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Two New South Wales players who are enjoying amazing domestic seasons have won more support for promotions to the national teams. Glenn McGrath believes Doug Bollinger, the left-arm fast bowler, is “in the mix” while Simon Katich, who has 1067 runs in seven Pura Cup games, has won the notice of Australia’s selection panel.David Gilbert, the New South Wales chief executive, could not believe Chris Rogers replaced Matthew Hayden for the third Test in Perth instead of Katich and complained. He has since talked to Jamie Cox, one of the four selectors, and learned Katich is a serious contender for the spare batting place on the March tour to Pakistan, which is currently in doubt due to political instability.”It’s fair to say [Jamie] was disappointed that I had spoken publicly about my concerns about Simon getting what I believed was a raw deal,” Gilbert told the Sun-Herald. “My point was that his performances this year had been Bradmanesque, but he seemed no closer to getting a look-in for the Test team.”After talking to ‘Coxy’, my mind is more at ease. Coxy assured me he’s being noticed by the selectors and that he’s in line for the spare batting spot in Pakistan.”Bollinger is the leading wicket-taker in the Pura Cup with 44 – eight more than Queensland’s Ashley Noffke – and McGrath is impressed with his “tremendous potential”. “He’s a left-armer, he swings the ball and has good control,” McGrath told the paper.”He’s unplayable on a wicket that offers a lot, but if he can fine-tune his game on wickets that aren’t bowler-friendly, he’ll improve. But he has done enough for an [Australia] opportunity.”

Michael Di Venuto’s three-year deal with Durham has spelt the end of his time with Tasmania. Di Venuto, 34, had previously insisted that he only wanted to play six months of the year from now on, and his decision to join the English county means the end of his time with the state he has represented for 17 years.His decision to cut down the amount of cricket he plays was based on wanting to spend more time with his family, as well as business interests and he will quit the state at the end of the season. He has also recently undergone surgery for a double hernia and battling niggling injuries over recent seasons.”I first played cricket for Tasmania when I was 18 years old and playing cricket for Tasmania has been my life since then,” Di Venuto said. “I love playing cricket for Tasmania and I am certainly going to miss it, however the opportunity to finish my career at Durham is an exciting one and something my family and I are really looking forward to. It also allows us to spend summers in Hobart and continue to prepare for our life after cricket.”Di Venuto is currently Tasmania’s leading one-day run scorer and is second only to Jamie Cox on their lists of Pura Cup appearances and runs. He was a member of the Tigers’ successful ING Cup team in 2004-05 but he rates his career highlight as being part of Tasmania’s historic Pura Cup-winning team last season.It was the state’s first triumph and Di Venuto was the only player in the side to have also been part of the three Tasmania teams that lost Pura Cup/Sheffield Shield finals, in 1993-94, 1997-98 and 2001-02. Di Venuto said he had thoughts of quitting after the final success against New South Wales at Bellerive Oval last March.”It was undoubtedly the greatest feeling I’ve experienced on a cricket field,” Di Venuto told the . “This retiring could have potentially happened at the end of that game but I wanted to continue on and squeeze out another season because I thought we were a very good chance to do it again.”Although last summer was Di Venuto’s most successful domestic season in Australia – he made 961 Pura Cup runs at 53.38 – he conceded he had not got the best out of himself consistently during his home seasons. “Not in Australia, no, which has been a frustrating thing for me,” Di Venuto said.”I can go year in, year out overseas and put in some pretty good performances but never been able to nail a season back here. Not to say I’ve had poor seasons back here, I think I’ve been quite consistent but for what I can do, I probably don’t get the best out of myself in Australian summers.”Di Venuto’s former Tasmania team-mate David Boon said the state would be losing one of its most dangerous weapons. “I think he has been a great player,” Boon said. “When he is on song, there is none better.”I look at him as one of the best ball strikers that we’ve produced for a long time and not only in Tasmanian cricket but Australian cricket. He is one of those guys that every other state has had on their list as a must get out. He has shown that many a times. One that I most refer to with him is his big hundred in the Sheffield Shield final we lost in ’98. It was a magnificent innings.”To date Di Venuto has played 141 first-class matches for Tasmania scoring 9687 runs at an average of 40.36 including 18 centuries with a highest score of 189. He also has taken 150 catches, the most by a Tasmanian in first-class cricket and in 103 domestic one-day matches he scored 2891 runs with a highest score of 129 at an average of 30.76. He also represented Australia in nine one-day internationals in 1997 scoring 241 runs at an average of 26.77 with a highest score of 89.Overall, combining his Tasmanian, Australia A and English first-class careers for Sussex, Derbyshire and Durham, he has played 261 matches, totalling 19,952 runs with 44 centuries at an average of 44.63. Di Venuto has indicated his desire to continue having an involvement in Tasmanian cricket, which the board is keen to secure in some capacity.

ScorecardBermuda slumped to another heavy defeat, this time at the hands of UAE who recorded their first win in this season’s Intercontinental Cup series. Bermuda are now bottom of the table after four matches, with just six points.UAE resumed on 409 for 7 but were quickly dispatched by Bermuda’s bowlers who dismissed them for 449. This left Bermuda chasing 282 – a difficult, but not impossible target on a pitch (judging by the application UAE showed on the second and third days) was good for batting.They crumbled to 33 for 5 after Irfan Ahmed picked up three quick wickets and, this time, not even David Hemp could dig them out. Irvine Romaine cracked 32 from 45 and Malachi Jones offered 24 at a run-a-ball, but UAE’s bowlers shared around the wickets to dismiss them for a pitiful 143 inside 40 overs.For both sides, this match was a dead-rubber with just pride to play for. But nevertheless, it was a useful warm-up for UAE who travel to Namibia for the World Cricket League Division Two later this month. Bermuda, on the other hand, have a lot of soul searching to do.

The newly reconstructed stadium at Galle is facing a race against timeto be fit for the third Test between Sri Lanka and England on Tuesday,after heavy unseasonal rain hindered the attempts of groundstaff andconstruction workers to put the finishing touches to theirpreparations.With just three days to go until the final Test of the series, much ofthe playing area was underwater, while workmen were still layingpaving and building ticket-booths on the concourse in front of the newpavilion. By Saturday afternoon there was no electricity or runningwater inside the ground’s buildings, and most of the grassy bankswhere England’s spectators sat during the ground’s last internationalfixture in 2003 are currently deep pools of mud.And yet, there is no question in anyone’s minds that the show must goon regardless. Of all the symbols of the terrible tsunami thatdevastated Sri Lanka in December 2004, perhaps none was more poignantthan the obliteration of Galle’s stadium. International sport is,after all, meant to be escapism on a vast scale, but the rubble andruins of one of the most glorious venues in the world meant that nosports fan could fail to appreciate the stark realities of thedisaster.The message is that, if international cricket can return to Galle,then so too can a normal life for the thousands who were dispossessedthat day. “It will be ready come what may,” said the stadium’s headgroundsman, Jayananda Warnaweera, who has been working round the clockwith an army of labourers, in a bid to overcome the atrocious workingconditions. “It has been a long haul but for the people of Galle thisis a celebration and we will make it happen.”For England’s cricketers, the desire to fight back from their 1-0series deficit has been subsumed by an appreciation of the biggerpicture. “We’re pretty much going to have to take the stance thatwhatever we have to play on, we’ll go out there and play on it,” saidPaul Collingwood, who made his Test debut at Galle in 2003. “It’s assimple as that.”It’s obviously not finished at the moment but they are working veryhard and progressing day by day, so hopefully it’ll be playable,” saidCollingwood. “Driving down in the bus from Colombo, the further we gotdown, there was a real sickening feeling, seeing the destruction thatwas caused. That’s why it’s vital to put the smiles back on people’sfaces and get on with it.”

Pakistan will play three Tests and five one-day internationals on their tour of India, which starts with a three-day warm-up match beginning on February 27.The venues for the matches will be announced later, but the Tests will start on March 4, March 12 and March 20. The first one-dayer was scheduled on March 28 after another warm-up game on March 26. The next four ODIs will be played on March 31, April 3, 6 and 9.According to the schedule forwarded by the Indian board, Pakistan would kick off their tour with a three-day warm match from February 27 to March 1. The BCCI is expected to announce venues for the series next week after a meeting of its Programme and Fixtures Committee.Abbas Zaidi, the director of the Pakistan board, had earlier said that they wished to play most matches in areas close to the Wagah border so that people could travel from Pakistan to watch the matches.This will be the first time in six years that Pakistan will be playing a full series in India. The last time they visited India was in January 1999 to play a two-Test series apart from one Test match which was part of the Asian Test Championship. The Test series, remembered mainly for Anil Kumble taking all ten wickets in the second innings at Delhi, was drawn while Pakistan triumphed in the Kolkata Test and went on to win the Asian Test Championship.Schedule
Warm-up game – February 27 to March 1
First Test – March 4 to 8
Second Test – March 12 to 16
Third Test – March 20 to 24
Warm-up one-dayer – March 26
First ODI – March 28
Second ODI – March 31
Third ODI – April 3
Fourth ODI – April 6
Fifth ODI – April 9

Justin Langer and Ben Hutton put Middlesex back in the running for a National League Second Division promotion place with competition-best perfomances at Edgbaston.Skipper Langer’s patient 93 laid the foundations for a commanding 201 for nine and Hutton’s four for 32 undermined Warwickshire as they floundered under the Edgbaston floodlights.Hutton needed to take the wickets to get back in favour with Langer after he was involved in the run out that cost his captain a certain century.Langer had taken no risks and appeared in no trouble in a sensible 122-ball innings until Hutton changed his mind about a quick single in the penultimate over and Langer was unable to beat Dominic Ostler;s throw from midwicket.Langer gave Hutton a backward glance as he trudged back to the pavilion but the youngster, the grandson of Sir Leonard, was quickly forgiven as he applied the brakes to Warwickshire’s innings.Hutton, bowling gentle seamers, concentrated on line and length and struck in his first over when he had Ashley Giels stumped.The wickets of Dominic Ostler and Trevor Penney, both LBW, and Michael Powell, who was bowled through the gate followed, as Warwckshire slipped to 186 all out and their fourth straight home defeat in the competition.Langer said when he won the toss and opted to bat first that he did not fancy the chances of the side batting last under the temporary floodlights and so it proved.His innings ensured that Middlesex had just enough runs to force victory but his stands of 68 for the third wicket with Mark Ramprakash and 73 for the fourth with Irishman Ed Joyce enabled Middlesex to survive a late clatter of wickets of their own.

Ravi Shastri believes that Muttiah Muralitharan is being needlessly victimised mainly because he is an Asian. While admitting that Murali’s action wasn’t without its kinks, Shastri said that there were quite a few bowlers who were “no different from him”.”I don’t find anything wrong with his bowling action,” said Shastri, speaking at a function to promote the ICC Champions Trophy in Bangalore. “I have no problems with his offbreak. He is an Asian, and that has ruffled quite a few feathers.”A week ago, Murali became the first Sri Lankan to sign with an India-based company when he joined hands with Showdiff Worldwide – Shastri is a vice-chairman – to “explore commercial interests”.According to Shastri, Murali wouldn’t have been singled out if he hadn’t taken a significant number of wickets in his career. “Muralitharan is being targeted because he is a very successful bowler,” he said. He was also critical of the different degrees of flexion that were allowed for fast bowlers and spinners and didn’t think there was a need for “different yardsticks”.On a different note, he acknowledged that the present Indian team was getting close to being one of the best Indian teams of all time. However, Shastri reckoned that the Indian one-day team that played between 1983 and 1986 was right on top. That bunch ended up winning the World Cup, the Asia Cup and the World Championship of Cricket in Australia.”The present team of Sourav Ganguly is close to being one of the best,” he said, “but it needs to be consistent, especially in big games.” He didn’t go along with India’s decision to play seven batsmen in one-dayers, and felt that Rahul Dravid should play purely as a batsman. “If six batsmen cannot win games, what can a seventh do?”

The fifth days play of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final between Railways and Tamil Nadu held no great surprises, with Railways winning by eight wickets at the Karnail Singh Stadium, Delhi, thereby qualifying for the semi-final.Tamil Nadu centurion Sridharan Sriram added only 14 runs to his overnight total before being dismissed for 121, made off 187 balls with 15 fours. The only other batting contribution of note in the innings was that of Hemang Badani, who hit a rapid 56 off 46 balls, with five fours and two sixes.Skipper Robin Singh declared the innings closed on 326/6, setting Railways a target of 180 for victory. His bowlers, however, ran into early problems, not being able to break the first-wicket partnership until 71 runs had been added.Amit Pagnis was the first wicket to fall, scoring 42 off 75 balls. But TP Singh (43) and Yere Goud (25*) batted around an absolutely unflustered Sanjay Bangar, the first-innings double-century maker.Railways got to their target in 57.2 overs, with eight wickets to spare. Bangar saw his side through to the win with a sedate 52 off 173 balls. He needn’t have been so circumspect, though; Railways would have made it to the semi-finals even without an outright win.

Dulip Liyanage, a fast bowler who last played for Sri Lanka in 2001, has been appointed captain-cum-manager of an eight-man Sri Lanka squad for the forthcoming Hong Kong Cricket Sixes.The squad includes three players with international experience – Liyanage, Indika de Saram, now 30, who played the last of his 15 ODIs at Sharjah in 2000-01, and Ravindra Pushpakumara, a 28-year-old fast bowler who has played 23 Tests.The other members include a selection of experienced domestic cluball-rounders: Ruchira Palliyguru, Gayan Wijekoon, Saman Jayantha, Chamila Gamage and Chinthaka Jayasinghe.The annual tournament, which was won last year by Pakistan, will take place at the Kowloon Cricket Club on November 1 and 2.Squad Dulip Liyanage (Capt), Ruchira Palliyguru, Gayan Wijekoon, Saman Jayantha, Indika de Saram, Chamila Gamage, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Ravindra Pushpakumara.

Stephen Fleming, who entered the tour with a mystery illness picked up in Bangladesh, has spent the best part of three days trying to stop a “thumping”. Today he got a composed 83 but his side was again struggling as he faced the press. For Australia Glenn McGrath took four wickets for a career total of 461, passing the combined record of Dennis Lillee in Tests, World Series and Rest-of-the-World matches.

Stephen Fleming
On his health in the heat
It’s pretty draining for all concerned and making decisions adds to it. I’m still feeling pretty good when I bat because you have to. It was good to get through last night and start with a clean bill today.On how the heat is affecting the team
Most of the guys are in bed by 9 or 9.30pm. It’s not a 100 [for me today] but I had plenty of energy left when I got out.On walking after edging McGrath
I thought it was pretty obvious and didn’t want to hang around. I’ve got no real personal stance, some days I find myself walking off, some days I don’t. Some days it may equate to being obvious, other days I think I may try and get away with it. It just depends on the mood.On getting out between 50 and 100
The last two years have been pretty good, I’m four and two in the right favour. I thought [McGrath] bowled a brilliant over and it was a genuine dismissal. My concentration was good up to then, and I’m not going to turn out a hundred every time. In the last two years it’s been proper batsmanship.On how the day went for New Zealand
It was another disappointing one on this tour. They played extremely well, the lengths they bowled were outstanding and they’ve got the variation in Shane Warne.On what sort of target they will face
They’ll probably leave us 800 and we’ll probably knock them off in two sessions. I guess they’ll bat till lunch tomorrow. Paul [Wiseman] was getting a few to turn and Shane will always get turn, but something could be achieved if there are a couple of heroes in our side.On the ear infection to Scott Styris
It is disappointing when you need all hands on deck and he’s batting so low down. It exposed the tail a lot earlier than we would have like but it couldn’t be helped. When you are down things tend to spiral on you.On the overall situation
The bottom line is we are being outplayed. We are being thumped.Glenn McGrath
On beating Lillee’s combined record
Dennis was always a hero of mine when I was growing up and someone to look up to. Even people classing me alongside Dennis is a huge wrap, but I’d never class myself equal or above him. When you see Dennis’s record it shouldn’t be 355 wickets, it should be 459.On why Lillee was great
He was a fast bowler’s fast bowler. Some people think I’m a bit boring and don’t have the same charisma and open aggression as him. Whether or not you’d get away with it now is a different thing.On his bowling today
It was hard work and at 0 for 40 things weren’t looking too good. They seemed to be scoring runs, there were a few edges, the luck seemed to be going to the Kiwis. If I kept it in the right areas I thought it would turn sooner or later. To walk off the park with 4 for 66, I’ll take that any day. It was good to get a few wickets for confidence.On the pitch
It was pretty flat, there wasn’t much sideways movement. When I was bowling to Fleming there was a bit of reverse-swing. Warney will come into his own in the second innings.On not enforcing the follow-on
There’s still two full days to go in this Test. Just because we are 300 runs in front people think we should enforce the follow-on. The guys will get a rest, maybe two sessions to freshen up a little bit, and then come at them again when we’ve got [a lead of] 500-plus.On New Zealand’s performance
Fleming and Nathan Astle looked comfortable and put on a decent partnership. We thought if we could knock one or both of them over that was the key. For the rest we just got the balls in the right areas. Jason Gillespie was the pick of the bowlers and we bowled well considering the conditions.