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The last remaining general public tickets for the Ashes Tests at the Gabba and the MCG will go on sale on Wednesday. There are 950 tickets remaining for day two at the Gabba Test, 2000 for day three and 3500 for day four. About 950 tickets are still available for day two of the MCG Test, 4000 for day three and 15,000 for day four.About 1600 tickets also remain for the Twenty20 international between Australia and England at the SCG on January 9. The Test and Twenty20 tickets can be bought on the internet, by phone or through outlets via the ticket agency in the state where the matches will be played. They go on sale from 10am AEDT on Wednesday.There are also about 2000 tickets still available for day five of the second Test at Adelaide Oval. The Adelaide tickets were part of the original allocation and are on sale now.

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kenya will get in their final bit of practice ahead of the Twenty20 World Championship in a four-nation tournament beginning in Nairobi tomorrow. Uganda will relish the opportunity to play against higher opposition and dip their fingers into the slam-bang form of the game that has grown in popularity.The tournament begins with Kenya taking on Bangladesh and Pakistan playing Uganda. The most anticipated match, between Bangladesh and Pakistan, is on September 2.Geoff Lawson, the former Australian fast bowler and current coach of Pakistan, sees the tournament as an opportunity to practice. “We can prepare strategies, try and find the right balances, work out plans and play any number of practice games but that can only take you so far,” Lawson said. “Until the first match happens, we won’t really know what to expect.”Pakistan, with big names that can attract the crowds in Nairobi, are easy favourites to lift the tournament because of their Twenty20 experience. Shoaib Malik, who recently said that the captaincy has made him stronger, Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridi are all big hitters of the cricket ball, and Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar are two exciting fast bowlers who form a lethal opening combination.Bangladesh, who have not played international cricket since late July, warmed up for the Twenty20 World Championship with a number of practice matches in Mirpur, near Dhaka. Mohammad Ashraful, the captain, hoped this tournament would offer much-needed exposure ahead of the bigger prize in South Africa.”It is good for us to play in this tournament since we expect the Kenyan conditions to be the same as in South Africa,” he told AFP. “We have not played many Twenty20 matches and this tournament will help gauge the playing abilities of the players.”Kenya struggled recently against the A sides of India and Sri Lanka and have little experience of the Twenty20 game. Uganda, led by Joel Olweny, have four Under-19 players – Roger Mukasa, Arthur Kyobe, Charles Waiswa and Ronald Ssemanda – and three new faces in Martin Ondeko, Kebba Nicholas and Jeremy Kibuuka-Musoke.The four-day competition will be completed when Pakistan face Kenya on September 4; two days later the teams – barring Uganda – fly to Johannesburg for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship.

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.

Simon Jones has targeted England’s tour to the Caribbean in March next year as a possible comeback date from his knee injury. Jones has slowly worked his way back to fitness after tearing his cruciate ligament in the Ashes series last November and he played a few games for Glamorgan’s 2nd XI at the end of last season. He will also be with the academy this winter.”The knee is nice and strong, obviously it gets stiff from time to time, but apart from that it has been good,” Jones said. “I’ve been itching to get back and to play three games in the second XI for Glamorgan at the end of last season was a big bonus for me.”Months ago I thought about the tour of Bangladesh that England are on now as a time for my comeback, but it didn’t happen and now I’m looking to West Indies next year. It is a personal goal of mine to play for England again then.”Jones’s horror fall at Brisbane is now nearly a year ago and he has made good strides towards a full recovery. “I’ve got a good medical team around me and they’ve looked after me well through my rehab,” he said. “I will concentrate on working my socks off until Christmas and then go on tour with the academy to Malaysia and India in the new year. Coming to the academy will help me. I know I need to work on my fitness and my bowling action as well and this is a perfect opportunity for me.”

Rahul Dravid’s classy century, and his partnership with VVS Laxman, ensured that India took most of the honours on the first day of the Ahmedabad Test. For New Zealand, the highlight of the day was the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, who was nailed by Scott Styris for only 8. Here is what Dravid and Styris had to say after the first day’s play:Rahul Dravid
On the situation when Tendulkar got out
At 113 for 3, there was a little bit of pressure. The game was still in the balance. New Zealand were bowling well, and we needed a partnership, which we got.On the pitch
The wicket is a bit slow, but it looks like it is going to last all five days. I’m usually not very good at reading pitches, but I hope this one starts turning from the third or fourth day.On Akash Chopra
I thought Akash played well, considering it was his first Test match. He saw off the new ball well, which is what we needed.On his partnership with VVS Laxman
Laxman and I have batted together right from junior-level cricket, so there is really no secret formula to us batting well together. We know each other’s game, and know how to keep each other going. If my concentration is flagging, Laxman knows how to get it up again, and vice versa.On his innings
I thought I played well, and it’s always good to do well against New Zealand. They are a good outfit, and they are well prepared and well planned. Looking at some of their field placings today, it was obvious that they had come well researched. So it is nice to do well against that sort of opposition.On why Laxman came out before Sourav Ganguly
I don’t know, actually. It wasn’t something we had discussed before, so I was as surprised as anybody to see Laxman come out to bat.On India’s strategy for the remainder of the game
The first session tomorrow will be crucial, and we basically have to try and bat once, bat big. Then we can concentrate on bowling them out twice.Scott Styris
On New Zealand’s performance
It was pretty warm out there, so I think the boys stuck to the task pretty well. It was our first full day of fielding after a long time, and naturally it all fell away a little towards the end. Our fielding isn’t usually a problem, it’s just early in the season after a bit of a break. But I thought we did reasonably and we can be pleased with our bowling.On getting Tendulkar’s wicket
Well, obviously I was pleased, especially to get him in India. It is one thing to do it in New Zealand, but another to do it in his own country, where he is a prized scalp. If you get Sachin Tendulkar for 8 any day of the week, it’s getting him out cheaply. We were a bit astounded, frankly, to get him like that. With somebody like him, you basically have to be precise. He didn’t score quickly, and we were very patient. I suppose it worked today, because we got him cheaply.On the pitch:
It is starting to break up a bit now, but it is a good wicket still. I think the Indian run rate today was a bit slow, but that was only because the fast bowlers and [Daniel] Vettori bowled very tidily and well. If we had gotten one more wicket towards the end, it would have been our day.On Rahul Dravid’s innings
He’s just such a solid player, and especially in conditions that favour batting, he is very difficult to get. It was a fantastic innings. His wicket is almost as prized in the New Zealand camp as Sachin Tendulkar’s, and he’s very highly respected by us.

Sourav Ganguly was greatly relieved yesterday when the ICC rescindedhis two-match suspension, which allowed him to play the second Test against South Africa in the Kolkata. As Ganguly noted at the pre-match press conference this morning, he had already missed four out of eight Test matches this year to injury, andhad been troubled by the prospect of having to sit out another two Tests.But there is also another reason why the captain does not want to missout on a chance to play. He is in a rather beleaguered state at the moment,and his authority is open to question as never before. But he canjustly claim to have had a major influence of shaping this Indian team, and hewants to prove that he still belongs among them, as both leader andplayer.India’s form in both Tests and one-dayers has been a distinct three orfour notches below that of last season, and there’s only so long thathe can keep fending off the charges being levelled at him by his critics.Ganguly also did he himself no favours by pulling out abruptly of theNagpur Test, and he has spent so much time on the sidelines this seasonthat he has every reason to fear that his players may grow used tobeing without him.There could be nothing better for Ganguly in the short-term than avictory, something to clear the darkening clouds of dissatisfaction andresentment that have built around in the cricket-watching public’sperception of Team India. Critics have asked if he still has thepassion and the energy for the captaincy, a draining task at the best of times.He needs to answer them with results. He could also do with a big score,as it has been a year – Brisbane in early December 2003 – since hisbatting had a major effect on a Test match, and also because his record atKolkata has been poor. Even though he is a veteran, he probably has more atstake in the game than anyone else.It is not without reason that Ganguly’s critics say that the time hascome to give up the top job to another man. It is possible that even some ofthose sympathetic to Ganguly might believe this is the course of actionthat is best for him. Captaining the Indian side, absorbing theintense scrutiny and measuring up to the expectations of millions ofpassionate followers must be the toughest assignment in world cricket,and not something the strain of which a man can bear for more than afew years.An example of this was witnessed by this writer this very morning.After a stint at nets, Ganguly walked off the ground and into the pavilion. Agroup of people, perhaps about 70 strong, had managed to get into theground to watch the players, and as Ganguly passed below they made arush for the railings, calling out: "Dada! Dada! Dada!"Why were they calling out in such a frenzy to a man occupied with his work and with a dozen important things on his mind? For a wave of the bat in return,perhaps, or some other mark of acknowledgement – some little thing totake away as a sign that they had been in proximity to the captain of India,and shared some interaction with him.Sometimes it must seem to Ganguly as if all of India is on its toes,shouting at him in many accents: "Dada! Dada! Dada!" Can he continue tosteer his way through the tumult for much longer? We shall know – maybenot at Kolkata, but soon enough.

The West Indians have arrived and are ready to play Test cricket, but the Wankhede Stadium is not up to it. The pitch has not seen any cricket on it, the outfield is so hard and patchy that parts of it have been painted green to fool the world, and the take-up of tickets has been 40%. It is, perversely, all Sachin Tendulkar’s fault.Mumbai, Tendulkar’s home ground, was meant to have hosted the third Test of this series, not the first. But the Indian and Mumbai cricket boards felt obliged to make Tendulkar the first player to have an itinerary rescheduled on the occasion of his 101st Test.So now, the preparation time for a newly-laid centre has not been enough, the outfield has not been pampered as it should have been, and, because the match now falls just before exam time rather than during the Diwali holidays, students have not flocked in. Without Brian Lara, West Indies are a far less saleable product anyway. And at 38 degrees centigrade, it is five degrees hotter than a typical October in Mumbai – which is none of Tendulkar’s fault.The contest is not expected to go beyond the fourth day – if the players don’t melt before that. The Wankhede pitch was never short of support for the bowlers in the first place. The previous two Tests here both ended in three days – India lost both. There was enough bounce and seam movement for the South Africans and Australians – and turn too, for Shane Warne and Mark Waugh – to exploit, and in both matches, Tendulkar, and he alone among the Indians, stood tall. While the curator expects the new pitch to retain the general properties of the Wankhede surface, there is a fear that it is underdone, and will keep lower.India will field an improved version of the XI that played their last two Tests, in England. The balance will be the same – two spinners, two seamers and the gentle swing of Sanjay Bangar. But Javagal Srinath, who has apparently rethought Test retirement without having said so, will play ahead of Ajit Agarkar, who is no longer even in the squad.West Indies will need to fill Lara’s hole in the middle, and the man most likely to do that is Ryan Hinds, a young attacking left-hander. As if one Hinds, Wavell, who spanked a carefree 147 in the solitary warm-up game at Bangalore, was not enough. The seam bowling will be led by Mervyn Dillon, supported by Cameron Cuffy and Pedro Collins. Mahendra Nagamootoo will bowl his brisk legspin. Carl Hooper, despite a precautionary MRI scan on his knees, remains fit to lead in what will be his 100th Test. (Yes, he will be presented a memento along with Tendulkar.)Whether or not revenge is on the minds of the Indians after losing 1-2 in the Caribbean earlier in the year is hard to tell. These contests do not have the edge, say, of an England-India encounter. But things have changed since May. India are more intense than they were then, after winning two one-day tournaments and drawing the away series in England. West Indies have lost a home series to New Zealand and, despite winning the one-dayers that followed, the most newsworthy features of their trip to Colombo for the Champions Trophy were Mervyn Dillon’s match-losing wide and the lurid (and much-denied) reports of women in their team manager’s room.India have better batting than West Indies, a better spin attack, and equally good seam bowling. They are in possession of a genius, while hepatitis has robbed West Indies of theirs. And they are at home: in the heat, on what may be a crumbling surface. West Indies will need to raise themselves.Probable teams
India 1 Sanjay Bangar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Javagal Srinath.West Indies 1 Wavell Hinds, 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Carl Hooper (capt), 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Ryan Hinds, 7 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 8 Mahendra Nagamootoo, 9 Mervyn Dillon, 10 Cameron Cuffy, 11 Pedro Collins.Rahul Bhattacharya is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

Scotland’s miserable start to the season continued as they went down to a 45-run defeat by Essex in the opening round of the C&G Trophy. The result follows back-to-back losses in the National League at the weekend.”I was disappointed and frustrated in losing another game because we had got into a position of strength only to make mistakes," Craig Wright, Scotland’s captain, told the Evening News. “The mistakes we have to eliminate … are getting into a winning position and then losing a couple of wickets as happened, once more, against Essex. Having improved in each of our three games so far I believe we can find a further edge."

Australia praying for rain and the English media heralding a bright new dawn? Something strange has come to pass at Old Trafford over the past three days. For all the faux-excitement in the British tabloids about the start of the football season, one needed only peel a couple of pages beneath the surface to discover the story that’s really got tongues wagging this summer.”Make no mistake: England are on top in the Ashes now, and we LOVE it,” bellowed Mike Walters in The Mirror, under a banner headline that paid due reference to England’s star turn of the second day. “We’re Giles ahead!” cackled the paper, after our Ashley had produced his own imitation of Shane Warne’s ball of the century to bowl Damien Martyn for 20.”Spinball Wizard,” agreed The Sun. “Same place, same spin and the same devastating result,” elaborated their correspondent, John Etheridge. “The King of Spain’s incredible fizzer landed on a leg-stump line before turning so wickedly it clipped the top of the off pole.” even diverted their chief sports writer, Steven Howard, away from his football duties to pass comment on the proceedings. “Suddenly it’s all gone quiet over there,” he intoned. “The Poms were giving their boys one hell of a beating.”Such incendiary comments really got the Aussies’ goat during the one-day series, with The Australian newspaper suffering a back-page sense of humour failure following ‘s depiction of their fast bowlers as “Sheilas”. Today, however, they were meekly resigned to their fate.”If any slim doubts remained as to the uphill battle Australia faces to retain the Ashes, they were duly erased by England’s further domination,” stated Andrew Ramsey in The Australian. “The poise and self-belief displayed by the home team’s middle-order was in marked contrast to another slipshod effort by Australia’s bowlers and fielders, who are showing frailty under sustained pressure.””Australia were battling for survival in the third Test on Friday evening,” agreed Chloe Saltau in The Sydney Morning Herald, after enduring “one of their worst days in the field” on Thursday, and losing Justin Langer to “a stroke of brilliance before tea”. These are words that could have summed up any given England performance of the last 20 years. When they are applied to Australia it is confusing in the extreme.And hot on the heels of the poor performances … come the recriminations. Michael Slater, currently a commentator for Channel 4, decided that, following a spate of costly dropped catches, the object of his ire would be Australia’s coach, John Buchanan.”It makes me question their practice regimes at the moment, which is the coach’s responsibility,” he told The Courier Mail. “Are they practising with enough intensity, because if you don’t you won’t be able to take it on to the field. The big moments are taking those catches and Australia have prided themselves on taking even half-chances. It surprises me how many let-offs Australia are giving England.”Slater’s co-commentator, Geoffrey Boycott, pinned the blame on Jason Gillespie, the undoubted weak link in a hitherto invincible bowling attack. “Gillespie was ineffective and hardly moved the ball all day,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph. “At this level of Test cricket you have to be able to swing or seam the ball or do something with it. It’s all right saying that Gillespie has a good reputation (but) all players have to live on facts and figures and Gillespie’s are not very good at this moment.””Any decision to axe Gillespie would be taken with a heavy heart,” said Ramsay, because he is “one of Australia’s most respected and best-loved players for his willingness to bowl his heart out in any conditions or circumstances,” but Peter Roebuck, in The Sydney Morning Herald, believed his form brooked no argument. “Jason Gillespie has looked a spent force and can no longer command a regular place in the side. Nor is it surprising. Not even the greatest sportsman can stop the clock.””It is way, way too early to gloat,” Matt Price, in The Australian, warned England’s fans. But it wasn’t too early for the vitriol to start spouting. “Adam Gilchrist seems to have morphed into Geraint Jones, spilling everything and appearing to have seven thumbs jammed into each margarine-coated glove. Perhaps the transformation has been mutual, so by the time you read this Jones will have knocked up 150 in a session to steer England to 700 and beyond.”But the real target of Price’s wrath was the most convenient scapegoat of all, Billy Bowden. “Bowden is a pain in the neck,” he raged. “I’ve never been the slightest bit enchanted by the New Zealand umpire’s contrived antics, leaping about and waving his arms like some kind of unco-ordinated, computer-generated tai chi exponent.”Officials should be permitted their quirks,” he conceded, “The Bucknor pause, the Shepherd hop. But Bowden oversteps the line between idiosyncratic and idiotic. Umpires, like children and John Howard’s backbenchers, should be seen and rarely heard.”

The fate of the Unitech Cup – a triangular tournament involving Sri Lanka, South Africa and India – remained uncertain after a bomb blast in central Colombo killed seven and injured 17 this afternoon despite an assurance of “maximum security” from the Sri Lankan board.As things stand, the series is still on, with Sri Lanka and South Africa playing on Tuesday, the reserve day, after their opening encounter was washed out owing to torrential rain. Inclement weather remained a concern but player security was the priority.Gordon Templeton, the South African team’s media manager, had this to say to Cricinfo: “Our cricket board is in consulation with the consulate here and also our security firm. They will come to a decision based on that.”When asked if that meant South Africa would not wait for the 10am meeting scheduled for tomorrow, he said: “The decision will be taken by the board,and it may happen before that meeting.”However, the Indian board has categorically stated that there is no question of their pulling out. Sharad Pawar, the president of the board, said it’s the host nation that has to take the decision on such matters. As things stand, it is likely that India and Sri Lanka will contest a bilateral series in South Africa’s absence. Lalit Modi, the vice-president of the BCCI, told Cricinfo: “What South Africa decide is their business. Let us not speculate. Let us wait for the facts and then decide. The series is on and we haven’t heard anything to the contrary.”Sri Lankan cricket officials and security experts assured both the Indian and South African team managements that the bomb blast was a one-off, and that security for both teams would be further beefed up. The blast, allegedly triggered by a Claymore mine, took place shortly after noon, near the popular Liberty Plaza shopping mall in the heart of the city. less than 2km from the Cinnamon hotel where the South Africans are staying, and just over 3km from the Taj Samudra, which is housing the Indians.”We are pretty worried,” said Mickey Arthur, the South African coach, “they tried to explain how a cricket event or the teams were least likely to be targetted. But this was quite close to home. It’s fair to say that if we hadn’t been playing today, a lot of our boys might have been over at Liberty Plaza.” This was the second blast in the the city in less than ten days.Arthur was present at a meeting organised by Duleep Mendis, the chief executive officer of Sri Lanka Cricket, with coaches and managers of the three participating teams. He assured maximum security to the three teams and communicated to them the board’s decision to go ahead with the tournament.Arthur said that the Sri Lankan officials had done their best to allay the team’s fears but admitted that the players were tense. “The situation seems to be getting worse too, if you watch the news and read the papers. We saw today that a truck full of explosives had been stopped just outside of Colombo.”Meanwhile, Rajan Nair, India’s media manager, said that a further meeting was planned for tomorrow morning, and that the Indian team was protected by three layers of security at their hotel. When asked if the prospect of a blast en route to the ground – Liberty Plaza in on the way to the SSC where India were scheduled to practise this afternoon – didn’t worry the players, he said: “Sri Lankan security officials are responsible for safety when we are travelling, and they have assured us that nothing untoward will happen.”