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Ravi Rampaul, the promising West Indian seamer, returned to competitive cricket last weekend in the Carib Beer League limited-overs competition after being out for almost six months due to shin splints. Rampaul, who was forced out of last year’s summer tour to England, resumed training only in December and is slowly getting back to full fitness.Anthony Gray, the coach of Rampaul’s club CLICO Preysal, told CMC Sports that Rampaul is primarily being played as a batsman in the one-day series, following the advice of Dr Terry Ali, the West Indian board’s physiotherapist. “We are using him in short spells. He bowled okay, but we are a bit concerned as his landing foot is twisting. We are awaiting an innersole from England for his bowling boots, before any more corrective measures are taken.”Rangy Nanan, the cricket manager at Preysal Sports Club, indicated that the support staff was careful not to rush his recovery process. “Ravi is working hard to come back at 100% full fitness. He is eager for action, he wants to be back on the T&T and West Indies teams. But his training programme is fully set out and monitored by Dr Terry Ali.” Nanan also stated that while his progress was encouraging, a more clear picture would only emerge in about four weeks.Rampaul played the last of his 17 one-dayers against England in the Natwest series in 2004, and has captured 11 wickets at an average of 49. He was forced to miss out on Trinidad and Tobago’s triumph in last year’s President Cup in Guyana and Barbados, and has already missed out on the first five matches in the 2005 Carib Beer Regional Series.West Indies have a packed season ahead of them, with two home series, against South Africa and Pakistan. The South African series, consisting of four Tests and five one-dayers, begins in March, while Pakistan will tour immediately after, for two Tests and three ODIs.

Up one minute, down the next: Stephen Harmison misses out at Chittagong © Getty Images

Stephen Harmison will fly home later today to undergo tests to determine the extent of the back injury which kept him out of the second Test at Chittagong.Harmison, who collected match figures of 9 for 79 in England’s seven-wicket win in the first Test at Dhaka, has suffered a recurrence of a lower-back injury that prevented him from training with the squad on Monday.Harmison told Sky Sports: “It is really disappointing for me after the way I bowled in the first Test, but playing in that match made me realise how hard it is to bowl with only two seamers, and I knew it wouldn’t be fair to either Michael Vaughan or the team that I played when I was only half-fit.”He went on: “I’m not worried about Sri Lanka at this stage. I am sure after a couple of weeks’ rest I will be all right – I am used to the heat now and I have acclimatised so it shouldn’t take me long to get back into it again.”

Somerset County Cricket Club will name the new gates which are to be constructed at the Priory Bridge Road entrance to the County Ground after Viv Richards.The West Indian star was introduced to the club by Len Creed who was the club vice chairman at the time, and made his debut for the Cidermen in 1974. For the next thirteen seasons Viv became a firm favourite with the crowd at Somerset and played in 191 first class matches scoring 14,698 runs at an average of just under 50.Depending upon his availability it is hoped Viv will be present to officially “open” the new gates on Sunday May 12th, as part of the club’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.It is hoped that his old sparring partner Ian Botham will also be present on what will be a very special occasion for the club. Earlier in the day former Sussex all rounder John Barclay will be the guest preacher at the club’s Annual Church service which will be held in St.James Church.During the tea interval on the same day specially minted medals will be presented to twelve volunteers who have dedicated their lives to cricket.

Dominic Cork Photo © Stamp Publicity

Dominic Cork dominated this weekend as he had last – this time with the ballas he bowled out Lancashire for 172 with 6-41 in Derbyshire’s championship match at Derby. His analysis included an explosive spell of 5-17 in 37 balls: Lancashire’s last seven wickets tumbled for 37 runs in 14 overs.By the close the home county, bottom of Division One and with seven players out injured, took the first innings lead of 135 to 172. At the moment Cork can do nothing wrong. Yesterday he scored a half-century and today he had Michael Atherton caught before he had scored. That was just a prelude for his assault just after tea-time.Lancashire were not prepared for what was about to hit them as they moved comfortably towards the interval at 135-3, and Saurav Ganguly was leg before to the last ball of the afternoon – hardly the present he had wanted for his 27th birthday.At least Derbyshire provided him with some fireworks for the occasion. GrahamLloyd was run out to the second ball afterwards. Then came Cork and the rest – for the visiting batsmen at least – was silence.Kasir Shah will have fond memories of a day in which he stayed 70 minuteswith Trevor Smith while he garnered his first championship half-century. Then with his second ball in first-class competition he bowled John Crawley (37) and also dismissed Neil Fairbrother.It was also a memorable day for seamer Kasir Shah who, after rain delayed thestart by 70 minutes first shepherded Trevor Smith to his maiden half-century.Mark Saxelby and Mike Di Venuto were out before Derbyshire came in at 40-2.

Sky Sports pundit Clinton Morrison applauded Ollie Watkins after he put Aston Villa in front against Southampton on Saturday. 

The lowdown

After dropping to the bench for the defeat against Watford last month, Watkins earned his second consecutive start, lining up alongside Danny Ings and Philippe Coutinho in Steven Gerrard’s attack.

The 26-year-old had given The Villans the lead against Brighton and Hove Albion last time out and he repeated that feat here, beating Southampton defender Jack Stephens before firing past Fraser Forster.

It was his seventh goal of the campaign overall, taking him two clear of Jacob Ramsey at the top of the club’s scoring charts.

The latest

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday programme, Morrison called Watkins’ finish ‘fantastic’.

He marvelled at the fact that the £75,000-per-week Englishman turned Stephens ‘like he wasn’t there’.

The verdict

This was a doubly significant goal for Aston Villa.

It marked the first time Danny Ings, a £26.5million summer signing, and Watkins had combined for a goal.

Questions have been asked (by The Athletic’s Gregg Evans, for instance) about whether the pair can function effectively as a partnership.

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Gerrard, then, may be particularly satisfied to see his faith in the pair finally rewarded.

After all, it’s a big call to start both players when you have the likes of Leon Bailey (who cost £28.8million) and Emiliano Buendia (£34.56million) available on your bench.

In other news, Gregg Evans reacts to this injury blow.

Travel and dearness allowances will be increased for India’s national selectors © Cricinfo Ltd

The Indian board has announced a hike in allowances for selectors following Dilip Vengsarkar’s threat to resign as chairman of selectors if he wasn’t compensated for not writing his newspaper column.BCCI’s Finance Committee met in Delhi and decided to increase the selectors’ dearness allowance (DA) from Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 (US$127 to $254) and raise their travel allowance (TA) from Rs 7000 to Rs 10,000 ($178 to $254). These recommendations are set to be ratified in the Working Committee meeting to be held on December 16.The BCCI had issued a seven-point diktat to the selectors which included: “The selectors shall not write any column for any newspaper nor shall they appear on any Electronic Media as an expert.”Vengsarkar claimed he would lose Rs 40 lakh if he stopped writing his newspaper column and said he would not accept any of the guidelines issued by the BCCI. The standoff between him and the board was resolved when Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, assured Vengsarkar that he would sort out all his issues after the selection meeting to pick the squad for Australia.The two, along with President-elect Shashank Manohar, met at Pawar’s residence for a meeting which lasted for about half an hour. “It was a very good meeting,”Vengsarkar told PTI. “We discussed a lot of things about Indian cricket and all the other issues. The meeting went very well.”Pawar, on his part, sought to downplay the meeting, saying “whenever I am in Mumbai, I meet Vengsarkar”.

England’s lack of preparation ahead of the Ashes has been a talking point all series © Getty Images

England refused the chance to play 16 days of warm-up matches before their ill-fated Ashes defence, according to Bob Merriman, the former Cricket Australia chairman. Merriman, who remains a director of Cricket Australia, said England had been offered the opportunity to play four four-day games before the first Test.Instead, they played three matches – none of which had first-class status – totalling only seven days and suggestions they were under-prepared plagued the tourists all series. Merriman was quoted in as saying the England players opted for a shorter build-up after completing the Champions Trophy in India, even though Australia were prepared to push back the start date of the first Test to accommodate the extra fixtures.”We thought they would come straight from India rather than go home,” Merriman said. “Apparently, though, their players didn’t want to. We offered them four four-day matches before the first Test, beginning in Sydney, then Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.”John Carr, the ECB’s director of operations, said Merriman’s claims were incorrect. “The truth is that Cricket Australia actually made us pay for our first day in Australia [which is against the usual protocol] on the basis that we were having a longer lead-in period to the first Test than they received on the 2005 tour of England,” Carr told the paper.”Their proposed arrival date for us was actually a day later than we got there so we could not physically have fitted in four four-day matches in the period that they were prepared to host us, which was for 18 days before the first Test. As for cancelling the one-day game in Canberra, it was a major Cricket Australia requirement because, politically, the match against the Prime Minister’s XI is a very important fixture for them.”

Inzamam ponders over how to control Virender Sehwag © Getty Images

For a man who wasn’t even there, Virender Sehwag was surprisingly ubiquitous at Inzamam-ul-Haq’s pre-match press conference. Having added 254 mostly audacious runs to his tally of 982 against them before the Lahore Test, it wasn’t a surprise.Sehwag’s comments after the first Test, about loving Pakistan’s bowling and their defensiveness in preparing such a flat pitch, added a pinch of when it was most needed. If it was meant to stir, then it probably has; Inzamam touched upon it in his column yesterday and some within the team suggested, wryly, if he is dismissed early at any point, celebrations might be exaggerated.Sehwag’s bluster has clearly registered for there was a firm, testy rebuttal from Inzamam of his charge that Pakistan had been defensive in Lahore. “I don’t understand why Pakistan would play defensively. After putting so many runs on the board in Lahore why would we be defensive? I think many people realised soon after the weather changed in Lahore that the match was heading for a draw. We knew after that it would be difficult to get a wicket on this pitch.”But as ever, Inzamam’s recipe to stop Sehwag was plain. “The simple plan is to stop him from scoring. We just want bowlers to bowl in those areas where we feel, according to our strategy and planning, he can be stopped.” Those areas are likely to be short and into his body, cramping his style and curbing his runs.The Sachin clone tag may have been shed but increasingly Sehwag is attracting a similarly obsessive and skewed following. Someone piped in, prematurely, that the series involved Pakistan and Sehwag, rather than India. Inzamam dead-batted, late as ever, “He is a very good player and he is in form. India also has other good players in the team. In every series there is one batsman who gets into a good run of form. His team depends on him for runs and the opposition looks to get him out early.”Sehwag apart, there has also been much pondering about the weather and the scheduling of this series. The Pakistan board’s revelation that Karachi had been penciled in for the first Test, only to have the request turned down by the BCCI, has elicited from India a denial. In which case, nobody is quite sure why the first two Tests are being played in Punjab at the peak of winter, including Inzamam. “It would have been better if the series had started in Karachi because the weather in Punjab is not conducive for play during the early winter.”Bright sunshine, blue skies and brisk temperatures have greeted Faisalabadis two days in a row and the earlier gloom of forecasts has been steadily replaced by a clearer outlook. Predictions, including Inzamam’s own, that the series may be decided by one session in Karachi have quietly been withdrawn. “I said that after the weather in Lahore and the fact that the weather in Faisalabad which is not too far away was expected to be similar. The forecast was similar here so in that sense I said the series could be decided in one session. I wouldn’t want a series to be decided in one session.”Medically, news of Inzamam’s troublesome back and Shoaib Akhtar’s left ankle – the former an ongoing reality and the latter a recurring whisper since England – flitted through Faisalabad in the build-up although they too, like the threat of poor conditions, have since receded. Inzamam and Bob Woolmer were both oblivious to the reports and the former insisted at the press conference that, “everyone is fit.” Nevertheless, changes are expected in the team: “There will be one or two changes in the team but we haven’t decided yet what they will be. It will be in the bowling department as the batsmen didn’t do much wrong in getting nearly 700 runs.”Indeed they didn’t do much wrong. The problem of course is stopping the man who got over 250 and doesn’t ever seem to do any wrong against them.

Tim May: ‘The players are suspicious about where the disclosure of individual contracts came from’© Getty Images

The growing dispute between Cricket Australia and the country’s players escalated over the weekend with a report claiming that the cricketers are angry at what they see as a deliberate leak of information aimed at undermining their position.A report in The Sunday Age said that Tim May, the Australian Cricketers Association’s chief executive, had admitted that the players had reacted badly to the revelation last week of details relating to contracts, match payments and sponsorship income. They were, he added, especially uneasy of the timing of the leak and its source, given that the board was due to present a proposal to the ACA. “The players are suspicious about where the disclosure of individual contracts came from," he said, "and where the figures on sponsorship deals came from.”The players are concerned that Cricket Australia wants to change the way their pay is calculated. In 1997, similar negotiations nearly brought a players’ strike. At the moment, all Australian players, whether they represent state sides or the Test team, are paid from a 25% pool of Cricket Australia’s revenue. By way of comparison, their rugby counterparts share a 30% pool of their board’s revenue.Cricket Australia proposed on Friday that the players should receive a fixed amount rather than a percentage. The players want a continuation of the revenue-share system, because it makes them feel like shareholders rather than merely employees of the board, but CA says that it cannot afford to continue that arrangement.Another contentious issue is that of the number of centrally-contracted players. The Herald Sun cited five such players – Stuart Clark, Ashley Noffke, Michael Hussey, Wade Seccombe and Matthew Elliott – who received a total of Aus$640,000 in seasons they never played a Test or one-day international.May is expected to put the players’ position to the board on Tuesday.

Tasmania and South Australia will battle for cricket redemption at Bellerive Oval tomorrow after both suffered first-round losses in the ING Cup.Tigers coach Brian McFadyen today said he had left the line-up unchanged after last weekend’s four-wicket loss to Queensland at the Gabba.”We felt we played some good cricket throughout,” he said.”We were really happy with our later order batting, our fielding and the pressure we were able to apply with the ball.”However, a “bit better effort” from the top order batsmen was needed to pull the hometeam through.Only two of the Tigers top seven – captain Dan Marsh and Sean Clingeleffer – managed to crack the 30-run mark last week.”If we can play five or 10 per cent better this week, I am sure we will have a good day,” McFadyen said.South Australian skipper Greg Blewett said the only change to the Redback’s line-up was the inclusion of 19-year-old Mark Cosgrove.The talented teenager replaces the injured Mick Miller, who strained his shoulder while bowling during the Pura Cup win against the Western Warriors at the WACA last week.The former Queensland all-rounder is expected to be out of action for up to a fortnight.Blewett said tomorrow’s match was very important given the team’s opening season ING Cup loss against WA last Friday.The Redbacks went down by 99 runs.”If we drop another one, it’s going to be very hard work for the rest of the season,” he said.”The boys trained really well today. The motivation is very high at the moment.”He said the wicket at Bellerive was looking “very batsman friendly”.The Tigers and Redbacks will also face off in a Pura Cup match next week, starting on Monday.TEAMSSouth Australia: Greg Blewett (c), Mark Cleary, Mark Cosgrove, John Davison, Shane Deitz, Callum Ferguson, Andy Flower, Mark Higgs, Ben Johnson, Graham Manou, Paul Rofe, Shaun Tait.Tasmania: Daniel Marsh (c), Shane Watson, Jamie Cox, Michael Di Venuto, Michael Dighton, Scott Kremerskothen, Sean Clingeleffer, Damien Wright, Xavier Doherty, Brett Geeves, Adam Griffith, Andrew Downton.