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Muttiah Muralitharan has been ruled out of the first three one-day internationals against England. Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s captain, confirmed that Muralitharan’s bicep injury had not healed.”We don’t want to rush him,” Jayawardene said. “He’s almost there, but we just have to make a decision whether we would like to risk him like this soon after injury. We will make sure that we will make a sensible decision.” Sri Lanka’s priority is to get him fit for their trip to Australia which follows almost immediately after the five-match series against England.Such is the shadow that Muralitharan casts over matches that at the press conference today Paul Collingwood, England’s captain, seemed reluctant to believe that he would not be playing. “We’re preparing as if Murali is playing and we will still prepare in this way,” he said.Sri Lanka called Kaushal Lokuarachchi into the squad as a replacement. A legspinner, he has 19 ODIs to his name and can more than hold his own with the bat. The Guardian reported that his inclusion was too much for Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka’s new Australian coach, who told the media, with some uncertainty, that Muralitharan’s stand-in was someone called Wakaroochi.Before the first game England take on a Sri Lanka Cricket XI, captained by Avishka Gunawardene, in a one-day warm-up match at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo on Friday. Besides Gunawardene, England’s opponents include seven players with international limited-overs experience, the most prominent among them being Malinga Bandara, the legspinner, who lost his spot in the national squad to Lokuarachchi.Gihan de Silva and Indika de Saram will vie for the wicketkeepers slot. The selection of de Saram, 34, comes as a surprise, considering that he played his last ODI in 2001.Kevin Pietersen is likely to captain England for the first time after Collingwood was hit by a stomach bug. Collingwood, Stuart Broad, Luke Wright and Alastair Cook are all struggling with what their coach, Peter Moores, described as a “stomach illness”. The match will also be a significant moment for Dimitri Mascarenhas, who will play for the first time in his country of origin.Sri Lanka Cricket XI Avishka Gunawardene, Viraj Perera, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilina Kadamby, Gihan de Silva, Gihan Rupasinghe, Malinga Bandara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ranga Dias, Akalanka Ganegama, Sujeewa de Silva, Ashan Priyaranjan, Indika de Saram (wk), Lasith Fernando.England XI (probable) Kevin Pietersen (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Phil Mustard (wk), Monty Panesar, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett.

Glenn McGrath is expecting a pay cut after taking time off to support his wife during her battle with cancer in Cricket Australia’s list of its 25 contracted players for the 2006-07 international season.The season is an important one, in which Australia will attempt first to regain the Ashes at home and then retain the World Cup in the West Indies soon after. reported that McGrath’s management team was certain the 36-year-old would slide down the rankings list, having missed Australia’s recent tours of South Africa and Bangladesh due to his wife’s illness.Despite another consistent international year – 43 wickets in 10 Tests, and 16 wickets in 16 ODIs – by the time McGrath is back his absence from the national side will have stretched to ten months. That absence, believes McGrath, is likely to result in a drop down Australia’s rankings and a pay cut.Warren Craig, McGrath’s manager, while confirming the player intends to return to international duties for Australia’s next fixture, a triangular one-day series in Pakistan leading into the Champions Trophy, acknowledged that Stuart Clark’s emergence during the South Africa tour and Brett Lee’s good form may leave his client with a reduced role over the coming year.”Glenn isn’t expecting to hold his existing place on the list,” Craig told . “He was fairly high last year and he is realistic about things this time around. We will meet with Cricket Australia and find out officially where he is in the next couple of weeks. But he is expecting to slip a bit, just hopefully not too much.”The biggest beneficiaries, the paper reported, are likely to be Michael Hussey and Brett Lee, on the back of exceptional performances over the last season. Hussey, in particular, has had a phenomenal season; since making his Test debut he has scored 1139 runs at 75.93 in 11 matches and also played 35 of his 40 one-day internationals over the past year. Lee’s return to the Test arena after an 18-month absence, has seen him transformed into Australia’s spearhead. In 17 Tests, he has taken 72 wickets and his ODI performances have been impressive as usual, claiming 51 wickets at 25.29 from 31 appearances.Mick Lewis, Cameron White and James Hopes have not been so lucky and have been taken off the contracts list entirely, while Clark, Phil Jaques and Mitchell Johnson have been offered full contracts for the first time. Mark Cosgrove and Brett Dorey also miss out on a contract. Jaques, soon to be married, was pleased to learn of his contract though he was realistic about his immediate chances. “I am behind Australia’s best opening partnership of all time, so I have to bide my time for opportunities to come up. It would be a dream come true to play a revenge Ashes series this summer.”Cricket Australia will inform all players of their ranking and earnings over the next fortnight. Michael Brown, operations manager, did reveal that the base contract would increase from $145,000 to $150,000, while match payments of $12,250 for Tests and $4900 for one-day internationals would not change. The top contract, for the likes of Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, and the entire payment pool would remain confidential.

Robin Brown, the Zimbabwe coach who replaced Kevin Curran last month, has asked his players to hold the celebrations till after the game against England today.”I told them to keep the celebrations until tomorrow night when we have beaten England,” Brown told AFP. “Then we can have a full go.”Zimbabwe beat Australia by five wickets at Newlands and Brown, on his first international assignment, said that before the game he reminded the players of Zimbabwe’s win on debut against Australia in the 1983 World Cup. “I reminded them of that and told the guys to go out and express themselves in our first World Cup Twenty20 game.”Brown was part of the Zimbabwe squad in the 1983 World Cup but did not play against Australia.Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, admitted that Zimbabwe had done better than Australia in most aspects in the game and Brendan Taylor, the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 60, felt Ponting’s remark was a great compliment to Zimbabwe. “That’s a great compliment because we try to model ourselves on them,” Taylor said.An England win over Zimbabwe will make it more difficult for Australia to qualify for the Super Eights. They play England on Friday at Newlands.

On the start his bowlers gave him
I think we stuck in well throughout and kept the pressure on them all the time. They had to play some big shots in the last part of the innings, which as you saw some wickets fell. I thought 258 was gettable and the guys talked before the match about actually chasing. They thought the pitch looked very good and it would stay that way for the entire 100 overs. So first of all, it was a good toss to lose. It’s a situation where we have to just move on from here, with the same sort of a game plan. Everyone’s trying to make a contribution.On the resurgence in West Indian cricket
I just think that we had a tournament in Malaysia recently, and even before that we played India and won the series 4-1. Our one-day game has always been pretty good. It just [needs] a little bit of fine tuning. We did that in Malaysia. We were forced to play the qualifying round here, and that in itself gave us a little bit of competitive cricket. So I think it’s the fact that we are building up momentum, and the guys are believing in themselves, believing in the plans and executing it well. It’s great to see the guys go out there and stick to the plans, work hard and get the results. We just have to keep the momentum going now, analyse each game even if you have to lose. Win or lose, just go back and think about it. I think it is going to be exciting times ahead for us, in the one-dayers especially.Australia and West Indies have won two matches each in the last four encounters between the two teams. Did Lara think there was unfinished business with the Australians?
I wouldn’t say it is unfinished business. I just feel it’s nice to be playing the world champions inthe final. It says a lot for our effort – getting past South Africa in the semis and beating the likes of India and even Australia in the first part of the tournament. So we are looking forward to the challenge. Australia, of course, have gained some momentum since they lost to us in the first match. I am sure they are very, very buoyed and confident of their chances on Sunday. I think we have to go back to the drawing board again, work on a few things and realise that we are going to play a completely different opposition to the one we played against. In that first game in Mumbai, Australia were playing their first match on that pitch and so we had a sort of an advantage. It’s not unfinished business. It’s a game of cricket, we are looking forward to the challenge and we will back ourselves.

On whether Lara thought West Indies would win so easily
Of course not. It’s a semi-final and you are going to think that South Africa will come and throw everything at us, if not for the first 15 then for the entire 50 overs. I think it’s the way Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul started, they transferred the pressure on South Africa. They came out ready to apply pressure on with the likes of Pollock, Ntini and Nel. The fact that in 15 overs or so we were almost close to our 100 put them on the back foot. They just had to play catch-up cricket after that. So it was a good effort and everybody must be commended.On captaining a batsman like Chris Gayle
He is excellent. Chris Gayle has always been a top player – with the bat, with the ball and in thefield. He is very chirpy as well, and he has a great influence on the guys, which is tremendous. He might seem a bit comical on occasions, but he takes his cricket very seriously. In the practice sessions, his preparation is great and he is reaping the rewards right now.On what advice he gave to his batsmen
South Africa’s two win in the tournament was actually bowling second. The fact that in the first 15 or 20 overs, the game is almost over for the opposition – they got five, six wickets against Sri Lanka and also Pakistan. Our first decision was to try and stay out there, see the pitch. But maybe in the first over, the guys realized that there wasn’t much in the pitch, nothing like Mohali or Ahmedabad for South Africa, and we played accordingly.On Gayle firing in the final
It’s a brand new game and the fact that we have certain requirements of the opening batsmen – if it is Chanderpaul or Gayle, they have to fulfill those requirements. Chris has done that on a few occasions in this tournament and I am almost sure that he does not want to leave the centre-stage to anyone come the final. He will be eager to go out there and replicate what he did today.On starting the World Cup as favourites if they win here
Favorites or not, we have to play the World Cup. We are the hosts and we will be in Jamaica for the first, hoping to come out of with maximum points and move on. A lot of teams have said we are very unpredictable and maybe that is a fact. But the fact is then they are not going to take us easy. We have played very good cricket, we have beaten Australia on a couple of occasions recently and I don’t think anything is going to be different in the Caribbean. I am almost sure the likes of South Africa, India and Pakistan – whoever we play against – know what we are capable of. I don’t mind whatever tag they place on us. We still got to go out there and execute, we still got to play better than the other team on the day.

A leading British newspaper has claimed the London bombers were initially ordered by Al-Qaeda to target the England and Australian teams during the 2005 Ashes series.Quoting a friend of one of the terrorists, said Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer allegedly received the orders at a training camp near Kotli, in Kashmir, during December 2004. The claims have been made by a family friend of Hasib Hussain, the bus bomber who killed 13 people. The friend, who is willing to pass his information to the police, uses the pseudonym Ahmed Hafiz.According to Hafiz, 32, the bombers were instructed to get jobs as stewards at Edgbaston and spray sarin gas inside the changing rooms. The second Test between England and Australia began on August 4.Hafiz, whose family have known the Hussains for 25 years, said he had received details of the bombers’ visit from members of his extended family, who were involved in running the camp. He claimed Tanweer, 22, objected to the plot, possibly because he himself was a cricketer. He was told by a witness Tanweer argued with Khan, 30, and a scuffle between them had to be broken up by a minder.

India batsman Rohit Sharma has railed against the popular perception that he isn’t making best use of his abundant natural talent, saying that he has got where he is through sheer hard work. Rohit said that the widespread opinion about him was “unfair and wrong.””People say, ‘Boss, this guy is gifted and he can do this and he can do that.’ But nobody knows what happens behind the scenes,” Rohit told . “Nobody knows about the hard work that’s been put in.”This ‘talent’ talk has messed things up for me. I started my career as a bowler. I was never a batsman. All this natural talent, god’s gift that you guys in the media talk and write about is unfair and wrong. I have worked on my batting to get here. I used to bat at No. 8. From there, I made my way up. Ask my coach, Mr Dinesh Lad, and he will tell you that I was an offspinner.”Whatever I have achieved is because of my hard work. All these terms like ‘lazy elegance’ have been coined by you guys. Maybe on TV it comes across like that, but that’s not the right way to judge anyone. One must get to the root of the matter. I became a serious batsman during my under-17 days. I broke the middle finger of my right hand during a 50-over match against the visiting Sri Lankans in 2005. It was difficult for me to grip the ball after that injury. That’s how I became a regular batsman.”Rohit made his Test debut in the home series against West Indies in November 2013, having already played 108 ODIs since June 2007. He began with two hundreds in his first two innings, but has not scored one in 23 innings since. Rohit has 870 runs at an average of 37 in 14 Tests so far.”Honestly, as a batsman, there is a lot more I have to do,” he said. “That’s very, very clear to me. Fourteen Test matches is nothing. I have nothing great in Test cricket. This is just the start. In ODI cricket, yes, I know have done well, especially after becoming an opener.”Rohit made 202 runs in six innings during India’s recent 2-1 Test series win in Sri Lanka, their first victory in the country since 1993. He was their second-highest runscorer, though only four specialist batsmen played all three matches. Rohit was out for 9 and 4 in the defeat in Galle, but contributed 79, 34, 26 and 50 to India’s wins in the next two Tests. The 79 was Rohit’s highest score since his debut series, but his push for a third hundred was cut short in the final over of the first day at the P Sara Oval, when he was lbw to Angelo Mathews.Elaborating on that dismissal, Rohit said it had come about because he had not played his natural game. “Just before I got out on 79, I told [Wriddhiman] Saha, ‘Partner, you know what, the light is fading and I think this is going to be the last over. Let’s just play out this over and come back tomorrow.’ The idea was to just to block those six balls and get back into the dressing room. But I ended up making a big mistake. I thought hard about survival. And what did I do by doing that? I forgot about my natural game, which is anything but blocking the ball. So, I got out because I did something completely different.”I was thinking of stumps, staying not out and going to the dressing room. I was over-cautious instead of being just me. The moral of the story is: Do not tweak your natural game.”One aspect of his game that Rohit said he had been born with, however, was his temperament. “Now, that’s a natural gift. That’s something I was born with. Actually, I have never had to work on staying relaxed or calm. Even in the middle, I take my mind off cricket in between deliveries and overs. I don’t think about the swing, the wicket or the bowler. I look at the scoreboard, I look at the fans sitting in the stands, I look at the guy playing the drums. I divert my mind.”India’s next Test series is at home against South Africa in November and December, and there is stiff competition for place in a shortened batting line-up. If India continue to use the five-bowler plan that worked for them in Sri Lanka – and if all batsmen are fit – then M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit will be competing for five spots.”Let the people who are in charge of the team take that call,” Rohit said. “I am a team man. It doesn’t matter if I am in the XI or not. I still represent India. I am still part of the team. And I will do whatever is expected of me.”

No one, perhaps not even the billionaire originator Allen Stanford himself, could be certain what impact the first regional Twenty20 tournament would have on West Indies cricket.The participation of 19 teams, big and small, strong and weak; the significant developmental grants to each, the mind-blowing prize money and the appointment of 14 past West Indies greats as directors guaranteed the interest of the players and those individual associations not so insecure as to feel threatened by the involvement of a private investor.But the public had to be convinced and matches confined to 20 overs an innings had to be shown to be relevant in the overall scheme of things and not simply a glorified form of tip-and-run.The innovative promotions and live television coverage have stirred interest, especially in those islands unable to boast of first-class status, far less superstar cricketers.Theo Cuffy, the former Trinidad and Tobago batsman who has been Cayman Islands coach for a decade, noted that it was the first time people there had ever seen their team perform on television. It was a thrill that held true for more than half the others. After Grenada advanced to the semi-final, captain Rawl Lewis said there was a buzz about the tournament around Grenada he had not experienced since the island’s world-rated 400 metres runner, Alleyne Francique, was on the blocks at the Olympics and World Championship.It was a pertinent comment, for cricket is being strongly challenged as No.1 sport throughout the West Indies after the past decade of disputes, debt, and decline.But Antigua itself, at Stanford’s ideally suited grounds next to the airport, with its grassed banks and its floodlights, is where the effect of 20/20 cricket is best gauged.Antigua’s geographical location and its wide cross-section of immigrants from the cricketing Caribbean – along with the free entry – meant capacity attendances and noisy, good-natured, flag-waving support for most teams, Guyana and Jamaica most of all. One lady turned up for the Guyana-Jamaica semi-final bedecked in a dress designed as the Guyana flag. An entire family came in Jamaica colours, from head to toe. Indeed, the most striking change in the composition of the crowds has been demographic. Women and children have been by far the majority, a welcome new fan base for West Indies cricket.

As is seemingly mandatory at every major sporting event, there have been the side-shows of pop music (Chickie transferred from his usual base at the Antigua Recreation Ground) and live star turns, here by Beenie Man and Patrice Roberts.Yet, none of this is especially new. The same has occurred wherever Twenty20 has become a part of the cricket landscape; in England and South Africa where the teams each have a mascot, captains are driven to the toss in limos and golf buggies, and dancing girls gyrate during the break.The upcoming semi-finals and final in England have been sold out for weeks. County grounds that are usually as silent as cemeteries are filled to cacophonous capacity. Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan have followed the lead with similar results. India have reluctantly joined the queue.The first International Cricket Council-sanctioned Twenty20 World Championship is scheduled for South Africa next year. Osman Samiuddin, the Pakistani writer, informs me by e-mail that it has provided “a tremendous boost to the domestic game in Pakistan which has long needed just such an injection of money, energy and, most importantly, attention”.That’s all quite fantastic, but what of the repercussions of such abbreviated, all-action matches on traditional cricket? Will it not create out-and-out sloggers and cowed, economy-minded bowlers?A few fresh-faced youngsters have immediately debunked the former theory in the Stanford 20/20, and some more experienced fast bowlers have emphasised the truth that applies to bowling in all cricket: that taking wickets is the surest way of limiting totals.Keiran Powell, the 16-year-old left-hander, and Tonito Willett, 21, both of Nevis; Chesney Hodge, the left-handed Anguillan who, at 15, is the youngest player in the tournament, and William Perkins, the Barbados-born Trinidadian, 19, have thrilled everyone with the purity of their strokes. No cross-batted brute force has brought them their runs. And Jerome Taylor, John “The Dentist” Maynard, Pedro Collins, and Nixon McLean made early inroads into opposition batting that proved decisive.

Other attributes are being increasingly discovered in England after four seasons of the Twenty20 county tournament. “Hit-and-giggle has given way to plan-and-think and the repercussions are being felt beyond the realms of the (Twenty20) competition,” Lawrence Booth wrote in The Guardian last week.Leicestershire captain Jeremy Snape believes it has “changed perceptions of what’s acceptable in run chases”.”Players have become much better at managing risk,” he said. “They’re hitting boundaries and accumulating twos with fewer problems. No longer is six-an-over out of the question as it once might have been in 50-overs cricket.”South Africans attributed their record 50-overs run-chase of 487 to beat Australia in an ODI earlier this year to the experience of three seasons of Twenty20.Nor is it the batsmen alone who are using the urgency of Twenty20 to their advantage. Hylton Ackerman, the South African who plays for Leicestershire, speaks of bowlers “developing the ability to get batsmen off strike if they are playing really well” to get at one who has just come in or is struggling. It’s a novel approach but it makes sense.The weakest component in the Stanford tournament has been the running between the wickets. Prior to yesterday’s quarter-finals, there had been 32 run-outs in the 13 matches. It’s a part of the game they’ll have to get worked out before long.So is 20/20 here to stay or is it a passing fad? Will it be still going in 20 years time? Here is the answer given by Scyld Berry, the much traveled writer of the London Sunday Telegraph, in July’s Wisden Cricketer. “It’s the 50-overs game which might have died out. Administrators have tried in vain to soup-up 50 overs games with power-plays and super-subs but Twenty20 has done it already by cutting out those boring middle overs when batsmen push the spinners around for singles.”It’s an interesting theory. In the meantime, the players are trying to get used to it in Antigua and a new fan-base has emerged to enjoy it.

Scorecard

South Africa warmed up for their one-day series against India with a comfortable win against a Hyderabad XI. AB de Villiers shone with the bat striking an impressive 55 while Johan Botha, the uncapped offspinner, was the pick of the attack with 3 for 34.It was a useful workout for the South Africans, who arrived in India on Saturday, ahead of a series which pits two of the in-form teams of the moment. South Africa are touring on the back of a 4-0 demolition of New Zealand and India have just completed an even more commanding 6-1 drubbing of Sri Lanka.The performance of Botha will have been heartening for the South African selectors, who are still searching high and low for spinning talent. With Nicky Boje not making this trip, due to the fear that he would have been arrested over alleged links to match-fixing, it is the perfect chance for the next South African slow bowler to make their mark.Botha, who until a year ago was a medium pacer, is competing for a place alongside Robin Peterson and Justin Ontong and made the right first impression.The time de Villiers spent at the crease was also a boost for the tourists. He failed to produce a significant innings against New Zealand and this is an important series as he tries to establish himself as long-term opening partner for Graeme Smith in ODIs, in the same way he has in Tests.The five-match series kicks of on Wednesday with the first match at Hyderabad.

Shoaib Malik’s bowling action will be examined today in Lahore by a three-man advisory committee representing the Pakistan Cricket Board, after the ICC received report that his action was potentially flawed.Simon Taufel and Aleem Dar, the umpires in the Paktel Cup final in October, reported Malik’s offspinning action as suspect after the match. The match referee Jeff Crowe later referred the matter to the ICC.The PCB set up a panel to assist Malik as part of a six-week programme which is expected to last six weeks. At the end of that period, the PCB will present a specialist report to the ICC, which will indicate any remedial action that is required.This will be the second time that Malik, 22, has modified his action, since he made some changes when he was reported in Sharjah in 2002. And if he is cited again within a year of this report, the ICC could suspend him for one year.The three-man advisory panel is made up of the former international bowlers Aqib Javed, Iqbal Sikandar and Ijaz Faqih.

Scorecard

What should have been the showpiece of New Zealand’s domestic cricket, the State Shield final, turned into another damp squib as a result of the pitch at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park.The two best teams qualified for the final, and after some of the cricket they had played this year, it was reasonable to expect a high-scoring contest. But it wasn’t to be. Overnight rain meant the pitch favoured the medium-fast bowlers and batsmen rarely had an opportunity on the slow, holding pitch.Too often in New Zealand the conditions have dictated, and this was yet another example. Under the circumstances, Daniel Vettori, the ND captain, demonstrated his knowledge of the captaincy craft in an emphatic manner that left no doubts his future prospects as a leader of his county. To defend 190 against a team that has made run-scoring the feature of its campaign this year, on a ground that he had never played on before, was an exceptional effort.ND were asked to bat first and would have been concerned over their lowly total, but it didn’t show in the field. Of their batsmen Alun Evans, the Glamorgan professional, played a watchful innings that grew in stature the further the innings went. He scored 39, but in the end it was worth much more. So too, were the lower-order contributions by Peter McGlashan (19 not out), Joseph Yovich (17) and Daryl Tuffey (13)CD made a calculated start in their chase for their target with Jamie How (14) and Craig Spearman (10) getting them through the first stages. But Vettori’s decision to bowl his spearheads, Graeme Aldridge and Daryl Tuffey, for longer than usual proved worthwhile and they got the breakthrough which left CD 32 for 3.Mathew Sinclair batted well, but while his captain attempted to see the side through, he lost partners too regularly and was left on 40 not out at the end. Aldridge again did the damage, taking four for 38 off nine overs, and in the process he broke the record for most wickets in a domestic summer in New Zealand. He ended with 30, two more than Andre Adams’s old record.