Australia’s left-arm seamer, Nathan Bracken, could make his Gloucestershire debut in the C&G Trophy on Saturday, after being signed as an overseas player until the end of the season.Bracken has played three Tests to date, and is in line to replace Mike Smith, who has suffered a slipped disc. Should he play at Lord’s, it will be a bittersweet moment for him, for it was after sustaining a shoulder injury there in 2001 that he was forced to fly home from the Ashes tour.”Nathan will be a very useful addition to us in these important final games of the season,” said Gloucestershire’s player-coach, Mark Alleyne, who is himself a doubt for the match because of a broken thumb.Alleyne, however, is expected to play through the pain barrier, in what could be his final Lord’s appearance. “I would be very surprised if Mark isn’t fit,” Gloucestershire’s allrounder Alex Gidman told BBC Sport.

ScorecardSteve Tikolo warmed up for the ICC Champions Trophy with a superb innings of 156 which allowed Kenya to frustrate India A in the final first-class match of their tour at the Simba Union. In response to India A’s massive total of 492, Kenya made 356 before both captains agreed to a stalemate with 20 overs remaining in the day’s play.Tikolo’s knock spanned 286 balls, and a third-wicket partnership of 151 with Morris Ouma ensured that Kenya wouldn’t suffer the indignity of the follow on. Ouma made 58 before being bowled by Sridharan Sriram.There were also useful contributions from Lameck Onyango – whose 48 took just 41 balls and included four towering sixes off Ramesh Powar – and Kennedy Obuya (23). The improved batting display would have greatly encouraged the Kenyans, whose preparation for the Champions Trophy has been plagued by indifferent form, and the loss of Maurice Odumbe – banned for allegedly fixing matches.For India A, it was a satisfactory conclusion to a tour that included an emphatic victory in the Tri Series that also featured Pakistan A. In Mahendra Dhoni and Shib Shankar Paul, they unearthed two talents who will surely be contending for a senior slot soon. As for Tikolo and his team, they have been grouped along with India and Pakistan in the Champions Trophy, and will play their first match on September 11, against India at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.

The England side finally arrived in Harare at lunchtime along with many of the journalists whose ban had originally threatened the future of the tour.The welcome was low key, with nobody from Zimbabwe Cricket on hand to greet them. The squad were rushed through the airport and then driven to their city-centre hotel accompanied by a hefty police escort.Security round the hotel was equally heavy and one eyewitness described the atmosphere as “hostile”. He added that there were “many people in suits who are clearly government agents keeping an eye on journalists”.Earlier, England rejected a request from Zimbabwe Cricket to reschedule Friday’s opening one-day international at the Harare Cricket Club to Saturday. England’s late arrival meant the players and management felt they had insufficient time to prepare for a game so soon. Sources in Zimbabwe reported that there will now be two matches at Harare and two at Bulawayo, with the fifth game scrapped.Meanwhile, David Morgan, the beleaguered ECB chairman, defended his actions in visiting Harare. “I have certainly looked at what’s happening here. We have sympathy with the people here, but the ECB is in business. Our trade is cricket and the revenue part of our trade is international cricket,” Morgan told reporters. “In order to trade internationally, we have to play by the rules of the ICC, and the rules of ICC are such that member countries are not allowed to avoid tours as part of the Future Tours Programme for moral reasons.”

Queensland 4 for 209 (Hopes 73, Symonds 62*) beat Tasmania 8 for 207 (Bevan 89*, Wright 52) by 6 wickets
ScorecardSuperb allround performances by James Hopes and Andrew Symonds allowed Queensland to thrash Tasmania in their ING Cup match at Launceston. Set a target of 208 for victory, Queensland romped home with more than 25 overs to spare, thanks to Hopes (73 off 46 balls) and Symonds (62 not out off 35).Earlier, Hopes and Symonds had starred with the ball as well, taking five out of the eight Tasmanian wickets to fall. Symonds mopped up the lower order to finish with 3 for 45, while Hopes took 2 for 49 as Tasmania managed just 207 after electing to bat. Their total would have been a lot worse, but for a spirited unbeaten 89 by Michael Bevan, and 52 from Damien Wright. They were two of only four batsmen who made it into double figures as Queensland put in an excellent performance in the field.The win puts Queensland on top of the points table, and has virtually assured them of the opportunity to host the final, on February 20. They are currently on 30 points, 12 clear of second-placed Victoria and Tasmania.

Gladstone Dainty, the president of the USA Cricket Association, has hit back at recent attacks on his board and the way it has been run.The unease with the USACA came to a head last week when a confidential and highly critical letter from the ICC to Dainty was leaked to the media. “We question whether the current administration of USACA can play any constructive role in taking the game forward in the United States,” Malcolm Speed and Ehsan Mani, the ICC’s chief executive and president, had written. “We have never seen a sporting organisation that combines such great potential and such poor administration as USACA. From our observations, much of the blame for this lies with the current office-bearers of USACA including yourself. We question whether the current administration of USACA can play any constructive role in taking the game forward in the United States.”The letter said that the funding due under Project USA would be withdrawn unless the USACA fulfilled certain obligations by February 1.Dainty was not prepared to take the criticism lying down, and said that the USACA had not committed to Project USA because of “unreasonable demands” imposed by the ICC. “They have demanded that all of the funds raised from the project go to the ICC headquarters, and then they in turn would redistribute the monies,” Dainty told a Canadian website. “We have no idea what funds we would get back from the project. Also, who was to say that they would not take that money and start another organisation.”In addition, there are legal ramifications surrounding monies raised in the US and being taken out of the country. We were simply not comfortable with that agreement because it seemed as if that was meant to benefit just one party.”And Dainty claimed that when he tried to raise his concerns at an ICC meeting last year he was told by “a top ICC executive” to “shut up”. He added, rather theatrically: “You could say that perhaps I am lucky to be alive, because in years gone by I might have been lynched. Then again, you get a better idea of the people you are dealing with. With that kind of attitude, I am sceptical they can even deliver what they promised.”He also claimed that the leaking of the letter was orchestrated by the ICC. “It gives people the opportunity to see the kind of pressure that the ICC tries to exert on some of its members when they fail to go along with their demands,” he insisted. Cricinfo has been informed, however, that the leak came from within the USACA and not from the ICC.Although Dainty concluded the interview by defiantly insisting that the USACA would not enter into the agreement unless it was in the best interests of US cricket, Cricinfo understands that the agreement was signed after some heated exchanges between Dainty and senior USACA officials over the weekend.

Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, has called for an urgent review of security measures at grounds in New Zealand after some of his players were hit by missiles thrown from the crowd during the first one-day international of the current series at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, which Australia won by 10 runs.Play was held up a number of times after some of the Australian fielders – among them Glenn McGrath and Simon Katich – told the umpires they had been hit by plastic bottles.”Someone’s going to get hurt,” said Ponting at the after-match press conference. “A full plastic bottle hitting someone in the eye or the back of the head – we don’t want that. You have to have more security guys around the players on the boundary. They’ve got to have some sort of power – get the police involved, whatever.”Katich got into a tense exchange with a section of the crowd at the Westpac Stadium after catching Brendon McCullum on the boundary. Holding the ball aloft in the direction of the crowd, Katich let out some verbals at those who had thrown full plastic beer bottles in his direction. That incident followed a verbal altercation between McGrath and a security guard after McGrath misjudged a catch on the third-man fence. That eventually led the guard being removed.McGrath, who was named the Man of the Match for his fine spell, admitted that he had over-reacted. “I had, an altercation might be the right word, with a security guard on the fence,” McGrath said. “But I was a bit fired up at the time, so I probably should accept 50% of what happened there myself.”Five years ago Steve Waugh, when he was Australia’s captain, threatened to take his players off the field after similar crowd disturbances in New Zealand.

Pakistan begin their tour game on a `ganja’ wicket. That’s how their coach Bob Woolmer described the pitch at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association ground in Dharamsala, where the tourists play a three-day game with the Indian Board President’s XI being led by Mohammad Kaif. Kaif went straight to the point, without saying much about the pitch: “There can’t be a result in a game of this sort.” “It’s completely bald” was Woolmer’s assessment.Both men were right with their assessments. However, if nature had behaved true to form, their opinions might have been different. In the ongoing domestic season, the ground had hosted six first-class games – four Ranji Trophy and two Duleep Trophy – and all the six produced results.The chief reason behind the results was the grassy pitch. “The speciality of this wicket was the abundant grass cover,” says Himachal Pradesh Ranji Trophy coach, Rajdeep Kalsi, who acted as the curator for the ground under the guidance of the BCCI grounds committee member Daljit Singh. However, in the last one month, inclement weather and drizzle has denuded the pitch of its lush green tinge.The altitude and the heavy air will assist the fast bowlers who rely on movement, but the ball will not zip off the pitch as it had during the domestic games. As for the bounce, that will be normal. That should be good news for the Pakistan pace brigade of Naved-ul-Hasan Rana, Mohammad Sami and Abdur Razzaq. Mohammad Khalil, the left-armer, is still recovering from the injury he suffered during the Australia series and didn’t bowl in the nets.Kalsi felt that the wicket could take turn as the match wore on. “There are good chances of the wicket breaking midway into the third day,” he said. That might happen if the frequent clouds that keep appearing take a break.Both teams were quiet on the team-composition front, but it should be quite a tussle. Kaif said that his team would make sure that they don’t allow Pakistan to gain any momentum before the main event starts in Mohali in six days’ time. Hopefully, the weather Gods will relent long enough for both teams to make an impression.Board President’s XI (from): Satyajit Parab, Dheeraj Jadhav, Shikhir Dhawan, Venugopala Rao, Mohammad Kaif (capt), Suresh Raina, Neeraj Patel, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ramesh Powar, Shib Shankar Paul, Rudra Pratap Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Ranadeb Bose, Ram Kumar.Pakistan (from): Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Khalil, Asim Kamal, Taufeeq Umar, Shahid Afridi, Arshad Khan.

Rarely, through the bizarrely grueling itinerary this tour has charted, has cricket and all its pre-match rituals – the scouring of the ground, pre-match press conferences, press box arrangements, coming to the stadium in the morning – been as unpleasant an experience as it has in Jamshedpur.This is not intended as a slight on the city; it is an admirable construct and a curious blend of drab industry with pleasant foliage. In any case, the schedule is such that if sightseeing stretches beyond your hotel room wall, consider it a luxury. The residents of the city and the fans too are blameless.Although there is little that is inspiring about the Keenan Stadium – certainly not the hastily constructed rickety extra bamboo stands – it holds intrigue. Maybe it is the plumes of smoke drifting out of the steel mills blending into abundant greenery. Or perhaps it is because of its capacity; it holds only 20,000 and feels even more compact.And until Indian wickets began tumbling, the crowd at least had been an energetic one. Then, their energies were expended towards the exit, not a graceless departure, but a regrettable one nonetheless. They had been fitfully non-partisan and sporting, heartily acknowledging the arrival of Inzamam, politely clapping Pakistani boundaries and generously clapping Salman Butt’s century. The missile thrown onto the field in the 11th over was, thankfully, a solitary and minor aberration.So why will Jamshedpur be less than fondly remembered? Partially at least because, until yesterday afternoon, it looked barely capable of handling one journalist let alone the traveling circus that accompanies an India-Pakistan match. The press gallery, situated worryingly just above the sight-screen just to please Sachin Tendulkar, was full of those chairs with arm-rests more commonly associated with exam halls. No tables for laptops let alone plug points for them in sight. The media communication centre, bereft of phone lines and PCs was used for the pre-match press conference. The Pakistan Radio commentary team didn’t have a box until they rented a tent on top of the pavilion the night before the game.Was the Keenan stadium really fit to hold an international match of this magnitude? Obviously the PCB’s venue inspection team had thought so in February.But the Jharkhand State Cricket Association, to their credit, at least managed to get the press gallery into a minimum working order. They remained limited – we weren’t sure whether there was a scorer or not for Pakistan’s innings – but local staff were at least willing. And at least they provided snacks and a much-needed lassi in the morning session.No, the real basis of the distaste that Jamshedpur will unfortunately leave originates from the overbearing officiousness of almost all the security personnel. Actually officiousness is possibly too polite a word. At every level, every instance, in the ground, outside it, at team hotels, various police and private security forces have been obnoxious, antagonistic, disinterested and rude. If you asked them for directions they snorted gruffly, if you asked to be let through somewhere, they would be virulently obscurantist, even after passes had been shown.The day before the game journalists weren’t allowed onto the field during practice. The local association said it was under police orders not to. The police said they knew nothing about it but wouldn’t let journalists go on. Yet on the field, during practice, were families, happily strolling around, hunting autographs and taking pictures with players. Some of these fans left the ground later in police cars.Despite having arranged an interview with a team member in the afternoon, upon turning up at the hotel, I was brusquely evicted by a senior police official, trippy on power. My crime was to have forgotten to arrange the interview through him, now obviously an ad-hoc hotel media manager. “My job is not a pleasant one so don’t expect me to be pleasant,” he explained. No argument, no pass, nothing – out. So the stone-throwing incident on the team bus had concurrently rattled and raised stakes, but was there the need to be as abrupt, as obstinate and just so rude? Could not a little courtesy have been extended?Outside Keenan Stadium this morning, policemen were little more than uniforms on pot-bellied sticks, unwilling to help with directions but more than willing to become obstacles to entry. I asked one for directions to the media entrance as no maps or directions were forthcoming. He huffed that he didn’t know but that I should immediately turn around and go. Where? No answer.It’s not so much that they were like this. Police and security personnel, after all, are rarely polite in this part of the world but what has been shocking is how deeply it permeated. It wasn’t just one incident of surliness, it was sustained at every level and at every opportunity.Coming as it did on the back of a trouble and hassle-free tour, on the back of Cochin and Visakhapatnam – small venues which many thought wouldn’t be fit to host a tour as momentous as this but which had coped so well – it was surprising, unfortunate, unnecessary and ill-timed.

Andrew Flintoff is set to make an early return to action in Lancashire’s National League match against Middlesex, at Lord’s on Sunday. Early indications were that he would not return to competitive action until mid-May and although he will only be playing as a batsman his comeback will be a boost to the England camp ahead of the Ashes.Flintoff underwent ankle surgery after returning from England’s Test series against South Africa at the end of January. He was originally given a timescale of around 12 weeks before he would be ready to play again, but he was worked intensively with Dave Roberts, the former England physio, and has been given permission to play by Dr Peter Gregory, the ECB’s chief medical officer.”I’m desperate to the back in action,” Flintoff told . “It’s over 10 weeks since I’ve had a game but I’ve felt in decent form in practice and I just want to get going again.”Dr Gregory visited Flintoff in Bolton and at Old Trafford where he bowled six overs in the nets. Mike Watkinson, the Lancashire cricket manager, said: “Dr Gregory spent time with Freddie watching him bat and bowl and there were no mishaps – he looks ready to play. It will be a boost for us but even more so for him because he has reached saturation point in his rehabilitation programme and just wants to get out there again with his bat.”If Flintoff gets through the National League match without any reaction he could make his first-class return in Lancashire’s County Championship clash with Worcestershire at New Road, starting on April 27. However, he will still miss England’s two Tests against Bangladesh.

On the eve of England’s first Test against Bangladesh, Graham Thorpe has sprung a major surprise – and given further evidence of his impending retirement from international cricket – by signing a contract to play for New South Wales in the coming Australian season.”At this stage of my career, it makes sense to start planning for the future and this is an excellent opportunity for me to develop my career in a new environment,” said Thorpe in a statement. “I will be using the time to enhance my coaching qualifications and looking to contribute as much as I can to their cricket on-and-off the field.”It is quite common for Australian cricketers to come over to England in the final years of their career, but it is virtually unheard of for English players to go in the other direction, and it is further evidence of the high regard in which Thorpe, 35, is held Down Under. In 16 matches against Australia, Thorpe averages 45.74 with three centuries, but for various personal and fitness reasons he has played in just one of England’s last 14 encounters.Thorpe will be available from January 2006 until the end of the Australian domestic season in March, in which time he will be playing for a Sydney Grade club side, assist the NSW coaching set-up and be available to play for NSW if required. In theory, it means he will still be available for England’s tour of Pakistan in November and December, although it would rule him out of the trip to India in the new year.But, by ruling himself out of one tour, Thorpe has almost certainly ruled himself out of both, if the precedent set in 2001-02 still stands. On that occasion, Darren Gough and Alec Stewart opted to miss the pre-Christmas India leg, but found themselves on the sidelines for the New Zealand tour as well, as Fletcher stamped his authority on the selection process.Retirement is far from Thorpe’s thoughts for the time being, however, as a busy summer of international cricket gets underway at Lord’s tomorrow. “I informed Duncan Fletcher and David Graveney of my plans yesterday and have also assured them that as far as this summer is concerned, I will be giving all my attention to the forthcoming npower Test Series against Bangladesh and Australia.”