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The batsman Callum Ferguson has been drafted into South Australia’s Ford Ranger Cup squad for their day-nighter with New South Wales in Adelaide on Wednesday. He replaces injured fast bowler Shaun Tait, whose absence will be a blow to the struggling Redbacks who are yet to earn a point.Tait, who may have been on Test duty anyway, will now definitely not play because of his troublesome elbow which also forced him to drop out of Australia’s 13 against Sri Lanka. He will also miss the Pura Cup match following cortisone injections which could rule him out of both Tests against Sri Lanka.Ferguson joins a Redbacks squad which has lost their first two matches, but their opponents haven’t fared too well either. The Blues have lost two of three, with the third abandoned to the rain.The visitors maintain the same 12-player squad who lost to Tasmania on Sunday despite Brad Haddin’s century. It’s Doug Bollinger’s second trip to Adelaide in two weeks following his appearance for the Chairman’s XI draw in the first warm-up match for the touring Sri Lankans.South Australia squad Daniel Harris, Matt Elliott, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Adcock (capt), Darren Lehmann, Graham Manou (wk), Andy Delmont, Ryan Harris, Jason Gillespie, Callum Ferguson, Mark Cleary, Dan Cullen.New South Wales squad Grant Lambert, Ed Cowan, Brad Haddin (wk), Dominic Thornely, Simon Katich (capt), Peter Forrest, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Mark Cameron, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Stephen O’Keefe.

Fun and games: Nick Kruger, Peter Worthington, Aiden Blizzard, Ed Cowan, Travis Birt and Mark Cleary launch the Australian domestic Twenty20 competition © Getty Images

The light-hearted nature of Twenty20 cricket was on display in Melbourne today as state players tried to smash balls across the Yarra River to launch the expanded domestic program. It was a spectacular failure – all six hitters failed to clear the water – but Cricket Australia hopes the 13 matches beginning on Monday are more of a success.Each state will play two home and two away games – twice as many as last year – before the final on January 13. Newcastle and Toowoomba will host matches and New South Wales will try to draw big crowds by including the rugby league star Andrew Johns in their team.”We saw him bat in the nets the other day,” the New South Wales opener Ed Cowan said. “It is an interesting prospect to see what Shaun Tait serves up for him because Bracks [Nathan Bracken] was bowling off about two or three steps and he was squealing when he was copping it in the thigh-pad.”Such stunts will do nothing to appease the Twenty20 detractors but the players insist they will take the contest seriously. South Australia’s Mark Cleary said his team, which has made a miserable start to 2006-07, would be looking to regain form in the shorter version. “It’s hit and giggle,” he said. “A win’s a win, so if we come out and get a couple of wins it might set us up for some momentum going into the Pura Cup and the Ford Ranger Cup.”Travis Birt, the Tasmania batsman, said it was unfair to label Twenty20 as simply an excuse to slog. “If you look at the really good players they play natural cricket strokes and seem to do well,” Birt said. “Obviously the Pura Cup is what everyone wants to win, or the Ford Ranger Cup, but it’s a trophy that’s still out there so teams really want to win it.”Twenty20 rules include two runs for no-balls with a free hit from the next delivery, a maximum of 90 seconds for a new batsman to take guard after a wicket, and penalties for teams that fail to bowl their 20 overs in their allotted 80 minutes. The first round of matches on January 1 has Queensland hosting Tasmania, Victoria travelling to South Australia and Western Australia playing at home to New South Wales.Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto, Tim Paine (wk), Dane Anderson, Travis Birt, George Bailey, Michael Dighton, Daniel Marsh (capt), Matthew Wade, Luke Butterworth, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Damien Wright.New South Wales squad Ed Cowan, Phil Jaques, Simon Katich (capt), Brad Haddin (wk), Dominic Thornely, Daniel Christian, David Warner, Aaron O’Brien, Tim Lang, Nathan Hauritz, Nathan Bracken, Scott Coyte.Victoria squad Michael Klinger, Jon Moss, Brad Hodge, Cameron White (capt), David Hussey, Rob Quiney, Aiden Blizzard, Andrew McDonald, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton, Darren Pattinson.

President of the WICB, Ken Gordon © ICC

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Player Association (WIPA) have agreed to a proposal brokered by the ICC and Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA) which could signal the end of the ongoing dispute between the two parties.A joint statement from the WICB and the WIPA said that they “welcomed the agreement reached by the ICC and the FICA on resolving the dispute between the WICB and the WIPA.”The dispute, which saw players such as Brian Lara and Chris Gayle pull out of a tour to Sri Lanka, has hampered the national team for more than a year. While this latest agreement appears to show that progress is being made, it is uncertain exactly what the nature of the agreement is.The statement continued: “The agreement has brought to an end the long-running contractual dispute and paves the way for the resumption of negotiations between both parties.”The negotiations will now centre on concluding the memorandum of understanding, contracts for retained players including player remuneration and match and tour contracts for players contracted outside of the retained players and the signing of the collective labour agreement.”The progress that has been made has seen compromises from both sides and this agreement now provides an excellent foundation on which to build strong relations between WICB and WIPA as we head towards the cricket World Cup in the Caribbean [in 2007].”

Jacob Oram could miss series against Australia after injuring his back© AFP

Jacob Oram has injured a bone in his back and will be unable to play for the immediate future, New Zealand Cricket revealed on Wednesday. Oram, the Central Districts allrounder, had a scan on Tuesday which showed he had damaged the bone, but he will need to undergo further tests to determine the exact nature of the injury. There are fears that he has a stress fracture and, if so, this would rule him out of facing Australia when they visit in February and March. He could also miss the two Tests against Sri Lanka in April.”The extent of the injury is yet to be determined,” said a statement from NZC, “but will become clearer in a few days after he has a CT scan.”Oram, 26, is an influential member of New Zealand’s team: he has 35 Test wickets to his name, and averages more than 40 with the bat.His team-mate, the left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, could undergo tests on injured back if the pain does not subside. Vettori missed Wednesday’s final charity match against the World XI at Hamilton after leaving the field in pain during the second match.

Nuwan Kulasekera and Lasith Malinga, two young fast bowlers from Galle, were the surprise inclusions in the 22-man squad announced today for Sri Lanka’s forthcoming series against England.Kulasekera and Malinga performed well for Sri Lanka in the recent Emerging Trophy tournament against Pakistan and India, and they have carried their form into the current domestic competition. Last weekend the pair combined to help beat title-contenders NCC – who included Hashan Tillakaratne, the Test captain, Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Chandana – by an innings.Meanwhile, Russell Arnold, Nuwan Zoysa, Lanka de Silva, Michael Vandort and Rangana Herath have also been rewarded for impressing on the recent tour to South Africa and Kenya. De Silva has been picked ahead of Prasanna Jayawardene, the wicketkeeper, and may even make it to the starting XI if Romesh Kaluwitharana fails to recover from a hamstring injury.Kaluwitharana has been named in the squad subject to fitness and de Silva, who batted well in South Africa, was chosen ahead of Prassana Jayawardene because of his better batting ability.The surprise exclusion is that of Jehan Mubarak, who scored centuries in South Africa and Kenya. Mubarak’s place has gone to Chamara Silva, a middle-order batsman who has been in the runs this season. “We have got reports that Mubarak is shaping up well and we don’t want to shatter his confidence by playing him too soon," Lalith Kaluperuma, the chairman of selectors, said. "He will be sent to India with the Sri Lanka A team next month and if he shows good form there we will recall him for the Test series against England.”The one-day squad will be picked next week.England, who are currently touring Bangladesh, are due to arrive in Sri Lanka on November 13 for a series of three ODIs and three Tests.Squad Hashan Tillakaratne, Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Romesh Kaluwitharana (subject to fitness), Lanka de Silva, Upul Chandana, Kumar Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dinusha Fernando, Nuwan Zoysa, Nuwan Kulasekera, Chamara Silva, Tilan Samaraweera, Dilhara Fernando, Michael Vandort, Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga, Russel Arnold.

When India beat England in style at Chepauk way back in February 1952, hope must have risen in the patriotic Indian heart that the country which had won freedom without firing a bullet was now ready to take on the world in cricket too, with nary a bouncer bowled in anger. Indian cricket had discovered its own ahimsa – the magic of spin – as Vinoo Mankad with 12 wickets in the match, and Ghulam Ahmed with four, bowled India to a famous innings victory. But the hopes were belied when India toured England the very next season and were drubbed 3-0. The West Indies tour that followed provided further confirmation that India were a force to reckon with only at home.The pattern continued throughout the 50s and 60s, when India registered some fine victories at home, though not necessarily series wins, against England and Australia; the West Indies continued to be invincible even on Indian soil. The Chepauk Test of January 1967 against Gary Sobers’ men produced exhilarating cricket from the home team, with sensational batting by the likes of Farokh Engineer and Ajit Wadekar; more significant, however, were the exploits of the new spin combination of Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who were to weave magic against all comers in home conditions for years to come. But India again came a-cropper in England in the summer of 1967, dashing hopes that our cricket had at last come of age.Srinivas Venkataraghavan was the fourth component of what came to be known later as the spin quartet – a misnomer, really, since only three of these world-class spinners played together most of the time – and these men dominated Indian cricket for over a decade. Ironically Venkataraghavan, the man who, among the foursome, figured least in Test match cricket, was a key player in India’s first triumphs in the West Indies and England in 1971, wins that promised to be the ultimate turning point in the nation’s cricket fortunes.

The Indian vice-captain, technically among the most accomplished in the world, played outstanding cricket of great character against the Australians, but since then he has shown a distressing tendency towards Hamletian indecision, especially after the ludicrous attempt to convert him into an opener bombed.

But 1974 proved that nothing had really changed in Indian cricket, with India crashing to 42 all out at Lord’s and losing the series rather ignominiously. Once again, a home series helped restore the balance in India’s favour. A stirring fight was staged against Clive Lloyd’s West Indies, then on the verge of becoming an all-conquering combination; the Carribbeans did experience a hiccup or two along the way, not the least of which was a Port-of-Spain Test that India won, chasing over 400 in the fourth innings.India regained some lost pride against comeback captain Bobby Simpson’s Australia, sans those who defected to Kerry Packer’s World Series, losing the series in a closely fought 2-3 result. A brilliant away win against England under Kapil Dev’s captaincy in 1986 was fashioned – for the first time in Indian cricket history – by seam rather than spin, but that was the penultimate time India won a series abroad, the 1993-94 triumph in Sri Lanka being the only bright spot in the depressing succession of abject surrenders that followed. Kapil’s Devils had earlier shown tremendous resolve in drawing a series that they deserved to win against Allan Border’s Aussies in Australia in 1986-87. Although India were involved in the second tie in Test history the following year at Chepauk, Indian cricket abroad went steadily downhill from that time onwards.The year 2001 raised hopes again. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid came together in ahistoric record-breaking partnership to give India her most improbable, ifnot her greatest, victory of all time at Kolkata. In Harbhajan Singh shehad apparently discovered a spinner in the mould of the greats of the past to partner the strong-of-mind Anil Kumble, a veritable demon on Indian tracks. The young sardar has since shown that he still has some way to go before he is to be bracketed with the best in the business.In Laxman, we hoped that we had found a batsman who could dominate the best bowling attacks in the world and make batting look as simple as driving aFormula One car in a video game. Joining the world’s best batsman, SachinTendulkar, and the other two champion batsmen in the Indian side, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, he added an exciting new dimension to the Indian line-up. But our joy was to be all too short-lived. In South Africa and elsewhere, the Hyderabad batsman has consistently exhibited a streak of recklessness that has bordered on the irresponsible.The Indian vice-captain, technically among the most accomplished in the world, played outstanding cricket of great character against the Australians, but since then he has shown a distressing tendency towards Hamletian indecision, especially after the ludicrous attempt to convert him into an opener bombed.The Indian captain too flattered only to deceive, his match-winning innings in the Kandy Test proving to be no more than a flash in the pan. And, even as we learned to overlook his rough edges and appreciate his ability to lock eyes with his opposite numbers in, figuratively speaking, fight-to-the-finish staring contests, he has shown inconsistency in the horses he backs, sometimes in defiance of the selection committee, and deficiency in common sense while ringing bowling changes that defy logic.The Master Blaster is yet to win a match abroad off his own bat, something that both Brian Lara and Steve Waugh have done for their teams. While there is no doubting the little man’s clear superiority over his nearest rivals in terms of sheer class, dedication and commitment, we, the Indian nation, starved of heroes and heroic deeds, still look up to him in vain to perform a miracle or three.After the early promise of the Javagal Srinath-Venkatesh Prasad combination fizzled out some years ago, India suddenly found a surfeit of riches in the pacedepartment. Even on Indian wickets, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra showed enough talent and fire to promise a bright future for Indian bowling, especially with Kumble returning to match fitness and Harbhajan Singh proving to be an equal partner. Once again, we were to be disabused of any delusions of Indian bowling grandeur, with injuries curtailing the left-arm seamers’ progress. The one Indian on a genuine comeback trail, Srinath, has also been plagued by injuries.The mirage of a solid opening pair in Sadagoppan Ramesh and Shiv Sunder Das also vanished, with the southpaw taking an untimely sabbatical to nurse his back. By accident, we found a more-than-able replacement, but unfortunately, Deep Dasgupta is still a less-than-competent wicket-keeper. Predictably, instead of showing patience with the gutsy youngster, critics are already baying for his blood.The year promised much but delivered precious little. All the old doubts and weaknesses remain, compounded by indecision and confusion in the administration. The Mike Denness controversy has done nothing to enhance India’s image, although it was a clear case of a team under siege by a roguereferee overreacting to an unpleasant situation. Instead of winning the sympathy of the rest of the world, India has managed to earn the dubious tag of rebel nation. The much-awaited contract system has been postponed, and Ranji Trophy reform is still a year away. Fast domestic wickets continue to be a mirage, and while India has a crop of good medium-pacers, quality spinners, especially the left-arm variety, will soon become extinct, thanks to an uncaring system that refuses to give them opportunities.The beginning of the 90s was marked by much optimism for the future of Indian cricket. No such positive feeling for the first decade of the new millennium is justified in the light of the 2001 experience.

For the third successive day the weather had its say with the start being delayed until 12.15pm. But surprisingly there were no interruptions once it going.From England’s point of view, the initial interest lay in Michael Atherton scoring the four runs for which he had waited since the end of play on the first day. That amounted to seven and a quarter hours during which no play was possible.Despite having scored four hundred runs in the previous Test at Lord’s and near enough that figure in the innings completed today, there is no clear indication that all is well with England’s batting, going by the innings here.Atherton’s patient innings took him to his fourteenth Test century and the 50th of his first-class career. With it he also equalled Denis Compton’s record of five Test centuries on this ground and it was of no surprise to hear him say that this was his favourite venue and that he always enjoyed batting here. Indeed, his maiden Test hundred (151) was also at Trent Bridge, against New Zealand in 1990. With the exception of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he has now scored centuries against every Test-playing nation.A cause of worry for England must be the failure of the middle-order batsmen. Graeme Hick, on the first day and Alec Stewart and Nick Knight today, were dismissed before even reaching double figures. All-rounder Andy Flintoff could only make 16 from 46 ba lls faced and although Chris Schofield hit a fine maiden Test half-century in only his second Test match, his job in the side is primarily to take wickets.At Lord’s England had good scores from four specialist batsmen and, for consistency, that is what was required here. After all, with the series against West Indies to follow shortly, England’s batsmen are being provided with the opportunity, by the weak opposition, of building confidence and getting practice at Test match level.Without the unexpected contribution of tail-ender Schofield and the 48 ‘extras’, England’s batsmen totalled 269 of which nearly 200 came from the opening pair. Bearing in mind that the bowling that they will face from West Indies will be at a much higher level than what the struggling Zimbabweans have had to offer, England will no doubt need to look at their batting carefully.Test debutant, 19-year-old Mluleki Nkala, finished with figures of 3 for 82, having taken 3 for 67 from 26 overs at one stage. A very commendable performance from the young lad.

Rangers took another step towards potentially retaining their Premiership title this season with a 1-0 victory at Ibrox.

Despite the positive result, there was one player for the home side who didn’t put in a particularly impressive performance on this occasion that arguably could have cost his side the game and potentially the title as well.

In 78 minutes on the pitch against Aberdeen, Alfredo Morelos had 46 touches of the ball – the lowest of any outfield Gers starter on the day – and didn’t do much with it when he had it or when he didn’t have it either.

Of the 30 passes that he attempted, the Colombian misplaced nine and ultimately ended up losing possession 15 times in total, also having just one clear shot at goal which was off target and failing to complete one of the two dribbles he attempted.

Out of possession, things weren’t much better for the 25-year-old, who only won 38% of his duels and failed to make even one tackle or interception for his team, also getting dribbled past on one occasion by an opponent.

This display ultimately earned the striker – who has been slammed in the past for his “appalling” behaviour and attitude by Kris Boyd – an underwhelming overall match rating of 6.5/10, making him the joint-lowest rated Rangers player on the day according to SofaScore.

The Scottish Daily Express also picked up on the attacker’s rather uninspiring performance by saying that he was “starved of service for the whole game and as a result couldn’t have any sort of role in the say of the game.”

Much to the relief of Giovanni van Bronckhorst and the Ibrox faithful, the Dutchman made the call to take off Morelos in the second half and put on Kemar Roofe, who ended up scoring the winning goal for the home side.

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With the Gers in a close race with Celtic for the league title, Van Bronckhorst will need the £11.7m-rated striker to be consistently scoring from now until the end of the season if they are to give themselves the best chance of securing the title again. Today, the Colombian almost cost his side dearly in the title race, with Roofe eventually bailing him out.

In other news: Van Bronckhorst can seal Rangers masterclass with “unbelievable” £6.5k-p/w gem, he’s a “class act”…

Further honours are coming Murali’s way © Getty Images

Australia and Sri Lanka’s two-Test series will be fought for a trophy named after Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. Cricket Australia accepted Sri Lanka Cricket’s suggestion that the winner of the contest, which begins in Brisbane on Thursday, should be awarded the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy to commemorate 25 years of Test cricket between the two sides.The trophy is a fitting tribute for two of the world’s best spin bowlers. Muralitharan is just nine wickets away from surpassing Warne’s record of 708 Test wickets. The announcement celebrates the 25th anniversary of Australia-Sri Lanka Test cricket, with the trophy featuring casts of Warne and Muralitharan’s right hands and match-used cricket balls bowled by both players during their careers.Sri Lanka Cricket’s chief executive Duleep Mendis said it was a fitting tribute to two players who have left an indelible mark on world cricket. “We are proud of the rivalry between our nation and Australia,” he said, “and think this trophy will help add to the sense of occasion every time we do battle.”Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland echoed these sentiments: “Both Shane and Muttiah have broken the 700-wicket barrier and inspired young cricketers around the world to try their hands at spin bowling. We see the inception of this trophy as yet another step in celebrating the wonderful history between both nations while continuing to build its stature in the years to come.”Warne said he felt very proud to be sharing the honour with Muralitharan. “We’ve had some great battles in the past and helped raise each other’s game to the heights that we’ve reached,” Warne said. “The rivalry between Australia and Sri Lanka has grown immeasurably over the last decade and I know my former Australian teammates will be super-keen to be the first country to win the trophy when they do battle this November.”Muralitharan said the respect was mutual: “I have enormous respect for Shane Warne,” he said, “and I consider it a great honour to have a trophy named after both of us. The coming Test series is a great opportunity for our team against Australia and I’m looking forward to bowling in Australia again.”The Warne-Murali tharan Trophy becomes the latest series named after famous players.Australia’s matches against India are fought for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy while Australia and New Zealand compete for the Chappell-Hadlee one-day title.

Million-dollar question: Will Suresh Raina’s batting woes end if he goes back to the domestic circuit? © Getty Images

These are good times to be a first-class cricketer in India. More money has been pumped in, remuneration has increased and, at last, the games, even if only some, are being televised. But what about the state of the game itself? Has it improved?Recently, when asked if the out-of-form Suresh Raina wouldn’t be better served if he spent a couple of years in domestic cricket, a senior member of the Indian team had replied with a question: “For what? To rot?”In Mysore as Haryana’s batting deflated like cheap party balloons on the fourth morning, Ashwani Kumar, the coach, had his own answers to that question. “To be competitive at this level, you need to have faced some competition before. I am sorry but my team’s performance was not up to the Elite standard. Look … we are the Plate champions and the boys are really proud to perform for their state. I am sure they will adjust to the tougher competition at this rung and will up their own game in the matches to come.”Kumar goes on to suggest what he thinks can lead to better peformance. “Reduce the money in the Plate stage,” he asserts. “I don’t want to take any names, but there are teams in the Plate group who seem to be satisfied in just remaining in that stage. They don’t want to cope up with the pressure of playing at higher level. As a result the quality of domestic cricket suffers. I would like to see gradation in remuneration between Plate and Elite. Plate group teams should be paid less and only then there would be a motivation to compete and move up to Elite.”Now, the background may be bleak but there are at least two young players in his team that Kumar would be proud of. Joginder Sharma, the allrounder, and Mahesh Rawat, both, want to play for India. Joginder is in the midst of a great run with 18 wickets in two matches. As for Rawat, he has not only been very good behind the stumps – he flew full-length to his right to take a blinder in the first innings and was generally pretty solid – but very prolific with the bat as well.”Joginder is a great lad. He has a great attitude and is a perfect example for the rest of the guys. He is a fitness freak and guides the juniors in the team. . (If there is energy in the body, then you can bowl fast) And he has the skills. He can swing both ways with the new ball and gets reverse swing with the old ball,” Kumar explains.There is, however, the fear that Joginder is being overused. Kumar agrees. “Although he has never complained about the work load, he is our bowling machine! But the fear is there and that’s why we introduced Sanjay Bhadwar, a mediumpacer, to support him,” he says. Joginder himself sees it differently. “I am ready to do anything that my management wants,” Joginder told Cricinfo. “I am very happy with my form. The wickets are coming and I also got runs in the Duleep Trophy. I am yet to contribute [with the bat] in the Ranji Trophy and I am confident it will happen soon.”Joginder doesn’t believe in having role models and idols. “I don’t like to copy. I just concentrate on my own game, work on my strengths and weakness and try to improve. I am my own role model.” That doesn’t mean he is averse to seeking advice. He had a chat with Venkatesh Prasad, former Test bowler and Karnataka’s coach, who told him keep performing and remain patient.He is 24 years old and in India the use-by-date, so to speak, is 26. Over the last five years, 22 players under the age of 25 have made their international debut for India. Only seven players over 25 have made their debut over the same period. Joginder scoffs at the stat. “If I remain fit and keep taking wickets, there is nothing to worry. I am confident that my efforts will be recognised. I am working hard to come back into the national team,” he adds, “My future is in my own hands.” You can’t argue with that.