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LONDON, July 24 AFP – Worcestershire county cricket club today signed all-rounder Shane Lee as replacement for fellow Australian Andy Bichel for the final two months of the English season.Bichel is returning to Australia ahead of his country’s one-day series in Kenya next month and the ICC Trophy in Sri Lanka.Lee, who topped Somerset’s batting averages in 1996 and has 45 one-day internationals under his belt, has been pencilled in to make his debut against Glamorgan next week.Worcestershire Australian director of cricket Tom Moody said: “Shane has been able to rest during the Australian winter and will come to us fresh and ready to go.”Every Australian cricketer is striving for a World Cup place next year and his two months with us gives him an early opportunity to impress.”He will play a vital role in our final push for honours this season.”

Any lingering hopes that Somerset Sabres had of avoiding the drop to the second division of the NUL National League were dashed on Sunday at the County Ground when they were comfortably beaten by Warwickshire BearsAfter winning the toss and batting first Somerset Sabres got off to a poor start when once again they lost early wickets.A welcome return to form by skipper Jamie Cox was a bright spot amidst the falling wickets, and when he was out for 64 with the score on 109 for 5 he had faced 85 balls and scored 8×4’s.Once Cox had departed Ian Blackwell took on the scoring mantle and hit 51 before he was the eighth wicket to fall. Uncharacteristically the left hander played a somewhat restrained innings, batting for 94 minutes and facing 67 balls and hitting one six and 3×4’s.By the time Steffan Jones was caught by Dominic Ostler in the 44th over the Sabres had recovered to an almost respectable score of 188.The Bears made a swift reply and had reached 64 in the tenth over before Nick Knight, who had been missed twice earlier was bowled by Steffan Jones.Shaun Pollock, who was returning for the Bears after spending time playing for South Africa quickly got into his stride, but lost the services of Mark Wagh with the score on 75, when he was caught by Keith Parsons off Keith Dutch.In Dominic Ostler he found a willing ally and the pair brought the hundred up in the nineteenth over.Ostler and Pollock both appeared untroubled by the Sabres bowlers and cruised to their target sharing an unbeaten third wicket partnership of 116 in 20 overs.When Ostler hit the winning runs with ten overs to secure an eight wicket victory he was unbeaten on 77, with Pollock not out on 43.At the end of the game Jamie Cox told me: "This result was disappointing on two counts. We thought that we had scored enough runs on the day, and then they came out and attacked us and got them easily. The other huge disappointment is that we are now going to be playing in the second division next season."He continued: "The reality is that we haven’t played well enough to stay up. We haven’t often been able to put our best side and have had to shield our bowlers. We have lost games that we should have won against Yorkshire and Glamorgan, and have got into a losing rut that we just haven’t been able to get out of."Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This was another disappointment to us, and it now means that we are going down. We have got to get to grips with the white ball game and try to see where we are going wrong with it. We just haven’t been able to get any batting momentum in this competition , and this is an area that we have got to work on."

Rawalpindi were off to a dream start in their National Junior (Under-19) Grade-I Cricket Championship match against Lahore Whites Monday but the hosts ended the day in virtual disaster.After doing a splendid job of dismissing their rivals for just 88 in 45.2 overs at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi were tottering at 83 for seven off 35.3 overs at the close of first day’s play.But Rawalpindi were only themselves to blame as most of their batsmen fell to reckless shots as Lahore bounced back with Imran Siddiqui snapping up three for 31 and Asif Ijaz claiming two for 23. Waqas Zafar was unbeaten on 38 when play ended for the day.Earlier Najaf Shah and Saad Altaf demolished the Lahore batting after they had been put in to bat and both kept troubling the batsmen.Najaf took the lion’s share of wickets, snatching five for 38 while Saad had four for 31.Meanwhile at Shalimar Ground in Islamabad, the home side put on 209 for nine off their 80 overs against Fata who replied with 58 for one in 14.5 overs.Danish Hanif was the top run-getter for Islamabad, scoring a slow 56 that came off 124 balls while Shahryar Butt chipped in with 35 not out. Usman Nabi also contributed 35 runs.Fata captain Riaz Afridi bowled to an accurate line and length to finish with five for 68 with Yasir Shah taking two for which he gave away 48 runs.Islamabad skipper Mohammad Altaf took the only Fata wicket to fall, that of Sajid Afridi for 29, without conceding a run.Our Sports Correspondent adds from Lahore: Javed Hussain scored 93 to help Sheikhupura make 265 in their first innings againstKarachi Blues at Sheikhupura Stadium.Leg-spinner Mohammad Ali Zafar claimed five for 83.At stumps, Karachi Blues were 102 for two in 33 overs withKhurram Manzoor scoring 61.Off-spinner Aftab Ahmed captured seven for 61 as KarachiWhites bundled out Bahawalpur for 169 at Bahawalpur Stadium.By close of play, Karachi Whites were 57 for one.

At the start of the morning at Lord’s there was warm applause for the two umpires John Holder and George Sharp as they walked out onto the pitch, followed by a slightly warmer welcome for the Yorkshire skipper Richard Blakey and his team, but by far the loudest cheer of all was reserved for the appearance of the Somerset opening pair Peter Bowler and Marcus Trescothick.For the England man this would have been all the more heartening as he made his re appearance in top level cricket after breaking his thumb in the quarter final of the competition against Worcestershire in mid July.Since they reached the final at the start of August the question on every Somerset supporter’s has been whether or not their hero would be fit enough to return to play in the big match at Lord’s.The first over of the day from the Nursery End bowled by Chris Silverwood left him stranded at the non strikers end. All eyes then focussed upon him as he faced the first over from the Pavilion End bowled by Matthew Hoggard. The first three balls from the paceman produced no runs, but with the fourth ball of the over he cut loose, and the ball skimmed it’s way to the cover point boundary, much to the delight of the Somerset faithful.In the next over bowled by Silverwood his second scoring shot was another boundary, before he really let loose in the fifth over when he took 20 from Hoggard, including a huge six to the Pavilion and two classic Trescothick fours. `Banger’ was back and was showing how pleased he was in the way that he knew best.Sadly his cameo innings was not to last and he was cut down in full flow by an equally impressive catch off his England team mate Michael Vaughan in the covers as Marcus went for another boundary.Banger was back, and in just seven overs he had made 27 runs from 25 balls, which included 1×6 and 4×4’s to give the Somerset supporters a good start to their day.

These are golden times for Sri Lanka. After 19 years of civil war peace beckons, the stock market is booming and the tourist industry is flourishing. There is now hopeful optimism for the future where there was once only cynicism.In such a context yesterday’s crushing semi-final victory over Australia in the ICC Champions Trophy may be irrelevant, but it appeared to reflect the buoyant mood of the nation.The rivalry between Sri Lanka and Australia on the cricket field is intense: a relationship studded with acrimony and controversy; from the Muralitharan chucking affair to the Australians reluctance to tour Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup.For Sri Lankans, feelings run so high that this semi-final clash was approached like a World Cup final. Indeed, this was Sri Lanka’s biggest game since their 1996 triumph at Lahore.The state-owned Daily News produced a special 15-page colour supplement on the game, illegal printing presses churned out forged match tickets on to the black market and crowds thronged around the turnstiles outside the stadium during the morning of the game. Thousands were turned away disappointed, forced back from the stadium gate by policemen mounted on horseback.Those that were fortunate enough to lay their hands on a ticket enjoyed one of the great days in Sri Lanka’s cricket history. The atmosphere was electric. Sri Lanka… Sri Lanka… Sri Lanka… they screamed from the terraces, waving their flags delightedly, scarcely believing what they were seeing as their cherished cricketers romped towards victory against their archrivals.Sri Lanka’s strategy in this game was unashamedly spin-based. It may not be a recipe for success in next year’s World Cup, but it represented their best chance of victory against Australia in this tournament. They jettisoned their most penetrative pace bowler, Dilhara Fernando, a difficult decision considering his recent form, and picked three specialist spinners.It proved spectacularly successful on the dusty Premadasa pitch as Australia were bowled out for 162, their lowest score against Sri Lanka in the 44-match history between the two sides. Out of the 48.4 overs bowled, the slow bowlers skilfully delivered 39.4 of them. Backed up with some sharp ground fielding, they overwhelmed Australia’s top order.The target was never going to be enough. Australia burst out on to the field in the second innings, imposing in their famous green and gold strips. But although Glenn McGrath came close to dismissing the Sri Lankan captain in his first over, their normally dangerous pace bowling attack was blunted by the featherbed surface.Normally so polished and professional in all that they do, they were also sloppy in the field, providing extra runs and dropping chances. Marvan Atapattu was the main beneficiary, surviving three chances on his way to scoring the only 50 of the game, finishing with 51 from 113 balls.Warne spun the ball sharply enough to suggest that he would have threatened if provided with greater runs, dismissing Jayasuriya with a flipper after the left-hander had started the innings well with 42 from 51 balls. But he was unable to make further inroads as Kumar Sangakkara (48) provided Atapattu with solid support in a 75-run stand for the second fittingly.The pair were separated when Sangakkara feathered a catch to Adam Gilchrist. And McGrath trapped Atapattu lbw with an off-cutter, but Sri Lanka still cruised to the victory target with 10 overs to spare.Although Sri Lanka dominated the match, they had started the afternoon poorly. Ricky Ponting won the toss and openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden briefly threatened a mammoth score. Pulasthi Gunaratne showed signs of nerves, conceding 15 in his first two overs, and Chaminda Vaas was punished for dropping short. Australia were 48 without loss after just six overs.Sri Lanka, however, had prepared for such an eventuality. During the build-up to the match off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena had practiced hard with the new ball in the nets. Jayasuriya acted quickly, pulling him into the attack in the seventh over.More surprising was the introduction of Aravinda de Silva in the next over. But the decision proved inspirational as the veteran helped turn the game, striking with his fifth delivery. Hayden, determined to impose his authority on the spinners, was clea bowled after dancing down the wicket. Three balls later Gilchrist, who had raced to 31 from just 24 balls, was dismissed trying to loft Dharmasena straight down the ground and Australia lost their way.De Silva, once again displaying his remarkable big match temperament , stemmed the run flow with a miserly spell, conceding just 16 runs from his 10 overs. From the other end Vaas returned to trap Ponting (3) lbw before Jayasuriya ran out Darren Lehmann for a duck with a direct hit from short fine-leg. Australia had lost four wickets for eight runs in 5.1 overs.Damien Martyn, returning after a hip injury, and Michael Bevan threatened a recovery with a 39-run stand but another brilliant piece of fielding, this time from Russel Arnold, ended any hope of a competitive score as Martyn was run out for 28. Next over, Arnold plucked a head high catch out of the air to get rid of Bevan and Australia were 92/6.Shane Watson (7) then failed to pick Muttiah Muralitharan’s floater and was caught at short fine-leg. Warne – whose arrival at the crease had produced a deafening bout of jeering from the crowd – was Australia’s top scorer with 36. With support from Brett Lee (18) he chiselled out 44 runs for the eighth wicket before a final collapse when the last three wickets fell for just nine runs.

60 runs behind on first innings, Zimbabwe’s history as a whole would suggestthat they have little hope of winning this First Test match against Pakistan at Harare Sports Club – although interestingly at Peshawar in 1998/99 they did come back from such a position to bowl out Pakistan for 103 and win by seven wickets.They will be hoping that this particular piece of history will repeat itself on the third day, but it will require some inspired bowling and fielding. The fielding may well be possible, as a fine catch removed Saleem Elahi as Pakistan reached 14 for one in their second innings; the bowling remains to be seen.There were two crucial turning points during a disappointing morning session for Zimbabwe when they lost four wickets: firstly a concentration error by opener Hamilton Masakadza that initiated a minor collapse and inspired the Pakistani pacemen, and secondly an umpiring error that robbed the side of Andy Flower’s innings just as he was effecting a recovery.Some overnight rain probably helped to delay the amelioration of the pitch as Dion Ebrahim and Masakadza went out to face Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar. The sky remained overcast, although more rain was not imminent, but the light was to ring a premature end to the day with 17.4 overs unbowled.Ebrahim, who had not been in good form since his maiden century a month ago,took advantage of overpitched deliveries from both bowlers and reached double figures in the fourth over with some skilful drives. Then he edged a ball at catchable height off Waqar between fourth slip and gully to the boundary. Pakistan plugged the gap so they had six fielders in the slip-gully region. Two more fours followed through the gaps, so Ebrahim scored all of the first 22 runs on the board before Masakadza finally pushed Shoaib for a single past gully. Shoaib often passed the 150km/hr mark without unduly troubling the batsmen on a slow pitch.There were two turning points in the Zimbabwe innings. The first was whenMasakadza (9), never fluent, unwisely tried to hook the erratic Mohammad Sami and gloved a catch to the keeper; Zimbabwe 36 for one. This started a chain reaction with two more wickets falling in quick succession as the bowlers raised their game.Shoaib decided that a yorker was the answer: one turned into a low lightning-fast full toss that bowled Campbell for 2, too far across his stumps and playing across the line, and another beat Grant Flower only just outside off stump first ball. Sami responded by raising his game and a lifter took Ebrahim (31) by surprise, bouncing off his gloves to Inzamam at first slip. This brought the Flower brothers together to face a not unusual crisis against bowling that looked suddenly lethal. Masakadza’s indiscretion had cost his team more dearly than he could have thought.Andy Flower soon put Sami in his place with two effortless off-side boundaries and looked in fine form. Grant looked much less comfortable, but hung on as only he can. Then came the second turning point. Andy’s masterclass was unfortunately cut short by umpire Venkat, who adjudged him caught behind down the leg side, off the thigh pad, off Sami, for 29. Zimbabwe were struggling at 76 for four.Pakistan struck again immediately after lunch, with an express delivery fromShoaib beating Whittall (7) for pace and removing his off stump. At 93 for five, Zimbabwe were in serious trouble.Things nearly deteriorated further as Taibu, on 4, snicked a catch straight to Inzamam at first slip, but it went down. It was hard work as he and Grant Flower sought to wear down the bowlers, picking up singles where they could. They took the total to 136, and again a sizable partnership was just beginning to develop when Grant was adjudged lbw, to a marginal decision by umpire Orchard when playing forward, for 36.Blignaut, on his return to international cricket, got off the mark third ball by lofting Saqlain over long-on for six. He struck Saqlain out of the attack, and though a little more restrained against pace and sometimes reluctant to get in line still dealt mainly in boundaries. Shoaib began to lose his cool when Taibu also got a thick edge for four between slip and gully, and he aroused the crowd with his petulant behaviour and vicious bouncers.Taibu played a fine courageous innings against bowlers faster than he had ever faced before, getting behind the line and selecting his shots well. His previous highest Test score was 13, but he played the innings of a veteran. Blignaut, 33 at tea, reached his fifty off 53 balls in the first over afterwards, much to the discomfiture of bowler Saqlain. He then threw it away with a miscued pull off Sami, holing out to square leg, and Zimbabwe were 199 for seven.Blessing Mahwire pulled his first ball in Test cricket, from Saqlain, to thefence, only to pop a catch to slip next ball, while Raymond Price (2)untypically flashed a catch to the same position off the same bowler. HenryOlonga put up more of a fight as last man in, seeing Taibu through to a maiden Test fifty, before being yorked for 3, leaving Taibu with a gallant 51 not out. Zimbabwe totalled 225, a deficit of 60 which is likely to prove fatal, and wondering what might have been had Andy Flower been able to continue with his rescue act.Olonga began erratically against the left-handed Taufeeq Umar, but when thebatsmen changed ends immediately had Saleem Elahi caught low down by Campbell at second slip without scoring. Only four more runs were added before poor light ended play for the day.

The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers team to play the Western Warriors in the Pura Cup match from Sunday, 8th December to Wednesday, 11th December 2002 at the WACA Ground in Perth.CASCADE TASMANIAN TIGERS

Jamie COX (Captain)
Sean CLINGELEFFER
Michael DIGHTON
Michael DiVENUTO
Xavier DOHERTY
Adam GRIFFITH
Shane JURGENSEN
Scott KREMERSKOTHEN
Daniel MARSH
Scott MASON
Ben OLIVER
Damien WRIGHT

The 12th man will be announced on the morning of the match.Making his debut for the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers will be young all-rounder, Ben Oliver.Oliver joined the Tigers from Victoria at the start of the season and he replaces Shane Watson who is unavailable due to his inclusion in the Australian VB Series team.Ben has played one First Class match for Victoria against the West Indies in season 2000/2001 where he took three wickets.Upon his selection Ben said; "It is great to be back playing 1st Class cricket again after an extended break due to injury and to be playing for the Tigers is fantastic."

The window in which England’s players will be available to play in the Indian Premier League in 2009 could be as small as ten days, according to David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive.England return from their Caribbean tour on April 4 and the IPL’s second season gets underway on April 10. But Collier warned that as things stand, Zimbabwe are due to arrive for a Test and one-day series at the end of the month and that the squad would need to be rested ahead of that.”There’s a possibility of players playing in the future,” Collier told the BBC. “But it doesn’t look like the period will be longer than 10 days.”I think it’s common knowledge that the IPL would like more of our players to play … the question is: which tournaments takes priority at which time of the year? What it does look like is that we will finish our tour to the West Indies and there’ll be a 10-day period prior to the players reporting to the first Test match in England.”Clearly that will be something [England coach] Peter Moores will be looking at, that period of the year to see whether players can play and whether that is a window that will be attractive to the players and to other people in the IPL, or other competitions.”However, it seems increasingly unlikely that Zimbabwe will be restored to Test status by then, even if they are allowed entry into the UK, and that might present an opportunity for a shortened replacement tour starting later in May, or even a brief one-day series against Zimbabwe.

ScorecardA magnificent unbeaten 72 by Anthony McGrath was instrumental in leading Yorkshire to an 11-run victory against Derbyshire at the picturesque Queen’s Park ground in Chesterfield. The home side were able to match Yorkshire most of the way, but in the end their middle order was not quite up to the task.Yorkshire batted in front of a crowd numbering almost five thousand, many from the Sheffield area. The pitch was slow, and Andrew Gale found a couple of short deliveries, the first two of the match, from Charl Langeveldt ideal for cutting for two and four.The unfortunate Craig White failed to score, having his off bail clipped as he drove at Langeveldt. Gale made a brisk 25, a mixture of timed, mistimed and missed strokes, but the main interest was naturally in the form of Michael Vaughan. The England captain began carefully without becoming bogged down, and at one stage swatted a six over long leg off a bouncer from Rikki Clarke. He never looked too comfortable, though, and at 31 flicked a catch to the square-leg boundary.After 10 overs 63 for 2 was perhaps a little below par, but the rest of the innings was dominated by that superb innings from McGrath. His favourite cover drives scarcely got an airing as he concentrated on powerful hitting straight down the ground, being especially hard on offspinner Jake Needham, whose two overs cost 34 runs. McGrath finished in a blaze of glory, with three fours and six sixes in his best Twenty20 innings. Thanks to him, Yorkshire’s total of 169 was considerably higher than had looked likely. Clarke took two wickets, but his overs cost 32.Vaughan did not field, which expectedly caused some speculation; it was reported that he had a neck spasm. After a quiet start, Greg Smith aspired to play the McGrath role, going for his powerful pulls and drives. He ran to his 50 off 33 balls, in the course of taking 14 off an over from McGrath. He looked ready to take the match away from Yorkshire, but then – as Jacques Rudolph had done in Yorkshire’s innings – he backed up too eagerly at the non-striker’s end for a hit into the field and was very smartly run out, for 68.This was the turning point. Derbyshire had been ahead of Yorkshire almost all the way through their innings, but now they began to struggle. James Pipe briefly tried on the mantle of Smith, but was out for 17 off nine balls, and the later batsmen began to fall in a flurry of flustered strokes. When 42 were needed off the final three overs, with four wickets in hand, the end was in sight. Richard Pyrah, conceding only 18 runs off his four overs, did an unsung but vital job.White had the unusual experience of taking a wicket with his only ball in the middle of an innings: spinner David Wainwright had to leave the field with a hand injury, trying to stop a hard drive off his own bowling, and White, bowling a single delivery to complete the over, induced Wavell Hinds (12) to sky a catch to deep square-leg.

	Haroon Lorgat: “The root of this issue is the sums of money involved – it is far more attractive financially to play in the IPL” © Getty Images

Haroon Lorgat, the new ICC chief executive, has raised concerns over the future of international cricket given the growing financial attraction of the Indian Premier League and hinted at the need for a window for the league in the international calendar. His comments were made during a media interaction at Lord’s on Thursday, the day Sri Lanka Cricket said it allowed its players to participate in the Indian Premier League next year though it coincided with a tour of England.SLC had agreed to the series earlier this week as a replacement for Zimbabwe but gave in after their players lobbied hard – involving the country’s president – for the right to play in the IPL. “If we don’t manage this situation we could be threatening the lifeblood of all member countries,” Lorgat said. “International cricket generates revenue that is essential to our survival.”My folks always told me to be careful because money is the root of all evil. The root of this issue is the sums of money involved – it is far more attractive financially to play in the IPL.”With the status of the Sri Lanka tour still unclear, he added: “It is up to Sri Lanka to sort out the situation. To satisfy players financially by relying on their payments from IPL is not sustainable. Players have short careers and they want immediate rewards but we have to educate them about the development of the game. All of us, players included, must be responsible during this time of enormous opportunity.”There is no doubt that there are inherent conflicts in the situation. Each country would rather look after its own interests and then you also have to get together to look after the global interests. I would hope that the ICC has people with the integrity to look after the game globally.”He also said that one of the solutions to the problem could be the creation of an IPL window. “I suspect that the prospect of a window for IPL is a subject that will not disappear from the radar.”