Sri Lanka have started to rebuild for the 2007 World Cup with the selection of three uncapped players for the forthcoming five-match series against Zimbabwe.The 16-man squad includes Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner who has played four Tests , Farveez Maharoof, a 19-year-old fast bowling allrounder, and Thilina Kandamby, a 21-year-old batsman who has starred for the A team in recent tours.The squad, captained by Marvan Atapattu, also includes Dilhara Fernando, who has recovered from a back injury and proved his fitness during the ongoing Sri Lanka A series in New Zealand.Mahela Jayawardene, as expected, has been named as the vice-captain. Changes are expected for the two-match Test series that follows. The first one-dayer will be played at Bulawayo on April 20. The squad is subject to ratification by the sports ministry.Sri Lanka squad Marvan Atapattu (capt), Mahela Jayawardene (v-capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Saman Jayantha, Thilina Kandamby, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Nuwan Kulasekera, Farveez Maharoof, Muttiah Muralitharan, Upul Chandana, Rangana Herath.

Rahul Dravid has responded to criticism questioning the inclusion of cricketers in the Olympic torch relay, saying that cricket should not be blamed for its popularity. The Olympic torch is currently in India, and Dravid, Anil Kumble and Irfan Pathan are due to carry it on Wednesday, June 10.Outlook reported that Dravid said the Olympics were about more than just sports, and that a lot of hard work was involved in all sports.”The Olympic movement is not just about sports. Its goals are broader and involve people from various walks of life,” Dravid said. “If cricket is the number one game in India, it is not the fault of cricket or the cricketers. It is for other sports to ensure that they are similarly popular, TV-friendly and able to catch the imagination of the kids.”I have a lot of respect for other sports, have friends in other sports. So I know how much hard work goes into their achievement and excellence. But I don’t think anybody should blame cricket for its popularity.”Dravid was chuffed with the idea of holding the torch and said that though he would have liked to take part in the Olympics, reality – that cricket would not be an Olympic sport – didn’t disappoint him.”It is a great feeling. We all have watched the torch relays right from the time when we were kids. We all know about the history behind it. It is going to be a phenomenal experience to take part in the relay,” Dravid said. “Cricket has never been part of the Olympics. So when we started playing, we knew that we are never going to take part in Olympics.”So there is no question of any disappointment for us cricketers. I would feel extremely happy if I could take part in the Games but I want to be realistic.”

After England’s ungainly exit from the NatWest Series, Thursday’s game between West Indies and New Zealand at the Rose Bowl has turned into a mini-final, and a chance for both teams to win an important psychological victory before the Lord’s final on Saturday. Both teams are faced with the option of giving their leading players a rest before the final, or keeping their sides the same to keep their momentum going.New Zealand are unbeaten in the series so far, and their well-planned, calm approach has had the better of both England and West Indies, but their batting has rested on good performances from a few players, with the likes of Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan remaining unusually anonymous. They have also been helped by the toss, winning it every time, and this has no doubt proved vital to their campaign as the side batting first has not won a single match in this one-day series.They rested Chris Cairns in their last match against England at Bristol, as he had picked up a few minor injuries. Provided he is fit, this game will give him some valuable match practice, but if he has not fully recovered, New Zealand are unlikely to risk playing him.Daniel Vettori, after coming back from a hamstring injury, has looked flat in New Zealand’s three games so far. He has taken only one wicket – that of James Anderson, England’s No. 11, and has often gone for runs. This game will be his last chance before the final to prove he is still a force to be reckoned with, though with his previous record he will probably make the final XI on Saturday whether or not he makes an impact in this match.After a characteristically inconsistent series, West Indies are starting to come into their own. Chris Gayle in particular has looked better and better with every outing, and he will be a key player both on Thursday and at the final. Apart from the mauling by Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss at Lord’s on Tuesday, the bowlers have performed well, and Dwayne Bravo is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. Tino Best, though he gives his all every time he plays, is a little prone to injury and may well be rested for this match. He will be a vital player in the final, and West Indies will be unlikely to risk playing him in this dead rubber.Dwayne Smith’s time at the top of the order has so far proved to be a mistake, but with the pressure off in this match he may finally show what he is capable of. West Indies have no real problems with their batting, except in deciding who will bat where. Gayle has had three different opening partners in four matches, and though Brian Lara has been the only one who has had success, he seems unwilling to stay in the position.New Zealand will start as favourites in this match, but with West Indies in unpredictable form and riding high from their victory over England, it is sure to be an interesting encounter.New Zealand (probable) 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Nathan Astle, 3 Hamish Marshall, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Craig McMillan, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Chris Harris, 8 Gareth Hopkins (wk), 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 James Franklin, 11 Ian Butler.West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Devon Smith, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Brian Lara (capt), 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Ricardo Powell, 7 Dwayne Smith, 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 10 Ian Bradshaw, 11 Jermaine Lawson.

“Oh, I say, he’s out, he’s out! … A beautiful catch at bat-pad by, er … Viv, my dear old thing, who is that under the helmet? Bravo? Smith?” Blowers’s theoretical confusion at which Dwayne might be fielding at short leg is entirely understandable. Not that they’re exactly doppelgangers, but at a distance and hidden under protective headgear, it can be hard to be sure who’s who.Aggers has admitted to greeting Ashley Giles with a “Good morning, Marcus” at a team hotel on an overseas tour, so what hope has the average spectator 80 yards away peering round a pillar at the back of the stand?Lancashire were the first county side to emblazon their names on their Championship whites, and since then no-one’s looked back. Or rather that’s exactly where everyone has looked. On the players’ backs. Yes, there was the odd grumble from the “In-my-day” buffer brigade, but common sense prevailed and every county has followed suit.So bring them in for Tests, too. It might be best not to go as far as Kent did for their Twenty20 campaign. In a rather faux chummy way, they gave us their nicknames – and pretty unedifying lot they were. For Ian Butler “Kiwi” (yawn), Rob Key “Keysy” (zzzzz) and Alex Loudon “Noisy” (aha). Just simple, legible names. Why on earth not?Spectators searching for information from the newish Edgbaston scoreboard have not always found enlightenment, either. Rather too many bulbs are broken, so that eights can resemble noughts and nines sevens. And for a while there was a worrying sight for England bowlers: according to the scoreboard, Lara was batting with – and confusingly outscoring – himself. And after Lara’s dismissal, Sarwan was joined by someone who clearly managed to hit the fastest Test century in history, reaching three figures in less than five minutes. Odder still, it was Sarwan …At one stage yesterday afternoon – and again this morning – it all became too much and every bulb went out, leaving the picturesque old-fangled Edgbaston scoreboard to carry on manfully. But unlike its digital counterpart, it at least gives you the fielder’s identity.It being fancy-dress Saturday, there was naturally a range of other identities rubbing shoulders. A quick pan through the binoculars revealed, among others, phalanxes of: Father Christmases, surgeons, convicts, Supermen, Romans, smurfs, Red Indians, Hare Krishnas, a solitary Bob the Builder and – most terrifying of all – a bevy of butch blokes dressed in the meagre short red skirt of the npower girls. A normal day out in Birmingham, then.

ScorecardSouth Africa’s only chance to get in some practice before the one-day series against Sri Lanka was ruined when their tour match against the Board President’s XI at Moratuwa was abandoned due to rain without a ball being bowled. The washout also means that Alan Dawson and Jean-Paul Duminy, who were flown in for the one-dayers, will not get a chance to experience Sri Lankan conditions before the start of the series. The first match of the five-game series will be held at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 20.

If international sportsmen are becoming more and more like pop stars, then India’s baby-faced wicketkeeper, Parthiv Patel, might just have taken the comparison one stage further. According to reports in the Indian press, Parthiv, 19, has gone and done a Britney Spears, and got himself accidentally hitched in a marriage ceremony in Rajkot.When Parthiv made his debut in 2002, in the second Test against England at Trent Bridge, he was so fresh-faced that Nasser Hussain patronisingly described him as looking like a 12-year-old. But it would appear that Parthiv has grown up quickly this week, and ever since his alleged marriage to a local girl, Richa Sharma, his home state of Gujarat has reportedly been buzzing.His family is less than convinced at the validity of the claims, however. “Earlier we were concerned,” his uncle, Jagat Patel told The Times of India. “Now we are convinced it’s a joke. Even Parthiv has taken it lightly. We heard him jest with a caller, asking him to show him his ‘wife’.”The girl has been untraceable for four days, since the alleged ceremony took place in a local temple on September 16, and Parthiv’s father, Ajay, is considering lodging a police complaint. “The signature on the document is not that of Parthiv,” he said, adding that his son’s age had wrongly been given as 24. “We are consulting lawyers and will soon decide on filing a complaint.”

Scorecard

As expected, Queensland beat Tasmania by seven wickets at Brisbane, wrapping up the win before lunch on the final day.But they had to overcome a nervous first half-hour as Damien Wright and Adam Griffith reduced them to 3 for 30 with blistering opening spells. Chasing only 86 to win, Queensland were still not in any serious trouble, and Shane Watson and Craig Philipson then combined to knock off the runs without any further alarms.Queensland, who took maximum points from the game, are now on 22 points, 10 clear of nearest rivals New South Wales, with the rest of the states level on six points.Andy Bichel was named Man of the Match for his first-innings 69 and seven wickets, including five in Tasmania’s second innings.

A dozen years ago South Africa were a team with few stars, and only one man who knew anything at all about playing Test cricket. That man was Kepler Wessels, and he had faith in the old-fashioned adage that a captain’s first and foremost duty to his country and his team was to make sure they could not lose before they even contemplated victory.Wessels believed that if he could make his inexperienced South African team hard to beat then they might have a chance of actually winning matches. But first, he believed, they needed to inherit some of the bloody-mindedness he had learned while playing for Australia, maximise whatever talent they did possess, and then learn to play for each other.Fast forward 12 years … and where are we now? Exactly the same place. Almost. Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis have played 86 and 81 Tests each, but the team, collectively, has lost so much. The attributes of toughness and determination are one thing, but there is the talent to think of, too. Particularly the bowling talent.In the early and mid-1990s, South Africa fielded a quartet of fast bowlers all capable of taking wickets, and there was no respite for the batsmen. Behind Allan Donald was a queue of good men just waiting to take their turn – Brett Schultz, Craig Matthews, Brian McMillan, Fanie de Villiers, Richard Snell and then, in 1996, Pollock himself. But now there are just two – and Pollock is overworked and suffering because the batsmen are content merely to keep him out, while Makhaya Ntini is struggling through over-exertion and an impatience to break through.The batsmen are missing Gary Kirsten as badly as a ten-year-old misses his mum on the first day at boarding school, and they are subdued by the knowledge that, without a huge first-innings total, they have no chance of victory and are probably doomed to defeat.So what you see today is what you get. South Africa aren’t suddenly going to find the magic solution and bounce back to being the second-best team in the world, as they were for three or four years.If they have looked like underdogs scrapping for a bone and hanging onto it for dear life over the first four days at Kanpur, it’s because they are. And you can expect more of the same at Kolkata.

Scorecard