Matthew Hoggard has set his sights on an England recall for the third Test against South Africa, which begins at Trent Bridge on August 14.Hoggard, who suffered a torn knee cartilage at the end of May, has missed six weeks of cricket so far this season. But he has been given the all-clear to play for Yorkshire in the next fortnight, and as he told Channel 4, he can’t wait to get back into the England frame.”I’ve been pencilled in for my first game in the next couple of weeks," said Hoggard, "and I’ve already been bowling off a shortened run in the nets. I have had to go back and realign my feet again to stop them crossing over and stop it happening again, but I’m hopeful of playing again soon and I hope to jog the selectors’ minds in the next two or three weeks.”Hoggard was England’s bowler of the season in 2002, when he took 28 wickets in seven Tests against Sri Lanka and India. But his stock fell during a difficult Ashes series, and he was a spectator throughout the subsequent World Cup. Given the start England’s bowlers have made to the current Test, however, Hoggard will fancy his chances of a recall.

Having completed a two-week fitness camp last week, India’s probables will start on the serious business of honing their cricket skills on Monday. The pace bowlers among them will be able to interact with Kapil Dev, who will be present at the camp in Bangalore for the first two days.The six-day cap will focus mainly on batting and bowling. With this in mind, the team management has also drafted in nine medium-pace bowlers, including Tinu Yohannan, who played Test matches against England and New Zealand not so long ago.The 36 probables who participated in the fitness camp will be joined by Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, who have come back after their stint in county cricket. John Wright will be the man in charge, with Andrew Leipus and Gregory King keeping a close eye on the physical well-being and fitness of those involved.

Martin Snedden, the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, said when releasing the strategy for the next four years, known as “Pushing the Boundaries” that it was his hope that whenever his job is completed the legacy would be that the grassroots development now underway was completed successfully.He told Wisden Cricinfo he wanted the infrastructure of cricket at all levels, but especially at the grassroots, to be of such good quality that all people enjoyed being part of the game.”We have to ensure that whatever we do is sustainable, not just quick fix solutions, but sustainable,” he said. Snedden said finding more money was not the only way to overcome challenges and he encouraged greater use of resources so that non-financial solutions were sometimes sought for problems.”It is remarkable what you can do when you turn your mind to something. We love the underdog tag in New Zealand, and we are seeking to take the cricket world by stealth,” he said.The whole strategy programme had been an 18-month process and it centred on ensuring that the limitations of population and location shouldn’t prevent New Zealand achieving. Taking on the challenges was a state of mind.Snedden said nothing in the plan was taken in isolation, it was all inter-linked. One of the key areas was assisting the Major Associations to deliver the sort of cricket environment that NZC wanted at all levels of the game. “We are key partners in doing that and we all acknowledge that we have got to continue doing better.”

ScorecardWestern Province continued to dominate the South African domestic season. They beat Rest of South Africa XI by sixteen runs in the rain-affected Standard Bank Charity Shield match played at Newlands.Batting first Western Province scored 155 for 5 in an innings shortened to30 overs by intermittent rain. Graeme Smith (40) batted fluently, stroking someglorious straight drives, before he charged the bowling of AndrewHall and holed out to deep mid-off.Jacques Kallis played a little gem of an innings, with only one false shot, anedge through the vacant slip area. His 64 was full of grace and elegancewith some of the best cover drives seen at Newlands for quite some time.The bowling depth of South African cricket is a worry for the nationalselectors. On evidence of this match, save Makhaya Ntini andHall, there was little else to suggest that there is an heirapparent to the South African bowling throne. Monde Zondeki bowled at pace,Andre Nel tried to show some aggressiona and Lance Klusener showed signs of formwhile Robin Peterson did not set Newlands alight. A lack of discipline, lineand length, was the common thread.Further rain reduced the match to 24 overs leaving the Rest a target of 148.Jacques Rudolph and Boeta Dippenaar failed, and apart from a short flurryfrom Hall and Mark Boucher it was once again left to Klusener to supply thegoods. Coming to the crease at 70 for 5 in the 16th over he did notdisappoint. Like the Klusener of old, he smashed three fours and three toweringsixes, reaching 40 in 25 balls, to get his team to within 16 runs of the target.Claude Henderson, awarded Man of the Match, took 3 for 27 and once again comes into reckoning for future national honours.The highlight of the evening must undoubtedly be the catch of the season andwhat might have been the turning point in the game. With two overs to go, and 26 runs needed Robin Peterson launched Smith to the deep mid wicket fence. NeilJohnson standing centimetres inside the rope stuck out an outstretched handand snatched the ball, now over the rope, out of the air.

Matthew Hayden, who scored 99 in the second innings of the drawn test at Brisbane, admits that his team was surprised by India’s combative performance.His comments to came after India dominated Australia for much of the rain-interrupted match, first through their bowlers and then the batsmen. India took a first-innings lead over Australia before the game ended in an exciting draw.”Considering there was a lot of weather as well and it was an interrupted Test match, I think they fought particularly well,” Hayden said. “They have always been a good side, and they probably did take us by surprise a little bit. Not so much in their fighting characteristics, but just this was a wicket which was really going to suit Australia.”India’s steadily-improving overseas performance did not escape his attention: “Not only are they proving to be good players within their own country, but they are now starting to play a little bit better outside India. I have no doubt about that.”After India’s performance, Hayden was optimistic about the series ahead. “It really is set up for a very exciting summer, and I think Australia now have a really big challenge ahead.”

Close Border 68 for 2 trail West Indians 278 (Lara 81, Chanderpaul 98, Henderson 5-57) by 210 runs
Scorecard
Boundary-studded innings from Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul set up a handy West Indian total at Buffalo Park in East London. Border, for whom Tyron Henderson took five wickets, had reduced the arrears by 68 runs by the close, for the loss of two wickets.Lara, who opened, stroked 16 fours in his attractive 81, which took him 135 balls. And later Chanderpaul outdid his captain with 19 fours in only 121 balls, before he fell for 98 to the former South African Test player Pieter Strydom.The rest of the West Indian batting was disappointing, with Carlton Baugh’s 29 the next-best contribution. Henderson, 29, outbowled his new-ball partner Charl Langeveldt, who has played for South Africa but finished with 0 for 60 today. Henderson, meanwhile, took 5 for 57, including the wickets of Dave Mohammed and Ravi Rampaul in the space of three balls. Those two and Adam Sanford, the newest recruit to this injury-raddled West Indian team, all failed to score in a middling total of 278.Sanford later made partial amends with the wicket of Mark Bruyns for 26 when Border batted. Their only other casualty before stumps were drawn was Michael Smith, in only his third first-class outing, caught by Ramnaresh Sarwan at slip off Mohammed’s left-arm over-the-wrist spin off what turned out to be the last ball of the day for 32.

Brian Lara was quick to point out the ills of day-night matches after West Indies convincingly beat South Africa in a day game at Centurion to register their first win of the five-match one-day series. Lara, who scored an unbeaten 59 from just 37 balls to guide West Indies home, felt that the toss played too much of a factor in day-night matches, with the team bowling under lights almost assured of a win.”Finally, we got a game where the toss didn’t matter,” Lara said. “It’s a bit disappointing that we will play four of the five games under lights. It’s unfair to both teams. Conditions are so much in favour of the side bowling second, it’s ridiculous. Today cricket was the winner, and the spectators loved it.” West Indies batted under lights in the first two ODIs and managed just 54 and 162.With the last match, at Johannesburg, scheduled to be another day-night encounter, Lara predicted that the toss would be a huge factor again. “We’re going to the Wanderers on Wednesday, and you wonder what’s going to happen come 6.30 or 7pm.”Speaking about the match itself, Lara was all praise for his batsmen and scoffed at Graeme Smith’s suggestion that South Africa lost because the team was exhausted. “Graeme Smith loses one game against us and his team is tired? West Indies are fighting on, we’ve had so many injuries and haven’t complained.” Keeping the win in perspective, Lara added: “We’re not going to go overboard with this win. We need to win the next game, and we’ll go home a lot happier.” A win at Johannesburg will level the series 2-2, with rain having washed out the third match at Durban.For Smith, it wasn’t the ideal present on his 23rd birthday, and he identified indisciplined bowling as the primary reason for the defeat. “We weren’t good today. On a very good batting pitch you need to be precise, and we weren’t. It’s back to the drawing board now, learn from this and come back stronger at the Wanderers.”

Australia suffered an injury scare on the last day of their warm-up matchagainst a Sri Lanka President’s XI as Brett Lee was taken to hospital with a sore left ankle.Scans revealed no structural damage and Australia are hopeful that he mayrecover in time for the first Test which starts on Monday in Galle, but RickyPonting admitted that the injury was a big concern.”It is a big concern, especially the way he bowled in the first inningshere,” Ponting told reporters afterwards. “He bowled quick and swung theball a lot and we had hoped he could do that in the first Test.””He feared the worst straight away but the scans have come up pretty cleartoday. He has a couple of days for rest and treatment over the weekend andwe will hope that everything comes up ok for Monday.”Lee had been a major handful in the first innings, ripping out four toporder wickets during an eight-over burst with the new ball. He also pickedup a wicket in the second innings before hobbling off mid-way through hisfourth over.

Mohan de Silva, the secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket, is tipped to be the next president of the association. De Silva, who is currently attending the ICC Executive Board meeting in Auckland, was the only nominee for the post when nominations closed on Tuesday. The decision will be taken in the Annual General Meeting on March 31.With the exception of the post of vice-presidents, for which there are three contestants, all the other office-bearer posts will remain uncontested. Aravinda de Silva, who is the current vice-president, along with Trevor Rajaratnam and Michael de Zoysa will contest for the two vice-president posts. Rajaratnam is presently the assistant secretary and de Zoysa the disciplinary committee chairman.Ravin Wickremaratne, the former Panadura SC fast bowler who is currently a member of the tour organizing committee, is coming forward as assistant secretary to Lourance Amerasena. Amerasena who is presently the tournament committee chairman will vie for the secretary’s post. Lucien Merrinage will remain assistant treasurer with nobody else contesting for that post.The only new name in the list of office bearers is Nuski Mohamed, who is coming forward as treasurer. Mohamed, the former treasurer and secretary during the Gamini Dissanayake era of the eighties, is a chartered accountant by profession.Apart from Mohamed, all the contestants have served in various capacities under Thilanga Sumathipala. Sumathipala, the current president, will not be coming forward for another term. Neither A.J.M. Muzzamil and Lal Nanayakkara, the vice-president and treasurer respectively, will contest for any post.An Executive Committee meeting will be held on Monday after the return of Mohan de Silva to ratify the nominations.

As more rain swept the country only the matches at Cardiff and Headingley started promptly, but eventually three more games got under way as well – only Surrey’s match against Hampshire was completely abandoned, although Essex and Warwickshire could only squeeze in a 10-over thrash.Glamorgan took advantage of Hampshire’s inactivity to go top of Division One after their third win in three outings, while in Division Two Leicestershire also lead the way with a 100% record after three matches. The batting star of the day was Matthew Elliott, who stroked 112 not out from 116 balls – and put on 169 with Matthew Maynard – as Glamorgan overhauled Northamptonshire’s handy total with 5.1 overs to spare.

National League Division One

Scorecard
ScorecardSurrey v Hampshire at the Brit Oval – match abandoned
Scorecard

National League Division Two

Scorecard
Scorecard
Scorecard
Please note that Wisden Cricinfo is not responsible for the content of any external site. Links are checked at the time of publication, but may not work indefinitely.