Australia are in danger of being targeted as a team past its prime at the World Cup after the losses to England and New Zealand, according to Barry Richards. “Ever since England won the triangular series in Australia, a lot of people have been saying that Australia are going to come back even stronger,” Richards, the former South Africa batsman, told the . “I am not convinced.”A lot of the other sides see the Aussies as a team with stars of the past nearing the end of their careers. They now believe they can beat the Aussies – and none more so than South Africa and New Zealand.”Richards said South Africa were buoyed by their new No. 1 ODI ranking and were in a strong position to claim the World Cup for the first time. He believed the potential departures of a number of coaches after the tournament would increase South Africa’s chances.”Apart from Australia’s John Buchanan, there are four others in the exit lane: Bob Woolmer with Pakistan, Duncan Fletcher with England, Greg Chappell with India and Tom Moody with Sri Lanka,” Richards said. “The players know this and you have to wonder how it will impact on their preparations. How do you respond to a man who you know is leaving?”Richards’ comments came as Buchanan’s replacement, Tim Nielsen, confirmed he would not be travelling to the Caribbean as originally planned. He said it was vital he stay in his role as head coach at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, especially with a number of other assistants already heading to the World Cup with Buchanan.”We have got enough on our plate here at the Academy,” Nielsen said in the . “My responsibility at the moment is to make sure that is running as well it possibly can before those young kids come in here.”

The business end of the all-India Inter-State Twenty20 cricket tournament kicks off in Ahmedabad and Mumbai from April 15 with a host of national players set to participate. The Mumbai leg of the matches will be shared between the Wankhede Stadium and the Brabourne Stadium while Motera will host the Ahmedabad games.Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan will turn out for their respective state sides and their presence is expected to infuse much-needed spectator interest in the aftermath of India’s early exit from the World Cup in West Indies. In addition, several young players on the fringes of national selection will also get a chance to impress. The tournament should serve as a selection trial for the national selectors when they sit down on April 20 to pick the squad for the tour of Bangladesh beginning next month. The tournament runs till April 21, with two matches scheduled daily in the group stages.All ten qualifying teams have been divided into two groups of five each. Mumbai will host all Group A matches while all Group B games will be held in Ahmedabad. The Brabourne Stadium, which hosted a few Champions Trophy games last year, will host the final on April 21. The day games are scheduled to start at 09.30 local time while the evening games, under lights, will begin at 6.30 PM.Jharkhand and Delhi failed to qualify, which means that the big-hitters in Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag will not be seen in action. It took a while for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to embrace Twenty20 after several Test nations included it in their domestic fixtures. The upcoming Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September may have been the catalyst for the BCCI to slot a tournament of this format in an already crowded domestic schedule.Incidentally, India were the last Test nation to make their debut in a Twenty20 International, during the tour of South Africa last year. India beat South Africa by six wickets in a closely-fought game at Johannesburg, proving that Twenty20 is here to stay as far as India is concerned.

The ICC has flexed its muscles in the aftermath of John Howard’s offer to pay any fines levied as a result of Australia refusing to tour Zimbabwe.Howard, Australia’s prime minister, said last Friday that the government would pay any fine imposed by the ICC should Cricket Australia decide not to send a side to Zimbabwe later this year.On Monday, the ICC issued a blunt statement pointing out that the only reason for the board to refuse to tour would be “if there are circumstances likely to give rise to a serious risk of death or personal injury to the players and/or officials due to take part in the Tour concerned or in respect of which appropriate insurance is unavailable on reasonable terms, such circumstances constitute acceptable non-compliance.”It added that only a ban by the government on the tour would be acceptable, although that comment is made in the knowledge that outright bans on sides touring abroad is almost unknown in Australia.The ICC added that a fine of at least US$2 million could be imposed. It is possible that Zimbabwe Cricket could claim additional monies from Cricket Australia if it could prove extra losses as a result. Any fine would go straight into the coffers of the Zimbabwe board.The ICC statement only reiterates the position as already stated. Howard’s offer to pay any fine means that financial penalties by the ICC would not directly affect Australia, and it seems highly unlikely that any action such as a suspension could realistically be imposed on the No. 1 Test and ODI side.

Scott Styris will join Durham as an overseas player this week, bringing to three the number of New Zealand squad members in county cricket this season. Styris will be hoping for a less dramatic trip than last year, when he injured his back while playing for Middlesex.He aggravated the problem at the Champions Trophy and ended up missing the home series against Sri Lanka and the start of the CB Series. However, Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand team manager, said he had no issue with Styris returning to England as he would be with Durham for only two months from June 1.”This year he goes away with a pretty good bill of health and we have no concerns,” Crocker said. “He’ll still have about six weeks off before our next competition which is the Twenty20 World Cup, so it’s a nice length of break for him.”Styris joins his former New Zealand team-mate Paul Wiseman at Durham, and he will be the county’s second overseas player alongside Australia’s Michael Di Venuto. Durham, who are second on the points table, will be hoping Styris brings with him the form that made him New Zealand’s leading run-scorer at the World Cup.”He took his cricket to a different level in the World Cup and he’s learned a lot, things like batting into the later stages of a match,” Crocker said. “He wants to keep that momentum going and keep putting the things he learned into practice.”Three New Zealanders are now listed as overseas players in the county competition. The others are Stephen Fleming, who is the captain of Nottinghamshire, and Hamish Marshall, who is at Gloucestershire.

Upul Tharanga has been ruled out of the first two Tests against Bangladesh after injuring his foot in a practice session.”Tharanga was hit on his foot by a Lasith Malinga delivery this morning”, Kangadaran Mathivanan, the secretary of the Sri Lankan board told AFP.Tharanga, the left handed opener, is now the second player to drop out of the original 15-man squad for the three-Tests after Marvan Atapattu, the former skipper, dropped out citing personal commitments.Mathivanan added that Sri Lanka A team members Thilan Samaraweera, Michael Vandort and Jehan Mubarak, who are engaged in a three-day warm-up match against Bangladesh; are in line to take Tharanga’s place.Sri Lanka host Bangladesh for three Tests and three ODIs. The first Test begins in Colombo on June 25.

For Mohammad Kaif, who is to lead the India A team for the tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe, this will be a great opportunity to make a comeback to the national side. Both Kaif and Irfan Pathan, who too has been in the wilderness for sometime now, are in the list of 30 probables for the Twenty20 World Championship, also announced on Saturday.The squad for the African tour also includes the likes of Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh. Parthiv Patel has been named the vice-captain for the tour.Recently, Dennis Lillee, under whose watchful eyes Pathan underwent training at the MRF pace foundation in Chennai, said that the fast bowler was close to being back to his best. Pathan would be hoping to prove him right, and with a strong showing on this tour, he can stake a claim for a berth in the Indian team for the elusive spot of a bowling allrounder.Apart from Kaif and Pathan, this tour can prove to be a stepping stone for youngsters like Chawla, VRV Singh, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma. Especially since Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of the selection committee, had recently said that the rotation policy is the way to go, keeping in mind the packed international schedule ahead.The last time the India A team had toured Zimbabwe and Kenya was in July-August 2004 and players like Gautam Gambhir , Munaf Patel , MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik, who played in that tour, subsequently went on to play for India.The team will be coached by Chandrakant Pandit, the former India wicketkeeper. Pandit guided Mumbai to consecutive Ranji Trophy triumphs in 2003 and 2004. In August 2005 he took over as Maharashtra’s coach.The squad
Mohammad Kaif (capt), Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Piyush Chawla, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, V R V Singh, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh, Niraj Patel

It has been, not to put too fine a point on it, a hell of a few weeks for Glamorgan’s Mike Powell.Just over a month ago, he faced life-threatening complications following surgery on a blood clot which involved having a rib removed. Happily, he’s now recovering – and can see the lighter side of life, after having the rib buried at Sophia Gardens.It was his own idea, dreamt up during his time in hospital after doctors said he could keep the bone. He proposed the idea to the chief executive Mike Fatkin, not expecting him to agree.”He surprised me when he said ‘Yes’, but I was chuffed,” Powell told the . “I knew that a lot of people have had their ashes buried there, but I am the only living person ever to have part of their body buried there.”It felt quite weird when we buried it, but it was exciting. I am glad that part of me will be at Sophia Gardens for ever. That is my legacy to the club and it feels right.”The grass has not grown back properly yet, so everyone can see where it is, but I will always look out for it when I am fielding out there.”

Shoaib Akhtar has appealed against the Rs 300,000 (US$5,000) fine handed to him by the Pakistan board last week for leaving the Karachi training camp early and failing to appear at the subsequent disciplinary hearing.”I have appealed against the fine because I think I was not given the chance to give my version of events,” Shoaib told . The fine was imposed last Wednesday after Shoaib failed to turn up for a hearing the day before. Shoaib maintains he was made aware of the hearing two days it had taken place.Shafqat Naghmi, PCB’s chief operating officer, held a meeting with Shoaib today to discuss the events of last week. On Friday, Shoaib reportedly clashed with board officials over the fine at Gaddafi Stadium. Naghmi told , “There appears to have been some miscommunication which was probably the cause of this incident. An appellate committee will be set up to look into his stance now.”Naghmi added that Shoaib had assured the board he was fit and looking forward to playing for Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Championship, dismissing some reports which said he had threatened to pull out of the tournament.

Zimbabwe have been dealt a blow ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 when Sean Williams pulled a muscle in training.Williams pulled his right thigh on Monday and has not been able to do any training with the rest of the squad since then. A decision is still yet to be made on whether he will be on the plane when the squad leaves on Friday.Sources said newly appointed Zimbabwe coach Robin Brown is keen on takinghim to South Africa but it is still yet to be ascertained how long he would be out of action. Zimbabwe certainly need Williams, a left-handed top-order batsman, left-arm spinner and brilliant fielder at backward point.He recently recovered from a career-threatening back injury after extensive treatment in South Africa. He was thrown into the action in the three ODIs against South Africa and proved himself with a half century in the second match.

Kenya 8 for 1 trail Canada 263 (Dhaniram 78, Bhatti 57, Kamande 4-56) by 255 runs
Scorecard

Clichéd it might be, but the opening day of Kenya’s Intercontinental Cup tie against Canada at Nairobi Gymkhana was a see-saw affair. After a wretched middle-order collapse which left them 121 for 6, Canada recovered magnificently to close right back in the match.That Kenya were not in complete control was thanks to a seventh-wicket stand of 99 between Sunil Dhaniram and Umar Bhatti. Neither are slouches with the bat, but with Dhaniram attacking and Bhatti more cautious, they checked the Kenyans and then staged a solid recovery.On an overcast morning and with some dampness from overnight rain, Canada batted and made a good start, Abdul Jabbar breezily racing to 49 on his debut with some sumptuous drives in an opening stand of 68. Inexperience then got the better of him, and he perished trying to bring up his fifty by hitting offspinner Jimmy Kamnade over long-off.What followed was a complete collapse as Kamnade took 4 for 0 in ten balls. David Obuya held two catches close in front of the bat, while Mohammad Iqbal, who had been Jabbar’s subdued partner, drove tamely to mid-on. Kamande then ran out Ashif Mulla for good measure. This was all the more remarkable as Kamande was recovering from a head injury sustained when he was attacked by carjackers on Thursday night.At the other end, Hiren Varaiya was struggling, Qaiser Ali hitting him for three fours in eight balls, but Ali then opened up once too often and snicked high to point. to leave Canada on 121 for 6. Dhaniram had already started the counter-attack, picking Kamande off through the leg side. Bhatti had moments of luck, edging Thomas Odoyo perilously close to second slip and then top-edging Alfred Luseno over the keeper, but he also played some cracking square cuts.Kenya persevered with spin, strangling the partnership, and the pressure finally told when Dhaniram pulled Varaiya to mid-on. The slow men kept things tight – eight runs came from ten overs – but it was the return of the quicks that polished off the tail, the last three wickets falling in 14 balls.Kenya faced a tough 25 minutes and lost Maurice Ouma to the first ball. Ouma was criticised for his performances with the bat in South Africa, and his error of judgement here will hardly have mollified the selectors. But Canada’s pace attack missed a trick, opting to bombard nightwatchman Varaiya with bouncers rather than aim at his stumps. He ducked a few, took one in the ribs, and survived until the close.The last time they were here Canada struggled to acclimatise to the conditions and took several games to find their feet. Today, they found them inside two sessions.