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Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, says the rights of cricketers must be weighed against the importance of retaining strong Test teams as speculation mounts that Shane Bond might join the Indian Cricket League (ICL). New Zealand Cricket is already encouraging its selectors not to choose players who have already taken part in the league and now a report in the suggests Bond has agreed to play in the ICL in 2008.”With New Zealand and these other poorly paid countries, it’s incredibly enticing at the end of their career, or even in the middle of their career, to look after themselves,” May told the paper. “It’s their job and they’re trying to do the best for their families.”You may well see more ICL contracted players signed up. So what are we going to do, have a New Zealand second XI out there? Is it in New Zealand’s national interest to put out a half-baked team?”Is it in world cricket’s interest? These are the questions people really need to sit down and think about. And there is also the rights of the players to ply their trade. We want to encourage people to play cricket professionally, don’t we? It’s not necessarily a bad thing, this ICL.”New Zealand Cricket has told its selectors that when they choose national and representative squads they should consider other players ahead of those who have taken part in the ICL. Daryl Tuffey was the only one of the six affected players who was realistically in the frame for further Test and ODI action.However, if Bond joined the ICL it would provide a major crisis for cricket in New Zealand. The reported that if NZC tried to stop Bond, or any other player, signing up with the ICL it could face legal action for restraint of trade.

Steve Bucknor has revealed that both he and Aleem Dar received death threats on the last day of England’s final Test against South Africa at Centurion. Bucknor and Dar were the two umpires for that game.According to London’s , Bucknor stated that the threat came through a phone call made to the chief executive’s office at SuperSport Park during the final day’s play. “I was told that the threat came towards the end of the last day. I’m not sure if Aleem realised it was against him as well, but I was told that the words the caller used were ‘We are going to get rid of Aleem Dar and Steve Bucknor, we are going to shoot them’,” Bucknor said. “You get lots of abuse as an umpire, but that is the first time that I have been threatened to that extent. I briefly thought about cutting short my stay and going home to the Caribbean, but I convinced myself that I am stronger than that. If umpires react to threats like that, then there will be a flood of them.”I have to say that I am not really worried about it – the words were serious, but I’m not sure whether the person who said them was serious – I’m certain it was just a hoax call,” Bucknor continued. “Also, I grew up in a part of Jamaica where threats are a daily occurrence, and I refereed football matches in Jamaica where you get threatened all the time – although it was never this extreme. Nevertheless, it’s not been a pleasant couple of days.”Bucknor has already officiated in 99 Tests, but his performance during the series came in for criticism from some of the players and the media. Michael Vaughan, the England captain, was especially vocal about the umpires’ interpretation of the playing conditions during the fourth Test at Johannesburg, while South Africa believe that plenty of decisions went against them during the recent series. Dar has returned to Pakistan after the Tests, but Bucknor is still in South Africa and will officiate in the one-day series as well.

The England team arrived in rain-drenched Bangladesh today for their month-long tour, which includes two Tests and three one-day internationals. Officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) greeted the team at Dhaka’s Zia International Airport upon their arrival aboard an Emirates flight.England, without the injured Lancastrian duo of Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson, will face a Bangladesh team buoyed by an improved display during their recent tour of Pakistan. They put up a tough fight against Pakistan, coming within one wicket of registering their first Test victory in the third Test at Multan.Michael Vaughan, leading England on tour for the first time, told reporters on arrival that he was looking forward to a good series and will not be underestimating the home side. “In their last Tests, Bangladesh played positive cricket against top-class teams like Australia and Pakistan,” he said. “We will not take them lightly.”Bangladesh, who were granted Test status in 2000, have lost 23 of their 24 Tests to date. The only draw came in a rain-hit match against Zimbabwe. They have also gone 44 one-day internationals without recordiung a win, since their surprise victory over Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup.The Test series starts in Dhaka on Oct 21. After the Bangladesh leg of the tour, which ends on Nov 12, England go on to Sri Lanka for three more Tests and three ODIs.

Mohammad Ashraful has been omitted from a Bangladesh training camp, and is likely to miss the series against England.Ashraful shot to fame in 2001 aged just 17, when he became the youngest player to score a century on his Test debut. His subsequent scores, however, have been patchy, although he showed signs of a return to form with a gutsy 77 in the second Test against Peshawar last month.But he has been left out of a squad of 20 that began training on Wednesday, along with his fellow batsman Sanwar Hossain and the pace bowler Manjurul Islam. Fahim Muntasir, an offspinner, has been recalled after nearly a year while the slow left-armer Musaddeq Hossain is called up for the first time.”Our target is to improve individual performance,” said coach Dav Whatmore, who has overseen an impressive upturn in fortunes since taking over after the World Cup. In their most recent Test, against Pakistan at Multan, Bangladesh came within one wicket of their maiden victory.England arrive in Bangladesh on October 8 for two Tests and three one-day internationals.Bangladesh squad Khaled Mahmud (captain), Hannan Sarkar, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar, Rajin Saleh, Alok Kapali, Mohammad Rafique, Khaled Mashud, Tapash Baisya, Mashrafe Mortaza, Alamgir Kabir, Hasibul Hossain, Fahim Muntasir, Musaddeq Hossain, Tushar Imran, Mushfiqur Rahman.

Wasim Akram has been fined by a Lahore court after failing to appear to answer changes that he hurt religious sentiments by appearing in an advertisement for an Indian liquor company.The civil court ruled against him by default as a result of his non appearance, although Wasim’s solictor later claimed that his client had never been notified of the hearing. He dismissed the claim as a "frivolous petition".The case was brought by a local individual who claimed that he had suffered as a result of the advertisement. He asked for a public apology and damages of Rs 25,000 (US$500).Wasim appeared in the advertisement last year, along with other cricketers such as Harbhajan Singh and Glenn McGrath. He previously denied the accusation, arguing he worked for the company which also manufactured sports equipments.

Sourav GangulyOn the pitch
It’s definitely a very important Test match and it’s going to be a good cricketing wicket. It’s got a bit of grass covering on it and I think it’s going to be good for everybody: the fast bowlers, the spinners and the batsmen. It will turn as the match goes on, as the surface underneath the grass is pretty dry.On Tendulkar’s return
To get a player like Sachin back would be a boost for any team. The way he batted in the nets, it did not look as though he has not played cricket for two months. And his bowling will be very useful as well.On whether there was a chance Parthiv Patel would open
NoOn the opening combination
We’ve had two specialist openers in the last two Test matches: we’ve considered Yuvraj as an opener. We will go into the third Test in similar fashion. The selectors will decide between Yuvraj and Aakash.On whether he called the curator and asked him to take the grass off the pitch
I did that before the Test from Calcutta on the 20th. I don’t think he’s done much. Our strength is the spinners. But at the end of the day the pitch is up to the curator: I can only make a request. In the last two Tests we got pitches that helped the spinners, but obviously the curator here has his own ideas.Adam GilchristOn whether Australia have the edge
We’re leading 1-0 so we’re just in front. But, like Sourav has said and I have said, there’s still a lot of cricket to be played. We saw in Chennai how quickly things can change. There’s still ten days’ cricket left.On the pitch
It’s very difficult to judge what it’s going to do. It’s totally different to what we have come across so far. It looks like a good Australian wicket which is a bit of a surprise. We don’t know how it’s going to play: we have to wait and see and make our adjustments accordingly. If indeed it does play similar to Australian conditionswe’re going to have to make adjustments too, as we have been aligning our game plan to traditional subcontinental wickets.On Tendulkar’s return
We’ve got plans about how we will approach bowling to him: we just have to execute them well. We have prepared for every Test this series as though Sachin was going to play.On the team composition
We have the same 12 as the first two Tests, with one change: Brett Lee comes in for Nathan Hauritz.On whether Australia were under less pressure than India in this Test
I think pressure comes from yourself. There’s expectations from others, but pressure comes from yourself. I don’t feel like any of us are carrying anything extra or less in this Test. There’s a temptation to feel we’re so close to achieving the goal that we set out with but we’re still a long way from that and we know it. There’s no different mind set for this Test. If we try to go negative and play for a draw, that’s not in our nature and we’ll get ourselves into trouble.

Dilhara Fernando has been included in Sri Lanka’s 15-man squad for the IndianOil triangular one-day tournament which also involves West Indies and India. The squad also includes two uncapped players – Upul Tharanga, a left-handed opening batsman, and Dilhara Lokuhettige, an allrounder whose medium pace has fetched him 137 first-class wickets.Fernando has shown excellent promise as a fast bowler, but his career has been plagued by injury, especially a stress fracture of the back which kept him out of the side for long periods. However, he has shown signs of regaining full fitness, and performed superbly for the A in the one-day series against their West Indian counterparts, taking nine wickets in five games at 17.33.The tournament gets underway on July 30, with Sri Lanka taking on India under lights. This will be Tom Moody’s first one-day series as the Sri Lankan coach. Incidentally, his counterparts Greg Chappell, India’s coach, and Bennett King, the West Indian coach, are also from Australia. The first four matches will be played at Dambulla before the action moves to the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo for the last two games and the final on August 9.Squad
Marvan Atapattu (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Farveez Maharoof, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga.

Team England does not go in for wholesale changes these days. In ordinary circumstances, this would count as A Good Thing. The modern regime enables English players and fans to relax between Tests, knowing that continuity is the key to success. A hint of job security here, and a little TLC there, and today’s turkeys will be transformed into next week’s nighthawks. Or so the theory goes, at least.But continuity can sometimes breed contempt, and as next Thursday’s all-important fifth Test looms large, England’s prospects are getting niffier by the day. For one night only, they need to forget the long-term future. Forget the “We’ll Be Taking The Challenge Very Seriously” tour of Bangladesh in October. And preferably, forget everything that has gone before in this most flawed of summers. When England square up to South Africa in that decisive one-off tussle at The Oval next week, nothing less than a victory will do – and the selectors must do whatever it takes to secure it.The teams have been here before, of course. In 1994, South Africa’s rampant start to the series was first halted by Michael Atherton’s obduracy under pressure at Headingley, then utterly vaporised by Devon Malcolm’s never-to-be-forgotten nine-wicket haul … at The Oval. And four years later at Trent Bridge, Atherton was once again instrumental in turning the tide, with Darren Gough applying the coup de grace in the fifth Test at Headingley.But the difference between then and now is all too apparent. On any given day (except, of course, when it mattered at Headingley), England have the batsmen to drive home the slimmest of advantages. But quite where they hope to find a strike bowler of the requisite quality is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they could follow the example of the Qatari Athletics Association, and borrow an African to boost their medal prospects – in this case Worcestershire’s Nantie Hayward, who is surplus to South Africa’s requirements, but is bowling as fast as anyone on the county circuit.The sad truth is that England selected five right-arm seamers for the most conducive of conditions in Headingley, and they blew it. Martin Bicknell performed creditably at first, but tired visibly towards the end; James Anderson (strangely rested from the latest round of County Championship matches) continued to blow cold and colder; Kabir Ali and James Kirtley were energetic but ineffective. Only Andrew Flintoff – plagued as ever by bad luck and no-balls – emerged with credit, but his stillborn strike-rate suggests he lacks the guile to find the edge against top-class batsmen.What is needed, almost as urgently as a 90mph yorker through Graeme Smith’s defences, is a change of attitude from England’s attack. To a man, the incumbents are too nice, too demure. They have perhaps been shocked by the ferocity of South Africa’s ambitions, but once their pre-series swagger was whipped away, they lost all right to reply. England’s alleged strike bowler, for example, has been Steve Harmison. He was injured for Headingley but is likely to return at The Oval, despite managing just five wickets in 83 overs this series. He continues to bowl as he did on the Ashes tour, with plenty of hope but little expectation, and Smith and Co. have cashed in accordingly.In years gone by, a spitting-and-snarling Dominic Cork would have been rustled up for this sort of make-or-break encounter. He would probably have been handed the new ball as well, ordered to send down a volley of bouncers and invective, and an infuriated opposition would self-destruct. Even Corky is probably beyond a comeback this year, but instead England could do worse than send for Yorkshire’s firebrand, Steve Kirby, who is loose, limber, and pretty damn quick as well. In the absence of Bicknell and Kirtley, Richard Johnson must be recalled as the straight man of the attack.In the absence of that great Oval-ophile Phil Tufnell, England hardly possess a spinner worthy of the name. But that isn’t to say that Ashley Giles is worth nothing but abuse either. In seven Test innings this summer, Giles has cobbled together 216 runs at 30.85, with just a solitary score below 21. He is every bit as important for those 20-odd overs he hangs around with the bat, and at least at The Oval he might get a hint of assistance off the track. With Alec Stewart facing the final curtain on his home ground, Giles’s role is especially delicate. Stewart remains head-and-shoulders above his young rivals for the wicketkeeper’s gloves, but of late even he has been batting as if with misty eyes. Expect either a furious century or an emotional zero from the Gaffer – not a lot in between.On the whole, the batting is less problematic than the bowling, but it still far from a bed of roses. Bicknell’s selection at Headingley has already set the precedent for thirtysomething recalls, so there can be no further excuses for ignoring Graham Thorpe, especially with Nasser Hussain ruled out with a broken toe. But even if Hussain had been fit, Thorpe needed to be recalled anyway, at the expense of the unfortunate Ed Smith, whose two matches to date have been on duff pitches. Then, with Mark Butcher and Andrew Flintoff in the batting form of their lives, England’s middle order would have a reassuringly solid look to it (although looks can and have been deceptive).If only the same solidity could be applied to the opening partnership. Vaughan is too classy a batsman to let the pressures of captaincy unsettle him for long, but Marcus Trescothick continues to be a worry. In the NatWest Series, Trescothick fooled everyone into thinking he was back to his best, but since then he has made only 199 runs in eight Test innings, and is considering taking out a copyright on that flat-footed prod to slip.Trescothick, like his old mirror-image Graham Gooch, is too good for England to drop. But perhaps it is time for a drop down the order, just as Gooch, at a similar stage of his career, took a step up. Trescothick remains among the most swashbuckling of one-day opening batsmen, but he seems to lack the discipline to ride out the rough times in Test cricket.It is a hard transition from buccaneer to blocker, and very few of the great one-day openers have been required to do both jobs simultaneously. Mark Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar, even Adam Gilchrist, have all made their Test names in the middle order. Maybe it is time for Trescothick to do likewise. Given that England cannot afford another batting debacle at The Oval, there is no time like the present.Possible squad 1 Michael Vaughan (capt), 2 Robert Key, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Marcus Trescothick, 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Alec Stewart (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Richard Johnson, 10 Kabir Ali, 11 Steve Kirby, 12 James Anderson, 13 Steve Harmison

Ricky Ponting has said that the engrossing Ashes series could be a precursor to an even more vibrant encounter when Australia take on the World XI in October’s ICC Super Series. Currently locked at one-all, the ongoing series between England and Australia has already swung both ways; England stand to win it for the first time since 1986, and Australia have expressed horror at the thought of relinquishing the trophy. It has made for a dynamic tussle.After the World XI teams were announced, Cricket Australia released a press statement by Ricky Ponting. “It will be an amazing experience to play against a side of this caliber and I think for those players in the World XI, it will be an equally exciting prospect to play in a team alongside the game’s greats,” AFP reported. “No doubt the Australian public is talking about the tight Ashes battle that we’re currently in, and hopefully, that can whet people’s appetites for even more great cricket in October. We’ve spent some time on the bus journeys around England, trying to predict the World XI. There’s no doubt that this is a highly impressive line-up.”The Test opposition includes Brian Lara, Andrew Flintoff, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Steve Harmison and Virender Sehwag – all of whom have dazzled against Australia. The Test and one-day series have been given official status to add purpose to their dazzle, and are the prime draw in the cricketing calendar after the Ashes until India tour Pakistan in 2006.James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, said that this was the biggest cricket event Australia had held since the World Cup in 1992. “This is the ultimate sporting contest – the best team in the world against a team of the world’s best players. The ICC World XI is a star-studded line-up and we are looking forward to seeing how Australia’s challenge against the ICC World XI will unfold. We have seen over the past month or so the intense excitement and interest that surrounds a genuine contest between two evenly matched teams. England is challenging Australia and we are going to see the likes of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Kevin Pietersen taking them on again in October at the Super Series.

Tasmania 5 for 148 (Di Venuto 49) and 268 trail Queensland 459 (Maher 153, Hopes 77, Hartley 76, Bichel 56) by 43 runs
Scorecard

Queensland moved into a dominant position at the end of the third day of their Pura Cup match against Tasmania at Brisbane. Queensland compiled 459 and Tasmania finished the day trailing by 43 runs in their second innings with only five wickets remaining after Australia A quick Mitchell Johnson took 3 for 6 in 20 balls.Called up to the Australia A side that recently toured Pakistan on the back of just six first-class appearances for Queensland, Johnson was watched by Australia’s chief selector Trevor Hohns. A left-handed quick, Johnson, 23, seems to have recovered from the injuries that have blighted his career since Dennis Lillee described him as a “once-in-a-lifetime” quick at the age of 16 and is in frame for a call-up to the full Australian squad to face West Indies.Jamie Cox and Michael Di Venuto started Tasmania’s reply to Queensland’s total well, seeing off Andy Bichel, who picked up six wickets in the first innings, Joe Dawes and James Hopes with ease as they reached 80. An inswinger from Andrew Symonds accounted for Di Venuto and he and Johnson worked well in tandem.Johnson found some extra pace to bounce out David Dawson and then had Cox and Birt caught in the cordon. Symonds picked up the final wicket of the day, inducing an edge off Scott Kremerskothen’s bat that was brilliantly caught at slip by Martin Love. Tasmania had lost five wickets for 59.Asked if he had thought of his international prospects, Johnson said: “No not at all. I’m just worried about playing first-class cricket at the moment. That hasn’t even popped into my head. I got on a bit of a roll [today] but that happens in cricket and it was a good feeling.”Earlier, the morning session proved crucial. With Queensland holding a lead of just five runs overninght and five wickets remaining, Tasmania needed early breakthroughs, and one came when Lachlan Stevens was removed by Adam Griffith – via the hands of captain Di Venuto – without adding to his overnight score.Tasmania’s joy was short-lived however. Queensland captain Jimmy Maher, unbeaten on 108 overnight, put on 92 with Chris Hartley before he eventually fell for 153. Next man in Andy Bichel offered no respite, adding a further 70 with Hartley as both passed their fifties. Queensland were eventually dismissed for 459, a lead of 191.