The Indian board has decided to help the Malaysian Cricket Association with installing floodlights at the Kinrara Oval, a ground which will stage the forthcoming tri-series between Australia, India and West Indies. The tournament is scheduled to be held between September 12 to 24.”We are assisting the Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) for the tournament,” Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, told Cricinfo. “We have a lot of our people there [Indian expatriates] and the interest for the tournament is very high.”It has been reported that the cost for installing floodlights would be close to US$4million. Inderjit Singh Bindra, the former board president, had also confirmed the same while speaking to , a Kolkata-based daily. He’d also indicated that Australia and the West Indies will receive US$1million for every appearance versus India.In what is set to be a three-way collaboration, the tri-series was conceived by India, being hosted by Malaysia and managed by Australia, whose board is in charge of the event management and media accreditations. The pitches are to be prepared by Cricket Australia assigned curators.With temporary stands also planned, the Kinrara Oval is set to have a capacity of close to 8000. All seven games will be day-night affairs.

Graeme Smith is certainly not a captain to take a backward step and has come out firing ahead of the Champions Trophy by claiming South Africa are of the favourites to claim the title.His team have had a truncated build-up after abandoning a triangular tournament in Sri Lanka with just three matches against Zimbabwe and a couple of provincial games as preparation.However, after arriving in New Delhi ahead of the tournament Smith, who has just returned from an ankle injury, was in bullish mood. “We are ranked second in the world and there is no shying away from the fact that we are one of the top teams. We have generally done well in India and our team is confident of a good show.”But we cannot take other teams for granted. Australia are the top side no doubt, but in one-day cricket a lot depends on how a team plays on a particular day.”Smith, who scored 90 at Johannesburg in his team’s world-record chase of 438 for 9 for a series win against Australia earlier this year, claimed his team’s preparations had left the side in the good spirits despite the lack of tough matches.”We had a 10-day training camp and all our players know their roles well. The break that I had because of an injury seems to have done me good and I am fresh as ever.”The coach, Micky Arthur, welcomed Smith’s return to the side. “It is fantastic to have Smith back in the side. We have marked this tournament as a big one and intend to keep the momentum going in the days to follow.”Arthur said the team was a settled one and capable of entertaining fans. “We have tried out various combinations in the past few years and will only try to rotate the players on the odd occasion,” he added. “What we can promise is an exciting brand of cricket with our fielding very much an asset and capable of leading us to success.”

Four days after he went for the small matter of 87 from seven oversagainst West Indies, Stuart Clark has an immediate chance at redemption asAustralia take on India for a place in the DLF Cup final. Under normalcircumstances, it’s doubtful whether he would have played, but withAustralia having pencilled in their teams for the four league games longago, he gets this opportunity against an Indian side that will no doubt dotheir best to target him.Clark is a cool customer, and his decision to keep the match ball afterthe pounding he received on Monday said much about his unflappable nature,but with Shane Watson, who has had an outstanding tournament, and NathanBracken missing from the line-up, there will be immense pressure on himwhen he comes on as first change for Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.McGrath gave indications of being back to his best in the two matches heplayed, and Lee was into his stride straight away against West Indies. Ifthe Indian top order bat as they did against the gentle medium pace ofDwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo, they may as well not bother turning up.But India have a bit of a history when it comes to these sudden-deathcontests. And in Sachin Tendulkar, they have a man apparently anxious toprove that rumours of his decline are highly premature. What they don’thave is a batting order in any sort of form. Much will depend once againon what sort of start Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar can give them.Virender Sehwag needs to improve on his tournament aggregate of 18 runs,and Yuvraj Singh could do with a run or two. As for Mahendra Singh Dhoni,seemingly in superb touch until the most atrocious of hoicks against WestIndies, this is an opportunity to get back to the form of last season,when he slammed most attacks he faced to all corners. For these men, andothers like Suresh Raina, this is the ultimate test. West Indies may awaitin the final if they get through, but victory against a near full-strengthAustralian side is as good as it gets.Dravid and Greg Chappell will no doubt have taken a close look at footagefrom the last game they played against Australia. Watson and MichaelClarke, who made the bulk of the runs then, sit out this one, but therelentlessly consistent and prolific Michael Hussey will pose an entirelydifferent challenge. Once again, spin could hold the key, with Australiahaving struggled to eke out 68 runs in 20 overs against Harbhajan Singhand Sehwag in the previous match.That’s not to say that India lack firepower in the pace department. MunafPatel has improved with every game, while Ajit Agarkar has alliedconsistency to his skiddy pace and swing. There’s also Sreesanth, whosegenuinely quick spell on Wednesday prompted many to wonder why he had beenleft out of the squad for the Champions Trophy.These two teams usually don’t do dull games, and with Tendulkar andMcGrath on collision course once again, this has every ingredient requiredto be another tasty encounter. The winners will go into the final inconfident mood, leaving the losers to put salve on their wounded prideahead of the Champions Trophy.India (likely): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Rahul Dravid (capt), 3Virender Sehwag, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni(wk), 7 Ajit Agarkar, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Rudra Pratap Singh, 10 SSreesanth, 11 Munaf Patel.Australia 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt),4 Damien Martyn, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Glenn McGrath.

Ricky Ponting says England are under more pressure than Australia for the Ashes due to their recent poor form and injury concerns. Although England arrived in Sydney on the weekend while Australia were still in Mumbai, Ponting does not believe the extra time to acclimatise will give England an advantage.”I think it’s probably them, it’s definitely England,” Ponting told The Australian when asked if there was more pressure on Australia or the visitors. “There’s more questions being asked of them and their team and their fitness than there is of us. Our record this year has been very good, theirs has not been so good.”They’ve won five of their 13 Tests [since the 2005 Ashes] and we’ve won 11 of our 12. Everyone back in Australia is saying we’re going to start favourites, and if that’s the case then it probably does take a bit of the pressure off and puts it on to them.”Questions over the fitness of key players such as Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Marcus Trescothick and Ashley Giles could help Australia’s chances, but Ponting said he would be watching out for some of England’s younger players, who would be keen to impress on their first Ashes tour. The squad includes Ian Bell, Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar, three of the four finalists for the ICC’s emerging player of the year award. Bell, who won the award last week, had a horror Ashes series in 2005 but since then has averaged 51.18 in ten Tests.”His record would speak for itself,” Ponting said. “He does look like a good player, he’s technically pretty sound and it’s going to be how he reacts to the pressure we put on him during the series. Last time around we definitely had the better of him.”We’ve seen a bit of Bell, we haven’t seen much of Cook and we haven’t played an international game against Panesar, but they’ve all had some sort of impact and we’ll need to have a good look at what they’re doing.” England open the tour with a match against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra on Friday.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has changed its selection policy, giving more powers to the selectors in picking the team for each match and effectively clipping the wings of coach and captain. Under the new system, which began with the current Test against West Indies at Multan, a touring selector will finalise the playing eleven after consulting the team management.”The new policy is in line with that adopted by other cricket-playing nations like Australia and England,” Saleem Altaf, the PCB’s director of cricket operations told Reuters. “A selector will now remain attached with the team on tours and home series.”A source with the PCB cited the example of the selection of an allrounder ahead of a specialist seamer for the Multan Test.”For the second test, coach Bob Woolmer wanted to play left arm pacer Samiullah Niazi,” the source said. “But the majority view prevailed, that allrounder Abdul Razzaq should be retained from the first test team.”The new PCB regime, under Dr Nasim Ashraf, has been taking steps to ensure more professionalism in overall governance and team selections. One of the major decisions last month was to appoint full-time paid selectors after the World Cup next year to replace the existing committee, which works on an honorary basis.

Glenn McGrath is expected to tell Cricket Australia today that the Sydney Test will be his last. However, he still hopes to be part of the World Cup defence in the West Indies next year, where he will aim for a third consecutive trophy.The reported McGrath has spoken to his wife Jane, who has cancer, about the Caribbean tour and he would have released the Test news earlier this week if Shane Warne had not decided to step aside. “I am not sure what’s happening after Sydney but I want to go to the World Cup,” he said in the paper. If McGrath does resign Australia will lose half of its bowling attack and more than 1200 Test wickets in a couple of days.Jason Gillespie, who was McGrath’s long-term opening partner, said McGrath could look forward to a life in coaching when his playing days stop. “He’s got so much knowledge to pass on that he’d make a great coach,” Gillespie said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s really switched on, he knows a lot about the game. I always said the guys who would make great coaches are Glenn and Andy Bichel.”Gillespie said McGrath’s strength was his ability to keep things simple. “He is also a good communicator,” Gillespie said. “I think Glenn will have some sort of involvement in the game, if not as a full-time coach, then as a bowling mentor.”

With England down to the bare bones of their side, they can ill-afford to lose any more of their key players, especially the ones who have actually shown some form. It is therefore understandable the management are keeping a close eye on James Anderson, who has reported some back stiffness in recent days.Anderson went for an MRI scan before England’s 90-run defeat against New Zealand at Adelaide – where his figures were a respectable 2 for 47 – and the check-up gave him the all clear.However, it is less than a year ago that he returned from the tour of India with back pain and was promptly ruled out for most of last season with a stress fracture. He was forced to spend six weeks in a back brace.Anderson has been quick to play down concerns over his fitness, saying it comes with the territory as a fast bowler. “I’ve had a bit of stiffness but you are always going to get that stiffness coming back from an injury.””You always get a stiff back as a bowler. I’ve no worries at all about my fitness. There is a difference between having a stiff back and the sort of pain I was getting when I had the stress fracture.Although it is his one-day form which is providing a timely boost to Anderson, and also produced his finest hour during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, he is determined not to be pigeon-holed.”I would be quite happy if I had the World Cup I had last time as a bowler, but I’d like us to get a bit further in the competition. That’s what matters. The white ball swings a lot more for me, so I enjoy that, but don’t call me a white ball specialist.”England’s next CB Series outing is against Australia, at Adelaide, on Friday.

A fortnight before he was due to take over as the chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, Roland Toppin has announced that he is no longer available to assume the role.Toppin was appointed on November 22 to fill a position that had been vacant since the resignation of Roger Brathwaite in April.In a statement, Tony Deyal, corporate services manager of the WICB, said that Toppin “could no longer take up the appointment for personal reasons”. He added that Toppin stressed he had been looking forward to the appointment and had been well advanced in his preparations to start on February 1.”Considerations that were previously unforeseen have now forced him to withdraw,” Deyal said.The WICB has accepted his reasons for withdrawing and will review the matter at its next meeting in Barbados on February 12.

A maiden hundred from Austin Richards and an unbeaten 73 from Runako Morton put Leewards Islands in a healthy position on a rain-hit opening day against Windwards Islands at St Maarten. Electing to bat, Leewards closed on 213 for 1 thanks to the 212-run second-wicket stand between Richards and Morton.Rain delayed the start for just over an over, and when play began Leewards lost Codville Rogers leg before to Deighton Butler’s left-arm pace in the third ball of the innings. Richards and Morton denied the Windwards any further breakthrough and took their side to 62 for 1 at lunch and quickened the scoring rate after the interval.The rain returned to hold up play for 35 minutes in the second session, but it had little effect on the batsmen. Dropped by captain Rawl Lewis on 54, Richards moved to 96 with 15 boundaries before rain forced everyone off the field shortly before tea. The players resumed action later, and Richards soon pulled Kenroy Peters for four to reach three figures. Morton has so far faced 161 balls and hit six fours and a six.Despite a second first-class hundred from opener Brenton Parchment, Jamaica struggled on the first day of their final-round Carib Beer match against Trinidad & Tobago at St Elizabeth.Asked to bat first, Jamaica stumbled to 254 in the face of a disciplined bowling attack led by offspinner Amit Jaggernauth, left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed and fast bowler Ravi Rampaul.Parchment, 24, was the mainstay of the innings with a 195-ball 111, laced with ten fours and a pair of sixes, before he was ninth man out. With Lorenzo Ingram (29) he added 64 before Jaggernauth removed the other opener in the over before lunch, and a further 75 for the third wicket with Wavell Hinds, his captain, whose contribution was 38 from 58 balls.Hinds became Jaggernauth’s third victim when he chipped to mid-on at 142 for 2, and from here on T&T swung matters their way. Tamar Lambert (2), David Bernard (11) and Carlton Baugh (1) all fell cheaply as Mohammed and Rampaul joined the party. Jaggernauth claimed 4 for 99 to sustain his excellent form, Mohammed picked up 3 for 51 and Rampaul 3 for 62.Jamaica struck back just before stumps, however, when Jermaine Lawson bowled Lendl Simmons for 8 to leave T&T at 10 for 1.Three late wickets from Ryan Hinds, the left-arm spinner and captain of Barbados, caused a Guyana collapse on day one of their match at Bourda. Well placed at 276 for 5, Hinds’s strikes reduced Guyana to 285, with the last five wickets falling for just nine runs.Guyana were boosted by a 98-run third-wicket partnership between Sewnarine Chattergoon (68) and Assad Fudadin (49), and a 106-run stand for the fifth wicket between wicketkeeper Derwin Christian (54) and Azeemul Haniff (46), in his first season for Guyana since 2003. Ramnaresh Sarwan, the captain, was forced to retire on 18 when he was struck on the right thumb by Fidel Edwards.Hinds finished with 3 for 67, Edwards claimed three for 60 and Tino Best 2 for 55.

Glenn McGrath has been there and done that in his decade-and-a-half atthe top, but as he embarks on the final chapter of his mighty career he has one final goal in mind. The man who bowed out inJanuary as the leading fast bowler in Test history, with 563 scalps, is now aiming to overhaul Wasim Akram as the most successfulbowler in World Cup history.Australia begin their World Cup defence against Scotland atthe picturesque Warner Park in St Kitts on Wednesday, and McGrath was in afamiliarly laid-back mood as he set out his wish-list for hisinternational swansong. “I noticed I’m No. 2 in World Cup wickets,” hesaid during Australia’s final practice session. “Wasim, whoI think was one of the best bowlers of all time, is on top with 55 soit would be nice to get a couple in front by the end of the tournament.”McGrath is currently on 45, a haul spread over three tournaments since1995-96, in which time Australia has lost just four matches out of 28and never failed to reach the final. McGrath has yet to miss a match, although at the age of 37, and now often deprived of hisbeloved new ball, his record could yet come under scrutiny in theweeks ahead, especially if Australia fail to arrest their recent runof five consecutive ODI defeats.Naturally, McGrath would not countenance such a notion, and citedAustralia’s five-wicket warm-up win over England at St Vincent last week asevidence that his side was returning to its best. “That was back tobusiness as usual,” he said, “so hopefully we’ll continue fromthere. Personally, my body’s going real good. I’ve never felt betterand the mind’s hanging in there as well. I’ve got seven weeks to playsome good cricket and then I’ll hang up the boots very comfortably.”As for his demotion to the first-change slot, McGrath wasphilosophical. “I think it’s what’s best for the team,” he said.”Twenty overs of powerplays does change the game, and with Taity[Shaun Tait] coming into the team, he’d probably hope to bowl two orthree first-up and it’d be nice to pick up a wicket with his expresspace.”I think it’ll work really well for us,” McGrath said. “On thewickets over here, sometimes the quicker you bowl the easier it is forthe batsman. So I’ll be looking to hit the deck with my pace, thencome back with the old ball, a bit of reverse-swing, and bowl a fewoffcutters, legcutters and slower balls. I think it’ll suit my stylevery well.”McGrath admitted he was “amazed” by therehabilitation of their key allrounder, Andrew Symonds, who had toundergo surgery after tearing a biceps during the CB Series last month.

“When he did it in Sydney, I thought he had no chance,” McGrath said.”Maybe he’d get a game or two by the end of the World Cup. But the wayhe’s progressed – he’s catching, he’s having throwdowns – I can’tbelieve his progress. Hopefully he’ll continue that way, although it’sa bit different working at about 50-60% in practice, and 100% in agame situation.”Even so, Symonds’ gentle return to form and fitness mirrorsAustralia’s run-in to this World Cup. Practice matches against Englandand Zimbabwe, followed by consecutive fixtures against the minnows,Scotland and Holland, represent an ideal chance to build ahead of the big showdown with South Africa on March 24. “We’velost five in a row,” said McGrath, “so we start at the bottom and hopeto finish at the top in the end.”McGrath’s surname implies a hint of Celt in his genes, although heexplained his ancestory is Northern Irish, rather than Scottish. Evenso, he is reasonably familiar with these opponents, having met them inthe World Cup once before, in 1999, when by McGrath’s own admission,Australia “didn’t play very well, but came away with a win”. On thatoccasion McGrath finished with 1 for 32 from nine overs.”It probably would be one of the biggest upsets world cricket hasseen,” he said when asked about the prospect of defeat, “but hopefully it won’t happen.”Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Brad Hodge, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Michael Clarke, 7Shane Watson, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Nathan Bracken, 10 Glenn McGrath, 11Shaun Tait.Scotland (probable) 1 Fraser Watts, 2 Majid Haq, 3 Ryan Watson,4 Gavin Hamilton, 5 Neil McCallum, 6 Dougie Brown, 7 Colin Smith (wk),8 Craig Wright (capt), 9 John Blain, 10 Ross Lyons, 11 Paul Hoffmann.