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Shane Watson’s successful return from a hamstring injury this week has Ricky Ponting excited about Australia’s options for the World Cup. Watson, who made 46 not out and took 3 for 60 in Queensland’s latest Pura Cup loss, would be in the selectors’ minds for the three-match Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series starting in New Zealand in a fortnight, Ponting said.”We haven’t really sat down and spoken a lot about the complete make-up of the squad for the World Cup,” Ponting told . “We’ve been waiting on a few guys as well, waiting to see how Watson comes up and those sorts of things. If he does make it into the squad, he basically plays as another fast bowler anyway. It would probably be five fast bowlers plus him.””We’ve all seen in the last week that he got through the game in Brisbane pretty well, made runs and did the amount of bowling he was supposed to do. He’s got a little bit of cricket under his belt but whether or not he takes part in the remainder of this series, I don’t really know. I just hope that he can recover as quickly as possible and start putting some good performances on the board before the World Cup comes around.”Ponting said Watson, who was promoted to open with Adam Gilchrist throughout the Champions Trophy, would be a strong chance to play at the top of the order should he prove his fitness for the World Cup. “I wouldn’t imagine he would be in the middle order anywhere,” Ponting said. “I think the middle order is pretty settled at the moment with Michael Clarke at four, Andrew Symonds, Mike Hussey and those guys.”Ponting said rather than take up an extra spot and make it harder for a specialist spinner like Brad Hogg to break back into the team, it could in fact help Hogg’s chances by altering the balance of the side. “What he does give is that flexibility you are after in any squad,” Ponting said. “We know he can bat at the top of the order, in the middle, and at six, seven or eight with his batting skill. We might be able to go in with three quicks and him in certain games. If he plays he gives an opportunity for Hogg or [Cameron] White to play.”

Monty Panesar, England’s forgotten spin bowler, is preparing to speak out about the mental illness that led to his high-profile departures from Sussex and Essex, and says he has not given up hope of an England recall one day.At the age of 33, and with 167 wickets in 50 Tests already to his name, Panesar ought to be in the prime of his international career, not least given the otherwise barren state of English spin bowling, as evidenced by the shortcomings of Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Samit Patel in the recent series against Pakistan.Instead, he is without a county going into the 2016 season, having been released by Essex at the end of last summer. He played just three first-class matches in a miserable 2016 season, including one, against Kent in April in which he did not bowl in either innings.His increasingly erratic behaviour included time-keeping issues, for which he was disciplined by the club, and criticism for his attitude in the field, for which he was at one stage given a dressing-down in front of his team-mates.Panesar’s failure to settle at Essex followed on from his departure from Sussex in 2013 where, in the wake of a bitter and painful divorce from his wife, he hit the headlines on one particularly lurid night out in Brighton by urinating on a bouncer at a nightclub.However, in a bid to battle his way back into the sport, Panesar has been working with a team of four professionals – a performance coach, a hypnotherapist, a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist – and hopes that his recognition of his issues is the first step towards resolving them.”For a long time I was in denial that I had a problem,” Panesar told The Times. “It was in my first session with the hypnotherapist that I began to realise that something was wrong and that I needed help.”The best way to describe it is that I have suffered from feelings of paranoia, and that these feelings were linked to my performances on the field. The worse things went, the lower my confidence went, the more paranoid I became. Things spiralled downhill so that I began to think my team-mates were all against me.”Panesar recounted one occasion in which he stormed out of a gym session after being out-performed by James Foster, the club captain, and some of his younger team-mates.”I remember thinking that they were all out to get me and then when I calmed down I was, like, ‘These guys are my team-mates, why am I thinking like that?'”Panesar’s obsessional nature impacted on his lifestyle on tour as well, where he would often retreat from his team-mates outside of matches.”I’d be in my room a lot, always thinking about cricket and bowling. I found I got on with most players, but I didn’t have any particularly close friends,” he said.”Those that I spent most time with were often tied up with my job: the wicketkeepers I’d work with, my bowling partners.”Panesar’s absence from the sport is particularly poignant given what an integral member of the team he ought to be right now. On the 2012 tour of the UAE, he claimed 14 wickets in two Tests against Pakistan, including five-wicket hauls in consecutive second innings, providing precisely the sort of impact that England’s spinners lacked on their most recent tour last month.”One part of me thought, I should be the one out there bowling 30 or 40 overs a day going for two an over,” he said. “But then another part of me was saying, ‘Come on, Monty, you’ve not helped yourself.'”

Two English county umpires, Jeff Evans and Trevor Jesty, have signed contracts to stand in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) which begins next week.Both officials have been told that their future contracts with the ECB, which run from April to September, won’t be affected although the ECB have said they’d prefer their umpires not to take part because of the lack of anti-corruption safeguards in place.”I saw this as an opportunity to visit India and to gain experience umpiring in a major competition,” Evans told . “I’ve had many sleepless nights about it, but I have consulted my solicitor, the Professional Cricketers’ Association solicitor and sought advice from anyone and everyone in the game.”Ray Julian, who retired from first-class umpiring six years ago, has also agreed to travel to the ICL but Ismail Dawood, the former Yorkshire and Glamorgan wicketkeeper, has turned down an offer as he wants to ensure he is included on ECB’s reserve list next season.”I would like to umpire in first-class cricket in England and I didn’t want to jeopardise my prospects,” said Dawood. “It was a tough decision because the ICL contract was extremely lucrative.”

Geoff Miller, England’s newly appointed National Selector, has disagreed with the views of Nasser Hussain who last week accused England of going soft since winning the Ashes in 2005. Miller, who replaced David Graveney as the chief selector yesterday, welcomed Hussain’s opinion but sees England’s slump as a “hiccup”.”Nasser is entitled to his own views and I know what he is saying, but I don’t think we have gone soft,” Miller told . “We have had a hiccup, I will accept that, and as soon as there is a hiccup there are going to be comments made about what the problems are.”I understand Nasser and know him very well from our days at Essex so I will approach him about it and find out exactly what he means by that. I talk to experienced players and to umpires and all kinds of people who have some relevant views. That is one of my strong points – communication.”Miller was Graveney’s apprentice for eight years, and reportedly had to be persuaded to take the new salaried position, since he already has a profitable career as an after-dinner speaker. And although England’s record under Graveney included an Ashes win, the 5-0 trouncing they received in Australia and the disappointing loss in Sri Lanka in December leave Miller with a tall task to rebuild England’s fortunes ahead of the next Ashes – in a little over a year.”There have been contributing factors. We have had injuries, we have to accept that, and there has been a change of personnel,” Miller said. “We are in a transitional period now in both kinds of cricket but the curve from 2000 has been pretty good.”It has been an upward curve. We have taken a couple of backward steps but I don’t see, with the experience and the quality we have in the side and the excitement of the youngsters we have got coming forward, why we can’t get back on an even keel again.””We have got to win matches and series to get some momentum back again. There is lots of excitement round the corner.”

Hardly a week after the Indian Premier League (IPL) concludes on June 1, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh square off in a short tri-series in Bangladesh beginning June 8. Each team plays the other once, with the final on June 14. All matches will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur. No practice matches have been scheduled for the visiting teams.The tri-series will serve as a warm-up for the Asia Cup in Pakistan which commences on June 24. The series is an add-on to India’s punishing schedule, which includes a three-Test and five ODI tour to Sri Lanka after the Asia Cup concludes on July 6.Bangladesh last hosted a tri-series featuring the same teams in early 1998. India edged out Pakistan in a thriller in the best-of-three finals at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka.ScheduleJune 8 – Bangladesh v Pakistan (Mirpur)
June 10 – India v Pakistan (Mirpur)
June 12 – Bangladesh v India (Mirpur)
June 14 – Final (Mirpur)
June 15 – Reserve day

How much of a role Chris Cairns will play on New Zealand’s forthcoming tour of South Africa remains to be seen, but he did enough in the ICC KnockOut 2000 final against India at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club on Sunday to keep his shares up for some time to come.Cairns played through the pain of a dodgy right knee – he was only passed fit to play on Saturday – to produce a match-winning 102 not out and steer New Zealand to an heroic victory by four wickets in a nerve-jangling last overs scramble. This on top of an unbroken 10-over spell that put the brakes on India after Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar had given their side a flying start.”This is the greatest ever,” Cairns said afterwards. “I’ve been playing for a few years now – getting pretty old – and this is far and away the greatest moment of my New Zealand career. New Zealand’s never got to a final before, let alone won it, so this is just the best.”His knee will be scanned when New Zealand arrive in Johannesburg on Monday,after which a decision will be made on his immediate future, but if he numbed the pain on Sunday night with a few celebratory drinks, who could blame him.For the first 25 overs of each innings, India seemed to have taken the gameaway from New Zealand, but on both occasions the Kiwis dragged themselves back into the match.Ganguly and Tendulkar’s opening stand of 141 in 26.3 overs should have set up a total of around 300, but Cairns, Scott Styris and Nathan Astle slowed things up in the middle overs and India failed to kick on.Ganguly said that India had batted “stupidly” in the closing overs as his side reached 264 for six. But they had them on the board. New Zealand still had to get them.And although Zaheer Khan bowled erratically during his first three overs, which cost India 30 runs, Venkatesh Prasad nipped out Craig Spearman and Stephen Fleming in his opening burst to prise the door open for India.For the first 25 overs of their reply, New Zealand kept up with the run ratebut in the process, lost wickets and at the halfway stage they were 135 forfive. No one had been able to stay long enough to get a stand going, but Chris Harris joined Cairns and the foundations of an outstanding partnership were laid.They batted together for just over 25 overs and when Harris went for 46 withnine balls of the match remaining, they had put on 122 for the sixth wicket.They had seen the run rate go up to around eight an over, but neither batsman panicked, and it was the Indians who dropped their eyes first.Cairns was a colossus, picking and choosing his moments to hit. He reckonedthat with the Gymkhana Club’s short boundaries and another of Andy Atkinson’s perfect pitches, the target was always on. “I felt pretty comfortable after we’d bowled,” he said. “Two-sixty on a small ground, that’s 220 on a normal ground.”But someone had to stay there and get them and in the end it couldn’t have been much closer, Cairns getting the winning run with two balls to spare.For New Zealand, then, a memorable triumph and deserved success. They playeddetermined, gritty cricket throughout the tournament and the mark of the side is the number of times they have had to play catch-up cricket and always come through. This is a very handy one-day team with each member pulling for his team-mates.If Cairns had not been fit, Paul Wiseman would have played and Fleming gave him a vote of confidence too. “You’ve got to walk with people you believe in,” said Fleming.Ganguly was understandably disappointed, but he has a young team capable ofplaying scintillating cricket at times and with three or four world-classplayers as the backbone. More importantly, this team seems closer together,more of a unit than is often the case with Indian sides. If they are kepttogether, India could fast become one of the best teams in the world on aconsistent basis.

After consistently hitting half centuries since his comeback, Sourav Ganguly today said he would try to convert his fifties into hundreds if he got a chance in the two-Test cricket series against Bangladesh.”I was the highest run getter in Tests in South Africa recently. The good thing is I have been consistent. Here if I get to the eighties I will surely try to convert them into 100s,” Ganguly told reporters after the nets.Asked how he was feeling on his “comeback”, Ganguly said “I don’t think of it as a comeback. We [Sachin Tendulkar and he] were not dropped, but officially rested. This also gave a few youngsters to perform.”Ganguly said he had no preferences for batting order or bowling during the Test. “I always work hard at the nets. It’s the decision of the team and what the situation demanded,” he said when asked if he would bowl in the Test. About opening the innings, he said “that is again up to the team management. If they deem fit I’m game.”On his huge popularity in Bangladesh, Ganguly said “I don’t consider Bangladesh as a different country. I captained in my first Test here. So, Bangladesh will always be special.”At nets Ganguly looked a picture of concentration when Rudra Pratap Singh, Romesh Pawar and three local bowlers bowled at him. Initially, he looked a bit tentative, but later his form returned. He also stepped out a few times to lift the spinners. Cricket Manager Ravi Shastri stood all along watching Ganguly. At first, he stood at the umpire’s position and then watched him from the point region. Ganguly also bowled at the nets to Wasim Jaffer and Sachin Tendulkar.Ganguly also vehemently denied that he was linked with the breakaway Indian Cricket League and also lashed at the media for being irresponsible with their reporting. “It’s not true. I think there are too many stories going around in Indian cricket,” said Ganguly. “Anybody speaks anything and that’s getting printed. The time has come to clarify things because this is not good for the individual as well as the team. I have not had any discussion with anyone, nor am I willing to have any discussions.”

Andre Nel has received six penalty points under the ECB’s code of conduct for two offences during Essex’s Championship match against Derbyshire.Nel was reported by umpires Tim Robinson and Richard Illingworth for two separate level two breaches of the code, each of which attracts three penalty points. The first offence was using obscene language or making an obscene gesture and the second was “throwing the ball at or near a player, umpire or official in an inappropriate and dangerous manner”.Nel took three wickets in the match, but Essex couldn’t defend 266 on the final day after setting up a run chase. He claimed 1 for 78 in the second innings off 18 overs.The points remain on Nel’s record for two years. The accumulation of nine or more penalty points in any two-year period will result in an automatic suspension.

The Australian team held a round-table discussion on the spirit of cricket on Sunday night, the first such meeting after the ill-tempered Sydney Test against India.The reported that leadership consultant Ray McLean, a former officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, moderated the session. Tim Nielsen, the coach, and the manager Steve Bernard attended along with the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and operations manager Michael Brown.The focus was on the messages and criticism directed at the team after the Sydney Test, with all involved invited to trace their feelings on the match and the Spirit of Cricket pledge that was devised during Steve Waugh’s captaincy in 2003.”I think it will be a general chat about what we live by, what we stand for, the spirit of cricket that the Australian cricketers sat down and wrote down,” Michael Clarke said before the meeting. “I think it will be a general reminder of what we do to be the best team in the world and the things we can continue to improve on. It’s probably why Australia have been so successful, because we never say we can’t improve.”The session came a day before the meeting between opposing captains Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble, convened by Ranjan Madugalle, the ICC’s chief match referee, who has been appointed to mediate. Brad Hogg, the left-arm wrist spinner, is due to attend a hearing on Friday concerning offensive remarks made to Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Ramnaresh Sarwan is on the verge of recovering from a shoulder injury sustained during the tour to England. Sarwan damaged his right shoulder while attempting to stop a boundary during the 2nd Test at Headingley, after which he returned home.”It’s coming along pretty well. It’s about 90 per cent now,” Sarwan told . “I’ve been doing some weights and a bit of throwing. I’ve been impressed with the way things have been going so far.”Sarwan’s rehabilitation process includes running, cycling, icing and heating. While he has slight pain when he does push-ups, he has been told it would go within a week, paving his way for a return to domestic cricket.”It’s frustrating to get injured on such a frequent basis, but it’s very important that you try and stay mentally strong. You are playing sport and these things do happen. It helps you to become stronger.”Sarwan suffered a small hairline fracture in his right foot during a Test match in Pakistan last year and had to miss the five-match ODI series. He also missed this year’s Carib Beer series after he had injured his hand while batting for Guyana.The Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa will see Sarwan’s return to international cricket. “It would be great if the West Indies Cricket Board – and even if Digicel can take part a bit – to actually have a camp where we can have a couple of games before we go off, probably four or five games.”If we have a ten-day camp or a 15-day camp, it would be good to have a few games to give the guys a feel of what Twenty20 is about.”