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Duncan Fletcher would like to rest the struggling Andrew Strauss but said he was hamstrung by the England squad’s lack of replacement batsmen. Strauss, who has made 12, 28, 18 and 19 in his four CB Series innings, will need to plug on at the top of England’s order in an effort to turn around his disappointing tour.With Strauss’ fellow opener Michael Vaughan already injured and replaced by the ageing newcomer Mal Loye, England are keen to retain the experienced Strauss in their top order. Should they wish to, they could bring in Ravinder Bopara, the uncapped Essex batsman, and push Ian Bell up a spot to open. Bell filled the role during the Champions Trophy but Fletcher appeared not to consider that an option in the CB Series.”We try to give them rests, but with the players missing at the moment we haven’t got a batter here to replace Strauss,” Fletcher told . “If we did, we would probably look at giving him a rest. Thoughts about resting players and when is best to do so are going through our heads all the time.”Fletcher said Strauss, who had a mediocre Ashes series and has been on the wrong end of a string of questionable umpiring decisions, would simply need to find some runs. “There is pressure on him,” Fletcher said.”He knows we have got to bat around him. He knows he is the centre of that batting order at the moment. These are two very good one-day sides we are playing against. He is struggling with that pressure at the moment.”

Joe Hussain, the father of former England captain Nasser Hussain, died in his sleep on April 26, aged 68. Nasser said his father had suffered from various health problems over the last eight months, including pneumonia.A native of Madras, Jawad played a solitary first-class match for Madras against Kerala in the Ranji Trophy, and also represented Madras University. He was a regular in the first division league of the Madras Cricket Club. He emigrated to England in 1963 but returned to India 18 months later, emigrating for a second and final time in 1975. He played club cricket in Essex and in 1995 took over the Ilford Cricketer School which has a remarkable record of producing first-class cricketers.Hussain’s two other sons both played a good standard of cricket. Mel represented for Worcestershire, while Abbas turned out for Essex 2nd XI.Essex wicketkeeper James Foster paid tribute to Hussain who coached him at Ilford for ten years from the age of nine. “He gave me a lot of advice when I was younger and looked after me a bit. Joe definitely improved my game – he was the type of coach who let you play, show off your natural flair and then correct you accordingly. He wasn’t shy in telling you if he thought you were being lazy. As a coach I thought he had the perfect balance.”Joe’s passing is a sad loss to cricket as he had a lot of friends and people who he has helped in the game. The Ilford Cricket School has run well as a real feeder system for Essex cricket over the years – for that Joe can take a great deal of credit. Joe was very passionate about cricket and was obviously a driving force behind Nasser’s success as well as being very keen for his other ‘boys’ [those he coached] to do well.”

Darren Lehmann will bolster South Australia’s fragile batting line-up when he returns to the side this weekend after recovering from a torn hamstring. Lehmann is one of four inclusions for the Pura Cup match against Tasmania starting on Monday at Bellerive Oval following the Redbacks’ 270-run humiliation at the hands of Victoria in their season opener.Cullen Bailey’s hopes of a national call-up this summer suffered a setback as he lost his place in the side following match figures of 1 for 103 against the Bushrangers. Jason Borgas, Cameron Borgas and Daniel Harris were also axed to make way for Shane Deitz, Shaun Tait and Andy Delmont.Deitz, who kept wicket last season and was one of South Australia’s most consistent run-scorers, might play as a specialist batsman as Graham Manou has been retained in the 12-man group. Delmont made his FR Cup debut in the middle order last week and could follow it with his first-class debut, while Tait’s successful return in the one-day match against Victoria has led to his inclusion for his first four-day game after elbow surgery.The Redbacks will also take on Tasmania in an FR Cup match in Hobart on Saturday and their limited-overs squad is more settled. The only change is the return of Lehmann at the expense of Cameron Borgas, who made 0 in the last game and a pair in the Pura Cup match. The Hobart games will be Lehmann’s first outings for South Australia since quitting the state captaincy at the end of last season.Tasmania have regained Ben Hilfenhaus for the one-day clash after his trip to India with the Australia squad, while Luke Butterworth also returns from injury. Ricky Ponting will miss the FR Cup game due to cortisone injections but is expected to be available for the Pura Cup match.South Australia FR Cup squad Matthew Elliott, Daniel Harris, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Adcock (capt), Darren Lehmann, Andy Delmont, Graham Manou (wk), Ryan Harris, Mark Cleary, Jason Gillespie, Dan Cullen, Shaun Tait.South Australia Pura Cup squad Matthew Elliott, Shane Deitz, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Adcock (capt), Darren Lehmann, Andy Delmont, Graham Manou (wk), Ryan Harris, Mark Cleary, Jason Gillespie, Dan Cullen, Shaun Tait.Tasmania FR Cup squad Michael Dighton, Travis Birt, Michael Di Venuto, Daniel Marsh (capt), George Bailey, Tim Paine (wk), Luke Butterworth, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Brett Geeves, Ben Hilfenhaus, Adam Griffith.

Middlesex have signed Australian fast bowler Ashley Noffke on a two-month contract to cover for Murali Kartik who will not be able to join the county until June 9.”We were obviously disappointed not to have Kartik for the start of the season, but we’re delighted to have signed Noffke – he’s a high quality opening bowler,” said , Vinny Codrington, Middlesex’s chief executive. “It’s great to have Noffke come back home to where he played his first English county season back in 2002. He knows Lord’s and he’ll add a bit of extra fire power to our already very strong attack at the start of the season when the ball should be nipping about.”Kartik had been expected to be available earlier but he was prevented by the Indian board from playing the first couple of months of the season.

Kyle Mills will miss the third Test in Napier after failing to pass a fitness test on his injured left knee at training. Mills’ absence means that the 19-year-old Tim Southee will almost certainly make his debut as New Zealand have decided to choose their XI from the 13 remaining players in the squad.Southee made his international debut in the Twenty20 matches against England last month, where he impressed with his pace and control. He then joined the New Zealand Under-19 World Cup squad, taking 17 wickets at 6.64 to emerge as the Man of the Tournament.”He is a really good talent and he does swing the ball a bit,” said Andrew Strauss, who played alongside Southee at Northern Districts earlier this year. “He’ll be pretty excited to make his debut.”Even so, the loss of Mills will be a blow for New Zealand, especially after his performance in the first Test when he ripped through England’s second innings with four quick wickets. “It’s something I haven’t had before,” he said of his injury. “I’ve had strains and tears before and I know what they feel like. This is just the back of the knee.”It all started in the Twenty20 game back at Eden Park,” said Mills. “It’s sand-based and I dove into it and got jammed up, really. Ever since then it has been niggling me. It’s just been hard to run freely. Not only in the bowling but in the outfield as well.”Mills admitted that the strain of back-to-back five-day Tests had taken their toll. “After the heavy workload in the first three days of the last Test, it got tired there towards the end. It came up with a little tear in the top of my calf muscle. I don’t have an issue with my calf muscle at all. It feels fine. It’s just the inflammation around that tear that is giving me some problems.”Even though he will take no part in the decider at Napier, Mills will look back on the series with fond memories, and already has his sights trained on the tour of England in May. “At the start of the summer we were always considered the better one-day side and they were always the better Test side,” he said. “To win that first Test was huge for us and we probably only lost one session in the second Test when Ambrose got away from us.”I definitely feel we are competing with them,” he added. “I personally consider this as part of a six-Test series and whoever wins this Test match will get some momentum going into the Test series in England.”

Ian Smith, the former South Africa legspinner, died at the age of 90 on August 25. Smith represented South Africa in nine Tests between 1947 and 1957 and picked up 12 wickets. His career-best match figures of 7 for 189 came in his debut in Nottingham, where England were forced to follow-on.The presence of spinners such as Athol Rowan, Hugh Tayfield and Tufty Mann resulted in Smith not being able to add a few more caps to his Test career. However, Smith, who turned out for Natal, had an impressive first-class record, picking up 365 wickets in 97 matches at an average of 22.55″On behalf of the CSA Family I extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and his cricketing colleagues”, CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

Mohammad Ashraful is the new Bangladesh vice-captain in an expected 14-man squad for the one-day series against India this month. Habibul Bashar kept his place as captain, even though it was reported that he would retire after the World Cup, as theBangladesh Cricket Board retained 14 of the 15 players that toured the Caribbean recently. Only Rajin Saleh, who didn’t play a game during the tournament, missed out., a Dhaka-based newspaper, said that Bashar, 34, was likely to retire after the series against India. Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector, had hinted that the selection committee was unlikely to make any changes, and added that the Test side would be announced during the three-match ODI contest.Bangladesh played their last Test in April last year against Australia at home.Bangladesh ODI squad:
Habibul Bashar (capt), Mohammad Ashraful (vice-capt), Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mashrafe Mortaza, Syed Rasel, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Rafique, Farhad Reza.

A day after the Indian Premier League (IPL) banned Harbhajan Singh for slapping Sreesanth after a match in Mohali on Friday, it has emerged that the behaviour of both players had come under the scanner during the recent South Africa series in India, too.Harbhajan had to apologise to Ashwell Prince, the South African batsman, for abusing him during the third Test of that series in Kanpur last month and the South Africans “lost a lot of respect for Sreesanth” when he went after AB de Villiers, Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, told Cricinfo.Asked about the IPL incident, Arthur said he was not surprised because “when there are two such volatile players on the field, anything can happen.”Harbhajan was banned on Monday from the first season of the IPL after Farokh Engineer, the match referee, found him guilty of slapping Sreesanth. The BCCI has initiated a separate probe into the incident.”At the end of the day, we are not squealers,” Arthur said. “We strongly believe that what happens on the field stays on it. Besides, we were very happy with the general spirit in which the series was played in, and we left with very pleasant memories of the tour, especially the cricket that was played.”However, Arthur admitted that the behaviour of Harbhajan and Sreesanth during the India series “was not great” and said that the South Africans took up the Kanpur incident because Prince felt very strongly about it. “There was an incident in Kanpur. There was a hearing by the match referee (Roshan Mahanama) during which Harbhajan apologised to Prince. It was settled and we were happy with the apology. I am not 100 per cent sure what was said. But Ashwell felt very strongly about it at that time and that’s why we took it up,” Arthur said.”Sreesanth was just Sreesanth. Perhaps our players lost a lot of respect for him on the tour. He constantly abused AB de Villiers and it was very personal. But considering the general spirit in which the series was played, we didn’t feel strongly enough to complain,” he said.South Africa’s three-Test tour of India ended in a 1-1 draw after the visitors won the second Test in Ahmedabad by an innings and 90 runs before India came back strongly to level the series in Kanpur.

Scorecard

Rain ruined the final day of a closely-fought top-of-the-table contest at the MCG where Victoria and New South Wales played out a tame draw. The Blues declared early, setting Victoria a tough chase of 321 from 90 overs but rain arrived before the Bushrangers could begin and another interruption later meant a draw was almost inevitable.Victoria were 0 for 28 from ten overs when their progress was halted by the second delay, which lasted nearly two hours. In the end the skies cleared and Nick Jewell (49) and Rob Quiney enjoyed some batting practice, guiding the Bushrangers to 2 for 117 from their 42 overs.Quiney finished unbeaten on 52 and Brad Hodge was lbw to Matthew Nicholson from the final ball for 4. Beau Casson collected his first wicket for the game when Jewell tried to force his half-century and lobbed a catch to Greg Mail at mid on.New South Wales began the day with a lead of 278 and batted for 20 minutes, adding 42 to their total and giving Bryce McGain his third first-class five-wicket haul. McGain ended up with 5 for 112 after Stuart Clark advanced and ambitiously aimed to send McGain over long on but misread the legspin and was bowled.Dominic Thornely added a quick 28 to his overnight score and was 76 not out when the declaration came at 7 for 323. But the first rain appeared just when Victoria’s batsmen were getting into position to begin their chase and the innings did not start for another two hours.The draw was a disappointing finish to a match that, while low-scoring, had provided some interesting battles and excellent individual performances. Simon Katich’s opening-day 141 from a total of 253 was the standout, although other highlights included David Hussey’s 95 to get Victoria first-innings points and Nathan Bracken’s tight and testing bowling effort when he collected 4 for 40 on the second day.New South Wales and Victoria remain in the top two spots on the Pura Cup table, a game clear of the resurgent South Australia. Western Australia can jump into third if they win their match against Tasmania, which is under way in Hobart.

Darrell Hair made his return to international cricket on Thursday when he officiated on the first day of the Intercontinental Cup clash between Canada and the Netherlands in Ontario.Hair, a veteran of 76 Tests, was voted off the ICC’s panel of elite umpires in November last year, following his handling of the Oval Test against Pakistan in August 2006, when Pakistan were penalised for alleged ball-tampering and subsequently forfeited the match.He remains under contract with the ICC until April 2008, but his appearances since November have been sporadic. He officiated in the World Cricket League final between Kenya and Scotland in Nairobi in February, but there seems little prospect of him ever standing at the highest level again. Hair, 54, is suing the ICC for racial discrimination in a hearing that starts in London on October 1 and is expected to last two weeks.Since the incident at The Oval, Hair has left his home in the UK to live in Sydney and is believed to be writing his memoirs. In the match at Ontario, he is standing alongside the Bermudan Roger Dill, a 49-year-old firefighter.