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Michael Vaughan has underlined that England will be leaving nothing to chance as they attempt to inflict a 24th defeat in 25 Tests on Bangladesh, at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday.Speaking during a press conference at the team hotel today, Vaughan confirmed his side’s readiness for the task in hand, adding that the fitness levels of his squad were at an all-time high. “Over the years we probably haven’t been as fit as we probably could be,” he admitted, “but this winter, it is something we have all bought into. We’ve trained harder for this Test match than any other on tour. We made a pact to give it a good go, and we intend to carry our fitness for the whole winter.”When England arrived on Oct 8, Bangladesh was being battered by torrential rainstorms, so there can be no complaints about the amount of practice the team has managed to fit in. “We’ve had enough preparation,” Vaughan confirmed, after two drawn warm-up matches in the past week. “A few of us would have liked longer in the middle – myself included – so I guess we are going in a little undercooked. But Test matches are a totally different game mentally. We will be fully ready to go on Tuesday.”England did enjoy the better of both those games, but the balance of the side is still causing the selectors one or two headaches. “When Freddie [Flintoff] was coming out here, the team picked itself,” said Vaughan: “Two spinners, two quicks and the allrounder at No. 6.” Ashley Giles and Gareth Batty have both staked eloquent claims for the primary spinner’s role, but it remains to be seen whether Martin Saggers or Richard Johnson will edge one or the other out of the starting XI.In Flintoff’s absence, the allrounder’s duties have passed to Rikki Clarke, who – barring a late change of heart – will be taking over from his Surrey team-mate, Alec Stewart, as England’s new No. 6. “Clarke has been picked because we feel he’s ready,” said Vaughan. “He is an immense talent with the bat, and he’s outstanding in the field.”Vaughan admitted that there were still one or two reservations about Clarke’s bowling at Test level, but added that he was precisely the type of player England need to persevere with. “He’s only 21. The more opportunities we give him, and the more he comes to places like this, it will hold us in good stead for the future.”England have been finalising their preparations by studying videos of the Bangladeshis in action, especially during their recent series in Australia where they earned the hard-won respect of their opponents. There is no complacency in this squad, which makes a stark contrast to the last time England played an inaugural series – against Zimbabwe in 1996-97, where they drew the Tests 0-0, and were whitewashed in the three-match one-day series.But Vaughan is unequivocal about England’s aims in the next few weeks. “We have come out here expecting to win,” he said bullishly. “But we won’t win anything without hard work. You’ve seen the heat and humidity out here. We’ve got to be prepared to spend a long time in the middle, whether batting or bowling.” As England discovered in both warm-ups, the weather in these parts can fluctuate at the drop of a thundercloud. “That’s an aspect we can’t control,” said Vaughan. “First and foremost, we have to assume the match will go five days, and put them under some pressure.”Steve Harmison seems a certain starter, despite the tendency for the pitches to be slow and low. “A guy with that type of pace and height always has a good chance,” confirmed Vaughan. “But it takes a lot of effort, being a tall bowler in these parts. Whoever plays, will be tough going out there.”There won’t be many that bounce and fly past the nostril. More often they hit you on the shin or the middle of the pad,” he added wryly, after being trapped lbw for 1 by a low-bouncing delivery in his final warm-up match. It was a dismissal that meant Vaughan had managed just one fifty in 19 innings since assuming the Test captaincy, and he knows only too well that the spotlight will be on his form come Tuesday.”I’m only four games into the job,” he pointed out. &”Of course I’d like a few more runs, but come Tuesday, I’m only one innings away from a big hundred. I’m sure that when I get that big score, a lot of the opinions will quieten down. Runs are hard enough to come by when you’re in good nick, it’s even more difficult when you’ve had a run of low scores. I’m sure it’ll be a battling innings, but I’m hoping for a bit of the rub of the green.”Meanwhile, Mark Butcher has recovered from a throat infection and been passed fit for the Test. Butcher missed the warm-up match against Bangladesh A, but he played a full part in a training session on Monday, and will definitely make the starting XI.”One of the things about this side and the players coming through is that you don’t want to miss a game,” Butcher said. “Regardless of how many runs you have scored over the last year there are people waiting their turn to get in.”England team (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain, 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Rikki Clarke, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Gareth Batty, 9 Ashley Giles, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Matthew Hoggard.

Ricky Ponting has promised that Australia will turn in a far more clinical performance in the second and third one-dayers against Zimbabwe later this week. Although Australia won the first game at a canter, the manner of their seven-wicket win, and especially the way that they allowed Zimbabwe to score 205 for 9, was disappointing.”We were a bit rusty in the field and with the ball, but we batted really well,” Ponting admitted afterwards. “We weren’t as sharp as we could have been in the field. A lot of the guys haven’t played for a couple of months, so it was a good game to get under our belt. We should do better next time around.”Ponting could be satisfied with his own performance – he made 91 from 93 balls before falling to an excellent one-handed diving catch by Vusi Sibanda on the long-on boundary. “It got a bit tight," Ponting smiled. "I needed the last nine runs left in the game. But I got out to a pretty good catch so I can’t complain.”But Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s captain, was delighted with his side’s performance after most pundits had forecast that they would be crushed. “I asked my batsmen to give it their best shot, and I thought they did that." But he added that the bowlers had room for improvement.

County CricketTractor Towing Covers
The practice of using a tractor towing the covers to drive across the match pitch is not allowed – it is not within cricket Law, and ICC do not allow it in their regulations.Denmark
Denmark can stage home matches in the C&G Trophy from the beginning of the 2004 competition (Round 1 to be played at the end of the 2003 season).One-day pitches & potential penalties
One-day pitch policing and penalties – click hereUCCEs
First-class status awarded to Loughborough. (Oxford, Cambridge, Durham retain first-class status).Fielding of under strength teams
Fielding of under strength Teams – Counties must at all times field full strength teams.

Replacement of Players called up for England
In addition to the current regulation, a player in the England squad not required for the actual match shall be allowed to join a County match and take the place of a nominated player participating in the match. Additional wording to the existing playing condition as follows:Penalty for a Wide
The penalty for a wide shall be one run in all competitions – ie a change from two to one in the Frizzell County Championship. (No change to the penalty for a No Ball – this is two runs in all domestic competitions).Nomination of Players
If an un-nominated player takes part in the game, then if consent is not given by the opposing Captain for that player to continue to play (not to be unreasonably withheld), then the player shall take no further part in the match and no substitute (including the originally nominated player) shall be allowed.Frizzell County Championship Points System
Points for a win shall increase to 14 (seven for a tie and to the side batting fourth in a drawn match when the scores are level). Points for a draw remain at four. Maximum points in the match are therefore 22, and this shall be the penalty for an “Unfit” pitch.Corresponding changes shall also be made in the Second Xl Championship.Eligibility in Second Xl Trophy
Eligibility criteria relaxed to allow qualifying and scholarship players to take part in the Second Xl Trophy, (genuine overseas players are still not be allowed). (In the Second Xl Championship, a genuine overseas player continues to be allowed in addition to qualifiers/scholarships).Public Lightmeters
Public Lightmeters are to be discontinued in domestic cricket (to remain in npower Test Matches).International Cricket / tourist matchesTest Match – Hours of play
npower Test Series – please note new scheduled timings

All days – Start – 10.45amLunch – 12.45pm – 1.25pmTea – 3.25pm – 3.45pmClose – 5.45pm

As 2002, there is provision for playing time to be extended by the amount of time lost in the day up to a maximum of one hour.If any time is lost and cannot be made up as stated above, additional time of up to a maximum of one hour per day shall be added to the scheduled playing hours for the next day, and subsequent day(s) as required (to make up as much lost time as possible). All time carried forward in this way shall be added to the last session.Three-Day and Four-Day Tourist Matches – Hours of play
Scheduled hours of play and the provision for time to be made up on the day or carried forward to subsequent day(s) will be exactly the same as npower Test Matches – see above.One-Day Tourist Matches – Extra time
In the same way as in One-Day Internationals, a period of “extra time” is playable in one-day tour matches where time has been lost. This period is set at a maximum of one hour in day matches and 30 minutes in floodlit matches. Essentially, this means that no overs are lost from the match until that period of time has expired.One-Day Internationals – over-rate penalties
Teams will still have three-and-a-half hours plus allowances given by the referee to bowl 50 overs and each member of the bowling team will be fined 5% of his match fee per lost over. However, under the amended playing conditions, penalties will be doubled for the captain of the bowling side.If the shortfall in an ODI is more than two overs, the captain will also be charged with a Level Two breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for deliberate time wasting. This will result in a disciplinary hearing with possible penalties of a fine of between 50% and 100% of his match fee and/or a two ODI ban.The penalty of reducing the overs for a team batting second that failed to complete its overs in the allotted time has been removed.The principles of the new approach will also apply in Test Match cricket with the increased penalties coming into effect after five rather than two overs.The amendment reflects a decision taken at the ICC Cricket Committee – Management (CC-M) meeting in Cape Town from 7th – 8th February 2003.Safety and security at international matches
The CC-M meeting also approved the introduction of a process for a match referee to suspend play due to safety and security concerns and this too will come into effect from the opening match of the Sharjah tournament.The new provisions can be viewed in full on the ICC website www.icc.cricket.org. The over-rate penalties are in section J of the ICC Code of Conduct (p20) and s12.4 of the ICC ODI Playing Conditions. The safety and security suspension provisions can be found in s3.6 of the ICC Test Match and s3.6 of the ICC ODI Playing Conditions.

Wisden has defended the non-inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar in theWisden top 100 Test Innings, saying the master blaster has not yetscored an innings that merits his inclusion in the list."There is no omission (of Tendulkar) as such. He has not yet scoredan innings that merits inclusion in the top 100," Wisden On-LineDirector Anthony Bouchier told PTI in Bangalore on Friday night.Wisden had launched in Mumbai on Thursday Wisden 100, a new analysisto assess a Test cricketer’s individual batting and bowlingperformances spanning 138 years of cricket history.Noting that more than 54,000 Test innings had been covered in Wisden100, Bouchier said Tendulkar had played some wonderful innings but wasyet to actually come up with an innings that great enough to be inthe top 100 of Wisden."So, it’s not an omission," he said. "Tendulkar has a long careerahead of him and I am sure he will get there in the end."Defending the list, he said it is completely objective and there wasno bias. "Wisden has always been a definitive, statistical record.Tendulkar is the greatest batsman in the world. He is a wonderfulplayer to watch but he just has not produced an innings like BrianLara’s 153 or Ian Botham’s 149," he said.Bouchier noted that GR Viswanath has been included in the list for hisunbeaten 97 against the West Indies at Chennai in 1975, and quipped:"That’s the whole story."

Mark Ramprakash continued to distance himself from a disappointing experiment as a Test opener by becoming the first English player to reach 1,000 first-class runs this summer.The Middlesex batsman scored his fourth century in nine innings, for a total of 700 runs, since he reverted to No 4 in the county team after losing his England place.Ramprakash made a polished 120 not out in four hours at Edgbaston to give skipper Justin Langer an opportunity to apply pressure on Warwickshire with a lunchtime declaration at 380 for eight.With nearly nine hours lost in the first three days, Middlesex scented an outside chance of exploiting uncertainty in Warwickshire’s batting after five Championship games without a win.Though Mark Wagh and Dominic Ostler made some headway, they wobbled at 125 for four until David Hemp instigated a strong recovery with an unbeaten 78.The former Glamorgan left hander found his touch in only his fourth Championship half-century of the season and went on to hit 15 fours. Dougie Brown provided the necessary support in an unbroken stand of 86 as Warwickshire closed at 211 for four.Warwickshire’s progress to the NatWest Trophy final has masked a poor run in other competitions and now they have injury problems before the Lord’s meeting with holders Gloucestershire next Saturday.Opener Nick Knight may need surgery on a damaged knee and, along with fast bowler Allan Donald, he will not play in next week’s Championship match against Worcestershire at New Road.

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.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

A magnificent 128 from Paul Collingwood, together with three late wickets from England’s bowlers, has put them in control of the fourth Test against West Indies at Chester-le-Street.What made the day all the more depressing for West Indies – apart from going to stumps on 83 for 3 – was their haplessness with the ball in the afternoon session, throwing away the advantage their bowlers had engineered in the morning. England were still trailing by 85 at lunch, with both Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell back in the pavilion, and the West Indies had bowled beautifully. It was they who went to lunch the happier of the two sides, and by some distance too. Beyond Prior lay very little.And then the match turned. Whatever the dinner ladies served for lunch clearly upset the bowlers’ control, and Daren Ganga’s captaincy, as a mishmash of dreadful bowling, sloppy fielding and thoughtless cricket punctured West Indies’ advantage. Quite what Ganga was thinking when he tried Marlon Samuels for five overs is anyone’s guess, but the standard of bowling was embarrassingly mediocre. So Collingwood exploited it, nudging runs all around the wicket and placing the ball into the gaps at will, accelerating at ease. It was a Sunday afternoon knockabout, not Test cricket at its most taxing. West Indies’ wheels hadn’t so much fallen off, as rolled down the hill into the water.After bringing up an 85-ball fifty, Collingwood opened his shoulders – perhaps influenced by the natural aggressor, Prior, at the other end – driving with authority through the covers. He was notably quick to pull anything a fraction too short – a sure sign that he’s in form – and, when the new ball finally arrived, he smote it all over the ground.Fidel Edwards, who had earlier bowled beautifully with the old ball, was entrusted with the task of breaking through but, by now, Collingwood was in no mood to be contained. A beautiful clip off his pads was followed by a fierce pull to the square-leg boundary, prompting Collingwood to yelp and roar his delight in making his fifth Test hundred. It was his first at Chester-le-Street, his home ground and his second fifty came from just 64 balls. Often considered one of Test cricket’s more dogged batsmen, how appropriate that he should have accelerated so impressively – on a day when Michael Vaughan stepped down as England’s one-day captain.

Oddly, Prior played second fiddle to Collingwood – a revealing fact in itself – but nevertheless brought up his 50 from 85 balls with a remarkable flick over midwicket. He too took advantage of the bowling as West Indies practically gave up the ghost. Even the captain, Ganga, stood with his hands in his pockets, his shoulders slumped. All he needed to complete the act of surrender was a large white handkerchief.Prior’s exuberance finally cost him when he tried to pull Edwards over midwicket – Devon Smith diving forward at deep square-leg to take a fine catch. It ended a superb stand of 169 – the first time in 23 years that England had put on more than 150 for the seventh wicket. But by now the damage had been done; between lunch and tea England added 139 for the loss of just one wicket. It was a startling transformation.Ryan Sidebottom chivvied his way to an entertaining 26 to give England a sizeable lead of 113 and, rather inevitably, Matthew Hoggard struck in the second over to trap Smith in front for a duck. Chris Gayle, with half an eye to the one-day series, was in ebullient mood, carving Hoggard and Steve Harmison off the back foot to bring up a fine and characteristically entertaining fifty.Once Runako Morton was bowled by Monty Panesar, leaving West Indies still trailing by 30, the match turnaround was complete. All of a sudden, England are scenting an unlikely victory.

Getting into a stadium to watch any match during next year’s World Cup “will be like boarding an airline”, according to a senior official.That’s the word from senior legal counsel with the tournament’s organising committee, Derek Jones,who warned that security was of absolute importance to the International Cricket Council. According to Jones, patrons must understand that security was paramount at global events such as the World Cup, and they must ensure they “provide themselves with ample time” to get ready for the matches. “You must start thinking of getting into the ground as if you were getting into an airplane,” Jones told The Nation in an interview over the weekend.”We must see security as a major area and like the airline industry, safety and security is paramount. Patrons will be allowed to carry certain personal items, but they must be able to fit under your seat.”Over 800,000 tickets are being made available for the tournament, which runs from March 11 to April 28, and patrons will have two major checkpoints. The first will be on entering the venue, and the second on entering the stand.The Jamaican lawyer, with over 30 years in the field, said mechanisms were in place to make sure that all areas of security were established and working.Chris Dehring, chief executive of the tournament, has been attending meetings at the football World Cup in Germany, to get a clearer idea of how to implement and manage the massive security effort. He attended pre-match and post-match meetings in Berlin.

Dumped Test batsman Michael Slater could yet figure in NSW’s opening Pura Cup match against Queensland when he arrives at the Gabba tomorrow morning on standby for rising star Michael Clarke.Slater was called to Brisbane tonight and he could be joined in the NSW team by rookie paceman Doug Bollinger – a park cricketer just 18 months ago – as the Blues sweat on last-minute injury concerns before they meet the three-time champions.The 21-year-old Clarke has a back problem which hampered him during the Blues’ impressive one-day victory over the Bulls in Sydney last Sunday, while paceman Stuart Clark is battling an ankle injury.Clark bowled in the nets this morning and the Blues will give the injured players until the last hours before tomorrow’s game to prove their fitness.Otherwise, it’s a golden chance for Slater to end the wretched run which began when he was dropped from Test cricket in August 2001 during an erratic Ashes series.He then slid out of the NSW team, leaving very little hope that the 32-year-old would add to his 74 Tests.Bollinger’s fortunes have risen as quickly as Slater’s have plummeted, leaving the 21-year-old left-armer on the verge of his first-class debut less than a year after he played lower grades for Fairfield-Liverpool.But the Blues will be desperate for Stuart Clark to play after the ACB-contracted paceman took match figures of 6-90 in his last visit to the Gabba.He will be a key man for new captain Simon Katich, who is stepping into one of Australian cricket’s most intense rivalries.Katich said the Blues were about to learn where they stood in interstate cricket after wearing the wooden spoon during a dismal last season, which included an eight-wicket loss to the Bulls at the Gabba.Katich will also learn about the rivalry between NSW and Queensland after quitting Western Australia during the off-season for a new start in Sydney.”I’ve sensed it already from speaking to the guys and we’ve approached this week thinking that it’s a good chance to see where we’re at,” Katich said.Katich has crossed the country trying to revive the promising career which netted him a sole Test appearance at Headingley during last year’s Ashes tour.He is much admired in Queensland after scoring heavily against the Bulls during their recent stoushes with Western Australia, often taming the Bulls on a Gabba wicket which promises its usual spice tomorrow.The match will be significant for veteran Queenslander Stuart Law, who was a shock axing from the one-day team last week.The former Test batsman, who turns 34 on Friday, will become Queensland’s most capped interstate first-class player when he plays his 124th match, surpassing Sam Trimble.It also marks Law’s first match since handing over the Queensland captaincy to Jimmy Maher after eight years at the helm.”I’m not really into statistics but to knock off a guy like Sam Trimble, who is a living legend in Queensland cricket, makes it a special day,” Law said.The Blues will play leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, who is a genuine threat at the Gabba, while the Bulls are expected to overlook left-arm spinner Matthew Anderson for pacemen Michael Kasprowicz, Ashley Noffke, Joe Dawes and Damien MacKenzie.

While England sit and wait for the rains to abate in the Caribbean, their next opponents, New Zealand, are busy planning their strategy ahead of their three-Test tour, which begins next week. And in John Bracewell and Stephen Fleming, New Zealand have a coach and captain with all the necessary experience to pull off a repeat of their 2-1 series triumph in 1999.Both men are used to the unique challenges of an early-English season. Until last summer, Bracewell was coach at Gloucestershire, while Fleming has enjoyed stints as an overseas player with Middlesex and Yorkshire. But since Bracewell joined the national set-up, Fleming’s captaincy has developed a feistier streak – and that is probably no coincidence.During his playing days, the fiercely patriotic Bracewell was always known as a hard man. He might have made his name as an All Black rugby player if the selectors had taken note of his performances, but New Zealand cricket is eternally grateful that they didn’t. He is clearly finding Fleming to be a man he can do business with, and during the home series against South Africa, they applied a level of pressure on Graeme Smith and his men that caught them by surprise.Nevertheless, it was South Africa who tied the Test series in the last match at Wellington, and New Zealand have had plenty to think about during their three-week break. At least they leave for England with a full-strength squad of 14 – a rarity in itself in this modern era. Such is the internal competition for places that Bracewell has already said there will be a disappointed batsman when each of the Test teams is announced.Much depends on the speed with which Nathan Astle recovers his batting powers, after a lengthy lay-off and two knee operations. Should he regain the touch that enabled him to score a century and a fifty in the first Test of the Indian series last October, then he is sure to be recalled for his experience alone.The man who stepped into Astle’s shoes was Scott Styris, who rescued New Zealand from 12 for 2 with an outstanding innings of 170 in the second-Test victory over South Africa at Eden Park. He had earlier played a more defensive innings to recover the first Test on what became the "crater" Test at Westpac Park in Hamilton. But when he needed to perform another miracle in the all-important third Test, he was unable to produce. It is how he responds to that lesson that will be of most interest in his tour.Craig McMillan enjoyed a superb series in India, although he was not quite so dominant at home, while the newcomer Michael Papps showed signs that he could be the answer to the opener’s dilemma that has New Zealand since at least 1999. A quick learner at domestic level, he started with a bang in one-day cricket, but has yet to translate that form into the Test arena.Chris Cairns has already signalled that this tour will be his farewell to Test cricket. It promises to be one of the highest-profile exits in New Zealand cricket since Richard Hadlee in 1990, and then, as now, it will require a passing-on of the allrounder’s mantle. Jacob Oram could well be ready for the challenge. At 6ft 6ins, he is probably the tallest player ever to appear in a New Zealand side, but possesses outstanding agility in the field, great power in his hitting and – as would be expected for a player of his height – threatening bounce in his medium-fast bowling.Blessed with the steadiest of nerve, Oram is very much a key player in New Zealand’s future and this tour is a big one for him. With a Test century against South Africa, and 97 against Pakistan, he is a significant force in the lower-middle order. Already Cairns has hinted at great battles between Oram and Andrew Flintoff in the years to come.New Zealand’s attack will be led by Shane Bond, Daryl Tuffey and Chris Martin, with Oram, Cairns and Kyle Mills as back-up. If they can adapt quickly to English conditions that are not far removed from those that they face at home, the New Zealanders can expect to provide England with their toughest competition since their series with South Africa last summer.