England cricket coach Duncan Fletcher was certain he would havea full squad available for the first Test against Australia next month,despite injury concerns surrounding several tourists.England’s tour party flies out to Australia tomorrow for the five Testtour with clouds hanging over pacemen Darren Gough, Simon Jones and AndyFlintoff and batsmen Mark Butcher and Michael Vaughan.Gough, Jones and Flintoff will arrive in Australia still a long way fromfull fitness but Fletcher was confident the three first class matchesbefore the opening Test in Brisbane on November 7 would give them enoughtime to recover.Spearhead Gough, who has 228 Test wickets to his name, is vital toEngland’s bid to win back the Ashes for the first time since 1987.And Fletcher played down fears that knee surgery in the summer wouldkeep the 32-year-old out of at least the first two Tests.”We expect Gough to be fit for the first Test. He’s ahead of schedule,”Fletcher said.”He’s been bowling off a short run for the last week and a half.”Flintoff has not fully recovered from a hernia operation and said todayhe was still unable to run.Jones, however, was making good progress with his side strain, as wereButcher and Vaughan with their niggling knee injuries”Everybody is as we hoped. The only person that is slightly behindschedule is Andy but we do have time on our side,” Fletcher said.”We can get him along in the next 10 days or two weeks in Australia.”Simon Jones has been bowling in Glamorgan and is bowling at 85 to 90per cent.”Butcher and Vaughan, from what I’ve heard, they will be available fromthe start.”Fletcher today announced he had signed a one-year extension to hiscontract to keep him at the helm of the England side until 2004.”We have already laid the foundations of a successful side and thecontract extension will give me the opportunity to help the England teamprogress even further,” he said.

Victoria 2 for 14 trail South Australia 254 (Cosgrove 82, Manou 50) by 240 runs
ScorecardSouth Australia and Victoria were evenly poised in their Pura Cup match at the Adelaide Oval after a lacklustre opening day. Mark Cosgrove hit a stylish 82, with 13 boundaries, and his contribution lifted the home side from 4 for 68 after the captain, Graham Manou, won the toss and elected to bat.Manou chipped in with 50 while the No. 8, Mark Cleary, scored 40 as the lower order pushed the total past 250. The paceman Michael Lewis impressed early and finished with 3 for 34 while Mathew Inness also grabbed three as he cleaned up the tail.South Australia finished strongly as Shaun Tait picked up the valuable wickets of Matthew Elliott for 6 and the nightwatchman Lewis for a duck.

MCC have announced that there will be free admission for the next match at Lord’s, between MCC and another MCC – Melbourne Cricket Club. The game, which starts at 11am on Tuesday July 26, is the first in a sequence of six free-entry days at Lord’s.Mike Gatting, who recently completed his 1000 mile Ashes Walk to raise money for the Lord’s Taverner’s, will play for MCC along with the former Surrey batsman David Ward and the former England batsman Jon Stephenson.On Tuesday August 9, MCC play a Combined Services XI and, on August 28, there will be free admission to the National Village Cricket Championship final. MCC also announced “Kids 4 Free,” a joint initiative with Middlesex, allowing free entry for under 16s to the following matches:Wednesday August 3 – Middlesex v Warwickshire (County Championship, day one)Monday August 15 – Middlesex v Northamptonshire (NationalLeague)Thursday August 18 – Middlesex v Sussex (County Championship, day three)There are spaces for up to 80 boys and girls on each of these “Kids 4 Free” days. Parents or guardians can register their children – who must be aged eight to 16 – by calling the Middlesex CCC office at Lord’s, on 020 7289 1300.

South Africa’s domestic limited-overs season will get a star-studded launch with the annual Sports Trust Cricket Challenge at the Wanderers on November 10. The match traditionally pits the Standard Bank Cup winners against the Rest of South Africa, and this year’s game will see all 14 members of the South African squad to tour India in action.While Andrew Hall and Justin Ontong will represent the Highveld Lions, Ray Jennings, the new national coach, will pick his XI from the other 12 squad members. The squad have been in an intense training camp at the United Cricket Board’s High Performance Center at the University of Pretoria since last week, and this match will provide the players with an ideal opportunity to get some match practice ahead of their departure for India on Thursday.Aside from Ontong and Hall, the Highveld Lions – who beat Easterns in the final of the Standard Bank Cup last season – will feature five players with international experience, including Neil McKenzie, Adam Bacher, HD Ackerman and Derek Crookes.Rest of South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (capt), Boeta Dippenaar, Hashim Amla, Zander de Bruyn, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Rudolph, Thami Tsolekile, Alfonso Thomas, Martin van Jaarsveld.Highveld Lions (from): Andrew Hall, Adam Bacher, HD Ackerman (capt), Neil McKenzie, Justin Ontong, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Derek Crookes, Ahmed Omar, Eugene Moleon, David Terbrugge, Enoch Nkwe, Garnett Kruger.

Indonesia and Japan are among six teams who will compete in next week’s East Asia-Pacific Cup in Vanuatu, the ICC’s regional development body said today. Coaching staff from Western Australia and Victoria are backing the Indonesian and Japanese teams respectively in the EAP Cricket Cup, which is set down for Port Vila from September 23 to 29. The other competing teams are Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.The preparation of all six sides had been greatly assisted by development staff from Australian states and New Zealand provinces under the ICC EAPs State/Province Partnership Program. The teams will be competing for qualification into the EAP Cricket Trophy to be held in mid-2006, where the top two teams will challenge Fiji for a place in the global World Cricket League Division III. The event is part of the qualifying program for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Despite Sourav Ganguly’s plea that his ongoing spat with coach Greg Chappell should remain between the two men involved, his team mate, Harbhajan Singh, has spoken out in support of his captain – and accused Chappell of instilling “fear and insecurity” among the players. Ganguly’s team mates have remained understandably quiet – until now: Harbhajan is the first player to voice his opinion.Speaking to PTI, he urged that the controversy would reach its conclusion as soon as possible. “Whenever any controversy surrounds the team, the performance of team is adversely affected,” he said.”It will be good for the team if the controversy is immediately resolved so that every player can concentrate on his game instead of getting mental tension.”And Harbhajan denied the accusation that Ganguly wasn’t fit to captain the side, adding “…it may be the coach’s [Chappell’s] own observation but, as far as I am concerned, Ganguly has been proved as an excellent captain, which is evident from his match winning record.”The spinner also dismissed the notion that Ganguly was only interested in captaincy and creating difficulty among team members. “I have played for almost five years under the captaincy of Ganguly and never felt like that,” he insisted. “In fact, he takes personal interest to boost each and every player during practice as well as during a match.”Ganguly has rebuilt this team and whatever the team has achieved so far, credit goes to the captain.”

With the Indian board still dilly-dallying over telecast rights for cricket played in India over the next four years, Nimbus Communications Ltd, a noted production house, has come forward with an interim solution and offered to produce and market the forthcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka and South Africa.The marketing committee of the board, which met in Mumbai on October 16, couldn’t come to a final decision regarding awarding of rights as a few “legal issues” were still pending. Harish Thawani, the chief executive producer of Nimbus, confirmed this while speaking to : “Our board of directors met recently to discuss the issue and we all felt the matter should not be allowed to drag unnecessarily.” Nimbus, who have earlier been part of big events like the 1999 and 2003 World Cups, recently produced the Challenger Series, India’s premier domestic one-day competition, which was televised by Zee Sports.It is reliably learnt that Nimbus have offered an amount “much higher” than the other channels and that Rs 25million (US$558,000) was a fair estimate. The marketing committee of the board, according to sources, discussed the issue at their meeting yesterday.Thawani added that if the board allows them to produce the series – an unlikely prospect since Nimbus haven’t bid for the television rights – they would look for TV channels to come forward and support them. “We don’t want any legal hassles,” he said, “If at all we are permitted by the BCCI to produce the series, we want the television channels to [bidders] to come forward to support the cause.”

Stung by reports that the country’s provincial chairmen had met to discuss the possibility of proposing a no-confidence motion against the Zimbabwe Cricket board, Cricinfo has learned that senior board officials have been travelling the country in a bid to quell the rebellion.The chairmen met at the Old Hararians Club on Friday, October 21 and the result was a lengthy letter to the board demanding answers to some serious questions over the way that it has been operating.Zimbabwe Cricket initially denied that there was disharmony, but behind the scenes officials are reported to have started mobilising local activists in a bid to undermine the authority of the chairmen.The main efforts of the pro-board lobby appear to have been aimed towards usurping Max Ebrahim as chairman of Masvingo province. Last week, Ebrahim, who has been increasingly critical of ZC in recent weeks, told sources that Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman, had visited the province to talk to clubs.In Manicaland, a meeting was interrupted by Supa Mandiwanzira – a former broadcaster with the state-run Zimbabwe Television who now owns his own company called Mighty Movies – who was accompanied by what one eyewitness described as “heavies from Harare”. He told the meeting that he wanted to be part of the province’s board. The gathering descended into chaos, and at one stage Allan Walsh, the Manicaland chairman, was assaulted. The state-controlled Herald newspaper later stated that Walsh had been replaced and a new provincial board had pledged its support to ZC.ZC has also begun the process of creating five new provinces, and so the board now appears to be able to muster enough votes to see off all challengers. But some serious issues have been raised, and with the players also at odds with the board, it is unlikely that the lid can be kept on for that much longer.Any suggestions that the move was designed to help the board retain control were inadvertently scuppered by a comment in the Herald. “Mliswa revealed yesterday that he was now leading the crusade to have other provincial set-ups running by the time the ZC holds its special meeting where they can be duly incorporated.” And where their votes will swing the balance.

Washington 250 for 7 (49.1 overs, Chitneni 69, Srikanth 60, Chalise 51) beat Florida136 (39.2 overs, Mark 63) by 124 runs
Exciting strokeplay by Washington’s opening pair – yielding a 140-run opening partnership- set the tone for the last game of Group A. Throughout the innings, Florida had little chance of any comeback and Washington reached a formidable total of 250 after their quota of 50 overs. Their batting performance was ably supported by the Washington bowlers, with Bardan Chalise, Mehul, and Suresh taking three wickets each. The only resistance came from Florida’s Mark, who scored 63 runs. With this win, Washington qualify for the third-place game on Sunday against North Carolina.Group BNorth Carolina 248 (49.1 overs, Ani Khandekar 58) v Virginia 235 for 5 (35 overs, Ameeq Khan 115) – Virginia were declared winner based on their superior run rate at close of play.
This game, the last match in Group B, was one of the most exciting and intense battles fought in Florida this week. Emotions ran high as the two neighbouring states were in a tight contest until the very end. North Carolina batted first and score 260 in the allotted 50 overs. The umpires and match referee then awarded NC a further 24 runs, penalizing Virginia for running over their time limit to bowl the 50 overs. With the knowledge that they may not be able to complete their quota of 50 overs, VA concentrated on maintaining a run rate slightly above NC’s 5.68 per over. Ameeq Khan was the pick of the VA batting. Khan became the second centurion in the MLC competition, scoring 115 in today’s game. Umpires called bad light after 35 overs, at which point VA run rate was 6.7, and were awarded the game.Virginia will now face the mighty Texans in the finals of the National Interstate Cup tomorrow (12/4) at Brian Picolo Park Ground 1.Remaining MatchesDec 4 – Final: Virginia vs Texas – 3rd-Place Play-off: Washington v North Carolina
Dec 5 – MLC 20/20 Festival: MLC`A v MLC B – West Indies Players’ Association v England Players’ Association. The final starts at 2pm

Points table

Having put up an awesome show in the current season, Baroda appear favourites in their five-day Ranji Trophy Elite group semi-final encounter against Bengal beginning at the Eden Gardens tomorrow.Bengal, who pipped Karnataka at the post with a last-over win against Railways which lifted them to the second place in Group A with 13 points, are also quietly confident. Deep Dasgupta, Bengal captain, has said that it is going to be just another match for the hosts. “There is no pressure on us as such. We are not taking this game as a semi-final. It is going to be just another match which we want to win. The young guys have played well and have shown that they can shoulder responsibilities.” With Rohan Gavaskar leading the run tally (422 runs) and with Arindam Das, Deep Dasgupta, Subhamoy Das, Avishek Jhunjhunwala – who hit a magnificient 139 to defeat Railways – and Manoj Tiwari in fine nick Bengal’s batting looks in good shape. It’s the bowling which will be bit of worry for the hosts. With Ranadeb Bose and Shiv Sagar Singh, the left-arm spinner, having a disappointing season Bengal will look once again to their in-form bowlers – Sourashish Lahiri and Shib Shankar Paul – to spearhead their attack.Meanwhile, Baroda, who coasted to outright victories in three Group B league games enroute to topping the pool with 19 points, the highest among all the 15 teams competing in the elite panel, are upbeat about their chances. “We have not lost any of the matches. And our confidence is at an all-time high,” BS Sandhu, Baroda’s coach, said. They had beaten Hyderabad by 220 runs, carved out an emphatic innings and 93 run win over Uttar Pradesh and humbled Punjab by 50 runs, riding on outstanding batting performances from the likes of Jacob Martin, Pinal Shah, Connor Willams and RK Solanki.In the bowling department, Rajesh Pawar, the left armspinner, and Rakesh Patel – who returns after missing out two Ranji games owing to injury- have served the team well. Martin, the captain, has been particularly brilliant, piling up 486 runs, including an unbeaten 251 against Uttar Pradesh. However, Baroda would miss the services of an injured Satyajit Parab – out with a knee injury – who could not be fit in time for the match. India u-19 wicketkeeper Pinal Shah is expected to open with Wiliams.Martin admitted that Parab’s absence will be felt in the match. “Obviously we are going to miss him and his experience,” he said. The Baroda team management announced the 12 for the match, and said that the playing XI would be decided tomorrow after a final look at the pitch. “We will then decide whether to go for an additional batsman or an additional seamer,” said Sandhu, a member of the World Cup-winning Indian team of 1983.