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After a month in Colombo, the Australian cricket team heads to Sharjahtoday for an historic first Test in the United Arab Emirates.Australian and Pakistan will arrive Dubai this afternoon and will havejust one full day of practice before the second Test of the neutralseries gets under way in Sharjah.It will mark the first time Australia has played a Test in non-Testcountry.Pakistan played two matches there earlier this year, scoring resoundingwins over West Indies in both.Australian coach John Buchanan said the quick turnaround and withconditions more extreme than Colombo, it would be arduous for bothsides.”But that’s the way the schedule is and we have to deal with it,”Buchanan said.”They’ll be more aware of what it’s going to be like than us but it willbe pretty bloody hot and humid, worse than here.”Sharjah has has been recording temperatures of around 40 degrees withthe humidity around 80 per cent.”I do believe the team which can adjust to the conditions more quicklywill have the advantage in the first game,” Buchanan added.The Australians, one-nil up in the series, won’t make a decision ontheir team until they’ve seen the pitch conditions but Buchanan said itwas traditionally a “flat” deck offering reverse swing and a little bitof spin.Injured fast bowler Jason Gillespie will travel with team but won’t playin either Test after tearing his calf muscle on the last day of thefirst day.West Australian quick Brad Williams will join the team in Sharjah tocover for Gillespie.

A new player will win the honour of being the winner of the FICA international player of the year in the 2002 awards when they are announced on July 10.Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower won the PricewaterhouseCoopers-sponsored title last year, the fourth occasion on which it has been presented.Up for the honour this time are: Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Matthew Hayden (Australia).The previous winners were: 1998, Steve Waugh (Australia), 1999, Brian Lara (West Indies), 2000 Glenn McGrath (Australia) and Flower last year.The nominees for the International Young Player of the Year are: Virender Sehwag (India), Matthew Hoggard (England), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies).The FICA Wisden Cricket Monthly Place in History contenders are, the Australian opening pair of Justin Langer and Hayden for their four double-century opening partnerships; Nathan Astle for the fastest double century in Test cricket and Shane Warne who took six for 161 in his 100th Test match.A FICA Slazenger award will be made for International Sheer Instinct.The nominees are: Mark Butcher (England) for his 173 not out against Australia; Waqar Younis for his seven for 36 against England in last year’s NatWest Series; Andrew Flintoff for the close of play victory in an ODI against India, and Waugh for his comeback 100 against England.The nominees for the International team of the year are: the Australian and Sri Lankan Test teams and the Australian One-Day International team.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that white bails(instead of black) will be used on the normal black stumps for the remainingthree matches of the NatWest Series.Discussions between the ECB, the umpires and match referee resulted in thechange of colour to assist the umpires in their decision-making for run-outsand stumpings.In a further development, it is confirmed that three individuals who encroached on to the playing surface during the npower Test Match at Edgbaston earlier this season have all been successfully prosecuted. As a result they all now have a criminal record and their DNA profile has been added to the national database.

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.

Having been played right out of the second National Bank Test by England with both ball and bat, New Zealand face a big task to save the match at the Basin Reserve tomorrow.England have gone to a 246-run lead with nine second innings wickets intact and 105 overs to play with tomorrow.New Zealand have already been frustrated by umpiring decisions not going their way, including a big appeal for a catch at the wicket by Adam Parore off Marcus Trescothick from Nathan Astle’s bowling when the batsman was 77 not out.It has not been one of the great Test matches for the umpires, Steve Dunne of New Zealand and Darrell Hair of Australia, and that last one this evening was one of their toughest denials.England ended on 184/1 with Mark Butcher 57 not out off 99 balls, and Trescothick having batted 118 balls for his 77.The New Zealand side which had a poor first innings as the preamble to its first Test loss in Christchurch, learnt nothing when falling into the same hole in Wellington today.What was frustrating for the New Zealanders scattered among the crowd of around 8000 today, was the absence of applied batting technique and execution.It was difficult to believe that the New Zealand batsmen who performed so abysmally in attempting to hold out left-arm spinner Ashley Giles and fast-medium Andy Caddick, were the same batsmen who performed so well against Australia earlier in the summer.Giles was a markedly inferior bowler to Australian spinner Shane Warne while Caddick is a notch below Glenn McGrath’s class, both players who were almost played out of the Australian series.Conditions may have been different, and clearly attitudes were, because the competitive fire seemed to be absent among the New Zealanders.It was as if they were prepared to play in remote control mode until members of their frontline attack return to the side, and although the players might refute that, it was the impression they gave.At the outset of the day Mark Richardson and Lou Vincent had worked their way from 70 to 135 when Vincent’s departure, caught at a deep leg slip from Giles, signalled the start of a five-wicket swathe that was cut through the New Zealand batting for only 14 runs.Caddick conspired with Giles to effect the demise of the home side, almost taunting those who had claimed after his second innings haul of six for 122 in the first Test in Christchurch that he wasn’t a first innings bowler.Figures of six for 59 would suggest otherwise and he goes into the second innings all fired up with a goal in sight of 200 Test wickets, which is only four wickets away.It doesn’t bode well for the home team.Coach Denis Aberhart acknowledged as much.”It was not a good day today.”I think the pitch is playing fine. I think if you work hard at it, if you’re bowling you get something out of it but batting wise the English have shown they can bat out there pretty well and early on this morning I thought we played pretty well on it too as well,” he said.It was a combination of bad batting and good bowling that put New Zealand in the position they now face.They had set things up well by the drinks break where they were 130/1.”The English bowlers kept the pressure on, they bowled well, they kept good line and good length. They haven’t let us get away at all, and then some poor application, poor shot selection combined with some good bowling,” he said.Aberhart added that it would be hard to chase a score on the wicket but it was possible to see what could happen if batsmen got in and got some partnerships established.New Zealand had managed to create some opportunities for wickets, one of which was dropped, but they had to get on with the game and bowl the next ball.The method for New Zealand’s survival was simple.”We need to show the willingness to do the hard work. When the Englishmen bowl good lines, good lengths we have to work through that. I think for long periods of time we did that but we just didn’t finish it off.”We need to address that, it’s more of a mental thing than a technical thing and that needs to be addressed for tomorrow and for the Test in Auckland,” he said.

It promises to be a mouth-watering appetizer to the 2003 World Cup in March. Probably it will produce more spectacular cricket, after all, it will be played in Sri Lanka, the land that revolutionised one-day cricket when they gave birth to pinch-hitting in the 1996 World Cup.Fast bowlers beware. Expect flat, sun-baked pitches, clear blue skies and fast outfields. This is going to be a tournament for the batsmen; the curators are already at work, mothering their precious turf in the hope of producing towering totals.No longer a straight knockout tournament, it’s a gluttonous festival of cricket with 15 matches in just 18 days. Each of the 12 teams (10 Test playing countries plus Kenya and Holland) have been divided into four groups, ensuring them a minimum of two games with the group winners proceeding to a semi-final stage.It’s a straightforward formula that should produce exciting and unpredictable cricket. In the last tournament, staged two years ago in Nairobi, New Zealand caused an upset when they defeated India in the final to secure their first ever major international triumph. This time, nine of the twelve sides will believe that they can win.

Home conditions will hand the Asian bloc in general and Sri Lanka in particular an advantage. Indeed, Sanath Jayasuriya’s team will start as favourites alongside Australia considering a formidable home record in the limited overs game – they have not lost a single series or tournament in their backyard for over three years.The slow pace of the pitches is ideally suited to their vibrant brand of cricket: batsmen need to make full toll of the new ball and early fielding restrictions before the ball softens; the fielding must be electric and the spinners have a very important role, especially in the second innings when the pitch may deteriorate.But Sri Lanka have to contend with Pakistan in Pool 4 and then face the daunting prospect of a semi-final clash against Australia. It’s good news for England fans – they won’t have to play any of the top three countries until the final.However, first they need to defeat Zimbabwe and India to ensure qualification. That will require the taming of Sachin Tendulkar and his blistering waxwork Virender Sehwag. Stand-up Darren Gough. For England’s Barmy Army is a delicious prospect – stick September 22 in the diary.Don’t rule out the West Indies either. They have first hand knowledge of Sri Lankan conditions after a recent tour and are looking a sturdier outfit under captain Carl Hooper. Certainly a middle order containing a revitalised Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Hooper is second to none. They play South Africa in the opening game of the tournament.

All the matches will be played in Colombo – laid-back Asian city with wide roads, green parks and a refreshing sea breeze – at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) and Premadasa International Stadium.English fans will remember well the grass-banked SSC from last year, when Nasser Hussain’s team completed a remarkable Test series win. It has the potential to be the best batting strip in Sri Lanka with pace and consistent bounce, but can also offer swing bowlers encouragement in the early overs (Chaminda Vaas bowled out Zimbabwe for 38 last December).Premadasa will stage the day-night matches, including the tournament final on September 29. A vast concrete bowl, which hosts an electric atmosphere when full. Again the batters traditionally dominate, but this is a fiendishly difficult ground on which to chase even moderate targets, as the pitch can crumble and the ball turn sharply in the second innings.It will all make for a fascinating September; a spectacle best watched from the stands – why not make sure you’re there to savour the thrill of watching one-day cricket in Sri Lanka?

Sussex captain Chris Adams will miss next week’s zonal group matches in theBenson and Hedges Cup with a broken thumb.The former England batsman sustained the injury when he was hit on the right hand by a ball from Worcestershire pace bowler Alamgir Sheriyar on Friday.Adams is expected to be out of action for a fortnight, starting with aNorwich Union League game against Worcestershire tomorrow and then five matchesin the Benson and Hedges Cup.

The Pakistan cricket selectors had wanted to include Shadab Kabir in the 14-man squad for the Asian Test Championship final but the idea was rejected by skipper Waqar Younis.According to highly placed sources, the selectors had maintained that the left-hander had batted well in the sole innings of the first Test against Bangladesh and deserved another opportunity. Shadab had got a poor decision in the only innings of the second Test.”But the skipper had more confidence in the abilities of Shoaib Malik rather than Shadab. In the end he rejected the idea and the selectors were left with no option but to leave the youngster out of the 14-man squad,” sources said.”We always try to accommodate the demands and requirements of the captain. And that’s precisely why Shadab was not included. But after the squad is handed over to the captain, the selectors can’t influence their views on final selection,’ sources said.Pakistan selectors have tried Imran Farhat, Saleem Elahi, Ijaz Ahmad, Saeed Anwar, Abdur Razzaq, Taufiq Umer, Shadab Kabir, Naved Latif and Shahid Afridi in 11 different combinations in the last 12 months.

Overview

How Shakib Al Hasan fares in Sri Lanka could determine whether Bangladesh makes it past round one•AFP

The World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka will be as much a test of Bangladesh’s skills and preparation as a measure of their progress as an international side. They’ve been grouped with a team they crushed in ODIs two years ago, and the contest in Pallekele will be Bangladesh’s first against New Zealand since that 4-0 result. The other, and more recent, source of confidence is their wins against India and Sri Lanka during this year’s Asia Cup, when Bangladesh qualified for the final.Even Bangladesh’s poor record against their other Group D opponents should provide extra inspiration. They haven’t beaten Pakistan in 13 years, though in their last two matches they showed the readiness to fight, especially in the Asia Cup final in March.Bangladesh’s performance in that tournament is now considered the marker by many, though expecting the players to take a step further in the World Twenty20, where one bad over or shot could see them knocked out of the group stages, might be asking too much. They’re primarily focused on making it past the New Zealand game unscathed and hoping for a Super Eights berth. It is a realistic target for a team that played a quarter of all their Twenty20 internationals four months before the World Twenty20.

Key player

Shakib Al Hasan considers himself a leader in the team, and rightly so. He provides match-winning ability to a team that needs it, despite the presence of other talented players. Shakib’s batting and bowling averages are substantially better in Bangladesh wins in the past six years, a measure of his contribution to the team’s cause. He will be playing with a dodgy knee and will bat at No 3. The bowling attack will also revolve around his left-arm spin.

Surprise package

In Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh finally have an end-over hitter who can clear his right leg and swing powerfully. After an awkward teething period in Zimbabwe, Rahman hit eleven sixes during the build-up tours and broadened his range from just midwicket. He can use his feet against the spinners but high pace will test him: when he encountered such bowling against South Africa in June, Rahman settled for boundaries and the odd nudge. A fast-bowling talent cut short due to injury, Rahman reinvented himself as the sort of a shock-value player Bangladesh has lacked since Mohammad Rafique’s heyday.

Weakness

Spin will test the Bangladesh batsmen, especially Pakistan’s offspinners. They tend to play out overs, which is a flawed strategy in a Twenty20 game. Also, they can be inflexible when things don’t go according to plan. A recent example of this was the middle-order collapses after Shakib’s dismissal during the two practice games in Sri Lanka.

World T20 history

A surprise win over West Indies took them to the Super Eights in 2007, but they failed to make it past the group stages in 2009 and 2010.

Recent form

Bangladesh have won four games out of six in 2012, results that include the 3-0 series win over Ireland in July. That performance took Bangladesh all the way up to No. 4 in the Twenty20 rankings but they returned to ninth three days later, after an unflattering start to their series in the Netherlands, where they won once and lost twice. One of those defeats was against Scotland. During an off-season dedicated to Twenty20, Bangladesh also won unofficial matches against South Africa, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Barbados on either side of the Europe tour.

South Africa struggled to come to terms with some disciplined and determinedbowling as they slumped to 132-6 against Jamaica at tea on day one of two atJarrett Park In Montego Bay.After the fall of Boeta Dippenaar (13) in a curtailed morning session, a half-hour delay to the start of play caused by a damp patch on the pitch, his opening partner Gary Kirsten fell shortly after lunch.It was just reward for fast-bowler Franklyn Rose, who bowled with pace and aggression from the start. Rose got one to snort past Kirsten and take the outside edge as it rose through to wicketkeeper Keith Hibbert who took a comfortable catch. Kirsten (21) was watchful and patient, hitting just the one boundary, but as has been a feature of his tour, fell to a real snorter of a delivery.Jacques Kallis (30) set out to dominate spinners Gareth Breese and Nehemiah Perry after the lunch interval, but was a victim of his own attacking intent, top-edging a pull-sweep to be well caught by Audley Sanson making good ground as he ran backwards from square-leg.Daryll Cullinan looked in magnificent form again as he thumped three fours and a six clean out of the ground off Breese, the ball disappearing into a building site, never to be seen again. Despite his rousing start, Cullinan offered Hibbert some challenging catching practice on 21 and was well caught one-handed to his right by the ‘keeper.Neil McKenzie also launched a big six, this time off Perry, but was trapped leg-before by Sanson on 17 and the bowler struck again in his next over, captain Mark Boucher also leg-before for a duck.