Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan allrounder, has been passed fit for the one-day series against England after missing the Test matches with an elbow problem. Malik had to return home before the start of the first Test, but has now added his name the list of Pakistan’s returning injured players.Wasim Bari, the chief selector, told Reuters: “We have informed the team management that Malik is now fit and has been cleared to play by the PCB medical panel. The management has to decide when to call him.”He is now okay and keen to resume playing again. His inclusion will further increase Pakistan’s options for the one-day series which is also important for us.”Bari said no final decision had been taken on retaining Mohammad Hafeez for the one-series, despite his fine 95 in the final Test at The Oval, following his late call-up to the squad. “I think he should stay for the one-dayers as he is a very useful all-round player,” added Bari, “but let us see what the team management wants.”If both Hafeez and Malik are included in the one-day squad, Pakistan will be spoilt for choice went it comes to their allrounders. Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi have both missed the last two Tests but are still dangerous players in the limited overs game.Before the final Test, Pakistan sent home the openers Taufeeq Umar and Salman Butt plus Samiullah Niazi, left-arm pacer, and Bari said a decision on the final one-day squad would be made in the next week. They are hopeful that Shoaib Akhtar will continue his recovery, while Mohammad Asif has shown his fitness with an impressive performance at The Oval and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan is also bowling again.Before the five-match one-day series, which starts at Cardiff on August 30, Pakistan play England in a Twenty20 International, at Bristol, on August 28.

Despite a blistering 42 from Esuan Crandon, Rawl Lewis XI fell 20 runs short of victory against Darren Sammy’s XI in the second practice match of the Stanford Super Stars squad training camp.Travis Dowlin led the way for the Sammy XI, scoring a brisk 54 off 39 balls. He was supported by Tonito Willett of Nevis (26), and Sylvester Joseph (24) as the side posted 146 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.Lewis XI were stalled early in their chase by a sound opening spell by Jerome Taylor, the West Indies fast bowler, who conceded only 16 runs off his four overs and also picked up a wicket. Mahendra Nagamootoo, the former West Indies legspinner, was almost unplayable throughout his spell, conceding just three runs in his 3.5 overs, grabbed two wickets.Lewis XI were further stalled as their batsmen failed to build partnerships. Kieron Pollard though was the only batsman to lend significant support to Crandon, scoring 39 off 21 balls with six fours and two sixes. Crandon bludgeoned Sammy in the last of his three overs – in which he conceded 20 runs – slamming two consecutive sixes and a four. Sammy had the last laugh, as he had Crandon caught by Taylor to effectively end the run chase.

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.”

Scorecard
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.
Scorecard
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.
Scorecard
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.”