Rain should ruin any chance of an outright result in the Pura Cup cricket match here between Victoria and New South Wales.Showers forced four delays today, with more than two and a half hours of play lost, and the forecast is also grim for tomorrow’s final day.Victoria was 4-69 at stumps, with Ian Harvey 12 and Darren Berry 10, after losing 3-0 in a brief session of play soon after tea.Stuart Clark had 2-15, while Nathan Bracken and Stuart MacGill had a wicket apiece and Brad Hodge scored 26.NSW was dismissed for 338 before lunch, giving it first-innings points and a lead of 79 after Victoria made 259.Michael Bevan top-scored with 128, Mathew Inness impressed with three wickets this morning for innings figures of 4-61 and Harvey snared 3-53.The Blues resumed on 5-257 and Brad Haddin (33) sent them past Victoria’s first innings score with a four in the second over of the day.Victorian captain Matthew Elliott was unable to field again this morning because of a stomach virus that had him laid up on a massage table in the changerooms.Under competition rules he was unable to open the batting, but if he is well enough and any play is possible tomorrow, he will be the next man in for Victoria.

Rarely could a contest that promised so much have produced so little as the 1981-82 series between India and England. The Indians had performed very well at home over the past few years, and their feat of sharing a rubber in Australia for the first time the previous season had generated considerable interest. The Englishmen, for their part, had come back in dream fashion during the summer to win the Ashes after a fascinating contest with Australia. Naturally, the stage seemed set for a battle royal.

What was served up to an unsuspecting public, however, was a damp squib. Five of the six Tests were drawn, all of them in a row after India wrapped up the first Test in four days. The cricket was of the comatose variety, the batting uninspired, and the bowling little better.Moreover, it was largely slow-motion cricket, with a negative strategy being blatantly pursued by both sides. Even slow bowlers took their time in sending down their overs, and time was wasted at any available opportunity. Symbolizing the tardy approach was the England over rate on the third morning of the fifth Test at Madras, less than 10 per hour. Laborious batting, ridiculously slow over rates, and defensive tactics ruined the series as a spectacle, despite the fact that there were dynamic players on both sides, including two of the leading all-rounders in the game in Kapil Dev and Ian Botham.The England super-star came to this country riding a crest of success following his unbelievable feats in the Ashes series. He did not disappoint, topping the Test averages with 440 runs at 55.00. Only in bowling was he some disappointment. But then, on slow, placid pitches, it was almost next to impossible for any bowler to pick up wickets easily, and his figures of 17 wickets at 38.82 must be viewed in this perspective.Graham Gooch and David Gower were the other enterprising players. The former topped the aggregates both for the Tests (487) and the tour (967) and generally was in rip-roaring form. Gower was less consistent, but he did get 375 runs in the Tests and 755 on the tour. Geoffrey Boycott and Chris Tavare were predictably more cautious in their approach, but they also finished among the runs. Boycott, making his first tour of India at 41, played only in the first four Tests, but this was enough for him to achieve his primary objective of becoming the highest run-getter in Test history. In the third Test at New Delhi, he surpassed Gary Sobers’ tally of 8032 runs, also completing his 22nd and last century in what turned out to be his penultimate Test. He also had the satisfaction of heading the tour figures, scoring 701 runs at an average of 77.89. The inability of skipper Keith Fletcher to strike form and the failure of Mike Gatting, however, meant that the batting had loopholes and could be pierced.The much-vaunted England bowling of Bob Willis, Botham, John Lever, Derek Underwood, Graham Dilley and John Emburey was blunted by slow pitches, and the Indian batsmen had no difficulty in negotiating them. Sunil Gavaskar ended up with his usual packet of runs ­ 500 runs at 62.50, including a mammoth 172 in the second Test at Bangalore, for which he batted 708 minutes ­ the longest innings by an Indian in first-class cricket. In fact, he was on the field for all but four balls of the match, opening the innings and being ninth out. Gundappa Viswanath, after a slow start, got a century and a double century, finishing with 466 runs at 58.25. His 222 in the fifth Test at Madras was the highest by an Indian against England.During that match, he and Yashpal Sharma also became the seventh pair of batsmen to bat throughout an uninterrupted day of Test cricket. Indeed, it was only the second time that England had failed to take a wicket during a complete day’s play, and the two became only the second Indian pair after Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy (during their record 413-run opening partnership) to bat unbeaten through a day’s play in Test cricket. The third-wicket partnership of 316 runs between Viswanath and Yashpal was the Indian record for that wicket against all countries.Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar provided some entertaining batting along the way, and Ravi Shastri, with ‘a 30-year-old head on 20-year-old shoulders,’ came of age as a utility man during the series. But the inability of Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Pranab Roy, Kirti Azad, Ashok Malhotra and Sandip Patil to make the most of their opportunities was a handicap that India could ill afford. Patil was a major disappointment, especially after his heroics in Australia, and was dropped midway through the series, as was Srikkanth, who had been hailed as a bright new star with his swashbuckling approach.The Indian bowling, in the hands of two medium-pacers and two left-arm spinners, lacked variety. With the exception of Dilip Doshi, the attack could do little on the unhelpful pitches. Shastri was still on the learning curve, while Kapil Dev and Madan Lal, after their purple patch at Bombay when they dismissed England on their own for 102, could achieve little. Doshi, however, bowled with his heart on his sleeve and finished with 22 wickets at 21.27 apiece ­ a splendid record, given the circumstances. The tour also featured a one-day international series in which India performed commendably, winning by a 2-1 margin. The first match of the series at Ahmedabad was, in fact, the first one-day international in India.

The innings held together largely by Chetan Sachdev, Tripura reached atotal of 266/6 by the close of play on Day One of their Ranji Trophyleague match against Bihar at Agartala.Winning the toss, Tripura elected to bat but found themselves reelingat 63/4. A small partnership then developed between Timir Chanda andSachdev before the former departed at 116, having made 44.Sachdev was then joined by Abdul Sattar, and the two put on 134 runsbefore Sattar was dismissed for 63. At the close of play, Sachdev wasunbeaten on 99 off 209 balls, and Rajib Dutta (8*) was also at thecrease.

Limited overs champions KwaZulu-Natal built on three successive victories on the road with a three-wicket win over Easterns at home in their Standard Bank Cup match at Kingsmead on Friday night. In other games, the Eastern Province Jumbos added to the Highveld Strikers’ miseries with a five-wicket win at St George’s Park while in Kimberley Griquas accounted for Free State by four wickets.KZN’s triumph was set up by a blistering 57 off 51 balls from Gulam Bodi as the home team chased Easterns 154 for eight. Despite the start given the Dolphins by Bodi, the home team wobbled in mid-innings before getting home with more than eight overs to spare. Andrew Hall, with 67, provided the substance of the Easterns innings.In Port Elizabeth the Strikers collapsed after Adam Bacher (70) and Daryll Cullinan (30) had put on 73 for the first wicket. Garnett Kruger at one point took four wickets in 11 balls before finishing with five 29 as the Strikers were bowled out for 158 and with Dave Callaghan making 53, the Jumbos were able to get home in some comfort.In Kimberley, Warwickshire’s Mike Powell hit an unbeaten 62 to guide Griquas to a four-wicket win over Free State. Jimmy Adams’ 60 had enabled Free State to reach 186 for seven and at one point the Diamonds were creaking on 99 for five before Powell and Wendell Bossenger (31) added 68 for the sixth wicket to stabilise the innings.

From a critical crisis to a resplendent rearguard to exhilarating excitement.Yesterday’s second day of the Busta Series match between Barbados and the Windward Islands produced unimaginable drama and unexpected thrills that ensured the biggest crowd at Kensington Oval this season gained value for money.Twenty-four minutes into the morning session, Courtney Browne hurried out of the Garfield Sobers Pavilion seemingly unprepared to respond to the danger that faced Barbados.ScintillatingBy the time he marched off the ground five hours later, he had splendidly transformed the match with a scintillating century that surely must be acknowledged as the finest batting display of his career.I’ve played a few good innings in my time and this would have to go down as one of the best, if not the best, he told SUNSPORT.When you are one of the more experienced batsmen, you have to hang in there and make runs. After we were behind, it was just a matter of batting.His 161 off 196 balls was his fourth and highest first-class hundred and was decorated with dashing drives, a hooked six and a few of his trademark slog-sweeps that no one else in the region can match.For most of the time he spent unleashing his series of breathtaking strokes, he found an important ally in Sulieman Benn.The pair featured in Barbados regional first-class cricket record partnership that sent the more than 3 000 spectators into a wild frenzy, especially after tea when 108 runs were reeled off in an enthralling hour.Browne, dropped immediately after passing his hundred, motored on to the extent that his last 61 runs came from 36 balls.He was especially severe on Windwards captain Rawl Lewis, who conceded 29 in an over in which he was banged for two sixes and three fours.Benn clobbered 78 that included several meaty off-side strokes and although Barbados still fell short of the Windwards’ total by 18 runs, the psychological advantage had remarkably shifted because of the eighth-wicket association of 184 between the two stinging ‘Bs’.The hosts were down in the dumps at 30 for four within the first half-hour and 118 for seven when Benn joined Browne 35 minutes after lunch.There was always hope, Browne said. I told myself that as long as I kept scoring it would have been all right. But I definitely wasn’t looking for 300.Windwards, who did nothing wrong in the first session when the impressive 21-year-old Dominican fast bowler Fernix Thomas spearheaded the effort, suddenly started to wilt under the pressure of the rampaging bats of Browne and Benn.Stunned silenceIt was a sharp contrast to the morning period when Kensington was stunned into silence following the cheap dismissals of captain Philo Wallace, and the youthful trio of Martin Nurse, Kurt Wilkinson and Dwayne Smith.Both openers were back in the pavilion before a run had been added to the overnight score of 21.Wallace gave a low catch to mid-off, while Nurse, the 16-year-old debutant, hardly moved his feet as he edged to the keeper.Spectators were still trickling into the Oval when Thomas produced a double-strike that left Barbados in dire straits.Wilkinson’s attempted drive was plucked out of their air by gully by the diving Lewis, but poor Smith could do nothing to adequately negotiate a vicious ground-eater to the very first ball he received.Almost two minutes had passed before Browne came out still fiddling with his equipment and seemingly in one state of disarray.I was definitely caught off-guard, he admitted. When `Smittie’ got out, I only had on my left pad. I had to hussle.I went out there with two different gloves, no box, no thigh pad. I just had to relax, stay focussed, and the experience took me through.There was even further drama to follow. The third ball he received, Browne launched into a big drive that flew like a rocket and directly into the chest of Rommel Currency who was no more than about ten yards from the bat at short cover.As Currency fell, Thomas desperately tried to catch the rebound from the fielder’s body.Browne, however, continued to play aggressively. He was soon into his stride with a cover-driven four and a hooked six off Thomas.By lunch, he had reached fifty, but Barbados lost the important wickets of Floyd Reifer and Ian Bradshaw either side of the interval.Reifer was caught by wicket-keeper Junior Murray, who was standing up to the left-arm fast-medium stuff of Kenroy Peters. Bradshaw fell to a low second slip catch by Devon Smith to give Thomas another of his five wickets.After Ryan Austin became another victim of Thomas, Benn and Browne went about the repair job.Benn came out and played a very good innings, Browne said about the contribution of the tall left-hander.There was no need for me to push anymore after he came out and was scoring like that. It was just a matter of hanging in.

Dave Houghton, CFX Academy coach, talks to CricInfo about his team’s Logan Cup victory over Manicaland in their first match, and their prospects for the year. This was only the Academy’s second victory in their three-year history as a Logan Cup team.The official start of the Academy is actually 25 February, so we had to bring in the squad in a couple of days before the match just to prepare for this game. We only had 12 available, because there are five away: Tatenda Taibu with the Zimbabwe side in India, Stuart Matsikenyeri is still playing club cricket in Australia and gets back in April, `Syke’ Nkala and Chappie Coventry are in South Africa with the Board XI, and young Sherezad Shah is in South Africa with his mother, who is not very well.So we only had 12 here, which is the 12 we used in the game. I didn’t get to see much of them as a squad, but obviously I had seen quite a bit of them as individuals. We were pretty comfy that we had a reasonable outfit.Our captain is Andre Hoffman, who is probably the most senior guy at the Academy this year. It’s normally our policy to rotate captains, but we decided to stick with one captain for the Logan Cup and then rotate in our other fixtures through the year, to give everybody a crack at captaincy.Guy Goosen filled the wicket-keeping role for us, which he wouldn’t normally do; he’s here as a batsman and probably the wicket-keeping will be done by Taibu and Coventry when we’re together full-time.So we had a couple of good days’ net practice here and took the side down to Mutare on Thursday, with some fielding practice there on Thursday afternoon. We got under way on Friday morning.Mutare Sports Club itself was looking a bit better. I’d heard some horrific stories about how it was overgrown, and it still looks as if it could do with a closer haircut. But by and large it was good. The outfield was rather on the grassy side, but because it’s so hard underneath the ball ran very well.To be honest, the way we were looked after down there was fantastic. They provided magnificent teas for us every morning, with good lunches; we had our own changing room, which was swept and cleaned every day. They really went out of their way to make it a good first-class venue. They also have two sets of brand-new covers, and funnily enough we did get some rain on the third day, but the covers are magnificent.So things are looking up, and having Kevan Barbour there as a fulltime employee will help. It will all depend now on how much the ZCU will assist them financially to get off the ground. It’s a lovely ground when it’s in good nick.We didn’t have our permanent openers with us, so we had to make do with some makeshift openers, who did pretty well. Otherwise it was a pretty well-balanced side, considering we had only 12 to choose from. We were probably a little top-heavy in the bowling department, but we batted a fair way down.We won the toss, and did the right thing on that wicket, I think, which was to bat first. One of the biggest problems we have at the Academy is to try and knock out the ten or twelve years of one-day cricket that these kids have only ever learned from, and try to teach them how to play the longer version.That was still very evident in this first encounter, when a lot of the batsmen got out to one-day shots – too eager to get after the bowler instead of building a sound foundation to work from when building an innings. We lost a few early wickets; I thought Hoffman (47) played pretty well, as did Conan Brewer (66).But the main contribution was 104 from Glen Barrett on his first-class debut. There is a typical example of one-day cricket, though I’m not sure he’s the type of batsman I would try to change, because he has one way of playing and it was very effective. I think he scored 104 off about 56 balls, and really tore into the bowlers. It may be an indication of the bowling side we were playing against, but at the same time, in the context of this game, it was a very important innings for us.That gave us 298 in the first innings, which wasn’t a bad effort. Probably the only disappointment was that four of our top six batsmen gave their wickets away with one-day-type shots – they didn’t make the bowlers work hard enough.Manicaland replied pretty well. Neil Ferreira played a good first-class innings and he occupied the crease, kept the ball on the ground and didn’t look like getting out. He was 69 not out overnight but came out on the second day and completed his hundred. It was a good example I could point out to my players. He gave one chance, which we put down, when he was about 60, but he played basically a good, solid first-class innings. He had some support from Kingsley Went, who was unfortunately run out at the back end of the first day, but really it was Neil Ferreira who held their innings together.For us, Pete Rinke bowled really well; he came on to bowl a spell just before lunch on the second day and picked up four quick wickets, just bowling solid line and length, hitting the ground hard. That got us the breakthrough and it meant that we took a 26-run lead.Our catching was quite exceptional, which was one of the things I’m very impressed with in this current squad. We’ve got some really good slip fielders in Hoffman and Conan Brewer; Neetan Chouhan at short leg took some good catches, and Innocent Chinyoka, who’s a youngster I didn’t know much about, opened the batting and got a pair of twenties, run out both times, bowled some nice little seamers, and he has a great pair of hands. He ended up taking four catches in the innings, two in the gully and two in the covers – not a bad first outing.Nyasha Chari and young Jordane Nicolle bowled well with the new ball, too, and got rid of the openers. Nicolle was rather unlucky to take only two wickets, but he had a couple dropped as well. I was quite impressed; our bowling is more of a first-class standard than our batting. We bowled a steady line and length and were quite aggressive with our quicks.We’re a little short in the spin department at the moment: Neetan Couhan is doing that job for us, and developing his leg-spin is one of the reasons why he’s at the Academy. I feel that he bowled better the more we gave him to bowl; you can see he’s a guy who hasn’t bowled enough in the last two or three years. He has a lot of potential. He did the same in the second innings, bowling well after a poorish start.In the second innings, we got a good start again, and Chouhan this time batted pretty well (72). He’s a makeshift opener and would normally bat in the middle order. He played a lot better, much tighter, and Innocent Chinyoka also batted for a long period. He only got 25 before being run out, so his first-class debut starts with two run-outs.Again we had too many one-day shots. Goosen played well for 35, but was out to a poorish shot. Vusi Sibanda played quite well for 18, but missed a long hop and was bowled trying to hit it out of the ground. We lost a few wickets through one-day-type errors, but once again Barrett came in at number eight and hit 80 in 60 balls.He played better in the second innings, funnily enough, because he was more inclined to hit the boundaries and then take a single, whereas in the first innings he just continued to blaze at most things. Maybe he is learning as well, because if we can give him some sort of defensive technique, just for occasions when the bowlers don’t actually get it in his hitting zone, he could make quite a lot of runs. That 80 helped us to a second-innings total of 286, which gave us a lead of 312, Manicaland needing 313 to win.Young Nicolle bowled particular well in the second innings; he picked up the first four batsmen, bowling aggressively. I was really impressed with his spell; if anything, his captain may have overbowled him a bit in giving him 12 overs unchanged. But he picked up the first four wickets, and you couldn’t ask for more from your opening bowler.It was a good partnership, because Nyasha Chari bowled well from the other end, although he didn’t get any wickets this time. But it was a nice promising opening pairing we’ve got there.Then it was just a case of trying to winkle the rest out, which took us 48 overs. Andre Hoffman picked up a couple of cheap wickets, two for 12, and once again Chouhan came in and bowled badly in his first three or four overs, but the more he bowled, he started to land the ball and bowl some really good leg-spin, picking up two for 41. It was a much more disciplined performance by the bowlers than the batsmen.And once again there was some great catching, especially in the slips. Andre Hoffman himself took one or two really good ones. I was impressed, not just with the fact that the Academy won, but with the standard of cricket over the three days. Both sides played pretty well considering they were missing a few good players each. It impresses me that the average age of those sides was about 18½ and I just have to believe that in four or five years’ time, when they have that much first-class experience behind them, and more youngsters coming through the Academy into these areas, our first-class structure will be pretty good.The Academy guys were very chuffed with their victory; they’re youngsters and they’re quite excitable. They played good cricket and they deserved the victory. They were absolutely elated, to be honest. What I like about this year’s Academy – and I’m not knocking the other years that have been here – but these guys seem to be the most enthusiastic I’ve had, right from the start.We haven’t gone into the courses yet, so we haven’t started with any physical training or anything like that, but they themselves have been out and about doing physical training. At the end of each day they went for runs and came and warmed down properly; they did all the right things without being told to. I liked their attitude straight away; in fact, even today those in town have been in training. I think we’ve got a good squad here.Our next match is against Mashonaland A – we have three in a row here at the Academy, and then we play our last game in the Midlands. We have a two-week break in the middle, but that’s all right because we can get on with our course.I’m looking forward to seeing Mutare Sports Club back in the condition it should be. It’s a fantastic venue, and I just hope that ZCU get behind it as much as they have Midlands, putting the facility back where it belongs, which is one of the top four in the country. I went there every morning at seven o’clock just to get a better look at it.They have a lovely borehole, but it’s completely in the overgrown grass and it took us 15 minutes to find it, even though we knew roughly which area it was in. All it needs is for the pump to be fixed; they have irrigation pipes but they can’t water the outfield because the only water they can use at the moment, the municipal, is too expensive. It’s simple things like that, and it doesn’t seem to me to need an exaggerated cost to jack the place up.They have the new covers, the club itself was looking pretty neat, but there is that old hangar-type building on one side that was built about 15 years ago and never finished. That’s another thing that I don’t think needs a lot of money. I thought that if you knocked off one of the walls and used those bricks to build up the rest of the place and thatched the roof, it would make a beautiful outside viewing area that could include a bar. Those sort of things don’t take a lot of money, just a little bit of effort and thought.The top right-hand corner of the ground, where the nets used to be, is overgrown; there is a very tatty-looking fence around it that hasn’t been repaired for ages. You don’t need to go digging around to build a new practice area; all you have to do is scarify it down and put the right grass on top, because you have a surface that’s been there for 20 years. Then jack up the fences around it; again, a small cost for a big improvement. I personally would like to see our facilities committee getting down there and getting stuck in, getting the ground back to what it should be.We had a fair number of spectators there on the Saturday and a few on the Sunday. What was nice was that there was quite a good number of schoolkids. There were one or two schoolkids playing against us: Tino Mawoyo and Andre Soma both play for Hillcrest College, so they had a bit of support. We also had Adil Kugotsa, who also played, and he’s from Mutare Boys’ High, and had his fair share of support as well.When we were done there on the Thursday, I watched some of their practices. Not only was the Manicaland side practising, but they also had another 40 or 50 kids working out in their Academy-style nets. It’s lovely to see the enthusiasm for cricket in that area. They have a little twelfth man who is about four foot six and looks about 12 years old; they told me he’s about 16 or 17. I can’t tell you his surname, but he’s Marvin somebody. I watched him bowl and he’s an absolutely fantastic leg-spinner. He really gives it a good rip. He came on the field on numerous occasions to do twelfth-man duties; he’s an absolute livewire in the field and chucks the ball a mile for a little guy.All these sort of things are so encouraging for a guy like me who is involved in cricket and sees the enthusiasm, the encouragement and the talent that’s available. It was a good weekend and I enjoyed it.I think the overall state of cricket in this country is much better off than it was a few years ago. I think by expanding the league, obviously you will dissipate the standard to the league to a certain extent, but I think that’s a short-term problem. Give it another couple of years, and you’ll have a bigger league and a stronger standard.I think the Logan Cup, the first-class tournament, could be run better and it could be played more often, and with more of our national players around. I think we’re spending a bit too much time looking after A sides in the Castle Bowl, and not enough time looking after our own first-class situation.I’d love to see a situation where we don’t play past Under-19 level in South Africa; I’d like to see us pull out of the Castle Bowl and keep our players here, and really work out our first-class structure here so we’ve got a strong system. It would be like New Zealand taking their best players and going to play in the Australian first-class system. What would happen to the New Zealand first-class system, minus all their best players? I think that’s what we should be concentrating on; it’s something I hope to bring to the Board’s attention the next time I get given the opportunity to speak to them.Even if the Board XI did get promotion to the SuperSport Series down there, I don’t believe it will help our cricket as a whole. It will benefit 13 people who get the opportunity to play. But it means we are much weaker now. In the first round of this Logan Cup, one match had to be postponed because two sides couldn’t put out first-class teams. We do have cricket developing, but not to the standard yet where we can afford to be without our best 30 players. I understand our national team needs to travel a fair amount, so let’s be without our best 14 players – but not our second-best.If we keep our A team here, playing first-class cricket, they will be strengthening teams all round the country, and we will end up with a good first-class structure, by which we will produce better Test players. At the moment, by sending just the A side to play in South Africa, only those 13 blokes get the exposure, while the others are playing first-class cricket, but against weaker sides.I’m a big one for building up our own structures. Why don’t we offer Namibia and Kenya entrance into our first-class system? Why must we play in South Africa’s system? I’d like to see it played more often, too – with this present system of playing everything in a five-week period in February and March, we can fall into the state where the national team is never here during that period, but if we played it throughout the season – and my suggestion would be to play it almost every second weekend – we would end up with ten weekends of first-class cricket. Everyone would play each other twice, home and away. The chances are that the national team would be in the country for at least 50 per cent of those games. Then we would have a good, strong first-class structure.I find lack of finance a very poor excuse. Everyone is very well aware of what players get paid, what their TV bonuses are and how much money is available here and there. If we are going to spend some money, at least spend it in an area that is going to develop our cricket. Finance is no excuse; they have more than enough money to cover the cost of a proper first-class system.

MELBOURNE, Dec 17 AAP – Shane Warne’s determination to play in the World Cup will be tempered by one of the worst moments of his stellar cricket career.Burned by his omission from the national team three years ago, Warne stressed he would not hurry his return from Sunday night’s shoulder dislocation.The Australian selectors will pick Warne in the final Cup squad of 15 on December 31, having confirmed they can replace him even during the tournament if his shoulder does not heal.Warne will be on a four-to-six-week timetable to return to the top level if he is to play in the Cup starting in February in South Africa and there are already doubts as to whether this is feasible.”I wouldn’t put myself up for selection if I didn’t think I could deliver the goods,” he said.”That’s no good for Australia’s chances of regaining the World Cup and I don’t think it would do myself any good.”I’ve done too much hard work and done some pretty good things on the field.”I don’t want to come back and be no good, get smashed all over the park and be dropped again.”Warne was dropped during the 1999 West Indies tour as he came back from major shoulder surgery.He held a media conference today, 24 hours after exploratory surgery on his right bowling shoulder showed no damage beyond the expected results of a dislocation.That prompted Australian Cricket Board medical officer Dr Trefor James to express hope Warne would be bowling again at international level within six weeks.But Victorian coach David Hookes and former Test seamer Terry Alderman are among those who have expressed concern that is far too short a recovery period.Warne said he was “groggy and grumpy” after yesterday’s surgery and was still working through what the next month would hold.But he spoke today with Australian team physiotherapist Errol Alcott and Melbourne physiotherapist Lyn Watson, two key people in his past comebacks from injury.Warne will start his rehabilitation next Monday and felt he would know after a month how the shoulder was healing.”There’s probably four, five, six, seven scenarios about what is the best thing,” he said.”All I know is I’m not going to rush back to make sure I’m right (for the Cup).”The 33-year-old felt he had several seasons of top-flight cricket beyond the World Cup.Warne had to be stretchered off the MCG after suffering the injury on Sunday night in the one-day win over England.”I just couldn’t move my arm so I knew there was something wrong with it,” he said.”I felt where it was sore and I could feel the bone sticking out of the socket, I felt a big lump where it had to be put back in.”Warne admitted “the little man in your head” initially wondered if the dislocation might end his career.He admitted to feeling “pretty disappointed” at another injury setback, having rejuvenated his international career with a 12-month fitness campaign.Meanwhile, ACB chief executive James Sutherland confirmed at Warne’s media conference that Australia had some flexibility with its Cup squad.”The allowance within that, with injuries, is that a player can pull out at any stage after December 31, even after the tournament has started.”They can be replaced, subject to confirmation by medical authorities that it’s a genuine injury.”But Sutherland said there was still some confusion as to whether a replacement could come from outside the initial squad of 30, named at the start of the month.Fellow leg-spinner Stuart MacGill and Test captain Steve Waugh, for example, did not make the first squad.

BRISBANE, Dec 17 AAP – Veterans Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart pushed England towards the first victory of its dreadful Australian tour when they tucked into Sri Lanka’s bowlers in the tri-series one-day clash at the Gabba today.England’s bowlers will determine whether the tourists break the drought after the batsmen posted 292 from 50 overs in warm conditions in Brisbane in their third match of the series, following two losses to Australia.It was England’s third-highest total in a one-day match in Australia and history suggests it will be enough to ensure Hussain’s team wins its first match since arriving in October.The West Indies posted the highest successful run chase at the Gabba in 1996-97, scoring 3-284 against Australia, and Sri Lanka was fortunate not to face a higher chase tonight after England suffered a late collapse.Andrew Caddick was out from the final ball of the innings as England stumbled through the final overs, losing 5-14 in 25 balls.But the damage had already been done on Sri Lanka’s bowlers after Hussain (79 from 106 balls) and Stewart (64 from 61) combined for a 72-run stand while Hussain and Paul Collingwood (37 from 45) added 77.Hussain, Stewart and Collingwood were all on the ground when Hussain was dismissed in the 42nd over, run out by a direct hit from Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya.Collingwood was running for Hussain, who was believed to be suffering from cramp, when Jayasuriya struck.Their bowlers struck early, removing Marcus Trescothick (27 from 27) in the seventh over, but England’s openers had already set the tempo with an enterprising start.Nick Knight (29 from 29) helped overcome another poor innings from Ronnie Irani (one from three) while Collingwood showed energy in his first match in Australia.

HOBART – A revitalised Glenn McGrath is confident he’ll be fit to playas England sweat over star batsman Michael Vaughan ahead of theirone-day cricket match in Hobart tomorrow.McGrath, who’s been out with a side strain, said today it had been toughwatching from the sidelines as Australia lost the fifth Test and wasbelted by Sri Lanka last night.”I just can’t wait to get back out there,” he said.The fast bowler said he was “90 per cent-plus fit and feeling prettygood”.But management will wait until they see how he pulls up following anafternoon bowl before deciding whether he will play.”If it’s going the same way it has from the last few bowls I’ve had, yesI’m confident I’ll play,” McGrath said.However the management, which also has worries about Darren Lehmann’sfitness following illness, will wait until the morning before finalisingthe team.Captain Ricky Ponting said Lehmann was still feeling a bit tired andrundown.”He’s had a couple of days of not doing too much and we’ll see how hepulls up in the morning,” Ponting said.England, with concerns over Vaughan’s knee and shoulder and fast bowlerSteve Harmison’s shin splints, will also wait until the morning to nametheir team.Captain Nasser Hussain is anxious to slot Vaughan, who made a mountainof runs as an opener in the Tests, into the top three of the one-dayside.Oddly, Vaughan has always batted at four or lower for England and hiscounty Yorkshire in one-dayers.”We would like to bat him in the top three, definitely,” Hussain said.”When he is the number two batsman in the world there’s no point hidinghim down the order.”But with the World Cup a month away, Vaughan and Harmison would betreated very carefully.Hussain seemed unsurprised by Sri Lanka’s stunning form reversal lastnight.He said that while they appeared down and out after their match againstAustralia A in Adelaide, they had a much better batting lineup thantheir recent statistics suggested.Ponting was still smarting from the heavy loss.”Last night’s game was disappointing,” he said.”It was not really an Australian team that took the field last night, Idon’t think.”Our performance was not up to the high expectations we have of the teamand we have spoken about that and we will speak about it again today andwe will make sure that we are a better side tomorrow.”He agreed fatigue may have been a factor.”I would be lying if I said some of the guys weren’t a little bittired,” he said.In that regard, McGrath’s enforced rest may be a blessing in disguise.McGrath said he’d been able to have a rest, work on his fitness andspend more time with his family.”So even though it’s been negative in one way, I’ve used it as apositive,” he said.The match should be played in fine weather on a Bellerive Oval wicketcurator Peter Apps said should be dry, even and hard.The match is a sell-out at the 16,000 capacity ground.

HOBART, Feb 5 AAP – Western Australia dominated the rain-disrupted opening day of the Pura Cup match at Bellerive Oval today, leaving Tasmania struggling at five for 115.After the Tigers won the toss and looked well-placed at none for 71 at tea, veteran paceman Jo Angel led a great fight back in which the Warriors captured five wickets for 44 runs in just under 18 overs.Tasmania’s opening partnership of left-hander Michael Di Venuto and captain Jamie Cox delivered a solid performance but the momentum was lost in the second session.The Warriors took three wickets in the first half hour for the addition of only 11 runs.First to go was Cox, caught at short leg by Chris Rogers for 34 in the first few minutes.Just seven minutes later, Di Venuto (31) fell LBW to veteran paceman Jo Angel, who celebrated his 100th Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup match by adding another two scalps to his 402 first-class tally.In a major blow, Scott Mason was caught by Warriors captain Justin Langer after scoring just five runs off 13 balls in 13 minutes.In his last Pura Cup appearance at Bellerive against the Victorian Bushrangers last month, Mason scored his maiden first-class century and racked up an impressive 174 runs to help the Tigers achieve their first victory of the season.Cox had been hoping the left-hander would deliver a similar performance today.Next out was allrounder Ben Oliver, who fell LBW to quick Brad Williams on 11 after 33 balls and 41 minutes.Dan Marsh was bowled by Williams for zero, beaten between bat and pad.Facing just one delivery, which he edgily played for four, Scott Kremerskothen finished the day not out four with Michael Dighton on 17.The day’s play – totalling just 174 minutes – was frustrated by the weather.Rain delayed the start by three-and-a-half hours and bad light stopped play at 5.43pm as rain clouds threatened.