Brett Lee’s scorching pace and unforgiving hostility very nearly ended Sri Lanka’s World Cup dream on Friday afternoon.

Victory against the all-conquering Australians was never likely after Ricky Ponting won the toss, nor was it essential to progress into the next round.Sri Lanka could qualify for the semi-finals with just one win, and they were always going to target the India and Zimbabwe games for that victory.But the loss of Sanath Jayasuriya with a broken arm would have had catastrophic consequences.The left-hander has been the catalyst for Sri Lanka’s recent revival and stands out as the side’s premier match-winner with the blade.

Moreover, Jayasuriya has played a vital role with his left-arm spin, invariably completing his full quota of overs and often taking important wickets.His possible absence in the next game against India would upset the balance of the side and pose a selection quandary: to play an extra bowler or, more likely, bowl Aravinda de Silva for a minimum of ten overs?Against the spin-assured Indians, de Silva’s part-time off-breaks are likely to be targeted and it remains to be seen as to whether his undisputed shrewdness will cover his obvious limitations with the ball.Indeed, the ease with which Adam Gilchrist and Ponting nullified the threat of Chaminda Vaas and then plundered Sri Lanka’s assortment of spinners is a concern.

Clearly, with their currently limited bowling resources, the best way for SriLanka to win games is to score a mountain of runs and then apply pressureduring a run chase with tight bowling and dervish-like fielding.Thankfully, the current prognosis on Jayasuriya is that his chipped finger and badly bruised forearm are unlikely to rule him out of the tournament.Alex Kontouri, the Sri Lanka physio, is adopting a wait and see attitude: “It will take at least 48 hours to decide if he can play in the next match. But he is not out of the tournament.”

Should Sri Lanka meet the Australians again, in the semi-finals or final, Jayasuriya can expect a similar working over by Australia’s pace bowlers.”When you bowl to him on his body he tends to wriggle,” said Ponting after the game.Adding, unapologetically: “It’s a World Cup and we’re trying to bowl where their batsmen are least likely to score. If that happens to be at the body then it will be at the body.”We’re not going to go out there and bowl him wide ones because he’s going to smack us over cover or point every time – that’s a weakness in his game and we’ve picked up on that of late.”

But, in truth, Jayasuriya is not a complete mug against short bowling and should he survive the initial burst against the hard, glossy new ball then he can still prosper.In fact, after the early retirement of the skipper, Sri Lanka fared moderately well as Marvan Atapattu and Hashan Tillakaratne added 36 runs.Lee was forced to wait for the fifth ball of his fifth over to claim his first wicket. Had Atapattu not popped back a return catch then Lee could well have taken his sweater after a wicketless first spell.

Sri Lanka would most probably have still lost chasing such a towering target but an already fragile middle order might have survived with more confidence.At least de Silva proved that even Australian bowlers can be flogged.So much for 37-years-old’s powers having waned. The veteran rolled back the years with a vintage swivel pull onto Centurion’s grassy banks and his one-legged flick for six off Lee later was simply magical.De Silva is batting with better form and greater freedom than he has down for years. He no longer has anything to prove: no selectors to please, no treadmills to run. A new life beckons and de Silva wants to end two decades on a high.

For Shane Warne, Jonty Rhodes, Alan Donald, Wasim Akram, possibly Waqar Younis and perhaps Carl Hooper there was no fairytale farewell. On the contrary, this World Cup has shed no tears.Can de Silva bow out with a bang? Sri Lanka certainly needs one.

World Cup star Chaminda Vaas will miss Sri Lanka’s crucial first Sharjah Cupmatch against Pakistan on Friday.Vaas, who took a record 23 wickets at 14.39 during the World Cup, hasinjured his right landing ankle in practice.There is also a serious concern over the fitness of his new ball partner,Dilhara Fernando, who was unable to train on Thursday because of a soreback.”Chaminda (Vaas) is out and Dilhara was unable to bowl this morning,” saidteam manager Ajit Jayasekera.The management hopes that Vaas will recover in time for Sunday’s revengematch against Kenya.There is an outside chance that Fernando could still play but there is already concern that he has aggravated an old stress fracture.”He is being treated by the physio now and we will just have to see how thatgoes before we select the side tonight,” said JayasekeraWith the selectors having axed Pulasthi Gunaratne, their fifth seamer, SriLanka are now left with only the inexperienced Buddhika Fernando and PrabathNissanka as back-up.

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.

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.

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.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has announced he wants to play league cricket in England in an attempt to salvage his international career. Inzamam was dropped by Pakistan after managing just 19 runs in six matches in the World Cup, and watched his replacements go down fighting in a 2-1 defeat against England in the NatWest Challenge.”Since there is no domestic cricket being played in Pakistan, the only way I can satisfy the selectors about my fitness is to play some league cricket,” said Inzamam, who shed several pounds ahead of the World Cup. “I have contacted some league clubs in England through my Pakistan team-mates who are in England. Hopefully, I should be active in league cricket by early July.”Inzamam is now 33, and has played 85 Test matches for Pakistan, at an average of 48.92. “I retain my hunger and passion for the game, he added, “and I am not disheartened at being dropped after the World Cup. It happens to every player. You just have to fight back and make a comeback.”

Brian Lara has returned to the highest echelon of the world’s Test batsmen as a result of his efforts in the West Indies’ series victory over Sri Lanka.Lara supplanted Australia’s Matthew Hayden at the top of the Test batting rankings issued by PriceWaterhouseCoopers today. Sachin Tendulkar remains unchallenged as the world’s leading one-day international batsman with Lara in fourth place. The big mover in the ODI batting is Marcus Trescothick of England, who leapt six places to No 7 on the batting list.The bowling is dominated by South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, who sits atop both the Test and ODI rankings.The top 10 lists are:Tests:Batting: Brian Lara (West Indies), Matthew Hayden (Australia), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Michael Vaughan (England), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistan), Rahul Dravid (India), Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa),Bowling: Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Glenn McGrath (Australia), Harbhajan Singh (India), Jason Gillespie (Australia), Andrew Caddick (England), Makhaya Ntini (South Africa), Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), Anil Kumble (India), Jacques Kallis (South Africa).ODIs:Batting: Tendulkar, Ponting, Gibbs, Lara, Gilchrist, Chris Gayle (West Indies), Marcus Trescothick (England), Michael Bevan (Australia), Hayden, Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies).Bowling: Pollock, Muralitharan, McGrath, Ntini, Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka), Brett Lee (Australia), Shane Bond (New Zealand), Gillespie, Zaheer Khan (India), Harbhajan.

Khaled Mashud, the Bangladesh wicketkeeper, had a thumb shattered byBrett Lee as Australia drubbed Bangladesh in the first one-dayer onSaturday. Mashud has been ruled out of the next two games in the three-matchone-day series.Lee produced fiery pace, even though he claimed he was not aiming forexceptional speed. Lee (4-25) and Gillespie (3-23) had too much pace andguile for the inexperienced tourists, who never threatened to make acompetitive score. Lee, although well short of the 160-km-per-hour (99-mile) an hour pace he achieved earlier this year, was pleased with hisform. “It’s a pretty good wicket, it had some bounce and carry and itwas a pleasure to bowl on,” he said. “It felt like the rhythm was thereand it felt like it all came together at once. I wasn’t even trying tobowl fast, I was trying to get my action nice and high and get the ballthrough to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.”Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, had high praise for the quality ofLee’s bowling. “We saw some magnificent pace bowling,” he said. “It wasquite exceptional.” He agreed Bangladesh faced a challenge in regroupingfor the second one-day encounter at Cairns on Sunday. “If we can weatherthat storm (Lee’s opening assault) and have a few of our batters intact,we’ve got a chance of posting a reasonably competitive total,” he said.

After writing England’s, and Michael Vaughan’s, summer obituaries at the end of the first day at The Oval, the English newspapers were forced to change their tune after England’s historic win against South Africa yesterday.

Mike Walters, in , summed up the buoyant mood of the English public and players, describing the win as sensational and swashbuckling. He gushed: “In a summer of more twists than the London Underground map, Michael Vaughan’s men went from dunces to diamond geezers in the space of five days.” And he added that Vaughan, who joined in a playful game of football with a space-hopper on the outfield, was lucky that “five of his foot-soldiers ensured the final npower Test will go down in the pantheon of their greatest wins”.And those five foot-soldiers – Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison and Martin Bicknell – all received accolades in varying degrees. Christopher Martin-Jenkins, in , more soberly pointed out that those individuals had “played to their potential” and that the team performed “as a whole with a determination and professionalism that did them all proud”. splashed a photo of Alec Stewart hoisted on his team-mates’ shoulders, with the corny headline “We’re Oval the moon”. John Etheridge described the win as staggering and mind-boggling, and insisted that this victory “will rank alongside anything Stewart experienced in his time at the top”.But while most eyes were on the departing Stewart, Vaughan didn’t escape the column inches. Angus Fraser, in , wrote that even though Vaughan has had only four matches in charge of England, “He will have been through a far greater range of emotions than Steve Waugh in the four years he has led the world champions.”And although Fraser said that Vaughan can feel proud after coming through his “biggest test”, Oliver Holt in noticed a note of reservation in Vaughan’s manner. “Quite why Michael Vaughan looked as if he’d just been told his mum had found a stack of porn mags concealed under his bed is a more complex issue,” Holt said. “Vaughan had just led his team to one of England’s most remarkable victories to square a series that seemed on the first day to have slipped into their opponents’ hands. But the England skipper appeared somewhere on the sheepish side of morose after this nine-wicket thriller of a win. Drained by the relief flooding out of him. Just glad it was all over.”Well, you can’t blame him after leading England in a season which has been consistently inconsistent, according to Simon Barnes in : “One minute we are watching a very decent side, the next we are watching a bunch of losers,” Barnes pointed out, adding that “It is the sort of thing that unsettles a chap.” He highlighted Trescothick as an example. “One day Marcus Trescothick is a spent force, the next he is the most imperious batsman in world cricket. Certainly, pressure inspired Trescothick. He moved from circumspection to certainty and from certainty to majesty. He made nearly 300 runs in the match for once out: not bad for a man who was all washed up.” And Barnes concluded: “But if England are consistent only in their inconsistency, then we must come to terms with the fact that, in a perverse way, inconsistency is their strength.”But what of South Africa? They fly home this evening knowing that they ought to have won the series after dominating the first two matches. And we’ve seen it all before. While Michael Owen-Smith told us in that Graeme Smith rejected charges that his team had yet to get rid of the label of being chokers, the ran a headline: “Wanted: Spin and swing.”Owen-Smith and the Daily Mail‘s Mike Dickson then picked out where South Africa, despite an encouraging tour, still fall short. Smith may have become “the darling of the English cricketing media for his availability, his transparency, his honesty and his humility,” they said, but his team are short of a strike bowler and their spin bowling remains the biggest single concern: “Paul Adams had an up-and-down tour on pitches that did not always suit him, while Robin Peterson is early in the learning curve.”And then there is also the worry of replacing Gary Kirsten. They argued that “Kirsten’s decision to play on has at least allowed Jacques Rudolph more time to settle,” and that “Rudolph has had a disappointing series, but he has shown enough glimpses to suggest that he is a player of quality.”While South Africa take those concerns on with them to Pakistan, the England selectors have already been in discussions for the winter tours. As CMJ pointed out, “There has been, in the end, a strong contrast between England’s success with a young team under Vaughan in the one-day internationals in the middle of the season and the manner in which the experience of Thorpe and Bicknell, both 34, and Nasser Hussain, 35, helped them to draw this series with the second-best Test team in the world.”However, he suggested that Bicknell is unlikely to join “the small band of seam bowlers on the slow pitches of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before Christmas, even less so on the slightly faster ones of the Caribbean in March.” And David Llewellyn in concluded: “It would appear that Harmison has the pace Bicknell lacks and that Bicknell has the consistency Harmison is missing. Old heads on young shoulders springs to mind. The selectors’ job gets no easier.”

The XXXX Queensland Bulls opening ING Cup match of the season against Tasmania at the Gabba on Saturday will double as a public celebration of the Multi-Cultural Cricket project.The pilot "MCC" program was conducted at Macgregor, Durack, Warrigal Road, Darra, Riverview, Inala, Goodna and Dinmore State Schools last season and involved 240 children, as well as a number of volunteer coaches.It was aimed at introducing cricket to children from non-traditional cricket backgrounds and utilised aspects of the successful Milo Have-A-Go program. There were 24 different nationalities represented in the program including children of Chinese, Vietnamese, Samoan, Tongan, and Aboriginal and Islander backgrounds.It was made possible through a Living in Harmony community grant to Queensland Cricket as part of the Federal Government’s Living in Harmony initiative.Saturday’s promotion will recognise the introduction of the "MCC" project, as well as a number of initiatives conducted by Queensland Cricket and Cricket Australia to increase the interest and participation in cricket from non-traditional cricket backgrounds and indigenous communities.Children and coaches from the pilot MCC program will take part in on-field displays during the main break of the match.Additionally, the Federal Minister for Citizenship and Multi-Cultural Affairs, the Hon Gary Hardgrave MP, will announce the inaugural Indigenous Cricket Advisory Committee – Queensland (ICACQ) during the break, which is scheduled to run from 1.30pm to 2pm.As part of the day, a naturalisation ceremony involving the Minister and more than 150 people will also take place in the Gabba Room at the ground.Tickets for the match were made available to a number of community cultural groups and the parents and children involved in the MCC Project.Queensland Cricket Chief Executive Officer Graham Dixon said cricket as a sport had much to offer Australians from non-traditional cricket backgrounds."Cricket draws heavily from the community through the army of volunteers who are so essential to ensuring cricket is Australia’s favourite summer sport," he said."One of the messages that we are promoting is that cricket is the Australian game for all Australians and through programs like the Multi-Cultural Cricket project, we can hopefully introduce the sport to children and parents alike who might not have encountered it," Dixon said."Queensland Cricket and Cricket Australia have identified non-traditional cricket backgrounds and the ingenious communities as among those areas where we have to work harder as a sport to develop."We have made a number of initiatives in this are, including promoting Milo Have-A-Go cricket in Torres Strait through the Eddie Gilbert Program, which has made some promising progress in indigenous communities in Far North Queensland.""The formation of the first Indigenous Cricket Advisory Committee – Queensland will also assist the growth of the sport at the grassroots", he said.Dixon said Queensland Cricket teams in the past had been culturally-diverse, with the current Bulls squad containing players from a range of different backgrounds.Opening batsman Daniel Payne has Japanese, Javanese, Aboriginal and Greek ancestry while injured pace bowler Scott Brant is originally from Zimbabwe and was granted Australian residency earlier this year.Saturday’s match commences at 10am with gates opening at 9am.ING Cup, XXXX Queensland Bulls v Tasmanian Tigers, Saturday, the Gabba: Stuart Law, Daniel Payne, Martin Love (c), Clinton Perren, Lee Carseldine, James Hopes, Wade Seccombe, Nathan Hauritz, Mitchell Johnson, Joe Dawes, Shane Jurgensen, Steve Farrell (12th man to be named).

Adam Gilchrist has proposed that India and Australia play each on January 26 in what he said should be called the Waugh-Tendulkar cup. January 26 is India’s Republic Day, and is also celebrated as Australia Day, which makes it a big occasion for both countries."Given the passion for the game in the two countries," Gilchrist told the Press Trust of India, "I think it is a good idea to have a cricket match on this day. It could be an annual affair or once in two years or probably once in four years to start with."Gilchrist proposed that just as the Test series between the two nations was named after two great players – the Gavaskar-Border Trophy – this could be named after two active icons of the game – Steve Waugh and Sachin Tendulkar. He said that it would be a great way to pay tribute to these two players.