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Bangladesh have announced their squad for the Under-19s World Cup in February, adding batsman Amit Majumder to the squad which completed a tour of South Africa this month.Bangladesh U-19s returned from South Africa where they drew the two-Test series 0-0. They qualified for the final for the tri-nation tournament that followed, including South Africa U-19s and India U-19s, but lost to India by 137 runs.Bangladesh U-19s will host Nepal U-19s, who arrive on January 22, for a week-long tour in the lead-up to the World Cup. All three one-day matches will be played in Khulna. The West Indies U-19s will visit after Nepal for four one-day matches, three of which will be held at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium (SCS) in Bogra and the other at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.The World Cup begins on February 17 in Malaysia with the final on March 2 at the Kinrara Academy Oval in Kuala Lumpur.Squad: Suhrawadi Shuvo (captain), Dolar Mahmud, Marshall Ayub, Subashis Roy, Rubel Hossain, Golam Kibria, Rony Talukder, Mahmudul Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Mohammad Shakil, Nadimuddin, Mithun Ali, Saikat Ali, Amit Majumder, Ashiqul Islam

Matthew Hayden, the Australian Test opener, will undergo a scan for a possible crack to the little finger on his right hand sustained during Queensland’s defeat against Tasmania in the Pura Cup at Brisbane. However, Dr Simon Carter, the team doctor, said Hayden was in no doubt for the first Ashes Test.Initial x-rays did not show a fracture after he attempted a catch, but he will undergo more tests after batting in pain at No. 7. He scored 36 off 46 balls as Queensland slumped to a seven-wicket defeat.”The X-ray was inconclusive. His hand is still sore and that’s why he batted late today,” Dr Carter said. “He’s going to have another scan tomorrow to get a definitive answer on whether he has a small fracture, but either way if there is a [crack] he won’t be in doubt.”

Kapil Dev, the head of the Indian Cricket League, has told the BBC that he would like to incorporate a UK-based team into his event.”I would love to have a London team playing in the ICL or Birmingham or another city team,” he said. “If I get a chance, if I have the money, I will definitely make one team from London or Birmingham. Give me the money and sponsor and I will do it.”I would also love to see a team from South Africa, West Indies and Australia.”Dev also made clear that the ICCL was not looking to interfere with England’s domestic programme. “We always say anybody picked for ICL must first represent their country and come to play for us when they are free. We don’t want to spoil any country’s cricket.”The aim of ICL is to give exposure to the young boys and people who have played enough cricket. If they share their time with the young upcoming guys, they can teach these young cricketers. That’s what our aim is and if we give the spectators thrilling cricket, everyone benefits from that.”Asked about the ECB’s decision to look to ban any players who signed with the ICL, a policy which is now in tatters, Dev said: “I just want to ask the ECB one simple thing. Am I doing something wrong by trying to promote cricket around the world? The ECB should send us a letter saying thank you. Let’s not be hypocritical.”

England received an eve-of-Test boost with the appearance of Kevin Pietersen at their practice session on Wednesday. He had been confined to his hotel room yesterday with a high temperature and was put on antibiotics.”He’s alright,” said England’s captain, Michael Vaughan. “He had a net but didn’t take part in the run-around fielding drill, but he’ll be fine to go into tomorrow’s game.”It was just a virus,” said Vaughan. “It was slightly worrying yesterday but the doctor said so long as he got his tablets down he’d be okay. Obviously it’s better for seeing him here having a bat, and a big relief for the team because he’s such a big player.”Pietersen is England’s second-highest run scorer in the series with 203 runs at an average of 50.75. He won the Man-of-the-Match award for his 134 in the second innings at Lord’s which gave England the upper hand in a drawn Test. At Trent Bridge, Pietersen was the fielder at whom Zaheer Khan waved his bat angrily during the jelly bean controversy. He was dismissed lbw by RP Singh for 13 in the first innings and 19 in the second, a short while after he evaded a head-high beamer from Sreesanth.In Pietersen’s absence, England’s penultimate practice session involved just 10 players, because the reserve seamer, Stuart Broad, had been released to play for Leicestershire in a Pro40 match at Derby. No reserve was summoned to cover for Pietersen.

India’s cricketers won’t be lacking for advice when New Zealand tour travel there next month for a Test and one-day series.With the Indian team scheduled to arrive in Bangalore ahead of their preparatory camp, Kapil Dev – their former captain and coach – echoed the words of John Wright, warning them not to take New Zealand lightly.Kapil said the conditions would be tough for New Zealand, but that had always been the case. The New Zealanders are used to playing on green pitches, that have recently proved to have more bounce as well.India has rarely provided those sorts of conditions and after the problems experienced by New Zealand’s groundsmen last summer, it was always likely that India’s pitches for the return visit would be low on the user-friendly scale for the New Zealanders.Kapil said New Zealand had a reputation for rising to an occasion, and that was what made them dangerous. He also said that he didn’t think New Zealand were convincing winners over India last summer – it was just that they exploited the conditions better.Wright said the New Zealanders were “under-rated”. They had performed well on the recent tour of Sri Lanka, and Wright said it was up to India to perform better, and to build on their good home record. Both Kapil and Wright were happy with the depth emerging in the pace bowling department.Wright added he had no problems with the fact that the Board of Control for Cricket in India had chosen 36 players for the conditioning camp. The exercise would be good from a fitness point of view, and he was confident he could handle the numbers.

Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, has said that it is important to be No. 1 in the one-day rankings after blanking Bangladesh but added that what his team really wants is to beat India in the three-Test series starting in Chennai on March 26.”We have achieved one of the goals we had set out for the team. And being No. 1 is absolutely great. But it will be better still if we are No. 1 next year too because that would mean we would have beaten Australia in two series,” Arthur told Cricinfo.”We will go all out to win the series in India,” Arthur said. “The Bangladesh win has set us up nicely for the India series. Frankly, we always saw this (Bangladesh) tour as pre-India tour preparation where we got our game and gameplans right for the big one. It’s going to be a fantastic Test series simply because India is a huge team to beat in their own country, and we are not prepared to be just another ordinary rival.”Arthur also spoke of setting high standards for the team, which he admitted will be tested in India. “Not many teams go to India and win, so that’s one of our main goals for the year.”Arthur also said that he has appealed to fast bowler Andre Nel, who was replaced for the India tour by Charl Langeveldt under Cricket South Africa’s transformation policy, to play on for the country. “We have spent a lot of time with him because we believe strongly that he is a vital cog as we go forward, especially against England and Australia who are on our calendar this year. So I hope he decides to stay on with South Africa. But ultimately, it’s his decision because only he knows what’s best for himself.”Nel is believed to be in talks with the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) after being dropped in tune with a CSA selection policy that mandates at least six players of colour in a 14-man squad.South Africa swept the two-Test series against Bangladesh and wrapped up the one-day series 3-0 with a seven-wicket win in Mirpur on Friday. The team will leave Bangladesh on Saturday and is scheduled to fly out from Johannesburg for Chennai on March 21.

Ian Harvey (73*) and Brad Hodge (63*) have led an excellent fightback to rescue Victoria late on day three of the Pura Cup match against Queensland at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane. The pair’s unbroken stand of 133 for the fifth wicket has carried the visitors to a second innings score of 4/216 by stumps, a tally which affords them an overall lead of 118 runs.The memory of Victoria’s disastrous late collapse in its first innings, though, will continue to fire the Bulls’ prospects of claiming outright points at some time tomorrow. Queensland captain Stuart Law admitted as much after play when he indicated that his team unarguably still holds the whip hand in the contest.”They’ve got their backs to the wall and it’s up to them now if they want to salvage something,” he said. “I’m confident of winning.”Before Harvey and Hodge had come together, Queensland’s charge toward outright victory had been ignited by rugged paceman Joe Dawes (4/64). Dawes snared all four of Victoria’s second innings wickets when he spectacularly removed Jason Arnberger (20), Shawn Craig (35), Matthew Mott (19) and Michael Klinger (2) in quick succession in mid-afternoon. Showing all the hunger and passion that might be expected from a player who has been twelfth man for his state almost as many times as he has played, he claimed 4/38 in the space of ten overs at one stage, and also had Craig dropped by Law at second slip.Earlier in the day, Queensland’s first innings had ended at a total of 347. Around a fine spell from Michael Lewis (4/74), the Bulls owed their progression to their ninety-eight run lead largely to the efforts of Wade Seccombe (35), Adam Dale (25) and Andy Bichel (21). Colin Miller (1/93) also bowled well, albeit without producing particularly flattering figures, as he continued to press his claims for Test selection later this month.

New Zealand needs its bottom five or six batsmen to ice the cake, not bake it, captain Stephen Fleming said last night after the 33-run loss to England that squared the National Bank Series 2-2.That was a clear reference to another failure by the top order players to establish themselves and to dissect the bowling of Darren Gough, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff for the second time in the series.Again the partnership building was done by England, especially Michael Vaughan and Graham Thorpe in their 89-run, 87 ball stand which placed them in such a strong position when it rained during their innings.Fleming had no problems with the desire of local officials to see the match cleaned up last night by use of the Duckworth/Lewis system instead of coming back tomorrow to play the game.”We’re in the entertainment business and we have a full house and there is a responsibility to provide entertainment. I would certainly prefer to play a limited overs match in front of 36,000 people than 10,000 tomorrow,” he said.The system had been discussed many times, but Fleming said the bottom line had been that New Zealand had been set a target and they didn’t chase it very well.”We saw the target and saw it was quite healthy so we had to create the strike rate. There was a level of risk that was increased and the result was that it bordered on recklessness at times.”The intent to create a strike rate was there, we faced some good bowling at the outset and we just played our shots at the wrong time,” Fleming said.The series was set up well for the finale in Dunedin and Fleming said the results had almost mirrored themselves.”We had our week last week, they had their week this week,” he said.The momentum was now with England.The New Zealand top order was only sparking on one cylinder instead of four or five and that was what was needed to win.”The series is something we desperately want and we tend to play our best cricket when we are desperate. Perhaps we are not used to being in the comfort zone when we are 2-0 up.”New Zealand would not be painting over the flaws in their approach and they would be making full use of the two days of practice they have in Dunedin to put everything into winning on Tuesday.

The Konica Queensland Fire face a must-win series against Victoria thisweekend if they are to feature in this season’s Women’s National CricketLeague Finals.Queensland is fourth coming into the final round of matches but couldsnatch a spot in the Final later this month if they can win both oftheir games against second-placed Victoria in Geelong this weekend.Third-placed NSW play the winless Western Fury and could potentiallyfinish ahead of current competition leaders Southern Scorpions.The Queensland selectors have omitted Jodie Purves from the team andrecalled allrounder Kelly Klibbe in the only change to the team thatlost both of its matches to NSW before Christmas.Queensland will hope that the Konica Queensland Under-19 trio of KaseeMarxsen, Belinda Matheson and Kirsten Pike will bring with them some ofthe form they have displayed at the Australian Under-19 championships inCanberra this week.The unbeaten Queensland combination will meet NSW in the Final tomorrow,with Marxsen, Matheson and Pike all producing outstanding performancesso far in the championships.Marxsen has scored 261 runs at 65.25, including a championship record126 off 118 balls, while off-spinner Matheson and pace bowler Pike areamong the leading wicket-takers for Queensland.This weekend also represents one of the last chances for the Fireplayers to press their representative claims with the Commonwealth BankSouthern Stars team and Shooting Stars Youth teams to be named after theWNCL Finals from January 17-19.The Southern Stars will play a four-way international series in NewZealand at the end of January and next month featuring New Zealand,England, India and Australia.Australia will then play England in an Ashes Test series, with the FirstTest being held at the Gabba from February 15-18.Konica Queensland Fire v Victorian Spirit, Geelong, January 11, 12:Julia Price (c), Belinda Matheson, Melissa Bulow, Joanne Broadbent,Sally Cooper, Tricia Brown, Kasee Marxsen, Megan White, Kelly Klibbe,Cindy Kross, Renee Lee, Kristen Pike. Coach: Richard McInnes.

Sri Lanka look set to employ an interim coach for the forthcoming New Zealand Test series following current incumbent Dav Whatmore’s request for early leave from his contract.The Sri Lankan born Australian’s contract expires at the end of May and the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has yet to decide upon a replacement.With Sri Lanka due to start a two-match Test series against New Zealand on April 25 there appears no other option but to appoint an interim coach.Whatmore communicated his willingness to step down early shortly after being informed that his contract would not be renewed before the Sharjah Cup.On Friday morning he handed over an official letter confirming his position, explaining that it would not be in the interests of the team for him to continue."We want Dav (Whatmore) to continue for the New Zealand tour and the triangular series but he has indicated an unwillingness to do so," said Anura Teenekoon, the BCCSL chief executive.The frontrunner for the temporary post appears to be former Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis, who was employed as an advisor during the run-up to the World Cup.Australian Steve Rixon, New Zealander John Bracewell and South African Graham Ford have all been short-listed as potential full-time coaches but a final decision remains some weeks away.Captain Sanath Jayasuriya also confirmed his resignation on Friday morning, handing over a letter to Teenekoon, who then informed the new chairman of the selectors Lalith Kaluperuma.His successor will not be announced until after the Sinhalese New Year but Marvan Atapattu is the clear frontrunner for the high-profile job.