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West Indies captain Carl Hooper will miss the upcoming tour of Bangladesh that starts on November 26.Hooper has been nursing a knee injury for the past few months that was confirmed and diagnosed by the team’s medical advisor, Dr. Akshai Mansingh, with the help of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan shortly after West Indies’ arrival in India.”Although the injury has been providing Carl with ongoing discomfort and cause for concern, it has been successfully managed so far on tour,” remarked West Indies manager Ricky Skerritt.”Carl has now decided to undergo the required corrective surgery at the end of November so that he will be fully recovered by the start of our pre-World Cup camp in January,” added Skerritt.A highly recommended specialist in Australia will be carry out the procedure on Hooper’s knee.”I have assured Carl of the full support of the West Indies Cricket Board and told him that we all look forward to his complete recovery and return to the team,” Skerritt said.A replacement as captain for Hooper will be named next week when the selection panel considers the players for the Bangladesh leg of the team’s Asian tour.

The captain Chris Gayle will be rested from Friday’s Twenty20 match against Australia to help his recovery from a nagging groin injury. Gayle overcame the problem to appear in the third Test, which Australia won by 87 runs to take a 2-0 series victory, but the West Indies will not risk him in the abbreviated fixture at Barbados’ Kensington Oval.The selectors have named Gayle, who scored 14 and 26 over the past week, in the 14-man one-day squad for the five internationals, which begin in St Vincent next Tuesday and finish in St Kitts on July 6. Sewnarine Chattergoon, the opener who injured his ankle while fielding in the Test, was not picked in either outfit.Despite the overall result, West Indies pushed Australia during the Tests in a sign they could rise up the rankings. The limited-overs contests offer the hosts more opportunities to show their gains are real.Twenty20 squad Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Xavier Marshall, William Perkins, Keiron Pollard, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor.One-day squad Chris Gayle (capt),Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Patrick Browne, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Xavier Marshall, Keiron Pollard, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor.

Graham Thorpe has indicated that he still wants to be considered for England’s tour of Australia. Thorpe, who has taken a complete break from cricket since the Lord’s Test against India five weeks ago, has asked for more time before committing himself to the trip.Thorpe told the Daily Telegraph: “I’ve not really spoken to anyone on a regular basis since Lord’s, so I want to see what kind of vibes I’m getting from the selectors.”I’m well aware that I haven’t played for a month, so I’m not looking forassurances. But I don’t want to muck them around either and would like to know where I stand.”The England captain, Nasser Hussain, today confirmed that he has had discussions with Thorpe about the issue this week.”We spoke in messages for about three days and I spoke to him at length for the last couple of days,” Hussain explained.”He has said to me he would like to go to Australia, but there are still problems he has to sort out and Graham has to convince himself and the selectors that he can get through.”My hunch is that only Graham knows. Then the selectors have to decide if he is right mentally to get through the whole thing.”Thorpe returned home early from England’s tour of India last winter. With the Ashes squad due to be announced on September 10, there is little time left to discuss the Surrey batsman’s possible inclusion.

PERTH, Oct 24 AAP – Fringe West Australian quick Callum Thorp continued England’s poor start to its Ashes tour on day one of a two-day match at the WACA ground.The 27-year-old paceman had taken 3-25 to have the tourists at 4-73 at lunch with opener Marcus Trescothick (41no) and veteran Alec Stewart (17no) at the crease.Buoyed after captaining the ACB Chairman’s XI to a midweek win over the tourists, Michael Hussey sent England into bat on a pitch with a green tinge on it.Thorp trapped England opener Robert Keys (4) in his second over of play before taking a sharp return catch to dismiss Mark Butcher (7).And the 27-year-old troubled England captain Nasser Hussain (1) from his opening ball to him and eventually had him caught behind in his ninth straight over.Left-armer Michael Clark completed the home team’s successful opening session by sending John Crawley back to the pavilion for a duck.However Trescothick and Stewart had set about trying to resurrect the innings with an unbeaten 25-run partnership by lunch.

The new leaders of the Norwich Union League Division One, Worcestershire Royals, take on the bottom club, Durham Dynamos, in the next round of matches to be played this Sunday with every prospect of maintaining their place at the top of the table. Not only did they get there by ousting the existing leaders in their last match, but they meet a side still looking for their first point of the season. The unpredictability of cricket in this competition is one of its great appeals, but it would be a major upset if the Royals did not win again at New Road this weekend.Warwickshire Bears – the team deposed by the Royals last week – meet defending champions Kent Spitfires at Edgbaston. The Spitfires came through strongly at the end of last season to grab the title and are in a reasonable position now, two wins away from the leaders but with a game in hand on the Royals and two in hand on the Bears. And a win at Edgbaston would really give their season some momentum, something against which the Bears will be on their guard.There are two other fixtures in Division One. Glamorgan Dragons are level on points with the Kent Spitfires, but they have only played three matches in the competition so far this season. They go to Taunton to meet the Somerset Sabres buoyed by their recent success playing as Wales against England. Steffan Jones will revert to being a Sabre in this fixture after masquerading as a Dragon in the “international”.Nottinghamshire Outlaws have had a pretty miserable time this season. The only difference between their record and that of Durham Dynamos is that they had one match washed out, and so have two points to show for their endeavours. They have an east Midlands derby at Grace Road against Leicestershire Foxes who have at least won once this year, but once only.In Division Two the leaders are Gloucestershire Gladiators. They meet Essex Eagles who are six points behind but who have two matches in hand. If the Eagles are to soar, they will need to win this one, but they will be without their talismanic captain Ronnie Irani who is away on international duty. The Gladiators, on the other hand, will have all guns blazing.Surrey Lions are only two points adrift of the leaders, and they have what looks like an easy match against Lancashire Lightening, although they have to travel to Old Trafford. Lightening are languishing, just off the bottom, lost by six wickets in the corresponding match at The Oval, so they need to strike once in this fixture, let alone twice.In a process reminiscent of evolution itself, the Sussex Sharks move inland from their Hove headquarters to Arundel to play Middlesex Crusaders. The visitors have four points from two wash-outs so far this season, while the Sharks have only just begun to show their teeth, although one win might suggest they are only milk teeth at this stage.

Gloucestershire Invitation XI v Lashings All Star XI
@ The County Ground BristolBrian Lara, Mohammed Kaif, Jimmy Adams, Courtney Walsh, Shoaib Akhtar, Jack RussellSunday 11th August @ 12:00pm

Introducing 20 over cricket
The New Limited Overs FormatGloucestershire County Cricket Club
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Darren Lehmann’s status as Australian domestic cricket’s finest player received further endorsement last night when he was named winner of the prestigious Lord Hampden Medal at South Australian cricket’s night of nights in Adelaide.Lehmann’s fifth victory in the award, which recognises the Redbacks’ best player of the interstate season, follows his successes earlier in the summer in being named as the national ING Cup Player of the Series and earning his third consecutive mantle as State Cricketer of the Year. The 2001-02 season was also the platform for the South Australian captain to surpass Jamie Siddons as the highest run-scorer in the history of interstate first-class competition in Australia.Call-ups for Australia’s Test and limited-overs tours of South Africa prevented Lehmann from playing in the closing matches of the domestic summer but he was still a clear winner of the Redbacks’ major individual award.The 32-year-old left hander hammered out 772 Pura Cup runs at an average of 64.33 for the season, backing them with 374 one-day runs at 62.33 and the typically explosive strike rate of 82.01.Lehmann’s deputy, Greg Blewett, won the team’s major batting awards at both first-class and one-day level, clinching the Sir James Irwin Memorial Trophy with his 1025 runs at 56.94 in the four-day arena.Pace bowlers Paul Rofe and Mark Harrity were also among the night’s big winners, sharing three trophies between them at the end of a season in which injuries and international selections unexpectedly left each of them shouldering the responsibility of leading the Redbacks’ attack.Rofe, 21, complemented the Walter Bridgeland Trophy as the state’s leading wicket-taker of the first-class season with the Adelaide Bowling Club award as South Australia’s most improved player.Harrity was meanwhile honoured as his team’s best bowler at ING Cup level with his haul of 17 wickets at the miserly average of 19.76.

Alec Stewart has been appointed England captain for the second and final npower Test Match against Pakistan at Old Trafford which starts on Thursday week. Stewart took over the captaincy midway through the First Test at Lord’s, when Nasser Hussain sustained a thumb injury which has ruled him out of cricket for the next three to four weeks.Stewart said: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to captain England on a temporary basis at Old Trafford. It’s a great honour to lead your country, and I much look forward to the game”.Stewart is unworried by the prospect of adding the responsibilities of captaincy to his existing dual role of England batsman and wicketkeeper. “I had no problem with that when I was England skipper for the first time. I did all three jobs during the 1998 Test series against South Africa, which England won. And when you’re put in charge of a good side that’s been winning, it obviously makes captaincy that much easier.”England lead 1-0 in the series after taking just three days to beat Pakistan by an innings and 9 runs in the First Test. No decision has yet been made on who will captain England in the NatWest Triangular one-day series between England, Pakistan and Australia in June.

An ICC inspection team has raised serious concerns over the preparedness of two key World Cup venues – Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai – in time for the tournament, which begins on February 19, 2011.Its interim report says the original November 30 deadline for completion of construction, which neither stadium has met, is likely to be over-run by at least a month and warns that, if construction at these venues is not completed by January 15, “it is not possible to confirm that the venues will be in a suitable condition to be handed over by January 31”.The inspection team, headed by ICC events manager Chris Tetley, visited the World Cup venues in India in late November and early December. In its evaluation – first reported in the – it listed the pending work and expressed doubts over its completion by the end of the year. The report quotes Professor Eugene van Vuuren, the ICC’s Stadium Consultant, as saying construction programmes were likely to be completed by late January at the earliest. “This pre-supposes no unforeseen delays or further impacts on construction by the current poor weather.”Beyond the construction work, there are a number of other tasks that will also need to be finished before any games can be played. These include landscaping and necessary beautification of the grounds, interior finishing and furnishing, the installation of entry gates, certification by local authorities, and the installation of temporary infrastructure required specifically for the World Cup.The report is reminiscent of the situation with the Commonwealth Games in Delhi earlier this year, where venues and other facilities were completed at the last moment and after widespread criticism by various stakeholders – athletes, officials, administrators – and the global media.Tournament director Ratnakar Shetty said this was the first he was hearing about the report but added that he was confident of the work being done in time. “There are two parts of the job that have to be completed in the Wankhede Stadium: the last of the construction and the finishing of the details,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “The construction will stop by December 31, after which the rest of the work will be done to finish the access to the stadium and all the smaller details.”I’m quite confident it will be done by January 15, which is two months before the Wankhede Stadium’s first World Cup game. In any case, the major work at Wankhede is already done, with regard to the corporate boxes and the bucket seats.”He said the World Cup organisers would want the ICC to carry out another visit to the Wankhede, Eden Gardens and three Sri Lankan venues around January 15.The report was especially scathing about the condition of Eden Gardens, which it said had more unresolved issues than any other venue, and of the local administration. “Unfortunately, the venue administration did not recognise the requirements of the event and were often unwilling to discuss or agree to what was required. There was a tendency to rely on experiences of previous World Cup matches which took place in 1996, and are not wholly relevant to the needs of stakeholders for CWC 2011.”The report states that “a meeting with Mr Dalmiya [president of the Cricket Association of Bengal] was useful in explaining a few of the issues; however he was not present for discussion on the detailed requirements of the inspection team.”It said a decision would soon be taken on whether to start building the roof on two of the blocks – if the roof was not built, the chances of completion would be greater and there would be no impact on staging World Cup matches.Construction work apart, the outstanding issues include:

• Tickets and hospitality currently offered for the use of ICC sponsors are unacceptable
• Sightscreens at both ends need to be raised
• A suitable location for the D/L Manager needs to be found. The upstairs room is not appropriate
• The anti-doping and medical rooms need to be separate facilities and not shared
• An overflow location for media and NRH needs to be identified and demarcated
• Uninterrupted back-up power is required for the floodlights and replay screens

The Wankhede Stadium, it said, would be an “excellent facility for international cricket” when completed but noted “there is still much to be done”. The pending work includes:

• Uninterrupted power supply for the floodlights and replay screens
• A significant amount of one-way tinting to be placed on glass frontages above sightscreens at both ends
• The umpires changing room needs to move from the designated space under construction to the location allocated to the medical and anti-doping rooms
• The anti-doping and medical rooms need to be separate facilities and not shared

The interim report concludes by stating, “It will be necessary to re-inspect both venues and take a decision on the viability of staging the World Cup matches as currently scheduled.”

If there is a ready criticism of New Zealand’s present Test side, it is that their batsmen lack the patience and application necessary to flourish in the longest format of the game. Often in the recent past, their batsmen have squandered starts with loose strokes, and have failed to consolidate partnerships, perishing in pursuit of quick runs. At times, they have batted out tough spells, only to throw their wickets away to deliveries that didn’t deserve to end their innings.But New Zealand captain Ross Taylor said aggressive batting will see New Zealand triumph against Sri Lanka, in the two-Test series which begins in Galle on Saturday. New Zealand have not won a Test in Sri Lanka in over 14 years, and Taylor said his side’s hopes of ending that run, and snapping a four-Test losing streak, will be enhanced by a batting strategy focused on attack – particularly against spin.New Zealand lost both Tests in India in August-September, and were largely derailed on that tour by spinners R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, who shared 31 wickets between them. In the first Test in Hyderabad, Ashwin and Ojha took all but two of New Zealand’s wickets, as the visitors lost by an innings and 115 runs. However, New Zealand’s batsmen did recover from the loss, posting 365 in the first innings of the second Test in Bangalore, and Taylor credited a more positive approach for the improved performance.”We’ve got an opportunity to create some history,” Taylor said. “I think the way we played the last Test in India, the way we attacked spin is going to be crucial in this next match. A lot of teams think that’s a weakness of ours and if we show that’s a strength of ours and play positive and aggressive cricket to their spinners that bodes well for our batsmen. Hopefully we can string a few more partnerships together and instead of scoring 300-350, push that out to 400 and put pressure on the opposition.”Last time New Zealand toured Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan was their primary tormentor, taking 13 wickets in two Tests. The first Test of that tour was also played in Galle, where New Zealand lost by 202 runs, before losing at the SSC by 96. But with Muralitharan having retired, Taylor said Sri Lanka’s present attack held no terrors for New Zealand.”We don’t have to contend with Muralitharan which is always a nice thing. We’ve still got to play well ourselves and concentrate on what we can do well. But definitely their bowling line-up is an area we can target.”Last time we played here I don’t think there was a lot of spin. There was spin, but not excessive spin. Sri Lanka are probably going to go in with two spinners and the way we play them is going to be crucial.”The tour has so far been plagued by rain due to the northeast monsoon, and Taylor said the weather may produce a more seamer-friendly track for the first Test than would otherwise have been provided. Swing and seam was evident in each of the limited-overs matches that had some play, and fast bowlers from both sides generated considerable movement on the pitches in Pallekele and Hambantota.”The new ball will be crucial and putting the ball in the right area and asking questions … England were just out here recently and their seamers had a lot of success. It’s not all about spin in this country. The weather conditions might play their part and not necessarily just on day one. As we saw in the one-day series, once it did rain, the wicket did juice up a bit and that might play into our hands. For as long as we’ve been here in Galle, it’s rained every day so far in the afternoon, and we’ll have to factor that into our preparations and into the match.”New Zealand have five fast bowlers and two spinners to choose their attack from, having brought in Chris Martin, Doug Bracewell, Neil Wagner, Jeetan Patel and Todd Astle as Test specialists, to join Tim Southee and Trent Boult who were in Sri Lanka for the ODI series. Taylor said it was encouraging to see competition for places among the bowlers, but said the final makeup of the XI for the first Test had not yet been decided.”We’ve got guys like Doug Bracewell, who has been our most consistent Test bowler in the last year, coming in. Hopefully whoever gets an opportunity can perform. It’s generally a pretty good wicket that can deteriorate on day three, four and five and the overhead conditions will play a part, and that will affect the balance of our side – whether we go in with three quicks or two spinners.”