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David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, has tipped Northamptonshire’s left-arm spinner Monty Panesar to break into the England ranks this summer. Panesar, 23, took 46 wickets in the championship last season at the impressive average of 21.54.”A lot of people have made comments about spinners playing in our cricket,” he told BBC Five Live’s Sportsweek. “So I’d like to put forward Monty Panesar, a left-arm spinner, as someone who could break through this year.”Panesar’s pedigree as a spinner is not in doubt. He has long, strong fingers which allow him to spin the ball strongly, but his batting and fielding have held him back from progressing further into England colours. He has spent this winter at the Darren Lehmann Academy to improve the two weakest facets of his game, and Lehmann – who had recently struck a triple-century – told him “to have a simple game-plan and stick to that.”Despite his age, he has already taken 107 wickets in just 28 first-class games. Indeed, he has only been a full-time cricketer since graduating from Loughborough University last summer.

You hit, I york
Karan Goel had already smashed Munaf Patel forsixes over midwicket and long-off when the forgotten man of Indian fast bowling produced a magnificent yorker at 139.5 kph. It uprooted the off stump before Goel’s bat was halfway down, and a pumped-up Munaf celebrated with a few expletives that won’t win him a Spirit of Cricket award.Daddy Cool?
Shane Warne is more than just captain and coach, he’s the elder statesman of this Rajasthan Royals team. Bringing himself on with Kumar Sangakkara going berserk, Warne landed his third delivery well wide of off stump. Sangakkara swung with the turn, but didn’t connect cleanly, and the return catch was nonchalance itself. Genius doesn’t burn out, or fade away.All fall down
Another Warne topspinner, and an ill-judged sweep from Yuvraj Singh. The ball takes the edge and goes high into the night sky. Darren Lehmann has enough time to eat a pie, sip on a pint and light a fag, but when the ball comes down, he drops it. Warne, his old mate, looks away.O brother, where art thou?
Five balls into his spell, and after being slammed for two sixes by Yuvraj, Yusuf Pathan comes face to face with his younger brother. It may have been the 16th over of the innings, but Irfan just quietly played out two balls. No sibling rivalry headlines then.Half a bat is better than none
When James Hopes, his Queenslandteam-mate dropped one a little short, Shane Watson decided on thekitchen-sink approach. The ball sailed over long-on for six, but half ofthe broken bat nearly cleared the inner circle as well. Lalit Modi, theIPL commissioner, was seen holding on to the pieces later.Young gun smokes away
Ravindra Jadeja was one of the stars ofIndia’s Under-19 World Cup win, and after Warne had raved about histalent, he demonstrated it with some dazzling strokes as Rajasthancruised home. Watson was content to let the young man be the mainaggressor and he did that to telling effect, thumping Piyush Chawla overlong-on for six before two deft deflections off Brett Lee had the crowddancing in the stands. The cameras searched in vain for Ms Zinta’s missingsmile.

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has slammed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for organising an independent review of England’s 5-0 Ashes defeat in 2006-07. The ECB had commissioned former European golf director Ken Schofield to provide a report on the state of English cricket after the Ashes loss.In the latest extract in the from his autobiography, Behind the Shades, Fletcher defended England’s Test record during his tenure and questioned the need for a review after “one very poor series against one of the best teams in the history”.He was also unhappy about not being informed of the setting up of the review. “But nothing had prepared me for the thunderbolt with which Mike Atherton struck me after we had lost the final Test in Sydney. Doing an interview for Sky Sports he had asked me about an independent review which he had learnt was to be conducted into our defeat.”I knew nothing about it. This was a terrible way to find out. Nobody had the decency to tell me,” he said. “I can honestly say that was the lowest point of my cricketing career. I felt completely isolated.”Fletcher said he first contemplated retiring after a meeting with then ECB chairman David Morgan and ECB chief executive David Collier about the scope of the Schofield Report.”In Australia, a couple of days after the review’s announcement, I even had to phone Morgan and ECB chief executive David Collier for a meeting about it. When I questioned them they allowed me to look through their terms of reference. Some of them did not exactly give me a confidence boost. My mood sank a little lower.”I was a depressed man as I walked away from that meeting in Sydney with Morgan and Collier. For the first time resignation thoughts entered my mind. ‘Hold on, what’s going on here?’ I thought. ‘Is it really worth carrying on?'”Fletcher also said his perceived lack of communication was a result of the lack of confidentiality in his dealings with the ECB. “I would communicate a lot more if there was more confidentiality. I know there is none so I keep things to myself. Why talk if people are going to blab?”

England wicketkeeper Paul Nixon has said that Michael Vaughan will be fit to lead the team in their vital World Cup match against Kenya on Saturday. Vaughan tripped in a pot-hole on Tuesday and required treatment on his right knee, but concerns over another injury were quickly allayed.And Nixon, who was one of the six players fined after their late night before the Canada match, said: “Michael had a little trip on a sprinkler but he’s fine, he’s 100 percent.” Vaughan has twice looked in decent form with scores of 26 and 45 against New Zealand and Canada before throwing his wicket away on both occasions.Nixon, who has also been in strong batting form early in the tournament, is keen to put the issues of the past week behind him and move forward. “I think anything like this brings guys together,” he said. “There’s a lot of honesty and openness in the dressing room and that’s important going forward.”He also gave his version of events on that Friday night in St Lucia. “Obviously I’ve apologised to Duncan Fletcher for being out too late after a game and we’ve moved on as a team and Duncan’s accepted that. I had a reasonably quiet night but stayed out too long in the public domain. I’ve learnt my lesson, held my hands up, apologised and we’ll take it from there.”Cricket is a game that can kick you in the backside at any stage if you don’t stay focused and it’s important we stay focused and move forward from what’s happened. We’ve got to take every game as a huge event and try to win this World Cup.”England are now involved in a shoot-out with Kenya, who they play on Saturday, for the second qualifying spot alongside New Zealand that would see them into the second phase, Super Eight stage. Nixon said England could take heart from the way in which the Black Caps thrashed Kenya by 148 runs on Tuesday. “Every game is a tricky game. New Zealand and ourselves are very closely matched and we’ll be doing our homework.”

Pakistan have included both Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif in their provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup, despite uncertainty remaining over their doping cases.Shoaib and Asif were cleared last month by a Pakistan Cricket Board committee of taking the banned steroid nandrolone knowingly, having previously been banned from cricket for two years and one year respectively.However, the World Anti-Doping Agency has since challenged the lifting of the ban, while the PCB insists that both are eligible to play. Asif is at present in South Africa with the rest of the Pakistan squad, while Akhtar is due to fly out on Thursday after being named as a replacement.Wasim Bari, the chief Pakistani selector, said: “As far as we are concerned both Asif and Akhtar are free to play. We will cross the bridge when it comes.”Bari added that he was confident Pakistan would fair well in the tournament: “We have a decent side and if we improve our fielding we can match any side in the world”.Shabbir Ahmed, the quick bowler who recently served a one-year ban for an illegal bowling action, is also included in the provisional squad for the tournament, which Pakistan won in 1992. The final names will be announced on February 13, and the side will be captained by Inzamam-ul-Haq.Pakistan squad: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Shahid Nazir, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Hameed, Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Abdul Rehman, Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar, Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Khalil, Bazid Khan, Mansoor Amjad, Zulqarnain Haider, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Misbah-ul-Haq, Hasan Raza.

Scorecard
A career-best 90 from Shaun Marsh was not enough to set up a win for Western Australia as Victoria’s batsmen all contributed to their side’s last-over victory at Shepparton. Needing 235, the Bushrangers’ chase was led by David Hussey, whose 61 was his first one-day half-century of the season.The Warriors picked up wickets at regular intervals but were unable to spark the mini-collapse they needed to gain the upper hand. The openers Jon Moss, with 36 from 32 balls, and Michael Klinger (37) made important early runs before Cameron White kept his team on target with 33.Steve Magoffin (2 for 41) was the only Western Australia bowler to claim more than one wicket. He gave the Warriors one final chance when he bowled Hussey in the 48th over with 12 runs needed but Adam Crosthwaite brought up the win with a four from the first ball of the 50th over.Western Australia began poorly after electing to bat, and were 2 for 1 in the second over. But Marsh rebuilt the innings with help from Luke Pomersbach, whose 39 came from 46 balls, and Adam Voges (43). Marsh’s 90 included eight fours and one six but he fell in the 45th over and late wickets from Clinton McKay (3 for 41) restricted the Warriors to 234.

Mahela Jayawardene scotched suggestions that Tuesday’s match against South Africa was in any way a “grudge match”. Speaking to the media in a pre-game briefing, he said: “Mark [Boucher] can call it anything he wants. For me, it’s not about revenge or grudge. We are all professionals and we are here to play cricket. The media can build up any type of hype,” he said. “I know teams who have been called worse things. I don’t believe Mark really means it. We players never responded to South Africa leaving the Sri Lankan shores. We never called them chickens. But if they want to treat this as a grudge match, I think we are in good hands. Their focus will not be on cricket then. So we’ll be happy about that.”Jayawardene was reacting to the comments made by Mark Boucher, who was captain of the South African team on the recent visit to Sri Lanka in Graeme Smith’s absence when the team prematurely pulled out of the tournament and returned home amid security fears following a bomb blast near the team hotel in Colombo. Complaining about the reaction by the Sri Lankan media, Boucher had said, “We were called ‘chicken’ and various other things, which was unfair and uncalled for. We have nothing against the any of the players, but the press in Sri Lanka were out of order. I am definitely one of those treating this game as a grudge match.”Jayawardene, however, dismissed any suggestions that his team had these matters in mind when looking forward to tomorrow’s game. He was merely interested in winning a game of cricket that was crucial to his team’s chances of progressing to the next round in this competition. “We are pretty serious about tomorrow’s game because it is a crucial game for us and we want to emerge winners in that,” he said. “We have already played a match here earlier and we are hoping to derive some positives out of it.”Spin played a huge role in Sri Lanka’s comprehensive win over New Zealand in Mumbai, with Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya taking 6 for 49 between them. But Jayawardene conceded that the South Africans were good players of spin. “South Africa play spin pretty well,” he said. “They showed in recent matches that they can handle spin as well as any other team. The advantage we have is that Sanath is an experienced player and Murali is exceptional, and that give us a lot of flexibility.”When asked that well-worn question on the pitch, the answer was along expected lines. “All the pitches in India will assist spinners, but it depends to what extent. The wicket here will differ to the ones in Mumbai, Mohali or Jaipur,” he said. “Fortunately we have the luxury of a lot of part-time spinners in the side and all of them are very experienced. They can adapt to different conditions. Until we play on the pitch, I cannot say it will suit us. But we have played here before against Zimbabwe, and the wicket did turn. Hopefully it will do the same.”Taking a charming little detour from the controversy of grudge matches and the dourness of the pitch conditions, Jayawardene spoke of Jayasuriya’s visit back home to Sri Lanka to be with his new-born child. “Sanath became a father just before our last game. He flew back and spent some quality time with his new-born. He got back last night and is in a good mood,” said Jayawardene. “In situations like these, the family always comes first. We were in a good position to release him and give him that extra bit of time to spend with his family,” adding, with a smile: “We have a boy who might play for Sri Lanka one day.”

ScorecardThe name Compton has a long history with Lord’s and today it was back up in lights as Nick Compton, Denis’s grandson, struck his maiden Championship century to haul Middlesex out of trouble on the third day against Kent. He arrived after three early wickets during the morning session and, after initially playing second fiddle to Jamie Dalrymple, pushed Middlesex towards their eventual lead of 353.Last week Compton notched his first first-class century but, without trying to take anything away from Oxford UCCE, the bowling attack would not have been as testing as that on offer at Lord’s. His previous best in the Championship had been 40, on debut, against Worcestershire in 2004 and conditions weren’t easy when he arrived. The ball was still swinging considerably, but he quickly began to rotate the strike with Dalrymple, the senior partner, who steadied the Middlesex innings after it had slumped to 45 for 4.When Dalrymple departed, falling across the crease against the impressive Robbie Joseph, Compton took the innings under his young wings. Boundaries were limited but he sprinted hard between the wickets and when he connected with a big shot, he did so in style. A handsome straight drive into the pavilion loosened the shackles and he immediately appeared calmer at the crease.Understandably the tension mounted as three figures approached and he nearly edged Simon Cook twice while on 96. However, in the next over, from Min Patel, he danced out of his crease and smashed the ball over mid-off and into the Warner Stand to break through the 100-mark off 184 balls. A jig of delight followed as his team-mates and the crowd rose for a standing ovation. The giant electronic scorecard – a feature that certainly wasn’t around in the days of his grandfather, when he scored the last of his Lord’s hundreds on August 28, 1957 – flashed up the figures and he led the players off at tea.The significance of this innings goes beyond just the personal and historical factors as it put Middlesex in an increasingly strong position. The top order stuttered as they attempted to build on their 25-run first-innings lead with Kent’s seamers, especially Joseph and Amjad Khan, maintaining the pressureAlready one down overnight, following the late loss of Ed Smith yesterday evening, Middlesex quickly lost their other opener, Ben Hutton, when he miscued a pull for the second time in the match. There was useful movement for the pacemen as the sun struggled to pierce the morning could cover, but Owais Shah middled a couple of sumptuous cover-drives and was more compact than his rather skittish affair in the first innings. However, he could build on the promising start as he was beaten for pace by Khan – a slight lack of bounce – to be pinned in front, leaving Middlesex 45 for 3.The score hadn’t moved when Kent struck another major blow by removing Ed Joyce. Fresh from his 130 on Wednesday, Joyce was left needing to produce another sizeable innings but drove loosely at Joesph and Martin van Jaarsveld continued his excellent catching form with a sharp take at second slip.However, Dalrymple showed the composure and correctness that gained him A team recognition in the winter. He was quick onto anything off line, particularly through the offside, and brought up his fifty from 64 balls. His innings, though, was quickly overshadowed by Compton who, with valuable support from the busy Craig Wright, pushed the lead over 300.A determined start by David Fulton and Robert Key has left Kent needed 311 more runs and set up a fascinating final day, in what has been a superb advertisement for hard-fought county cricket. Today, though, was all about one of the most famous names in cricket making a 21st century appearance in the middle of the most famous ground in the world.

Shaun Tait has tested out his injured elbow in a novel way by joining an Indian chef in the kitchen. Experiencing heat of a different kind, Tait briefly added cooking chicken korma and fish curry to his rehabilitation programme in Melbourne, where he rated himself a “decent chance” of making the tour to South Africa.After having surgery in June, Tait has recovered well enough to be named in the Twenty20 World Championship squad, but he is still a few weeks away from his first bowl at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. “I’ll see how the elbow goes in the next couple of weeks to see whether I can get up for it or not,” Tait told .”It feels fine but obviously with bowling a fair bit of stress goes on it. I’m a decent chance but we’ll see how it goes.” He has no plans to tinker with his technique despite regular injuries since playing his first Test in 2005.If fit for the tournament in September, Tait will use the series to prove he is ready for regular action in the following seven-match one-day tour of India before focussing on adding to his two Test appearances. He played his first season of one-day internationals last summer and his 23 World Cup wickets were crucial to Australia’s overall success.”There’s going to be some pretty big opportunities coming up,” Tait said. “With Glenn McGrath stepping down I suppose there’s a new door that could be opened and if I get the opportunity hopefully I’ll do well.” Tait is also excited by the prospect of bowling with Brett Lee, who is due to return in South Africa from ankle surgery.Tait was in the kitchen to launch the general release of tickets for the upcoming Australian summer. Australia will face India in four Tests starting on Boxing Day after playing two matches against Sri Lanka in November. The three sides will also take part in the CB Series while Australia will attempt to regain the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in December.Tickets go on sale in Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth on Wednesday while seats in Brisbane will be offered on Thursday and in Melbourne on Friday. “The team has had a great record in Australia for the past decade,” Tait said, “and a big part of that success is the encouragement we receive from our green-and-gold army of supporters.”

Brett Dorey, the Western Australia fast bowler, is expected to be fit for the ING Cup game against Victoria on Saturday despite suffering a leg injury yesterday. Dorey complained of tightness in his quadriceps during the five-wicket win against Victoria and left the field, but he showed promising signs during a recovery session this morning.The Western Australia selectors named an unchanged squad for the return fixture against Victoria at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. The Australian players Damien Martyn, who scored 110 yesterday, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and Mike Hussey will all make the trip.Tim Paine is in line for an ING Cup debut after replacing Michael Dighton, the opening batsman, for Tasmania’s match against New South Wales at the SCG on Sunday. Dighton broke his hand during the two-wicket loss to Queensland at the Gabba on Friday.Western Australia squad Justin Langer (capt), Mike Hussey, Marcus North, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Adam Voges, Darren Wates, Peter Worthington, Brad Williams, Beau Casson, Brett Dorey, Michael Clark.Tasmania squad Travis Birt, Michael Di Venuto, Ricky Ponting (capt), George Bailey, David Dawson (wk), Tim Paine, Scott Kremerskothen, Damien Wright, Xavier Doherty, Adam Griffith, Ben Hilfenhaus, Adam Polkinghorne, Shannon Tubb.