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A placid track, an attack whose two best bowlers were on the flight to Australia, and the typically pleasant Bangalore winter combined to make it an agreeable day for Punjab’s batsmen at the Chinnaswamy Stadium

The Report by Siddarth Ravindran at the Chinnaswamy Stadium13-Dec-2011
Scorecard
A placid track, an attack whose two best bowlers were on the flight to Australia, and the typically pleasant Bangalore winter combined to make it an agreeable day for Punjab’s batsmen at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Sarul Kanwar, sporting his Mumbai Indians helmet, provided the entertainment in the morning session with a stroke-filled 89 before Karan Goel and Mayank Sidhana made more measured half-centuries to lift Punjab to 278 for 4.Punjab’s batsmen came into the game with plenty of confidence after piling on 597 against Rajasthan last week, including four centuries. Despite missing their highest run-getter of the season – Mandeep Singh who was ruled out with an ankle problem – the batting unit had few problems even in an away game against the table-toppers.Kanwar signalled what lay in store for Karnataka by crisply off-driving their main threat, S Aravind, for four in the third over of the morning. NC Aiyappa was returning after three years on the sidelines but the track on his home ground provided little encouragement, hardly yielding any movement for the new-ball bowlers.After Aravind’s first spell was seen off, Punjab began to open out. Stuart Binny, fresh from a match-winning ten-wicket haul against Orissa, was greeted by Kanwar with a six over long-off. Kanwar then coolly lofted Aiyappa, Karnataka’s quickest bowler, for a four to long-on, before pulling him for four more next ball. Even Ravi Inder Singh, a more conventional and cautious opener, drove Binny through covers for boundaries off successive deliveries.The spinners KP Appanna and Sunil Raju hardly posed a threat early on, and Punjab cruised past 100, comfortably their best start in a season where their openers hadn’t yet managed even a 50-run stand. When the openers were finally parted, it was through a run-out after a communication breakdown. Singh questioned his partner’s call before dejectedly walking off, while Kanwar hit the ground with his bat in frustration.Kanwar’s mood improved when he was dropped by Raju on 74 – a simple overhead chance that Karnataka couldn’t afford to miss in perfect batting conditions. Kanwar rubbed it in with a power-packed straight six followed by a slash past point for four off Appanna. A century seemed to be his for the taking, but he fluffed it in the final over before lunch, trapped lbw by Raju, who bowled with a casual amble to the crease. That over produced more chances than the entire first session – an edge towards slip, a near run-out and three lbw appeals, which buoyed Karnataka going into the break.Punjab lost a third after lunch when Aiyappa got Uday Kaul to feather one to the keeper in the 47th over, but there was little joy for the home side after that as Goel and Sidhana put on an unhurried 107-run stand over the second half of the day. Goel had a few edges – one between the keeper and slip, and another past second slip but was solid otherwise against a flat attack.Sidhana was more aggressive, showcasing his intentions by whacking part-time legspinner Amit Verma for an authoritative six over long-on and a cover-driven four in the same over. With Aravind going off the field with a knee injury, the batsmen had little to worry about, and Punjab sailed towards stumps with only three wickets down.Aiyappa, though, returned for a final burst, and got one to squeeze through the defences of Goel two overs before close. It was a satisfactory day for Punjab, but their batsmen still have work to do against a side that has posted at least 500 in the first innings in each of their previous four first-class matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Quinton de Kock’s fluent century and his unbroken 199-run stand with Gihahn Cloete helped South Africa U-19 to a thumping nine-wicket win against Zimbabwe U-19 in Cape Town

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jan-2012
ScorecardQuinton de Kock’s fluent century and his unbroken 199-run stand with Gihahn Cloete helped South Africa U-19 to a thumping nine-wicket win against Zimbabwe U-19 in Cape Town.Zimbabwe chose to bat and ran into all sorts of early trouble as seamer Travis Muller sliced through the top order to leave them 49 for 4. Rabian Engelbrecht then took over, making short work of the middle order to leave the visitors struggling at 73 for 6. The final score of 197 for 8 was a major improvement on the outlook at that stage. It came about thanks to Ryan Burl’s half-century from No. 6 and a couple of contributions in the 20s from the lower order.Yet, the score was woefully inadequate to contain South Africa. de Kock’s 123 off only 106 balls included 13 fours and two sixes, while Cloete struck four fours and two sixes of his own. Together, they hauled in the target with 17.2 overs to spare.

Mark Ramprakash, Surrey’s former England batsman, will captain MCC against the champion county, Lancashire, in the traditional precursor to the English domestic season

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2012Mark Ramprakash, Surrey’s former England batsman, will captain MCC against the champion county, Lancashire, in the traditional precursor to the English domestic season – a four-day match that will again be at the forefront of MCC’s campaign for a trial of floodlit Test cricket.The March 27-30 match, once fought out in bitterly cold conditions in England in early April, will again involve pink balls under the floodlights at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.Ramprakash, who last wore MCC colours 17 years ago, has always been one of the more serious analysts of the game so unsurprisingly the opportunity to experience pink-ball cricket excites him. “I have never played with a pink ball before and I’m looking forward to negotiating this new challenge,” he said. “Any innovation which could help increase the popularity of the game is to be welcomed.”The MCC’s world cricket committee is adamant that floodlit Test cricket could quicken interest in parts of the world where attendances have fallen and a concerted campaign has helped to persuade Tim May, the chief executive of the international players’ association, FICA, to visit Abu Dhabi to gather feedback from the players.The Champion County match will be preceded by the Emirates Airline Twenty20 – a four-way tournament featuring MCC, Lancashire, Durham and Sussex to be played in Dubai on March 23. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid have both grasped the opportunity for match practice with the MCC side before departing to play in the IPL for Pune Warriors and Rajasthan Royals respectively.Neither will take part in the four-day game. Ganguly still plays some first-class cricket these days for Bengal – which he freely admits he uses to stay in tune for Twenty20 – and this season he helped them avoid relegation in the Ranji Trophy, averaging 53 in six matches and finishing as Bengal’s second-highest rungetter behind Manoj Tiwary.This is the third year that the MCC has trialled a pink ball under lights. Stephen Peters, the Northants opener, has previous experience of the ball used – a Kookaburra G3 with white seam – but for many this remains a novel experience.MCC squad: Mark Ramprakash (Surrey), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Gareth Batty (Surrey), Ian Blackwell (Durham), Lewis Gregory (Somerset), Hamish Marshall (New Zealand and Gloucestershire), Rana Naved-ul-Hasan (Pakistan and Derbyshire), Niall O’Brien (Ireland and Northamptonshire), Stephen Peters (Northamptonshire), Gareth Rees (Glamorgan), Alan Richardson (Worcestershire).
Note: Marshall and Naved will be replaced by Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly for the T20 tournament.Edited by Alan Gardner

Middlesex are targeting Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka fast bowler, as an overseas player for the Friends Life t20, ESPNcricinfo understands

George Dobell29-Feb-2012Middlesex are targeting Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka fast bowler, as an overseas player for the Friends Life t20, ESPNcricinfo understands.Malinga is one of the premier Twenty20 bowlers in the world, known for his trademark slinging yorkers, and would be a crowd-puller for the English tournament which begins on June 12, with Middlesex’s first game a London derby against Surrey on June 14.Malinga has 125 wickets from 95 Twenty20 games, including 38 wickets from 31 internationals. In 2007 he had a brief spell with Kent and helped them to the title when he played on Finals Day. In the semi-final against Sussex he took 3 for 30 and then claimed 1 for 44 in the final against Gloucestershire.Middlesex have a history of making big-name signings for Twenty20 cricket. In 2010 Adam Gilchrist, with the help of funding from the MCC, joined the club for seven matches and in the same season he was joined by David Warner, although his impact was limited to 268 runs in 13 innings at 20.61.Middlesex had previously been linked with Chris Gayle but he joined Somerset. Other notable signings for this season’s FLt20 include Saeed Ajmal at Worcestershire and Shahid Afridi at Hampshire.Meanwhile, it is also understood that Middlesex are close to agreeing to loan out Scott Newman, the opening batsman, to Kent for the start of the season. Newman joined from Surrey in 2010 but averaged a disappointing 30.70 during Middlesex’s successful County Championship campaign last year, when they won Division Two to secure promotion.Joe Denly, who signed from Kent, is likely to open the batting in the County Championship while Sam Robson, a 22-year-old Australian-born batsman, averaged 59 last season. Middlesex may also have Andrew Strauss available once he returns from the Test series in Sri Lanka, depending on how long he is rested for by the ECB, ahead of England’s first home series of the season against West Indies.

Tickets for this year’s World Twenty20 will be as cheap as $0.25 for group games and between $2.50 and $45 for the final

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2012Tickets for this year’s World Twenty20 will be as cheap as $0.25 for group games and between $2.50 and $45 for the final. The ICC has announced the global sale of tickets for the tournament, which will be held in Sri Lanka, from today. The tickets can be bought online from the ICC’s website. The low prices are in sync with those during the World Cup 2011, which drew large local audiences to the grounds.Eight percent of the tickets available to the public are on sale now, with the remaining ones becoming available on August 1 to ensure availability closer to the event. There is a limit of six tickets that any one person can purchase for the group stage matches, and four tickets from Super Eights onwards. The tournament kickstarts with hosts Sri Lanka taking on Zimbabwe on September 18.The attractive ticket pricing for the ICC event comes after Sri Lankan as well as visiting England supporters were angered by exorbitant prices for daily tickets during the ongoing England-Sri Lanka Test series.Attendance to the group games of the women’s World Twenty20 will be free of charge. The women’s semi-finals and finals are scheduled on the same day and ground as the men’s games and the tickets for the men’s games will be valid for both.Edited by Devashish Fuloria

James Pattinson may not make it to the ODI tour of England despite his expected recovery as the selectors ponder whether to afford him a more comprehensive pre-Ashes scouting visit on an Australia A tour of the UK

Daniel Brettig21-Apr-2012James Pattinson’s likely return to fitness in time for Australia’s ODI visit to England and Ireland may not be enough to get him on the trip, as the national selectors ponder whether to afford him a more comprehensive pre-Ashes scouting visit on an Australia A tour of the UK later.Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur revealed that secondary assessments of Pattinson’s back injury, sustained in the field during the second Test against West Indies, indicated a probable recovery time of a little more than a month, meaning he is a strong chance to be available for the ODI tour, which begins with a warm-up against Leicester at Grace Road on June 21. Peter Siddle will have a similar recovery time from his back complaint, though the selectors have indicated a reluctance to use him in ODIs after an outstanding Test summer.”Initial results did [make me question Pattinson’s availability], the secondary results were that once our medical staff had looked at it in Melbourne and came back they were a lot more positive,” Arthur said. “It is virtually the same at this stage as what Sidds has got, which means it’s four or five weeks instead of three months in terms of a stress fracture. So that, I must put a little asterisk next to it, is the information we have at present. I think we’ll know a lot more once Sidds and Patto get back to Melbourne and go through examinations there.”Cricket Australia’s longer-term planning for the next Ashes series may yet see Pattinson given more time off before he and other possible 2013 Ashes tourists take part in an Australia A tour of England later in the northern summer. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Ben Cutting and Josh Hazlewood are others likely to be considered for the tour, which will afford them valuable experience of first-class bowling in England a year out from the Ashes.The Australia A expedition runs parallel to Arthur’s desire for a wide range of young bowlers to be utilised in limited-overs cricket between now and the 2015 World Cup, as he gathers a squad of cricketers with plenty of relevant ODI experience ahead of the game’s showpiece tournament. Reflecting on his time as coach of South Africa, Arthur said Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were commonly rotated in and out of the limited-overs side until tournaments or series reached their most critical junctures.”I think you’ve seen that more and more through the summer, it’s impossible for guys to play with that intensity all the time,” Arthur said. “Often Morne and Dale didn’t play together in teams so we’d use one here, one here and then when it came to the big game we’d use them all.”We tried to replicate that through our summer. We wanted to get off to a good start and then through the middle phases we tried some players and had a look at different options and rested some players. Then we felt come the final time we had our best possible team available, fit, rested, both mentally and physically and ready to go for the end of the summer. We put a lot of time and effort into trying to manage it and we’ll continue to do that.”Australia’s fitness and medical staff has remained unchanged since the 2010-11 Ashes series, a rare facet of CA operations not to have felt the full force of the Argus review, which instituted a raft of personnel and procedural changes around Australian cricket. The team’s physios and doctors are now accountable to the performance manager Pat Howard, and Arthur said they and the developmental staff employed at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane were working assiduously to reduce the number of injuries sustained by the nation’s fast bowlers.”Look, whether we like it or not we’re going to keep picking up injuries to our quick bowlers – bowling is a bit of an unnatural thing. So that’s going to happen, we’ve just got to learn to manage it,” Arthur said. “What’s going on at the CoE I think our sports scientists are all over it, they’re giving us a lot of information. One thing I’d like to reiterate is yes they’re giving us information but ultimately the call lies with the captain, coach and selectors as to how far we take and use that information.”Our CoE have been very proactive, they’re looking at all sorts of ways to prevent it and all sorts of workload issues. I’m comfortable that we’re exploring every avenue in that and I just think it is the nature of the art of bowling. Peter Siddle came into the tour, his workloads were exactly where our medical staff wanted them. He’d played a lot of four-day cricket coming into the series [for Victoria]. James Pattinson we worked on through the whole one-day series, he was right on course in terms of his workload.”Patto’s young, we’re still going to see him breaking down a little bit, that’s going to be the nature of it. Sidds is probably bearing the effects of a pretty rigorous summer where he bowled a huge amount in Test cricket. Their preparation, we couldn’t have done anything more or anything less around that. They had the numbers, the workloads, they had everything, and it’s just disappointing that we’ve lost both of them now.”

Mitchell Starc, the Australia left-arm quick, will not be able to make his Yorkshire debut this week after being deported following a visa error

David Hopps08-May-2012Mitchell Starc, the Australia left-arm quick, will not be able to make his Yorkshire debut this week after being deported following a visa error that initially led to him being detained at Heathrow for more than four hours.He has been instructed to fly halfway around the world, fill in a couple of forms correctly and then fly all the way back again. His girlfriend has been allowed to stay in England.During Tuesday, Yorkshire were still hopeful of clearing up the situation but late in the afternoon Starc tweeted: “Well that’s a first! Being deported from England.. Surely nothing else can go wrong can it?!?!” He expanded later: “Visa issue. Incorrect communication from aus. Will be straight back to UK ASAP once sorted.Starc aims to be available for next week’s match against Hampshire. What phsyical state he is in remains to be seen.Colin Graves, Yorkshire’s chairman, put the blame on Starc’s agent. “The whole thing to be honest is a fiasco,” he said. “This to me just shows that you get good agents and bad agents, and this agent hasn’t done a proper job.”We’ve got everything right, and Cricket Australia will look at it and say he’s got what’s required, and after that it’s down to the agent. You can’t blame the English authorities, they’ve got rules and regulations, and he didn’t have the proper paperwork.”With Yorkshire mired in debt, Graves insisted that he would not be paying the return air fare. “We’ve told them straight, we’re not paying the airfare again,” he added. “We paid originally but now it’s down to them.”Yorkshire had initially blamed Cricket Australia for filling out an incorrect visa form, bringing swift denials that they were not involved in the visa application process.”Mitchell is on annual leave and decided to organise a short-term contract with Yorkshire. It has absolutely nothing to do with us,” a CA spokesman told . “We have sent plenty of people to England and know all the requirements. Saying that, we have made it clear that if Mitchell needs our help, we are happy to do that.”The latest visa delay – three West Indies cricketers have also been held up by visa issues ahead of their tour of England – brings into question whether UK visa policy is quick and flexible enough to deal with elite sportsmen and women who regularly come and go to the UK on profesisonal sports contracts.Yorkshire’s frustration follows their stand-off with their England pace bowler, Ajmal Shahzad, who has upped sticks to Lancashire after a long-running dispute over his reluctance to bowl in the approved style.

Visa issue. Incorrect communication from aus. Will be straight back to Uk ASAP once sorted. In time for next @Yorkshireccc game.

— Mitch Starc (@mstarc56) May 8, 2012

Earlier Yorkshire’s captain, Andrew Gale said: “I don’t think Australia filled out a form correctly when he was out in the West Indies, and he spent four or five hours being questioned in the airport. If we can’t sort it out, we’ll have to drop him at Heathrow on the way down to Bristol.”Yorkshire will definitely have Tim Bresnan available for his third Championship match of the summer after England decided that he would benefit from another bowling workout ahead of the first Test against West Indies at Lord’s next week.Starc was due to play four Championship matches in a deal that, initially at least, only lasts five weeks. He could conceivably be called up for Australia’s ODI series in England between June 21 and July 10, and a subsequent Australia A tour between July 27 and August 17.

Forbes magazine has ranked MS Dhoni as the highest paid athlete in India for the period from June 2011 to June 2012

Tariq Engineer20-Jun-2012MS Dhoni, the India captain, has proved to be just as successful off the field as he has been on the field. Forbes magazine has ranked him as the highest-paid cricketer, as well as the highest-paid athlete in India for the period from June 2011 to June 2012.Dhoni tops not only team-mate Sachin Tendulkar, but also global stars like Olympic 100m champion Usain Bolt, Novak Djokovic, the tennis World No.1, and England and Manchester United striker, Wayne Rooney.According to the magazine, Dhoni made a total of US$ 26.5 million, of which $23 million was earned from endorsements and $3.5 million from salary and prize money. That puts him 31st on the list while Tendulkar was 78th, with total earnings of $18.6 million, of which $16.5 were from endorsements.The Forbes list was topped by champion boxer Floyd Mayweather, who made $85 million, followed by his main rival, Manny Pacquiao, with earnings of $62 million, and Tiger Woods, with $59.4 million.Dhoni’s unprecedented success leading India – he is the only captain to have won the ICC World T20 championship, the 50-over World Cup and led his team to the No.1 Test ranking – has made him one of India’s most popular celebrities, not just athletes.A study by Tam Sports of the advertising patterns during the 2011 ICC World Cup showed that ads featuring Dhoni far outstripped those of any other celebrity. Ads involving Dhoni grabbed a 29% share of the total television ads during the tournament, almost three times the frequency of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, who was second with 10%. Tendulkar was fourth, with 7%.In July 2010, Dhoni signed a three-year endorsement deal worth approximately Rs 2.1 billion ($ 42 million) with Rhiti Sports, a sports marketing agency. The deal surpassed the three-year deal worth Rs 1.8 billion ($38 million) that Sachin Tendulkar signed back in 2006, making it the largest such deal in Indian sports history.Later the same year, he signed a three-year deal worth Rs 260 million (about US$ 5.7 million) to promote McDowell’s soda, which is owned by the UB Group headed by Vijay Mallya. Altogether, Dhoni represents more than 20 brands, including Pepsi, Reebok, Aircel and TVS.Sangeet Shirodkar, who helped put the deal together for Rhiti Sports but is now a director at Offspin Sports and Entertainment, says Dhoni’s commercial success is tied not only to his sporting success, but also his surprising rise through the ranks of Indian cricket.”He comes from a very humble background,” Shirodkar said. “That has contributed to the fact that Indian brands are attracted to having him as a brand ambassador. The Indian growth story is targeted at the masses, not the top of the pyramid. [Dhoni is] one among them who has come out and has achieved so much.”In an article for the last year, Harish Bhat, the Chief Operating Officer – Watches, Titan Industries Ltd and Somprabh Singh, Senior Manager, Marketing, Titan also cited Dhoni’s middle-class background as one of the key reasons for his appeal (Titan is one of the brands Dhoni endorses).”Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Dhoni’s brand personality is the respect and humility which he displays, not merely to the cricketing fraternity, but towards everyone he meets and interacts with,” they wrote. “This reflects his strong middle-class values, his origins in a part of the country which has been the crucible of Indian culture and civilisation, and, of course, the simple person that he is. It enhances the esteem and love which Indians have for him”According to the pair, another plus for India’s captain is his ability to cut across demographics. “Dhoni symbolises vibrant youthfulness, which is aspirational across age-groups in our country. A large part of India is young, and the rest of India wishes to look and feel young. Therefore, his youthful appeal cuts across India’s demography.”India’s struggles over the last 12 months – losing eight consecutive away Tests to England and Australia – have clearly not dampened Dhoni’s commercial appeal. With India’s schedule requiring them to play mainly at home for the near future, his brand is likely to only grow stronger.

The depth of Australia’s pace bowler is now impressive but they have more questions to answer about their batting department

Daniel Brettig at Grace Road18-Jun-2012For all the huffing and puffing likely to be heard over the next month about Australia’s six-deep battery of fast bowlers, the most significant strides the tourists wish to make on their ODI tour of the United Kingdom will be in a modestly-stocked batting department. The captain Michael Clarke and the coach Mickey Arthur acknowledged as much at their arrival pleasantries in Leicester, having brought a team minus Ricky Ponting (dropped) and Michael Hussey (newborn child).Instead of Ponting and Hussey, the relatively modest talents of Peter Forrest, George Bailey and Steve Smith are jostling to make the kind of impression that could see them return to England for the Ashes in 2013. Others, like the wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and the opening batsman David Warner, will encounter their first serious examinations by an England side that pushed Australia to new standards of preparation and planning via their retention of the urn in 2010-11.As comfortable as the tourists are with their bowling stocks, there is equally a sense of uncertainty about the overall standard of Australian batting, which falls away dramatically among younger and mid-career players after Clarke and his vice-captain Shane Watson. Certainly there is no-one the quality of Ian Bell to come in, as he did for the prematurely retired Kevin Pietersen, should Ponting or Hussey fade between now and the Ashes. So it was understandable to hear Arthur and Clarke call for more from the younger batsmen, amongst a bevy of questions directed towards the promise of young bowlers including James Pattinson and Pat Cummins, in the absence of senior figures.”It changes the dynamics quite a bit and that is why we are looking for other players to stand up quite a bit and take over that responsibility,” Arthur said. “Michael and Ricky are not going to be around for ever so this gives the guys out here to stake their claims and an opportunity to make their mark and show us they belong. I am looking forward to seeing who stands up and takes this opportunity.”Forrest, Bailey and Smith have all shown something in their brief international forays so far, though none have the array of shots or the assured styles that have allowed Ponting and Hussey to endure. Forrest’s character is highly regarded by the Australia selectors, and Bailey is widely admired for his leadership of Tasmania. Smith, meanwhile, has hinted at more consistent run-scoring since his not-quite-convincing Ashes appearances in 2010-11. He will also have greater clarity about his role on this tour than in previous matches, in which he at times appeared to be in the team as much for his fielding as his opportunistic batting or fledgling legspin.”Fortunately for us Ricky’s still playing Test cricket and is a big part of our Test team. Fingers crossed I’m hoping next time we’ll be here for the Ashes he’ll be with us,” Clarke said. “He’s been such a great player for a long period of time, any team would miss Ricky Ponting, and we’re no different.”But as Mickey said, it’s a real good opportunity for some new young guys to grab hold of their chance with both hands. I think they did that throughout the one-day summer, once Ricky was dropped from the team we managed to go on and win that tri-series for Australia, the boys went to West Indies and did a pretty good job in tough conditions, and again it’s going to be new for a lot of players to play in English conditions.”Michael Clarke wants Australia’s young batsmen to show they can replace Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey•Getty ImagesThe bowlers have a chance to turn English heads also of course, with Pattinson and Cummins in particular keen to learn as much as they can about bowling in these conditions. Mitchell Johnson has returned to Australia’s squad after nine months recovering from a major foot injury, while Brett Lee continues to provide an experienced bulwark to the limited-overs attack.Neither Johnson nor Lee have terribly strong Ashes records on English shores, and the man perhaps best placed to offer wisdom to Pattinson and Cummins is Ben Hilfenhaus, after his 22 Ashes wickets across a succession of reliable spells in 2009. Clarke said awareness of the conditions was a critical element for his young fast men to grasp on this tour, and the Australia A matches that follow it.”The wickets can be quite slow over here, so it doesn’t matter how fast you bowl, if you’re not accurate, you’re not going to have success, especially in these conditions,” Clarke said. “We’ve got some good talented quicks, it’s just now about getting some cricket under their belt, getting a look at these conditions and make sure our preparation is spot on.”They [England] have got a very good attack and played four fast bowlers the other day, so I’d imagine if wickets are pretty conducive to that that they’ll probably do the same, as we might as well. We’ll have a look at how conditions are like. We’ve got six very good fast bowlers in our squad, who are all itching to get an opportunity.”Following three days of training at Grace Road, the Australians will play Leicestershire in a Thursday warm-up match before flying to Belfast for an ODI against Ireland on Saturday. The first match against England is at Lord’s on June 29.

Brett Lee has confirmed his retirement from international cricket but he has declared his intention to play on in the BBL and the IPL

Brydon Coverdale13-Jul-2012Brett Lee has confirmed his retirement from international cricket, but he has declared his intention to play on in the Big Bash League and the IPL. Lee, 35, had originally planned to retire after the ICC World Twenty20 in September, but after flying home early from the ODI series in England due to a calf injury, he decided the time was right to make way for Australia’s young fast bowlers.He will depart the game as the equal leading wicket taker for Australia in one-day internationals, having moved level with Glenn McGrath on 380 victims, although McGrath also took one wicket for the ICC World XI, taking his career tally to 381. Lee retired from Test cricket in February 2010, but remained a valuable player in the shorter formats, for his country and his various domestic teams around the world.Lee’s final appearance for Australia came in Durham last week, when he hurt his calf while bowling the third over of his 221st one-day international. Lee said he wondered as he was clapped off whether it would be the end of his international career, and he made his decision on Friday morning before making the retirement official with an announcement at the SCG.”I guess you ask yourself a lot of questions when you’ve been injured or been through a tough time,” Lee said. “It’s been the last two or three nights I have thought about it a lot. I woke up this morning and I knew this was the right day to do it.”In a team environment you have to be committed 100%, both mentally and physically. Looking at the next two months I just didn’t have that desire any more. It wouldn’t be fair on me or the rest of the team if I was to go over there with that attitude – not lack of commitment, but you just get to a point in your life when you decide enough is enough.”The great run must end. It was going to be post-World Cup [Twenty20]. We had spoken about that with the selectors and that was the time I was going to walk away from the game. But I woke up this morning and just felt like I was ready. It was time to go.”Lee made his debut for Australia in the 1999 Boxing Day Test against India and he will retire as international cricket’s tenth leading wicket taker of all time, with 718 victims across all three formats. He has been involved in a World Cup triumph in 2003 and three successful Ashes campaigns, and although he will leave on the low of a 4-0 one-day loss to England, Lee said he was confident Australia were heading in the right direction.”What I can say about the Australian cricket team right now is that we are guided by a terrific guy in Michael Clarke,” Lee said. “I think he’s been a terrific captain. He’s got a great cricket brain. We’ve just got to back the guys we’ve got around us and realise that we don’t make superstars overnight.”We can’t expect guys to go out there and get five-for in their first match, or a hundred. The guys need to take time to get used to their spot. There’s a lot of unfair pressure coming from all angles on the players these days. Pick a group and try to stick with them I reckon is the best advice.”Brett Lee was sent home from the ODI series in England with a calf injury•AFPOne of those young men who will play a key role in Australia’s fortunes over the next decade is Pat Cummins, the 19-year-old fast bowler. Cummins has already been struck down by a number of injuries and has taken advice from Lee, who said he was excited to see what Cummins could deliver over the next few years.”He’s got so much talent. If I had half his talent that he’s got at 19, you’d take a million Test wickets,” Lee said. “He’s a wonderful guy, he’s a guy that listens, he’s got a great body to bowl fast. The thing I told him the other day is that you are going to get injured, unfortunately. If you put yourself and your body on the line every single time you bowl a ball, the chances are you will get injured.”You’ve got to learn how to deal with that, learn how to deal with the media saying you’re injury prone, how to deal with people saying you’ve got to bowl 150ks every single ball. It’s tough, it’s challenging. I know that he can do it.”Lee was in and out of Australia’s side so often due to injury in his career that he said he’d had “more sequels or comebacks than Rambo”. He missed the 2007 World Cup due to a serious ankle injury and also suffered back, abdomen, side, elbow and foot problems throughout his 13-year international career, but he said he had no regrets about the toll his style had taken on his body.”It may be a little bit crazy to be a fast bowler, to put your body on the line every single time,” Lee said. “I’ve always said that if you’re not living on the edge you’re taking up too much space. That’s the way I’ve always played my cricket. If I’ve done something I’ve done it pretty well [injuries]. This calf tear is the first proper torn muscle I’ve had in 20 years of cricket, so I can’t really ask my body for much more than that.”There’s still the Big Bash, there’s the IPL. I’m not totally losing my cricket thrill or the chance to play cricket. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to play here [the SCG] again. Obviously it won’t be for the Australian cricket team, which will be sad. But I know I’ve made that right call.”