London, July 20
Michael Vaughan’s England will have to challenge Australia from the first ball of the five-match Ashes series tomorrow if they are to have any chance of unsettling the world champions.

Vaughan will be determined for his young side to reverse England’s ingrained habit of beginning badly and winning ‘dead rubber’ matches when facing the Australians.

Since Australia began their record-breaking run of eight Ashes series wins in 1989, England have not managed to take any of those contests to the wire.

In the last series in 2002-03, the Ashes were wrapped up inside 11 days of cricket. England’s one victory in their 4-1 defeat came in the final match, by which time both the pressure and the prize had gone.

Unlike his predecessor Nasser Hussain, Vaughan will take to the field at Lord’s with a string of potential match-winners in Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and, if Shane Warne’s recommendations can be believed, the uncapped Kevin Pietersen.

Hussain was often criticised for saying he wanted to try to compete with Australia while refusing to forecast victory but, in truth, he did not have the weapons to challenge the best side in the world. In that sense, Vaughan is the luckier man.

Hussain, however, did not help his cause three years ago by opting to bowl in the first Test in Brisbane. The decision smacked of defensiveness and lack of belief. For many onlookers, with Australia on 364 for two by the end of the first day, the series was already as good as lost.

There was a similar feeling of foreboding after the first ball of the 1994-05 series, when Phil DeFreitas sent down a long hop, which Michael Slater cut disdainfully to the boundary. The tone had been set and England crashed 3-1.

Pietersen, a South Africa-born batsman, mixing awesome power with unconventional bottom-handed technique, believes the Lord’s crowd will have to play their part tomorrow in setting the right mood.

“I do not think Australia like it when the crowds are against them,” he told The Times today.

“It will be good for the crowds to get behind us and nail Australia right from ball one.”

Should English shoulders drop early, the side, ranked second in the world behind the Australians, could be condemned to chasing consolation victories in another series defeat.

Since 1989, they have won seven Tests to Australia’s 28, but only one of those seven came with England still having a chance of taking the series, when they won the opening game in 1997.

In their last series on home soil, they won the fourth Test at Headingley, thanks to an innings of a lifetime from Mark Butcher (173 not out), but Australia were already 3-0 up and had offered England a generous target in an attempt to engineer a result.

Both teams will field settled sides at Lord’s. Seamer Matthew Hoggard is likely to replace Darren Gough in an otherwise unchanged England line-up from the one that lost the one-day series 2-1.

For the world champions, leg-spinner Shane Warne, who no longer plays one-dayers, is back while strike bowler Brett Lee looking certain to start after his fine early tour form. The one difficult decision will be over the third quick bowler, with Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz fighting over the spot.

Australia almost consider Lord’s as a home venue, having lost just one Test there in the last century.

England: Michael Vaughan (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Stephen Harmison.

Australia (probable): Ricky Ponting (capt), Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie or Michael Kasprowicz, Glenn McGrath. — Reuters

I’ve been involved in quite a few Ashes encounters in my career, but this one feels different for two reasons. First, I can actually feel a build-up to this series happening, and the sense of anticipation among England fans, who rate this as their best chance to beat us, is palpable. We strengthened this notion by taking some time to get into our stride, but after our convincing wins in the last two one-day games, I am pretty confident about my team’s chances.

The other reason this series will stay with me is because it’s my first Ashes as captain. I was a little apprehensive about my form early in the tour, but right now I am batting as well as I ever have, and the century I scored at Lord’s has helped me get into my stride. It’s been a dramatic turnaround for me over the last few games, but right now I am feeling good. Every young Australian cricketer dreams of being involved in an Ashes series; to lead the side into the ground tomorrow will be a dream fulfilled.

While England rate this team as their best in a long time, there are a few weak links in their Test side. Many experts feel that the fact that many players will be playing against us for the first time, will work as an advantage. I don’t quite see it that way. If we play our best cricket, these guys will find the going really tough, and they will have no experience to fall back on.

The other area of weakness is their middle order. It is full of aggressive batsmen, but there is really nobody who has the technique to stand firm in a crisis. True, a Flintoff can take a game away in a session, but there is no technically sound batsman in the middle order to complement his aggression — they all play the same way once you get past Vaughan. If we get some early wickets, there is a good chance that our bowlers will have a serious chance of bowling the hosts out cheaply.

Yet another area in which England fall short is their over-dependence on certain individuals, which reminds me of the way India used to rely on their so-called key players a few years ago. The expectations of Steve Harmison have reached pretty unreasonable levels, and Flintoff too has a lot of pressure on him. We never play our cricket that way, since we rely on the whole team rather than a few good guys to pull us through.

We have been here six weeks and it has been a roller-coaster ride. There were huge disappointments, none bigger than losing to Bangladesh. It was a pretty inauspicious start to the tour, and we were inconsistent right through the tri-series, playing better cricket against the hosts and really ordinary cricket against Bangladesh. Pietersen took a game away from us in Bristol and we had to be content with a tie in the final. Both were opportunities we could not convert, and that was really unusual for us.

Fortunately, we were able to stem the rot in the three-match series against England, and finally, we are on top of our game.

England are a fine side, and this is a tussle between the two best Test teams. However, we are preparing like we normally do, and are secure in the knowledge that if we play to our potential England will have to come up with something extra, extra special to stop us. Even if they find it hard to admit, I’m sure the England team, too, know that this is a fact. — Gameplan

Colombo, July 20
Sri Lanka’s cricketers are capable of performing better than they did in their first Test victory over the West Indies last week, chief selector Lalith Kaluperuma said.

“I think our boys are competent enough to perform well than what they displayed in the first Test,” Kaluperuma was quoted as saying by the state-run Daily News today.

“We did a lot of mistakes in batting and bowling and played very loose cricket throughout the whole match. We need to improve in those areas and start playing to our true potential,” he said.

Sri Lankan batsmen faltered and conceded a 58-run first innings lead to a young West Indies side handicapped by a player boycott.

However, Sri Lankan bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan rattled the tourists in the second innings to help their side win the match by six wickets with a day to spare.

Several senior players from the West Indies, including Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle, were not touring Sri Lanka because of a payment dispute.

The second Test would begin at the Asgiriya Stadium in the temple town of Kandy on Friday, with Sri Lanka holding onto a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Kaluperuma, a former Sri Lankan off-spinner, who played in the country’s inaugural Test match in 1982, said the Sri Lankan squad for the one-day tri-series against India and the West Indies would be named during the Kandy Test. — AP

London, July 20
Appalled by the falling cricket crowds, former England batsman Geoff Boycott called for revoking the Test status of minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

While delivering the annual Cowdrey Lecture, the cricketer-turned-commentator lambasted the International Cricket Council (ICC) for granting Test status to countries who “devalued” the game.

“The ICC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the devaluation of Test cricket to continue,” he said.

Pointing to Bangladesh’s poor show since conferred the Test status, an inimitable Boycott said, “My mom would have scored runs and got wickets against Bangladesh.”

A BBC Sports report quoted Boycott calling Bangladesh “an embarrassment to Test cricket.”

“Nobody wants to see it (one-sided Test cricket) and the vast accumulation of runs against them does nothing for the game,” he said.

In order to draw more crowd, the ICC should introduce day-night Test matches — besides four-day Tests — in the warmer countries, Boycott said.

“With the exception of England, Test match crowds are falling everywhere. Administrators have to understand that we must reverse the trend.”

“The Test match game is already on a slippery slope and unless we get more fans and supporters in the grounds, Tests will die out in the years to come,” Boycott warned.

“They say that we cannot have day-night Test matches because of the white ball. They always bring this up and it is nothing more than a red herring.”

“We can get a man on the moon, yet we cannot find a white cricket ball that lasts 80 overs. It is laughable, is it not,” he said.

He also criticised the ICC for not considering a player’s exhaustion while deciding the calendar.

“Someone has to sit down and answer the question that what is a reasonable number of Tests and one-day games for a player to perform in without burnout? Nobody seems bothered about that, but the players are knackered,” he said. — UNI

New York, July 20
A Russian tennis star cannot stop a photographer from distributing topless pictures taken of her during a magazine photo session three years ago, a US judge has ruled.

US District Judge Michael Mukasey wrote that Anastasia Myskina’s rights were not violated when topless photographs were published in a Russian magazine with an article weeks after she won the 2004 French Open.

Myskina was 20 years old when the photographs were taken and she insisted that she did not understand a photo release form with her signature on it and was not fluent in English at the time.

“Absent allegations of fraud, duress or some other wrongdoing, Myskina’s claimed misunderstanding of the release’s terms does not excuse her from being bound on the contract,” the judge said in a ruling signed last week.

“Nor can she avoid her obligations under the release because of her purported failure to read its contents.”

Myskina’s lawyer, Alexander Berkovich, said yesterday that the tennis player was considering her options, but he did not know if he would appeal.

“Obviously, we are disappointed with the decision,” he said.

The topless photos were taken after Mark Seliger photographed Myskina for the cover and interior of the Gentleman’s Quarterly GQ sports issue in 2002 as part of a pictorial and profile of female tennis players.

The lawsuit sought $ 8 million in damages from Seliger, GQ and its corporate parent, Conde Nast. A message left for a lawyer for the publications and the photographer was not immediately returned yesterday.

Myskina said in court papers that she agreed to be photographed as Lady Godiva, lying nude on the back of a horse, only after she was told that she would wear flesh-coloured underpants and have long hair taped to her body.

She also maintained that she agreed to be photographed only after she was assured that pictures would not be published anywhere besides the GQ issue.

Myskina’s signature was on a standard release form for models, that said she consented to the use of her name and the pictures by the magazine and by “others it may authorise, for editorial purposes.”

The judge noted that Myskina did not recall signing or discussing the release with the magazine’s representatives.

After the magazine pictures were taken, Myskina was photographed topless in blue jeans.

She said in court papers that the photographer had asked if he could take the pictures “for himself” and she said he could do so as long as these were not published. — AP

New Delhi, July 20
Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore came up with his worst performance in the title round to finish sixth in men's double trap in the ISSF World Cup Shooting in Belgrade, Serbia and Monte-Negro today.

Rathore, who returned his career best preliminary round score of 142 to qualify in second place, managed only 41 in the final for a total of 183, the same as Vitali Fokeev of Russia. In the tie-shoot that followed, the Russian took the fifth spot.

Earlier in the championship, in the men's trap event, Zorawar Singh Sandhu settled for the fifth place after leading the field at the end of the preliminary round.

World No. 1 and Olympic champion Ahmed Almaktoum of UAE won the gold with 192 points (145 + 47) followed by William Chetcuti of Malta and Mikko Makitalo of Finland, who both scored 188 points (141 + 47). Chetcuti won the silver after a tie-shoot, according to information received here.

After beginning with a modest score of 43 in the first detail, Rathore roared back to form with his new gun missing just a single target in the next two rounds in which he recorded a perfect 50 in the second followed by a 49.

The other two Indians in double trap, Ronjan Sondhi (131 points) and Moraad Ali Khan (127) finished 28th and 31st, respectively. Together the trio tallied 400 points to help India to fifth place in the team standings.

In the earlier two World Cup competitions in Changwon, Korea, and Rome, Rathore had finished fifth and seventh, respectively. — PTI

Hyderabad, July 20
Defending champions Punjab and Chandigarh will be the favourites to take the top honours in the sixth National Mountain Bike Championship, beginning at the Osmania University campus here tomorrow.

Punjab, the overall champions in the previous edition, are in good nick, but have fielded a second string team, while Chandigarh, who conceded the title in the fifth edition, are rearing to go and are present in full strength.

Hosts Andhra Pradesh are seen as the dark horse, with coach Richard Clarke saying, “The course is very familiar to our cyclists, who are working very hard, and they have a good chance to leap to the top”.

The event comprising two events — cross-country team trial and cross-country individual trial — will be held in three categories in men’s and women’s sections.

Cycling Federation General Secretary J.S. Grewal said a majority of the teams had arrived while West Bengal, Gujarat and Assam would arrive by tomorrow. — PTI

Chandigarh, July 20
When Gursharan Singh umpires in the World Badminton Championship at Anaheim, California, USA, starting on August 15, he will become the only Indian to have umpired in four World Championships.

He has officiated as umpire in all major badminton events around the world, including Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, World Grand Prix finals, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics. — TNS