Farveez Maharoof, the Sri Lanka allrounder, has injured his left ankle and will miss the three home Tests against England next month.”Farveez had a scan yesterday and he’s got stress fracture in his ankle,” Jayawardene said. “He’ll be definitely out of the England Test series.”He’ll be out for at least four to five weeks, it could be a bit more than that depending on how he will feel especially because he is a fast bowler and he needs to put his weight on that ankle.”Maharoof missed the second day’s play in Hobart due to the injury and has gone wicketless so far in the two Tests against Australia.But he took eight wickets in the two tour games ahead of the Tests. In the three one-dayers he played against England in October, Maharoof took 10 wickets at 9.50.

If you think the Chappell-Hadlee Series has lost its lustre, think again. Ricky Ponting has “a score to settle” after Australia were defeated 3-0 last time and wants his best outfit firing for the three-match competition which starts in Adelaide on Friday.Ponting, who says the series is “pretty big for us”, is desperate to get his hands back on the trophy. “New Zealand completely outplayed us last time and thoroughly deserved the result,” Ponting, who missed the contests to prepare for the World Cup, said. “We have got a bit of a score to settle, there’s no doubt about it.”We want to make sure we’ve got the trophies we play for back in the cabinet in Melbourne. This is one we haven’t got.”Australia have delayed naming their team until Friday morning after question marks over Brett Lee, who missed practice with a virus, and Andrew Symonds’ ankle, although both should be ready. Ponting “decided to play the cautious card” with Lee, who did not train, while he rated Symonds’ chances of playing “at 95%” after he completed a practice session.Both are key men, and Australia will be particularly keen for Lee to join Shaun Tait after they were too quick for New Zealand in the Twenty20 on Tuesday. Ponting, who put his feet up for that game, liked what he saw.”I was really impressed with how they hussled and had a lot of energy and intent in the field,” he said. “That’s something we pride ourselves on, the Australian team, making sure we’re like that and up for every contest that’s on.”Ponting said it was likely they would bring in a spinner, in which case Brad Hogg will get the nod. “There will be a tough decision to be made if Brett’s fit,” he said, “probably on which of the fast bowlers we do leave out.” The allrounder James Hopes impressed Ponting with his flexibility in the India series and is tipped to play.While Australia’s fast men are going great guns, New Zealand may choose two spinners again, like they did in Perth. “It’s always an option,” the captain Daniel Vettori said. “Jeetan Patel’s a very good bowler, so any time we can get him in the team we try to, but we will assess the wicket and go from there.”Although Vettori said it was difficult to come off a losing series in South Africa, he was happy with the squad’s well-being. “I feel like everyone is in a pretty good space,” he said. “We picked up a little bit of momentum in the last part of the South African tour and we are trying to translate it here.”New Zealand narrowly lost the one-dayers and will be keen to retain the trophy they won so comfortably in February. “The guys have had a chance to regroup with their wives and partners and Australia is a pretty familiar place to us,” Vettori said. “They’ve put the losses behind them and hopefully it’s a fresh start leading into this series, so hopefully we will have some confidence from here.”Their batsmen may have struggled against the quick bowlers, but their bowlers did a good job, particularly Kyle Mills, who deputised for the injured Shane Bond and is on hand to do so again. Stephen Fleming, who led them to their last Chappell-Hadlee success, may not be here this time around, but is always on hand to lend advice.”I can turn to him any time I want,” Vettori said, adding that Fleming had given some tips on how to bowl to the opposing batsmen. With Ponting and Matthew Hayden boosting the Twenty20 squad, New Zealand might need them.Australia (probable) Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, James Hopes, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson.New Zealand (probable) Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum (wk), Jamie How, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Mathew Sinclair, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Daniel Vettori (capt), Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel.

Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, has been handed the power to order India home from Australia without consulting the rest of the board. Although India are continuing their Test tour for now, Pawar said he would not be afraid to use the authority if India felt the result of the appeal into Harbhajan Singh’s three-Test suspension was not satisfactory.”I will only use the power in support of Harbhajan for the rest of the country,” Pawar told the . “There will be a [ICC] committee hearing. We are confident in the hearing he will be cleared.”Let’s just see what happens, but allegations of racism against a member of our cricket team is not acceptable. After the meeting, we then will take action. We fight against racism. Our country supported anti-racism movements in South Africa.”There were concerns that India would withdraw from the Perth Test, which starts on Wednesday, if Harbhajan’s appeal was not heard before the match. However, India agreed to play on until the case was completed, which may yet be after the final Test in Adelaide later this month.But doubts remain over India’s participation in the ODI tri-series, which also features Australia and Sri Lanka, as India’s players are still angry with the treatment of Harbhajan. The spinner was suspended for allegedly calling Andrew Symonds a monkey during the eventful Sydney Test, although Sachin Tendulkar, who was batting with Harbhajan at the time, believes nothing racist was said.Tendulkar reportedly sent Pawar a text message assuring him of Harbhajan’s innocence and suggesting they should not play unless the ban is lifted. It is unclear when the appeal will be held, although the New Zealand High Court judge John Hansen has been appointed as the commissioner for the hearing.The other charge to come out of the Sydney Test was against Australia’s Brad Hogg, who will face a hearing after he allegedly referred to Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni as “bastards” during the match. The reported that Australia will argue the Hogg case should not fit in section 3.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct – the same section under which Harbhajan was suspended – because they believe the term “bastard” does not vilify a player on the basis of race, religion, gender, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin.Instead, Australia will argue the term refers to a person’s lineage and therefore Hogg should not be charged under section 3.3. If Hogg was found guilty of a lesser offence of abusive language he would not face a similar suspension to Harbhajan.

Three Indians, two Sri Lankans and an Australian have been named as the winners in the inaugural Cricinfo Awards, which recognise the outstanding batting and bowling performances in all three forms of the game during 2007.Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s No. 3, takes the Test batting prize for his 192 against Australia in Hobart. “I have always thought that he is a class player, and he proved that on the tour of Australia. His 192 in the second Test was a magnificent innings,” said Ian Chappell, one of the jury members who voted on the awards.The Test bowling award went to Zaheer Khan for his 5 for 75 in the second Test against England at Trent Bridge. It proved the decisive performance of the series as India went on to claim the contest 1-0 after Zaheer inspired them to victory at Trent Bridge. Geoff Boycott, another jury member, was full of praise for the effort: “It was a really gritty performance by Zaheer Khan, and the Indians will thank him for the memorable victory at Trent Bridge, and that allowed India to go on and win an exciting series”.Ramiz Raja said it was spell of immense skill from Zaheer and built huge pressure on England. “What was eye catching about the spell was the use of the crease and the angle that he developed to remain on top of the opposition. It was a masterclass from Zaheer Khan and he richly deserves the award”Adam Gilchrist, fresh from announcing his retirement, takes away the one-day batting title for his monumental 149 in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka. With the ball, the prize goes to Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka quick bowler, for his electric display against South Africa when he claimed four wickets in four balls to almost pull off a remarkable victory in Guyana.Twenty20 took the world by storm in 2007 and both of its prizes go to members of the India side that claimed the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa. Yuvraj Singh takes the batting honour for his destructive 70 off 30 balls against Australia in the semi-final in Durban – during a tournament where he also struck six sixes in an over off England’s Stuart Broad.Twenty20 isn’t meant to be a game for the bowlers but there were some memorable efforts during the year and RP Singh, the left-arm swing bowler, came out top of the list for his decisive 4 for 13 against South Africa in Durban.”Cricket awards are commonplace, but to us at Cricinfo they are a logical and inevitable extension of what we are about,” Sambit Bal, editor of Cricinfo said. “We cover every ball bowled in cricket, and we see ourselves as cricket’s global voice. We have in our ranks some of the finest cricket writers and keenest cricket minds drawn from all over the world.”The Cricinfo Awards are a celebration of the best performances in the calendar year 2007, and even though they carry no monetary rewards, we are confident that cricketers will value the acclaim.”The lists of nominees, announced in December 2007, were compiled by Cricinfo’s global staff. The winners were selected by a jury put together by Cricinfo for this purpose, which consisted of Geoffrey Boycott, Ian Chappell, Daryll Cullinan, Tony Greig, Michael Holding, David Lloyd, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ramiz Raja and Ravi Shastri. The final selection was based on a ranking of the performances by the jury, with the players who fetched the most points winning the respective awards. In the event of a tie, the player with the most top nominations was selected as the winner by the jury.List of winnersTest batting – Kumar Sangakkara (SL): 192, Australia v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, Hobart
Test bowling – Zaheer Khan (Ind): 5 for 75, England v India, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge
ODI batting – Adam Gilchrist (Aus): 149, Australia v Sri Lanka, World Cup final, Barbados
ODI bowling – Lasith Malinga (SL): 4 for 54, Sri Lanka v South Africa, World Cup, Guyana
Twenty20 batting – Yuvraj Singh (Ind): 70, India v Australia, World Twenty20 semi-final, Durban
Twenty20 bowling – RP Singh (Ind): 4 for 13, India v South Africa, World Twenty20, Durban

The Afro-Asian Cup, the second staging of which took place in Bangalore in June last year, looks likely to undergo a radical overhaul of its format.The event has raised valuable funds for the African Cricket Association and the Asian Cricket Council, but it has been less than a hit with audiences and has been roundly condemned as an unnecessary burden in an already packed international calendar. The third Afro-Asian Cup was initially scheduled to be held in Kenya in June 2008 but Cricinfo was told several weeks ago it was unlikely to go ahead.But while there had been speculation the event would be ditched completely, it is now reported that the organisers are to propose a new format which would involve matches being on a country basis rather than continent v continent, as is the case now.There is already an Asia Cup – the itinerary for the 2008 event in June was revealed earlier this week – and to run alongside that there would be a new Africa Cup. That would be likely to feature South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, as well as other countries such as Namibia and Uganda. The winners from the two continents, and possibly the runners-up as well, would then progress to the finals.A source close to the event told Cricinfo that the appeal of the revised format was that it would include more countries and appealed far more to local sponsors and broadcasters. What’s more, the emerging African countries have been after more meaningful international cricket, and for them this will be a godsend.It seems that the choice for the organisers was change or bust. The emergence of the IPL – and to a lesser degree the ICL and Stanford 20/20 – on top of the burgeoning Test and ODI merry-go-round means that the international calendar no longer has time for the Afro-Asia Cup as it was. More regional tournaments with a quick in-and-out best-of-three final anytime during the year seems to appease both organisers and sponsors, and it can be scheduled to fit in one of the increasingly rare gaps in the international schedule.The proposal is due to be put to the next meeting of the Afro-Asia Cup Council early in March.

Alistair Brown, the Surrey and former England batsman, has rejected an offer to join the Mumbai IPL franchise.Brown was contacted by Harbhajan Singh, who has spent time as Surrey’s overseas player, and asked whether he would be interested in signing up but declined after decided to keep to his new one-year county deal.”He was very flattered to receive the offer to play among some of the world’s leading cricketers,” a Surrey spokesman told , “but he has decided to honour his Surrey deal.”Brown played 16 ODIs for England between 1996 and 2001 with the disappointing return of 354 runs at 22.12. His one century came against India, at Old Trafford, in 1996 but his results in domestic cricket put him up with the most successful one-day players. He has over 10,000 runs a high score of 268 against Glamorgan in 2002.The Mumbai team also includes Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shaun Pollock. No English players have been signed up for the opening year of the IPL although it is believed a number have been approached like Brown or players’ agents have been in touch with IPL organisers.Surrey are still waiting for confirmation from the ECB surrounding the status of Saqlain Mushtaq who is part of the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL). The club says that the “complex and unique situation” is taking a while to resolve but they are being led by the ECB.It is unclear whether Saqlain, who is now England qualified, requires the No Obligation Certificate (NOC) from his home board before be can play for Surrey.

New Zealand 470 and 177 for 9 dec (Fleming 66, Sidebottom 6-46) beat England 348 and 110 (Bell 54*, Mills 4-16, Martin 3-33) by 189 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

New Zealand completed an utterly comprehensive 189-run win in Hamilton with a session to spare to go one-up in this three-Test series. It was only their eighth win in 89 Tests against England, and only the most one-eyed spectator could possibly argue it was anything but deserved.

The day started with both sides talking up their chances, and yet by lunch England were on their way to defeat after Kyle Mills blew away their top order with four wickets in five overs of hostile seam bowling.

Daniel Vettori had batted on for half an hour this morning before declaring to set England a target of 300 in 81 overs. In the context of the way Test cricket is played these days, that was not the impossible ask it might have been a decade or two ago. But England had needed 11 hours, twice their allotted time for this innings, to grind along to their first innings 348, and their required run-rate of 3.70 was stratospheric in comparison. Even so, when Alastair Cook guided two streaky fours through third man in Chris Martin’s first over, there was a suspicion that New Zealand’s attacking fields might aid them in their quest.

Mills, however, soon exploded such a notion. With his ninth delivery, he tempted Cook to fence outside off stump for Brendon McCullum to claim a regulation edge, and at 19 for 1 in the fourth over, England’s uncertainty began to surface. Michael Vaughan had already got off the mark with a streaky top-edged pull over the slip cordon, and he was the next to go as Mills produced a wicket-to-wicket delivery that kept low and struck him plumb in front of middle stump.

New Zealand were now pumped to the gunwales with adrenalin, with attacking fields looming as Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen attempted to pick up the pieces. Neither survived to the interval, however, as Mills again struck gold. Strauss hung his bat out limply to a delivery angled across his body, and McCullum, diving to his left, just kept hold of an excellent catch that might otherwise have flown past Stephen Fleming’s shoulder at slip.

And in his very next over, Mills claimed the biggest scalp of the lot. Pietersen had been a subdued presence during England’s plodding first innings, and his defensiveness once again got the better of him. Mills pitched just back of a length outside off stump, the ball seamed back in and flicked the top of Pietersen’s back pad as he shouldered arms. Replays suggested the ball might have clipped the off bail, so the decision was marginal, but New Zealand’s dominance was not. At 25 for 4 in the tenth over, Mills had the sensational figures of 5-1-7-4, and the real menace of the fourth innings, Vettori, hadn’t even warmed up.

After lunch, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell decided on a slowed-down version of their first-innings torpor, seeming to believe that they could block out almost 70 overs. Collingwood took almost an hour to get off the mark before playing on to Vettori from a half-hearted cut. Five balls later and the confusing tactics had been exposed as Tim Ambrose was squared up and cleaned up by a cracker from Chris Martin. With a tail starting at No. 8, England were never going to survive a session and a half.

Sidebottom, who two hours earlier had walked off to a standing ovation, nibbled at one angled across him, and then Matthew Hoggard reached for one that he should never have been playing to give McCullum his third and fourth catches.

Vettori, who captained well and led by example with both bat and ball, deserving his Man-of-the-Match award, kept prodding with field and bowling changes. Steve Harmison, whose match was as wretched as Vettori’s was impressive, was well held in his midriff by a beached Stephen Fleming at slip.

With the end in sight and freed from pressure, Bell started playing his shots, lofting two straight-driven sixes, while Panesar dead batted with assuredness. The pitch remained true and the ease with which they put on 33 in almost an hour for the last-wicket made a mockery of what had gone before. They took England past three figures before Panesar nicked Jacob Oram to give McCullum his fifth catch. Bell trooped off, his unbeaten 54 almost half his team’s total. He alone could hold his head high.

Vettori’s first act of the day had been to chivvy an extra 30 runs from New Zealand’s innings, just to put all thoughts of defeat to one side. He did so impressively, with a pair of aggressive sweeps for four off Panesar and a delicate late cut to third man off Ryan Sidebottom. He added one more boundary before Sidebottom cleaned him for 35 to complete his Test-best figures of 6 for 49, and his maiden ten-wicket haul. The final catch was a steepler in the covers to give Alastair Cook his sixth of the match.

Vettori declared soon afterwards, and his bowlers then ensured his aggressive approach reaped rich dividends. The reward for his positive approach was to be welcomed. England, who were on the back foot throughout, got exactly what their negativity deserved. At times, they looked petrified of failure and hopelessly undercooked.

Rarely do sides come back from behind over three matches, and given their alarmingly negative outlook, it is hard to see how England, who have three days to try to regroup before the Wellington Test, can buck the trend.

Omar Henry has been replaced as convenor of selectors by the South African cricket board, but will remain on the selection committee. The move was an unexpected one, but Henry stated that he had had no intention of holding the post for a long time.Curiously, Henry said to , “I’m now 52 and I’ve got a fair appreciation of cricket politics. If I was 20 years younger, I might have reacted differently.” There were reports that Haroon Lorgat, currently a treasurer, would replace Henry as convenor, but would only have a vote if the four selectors were unable to decide on a player.Gerald Majola, the head of the South African board, expressed faith in Lorgat’s abilities. “Our major concern has been the effective management of the selection process. We believe Haroon will do a very good job.” Henry, Ray Jennings, Enver Mall and Joubert Strydom make up the selection panel.

The struggling Bangalore Royal Challengers team have received another blow with Wasim Jaffer suffering a fracture in his hand, one which will keep him out of action for three weeks.Jaffer picked the injury during the game against Chennai Super Kings on April 28 and it gradually worsened to the extent he couldn’t hold the bat yesterday. X-rays have revealed a fracture and Bangalore will once again have to grapple with opening woes.”It’s a huge blow as Jaffer has been our best opener,” Martin Crowe told Cricinfo. “He has really worked hard to adapt to Twenty20 format and it’s a pity that he would be out for three weeks.”Crowe hinted that J Arunkumar, the domestic player with a List A average of 33.96 from 100 games, might be given a chance in the upcoming encounters.Bangalore have tried five different opening combinations – Jaffer and Rahul Dravid, Shivanarine Chanderpaul and Dravid, Jaffer and Bharat Chipli, Jaffer and Virat Kohli and Jaffer and Praveen Kumar – but nothing has worked so far. Jaffer has scored 110 runs in 99 balls from five games and none of his partners have really fired. That 37 is the highest opening partnership they have had, and 13, their second-highest, says a lot about their problems at the start.Bangalore, wallowing near the bottom of the pool with five losses from seven games, next face Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on May 8.

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Saurabh Tiwary’s patient 27 was not enough in Jharkhand’s unsuccessful chase of 213 (file photo)•Getty Images

Assam’s spin twins, J Syed Mohammad and Arlen Konwar, delivered them a second win in as many matches, keeping Jharkhand down to 157 in their defence of 212. It will be ironical to Tamil Nadu supporters that on the day their spinners struggled badly on a rank turner, Syed, who has played Under-19 cricket for them, took his first five-wicket haul for another team and took them to the top of Group C.Jharkhand began the day needing 157 with eight wickets in hand, but Syed took little time in dismissing the first-innings half-centurion and danger man Rameez Nemat for 42. Saurabh Tiwary and Deepak Chougule then added 29 for the fourth wicket, but Syed dismissed Tiwary too to make it 101 for 4.To make things worse for Jharkhand, he trapped Chougule too, and at 120 for 5 Assam were the favourites. Wicketkeeeper Shiv Gautam, though, had other ideas, and took Jharkhand to 155 for 6. By now, the first-innings hero, Konwar, had swung into action, and had begun chipping at the lower order. To seal the deal, Syed dismissed Gautam for 30. At 155 for 8, it was all but over. Konwar completed the formalities, and the four wickets gave him a maiden 10-wicket match haul.
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Shadab Jakati’s four-wicket burst at the top of Jammu & Kashmir’s innings injected some interest into an otherwise drab match, but Bandeep Singh and captain Samiullah Beigh fought it out to a draw and their first point of the season. Playing their first match of the season, Goa had already secured three points when they went past J&K’s 338 in the first session.They began the day needing 81, and even though they lost Manvinder Bisla early, Goa kept moving towards the target steadily. Reagan Pinto and Ravikant Shukla were at the wicket when the first-innings lead was secured, and Pinto went on to score an unbeaten half-century.An innings run rate of 2.63 an over didn’t suggest any desperation for an outright result, but Jakati livened up the proceedings. At 40 for 6, J&K were still 28 short of avoiding an innings defeat. However, Beigh, who scored a fifty in the first innings, and Bandeep batted out a whopping 41.3 overs for an unbeaten 55-run partnership. That was a point well earned.
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For the second game in a row, Himachal Pradesh went into the final day looking to force an outright win. And for the second time, they were thwarted by some dogged batting.Himachal needed eight wickets, they began well enough, claiming the third wicket in the second over of the day, but Soumya Swain and Anshul Gupta of Services played out 46.4 overs for the fourth wicket, and Swain and Yashpal Singh remained unseparated for 26.5 overs. Swain’s unbeaten 118 was his second first-class century, while Gupta and Yashpal posted fifties too.
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Andhra bowlers took three early wickets, but that was not enough to bring to life a sleepy contest in Anantapur. Andhra had already taken the lead on the third day, and Tripura were not showing any inclination to go for quick runs.Once Andhra reduced them to 74 for 3, though, they had to dig deep to salvage the solitary point. Subhrajit Roy and Ajay Ratra did just that. They batted out 41.2 overs for the fourth wicket. That was enough even though they added 83. Once Roy got out for 81, there was no interest left in the game, and the draw was amicably called.