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After successfully having his ten-year English ban reduced to three years, Mark Vermeulen has returned home to Zimbabwe with one thing in mind – winning back his place in the Zimbabwe national side.Vermeulen batted and bowled for his old club Old Hararians in a league match against Royal in the Harare provincial Vigne Cup on Sunday, but was dismissed for 1 after struggling with the pace of the ball and pitch conditions. “The wickets in England are a bit slow because of the rains,” Vermeulen said. “Coming back home where the pitches are rock hard, the ball skidded a lot and my shorts where hurried. But I enjoy playing pace … wait until I hit up and you’ll see”.Vermeulen, who flew back to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, revealed that his decision return was prompted by comments from Peter Chingoka, Zimbabwe Cricket’s interim chairman, that he was free to come back and fight for his place. “I read somewhere that Peter Chingoka said I was allowed to come and play and I came back. That’s what I like doing, playing cricket.”He did note, however, that there was not enough domestic first-class cricket within Zimbabwe: “I need to be playing two or three games a week. To play one game this Sunday and the next the following Sunday is frustrating.”While saying his main target is Zimbabwe’s 2007 World Cup squad, Vermeulen said he will happy to make the A side first and work his way up. “I think there are some A side matches coming up. I am hoping to at least get into the A tours.”But he ruled out returning to South Africa, where he played club cricket before his summer in England. “At the end of last season I was playing in South Africa because there was no club cricket in Zimbabwe. Now they have sorted out club cricket here so I won’t be going to South Africa.”

Duncan Fletcher has allayed fears about the fitness of England’s captain, Andrew Flintoff, who bowled just four overs on the fourth morning at Adelaide before playing no further role in England’s attack. Flintoff was off the field when Australia were finally bowled out for 513 shortly after tea, but Fletcher insisted the break from action was purely precautionary.”He felt a slight discomfort and he just wanted to make sure everything was alright,” Fletcher told reporters afterwards. “He came off and we just felt more comfortable with the other bowlers bowling. Basically he’s making steady progress. He’s played back-to-back Tests and he’s done quite a bit of bowling in that time, but we’ve got no worries at the moment.”Flintoff’s fitness is absolutely pivotal to England’s Ashes chances, but Fletcher insisted that the problem was simply a side-effect of his long injury lay-off. He underwent further surgery on his troublesome left ankle in June, and returned to action in India in September for the ICC Champions Trophy. Unless a surprise is in store tomorrow, he will not have to bowl again competitively until the third Test starts at Perth on Thursday week.”It’s a light discomfort, but the medical staff are confident at the moment and say it’s just from having been off and coming back from injury. We are just going to have to wait and see what he’s like after couple of days, but we’re not even going to send him for a scan at this stage. He just feels he’s been overbowled in back-to-back Tests.”An injury to Flintoff would be considerably more damaging to England than any concerns that Glenn McGrath’s ankle has been causing to Australia, but Fletcher insisted that Flintoff would have been fit to bowl had he been required today. “We discussed it and he could have taken the new ball. In fact, it would have been him and Steve Harmison.”

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Auckland beat Canterbury by five wickets in their Round 3 State Shield match at Eden Park, in Auckland, after they chased down 235 with a little more than ten overs to spare. Paul Hitchcock and Richard Jones added 157 for the second wicket before Jones fell for 81 with only 33 more runs required.Canterbury, batting first, had a good start with openers Iain Robertson and Michael Papps making 57 before Robertson was bowled by Mayu Pasupati, a right-arm fast-medium bowler, who got 3 for 46 in his nine overs. Canterbury then lost three more wickets for another 50-odd runs before Chris Harris and Luke Vivian steadied the innings with 81 for the fifth wicket.After Jones departed, Auckland looked a little shaky losing three wickets in the space of 20 runs before Scott Styris and Pasupati scored off the remaining runs.
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Central Districts hammered home a nine-wicket victory against Northern Districts when they chased Northern’s 213 inside 40 overs at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. Peter McGlashan, the Northern wicketkeeper and No 3 batsman, made an unbeaten 86 and was the only batsman to score above 30 for his side.Central bowlers Ewen Thompson, Gregory Hugglun and Campbell Furlong got two wickets each and did not allow the Northern batsmen to score freely, especially Furlong who conceded only 19 from his ten overs. The only note-worthy partnership was between McGlashan and Daryl Tuffey with 65 for the eighth wicket. Central openers Jamie How and Geoff Barnett ran up the first-wicket partnership to 153. After Barnett fell for 91, How was joined by Peter Ingram to finish off the game.
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In a rain-shortened match against Otago, Wellington knocked off the 90 runs in less than half of the 28 overs they were given to chase the revised Duckworth and Lewis target after bowling out Otago for 128 in 34 overs at Basin Reserve in Wellington.Scott Rasmussen, a Wellington right-arm medium-fast bowler, began proceedings by taking the wickets of Shaun Haig and Aaron Redmond – both dismissed for ducks – with the score at 11. Craig Cumming, the opener, then partnered Neil Broom to add 56 runs before Cumming was dismissed by Michael Burns for 39 – the highest Otago score on the day.

England’s under-fire wicketkeeper Geraint Jones has defended his performances in the Ashes to date, but realises that Chris Read is likely to replace him for the next Test.”I’m fully aware Chris Read is breathing down my neck,” he wrote in London’s newspaper, “and although I have been generally pleased with my keeping behind the stumps, my form with the bat has been perplexing.”Jones’s poor batting form is likely to cost him his place in the side for the next Test at the MCG, which starts on Boxing Day, with Read given another chance behind the stumps. Read had not played Test cricket since 2003-04, but was given another chance for England last summer in the third and fourth Tests against Pakistan.In his three innings he scored 38, 55 and 33, but the selectors still preferred Jones to face Australia this winter. Jones has averaged just 10.5 in the Ashes and got a pair at Perth.”There may not be a lot left to fight for but we are determined to prevent a series whitewash,” he continued. “We will not let ourselves suffer further humiliation by losing 5-0.”But whether Jones will have the chance to play for pride remains to be seen.

A series of dropped catches by the India Under-19s let New Zealand Under-19s off the hook on the second day at Carisbrook in Dunedin, as the hosts ended the day at 245 for 6. New Zealand, after wrapping up the Indian innings for 129, were in trouble at 100 for 5 before Kane Williamson and M Tairoa averted another collapse.The duo were particularly harsh and against the spinners, and dropped catches from Abu Nechim Ahmed and Sumit Sharma didn’t help India’s cause. Williamson fell 12 short of a ton while Tairoa remained unbeaten on 56, helping New Zealand finish with a lead of 216 with four wickets in hand.

A pall of gloom fell over the World Cup following the death of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, in hospital in Jamaica on Sunday, hours after he was found unconscious on the floor of his hotel room. He was 58.Tributes poured in from across the cricketing world, where Woolmer was known as an innovative coach and a scholar of the game. The Pakistan team, already eliminated from the World Cup on Saturday, said it would play its final match, against Zimbabwe, on Wednesday as scheduled.”We’ve been speaking to the doctors and they think it is either stress or a heart attack,” Russell Woolmer, his son, told South African radio from Cape Town. “There was a lot of stress in his job and it may have been stress that caused it. We’re all very shocked and we don’t know what to do.”The news of Woolmer’s death was announced by Pervez Mir, Pakistan’s media manager, a couple of hours after it first became known that he had been taken ill. “Bob Woolmer has passed away. I am speaking from the hospital and all the team management is also at the hospital. Doctors have pronounced him dead. Bob has passed away and it is very shocking news to all of the team and the team management.”Bob’s family and wife were informed by the management about his condition when he was brought to hospital”, Mir said, adding that Woolmer’s wife was on her way from South Africa.Mir’s statement added that there would be a coroner’s inquest and, in keeping with Jamaican law, an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Woolmer, a diabetic, was found unconscious on his hotel-room floor at around 10.45am after team officials grew concerned that they had not seen him since the previous evening. Mir said he had blood on him and there was vomit on the walls.Karl Angell, director of communication for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, said Woolmer was pronounced dead by doctors at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, where he had been rushed to, at 12.14pm on Sunday.Woolmer’s death comes less than 24 hours after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup following their defeat by Ireland. After the match, Woolmer spoke of the pressures of coaching. “Doing it internationally, it takes a toll on you,” he said. “The endless travelling and the non-stop living out of hotels.”I am deeply hurt and cannot tell you how it is going to affect me,” Woolmer told AFP late on Saturday after the Ireland defeat, saying he would answer more questions on email later in the week.Mir said Pakistan would still play their final World Cup group match on Wednesday. “The Pakistan team will continue its participation in the tournament. We are due to play Zimbabwe and we will play that match,” Mir told AFP by telephone from Jamaica.”Obviously the boys are extremely sad, they are very disturbed, they are shocked, but the boys have to play the match and they will.”

The trial of former Zimbabwe Test cricketer Mark Vermeulen, which was due to begin at the Provincial Magistrates in Harare on Tuesday morrning, has again been postponed, this time until May 7, due to inadequate medical reports being available.One of the two medicals from government-appointed experts to examine Vermeulen’s mental status had not been concluded when trial was scheduled to start. It is now expected early next month.Vermeulen is being tried for arson after he allegedly set fire to the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy building and part of the ZC boardroom last year, destroying property and training equipment worth several millions of Zimbabwean dollars.

Cricket in the Caribbean continues to be hurt by infighting over money and a lack of pride within the West Indies team, according to Lance Gibbs. The current line-up did not take their responsibilities seriously enough, Gibbs said.”Where is the pride for representing the Caribbean?” Gibbs, who has travelled from his home in Miami to watch the World Cup, told . “They must know about pride as, apart from cricket, we are separate nations. Cricket is a cohesive force and these players have a responsibility to unite the Caribbean, which they are failing to do.”West Indies face an uphill battle to reach the semi-finals and need not only to win all three of their remaining matches but also rely on other results falling their way. Gibbs said a strong West Indies unit was important and the players needed to understand that cricket should come before money.”West Indies are always a proud team, so a strong West Indies team is what world cricket needs, just like when the West Indies under Clive Lloyd ruled the world and became an inspiration for other teams,” he said. “If you perform you will be well rewarded – money as well as in terms of progress – and when successful cricketers walk in the streets they are recognised which even presidents and prime ministers of countries sometimes aren’t.”Gibbs said nearly a decade later, the 1998 tour to South Africa, when the West Indies players revolted over a pay dispute, remained a prime example of the troubles within the sport. “There are lots of problems afflicting Caribbean cricket, the foremost being the players’ association bickering over money,” Gibbs said.”I’m not saying they should not be paid, it’s not a matter of jealousy – it could be done in much better ways. You don’t always wash your dirty linen in public.”The tour to South Africa was a disaster when players stayed back in England and the West Indies Cricket Board president had to fly out and solve the problems. I would have gone there for nothing to see what Nelson Mandela had done there and learn lessons.”Gibbs also criticised World Cup organisers for using new grounds, which were as foreign to the hosts as to the visiting sides. “One of the reasons the West Indies are not doing well is that we have lost the home advantage with the new grounds and new pitches,” he said. “Sri Lanka knew more than us about the pitch in Guyana. Antigua was new, Grenada will be new.”

South Africa’s demolition job on England killed off any hopes of WestIndies getting back-door entry into the semi-finals, and they now go into Thursday’s game against Bangladesh with only pride on the line. It willhave escaped no one’s attention that West Indies are currently level onpoints with Bangladesh and Ireland, an unacceptable state of affairs in aregion that dominated the game for nearly two decades.For Brian Lara, the tie against Bangladesh will mark his 298th in WestIndian colours and the penultimate step on a journey that started on aNovember day in Karachi more than 16 years ago. It will forever be asource of regret for Lara that for all his individual achievements, WestIndies accomplished little at the five World Cups that he was part of.Apart from the semi-final that Shane Warne stole from them at Mohali in1996, each campaign has been as abysmal as the other.”The two remaining games are of utmost importance to us,” he said on theeve of Thursday’s game. “It’s important that we do start the second round.We still haven’t actually. We want to finish on a high. These next twomatches are of no consequence in terms of the World Cup, but they are veryimportant for us, and the guys are fully aware of that.”The West Indian meltdown in the Super Eights, after they topped theirfirst-round group, has been one of the most disappointing aspects of thiscompetition, but Lara wasn’t interested in playing the blame game. “Thisis not the time for condemnation but constructive criticism,” he said. “Wejust did not play good cricket, we were beaten by better teams on the day.We have disappointed ourselves and our fans.”He accepted, however, that the prime reason for the debacle was thefailure of the marquee players to deliver when it mattered most. “A lot ofour seniors, including myself, have not performed like seniors in otherprominent teams have done,” he said. “The contributions from the seniorsand the experienced players in the reason why teams like Australia, SouthAfrica and Sri Lanka are in the semi-finals.”Several former players were scathing in their assessment of the team’sperformances against the tournament’s best sides, with Colin Croft inparticular pinpointing the lack of intensity at training sessions.According to Lara, such things were par for the course when things weregoing wrong. “There’s no lethargy in the team and the boys are veryupbeat,” he said. “The result yesterday cast us out of the competition.The guys tried their best and have been under a lot of scrutiny lately.Unfortunately, that goes with the fact that we are not playing well.”Bennett King and the support staff have been working really hard, but ourtrainer left last December, and we not had a trainer since. That is nofault of the players. The players are trying their best, but it isdifficult at this time without a professional trainer.”With the pressure off, West Indies will hope to express themselves as bestthey can in front of the disappointed home support. As for Bangladesh, they have already embarrassed India and South Africa, but Habibul Bashar,the captain, brushed off suggestions that West Indies would be an easiermark.”I don’t think so,” he said. “They’re still a good team. For us, itdoesn’t matter who we play. It’s how we play on that particular day. Webeat India and South Africa, but also lost other games quite easily.”That inconsistency ruined any chance of a semi-final place, and the 74-runloss to rank outsiders Ireland was hugely disappointing for a team lookingto kick on after the famous victory against South Africa. “There’s been abig contrast in our performances,” admitted Bashar. “Some days we’re oneof the best fielding sides. Other days, we’re ordinary. It’s veryimportant that we learn to be consistent in all three departments of thegame.”Bangladesh have only come close to beaten West Indies once in 12 attempts,at St Vincent three years ago, but such statistics didn’t really worryBashar. “Before we played South Africa [in Guyana], we had never beatenthem before,” he said. “Winning any game at the World Cup is veryimportant for Bangladesh. We don’t want to be No.8 in the Super Eights.”What is a worry is his form, or lack of it. “As captain, you always wantto do something, to set an example for other players,” he said. “It’simportant for me and my side that I score some runs.”In many ways he might do well to learn from his younger team-mates, who’veshown oodles of confidence – perhaps too much at times – and no fear whenconfronted by illustrious opponents. “Bangladesh are really competitive inthe Under-19s, and the boys think they can win,” said Bashar, when askedabout the impact of the youth brigade. “They have come to this level withthat frame of mind.”It makes for a fascinating contest, a dead rubber with a fair bit atstake. “We have been disappointing,” said Lara. “For Bangladesh, everygame against the Test-playing nations is of utmost importance and we areaware of that. We don’t want to be one of their victims. We want to comeout and play our best cricket. Everyone wants to finish on a high, and wewant to win back the support of the fans.”You sense that it will take more than one win to do that.

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Ireland have the Intercontinental Cup final all but won after a dominant first-day performance with both bat and ball that left Canada down and virtually out. In the morning session Ireland’s bowlers ripped the Canadians to shreds, and then Jeremy Bray cut loose with the bat, his brutal 146 underlining the gulf between the sides.Canada’s poor preparation for the match – not entirely of their own doing – was starkly evident almost from the first ball. Trent Johnston rightly chose to field first to make the most of any lingering moisture, and the move paid off as a succession of batsmen failed to cope with good seam bowling, their technical deficiencies at the crease which most proved to be their undoing.Failing to move their feet to the prodigious swing from Johnston and Dave Langford-Smith, Canada’s top three were each trapped lbw, with Jon Davison departing in the first over. That set the tone, and the writing was on the wall once Ashish Bagai shouldered arms to one that cut back in and in so doing lost his off bail.The middle order was no match for Ireland’s change bowlers either, with Thinus Fourie – replacing Boyd Rankin for this match – being rewarded for accuracy with 3 for 31 and Kevin O’Brien 2 for 4. Ireland were slick in the field as well, as exemplified by William Porterfield’s excellent low catch at point off a fierce cut from Qaiser Ali.Canada were 75 for 9 at lunch and the innings only lasted a few minutes into the afternoon. It was not hard to see why the Canadian board and selectors had stayed at home while the Irish were out in force.

The only hope Canada had was quick wickets, and lots of them. But Bray and Porterfield saw the shine off the new ball and then began to open up. If Canada had watched any of Bray’s innings during the World Cup, they had not learned anything, and they repeatedly gave him the width to unleash his trademark savage cuts and drives. By tea he had made 71 out of 97 for 0.Briefly after the break, Canada looked interested, but then Bray really opened up and it was like watching a sports car race away from traffic lights as Ireland disappeared out of sight. Two rasping straight drives and a slash through the covers brought Bray his hundred off 112 balls – 82 had come in boundaries – and Porterfield, until then content to let his partner dominate, also began to find the gaps to reach his own fifty off a more sedate 120 balls.Bagai chopped and changed his bowlers without success, and Bray grew increasingly carefree. He brought up the 200 with a deft leg glance but the next ball he played a tired slash and was caught at slip. Two balls later, Porterfield followed with the thinnest of edges to the keeper.Peter Gillespie followed Porterfield back to the pavilion shortly before the close, trapped in front by Samad, but it was no more than a consolation. Canada’s dreadful day was summed up three overs from the close when a wild throw – in a hopeless attempt of a run-out – sped through for four overthrows.Ireland’s batting is their real strength and they will press on tomorrow with 500 and a declaration around tea in mind. Canada will need to persevere and take heart from the last session today, but the reality is they are up against a much better side, and one that is professional in everything but name.