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South Africa will play two Tests and five one-day interbnationals in Sri Lanka in late July, following the Asia Cup one-day tournament there. The South Africans are scheduled to arrive in Colombo on July 27: their only warm-up game begins on July 30.Following this they will play the first Test at Galle from August 4 to 8, and then travel to Colombo for the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club (August 11-15). The Tests are followed by the one-dayers, the first two of which will be played at Dambulla on August 20 and 22. The team then comes down from the hills to play two day-night matches at the Premadasa Stadium (August 25 and 28) in Colombo, while the final match will be a day game at the Sinhalese Sports Club on August 30.South Africa last toured Sri Lanka in 2000, when they drew the three-Test series 1-1.

Andrew Hall, the South African allrounder, has joined the Highveld Lions from the Eastern Titans for next season.Hall, who is currently playing for Worcestershire in the English county championship, was a key member in the old Easterns side, helping them to the SuperSport Series title in 2002-03. In the new franchise structure, Easterns teamed up with the Northerns Titans to become the Easterns Titans, but Hall was unable to agree terms with the club, and he decided to sign for the Highveld Lions, back where his cricket began in 1995 with the old Transvaal side, who are based in Johannesburg.Shukri Conrad, the Highveld Lions coach, was delighted at Hall’s decision, calling him “a class player who rounds off our squad in terms of a quality allrounder”.Hall, 28, has played 10 Tests and 43 one-dayers for South Africa, but was overlooked for both the Test and one-day squads picked to tour Sri Lanka later this year. However, he publicly vowed to show the selectors that he still has what it takes to play international cricket, and said he would force his way back into the side for the ICC Champions Trophy in September.

Pakistan have objected to playing in Ahmedabad after an inspection by their security team. Pakistan were due to play their second Test against India at the venue, which is in the state of Gujarat, where communal riots occured in 2002.Shaharyar Khan told the BBC that the Pakistan Board’s objections had been made officially to the BCCI. “We have reservations in playing there and we have suggested changes to the BCCI. We haven’t suggested any alternate venues. We will play anywhere else they want us to play.”This news is unlikely to please the BCCI, which has insisted that Ahmedabad is a safe venue and that precautions will be taken to avert any unpleasant incidents. And since matches are awarded to associations on a rotational basis, the Indian board will have to tread lightly to avoid stepping on toes at home and abroad.However, Shaharyar stood firmly behind the security report presented to him. “There are possibilities of security problems erupting and tensions running high,” he said. “We have informed the Indian board of our concerns and we hope to settle the issue mutually.”The BCCI was quick to move after receiving notice of the Pakistan board’s concerns, referring the matter to the government. “The PCB has written a letter to the BCCI president expressing some reservations over Ahmedabad as a venue,” quoted Rajiv Shukla, vice-president of the BCCI, as saying. “We have now taken up the matter with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs.”

John Gloster, the Indian physio, has said that he was pleased with the progress Sachin Tendulkar was making after his elbow surgery and that he could assess the condition of the elbow after a week.Gloster said that they were working according to a schedule given by Dr Andrew Wallace, the surgeon who operated on Tendulkar’s elbow. “I feel we are right on track. I am happy with the progress he has already made and with the way he is hitting balls in the nets,” Gloster was quoted as saying in rediff.com.Tendulkar batted for two hours at the MIG Cricket Club in Mumbai and sounded confident after the nets session. “If I am fit to play for India, then why wouldn’t I play,” said Tendulkar. Gloster added that the final decision had to be taken by Tendulkar “The decision is up to him. It depends on his confidence. If he is not confident about the way he is playing, then we will need to work on it.”

Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson will spend the one-day tour of South Africa fighting for the allrounder’s spot for the three Tests starting in March. Watson has returned to the international squad after only two first-class matches and if his limited-overs comeback is successful he will put Symonds under extreme pressure to hold his place in the longer game.Symonds found his way slowly at Test level this summer, finally breaking free with a powerful half-century and five wickets with his medium pace at the MCG, after replacing Watson when he partially dislocated his shoulder at Brisbane. Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, said Watson would be considered for the Test side “now that he is fit and playing again”.Watson, who has appeared in three Tests and 40 ODIs, said the situation was tight. “In the whole package there is not much between us,” he said in . “Roy’s [Symonds’s] fielding is amazing consistently. I hold my own, but he is one of the world’s best fielders. All I can do is continue to develop my bowling, which is obviously a major part, especially with Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne coming to the end of their careers.”The addition of Watson and Mitchell Johnson, his Queensland team-mate, in the 14-man touring squad disappointed Darren Lehmann, the South Australia captain. “We are close to being in the finals of the one-day competition and we still can’t get anyone in the Australian side,” Lehmann said in . “We have one of the leading run-scorers [Mark Cosgrove] and blokes who are getting wickets.”Lehmann feared the announcement meant that Jason Gillespie’s international career was over. “The big thing is they have probably moved on from `Dizzy’,” he said. “They are probably not looking at him for the next World Cup. It looks like they have made their decision.”Geoff Lawson, the former Test bowler, said Johnson’s selection was a disgrace after only eight wickets in the ING Cup this season. “His stats do not stack up,” Lawson told Sydney radio . “There are 25 bowlers in Australian cricket who have much better numbers than him. So how he gets in the team is an absolute disgrace.”

New Zealand’s growing injury worries worsened with the news that Jacob Oram will not be fit enough to play as an allrounder at Headingley.Even if his side strain is not sufficiently bad for him not to be able to bat, New Zealand’s selectors need to find another bowler to balance the side. Oram, who made a breezy 67 at Lord’s, might still be picked as a batsman in a side which has several players struggling to find their form."Jacob bowled this morning without an issue. We wanted to see how he’d back up, he bowled again this afternoon and he did feel it a bit,” Lindsay Crocker, the side’s manager, explained. “He still feels it, and he’s got a bit of settling down to do before he’s a confirmed starter.””Jacob will be considered but not necessarily selected," John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, admitted "His inability to bowl does complicate the balance.”But there was a glimmer of hope regarding Craig McMillan’s finger injury, with some sources claiming that he is now 50-50 to be fit enough to play after successfully negotiating some fairly gentle throw-downs on Tuesday. He will undergo one more net on Wednesday before the final decision is made, but the New Zealand management were reported to be optimistic about his chances. “It will be based on how comfortable he is," Crocker said. "Really only he can confirm that.”

In the tenth over of the match, the scorer in the press box made an announcement that had most people in splits. “The 39-run partnership between Gambhir and Dravid is an Indian record for the highest second-wicket partnership against England at the Feroz Shah Kotla.” Talk about cricket being a statistician’s delight. A frantic day was enlivened by a few more such announcements but the one stat that overshadowed all was reserved for the last.Harbhajan Singh, who had earlier top-scored with a reviving 37, spun to a career-best 5 for 31, bettering his 5 for 43 against the same opponents four years ago. Astonishingly, it had come after he had been caned for 22 runs in the first four (his second spell read 6 – 2 – 9 – 4). Every ball appeared to be wrapped with mystery, spin mixed with rip mixed with loop, all leaving the England batsmen quite clueless.It came after a harrowing few months for Harbhajan – wicketless in two Tests in Pakistan, missing the following ODI series (where there was even a conspiracy theory surrounding his reluctance to bowl in front of the match referee), and a modest eight wickets in the three Tests against England. Some branded him an “SG ball bowler”, a few asked questions about his technique, others spoke about a possible feeling of insecurity.But just like the Feroz Shah Kotla, with four new stands and it’s capacity increased by around 15000, Harbhajan sported a new look. Yet one must remember that he hadn’t bowled too badly in the preceding Tests, just that the results hadn’t been forthcoming. “I didn’t try anything different here,” he added, “just wanted to bowl as well as I have been doing. I knew, at some stage, the results would come.”Duncan Fletcher, in his book , has a large section dedicated to the advantages of playing the sweep shot but it was always going to be a hazardous option on this particular pitch. Four of their main batsmen succumbed to swishes across the line – three holed out in the deep, while Flintoff was trapped lbw – and played right into India’s hands. “Obviously the sweep shot gives you the option to get an lbw or a bowled,” Harbhajan said after the match. “It’s dangerous if they are not playing the right length, especially on the wicket like this when the ball is keeping low.”Support arrived from an unlikely quarter with Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan’s state-mate, turning into an ideal foil (2 for 32). “It was important that we were bowling good balls from both ends. Yuvraj bowled very well. It was nice to see him take that responsibility and bowl so well.”Harbhajan the bowler engineered the fightback but it was Harbhajan the batsman who had given them hope. After a most atrocious slog to square leg, on the last day of the Mumbai Test, not many punters might have picked Harbhajan as the top-scorer. He admitted, though, that he was doubly determined. “I had played a very bad shot in the last Test,” he continued, “and I wanted to bat well till the last over. I had to bat with Dhoni at that stage and was talking to him. Rahul and Greg told me to rotate the strike, not play shots, and look to play straight.”It helps your confidence if you do well in one form of the game. The lower-order batsmen have been working hard. We would like to keep improving ourselves and helping the team cause.”His penultimate act of the day was to deliver the last ball of the 31st over with five men preying close to the bat. The relief on his face, when he doffed his hat and thanked the gods, was palpable. A forgettable phase appeared to have been put behind. It was time to surge ahead. Dhoni duly obliged by mounting the TVS Apache – Harbhajan’s Man-of-the-Match award – and escorted him on a joyous victory lap. We were reliably informed that it was the first time a wicketkeeper from Ranchi and an offspinner from Jalandhar had ridden around half the Kotla at 4:35 in the evening.

Haafiz Majid Jahangir compiled a career-best 156 as Sialkot came from behind to attain a three-wicket win over Karachi Harbour on the final day of their third-round Pentangular Cup match at the Gaddafi Stadium.Chasing a stiff target of 369, Sialkot finally got there for the loss of seven wickets. Starting from their overnight score of 160 for 2, still needing another 209 runs to win their first match in three appearances, Sialkot were put on the right path by a third-wicket partnership of 145 between Jahangir and Ayub Dogar.Dogar followed his first-innings 77 with another invaluable knock of 61 that came off 150 balls with nine fours. The 25-year-old Majid, playing in only his third first-class match of the season, scored his 156 runs off 351 deliveries in almost seven and a half hours and hit 25 fours.Tahir Mughal (42 off just 43 balls with nine fours), the captain, promoted himself up the order and helped add 74 runs for the fourth wicket with Majid. At 351 for 3, only 18 more runs were required for victory.Sialkot then lost four quick wickets in the space of 14 runs but the issue had already been settled. The win was finally achieved with three wickets still standing. As they had earlier surrendered a first innings lead of 99, they collected only six points instead of the full nine.Sialkot, who are the current national champions, have managed to lift themselves up from the bottom of the five-team table after having started the tournament with two straight defeats. They now have only one match in hand and absolutely no chance of winning the Pentangular.In the fourth-round that starts from Monday (April 17), Faisalabad will play against Karachi Harbour at the Gaddafi Stadium while table leaders National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will face Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

New Zealand have announced that they will not be playing their two premier bowlers in the final match of the Chappell-Hadlee series against Australia at Hamilton on Tuesday. Having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series in emphatic fashion, New Zealand decided not to take any risks with Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond, who are both carrying slight niggles.Vettori is suffering from a sore back while Bond has some hamstring stiffness. New Zealand followed up the first ten-wicket win against Australia with an exciting chase of 337 at Auckland on Sunday.The final match gives Jeetan Patel, the lone spinner in the mix with Vettori missing, a chance to showcases his wares. It’s also another opportunity for Peter Fulton, who returned to the New Zealand team with a calm and composed unbeaten 76, to get another innings under his belt.New Zealand team 1 Lou Vincent, 2 Stephen Fleming (capt), 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Peter Fulton, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 James Franklin, 9 Mark Gillespie, 10 Jeetan Patel, 11 Daryl Tuffey.

England’s raucous band of Barmy Army supporters began arriving in Pakistan on Tuesday, dismissing security fears and bringing smiles to the faces of hoteliers in the Test venue cities.One of the first to arrive was veteran supporter Phil Long and his three travelling companions Keith Smith, John Freeman and Jonathon Dyson. All were on their way to the Pindi stadium to watch England take on the Patron’s XI. “We’re the first batch,” Long told AFP. “It’s as important a tour as the Ashes for England, and beating Pakistan in their den could be even tougher than beating the Australians.”Hoteliers are expecting full houses in the three Test venue cities of Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore as England supporters descend on Pakistan. “It’s fun to be in Pakistan,” said Smith, who said he faced no security problems. “There are no fears and we’ve been well received [here].”