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Nottinghamshire batsman Kevin Pietersen is likely to miss the rest of the English season after fracturing a shin bone.Pietersen, 22, has been in dominant form prior to the injury, scoring 639 runs in a 10-day spell, with four consecutive centuries and a career-best 254 not out.Notts’ cricket manager Mick Newell says it is “very unlikely” that Pietersen will play again this summer.”Kevin picked up the injury diving on the square when he was fielding against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay on Monday,” Newell said. “Initially we thought the injury was muscular, but he went for an x-ray at the local hospital and they discovered a fracture in his left fibula.”

MELBOURNE, Nov 1 AAP – The Victorian wicketkeeper previously known as “Chuck” is now Darren “The Cannibal” Berry.Lost in the excitement of yesterday’s hat-trick for team-mate Shane Harwood was Berry wearing a baseball catcher’s mask during the Tasmanian first innings in the Pura Cup cricket match at the MCG.While Berry and Australian ‘keepers Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist have worn batting helmets at times when standing close to the stumps, it was probably the first time the mask had been used in cricket.”I’m a big fan of Hannibal Lecter’s and I thought I’d try to impersonate him in my 125th,” joked Berry, who is setting the Victorian games record in this match.Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter is sometimes detained in face masks and is the main villain in a trilogy of films, with Red Dragon currently on release.Berry’s more serious motive for the unusual face gear was some added protection when he stood up close behind the stumps to faster bowlers Ian Harvey and Matthew Inness.The slick glove man’s tactic with these quicker bowlers is to try to put the batsman under added pressure with something different, rather than standing a few steps away from the stumps.Berry has made leg-side stumpings off the Victorian medium pacers, catching the batsman off balance.He tried using the mask in the off-season and found no opposition from officials when he brought it out for yesterday’s play.Berry hacksawed off the “wings” – the extra protection on the sides of the mask – but otherwise it is a standard piece of baseball equipment.He has spoken to cricket equipment manufacturer Gray Nicholls about making a special mask for ‘keepers, which would have less facial padding than the baseball version.”It’s practical – I can’t believe no-one has done it before,” he said.”‘Heals’ has kept in a helmet and so has ‘Gilly’, but it’s not good in a helmet because of the bit at the back.”You don’t need that for a ‘keeper, you only need the face protection – it’s realistic.”

Mumbai Indians’ physiotherapist Nitin Patel is likely to be appointed to the Indian team for the upcoming tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in June. The BCCI has also decided to appoint Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh as the bowling and fielding coaches respectively until the Asia Cup on an ad-hoc basis.Prasad, who is also the bowling coach with the Bangalore franchise, confirmed his appointment to Cricinfo. “The BCCI told me they were appointing me as the bowling coach for the Bangladesh tri-series and the Asia Cup after which they will negotiate a contract,” Prasad said. Both his and Robin’s contracts expired on May 30.A BCCI official told Cricinfo that Patel was close to signing his papers, and if that happens he will replace Paul Close, who was a stop-gap physio for the home Test series against South Africa earlier this year.Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, neither confirmed nor denied the news.Patel has already worked with the Indian team, when he replaced John Gloster during the tour of England in 2007. Gloster had fractured his elbow during a fielding session and had to undergo surgery, so Patel continued as the physio for the remainder of the series. The team was impressed by Patel’s performance and a BCCI official pointed out that even Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s one-day captain, was happy with his work. Before going to England, Patel was the physio with the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team for three years.The BCCI had to fill the positions of physiotherapist and physical trainer after the simultaneous exits of John Gloster and Gregory King after the CB Series in Australia. Close, who was appointed as the National Cricket Academy physio, was asked to fill the vacancy temporarily but it has been learnt that he injured his Achilles tendon and had to undergo surgery recently.Andrew Leipus, the former physio of the Indian team, and Ewan Speechley, a renowned South African physio who was with Bangalore Royal Challengers, were the other names discussed by the BCCI. Leipus came close to taking up the offer but he might be heading to the ICC’s headquarters in Dubai.

Ireland is to host the ICC Trophy – one of the world’s biggest cricket tournaments.It will be staged here in 2005 and the top three teams will qualify for the World Cup finals in the West Indies two years later.The International Cricket Council unanimously supported the tournament going to Ireland and now the Irish Cricket Union will decide whether it will be staged north or south of the border., the ICU Chairman, John Caldwell, said today.”We are already staging the European Championships throughout Northern Ireland later this week and the news that the world tournament is now coming Ireland’s way makes it a wonderful double”.Malcolm Speed, C.E.O. of the ICC said the Council had every confidence that the ICU would stage the tournament in a .He said, .The ICC Trophy will attract 12 non-Test playing countries from all over the world. It was held in Canada last year as a qualifier for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. Ireland finished eighth as Holland, Namibia and Canada progressed to the World Cup.The venues for the tournament will be decided by the ICU’s executive committee and it’s thought the decision will be taken before the end of the year to allow at least two years to plan the tournament.Ireland have played in three ICC Trophies which are held every four years; last year in Toronto and before that in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Nairobi in Kenya.This latest boost for Irish cricket comes as teams are arriving in Belfast for the European Championships, which will get underway on Friday. More than 20 venues will be used for the 30 matches, with six countries in each of two divisions.ENQUIRIES PLEASE TO …Robin Walsh P.R.O. North Irish Cricket Union 048 918 52809
Gerard Byrne P.R.O. South Irish Cricket Union at 086 8211 794

The chairman of Pakistan cricket selectors Wasim Bari refused to sharethe blame for his team’s eight-wicket drubbing against Sri Lanka inthe Asian Test Championship final.The former Test wicket-keeper stressed his committee had picked thebest available 14 and left it upto the captain and the coach tofinalize the starting lineup.”The decision of playing or not playing Saqlain Mushtaq was entirelythe decision of team management. We named Saqlain in the 14 because wethought he was good and deserved a place,” he said, adding: “You areasking the wrong person reasons to omit Saqlain.”Pakistan were thoroughly thrashed by the Sri Lankans who dismissed thehome team for 234 and posted 528 in their turn. Had 328 minutes notwasted on the fourth day, the game would not have gone into the finalday.Bari, facing a barrage of questions, said his committee had pickedSaqlain as the only specialist spinner. But when asked in whatcapacity Shoaib Malik had been played, he said: “You should ask thecaptain or the coach. We selected Saqlain as the only specialistspinner while Shoaib was included in the 14 because of his previousmatch performance.”Shoaib had scored a century in the second One-day Internationalagainst the West Indies at Sharjah. He was preferred over Saqlain forthe Asian final that triggered a controversy.Bari also defended his panel’s decision to overlook Wasim Akram. Hesaid there was enough doubt in the selectors’ mind that the lefthander lacked fitness. “He hadn’t played enough cricket lately. But Imust stress here that Wasim is an integral component of our World Cupsquad.”To a question how Wasim will force his way in the Test squad asPakistan is to play at least seven One-day Internationals beforetaking on New Zealand in the first Test at Lahore from May 1, Barisaid: “I think he would have played enough cricket by then to confirmhis fitness.”Bari rested all the blame on the team for a poor performance at thecricket headquarters in Lahore. “If you score 234, then allow theopponents to score 528 aided by five spilled catches, you are alwayson the defensive. But as regards the 14 we picked, I think they werethe best.”There can be a difference of opinion on who should have played andagainst whom. But that’s for the team management to decide and ask.It’s not our cup of tea which team takes the field,” Bari said.Bari’s selected teams have lost the home series’ against Australia,Zimbabwe, England and now the Asian Test Championship final. But thestar wicket-keeper of yesteryears believes the defeats had more to dowith rifts and poor performances of the team than poor selection.”We lost to Australia and Zimbabwe because the captain [Aamir Sohail]and coach [Javed Miandad] were not on talking terms. There weredifferences between the two.”Against England, there was a batting collapse in the second inningsand then five catches were dropped. Similar was the case in the Asianfinal. I don’t think its because of poor selection that the teamslost,” he reiterated.The chief selector said the captain and the coach were given theoption of naming the starting lineup of their own choice because therewere grievances of the captains in the past that the players of theirliking were not being given a chance to play.Now there is criticism that the captain and the selector are notpicking the right players. I understand that there is personalityclash and egos involved [while the starting lineup is picked]. Butthat’s in our society,”I still believe that the captain should be given the powers to play ateam of his choice since he has a game-plan. What’s the point ofimposing a player on whom the captain has no confidence.”

Hampshire were made to endure an elongated session in the field on the warmest day of the season so far, and will have to work very hard if they are to gain anything from this Frizzell County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.Alan Richardson, the Warwickshire seam-bowler and one of the real `bunnies’ in terms of batting on the county circuit, made his own team-mates and Hampshire’s bowlers look decidedly ordinary as he and his more exalted partner, Nick Knight continued to bat … and bat.Resuming on their overnight 274-9 and their tenth wicket partnership at a meagre 16, surely the plan was to dismiss the hosts for not much more and enjoy the bright sunshine and flattening wicket.Being without Mascarenhas, who remained off the field with a hamstring tear, should not have mattered but Richardson grew in stature as he continued to keep Knight company through 300. And then 350, while in doing so, passing his previous career best of just 17.The number 11, who has struck just 82 runs in his 31 first-class innings before this was producing some measured strokes against the variety of bowlers used by Robin Smith.Knight recorded the second double century of his career, while Richardson recorded his first ever half-century. From struggling overnight, Warwickshire were building a commanding first innings total.Then the records started to fall. The highest 10th wicket partnership against Hampshire was first, passing the 140* by Rodney Ontong and Robin Hobbs at Swansea in 1981. Then the best by Warwickshire, and the highest at Edgbaston.Richardson, with 10 fours and a six from a mammoth 199 balls, was finally dismissed for 91 by the occasional leg-spin of Giles White, swiftly stumped by Nic Pothas. He had broken the highest score for Warwickshire at number 11 and the highest against Hampshire in the same position in the process.It left Knight, unbeaten and carrying his bat through the innings on 255, the second best total for Warwickshire against Hampshire.The tenth wicket partnership had added 214 – the fifth best in County Championship history and a beleaguered Hampshire, who thought they would be bat in hand by at least 11.30am strode out four hours later than envisaged.It did not get much better, in losing Derek Kenway to Melvyn Betts’ second delivery in the second over.Will Kendall was well snapped up by Dougie Brown close to the wicket for a watchful 25 and Giles White’s 120-ball stay came to an end when he leg glanced a ball from England discard Ashley Giles into Ian Bell’s midriff for 36.Skipper Robin Smith and Neil Johnson safely saw Hampshire to the close at 89-3, still wanting another 234 runs to avoid the follow-on.Giles, who took both of the later wickets in the day, will be the lynchpin in Warwickshire’s hopes, as he is already finding plenty of turn.A DAY OF BROKEN RECORDS
Highest tenth wicket partnership for Warwickshire
(previous best – 141 AF Giles & TA Munton v Worcestershire at Worcester 1996)Highest tenth wicket partnership against Hampshire
(previous – 140* RC Ontong & RNS Hobbs for Glamorgan at Swansea 1981)Highest tenth wicket partnership at EdgbastonNick Knight’s career-best
(previous – 233 v Glamorgan at Edgbaston 2000)Alan Richardson’s career-best
(previous – 17* v Northamptonshire at Northampton 2000)Highest score by a number 11 for Warwickshire
(previous – 74 by Danny Mayer v Surrey at The Oval 1927)Highest score by a number 11 against Hampshire
(previous – 80* by George Hunt for Somerset at Taunton 1930)

St Vincent prime minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has made a personal plea in a bid to get West Indies fast bowler Cameron Cuffy his job back.Cuffy was among 41 employees dismissed last Friday by West Indies cricket sponsors Cable & Wireless.Gonsalves believes Cuffy is a special case and has spoken and written to Ian Kyle, general manager of Cable & Wireless operations on St Vincent, requesting a review of Cuffy’s dismissal.Quoting from his letter, Gonsalves said: “As you are aware, Cuffy is a treasured national of St Vincent & the Grenadines and an exemplary son of our Caribbean civilisation who has brought much glory to our people in the field of cricket.”He is currently a member of the West Indies Test cricket squad, he has wornyour company’s logo with pride on the field of play nationally, regionally andinternationally to the enormous credit of your company”Surely, if your company finds that it is unable to retain Cuffy in hiscurrent job as a survey officer in the technical department, an appropriateposting possibly relating to sports development in your company and the countrycould be found,” he suggested.”Let us face it, Cuffy is a special individual deserving of specialtreatment. It is for this reason that I have intervened specifically on hisbehalf,” Gonsalves explained.Cuffy, 31, is now a goodwill ambassador for St Vincent & the Grenadines.

I thought it was going to be a great summer of international cricket, and what a start we’ve made with that First Test win against Pakistan. I was up at Durham, plying my trade for Middlesex, but I took every opportunity to watch the dressing room TV and I thought the guys were fantastic. One day lost to rain, and then to win in three days; what a performance! They batted fantastically, bowled fantastically, fielded fantastically. Fantastic was definitely the word to describe it.

I know people will say that Pakistan played badly, but there are two responses to that. I think they were naïve rather than bad (they’ve got too many good players to be a bad side), and they only played as well as they were allowed to by the England boys.They were right to win the toss and bowl, but they didn’t bowl as they should have done. I think I know a bit about Lord’s because it’s my home ground, and on that first day after the washout they should have pitched the ball up, used the slope and used the conditions to get it to swing. Just banging it in was not the way to do it.As for the team selection, they really dropped a clanger. Or, to be precise, they dropped Saqlain Mushtaq. I don’t care what anyone says, Saqlain Mushtaq is one of the world’s great bowlers, and that’s whether it spins or not. I thought Pakistan missed a trick by not playing him, and that’s to take nothing away from England.I’ve played quite a few times for England and, whether I’m in the side or not, I still want to see the boys I’ve known and played with do well. So, it was great to see Thorpey batting so well for his 80. He looked a class act, and so did Nasser with his 60. Then there was Caddy and Gough. I’ve played with all these fellas and it was great to see them all doing so well.The thing about it was that it takes all the pressure off before the Aussies arrive. One-nil up, they can’t lose the series now. It could have been a cheeky little two-match business and, had we lost it, we’d have felt a bit down before the Ashes. As it is, we can now begin to look forward to the next one.There’s a buzz about the game and, if we do well against the Aussies, it could really take off. I think everyone always wants England to do well and now, with four series wins in the bag and perhaps a fifth on the cards, the public is right behind the team.The important thing for me is that the boys are in a run of form and for the first time in a long time they’re making the other teams play badly. We’ve always had to go out and beat the opposition, but now the tables have turned and they’ve got to beat us. Pakistan played poorly at Lord’s and, make no mistake about it, Waqar Younis will know his side played poorly. That’s the way to beat teams. Put the onus on the other side and then you don’t have to play well – they’ll play badly.England did that. They went out and faced an experienced attack with the likes of Waqar and Wasim and they got nearly 400. That was a great start, it gave them confidence and gave the bowlers a couple of days with their feet up before they went out there and did the business.I must admit that I’d liked to have seen a bit of spin – and I’m not talking about the election now. When I’m sitting there with my cup of tea, dunking the old digestive and having a fag, I do want to see the top spin bowlers. Saqlain Mushtaq is one of the best and perhaps we’ll see him in the Pakistan side at Old Trafford.As for England at Old Trafford, well all I will say is that I am available. I like to think that I’ve still got some bowling to do for England, but all I can do is take a shed load of wickets for Middlesex and get attention that way. I’m not one to go round chatting up selectors and saying how well I’m doing. I reckon at the end of the day it’s performances on the field that count.I suppose I might have upset a few people along the way, but I’ve always believed that weight of wickets is what counts. That’s my philosophy and I hope to nudge the selectors in that way. If it comes – great stuff; if not, I’m still working hard. So, the message to Mr. Graveney and his wise men is: Tuffers says it’s coming out of the hand brilliantly and he’s bowling like a genius!Seriously, I’m really enjoying my cricket at the moment, we’ve made a great start to the season at Middlesex, so who knows what’s around the corner?

Tim Bresnan said that Kevin Pietersen’s return for his first England appearance in almost three months, after a destabilising episode that threatened to see the batsman cast into the international wilderness, was no different to having a player come back into the side following an injury.Pietersen was part of the England XI taking on India A in a three-day tour match and took a catch off Bresnan’s bowling to help remove Ajinkya Rahane in the first session. Pietersen last featured for England in the second Test against South Africa at Headingley at the start of August but Bresnan described his team-mate as the “same old Kev” and said it was good to have him back.”For the lads it’s nothing different to having a player come back to the squad who has been missing for a while,” Bresnan said. “There’s not been much made of it. Everyone in the know of what’s being going on, they’ve sat down and spoke about things and I guess a few of the senior players have spoken, but for the rest of the boys it’s pretty much been like having someone who’s been injured come back in the side, it’s not been exceptionally different.”It’s been the same old Kev. The energy in the field he showed today, all day, it was just Kev to be honest. It’s been good.”Despite losing Steven Finn to a thigh problem early in the day, England’s bowlers made regular breakthroughs after being asked to bowl in their first tour outing. Bresnan was the pick of the attack, with 3 for 59, while Graeme Swann also picked up three wickets as India A closed on 369 for 9, Manoj Tiwary top-scoring with 93.”Overs under the belt is key in warm-up games, especially when we’re playing Twenty20 cricket for quite a spell over the last month or so,” Bresnan said. “So definitely, get a day out there, get a day in the legs, a day in the field.Tim Bresnan was England’s most successful bowler on day one against India A•AFP

“You can get value for your shots out there, if it’s past the infield, it’s pretty much four. There’s not much margin for error short or full so I think that’s a bit of rustiness but you expect that first day out.”They played nicely, Tiwary played lovely but it seems like a nice wicket to bat on and obviously we’ll know more after we have a go on it but it wasn’t doing particularly much. And they dug in for a partnership when the going was good so that’s part of what cricket’s about.”The biggest stand of the day came when Tiwary put on 110 with Irfan Pathan for the seventh wicket. Tiwary was eventually the eighth man out, the first of two in two deliveries for Bresnan, who said that he had enjoyed bowling with the SG ball. “We’ve been using them a bit in Dubai the last couple of day,” he said. “I like the balls here, they’re nice to bowl with, swing a bit early on and reverse a bit later on, the spinners like them. It’s a lot like a Dukes, but not a Dukes.”

Needing a further 336 runs to win with nine wickets intact, Mumbai arefacing a daunting task going into the final day tomorrow against arejuvenated Punjab side in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match atthe Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. At stumps on the fourth day on Friday,Mumbai, for the loss of opener Amol Rane (2) had scored 85 runs.In the morning, Punjab resumed at 124 for no loss and proceeded toamass 322 in their second innings. Punjab thereby set a stiff victorytarget of 421 for Mumbai. Ravneet Ricky was the first to be dismissedwith the score at 146 in the 50th over of the innings. Ricky who made55, was caught by Paranjpe off Rajesh Pawar. Seven overs later, hispartner Manish Sharma (93) also departed caught by Mhambrey off Pawar.Sharma faced 195 balls and hit eleven boundaries and three sixes.Punjab skipper Vikram Rathour (21), who came in at the fall of Ricky,did not last long and was caught behind by Amol Rane off SantoshSaxena. Then Yuvraj Singh (33) and A Kakkar (17) helped PankajDharmani to take the score to 290. It was Dharmani who played theleading role in the partnerships scoring his runs at will. But thefall of Kakkar triggered a collapse as Pawar ran through the side.Pawar ended with figures of 6 for 109. Dharmani was unlucky to be lefthigh and dry. Unbeaten with 73 at the end of the innings, Dharmanifaced 167 balls during his 275-minute stay at the crease. His inningswas interspersed with ten hits to the fence.Set a massive target, Mumbai were on the look out for a solid openingpartnership. But to their chagrin Gagandeep packed off Rane in thethird over of the innings. Rane was snared up by Sandeep Sanwal. ThenVinayak Mane (49) and Wasim Jaffer (33) safely negotiated the last tenovers of the day. With both Mane and Jaffer looking in good touch,Mumbai would be looking up to them and the experienced campaignersdown the order to try and force an unlikely victory.