The Indian selectors, acting on the advice of the captain and coach, will decide on Wednesday about the number of players to be included in the preliminary list to be submitted to the ICC for the Champions Trophy in October.Though most nations have named, or are in the process of naming 30-man preliminary squads, there has been some debate in the Indian camp over whether to have 30 names, or as few as 22. With Sourav Ganguly expected to be one of the names under consideration, Wednesday’s decision will be watched exceedingly closely.Kiran More, the chairman of selectors whose term expires next month, revealed as much while interacting with the media after the first day of India’s final camp prior to the tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka. The team had regular net sessions today, and a practice match is planned fortomorrow morning.The much-hyped centre-wicket practices, which simulate match situations better than your ordinary net session, weren’t in evidence today, with batsmen and bowlers going through the routine drills. Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag were first into the nets in the morning, while Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh initially played half-pitch on the adjacent cement surface. Lakshmipathy Balaji, who has been out with injury for a year, was among those to bowl to Tendulkar, and he may certainly come into the frame for the Champions Trophy.Several of the batsmen, and later the bowlers, practised big hits, while most of the bowlers experimented with slower deliveries, which will be of some import on the placid and treacle-slow surfaces expected in Sri Lanka. The players also had a 20-minute session of Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking method on Sunday evening, and there was a yoga session beforenets this morning. When asked about the efficacy of the various techniques employed during the first camp last week, More was fairly vague. “Anything that helps with balance and concentration is good,” he said, referring to the one tai-chi session.According to him, there was no confusion regarding Tendulkar’s fitness. Though the board had pronounced him 100% fit, Greg Chappell had revealed soon after his arrival in India that Tendulkar would be made to field in the inner ring since his throwing arm still wasn’t up to speed. “You created the confusion,” said More, “you listen to what Chappell said,” clearly unaware of what the coach said.The new methods were in More’s words, part of a sea change in Indian cricket. “The system that we grew up in, you just did nets, ran ten rounds and then did about 15 sprints. These team games stress on thinking and planning, and there are different leaders, which gives each player more confidence. The routine can become boring, and it’s our job to keep the players happy.”He refused to be drawn on the controversy sparked off by extracts from John Wright’s book. “I haven’t read it yet,” said More. “He did much to improve Indian cricket, and I prefer to take whatever he said in a positive way.”

Cricket Australia has confirmed its plans for a Champions Trophy warm-up series in the “new frontiers” of Malaysia and Singapore in September. Australia, West Indies and India could line-up in the mini-tournament and James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, hoped more details would be finalised this week.”It would be exciting to bring the game to newer cricketing frontiers and to showcase some of the best players in the world,” he said. “I’m sure such a tournament will be a great success and further strengthen our relationships with Asian cricketing countries.”The Malaysian and Singapore cricket associations have supported the proposal and Sutherland said the matches would be an important lead-up to the Champions Trophy in India in October. “We hope we’re close to being able to put this important tournament in place,” he said. “The Australian team last played one-day international cricket in Bangladesh in April, so it’s important for us that this opportunity is used.”

Scorecard

Plenty of eyes were focused on Trent Bridge as Sussex piled up the runs and, following a late wobble against the second new ball, Lancashire’s dream of their first outright Championship in 72 years is hanging by a thread at The Rose Bowl. Despite attractive half-centuries from Mal Loye and Stuart Law no batsman took charge leaving Lancashire scrambling to reach 350.Four batting points is the vital mark for Lancashire because it leaves them on track for a 21-point win, which would force Sussex to secure a win at Trent Bridge rather than play for a draw. If Lancashire fall short of 350, a 12-point draw would be sufficient for Sussex and, depressingly for Lancashire, they are well placed for that after their first day.Still, though, nothing is decided and it was a curious opening day on the south coast for many reasons. Lancashire’s top seven all passed 26 yet Law’s 75 was the highest score; Shane Warne went wicketless through 29 overs and the Hampshire spinner to make his mark was Greg Lamb. To top it all Lancashire started the day by picking James Anderson who, according to the ECB’s directive, is restricted to 12 overs per innings.The return of Anderson to Championship action will be the focal point of the second day – he might even have some batting to do first – but the first skirmishes were all about the batsmen setting a foundation. Lancashire’s run-scoring throughout the season has revolved around Loye and Law, the only two to pass 1000 runs, and again they provided the heavyweight contribution in the middle-order.Hampshire had been restricted to the wickets of both openers in the morning session and after lunch Loye, especially, took the attack to the bowlers in typically forthright manner. His fifty came off 98 balls, with a powerful square drive, and the crispness of the strokeplay again suggested England have missed a trick in not at least trying him in one-day internationals.It came out of the blue when Lamb spun a delivery between bat and pad for his first Championship wicket of the season, following his match-winning 4 for 38 in the Pro40 against Yorkshire at the weekend.Law, though, despite suffering from a knee injury that has dogged the latter stages of his season had progressed comfortably past his half-century in a typically unflustered manner. His dismissal, a lame chip to midwicket, needed a second glance as it was so unexpected and celebrated in a very tame manner by the Hampshire fielders.With the big guns back in the pavilion Hampshire had a chance to pull themselves back into the match and reignite their hopes of second place. However, Luke Sutton and Glen Chapple formed a stand of 63 for the sixth wicket – Chapple providing the biff, with his straight drive six off Lamb the day’s only maximum, and Sutton the block.Hampshire took the new ball at the start of 97th over and James Bruce used it to impressive effect as he’d done in the morning session. In his second over back, he produced a delivery that nipped back off the seam and removed Chapple’s middle stump via an inside edge.When Dominic Cork lost his off stump to Dimitri Mascarenhas a comfortable skip towards maximum batting points was transformed into a battle to earn a vital fourth. There are 17 runs to go, a margin that will have a huge bearing on whether the Championship is still bubbling come tomorrow evening.

Pakistan’s national champions Sialkot have left for India to play Uttar Pradesh, India’s Ranji Trophy winners, in a four-day match from September 27 to 30 at Dharamsala.Sialkot were the winners of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and were scheduled to play Uttar Pradesh on September 12 but that game was postponed because of time constraints. “The match is final and the Sialkot team has left today for Dharamsala where the match is being held,” Subhan Ahmed, a PCB official, told Reuters. “We wanted this match to be held on time so that we can work on other bilateral proposals.”The Sialkot team includes Test players such as Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif and Imran Nazir while Uttar Pradesh have Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and RP Singh from the Indian squad. The boards of the two countries hope that this game will pave the way for more bilateral domestic matches.Uttar Pradesh – Mohammad Kaif (capt), Suresh Raina, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla, Jyoti Yadav, Avinash Yadav, Shivakant Shukla, Praveen Kumar, Mohammad Amir Khan (wk), Gyanendra Pandey, Rizwan Shamshad, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Shalabh Srivastava, Rohit Prakash, Ravikant Shukla
Coach Rajinder Singh Hans, Manager – Gopal SharmaSialkot – Shoaib Malik (capt), Imran Nazir, Majid Jehangir, Mohammad Asif, Atiq-ur-Rehman, Khalid Mahmood, Abdur Rehman, Mansoor Amjad, Shahid Yousuf, Sarfraz Ahmed, Tahir Mughal, Shehzad Malik, Inam-ul-haq
Coach – Abdul Quadeer Chaud, Manager – Azmat Rana

Yuvraj Singh has been officially ruled out of the one-day series in South Africa after medical reports confirmed a ligament tear behind his left knee. Yuvraj – initially named in the touring squad – consulted Dr Anant Joshi, the Indian cricket board’s consultant orthopaedic specialist in Mumbai yesterday, who confirmed the news. He will replaced by Dinesh Karthik, the wicketkeeper batsman.”There is a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament with some amount of bruising of the bone in the left knee and there is a swelling of the knees,” Joshi was quoted as saying in .Yuvraj sustained the injury while playing kho-kho, a traditional Indian game, at the team practice on the eve of India’s crucial knockout clash against Australia in Mohali. His availability for the three-Test series is also in considerable doubt, with the likelihood of him requiring surgery. The first Test begins in Johannesburg on December 15.Should Yuvraj require surgery, he could be ruled out for six to nine months, thereby jeopardising his participation in next year’s World Cup in the West Indies. Dr Joshi will re-examine Yuvraj in two weeks, where a final decision on the surgery is expected.

Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former Indian opener-turned-politician, has been sentenced to three years in prison for a 1988 murder case.The Punjab and Haryana High Court, which found him guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on December 2, awarded him the sentence under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. He was also fined an amount of Rs. 1 lakh (approx. US $ 2,200).However, Sidhu will not be arrested immediately as his sentence has been suspended till January 31, during which time he can appeal to the Supreme Court.Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu allegedly beat up Gurnam Singh in Patiala on December 27, 1988. Gurnam was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.Sandhu said that the duo will approach the Supreme Court in case of an adverse verdict. “Even we feel sorry for the family of victim. The matter is now sub judice. After the sentence is declared, we’ll approach the SC,” he said.Sidhu resigned from Parliament after the verdict, but has hinted that he would remain in politics and campaign during the Punjab Assembly elections in February.

Scorecard

India’s tour of South Africa got off to the dullest possible start as thefirst one-dayer at the Wanderers in Johannesburg was abandoned without asingle ball being bowled. Torrential rains drenched the stadium all dayand, when they finally abated just before 7pm local time, the groundstaffbegan mopping up operations. As soon as they contemplated removing thecovers, though, the skies opened once more and put an end to the waitingand the uncertainty.India, having lost their warm-up match against South Africa A by 37 runs,were keen to start the one-day series on a bright note, and RahulDravid, the captain, and Greg Chappell, the coach, had said as much.However, sitting around in the dressing-room waiting for the weather to clear only makes India’s task harder.The Indian team is no stranger to this in recent times, with rain havingfollowed them to different parts of the world. A tri-series was washed outin Sri Lanka and rain marred the DLF Cup in Malaysia. The final of theChallenger Series, India’s premier limited-overs domestic competition,was washed out too. This is just the latest instance of wet weather ruining the cricket.With there being no provision for reserve days, this will now be a four-match series and, given that the forecast for the week doesn’t look particularly good, the hope is that we will not witness a repeat when the teams travel to Kingsmead, Durban for the next game on November 22.The opportunity lost will be rued by the South Africans as well. The pitchat the Wanderers has been a belter in recent times andit was here, in March, that South Africa pulled off thatstunning chase of 435 against Australia. Today, though, there waslittle opportunity to see what the pitch looked like, with the coversbarely coming off.Shortly before 7pm the umpires for the match, Billy Doctrove and BrianJerling, took the decision that everyone had feared they would. Therewasn’t enough time to complete 20 overs per team and they had littleoption but to declare the match abandoned.

ScorecardSulakshana Naik and Thirush Kamini struck half-centuries to steer India to a resounding ten-wicket victory against Sri Lanka at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. The opening pair shared an unbeaten 151-run stand for the first wicket after the Indian bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to 145 for 8 from 50 overs.Naik struck 11 fours and a six during her 79 and Kamini’s 60 included five fours as the pair finished the run-chase in just 31.3 overs. The ground work for the victory, however, was laid by a splendid bowling effort after Mithali Raj asked Sri Lanka to bat.Jhulan Goswami and Amita Sharma bowled miserly opening spells and did not allow Sri Lanka to build any momentum. Preeti Dimri took three vital top-order wickets and prevented partnerships to build. She finished with figures of 3 for 14 off eight overs and received support from Kamini who chipped in with 2 for 38 to go with her excellent innings.Shashikala Siriwardene, the captain, top-scored with 40 but there was a shortage of support from the other end as Sri Lanka struggled to reach 145 off their 50 overs.

SuperSport Series

A fine all-round performance from Heino Kuhn was the highlight of the Titans’ emphatic victory over the Dolphins by an innings-and-92 runs at Pietermaritzburg. Kuhn hit 216 in the Titans’ mammoth 623 for 6 to become only the third wicketkeeper in history to score a double-century and take five dismissals in an innings in the same first-class match, having earlier claimed five catches in the Dolphins’ first-innings 237. Maurice Aronstam and Martin van Jaarsveld also scored centuries at a quick pace to help the Titans establish a first innings lead of 386 and leave themselves with almost two days to bowl out the Dolphins. Despite a battling 98 by captain Ahmed Amla the result was never in doubt and the Dolphins were eventually dismissed for 294.A fine all-round performance from Robin Peterson was in vain when the Lions beat the Warriors by five runs at Johannesburg. Peterson’s 73 had given his side a chance of victory, but he was ninth out with24 still needed, and although Brent Kops and Lonwabo Tsotsobe took the score to 259, Kops’s dismissal left them an agonising five runs short. Peterson had previously kept his side in the match almost single-handedly. He took four wickets in the Lions’ first innings 256, anchored by a fine 95 from Neil McKenzie, and then was the only batsman to top 25, scoring 54 in the Lions meagre 158. Charl Langeveldt and Friedel de Wet shared nine-wickets between them for the Lions. Peterson claimed four more scalps to bring the Warriors back into the contest when they bowled the Lions out for 166 second time round, a total that owed much to de Wet’s feisty, unbeaten 43. 265 was needed for victory, but again Peterson was the only Warriors batsman to top 50 in the second innings, a sterling effort but not enough to bring victory.A superb display of fast bowling from Eagles bowlers Johan van der Wath and Ryan McLaren blitzed the Cobras and led their side to a 52-run victory at Bloemfontein. McLaren and van der Wath claimed four wickets apiece to skittle the Cobras for 107 and leave them well short of their target of 160. Honours were even after the first innings, the unfortunate Dean Elgar having been stranded three runs short of a maiden century in the Eagles’ 218, while Henry Davids made 76 in the Cobras’ 220. Only Rudolph got to 50 when the Eagles could muster just 161 in their second knock, and they looked to have blown their chances of victory. Their fast bowlers, however, had the last word.

MCC’s controversial new debenture scheme, which offers the right for punters to buy tickets at Lord’s for eight seasons at costs of up to £12,000, has been strongly defended by its chairman, Charles Fry, as part of a recognition that the ground’s venerable status is not enough to guarantee international cricket.The scheme has prompted moves for the club to hold a Special General Meeting, but Fry insists that the money the debentures will generate – over £13 million – is “essential” if Lord’s is to “retain both its world-class status and its current share of major matches”.Without a further series of ground improvements, including a higher capacity, Lord’s runs the risk, according to Fry, of losing both its premier status and its ability to attract major fixtures – such as Test matches, one-day internationals and domestic finals. This was a risk that MCC’s Committee “is simply not willing to take”.While understanding the concerns of current debenture-holders, who are being asked to pay significantly more than before for their ticketing and dining privileges, Mr Fry emphasised that MCC’s Committee was “duty-bound” to take decisions which, however controversial among a minority of Members, were “in the interests of the game, the ground and the Club as a whole.”Acknowledging that the new Lord’s debentures – priced at between £8,000 and £12,000 each – are far more expensive than their predecessors, he argued that their costs were broadly similar to those charged in respect of other comparable sports venues, such as rugby union’s Twickenham headquarters.There are currently 18,000 full members and 4,000 associate members of the MCC. The current maximum annual subscription, entitling the member to enter the ground on every matchday, is £344. And, in addition to their anger about the increase in costs, members also expressed concerns that only corporate customers would buy the new schemes.But Fry said: “The debentures in the Mound Stand are currently all owned by MCC Members. Indeed, they have priority status when it comes to buying the new issue, and I would be delighted if they bought every seat that it covers.”But if they don’t, we need to ensure that all the debentures are still sold. Only then can we maximise our investment in Lord’s and, in the process, maximise its chances of retaining its current share of major matches – as all our Members would wish.”The current Mound Stand debenture-holders, all of whom are MCC members, will still have access to the pavilion and other areas at Lord’s, a privilege not afforded to corporate customers or the general public.