Tony Frost, the Warwickshire wicketkeeper, has announced he will retire at the end of the season. He made his first-class debut in 1997 and spent the first part of his career as understudy to Keith Piper.Frost, 30, enjoyed an impressive first half to the 2006 season with a run of three half-centuries in three matches against Kent, Durham and Lancashire; his 96 against Durham turned into a match-winning innings. However, he has been struggling with injury over the last few weeks and his place has been taken by Tim Ambrose.Frost said: “There comes a time when you have to listen to what your body is telling you. I have had a fantastic career at Warwickshire and played with some of the great players. I am keen to stay involved in cricket and am delighted that the club is willing to assist me in developing both my coaching and groundsmanship skills going forward”.Mark Greatbatch, Warwickshire’s director of cricket added: “Frosty has done exceptionally well this season, performing under pressure when we most needed him. Everyone at the club wishes to thank him for his career – long dedication to the Bears and would join me in wishing him well for the future”.Frost’s first-class record stands at 3178 runs from 92 matches at an average of 28.12. He has a career-best of 135 not out and claimed 225 catches and 16 stumpings.

Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, has signed a one-year contract with Gloucestershire for 2007. Gul, 24, led Pakistan’s attack in the absence of Shoaib Akhtar against England in 2006 and was by some distance their best bowler, taking 18 wickets in the four-Test series.”I am very excited about joining a county steeped in such great history as Gloucestershire’s,” Gul told the club’s website. “I believe that with a lot of hard work we will be able to achieve many good things in the coming season.”Jon Lewis, the Gloucestershire captain, was delighted to have secured the services of such a promising fast bowler. “This is a massive boost for Gloucestershire cricket,” Lewis said. “Umar is a quality fast bowler and will bring a real cutting edge to our attack. Throughout this summer he was the most consistent and threatening Pakistani bowler in England. I have been watching him from close quarters during the summer and have been thoroughly impressed by his professionalism and appetite for the game.”Gul is currently in India for the Champions Trophy. Although he will be available to Gloucestershire for the entire 2007 season, he could miss the opening matches if selected for next year’s World Cup in the Caribbean.

Sreesanth will replace Ajit Agarkar in the Indian squad for the remainder of the Champions Trophy after Agarkar sustained a hairline fracture on his left thumb during the match against West Indies. Sreesanth will arrive in Mohali – the venue for India’s last group stage match against Australia – later this afternoon, and will be available for selection for Sunday’s match.Agarkar apparently suffered the injury trying to stop a full-blooded drive from Runako Morton during Thursday’s game. With Munaf Patel also doubtful due to a wrist sprain and RP Singh clearly out of his depth, India face a serious predicament ahead of the Australia game.The approval to replace Agarkar with Sreesanth was given by the ICC’s Technical Committee. The ICC rules clearly prohibit replacement in the course of the tournament if the player concerned had a recent history of injuries. But a replacement is allowed if the injury to the player concerned was totally unforeseen. Agarkar’s injury obviously falls in this category, hence permission for the replacement was granted.Sreesanth, who averages 34.38 from the 19 one-day matches he has played for India, was not picked for the Champions Trophy – a surprise exclusion. His performance in the one-day series in West Indies recently was mediocre – in the three games he played Sreesanth gave away 158 runs for two wickets – but his attitude and willingness to learn were appreciated by the team mangement, which made his omission from the tournament surprising.Speaking to Cricinfo, Sreesanth admitted that he was pleasantly surprised at being called up, focussing on the season ahead. “Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I heard the news,” he said. “I’ve been training hard, trying to make it to the South African tour, also looking ahead to my next Duleep Trophy game. This comes as a great opportunity for me.”Though his initial omission from the Champions Trophy squad was a setback, Sreesanth said that there was no shortage of motivation, from within and from senior players. He impressed in South Zone’s comprehensive win over West Zone in Indore, picking up five wickets.”I have always beleived in myself,” he continued. “The presence of so many senior players like [Anil] Kumble, VVS Laxman in the Duleep Trophy match helped and they kept encouraging me.”

Australia are sweating on the fitness of Glenn McGrath ahead of tomorrow’s second Test against England at Adelaide. McGrath, who took seven wickets in last week’s Gabba Test including 6 for 50 in the first innings, has been struggling with a bruised heel since the mid-point of that first Test. He did not bowl in yesterday’s net session and played only a minor part in an optional work-out at the Adelaide Oval this morning, and a decision on his fitness will be deferred until tomorrow morning.”It is only a blister and you’d pretty much have to amputate his foot to keep him out of this game,” insisted Ricky Ponting, but there was no doubting the concern in the Australia camp. In the absence of their injured allrounder Shane Watson, Australia are committed to a four-bowler strategy for a match that traditionally favours the batsmen, and Ponting was adamant that there would be no gambles in their selection.”We aren’t going to be able to go into the Test match [with McGrath] unless he’s 100 percent,” Ponting said. “It’s as simple as that. We have to rely on him getting right through the game at his best. With the team balance, we can’t afford to be carrying any bowlers whatsoever. Glenn has to be able to give me what I require of him through the course of the game, and if he can’t then a few more questions will be asked.”McGrath was scheduled to have a further net session later in the day, at the request of the team physiotherapist, Alex Kountouris. “It’s important that he gets a good bowl in today, and wakes up well tomorrow,” said Ponting. “He’s aware of that already and the physio’s spoken to him. It will be hard to keep him out, but he’ll know within himself if he’s not right.”England’s captain, Andrew Flintoff, dismissed any notion that McGrath’s absence would give his side a psychological boost, but the fact remains that in the 2005 Ashes Australia lost both matches that McGrath missed, most notably the corresponding match of the series at Edgbaston. England were again 1-0 down in the series, but when McGrath ricked his ankle on a stray cricket ball on the morning of the match, England’s unfettered batsmen cantered to 407 runs in the first day.McGrath needed two pain-killing injections to get through the Brisbane Test, and Ponting remained optimistic that the problem would be sorted before the toss tomorrow. “Once he’d had an injection at Brisbane he was absolutely pain-free, and me knowing that means there shouldn’t be too much interruption at all through the game,” he said. “But hopefully he will come up alright today and we won’t have to worry about injections”I don’t see why it would get any worse. He’s had this callus on his heel for about 15 years of his career. It got worse last year, but he’s seen a podiatrist and changed his inner soles and shoes to take the pressure away. We hope he comes through with flying colours today.”Even so, Australia have yet to release either of their reserve seamers, Mitchell Johnson or Shaun Tait, from the 13-man squad. McGrath’s absence would be doubly destabilising for Australia given the wayward performance of Brett Lee at Brisbane, something that Ponting attributed to the slippery nature of the popping crease at the Gabba.”Troy Cooley’s had a good session with Brett, working on his run-up and rhythm,” said Ponting. “He was forced to go wide of the crease in Brisbane because he couldn’t keep his front foot and that was in the back of his mind up there. But did steam in in the nets yesterday, and bowled at a very good pace.”

Glamorgan are reportedly trying to lure Duncan Fletcher back to Cardiff when his existing contract with the ECB expires after the World Cup.Fletcher is generally thought to be unlikely to extend his time as England coach, especially given the criticism leveled at him during the Ashes tour, and Glamorgan are rumoured to want him to return to the county where he enjoyed such success before leaving in 1999.A club spokesman was quoted in the Sunday Mirror saying: “Bringing Duncan back at some stage has always been top of our agenda. He turned around the county’s fortunes in the mid-1990s and we see him as the perfect man to get the county out of the doldrums once again.”The one obstacle could be the county’s finances which are believed to be under severe pressure due to the cost of redeveloping the Sophia Gardens ground in preparation for it staging Test cricket in 2009.

Stuart Clark, the leading wicket-taker in the Ashes series, said he was still getting used to being part of the Australia team, having been nothing more than an observer during the 2005 Ashes. Clark, who claimed 16 wickets in the first three Tests of this series, said it was only last year that he was wondering if he would ever have an opportunity to play Test cricket.”I wake up every morning and pinch myself wondering is this really happening,” Clark told . “Mike Hussey and I went on an Australia A tour to Pakistan about 13 or 14 months ago and we were talking about playing just one Test, any Test, so we could get one of those baggy green caps that everyone else seems to have.”I look back now, as he does, and we don’t know quite what to think. It’s been the most amazing year or so; we can’t believe what we’ve done.” Clark said although he and Hussey had not been part of the 2005 Ashes loss, they knew as soon as they joined the side that regaining the urn was the team’s ultimate goal.”You could see it [the pain] and it never went without mention,” he said. “Over the past 15 months, every time we won a Test match it was all a build-up to [Monday] and winning them back. We spoke about it all the time. It hurt the whole of Australian cricket. It hurt the team more than anyone else but it hurt everyone who follows cricket in Australia because we had held on to the Ashes for so long.”While Clark’s series has been ideal, Australia’s least successful bowler in the past three Tests, Brett Lee, said he remained satisfied with his performance despite taking only eight wickets at an average of 58. “Look, it would be great to be getting five wickets every Test match, that’s what most bowlers set out to achieve, but you can’t really do that day in, day out,” Lee said.”You have to be a pretty good player to do that. Warney might be able to. I’ve just got to remain nice and patient. The most important thing out of this Test series is that I’m happy with the way I’ve been bowling. If I wasn’t happy with the way the ball’s coming out, well, then it would be a different story and it would be time to change a few things, but I’m happy with the way the ball’s coming out and that’s all I can ask of myself.”

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will face off in the Ranji Trophy Super League final, with both Mumbai and Bengal fielding full-strength squads. Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar have also been included in Mumbai’s 19-member squad, which has four internationals, for the five-day match starting on February 2 at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.Ganguly is the lone current Indian player in the Bengal squad. The scheduling of the one-day series between India and Sri Lanka, beginning on February 8, has allowed for the senior players to participate in the Ranji final.Squads
Mumbai Amol Muzumdar (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ramesh Powar, Sahil Kukreja, Wasim Jaffer, Hiken Shah, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nair, Wilkin Mota, Vinayak Samant (wk), Nilesh Kulkarni, Swapnil Hazare, Rajesh Verma, Iqbal Abdullah, Prashant Naik, Bhavin Thakkar and Kshemal WaingankarBengal Deep Dasgupta (capt), Arindam Das, Subhomoy Das, Sourav Ganguly, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Manoj Tiwary, Rohan Gavaskar, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shiv Sagar Singh, Ranadeb Bose, Sourasish Lahiri, Amitava Chakraborty, Kamal Hassan Mondal, Sourav Sarkar and Ashok Dinda

Dinanath Ramnarine, the executive president of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), has said that the WIPA is prepared to work with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to help educate players on anti-corruption and anti-doping codes.Ramnarine added that the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association had raised the issue with the ICC but that little had changed. “You may make a presentation to one group, but the team playing in the next series could be totally different,” Ramnarine told the Caribbean Media Corporation. “In the West Indies, there is a need for all the players to understand these codes because no one ever knows when they will be selected.”In touch with Marlon Samuels, who was taped by the Nagpur police in conversation with an alleged Indian bookie, Ramnarine said that the WIPA would do whatever it could to support Samuels, a member of the association. “He [Samuels] has emphatically denied any wrongdoing of any sort and I have no reason to doubt him,” Ramnarine told the Caribbean Media Corporation.”We are still receiving information, and there is process for dealing with these matters. The ICC has a code relating to these things, and all we can do is make sure – whoever the player – is treated in a fair manner. Marlon says he will cooperate with the authorities fully to prove his innocence and this is all we can ask of him.”The Nagpur police revealed on February 8 that Samuels had passed on team information to Mukesh Kochar, an alleged bookie, ahead of the first ODI between India and West Indies in Nagpur on January 21. Members of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit are expected to arrive in Nagpur on February 12 for detailed discussions with the police and hotel staff regarding the case.Meanwhile, the WICB also announced that it would fully support Samuels and would not impose any sanctions on him unless there was evidence that he was guilty.

The first day of the second Test between the England and Bangladesh A sides was washed out at Bogra.Heavy rain had lashed the area on Tuesday night leaving the outfield extremely soggy and further rain on the morning of game left the umpires with no choice but to abandon the day. They finally bowed the inevitable at 2pm.The news is not much better for the remaining days but, if the weather relents, play will start half an hour earlier each morning to try and make up for lost time.England had planned to bring Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire legspinner, into the side at the expense of Tom Smith following their five-wicket win in the first Test at Mirpur.

The dates for the second Afro-Asia Cup one-day series, which is being staged in India, have been announced.The three matches, which the ICC have granted full ODI status, will be played in Chennai (June 6) and Bangalore (June 9 and 10). All games will start at 2.30pm and will be day-night matches. The organisers have said that the two sides will be known as the Asia Tigers and the African Lions.The timing is slightly surprising given that it is in the monsoon season, but such are the demands on the teams that it was one of the few free periods in the calendar. India will have just finished their series against Bangladesh, and none of the other countries who will supply players are in action.The first staging of the tournament, which is a fund-raiser for the African Cricket Association and the Asian Cricket Council, was in South Africa in August 2005. On that occasion the outfields had to be painted green for television audiences, so far out of the normal season were the games played.