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South Africa have announced a 14-man squad for their two-Test series in Sri Lanka which gets underway in July.The main surprise is the inclusion of Thandi Tshabalala, a promising 21-year-old offspinner who has taken 39 first-class wickets in 17 matches for the Free State Eagles.The squad also marks the return of Herschelle Gibbs, who was released for the final two Castle Tests against New Zealand after losing form.Ashwell Prince has been named as vice-captain in place of Jacques Kallis who is recovering from surgery to his elbow and is not expected to return to action for at least two months. Last season, Prince deputised as vice-captain for Kallis when he was injured during the Test series in Australia.Shaun Pollock will join the team a few days after its departure on 18 July, as he will be with his wife for the birth of their second child.”With a demanding season ahead of us, a pragmatic approach to managing player workloads will mean rotating our players through the season,” explained Haroon Lorgat, the convenor of the national selection panel. “We have taken a bold step to include Thandi in our efforts to create more spin options. We want him to develop and gain experience with the squad, especially in subcontinent conditions.”We expect to face tough choices this season as the quality of our fringe players improve, and Jacques Rudolph can consider himself unlucky not to be in the squad following a successful tour of Sri Lanka with the A team a year ago. He was left out to accommodate a second spinner, and we opted not to carry an extra batsman to Sri Lanka for only two Tests”.South Africa squad Graeme Smith (capt), Ashwell Prince (vice-capt), Hashim Amla, Nicky Boje, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, Boeta Dippennaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Dale Steyn, Thandi Tshabalala.

Dav Whatmore, the former Bangladesh coach, is set to become the first director of operations of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.”I’ve agreed, but the announcement should come from the board … I don’t wish to break protocol,” Whatmore was quoted as saying by the , a Kolkata-based daily. “The contract is for three years and I’ll be in Bangalore by the end of this month.” Whatmore had been made the offer by Ravi Shastri, the NCA chairman.Looking ahead to the job at hand, Whatmore indicated that there were several plans for the NCA. “I’m excited and Ravi wants it to become a real finishing school. In fact, I’d like players from overseas too to graduate from there.”The specifics have to be worked out, but I expect the NCA to be operational for 8-10 months [in a year]. Eventually, one would like Indian coaches to impart all the training but, if needed, one may call specialists from overseas. However, one doesn’t have to cross that bridge right now.”Whatmore had been one of the leading contenders to replace Greg Chappell as India coach, but he wasn’t even called for the interview by a panel which included Shastri. Whatmore, though, said that didn’t affect his decision to take up the NCA offer.”I’d rather talk of the NCA,” he said. “It didn’t take me long to realise there’s value in being associated with it. Plus, I can give something. I know Ravi’s on the coach-appointing committee, but I didn’t bring up what happened in June. I’ve known Ravi for a number of years. We understand each other well and I’m looking forward to a formal association with him.”

Ricky Ponting is hoping for a quick wicket in Wednesday’s semi-final because he believes Jacques Kallis will score more slowly than the openers. While admitting Kallis is one of the world’s best batsmen, Ponting wrote in his column in The Australian they have plans to restrict him in St Lucia.Kallis was criticised after scoring 48 from 63 balls in the group-stage loss to Australia in St Kitts after Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers swept South Africa to 160 in 21 overs. “We feel [the openers] are the key to their chances,” Ponting said. “But if we can get Kallis in there early, I don’t think they can get off to the same sort of start.”He is a very good player and has a great overall record, averaging 45.68 in one-day cricket, but against us it’s not so great. I feel we have also had the better of him in Tests. If we get our plans right to him, we can restrict him. We all know that if we bowl a certain way and put him under pressure, we can keep him reasonably quiet.”Ponting has noticed Kallis, who has 480 runs at 96 in the tournament, has been playing more shots since the Australia game, “which may have been the result of a rev-up from their coaching staff”. “Those runs, though, have come against bowling attacks that haven’t had the pace of a Shaun Tait reverse-swinging the ball,” he said. “The new ball is going to be key in this game.”Ponting also said Matthew Hayden might try a “repeat act” on Shaun Pollock, who went for 83 runs in ten overs in the previous encounter. “If we can take down the opposition’s experienced players, especially in their bowling line-up, like Matty took to Pollock, then that puts extra pressure on other guys around them,” he said.South Africa are deciding how they will use Pollock after he went for the worst figures of his career. “We have a plan with [Pollock],” the coach Mickey Arthur said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “I suspect he will take the new ball, but if there’s nothing happening, we will probably whip him off early and go for the pace of [Andre] Nel. It’s something we learnt from the last game.”Arthur hinted that Makhaya Ntini could sit out, owing to his ordinary form, with South Africa going in with an unchanged bowling line-up. “With Makhaya one knows what you are going to get because he bowls inswingers,” Arthur was quoted in Supercricket. “Therefore, there is no surprise element for the batsman. We have André Nel and his aggression, Shaun Pollock’s ability to limit the scoring and our two top wicket-takers, Charl [Langeveldt] and Andrew Hall.”Arthur said South Africa were “owed a bit of luck” after their previous near-misses in the World Cup, including the tied semi-final in 1999. He said there had been no discussion in the dressing room about the match, which included the key men Kallis, Pollock, Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher.”When you get to the back end of these tournaments, you need your top players to have big games,” Arthur said. “The teams are going to be quite close so it’s going to be a bit of stability and a match-winning performance from one of them that could be the difference.”

The Kent paceman Amjad Khan has been ruled out of the England tour of Bangladesh, leaving just 12 players available for selection ahead of the opening match.Khan arrived in Dhaka with a swollen knee after attending the MRF pace academy in Chennai and the management took the decision to send him back to England as a precaution ahead of the new season. The tour was going to be Khan’s first representative action for England – he was born in Denmark – having completed his qualification period.His withdrawal, along with Ravi Bopara’s selection for the World Cup squad, means Peter Moores, the coach, is down to the bare bones of a party. Two replacements will be named shortly, with Glen Chapple touted as one possibility. Ryan Sidebottom, the Nottinghamshire left-armer, might also come into the equation.With the options reduced, England are likely to name all their specialist batsmen for the first Test against Bangladesh A which starts on Thursday. That will hand an opportunity to the likes of Will Jefferson, Michael Carberry and Nick Compton who were preferred on the tour to the Test-capped pair of Robert Key and Owais Shah.

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy will be eligible for selection for upcoming tournaments, including the World Twenty20, despite not being given annual retainer contracts by the West Indies Cricket Board. The only condition the WICB has placed is that the players will need to meet criteria set in place by the selection panel, led by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. The six players are not part of the group of 15 who were given retainer contracts for the period between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016.According to Michael Muirhead, the WICB’s chief executive, the selectors had shortlisted 15 players for the contracts based on certain criteria that were drawn keeping in mind the future of West Indies cricket. Muirhead pointed out that the aforementioned six players – including Sammy who captains the West Indies T20 side – did not fit into the selection panel’s vision and hence were not given a contract.”The selectors did the retainers based on where they saw West Indies cricket going and the philosophy which they wanted to encourage and adopt, principally being loyal to commitment and really build for the longer form of the game,” Muirhead told ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday. “Lloyd had previously said how and where he was projecting our cricket to go, and how he wanted to build it.”According to Muirhead, the 15 players were shortlisted by the panel and endorsed by the WICB based on the “combination of their performances in the regional tournaments as well as their attitude”.Still, Muirhead insisted the six players should not misread the situation as they would be eligible for forthcoming series, if the selectors deemed fit.Some of the six players have failed to feature in the list of contracted players in the past, for reasons ranging from disputes with the WICB to voluntarily declining the retainer. In January 2015, Gayle and Narine had refused the retainer contracts as they wanted to focus on playing domestic Twenty20 leagues around the world, where they are marquee players.”When Chris Gayle and Narine refused our retainer contracts some years ago it was so that they had the freedom to do what they wanted,” Muirhead said. “But they are eligible to play all our games if they meet our criteria. This not a penalty.”Muirhead said most of the players had made the decision to make themselves unavailable because they wanted to be free to play in T20 leagues to earn more. “And they took that business decision to do so,” Muirhead said.Muirhead also stressed that most of the six players had already made public their intentions of not playing Test cricket. “Many of those players have withdrawn from the long form of the game officially and are not interested in playing for the West Indies in all formats,” he said.In the last two years, Bravo and Sammy announced their retirement from Test cricket. Pollard has never played Test cricket and is seen by selectors as a limited-overs specialist. Although Lloyd has always been keen for Russell to play Test cricket, the allrounder told the chairman of selectors he would like to play only limited-overs cricket due to a bad knee. Narine, who has played six Tests, is busy remodelling his bowling action after he was suspended by the ICC in November last year. Only Gayle, a 103-Test veteran, has openly stated he is still keen to return to Test cricket in 2016.

Hasan Raza, currently leading Karachi Urban against Mumbai in the Mohammad Nissar trophy, has been called up to the Pakistan A squad for the first Test against Australia A along with Asim Kamal, after the two had failed to make it to the one-day team.Pakistan won all three ODIs against Australia and were scheduled to play two Tests – in Faisalabad from September 12 to 15 and in Lahore from September 19 to 22.While internationals Yasir Hameed, who made two centuries in the one-day games, and Taufeeq Umar retained their place in the Test side, Tahir Khan, Shahid Yousuf, Rafatullah Mohmand and Junaid Zia missed out. Sohail Tanvir, the Rawalpindi allrounder who was named as Shoaib Akhtar’s replacement in Pakistan’s Twenty20 team, left the A squad for South Africa.Adnan Raza, Lahore’s left-hand batsman, and Rizwan Ahmed, the Hyderabad allrounder, were the new players in the side.Australia named an unchanged squad from the ODIs but Stuart MacGill, the legspinner, arrived in Pakistan only in time for the Tests and should boost his team’s chances.Pakistan A: Faisal Iqbal (capt), Taufeeq Umar, Hasan Raza, Khalid Latif, Yasir Hameed, Naved Latif, Adnan Raza, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Mansoor Amjad, Atif Maqbool, Mohammad Khalil, Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Irshad, Najaf Shah and Rizwan Ahmed.Australia A: Phil Jaques, Chris Rogers, David Hussey, Adam Voges (capt), Cameron White, Luke Ronchi (wk), James Hopes, Jason Gillespie, Ashley Noffke, Cullen Bailey, Dan Cullen, Luke Butterworth, Doug Bollinger and Stuart MacGill.

Mohammad Azharuddin, the legendary Indian batsman, has said he has given up hopes of playing for India but was fighting his case in the court of law to get his name cleared from match-fixing.”I have no hopes of playing for India. But I want to get my name cleared,” Azharuddin was quoted as saying in Press Trust of India. “I am expecting that the final hearing of my case will be in May before the judgment is announced.”Azhar was slapped with a life ban while Manoj Prabhakar, the former Indian fast bowler also involved in the scandal, was banned for five years in 2000. The court exonerated Ajay Jadeja who was earlier banned for life by the Indian board.Azhar however, refused to comment on whether he was made a scapegoat by the BCCI. “The matter is sub-judice and I cannot comment on that,” Azhar said. “But I firmly believe that the whole issue was blown out of proportion. I was destined to play 99 Tests, that’s the way I look at it. If I can play 99 Tests, I could have played one more,” he said when asked if he was deliberately prevented by the BCCI from achieving a personal milestone.However, Azhar, 43, said he cannot be banned from cricketing activities. “I don’t need any permission from anyone to play charity or veteran’s cricket. I cannot play in BCCI or ICC approved or sanctioned tournaments. Veterans’ cricket is a different body that is neither controlled nor governed by the BCCI or ICC.”Meanwhile the Pakistan Senior Cricket Board (PSCB) gave a new twist to the Veteran Cup controversy, claiming it was the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which allowed Azharuddin and Manoj Prabhakar to play in Pakistan. Fawad Ijaz, the PSCB president and chief executive, told a news conference that the “Pakistan High Commission granted visas to the entire Indian cricket team, including Azharuddin and Prabakar, to travel to Pakistan for the one-day matches on the advice of the PCB.”When we applied for the no-objection certificate with the PCB, the names of the Indian team were clearly stated. The PCB issued us the NOC on the basis of which the Indians were issued visas in New Delhi,” Ijaz said. “Issuing of the NOC, followed up New Delhi granting visas clarifies that the entire Indian team is here with the permission and knowledge of the PCB.”Ijaz’s remark came in the wake of Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, disassociating his establishment from Azharuddin and Prabhakar’s visit. “The senior cricket board is operating on their own and they have invited Azharuddin and Prabhakar,” Shaharyar had said. “The senior board is not affiliated with the PCB so they are holding this series on their own.”The veterans’ cricket board of India today came out in support of Azharuddin and Prabhakar, saying both were technically eligible to take part in the veterans’ tournament against Pakistan.Chetan Chauhan, former cricketer and President of Board for Veteran Cricket in India, said: “Prabhakar’s five-year ban is over and Azharuddin is banned from playing Test and first class cricket. Veterans’ cricket does not fall under any of these two categories. So both are eligible to play.”The veterans’ series is more of a friendly one to improve relationship between the two countries. Since Azharuddin is playing all sorts of festival cricket, there is no harm in his participation in it,”However, Chauhan refused to draw any comparison between Malik, who was prevented from taking part in the series, and the two Indian players. “Salim Malik’s case is different, “he said. “In their country, Justice Qayoom Commission has banned him from all forms of cricket. So he is not eligible to play veterans’ cricket.”

Tatenda Taibu’s return to the Zimbabwe cricket team is almost complete after he was included in a select side for two four-day matches against India A at home.Cricinfo revealed last month that Taibu’s comeback was imminent, although he was recently quoted saying his lawyers were still in negotiation with Zimbabwe Cricket, possibly over outstanding payments still owed to him by the board.The former captain however will now play under the current leader, Prosper Utseya.Wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor was also named in the side although he is yet to return from the Netherlands and may miss the first four-dayer at Harare Sports Club. Sean Williams, who is recovering from an injury which kept him out of training for six weeks, was also included.Allrounder Keith Dabengwa meanwhile misses out on selection, but will captain the A side on a tour of South Africa at the same time the Select will be facing India A. The batsmen Chamu Chibhabha has also been relegated to the A side, where the only other senior players are the pace bowler, Blessing Mahwire, and the former Zimbabwe A captain, Alester Maregwede.Zimbabwe Select Prosper Utseya (capt) Terry Duffin, Tatenda Taibu, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor (wk), Hamilton Masakadza, Sean Williams, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Tino Mawoyo, Elton Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Ed Rainsford, Chris Mpofu, Gary Brent, Trevor Garwe, Tawanda Mupariwa.Zimbabwe A Keith Dabengwa (cpat) Chamu Chibhabha, Eric Chauluka, Tafadzwa Kamungozi, Bornaparte Mujuru, Forster Mutizwa, Alester Maregwede, Regis Chakabva, Alois Tichana, Taurai Muzarabani, Prosper Tsvanhu, Timycen Maruma, Admire Manyumwa, Tendai Chisoro, Blessing Mahwire, Patient Charumbira.

Inclement weather in Colombo has forced the postponement of certain Premier league matches in Sri Lanka. Matches that were scheduled to begin on November 24 and December 1 have been pushed back to January 12 and 19.Basil Perera, Sri Lanka Cricket’s tournament committee chairman, said that in fairness to the 14 clubs represented the postponement was necessary because the current season was one of transformation for them. “Each of the clubs has only six matches in their respective groups to try and finish in the top ten to qualify for next season’s competition so it is only fair to give them the maximum opportunity of playing time,” he explained. “Last week four matches did not start at all due to bad weather and ground conditions. Of the remaining two only one club recorded victory while the other game was also affected by the weather.”It was the consensus of the captains that they were disappointed with the outcome. In consultation with the Met Department which predicted rain for the next two weeks we decided to postpone the matches for January,” he added. “Rescheduling of matches is not a difficult task but one has to look at the expenditure and revenue. Then there is also the question of venues being available. There are five clubs playing in the Premier league without a ground of their own.”Matches of the Premier limited-overs tournament scheduled for November 28 have also been postponed to December 3.The Premier league will recommence December 8 with the following matches: SSC v BRC at Maitland Place, Ragama CC v Saracens tbc, NCC v Bloomfield at Maitland Place, Tamil Union v Chilaw Marians at Sara Stadium, Colts v Sebastianites at Havelock Park and Moors SC v CCC at Braybrooke Place.

Simon Katich, who was dropped from the Australia squad for the second Test against West Indies, will lead the top-of-the-table New South Wales in their crucial ING Cup match against Queensland at the SCG on Sunday. The squad also includes Nathan Bracken, Michael Clarke, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill and Glenn McGrath, who will all play the match before flying to Hobart for the Test.Brad Haddin, the wicketkeeper, has been ruled out due to a finger injury he suffered in Perth. A further assessment on the injury will be made next week but Haddin is hopeful of being fit to play in the Pura Cup match against Tasmania starting next Friday.Matthew Hayden is the only change to the Queensland team that lost to South Australia on Friday night, replacing the injured James Hopes. Hopes hurt his shoulder during the match and expects to be fit in time for Australia’s Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series against New Zealand in December.Queensland squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Nathan Reardon, Chris Hartley (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Andy Bichel, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Kasprowicz, Chris Simpson.New South Wales squad: Simon Katich (capt), Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Phil Jaques, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Glenn McGrath, Aaron O’Brien, Corey Richards, Daniel Smith, Dominic Thornely.