Brad Hogg has no intention of giving up the mantle of Australia’s leading one-day spinner to Dan Cullen, the rookie offspinner, before next year’s World Cup. However, he believes Cullen is the man to take over the role of leading Australian spinner in the future.Hogg, 35, said that the hunger to compete in the World Cup was greater than it had ever been for him. “As things get closer I think it was halfway through last year [it became] one of those goals where I wanted to defend something that I have done before,” he told the . “It is good that Dan has got a crack and he has a little taste of international cricket. He is probably going to be our main spinner once Warne and MacGill go in the Test arena and hopefully he can play a big part in the one-dayers as well from now on.”Following Shane Warne’s retirement from one-day cricket, Hogg has carved out a handy role for himself and picked up his 100th wicket during the first match against Bangladesh at Chittagong on Sunday. His tally rests at 101 wickets at 28.88 – with an economy rate of 4.52 – in 83 one-day matches, and he averages just over 20 with his late-order hitting. Cullen conceded just 36 from his ten overs on debut, but it was Hogg, with 3 for 37, who was the stand-out bowler on a spin-friendly pitch in Chittagong.Hogg believed he was in the form of his career and expected himself and Cullen to both make the squad for the World Cup in the Caribbean. “They took two spinners to the last World Cup and I can’t see why they won’t this time,” he said. “It looks like it is going to be Dan or myself or either one of us, but we have to keep performing to keep our spots. As they say you don’t give a sucker an even chance.”Both bowlers are set for another crack at Bangladesh at Fatullah tomorrow with Australia naming an unchanged side for the second game of the three-match series.

Andrew Symonds was due to have surgery in Melbourne today on a minor but long-standing wrist problem. Errol Alcott, the team physiotherapist, told the Symonds had a “flake” lodged in his left hand.”It’s just a lining of the bone which in the complicated movement of swinging the bat around at different positions and angles and forces, there can be inflammation and soreness,” Alcott told the paper. “It’s a bit of an occupational hazard of course, particularly for someone like him fielding in close.”Symonds should be training fully in six weeks and his manager Matthew Fenton said now was the ideal time for the operation. “It’s something when he plays a lot of cricket, he notices,” he said. “It’s something that he has had for a quite a while.” Symonds played eight Tests and 22 ODIs in 2005-06 and also struggled with a hip problem on the tour of South Africa.

Varun Chopra, the Essex opener, has been handed back the England Under-19 captaincy for the Test and one-day series against India. Moeen Ali, the Warwickshire allrounder, was in charge for the Under-19 World Cup, in Sri Lanka, during February but will be unavailable for large chunks of the series due to his commitments with Warwickshire.Chopra, who was captain when England lost every match on their tour of Bangladesh before Christmas, has made a fine start to his first-class career for Essex with a century and a fifty on his Championship debut. He was solid, rather than spectacular, during the World Cup but has shown impressive fluency this season.The core of the squad contains the players who were part of the World Cup squad and a number of them, including Nick James, Graeme White, Mark Nelson and Rory-Hamilton Brown, have been gaining first-team chances for their counties.There are three changes between the one-day and Test squad with Billy Godleman, the talented Middlesex batsman, Michael O’Shea and Adil Rashid coming in for the three-Test series which starts at Canterbury on July 26. The three-match ODI series starts at Derby on June 18.One-day squad Varun Chopra (capt) (Essex), Moeen Ali (Warwickshire), Paul Dixey (wk) (Kent), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Rory Hamilton-Brown (Surrey), Nicholas James (Warwickshire), Adam Lyth (Yorkshire), Andrew Miller (Warwickshire), Steven Mullaney (Lancashire), Mark Nelson (Northamptonshire), Mark Stoneman (Durham), Chris Thompson (Surrey), Huw Waters (Glamorgan), Graeme White (Northamptonshire), Ben Wright (Glamorgan)Test squad Varun Chopra (capt), Moeen Ali, Paul Dixey (wk), Billy Godleman (Middlesex), Rory Hamilton-Brown, Nicholas James, Adam Lyth, Andrew Miller, Steven Mullaney, Mark Nelson, Michael O’Shea (Glamorgan), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Huw Waters, Graeme White, Ben Wright

Justin Langer says he has spent his entire career defending his batting place, but he hopes the credit gained over 100 Tests will keep him ahead of Phil Jaques for the Ashes. Jaques, the New South Wales opener, is in the middle of a huge off-season – he scored 240 and 117 for Australia A to follow a double-century for Worcestershire – and there have been rumblings that he is ready to partner Matthew Hayden at the top of the order.Langer, 35, told the Jaques was “batting brilliantly” and was “a bloody good player” who could follow the path of Michael Hussey by earning a spot in the middle order. “My name always comes up but there are six batting spots up for grabs,” he told the paper. “Look at Mike Hussey. He opened his whole life. He never batted anywhere else but now he’s a superstar in the middle order.”If you can bat, you can bat anywhere from one to six. I’m not saying anything at all against the other blokes in the team, but you’d think Phil Jaques is keeping every one of us on our toes. He’s putting us all under pressure … I think my career speaks for itself. I’ve played a hundred Tests and hope that gives me some credit points with the selectors.” Michael Clarke has talked of his desire to fight for the spot he regained in Bangladesh and Damien Martyn is another batsman who returned to the side during the team’s last two tours.Throughout his Test career, which began in 1992-93, Langer has usually battled successfully to hold his spot against more free-flowing players, despite improving his strike-rate so much over the past decade that it is higher than those achieved by Michael Slater, Mark Waugh and Michael Hussey. The gritty descriptions have also been hard to shake and have been partly responsible for limiting him to eight one-day appearances.”There’s always someone who should take my spot – Matthew Elliott, Michael Slater, Greg Blewett, Phil Jaques,” he said. “I’ve gone through my whole career with plenty of people thinking I should be replaced.”Langer, who was severely concussed by Makhaya Ntini in his 100th Test in April, has proved his fitness during a short stint with Somerset that included a career-best 342 in the County Championship. “The first ball I faced in England, I’ll admit I was bloody nervous,” he said. “I remember my first net session over there. I hadn’t batted for three months and my first net was at a high school on a really bad greentop wicket. But I had a really good session against a lot of short stuff and that got me going.”

Inzamam-ul Haq, the Pakistan captain, termed Pakistan’s overall performance in England as “unsatisfactory”, saying that the team needed to improve its fielding in one-day cricket.”Our overall performance was unsatisfactory and we should have performed better than we did,” Inzamam said on returning from the two-and-a-half month tour. Pakistan lost their last one-day international at Birmingham on Sunday, which left the five-match series level at 2-2 after the first game at Cardiff was hit by rain. Earlier, Pakistan lost the four-match Test series 3-0, which included an unprecedented result after they forfeited The Oval Test following a ball-tampering row. It was Pakistan’s first loss in a Test series in England since 1982.The only positive outcome from the tour was experience gained by the youngsters in Pakistan team, Inzamam said. “Several youngsters toured England for the first time and the tour provided them with a wealth of experience and I hope they build on this experience in future.” Inzamam singled out fielding as his team’s main weakness. “If we need to progress we must improve our fielding, which plays a crucial part in one-day cricket.”Bob Woolmer, the coach, was also unhappy with the result. “It was disappointing not to do as well as we hoped. Probably it was the toughest tour of my career for many reasons,” Woolmer told AFP from Cape Town. “Some positives did come out of the tour and they were Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul and Younis Khan – who all did well on the tour but overall it was a disappointing tour.”Pakistan’s next international assignment is the Champions Trophy in India next month.

Stuart MacGill has missed New South Wales training with a knee injury suffered during Australia’s five-day boot camp in the Queensland bush. In the post-mortem of the adventure the players complained only of aches and pains, but more than a week after the drills finished MacGill did not participate in a state session.The reported he was wearing jeans at Monday’s practice and refused to comment on his injury. “At this point we’re all just waiting to hear back from the doctor,” Trevor Bayliss, the New South Wales coach, said. “It’s really between [MacGill] and Cricket Australia at this point. It’s precautionary at this stage and we’re hoping he’ll be right to train next week.”Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s communications director, confirmed MacGill’s injury to the , but said the safety levels during the camp were “appropriate”. The paper reported up to four players were hurt during the exercises, which involved abseiling, day-long bush treks, mock terrorist exercises and navigating by the stars.”There are a few aches and pains … [and] Stuart has been told to take it easy for a week,” Young told the paper. “This was one of the main issues discussed before the camp, which in formal terms is called risk assessment or risk management. With this program, we were conscious that we did not want to risk our elite athletes.”During the squad’s warm-down at the Hyatt Coolum Stuart Clark told there were “a few people with body soreness and bruises”. “But if cricket was on tomorrow,” he said, “there’d be blokes running around saying let’s go.”

Scorecard

South Africa continued their string of emphatic victories in the warm-up games ahead of the Champions Tophy with a 125-run win against MCA President’s XI in Mumbai. Graeme Smith scored his third consecutive half-century since his return from injury and Jacques Kallis smashed 71 off 57 balls to take South Africa to 303 for 6, their third consecutive 300-plus score. They used as many as eight bowlers in their defence and restricted MCA to 178 for 8 with only Amol Muzumdar offering resistance during his 67.Smith had scored 73 against a local side and 90 off 54 balls against Saurashtra and today he needed just 68 balls to score 76. He added 52 for the first wicket with Herschelle Gibbs and 86 for the second with Boeta Dippenaar. South Africa then lost four wickets for 22 runs and when Mark Boucher departed for 49, they were on an unconvincing 215 for 6.However Kallis, who batted at No 7, launched a fierce counter attack with Andrew Hall during the slog overs. Kallis smashed five sixes in his innings and the 88-run partnership for the eighth wicket came off just 8.3 overs.Charl Langeveldt led the bowling effort with an incisive opening spell that reaped two wickets. Ntini bowled a tight line and length but went wicketless during his eight-over spell that cost just 16 runs. Justin Kemp chipped in with two wickets although his continuing poor form with the bat will be a concern for the management. Andrew Hall and Andre Nel also bowled miserly spells as MCA were kept under wraps.

Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the ICC, has blamed the ICC’s shortcomings with regard to implementing the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code during the Champions Trophy on the lack of drug-testing culture in India.”The current ICC Champions Trophy is our first tournament since we became signatories to the WADA Code and it has presented us with some challenging issues,” Speed said in a statement on Tuesday. “These issues are logistical ones and are understandable given no infrastructure or culture of drug-testing exists currently in India, and when these issues have been raised with us we have worked hard to ensure they have been dealt with.”Speed was responding to a top WADA official’s criticism on Monday that the ICC had an unprofessional attitude towards fighting the drug menace in the sport.”We’ve been on many doping control testing missions with lots of federations,” Yousef Hasan, the WADA official said. “We’ve been dealing with them professionally and they’ve been dealing back very professionally as well. But unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about ICC.”Hasan reportedly mentioned that the two WADA officials who were to collect samples from players for random testing at each match were not provided with enough privacy at the venue. He added that the WADA officials were forced to share their rooms with others, which compromised the testing process.Speed said that he would meet with WADA officials today and also speak to David Howman, the WADA director general, to see if they had any additional concerns.

After lasting 205 balls and not having played a shot in anger, S Badrinathdanced down the pitch to Rahul Sanghvi and hit him straight back over hishead, clean as anything, and the ball thudded into the sightscreen,signalling the only six on a day where the scoring rate was just in excessof two runs per over. It was an amazing moment not because Badrinath isincapable of the big hits, but simply because it was a startling shot on aday when batsmen had to shelve their shots.Indian cricket these days is full of cricketers who want to make aninstant impact – and the best way to do that is to be a strokemaker. ButBadrinath is different, and is proud of the fact that he began as a grafterand from that solid base has grown into something more. “I started off asa grafter,” he told Cricinfo at the end of the day’s play. “My range of strokes hasincreased over time, has become broader. Now I think I’ve got all theshots. It’s basically a question of shot selection – which shots to playon which wickets, that’s important.”Badrinath has made eight first-class centuries, and some of them have beeninvaluable to Tamil Nadu’s cause, but this was perhaps the most critical,and he acknowledged that. “Given the circumstances I went out to bat in,11 for 2, and the fact that this was not the easiest wicket to bat on, Iwould rate this innings among the best I’ve played,” he said. “Perhapsthis isn’t my best-ever, but I’d rate it very highly.”There was another grafter on display on the day, in M Vijay, the debutant,who played almost five hours for his 59 and shared in a critical 127-runpartnership for the third wicket after an early wobble. “He looks a goodplayer, and has made plenty of runs in league cricket in Chennai,” saidBadrinath of Vijay. “He’s a bit inexperienced in that he’s playing hisfirst Ranji match, but he’s definitely a player for the future.”There is plenty of experience the team, though, with the likes of SSharath and Ashish Kapoor having played domestic cricket for years, andBadrinath is not ignorant of this. “There are times when I can talk tothese guys and get some inputs,” he said. “I’ve played a bit of cricketmyself, but you must remember this is just my third match as captain. Soit certainly helps to have the right blend of guys, like we do.”Badrinath was also not especially concerned that his team had only managed184 after winning the toss and choosing to bat. “The wicket was reallyslow and the ball was just not coming onto the bat,” he said. “Consideringthat you had to be patient and look to play long. The runs will eventuallycome. Losing only three wickets in the whole day was a good effort, evenif we only made 184 runs.”With the bounce not being consistent, it was hard work for the batsmen allround, and it’s only going to get tougher as the pitch wears down. “It washard to play both the spinners and the fast bowlers,” he said, refusing tobe drawn out on what was the easiest type of bowling to make runs againston this pitch. “The bounce isn’t true, so the horizontal bat shots arecompletely ruled out. This makes it hard to get boundaries. In suchsituations you just have to work, work, work and try and pick up the onesand twos wherever you can.”The hundred was a timely one for Badrinath, with Dilip Vengsarkar, thechairman of selectors, watching the game from near the players’ enclosure.When asked if Vengasarkar’s presence put any added pressure on him,Badrinath laughed off the suggestion. “It wasn’t a distraction,” he said”I’m just going to go out there and play my game, whoever is watching orisn’t. It wasn’t any added pressure on me.”

Listen to Graeme Smith’s press conferenceSouth Africa have now lost four of their last seven home Tests, and thepressure is well and truly on Graeme Smith, whose woes with the bat havecontributed in part to the miserable sequence of results. After losingwith more than five sessions to spare against an unfancied Indian side, headmitted that his team had been comprehensively outplayed, with India’sbowlers outperforming a highly-rated South African pace attack.”I think they probably got too many runs in the first innings,” said asubdued Smith, speaking to the media after the game. “The wicket playedquite slow on day one but it quickened up quite a lot on day two. But forus to get bowled out for what we did was obviously not good enough. Creditto them, they got the ball in the right areas and created chancesconsistently. They were a lot more precise than us the whole Test match.We did get the highest total of the game in the fourth innings but allcredit to India. They have got their first win and congratulations tothem.”He denied that complacency had played its part in his team’s defeat, andsaid that the Test side had a long way to go to match the standards set bytheir one-day counterparts. “I think they were pretty hungry in this Testmatch,” he said. “Mentally, I think they got a little more experience intheir line-up, especially in their middle-order, which probably helpedthem a little bit. We have had a slight dynamic change in our Test side.”Our one-day team is a pretty confident outfit. We have performed wellover two years, and got a lot of good characters in there. Our Test teamis in some ways an emerging team. We’ve got to do a lot of work in certainphases and make sure that mentally, we are a lot stronger.”The pain of defeat would no doubt have been intensified by his inabilityto contribute with the bat. Scores of 5 and 10 here took his tally for thelast 10 Tests to 465 at 24.47, with just two half-centuries in 19 trips tothe middle. “It’s hurtful to all of us,” said Smith. “Not so much becauseit’s India’s first win, but the way we performed was very disappointingfor all of us. I think that’s what hurts the most, we let ourselves down.”We never quite hit the straps in any department of the game and that wasa bit disappointing. I think we can improve a hell of a lot going intoDurban. Sitting down in the dressing room and having a chat now, the guysall know what’s required of them.”According to him, the South Africans hadn’t got the pitch they asked for,though he added that it couldn’t be used as an excuse for the 123-rundefeat. “I don’t think we got the kind of track we wanted but I don’t wantto sit up here and moan about it and use it as an excuse,” he said. “Ithink that’s an easy cop out. We’re always looking for good cricketwickets. South Africa is known for pace and bounce. That must be thechallenge of touring South Africa. The wicket wasn’t a great one butprobably boded well for a good Test match.”His batsmen lasted just 25.1 overs in the first innings, and though therewere a couple of doughty knocks at the second time of asking, the matchhad already slipped away. “I don’t think it was the easiest wicket to baton,” said Smith. “I think the new ball was a very difficult time to bat.From there on in, for about 35 to 40 overs, it got a little easier as theball got a little softer. But when it was hard, both teams were three orfour down pretty quickly. I guess that was probably the main reason. Weneed a little more application, a little more grafting in the next Testmatch. We need to get ourselves in and maybe grind a little bit harder.”He went on the defensive when pressed about the top-order frailty that wasevident in the one-day matches as well. “So is the Indian top order,” hesaid, when asked why his top six were struggling. “Both teams have got tolook into that, both teams have struggled in this game. The last five orsix Test matches that we have played, especially in South Africa, thewickets have been hard to bat on. But that’s not an excuse. We’ve got toget away and work hard.”Sreesanth was India’s standout bowler, with match figures of 8 for 99, andSmith was lavish with his praise. “He bowled well, he hit the best areasin the game. He swung the ball from a straight line, which is always verydifficult to play. I think his seam action is pretty good. He ran in hardand has a lot of energy. All credit to him. He really bowled superblythroughout the game, and deserves his success.”Sreesanth also irked the South Africans with the odd aside and gesture,but for Smith, it wasn’t really an issue. “I don’t think the aggressionbothers us,” he said. “We’ve played against a lot of aggressive outfits inthe past and that’s something we are used to. Guys who have playedinternational cricket for a lot of years now are pretty battle-hardened.”They played better than us and that’s the simple fact of it – they weremore precise, they hit better areas with the ball. Their back-endpartnership got them to a decent total in the first innings. There were alot of little things but in general, they were a little bit more hungrythan us.”

Sreesanth’s comical celebration of a straight six off Andre Nel elicited arare smile from Smith. “It was a funny moment,” he said. “I don’t thinkI’ve ever seen it on a cricket field though. We all love characters in thegame, I’m one that has always encouraged them. It’s important to havethem. It brings people into the stadiums and makes the game exciting towatch. But I think it’s all got to be within reason. Maybe he did push thebuttons a little bit there.”His own quick bowler, Dale Steyn, ended up bowling just 10.1 overs beforelimping off with a quadriceps strain. “It obviously hurt us a bit in thebowling department,” said Smith. “The workload increased a bit on theothers, and probably made us a little too similar. Macky [Makhaya Ntini]wasn’t at his best in this Test match, so you probably lost a bit ofvariety.”And getting into the tail, you need someone who can bowl at 150 km/h.We’re going to see how he recovers, and make a decision going into Durbanwhether he is fit enough to compete there.”There were plaudits too for Sourav Ganguly, who marked his return to theTest side with innings of 51 not out and 25. “After being out of the gamefor as long as he has, we expected him to come in and really want to dowell,” he said. “We didn’t expect him to come in and give us anything. Heand Laxman at five and six provided a lot of stability and experience andconfidence, especially with them also three or four down early on. Thatexperience has really helped India. Maybe they were a bit soft there inthe one-day series.”Ganguly’s 44-run final-wicket partnership with VRV Singh was also key inthe context of the match. “Those runs were obviously massive in terms ofthe scores that were scored in the game,” said Smith. “That partnershipobviously gave them some confidence and momentum going into the bowling,and they then backed it up superbly with the new ball.”His opening partnership with Herschelle Gibbs is now well and truly underthe scanner – Gibbs made a pair here – and Smith accepted that a changemight be on the cards. “I know the selectors have been in some discussion,we just need to see what they come up with,” he said. “But the team knowsthat we have to take our pain from this defeat. There will be a lot ofcriticism over the next few days and we are honest enough with ourselvesto stand up and say that we messed up this one.”There has been considerable criticism in the South African media over theteam’s preparation for this game, with the players skipping franchisegames while India played a warm-up in Potchefstroom. “When you lose a Testmatch like this, you can look back and say that we should have preparedmore,” said Smith. “That’s going to be the criticism, and we’ve got tolook back at those things, learn from them and move forward. “We’llprobably be arriving a little bit early in Durban.”A week ago, they might have expected to wrap up the series at Kingsmead.Now, after this stunning defeat, Smith and his men face a battle forsurvival.