A knee problem has forced Simon Katich to return to Australia a week early from a county stint with Hampshire. Katich suffered the injury while playing for the side, which is leading Division One of the County Championship for the first time since 1992, and a Hampshire spokesman said it was only a slight problem. “He’s being careful,” he told AAP.Katich was supposed to play one more match before flying back for a camp in Brisbane with the Australia squads. He will travel to England with the limited-overs outfit on June 5 in preparation for the two one-day tournaments against England and Bangladesh. The five-Test series begins at Lord’s on July 21.The injury did not stop Katich batting or bowling in the Championship win over Glamorgan, and he leaves Hampshire after five games with 445 runs at 44.94. Shane Warne, their captain, is also slightly injured, but his finger problem will not stop him turning out against Warwickshire.

Group A

The USA’s controversially-picked and ageing side, already in disarray after back-to-back defeats in their warm-up matches, slumped to a 59-run defeat at the hands of the UAE. There was no inkling of an upset in the early stages as UAE slipped to 109 for 6, but a captain’s innings of 79 from Khuram Khan nursed them to 200 all out with more than 10 overs of their innings unused. USA started solidly, but from 30 for 0 they lost eight wickets for 56, five of them to Ahmed Nadeem (5 for 28), and only a last-wicket stand of 41 gave their total any respectability.Ed Joyce made an early impression on the tournament with 103 as Ireland ran out comfortable 97-run winners against Bermuda. Joyce added 180 for the fourth wicket with Eoin Morgan, which formed the backbone of Ireland’s impressive 315 for 6. Bermuda never threatened to approach the target and suffered a blow when Clay Smith, their captain, was forced to retire hurt. However, Janeiro Tucker struck a half-century so that Bermuda at least batted out their allotted overs. “I was a bit nervous before the start so it was a bit of a relief to get some runs,” said Joyce, who was outshone for much of his innings by the crisp hitting of Morgan who made 93. “That was my first century for Ireland but I’m really pleased for Eoin, he was hitting it really well. I think that’s the best I’ve ever seen him bat.”Tom Hansen took 6 for 30 to carry Denmark to a 28-run win over Uganda. Chasing 197, Uganda slipped to 73 for 6 but Kenneth Kamyuka struck 59 to keep them in the game. However, Hanson return to mop up the tail with a three-wicket burst. It was a good day for the Hanson’s as Hendrik provided the backbone for Denmark’s innings with 71. Kamyuka produced an impressive all round performance, taking 4 for 39, but it wasn’t enough to swing the match.

Group B

John Davison reminded everyone of his World Cup heroics, making 125 as Canada held their nerve to seal a thrilling two-run victory over Namibia in one of the early heavyweight clashes. For a full report click here.Scotland launched their campaign in emphatic style by making short of Oman, easing to six-wicket win with 31 overs to spare. Paul Hoffmann put in a starring all round performance, taking 5 for 12 as Oman were skittled for 83 as only Tariq Syed made any impression with the bat making 32. Hoffmann then took charge of the run chase, as 39 ensured that the loss of four wickets was nothing more than a blipHolland dispatched Papua New Guinea in clinic style, completing a nine-wicket win in a match that lasted barely 40 overs. Papua New Guinea’s batsmen had no answer to Holland’s seamers, with Edgar Schiferli claiming 5 for 20 from his 10 overs. Ryan ten Doeschate, the Essex allrounder, provided a fine supporting role with 4 for 18. Bas Zuiderent and Daan van Bunge, the batsman who has spent time with MCC, added 68 as Holland reached their target of 70 within 15 overs.

Leicestershire 217 (Rogers 56, Lee 4-58) and 363 for 5 (Rogers 209, Robinson 81, MacGill 4-122) drew with Australian XI 582 for 7 (Martyn 154*, Ponting 119, Langer 115)
Scorecard

Another day, another Australian century. Only this time it was Leicestershire’s Australian, Chris Rogers, who took the attack to the tourists with a crashing double ton that ensured the draw at Grace Road in the final warm-up match before the Ashes. Only Stuart MacGill was anywhere near convincing for Australia, taking four of the five wickets they managed on the final day of the three-day match.Brett Lee captured the other wicket, although he was unable to replicate his first-innings form, and his 13 overs cost 78. Still, the Test selector David Boon will have taken note of Lee’s five wickets for the match. Boon will have also kept a careful eye on Jason Gillespie, who was wicketless in the second innings. But so was Gillespie’s close rival Michael Kasprowicz, and the match has done little to split the two on form – both were largely ineffective.Instead the day belonged to Rogers and his 209 saved the match. Leicestershire had started the morning needing 365 to avoid an innings defeat after Australia declared on their overnight total off 582 for 7. And a buoyant Australia fancied their chances of skittling out Leicestershire in the same clinical manner as they had done in the first innings.Any plans Australia had of recording victory were soon dashed by the openers Rogers and Darren Robinson, who made the game safe by adding 247 for the first wicket. Robinson collected 81 before being bowled by Lee, but Rogers continued in punishing form to put the result beyond any doubt. His 209 came from 219 balls, containing 32 fours and three sixes, and although his demise at the hands of MacGill heralded a mini collapse, Leicestershire still had five wickets remaining at stumps.“All in all it was a pretty disappointing day for us,” Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting told . “We thought if we could take some wickets with the new ball we might beable to bowl them out at some stage. All the guys really tried their hardest, but unfortunately weweren’t quite good enough to win. Everybody is pretty exhausted tonight – there was nothing left in thetank.”

South Africa’s tour of India will not be affected by any Delhi police interest in questioning Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje over their supposed links to match-fixing, according to Gerald de Kock, the South African cricket board’s media manager. He said that both players were available to be interviewed by the relevant authorities ahead of the tour, which is due to start on November 14.”We have heard nothing from the Indian authorities in any case,” said de Kock. He then denied suggestions that Gibbs and Boje, who were implicated in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga, would be detained for questioning by Indian police if they travelled to India, saying there was no basis for such speculation.”There’s no chance of them being arrested as they land, but if the Indian authorities would like to interview Herschelle and Nicky, then they must just let us know,” he said. “We would need to get legal representation for the players and arrange a suitable time and place for the interviews. But there has been no official request.”South Africa are due to play two Tests in India, the first at Kanpur from November 20 and the second at Kolkata from November 28.

USA beat Argentina by seven wickets
Argentina won the toss and elected to bat on a good batting stripe but only Ignacio Redruello with a fine knock of 35 offered any resistance to the USA bowling attack. Argentina were all out in the 39th over for 105.Mohammed Rehman and Abhemanyu Rajp took care of business capturing nine wickets between them. For Rajp it was his second five-wicket performance in as many games.USA got off to a fine with the first wicket partnership putting on 60 runs. Severel thunderstorms passed through the area but play resumed after a one-hour delay. The USA easily passed their target in the 21st over by seven wickets. For his efforts in capturing 5 wickets for the second consecutive match, Abhemanyu Rajp was named Man of the Match.Canada beat Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands won the toss and elected to bat. In their tradition style of holding on to wickets , they slowly made their way through the 50 overs and ended with a modest score of 143 for 8. Gunjan Patel was Canada’s best bowler, giving up only 23 runs in his allotted 10 overs, while taking two wickets. Marc Chin was Cayman’s top scorer with a fine innings of 41.Canada’s target was revised to 121 in 36 overs under the D/L method as one hour of play was lost. Opening batsman Aneesh Joshi with his skipper Kenneth Carto put on a dazzling display with a 94-run stand before Joshi was out for 29. Carto was joined by his club mate Ryal Lall, the pair brought Canada home in the 19th over, with Man-of-the-Match Carto reaching his 50 and Lall not out on 21.The results today saw no change to the table, and with tomorrow being a well deserved rest day for all teams, it seems that second place is all that is up for grabs as USA have a stranglehold on the top spot.

The four sports channels – ESPN-Star, Zee, Sony and Prasar Bharti – have submitted their bids to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for four-year telecast rights of international and domestic matches in India. According to the , Ten Sports, the Dubai-based channel, has withdrawn from the telecast race. The board has fixed the floor price at US$2.14 million for each day of cricket.The bids will be submitted to the marketing committee of the board, who will examine them in a two-stage process. “The marketing committee will study the technical tender and only the bids of those who qualify will be opened,” Ratnakar Shetty, the executive secretary of the BCCI, said to NDTV. “There are some qualifications in the tender form itself which have been mentioned. And all the parties are aware of what the qualifications are.”With the board having included a three-year experience clause in the tender, it remains to be seen whether Zee will be considered eligible for the contract. However, Ashish Kaul, the senior vice-president of Zee Telefilms, had other ideas about Zee’s eligibility. “… that is why we went to the court in the first place,” he said, “because we do not believe that in a fair and a just bidding process such hurdles should be placed.”The telecast rights were fought over in court last year when Zee, who had initially won them, filed a case against the board’s decision to cancel the tender process in the Supreme Court. The appeal was, however, dismissed by the court after a protracted court battle.

A difficult and embarrassing week for Zimbabwe Cricket continued to get worse with the news that the announcements of the new panel of selectors, which was made on Monday, will be overturned as the committee meeting at which the decisions were taken was unconstitutional.Zimbabwe Cricket is already in the firing line after it barred all journalists from its AGM in Bulawayo, claiming that reporters had “caused trouble” at the meeting in 2004. Those writers questioned by Cricinfo were in no doubt that the real reason was that the board did not want to have to answer some potentially difficult questions on the way the game is being run.That came less than 24 hours after Zimbabwe players delivered a damning attack on the board’s activities and the way that the national cricketers are treated.It now seems that the committee meeting will be declared void as the six board members who were in attendance did not constitute a quorum under ZC’s own rules.Despite the growing unrest with the board’s activities, an ICC spokesman refused to comment on what is described as an “internal matter”.

Bermuda travelled to Africa for the Intercontinental Cup finals in a confident and optimistic mood, but they will return home deflated after a semi-final defeat by Ireland and losses to Namibia in two highly unsatisfactory one-dayers.The form book suggested that Kenya would be too strong for Bermuda, themselves something of a surprise package in the finals, and so it proved, although Bermuda’s batting came through with flying colours. The problem was the bowling, although on shirt-front pitches bowling Kenya out twice was never going to be easy, and a skewed points system meant Bermuda were up against it from the moment they lost the toss.After going out of the competition, Bermuda played two one-dayers against Namibia, but there was a climate of hostility throughout, and this spilled over in the second game when Gus Logie, the coach, withdrew his side from the field in protest at three successive bouncers aimed at tailender Kevin Hurdle by Kola Burger.The sides clashed during the ICC Trophy in Ireland in July, and the anger was quick to resurface. Both coaches took swipes at the other. Logie accused the Namibians of dangerous play and said that they were sore over failing to qualify for the World Cup, while Andy Waller, his opposite number, said Bermuda were cry babies who did not deserve to their own spot at the event.The first game on Thursday had already been tarnished after accusations by the Bermuda players that they had been racially abused by the Namibians, and the umpires were forced to step in. It was much the same on Saturday.But the scene grew almost farcical when Burger peppered the No. 10 Hurdle with bouncers, even though Bermuda were staring at inevitable defeat. The first was called a wide by Roger Dill, Bermuda’s umpire, and the second as a no-ball. Dill then warned Burger for intimidatory bowling. When Burger quite deliberately sent down another short-pitched ball, Logie had had enough and called the batsmen off. As they milled around, a number of players could clearly be seen arguing and one unnamed Namibian player had to be restrained by his team-mates. The post-match press conference was lively.”We are in the World Cup, they are not and that is their problem,” said Logie, who was obviously livid. “If they have a point to prove and think they can prove it by bowling like that against our No. 11 batsman then I am not just going to stand by and watch. I did call them off and I did it for their own safety. This is a practice match and I am not going to put my players at risk.”Waller was equally blunt. “It is just not acceptable for this type of match and I’m not happy about it. You’d expect a bit more from a team who are meant to be preparing for a World Cup. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years in cricket.”And then, warming to his task, he slammed the Bermuda side and warned them that they better be ready for more of the same. “I can’t see why they are getting upset at that sort of bowling … this is a guy bowling at 130 kmh, and teams in the World Cup are going to be going a lot faster than that. If they can’t handle this, they are really going to struggle. There was some talk about sledging and some complaints from some of their guys but, again, they have to be able to handle that. It’s a part of cricket and it is something they are going to have to deal with if they are going to play in international matches.”By this time, Waller was in overdrive, and he had a swipe at Bermuda’s fitness.”I just don’t think these guys look like they are prepared to compete at this level. You only have to look at these guys to see they are not yet ready to cope with the demands of this level of cricket … they have a lot more work to do on the fitness front.”The Bermuda Cricket Board backed Logie’s decision and added that there would be a full investigation. The Namibian Cricket Board declined to comment until it had all the facts in front of it.

The opening match of England’s forthcoming tour to Pakistan could be switched from Rawalpindi to Lahore, following the devastating earthquake that struck in the north of the country on Saturday.In the aftermath of the disaster, which has so far claimed upwards of 30,000 lives, the neighbouring city of Islamabad has been made a centre for the relief efforts, and there is the possibility that hotel rooms allocated to the cricket teams and entourage may be needed to house the homeless or provide a base for aid workers.Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, was confident that the tour would go ahead as planned, but would wait for an update from security officials. “The situation … is very much monitored and managed by the security firm appointed by the ECB and the PCA,” Bevan told Sportinglife. “So in terms of what happened at the weekend, our security people have already written to us advising us that they are monitoring and liaising with the relevant authorities in Pakistan.”I would imagine [the earthquake] is probably not going to have an effect on the tour,” he added. “It may have some impact on the logistics, but again we won’t know what our advice is on that for a few days. It may be something that can assist in the feelgood factor and helping Pakistan get back to normality.”Bevan added that he had spoken to the players, all of whom were happy about the procedures being put in place, while according to the Pakistan Cricket Board, the Rawalpindi stadium had suffered no structural damage during the tremors.