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The post-World Cup exodus of England’s old guard continued with the announcement by Nick Knight that he was retiring from one-day internationals. The news follows similar decisions by Nasser Hussain and Andy Caddick, and signals from Alec Stewart that he is ready to step down as well."I have decided to call it a day," Knight, 33, told Sky Sports. “I’ve had a fantastic time and enjoyed every moment of it. I’ve been planning it for a while and it’s something I’ve thought long and hard about recently. It’ll be nice to spend some time at home and at Warwickshire.”I was desperate to play in the World Cup having missed out on the last one, but I’ve got other challenges ahead of me. There is an incredible amount of talent in the game, it’s four years before the next World Cup, I’m not going to make it, so it’s a chance for other guys to make it.”Asked whether the England selectors had tried to talk him out of the decision, Knight was cagey. “They were very good but I’ve made the decision and it’s something I’m going to stick by.” David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, explained that he had talked with Knight recently, adding that “you have to respect players’ views in that situation”.Knight only retired from ODIs, insisting that he would, “still like to play some Test cricket”. But he was realistic enough to admit that he was not sure that he would “get the call”.In 100 ODIs Knight scored 3637 runs at 40.41 including five hundreds, but he never cemented his place in the Test side, making 719 runs at 23.96 in his 17 Tests, with a highest score of 113 against Pakistan in 1996.

Indian stand-in captain Rahul Dravid issued a warning to the other twosides participating in the Coca-Cola Cup after India beat Sri Lankaconvincingly by seven wickets in the sixth match of the tournament atthe Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday."We can be very dangerous from here on. If we have some luck fromhere on, we can be a real threat to the other two sides," said theright handed batsmen who came in as captain for this game after SouravGanguly was given a one match suspension."It was just for this one game," said Dravid, reflecting on his roleas captain in today’s match. "At this moment I am happy to play underSourav. He’s done a wonderful job as captain during the last year. Iwas in for today because of an unfortunate incident."Sri Lanka started off very well with the dangerous opening duo ofRomesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya putting on an openingpartnership of 103 runs off 24.2 overs, but thereafter things changedquickly and Sri Lanka were shot out for 183."With Sanath and Kalu in the middle, the pressure was really on us.But the run rate was under control and when we got that wicket ofJayasuriya I knew we had a real chance," said Dravid.Chasing a modest target, the Indian batsmen initially struggled a bit,but in the end they reached it comfortably. "We just didn’t want loseour wickets to Murali chasing such a small target. That’s why we justplayed him off" said Dravid on his side’s policy of playing MuttiahMuralitharan whose 10 overs just cost 28 runs today.Man of the match, VVS Laxman made an unbeaten 87 and made sure Indiareached the score without much difficulty. "We didn’t want to loseearly wickets with the experiences of the past few games. I justwanted to play as straight as possible and stay there. Luckily thebowlers had done a great job for us."Laxman has to undergo a knee surgery, which will take at least fourweeks to heal. He was to return to India for his surgery and wasunlikely to play this game, but the suspension of Ganguly ruled outany chances of his going back to India to attend to his injury;"You can’t be worrying about injuries or anything once you are in thefinal eleven. After Sourav was out, I had to play. Our physiotherapisthas done a tremendous job," reflected the right-hander who might goback to India if the injury does not heal.Chasing the small target, the Indian batsmen had problems against theSri Lankan bowlers. Laxman himself struggled against Murali but in theend he finished off in style, "Initially it was very difficult toplay Murali," said Laxman. "This is the first time I have playedhim, so it was a big challenge for me to face him. He’s a greatspinner no doubt about it, but I won’t disclose my tactics of playinghim."Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jaysuriya accepted that his side had put upa poor performance."It was a disappointing performance by our batsmen once again. Weshould have pushed for more singles and worked out our ways of scoringoff the Indian bowlers. But to be honest the Indians bowled well."However the captain said the team has played relatively wellthroughout the tournament, "There’s nothing to panic. If you take thelast game we came back well. This was just one of those days wherenothing went our way."

A wicket apiece for Australia’s trio of fast bowlers consolidated their position of dominance at the end of the second day of the Melbourne Test. Justin Langer eventually reached a career-best 250 and Steve Waugh 77, while an unbeaten 62 from Martin Love contributed usefully to another awesome total of 551 for six before Waugh’s declaration. By the close England had reached 97 for the loss of Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher.Glenn McGrath made Australia’s first breakthrough when Vaughan, after reaching 11 without apparent difficulty, got a bottom edge onto his stumps as he tried to force a delivery of the back foot.Brett Lee then accounted for Trescothick, and was unfortunate not to dismiss Nasser Hussain as he reached 97 miles per hour in a hostile spell. Trescothick had made 37 and was threatening a major innings when he tried to avoid a short ball which brushed his glove on the way through to wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist.Hussain survived a concerted appeal in Lee’s next over when a delivery brushed his shoulder. The England captain also survived trial by television when he drove Stuart MacGill to mid-on, where Jason Gillespie appeared to take a low catch. Hussain was ruled not out when replays were inconclusive. However Gillespie had his own slice of good fortune when he removed Butcher lbw despite an inside edge.Earlier Langer moved past his highest Test innings of 223 against India in Sydney three years ago. He would not have done so if Vaughan had held on to a straightforward catch at short extra cover off Craig White, allowing Langer to move on to 224. Eventually after hitting a six and 30 fours, he was dismissed two overs before the declaration, caught at short third man by Andrew Caddick off the expensive Richard Dawson.England’s first success of the morning was the wicket of Waugh, who had added 15 runs to his overnight total when he edged a lifting White delivery to James Foster. Martin Love was missed on 25 when he drove Mark Butcher to Vaughan at point, who again spilled the catch. Love had added 151 runs for the fifth wicket with Langer when he was finally dismissed. Gilchrist was then bowled heaving at Dawson to trigger the declaration.

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Jamie How and James Marshall helped themselves to some important time in the middle as New Zealand reached 92 for 1 shortly after tea on a rain-interrupted second day against Kent at Canterbury. The prospects of any play at all had seemed bleak at the start of the day, when torrential rain wiped out the first three hours of play, but eventually the clouds lifted as Kent, sitting pretty after Rob Key’s 178 not out, declared on their overnight 324 for 1.New Zealand’s star players are starting to dribble into the country after their stints with the Indian Premier League. Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram arrived this afternoon, ready for this week’s second warm-up against Essex at Chelmsford, while Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori and Ross Taylor will all have landed by Thursday. Until then it’s all about the second-stringers, in particular the battle for batting places ahead of the first Test at Lord’s on May 15.How, the stand-in captain, opened up with Aaron Redmond, the son of the former Kiwi opener, Rodney, who scored a Test century in his solitary appearance against Pakistan at Auckland in 1972-73. Redmond Jr impressed during New Zealand’s one-day curtain-raiser at Arundel on Sunday, scoring 72 in a rain-curtailed encounter with MCC, but he was less effective in this outing.Redmond should have been dismissed on 11, with the score on 23, when he edged an off-stump lifter from Martin Saggers low to Matthew Walker’s right at second slip. But he had added only three runs to his total when he waved his bat limply at Ryan McLaren, and feathered the simplest of chances through to Geraint Jones.How was the most effective of New Zealand’s brittle openers during the recent Test series, and he picked up where he had left off with a comfortable half-century that he completed with a flourish of boundaries in a brief resumption after tea. Kent’s bowlers toiled with limited impact on a pitch that their New Zealand counterparts had also found to be unresponsive, as Marshall eased along to 20 not out.

Former Under-19 captain Sean Williams has been ruled out of action for six weeks because of a back injury. He is certain to miss the impending West Indies A tour of Zimbabwe if it goes ahead next month.Williams was sent by Zimbabwe Cricket to see a specialist in Johannesburg and was advised that he had aggravated an injury he suffered 2004. He had played with the pain but the discomfort became unbearable in April and forced him topull out of the Westerns’ last three matches in the Logan Cup. In the game he sis play he led Westerns to victory with some superb batting that saw him score a century and two fifties in four outings. His absence was felt as Westerns went on to lose their last two matches against eventual winners Easterns and Southerns, defeats that cost them the title.Sources close to the player have indicated that he might join the longlist of players who have walked out on their homeland because of the waythe game is being run by the Peter Chingoka led administration. He did turn his back once before but changed his mind and returned to the side.

Graeme Hick, who celebrates his 40th birthday on Tuesday, has told the Press Association that he has no immediate plans to retire. He is in the final year of his contract with Worcestershire, but said that when he finally quits depends on his form and hunger for the game.”I’m not putting any date on things,” he said. “It’s not down to match by match but hopefully I’ll have a good enough year for the club to want me to come back. If I’m still playing well enough, that’s fine. If I have a bad season, then obviously it is time to go.”One day I’ll just get out of bed and come down to the ground and think ‘I’ve had enough’. Whether that comes in July, August, September or while in a gym in October, who knows, but I’ve always hoped that’s the way it will happen. Then I will feel that I’ve no regrets about giving up.”People always say ‘you are a long time retired’ so I do hope it comes that way and I think ‘I’ve had enough’. That way I’ll find it easier to pack in and enjoy the moment of packing in and count myself fortunate for what I’ve had from over 20 years in the game.””I’m an emotional person and I am sure it would be more difficult to enjoy my cricket if I knew this was going to be my last season. That would be in my mind. But I’ve approached this season as if there are still years left for me.”Although Hick never fulfilled his potential as a Test player, he has continued to score heavily in first-class cricket. He has, however, had a low-key start to the 2006 season with only 70 runs at 11.66 in three matches.In 65 Tests, Hick scored 3383 runs at 31.32, but in first-class cricket he has a much better record, with his 38,507 runs coming at 52.46 each, inlcuding 128 centuries. He has also picked up 232 wickets with his gentle – and often underused – offspin.

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has tightened its grip on the future and direction of English cricket, thanks to an agreement by the First-Class Forum (FCF) to channel its efforts towards the improvement of the national side.At its October meeting last week, the FCF agreed to introduce an element of performance-related pay to its fee-payment structure, which will ensure that those counties that are producing more England-qualified players will receive a greater cut of the ECB budget.The move has come in response to concerns that English first-class cricket has become flooded with non-England-qualified players, in particular an influx of EU-passport-holders from South Africa, who have taken advantage of the controversial Kolpak ruling to ply their trade in England. There is nothing that the ECB can do to prevent the influx, although these monetary incentives may help to persuade the sides of the benefits of buying British.The key criteria that will be taken into consideration include the number of players that have played for England or other representative sides; the number of Under-23-qualified players on the staff; the number of England-qualified players who have been awarded contracts; and the level of qualification of the coaching staff, and the success of the county academy.In addition, the FCF has approved the implementation of an England development squad (EDS) of up to 25 players. This pool will be announced some time before the start of next summer, and though it stops short of being an extension of the central-contracts system, the players will fall under Duncan Fletcher’s control.And, as from the 2006 season, there will be a curb on the use of overseas players. Counties will still be allowed two signings, although substitutes will only be permitted in the event of a request from the player’s home board. There will be no substitutes for injury; or for substitute cricketers, and all stand-ins will have to be nominated before July 1.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has denied granting permission for India’s cricketers to play against a Pakistan XI at Abu Dhabi later this month. Media reports suggested that Indian and Pakistani elevens featuring current and former cricketers would play against each other at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi for a prize money of US$ 100,000. However, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the board president, has said, “I don’t know anything about it, I don’t know who is going and who is not.”SK Nair, the secretary of the board, echoed Dalmiya’s thoughts in a press release from Thiruvananthapuram. “The BCCI has not accorded its approval for any such match,” he said, adding that the BCCI was unlikely to release any player to take part in the proposed match.An agency report that appeared in The Times of India said that a board source had indicated that officials from Abu Dhabi had privately requested several Indian and Pakistani cricketers to take part in the event. The report added that the organisers stressed the fact that this was not an official ODI.The Indian government in conjunction with the BCCI had prohibited India from playing cricket in the United Arab Emirates on the suggestion that matchfixing was rife in the tournaments conducted in Sharjah. India have not played an official ODI in UAE since 2000.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, April 5 AAP – West Indian selectors must appoint a new vice-captain after local hero Ramnaresh Sarwan was today ruled out of Thursday’s opening Test against Australia in Georgetown.Sarwan and captain Brian Lara were forming a new leadership team for the series but Sarwan’s cracked finger has not healed in time.He was a notable omission from a 14-man squad named today, along with batsman Chris Gayle.Gayle’s exclusion raises questions after his controversial decision not to play in the final of the West Indies’ domestic first-class competition in Barbados.Instead, Gayle opted to play in a lucrative double wicket tournament with Carl Hooper in St Lucia which also features South Australian pairing Greg Blewett and John Davison.Chairman of selectors Viv Richards and his panel were not available for comment but Gayle’s omission would not appear form-related because the left-hander has scored the second-highest amount of Test runs for the Windies in the last 12 months.The Jamaican Cricket Association has stated Gayle was not given permission to miss the final, which may explain why he is out of the Test.Batsman Daren Ganga, who was supposed to be out for a week with a leg injury, is part of the squad along with promising batsman Devon Smith, deposed captain Hooper and rising quick Jermaine Lawson.Selectors included two wicketkeepers, with incumbent Ridley Jacobs joined by Carlton Baugh Jr, who is playing for the Guyana President’s XI in a three-day tour match against Australia.West Indies squad: Brian Lara (capt) Carlton Baugh Jnr, David Bernard Jnr, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Carl Hooper, Ridley Jacobs, Jermaine Lawson, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith.

Minister of Sports and Tourism, Lakshman Kiriella, revealed today that he isseriously contemplating the inclusion of Rienzie Wijethillake into theInterim Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.The minister sighted the heavy workload of the Interim Committee in themonths ahead as the reason for his possible appointment..Wijethillake, who is the managing director of Hatton National Bank, aleading bank in Sri Lanka, was the chairman of the Interim Committee whichwas appointed in 1999 by the then Sports Minister S.B. Dissanayake. Thecommittee headed by Wijethillake continued for close to a year before theS.B. Dissanayake called for fresh elections.Minister Kiriella dissolved the board of control in March this year andimmediately appointed an Interim to run the affairs. The committee initiallycomprised of four members but two were brought in later. Wijethillake willtherefore be the seventh member.Wijethillake said today that he has not been approached so far and claimedthat he was not interested in taking up a position within the cricket boardagain.