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Test match cricket will return to Old Trafford in 2010 after it was awarded one of the two Tests against Bangladesh, while Lord’s will host three Tests in a season for only the second time in history after securing one of the neutral Australia-Pakistan matches with the other going to Headingley.Leeds was originally due to host Bangladesh, but the switch has been made after recommendations from the ECB’s independent major match group. Lancashire had also bid for an Australia-Pakistan game, but the return of England to Old Trafford for a Test will be of some consolation after they controversially missed out on hosting an Ashes Test this summer. There is the possibility of one of the Bangladesh Tests – most likely at Lord’s – being converted to a day-night game, if the ICC approves the request from the ECB and the Bangladesh board.However, MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw stressed that day-night Tests were still dependent on a suitable ball being produced. “There has been much talk of a potential day-night Test match being held at Lord’s next season between England and Bangladesh,” he said. “MCC has made significant strides in the development of a pink ball and we remain hopeful that further match trials will be conducted here in England in the next few weeks and also overseas throughout the winter. I would stress, however, that we would not want to jeopardise the integrity of Test match cricket by using untested or unproven coloured balls.”The last time Lord’s hosted three Tests in a summer was in 1912 when England, Australia and South Africa contested a tri-series and Bradshaw said it shows MCC’s commitment to the five-day game. “MCC supports the view that Test cricket is the pinnacle of the game, which is why we bid competitively to secure all Test matches that were on offer to us,” he said.”In particular, I am thrilled that Bangladesh will be visiting the home of cricket and maintaining the tradition of overseas teams playing at Lord’s. MCC submitted a high bid for a neutral Test match in order to offer practical assistance to the Pakistan Cricket Board and the ICC.”It will be an honour for MCC to host a neutral Test match between two great cricketing nations, Australia and Pakistan – especially since Pakistan has been deprived of Test cricket in recent years.The Pakistan-Australia Twenty20s will both be at Edgbaston while Cardiff will host the two Twenty20 matches between England and Pakistan.”In 2011 the Twenty20 match against India will be at Old Trafford and the Twenty20 against Sri Lanka will be at Bristol.

While all the headlines about India’s one-day team have focused on Rahul Dravid’s recall after nearly two years, another squad member is making a return after an even longer absence. Amit Mishra, the 26-year-old legspinner, comes back to the limited-overs side after six years, edging out left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha for the second slow bowler’s spot.Mishra attributed his inclusion to his performance in this year’s IPL, where he took 14 wickets in 11 games at an economy rate of 7, and his role in India’s victory at the recent Emerging Players’ tournament in Brisbane.”My performance in IPL in South Africa, besides the recent Emerging Players tournament in Australia, has prompted the selectors to include me in the team and I promise I will live up to their faith if I get a chance,” he told PTI.”I bowled well in South Africa [during the IPL] in conditions that are more suitable for fast bowlers,” he said. “I adjusted to the conditions early there and I think the selectors have picked me keeping in mind that.”Mishra has cemented his place as the second spinner in the Test team, but several younger spinners including Ojha and Saurashtra’s Ravindra Jadeja have been tried in the shorter formats before the selectors picked Mishra again. “The selection in the ODI team is a reward for the hard work I have put in over the last few years,” he said. “I am really very happy because at last my struggle paid off. It came late but it eventually came.”

The Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg has been suspended as an international venue by Cricket South Africa as part of a dispute with the host association, the Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB). The GCB had leveled allegations of mismanagement of the 2009 IPL at CSA chief executive Gerald Majola, the BCCI and the tournament organisers soon after the league ended.The ground’s status will be restored after the GCB issues an apology, a CSA statement said. However, the Champions Trophy matches scheduled there in September will not be affected as it is an ICC event.A meeting of the CSA’s Members Forum, called to discuss issue, rejected the GCB’s complaints and gave Majola a clean chit in the handling of the tournament.The Wanderers hosted eight games in the IPL, including one semi-final, the final and the closing ceremony.The GCB and CSA had several differences over the running of the IPL; the issues ranged from the sharing of VIP suites to the price of alcohol. At one point there was a doubt that the semi-finals and final would be held at the Wanderers as scheduled and after the tournament the GCB investigated the possibility of counterfeit tickets being sold at the final.The IPL was shifted to South Africa at the last minute following the Indian government’s advice to move it out of the country as it clashed with the general elections. CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka, in a statement today, stressed on the positive impact the IPL had made in South Africa, both monetarily and in boosting its image as a host of major sporting tournaments.”The Forum has asked the GCB to unconditionally withdraw these allegations and apologise to CSA’s president and CEO as well as to CSA as a whole and the BCCI,” Nyoka said. “Until both the apology and the hosting conditions are submitted, there will be no international matches staged at the Wanderers Stadium under the auspices of CSA.”

Andrew Flintoff sent down a few pacey overs at Lord’s as he attempted to prove his fitness for the second Test•AFP

Andrew Flintoff has announced that he will retire from Test cricket at the end of this Ashes summer, although he still intends to make himself available for Twenty20 and ODI cricket, and is expected to be fit for tomorrow’s second Test against Australia.Flintoff, who has missed 25 of England’s last 48 Tests through a variety of injuries, suffered another fitness scare on the eve of the Lord’s Test, when he reported soreness and swelling in the same right knee that required surgery back in April, after he tore his meniscus while playing in the IPL.”It’s not something I have just thought of overnight, it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while regarding this series,” said Flintoff. “With the knee flaring up again and getting the injections on Monday, now is a time I felt comfortable with doing it. There’s been a lot of speculation over my future for the past few weeks, so I wanted to get it out there, and concentrate on playing cricket.”I’ve had four ankle operations and knee surgery, so my body is telling me things, and I’m actually starting to listen. I can’t just play games here and there while waiting to be fit. For my own sanity, and for my family’s, I’ve got to draw a line under it. I’ve been going through two years of rehab in the past four, which is not ideal.”Prior to England’s practice session on Wednesday morning, Flintoff gave the team talk in a sombre atmosphere, and afterwards Paul Collingwood immediately came up and shook him by the hand. “Freddie simply said that these four Tests would be his last in Test cricket,” a team insider told Cricinfo. Andrew Strauss, the England captain, said the team were saddened, though not surprised, about Flintoff’s decision to stand down from Test cricket.”As players we’ve had a feeling this would come sooner rather than later,” Strauss said. “We feel sad he’s had to make this decision at his age, but we’re sure it will motivate him even more for this series.”The knee injury that has threatened his participation at Lord’s followed a spirited performance in the first Test at Cardiff, in which Flintoff bowled 35 overs but was once again under-rewarded with figures of 1 for 128. Strauss was optimistic on Wednesday that Flintoff will come through a fitness test and make himself available for selection, and he was seen skipping during England’s warm-up in the indoor nets, before padding up for batting practice, then sending down a few pacey overs on the outdoor nets.”The indications are that he’s going to be fine,” Strauss said. “He had a good bowl today, we just need to see how he reacts to what he did today before we can be 100% sure. At this stage we are hopeful but we can’t be sure.

“When you go in with three seamers, you’ve got to expect all three to bowl a lot of overs. Fred understands that, but this week in all likelihood there will be four seamers and maybe [they] won’t have quite as big a workload. We’d never play any bowler in a Test match who we didn’t think could contribute as fully as anyone else.”Though he acknowledged that Flintoff’s overall statistics do not bear greatness, Strauss lauded Flintoff’s effect on the modern game.”He’s had a dramatic impact in English cricket over the past few years, in the style with which he’s batted, and for a long period he’s been one of the bowlers in world cricket that batters least like facing, although the figures maybe don’t show that,” Strauss said. “And also as a personality, he’s done a huge amount for cricket in the way he’s played with a smile on his face. Test cricket will miss him, there’s no doubt about that. I’m sure he’ll go out in a style that befits his quality, with a bang, with big performances, and with some stories to tell at the end.”Regardless of his immense stature in the England dressing-room, the statistics of Flintoff’s recent form and impact on the Test side are not flattering. Since the 2005 Ashes, he has averaged 28.25 with the bat and 34.68 with the ball in 23 Tests (both figures down on his overall Test record of 31.69 and 32.51), and he has not managed a century or five wickets in an innings in any series since then.Moreover, he has been unable to impose himself on matches in the same way that he did in his 2005 pomp. Although some leeway has to be made for the quality of the opponents he has faced – Flintoff has often been recuperating during low-key series in preparation for the marquee events – the statistics paint a sorry tale. In the 25 matches that Flintoff has missed since 2005, England have won 12, drawn 10 and lost on only three occasions. In the 23 matches in which he has been present, those numbers are almost exactly reversed – won 3, drawn 7, lost 13.”Being part of an Ashes-winning team was very special, and so was beating everyone in the world for a period of time, and playing a major part in that,” said Flintoff. “I’d have liked my career to kick on after that, but being a professional rehabber for two years makes it pretty difficult to do that. It would have been nice if it had carried on a bit longer, but I’ve no regrets. I’m happy.”Flintoff received a cortisone injection on Monday, and is sure to play through the pain if he has to. “For the next four Test matches I’ll do everything I need to do to get on a cricket field and I’m desperate to make my mark,” he said. “I want to finish playing for England on a high and if you look at the fixtures going forward, the way my body is suggests I won’t be able to get through that.”

Damien Martyn has slammed his former coach John Buchanan over what he believes was poor preparation for the 2005 Ashes series and said England would never again play as well as they had that year. Martyn’s criticism of Buchanan, who has taken on a consultancy role with the ECB, echoes the thoughts of Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, who have never hidden their contempt for Australia’s ex-coach.”All comments by Warne and MacGill are right and you’d find that 99% of the group from that era would agree,” Martyn said in an interview with the . “They’re just the only guys who’ve got [the courage] to say it. The management team didn’t plan right, we had a not-very-good, quick preparation in Brisbane and then we landed and away we went.”We played a Twenty20 against England, which England still talk about, flogging us down in Hampshire. Buck was saying, ‘It’s only a muck-around game, don’t worry about it’ and we trained for four hours on the morning. So we went from the nets next door, busting a gut, into a T20 game where they rolled up playing it like a Test match and flogged us. There were a lot of mistakes made and a lot will never come out.”Martyn has largely shunned the media spotlight since his surprise retirement midway through the 2006-07 Ashes campaign. However, he is set to take on a studio co-hosting role with MacGill and Greg Matthews in what promises to be a fascinating special comments team for the free-to-air TV coverage of the Ashes in Australia on the SBS network.His memories of Australia’s previous tour of England are not happy; he received a string of tough umpiring decisions – he believes Australia would have retained the urn had umpiring reviews been in use – and was axed for the Australian summer that followed. Martyn said Australia’s preparation for the tour had been poor, which was one of “a million behind-the-scenes reasons” for the series defeat.”We got slack, everything clicked for them, they haven’t played that well since then and they won’t ever again,” Martyn said. “They built themselves up so much for the Ashes when the Ashes for us had dropped off because we’d won it so many times.”For us it was conquering all things, World Cups, Champions Trophy, the subcontinent. The Ashes was just another series but for England it was their pinnacle and we just went underprepared.”Martyn has also warned about overburdening young stars like Phillip Hughes and David Warner with unrealistic expectations. Martyn himself was once viewed as a cricket wunderkind and debuted for Australia at 21 but soon faced a six-year absence from the Test team when he failed to live up to the early hype.”It’s what Cricket Australia does, they beef people up,” he said. “You see it happening now with Phillip Hughes, you saw it with Dave Warner – no one knows about Warner any more – you’ve got to be very careful because it doesn’t always go rosy. There is a responsibility for Cricket Australia.”