Australia’s left-arm spinner, Brad Hogg, has been ruled out of the remaining matches of the Champions Trophy, after sustaining a tear to his left hamstring. The injury occurred during a practice session in the nets at Edgbaston on Sunday, and he will return home immediately.Hogg’s injury was reviewed by a representative of the ICC’s medical panel, and Cricket Australia has yet to make a decision whether to send for a replacement to shore up their 14-man squad. "Brad is experiencing a fair degree of discomfort in his movement," said Errol Alcott, the team physio. "There is a large amount of swelling behind his knee.”Once he has returned to Australia, Hogg will be placed on a three-to-five-week rehabilitation program ,where his progress will be monitored and the injury will be reassessed. He is naturally disappointed, but he is a very fit player who works hard, so I have every confidence that he can overcome the injury sooner rather than later."Hogg, a World Cup-winner in 2003, was naturally despondent at the turn of events. "I’m pretty flat at the moment," he said, "because as always I was enjoying being a part of the Australian side, and was determined to play my part in helping us win this tournament for the first time."I was also looking forward to the chance of playing at Edgbaston as it’s been my English home for the past few months during my stint with Warwickshire in county cricket."I knew that the injury was fairly serious as soon as it occurred, but being an optimist, I thought I still might be able to play with it. That’s obviously not the case, so all I can do now is get back home and try and be as fit as possible for the start of the state season."

Reports that the ECB is about to agree a new TV deal which would pass more coverage of England’s home matches to satellite station BSkyB at the expense of terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4 have angered Lord MacLaurin, the former chairman of the board.MacLaurin said that he gave the government a gentleman’s agreement in 1998, while he was chairman, that coverage of Test matches would be kept evenly split between satellite and terrestrial television in return for them dislisting cricket. Until that time, TV coverage of Tests had to be on mainstream television as one of the so-called "crown-jewel" events which include Wimbledon, the Derby and the FA Cup final.”I spent nine months talking to Chris Smith [the minister responsible] and I did the deal with him at a Test match at Lord’s," MacLaurin told the Daily Telegraph. "He agreed on condition that we split coverage equally.”The rumours are that Channel 4’s coverage will be downgraded, possibly so they only cover the second series of the summer. With all one-day internationals and domestic matches already the exclusive domain of Sky, that would mean that there would not be any cricket on terrestrial TV until mid July.MacLaurin has flagged his concerns with David Morgan, his successor at the ECB. “If they change anything radically, they will have to clear it with the Government because Smith would have logged the deal," MacLaurin warned. "It’ll be a great shame if we don’t see cricket on terrestrial television until at least halfway through the season.”The BBC is the only other broadcaster who was interested in the rights, but they are understood to have withdrawn from the bidding last month.

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has hit out against the stream of criticism directed at the team after their humiliating defeat against Australia at Perth. Pakistan were thrashed by 491 runs and were then subjected to a fearful backlash, as the media, fans and former players vented their ire – effigies of players were burnt, while a crowd of around 150 apparently smashed a television set.Among former players, Javed Miandad, the previous coach of the side, has been most vocal in his criticism, but Woolmer said that such comments helped no-one. “It’s the criticism before the match and the criticism continually of everything that undermines the players and everyone around the team,” he said, according to a report in ABC Sport. “I don’t see the point of it, quite frankly – what are people trying to achieve?”For example, the burning of the effigies… are you trying to burn the people who are doing their job, instead of encouraging them? It’s obviously something I will have to get used to – I don’t want to get used to it, so we’ll have to perform better. It’s a strange world we live in when people criticise you for not doing things you’re already doing, because they don’t know – they’re six or seven thousand miles away.”In the aftermath of the defeat, Woolmer spoke to a number of experts, and while some – most notably Bob Simpson – offered to help, Woolmer said that the team was keen get out of the rut by themselves.”Part of the team meeting we had (after Perth), we discussed the role of a sports psychologist,” Woolmer said. “The team was adamant that they were very disappointed about what happened and they would like to handle it themselves. It doesn’t mean I can’t talk to these people and see if there’s anything new on the market that might help the team. Inzamam specifically was adamant that it’s not outside help we need, we need to help ourselves and that was the most important thing I think that came out of the meeting.”

Younis Khan has been named as Pakistan’s vice-captain for their forthcoming tour of India, while Arshad Khan, the tall offspinner, has earned a recall to the Test team. Shoaib Akhtar, who recently ruled himself out of contention with a hamstring injury, was left out of the 15-man squad announced today by the Pakistan Cricket Board.Arshad, speaking to was understandably ecstatic about his recall. “It is like a dream come true for me,” he said. “I have been performing in the domestic matches in the hope of being picked for India. Now that it has happened I want to do my best for the country.”Wasim Bari, the chief selector, explained Arshad’s selection. “Arshad has been recalled because we require a second specialist spinner in India to support Danish Kaneria,” he said. He is experienced and has been bowling very well in domestic matches.” Arshad has certainly had a good run in domestic cricket, picking up 46 wickets in 13 first-class matches at an average of 22.02.Shabbir Ahmed, who has been struggling with injury, did not recover in time and nstead the pace department is spearheaded by Mohammad Sami, and also includes Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Khalil. Pakistan will also lean heavily on Abdul Razzaq’s medium-pace.Danish Kaneria heads the spinners and will be assisted by Arshad, who was rewarded with a recall for performing consistently in domestic cricket in Pakistan. Arshad last played a Test against England in 2000-01. Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi, the allrounders, strengthen the spin department.Squad Taufeeq Umar, Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Asim Kamal, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wk), Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Khalil.

Australia will play the World XI in Test and one-day matches after confirming their status as the No. 1 ODI team by winning the VB Series. While the cut-off date for the rankings is April 1, Australia’s defeat of Pakistan means New Zealand cannot now overtake them on the ICC one-day table. Australia will thus face a busy October, with three one-day matches at Melbourne and the six-day Super Series Test at Sydney.Glenn McGrath’s 5 for 27 in the second final has propelled him to the top of the individual one-day list for bowlers – he is also No. 1 in the Test hierarchy – while Brett Lee lifted a spot from seventh to sixth, one place behind Jason Gillespie. Strangely, considering his barnstorming VB Series that included replacing Matthew Hayden as opener, Michael Clarke slipped to 12th place, while Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting sit at fourth and seventh.Jacques Kallis remains the world’s best-rated one-day batsman, and if South Africa win the final three matches of their current home series they will pass England and move to fifth on the championship table.Australia sealed the top Test spot by beating Pakistan in January and their current ICC limited-overs rating is 137, which is 17 more than New Zealand and a point higher than when they won the 2003 World Cup. Australia and New Zealand will play a five-match one-day series starting on February 19.LG ICC ODI Championship table

Jehan Mubarak will lead Sri Lanka A against England later this month in twounofficial four-day Tests. The national selectors, who met on Tuesday,picked a squad of 15 players for the two games, which are to be played at theCCC Grounds from March 7-10 and at the NCC grounds from March 13-16.Mubarak, the 24-year-old left-hander, has been retained after a glowing tourreport in England last year when he led Sri Lanka A to victory in eight outof ten matches against the English Counties, who admittedly did not playfull-strength teams. They only lost one game to Somerset, the last match,and drew one match with the West Indians.Mubarak’s success in England prompted the selectors to fast-track him backinto the national side against Pakistan in October, a controversial movethat led to Tillakaratne Dilshan being ousted from the team against thewishes of Marvan Atapattu, the national captain. Under intense pressure,Mubarak was unable to clinch his opportunity but clearly remains in theselectors’ thoughts for the future.Thilana Kandamby, who has been in scintillating form for Central province inthe last two weeks, has been appointed Mubarak’s deputy for the tour. He has rattled off two centuries and his average before the current tournament final was 98.66. Kandamby also toured England with the A team in 2004, as did a total of 10 players selected in the squad.The new faces include fast bowlers Nandika Ranjith and Chanaka Welagedera,both of who are left-armers and play for North Central Province. Malinga Bandara , the legspinner, and Sajeewa Weerakoon, an orthodox slow left-armer who wasthe leading wicket-taker in last year’s Premier League with 50 wickets, plusbatsman Anushka Polonawita are the others given an opportunity to press fora place in the senior squad.Selection sources have also revealed that there is a chance that a handfulof the squad will also be selected for Sri Lanka’s postponed tour of NewZealand which starts at the end of the month. That team is expected to benamed next week.Squad Jehan Mubarak (capt), (CCC), Thilina Kandamby, (Bloomfield), Avaishka Gunawardene (SSC), Ian Daniel (Bloomfield), Shantha Kalavitigoda (Colts), Anushka Polonowita (CCC), Malintha Gajanayake (Chilaw Marians), Gayan Wijekoon (Chilaw Marians), Prasanna Jayawardene (NCC), Thilina Thushara (NCC), Nandika Ranjith (Tamil Union), Chanaka Welagedera (Moors SC), Malinga Bandara (Galle CC), Sajeewa Weerakoon (BRC), Suraj Mohamed (SSC).

On the state of the match
We are back in the game. From yesterday’s score, to be 150 ahead on the third day with seven wickets still in hand is a great position to be in. We knew that we needed one wicket to break the partnership. We couldn’t get that yesterday. Inzy’s wicket too was crucial. Getting those wickets early was the key to getting the lead.On the Indian strategy
We kept the pressure up, didn’t give away a lot of easy boundaries. Yesterday, the wicket was good, the ball was hard and carrying on to the bat. They ran very well and that made the difference. Today we kept the pressure up from both ends and didn’t concede too many boundaries which is why we got the breakthroughs. Bhajji [Harbhajan Singh] got the crucial wicket of Kamran.On the below-par showing on the second day
Don’t expect things to happen on a second-day wicket. But it is important for us to bat a long time tomorrow. We need to be more than 300-plus ahead, but it’s not easy to bat on the last day. That’s the game-plan. Hopefully, Rahul [Dravid] and Sourav [Ganguly] will take us ahead tomorrow. We would like to extend our lead and play for as long as we can so that we can be in a position where we can attack all the time in the fourth innings. To have three or four men around the bat at all times will be an ideal situation with two spinners bowling.On whether India were in the driver’s seat
It’s too early to decide. A lot depends on how we go to lunch tomorrow.On Dinesh Karthik’s wicketkeeping
He did a good job. There was a bit of uneven bounce. The ball was coming off the rough. Mohali is history and it is important for us to do well here.