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Mark Butcher has been ruled out of England’s next tour match, against a Vice-Chancellor’s XI starting on Friday, although he still hopes to be fit for the first Test at Sabina Park, which begins on March 11. “He’ll continue to receive treatment over the next few days and we’ll just have to see how the injury progresses,” said an England spokesman. “We haven’t ruled him out of the Test match as yet.”Butcher was fielding at mid-off on the second day of England’s drawn tour match in Jamaica, when he moved to catch a ball being returned to the bowler. He appeared to go over on his ankle and collapsed to the ground, to the initial amusement of his team-mates. But it quickly became apparent that the damage was serious, and Butcher was carried off the field in some pain. A subsequent x-ray revealed a ligament sprain and he spent the evening on crutches and with the ankle strapped.”It seems that Nasser was throwing the ball to Rikki Clarke but I thought he had thrown it to me,” Butcher explained. “Rikki called ‘mine’ just as I went to catch it and as I came down I turned to see where he was and twisted the ankle. It made quite a nasty noise and I was concerned it was worse than has turned out. There are countless more dangerous things to do on a cricket field than trying to get the ball back to the bowler and to injure myself is such innocuous circumstances is quite upsetting.”Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, expressed his concern about Butcher’s condition. “It’s got to be a big concern for us when one of our key players is injured,” he said. “He’s batted really well for us over the last two years and he’s a major component of that batting line-up. He’s a left-handed batter, which is important, and he plays pace really well, but we’ll only know how bad he is in a day or two.”Butcher has played in England’s last 35 matches, but if he does miss the Jamaica Test then his place is sure to go to Paul Collingwood, who staked a bold claim for the No. 3 position with a century in today’s match. Butcher should, at the very least, be fit for the Trinidad Test which starts on March 19.”We won’t be able to tell for 48 hours how much healing time will be needed,” he admitted on Monday. “Tours are short and you don’t get time to play much before the first Test. It’s a big blow and the last thing I needed.”

England’s plans to host the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 would be threatened if the UK government imposes a ban on the Zimbabwe side entering the country.Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, told the BBC that it was a condition of hosting an ICC event that all member teams would be able to play.”We haven’t yet had to deal with a situation whereby a country isn’t allowed by the host nation’s government to take part in an ICC event. If that happens, the board would have to meet and take whatever action it deems necessary.”However, at the moment all we have are media reports, so I would say that all this remains speculative. The board next meets in March so to suggest what action might be taken would be premature.”A source close to the ICC told Cricinfo that it was inconceivable that the competition would proceed without Zimbabwe and that contingency measures would be drawn up to enable the tournament to be switched should the need arise.

Michael Hussey shook off his fears over a short Test lead-up to register his sixth Test century and continue an impressive rebuild of Australia’s team after the loss of three greats. A torn hamstring suffered in the World Twenty20 limited Hussey’s preparation to a first-class game for Western Australia, but he was not hampered by his body or lack of play as he set up a massive total with Michael Clarke.”I was a little concerned,” Hussey said. “I’d done a lot of batting in the nets and had one game against Victoria, but nothing can really prepare you for a Test. I was quite relieved to score a hundred.”Hussey’s 245-run partnership with Clarke allowed Ricky Ponting to declare at 4 for 551 and ensured a smooth transition after the side lost Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer after its previous Test in January. Despite the strength of the position, Hussey was cautious about the state of game – “It’s just a start” – but was more confident about the prospects of improvement from the regenerating squad.”You can’t replace champions, but we’re still trying to raise the bar again and that comes down to the guys working collectively to raise their own games and our team to keep growing,” he said. “But it’s a lot different not having Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath around.”Hussey has quickly developed into a great international player and his 133 was the spine of the innings. On reaching three figures he waved to his family in the stands, where his daughter Molly, who was born prematurely in May, was attending her first Test. “I don’t think she’ll know too much about it,” he said, “hopefully she slept most of the day.”If she watched she would have seen her father excelling against one of the game’s greatest spinners. Hussey’s plan against Muttiah Muralitharan was to stay in the crease while Clarke was prepared to use his feet during his unbeaten 145. Clarke was picking the doosra “sometimes” – “I’m definitely not saying yes or I’ll get stumped next time” – and felt the duo did a good job against Muralitharan.”We played him pretty well,” he said. “I was looking for the ball to come out of his hand differently and trying to get to him on the full so it didn’t get a chance to spin.”A year ago Clarke was feeling his way back into the team and now he is entrenched after three centuries in his past five Tests. “I don’t think too much has changed, I still try to be as positive as I can,” he said. “My shot selection has probably improved and I’ve grown up a bit.”Australia’s day got better in the final 16 overs after Brett Lee struck twice, although Hussey warned things might not be as easy on day three. “The wicket has flattened out,” he said, “and we’re going to have to work hard to prise out the Sri Lankans.”

Queensland will rely on an inexperienced line-up to push them to a fourth FR Cup victory in a row when they encounter New South Wales in Brisbane on Wednesday. After beating South Australia last week, the Bulls have had their team cut down by representative calls and will miss Matthew Hayden, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Ashley Noffke and Andrew Symonds, who are preparing to face New Zealand this week.The fringe fast bowlers Scott Brant, Chris Swan and Grant Sullivan were promoted and the batsman Nathan Reardon was also included. Michael Kasprowicz and Shane Watson will provide the side with much-needed nous while Jimmy Maher, the captain, has extra batting responsibility as his team tries to close the gap on the leaders Tasmania.Both Watson and Kasprowicz showed strong patches of form on Wednesday after struggling with injury. Kasprowicz put Queensland on track for victory with 3 for 38 while Watson helped finish the match with 70. The Bulls are in second on 16 points, seven behind the Tigers.New South Wales have made one change with Daniel Smith replacing Brad Haddin, who is also in Australia’s Chappell-Hadlee squad. The Blues’ match against South Australia at Wollongong on Sunday was abandoned without a ball being bowled and they have not won an FR Cup game since November last year.Queensland squad Shane Watson, Jimmy Maher (capt), Clinton Perren, Aaron Nye, Craig Philipson, Nathan Reardon, Chris Simpson, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Chris Swan, Scott Brant, Grant Sullivan.New South Wales squad Phillip Hughes, Phil Jaques, Peter Forrest, Simon Katich (capt), Dominic Thornely, Steve Smith, Daniel Smith (wk), Moises Henriques, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Mark Cameron, Doug Bollinger.

India’s triumph in the Kolkata Test, and their series win over South Africa, has lifted them to third place in the ICC Test Championship table, the highest they have been ranked.This was the first time India broke into the top three of the table since it was launched in May 2001. India currently trail England by two points and with an away series against Bangladesh coming up, they will be expected to close the gap. A 2-0 victory in Bangladesh would boost their ratings to 108 points. England have a tough assignment in South Africa starting later this month.Australia’s comfortable series win against New Zealand has extended its lead at the top of the table. The whitewash meant that Australia were on course to ending the year with a big lead.The defeats rounded off a disappointing year of Test cricket for South Africa and New Zealand which has seen their ratings fall by nine points and 11 points respectively.

The South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) has launched the 2003 Bank SA Country Cricket Carnival., which will commence on Monday, February 3.In its 78th year, the Carnival sees eight teams and more than 100 players from across the State compete from February 3 to 7 for the Bank SA Harry Meyer Cup.Country cricket has seen many of its local talent rise to State level, including Jeff Vaughan from Broken Hill, Mark Cleary from Mildura, Shaun Tait from Nairne and Redbacks fast bowler Paul Rofe who started out in the South East junior squad.The tournament will be played at various Grade cricket grounds around metropolitan Adelaide.The teams for the 2003 Carnival are:

With the notable exception of Steve Waugh, Australia’s batsmen ripped into what some consider South Africa’s second-best attack, rushing to 452 for five on the second day of their four-day match against the South African `A’ team at St George’s Park on Saturday.Justin Langer made 161, his 55th first-class century and his first hundred of the tour, while Mark Waugh hammered out a furious 110 as the two shared a 207-run partnership for the third-wicket, tearing the home team’s bowling to shreds during the final session of the day.With Darren Lehmann clubbing 60 and Ricky Ponting dashing to a run-a-ball 40, only Steve Waugh, given out caught at the wicket for four, failed to advantage of a flagging attack on a long, hot and windy day.The A side added only13 to their overnight 288 for seven before being bowled out for 301, thereby setting themselves up for a long day in the field. And by the time the Australians had finished in the evening, the A team might have felt they had been out there for longer than the 97 overs they eventually got through.By lunch the Australians had moved to 72 without loss with Lehmann the more aggressive of the opening pair. He made his intentions perfectly clear during the first over in the afternoon when he hoisted Gulam Bodi over mid-on for six and went on to take the Australians into three figures before falling leg before to Dewald Pretorius.Ponting dashed about for less than an hour before he miscued a pull off Charl Willoughby to be caught at mid-off and then the younger Waugh joined Langer to first wear down and then break the back of the A team’s bowling.No one escaped punished, but some suffered more than others, left-arm spinner Robin Peterson most particularly. At one point Waugh and Langer took 27 off two overs from Peterson with one of Waugh’s sixes sailing over the scoreboard, out of the ground, down the hill and quite possible rolling all the way down to the harbour.Justin Kemp also felt the sting of Waugh’s bat, conceding four boundaries off one over as Waugh took just 24 balls to race from 50 to his 80th first-class century.Langer, meanwhile, just kept going at the other end as Australia moved to 387 for two before both batsmen were out within five balls of each other. Dewald Pretorius bowled Waugh through the gate and Langer lifted Willoughby to cover without a run being added."I’ve worked really hard in the nets," said Langer afterwards. "I wanted to spend some time in the middle. It’s a massive Test match, the next one in which we can retain the number one spot which we think is ours."Waugh, meanwhile, described St George’s Park as one of his favourite grounds. So he should. It was here where he scored a century in 1997 to enable Australia to clinch their last series victory in South Africa.It very nearly became 387 for five – Shane Watson surviving an appeal for a catch at the wicket off the first ball he faced – before Steve Waugh was the fifth man out, given out caught behind off Pretorius for 4 off the sixth ball he received.The Australian captain did appear to agree entirely with umpire Rudi Koertzen’s decision, standing at the wicket for an age before trudging off. Not that it made a great deal of difference to the overall picture, Watson and Adam Gilchrist adding a further 61 before the close.The A team bowling figures made ugly reading with the two spinners almost completely ineffective. Peterson conceded 128 off 20 overs and Bodi 63 off 12 with neither ever looking like taking a wicket.Pretorius toiled hard for his three for 101 as did Willoughby for his two for 74, but at no stage did the bowling give any hint of how South Africa might bowl Australia out twice in the second Test match at Newlands next weekend.

A record-breaking stand of 125 in 24 overs for the 6th wicket between TrevorWard and Paul Nixon completely transformed Leicestershire`s floodlit match with Glamorganat Sophia Gardens. Although Ward was dismissed for 104, his partnersaw his side home with an unbeaten 67, with the doughty wicket-keeper hitting the winning runs offthe last ball as Leicestershire won by 3 wickets.The pair had come together with their side on 52-5, chasing 227 to win, after aremarkable early spell from David Harrison who took 4 wickets for 3 runs in thespace of 14 balls. His victims included the prolific Brad Hodge and captain PhilipDe Freitas, and with 175 runs still required from 34 overs, Glamorgan looked tobe in the box seat.But Ward and Nixon carefully milked the Glamorgan bowlers and rotated the strike to keep thescoreboard ticking over, and maintain the asking rate of 5 an over. Ward was also not afraid toopen his shoulders, and theirstand, a record in all one-day cricket against Glamorgan, turned the game around asWard reached his first League century of the season.Shortly after reaching three figures, Ward chipped Robert Croft into David Hemp`shands at mid-wicket, and the equation was 50 runs from the final 49 balls. JeremySnape then came in to give Nixon valiant support, and they added a further 44 runsbefore Snape was fortunate to survive an attempted run out in the penultimate overbowled by Adrian Dale.Andrew Davies returned to bowl the final over with 6 runs still required, and aftera scampered leg bye and a dot ball, Snape lofted the ball into the air and Hemptook another good running catch. However, the batsmen had crossed and Nixon was ableto loft the penultimate ball to the boundary fence to bring the scores level, beforehitting the winning runs off the final ball.Earlier , Michael Powell had made a career best 91* as the Welsh countytook first use of a slow Sophia Gardens wicket, and he anchored their innings of 226-7 afterhis side had slipped to 114-5 in the 30th over. He then shared a record 6th wicket partnershipfor Glamorgan against Leicestershire with Mark Wallace, adding 78 in 11 overs as the pair upped thetempo against a Leicestershire side whose fielding at times was rather laboured.Powell survived a sharp chance when on 48 and then recorded his third consecutivehalf-century before picking off some wayward bowling as Glamorgan scored 85 in thefinal 10 overs. During the course of his innings Powell also passed 500 runs for the season in thecompetition – the first time he has passed this landmark – and his 91* came from 92 balls with 8fours and a six.

Karl Johnson, the turf manager who created the cricket pitches at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre, that have seen the world Women’s and men’s Youth World Cups staged at Lincoln University, has resigned his position to become the turf manager at Hamilton’s Stadium and Westpac Park.Johnson created some of the best pitches in New Zealand and oversaw the spectacular development of Bert Sutcliffe Oval at the HPC. Martin Snedden, the chief executive of NZC, said it was “really sad to lose one of the key people at the HPC. When you compare it with what was there in 1996 it is so much more developed. He has done a terrific job.”But the philosophy of the HPC is not only the players who we hope to develop but all people in cricket. That is John Reid’s view, that just as players are expected to benefit then it is the same with turf managers and Karl has been one of the more highly respected managers in New Zealand.”It is his ambition to put himself to the ultimate test in charge of Test wickets and it is right to feel that way. He moves on with our blessing and while it provides us with a short-term issue for a new manager, it will be the same for the next person who takes on the job,” Snedden said.

Muttiah Muralitharan will undergo surgery on his injured right shoulder in Melbourne on Monday, and may be out of cricket for four months. He flew to Australia on Thursday night to see David Young, a shoulder specialist who has treated him before, and Young told him that unless he had surgery, a cyst in his shoulder could permanently weaken his bowling arm.”We’ve advised him to have the surgery. Otherwise, if it gets worse, it could threaten his career,” said Young. The surgery will treat a superior labrum anterior-posterior (SLAP) lesion, which in layman’s terms is a type of cyst which has caused a build-up of fluid around the nerves in his right shoulder. The problem developed because of the huge amount Muralitharan has bowled during his career. He has bowled more than 5000 overs in Tests alone.Murali has complained of pain in his shoulder for several months, and bowled with discomfort in the drawn first Test against South Africa earlier this month, although he still picked up five wickets to edge ahead of Shane Warne in their scrap for the Test bowling record. However, with Murali, who has 532 Test wickets to his name, unlikely to play again before a series against New Zealand in December this year, Warne has a chance to reclaim the record, and build a lead. Australia play four Tests against India in October, followed by two against New Zealand and three against Pakistan at home.Muralitharan remained philosophical about his injury setback, telling reporters on Saturday: “Nothing is certain in life. I think other people have to have a share. Shane Warne is a wonderful bowler and he should also have the record.” Warne, who had a similar surgery in 2000, drew level with Muralitharan when Australia played Sri Lanka last month, but has never held the record outright.