Chelmsford, July 11
In an effort to fine tune its bowling combination ahead of the Test series, India will include 19-year-old seamer Ishant Sharma in the three-day warm-up game against England A starting here on Friday.

In the tour opener against Sussex, the Indian bowlers had the English county champions on the ropes before letting them escape. When it mattered the most, the visiting team’s pacers were far from impressive and failed to polish off the tail.

While both Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh bowled well in patches, third seamer Ranadeb Bose just didn’t look the part. The 28-year-old Bengal bowler picked up a wicket in each innings from a total of 26 overs.

Cricket manager Chandu Borde said at the end of the third day’s play that he was not happy with the way India's medium pacers bowled in the first innings and that they needed to be more sharp and accurate.

Now, Rahul Dravid might aim at testing other seamers.

Sharma, who made his Test debut against Bangladesh in May, may come in place of Bose while Zaheer Khan was expected to replace Rudra Pratap Singh.

The first Test would be played at Lord’s from July 19.

The Indian camp would reason out why the bowlers couldn’t finish up the job against Sussex in both innings after having run through the top order.

In the first innings, India did well to reduce Sussex to 144 for 5 before letting them off the hook and allowing the hosts to score 300 for 6 declared. Wicketkeeper Andy Hodd (106 not out) scored his maiden hundred in the process.

In the second innings, India were smelling victory after having reduced Sussex to 123 for 7 in 32 overs, with just the tail to be taken care of in the next 23 overs.

However, Robin Martin-Jenkins again stuck it out with a fighting innings and batted for two hours for his 45 not out.

Sussex’s last wicket pair of Martin-Jenkins and Jason Lewry blocked no less than seven overs as the Indians failed to deliver the knockout punch.

Kandy, July 11
Bangladesh slumped to 72 for four on a rain-hit opening day of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka today. The tourists lost the wickets of Javed Omar (8) and Habibul Bashar (18) before tea and then Rajin Saleh for a duck and Shariar Nafees for 29 in the final session.

Only 29 overs were possible in the day as frequent showers interrupted play for long periods.

At the close, skipper Mohammad Ashraful was on four with Tushar Imran on six.

Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, playing in his home town, was the most successful of the bowlers, claiming two for 10 from nine overs.

Omar was trapped lbw by seamer Lasith Malinga in the third over of the morning.

After a long break either side of lunch, Farveez Maharoof surprised Bashar with a delivery that cut back and lifted sharply to brush his gloves on the way to wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene.

Play was suspended again after just 5.2 overs in the afternoon session, before Sri Lanka struck a double blow late in the day.

Saleh was deceived by Muralitharan’s doosra and was caught at slip and Nafees spooned a drive to Sujeewa de Silva at extra cover.

Sri Lanka made three changes to the team that took an unbeatable 2-0 series lead in Colombo last week.

Scoreboard

Bangladesh (1st innings)

Omar lbw Malinga 8

Nafees c de Silva b Murali 29

Bashar c P. Jayawardene b Maharoof 18

Saleh c M. Jayawardene b Murali 0

Ashraful not out 4

Imran not out 6

Extras (b-4, lb-1, w-1, nb-1) 7

Total (4 wkts, 29 overs) 72

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-50, 3-61, 4-64.

Bowling: Malinga 6-2-22-1, de Silva 4-1-8-0, Maharoof 6-2-21-1, Muralitharan 9-5-10-2, Dilshan 4-1-6-0. — Reuters

Chandigarh, July 11
Firming up his stand on the ongoing controversy with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over joining the Indian Cricket League (ICL), former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev said he would not give up his job with the league.

Talking to media here, Kapil Dev, chairman of the ICL, said it would be ethically wrong to stop someone from imparting training to the budding cricketers. His indication was towards the board’s directions in which it cleared that no cricketer or official should be part of the ICL.

“Everyone works for the betterment of one’s life. So if I took on this job, what is wrong in it?” asked the skipper of the only World Cup winning Indian team.

“Cricket is the same everywhere. Do I need to ask somebody if I can give cricketing lessons to youngsters”? Kapil retorted. “I played the game with lot of passion and wanted to give something back by nurturing young talent at any place,” said the ‘Wisden Cricketer of the Millennium’.

However, at the same time Kapil maintained that if the board calls him for talks, he would show up. “But definitely I don’t want to convey my message through the media. If the board calls me, I will go”, said Kapil.

On the holding of the Indo-Australia match on October 8 at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium here by the BCCI after a gap of 14 years, the former skipper said he was happy with the development. “It was a good news that the stadium will host the match after a long period. I want that more matches, irrespective of the BCCI or ICL, should be played at the stadium”, said Kapil.

Meanwhile, joint secretary of BCCI M.P. Pandove confirmed that PCA president I S Bindra would talk to Kapil on behalf of the board. As Kapil has about a month to go as chairman of the NCA, the board may avoid any unsavoury controversy with him at this stage, Pandove added.

London, July 11
England recalled Marcus Trescothick for the first time since he pulled out of the Ashes tour last year, including him in a provisional 30-man squad today for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

The left-handed batsman dropped out of England's Test squad in Australia citing a stress-related condition, but has been in top form for Somerset in this season's County Championship.

Trescothick was named in a strong squad for the September 11-24 tournament in South Africa. Only two players - Essex batsman Mark Pettini and Sussex all-rounder Luke Wright - have no experience of international cricket.

Squad: James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Glen Chapple, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, James Kirtley, Jon Lewis, Mal Loye, Darren Maddy, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Mark Pettini, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Matthew Prior, Chris Schofield, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Jeremy Snape, Vikram Solanki, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright and Michael Yardy.

Lahore: Dope-tainted pace duo of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have been included in Pakistan's 30-men squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

The pace spearheads who failed a drug test last September and had to miss the World Cup.

Squad: Shoaib Malik (capt), Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Yasir Hameed, Fawad Alam, Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Farhat, Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Naved Latif, Faisal Iqbal, Shahid Yousuf, Yasir Arafat, Sohail Tanvir, Zulqarnain Haider, Mohammad Irshad, Najaf Shah, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman. — AP, UNI

New Delhi, July 11
Davis Cupper Mahesh Bhupathi said India, for that matter Asia, lacked a tennis culture as the continent was obsessed with cricket, and that was the reason why not many talented players were emerging from the region to hit pay dirt at the highest level. But he noted that this trend was slowly changing as more and more players were taking to tennis in Asia, holding out a bright future for the game in the continent.

Bhupathi, who has to his credit 10 Grand Slam titles in doubles and mixed doubles, was in Delhi today to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between his company Globosports Infrastructure and Ansal API for setting up “Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies” in 16 townships of Ansal Properties across North India.

Bhupathi admitted that some players who show immense promise at the junior level in India often fail to live up to their potential when they graduate to the senior ranks due to lack of proper guidance and the players’ unwillingness to toil it out. He said top players like Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and runner-up Rafel Nadal put on close to five hours of practice day in and day out to not only sustain their form, but also to remain at the top as long as they can.

“We have talent, and there is nothing different in the way Indians play the game than others, but we certainly need more mental toughening as you have to play it tough to succeed at the top level”, he added.

The Davis Cup ace said the Indian players were now getting more and more opportunities to play the game in the country and abroad, though ironically, while the foreign players who compete in the Satellite, Challenger and Futures Tournaments in the country go on to do well at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) events, the Indian players were unable to cash in on the exposure they get due to their wavering focus, lack of commitment and keeping shy of hard work.

Bhupathi saw nothing wrong in players going to the United States on scholarships to pursue tennis, and then concentrating on their education when they fail to do well in the game.

“I am a firm believer in the scholarship system as I myself was part of such a system. The players who get selected for such scholarships keep their first priority in tennis failing which they shift focus on studies, which is natural and justified”, he added.

London, July 11
Narain Karthikeyan's hopes of reviving his Formula One career has been slightly dented with Spyker F1 Team inviting Honda test driver Christian Klien for a test drive in Belgium tomorrow.

"Klien will test for the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) on 12 July," a statement on the Spyker team website said today.

A driving position in Spyker F1 has emerged after the Silverstone-based team dropped Christian Albers. Narain is attached to Williams F1 as a test driver.

The 30-year-old Narain became the first Indian to race in F1 when he drove in 2005 for Midlands-Jordan, a team which later changed ownership to Spyker.

Spyker Team Principal Colin Kolles however stressed that no decision had been taken regarding the race driver position for the rest of 2007 season.

Narain's agent Mark Perkins told PTI from Monaco that Kolles had assured them that inviting Klien for testing "doesn't change the situation" with the Indian.

"Kolles spoke to us this morning. They (Spyker) are evaluating Klien because they want to know how good he is with the feedback, in his interaction with the engineers, etc., whereas they already know Narain," Perkins said.

"Perhaps, if Klien had already worked with them they might not have asked him to do the testing." Perkins said if and when the Spyker deal should come through, Narain would drive for the British team from German Grand Prix (July 22) onwards.

He also said that the bitter episode when Kolles and Narain fell out while the Indian was a driver Midlands-Jordan was consigned to the past by both of them.

"F1 is a small place and any such thing, you have to be professional enough and put it behind and move forward," he said.

"The fact that it was Kolles who actually approached us means obviously he has buried the hatchet." — PTI

Archers disappoint
New Delhi: Indian women failed miserably as none could go beyond the third level of the individual compound elimination round at the World Archery Championships in Leipzig, Germany, today.

Veteran Jhanu Hansdah exhibited the best performance among the three Indians in fray. The Jharkhand archer, after getting a bye in the first level, defeated D M Dos Santos of Brazil 111-109.

Bheigyabati Chanu, who also had a bye in the first level, upset Hiroko Taniguchi of Japan (111-110) narrowly.

However, she went down to Italian Giorgia Solato (114-106) in a third level encounter. Sumanlata Murmu was the third Indian to get a bye in the first level. But she failed to capitalise on that and meekly surrendered to Belgian Gladys Willems (112-100) in the next level. — PTI

IAAF rankings
Mumbai: Kerala-born triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary leads the list of four Indians in the top-70 list in the event in the latest IAAF World Rankings. The 21-year-old jumper from Kottayam is ranked 24th as on July 9.

The other hop-step-and-jump performers ranked with the Kerala jumper are Bibu Mathew (52nd), Amarjeet Singh (63rd) and Alex Thomas (69th). Among women, 2007 Asian Grand Prix triple gold medallist metric miler Sinimol Paulose and Asian Games medallist Krishna Poonia are occupying the 28th spot in the 1500m and discus throw respectively. — PTI

Volleyball series
Coimbatore: India will host Pakistan for a volleyball Test series to be held next month.

The first match would be played at Vishakhapatnam on August 8, second in Chennai on August 10, the third one will be held here on August 12 and the fourth at Hyderabad on August 14. The Pakistan team, comprising 12 players and five officials, would arrive at Kolkata to participate in the Commonwealth meet after which they would play the Test series, R Govindarajulu, President, Coimbatore District Volleyball Association, told reporters here on Wednesday. — PTI

Humpy in sole lead
Luxembourg: Grandmaster Koneru Humpy registered her fourth successive win to take the sole lead after the fifth round of the Kaupthing Open Chess Tournament here on Tuesday. The Indian beat International Master Dejan Bojkov of Bulgaria to take her points tally to 4.5 and open up a half-point lead over nine others who were occupying the joint second spot. Humpy will take on Grandmaster Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium in the next round. — PTI