Ricky Ponting is eager to have the injury-prone Shane Watson back in his side at the World Cup because he is so important to the balance of the team. Watson, 25, sustained a calf strain during Australia’s thrashing of Bangladesh and will miss the game against England.The initial prognosis was that Watson would be available for the April 20 clash against New Zealand in Grenada, which would be Australia’s final fixture before the semi-finals should they qualify. But Ponting said he hadn’t given up hope of Watson being fit to face Sri Lanka four days earlier.”The earlier we can have him back the better,” Ponting said. “If we get him back for the Sri Lanka game that would be great but we’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope he keeps coming along well. Originally everyone was hoping he’d be back for the New Zealand game. He’s getting around okay now.”His program has been not to do anything at all, not for this first week and let it heal as much as he can. He’s been doing all his rehab, four or five times a day and he’s had lots of physio.”James Hopes is on standby back in Australia but Ponting is hopeful Watson will be able to recover after a “horrible run of injuries”. “Maybe he has to have a good look and all of our staff have a good look at the way he’s training, his weight program and his training programs and everything like that and give him a more resilient body,” he said.”He’s an extremely talented player and any team round the world is looking for an allrounder that can give you what he can give you in both forms of the game, so let’s hope his body can stand up a bit better because I think he’s got a very bright future. The great shame about it being someone like Shane is that he works harder than anybody else on his body and at the moment he’s having a bad run.”

Wasim Akram, the former Pakistan fast bowler and captain, has lashed out at Inzamam-ul-Haq and called him a “dictator” in Pakistan cricket. In an interview on ESPN, Akram said that Inzamam had become so powerful that Bob Woolmer, the former coach who died under unexplained circumstances in Jamaica, and the support staff approached him for leave.”I have seen senior PCB officials sitting at his residence and awaiting orders,” Akram said. “These things are not good for cricket.” With Pakistan looking for a new captain, after Inzamam resigned from the post and announced his retirement from ODIs, Akram felt that Shoaib Malik, the allrounder, was a good choice.”The only ones who can handle the job are Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf,” he said. “Malik is young and he is talented. I don’t think we have much of a choice, if Younis [Khan] is not interested.”Younis officially declined the captaincy, citing continuing mental strain after the traumatic events of the recent weeks as the main factor in his decision. He had been vice-captain under Inzamam for two years and was expected to take over the leadership. Younis had earlier rejected the post of captaincy during the Champions Trophy in India, when Inzamam was facing a four-match ban, on the grounds that he didn’t want to be a “dummy” captain.Akram felt that Younis would have been the best person to replace Inzamam but added that it was silly of Younis to make comments about absolute power and control. “For any captain, he must first win the trust of his teammates, get some victories under his belt and power will automatically come,” Akram said. “You don’t have to clamour for power.”Disagreeing with former captain and coach Javed Miandad’s comments that the captain must not be given full authority, Akram said that in India and Pakistan the captain must be the boss as he leads the team out on the field. “Javed has been my mentor but I sometimes don’t understand what he says,” Akram said.”When he was captain, Javed wanted full control and now he is saying something else.” Akram said that everything would fall into place as long as there was a healthy interaction between the captain and selectors.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

West Indies produced their most impressive cricket of the series as the opening day of the third Test at Old Trafford offered the most compelling contest of the early summer. England lost four wickets during the afternoon session, but the depth of their batting bailed them out of a potentially more serious hole with Ian Bell and Matt Prior adding 98 for the sixth wicket, until late wickets left the match fascinatingly poised.After the innings-and-283-run mauling at Headingley today’s performance from West Indies was as unexpected as it was heartening. When he was put into the field on a fast-scoring ground Daren Ganga would have happily taken seven wickets by the close. The series desperately needed a hard-fought day; England have to be tested in tough situations to gauge any progress they are making, and the fragile confidence of the young West Indians could have imploded terminally if another thrashing had developed.For the first time this season England were put under significant pressure, falling from 112 for 1 for lunch to 166 for 5. The inclusion of Fidel Edwards provided much-needed aggression, a stark contrast to the sameness of the other bowlers, and his presence provided new difficulties for batsmen who’d become used to planting their front foot down the pitch.After being fed runs for the first hour, where they scored at six-an-over, England were forced to work throughout the day. Bell, who didn’t field at Headingley with a bad back, took 63 balls to reach 20 before branching out during the final session, again showing his comfort in the middle order, and registering a hard-working fifty off 99 balls.The two key wickets went to Corey Collymore, who barely managed to move above medium-pace but was a model of consistency throughout his 20 overs. Shortly after lunch he nipped one back between Michael Vaughan’s drive, to end a stand of 104 with Alastair Cook, then claimed the major scalp of Kevin Pietersen who pulled a short ball straight to deep square-leg. Darren Sammy, the first St Lucian to play Test cricket, bowls innocuous seam but, crucially, he offered Ganga control which had been severely lacking in the earlier matches.

Cook had reached an authoritative half-century off 81 balls, but his next 40 deliveries produced only another 10 runs, and Sammy benefited from the pressure with his first Test wicket when Cook cut hard and low to Dwayne Bravo at point. Cook stood and waited for the umpires, Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar, to confer before being sent on his way and replays confirmed Bravo had got his fingers under the ball.With England’s middle order exposed for the first time, Ganga went back to his two quickmen – Taylor and Edwards – to test Bell and Paul Collingwood. Edwards produced a rapid spell, especially his 10th over when Collingwood was hopping about and taking blows on the body. Suddenly a true contest was emerging and there was previously unseen tension. After his pacy five-over burst Edwards was replaced, but the barrage paid off when Taylor – who began West Indies’ day in style by removing the struggling Andrew Strauss – trapped Collingwood moving across the crease with a ball that would have taken leg.In Prior’s two previous Tests he walked in with 363 and 329 on the board against a deflated and tired attack. This was his chance to show he could perform the rebuilding role which is key for a No. 7. He shelved the destructive hitting from Lord’s and Headingley, reining in his strokeplay, as West Indies went into a holding pattern by plugging the offside and bowling wide. But they missed a trick in not attacking slightly more and once the innings was back on an upward curve Prior began peppering the fence with his drives. As with Pietersen, though, he was sucked in by a short ball and picked out Runako Morton.Bell played at his own pace, picking off the loose deliveries, and his straight driving was in fine order, as it was a year ago when he scored a century, at No. 6, against Pakistan. On that occasion he needed the support of the lower order to complete his hundred and a similar picture has developed again. West Indies can be proud of their effort, but it’s vital they wrap up the innings swiftly because England’s attack won’t mind having a dart at a fragile batting line-up.

The ECB has offered a solution to Derbyshire’s ongoing problem with the sun – or more exactly the fact that it sets behind the bowlers’ arm at the County Ground.At least two matches in the past two years have been shortened because play has been suspended while the sun sets. But the ECB has agreed to an amendment to playing regulations in the Twenty20 Cup and the Pro40.The change means that provision will be made for a maximum of one hour of extra time to make up for time lost in respect of low, bright sunlight. This means that no overs will be lost if play has to be suspended because of the sun unless more than one hour of time is lost.”Due to the problems we have experienced with the low sunlight we have looked at a number of possible solutions to the problem and after lengthy consultation with the ECB we have come up with what we believe is the best immediate solution,” Tom Sears, Derbyshire’s chief executive, said. “The new regulation ensures that the thousands of spectators who enjoy Twenty20 and Pro40 cricket at the County Ground will be able to watch a full match in the event of the sun affecting play.”This provision is made in respect of low, bright sunlight only. The provision does not apply in respect of time lost for any other reason.

Stuart Broad wants to be part of England’s next fearsome pace attack after his impressive display in the first one-day international against West Indies. Broad’s 3 for 20 was instrumental in England’s 79-run win, but it was the combination formed alongside James Anderson and Liam Plunkett which really stood out.When England won the Ashes in 2005 they had a powerhouse fast-bowling attack of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones. However, those four haven’t taken the field together since the victory at Trent Bridge that summer and the odds on it reforming are slim. Flintoff is recovering from further ankle surgery and there is still no return in sight for Jones after more knee problems.England have found it difficult to replicate their success since the attack started to fragment with a host of bowlers being handed chances. Broad has always been highly rated around the England set-up, making his debut against Pakistan at the end of last season, and spent the winter developing at the Academy before a late call to join the World Cup squad in West Indies.”In time, I think we should be able to form a similar unit to the one that England had in 2005,” said Broad after England had moved to Edgbaston to prepare for Wednesday’s second match. “Those guys like Harmy, Hoggy and Fred are still around and it is great learning from them, but we also want to push them.”The good thing about England at the moment is that there are a lot of guys capable of playing international cricket and you really need that depth if you’re to be successful. International cricket and Test cricket in particular is hard and you are going to get injuries but, if you’ve got a strong pool of players to pick from who can all come in and do a job, well that can only be a good thing for English cricket.”But for an untimely knee injury at the start of the current season, Broad could have made his Test debut against West Indies, especially when Hoggard pulled up after Lord’s. Ryan Sidebottom took his chance with both hands and Broad now wants to use this one-day series to make a similar statement.”Look at Ryan, who came in to the side and made the step up to become a regular,” he said. “He’s come in and put pressure on the bowlers in and around the team and I think that is a good thing.”We’ve got the makings of a young bowling unit coming together and we have to keep working hard and learning from the senior guys, but trying to put them under as much pressure as we can by taking wickets when we get our chances.”My outlook is that when you’re under pressure then that is when you play your best cricket. You’ve got no choice but to perform to keep your place and I find that brings out the best in me.”

The ECB wants to sort out the umpiring mess in the UK by presenting its vision of the future, but it has much ground to make up today when it meets with the general council of the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers.The Association, known as ACUS, will hear a proposal from Lord’s to form the ‘Association of Cricket Officials’. The ECB would like to merge ACUS and its own Officials Association – which has attracted only about 1200 members since formation last year – under the umbrella of the county boards.The ECB presentation document makes no mention of the Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers, known as ICUS, which was set up this year to offer top to tail training, including Edexcel-accredited BTEC courses to fit into the educational system.The bottom line for the ECB is whether they can persuade ACUS to give up their independence – a status umpires and scorers have cherished since the association was formed in 1953. Even though attitudes within the ECB administration have changed along with the first class power structure, many people within the recreational game view Lord’s with immense suspicion after so many years of under-funding.ACUS are vulnerable through their unwieldy, outdated governance structure and thin finances – not helped by the ECB cutting off the £25,000 annual grant – but the rank-and-file have a fantastic spirit with, one suspects, a low opinion of bureaucracy.For too long the First Class Forum, with power over revenue distribution, ensured there was a ‘them and us’ climate, reflected by the shortage of money filtering through to cricket development in the shires. Nowhere was this attitude better reflected than in umpiring. First-class umpires were appointed from the ranks of former professional players without the formal training and examination that ACUS required for the vast majority of umpires outside the county circuit.One would have thought that county experience and proper qualifications would create the ideal international umpire, but the ECB did not subscribe to that until relatively recently when the ICC took control of officials. It is very surprising – indeed suspicious — that only two officials have squeezed on to the English first class list without having played at pro level — Neil Bainton and Jeff Evans – though it is true there are an encouraging number in the reserves, including Martin Bodenham, Keith Coburn, Stephen Garratt and Terry Urben.With David Collier as chief executive, the ECB is changing its spots as quickly as it can, but recreational cricket is an area with ‘history’. And umpires have long memories. The ECB have to prove that ACUS would be better off losing their independence. Their presentation document to these experienced, dedicated men does not seem to do so.This is quite apart from the politics of independence. The danger of merging with governing bodies was thrown luridly under the spotlight by the Darrell Hair business last year and the forfeit by Pakistan of the Test at the Oval. ICC proved incapable of making sensible decisions under the stress of international politics, and Hair – rated as their second-best umpire – was effectively sacked for making correct umpiring decisions.The ECB propose that the proposed Association of Cricket Officials is formed on a structure based on 39 county associations, with regional forums based on five ECB regions and the European Cricket Council.Each county elects a representative to the board, with a say in the distribution of finances, and to the forum for the wider picture. There will be a national board operating under the umbrella of the ECB. The 13 members, with an independent chairman, with be a representatives from six regions, a representative of the MCC, scorers and women’s cricket, an education director, an ECB finance director, an independent director and an ECB executive director.Convincing the ACUS membership and winning a two-thirds majority on a ballot will take some doing.

New Zealand’s domestic Twenty20 tournament will be staged in a two-week block after the 2007-08 fixture list was released on Thursday. The change has been made to recognise the increased popularity of the format and to ensure the State Shield can be completed without significant interruptions.Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, said he was excited by the potential of Twenty20. “We experienced significant growth in this form of cricket last year and are expecting big things for the upcoming season,” he said.”Twenty20 has exploded internationally and I am sure this season will be the biggest ever in New Zealand. The scheduling also recognises the importance of the State Shield and allows the competition to play to its conclusion with minimal interruption.” The opening round of the State Championship will be in November.A women’s Twenty20 tournament has been added and matches will be played the day before each State League round. “The inclusion is important as the format is being increasingly adopted at international level,” Vaughan said. “We have seen the White Ferns take on Australia in the last two Rose Bowl series and they are due to play England in three Twenty20 internationals later this month.”

Jhulan Goswami has become the first player from India to take the ICC Women’s Player of the Year award. She was presented with the trophy at the ICC Awards ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.Goswami was also India’s only representative in the individual player awards, with no representation from the men in the shortlist. She edged out Australia’s Lisa Sthalekar and England’s Claire Taylor.”It’s a dream come true for me,” she said on accepting the award from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, fresh from the Lord’s ODI on Saturday. “I am very excited to win this award. It is very unexpected because the other candidates are great players. It is very special for me”.The title was just reward for her bowling average of 12.40 in Tests and 21.80 in ODIs and, since Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick retired earlier this year, Goswami has also become the fastest female bowler in the world. She may have pace, but she has the accuracy to match, with an economy rate of 2.10 in Tests and 3.17 in ODIs.England certainly know a thing or two about her pace, after they succumbed to her in the second Test last year; she took ten wickets to take India to their first Test series win on English soil. She also put on her highest score of 69 in the first Test.It’s been a good year for India women’s cricket in terms of recognition. Last month Anjum Chopra won the coveted Arjuna award – a rare honour for a female player. Now Goswami joins her in being feted.”This award does a lot for women’s cricket,” said Goswami. “I think women’s cricket is growing, slowly. We are getting more and more coverage now in the media and that can only be a good thing for game as it encourages more girls to take up the game and improves the overall levels of performance.”Goswami is the second winner of the award after Karen Rolton won the prize last year.

If only they could all bow out in a blaze of glory, instead of occasionally going down in flames.By now you should be aware if Inzamam-ul-Haq has had the sort of grand farewell that often proves elusive for some of sport’s greatest champions.Almost 16 years after making his senior debut for Pakistan in a one-day international against the visiting West Indies, Inzamam was expected to play his final innings for his country today in Lahore with the home team facing the prospect of a whitewash in the two-Test series against South Africa.Inevitably, the result at the Gadaffi Stadium is almost secondary to Inzamam’s farewell, especially as he needed just seven more runs on the last day of his career to surpass Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s most prolific run-scorer in Test cricket. Yet the very best of plans don’t always work out for even the very greatest of sporting superstars, as Brian Lara found out in his last match for West Indies at the World Cup earlier this year.I wonder what would be the reaction in Pakistan, even on the eve of the significant Muslim occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, to Inzamam being left stranded at the non-striker’s end in the same manner in which Marlon Samuels contributed to the demise of Lara against England in front of a packed Kensington Oval six months ago? Such experiences should therefore make us even more grateful when great champions depart in circumstances befitting their status.What could possibly be better than signing off an outstanding career by scoring the winning goal on home soil in the most watched event on the planet? That’s what Gerd Muller, the scorer of an astonishing 68 goals in just 62 full internationals for West Germany, did in 1974. His close-range effort clinched a 2-1 victory for the Germans over favourites Holland in the World Cup football final in Munich, after which he promptly announced his retirement from national duty.Just 28 years old at the time, he resisted the temptation to keep on going, especially in the midst of all that glory and celebration, displaying the same clinical, decisive manner that he showed in front of goal on the way to a record that none of the strikers in the global game have managed to challenge in the 33 years since Muller departed the scene.A close second in the list of grand farewells would have to be Pete Sampras’ final match as a professional tennis player. Having been the dominant force in the sport for more than a decade, Sampras overcame the considerable challenge of fellow-American Andre Agassi in four sets in the final of the 2002 US Open to lift his record tally of men’s singles Grand Slam titles to 14.Though he didn’t announce his retirement immediately, the 31-year-old Sampras, whose first Grand Slam triumph had come 12 years earlier at the same event, eventually decided that he had had enough and that the victory over old rival Agassi was the perfect exclamation point to a record-breaking career.When it comes to more than one sporting hero going out in style simultaneously, it will take something remarkable to match the final Test of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh. This trio, who were the fulcrum of Australian cricket throughout the 1970s, made their swansong, the 1984 New Year’s Test against Pakistan in Sydney, something really special.In his final innings, Chappell compiled 182 to lift his Test run tally past the Australian record of 6,996 by Sir Donald Bradman, Lillee claimed eight wickets in the match, dismissing Sarfraz Nawaz with his final delivery in Test cricket, while Marsh snared six catches behind the stumps as Australia defeated the Pakistanis by ten wickets.He didn’t finish on the winning side, but mention has to be made of Seymour Nurse’s performance in his final Test innings. The 35-year-old Barbadian amassed 258 in his only knock of the drawn final Test against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1969, improving his tally to 558 runs (average 111.60) in the three-Test series, and then decided that was that as far as his career as a West Indies player was concerned.Compare those glittering send-offs with the demise of the incomparable Bradman. Needing just four runs to complete 7,000 runs and lift his Test average to 100, the “Don” was bowled for a second-ball duck by a googly from Eric Hollies in his final innings of the 1948 Ashes series against England at The Oval in London. It is said that there were tears in his eyes from the rousing ovation by fans and opponents alike as he strode to the middle in a Test for the last time.There were also tears in the eyes of boxing fans as they watched 41-year-old Muhammad Ali, a mere shadow of his incomparable best, finally leave the sport he had so invigorated and redefined in being pummeled for 12 rounds by Trevor Berbick in the Bahamian capital, Nassau, in 1981. For the man who had floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee and challenged the status quo on the way to becoming the most recognisable face on earth, it just did not seem right that the three-time former heavyweight champion should go out that way.But sport is not a scripted spectacle, even with so many corrupt individuals around, and no-one is guaranteed the farewell that we mere mortals may deem worthy of such greatness.

The modifications to one-day international rules, as proposed by the ICC in June 2007, could be implemented early if the Indian and Australian captains and respective boards agree. The rules are supposed to come into effect on October 1 but the seven-ODI series between India and Australia starts on September 29.Earlier in June, the ICC had ruled the following changes in ODI playing conditions: