Ashley Giles is facing another operation on his injured hip and is extremely unlikely to play in the forthcoming series against Sri Lanka.An exclusive report in the Daily Telegraph stated that Giles is unable to bowl or run some four months after undergoing surgery on his troublesome right hip.The initial prognosis was that he would be back in action after two or three months, but the latest news hints that this could be, as Giles himself has intimated, a career-ending injury.The Telegraph article said that repair work was carried out on a damaged cartilage, a piece of bone was removed and the early signs of arthritis were detected in Giles’ right hip at the time of the first operation.

Shane Warne says it’s possible he could still be playing Test cricket when Australia return to England for the 2009 Ashes series.It was widely assumed that last year’s epic Ashes contest, in which he took 40 wickets only to finish on the losing side, would be Warne’s final Test campaign in England. But Warne, who is captaining Hampshire in the County Championship in the run-up to the next Ashes series in Australia later this year, said there was no reason to suppose he was on the verge of ending his Test career even though he recently re-iterated that he was retired from one-day internationals.”If I’m bowling well and enjoying it, I’ve got no right to say this is my last Test match in Sydney next year,” said Warne, who will be 37 in September. “Who knows? I might be able to make another Ashes series out here [England] in 2009.”Richie Benaud, former Australian captain and a commentator, has said Warne should keep going until the age of 40 and Warne also told the that he respected Benaud’s opinion. “Whether I can do that or not I don’t know. I know that Richie thinks I can. And if Richie wants me to do that, I’ll try my best.”Warne, who took 7 for 99 in Hampshire’s recent win over Middlesex, has shown no on-field side effects from the break-up of his marriage last year. Indeed, in the last 10 months, Warne has claimed 102 Test wickets while also leading Hampshire to the runners-up spot in last year’s County Championship and guiding them to the 2005 C and G Trophy, English domestic cricket’s premier one-day competition.”Cricket’s my hobby, my passion, my love. It’s what I am, a cricketer and I’m not anything else and I don’t pretend to be,” said Warne, who has taken a world record 685 wickets in 140 Tests. “I love playing the game, talking about the game,” added Warne, who could become the first bowler to take 1,000 Test wickets if he maintains his present strike-rate.”I enjoy being captain. I think it brings out the best in me. I don’t aspire to take over from Ricky Ponting [as Australia captain]. I don’t.” He insisted: “I am very honoured to captain a county and think the guys have enjoyed me doing it. We [Hampshire] have done pretty well.”Meanwhile he admitted that England’s first Ashes series win for 19 years had served as a wake-up call to the previously all-conquering Australian side. “Sometimes you have to lose to reassess where you’re at and become better. I’m not so sure we’d gone along so well over the past few years. We hadn’t lost too many series. We hadn’t gone through the motions exactly, but just gone along until we got challenged. England’s bowling was of the highest standard. The last time I faced that was probably Pakistan and West Indies in the early 1990s. But since we’ve been challenged [by England] we’ve won 11 out of 12 Tests.”

Greg Chappell has defended India’s selection for the first Test in Antigua by saying that Harbhajan Singh would have been a luxury and Irfan Pathan needed a break.India opted for a four-man attack comprising Sreesanth, VRV Singh, Munaf Patel and Anil Kumble. Singh was making his debut, and Sreesanth and Munaf had played just two Tests apiece depriving Rahul Dravid of valuable experience.”We couldn’t afford to play Harbhajan under the conditions,” Chappell told AFP. “We felt that we needed three pace bowlers. There wasn’t a place for a second spin bowler. We knew that Virender Sehwag could do a job if required, and I thought that he bowled very well.”Sehwag took the wickets of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo as West Indies finished the second day on 316 for 6. Sreesanth, however, conceded 82 runs off 13 overs while Singh, who struggled to find any sort of rhythm, made amends by snaring two wickets on the third morning.Chappell said that Pathan understood why he wasn’t playing the Test. “He [Pathan] appreciates this, and I think probably the break will do him good,” said Chappell. “It wouldn’t have been good for him to come out and bowl badly, and suffer a bigger dent to his confidence. It was thought he should regroup and come back as I am sure he will. I am confident he will play in this series at some stage or the other, but under the conditions we felt that the other options were the better ones.”Chappell justified India’s opting to bat first. “I think conditions weren’t easy for batting on Friday. We decided when we won the toss to bat first. In hindsight that may not have been the ideal thing to do, but I think it was important that we did it, and we tried to take control of the game. West Indies bowled pretty well. I thought our guys under the circumstances didn’t play badly, but maybe 300 was probably a more likely score under the conditions,” he said.

Rugby league legend Andrew Johns is to represent New South Wales in at least two Twenty20 matches next summer. Johns, who currently plays for the Newcastle Knights, has been an occasional lower grade cricketer in recent years with Newcastle’s Merewether club and an enthusiastic cricket-watcher.Johns’ selection was approved at a recent New South Wales Cricket Board meeting with the full support of senior players and Trevor Bayliss, the coach. He will play against South Australia at Newcastle’s No.1 Sports Ground on January 7, and again three days later against Tasmania at Telstra Stadium.The move to play Johns was first discussed with his management, The Fordham Company, two months ago. “In those discussions, John Fordham pointed out that the great Reg Gasnier represented a NSW XI, captained by Richie Benaud, in a match against Fiji at the SCG back in 1960, so in many ways a precedent had been established,” said Dave Gilbert, Cricket NSW’s chief executive. “Also in the line-up were fellow Test players Norm O’Neill, Jim Burke, Keith Miller, Alan Davidson and Neil Harvey”.Gilbert said Twenty20 cricket was an introductory vehicle to draw a new wave of spectators to the game. “Being in its infancy, it’s important for us to keep it in that context,” he said. “Having a figure with the immense popularity of Andrew Johns represent his state in these matches will trigger unprecedented interest.”When Trevor Bayliss and I sat down with ‘Joey’ and his management to discuss this history-making idea it was abundantly clear to us that it excited him. We are delighted he’s agreed to pad up for the SpeedBlitz Blues and to have a world-class sportsman linking up with our players is an added bonus”.Johns said that he had watched several Twenty20 matches in England last year. “From an entertainment angle, it was terrific. On one occasion, there were three back-to-back matches played at the one venue. I was so impressed I called the Nine Network’s sports boss Steve Crawley from England to tell him how rapt I was.”He planned to have a few matches with Merewether to warm up for his debut “if their selectors can find a spot for me in the fourths or fifths”. “Trevor Bayliss has also invited me to attend a few practice sessions,” said Johns. “Believe me, I’ll need all the help I can get. The prospect of batting against Shaun Tait, who bowls as fast as Brett Lee, and Jason Gillespie in the first match is already giving me nightmares!”

Kenya 14 for 4 trail Canada 235 (Qaiser Ali 91*, Ongondo 4-49, Odoyo 3-49) by 221 runs
Scorecard

Canada turned the opening day of their Intercontinental Cup tie against Kenya at Maple Leaf Cricket Club on its head with a remarkable bowling performance in the last hour. At the close, Kenya were in deep trouble on 14 for 4 in reply to Canada’s ponderous 235.Canada had been down and out when they slid to 102 for 7, paying the price for batting on a green and slightly under prepared pitch. Peter Ongondo (4 for 49) and Thomas Odoyo (3 for 49) made life difficult early on, and against a seaming ball, the top order’s technique was found out.But Qaiser Ali, who cracked an unbeaten 91, led a dogged fightback, receiving commendable support from the tail, especially from veteran Pubudu Dassanayake (26) and Ashish Bagai (21). “Qaiser played shots all round the wicket,” beamed Andy Pick, Canada’s coach. “He was harsh on loose deliveries and short ones.”That recovery continued when Kenya were left with a tricky hour before stumps, and they were immediately derailed by fierce opening spells from Henry Osinde (2 for 5) and Umar Bhatti (2 for 9). Bhatti picked up the prized wicket of Steve Tikolo, Kenya’s most experienced and leading batsman.Qaiser admitted he was “very, very happy” with his score. He had “solid support that was most important for the team. I’m a bit sad I did not get the 100, but we got the total we needed. Everybody did a great job. Hopefully tomorrow [Sunday] we can bowl them out.”Pick was equally pleased. “At 14 for 4, what price are the runs we made now. That spell of bowling was top class … not just for Associate members but for proper cricket. You must remember that – that’s how good you are. We had length, speed and control today.”Roger Harper, Kenya’s coach, had less to say. “We didn’t build on our excellent start, so we are behind at the end of the day having lost four wickets. We allowed them to recover to 235. I still feel the team have enough batting to compete for first-innings points.”

In terms of landmarks, it was yet another special occasion for anexceptional performer, but the end result wasn’t quite what he would haveliked. Sachin Tendulkar called his 40th a “special hundred”, but alsoexpressed his disappointment at the manner in which the game panned out.Brian Lara, whose side picked up five points for the win, couldn’t hidehis relief at the result, and was fulsome in his praise for Tendulkar’sglorious unbeaten 141.”We suffered out there as a team,” said Lara. “It was difficult for us.But for a guy coming back after six months, it showed how much of a geniushe is. We just had to watch it and appreciate it, and it was a veryspecial innings for India.”Tendulkar didn’t dispute that assessment. “It was a difficult surface tobat on and I was playing after six months, so I’m quite happy with thefact that I got a hundred,” he said. “The depression in the track meantyou had to play differently to try to execute those plans, and I amdelighted that everything fell in place today.”Everything except the result. “I am obviously disappointed that the gamewas interrupted,” he said. “It’s always more satisfying if you havecontributed and the team has won. West Indies still had 170 runs toget, which is quite a lot. They had a couple of extremely experiencedplayers at the crease, but on a surface like that, anything was possible.The field restrictions were off, so runs wouldn’t have come so easilyeither.”Though he reckoned that his team were handily placed, Lara also agreedthat the rain had favoured West Indies. “India had the runs on the boardand any team would love that,” he said. “But the way Chris [Gayle] and[Rammaresh] Sarwan set up the game, we had to continue in the same vein.Having said that, the job still had to be done. I’m sure India would haveloved the game to finish, but in our position we didn’t mind whathappened.”We knew we were in front at that point in time but unfortunately theweather played a part. We had our eyes on that. I think it was well-poisedeven though we were batting very well. There were still 30 overs to go,and 170 runs to get. It was a very good match, spoilt by rain.”Both men spoke at length about the surface, surprising in itself giventhat so many runs were scored for the loss of so few wickets. “Thedepression was evident even before the first ball, you could not missthat,” observed Tendulkar, when asked about the ridge that flummoxedseveral Indian batsmen. “In a situation like that, you try and keep it outof your minds and watch the ball closely, play it late. We plannedaccordingly.”

Lara wasn’t overly critical either, saying: “I thought it was a very goodpitch other than the ridge. Taking that into consideration, Tendulkarplayed a magnificent innings. Generally, 90% of the pitch wasreally good. The ridge wasn’t a problem for left-handers. We had quite afew, especially up in the top four, and India didn’t. The wickets thatfell on their side, the likes of Dravid, Sehwag and Dhoni, you could sayit was because of the state of the pitch.”Tendulkar also shed some light on his time away from the game, and how hehad steeled himself for the time when he next faced a ball ininternational cricket. While expressing his disappointment at havingmissed out on a tour of the Caribbean, he said: “I’d planned a programmeand was following that. I played a few practice games in London [forLashings and for a World XI], and when I came back to Mumbai, it wasraining so I had to practise with a rubber ball. I had five or sixsessions in Bangalore and Chennai, and played a couple of practice games.That was a bonus.”The last time he had such a long lay-off, following surgery on atennis-elbow problem, he announced his comeback with a dazzling 93 againstSri Lanka at Nagpur in October 2005. Tendulkar made it clear that suchstatements of intent were important, even for a bonafide legend. “On bothoccasions, I was coming off serious injuries, after surgeries which werehuge setbacks,” he said. “You need to keep fighting back and be mentallystrong.”There was also a quiet sense of satisfaction at the fact that he battedthrough the innings, for only the second time in 364 matches. “I’m quitehappy I lasted 50 overs,” he said. “Even till the end, I was running hardbetween the wickets, and that is a reflection of what I have been doing inthe last few months. It’s the first time I have batted the distance since [doing it against]New Zealand in Hyderabad [1999], and I will be happy if it becomes ahabit.”Having been booed by his home crowd and subjected to “Endulkar” headlinesover the past year, Tendulkar also spoke of how easy it was to motivatehimself for each new challenge. “Cricket has been my life, to be honest,”he said with the same earnestness that was his hallmark as a teenager.”I’m living a dream, and every time I step on to the field, it’s with alot of enthusiam and excitement. If I find it a burden, I will know whento step back and step aside.”That time clearly hasn’t arrived.

It was 70 years ago this year that the traditional cricketing rivalry between England and Australia took on a more sinister dimension. A rift was opened between the two countries, and the Empire itself, by the addition of a new word in the vocabulary of cricket. Bodyline.For anyone who is not aware of a row that had reverberations at governmental level, it all centred on the England side’s single-minded objective of shackling Don Bradman’s powers. They knew that if they could stop Bradman gorging himself at the expense of the England attack, there was a chance of a close series. Let Bradman get away, and they had little hope of success.The plan to stop him, and the other great Australian batsmen, involved bowling fast and short at the body with close fielders ranged around the leg side to snap up the catches that were bound to come as batsmen fended off these lifting balls as a means of self preservation. But how did this plan evolve?There have been many theories and much speculation. Some stubborn Englishmen claimed the whole episode to be a figment of a fevered Australian imagination. There were others who suspected a machiavellian plot carefully crafted by English captain Douglas Jardine and his cronies before the team even left the mother country or, at the very latest, on the ship to Perth.All this happened years before I was born but I was aware of the significance of the 1932/33 Bodyline tour as I grew up in cricket. Anyone with a sense of history is fascinated by the players, characters and events of the past and on one summer Sunday morning in 1990, all these figures and events of the past came alive before my eyes – or at least before my ears.I was recording a series of interviews with some of the great and the good (and a few who were neither!) in the game on behalf of their counties as a sort of living history. Warwickshire asked me to include a certain RES Wyatt. Bob Wyatt had been Jardine’s vice-captain on the 1932/33 tour to Australia and, apart from talking about the rest of a long and successful career in the game, I wanted to know what really happened all those years ago. He was 89 years of age at the time, but his recall was unimpaired as we sat in a room in London and he told his tale. I was spellbound.So was it at a meeting with the Nottinghamshire captain, Arthur Carr, in London about his two fast bowlers, Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, that the plan was hatched? Was it aboard the Orient Line’s “Orontes” on the long passage out that Jardine hit upon the idea? The answer was neither.Wyatt claimed responsibility, albeit inadvertently. “We were playing against an Australian XI in Melbourne and Douglas (Jardine) had gone away fishing and left me in charge. It was a very, very fast wicket and the ball got old pretty quickly and ceased to swing away when Harold Larwood was bowling.”The Australians being mainly back-footed players, were playing the ball on the on side. So I moved one slip, then another, then another onto the leg side with the idea of stopping runs. It was not with a view to intimidation or anything of that sort. Harold was bowling very fast and it wasn’t very pleasant, I admit, but it was only occasionally that he dropped one short.”Don Bradman was obviously very worried about it and, in fact, complained to the board of control about our method of attack. That was a very foolish thing to do. When Jardine came back, I told him what had happened.”According to Wyatt, Jardine had taken in what he was told and said “That’s very interesting; we’ll pursue the matter.” He was delighted that, in Wyatt’s words, “We frightened Don out of his life and then bowled him out. That’s where the idea of bodyline started.”Pursue the matter they did. Not in the first Test at Sydney, Wyatt said, when England won by ten wickets, scoring the one run needed in the second innings off the first ball. Bradman was not playing in that match as he was not fully fit, but he was back for the Melbourne Test and was bowled first ball by Bill Bowes when he played on. He got 103 in the second innings and Australia levelled the series with a 111-run win.Bodyline was employed in Melbourne because Wyatt remembered all the pace had been taken out of the wicket. England had left out Hedley Verity and played a fourth fast bowler and so on a slow pitch in the second innings Jardine used the field set by Wyatt in the previous match.So to Adelaide. “It was a fairly fast wicket, we lost four wickets for 30 runs so the crowd were buoyed up and thought it was wonderful.” That was when Wyatt joined Maurice Leyland and England went from 30 for four to 341 all out (Wyatt 78). Australia were bowled out for 221, Bill Woodfull was hit in the chest and, in Wyatt’s words, “That’s when the balloon went up.”Then Douglas, very foolishly, moved all the fielders over to the leg side. Then (Bert) Oldfield was hit on the head – entirely his own fault, he was outside off stump – but the crowd took exception to it. They didn’t like to see their wickets go down.”England won that match by 338 runs, went three-one up in Brisbane’s first Test and sealed a four-one series win back in Sydney where Larwood rubbed salt into the many wounds by scoring 98 as nightwatchman. He took 33 wickets at under 20 a piece, while Bradman’s average, 99.94 in all Tests, fell to a mere (!) 56.57 in this series. Job done, but at what cost?Wyatt exploded a few more theories as he reminisced. Gubby Allen apparently did not refuse to bowl bodyline; “He wasn’t asked to – he wasn’t accurate enough and he’d never have been capable.” Jardine was not loathed as much by his own side as by the Australians. “He was very much maligned and all the side were devoted to him. He did some strange things but he was a thorough gent in every way.”Having said that, Wyatt himself did not approve of this method of attack. “I could see the reasons for it, but I decided it wasn’t a good thing because anything that bred ill feeling must be bad for the game.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outRP Singh demolished Sialkot, taking 4 for 26 in 9.5 overs as Uttar Pradesh romped to a 316-run win to lift the Mohammad Nissar Trophy. Set an improbable 429 for victory, Sialkot crumbled to 112 for 7 just after lunch, and with Khalid Mahmood, Imran Nazir and Mohammad Asif all injured, the match ended in a comprehensive defeat for the visitors.By delaying the declaration – it came in the third over of the day after Jyoti Yadav reached his fifty – UP, it was felt, might have hampered their chances of victory but a combination of a disciplined bowling performance, and lack of application and technique from the Sialkot batsmen meant that it was not to be.RP Singh and Praveen Kumar knifed through Sialkot with an incisive opening spell that left the visitors hobbling at 36 for three before Shalabh Srivastava made further inroads with a two-wicket burst. RP Singh came back to hammer the final nail in Sialkot’s coffin, triggering celebrations in the UP camp.Adjusting his line admirably to the combination of left and right-hand batsmen, RP Singh repeatedly pinged the corridor outside the off stump to induce fatal shots. After swinging a few back in, he suddenly, took one away with the angle to dismiss Mansoor Amjad. Abdur Rehman, the left-hand batsman, was tempted into a drive with a full-length delivery that swung away. He returned for his second spell after lunch to take out the last hope of Sialkot – Shoaib Malik – and , off the very next delivery, cleaned up the last man Sarfraz Ahmed and that was that.Praveen Kumar, while not so consistent with his line, teased the batsmen by swinging it both ways. He set the UP bandwagon rolling by taking out Shahid Yousuf with a sharp indipper in the eighth over. However, his lack of pace meant whenever he erred with either line or length he was punished. Majid Jehangir, who kept attacking despite the procession at the other end, carted him for three consecutive fours and when Kumar came back for his second spell, replacing Piyush Chawla, he lost the plot a bit by bowling one bouncer too many.Shalabh Srivastava, the tall left-arm seamer with a high-arm action, replaced Kumar and ensured that there would be no respite for Sialkot. He prised out Jehangir with one that went away with the angle. Not being a natural swinger of the ball, he created angles by going round the wicket to harass the batsmen with bounce and movement. After the top order was dealt with, he hustled the middle order with a slew of short-pitched deliveries before slipping in a few full-length deliveries, hoping either for a nick or an lbw decision.Sialkot, already besieged with injuries, could have done with some more discipline at the top. Lazy wafts of the bat with the feet stuck adhesively to the crease, greedy chases outside the off stump and the inability to read the length and move either forward or back led to their tame surrender.

Shahid Yousuf lbw b Kumar 5 (11 for 1)
Mansoor Amjad c Shamshad b Singh 0 (14 for 2)
Abdur Rehman c Amir b Singh 7 (36 for 3)
Majid Jahangir c Amir b Srivastava 27 (43 for 4)
Tahir Mughal c Shukla b SJ Srivastava 24 (89 for 5)
Shoaib Malik c Amir b Singh 11 ( 112 for 6)

Adam Gilchrist expects England’s fast bowlers to come hard at him again in the forthcoming Ashes. He also stated that the Australians will have their task cut out trying to tackle the ball swinging into the left-handers, which the England bowlers exploited to the hilt in last year’s Ashes.”It’s going to be a tactic of theirs,” Gilchrist told . “Like any tactic that an opponent has, you have to be prepared for it and plan how you are going to counter it.”They used it to good effect against a couple of our left-handers in England last year with the reverse-swinging ball. I’m sure they will try to expose that again. We’ve thought long and hard about it. We’ve chatted about it to try to come up with plans.”In the pre-Ashes clash in the Champions Trophy at Jaipur, fast bowler Sajid Mahmood dismissed Gilchrist by getting one to swing in from around the wicket, cramping him for room and forcing an inside edge which crashed onto his off stump. Gilchrist had a similar predicament in last year’s Ashes series in England, during which he aggregated a disappointing 181 runs in five matches, failing to score a half century. Andrew Flintoff exploited the weakness in Gilchrist’s technique, dismissing him five times in the series. Besides Gilchrist, several Australian batsmen were caught off guard with the reverse swing, which had a telling effect on the result of the series.Fresh from his 92 against West Indies in the previous match, Gilchrist gave full credit to Mahmood for outfoxing him at Jaipur, and expected other teams to adopt the same strategy against him.”Mahmood bowled a really nice delivery from around there the other night,” he continued. “But there’s no denying that teams will target that area of my game. I’m well aware of that so I’ll be doing all I can to try to counter that.”

James Franklin’s dismissal of Jamie How just before stumps gave Wellington an impetus to overcome an inconsistent batting display against Central Districts on day one at the Basin Reserve. Michael Parlane, Jesse Ryder and Franklin each hit 60s, but the inability of the other batsmen to come good against a good fast bowling attack left the hosts with a substandard first-innings total of 296.Michael Mason, the fast bowler with national experience, and Lance Hamilton put pressure on Wellington’s top order while Ewen Thompson seized four wickets. Mason and Hamilton were economical, but Hamilton – even though he went for 77 from just shy of 12 overs – damaged the middle order and effected a swift sweep of the tail. Parlane and Ryder fought well to resist, but failed to turn their half-centuries into hundreds, while Franklin’s composed 64 proved a bonus in the middle order. He then removed How, caught by Jeetan Patel, to leave CD on 42 for 1 after 10 overs.