NatWest series (India, Sri Lanka and England)

Indian paceman Javagal Srinath is unlikely to go back on his decision to retire from Test cricket despite a plea from national team captain Sourav Ganguly.

Srinath decided to quit following the recent tour to the West Indies after taking 232 wickets in 64 Tests, a total second only to Kapil Dev among Indian seam bowlers.

But Ganguly said: "A lot of people come back from retirement and I still keep my fingers crossed with Jav.

"We still want him to play for India and he still has a lot of cricket left in him to serve the country; I hope he changes his mind."

Srinath is willing to continue playing one-day internationals, but was not selected for the current NatWest Series against England and Sri Lanka.

His decision about Test cricket appears, however, to be final

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Wind stopped play is a rare occurrence in cricket, but England and India could find themselves in the middle of such a scenario at Durham.

The Met Office has issued a gale warning ahead of the day-night encounter, and say there is a good chance of winds in excess of 25 mph at the Riverside.

That would mean the floodlights, which have been hired for the occasion, would be unsafe at their optimum height.

"The way things are shaping up I would say the risk is quite high - about 60 to 70% at this stage," said forecaster Steve Randall.

"Thursday is still quite a long way off, and it might not happen if the weather systems slowed down.

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Darren Gough has declared himself fit for England's third match in the NatWest Series even though he admits he is not fully recovered from a knee injury.

Gough passed a fitness Test ahead of Tuesday's game against Sri Lanka at Headingley and could replace Matthew Hoggard in the side.

Gough has not played first-team cricket since England's one-day series in New Zealand in February.

And the fast bowler has broken down twice since having an operation on his right knee in March. But England are always perceived to be a stronger team with Gough in their side.

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Sri Lankan cricket coach Dav Whatmore says his side is set to turn things around in the triangular one-day series despite being beaten convincingly by England and India in its opening matches.

Sri Lanka will take on England at Headingley in a match it cannot afford to lose if it is to remain in contention for the final.

The 1996 World Cup winners lost to England by 10 wickets and to India by four wickets. "We are not far away from getting into our groove," Whatmore said. "If you look at the level of fight then it is quite evident the team shows a desire to win.

"What we need is to give ourselves a little bit more of a chance and score a few run at the right time and take the fight to the opposition. Then hopefully, we'll get a winning result."

Sri Lanka's top six batsmen have made good starts but have failed to convert them into matchwinning innings. In the two losses, only one batsman surpassed 50.

New Zealand in West Indies

Second Test, Grenada, day four
New Zealand 373 & 139-2; West Indies 470

The West Indies have a slim chance of winning the second Test and squaring their two-match series against New Zealand after taking two late wickets on day four.

On a dry and lifeless pitch, the Windies' bowlers struggled to make a breakthrough for long periods, with openers Lou Vincent and Mark Richardson the chief tormentors.

The Black Caps resume on 139 for two, after Ramnaresh Sarwan bowled out Vincent (64) and Brian Lara caught Stephen Fleming from the bowling of Carl Hooper.

New Zealand did their morning's work well and knocked over the remaining five wickets in just over 20 overs for 76 runs.

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Chris Gayle confirmed his growing maturity as a Test match batsman as he made 204 against New Zealand in Grenada.

The Jamaican left-hander hit two sixes and 29 fours, but it was his ability to choose the right ball to attack which stood out as the hallmark of his innings.

In 22 previous Tests, Gayle has only reached three figures on one occasion, an innings of 175 against Zimbabwe last year.

"I played a patient role and it paid off for me. I think they kept bowling outside off-stump wanting to lure me into making an error. I was determined not to fall into their trap.

Gayle's innings earned the approval of new West Indies selector Gordon Greenidge, who scored more than 7,500 Test runs during his career, including 19 centuries.

Miscellaneous

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is still considering approaching former South African president Nelson Mandela to help restore cricketing relations between India and Pakistan.

More than three months have passed since the plan was first mooted, but the former South African president has still not received any official overtures from the ICC on the issue.

India's decision not to play against their arch-rivals and neighbours was discussed at length during the ICC executive board meeting in London last week.

"The ICC will try through Nelson Mandela to convince India ending cricket boycott of Pakistan," the Asian Cricket Council's new chief Ali Asghar told.

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New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has signed to play for English county Warwickshire in August.

Bond will fill in for South African all-rounder Shaun Pollock between 5-25 August, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) said.

Pollock will be in Morocco for a tri-nations one-day competition involving South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Bond, who is playing on New Zealand's tour of the West Indies, will have a managed workload which will restrict him to bowling a maximum of 20 overs per day.

He will undergo a thorough assessment of his fitness before he is freed to go to Warwickshire - he has only recently recovered from a stress fracture of his right foot.

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Fanie de Villiers came up with a succinct definition of a cricket coach's role: 'It's the management of advice given to you by other people.'

It's a philosophy De Villiers hopes Eric Simons will apply in his new job as South Africa's coach. "Any coach who arrives on day one and says, 'I'm going to do it all' is going to be in trouble when things start going wrong and he has to call for assistance, and his players find out that, no, he can't do it all," De Villiers said.

Not that De Villiers thought Simons would be a "do-it-all" kind of coach. On the contrary. "He's got so much experience around him - Kepler Wessels, Jimmy Cook, Allan Donald - and from what he's been saying in the papers it looks like he's going to use it. That will be crucial."

De Villiers saw Simons' appointment in a brightly positive light. "We've been waiting so long for guys who have played recently to get into coaching," De Villiers said.

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Former Australian Test off-spinner Colin Miller has decided to retire after 17 years in the first-class game.

Miller, 38, had been hoping he might still be recalled to the Australia team but the emergence of 20-year-old Queensland off-spinner Nathan Hauritz has ended his chance.

Miller played in 18 Tests during and before Australia's record unbeaten run of 16 Tests between 1999 and 2001.

He will now concentrate his efforts on behalf of his old club Footscray-University in Melbourne Grade competition.

Miller, famed as an extrovert who often died his hair bizarre colours, took 14 years to break into Test cricket after his first-class debut for Victoria in 1985.

TriSeries in Pakistan

Australia's cricket tour of Pakistan remains in doubt with the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) saying it is too early to react to reports Australia will play Pakistan at a neutral venue later this year.

Australia's scheduled tour of Pakistan has been under threat because of security fears after New Zealand cancelled its tour in May following a bomb blast which killed 11 people outside the team hotel.

That risk was escalated by the increased tensions between Pakistan and India over the disputed Kashmir region.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has released a statement confirming Australia's tour in October would be played outside Pakistan.

But PCB director Brigadier Munawar Rana later dismissed the statement, saying a decision was weeks away and that no formal decision had been made although they had talks with the ACB last week.

Womens cricket

The England Women's team have made two changes just nine days before the start of the triangular one-day series against New Zealand and India.

All-rounders Kathryn Leng and Sarah Collyer have been replaced by batsman Hannah Lloyd and 17-year-old new ball bowler Isa Guha.

The official reason given for the change was that Leng and Collyer were "unable to commit to the full England training schedule".

Lloyd made her debut in the Women's Ashes series against Australia, playing in two one-day internationals.

Guha has represented England at under-17 and under-19 level and took seven wickets in three games games during last year's European Championships.

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