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Son Heung-min admitted that he "felt pain" during South Korea's World Cup qualifier against Singapore as Tottenham's fitness concerns mount up.

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Son scored in Korea's 5-0 routBut sustained a knee knockForward downplayed the severity of the injuryWHAT HAPPENED?

The 31-year-old forward was on target during Korea's 5-0 rout of Singapore. However, he was in some pain after he was at the receiving end of a knock to his right knee which was concerning for coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Although he went to play until the final whistle, he did reveal that his feet went numb in pain after the tackle.

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Speaking to reporters after the match, Son said: “We are making a team for the World Cup, I can’t give up a game just because I feel pain."

“If I can’t run anymore, then I can’t do anything about it but when I can run, I have to give 100 per cent for the team. I am fine now, I don’t like to lie down [on the pitch] in the winter," he added.

"At that moment [when he went down] I couldn’t feel anything on my foot. I’m fine, no injury. I am not the only one hurting out there. Everyone plays with some bumps and bruises.”

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Ange Postecoglou's men started the season very well until they succumbed to successive defeats to Chelsea and Wolves this month which knocked them off the perch of the league table. Moreover, their injury concerns continue to mount up as apart from Son, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has also left the Italian national team after he complained of flu symptoms. The duo joins a lengthy list of players in the Spurs' treatment room which already has several prominent names like James Maddison, Micky Van de Ven, Richarlison, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon, Alfie Whiteman and Ivan Perisic.

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WHAT NEXT FOR SON AND TOTTENHAM?

Son will continue his journey with South Korea in the World Cup qualifiers when they face China in Shenzhen on Tuesday. After fulfilling his international commitments, he will return to England and will take on Aston Villa on November 26 in a Premier League fixture.

Lancashire retain an outside chance of a third successive victory at Wantage Road, after they took two Northamptonshire wickets before the close on the third day of their Championship match

Press Association05-May-2015
ScorecardPeter Siddle survived to make 89 as Lancashire took a valuable first-innings lead•Getty ImagesLancashire retain an outside chance of a third successive victory at Wantage Road, after they took two Northamptonshire wickets before the close on the third day of their Championship match. The Division Two leaders lead by nine runs, with the home side 42 for 2 in the second innings after Lancashire were dismissed for 436.Overnight rain saw play start two hours later than scheduled, with Lancashire resuming on 216 for 4. A swirling and unremitting gale necessitated the removal of the bails for virtually the whole day’s play; such was its power that, at one stage, the umpires had to make sure the uncovered stumps stayed in the ground.Rory Kleinveldt – who wore a beanie hat underneath his cap for extra warmth in the field – drew the short straw of bowling into the wind. But the powerful South African extracted bounce when Alex Davies chipped the catch to midwicket, after adding just four to his overnight score.Jordan Clark negotiated four balls before edging Kleinveldt behind to Adam Rossington without scoring and, after the first 15 minutes of play, Lancashire were 221 for 6 and still 164 behind.But Ashwell Prince, who was 104 not out overnight, found support from Peter Siddle, who batted sensibly while he and the 37-year-old added exactly 100 for the seventh wicket. The Australian, who had been ill 24 hours earlier, looked the picture of health at the crease, punishing anything loose from the Northamptonshire attack.Prince was also reassuring, with his off-side drives a constant source of anguish for the home seam attack, one such stroke off Steven Crook bringing up his 150 off 268 balls. Crook then induced Prince to pop up to substitute David Murphy and Alex Wakely’s side could be forgiven for relief after enduring Prince’s career-best 257 not out in last year’s innings defeat at Old Trafford.Siddle returns home after Lancashire’s next Championship game against Gloucestershire but he delivered for his employers here, reaching his 50 off 95 balls. But before visions of only a second first-class century became reality, he was lbw to Kleinveldt for 89, the fifth wicket for the South African and his first five-wicket haul in Northamptonshire colours.Trailing by 51, Northamptonshire were hampered with Richard Levi not batting due to a dislocated finger. Replacement opener Rob Newton lasted just one delivery, caught at midwicket off Kyle Jarvis. Wakely’s indeterminate waft outside off stump added more pressure when he edged Siddle for a catch behind to leave Northants wobbling on 13 for 2.Despite a brief pause for bad light, Stephen Peters and Rob Keogh saw the home side to close for no further loss. But Siddle believes his side can claim victory, despite the pitch remaining true.”It’s not too bad out there, one end is a lot worse than the other to bowl at, so it’s going to be hard work,” he said. “We’ve just got to be patient. The wicket’s not offering up much so we can just bowl in good areas and see what happens.”I didn’t expect to be out batting so soon today, but Ashwell Prince is a class player. He showed that again today. It was good fun. It was a bit windy and cold so I didn’t want to bowl. So I thought if I batted longer, it would reduce my overs.Northants Head Coach David Ripley is hopeful his side can see the final day out for the draw. “That was an important little partnership there between Stephen and Rob,” he said. “It was a difficult session where Lancashire could come and give it everything and it was important that they got through those overs unscathed. We’ve still got to have a good first hour, hour and a half to hopefully get us the draw.”

Arsenal star Declan Rice was reportedly serenaded by Arsenal team-mates following last-ditch heroics against Luton Town.

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Rice netted 97th-minute winnerFired Arsenal to a 4-3 win Players celebrated dancing to Vanilla Ice’s famous track Ice Ice BabyWHAT HAPPENED?

The England international emerged as the hero by scoring in the seventh minute of stoppage time to fire Arsenal to a remarkable victory at Kenilworth Road to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League standings to five points over second-placed Liverpool. And it is no surprise that the raucous pitch-side celebrations continued in the away dressing room in the aftermath of the 4-3 win.

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According to the team danced to the tunes of Vanilla Ice’s famous track Ice Ice Baby which has been closely associated with Rice in the last couple of years. The former West Ham player hummed it on Sky TV programme A League Of Their Own and also boasts of having an advertising campaign with the lead slogan ‘Rice Rice Baby’.

DID YOU KNOW?

Rice has been in sensational form since he moved to the Emirates in the summer. It was his third goal in this Premier League campaign and the fifth time that the Gunners have snatched the three points with a winner after regulation time. Mikel Arteta's men have shown incredible character and seem determined to make amends by going all the way to lift the title in May after losing steam at the business end in the previous season.

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Arsenal are grappling with mounting injury concerns and Takehiro Tomiyasu is the latest casualty. He is expected to be sidelined for a minimum of four weeks due to a calf injury and will miss key fixtures against Aston Villa, Brighton, Liverpool, West Ham and Fulham. He joins the lengthy list of absentees which include Fabio Vieira, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe and Jurrien Timber.

Meg Lanning produced the second-highest score in all Twenty20 international cricket to power Australia Women to an imposing 191 for 4 batting first, a total that proved way beyond Ireland Women

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2014
ScorecardMeg Lanning is now second only to countryman Aaron Finch on the list of top T20 scores•ICCMeg Lanning produced the second-highest score in all Twenty20 international cricket to power Australia Women to an imposing 191 for 4 batting first, a total that proved way beyond Ireland Women. While Ireland’s batsmen hung in there, they could not go at the required pace, finishing 113 for 7, 79 runs short of the target.Lanning slammed 126 off 65 balls, which puts her second only to countryman Aaron Finch on the list of top T20 scores. She beat South Africa Women’s batsman Shandre Fritz’s 116 to go to the top on the women’s charts, then went past Brendon McCullum’s 123 to go to No. 2 overall; Finch had pummeled 156 against England last August.Australia’s innings was built around two main partnerships: first Lanning put on 86 in 10 overs with Delissa Kimmince, then she added 83 in just seven with Alex Blackwell. That Kimmince contributed 35 at a run a ball and Blackwell just 12 at a similar rate shows the dominance of Lanning. She hit 18 fours and four sixes in all, to ensure both her strike rate and the team’s total were nudging 200.Several of Ireland’s batsmen were able to get into double-digits in the chase, but none could really kick on or make an impact on the required rate. A couple of run-outs did not help their cause, and pacer Ellyse Perry was accurate and incisive on her way to 2 for 17. Ireland finished the innings having scored at less than a run a ball for a second loss in as many games, while Australia registered their second win in three games with ease.

There is a danger of Associate nations losing interest in 50-over cricket with the reduction of the 2019 down to 10 teams according to Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2014There is a danger of Associate nations losing interest in 50-over cricket with the reduction of the 2019 World Cup to 10 teams according to Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland.The Associate and Affiliate nations have been battling for whatever morsels come their way under the restructuring of the ICC. While there is the promise of a performance-based pathway to Test cricket through the Intercontinental Cup and a play-off series with the lowest ranked Test nation – the ECB has put a Test against a potential qualifier into the new draft of the FTP – and a 16-team World T20 there is a fear that the middle format is being forgotten.The next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will include 14 teams, but the tournament in England four years after that will be cut to ten countries in an everyone-plays-everyone format replicating the 1992 event, which is considered to be the ideal formula.The exact details of qualification for the 2019 tournament have yet to be confirmed, but the likely option is that the top eight teams in the ICC ODI rankings will qualify automatically with the bottom two entering a tournament with the leading Associate and Affiliate nations for the final two spots.However, Deutrom is concerned that the reduction in places for lower-ranked teams to qualify could see the format wither.”We, as Associates, have begun to circulate our concerns more strongly in recent months. The pathway to Test cricket has been put in place, the World T20 is now a 16-team event but we strongly feel the 50-over game has been somewhat overlooked,” he told the Irish radio show.”I think the Test countries think, ‘Great you now have a pathway to be in the 50-over World Cup’, but actually if it’s only 10 teams [in the World Cup] there’s a real risk of Associate countries not being part of that.”There’s a risk that some lower-ranked Associates may wonder about playing 50-over with the only real pathway being into 20-over cricket. If all these countries start turning away from 50-over cricket you have to ask yourself that if there are fewer teams playing 50-over cricket what’s the point in having a pathway because it will only be open to a small number of countries. If the 50-over structure is not assessed there’s a real risk of it losing context.”Deutrom believes Ireland can rightly consider themselves the leading Associate nation but also said that his comments were speaking for the non-Full Member nations as a whole and warned that Ireland’s experience at the World T20 – when they were knocked out in stunning fashion by Netherlands – had reinforced that they can “take nothing for granted”.He was talking shortly after arriving back in Ireland from the ICC’s annual conference in Melbourne where the new structures and powerbases were rubber-stamped, but his pragmatic view of the Big Three is that it was the best way forward.”There’s this sense that from a pure best practice, governance perspective, does it look great? Probably not,” he said. “But in terms of what governance is meant to be, it’s probably meant to be a means to an end where a sport will be meritocratic, which from our point of view it is now becoming and there are better means for us to realise our objectives.”That key objective for Ireland remains Test cricket and Deutrom remained steadfast in his belief that Ireland will achieve their goal with the prize of that match against England.”Is it still important? Hell, yes. Why? Because it’s the best. If we are the No. 1 Associate what do we do next? When we launched that strategy it probably came out of nowhere. The ICC had not really considered expanding the number of Test nations. I hope it does not come across as arrogant, but I’m of no doubt that ICC would not have put that pathway in place had Ireland not stated its aim. We wanted to look at a proper vision.”

Steven Smith completed a hundred on captaincy debut, Mitchell Johnson smashed 88 off 93 balls, and even Mitchell Starc scored a half-century as Australia stormed into the lead at the Gabba

The Report by Daniel Brettig19-Dec-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:25

‘India need to make Ashwin a more potent weapon’

In the usual round of pre-series predictions, many expected Steven Smith to be a dominant batting force against India, and some were bold enough to reckon he would be captain before the four Tests were through. But none had prophesied that it would take Mitchell Johnson until the series’ eighth day to make a significant impact on events, nor that he would be doing so with the bat.Smith’s 133 was emblematic of his growth as both a batsman and leader: not since Greg Chappell against West Indies on this ground in 1975 had a first-time Australian Test captain marked the occasion with a hundred in his first innings. Johnson’s boldest of counterattacks showed how dangerous he can be as a batsman, but also that it may have been wiser for India not to antagonise him when he walked to the wicket with Australia in some trouble at 6 for 247.Their partnership of 148 in a mere 26 overs changed the course of the match, also clearing a path for Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood to prolong Australia’s first innings until after tea. The final four wickets contributed more runs than the first six, opening up a lead of 97. India were bereft of ideas for stemming the flow, and when they finally batted Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara survived some searching spells in the evening session to go to stumps at 1 for 71.A century in his first Test as captain underlined Smith’s quality as a leader, his sixth hundred in 13 matches since notching No. 1 against England at The Oval in August 2013 sustaining Australia’s innings. But Smith had needed help: the Australians were teetering when Johnson joined his captain. Indian attempts to get into the fast bowler’s head with short balls and verbals appeared only to spur Johnson into a starburst of strokes, and he looked bound for a second century until snicking Ishant Sharma behind.Ishant and Varun Aaron had bowled morning spells that were respectively precise and hostile. Ishant deceived Mitchell Marsh with a break-back after the hamstrung allrounder shouldered arms, and Aaron pinned Brad Haddin with a bouncer that delivered a catch to short leg.Steven Smith became the tenth Australian to score a Test hundred on captaincy debut•Getty ImagesAaron’s success with the short ball prompted him to step up the assault against Johnson, and he earned a warning from the umpire Ian Gould for excessive use of the bouncer. Virat Kohli also stepped in to antagonise, and these exchanges appeared the catalyst for a spiky Australian response.Johnson prospered first with the pull shot before expanding his repertoire grandly, upper cutting over the slips then driving sweetly down the ground. Smith made slightly more sedate progress towards his hundred, but reached the mark with a nifty cut behind point. At lunch the partnership was worth 104 in 83 brazen balls and the deficit a mere 57.The rate of scoring slowed somewhat in the afternoon as Dhoni applied a little more pressure, but it was a surprise when Johnson was dismissed by an Ishant delivery slanted across him – the sort of line and length India should have committed to when he first arrived. Smith departed soon after, dragging another well-pitched Ishant delivery onto the stumps, but Starc, Lyon and Hazlewood were eager for more.Nos. 9 and 10 added 56 at better than a run a ball, and after Lyon was pouched at mid-on, Hazlewood notched his first Test runs with a sturdy enough drive down the ground. Starc exhibited few of his bowling insecurities with the bat. By the time a late tea was taken he had a half-century, and had gone a long way to compensating for some indifferent spells in the first innings.Those runs also appeared to rouse Starc into a better frame of mind for bowling. He found a far more consistent line and was rewarded when an indeterminate M Vijay dragged onto the stumps when trying to leave a well-directed ball of decent pace and bounce. Shane Watson swung the ball and might easily have had a wicket in a fine late spell. Smith, oddly, did not call on Lyon’s offbreaks before the close.

Alastair Cook faced a tough task just over a year ago, with England’s dressing room torn apart by bickering and the No. 1 Test ranking wrestled away by South Africa. Once again, in the final Test in Sydney, he has to rise to the challenge.

George Dobell01-Jan-2014Just over a year ago, with the dressing room torn apart by bickering and the No. 1 ranking wrestled away by South Africa, Alastair Cook assumed the captaincy of the England Test side.It was a tough time to take charge. The division between Kevin Pietersen and some of his colleagues was at its widest and England faced a daunting tour of India. By the time they lost the first Test of that series, it looked as if Cook may have inherited an impossible task.But Cook found a way. At first he instigated a solution to the Pietersen issue. Then, through the example of his second-innings century in Ahmedabad, he showed his team how to score runs in India. He led from the front. Ten months into the role, England were unbeaten in a series, had reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy and had retained the Ashes and won in India.Now, however, Cook’s leadership is under scrutiny. England have not only been beaten in Australia, but there is a perception that Cook is the sort of captain who follows the game. The sort of captain who is reactive rather than proactive. The sort of captain who operates by numbers rather than intuition.But leadership comes in different forms. Cook may never be a great orator – David Bowie went through a period of cutting up words at random in magazines and forming song lyrics from them and sometimes it seems Cook takes the same approach with his press conferences – and he may never have the tactical imagination of Mike Brearley, but he is respected by his team, he is the youngest man in history to score 8,000 Test runs and, having taken on the job with very little experience, he is learning his trade in public.He admits he has much to learn. But, as he takes his team into the final Test of an Ashes series trying to avoid a whitewash, he feels he is improving and that some of the criticism is based purely on the results.”I do think I’m a better captain now because I’ve done the job for longer,” Cook said. “You only really learn on this job no matter how many times you talk about it to people outside the game. The only way you really learn is when you’re out there.”You get flak when you lose games of cricket whatever you do and we’ve lost four in a row. You’re going to get flak for that. Again, when you’re winning in India that flak doesn’t come and that is the nature of the thing.”I do need to continually look to improve, without a doubt. It would be very wrong of me not to do so. There’s never a fine art to captaincy; there are always people outside with different ideas as to what we should be doing. But Michael Clarke was getting a lot of stick when Australia were losing 4-0 in India, with people saying he wasn’t a good captain, and suddenly he’s winning games of cricket and he’s the world’s best captain. So that’s the world we live in and we appreciate that.”Alastair Cook faces the second big challenge of his fledgling captaincy•AFPLeading England over the next couple of years is likely to prove demanding. Cook accepts that an era is ending for the team that took England to the top of the world ratings and suggested as many as three new caps could be given for the Sydney Test. With such change to the team, he feels the importance and senior players and the current management structure become even more acute.”I think it is the end of an era. If you go back eight or nine months, the England team picked itself and everyone was very solid in terms of results. What’s happened over the last few months is that we know we can’t solely rely on the 11 or 12 guys we picked constantly. But that gives opportunities to different faces and it’s quite exciting to see whether those players can grab their chance.”There’s still a lot of cricket left in some of the more experienced guys. You only have to look at two players who have played very well for Australia here in Chris Rogers and Brad Haddin. They’re delivering the goods at 36 years old. So experience can still be a good thing.”We know what a good player Matt Prior has been over 75 Tests. He’s had a lean year and he’s the first to hold his hand up about that. His keeping has been pretty good for most of that time but we need him to be scoring runs too. He’s nowhere near the end of his career. He’s got to go back and prove that he’s the best wicketkeeper batsman in the country if he wants his place back.There was strong support too for Andy Flower, the coach who must help him reach fulfillment as a captain.”He is a very good coach. I know the defeat has happened in a bad way here, but we are certainly evolving as a side and a lot of players are coming in. We do need strong leadership at this time. Andy is a strong man and a good leader.”If Cook is to prove an equally good leader, he can begin by rediscovering his batting form. A half-century in Melbourne – probably his most fluent innings of the series – hinted of a return to brighter times, but Cook’s primary role in the side will always be as a batsman and his leadership will immediately appear more effective if he can return to the prolific form that played such a role in England’s success in India

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Panic is starting to set in among Celtic fans as the hoped influx of new signings fails to materialise.

The deal for Maryan Shved seems to be all tied up with a suspicion growing that the official announcement is being held back in case there are no other arrivals – specifically a right-back.

Throughout Wednesday hopes were raised that Jeremy Toljan was on his way but reality kicked in when he was captured on video training with his Borussia Dortmund team-mates.

As quoted by Ruhr Nachrichten via BuLi News, Dortmund director Michael Zorc confirmed that talks were ongoing for departures but there was no mention of players or clubs involved.

The grapevine has also gone quiet regarding Timothy Castagne, and there appears to be little in the way of rumours suggesting any other positions in the team will be strengthened.

As darkness falls the online search for transfer news will intensify and the early evening phone-ins will be full of fans hoping for the breakthrough.

A year ago Scott Bain turned up at the last minute wearing his Hibs training gear – it could be another long night as every scrap of information is dissected until white smoke and signings are spotted.

Right now though, Celtic fans on Twitter are growing increasingly fearful that no business will be done…

An unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 116 between Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann lifted England from a parlous 212 for 7

The Report by George Dobell in Chelmsford30-Jun-2013
ScorecardKevin Pietersen looked fluent before losing his patience against Tom Craddock•Getty ImagesA few weeks ago, when Lancashire bowled Essex out for 20, there were those within the England set-up who privately expressed concerns about the value of this game as preparation for the Ashes.Those concerns were understandable. Despite a talented squad, Essex are currently placed in the middle of Division Two of the County Championship and, with a view to their county commitments, took the opportunity to rest three or four first-choice players for this match. Would they put up any sort of resistance?Yet a second-string attack who had, before this game, claimed only eight first-class* wickets between them this season, dismissed England’s top seven for only 212. An unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 116 between Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann spared any acute embarrassment, but it was a day that suggested the surfeit of limited-overs cricket England have experienced of late has not been ideal preparation for the Ashes.Some caution is required before anyone concludes that England’s Ashes plans are in chaos. Complacency was certainly a contributory factor in one or two dismissals – notably Kevin Pietersen’s – and this game was designed precisely with the aim of easing England’s players back into the disciplines required for first-class cricket. It would be wrong to read too much into it.It was an inglorious performance from England’s top-order, though. Inserted by prior agreement and on a blameless pitch – Ravi Bopara, the Essex captain, later admitted he would have liked to bat but was happy to agree to England’s request – each one of the top seven made a start but failed to convert it into a meaningful contribution due to some looses strokes and a lack of concentration.There were some encouraging performances from Essex players, too. Tymal Mills, a 20-year-old left-arm fast bowler who played at the request of the England management, generated speeds in excess of 94 mph according to the television speed gun, while Tom Craddock, a 23-year-old leg-spinner who went into this game without a first-class wicket this season, claimed three in his first nine overs and demonstrated good composure in the face of Pietersen’s aggression.Pietersen had settled in against some woeful bowling. Fed a diet of full-tosses and long-hops, he eased three of his first four deliveries to the boundary and demonstrated his intent against Craddock’s legspin by driving the first delivery he faced from him over mid-on for four. He was dropped moments later attempting a repeat, Craddock unable to cling on to a sharp return chance, but then tried the shot once more and was well held by a relieved bowler. Pietersen’s dismissal, careless as it was, will irritate some but, in the grand scheme of things, it is more important to note that he looked fit and in fine form. He is likely to treat Ashes matches with far greater respect.If that wicket owed something to Pietersen’s impatience, the wicket of Matt Prior owed more to the traditional skills of a legbreak bowler. Drawing Prior into pushing at one outside off stump, Craddock took the outside edge with a delivery that turned appreciably on its way to the keeper.In between times, Ian Bell was the victim of a wonderful piece of fielding. Jaik Mickleburgh, at short leg, anticipated Bell’s stroke as the batsman shaped to dab-sweep and, moving sharply to his left, clung on to the catch one-handed. Bell had struggled for fluency throughout, but it was a somewhat unfortunate ending.Earlier, Joe Root had endured a painful start to his career as an England opening batsman. Root, promoted in place of the discarded Nick Compton to allow room for Jonny Bairstow in the middle-order, got off the mark with an edge that bounced just short of the slip cordon and was later struck on the left knee by a delivery from Mills. Despite the ball appearing to hit Root on the pads, the batsman was clearly in some pain and, a few deliveries later, was drawn into poking at one from Saj Mahmood that he could have left outside off stump and edged a catch to second slip. Root spent much of the rest of the day with an ice pack on his knee, but an England team spokesman said that it was not considered a serious injury.Mills was impressive, if inconsistent, but faded as the warmth of the day began to tell. Working up a sharp pace, he dismissed the England captain (and Mills’ Essex team-mate) Alastair Cook with a delivery that was probably a bit too close for the cut shot the batsman attempted and Jonathan Trott, who was drawn into feeling for one angled across him that he could have left.By contrast Mahmood, once seen as an England fast bowler of great potential, barely passed 80 mph and conceded five an over in a performance littered with full-tosses. He did, however, compensate with the wicket of Root – just his second first-class victim of the season – and later saw Bairstow leave one that tailed in a fraction to hit the top of off stump.But if England were to take any positives from the day, it will have been a reminder of the strength of their lower-order batting. While Bresnan resisted stoutly, Swann counterattacked in characteristic style. He hit Craddock for four boundaries in five balls and later Mills for three in succession as the pair steered their side from any danger and both completed half-centuries shortly before the close.Essex rested their captain James Foster, swing bowler Reece Topley and allrounder Graham Napier from their full-strength side, while England left out James Anderson and Stuart Broad from their likely first Test line-up. While Broad has a minor shoulder injury, the result of diving to regain his ground in the dying moments of the Champions Trophy final, an England spokesman confirmed that he would have been fit to play had this been a Test. It was also confirmed that England have no plans to send any of their squad bowlers along with Compton to further enhance the Worcestershire side in their game against the Australians later this week.*This match had first-class status removed on the third day

The India-U19s selectors have made just one change from the Asia Cup squad, in the 15-player squad named for the World Cup: medium-pacer Atit Sheth comes in, in place of left-armer Rishi Arothe

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jan-2014The India-U19s selectors have not tinkered much with the combination that won the Asia Cup in the UAE earlier this month, making just one change in the 15-player squad named for the World Cup – which will be played at the same venues – in February: medium-pacer Atit Sheth comes in, in place of left-armer Rishi Arothe.Pritam Chakraborty, who was in the Asia Cup sixteen, misses out as he will be overage by the time the World Cup begins.Vijay Zol, who had scored a match-winning hundred for the team against Pakistan in the Asia Cup final, will continue to lead. Zol also played a key role for Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final last week, scoring an unbeaten 91 to help them run down a target of 252 to dump domestic giants Mumbai out of the competition. He is one of only two players in the squad with previous World Cup experience, having been part of the squad that won the title in Australia in 2012. The other is batsman Akhil Herwadkar, who had scored a century and a fifty in five games in the Asia Cup.Kerala wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson, who made headlines last week after he was the youngest player retained by an IPL franchise ahead of the 2014 season – he was held back by Rajasthan Royals – is also part of the fifteen. Samson had also scored a hundred in the Asia Cup final.Sheth is not a completely new face on the U-19 circuit, having played in the away series against Sri Lanka in August 2013, and the quadrangular series in Visakhapatnam in September that also included Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He played four games in all, in those two series, claiming five wickets.Bharat Arun, the long-time India U-19 coach, who was also part of the successful World Cup campaign in 2012, will continue to coach the side.India are slotted into Group A at the World Cup, with Pakistan, Scotland and Papua New Guinea. Their opening game is against Pakistan, on February 15, in Dubai.Squad: Vijay Zol (capt), Akhil Herwadkar, Ankush Bains, Ricky Bhui, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Kuldeep Yadav, Amir Gani, Karan Kaila, Chama Milind, Avesh Khan, Monu Kumar, Atit Sheth