questions. “We have just landed and we have no idea about the security situation. We are here to play the game,” he said, when asked what he thought of the security situation.Ganguly also dismissed suggestions that this series would be merely preparation for India’s home series against Pakistan in the beginning of next year. “We have to play to our potential and take it series by series. [Pakistan’s visit] is still a long way off. We have a lot of time to think about it.” This is India’s first full series in Bangladesh, and he added that his team would have no trouble motivating itself even against a relatively weak team like Bangladesh. “Test cricket itself is a motivation for everybody.”

While India seem to have only the security situation to worry about,Bangladesh under no illusions that the Indians have arrived with plenty to achieve. Anil Kumble, equal with Kapil Dev at 434 Test wickets, is certain to make the record his own. Sachin Tendulkar is one century away from drawing level with Sunil Gavaskar, on 34 Test tons. But, as Habibul Bashar, the Bangladesh captain, said recently, Bangladesh have a few kinks to iron out. “[Our] batting is the main worry. The top order have not put up scores when they should have,” he said. “Also, Harbhajan [Singh] and [Anil] Kumble take plenty of wickets in every Test.”This left Bangladesh with a tricky dilemma when it came to the type of pitch they wanted. Mohammad Rafique and Manjural Islam, the two left-arm spinners, have been the most penetrative of Bangladesh’s bowlers. But, with Kumble and Harbhajan in such fine form in the recent past, the Bangladeshis were wary of preparing a track that would turn. To complicate matters further, their batting has struggled so much against swing and seam movement that it would be disastrous to prepare a strip that assisted the seamers. Hence, as local sources suggest, it seems inevitable that the pitch will be a flat, batting beauty.With the Indian team safely tucked away at its hotel, the Bangabandhu stadium wore a desolate look. Groundstaff pottered about attending to the pitch and outfield, and other officials sorted out advertising hoardings, facilities for players and the media, and similar last-minute details. There was no evidence of the massive security presence recently reported in sections of the media.The first Test is scheduled to start at Dhaka on Friday, a day behind the original date.