Andrew Symonds, the Queensland allrounder, has been included in the Australian squad for the second Test against West Indies, while Simon Katich has been omitted. The only other change in the 12-man line-up is the inclusion of Brad Hodge, the middle-order batsman from Victoria.Symonds made his Test debut in March last year against Sri Lanka, but didn’t enjoy much success in the two matches he played, scoring just 53 runs in four innings and taking a solitary wicket. But his inclusion in the squad was necessitated by the shoulder injury to Shane Watson in the first Test at Brisbane. Watson had been marked out as the one to fill the allrounder’s slot, but his injury – which will keep him out for at least two months – offers an opportunity to Symonds, who has an excellent one-day record but has never got an extended run at the Test level. Symonds has also been in superb form this season, scoring 163 off 183 balls in Queensland’s Pura Cup match against South Australia last week.Commenting on his selection, Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, said: “Symonds has been in red-hot form with the bat, and his medium pace and offspin adds a lot of options to the bowling attack. He thoroughly deserves his opportunity at Test level again.”Katich missed the cut after scoring two runs in his last three innings and Hohns indicated that a return to first-class cricket would be the best way for him to regain touch. “Simon’s form has not been what he expects of himself and we felt it was time to give someone else an opportunity,” he said. “Brad Hodge has been a very high-scoring player for Victoria for many years and we believe he can do that at Test level. We hope Simon scores plenty of runs at domestic level to give himself every opportunity to get back into the team.”Hodge gets his reward for his consistent performances at the first-class level for Victoria – in 166 matches, he averages 46 with 37 centuries. He has toured India, New Zealand and England but has not played a Test or ODI. The second Tests starts at Hobart on November 17.Australian squad
Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Brad Hodge, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Nathan Bracken, Glenn McGrath, Stuart MacGill.

Scorecard

Liam Buchanan and David Hussey notched half-centuries as Victoria beat Queensland comfortably after restricting them to just 185. Victoria needed only 37.1 overs to reach 4 for 186 and secure five points that vaulted them to third place in the ING Cup rankings. Buchanan, the Man of the Match in just his second game for Victoria, scored 51off 44 deliveries in a run-a-ball stand of 72 for the fourth wicket with Hussey, who was unbeaten on 50.Jon Moss and Lloyd Mash helped Victoria recover after they lost Michael Klinger for 1 in the first over. Moss struck a quick 27 while Mash dropped anchor with 32 off 70 balls, but they both fell in the space of 17 runs before Hussey and Buchanan, who hit three fours and two sixes, shut out Queensland’s chances. Buchanan was caught by Chris Simpson off Nathan Hauritz (4 for 140) with Victoria 46 short of the target but Hussey and Graeme Rummans (20 off 13 balls) finished the job.Victoria’s bowlers did a fine job of dismissing Queensland after Jimmy Maher decided to bat. Peter Siddle accounted for Maher and Matthew Hayden in successive overs to reduce the Bulls to 2 for 7, and Clinton Perren (27) and James Hopes improved the situation before Perren fell on 27 to Shane Warne. Hopes top scored for Queensland with 57 and Craig Phillipson (41) and Chris Hartley (32) made useful contributions, but all three were run out as Queensland were derailed. They crumbled to 185 courtesy of Grant Lindsay, who rocked the lower order with three quick wickets to finish with 3 for 34.

Ali Bacher, the former CEO of the South African board, mourned the death of Eddie Barlow, the former South African allrounder, who died after a long battle against illness. Bacher acknowledged Barlow as being one of the “significant” members of the triumphant South African side of the 1960s and hailed his positive attitude, which permeated through the team.”If you look at the ’60s – including the 1969-70 tour of South Africa by Australia – it was the most successful decade in South African cricket history,” Bacher, who captained at that time, was quoted as saying in News24.com. “We beat Australia eight times, here and in Australia. “In an era that was blessed with some brilliant cricketers – Graeme and Peter Pollock, Barry Richards, Mike Proctor, to name but a few – Eddie’s role was probably the most significant, not only because of his outstanding allround ability, but because of his positive attitude, which permeated throughout the team. It instilled in all of us a feeling of confidence in our own ability, and in the team, and a belief that we could compete with, and beat, the best in the world.”Bacher added that Barlow had played for South Africa under four captains – Jackie McGlew, Trevor Goddard, Peter van der Merwe and himself. “We would get together from time to time, at various cricket functions, and we all agreed that Eddie was a person who gave his captain 100%, every time.””He was a superb athlete,” Bacher continued. “He played rugby for Transvaal, and if he had continued playing rugby, he may well have gone on to play for South Africa. As a cricketer, he was very successful as player, captain and coach.”

Scorecard

A double strike by Aavishkar Salvi reduced Uttar Pradesh to a shaky 13 for 3 before half centuries from Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif propelled Uttar Pradesh to a first-innings lead but Mumbai fought back through a three wicket haul from Ramesh Powar to restrict UP to 250 in their first innings. The Mumbai openers steered the side to 21, 30 runs still in arrears, by the close of play. It was a day of buzzing activity – a flurry of wickets at the start, a big partnership in the middle and then wickets went down in a heap again- as advantage swung both ways.The young Raina, the left-hand bat averaging 72.40 this season, impressed with his temperament in a semi-crisis situation. On a wicket which aided a bit of seam-movement with the new ball Salvi removed Jyoti Yadav, the opener, and Praveen Kumar, the first-day hero with the ball, before Usman Malvi got rid of the 21 year-old Shiva Shukla to leave UP struggling at 13 for 3. It was then that Raina, who learnt his game under the tutelage of Deepak Sharma in the sports college in Lucknow in the late 90’s, displayed his skill under duress and put up a solid consolidation job, along with Kaif, to rescue UP. Raina reached his half-century at the stroke of lunch and with Kaif just two-runs short of his, UP had reached 111 for 3 at the end of the first session.Kaif, who missed out on the national duty in Pakistan, once again led from the front. He does not boast a great first-class record, averaging just 37.13 in 70 matches, but this season he has been in good nick, averaging 74.50 though he played in only two games. He has led from the front not only with the bat but has infused a fighting spirit in a beleaguered UP side that had a rough start to the season. UP lost the first two matches to Haryana and Baroda and drew their next two games, against Services and Punjab, before Kaif joined the camp to charge them to a place in the semi-final. Kaif guided his younger colleague and the duo kept the scorers busy – 100 runs of the partnership came in 138 minutes off 174 balls – before Raina was removed by Ramesh Powar at the score on 136.The 36-times champions sensed blood and moved in for the kill. The tall Nilesh Kulkarni, the Mumbai captain and left-arm spinner, castled Kaif’s stumps and 20 runs later, caught the veteran Gyanendra Pandey off Swapnil Hazare’s bowling to push UP on the back foot at 180 for 6. But Rizwan Shamshad, no stranger to bail-out jobs, stuck in and put up a dogged innings (40 off 80 balls) to guide UP – with a little bit of help from Piyush Chawla, the 19-year old legspinner – to a valuable first-innings lead.Powar, the man of the season for Mumbai with 37 wickets at 20.89, hastened the end, removing Chawla and Ashish Zaidi to finish with figures of 3 for 98 before Kulkarni got rid of Amir Khan, the wicketkeeper, to terminate UP’s innings. Kharsan Ghavri, Mumbai’s coach who felt his batsmen “threw their wickets away” in the first innings would be expecting a more determined performance tomorrow. The match is intriguingly poised and day three at Wankhede could well make or break both team’s chances.

Sourav Ganguly flies home to India today at the end of a disappointing Test tour of Pakistan, but insists he has no plans to retire, despite the unsavoury selection controversies that have pushed his career to the brink.Ganguly, who was last year replaced as India’s captain by Rahul Dravid, was not selected for the one-dayers and played in only one of the three Tests – the 341-run defeat in the series-decider at Karachi. But in an interview with a TV channel prior to his departure he insisted: “I am playing well at the moment and I will continue to play.”Ganguly denied reports that he was becoming increasingly isolated in the dressing-room that he used to command, “These are mere speculations. I had a good time in the dressing-room. All the boys have played under me, so there is no problem.” He added that he would be willing to open the innings if the team management so desired.”Of course, I have been asked to open before and I have agreed here [in Pakistan] and in the future too,” he said, after being selected ahead of the two specialist openers, Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer. “I have no problems opening the innings.”In his one outing at Karachi, Ganguly was a qualified success in a disappointing display from India’s batsmen, scoring 34 and 37 and featuring in two century partnerships. “I thought I batted pretty well,” he said, “though I am disappointed that I got out at a crucial point in the match. We had made a 100-run partnership and my wicket could have made a big difference.”

Habibul Bashar, Bangladesh’s captain, has slammed the practice facilities at Bogra as his side prepares for the forthcoming series against Sri Lanka.”Out nets for three days in Dhaka were very poor and it was same in Bogra, Habibul said. “The central pitches where we had our session today was not perfect for practice. It’s not good for us the way we are making important net sessions on unfriendly surfaces. Everybody should understand that it is a very important part of a team’s preparation. I am really frustrated and I must say we have wasted fours days.””It is really unfortunate what our captain has told about the facilities,” Rafiqul Islam Babu, chairman of the grounds committee, countered. “Still, the team management has not expressed what kind of wicket they needed. Everybody knows that seamers will get some movement in Bogra, so I can’t understand why our captain told this.”Meanwhile, hundreds of cricket fans took to the streets to protest about the lack of any Test or ODI matches against Sri Lanka being played in Dhaka. All three ODIs and two Tests will be staged outside the capital because the new stadia being built there will not be finished in time.The centre of the protests was at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, the previous Test venue in the city. It was always used for a variety of sports and the Bangladesh board (BCB) decided that it needed a purpose-built venues to enable the pitches and outfield to be of as higher a standard as possible.A recent ICC inspection concluded that the two new arenas in Dhaka were not ready to stage major matches, and so all games were switched to Bogra and Chittagong.

Jermaine Lawson, the West Indies fast bowler, has been called for a suspect bowling action while playing in a league match in Jamaica over the weekend. He was representing St Catherine Cricket Club against Westmoreland in Jamaica’s Supreme Ventures Super Cup match when he was forced to switch to bowling offspin after umpire Cecil Fletcher no-balled him.According to , Lawson told a local radio station that he was surprised with the umpire’s decision. “After being cleared by the ICC late last year and to go and represent West Indies in Australia, and also Jamaica at the Carib Beer level and then to come into the local league and actually be called for throwing for the first time in my career, it’s a bit disappointing.”He was surprised that Fletcher did not call him when he was standing at square leg. “What surprises me is that when I was at his end that was when I was called for no-ball. I thought I was being called for over-stepping. I saw he was signalling to the square-leg umpire, then I realised it wasn’t for over-stepping. After the over I went to the captain and told him that I did not want to continue anymore.”The ICC rules stipulate that an umpire cannot call a bowler for throwing but Norman Malcolm, president of the Jamaica Cricket Umpires’ Association, said “that only applies to ICC-related matches. In our local competition, if an umpire feels a bowler is throwing, he can call him”.In September 2005, Lawson was cleared after the ICC ruled that his bowling action complies with the laws of the game. The ICC said in a statement then that analysis of Lawson’s action – reported as suspect after the first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo in July 2005 – showed that his arm was not flexed at the elbow by more than the 15 degrees allowed under current regulations. Lawson was also reported after taking 7 for 78 against Australia in Antigua in 2003.

Andrew Flintoff expressed his desire to lead England on a long-term basis, saying that he enjoyed his new role as captain during the tour of India.Flintoff took over after Michael Vaughan, the regular captain, was forced to withdraw from the tour early due to a knee injury. With England due to take on Sri Lanka for a three-Test series starting May 11 at Lord’s, it seems highly likely that Flintoff will lead the side again, with Vaughan making slow progress in his recovery. At the moment, he stressed that his priority was to spend time as much time possible with his family, after a gruelling tour of India.”I would have liked to have been captain under different circumstances but it came along here and I enjoyed it,” said Flintoff. “Maybe further down the line it is something I would like to do but at the moment I have done this trip and I am waiting for Vaughany to come back now. We don’t know what the script is with him at this stage, we are waiting to find out.”But once I get home I am totally switching off, not thinking about anything, having a couple of weeks at home with the family, spending time with Rachel, Holly and my new son. Any other thoughts will not enter my head.”Leading a depleted side, Flintoff shouldered the burden admirably, performing well with both bat and ball to help England square the Test series 1-1. However, England were unable to find their feet in the ODIs, losing 5-1, with Andrew Strauss leading the side after Flintoff opted to sit out the last two games.With the magnitude of the defeat aside, Flintoff said that the tour was a good learning experience for the youngsters in adapting to different conditions.”On these flat tracks against a good Indian side you do learn quite a bit,” he said. “Sometimes in England when you play on green seamers everything falls into place but when you play somewhere like this you learn a lot as cricketers and probably something about the rest of the side as well.”Since the Ashes victory last year, England have struggled to field full-strength teams due to a speight of injuries to key players. Flintoff also dismissed suggestions by Matthew Hayden earlier that the team relied heavily on him.”When you look at last summer when we played Australia, every Test match was a team effort. The one strength of this England side is that when we play well it is different people doing things. Somebody at certain times sticks their hand up and takes responsibility – I play my part within the side, so too do ten others.”He added: “We have seen new people on this trip and others have got experience as well which augurs well for this summer and a year’s time.”

Ricky Ponting says that Australia have addressed the problems that led to their Ashes loss last summer and are now headed in the right direction towards reclaiming the urn.Speaking to the , Ponting said that he would prepare for this winter’s series against England knowing that he had a settled unit. “Our Test cricket can’t be faulted, really, since the last Ashes Test match. Everything we have done has been very, very good quality,” he said. ” The areas that we needed to address, I think … after England we have addressed. We have certainly turned a number of things around and we are heading in the right direction.”Australia have fielded 21 players since the final Ashes Test last September, including five debutants, but Ponting remained confident of his side’s abilities. “Matty Hayden is in as good a form as he has ever been. I feel like my game is going really well at the moment, Michael Hussey has barely put a foot wrong, so there are lots of great signs for us come Ashes time,” he said. “It is great to see Jason [Gillespie] back and bowling well and it is great to see Michael Kasprowicz back and bowling well and Brett [Lee] in career-best form. I will be very confident going in knowing we have a very good settled line-up and a bunch of guys who are going to do everything they can to try to win the Ashes back.”Compared to a struggling England, who lost in Pakistan and drew in India and have had their share of injury woes, Australia have not lost a Test since the Ashes. “We know England probably haven’t got everything in order right at the moment,” Ponting said. “They have had lots of injuries and they have a really tough program heading into the Ashes series as well. So it is the one thing we are all really looking forward to now.”While confident that the apparent instability in a bowling attack missing Glenn McGrath had been sorted out, Ponting was hopeful that his champion bowler, missing because of family reasons, would be back soon. “We have to see where Glenn is at, hopefully he is going to be available for the Ashes, which would be good for us if he is because over the past 12-18 months he has been really good for us,” Ponting said. “[Shane Warne] has bowled particularly well, Stuey MacGill bowled very well out here, so things are heading in the right direction.”Now the guys have the chance to freshen up and get really fit for what is a really big six or seven months of international cricket for us with the Champions Trophy, the Ashes and the World Cup,” he added. “So the opportunity is in our hands now for us to go away and work really hard and to make sure we are up to whatever confronts us. Come the first Test there should be no excuses for us; we should be primed and ready to go.”Ponting said that he would urge his team-mates to have as much time off as possible before they begin their summer preparations with a fitness test on June 19. The Australians will have two Pura Cup matches before the start of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane on November 23.

Nottinghamshire’s Chris Read has been given a suspended one-match ban by the ECB as a result of his boundary bust-up with Mushtaq Ahmed at Hove earlier in the month. If Read transgresses again before the end of the 2007 season, the ban will be implemented.Read, who had already been given three penalty points for his part in the incident, will keep those on his record for two years. Under ECB disciplinary rules, any player who accumulates nine or more points in any two-year period automatically receives a ban.”I reiterate the apology I made on the day of the incident,” Read said after the hearing. “I would like to apologise again to all concerned for my actions. They were completely out of character and it won’t happen again.”Mushtaq, meanwhile, said that “these sort of things can happen”. He added: “People get angry when they are disappointed and I have every sympathy for Chris, who is a fine cricketer. We’ve shaken hands and as far as I’m concerned that is the end of it.”