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Ricky Ponting will take his annual mid-season holiday and miss Australia’s CB Series match against England in Brisbane on Friday. The resting and rotation policy means Brad Hodge will come into the 14-man squad that will be captained by Adam Gilchrist, who will have Michael Hussey as his deputy.Last year Ponting was heavily criticised because his break took in Australia Day, the national holiday, but this time his leave has been brought forward after his side easily won its first two games of the tournament. Australia beat England by eight wickets on Friday and New Zealand by 105 runs on Sunday, with Ponting scoring 82 not out and 10.”We feel that Ricky needs and deserves a break,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. “He has played every match for Australia in all forms of the game since the DLF final in Malaysia in September, and we think this is the right time for him to allow his body to rest ahead of the World Cup. Hodge is a logical replacement.”Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath have benefited from mini-breaks during previous years and players who appear in both Tests and ODIs are the most likely to be given time off ahead of the tour of the Caribbean starting in March. Ben Hilfenhaus, who collected 1 for 26 on debut on Sunday, will act as cover for McGrath and Brett Lee, who has been suffering from a chest infection.McGrath missed the New Zealand match with a minor groin injury and will be reassessed on Wednesday. Alex Kountouris, the Australia physiotherapist, said Lee felt better after a bout of bronchitis and expected to be available on Friday. If Hilfenhaus is not required he will turn out for Tasmania against Queensland in a Pura Cup game starting in Hobart on Friday.Australia squad Adam Gilchrist (capt, wk), Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Cameron White, Brett Lee, Brad Hogg, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath, Ben Hilfenhaus.

The Titans are considering taking action over comments made by their former players Pierre de Bruyn and Alfonso Thomas about the Titans coach Richard Pybus last week. The two players were released from their Titans contracts in January and signed with the Dolphins, and on Friday they came up against their old team in the Pro20 final.Before the decider, which the Titans won, de Bruyn and Thomas slammed their former team and coach in the Afrikaans newspaper . “We owe the Dolphins a win in the final after they gave us a lifeline after being chased away from the Titans like dogs,” de Bruyn said.Their attacks on Pybus included describing him as “one-dimensional” and “a very boring coach”. de Bruyn was critical of what he called “yoga and other nonsense” that Pybus included in the team’s preparations. “The players get so drained from this that on completion one does not know where you are,” de Bruyn said.Pybus had the last laugh when the Titans secured an 18-run win in the final but his employers said in a statement they took extreme exception to the comments of de Bruyn and Thomas and the issue might not be closed. “The franchise will be taking the matter further through the channels available to it,” the statement said.”Pybus’ track record as a coach who has won four trophies in three years as well as the number of national players that he has produced is exceptional. This, together with his grooming of the next crop of Titans stars, must place him as a top contender for the domestic coach of the year award.”

Saurabh Bandekar

Bandekar, a handy medium-pace bowler and batsman for Goa, has played 13 matches for India Under-19, including the 2006 World Cup in Sri Lanka. This speaks a lot for a player coming from Goa, hardly a feeder of talent for the national side. He started off as an opener for Goa U-14s, but has since slipped down the batting order. During his transition through the age groups to the senior Goa side, Bandekar improved on his bowling and now opens the bowling for his state. During the U-19 World Cup, his spell of 3 for 36 helped knock England out of the tournament.Last season, List A
Runs: 51, Ave: 17
Wickets: 6, Ave: 35.83Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 56, S/R: 71.79<br20-0-133-5

Swapnil Asnodkar

Battling amid the ruins that Goa normally find themselves in, the 23-year-old Asnodkar, Goa’s No. 3, has always been up against the odds. While analysing his stats – 1850 first-class runs at 37 – one must keep in mind the burden he has needed to shoulder in his six first-class seasons. He cracked 104 and 83 not out in last season’s Ranji one-day tournament, but it was his fiery run-a-ball 107, while opening for South Zone against East in the Deodhar Trophy, that made people take notice.Last season, List A
Runs: 470, Ave: 58.75Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 69, S/R: 116.94

Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane, an aggressive opener, is yet to play a Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai, but has already struck two centuries in his first two first-class games – against Karachi Urban in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy and against Rest of India in the Irani Trophy. In 2007, he had an impressive Under-19 tour to New Zealand, where he scored 358 at 71.6 in Tests and 144 at 48 in ODIs. He is rated highly in the Mumbai circles, and looks like one for the future for the state, if not higher.Last season, List A
Runs: 162, Ave: 54Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 120, S/R: 93.02

Arjun Yadav

Yadav first came across as a promising batsman coming through the age groups, but eight years since his first-class debut, the promise is yet to transform. Strong performances in age-group cricket had earned him a place in the Indian Under-19 team for the World Cup in 1999-2000, but he did not play a single match in India’s victory there. Since then he has been a fairly regular fixture in the Hyderabad team, and has been picked for zonal and India A squads. Over seven seasons of first-class cricket, he has managed an average of 28.51.Last season, List A
Runs: 210, Ave: 26.25Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 17, S/R: 77.27

Rakesh Dhurv

Dhurv has been one of the most consistent performers for Saurashtra over the years, and played a key role in his teams’ capturing of the Ranji Plate title two years ago. A steady left-arm spinner to begin with, Dhurv has worked hard on his batting and has become a useful No. 6. On a few occasions, he has narrowly missed making it to the West Zone side for the Duleep Trophy.Last season, List A
Wickets: 4, Ave: 35
Last season, Twenty20
15-0-94-3

Shaun Pollock, the South Africa allrounder, has announced his retirement from international cricket following the second day’s play against West Indies in Durban. The current Test, his 108th, will be his last and the one-day series that follows the final matches for his country.”I’d like to thank Cricket South Africa for allowing me the opportunity of representing my country for the last 12 years,” Pollock told a press conference after the day’s play. “I thoroughly enjoy the honour and privilege of wearing the Protea badge and take with me some remarkable memories having played against some great players.”I made the decision at the start of the season that the West Indies series would be my last,” he said. “I have been fortunate to be in a team that has had the calibre of players to beat any opposition on any given day. I have made some wonderful friendships and have played against some remarkable characters.”Pollock, 34, regained his Test place for the deciding match against West Indies after not playing in the five-day game since January 2007. He currently stands on 420 Test wickets, the most by a South African, and 387 in ODIs. There is a chance he will finish with 400 in both forms depending on his success in the one-day series against West Indies.Pollock was thrust into the captaincy of South Africa in April 2000 when Hansie Cronje was drummed out of the game, and he faced the biggest challenge of his career – to lift a shocked and demoralised South African side. However, after a solid start to his captaincy, he lost some credibility after a 3-0 drubbing in Australia in 2001-02, and was later blamed for South Africa’s disastrous World Cup in which they failed to qualify for the Super Sixes.As a result, Pollock immediately lost the captaincy and was replaced by Graeme Smith. Though his nagging brilliance around off stump remained, his pace and ability to take wickets at the top of the order dipped in latter years.”I realise I have been blessed by God,” he said, “and feel I have nurtured my talents to the best of my abilities.”

Scorecard

England’s pace bowlers enjoyed a productive workout as they blew away a strong New Zealand Invitational XI batting line-up on the second day in Dunedin. The match ended in a draw, but that was almost irrelevant as this was never more than an early-tour loosener for the tourists.The home side’s top order contained four players likely to feature in the first Test next week, but replying to England’s overnight 369, they were skittled for 146. Even that represented a recovery as they had been 26 for 5 midway through the morning session. James Anderson and Matthew Hoggard shared six wickets while Steve Harmison grabbed two in a performance which improved after a wayward start.Rather than another two hours batting practice, Michael Vaughan enforced the follow-on and Monty Panesar took two wickets as the NZ Invitational XI closed on 102 for 3.”It’s always nice to knock a few of the batsmen you’re going to play against maybe next week over cheaply,” Vaughan said. “Steve gets better and better the longer he bowls, he was one of the reasons we went out and bowled again.”We’ve learnt a little bit about the conditions and the ball is swinging, which is good for us and hopefully that will continue. Before the game started we came up with a plan that we were going to bat a day and they were going to bat a day, but we bowled them out.”I thought there was an opportunity to get some more wickets and also to get some more overs in our legs as fielders and a bowling unit, which is important because we’ve only got the three-day game to go before the Test. We could have taken the option to bat on for a little bit, but I thought overs in the legs and in the field would be just as important.”The one downer for England was that Ryan Sidebottom was unable to bowl because of a hamstring strain he picked up in the last ODI on Saturday. He will sit out the three-day warm-up match at the same venue starting on Thursday.”We’re not concerned about him for the Test match at this stage and it’s a little bit of a precaution that he’ll miss the three-day game, but he has got a slight problem so there has to be some concern,” Vaughan said. “Hopefully over the next few days he’ll heal fast and he’ll be able to start bowling towards the end of the three-day game or when we arrive in Hamilton (for the first Test).”

Lancashire handed the National League title they have won for the last two years to Gloucestershire by beating Somerset in a thrilling day-night match at Old Trafford.Somerset were the only team who could overhaul Gloucestershire but they fell 10 runs short of Lancashire’s 236 for four despite a brilliant century from their Australian captain Jamie Cox – with Gloucestershire’s players watching nervously in a Brighton hotel.Lancashire are still virtually certain to be relegated but at least they salvaged some pride despite the absence of four England players – Mike Atherton, Andy Flintoff and the injured John Crawley and Peter Martin.Sourav Ganguly was their hero, scoring his third one-day century of the season after stand-in skipper Warren Hegg had won the toss and chosen to bat.Ganguly, who has failed to score a century in the Championship, made 102 from 137 balls with eight boundaries, sharing stands of 82 with Mark Chilton and 115 in 19 overs with Neil Fairbrother.It took the Indian left-hander’s tally in 11 National League games to 532 runs at an average of almost 60, in addition to 262 runs from four NatWest Trophy innings.Fairbrother also played a key role with another one-day masterclass, scoring 62 from 56 balls with six fours and a pair of sixes over long on.Mark Lathwell gave Somerset’s reply the perfect start with 53 from 83 balls including six stylish boundaries.He was bowled by Gary Keedy but as long as Cox was in, Somerset’s title hopes were very much alive.The Tasmanian cruised to three figures in only 98 balls despite only hitting five boundaries, including a straight six off Chris Schofield.But Schofield played a vital part in Lancashire’s victory, claiming the wickets of Michael Burns and Ian Blackwell and also running out Keith Parsons with a direct hit from backward point.But as so often for Lancashire, it was Ian Austin who applied the finishing touches.Somerset needed 23 from three overs when Austin returned to the attack and he put Somerset under so much pressure that Cox was run out by Glen Chapple.Austin then polished off two wickets in the last over as Lancashire enjoyed only their fifth win of the season.But they will hardly have enjoyed handing the title to Gloucestershire, who virtually condemned them to relegation at Bristol on Monday after beating them at the semi final stage of both the NatWest Trophy and Benson and Hedges Cup earlier this season.

Alexander Downer, Australia’s foreign minister, said a visit to Zimbabwe by Australia’s cricketers would be “a propaganda victory” for Robert Mugabe. Downer said he would meet with Cricket Australia this week to discuss the tour, scheduled for September, but he believed the players should take a stand against Mugabe’s regime by boycotting the trip.”We can’t … formally ban them but I’ll be meeting with … Cricket Australia … during the course of this week and we’ll be having a series of discussions about how to manage this,” Downer said on the Perth radio station 6PR. “Normally I’m not a great fan of bringing politics into sport but in this particular case I think it is appropriate we should … take a very [tough] stand against Mugabe’s regime and do our best to stop the cricketers.”The government has already said it will pay any fine imposed by the ICC on CA if it cancels the tour, a stance reiterated by Downer. “But we haven’t reached that point yet and I need to talk through all the details of their contracts with them,” he said.”My view is that the tour shouldn’t go ahead and if it were to go ahead then Australia – which is after all the world championship team – would give Zimbabwe’s regime and its president, who has been the patron of Zimbabwe Cricket Association, a propaganda victory, a propaganda coup.”This is a horrific regime in Zimbabwe and we should take a stand against it, and included amongst those who should take a stand are our cricketers.” Ricky Ponting said last week each Australian player would be asked his opinion on whether the tour should go ahead.

Rahul Dravid has declared himself ready to open in the Boxing Day Test against Australia and he believes India’s promising middle-order prospects can no longer be ignored. While Dravid would not confirm if the plan was set in stone, India gave a strong indication of their strategy by sending him in with Wasim Jaffer to begin their rain-affected tour match against Victoria.Dravid survived the 158 minutes of play that were possible, reaching 33 not out, and a move to the top of the order in the Test might open the door for Yuvraj Singh to retain his place after he made 169 in the final Test against Pakistan earlier this month. Sachin Tendulkar did not play in that match and will need to slot back in, leaving the selectors to ponder the make-up of their batting order.”We’ve had a very strong middle order over these years, a lot of the same people have played in the middle order a lot,” Dravid said. “We’ve got a lot of good young middle-order batsmen coming in who can’t really be ignored.”Three of his top-order colleagues fell around him and the Junction Oval but Dravid was typically careful, happy just to spend some time at the crease after his disappointing Test series against England and Pakistan. In the three Pakistan Tests he felt he didn’t have “the rub of the green”, and scored 38, 34, 50, 8 not out, 19 and 42.”It’s been a strange series in the sense I got a few starts, maybe played a couple of average shots as well,” Dravid said. “I’ve spent a bit of time in the middle so I feel like I’m playing well, I’m moving my feet and batting well.”But he will have to take that confidence into the unfamiliar role of opener in the first Test, and if Melbourne’s thundery weather continues as expected on Friday and Saturday his preparation might be very limited. Dravid has opened 13 times in Tests, averaging 33.54, and he has not filled the role since February 2006.”I’ve batted all my career in different positions,” he said. “Batting at three you probably come in early a few times as well, but it is a little different. It’s a little bit with the mindset, you’re used to batting in a particular position.”Right from the time I was in school I played in the middle order so you get used to something like that. But as a professional cricketer and as a professional sportsman you’re adaptability is important. The critical thing for me is the changeover – you have just ten minutes [between innings].”India’s impressive results last time they toured Australia – the 2003-04 series was drawn 1-1 – came largely through strong batting and Dravid conceded he would be under pressure to maintain that standard if he opens in the Tests. “As we showed last time if we can get through the early part with the new ball without the loss of too many wickets, we’ve got the kind of batting and people who can make it count later on,” he said.The three-day warm-up match in Melbourne was reduced to only the post-lunch session as heavy rain bookended the day’s play. A torrential downpour came right on tea and the Junction Oval was almost completely under water, but within an hour and a half the rain had stopped and the grass was again visible.Dravid said it would be disappointing if India’s only practice match was washed out ahead of the first Test in what he called the most challenging tour of all. Last time they visited Australia India had good weather for their two tour matches before the series began, and Dravid said that preparation was ideal.”We would definitely have liked more than one warm-up game,” he said. “[But] international cricket is cramped nowadays. We’ll just have to do the best with what we’ve got.”

Sachin Tendulkar could have a stake in the ownership of the Mumbai team that will be part of the Indian Premier League (IPL), according to reports in the media.The Kishore Biyani-owned Future Group, which has expressed an interest in becoming a franchisee of the IPL, is in talks with Tendulkar to jointly bid for the Mumbai side, a report in the said.The Future Group and the Manipal Group, the report said, have already entered into a joint venture with Tendulkar for their new sports initiative; the launch of a variety of products in the health supplement, sports goods, fitness equipment and lifestyle accessories categories.The products are set to be marketed under names S Drive and Sach, which would be retailed across the multiple Future Group formats like Big Bazaar, Central, Planet Sports and Manipal Cure & Care.A stake in the Mumbai team would ensure Tendulkar a fixed fee on an annual basis and a variable component depending on the team’s profits. It would also mean that the team could use Tendulkar’s presence to attract other cricketers.However, Future Group and Tendulkar’s management team have both brushed aside these suggestions.Rajiv Shukla, BCCI vice-president and a member of the IPL’s governing council, also ruled out the possibility of Tendulkar owning a team. “He [Tendulkar] is playing, so where does the question of buying a team comes from? When someone is playing, how can he buy a team?” Shukla told Times Now, a news channel. MP Pandove, the BCCI’s joint secretary, expressed similar views: “Any player contracted with the board can’t have stakes in participating teams.”The IPL is scheduled to be held next April and the sale of its television rights in the near future is expected to see stiff competition. The IPL governing council has invited three broadcasters – ESPN-Star, Nimbus Sports and Sony Entertainment Television – for a presentation concerning the rights on November 17.

The UK government has said it will support the ECB if they decide to cancel Zimbabwe’s tour of England next year although denied reports it was considering a blanket ban on sportsmen from the country.The BBC’s programme cited “Downing Street sources” and said that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was keen to take a tough stance against the Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and that banning Zimbabweans from competing on British soil could be part of that.However, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the government had been “surprised” by the story and added: “It is not the case that the Prime Minister is considering a blanket ban on Zimbabwe’s sportsmen.”The spokesman also said that a decision on Zimbabwe’s tour was down to the ECB. “If they decided they want to ban Zimbabwe, we would support them.”The future of the tour has been a long-running debate. The prospect of refusing to host Zimbabwe would run into strong opposition from the ICC and could put England’s staging of the ICC World Twenty20, due for June 2009, in jeopardy. Zimbabwe are due to play two Tests and three one-day internationals next summer although they are yet to return to the Test scene following their self-imposed suspension.The ECB would have to pay an estimated £225,000 in compensation under ICC rules if the one-day matches were cancelled. They have already held talks with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union to try to reach a financial settlement to call off the tour.A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: “There are ongoing discussions between the government and the ECB, but no decisions have been made.”An ECB spokesman added the board would not comment until it had discussed the matter with government officials. Last month the foreign secretary David Miliband said a Zimbabwean tour of England would be inappropriate. “The situation in Zimbabwe is obviously deeply concerning. I think that bilateral cricket tours at the moment don’t send the right message about our concern.”