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Europe will come to Lord’s on 7 June, when MCC will entertain a European XI for the first time. Trent Johnston, Ireland’s captain, will lead Europe, taking over from Scotland’s Ryan Watson – and he will link up again with the former Ireland coach Adrien Birrell who stepped down after the World Cup.The match will be a return fixture after last year’s successful experiment in Rotterdam, a five-wicket win for MCC. Admission is free.Although most county-contracted players will again be unavailable, Europe’s side includes four of Ireland’s World Cup players. There are five Scotland players in the team, and one each from Denmark and The Netherlands.The batting again looks strong, with openers Jeremy Bray (Ireland), Bas Zuiderent (Netherlands) and Freddie Klokker (Denmark) backed up by Watson and Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien. Bray’s century against Zimbabwe in Ireland’s opening World Cup game got their tournament off to a great start, and he was again in fine form against Canada, with 146 from just 152 balls.With Wright, Colin Smith and Johnston in the middle order the side bats in depth. Johnston has a choice of keepers, too, in Smith and Klokker.Johnston himself will take the new ball, with John Blain, whose 3 for 24 was key in Scotland’s Friends Provident Trophy win against Lancashire last week. Seamers Wright and O’Brien provide support, with spin from Ireland’s off-spinner Kyle McCallan and Scotland’s slow left-armer Glenn Rogers.Twelfth man will be Guernsey’s Kris Moherndl, who has been given the opportunity as part of a new initiative this year to offer the experience to one of Europe’s rising talents that impressed the selectors during the recent ICC European Cricket Academy in La Manga, Spain.Squad Trent Johnston (Ireland, captain), John Blain (Scotland), Jeremy Bray (Ireland), Freddie Klokker (Denmark), Kyle McCallan, Kevin O’Brien (both Ireland), Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith, Ryan Watson, Craig Wright (all Scotland), Bas Zuiderent (Netherlands).
12th man – Kris Moherndl (Guernsey).

The gentle exodus of players from Zimbabwe continues with news that Gary Brent and Terry Duffin are believed to have quit international cricket.Brent, 32, played 70 one-day internationals and four Tests for Zimbabwe but was increasingly at odds with the board, and was one of the rebels who went on strike following the sacking of Heath Streak as captain in 2004. Although he did make a comeback, he is said to have grown frustrated with the attitude of the national selectors and last month gave notice on his contract.Duffin, 26, was Zimbabwe’s captain until 2006 and played 23 ODIs and two Tests. His last major match was during the 2007 World Cup and since then he has struggled with injury, although he represented Zimbabwe Provinces in South Africa as well as Southerns in the domestic Twenty20 tournament in March.It is thought that he applied for the board’s permission to play club cricket in England but this was refused, even though he is not in the main national squad. Duffin travelled to England anyway where he is playing for Winsley in Wiltshire, and it is reported that he will go to New Zealand rather than return to Zimbabwe at the end of the season.

Gautam Gambhir’s good recent form and the fact that he hadn’t been persisted with recently helped him win a spot ahead of his Delhi team-mate Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni revealed at the end of the game.Dhoni had said on Sunday that the duo were competing for one berth and justified his decision to go with Gambhir, who repaid the faith with a valuable 44. “He has done consistently well at this level,” Dhoni said. “He has been unfortunate in the past as some others have been given preference over him. [His longest run] in the team was only six matches in a row and he was Man of the Match in quite a few games.”Dhoni also suggested that Gambhir would be persisted with for a few more games. “I wanted to give him a few more matches before resting him and giving opportunities to others. And the way he played today he deserves his place in the side. He batted quite superbly.”It means Sehwag, who replaced Rahul Dravid in the squad, might have to wait a while before his comeback. There was some speculation about Sehwag missing the game in the wake of his father’s death but Dhoni had said he was in “good nick and hitting the ball well”.Dhoni’s promotion to No. 4, ahead of Yuvraj Singh, was also not in keeping with the script. He’s batted in that position on just eight earlier occasions, the last being the Chandigarh game against Australia. He entered at a tricky 96 for 2 and left after an assured half-century, with only 15 needed for victory. “I am flexible about it,” Dhoni said when asked if it was a sign of things to come. “I’ve said in the past that I need someone to fit in my place at No. 6 or 7. Today we needed a left and right-hand combination. Afridi was bowling offbreaks to left-handers, and legbreaks to the right-handers. That encouraged me to promote myself.”Dhoni wanted his side to look at each game as a one-match series, maintaining the same intensity throughout. “Starting the series with a win will help the team. It helps the team’s confidence, and the momentum goes your way. But we have to keep things right in the coming matches as well. It is not just about doing things right in one match. We have to do it throughout the series.”While Dhoni said 280 would have been a “winning score” his counterpart, Shoaib Malik, didn’t think Pakistan were a few runs short. “I think 230-240 was a good target. It was defendable. The difference was that we dropped catches. If we had taken them, the result would have been totally different. Fielding let us down.”He was talking about the two chances that Gambhir offered, off successive Shoaib Akhtar deliveries when he was on 7 and 11. Both were identical chances with the ball deflecting off the edge and flying between the wicketkeeper and Younis Khan at first slip. Instead of targeting his bowlers, Malik stressed on the fielding concerns instead. “We gauged the pitch and picked our best bowling attack. A fit Shoaib is an asset. He is our best option and is currently bowling quick and running in quick. I can’t blame my spinners also. Especially when our fielding didn’t back it up.”

Australian lounge rooms are about to lose a piece of furniture with the staging of the final tri-series. For 29 years the tournament has been central to the country’s summer sport-watching, but over the past decade the concept faded, was patched up, and finally wore beyond repair. In 2008-09 the CB Series will be replaced by two head-to-head contests and Australia, India and Sri Lanka are the ideal teams to farewell the once revolutionary concept.The world champions, the World Cup finalists and the side that pushed Australia over four Tests during the past month will all fight for the piece of history. This was how it was meant to be in the beginning, when the big names dominated Kerry Packer’s idea, but as the event evolved the contests became one-sided, the tournaments were more drawn out and the winners were usually Australia. Only three times since 1993-94 have Australia not been successful, including last year against England.There may be danger lurking again. While India are fourth and Sri Lanka sixth on the ICC rankings, they are teams that have the star quality to threaten Australia. Sanath Jayasuriya often lifts mountains when Ricky Ponting’s men are in the way – although his tour has started in pain with a cut jaw against Tasmania – and Kumar Sangakkara performed outstandingly during the Test tour here in November. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag have similar successful attitudes when coming up against men in green.Both squads are also regenerating and the influx of youth will lift both the fielding and collective energy of the units, which are crucial aspects when trying to challenge Australia at home. The tournament opens with Australia facing India at the Gabba on Sunday in a re-match of Friday’s one-sided Twenty20 affair in Melbourne. Australia took the game in the 12th over and they want to build on the win.”At the Twenty20 it was a good start,” Ponting, who missed the match, said. “We wanted to set the tone for the entire tour there.”Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India leader, tried to show he was not bothered by the size of the defeat. “It should be taken as a practice game,” he said. “If you think too much about the things that have happened I don’t think you will gain anything from it.”Australia have fitness worries over Ponting (lower back) and Matthew Hayden (right thigh) while India will be without Yuvraj Singh, who should be desperate to show his limited-overs class after his problems in the Test series. However, rain could be the biggest problem for all three teams – India play Sri Lanka here on Tuesday – and the forecast is for more wet weather throughout the week.Packs of fast bowlers might be the best options on a pitch that spent much of Saturday under the covers, but Australia will wait until Sunday morning to name their squad. Adam Voges is on standby for Ponting and Hayden while Ashley Noffke has come in for Stuart Clark, who remains in Sydney for personal reasons. Once calls have been made on the two injured players, Ponting will decide whether to go with an all-pace attack on a greenish pitch or use Brad Hogg, the specialist spinner.India’s problem is shoe-horning a bunch of young enthusiastic talent. They have brought a modern team to Australia and the selectors have shown that all-round skills are preferable to age. Ponting was surprised Sourav Ganguly missed the squad, but at some point hard-won reputations have to make way for regenerating teams.Despite the 2-1 series loss, India showed Australia have become less dominant in the Test arena and the hosts are intent on holding their edge in the one-day format. Ponting also wants to make up for the defeat to England last season.”For the first time in a long time we didn’t win the series,” he said. “We’ve got a bit of a repayment to do there.” Australia have one last chance to make the tri-series a pleasant memory rather than something that has provided lasting discomfort.Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Brad Haddin, 8 James Hopes, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Mitchell Johnson.India (probable) 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 Robin Uthappa, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt, wk), 7 Suresh Raina, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Sreesanth, 11 Ishant Sharma.

The Indian media’s rocky relations with the Indian Premier League have taken a downward turn with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), whose members control the major national news channels, deciding to put its coverage of the IPL on hold from Tuesday midnight until there is a resolution to problems related to coverage it had raised with league officials.”As far as we are concerned, two issues need to be sorted out before we can go ahead with IPL coverage,” Annie Joseph, the Association’s secretary general, told Cricinfo. “One relates to access to footage and the other to accreditation guidelines.”It’s understood that the channels are unhappy about the exhorbitant rates that are being charged for news clips and also the stipulation that footage can’t be used in archival form.A statement released by the NBA on Tuesday night said it sought clarifications from the IPL but, instead of receiving a response from either Lalit Modi, the IPL’s chairman and commissioner, or any of the other members of the IPL’s governing council, it instead received a reply from an official of the Sony Network, which along with World Sports Group had bought the TV rights for the IPL.The statement said the NBA’s questions didn’t fetch a satisfactory response as Sony was “not in a position to discuss matters other than access to footage, and that any offer Sony could make in that regard was limited within the framework of its contract with IPL.””As Sony was by its own admission neither authorized nor competent to deal with the subject comprehensively, and moreover may reasonably be assumed to have a direct conflict of interest in extending use rights to television news channels, it is unacceptable to us to deal with them in this matter,” the NBA said.The NBA, based in New Delhi, includes leading the news broadcasters such as TV Today, NDTV, Times Global Broadcasting Company, TV18, Global Broadcast News Limited and Zee News.

Duckworth/Lewis was the decider at Colts cricket grounds today as the match between Colts CC and Galle CC ended with a victory for Colts after heavy rain play at 4.00 pm.Galle, chasing a victory target of 227 runs in 50 overs, were 86 for the loss of five wickets in the 29th over when the two umpires called off play due to rain and returned to the pavilion to inspect their Duckworth Lewis calculation tables.According to the Duckworth/Lewis system, Galle who had lost five wickets in 29 overs, needed to have scored over 133 runs to pull a win. They thus lost the match by 47 runs.Galle CC had no reason to be aggrieved as Colts looked to be certain of victory having polished off the Galle CC middle order. They started their run chase disastrously and, with the exception of opening batsman Dammika Sudarshana, who made 31 runs, none of the Galle batsmen settled at the crease.They struggled against a strong pace attack led by Eric Upashantha. He captured two wickets for 25 runs in seven overs, while Kaushalya Weeraratne finishedwith one for 11 in three overs.Earlier in the day Colts had elected to bat first but suffered an early shock when last weeks Centurion, Romesh Kaluwitharana, was run out in the first over even without facing a ball.Then Chaminda Mendis(47) and Jeevantha Kulatunga(25) laid the foundation for a big score, before Kulatunga was out in the 10th over with the total on 54. Sajith Fernando(29) joined Mendis and kept up the fast run rate as Colts reached the hundred mark in the 17th over.However, a superb spell of bowling by Saman Fonseka who captured four for 45 and Pasan Wanasinghe with three for 33, restricted Colts to 226 runs in 47.3 overs. Viraj Perera chipped in with two for 53.Ruchira Karunasena, who was responsible for the dismissal of Kaluwitharana, was brilliant in the field, taking three superb catches.

Anil Kumble has accused Australia of not playing in the spirit of the game in a heated finish to a Test that continued the ill-feeling between the teams. After a match filled with controversy it was revealed the BCCI would request Steve Bucknor, the “incompetent” official, be replaced for the third Test in Perth while Kumble will review the pre-series catching agreement he had with Ricky Ponting, who aggressively defended his integrity.”Only one team was playing with the spirit of the game, that’s all I can say,” Kumble said after a day that included a horrible decision for Rahul Dravid and a claimed low, slip catch by Michael Clarke against Sourav Ganguly. The dismissal was sealed when Ponting told the umpire Mark Benson it was out, although television replays were, as usual, not conclusive.”We’d like to play hard on the field and expect that from Australia as well,” Kumble said. “I’ve played my cricket very sincerely and honestly, that’s the approach my team takes, and we expect that from Australia as well. Sometimes it happens that in the heat of the moment you take those chances and then probably don’t say anything on that. It’s a part of the game.”Australia’s sprint to victory with seven balls to spare was also overshadowed by the charges of racism tabled against Harbhajan Singh, a complaint which was raised on the field by Ponting, and an India team official was angry at the treatment towards the side during the 122-run defeat. India suffered heavily due to the poor umpiring and Chetan Chauhan, the India manager, believed they would not have lost if they had received 50% of the contentious calls.”The way the umpiring was, the team is agitated and upset,” he said. “A lot of decisions have gone against us. Of course a few went against the Australians also.”The crucial rulings involved Bucknor and Andrew Symonds, who was given not-out to a loud edge when he was 31 – he made 162 – and today he dismissed Dravid caught-behind when the ball flicked the batsman’s pad. “Had some of the decisions, I would say 50% of them, were received in our favour, the result would have been different,” Chauhan said. “It really affected us. We’re not saying this because we have lost the game. It was for everybody to see.”Bucknor and Mark Benson both had matches to forget and Bucknor is due to stand in Perth from January 16. However, Chauhan said the BCCI was lodging “a strong protest” with the ICC “so that some of the incompetent umpires do not umpire in the rest of the series”.The Indians were not the only ones fuming. Ponting reacted angrily when asked about his appeal for a catch against Mahendra Singh Dhoni that was ruled not out because the batsman did not hit it. The ball ballooned away from Ponting at silly point and he dived to make an athletic take, which sparked loud appeals, but replays seemed to show it touching the grass.”There’s no way I grounded that ball. If you’re actually questioning my integrity in the game, then you shouldn’t be standing there,” Ponting told an Indian journalist. “What I did in the first innings, doesn’t that explain the way I play the game?” Ponting told the umpires he had not accepted an edge cleanly despite the appeals from the players around him.”I’m saying I’m 100% sure I would have caught that catch off Dhoni,” Ponting said. “As it turned out it was given not out anyway, am I right or wrong?”Adam Gilchrist also took aim at criticism of Australia’s delay in closing their second innings today, shouting “How about that declaration, Tony Greig” while Ponting was conducting a radio interview. The Indian media also made an official complaint to the BCCI about what a journalist called the “humiliating” treatment from Ponting during an abbreviated press conference before he attended the hearing involving Harbhajan.Ponting believed there was nothing wrong with Australia’s on-field conduct during the match. “I have absolutely no doubt about this match being played in the right spirit,” he said. “There’s been one little issue that’s come out of the game, otherwise the spirit between both teams in both Tests has been excellent.” In Sydney Kumble and India disagreed.

Quebec 225 (48.2 overs; Qaiser Ali 64) and 165 for 8 (50 overs) beat Ontario 126 (43.1 overs: N Patel 3-23) and 210 (46.1 overs; Shamshuddeem 56, N Patel 3-51) runsQuebec regained the Atholstan Cup in LaSalle (Montreal) on Sunday (June 10), beating Ontario by 44 runs.Ontario battled back on the second day with some solid bowling that restricted Quebec to just 165 from 50 overs. Aftab Shamshuddeem was particularly impressive. He conceded just 13 runs from 10 overs and took two wickets. Jitender Singh and Hezron Lawrence each scored 35 for Quebec. Lawrence was out to a fine leg-side catch by Ontario wicketkeeper Azib Ali. He took three other catches in this innings.Shamshuddeem was pivotal in Ontario’s performance, making 56 (2×4, 1×6) when opening the second innings batting. He led the way for the visitors in this match and the hosts celebrated his dismissal. He was fourth out with the total on 102 for 4. Ontario then slumped to 148 for 8 wickets before Naresh Roopnaraine (43, including 2×4, 2×6) and Harvir Baidwan (24 runs) lead a spirited effort for the last two wickets.Quebec skipper Naresh Patel again took three wickets, as he had in the first innings, but he conceded

Scorecard

Queensland brought South Australia’s three-match winning streak to a shuddering halt at the Gabba and took the Bulls to second on the table. Shane Watson and James Hopes hit fifties to shrug off the early loss of Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds and Jimmy Maher and ease to their twice-revised target of 156 from 29 overs.Daniel Christian’s unbeaten 94 in his second match for South Australia boosted them to 7 for 203 in the 39 overs made possible by the rain. Christian – “a massive pick-up for us,” according to his captain Nathan Adcock – compiled a sensible innings replete with clean, simple but effective shots after coming in with South Australia 3 for 28.Michael Kasprowicz, who bowled with consistency, accounted for the Daniel Harris (0), Matthew Elliott (6) and Mark Cosgrove (6) to leave the Redbacks wobbling. Watson, showing off a remodelled action, was next to strike with Callum Ferguson’s wicket, but Shane Deitz (32) helped to boost them past 200 before he miscued a top edge to point, becoming one of Hopes’ two victims.It wasn’t enough, with Hopes and Watson taking the game by the scruff of the neck. The pair offered consistent boundaries and a positive approach, leaving Jason Gillespie’s two in two balls – Maher on 12 and Symonds for zero – a distant memory. Australia will be encouraged by Shaun Tait’s continuing good rhythm and pace, and he knocked over Matthew Hayden for 9.A good contest was brewing before the second rain break interrupted Queensland’s chase and took the fizz out of proceedings. Hopes and Watson injected some life into the game and their flair guided them home. Watson’s 70 came from 86 balls while Hopes, the Man-of-the-Match, had 61 from 40.”They’re always difficult for both sides, those rain-interrupted games,” Maher said. “We had a little bit of a rusty performance but generally we’re quite happy.”Adcock also refused to blame the rain. “We just didn’t have enough on the board in the mix of things at the end,” he said. “It’s difficult for both sides and you have to adjust to that.” It was Hopes and Watson who adjusted the most effectively.

Kris Britt, Emma Sampson and Clea Smith have been included in the Australian women’s team for their Twenty20 match against New Zealand at Darwin. All three will be making the Twenty20 debuts. This will be Australia’s first game at Darwin, and is a prelude to the five-match Rose Bowl ODI series at the same venue.Britt and Sampson represent South Australia in domestic cricket. Britt, 24, bowls legspin and has played in one Test and nine ODIs. The 21-year-old Sampson is an allrounder who has been described by the recently retired Cathryn Fitzpatrick as “exciting”. Sampson broke into the Australian national side at the age of 18 and has played three ODIs. Smith, the 28-year-old the right-arm medium-fast bowler, has played 39 ODIs and a solitary Test match.The will be Australia’s third Twenty20 match.Team
Karen Rolton (capt), Lisa Sthalekar, Sarah Andrews, Kate Blackwell, Kris Britt, Melissa Bulow, Sarah Edwards, Shelley Nitschke, Jodie Purves (wk), Emma Sampson, Clea Smith, Alex Blackwell (12th man)