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The last time England played in the Caribbean a tall paceman from Durham grabbed all the headlines but, as the team prepares to head out to West Indies for the World Cup, Steve Harmison won’t even be on the plane.After the 5-0 Ashes whitewash Harmison announced his retirement from one-day cricket, saying he hoped it would extend his time at Test level. His last ODIs where in the Champions Trophy, when two wayward performances continued a poor run with the white ball, which Harmison struggled to control. In 2006 he took 14 wickets at 30, but that doesn’t tell the whole story as he went for almost six-an-over, include a 0 for 97 hammering by Sri Lanka at Headingley.His efforts in the Ashes will be remembered for one ball, his opening delivery of the series which went straight to Andrew Flintoff at second slip. After his one-day retirement questions were again asked about his commitment and passion, but Harmison is shrugging all that off.”I don’t think I’ve got to prove anything to anyone, my record speaks for itself,” he told , although others will beg to differ after a career that hasn’t lived up that 2004 West Indies tour.”What I want to do is enjoy my cricket again because I didn’t enjoy what happened this winter. The reasons for that are pretty obvious, but it’s behind me and I’m only looking forward. I won’t let the criticism get to me, I’ve got big enough shoulders to deal with that. If people think otherwise, they don’t know me.”All I’ll say is, I’ve learnt a lot about who my friends are and who was pretending to be my friend. That’s all I’ll say about it, but I know what I want out of life and I know I’m still a good fast bowler.”Harmison will have a handful of early-season Championship and domestic one-dayers to prove his worth to the selectors before the opening Test against West Indies, which starts on May 17 at Lord’s.

Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s most-capped player, has announced he will retire from Test cricket at the end of the upcoming home series against England. Fleming said it was better for his family if he quit the game ahead of the return tour of England in May and June.”I always indicated that I was likely to retire from international cricket at some point in the near future and the time is right for me and my family to do that now,” Fleming said. “Retiring before the tour to England will allow me to be with [my wife] Kelly for the birth of our second child.”Fleming, 34, will take part in the Indian Premier League, however, and said it was a good way to stay involved in the sport. “It is an exciting opportunity and one that I will be pursuing with the full support of New Zealand Cricket,” he said. “The IPL only takes a short amount of my time each year, and allows me to continue pursuing my new endeavours outside of the game.”One of those aims is to start his own marketing, media and sports management business but NZC’s chief executive Justin Vaughan hopes Fleming will play a part in the country’s cricketing future. “Stephen’s presence and leadership qualities had a tremendous impact on the team and he will be missed by New Zealand Cricket and the Black Caps,” Vaughan said.”He has made a huge contribution to cricket in New Zealand and I sincerely wish him all the best. I’m sure we have not seen the last of him and we are working to ensure that he has a role within cricket in New Zealand in the future.”Fleming departs with a sackful of New Zealand Test records. No New Zealander has played as many Tests (108), scored as many runs (6875), taken as many catches (166), captained as many games (80), or led as many wins (28) as Fleming.Appointed at 23, he was the country’s youngest Test skipper and only Allan Border, who led Australia through 93 Tests, guided his team in more games. When Fleming retired from one-day international cricket last September he left with a similar bunch of records. At the same time as Fleming quit ODIs New Zealand handed the Test captaincy to Daniel Vettori, which disappointed Fleming, who wanted to see if separate captains could help New Zealand’s consistency.”I felt in New Zealand cricket whenever our one-day cricket was going well our Test cricket suffered and vice-versa,” he said. “One of the ways to combat that was to step aside as one-day captain. I would have liked the opportunity to be working away at our Test game, to be exploring how we could beat England in the Tests.”After the powers that be decided against splitting the captaincy, Fleming admitted he had contemplated his future and seriously considered a substantial offer from the Indian Cricket League. It became clear his time at the top level was drawing to a close.The only question was when in 2008 he would end his career. Would it be before the home series against England, after it, or following the return tour of England in New Zealand’s winter? Fleming, a man who avoids fanfare where possible, has opted for three final Tests at home with his last set to start in Napier on March 22.That will give local fans an opportunity to farewell a man who has defined New Zealand cricket for more than a decade. When he made his Test debut in 1993-94 it was immediately apparent the selectors had found an important player for the future success of the side. In a team led by Ken Rutherford against India in Hamilton, Fleming made 92 in his opening Test, and he followed it just days later with 90 in his ODI debut in Napier.

But triple-figures never quite agreed with Fleming, who ended up with nine centuries and 43 half-centuries in accumulating a Test average of 39.73. It took him 23 Tests to make his first hundred and a month later he was thrust into the captaincy when Lee Germon was unavailable for against England due to a groin injury. Germon did not return and Fleming began a ten-year reign during which he eventually became regarded as arguably the most astute leader in the game.Through it all runs kept coming for Fleming, though not in the proportions he or his country would have liked. He was sometimes accused of lacking concentration as he tried to build big scores and that trend looked set to continue in Colombo in 1998 when he absent-mindedly strolled to the crease without his box and had to rush back to retrieve it.A lazy shot brought his dismissal for 78, but in his second innings he displayed a rarely-seen resolve, batting for nearly eight hours to finish unbeaten on 174 and setting up a 167-run victory. It was his second Test century and New Zealand hoped it would be his turning point. He didn’t reach triple-figures again in a Test for nearly four years.A highlight eventually came in the same city five years later when he batted for nearly 11 hours to register an unbeaten 274 – it remains his highest score – and then made an unselfish declaration that left the door open for a result. He finished the match having been on the field in searing heat for all but the first 44 minutes of the draw and any suggestions that he lacked application were finally put to rest.As if to prove that his double-century was no fluke, he rattled off several more mammoth efforts in Tests: 192 against Pakistan, 202 in Bangladesh and 262 against South Africa. There were outstanding one-day innings along the way as well, and an unbeaten 134 against South Africa in a must-win World Cup match in 2003 was particularly important.But more than individual performances, Fleming was proud of the times he led his small country to big successes. Guiding them to a 2-1 Test win in England in 1999 was particularly special, although Fleming was also pleased with the 0-0 drawn series in Australia in 2001-02. Another highlight came in 2000 when he led New Zealand to their first triumph in a major tournament – the Champions Trophy in Nairobi.The one-day arena was also where Fleming experienced some of his biggest disappointments, and failing to get his team into a World Cup final was a regret. Following last year’s semi-final knockout at the hands of Sri Lanka, Fleming quit the ODI captaincy, which precipitated a chain of events that gradually led to his removal from the Test leadership. Fittingly, though, he has been afforded the right to end his playing career on his own terms.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

India levelled the series 1-1 through a solid batting performance backedup by a fine bowling effort by a team that understood the need of the hourand sent down a mixture of diligent pace and crafty spin, supported wellby the field, to notch up a 51-run win. It was Virender Sehwag’s timely73, and Rahul Dravid’s meaty 92 that took India to 269, a sizeable score,and then Irfan Pathan checked in with early breakthroughs and Ramesh Powarweighed in with a crafty spell to take the game away from Pakistan.When Dravid won the toss and quickly chose to bat it was obvious that theIndian team had learnt quickly from the first match. They decided early onthat there was no point in going for the big hits even with the powerplayson, and instead settled down to build partnerships and conserve wicketsfor a late charge. It was a throwback to the times when wickets were at apremium in ODIs and runscoring took care of itself.Mohammad Asif was at his usual accurate best, landing the ball on a lengthand allowing it to seam one way or the other if it did. But, with Dravidand Sehwag taking no chances, he had little joy, and was merelyeconomical. Sehwag, struggling for form to the extent that he had only twohalf-centuries in 21 ODI knocks leading up to this game, was lucky not tobe bowled off the inside edge early on, and settled down. Dravid, in hislatest avatar as limited-overs opener, kept things under control.Although both batsmen struggled to beat the infield early on, soon supplewrists and confident on-the-rise drives came into play. Dravid was severeon anything that was straight – drifting down leg or just plain straight -flicking both in front of and behind square for boundaries, while Sehwagshowed that even in bad form he is no blocker.Before Pakistan knew it, both Dravid and Sehwag had fifties, and theopening partnership had gone past the century-mark. Eventually, on 138,Pakistan struck, as a quick, skidding delivery from Shahid Afridi beat theoutside edge of Sehwag’s bat and hit the top of off stump. Sehwag, who hadrested for the last game and come into the side for this one in place ofRobin Uthappa, had scored 73, and put India well on the way to a bigscore.Mahendra Singh Dhoni ran out to the middle as is his wont at No. 3 andensured that Sehwag was not missed. Although not teeing off from thecrease like he is famous for, Dhoni kept the run rate up with a successionof cheeky strokes. A dab here, a push there, a whip through midwicket, afine sweep past the keeper with an almost-straight bat, and suddenly Indiawere clipping along.When Dravid fell, eight short of a century, his powers of concentrationnot being equal to keeping out an Asif yorker, India were still well placed.Soon after Dhoni played all over a Naved-ul-Hasan slower ball, and wasgone for 59. India were not quite in trouble, but there was a chance thatbatsmen fresh to the crease would not score as quickly as desired. Butno-one told Yuvraj Singh that the pitch was low and slow. He walked out tothump three consecutive boundaries and a nonchalantly flicked six, rackingup 24 from just 10 balls to push the Indian score to 269 for 5 from 50overs.Pakistan needed a good start and they did not get it. Irfan Pathan, withsome help from Rudi Koertzen, had his 100th ODI wicket, when Imran Farhatwas adjudged lbw as he fell over and missed a scrambled-seam straight one.Soon after Shahid Afridi, sent in at No. 3, played all over a classicindipper from Pathan and was cleaned up. When Younis Khan, one of the realdangermen, tickled Ajit Agarkar to the keeper, Pakistan were 45 for 3 andin deep trouble. Then Yuvraj plucked a stunner out of the air as Malikswept Powar on 45, and trouble became distress.Inzamam-ul-Haq, calm as ever, cool and calculating, batted safely yetconfidently, and kept one end up. Mohammad Yousuf was the first tounderestimate Powar, and was caught at midwicket trying to heave over theleg side. Abdul Razzaq forgot to reckon with Powar’s dip and only managedto find Kaif at long-on. Naved-ul-Hassan clattered the ball here andthere, taking the pressure of his captain, but his innings of 27, off only17 balls, was always fraught with danger, and it ended when Venugopala Raotook a well-judged catch on the roped at long-on.If Pakistani hopes were still afloat they were properly snuffed out whenInzamam was, yes, run out, as he jogged across for a non-existant singlewhen Iftikhar Anjum played the ball to midwicket and Dravid collected theball, ran to the stumps at the bowler’s end and took off the bails. Soonafter Pakistan folded for 218 and India had levelled the series 1-1.How they were out
India
Virender Sehwag b Afridi 73 (138 for 1)
Rahul Dravid b Asif 92 (228 for 2)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni b Naved-ul-Hasan 59 (234 for 3)
Yuvraj Singh c Asif b Naved-ul-Hasan 24 (255 for 4)
Suresh Raina run out (Akmal/Razzaq) 6 (269 for 5)
Pakistan
Imran Farhat lbw b Pathan 8 (22 for 1)
Shahid Afridi b Pathan 0 (23 for 2)
Younis Khan c Dhoni b Agarkar 5 (45 for 3)
Shoaib Malik c Yuvraj b Powar 45 (91 for 4)
Mohammad Yousuf c Raina b Powar 5 (108 for 5)
Kamran Akmal c Dravid b Harbhajan 18 (167 for 6)
Abdul Razzaq c Kaif b Powar 1 (148 for 7)
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan c Rao b Pathan 27 (198 for 8)
Inzamam-ul-Haq run out (Dravid) 79 (209 for 9)
Iftikhar Anjum b Sreesanth 11 (218 for 10)

If Hashim Amla had things his way, he wouldn’t have to bat again at Centurion Park on a pitch likely to deteriorate over the next few days. He did his best to ensure the scenario pans out that way, making a battling 71 and helping South Africa recover from a rickety start.It was Amla’s second fifty in successive Tests, following his first-innings 63 in the series-clinching Cape Town victory over India recently. Under pressure through that series, Amla’s starring role will have come as considerable relief.”The ideal is to bat once,” said Amla. “The pitch is quite good for batting but it is already starting to deteriorate and help the spinners, so batting fourth could be difficult.”Pakistan will hope that by then Danish Kaneria can play more of a role than he did on the second day. Kaneria was one of three Pakistan bowlers who failed to make any impression whatsoever as first Amla and then Ashwell Prince and Herschelle Gibbs guided South Africa into a position of some strength. Mohammad Asif, returning to international cricket after having a doping-related ban overturned, was by far the best Pakistani bowler on display, ending with all four wickets in another impressive outing.Asif twinkled out Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers in his first three overs. He sent back Jacques Kallis after lunch as well and troubled all batsmen. Amla, having stroked a delicious, one-knee cover drive in the 45th over, edged the very next ball from Asif, a leg-cutter. It was a performance, Amla said, that reminded him of one of his more illustrious team-mates. “Asif bowled excellently. He asked good questions of the batsmen and bowled in the right areas. He reminded me a bit of Shaun Pollock.”Earlier, Makhaya Ntini was responsible for Pakistan hurtling to what is looking increasingly like an inadequate total and well below the 350-plus they had initially aimed for. Ntini took five for 83, his 16th five-wicket haul in Tests, as Pakistan paid for their compulsion to hook or pull every short ball that came their way. Six batsmen succumbed to hook or pull shots but Ntini said he had to work hard for his wickets. “It wasn’t our plan to bowl bouncers and get them hooking but when we saw how they played we put our fielders in the right places.”

Nottinghamshire have signed Luke Fletcher, a 19-year-old fast bowler from their second XI, on a one-year contract.Fletcher, who stands at 6ft 6in, plays for Papplewick in the Nottinghamshire Premier League alongside the club’s bowling coach, Phil DeFreitas, and was a regular for the county’s second XI last season.”Luke has worked very hard over the winter and has impressed all the coaching staff over the past 12 months,” Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, said. “He’s definitely someone we want to continue looking at over a longer period of time and will be expected to provide competition and pressure on the first-team bowlers.”It’s nice to have another local lad in the squad and I know how keen he is to make a career in cricket, and play for Notts.”Fletcher showed plenty of promise on Nottinghamshire’s pre-season tour to South Africa in the winter, but he revealed that he had “never really taken cricket seriously up to last year”.”Last summer I was a bit star-struck when I was around the dressing room but having spent time with the players on pre-season, I now feel settled in and a full part of the squad,” he added. “I can’t wait for the season to start and I’m determined to push on from here for a first-team place before the end of the season.”

Jacques Rudolph and Andrew Hall were both confident that South Africa would be able to save the first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo. The pair gave their team the ideal start towards drawing the match with a record opening partnership of 165 in 206 minutes that saw South Africa end the fourth day on 311 for 4. They still require a further 276 runs to make Sri Lanka bat again with six wickets in hand going into the final day tomorrow.”We are playing well the way we expected. The guys are positive and the way we are playing suggests it can be done,” said Hall who scored 64. “It is still a very good pitch to bat. If you compare the first innings, we had many soft dismissals whilst in the second we’ve worked hard with determination. We had better shot selection.”Rudolph who missed out on a hundred by ten runs was of the opinion that the first hour of the final day was crucial. “It was a big day for us and I feel tomorrow is important”, he said. “If we can get there and survive the first hour we will have a good chance of saving the game.”If we are to save this test we need a big partnership. Hally [Hall] and I have given our team the platform. To get out in the 90s was disappointing. Dilhara [Fernando] was bowling a good spell at that stage. This is my fourth score of 90 in Test cricket. I don’t want to make it a habit. I must admit I enjoy Sri Lanka very much.”Tom Moody, the Sri Lanka coach, said that he was very confident of getting the remaining six South African wickets tomorrow.”We knew it was always going to be difficult”, he said. “It would have been nice to have snapped one more wicket at the end of the day. But four wickets we are reasonably happy with. We have our work cut out tomorrow. But you’ve got to give credit where it’s due. They dug in which we knew they were going to do and played well.”Hopefully the wicket will deteriorate a little bit more. It hasn’t certainly deteriorated as much as what we would have liked. If anything, it’s probably got a little bit more placid. It’s turning, but turning very slowly. It nullifies the greatest spinner [Muttiah Muralitharan] the game has seen”Moody said that given the conditions of the pitch, they had to try something new to take wickets and that is why Muralitharan was given the second new ball, with which he took AB de Villiers’s wicket. “We have to give him every advantage as possible when the wicket is not doing a hell of a lot,” said Moody. “I think you need a little bit of an imagination and experimentation when you get into situations like this. Try something out of the ordinary.”Moody added that Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, did the best he could in the field to apply the pressure. He was also confident that the players would be rejuvenated on the last day and take every chance that comes their way.”It makes all those wonderful achievements even sweeter when there is success. The boys know that. They’ll rest up well tonight and look forward to the challenge tomorrow. They will come out fighting for that victory.”

The Australian Cricketers’ Association is encouraging Australia to develop a Twenty20 competition that is similar to the Indian Premier League and could run in conjunction with the main tournament. Paul Marsh, the ACA’s chief executive, has been in India to monitor the opening week of the IPL and said the expansion of the concept could follow soccer’s model.”The Indian league will be the Premier League, and then you have the Australian league as the second league, or even the English league,” Marsh said in the Daily Telegraph. “Over time players could go and play in one of these leagues and then you’ll have a situation where the ICC could license each league, get a return and distribute it to each of these boards.”The initial success of the IPL has other countries trying to think of ways to benefit financially from the concept. Support is also growing for the ICC to implement a set time each year for Twenty20 so it doesn’t overlap with Test and one-day internationals.”We need to find this window and then find how to get a return from it for each of the boards,” Marsh said. “We might find a window and it opens a door for a whole lot of these leagues.”Marsh is also interested in the idea of an IPL team based in Australia. Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s general manager of cricket operations, has said the franchise idea would be considered.Brown told AAP on Tuesday the start of the IPL had been “outstanding”. “It’s fantastic for cricket – we’re here in Melbourne in an incredible AFL environment, yet people are talking up cricket,” he said. “That’s a real positive for the game and the little bits I’ve caught from our players, it’s been very successful.”

Ricky Ponting feels some of India’s cricketers have “misinterpreted what aggressive cricket means” during the ongoing one-day series. His comments come in the wake of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s revelations about Australia’s cricketers using “harsh words” in the third one-dayer in Hyderabad.”Both teams can still play aggressively, but when the Australian team speaks about playing aggressively I think a lot of people get the wrong idea,” Ponting wrote in his column for the newspaper.”I don’t mean talking aggressively or showing aggressive body language. That’s exactly the opposite of what aggressive or positive cricket is all about. A few of the Indians have reacted very much with aggressive body language and trying to force themselves upon us, and I think the way some of them are playing their cricket that they have also misinterpreted what aggressive cricket means.”I suppose if some of the players don’t understand it, a lot of people watching the game in the stands or at home don’t understand it either. It’s not jumping up and down, sledging, giving people send-offs and that sort of stuff. When the Australian team talks about playing aggressively, we are committing ourselves to playing hard: there’s nothing given and there’s nothing asked to be given.”Though the Hyderabad game was hardly as hot tempered as the match at Kochi, Dhoni, had enough to complain about. “We discussed with the referee about not using harsh words, but Ponting did, and a couple of their players did,” Dhoni said after the game. He didn’t reveal what exactly was said by the players, though.Ponting felt his team had stayed within the confines of the spirit of cricket. “Some years back the Australian team committed itself to uphold the spirit of cricket,” he said. “A lot of the current players weren’t involved, but every player who comes into the team is clearly briefed on the idea and given direction on what’s acceptable and what’s not. We treat it very seriously and nobody comes in without understanding what we expect. I think it’s been a very positive thing if you look back at our recent history. It’s something I’m proud of. I think we have been one of the least reported teams in the world.”Ponting felt his side didn’t indulge in sledging, a term he said was associated with “swearing” or “making a personal attack” on the opponents. “If you look at any sport, Australian football, soccer, anything, there is always some sort of dialogue between players, and I think that’s part of sport at the highest level. But it’s very important that every Australian cricketer understands what he can and cannot do. It is why we have the spirit of cricket concept. It was brought in so we would not have our blokes reported. We have our own set of rules that we can act on to keep things from getting out of hand.”

Usman Khawaja is a near certainty to be chosen in Australia’s squad for the World T20 in India despite being overlooked for both the upcoming T20s against India and the ODI squad to tour New Zealand. Australia’s national selector Rod Marsh said Khawaja would be better off playing a Sheffield Shield match to prepare for the Tests against New Zealand, though, rather than potentially being only a backup in the ODI group.Australia chose 17 men for the three T20s against India, starting in Adelaide on Tuesday, but Marsh said it was likely that several of those players would not make the final 15 for the World T20, a squad that will be named after the ODIs in New Zealand. Khawaja scored 345 runs in the Big Bash League at the phenomenal average of 172.50, and was Man of the Match in the final for his 70 in the Sydney Thunder triumph.”Well, would you pick him in your T20 side at the moment?” Marsh said when asked if Khawaja was likely to make the World T20 squad. “Three blokes [the other selectors] are going to have to give me a pretty good case to change my mind. Usman is right up there as far as being included in the T20 World Cup squad.”Khawaja is yet to make his Twenty20 international debut, but is in the form of his life and has not been dismissed for less than 50 in any format since October. Since then he has made Test scores of 174, 9*, 121, 144 and 56, and BBL scores of 109*, 62, 104* and 70. Marsh said there was nothing more Khawaja needed to do in the eyes of the selectors.”We tried our hardest to work him into the side,” Marsh said of the ODI squad to tour New Zealand. “But we just couldn’t find anyone to leave out of the side, because they’re all in fantastic form… It’s very disappointing to him, but he probably should make a phone call to Shaun Marsh and ask him how he felt being dropped after getting 182 [in the Hobart Test].”We’d love to be able to pick 16 or 17 because I think there are 16 or 17 players who actually deserve to be in our one-day side. But we’ve got two very important Test matches and there being no guarantee that Usman would have played if he was in the side, then he’s better off playing a Shield game. That’s the way we decided.”Another notable component of the ODI squad was the inclusion of the uncapped legspinner Adam Zampa, who has impressed the selectors in the shorter formats and picked up 12 wickets at 22.50 for the Melbourne Stars in the BBL season. He is competing with fellow legspinner Cameron Boyce, currently part of the T20 squad, for a place in the World T20 group.”That’s exactly what’s happening,” Marsh confirmed. “His accuracy, his competitive nature, his batting and fielding – he’s a pretty good package. Boycey is also a pretty good package. We’ll wait and see how he goes against India and we’ll wait and see how Adam goes against New Zealand.”

Cricinfo can reveal that Zimbabwe’s cricketers have been banned by their board from having any player representation.Under the terms of the contract they all signed immediately before the World Cup, they are not allowed to appoint any single person to collectively negotiate on their behalf, and all dealings with board officials have to be on a one-on-one basis.One of the players said that this was a continuation of a divide-and-conquer policy towards them which has been operated by Zimbabwe Cricket since it refused to recognise Clive Field in negotiations at the end of 2005. At that time, Field was the official player representative, although after a series of acrimonious meetings, ZC stopped dealing with him.FICA, the international cricketers’ association, has written to ZC several times to stress the need for representation, but aside from an initial acknowledgment, there has been no communication from the Zimbabwe side.Although the players all signed the contract, they were presented with it and given a few minutes to read and sign, with the threat that were they not to, then they would be kicked off Zimbabwe’s World Cup squad. They were not allowed to consult with advisors. One player said that they were not happy to sign, but they took the view that they wanted to play in the tournament, so did so reluctantly.In a further twist, players have been also barred from meeting together as a group amid fears that there will be more who opt to quit the game now that the World Cup is out of the way. Cricinfo learned that one such meeting was recently cancelled amid fears that players could be reprimanded by the board. There is also concern that monies owed by the board from the World Cup, which have still to be paid, could be withheld were such a meeting to go ahead.