An expanded version of the Twenty20 Cup is to form the centrepiece of the forthcoming county season, after the England & Wales Cricket Board unveiled their fixtures list for 2005.The tournament, which comprised 45 fixtures in its inaugural season in 2003, and 52 in 2004, has leapt again to 79 matches, spread across a six-week period in mid-June and July. An expansion of the group stages guarantees each county four lucrative home games, and seven of those fixtures will be played under lights, at Chelmsford, Hove and Sophia Gardens.”Domestic cricket is enjoying a well-earned renaissance with talented players, close matches and some of the largest crowds on record supporting the Twenty20 Cup,” said John Carr, the ECB’s director of communications. “With an exciting international season already announced for 2005, we anticipate a huge rise in the interest around the game as a whole and county cricket can capitalise on this upsurge in a sporting season where cricket will take centre stage.”The 2005 domestic season, which runs from April 8 to September 25, promises to be the most jam-packed on record. The Frizzell county champions, Warwickshire, will set the ball rolling with the traditional season curtain-raiser against MCC at Lord’s, before their title defence begins in earnest against Glamorgan on April 13.Gloucestershire, who have dominated the C&G Trophy in recent years, will launch their campaign against Berkshire on May 3, with Denmark, Holland and Ireland all facing first-class opposition on that day as well. Ireland will be seeking to match their giant-killing exploits of last season, by defeating Yorkshire in a home tie.Three teams have joined the top division of the totesport League – Middlesex Crusaders, Worcestershire Royals and Nottinghamshire Outlaws. Although it is the Glamorgan Dragons who are the dominant force in that particular competition. There will be 33 matches played under lights, with the final games bringing down the curtain on the season.

Not only are the futures of some of Australia’s ageing cricketers on the line on their return home from the Ashes tour this month, but also the fate of team coach John Buchanan.Buchanan’s contract with Cricket Australia expires next month and CA said discussions would take place with him upon his return from England, the said on Sunday. There has been much debate over Buchanan’s influence on the team, even though he has an impressive coaching record of 54 wins and 11 losses in 76 Tests.One of Buchanan’s fiercest critics has been Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain, who has urged Ricky Ponting to seek guidance from senior players like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath rather than Buchanan.However, Buchanan has spoken of his keenness to continue in the job through to the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. “There have been initial discussions but both parties have agreed not to hold any more until the end of the Ashes,” a CA spokesman told . “We’ll see what the situation is then.”Buchanan was at the helm as the national team marched to a record 16-straight Test victories between 1999 and 2001 and then triumphed at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. But he has been under pressure along with the Australian team in the Ashes series, with Duncan Fletcher, his England counterpart, and Michael Vaughan generally winning the tactical battles.Chappell was withering in his damning of Buchanan’s role in the Australian team. “If I was Ponting, I would be relying on those types of cricketing brains,” Chappell said at the launch of his new book, Chappelli Speaks Out, last week. “Warne is one of the great cricket brains of any time and McGrath is behind him a bit, but not bad either, why would you listen to Buchanan when you can listen to these blokes.”All this crap I hear about plans now, plans, everybody has a plan when they go out and the plans that come off, they only come off all the time because you are up against a mediocre player,” he said. “But if you are bowling to [Garry] Sobers or Viv Richards, you better have seven or eight plans and you better be ready to run right through them four or five times in a day, and be able to suddenly develop another plan when you might see something a bit different. See how angry Buchanan is getting [on tour], people are starting to ask him some pertinent questions.Bob Simpson, the former Australian captain, was another who queried Buchanan’s training methods, claiming that he doesn’t spend enough time on Australia’s deteriorating fielding skills as witnessed by the number of dropped catches in the Ashes series. Michael Slater, the former Australian opening batsman, has also called for specialist assistant coaches to boost the back-room set-up.

Glenn McGrath has been passed fit for the fifth and final Test at The Oval, starting tomorrow, after recovering from the elbow injury that forced his withdrawal from the side that lost at Trent Bridge last month.Trailing 2-1 in the series, Australia were desperate to give McGrath, 35, enough time to get back to full health, and the man himself had said he wanted to play “even if his arm falls off”. But he had first to must pass a fitness test on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of Australia’s most important match for a decade.McGrath delivered two spells in the nets on Tuesday, in which he performed well enough to be picked if his elbow showed no more bad signs, and speaking to the press at The Oval on Wednesday morning, Ricky Ponting declared: “he’s looking more and more likely to play.” That was confirmed after a further work-out in the afternoon, and McGrath will now take his place at the expense of Michael Kasprowicz, in the only change to Australia’s line-up.Earlier, Ponting had stressed how importance McGrath was to the Australian team, adding that his combination of incisiveness and frugality made it almost like having two bowlers in one. “He’s always missed any time he misses a game,” said Ponting. “He’s probably our main strike bowler with the new ball and at the same time you can call on him, through the course of the day, to bowl some tight overs as well.”He’s a vital player in our side, someone who’s done exceptionally well for us over the years, especially in big games and that’s what this one is building up to be.” But Ponting stressed that Australia would not go into the game with a less than fully fit McGrath. “I wouldn’t take him at 60 or 70 percent, no way. We can’t afford to do that in a game like this. With the situation of the series we’ll probably have to be a little bit more cautious.”If McGrath had not been passed fit, Australia had been expected to gamble on a five-pronged package that could include Stuart Clark and Stuart MacGill, at the expense of a batsman. “Certainly it is an option,” Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, said in . “We’ve got to get 20 wickets to win the game. It hasn’t worked for us in the past.”

Alex Loudon, the 25-year-old Warwickshire allrounder, believes England’s tour to Pakistan will be a steep incline in his learning curve as an international cricketer. Loudon was selected from the domestic crop to represent his country at the highest level on the back of some commendable performances, and is keen to impress on the tour.Despite scoring five Championship fifties and claiming 34 victims with his effective offspin, the call-up came as a surprise for Loudon himself. “The day the squad was announced was all pretty extraordinary really,” he told . “I was extremely surprised. I am immensely lucky to have been given this opportunity, and I am just looking to contribute and help as much as I can both on and off the field.”It was widely regarded that the English selectors would opt for Gareth Batty, the off spinner who had toured with the side to Sri Lanka and South Africa, as an understudy to Ashley Giles, the premier spinner in the side. Public belief was that Loudon, who averages 32.56 and 38.22 in first-class cricket with the bat and ball respectively, would instead be a part of England A’s tour to the West Indies in February.Loudon has played less than 40 first-class matches, but has obviously impressed the selectors and Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, who will be trying to mould players like Loudon into long-term mainstays of the one-day squad. He recently took 6 for 66 against Gloucester as Warwickshire signed off the domestic season with a win, and admits that working on mastering a doosra – the ball that leaves the right handed batsman – was key to his claims of being an effective allrounder.Much has been said about Loudon’s special delivery, but he is quick to clarify that he has a way to go. “It (the doosra) is something I have been working on but it’s far from perfected, as is my bowling,” he said. “It’s a little variation and that’s how I view it at the moment, just something that can keep a batsman on his toes every so often.”Critics of the English spin department have seen 36-year old Shaun Udal’s selection for Pakistan as highlighting the lack of depth beneath Giles. Batty, who has been on the cusp of selection to the final XI, however, has played down this spin debate. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a Shane Warne – he’s a one off, as is Muttiah Muralitharan,” he told .He is currently working at the National Academy and hopes to make a strong comeback. “My year wasn’t as good as the three previous years. I’m obviously disappointed but Shaun [Udal] had a fantastic year.” On his being overlooked, Batty was undeterred. “They’ve not discarded me – they’ve given me an opportunity to work on things that will make me better at the top level.”Batty broke into the England one-day side on the back of a consistent spell at the Academy in 2002-03, and believes that his stints with England have been more than as an understudy to Giles. “Last time I was on the Academy I improved in leaps and bounds,” he said. “I was involved with the full side for the period in-between, getting a go and then sitting on the sidelines for a bit and I think I improved then.”

Like Loudon, Batty has admitted that working on the doosra was one of his goals this winter. “It’s still a bit raw but I’ve got a perfect opportunity here to nail it, maybe have a day where I just bowl it for three hours. I’ve spoken to Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh about how they’ve developed different things.”While Loudon’s selection did come as a surprise, so was the exclusion of Owais Shah from the touring squad. The Middlesex batsman and the highest run scorer in English first-class cricket in 2005, seems destined to remain on the fringes of the national side. John Emburey, Shah’s coach at Middlesex, referred to the batsman’s exclusion as “criminal”. “He’s going to have to bat like Don Bradman to play any better.”Shah, who amassed 1728 runs at 66.46 last season despite a cartilage problem, remains confident of his chances, and cites England’s reluctance to alter its Test squad as only to be expected. “Yes, I’m a bit disappointed – why wouldn’t I be? But I’m not distraught or anything; it came down to the fact that you wouldn’t change a winning team.”Shah now heads to the National Academy for surgery and rehabilitation, and is confident that his seven Championship centuries were not entirely overlooked by the selectors. “For them (the selectors) to put me in the Academy means I’m still in their thoughts. There are other batsmen like Ed Joyce and Rob Key who have had good years so it’s unlucky for all three of us.”There remains one aspect that all three cricketers have insisted is the key to selection – consistency with the basics. “First and foremost I’m an off-spinner, and that will not change,” Batty has stated with confidence. For Shah, the focus remains batting. “You can always improve your batting. I’ll probably look at how I got out this year and try and iron those out.”And for Loudon, the plan is to remain consistent on tour. “A player improves most in a game situation, so I am going to be doing my best to get onto the field.”

India’s crushing 6-1 success in their ODI series against Sri Lanka has brought them to within touching distance of a host of sides ranked above them in the LG ICC ODI Championship.The wins have lifted India’s rating to 107 points, just one behind sixth-placed New Zealand and only two behind Sri Lanka and England, which occupy fourth and fifth spots on the table.A clean sweep in their next engagement, a five-match series against South Africa starting at Hyderabad on November 16, will lift them to 114 points, overtaking all the above-mentioned sides plus the South Africans (who will slip to110 points), and into third place with only Pakistan and Australia ahead of them.A 4-1 success for India in that series would raise their tally to 112 points and cut South Africa’s to 113, while even a 3-2 success for the home team would take them above New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka, to 110 points (South Africa would drop to 117).For South Africa, a 3-2 success would see them maintain their current rating of 120, (under that scenario India would rise one point, to 108), a 4-1 win would lift them to 123 points (India would slip to 106) and a 5-0 clean sweep would take Graeme Smith’s side to 127 points (India 103), just nine points short of leaders Australia.Player rankingsIndia’s wins over Sri Lanka have been a triumph not just for the team but also for several individuals, who have surged up the LG ICC Player Rankings.Dravid has moved up 18 places during the series and is now India’s top-rated batsman and is close to his highest-ever rating, while Sachin Tendulkar has also returned to the top ten, in joint ninth spot, after his long-term elbow injury.

Mahendra Dhoni has smashed into the top 20 for the first time on the back of his outstanding form, climbing a whopping 38 places from the start of the series, and he now occupies 16th place in the batting listings. Below that trio is Virender Sehwag (25) while Yuvraj Singh has moved up to 31 in the table and is now just short of his best-ever rating.The news is just as good for India with the ball. Irfan Pathan has moved up to tenth place, and they have two other bowlers, Harbhajan Singh (13) and Ajit Agarkar (16th), in the top 20 with Agarkar also closing in on his best-ever rating.For Sri Lanka, the news is not quite as good. They now have just one batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, in the top ten, with Marvan Atapattu sliding nine places to 18 while Sanath Jayasuriya, dropped from the Test squad, has also dropped out of the top 20 and is now 23rd in the batting listings.Among the bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan is still in third spot but Chaminda Vaas has dropped to ninth in the listings.

Laura Newton has left England’s tour party and flown home after fracturing a finger when fielding at cover in the third one-dayer against India on Sunday. She will visit a specialist who may prescribe surgery. The opening batsman Newton is the second casualty of the trip; the allrounder Katherine Brunt is already back in England after breaking a bone in her hand.Newton had a poor start to the one-dayers, with two ducks in succession, but hit her straps on Sunday with 40 as England slipped 2-1 behind India in the five-match series. She also hit 59 and 60 in England’s 2-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka earlier this tour. “I’m obviously disappointed to have to leave at such a late stage in this tour,” she said. “I’d have liked to have finished the job we started as a team, but these things happen and I have to accept that.”This squad has a do-or-die attitude and I know they’ll come out fighting for the remaining two games. It’s always tough touring India and this time has been no exception. We’ve had highs and lows and I’m sure the girls will focus on the positives to ensure the tour finishes with success. I’ll be following it all closely from home and wish them the best of luck.”Richard Bates added: “It’s definitely a huge blow to lose another key member of the squad. Laura is a prolific run scorer for us and to lose her as well as Katherine Brunt is a major loss.”As a squad we now really need to rally round, pull together and above all be strong as a unit. I really feel for Laura, but following medical advice the best thing for her is to fly back to the UK straight away and seek further medical opinion.”With Newton missing, Caroline Atkins may be boosted from the middle order to opener. Atkins was originally included in the squad as a replacement for Clare Connor, who has an injured ankle, but has batted in the top spot before – with some success. As an opener, Atkins averages 25.4 compared to 21.5 lower down the order. Her only one-day fifty has come from opening, too.

Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, believes that his Pakistani counterpart Bob Woolmer has helped turn the Pakistan team into an organised unit.Talking to reporters on Sunday at the Bagh-e-Jinnah here, Chappell also made it clear that the coming series between Pakistan and India was not a contest between him and Woolmer.He said, “It is all about the captain and the team. The captains are the ones who extract the best performances from their players. Our job is to guide them as best as we can and ensure every player plays to his potential.”Pakistan would be confident after their series win over England and their recent performances. And they have some very good bowlers but we also have the players to play them well. The series will be a very close and good contest and if all the players play to their potential we are in for some wonderful cricket.”Chappell said on a personal level he was excited to be directly involved in such a high-profile series and see up close how the players reacted to the pressures.He stated, “The way I see it this series is all about performing under pressure and expectations of the people.”Woolmer, talking to reporters at the Gaddafi Stadium where the Pakistani players trained, said he was upbeat about the coming series but refused to name any one player who he believed could play a vital role in the series.Asked about Shoaib Akhtar, Woolmer said that while Shoaib had performed extremely well against England and was bowling well he would still not single him out as the main performer. “All our bowlers have to perform with discipline if we are to do well against India, it is not about any individual it is about a team performance.”Woolmer said that Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, would have a lot on his hands in the series but expressed confidence that he had the experience and skills now to lead the side well.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) has been included on the National Heritage List, Australia’s highest heritage honour. The announcement was made by Peter Costello, the Federal Treasurer, during the lunch break on the first day of the Boxing Day cricket Test between Australia and South Africa at the MCG. Costello described the hallowed venue as the “spiritual home” of Australian Rules Football, and pointed out that it also had a long and proud cricketing tradition.In 1853, lieutenant-governor LaTrobe granted 10 acres of what was then called the Police Paddock for a cricket oval. That paddock became the MCG, now regarded as one of the great sports stadium of the world. It has been the home ground of the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) since 1853, and hosted the first interstate cricket match between the MCC and New South Wales in 1858. The MCG celebrated its 150th birthday in 2003, and was recently knocked down and re-built as a modern stadium for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

In October 1978 on this very ground Indian cricket began a new chapter as a certain Kapil Dev Nikhanj played the first of his 131 Tests. Apart from spearheading the bowling attack for over a decade, Kapil captured the imagination with his spontaneity and brought to the crease a certain audacity, the likes of which hadn’t been seen before. So when Kapil calls someone his hero, you know that that someone needs to be taken seriously.Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who orchestrated a quite astonishing 148 under pressure, received that accolade and he admitted that it was the “best message” he had got till now. Kapil would have probably identified with his swagger and daring. Several Indian batting masters would have probably brought off those juddering pull shots off bowlers in the Shoaib Akhtar class, but few might have achieved it with such ferocity. The pressure was immense, the opponent brutal.Dhoni talked about the most engrossing passage of the series: “He was bowling very fast. It was actually the fastest deliveries I have played till now, both in the one-dayers and Tests. It was quite fiery. I believe he was bowling consistently over 148kph. It was really fast. It was a challenge for me and I accepted it. I just wanted to hang in there for a while and get used to the pace and bounce of the wicket but soon decided to take a calculated risk. I had to play my strokes at some point of time and I decided it was the right time to go for it.”It was no doubt his toughest test to date, one where he was up against electrifying pace against a team on the rise. He looked out of place in the first few deliveries and even got hit when he missed a short snorter. “It’s my best innings in Test cricket,” he added. “It was a good batting track but I don’t think it was very easy to score with Shoaib bowling at his best with the new ball. It was quite tough for me and I got hit.”Dhoni nearly got hit again this morning when Shoaib let rip a chest-high beamer, but was fortunate that it was not spot on, running away for four runs. “I would like to believe that the ball just slipped out of his hand,” he said, yet confirming that Shoaib hadn’t apologised for his action. “A beamer always surprises you, so I was a bit surprised. I don’t think anybody bowls a beamer intentionally.”Dhoni also acknowledged Irfan Pathan’s contribution and spoke about what he liked about their partnership. “Both of us have one thing in common,” he said, “we always look for runs. I was getting runs quite fast and he was playing the sheet-anchor’s role. That was the perfect thing in our partnership.”

David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, has said that his committee do not spend as much time as they should with England’s junior players and ‘A’ teams.Graveney, who was in Sri Lanka to watch the Under-19 side participate at the World Cup in Colombo admitted that it was the first time he had watched them at close quarters during his 10-year tenure as chairman.”We’ve not done anything. It is definitely my fault, that’s my call,” admitted Graveney. “Anywhere in the world if you are not actually there with the senior team you can always switch the TV on and watch it.”There is no TV coverage for England ‘A’ and for U-19 I think it’s a good process for the selectors to get to know the young lads and their parents, and they get to know us. Then we can see how they progress because everybody who starts at this level wants to play in the senior team. I’ll be making a report on this.”England went as far as the Super League semi-finals before crashing to 58 all out against India. Graveney said everybody wanted to win but there were a few things that need to be taken into consideration.”The main thing for England is the players learn from playing in the subcontinent. Hopefully, they will have the same opportunity in a few years time. We need to spend more time in the subcontinent which we have done.”We need to develop our players to bowl spin and play spin which is always stated to be a weaker hand. I wouldn’t say we can’t do it. It is just a weaker hand. In England you have to be a top notch wrist spinner like Shane Warne to be successful. The wickets themselves tend to favour the quicker bowling than slow bowling.”