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Zimabwe’s world-class wicket-keeper/batsman, Andy Flower, has angrily refuted claims emanating from India that his left thumb is not as badly injured as reported.Speaking to CricInfo earlier today, he said: “I received a knock on my left thumb when I took the first ball of the fourth day of the Second Test, bowled by Andy Blignaut. I kept on for the remaining 20 overs or so of the innings but, when I found I could not hold a bat, I saw a doctor.”An MRI scan revealed that the thumb was dislocated and a ligament had been torn from the bone. I have got to have an operation on Tuesday to re-attach the ligament and will then have the hand in plaster for some four to five weeks.”Flower has been ever-present in Zimbabwean international teams since he made his debut in the 1992 World Cup in Australia.That in itself is a remarkable record and it is regrettable that scurrilous stories should have been circulated suggesting that he had other motives for missing this triangular series involving India and the West Indies as well as the host country, and then the two Test Matches against the West Indies which follow.While his absence in the middle order and behind the stumps will be a severe blow to the Zimbabweans, listeners to CricInfo.com’s audio coverage will benefit from Andy Flower’s presence in the commentary box.

All the planning in the world couldn’t cope with disruption such as the terrorist attacks in the United States caused for world sport, and as one of the first sports groups to have their plans upset, New Zealand’s cricket selectors have to re-think their summer.The almost inevitable prospect that a tour of Pakistan will not be possible, with the cut-off time being Friday next week, means the two New Zealand sides, One-Day Internationals and Tests, will join those sports trivia oddities as teams that never took the field of play.Pakistan is known to be hoping to organise a seven-match ODI in the wake of the abandonment of New Zealand’s tour, but that will depend on the international political scene.What the New Zealand selectors face is having to re-think their plans for the tour of Australia which gets underway at the start of November, or earlier if matches can be arranged.While the tour of Pakistan coincided with rehabilitation work being undertaken by world-class all-rounder Chris Cairns and recovery and managed workload being done by Dion Nash, it was another chance to test other players in the heat of battle to see how they would respond.That test, for all intents and purposes, will not now be undertaken and the selectors will be required to dish out some disappointments to prospective team members.The emphasis now falls on Test match play and fielding the strongest possible team for that most demanding of tours.Selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee said the selectors would now have to totally reassess their thoughts.”There are only so many places available for Australia and with Chris Cairns available, and possibly Dion Nash, the competition is going to be tough.”We have to have the strongest team possible,” he said.Hadlee was hopeful that more games could be arranged in Australia.”Four first-class games before the first Test in Brisbane would be ideal. It doesn’t matter where, although we do already have one against Queensland before the Test, it is mainly to get used to the harder grounds,” he said.Coach Denis Aberhart has also had to do some rethinking about his own plans because of the loss of what would have been a team-building tour to Pakistan.”Pakistan is a difficult place to tour and to do well there the team has to work closely and fight hard. We were looking forward to doing that to build our confidence for Australia,” he said.But there was an opposite stance which involved the team preparing well and doing all the right things in their build-up to go into the Australian series fresh.”We’re waiting to hear from NZC what options we’ve got but the main thing is to have players continuing to work on fitness and skills on a daily basis,” Aberhart said.He was also working on programmes for players to get together in each of the main centres to work on maintaining skill levels.”It’s just a case of stepping back and going back into preparation phase, rather than game phase,” he said.

The day night match at The Oval started with a succession of firsts for Surrey this season, it was at home and on time, the darkness and 100% cloud cover were in keeping with the spirit of things and there was life in the pitch.This was home, there was a nasty taste in the mouth from the weather and performance related problems of the last few weeks and messrs Bicknell and Tudor were in the mood to make somebody pay. The first four fast, straight overs produced three wickets and held a memory of the home sides great, though so far this year unrealised potential and a hope that given decent conditions and the change to adequately prepare their pitches Surrey’s season may take off once again.From the start it was nice to see proper cricket being played with Surrey deploying a slip cordon for their opening bowlers and the bowlers responding with good line and length. It wasn’t until the sixth over that the first boundary of the Hampshire innings was scored – a splendid cover drive by Robin Smith. The skies brightened throughout the Hampshire innings, but although Smith, Warne and Extras attempted to make a game of it, Hampshire, in poor form were always struggling. Warne top scored, despite riding his luck early and surviving not being good enough to touch several deliveries from the intermittently excellent Ben Hollioake he struck several magnificent fours from him.Stephenson, fifth out with the score on 38, was deeply disappointed to be given out caught behind.Warne in contrary to his reputation of this summer scored three excellent fours from Ben Hollioake to race ahead of Smith, the only other player to offer any resistance.Surrey’s reply began with Butcher driving the third ball of the innings from Mulally in the air to cover point, but from then on there was little or no difficulty with Ward batting steadily and Brown coming into form after a slow start. The enticing spectacle of Brown vs Warne was not long in coming, Warne was tidy and span the ball despite the early season wicket, but, with both batsmen able to choose the ball to play and Brown especially playing well against him there was little that even the great Australian could do to defend a pitiful total against a strong batting side.Given the poor historical record of the Surrey Southpaws against spin Ian Ward deserves some mention for his play against the strongest spin opposition Surrey will face this season, he scored four with the edge and the assistance of one of many appalling misfields from a dreadful attempted cover drive from Warne but otherwise his play against spin was blameless if you will forgive the crossbatted waft across a straight ball while trying to end it early and reducing Surrey to eighty one for three.Yet again Ali Brown got himself out trying to hammer a poor delivery from an average bowler out of the ground, Francis taking the catch this time at deep fine leg from the bowling of Mascarenhas. Hampshire did not seem eager to hurry the inevitable, taking their time about bowling the few overs necessary for Surrey to complete a routine rout – the only urgency to seek a result seeming to be on the behalf of their outfielders who seemed keen to bring about a speedy conclusion by a hapless performance. Overall it was hard to believe that this was the same Surrey team which lost badly against Glamorgan at the weekend or the result of Hampshire buying in, in Warne and Mullaly two excellent bowlers.There was almost an element of resignation in the long hop from Warne which Adam Hollioake pulled cleanly for four to win the match.

The BCB High Performance training programme that began in June this year has ended a few days early, but coach Mal Loye said he was satisfied with the players’ efforts during the camp. The programme had to be ended this week after rain forced the group to return to Dhaka on Monday from Bogra where they were supposed to play a few matches till September 12.”The effort from the players has been first-class throughout the four months,” Loye said. “I am really pleased with their progress. I am a little sad that we didn’t see them play towards the end. We had a change of play to go to Bogra but unfortunately the conditions and ground wasn’t right. We had to close the programme slightly early. But generally I am happy with the players.”They had played some matches during the early stages of the programme. This was the first HP camp undertaken by the BCB since 2007 when the programme was abruptly closed, and later replaced by the National Cricket Academy in Mirpur. The current HP unit has worked in the academy too.The 22-member HP squad included four international players – Sabbir Rahman, Mohammad Mithun, Jubair Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman. Rony Talukdar and Liton Das made international debuts while the uncapped left-arm spinner Saqlain Sajib was picked in the Bangladesh A team for their tour to India this month.Allrounder Mahmudul Hasan, who was in the 22-member squad, said his game had improved. “I have improved technically in my batting and I have worked on my balance while bowling,” Mahmudul said. “I have become slightly faster in the field too. I think everyone also got better physically too. My balance while batting is now better. While playing the on-drive, the bat used to turn and my head was a bit more bowed. I have corrected this.”Loye said that the players will be tested in the 2015-16 season’s National Cricket League which is supposed to begin later this month. Many of them had done well in last season’s domestic first-class and one-day competitions.”We had a programme in place to cover everything, whether it is T20, ODIs and Tests. The programme included playing in all conditions. It was an easy job for me, if I am being honest. Their efforts were outstanding.”The feedback we got from the players has been the best thing. They feel they have improved. Unfortunately we didn’t see them play. In this NCL coming up, hopefully we will see the fruits of our work.”Given that the programme’s goal is to ensure best-prepared players for international cricket, Loye hoped that the training programme would have helped create a competitive environment for the senior teams.”It creates a healthy environment when you have a number of players competing for a position. It gets players out of their comfort zone. Hopefully the HP did that to the national team and created a healthy atmosphere.”The programme put in place was excellent. As good as I have seen. We executed it very well. The players’ attitude towards it was first-class. Hopefully it was evident to show it was an exciting and interesting programme for their development.”Loye, who was appointed in May this year for two years, will return home to England and hopes to return next year for the new intake.

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen admitted his side was feeling the after-effects of the World Twenty20 Qualifier, but said he was relieved after Scotland’s tense three-run win over Nepal on Wednesday.”There’s no doubt we were under pressure,” Mommsen said after the win. “They certainly put us under pressure. They batted well and they ran well. I think it was a combination of a few things and one of those things was fatigue and the end of a long campaign. Today that was always going to be a challenge for us, getting up for this game. We wanted to make sure we didn’t take this Nepal team lightly. We know they are capable and they showed that they are capable today. We’ll have to go away and do some more homework and make sure we come back even stronger on Friday.”Nepal were in the middle of a 139-run partnership with eight wickets in hand in the final two overs needing 25 to win before Gavin Main sparked a slide of three wickets in four balls by removing Nepal captain Paras Khadka for 70. It was 20-year-old Main’s maiden List A match and his freshness proved to be the key after having sat on the bench during Scotland’s entire World Twenty20 Qualifier campaign. Mommsen said despite Nepal’s strong position he was confident Scotland’s experience would help them in the end.”I think there were certainly signs of tiredness toward the end,” Mommsen said. “It’s been a long three or four weeks for us and I think at the end of the day we are just very happy to get the points and move on. I didn’t ever feel like we were going to lose the game, but it was far too close than we would have liked. I still had faith in our bowlers to come back and nail our plans.”Mommsen, who scored 78 off 62 balls, credited Con de Lange, who scored his maiden 50 for Scotland, with propping the team up after Nepal had Scotland in trouble at 101 for 5. Their 113-run sixth wicket stand lifted Scotland out of trouble and took them to a winning score as the hosts scored 86 runs in the final seven overs to finish on 235 for 7 in 36.”Obviously it was a slightly tricky period when I came in so to get through that initial bit of hard work was good and then to try to capitalize toward the end. I thought Con also batted nicely and together we put on quite a nice partnership there. That was his first 50 for Scotland so he batted well and adapted really well to conditions. I think we did really well in the end to post the score that we did.”Khadka said after the match that he felt Nepal’s cautious start did not cost them in the end. Opener Anil Mandal scored 100 in 93 balls, with his second 50 coming in just 32 deliveries. However, Mandal and Mahesh Chhetri only scored one boundary in the opening seven-over power play of the chase, reaching 24 for 0.”We had a plan that we’d build up the innings slowly but steadily and accordingly move from there,” Khadka said. “It could be a slow start, it could be a fast start but in the end it was a matter of one ball. Had the result gone in our favor, things would have gone well and we wouldn’t be talking about that. This is what it is. As long as you play the game we have to take the other side of the story and today unfortunately we couldn’t cross the line.”The Nepal captain was reasonably positive though despite the defeat. After a rough tour of Ireland where they secured a lone victory over USA in their opening match of the World Twenty20 Qualifier, taking this match to the end was an indication that his side had greater confidence in their skills in the 50-over format.”We came very close. It was a very good game altogether. I think both teams played equally well. Scotland after being [101] for 5 managed to put up a decent score and we put up a fight until the last ball but unfortunately we couldn’t pull it off in the end. It was just a matter of one ball. Sometimes I’d say this is what cricket comes down to. When you play good teams, it’s just a matter of those small margins.”

The family of Ankit Keshri, who died in April after an on-field collision, will soon get a compensation of Rs 25 lakh under the BCCI’s group insurance policy. The BCCI has dispatched a cheque to Ankit’s home association, the Cricket Association of Bengal.Ankit died on April 20 after colliding with a team-mate while fielding as a substitute during East Bengal’s Division One quarter-final match against Bhowanipore Cricket Club in a CAB tournament.”The insurance company has delivered the cheque to the BCCI office. It will now be mailed to the CAB, who will hand it over to the family of the deceased cricketer,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s general manager of game development, told ESPNcricinfo.The development was news to Raj Kumar Keshri, Ankit’s father, who said he was unaware of the insurance cover: “I had no idea. No one including CAB has told us so far. We are grateful to the BCCI.”Ankit’s family recently spoke to The Cricket Monthly on their ordeal. During his meeting with the CAB officials, Raj Kumar expressed one of his wishes was that he should not be forced to ask for financial assistance. He said that so far, the family had got Rs 10 lakh each from CAB and Kolkata Knight Riders, and Rs five lakh from East Bengal.According to Shetty, the BCCI provides accidental insurance cover for all the senior and junior cricketers on the domestic circuit. The affiliate units have to provide a list of 35 cricketers for each age group (Under-16, Under-19, Under-23 and Ranji Trophy) at the start of a season and the BCCI provides them accidental insurance.Since Ankit had been shortlisted by CAB as a promising cricketer, the BCCI processed claiming the accidental insurance and followed it up with the service provider till it was approved. “For an accidental death, like the unfortunate incident with Ankit, the maximum claim amount is Rs 25 lakh. For injuries during Ranji Trophy, a player can claim up to Rs 50,000 per week for a maximum of 52 weeks,” Shetty said.According to Subir Ganguly, the joint secretary of the CAB, the BCCI cheque had not yet arrived. “I also heard it from the BCCI on the group insurance. We are expecting the cheque in the next few days,” Ganguly said.

Match facts

Sunday, January 18, Johannesburg
Start time 10.00am (0800 GMT)David Miller took his chance higher up the order with a confident 70•Gallo Images

Big Picture

Neither a storm or a Gayle could stop South Africa taking the early lead in the one-day series. The transition from 20 to 50-over cricket (then 33 overs) exposed West Indies’ problems of sustaining performances over a longer period, despite rain shortening the match. Gayle cut loose again for 41 off 24 balls, but it is much more possible to absorb such an onslaught in the longer game, especially with a decent total on the board, as was shown once he was removed to a wild hack when the run-rate was already ten an over.However, with this series a chance to fine-tune ahead of the World Cup South Africa will also need to look critically at certain areas of their display. The batting started and ended poorly, beginning with ducks for Rilee Rossouw and Faf du Plessis, and then later there was a wobble of 5 for 34 when 300 should have been comfortably reached. Finishing an innings, with bat or ball, is not a new issue for the South Africans and though it did not prove decisive it remains an area of concern.One significant plus-point for them, though, was the innings of David Miller. Given a chance higher up the order at No. 5 he savoured the opportunity to build an innings rather than have to dash from the start. He did not always seem comfortable against the short ball, but his driving matched that of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers.For West Indies, the fightback in the field came too late although the intensity with which they were closing out South Africa’s innings should be a marker for them to follow for a full 50 overs. With the bat, they need more from the likes of Gayle than thrilling cameos.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)South Africa WLLLW
West Indies LLLWW

In the spotlight

It has been a difficult start to ODI cricket for Rilee Rossouw who has been dismissed for a duck as often as he has got off the mark in his ten matches. He is currently filling in for the injured Quinton de Kock at the top of the order, but the way he played around a full delivery from Jerome Taylor – albeit at decent pace with some swing – did not instil vast confidence. Still, many a young player has been challenged in the early stages of their career and one of the fascinations is seeing how they respond.West Indies’ best period of the opening match revolved around Andre Russell who played various hands in restricting South Africa. There was a catch to remove de Villers and a sharp bouncer to take JP Duminy’s top edge, but it was the neat footwork which found Farhaan Behardien short that was really eye-catching. Russell has been given a significant vote of confidence by this management team and is now a senior allrounder in the absence of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard.

Team news

Minus the injured de Kock, South Africa played what can probably be considered their first-choice side in the opening match. They will be keen to give all the players an outing in the series, but may try to create daylight between them and West Indies before too many changes. Morne van Wyk is an option for the top of the order, while Kyle Abbott or Wayne Parnell could interchange with another seamer.South Africa (probable) 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Rilee Rossouw, 3 Faf du Plessis 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 David Miller, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Farhaan Behardien, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran TahirWest Indies’ batting looked light with debutant Jonathan Carter in the middle order around the clutch of allrounders so space may be needed for Lendl Simmons.West Indies (possible) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Dwayne Smith, 3 Leon Johnson, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 6 Jonathan Carter/Lendl Simmons, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Jason Holder (capt), 10 Jerome Taylor, 11 Sulieman Benn

Pitch and conditions

A pacy pitch and a fast outfield: this venue is an ideal combination for one-day cricket. If the Twenty20 last week is anything to go by, we could be in for an epic at the Wanderers although South Africa’s pace attack will fancy having a greater say in proceedings. The threat of an afternoon storm is said to be fairly low.

Stats and trivia

• Rossouw has made six ducks in international cricket, the most by any top-order batsman (Nos. 1 to 7) since the start of 2014. Sri Lanka’s Kusal Perera has also scored exactly six ducks in this period. Rossouw has scored five of his six ducks in ODIs, from only ten innings.
• South Africa have won all three ODIs against West Indies at the Wanderers, the most recent in 2008 was Shaun Pollock’s final international.
• There could be five survivors from that match: Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and Dale Steyn.

Quotes

“It wasn’t easy, they bowled really well. Not a concern, we played really well in the Powerplay – 34 without loss in five overs is a great effort so very chuffed with that.”
I thought we did well to come back into the game. With 33 overs it brought it back into our hands with the batting line-up we had. We got a good start, but fell away in the middle.

South Africa will host New Zealand for two T20s and three ODIs from August 14 in a packed home season. It was already announced that England will visit in December 2015 for a full tour – four Tests, five ODIs and two T20s – and Australia arrive in February for the first leg of a split limited-overs tour.”Our latest FTP announcements will make next season one of the busiest programmes of home internationals we have had in a very long time,” Haroon Lorgat, the Cricket South Africa chief executive, said. “I am certain that our fans will enjoy competing against New Zealand, England and Australia, all in one season.”

NZ tour of SA 2015

• 14 August : 1st T20I, Kingsmead, Durban

• 16 August : 2nd T20I, SuperSport Park, Centurion

• 19 August: 1st ODI, SuperSport Park, Centurion

• 23 August: 2nd ODI, Senwes Park, Potchefstroom

• 26 August: 3rd ODI, Kingsmead, Durban

Durban and Centurion get a T20 and ODI each for the New Zealand series, while Senwes Park in Potchefstroom gets an 50-over match for the first time in two years, the only day game on the tour.Australia play South Africa in three T20s before the World T20 in March 2016, and will return later in October for three ODIs. “Playing three T20s against Australia just before the ICC World T20 is ideal for the Proteas,” Lorgat said, “We are grateful to Cricket Australia for having agreed to split their visit to South Africa in 2016 so that we can deliver a full programme of fixtures.”

Beau Casson says he is ready to become Australia’s latest Test debutant if the opportunity arises when the third Test against West Indies begins in Barbados next week. Casson is the only backup slow bowler in the touring squad and the unexpected retirement of Stuart MacGill has suddenly thrust him into contention for an international call-up.Timing has been on Casson’s side. After a couple of lean state seasons, including 2006-07 when he moved from Western Australia to New South Wales and carried a shoulder injury through the summer, Casson came good in 2007-08 when a Test spin position finally became available. He said preparing against Australia’s top order during the West Indies trip had given him extra confidence.”We’ve got some of the most exceptional players of all time, not just of a certain era, and if you think if you’re going okay against them, you think you’re going to be pretty comfortable playing Test cricket,” Casson told the . “The way they go about their work, I’m learning a hell of a lot every day.”I would be kidding myself if I said I pictured it exactly like this. But it has always been a goal to play at the highest level and develop. After hurting my shoulder, that really set me back a bit and it was a bit of a long path to get it stronger and be able to bowl the overs I need to.”While Casson is thinking about a possible Test debut, there is no guarantee he will be the No. 1 spinner for New South Wales next season if MacGill continues to play state cricket. MacGill believes he still has plenty to offer the Blues but his plans were not received well by Terry Jenner, the spin coach who has worked with some of Australia’s young slow bowlers.”I hear he is going to play for New South Wales and I say why? It’s over,” Jenner told AAP. “He would be better now to move on, do some more wine shows and things like that and pass a few bottles of red around to us. The ideal thing would be for him now to make way, he’s had his moment and it didn’t quite work I think probably because his wrist never really recovered.”If MacGill does not return to the New South Wales setup it might open a door for Nathan Hauritz, who fell off the radar after playing his sole Test in India in 2004-05, to force his way back into first-class cricket. Hauritz, 26, has become a one-day specialist in state cricket but Jenner wants Australia to ensure the younger generation, including Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey, get plenty of experience at first-class level.”These guys have got to learn to be four-day bowlers,” Jenner said. “Dot-ball bowlers aren’t four-day bowlers. It is difficult when you lose Warne who was the best ever, MacGill who is the best understudy ever and of course Brad Hogg who is the best one day spinner that was going around in world cricket. A year or so down the track … we will have people I think knocking on the door.”But none of those younger spinners are guaranteed to take over MacGill’s Cricket Australia contract for 2008-09. The chief executive James Sutherland and the operations manager Michael Brown discussed the issue on Friday and decided there was no rush to replace MacGill in the 25-man squad and instead they may wait and see if any players put their hands up with strong performances later in the year.

Inexperience weighed heavily against Hursley Park on their NatWest Hampshire Under-16 Indoor Cricket Championship debut at the Rose Bowl.They went home pointless after suffering heavy defeats by last year’s winners Fair Oak and South Wilts, who collected a 24-point maximum after two handsome wins.Dean Robertson (25) and Richard Conway (17) provided a sound enough start against Fair Oak, but with last winter’s champions bowling a much tighter line than in their first games, progress was slow.Hursley’s eventual 74-3 proved easy meat for Fair Oak, with openers James Scutt (27) and Ed Kemp (22) polishing off the target.Both Hursley and Fair Oak were soundly thrashed by South Wilts, who are clearing going to be among the leading clubs in the 12-team NatWest backed competition.The experience the Bemerton youngsters gained at the Rose Bowl last winter proved the key as South Wilts bettered their formidable 146-5 against Fair Oak by scoring 147-3 in 12 overs off Hursley Park.Eddie Abel (39) and the emerging Lysander Wolf (36) led the way as South Wilts rattled up 146 against Fair Oak, who were dismissed for 76, with Chris Denning taking 2-22.James Hayward hit an unbeaten 43 and received able support from Abel (30) and Wolf (27) in the South Wilts run spree against Hursley Park, who were dismissed for 78 (Kapoor 23).Ventnor make their debut in the NatWestBank sponsored competition on Sunday against Andover and Sarisbury Athletic.