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The Indian women’s cricket side, led by Mithali Raj, left Chennai on Friday for their one-month tour of Australia and New Zealand. They will play one Test and three one-dayers in Australia and five one-dayers in New Zealand.The 14-strong team has spent the last nine days in Chennai at the MRF Pace Foundation, and Raj said that they were as ready as they could be. “Batting and bowling are our strengths and the team is in good nick,” she said, adding that the pitches at the MRF Foundation were “almost similar to that in Australia.”Indian squad Mithali Raj (capt), Nooshin Al Khadeer, Anjum Chopra, Neetu David, Rumeli Dhar, Jhulan Goswami, Karuna Jain, , Reema Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik, Devika Palshiker, Sunetra Paranjpe, Amita Sharma, Jaya Sharma and Monica Sumra.

David Warner may find himself as stand-in captain of Australia for the first time in some of January’s limited-overs matches against India if Steven Smith’s current knee and hip niggles don’t clear up over the next two weeks.Smith is not in doubt for the Boxing Day Test against West Indies in Melbourne or the following fixture in the new year at the SCG. However, the selectors and team medical staff may elect to rest him from portions of the five-match ODI series against India in order to give him the best chance to be fit and limber for the February tour of New Zealand and also the Twenty20 matches to be played in the lead-up to the World T20 in India in March.The decision to rule Smith out of the opening rounds of the Big Bash League that sit between now and Boxing Day is an admission that his knee in particular will need careful management over the coming months. He has carried the problem since the latter part of the Ashes tour, saying the discomfort he faced while running could be “hidden” in Test matches. But it is likely to be more problematic in T20, the only format in which Australia are yet to win an ICC trophy.The coach and selector Darren Lehmann said further breaks for Smith would be discussed. “He keeps telling me he is 26 but [in Hobart] he was running as though he is 36. The pressure of captaincy is quite large. We have to look at that but we get a decent break now with two weeks off. He is not playing BBL so he gets a good break.”The ODIs are important to us and then the T20 World Cup so I can’t see him getting a break until the end of the summer, unless we play really well or the niggles get worse. I’m no medical expert but [rest] is what they are saying. They will say what he can or can’t do and if I disagree with it he plays and if I don’t he might not play.”Smith has impressed many within the team since being named full-time captain, fostering relationships off the field as well as providing sound judgment on it. Lehmann said Smith was handling the extra demands on his time with aplomb, while also utilising the advice of mentors such as Brad Haddin and Mark Taylor. Warner has also done well as deputy, compiling mighty scores against New Zealand while keeping some of his more outlandish traits in check at the right times.”Doing it easy – much easier when you win,” Lehmann said of Smith. “It was a tough series against New Zealand while this was a less stressful Test match, [but] he has been flying with the extra demands. He has good mentors and good advice from former captains who are helping with how to handle his time and the demands which are so much greater than just a player. Players love what he brings to the table.”Looking ahead to the MCG, Lehmann said he would be happy for Usman Khawaja to return to the team as an opening batsman, though would have to run that past Smith. The selectors have a difficult task ahead in finding room for the fit-again Khawaja after Shaun Marsh’s exceptional performances in Adelaide and Hobart, leaving Warner’s opening partner Joe Burns also needing to look over his shoulder.”We will have to see if Uzzy is fit and then we will have a dilemma,” Lehmann said. “If he is fit, having scored two hundreds in the two Test matches [against New Zealand] yes, you would think he would be in form to play. We need him playing. With a hamstring, we don’t want him playing Test match cricket if he is not fully fit.”He will have to be sharp in the T20 games and then we will make a decision from there. If he comes back in someone will miss out. We have to work out that is. I would [be happy with Khawaja opening] but the captain might not want that. We have to work out the best six and the batting order from there.”Not for the first time, Lehmann emphatically ruled out the prospect of dropping the allrounder Mitchell Marsh, insisting that the fifth bowling option was vital for team flexibility and cover for any injuries that might crop up. “There has been talk about 6 batsmen and no all-rounder,” he said, “but we saw in the day night Test against New Zealand where [Mitchell] Starc got injured that you need the all-rounder. We will certainly play Marsh.”

Australia will rely on the sheer pace of Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson to cover the huge gaps left by Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Justin Langer has also departed but filling the holes of two men who captured 1271 wickets is the main concern as the hosts attempt to retain their all-conquering ways.Sri Lanka will face a fast-bowling attack at the Gabba on Thursday that has a combined tally of 68 Tests and contains the debutant Mitchell Johnson. Brett Lee is the main man, having appeared in 59 matches, while Stuart Clark will probably begin his fourth series at first-change. The collective inexperience does not bother Ricky Ponting and he is confident the trio can kick-start the new era.”You have to look to somebody else to do the job that they [Warne and McGrath] were doing,” Ponting said. “They were great at building pressure. Now we might have to come back to sheer pace to get our breakthroughs with Brett and Mitchell.”Extra responsibility will also fall on Stuart MacGill as he tries to fit back into the team after an 18-month absence. One of the reasons Australia preferred MacGill to the swing of Ben Hilfenhaus was due to Warne’s strong performances in Brisbane, which he rated as a perfect venue for legspin because of the extra bounce.”We know Stuart MacGill’s wicket-taking ability is second to none in the history of the game,” Ponting said. “And we know we’ve got the options.”Sri Lanka’s recruiting of Trevor Bayliss, who was the New South Wales coach in June, has come with the bonus of intimate knowledge of almost half the Australian team. Mahela Jayawardene, the captain, said Bayliss had been passing on tips to his new team about what to expect from Clark, MacGill, Lee, Michael Clarke and Phil Jaques.”Trevor has been giving us a lot of information and we’ve been discussing a lot of plans,” he said. “It’s always good to have a lot of plans, but you also need to concentrate on what’s going on out there and go with your instincts.”Australia would like to bat first even though the pitch contains significant moisture and they may get their wish if Sri Lanka push for a four-man pace attack. Ponting, who has discussed the threats of the opposition bowlers with his team, felt playing so many would be risky.”If you look historically at things at the Gabba, sides that bat first win more often than not,” he said. “If they did want to play four they’d be going against that. And if the keeper [Prasanna Jayawardene] bats six it leaves them a little thin.”

Trinidad and Tobago are looking to maintain their reputation as the leading team in the West Indies when they travel to Grenada for this weekend’s Grenada Cricket Festival.The Trinidad and Tobago squad have a lot to live up to as they contest the triangular Twenty20 tournament featuring Grenada and Antigua, but Omar Khan, the team manager, is confident, even though they will be without Dwayne Bravo and Ravi Rampaul.While this was not high on the priority list for the national team, as they prepare for the KFC Cup regional limited overs competition in Guyana later this month, Khan was adamant they will give a good account of themselves, saying: “We are going there to win and I believe that we have enough talent in the squad to come out on top.”It is a full-strength squad and it will be an opportunity for the guys that are going to continue their preparation for the KFC Cup, which is our top priority,” Khan said.Trinidad and Tobago, the defending KFC Cup champions, had reached the final of the Stanford Twenty20 Tournament last year but stumbled against Guyana. They will be using the Grenada Cricket Festival as a starting point for building their line-up for the 2008 Stanford Tournament, scheduled for January.”The KFC Cup squad still has to be cut down to 14 so these guys will have a further opportunity to impress the selectors,” Khan said. “The coach and training staff will also get a chance to do some extra work with the team in Grenada because it is all about performing in a different environment and conditions and the extra work there will pay off in the KFC Cup.”The squad leave today and play their first game tomorrow against Grenada at the National Stadium and take on Antigua at the same venue on Monday.Trinidad and Tobago Twenty20 squad:
Daren Ganga (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Rayad Emrit, Richard Kelly, Amit Jaggernauth, Nicholas Ramjass, William Perkins, Mario Belcon, Keiron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Sherwin Ganga, Andre Browne
Coach: David Williams
Manager: Omar Khan
Physical Trainer: Gerald Garcia

Chris Gayle, the West Indian opener, has been passed fit for the third Test against England, which starts on Thursday at Old Trafford. Gayle had damaged a rib muscle while fielding against MCC on the first day of their three-day tour match at the Racecourse Ground. Gayle took no further part in that match and there were question-marks over his availability for the third Test.Gayle’s recovery is good news for a West Indian team which has been plagued by fitness worries on this tour. Ramnaresh Sarwan has already been ruled out of the rest of the series with a shoulder injury, Shivnarine Chanderpaul sat out of the second Test because of a knee problem, while fast bowler Ravi Rampaul hurt his groin while bowling against MCC and will miss the third Test.Gayle has been in patchy form on the tour so far, with scores of 30, 47 not out, 11 and 13 in his four Test innings. In his five previous Tests in England, Gayle averaged more than 44, with four 50-plus scores in nine innings. West Indies won’t mind him replicating that form through the rest of this series.

ScorecardNetherlands brushed aside Bermuda with ease in the second one-day international at Rotterdam to sweep the series 2-0. Netherlands bowled Bermuda out for 115 in 43.4 overs and needed only 19.3 overs to knock off the target with eight wickets in hand.Bermuda had lost the first ODI against Netherlands by 172 runs and started the second on the wrong foot after they lost the toss. They were soon struggling at 55 for 4, having lost their top order inside 15 overs. Netherlands, led by Maurits Jonkman who took 3 for 23, chipped away and ensured that Bermuda did not build a partnership of greater than 20. Ryan ten Doeschate bowled a tight spell that yielded 2 for 16 off ten overs.Bermuda needed quick early wickets to have a chance of bowling out Netherlands but Tom de Grooth and Alexei Kervezee dashed those hopes by adding 59 for the first wicket in 9.4 overs. de Grooth fell for 31 off 23 balls but Kervezee remained unbeaten on 50 off 59 balls as Netherlands cruised to victory.

Brad Hodge’s faith in the national selectors has been restored after he was chosen to replace Ricky Ponting for the CB Series match against England in Brisbane on Friday. Hodge has experienced a number of confusing calls over the past two years, including being dropped from the Test side two games after posting a double-century, and he knows he must make the most of his chance.Hodge will probably be with the squad for only one game as the resting Ricky Ponting is expected back for the match against New Zealand in Sydney on Sunday. “Sometimes in cricket and especially representing Australia it might be the one chance that you get,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s such a great side. This is a window of opportunity for me.”Australia have cruised through their opening two games of the series and Hodge said it was a “great reward” to be part of the squad. “To get selected and to find out exactly where you are, it’s something you don’t really understand from time to time,” he said. “But this selection really gives me good faith and good hope to know that the selectors are still watching.”Hodge did not want to worry about his chances of being part of the World Cup squad, but he has been a regular tourist with Australia over the past three years. He was the back-up batsman in India, New Zealand and England before getting a five-Test run and averaging 58.42 in 2005-06. However, he was dropped for the tour of South Africa when Damien Martyn was preferred and has been in the domestic game ever since.

After leading England to a convincing victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test at Edgbaston today, and hitting the winning runs, Andrew Flintoff paid tribute to Kevin Pietersen whose 142 in England’s first innings set them up for victory.”The difference between the teams was KP’s knock,” Flintoff said. “Whoever saw it witnessed something special – who knows how good he can be? He is something really special, I don’t think that’s a secret.”He’s only played a handful of Test matches and in that short time he’s got better and better,” Flintoff said. “I’m going to be excited to watch and play with Kevin over the next few years and see how his career unfolds. Hopefully, in years to come, people will be talking about finding a ‘new Kevin Pietersen’ and talking about him in the same breath as the likes of Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.”Speaking of the win, Flintoff said: “It was a comfortable in the end, but hard-fought as the wicket probably suited them more than us.”I bowled more overs than normal in the last Test because I try to bowl to the circumstances,” he said. “This pitch wasn’t my type of pitch; it suited Matthew Hoggard and Liam Plunkett better, those bowlers who hit the surface and move the ball around.”Though the margin of six wickets appears comphenesive enough for England, they were made to work hard all day. Liam Plunkett earlier wrapped up Sri Lanka’s innings in a hurry and, with figures of 3 for 17, put his name forward for the final Test at Trent Bridge. England could yet recall Steve Harmison, who last week returned to bowling in a Championship match, for Friday’s Test meaning there will be just one available place between Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood.Meanwhile, it is expected that the England captain, Michael Vaughan, will finally return to competitive cricket tomorrow for Yorkshire’s clash against Scotland. Commenting on the news, Flintoff was delighted but confirmed that his role as stand-in captain is very much a short-term solution.”It’s been fantastic doing the job as England captain,” he said, “but it’s a temporary job – he [Vaughan] is the one who’s taken the side forward in the past three years. Maybe further down the line if the job became available I’d be interested. But with Michael back I can just get back to my day job.”

Darren Berry, the Rajasthan Royals team manager, says there is a “real option” three of the team’s highest profile players will not return to Jaipur following a series of bombs that killed about 80 people in the city on Tuesday. Berry is having a four-day break in Goa with Shane Warne, Shane Watson and Graeme Smith and said the group had considered “getting on the plane and getting out of here”.”We are not comfortable at all,” Berry told the Sydney Morning Herald from Goa. “This is an extremely uncomfortable situation. Cricket has been good to me, but I have a wife and three kids back in Melbourne and they are less than impressed with the part of the world I am in.”Berry said there had been discussions with Warne over the seriousness of the situation. “I was talking to Warney this morning and asked: ‘If this blast had occurred a day before we were due to fly over here, would we still have come?’ He said there was no way we would have come.”It is terrifying. To think I was standing in the exact location the bombs went off only two days ago … it was a couple of kilometres from the team hotel. The whole country has gone into lockdown.”The IPL has refused to move Saturday’s match against Bangalore from Jaipur, but there will be an increased security prescence. “That is the part that scares me,” Berry said. “These games are getting big crowds.”People over here tell me this has nothing to do with cricket, it is political … but if some people are prepared to cause this type of damage, detonating bombs in peak hour to harm the most number of people possible … 50,000 people come to the stadium to watch the games.”

Despite stern cautioning from the ICC regarding sledging, Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, has openly supported Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath continuing their verbal tirade against South Africa as the first Test gets underway at Perth on Friday.Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, had earlier this week stated that the ICC was determined to keep the game’s image clean and not let it fall to the level of a “hooligan’s sport”. “We don’t want cricket being reduced to a level where it turns into a hooligans’ sport and the spirit of the game is eroded,” Mani had said. “We can’t have a situation like we see in football (soccer).” The ICC is concerned by the fact that since November, eight players and officials have been found guilty of code of conduct breaches – twice the number when compared to this same period last year. So far this year 38 players and officials have been charged with offences, and Mani’s comments come a day after a blunt warning issued by Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, about the growing number of code of conduct violations.Responding to Mani’s claims, Ponting has defended his ace bowlers, maintaining that verbal banter was a part of Australia’s motivation leading into a series of this magnitude. “The main culprits this time have been the ones who do it every series, Warney and McGrath,” Ponting told . “That’s why I don’t think it’s too much different than normal. Those guys actually like the challenge of making some statements and then getting out there and backing them up. That’s the way they’ve played their best cricket over the last 10 years. “While accepting that the ICC was tolerable of verbal exchanges between players in tense and competitive matches, Mani was adamant that it would not tolerate any degrading comments that fell outside the boundary of sport. Ponting, however, maintained that this would not be the case in the series against South Africa. “As long as we’re being sensible about what we’re doing and staying on our side of the line in the sand I’m happy with that,” he said. “Glenn and Shane like to challenge themselves as much as they can and they seem to lift when those bigger occasions and one-on-one battles come around.”He does remain fairly surprised by the ICC singling out this series as a potentially volatile scenario. “There’s no reason at the moment for me to have to address the players and let them know to take it easy. It’s just a bit of banter between the players…there’s nothing untoward as far as I’m concerned at the moment,” Ponting said. “I’m sure the cricket’s going to be played in a hard and fair manner. It usually is when Australia and South Africa get out on the field of play. All the players are very aware of the spirit of cricket on the field and off the field.”He did, though, take the opportunity to mention the role that Warne will play in the tense encounters that will pepper the three-Test series. “Warney’s record against South Africa (101 wickets at 22) would be outstanding so that’s probably why he’s come out and said what he has,” he said. “It’s just another thing they (South Africa) are going to have in the back of their minds now and Warney will just go out there and play cricket.”