Andrew Symonds is happy with the way his arm injury is progressing and is delighted the ICC has allowed him to be picked – and perhaps replaced – in Australia’s World Cup squad. Symonds had surgey for a torn biceps on Sunday and Trefor James, the team doctor, said the next week of his recovery would be crucial.”I will be doing everything I possibly can to be right in six weeks or so,” Symonds said in the Herald Sun. “We will be realistic about my chances, but at least we’ve got something to work towards. I’m happy with how things are going so far.”Australia’s selectors are expected to finalise the 15-man squad today, but it is unlikely to be announced until after the second final against England on Sunday. The team has been given permission by the ICC to choose Symonds and then replace him if the injury does not heal in time. Dr James told the paper it was possible Symonds could take part in the World Cup, which starts on March 13 and ends on April 28.”We are seeing how he responds to the surgery over the next week or so,” he said. “That is really important. Everyone is a bit different in how they come out of surgery. But it certainly is possible he will be available.”

Several of England’s players at the World Cup were fined for a “breach ofteam discipline” on Saturday and Andrew Flintoff reportedly had to berescued after a late-night boating mishap. Andrew Walpole, the England teamspokesman, said the transgressions had taken place in St Lucia on Fridaynight following England’s six-wicket defeat by New Zealand in their openingWorld Cup.The players were, a source said, fined for a late night drinking session atthe Rumours Nightclub near England’s team hotel in St Lucia. They had beenout late ahead of their second Group clash against Canada on Sunday – amatch England must win if they are to qualify for the Super Eights. Fans whowitnessed events then contacted several British newspapers to tell them whatthey’d seen.The Newsof the World reported Flintoff, the vice-captain, had been involvedin a separate incident of his own. Its back-page headline, “Sunk’ n’ Drunk -Freddie fined after pedalo booze shame”, topped a story saying Flintoff hadto be rescued at 4am after capsizing at sea.The breach was reported to the England team management at breakfast onSaturday and the decision to fine the players involved was taken at asubsequent team meeting, which was attended by the whole squad andmanagement.Walpole, who refused to name the players involved, the extent oftheir fines, or the exact nature of the breach, said in a statement: “TheEngland team management today [Saturday] announced that a number of Englandplayers had been fined by the head coach, Duncan Fletcher, after admittingto a breach of team discipline last night.”

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Ireland have created enough of an impression already with a win and tie here in this World Cup and that should make today’s final Group D fixture against West Indies at Sabina Park all the more interesting, with both teams qualifying for the Super Eights.And yesterday, following his team’s rain-shortened practice session at Kensington Park, Brian Lara, the West Indies captain, said of the game, “This is what I consider, and I’m impressing the team to consider this the start of the second round.”A win for either team today will give them far more than a confidence-booster going into next week’s round of games where West Indies will face defending champions Australia in the first match at the brand-new Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Tuesday.”The points that you get along with the team that goes through with you, those points accompany you,” Lara said. “The two points are of utmost importance.”To get them and please what is expected to be another large and vocal crowd at Sabina Park, the Windies will have to play a focused game. Their two wins so far against Pakistan and Zimbabwe were attained with varying degrees of efficiency. Bennett King, the West Indies coach, was moved to describe the six-wicket win over Zimbabwe as “scrappy”.Ireland, led by Trent Johnston, have played determined enough cricket so far to punish any further scrappiness by their opponents today and Lara acknowledged their performance.”They showed that they have the mettle,” he said. “They showed that they have the fight in them. And a cricket game is who plays best on the day and that’s what Ireland have done so far.”Both Lara and Johnston are also mindful that an Ireland win against West Indies will not be unprecedented. On West Indies’ last tour to England in 2004, the two teams shared a one-day series in Belfast. Ireland won the second of the two in impressive style, chasing down the 292 for 7 to win by four wickets. Opener Jeremy Bray, who scored a century against Zimbabwe last week, made 71 that day and wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien, who struck 72 in the Pakistan upset, an unbeaten 58. Dwayne Bravo made an unbeaten 100 for West Indies. It is that kind of effort that Lara will want from the men in the top order as they try to build momentum and confidence for the Australia clash.”In this particular tournament, our top four batsmen have to understand that their job is to carry through,” Lara said. “That hasn’t happened totally yet. We don’t have any century-makers in the tournament. But I do expect one of those guys to try to bat out.”The pitches on which games in this group have been played have not necessarily favoured the batsmen, with Wednesday’s match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe being the exception. The bowlers have been especially effective in the first hour of every game, so the team winning the toss may field first again. The patchy weather in Kingston may also provide an added incentive to do so. Afternoon showers have become standard this week and yesterday’s was heavier than in previous days.Lara hinted that with the top five batsmen in the Ireland line-up all being left-handers, consideration could be given to left-arm seamer Ian Bradshaw who has bowled well in the past to left-handers.Personnel changes aside, the home team will know that it is a concentrated effort principally that will get them past an Ireland side that gives very little away in the field and who always supplement their bowling and batting limitations with a large dose of commitment.

Ross Taylor could be fit for New Zealand’s next Super Eights match, against Ireland in Guyana on Monday. Taylor strained his hamstring a fortnight ago when he attempted a quick single during his innings of 85 against Kenya.He has missed New Zealand’s three games since then, which along with Lou Vincent’s tournament-ending broken wrist, has forced a reshuffle in the top order. However, Taylor said he was not far off returning to the side.”For the last few days I have been gradually increasing my workload at practice, starting with a few gentle stretching exercises to the point where I am now starting to stretch out fully,” Taylor told . “I’m hopeful of being ready for Ireland in Guyana in a week’s time.”I had a similar injury a few years ago and then I tried to rush my recovery and tweaked it again, setting me back an extra week. I certainly don’t want to do it that again.”Stephen Fleming said he was confident Taylor would be ready against Ireland, which would mean one batsman making way to allow Taylor to slot back in at No. 3. Peter Fulton has struggled since being made a makeshift opener, scoring 0 and 15, but Fleming indicated Fulton might play.”I’m not overly concerned, Pete’s been in good form,” Fleming told . “We’ve asked him to do a role that’s a little bit foreign to him and it takes time to adjust. He just needs to find a tempo at the top of the innings. We’ve got a game against Ireland which will be another opportunity.”Michael Mason is also in doubt for Monday’s match after straining his calf during his second over against Bangladesh. Should Mason be unavailable, New Zealand might play Chris Martin, who was a replacement for the injured Daryl Tuffey, or Mark Gillespie, who has been out of action for a month with a viral infection in his right shoulder.Fleming said Gillespie had now recovered and was available to play. “He’s in contention now so the only challenge the selectors have is he hasn’t played for four weeks,” Fleming said. “We have to make sure the work he does in practice is as close to match simulation as possible and that’s often difficult to do.”

Netherlands’ allrounder Billy Stelling has announced his retirement from first-class cricket, although it will not make much impact on the national side as he has only played one first-class match in the last seven seasons. He will remain available for one-day selection.The bulk of Stelling’s career was in South Africa where he played for Western Province and then Boland. He also had a spell with Leicestershire, making only one first-class outing when he took 5 for 49 against Kent in 2000. He turned out for Berkshire in the Minor Counties Championship and also had spells with East Lancashire and Rawtenstall in the Lancashire League.He first represented Netherlands in 1995 and has always been on the fringes of the one-day side, making 11 appearances. His best bowling came in his last outing when he took 3 for 12 against Scotland during the World Cup.Although he has expressed a desire to continue playing ODIs, he is 38 next month and it may well be that PJ Bakker, the new coach, decides it would be better to look to the future as he tries to rebuild after some high-profile retirements.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Working Committee is to meet on June 12 to discuss various issues. The meeting is expected to discuss and rafity the decisions taken at the Technical Committee meeting of the board, scheduled for June 4 in Bangalore.”The Working Committee will meet on June 12 in Delhi,” said Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, from Rajkot. The meeting of the national selection committee, fixed for the same day at Bangalore, is likely to be put off by a day. The selection committee will pick the team for the forthcoming tours of Ireland, Scotland and England.Importantly, the Working Committee is expected to ratify the decision taken by the Coach Selection Committee, who are also due to meet on June 4 in Bangalore. However, Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, said the agenda for the meeting had not yet been fixed.The seven-member committee to appoint a new coach, is headed by Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, and includes three former India captains – S Venkataraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.This would be the first meeting of the Working Committee since it last met in Mumbai in April to review India’s dismal performance in the World Cup.

The ongoing impasse between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Players’ Association (WIPA) deepened when the board alleged that the WIPA did not meet the deadline to resolve the sponsorship issue. Roger Brathwaite, chief executive of WICB, told CMC Radio, “We have been told that we can expect a response from WIPA soon, and an announcement about the latest position will be made later in the week.”WIPA reacted strongly to the board’s claims, accusing them of undermining the integrity of the players. According to the press release issued by Dinanath Ramnarine, president and CEO of WIPA, the players association had responded to WICB in the time frame promised, and had submitted a counter proposal to the WICB on February 19. A week later, the WICB responded to this on February 24th with its own counter proposal and gave WIPA a deadline of February 25th to respond.Ramnarine further stated that it wasn’t possible for WIPA to respond at such short notice for two reasons – the first being that the WIPA’s legal representatives were not available to give their advice on the matter and, the sceond, that WIPA had to seek its members’ consensus on the revised proposal of the board. “Because the members reside in islands across the Caribbean it would not be possible to get feedback from all of them in time. The President of WIPA therefore advised the WICB that, recognising the urgency of the negotiations, the WICB would have WIPA’s reply by March 2nd. WIPA has kept to its promise and submitted its reply to the WICB earlier today.”The two parties have been engaged in this imbroglio since last December, when the board awarded team sponsorship to Digicel, bringing the players’ personal endorsement deals with Cable and Wireless, a rival of Digicel, in conflict.

ScorecardSri Lanka A completed a comprehensive 10-wicket victory against MCC at Arundel, although Aakash Chopra’s century at least made them bat again for the win.When MCC fell to 158 for 7 an innings defeat was on the cards, but Chopra added 77 with Christopher Prowting, whose 48 nudged MCC into the lead. Chopra, who played 10 Tests for India between 2003 and 2004, hit 13 boundaries in his century before being bowled by Dilruwan Perera, one of three wickets for his offspin.Perera and Mahela Udawatte then took less than an over to knock off the seven runs required to open the tour in confident style. Their next match is a one-day outing against Worcestershire on Saturday at, conditions permitting, New Road which is still trying to recover from the recent floods.

The recently floated Indian Cricket League (ICL) has found that “reactions have been positive” in its hunt to recruit domestic players.”Quite a few people are disillusioned with the way the BCCI functions,” Himanshu Mody, the business head of the ICL, told the . “At the same time we are carefully scanning players’ lists for our needs. We need to be careful and make sure they suit us too. They have to be players who have either played some level of quality cricket or youngsters who have the potential to do so.”The ICL is a Twenty20 tournament scheduled for this October and will have six teams with two Indian internationals, four overseas players and eight juniors in each side. After two years the plan is to increase the number of sides in the league to 16.On its part, the BCCI is not taking the ICL’s search for players too seriously. “It will not affect domestic cricket in any way,” said Niranjan Shah, the board secretary. The board also made brave noises on the exodus of Indian domestic coaches to the ICL – at last count Madan Lal, Sandeep Patil, and Balwinder Singh Sandhu. “I don’t think the Ranji would be affected. We have enough quality coaches,” Sanjay Jagdale, the national selector, said.Sandhu, whose contract with the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association was not renewed this season, said he had had standing offers or feelers from four BCCI-affiliated associations but still decided to join the ICL. According to him, the ICL was not a competitor to the BCCI since the end goal of the two – that of improving Indian cricket – was the same. “You know why so many talented ones fail to get spotted in the regular camps run by the associations,” Sandhu told Zee News. “They are pushed out by those who are less talented but are being backed by men who matter. This can be set right in ICL talent spotting camps.”Meanwhile, Atul Wassan, Delhi’s chairman of selectors, said that losing some of its top players might be a blessing in disguise for the team. “As it is, we struggle to qualify everywhere. If two-three stars go, we might as well lose with youngsters,” said Wassan. He admitted however that if the team lost youngsters it would hurt it badly.

Andrew Flintoff has received a cortisone injection in his right knee after a scan showed mild inflammation following the second one-day international against India at Bristol. Jon Lewis has been called up to the squad as cover for the next two matches.Flintoff crashed into an advertising board during India’s innings attempting to stop a boundary and appeared in pain. He managed to complete his overs – taking a career-best 5 for 56 – and was able to bat at his normal No. 6 position. During England’s run-chase the ECB said he was feeling some stiffness behind his knee and on Saturday he went for a scan.He will be reassessed by the medical team on Sunday ahead of the third match in the series at Edgbaston on Monday. Flintoff is just two matches into his international comeback following ankle surgery, which has kept him out of the England side since the World Cup.Lewis, the Gloucestershire swing bowler, last played for England against New Zealand in the CB Series. He was named in the World Cup squad but didn’t play before returning home early to be with his wife.With Flintoff’s fitness again under the microscope, and Ryan Sidebottom not considered for the first two matches of the NatWest Series because of a side strain, Lewis’s call-up will provide another option for the selectors. India levelled the series on Friday with a nine-run at Bristol.