Sachin Tendulkar says he is back to full fitness and looking forward to the four-Test series against West Indies starting on June 2. Tendulkar, who underwent a surgery on his shoulder in March, has already been ruled out of the preceding one-day series.”I am fit now. I am looking forward to the West Indies tour,” Tendulkar told reporters. Tendulkar has made satisfactory progress with his rehabilitation following the shoulder surgery he had in March. The third and final phase was completed on May 1, and this week Tendulkar began light batting drills and has expressed his satisfaction at the work out.Meanwhile, Niranjan Shah, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, said a decision on Tendulkar’s availability for the Test series will be known after physio John Gloster submits his report. Gloster is expected to examine Tendulkar next week and based on his report, the BCCI would take a decision on the master batsman.

Derbyshire have submitted an extremely unusual request to the ECB to try to get round the problems with conditions at their ground which led to a day-night match earlier this month being delayed because of the setting sun. They have asked for permission to bowl all their overs from one end of the pitch.The square at the County Ground faces east-west, meaning that on sunny evenings the sun is almost directly behind one end of the pitch as it nears dusk. When Derbyshire played Nottinghamshire in a day-night match in the first week of June, the umpires suspended the game because bowlers were blinded as they ran in.Another less-than-acceptable alternative appears to be for play to be suspended for up to an hour while the sun sets, or for matches to be shortened.”When you have your biggest crowds of the season and people here who don’t normally watch cricket, you don’t want to have to explain to people why you aren’t playing on a lovely summer’s night,” Tom Sears, Derbyshire’s chief executive, explained to PA. “It seems a simple solution to a potential problem. As long as the boundaries are the same and the opposition are in agreement we can’t see a problem with it. There is a potential loss of six or seven overs. The same overs can be bowled at the same end in the second innings to make sure it’s fair.”The matter has been referred to the ECB with a decision set for Wednesday, which is too late for Derbyshire’s first Twenty20 contest of the summer on Tuesday. For once, county executives will be hoping that the weather then is anything but bright and sunny.

Rahul Dravid has said that India’s decision to remain in Sri Lanka following a bomb blast in Colombo on Monday was based on the assurances of safety given to them by the Sri Lankan government. While South Africa have pulled out of the Unitech Cup, India are staying back and will contest a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka beginning on Friday.South Africa’s decision to leave was made after the ICC’s independent security team assessed that “the current risk to the team” was at an “unacceptable level”. However, Dravid did not have any qualms about India staying on.”South Africa have gone by the recommendations of their people. We have spoken to the officials in the Sri Lankan board, the Sri Lankan government and the Indian High Commission,” Dravid told PTI. “We have full confidence and faith in what they have to say and made our decision based on that.”Dravid said that the team was keen to play and was “probably worried more about the weather than the security”.”We share a good relationship with Sri Lankan cricket. These are difficult times and we cannot blame anyone. Hopefully we can bring some joy to the people here and they will have something to cheer about. Never did anyone come up and say that he wants to go home. Everyone is keen to play. Hopefully the weather will hold out from now on.”Mohammad Kaif was suffering from a fever that forced him to miss Wednesday’s practice session but Dravid was confident that he would be fit for the first ODI on August 18. “He [Kaif] is good. He has two more days, I am confident he will be fully fit in time for the first match.”The second and third ODIs are scheduled for August 20 and 22.

The success of Twenty20 in England continues with three of the four quarter-finals due to be played on Monday night already sold out, and the fourth – at Nottinghamshire – likely to produce another bumper crowd.All 6500 tickets for Essex v Yorkshire at Chelmsford were snapped up within four hours of going on sale, with the home allocations being bought within 41 minutes. David East, the county’s chief executive, has had to promise to assess the way tickets are sold in the future. Gloucestershire v Surrey at Bristol and Leicestershire v Kent at Grace Road sold their last tickets at the weekend.Trent Bridge – the biggest of the four grounds hosting the matches – still has tickets available for the tie with Northamptonshire, but Paul Maylard-Mason, the county’s chief executive, told the BBC that this would be the biggest gate since around 10,000 attended a Gillette Cup quarter-final tie in 1975. “It’s fantastic news that we will shut the gates on a full house for the first time since the introduction of Twenty20 cricket,” he beamed.

The organisers of next year’s World Cup in the West Indies have assured that the security arrangements for the tournament will be comprehensive and that the planning has gone according to schedule.Rory Steyn, the tournament’s security consultant, along with senior police and security officials from the nine host countries have been conducting meetings this week to review existing plans. These cover security during air travel as well as the master plan for the entire tournament. There will be more meetings over the next nine days featuring over 400 people, including tournament organisers and planners from over 60 countries.”Given the length of time we have had to prepare I would have to say we are in very good shape,” Steyn told the Caribbean Media Corporation. “We in the Caribbean are further advanced, further ahead than we were in South Africa for the 2003 tournament.”Steyn, who served as the head of security for Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, added that the organisers have had the benefit of drawing from the experience in South Africa.

Darren Lehmann, the captain of South Australia, has been elected president of the Australian Cricketers’ Association and is the first person to hold the post while still a player. The members of the ACA voted Lehman in for a two-year term replacing Ian Healy who retired after five years as president.”The fact I’m still playing will allow me to still be hands-on in communicating with the players nationwide,” Lehmann told the . “I reckon that since I’m still playing with and against other state players, if they have any concerns I’ll hear about them pretty quick.”Lehmann said that programming was perhaps the major issue behind concerns of too much cricket and also hoped to develop support structures for the families of cricketers who spend several months of the year away from home.Lehmann had aspired to become a national selector while still playing for South Australia last summer. However, he was overklooked as Cricket Australia chose Merv Hughes as Allan Border’s replacement during his brief retirement. Lehmann, who played 27 Tests for Australia, just completed a prolific season for Yorkshire scoring 1706 runs at an average of 77 including a career best 339.

Yasir Hameed, the opening batsman, has been recalled to Pakistan’s squad for the first two Tests against West Indies while Samiullah Khan, the young left-arm paceman, has also been included.Hameed, 28, has been ignored by the selectors since June 2005 when he played during the tour of West Indies but his recall had been tipped after Pakistan’s continued problems over finding a successful opening partnership.Over the last two years they tried 15 different combinations at the top of the order. Hameed will fight for opening berth with Imran Farhat and Mohammad Hafeez, who did the job in Pakistan’s last Test at The Oval, and also Shoaib Malik who missed the series against England.Samiullah is drafted into the squad following the suspensions handed down to Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif. He toured England but was granted limited opportunities. However, he has been in outstanding form domestically at the start of the season.Inzamam-ul-Haq, who is serving his four-match ODI ban, will lead the side. West Indies arrive in Lahore on Monday night, where the first Test starts on November 11, followed by Multan on November 19.Pakistan squad Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Faisal Iqbal, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Danish Kaneria, Samiullah Khan, Shahid Nazir, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul.

Central Districts v Northern Districts
Northern Districts did the unthinkable… again. For the second time in three years they chased down a 400-plus total to beat Central Districts. They did so on the back of an outstanding unbeaten 120 from Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand allrounder.Hamish Marshall also sent an ill-timed reminder to the national selectors about his ability as he notched up his ninth first-class century at Lincoln today. Marshall’s impressive 153 off just 204 balls came too late to bring him into calculations for the first Test against Sri Lanka that starts in Christchurch on December 7.Declaring overnight, Northern had all day to score the runs but once Marshall was dismissed at 240 for 5 few would have given Northern a chance. Enter Vettori. He combined with Joe Yovich (52) to add 99 for the seventh wicket and 74 for the eighth with Peter McGlashan (16).Michael Mason, who was named in the New Zealand squad for the first Test, took 3 for 74 off 25 overs.Central took the two first-innings points to go with their outright victory against Wellington last week.Auckland v Wellington
Rain ruined any chance of an outright result in Christchurch so Auckland used the opportunity for batting practice on the last day after Wellington comfortably took first innings points.When stumps were drawn at tea Tim McIntosh had reached his half century while captain Richard Jones was unbeaten on 47.Earlier Neal Parlane and James Franklin had scored half centuries for Wellington after opener Matthew Bell fell nine runs short of a century.

Auckland v Wellington
Wellington were well placed to take first-innings points as they inched to within 61 of Auckland’s total on another rain-affected day at Christchurch. After losing the entire second day, only 49 overs were possible today, but Wellington used them to good effect after an early shock when they found themselves at 29 for 2. New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming’s lean start to the season continued when he was trapped in front by Tama Canning for just 6. However that brought Jesse Ryder to the crease, who changed the tone of the match by scoring a quick-fire 77 off just 88 balls before falling to Lou Vincent. At stumps Matthew Bell was not out 65 and Neal Parlane 18.Central Districts v Northern Districts
Northern Districts gifted Central Districts first-innings points but showed they intend to make a game of it after declaring 402 runs behind at Lincoln. Whether anything will come of it will depend on the weather in Canterbury which has severely disrupted days two and three. Central’s Greg Hay took his total through to 74 to continue his impressive start as a first-class player while Bruce Martin, the left-arm spinner, ended the first innings with 4 for 117 from 40 overs of toil. Perhaps the most interesting point will be how much stock the New Zealand selectors will place in Hamish Marshall’s undefeated 33 before the declaration.

The ICC has received a report on the banned Pakistani mediumpacer Shabbir Ahmed’s modified action and will make a decision as to whether his action is now within the limits prescribed once it has “read and digested” the contents of the report.Shabbir became the first bowler to be banned from international cricket after he was reported twice last year for a suspect action. He has not played for Pakistan since December last year. But having spent the time working on his action with Sarfraz Nawaz, he recently went to Australia to undergo tests on his new action at the University of Western Australia, under the supervision of Professor Bruce Elliott and Daryl Foster.The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) say preliminary reports from Elliott suggest that the action is within the prescribed limits now, though the ICC has to go through the official report. An ICC official told Cricinfo, “The report has just arrived. Once we have read and digested the report we will write to the PCB confirming the findings and then it is expected we will issue a media release with the details.”The report needs to show that Shabbir is bowling within the legally prescribed limits in order for him to resume bowling at international level,” the official added. The board are confident that the action has been corrected for now at least and that Shabbir can resume a career blighted by problems with his action since he made his international debut in 1999. He has been reported a total of four times in ten Tests and 32 ODIs.Salim Altaf, director operations, PCB, told Karachi-based daily that they were confident that Shabbir will be able to represent Pakistan again. “According to the preliminary report we have received from Professor Bruce Elliot, Shabbir has improved his bowling angle and has brought it to 10 degrees which is below the 15-degree limit. It is because of this we are sure that he would be cleared by the ICC to play international cricket,” said Altaf.Pakistan are keen for a swift decision from the ICC. Shabbir has already been named in the 25-man squad which will report to the four-day training camp for the tour to South Africa in January. He has been in impressive form domestically and Pakistan will be eager to utilise his awkward bounce on the faster pitches of South Africa if he is selected. “Shabbir is a good medium pacer and if he is fit would be a valuable addition to our bowling attack,” Altaf said.