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BRISBANE – Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist has been hospitalisedwith an infected elbow just three days before the opening Ashes cricketTest at the Gabba.Gilchrist was today hooked up to an intravenous antibiotic drip and willremain in St Andrew’s Hospital in Brisbane until tomorrow.Australian team physiotherapist Errol Alcott said the treatment wasprecautionary and Gilchrist was still expected to be fit for the firstTest against England starting on Thursday.”It’s a hot swollen, very tender elbow and it hurts a little bit to moveit,” Alcott said as the Australians trained at the Gabba.”So we figure rather than being down here and landing on it andaggravating it and exciting the inflammation we’ll put him on bed restand some antibiotic treatment.”We’re confident he’ll be back on deck shortly, we’re planning to leavehim overnight and review him tomorrow around mid-morning and see how wego from there.”Alcott said at this stage no replacement had been called for.Gilchrist noticed tenderness around his right elbow on Saturday and thearea become more troublesome yesterday when he joined teammates inBrisbane.”It’s frustrating not being able to train straight away and interruptthe build up to the Test match but I’m working on the basis this is afrustration and nothing more,” he said.”I’m keen to get back on deck as soon as possible and my expectation atthis stage is that I will be fully fit and ready to play in the Testmatch come Thursday morning.”Australia now has two injury problems leading into the Test with pacebowler Jason Gillespie battling a calf strain.Gillespie trained lightly in the nets today and will have an extendedworkout tomorrow.Alcott said Gillespie had felt “a bit stiff” from his 10 overs for SouthAustralia in Saturday’s ING Cup match against NSW in Adelaide.”Tomorrow we’ll have a good session and we’ll review him then,” saidAlcott, who rated Gillespie’s chances of playing as “pretty good”.Gillespie’s inclusion would leave selectors a difficult choice betweenBrett Lee and Andy Bichel to be 12th man for the first Test.Former Australian fast bowler Merv Hughes believes Lee should retain hisTest spot because English batsmen are scared of the paceman.”If you have a look at Brett Lee at the Gabba, when he comes in to bowlthe crowd just lifts and if you watch the English batsmen they just seema little bit more nervous,” said Hughes.”He’s there for the fear factor.”Australia’s other matter to sort out this week is some changes tofielding positions.Mark Waugh’s retirement from international cricket means a new secondslip will have to be found with Ricky Ponting or Damien Martyn favouredfor the job.Australia may also be looking for another candidate to field at shortleg with Justin Langer reportedly wanting a change due to medical adviceafter five blows to the head in the past 12 months.”Hopefully my prowess in the gully could perhaps have me overlooked forthat position,” said Langer’s close friend and opening partner MatthewHayden.”I guess the versatility shows that most of the side can field anywherethough.”Late today it looked as if Darren Lehmann, recalled to the Test side toreplace Mark Waugh, could be asked to take over from Langer in thebat-pad catching position

Day 3 of 3March:
Staffordshire 224 and 267/6d (RP Harvey 103)
Cambridgeshire 278-8d and 96-7
Match Drawn, Staffordshire 7, Cambridgeshire 6Falmouth:
Wales 123 and 179
Cornwall 273 and 31-1
Cornwall won by 9 wickets, Cornwall 22, Wales 4Sidmouth:
Cheshire 251-8 and 93
Devon 159 and 186-7 (D Townsend 53*)
Devon won by three wickets, Devon 19, Cheshire 5Bournemouth:
Dorset 178 and 141
Oxfordshire 125 and 198-4 (G Peddy 67, R Williams 74*)
Oxfordshire won by 6 wickets, Oxfordshire 20, Dorset 5Jesmond:
Northumberland 426-8 and 244-4d (JA Graham 51, S Chapman 81)
Lincolnshire 298 and 196-5 (OE Burford 67)
Match Drawn, Northumberland 12, Lincolnshire 10Shifnal:
Shropshire 284-9d and 231 (MJ Marvell 71, JBR Jones 60*)
Herefordshire 245-8d and 271-2 (I Dawood 148*, PS Lazenbury 78*)
Herefordshire won by 8 wickets, Herefordshire 22, Shropshire 6Day 2 of 3Barrow:
Buckinghamshire 250-9d and 149-2
Cumberland 247 all out (GA White 138)

Lancashire County Cricket Club is delighted to announce that John Stanworth has been appointed as the first Director of LCCC’s new ECB Academy at Old Trafford. Cricket Manager Mike Watkinson commented: Wicketkeeper Stanworth played for Lancashire from 1983 to 1992 and later acted as second team coach before becoming the Club’s Player Development Manager.Lancashire was one of four counties selected to earn Academy status from the ECB last April and Mike Watkinson sees it as a major step forward in the development of the region’s youth talent:

New Zealand waved goodbye to the prospect of a third placing in the ICC Test Championship when failing to win the second National Bank Series Test at the Basin Reserve against England but a win in Auckland could still see them claim fourth ahead of England.Already England have secured the William Jordan Rosebowl for another term – the trophy is awarded to the winner of home series between the two countries. The only time New Zealand has won it remains the summer of 1983/84.The third Test starts in Auckland on Saturday. The New Zealand team for the Test will be named tomorrow.It won’t be remembered as a match of accurate umpiring and if it proves to be the last of Steve Dunne’s career it will not be the most shining example of efficiency, a point that should have been brought home to him by the on-field responses of both sides to some decisions – muted as the responses may have been under requirements of the International Code of Conduct.The message was plain, the players were not happy, and the all-seeing television eye would suggest they had good cause.New Zealand batted through 84 overs on the last day today, having been left a target of 356 in 86 overs, but under the conditions it was never on. When play ended two overs early, New Zealand were 158/4 with Nathan Astle (11) and Craig McMillan (17) unbeaten.It was always going to be a fine balancing act for England captain Nasser Hussain. He was always conscious of the threat posed by Astle after the Christchurch onslaught, but in reality the prospect of a repeat here in Wellington was always going to be unlikely.A different pitch, different circumstances, and different needs for Astle’s team.Ten years ago in Christchurch Phil Tufnell went through the New Zealand side in an afternoon as the home team lost seven wickets for 53 runs.But Ashley Giles did not offer the same problems to the New Zealand top order that Tufnell managed.And while the Basin Reserve came under scrutiny in the match, one thing has generally remained constant about the ground since the mid-1980s, at least, it doesn’t quickly deteriorate and, in fact, gets better the further the match goes.Losing the first day and most of the second helped ensure there would be no dramatic break up of the pitch on this occasion.It was at best one of those days which provides frustration for all but the most fervent admirer of Test cricket.England came out and went for the bash to add 97 runs in 18 overs, courtesy largely of 75 runs blasted by Andrew Flintoff who was let off the leash and given free rein to pummel the New Zealand attack, which he did.The one disappointment for England had to be the failure of Marcus Trescothick to achieve his third Test century in a situation made for him. He was out for 88 to Daniel Vettori’s bowling.At one stage Flintoff was in danger of setting the world record for the fastest 50 in Test matches although the actual amount appears to be in some dispute. Some claim Ian Botham’s 26-ball effort at Delhi in 1981/82 is the record while others say Kapil Dev’s 30-ball effort at Karachi in 1982/83 is the fastest.Whatever the record, Flintoff didn’t make it as his 50 came off 33 balls. He was eventually out, offering a simple return leading edge to Vettori when on 75, scored off 44 balls. He hit two sixes and nine fours.If there was any satisfaction for New Zealand’s bowlers it was that Vettori stayed composed under the circumstances and took three for 90.In New Zealand’s response Mark Richardson fell to a good, over-the-shoulder catch by Graham Thorpe from Giles’ bowling at fine leg, at least by the time he caught it, for four.Lou Vincent then came and played an applied innings, although he was given a huge stay of execution when Dunne failed to give him out caught off his gloves by Mark Butcher at silly mid-off.Vincent scored his second half century of the match and was 71, from 181 minutes and 170 balls, before he was trapped leg before wicket by Matthew Hoggard.Earlier, Matt Horne had played a more compelling innings, and one that should probably see him retained for the third Test, of 38 in 109 minutes.Stephen Fleming provided a crease occupation intent on saving the Test with 11 runs scored in 143 minutes.Hoggard did cause a minor flutter of expectation with Vincent and Fleming’s wicket but Astle and McMillan batted without error to keep the series alive.New Zealand knew what they had to do to win the Test in terms of bowling, and they failed. Some change seems likely for the last Test, probably the selection of Daryl Tuffey for Chris Martin.But the home side also need to remember that their two first inning batting efforts in the Tests to date have been poor when they are capable of much better and without those runs they are never going to put the pressure on England in the later stages of the game.

Gold Award winner Ronnie Irani was full of praise for his Essex side after scoring a run-a-ball 57 and three for 30 in his team’s 138-run win over Worcestershire that secured a place in the last-ever Benson & Hedges Cup Final at Lord’s on June 22.”It was a great team performance, everyone contributed and I thought we were excellent,” Irani said.”If you want to be successful and be the best you have to adapt to playing in these pressure games. And it has been an absolute joy to see how some of these guys have played.”Essex are playing as well as they have since I have been involved withthem. Yesterday, it wasn’t easy at the start but we took the initiative and never let it go.”Asked whether he had hopes of an England recall for the triangular series with Sri Lanka and India, he said: “I don’t look further than Essex County Cricket Club. They are my club and these are my boys and I can’t look beyond that.”Worcestershire’s captain Graeme Hick admitted they didn’t make the most of their opportunity after putting the hosts in to bat.”Generally we are a side that likes to bat first but both of us would havebowled on winning the toss here,” Hick said.”We have played some good cricket this year and this is only our second defeat in the one-day game. We came into it with confidence but Essex played well, got the momentum going, and we didn’t play as well we can in all three departments.”

Azhar Mahmood saved Pakistan from embarrassment withan unbeaten 80 after an unknown off-spinner wreckedtheir batting at Derby.Nathan Dumelow, a 20-year-old making his first-classdebut, took four wickets, three in 19 balls, as thetourists crashed from 101-1 to 182-9.But Mahmood and Shoaib Akhtar shared a last wicketstand of 80 to give Pakistan a lead of 96 and by theclose, Derbyshire were 66-2 in their second innings.As well as Mahmood batted, the day belonged to Dumelowwhose only other taste of senior cricket had come onMonday in the Benson & Hedges Cup at Leicester.To bowl for 22 overs unchanged against top players ofspin was a superb effort and he thoroughly deservedhis success after his second ball was hit for six byImran Farhat.He kept his nerve and flighted the ball to take theprize wickets of Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul-Haqbefore he bowled Abdur Razzaq second ball for a duck.Derbyshire rate him highly and skipper Dominic Corksaid: “He is a wonderful talent. There are some goodplayers of spin among those victims.”Pakistan will be concerned at the way they struggledagainst a weakened county team but will be encouragedby the performance of Mahmood who played well in acrisis.Unfortunately there were some incidents off the fieldwhen a small number of Pakistan supporters wereejected from the County Ground after bottles werethrown from a stand.No one was hurt but the club’s chief executive JohnSmedley said: “We are sorry it came to this, I don’tthink anyone knows what started this off.”

Manicaland were still batting at close of play on Day One as captain and opening batsman Neil Ferreira led from the front with a defiant 135 not out. Thevisitors were 247/8 in their first innings after 99 overs on a relatively slow match at Alexandra Sports Club.Ferreira held the Manicaland innings together with a defiant knock, which lasted the entire day. He faced 307 balls in 390 minutes, smashing 13 sixes.The day began with the surprise inclusion of pace bowler Henry Olonga as the Mashonaland A captain. Olonga had been in India with the national as acommentator and he arrived in the country late Thursday while the rest of the squad arrived midday Friday.Tired from the long flight back home, Olonga did not bowl until the 90th over.With a heavy Alex outfield, the Manicaland batsmen were content with getting singles and at close of play there had only been 23 fours.The biggest partnership of the day was 132 off 47.1 overs for the third wicket between Ferreira and former national team vice-captain Guy Whittall. Whittalldeparted for 53 off 138 balls as Manicaland had moved from 46/2 to 178/3.Olonga’s decision to introduce Gavin Rennie after lunch sparked a Manicaland middle-order collapse as the in-out national team player grabbed threeconsecutive wickets in five overs. Manicaland blooded two players Greg Sims, 23, and Michael John Robinson, 17.Greg is young brother to all-rounder Richie and batted at number three where he made eight off 23 balls while Robinson was unbeaten on the same score off 24 balls having batted at number 10.

The former Kent batsman Tony Pawson, who became the Observer cricket correspondent, has died at the age of 91.Pawson played 69 first-class matches, mostly for Kent and Oxford University, scoring seven hundreds as he made 3807 runs at 37.32. He was Kent’s oldest surviving capped player.As a 15-year-old, in 1937, he scored 237 at Lord’s when playing for a Lord’s XI against a CF Tufnell’s XI and in 1947 he represented MCC against the South Africans playing in a team alongside Denis ComptonCricket was not the only sport where he made his name. He won a blue at Oxford, represented England at football and at the 1948 London Olympics as well as playing two football league matches for Charlton Athletic. In 1982 he was a member of the England fly fishing team that won the World Championship and in 1988 was awarded on OBE for services to angling.Kent’s honorary curator, David Robertson, said: “Tony Pawson enjoyed his cricket, and set out to make sure spectators shared that enjoyment. I have many happy boyhood memories of his batting and fielding at Canterbury. His running between the wickets, especially with Godfrey Evans as his partner, was always an eagerly awaited feature of the game.”Jamie Clifford, the Kent chief executive, added: “The club is saddened to learn news of Tony Pawson’s passing and our thoughts are with his family and friends. Tony made a great contribution to Kent Cricket and many of our members have fond memories of watching him play at the St Lawrence Ground.”During his time as a cricket correspondent he was also chairman of the Cricket Writers’ Club in 1980 and 1981.

Australia took a firm grip of their Youth Test with England Under-17’s at Adelaide on Tuesday. They go into the third and final day of the game with a lead of 206 with eight wickets still remaining in their fist innings.After skitilling England for 191 to give the Aussies a lead of 86, the home side took the game to England in the final session with some attacking batting. With Greg Hunt chipping in (28), it was Matthew Berriman who put the Australians in a position to win the game on day three. Still at the crease, he has made 63 from just 79 balls, striking 11 boundaries. The right-handed Victorian hit three crisp boundaries apiece from Gareth Andrew, Gary Scott and David Barrick as Australia raced to 100 at nearly five an over. Berriman saw the day out more sedately with Mark Faraday as Australia closed on 120-2.Earlier in the day, England’s innings coughed and spluttered, never more than threatening to get going. Barrick, alongside Joe Sayers and Bilal Shafayat made 30 without being able to go on. A 37 run stand between Barrick and David Stiff gave the innings some much needed impetus, though the Australian bowlers plugged away efficiently. Seamer Grant Sullivan was the pick of the bowlers, with 4-57, including the prize wickets of Shafayat and Scott. He did however, bowl a further seven no-balls in the day, taking his match tally to 15.Australia will look to push on tomorrow to allow a good two sessions at the England batsmen.

As Kevin Pietersen completes his journey from leader to foot-soldier in the England dressing room, Andrew Strauss has urged his team to “think on their feet” on the eve of their departure to the Caribbean.Strauss was named England captain last week, following Pietersen’s resignation after his high-profile clash with the coach, Peter Moores, who was sacked. Strauss, England’s interim captain in 2006 when Michael Vaughan was injured but who was overlooked for the captaincy in the subsequent Ashes, insisted that his players must begin to take responsibility for their form.”We want to get back to doing what do we best, playing cricket and winning Test matches,” said Strauss. “My belief is we want to see players think on their feet out in the middle, take responsibility for the situation and not leave it to someone else.”The only way we can do that is to give them more responsibility off the field as well. I’m challenging my players to start thinking a bit more about what they need to do in terms of preparation and I’m giving them a lot more flexibility to do that.”England travel to the West Indies without a head coach, with Andy Flower – Moores’s assistant during his tenure – acting as an unofficial interim, supported by Phil Neale, the team operations manager, and other specialist coaches and support staff. “I suppose the coaches will play more of an advisory or consultancy role,” Strauss said. “It’s vitally important the players are challenged to think for themselves.”Pietersen had his first net at Lord’s last week since stepping down as captain and, despite concerns that he could hot-foot it to India to play in the Indian Premier League, has the full support of Strauss who yesterday was adamant that he would score “millions of runs” for England.”Kevin was his normal self when we met up,” said Strauss. “I’ve never seen Kevin show a negative side to him since the first day I met him. He’s very positive, he doesn’t dwell on the past and I’m sure he’s already plotting ways of spanking the West Indies bowlers all over the place.”Pietersen has not, however, been named on the team’s management committee for the Tests against West Indies, which will instead comprise Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad, with Pietersen stepping in for the ODIs when Cook flies home.”The reality is that I thought that this was something that functioned very well under Duncan Fletcher,” said Strauss. “It is a great way for the management to get feedback from the players as to how things are going – what things are going well and what is going badly. But also it is crucial for the players to have a voice. The last thing I want is a ‘them and us’ atmosphere in the dressing room.”But you can’t have all the players in that management group, otherwise it would not function properly. I will be very, very keen to get as many views as I can from KP in the coming weeks. I suppose as much as anything it is a case of gradually re-introducing him. Looking forward he is going to play a very big role, but he has had a lot on his plate very recently. It is very important that he has the ability to concentrate on his batting and getting the runs that we know he can.

Instead, Collingwood and Flintoff will represent the senior members of the squad, with Cook and Broad – two potential future captains – also given their chance to air their views. “I wanted to bring a couple of the younger players in and I think that it is important to develop them going forward,” said Strauss. “I know that those senior players involved have got very strong thoughts on how we can go forward and I would like to hear those. I think it is very healthy and I think it is going to help us.”It was very important that KP was on the one-day leg, partly because he has been captaining [in] one-day cricket recently, and I haven’t. Also that he has got a huge amount to offer one-day cricket in terms of the way he looks to play opposition bowlers. It is very important that we involve him as much as possible – that is not seen to be involving him, it is just because he is an important part of the dressing room.”Dressing-room unity will be crucial to England’s fortunes in a series in which they are favourites, but against opponents whom it is unwise to write off. “We want to win both the Test and one-day series and start building some momentum before an important summer,” said Strauss. “The West Indies are now a very dangerous side. The likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards are all very dangerous cricketers.”When it comes to dangerous cricketers, however, England have a few of their own, not least Steve Harmison, who was at his absolute zenith on their last tour to the Caribbean in 2003-04. He launched the series at Sabina Park with career-best figures of 7 for 12, and later in the year was rated the leading fast bowler in the world.”If Steve Harmison is bowling well and at 90mph, he’s the first name on pretty much any team sheet in the world,” said Strauss. “Clearly he’s as frustrated as anyone that he hasn’t been able to do that as consistently as he’d like, but I’ve spoken to him a couple of times since we’ve come back from India and he has a clear understanding of where he needs to go to bowl consistently at that sort of pace.”In keeping with giving players responsibility I’m quite happy with what he’s said to me in terms of how he’s going to get there. I’m confident. He’s a very important player for us in terms of the threat that he gives us on the pitch. But off the pitch he’s a shoulder to cry on for some of the younger players and that’s very useful. We all feel this could be a really big tour for him and looking forward to the Ashes if he can hit his straps on this tour we’re in a good position.”For the moment, a return to winning ways would be a start, although in terms of assessing their progress, England have little to gain on this trip. West Indies and New Zealand (twice) are the only two nations that England beat during Moores’s time in charge, both of whom are ranked among the weaker opponents. Strauss pressed the need for England to rediscover the tough streak which made them so formidable in the run-up to the 2005 Ashes.”We’ve been playing some decent cricket over the last year but we haven’t nailed it home when we’ve needed to,” he said. “If we can start being a little bit more ruthless in the way we play, we are a match for most sides.”