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Glamorgan have several injury concerns as they prepare for a hecticten days of cricket with the Twenty20 competition starting on Mondayevening as Northamptonshire visit Sophia Gardens.Robert Croft and Dean Cosker both picked up groin strains during theWales-England match on Saturday, whilst Alex Wharf twisted an ankle inthe warm-up before the international match and was forced to withdrawfrom the Wales team.With Simon Jones and skipper Steve James also on the sidelines,Glamorgan were also dealt a blow earlier in the week when Andrew Daviesbroke a thumb in a 2nd XI match at Neath, whilst young batsmanJonathan Hughes also sustained a hand injury.However, there is good news about Darren Thomas, who has returned to fitnessfollowing a knee operation. Darren was injured in the opening Championshipmatch of the season, but he has come through a couple of 2nd XI matches,and with other players now on the injured list, Darren is poised to return tofirst team action in the Twenty20 games this week.

In defeating Middlesex so comprehensively in their Norwich Union League match, Sussex showed their all-round ability which has served them so well in both forms of cricket this season.Despite being in the middle of the Second Division table with 30 points, Sussex have put themselves in a position to challenge for promotion with this victory. They are already comfortably on top of the second division in the four-day game and their performance at Old Deer Park today highlighted their strength.To reach their modest target, they needed just 28.1 overs today as Richard Montgomerie guided them with a steady innings of 34 not out. Along with Murray Goodwin, 20 not out, he put on 43 in their unbroken stand for the third wicket.None of the six bowlers used by Middlesex could find penetration although Tim Bloomfield, coming on first change, claimed both Sussex wickets that fell in a space of four overs. The first went on 46 and then on 67.It showed in the end that there just were not enough runs on the board for Middlesex to bowl at.Earlier Middlesex, second from bottom in the second division, showed clearly why they are struggling in the Norwich Union League this season. They lasted only 37 overs, managing 109 with the help of 32 extras.Having been asked to bat on a slow pitch and in overcast conditions, none oftheir batsmen appeared to settle in. With tidy, accurate bowling Sussex keptthe pressure on as wickets fell at regular intervals.They were two down for 27 after the first wicket had gone in the first over.A revival seemed on the way as Owais Shah and Ed Joyce put on 35, the higheststand of the innings. But with the total 62 Joyce spliced his shot to becaught at cover and ten runs later Middlesex lost their fourth wicket.Fine off spin bowling by Mark Davis gave him four for 24 as he cut throughthe middle order. He had Shah, the top scorer with 23, held at long on andthen took two wickets in his sixth over, both with the total of 92.Stephen Fleming was caught driving to mid-on and Chad Keegan was bowledaround his legs after he had lifted the off spinner over wide mid-wicket forthe only six of the innings. Davis finally wrapped up the innings, bowlingTim Bloomfield with one that kept low.

Dwayne Bravo played a vital hand against England despite carrying an ankle injury © Getty Images

Dwayne Bravo has been ruled out of the quadrangular series in Ireland with the ankle injury he picked up against England. He was patched up and played a decisive role in West Indies’ 2-1 win, but hasn’t been risked for the matches against Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland in Dublin.Following West Indies’ victory at Trent Bridge to seal the series Bravo stayed behind in London, while his team-mates flew to Ireland, to have the ankle examined and treated then will return to the Caribbean.West Indies have decided not to call up a replacement for the short tour, instead offering chances to the players who didn’t appear against England.”We are going to miss Dwayne but we decided against replacement because it is a short trip with only three games,” said coach David Moore. “We’ve had some good performers in England who did not get a chance in the one-day internationals in England.”Darren Sammy did well but unfortunately missed out in the ODIs and Austin (Richards Jr) and Lendl (Simmons) will also have a chance to stake their claims.”West Indies open their tournament against Netherlands, at Clontarf, on Tuesday.

Tilan Samaraweera under pressure to perform © Getty Images

Seven of the Sri Lanka side to tour England last month have been included in a 14-man squad to represent a Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI for the three-day warm-up match against the touring South Africans on Saturday.With the first Test beginning a week on Thursday, the focus of Saturday’s warm-up is the competition for Sri Lanka’s middle-order. Tilan Samaraweera, who had a poor Test series in England, failing to reach double figures in any of his four innings, is being given another chance to regain his place. The SSC, where the Test is being held, is a favourite of Samaraweera’s and his home ground: he averages 77.9 in 10 Tests and three of his five Test hundreds were compile there, including a career-best 142.Samaraweera will fight for a spot in the Test line-up with the 19-year-old right-hander Chamara Kapugedera, who replaced him in the final Test against England, at Trent Bridge, where he struck his maiden Test fifty in Sri Lanka’s victory to level the series.Michael Vandort and Jehan Mubarak, both left-handers, are also under pressure to perform. While Mubarak failed to get amongst the runs and was subsequently dropped against England, Vandort went onto score a hundred in the Edgbaston Test and retained his place for the rest of the series.With Sanath Jayasuriya knocking on the door once again, following a brilliant run in the one-dayers against England and Holland, the pressure on Vandort in particular is immense. Fast bowlers Nuwan Zoysa and Ruchira Perera, and the wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene are the other members of the squad who toured England.South Africa, whose depleted squad numbers just 12 in the absence of Shaun Pollock and Thandi Tshabalala, will name their eleven on the morning of the match. Both players will join the squad next week ahead of the Test matches although time will be tight for Pollock, whose wife is expected to give birth around the same time.Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI (from)
Avishka Gunawardene (capt), Tilan Samaraweera (vice-capt), Michael Vandort, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Kapugedera, Upul Chandana, Rangana Herath, Akalanka Ganegama, Nuwan Zoysa, Ruchira Perera, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Chamara Silva, Jeewan Mendis, Kaushal Lokuarachchi.South Africans (from)
Ashwell Prince (capt), Jacques Rudolph, Hashim Amla, Nicky Boje, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn.

The bitter row between the West Indies board (WICB) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) took another twist at the weekend when the board said that it had offered a sum of around $90,000 as a tour guarantee for the Sri Lanka series, a claim vigorously denied by WIPA.The guarantee was at the heart of the dispute which led to all but three of the named squad refusing to tour. WIPA opened negotiations by asking for a sum of $200,000, a figure which was subsequently reduced to $150,000 and then to $125,000.Dinanath Ramnarine, WIPA’s president, insisted that the board never wavered from offering $50,000, but on Friday, Roger Brathwaite, the WICB’s chief executive, told reporters that he had suggested “a proposal in the region of US$80,000-90,000 might be a figure that the board would give some consideration to ,but this was rejected out of hand.””The board in no correspondence to WIPA indicated that it was willing to move from the $50,000 offer,” Ramnarine countered. “In an e-mail received at 7.39pm on June 29, the board stated that it was going to select another team because the players didn’t sign and told us that our proposal was too high. They never said they were willing to look at US$80,000 to US$90,000. There seems to be a lot of (unheard of) things being told at this time but the truth will always prevail.”There was, however, some progress with the news that the WICB had sent a signed copy of the Collective Labour Agreement to the WIPA. Ramnarine confirmed that WIPA would be signing the document.

A senior official of the ICC’s Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) has admitted that while bookmaking is still a major concern for the game, the situation has improved markedly in the last few years.”Bookmaking is still very much part of the sport,” Nuruddin Khawaja, the ACU’s regional security manager, told The News in Pakistan. “But I think we have succeeded to a big extent in keeping the players clear of corrupt elements seeking to soil the sport to make easy money.”Things today are far better than the crisis world cricket was facing from this menace a few years back.”Khawaja said that although international cricket was still big business for professional bookmakers, the security protocols implemented by the ACU meant that most players and match officials now stayed well clear of bookmakers.He also denied rumours that a match in India’s recent one-day series against Pakistan had been fixed, explaining that the ACU had not found anything of substance in the allegations made by Rashid Latif regarding the result of the fourth one-dayer at Lahore.But Khawaja admitted that the Indian bookmaker Ratan Mehta had figured in a lot of the investigations, and that he had ties with some players. He added: “The ACU is aware of his activities and is keeping a close watch on him.”

Another Ashes drubbing has been and gone, and several old hands in the England Test team will be nervously contemplating their futures ahead of Saturday’s announcement of the Test squad to face Zimbabwe at Lord’s next week. A new English summer invariably brings calls for new blood, and predictably enough, one old stager will be the centre of all the headlines.

England’s most-capped cricketer is back under the spotlight

Ever since Ray Illingworth tried to do away with him in 1996, Alec Stewart has been the subject of perennial speculation. First there was indignation that he had displaced the much-loved Jack Russell as England’s first-choice wicketkeeper. Then there was ageism as his 40th birthday came and went and still he wouldn’t budge. But James Foster had an uninspired time behind the stumps in India and New Zealand last year, and though Stewart has volunteered to stand down from one-day internationals (without going so far as to retire, of course), the feeling persists that there is no-one yet worthy of filling his boots.There is one man coming up the rails, however. Nottinghamshire’s Chris Read is now 24, and a vastly improved player from the nervous rookie who ducked into a slower ball from Chris Cairns in 1999. He is the prime candidate to take Stewart’s place, although Andrew Flintoff’s untimely arm injury may yet earn Stewart a reprieve – with Craig White out for much of the season with a rib injury, there are few other allrounders capable of justifying a place.If Stewart does play in his 127th Test, England will be fielding a wicketkeeper who is more than twice the age of his Zimbabwean counterpart – Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s vice-captain, who turned 20 on Wednesday. All the more reason, therefore, to look to youth in other areas. England’s top four of Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher (who scored a century in his last Test) and Nasser Hussain are immoveable, which means that Robert Key has to be given his opportunity to build on an impressive Ashes series, in which he displayed character in abundance and runs in moderation. It is tough luck on John Crawley, who did nothing much wrong in his latest return to the colours.Another young shoo-in is Jimmy Anderson. Rod Marsh, England’s new fourth selector, may have tried to play down the hype, saying that Anderson has been in the game “five minutes”, but unfortunately he just refuses to stop taking wickets. On Wednesday he included his captain, Hussain, as the middle man in a hat-trick for Lancashire against Essex.Anderson will bring some youthful exuberance to Lord’s, although the late withdrawal of the elder statesman, Andy Caddick, will leave the new ball in the hands of the equally green-fingered Stephen Harmison – the temptation may be to turn back to the experience of Darren Gough, who has recovered well from his chronic knee injury. Matthew Hoggard, who didn’t feature in the World Cup despite being part of the squad, might be given the opportunity to swing Zimbabwe into oblivion in favourable conditions, while Ashley Giles’s left-arm spin will be called upon if required.Possible squad Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Robert Key, John Crawley, Andrew Flintoff, Alec Stewart (wk), Ashley Giles, Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson, Darren Gough.

Hampshire chose from thirteen for the long journey to Riverside for the floodlit match against Durham on Wednesday evening (14th August)With Alan Mullally selected for the England test team, Alex Morris who usually sits out the one-day matches is drafted in. John Francis, brother of Simon is brought into the squad following excellent batting form for the Second XI.The thirteen are: Robin Smith (captain), Derek Kenway (wicket-keeper), Jason Laney, Neil Johnson, Will Kendall, Lawrence Prittipaul, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Alex Morris, Chris Tremlett, James Hamblin, Shaun Udal, Giles White and John Francis.

The PCB’s governing board has endorsed its chairman Shaharyar Khan’s view to not play their home series against India in India. The board reaffirmed its stance and expected the BCCI to fulfill its agreement to play Pakistan in the UAE between December 8 and January 9.”The BoG has reaffirmed its position regarding the scheduled Pakistan-India series,” Shaharyar said after the meeting in Lahore. “BoG has restated that the BCCI has signed an agreement with the PCB to play the series in UAE. Under the circumstances the BoG insists that the BCCI should honour its pledge to play in the UAE. There is no reason to justify the BCCI asking the PCB to play the series in India because there’s no security issue involved playing the series in UAE.

Misbah, Younis appointed to PCB cricket committee

The PCB has announced the addition of Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan to the board’s cricket committee. This will be the first time that active players will be a part of the PCB committee.
“This is a very important decision that the Board of Governors has taken,” PCB chief Shaharyar Khan said. “Younis and Misbah will be offering their input purely on cricketing matters whenever they are available.”
Shaharyar said the decision was taken for the PCB to get a better understanding of the modern game. Misbah and Younis have both retired from the limited-overs cricket and only play for the Test side.

“They should adhere to that agreement and we should not go to India. So that’s what BoG discussed today and after that they have advised us. In reality where MoUs are signed, it’s not binding but there’s a legal opinion that it’s an agreement as you have given something against it.”A day after Shaharyar had revealed that BCCI president Shashank Manohar had offered to host Pakistan in India in December, he made it clear the bilateral series would only be possible if India toured the UAE. The BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on the other hand had said the Indian government would not grant permission for India to play Pakistan in the UAE.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had also expressed his disapproval regarding Pakistan playing in India. “This is not about money; it’s an issue that involves Pakistan’s dignity and honour,” he said. “Though the final decision is to be taken by the Prime Minister, I will oppose any tour to India under the present circumstances if it comes under discussion at a cabinet meeting or some other forum.”The PCB said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the BCCI to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. Four of those series will be hosted by Pakistan and the six tours will include up to 14 Tests, 30 ODIs and 12 T20s.”We won’t play against them,” said Shaharyar said, when asked what if the BCCI refuse to play in the UAE. “Some people think that if Pakistan doesn’t play against India, whether in UAE or in India, then we will go bankrupt. But we have not been playing for the last eight years and still we have survived. We won’t be getting a bonus, but it’s all right if you are not playing against us.”We will suffer a loss and we understand we have to tighten our belts and have to do downsizing but we have to pass through it. We have to sacrifice this because of the country but at the same time we are doing fine with our finances and can continue.”The MOU with the BCCI was a result of the PCB’s conditional support for the ICC revamp, a move pushed for by the BCCI, CA and ECB that restructured the power and revenue structure of the governing body. When asked if supporting the revamp was the wrong move, Shaharyar said commitments were made to be fulfilled at this level.

According to the London Evening Standard, Kieran Trippier will reject interest from Napoli to sign a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.

Trippier, 27, registered nine assists in 35 appearances for Tottenham last term.

There were stages of the season where the Spurs supporters criticised the right-back, but he can be pleased with his overall campaign.

The defender’s form saw him earn a spot in the England squad for the 2018 World Cup, and he is being tipped to start his nation’s tournament opener against Tunisia in a wing-back role.

Trippier, who is valued at £18m by transfermarkt.co.uk, is wanted by Napoli in this summer’s transfer window, according to the London Evening Standard.

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However, it is being reported that the Englishman is not interested in a move to Serie A, and will look to pen a new contract with Tottenham as soon as possible.

The Spurs supporters have been reacting to the news on social media, and a selection can be seen below: