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Michael Holding believes that Glenn McGrath should bring the curtain down on his Test career at the end of the Ashes series and retire completely following next year’s World Cup.McGrath returned to the Australia Test line-up to face England after taking time out to care for his ill wife and has faced questions about his long-term position in the team. Despite six wickets in the first innings at Brisbane, there have been clear signs that he is not the force of old, especially when conditions offer little encouragement.”I think Glenn has been magnificent for Australian cricket and no one can ever question his contribution,” Holding told Sydney’s . “I’d say he’s in the top three fast bowlers I’ve seen, alongside Dennis Lillee and Malcolm Marshall, but he’s at an age where he cannot produce what he did two years ago.”Obviously it’s up to Glenn but he has nothing left to prove. I hope he recognises when it is time to go. The World Cup would be a great time for Glenn to say goodbye.”Holding, who retired at 33, thinks McGrath should leave the game before it gets to the stage where he is taken apart by batsmen. “It’s a fine line,” he said. “I hope he doesn’t hang around too long. It’s better to get out when you have a little bit left rather than hang around and end up past your best. McGrath doesn’t need that.”

In theory Mitchell Johnson and Ashley Noffke are competing for a fast-bowling place in the West Indies. The reality is different for the Queensland team-mates.Johnson would be devastated if he wasn’t picked for the opening Test from May 22 after being a fixture over the summer. When thinking about the tour he is as relaxed as any bowler can be when there are persistent threats from further down the queue.”It was a big summer, my first playing Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20,” Johnson said as the pre-tour camp wound up in Brisbane. “I wouldn’t say I’d nailed a spot there, but it’s given me a bit more confidence playing out the summer. I feel pretty confident that I can keep continuing my form.”For Noffke, who is going on his third senior tour, the initial aim is to play a game. Any game. Johnson, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, who is a menace on the wearing surfaces expected in the Caribbean, are ahead of Noffke and there is only one practice match before the three Tests. Noffke is not in the one-day squad, so he may fill a sideline role like the one Johnson performed during the World Cup.While Australia eased to a third consecutive global triumph last year, Johnson was camped in the nets throughout the Caribbean. Only occasionally in the West Indies do the practice facilities mirror those in the middle so when he lands he will start with a conversation with Brett Lee.”Hopefully he can point me in the right direction because he’s toured there before,” Johnson said. “I’ll just take it day by day.” His main memory of the conditions was it was very hot.His recollections of the past summer, when he made his debut against Sri Lanka and held his spot throughout the India series, are more cohesive. Ricky Ponting is impressed with Johnson’s left-arm attributes and he gave him an average of 42 overs a game during his opening six Tests. He captured 24 wickets to finish behind Lee’s 40 and ahead of Clark’s more economical 21.”It’s pretty hard to get the ball out of my hand,” Johnson said. “I probably don’t want to do it [bowl long spells] all the time, but if Ricky needs me I’ll bowl.”One of the most memorable aspects of Johnson’s performances was his tendency to deliver a wide, full offering outside off stump early in his spell. For much of the summer he was trying to correct a faulty wrist position that prevented the ball from swinging in to the right-handers. It is something he is continuing to monitor, but insists is not a problem.”I have been working on it, but I’m not going to go out in games and be too worried about it,” he said. “If it’s swinging, it’s swinging. If it’s not swinging, I will still be trying to hit the deck hard.”The thought of bowling to West Indies’ main weapons, Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, is also enticing. Johnson thinks the alteration in angle to the left-handers, a group which also includes Sewnarine Chattergoon, Ryan Hinds and Devon Smith, will help him achieve more movement through the air.At the moment Noffke has much more simple aims. “I’d love to play a game, but that’s out of my control a bit,” he said. “It can be fairly difficult on a set tour like this. There’s only one tour game at the start and I’m not sure what the set-up is going to be there.”It will be Noffke’s second time in the West Indies after he went with the side in 2003, but a series of injuries followed the trip. He swept back into national calculations with an amazing season of 741 first-class runs and 51 wickets, a convincing haul that could tempt the selectors into using him as an allrounder at some stage.”I hope I give them that option,” he said. “My first-class statistics last year prove that. Whether or not their perception of me is the same, I don’t know. I haven’t had any sit-down chats with them yet. I hope I provide some different options.”Noffke’s improvement over the past two seasons has led to him feeling reborn as a batsman and finding a niche with his right-arm fast bowling. “There’s nothing more pleasing than to see your name with the guys I am travelling with,” he said. “The reason I am there is because of top-quality performances for Queensland.” Unfortunately for Noffke, the same applies to Johnson.

Cricket Kenya has confirmed that it will host A-team tours by India and Sri Lanka in August.India arrive early in the month to play two three-day games against the national side, and then Sri Lanka join them to take part in a triangular one-day series in which each side plays the others twice with a final in Nairobi on August 23.The deal is a boost to the Kenyan board whose media deal with Nimbus means they need to attract overseas sides to play in the country. It will also assist the board’s attempts to secure lucrative local sponsorship deals.The series will be followed by a Twenty20 tournament which will act as a warm-up ahead of the Twenty20 World Championships in September. Bangladesh are understood to be one of the participating countries, although negotiations continue about which other side will make up the numbers.

Andrew Strauss’s arrival in New Zealand has been delayed after flight problems at Johannesburg airport. He was due to make his debut for the Northern Knights on Wednesday, but that has now been pushed back to the clash against Otago on Sunday.Strauss had been on a family holiday in South Africa but after boarding his plane the main door would not close properly. The subsequent delay meant that he was unable to make it to New Zealand in time for the match against Canterbury.The stint in New Zealand, where Strauss will play in the State Shield and Twenty20 tournaments, had been organised with the aim of pushing for an England recall. That has now already happened after he was named in the 16-man Test squad for the tour of New Zealand in March, so his domestic stint is a chance for him to acclimatise before joining up with the squad.

Scorecard
Points table

Tasmania lost three wickets and knocked 148 runs from their massive chase of 484 against Western Australia at the WACA. Michael Di Venuto, who was in his final outing for his state, went for 45 to Mathew Inness, another player who is stepping down, and Travis Birt (17) and Dane Anderson (47) also departed, leaving George Bailey and Dan Marsh with the work to do on the final day.Luke Ronchi’s brutal 93 off 76 balls, which was backed by half-centuries to Marcus North and Luke Pomersbach, allowed North to declare at 8 for 318, an advantage of 483. Ronchi’s first eight scoring shots were boundaries and he finished in a hurry during another aggressive display.He raised his fifty with a six and the innings was closed when he became Tim Macdonald’s second wicket. North had already strolled to 69 and Pomersbach gained 68 to give the Warriors few worries as they built their buffer. Brett Geeves and Luke Butterworth also captured two victims before the declaration arrived. The Warriors will finish third and Tasmania fourth whatever the result.

Phillip DeFreitas needed just three deliveries to strike the first blow for Leicestershire at the start of their County Championship match with Somerset at Taunton.The former England all-rounder needed to be in a hurry because the three balls were the only ones bowled on an opening day that was a virtual wash-out.After heavy showers had delayed play until mid-afternoon, Leicestershire won the toss and invited the home side to bat.Somerset opener Mark Lathwell left one ball from DeFreitas and defended against another before edging the third and being well caught by wicketkeeper Neil Burns, moving to his right.The drizzle was already falling again and home skipper Jamie Cox stood at the other end with hands on hips, clearly far from happy, as Lathwell trooped off to be followed by the other players.More showers soon made the outfield treacherous and umpires Vanburn Holder and Trevor Jesty eventually abandoned play for the day at 4.40pm.All-rounder Jason Kerr passed a fitness test to be named in Somerset’s team, while Scott Boswell was selected by Leicestershire in place of the injured James Ormond.

Scorecard

A day before the Indian team for the tour of Bangladesh was to be selected, Yuvraj Singh hammered a stylish 70 to win Punjab a berth in the final of the domestic Twenty20 championships, where they will take on Tamil Nadu (see points table). After failing to fire in each of Punjab’s first three matches in this tournament, where he made 0, 25 and 12, Yuvraj came to the party in fine style against Orissa, going after the bowling with characteristic freedom and aggression, giving full expression to his range of strokes.Being put in to bat, Punjab’s strong batting line-up put up the first 200-plus score of the tournament. Ravneet Ricky, who has been scoring consistently, made 25 at the top of the order, but it was Yuvraj and Dinesh Mongia (43) who did the serious damage. Early on in his innings, Yuvraj was content just looking to hit fours, and his powerful pulling on a good batting surface meant that the fielders had plenty of work to do retrieving the ball from the boundaries. In addition to his eight fours, Yuvraj launched four sixes, one of which ended up on the roof of the stands over midwicket. Yuvraj’s 39-ball 70 took Punjab to 201.Orissa had little chance of chasing down the target and ended on 130 for 7 from 20 overs, falling well short of the target before them. One of the talking points, after Yuvraj’s innings, was the bowling of Harbhajan Singh, who managed 1 for 15 from two overs. Although Twenty20 is hardly a stage to judge a bowler, the outing at least gave Harbhajan a chance to get some overs under his belt in a competitive situation.”You need to play a lot more in Twenty20 to get an idea of what to do and what not to do,” Harbhajan said soon after the game ended. He also felt that Twenty20 was the sort of game where raw strength and power, rather than skill, would help batsmen succeed. He called the format a “fun game”, although who was having fun under the scorching Mumbai sun, with no spectators at the ground, was not immediately clear. “You need bowlers who can be effective in this game if you want to win,” said Harbhajan, while adding, “The challenge of playing Twenty20 at the domestic level is less. Bowling to the world’s best batsmen is not so easy.”And it has not been an easy few months for Harbhajan. Although he has enjoyed the support of his captain and the selectors, the wickets are not coming as easily as they used to and the bowler who gave the ball a rip and bamboozled the Australians to the tune of 32 wickets from three Tests back in 2001, seems a distant, faded memory. Harbhajan, today, is an offspinner who bowls flat rather flighted, restrictive rather than hungry for wickets. In his last 50 ODIs he does not even average one wicket a game, with just one five-wicket haul. Each of his 48 scalps has come at an price of 38.43 runs. These are not the numbers of a champion offspinner leading an attack.When the selectors and the team management sit down to pick the team for Bangladesh, Ramesh Powar will be the first spinner they agree on. If Dravid bats for Harbhajan, as he has in the past, then there’s a chance he’ll keep his place, albeit under careful scrutiny, with a clear brief to bowl for wickets. The one thing going in Harbhajan’s favour is that Powar is a naturally attacking bowler, and this might make space for a bowler who is restrictive. Also, just as Anil Kumble’s career – at least in Tests – was boosted massively by the competition for a place that Harbhajan brought, and he was forced to become a more versatile bowler, this might be the chance for Harbhajan to take his game to the next level. Whether that opportunity will be afforded to him, depends on the thinking of the selectors, the captain and Ravi Shastri, the cricket manager.Three of the selectors – Dilip Vengsarkar, Bhupinder Singh and Ranjib Biswal – have plenty of time to talk about the decisions they would take tomorrow as they watched a match of no consequence, between Karnataka and Railways. Rahul Dravid, under the weather, didn’t play, and Railways knocked off the 163 runs they needed to register a facile win.

Shoaib Akhtar’s troubles continue as Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the PCB, has served a legal notice on the fast bowler for comments he made to a private television channel in the aftermath of the PCB’s decision to ban him for five years.Shoaib appeared on a number of TV channels yesterday arguing his case, after he addressed a packed press conference claiming that he had been victimised. Though he refused to attack the chairman specifically on some channels, in an interview to the Express News channel, he alleged that the ban was punishment in return for refusing to give the chairman a share of his salary from the Indian Premier League (IPL). Shoaib also alleged that Ashraf had tried to extort money from other Pakistani cricketers as well.The notice, issued by the board’s legal firm on behalf of Ashraf, said that the comments made by Shoaib were “not only utterly outrageous, fabricated, and manifestly baseless” but were made “solely to character assassinate [Ashraf]”. It added that his allegations were a “counterblast” to the disciplinary action taken against Shoaib, and had damaged the reputation of Ashraf, as well as the Pakistan board.The notice called upon Shoaib to “retract” his statements against Ashraf, and “tender an unconditional apology”. The notice also sought damages of Rs100 million (approximately US$1.6 million) to Ashraf for “defaming him personally” and another Rs100 million to the PCB for “sullying the name of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket team.”Ashraf has threatened to seek legal remedies under the civil and criminal laws of Pakistan if Shoaib does not respond to the notice’s requirements.This is the second setback on the day for Shoaib, who just hours earlier, was barred from taking part in the IPL till the end of his five-year ban or until his ban is lifted.Shoaib was banned for comments he made after not being offered a contract by the PCB, in which he lashed out at domestic tournaments, pitches and the administration. The severity of the ban, argue the board, is the result of a litany of disciplinary issues; he was also on a two-year probationary period after hitting team-mate Mohammad Asif with a bat before the World Twenty20 last year, an act which also saw him banned for 13 matches and fined over US$50,000. The board had warned him that any further transgression during this period would result in a life ban.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Yuvraj Singh’s electrifying 70 led the batting charge and Sreesanthdelivered the telling blows with the ball as India produced a magnificentperformance to beat Australia by 15 runs and set up a dreamall-subcontinent final against Pakistan at the ICC World Twenty20. Formuch of their pursuit of 189, Australia were well in contention, withMatthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds muscling balls to the rope, but Indiakept their nerve superbly to clinch another famous victory.Thousands of Indian flags were waved with abandon as Kingsmead came toresemble Little India, but Australia were still marginal favourites with41 needed from the final four overs. Symonds was still there,having biffed his way to 43 from 25 balls, but the moment Irfan Pathanpegged back his off stump with a delivery that evaded the attempted cut,the momentum shifted decisively towards India.Harbhajan Singh conceded just three runs in the next over, yorking MichaelClarke in the process, and Rudra Pratap Singh then returned to bowl anoutstanding over, having gone for plenty in his opening spell. When theinexperienced Joginder Sharma was handed the ball for the final over, 22were needed. Michael Hussey, the master finisher, was on strike, but therewas to be no comeback here. A miscue induced by Sharma’s lack of pacelanded up in Yuvraj Singh’s hands at deep midwicket, and Brett Lee wasthen cleaned up by a yorker as the Indian players started impromptuvictory jigs on the field.Australia were left to reflect on a middle-order meltdown, and anastonishing second half of the Indian innings where Yuvraj, Robin Uthappaand Mahendra Singh Dhoni drove, flicked and bludgeoned 128 runs. Uthappaadded 84 with Yuvraj in just 39 balls, and Dhoni provided the finalflourishes as India ensured that Australia would have a TableMountain-like target to scale.Yuvraj, who had missed the South Africa game after his 12-ballhalf-century against England, carried on in six-hitting vein, pullingStuart Clark, the top wicket-taker in the competition, for a huge one overmidwicket. Adam Gilchrist responded by bringing back Brett Lee, but Yuvrajresponded with a sensational pick-up short over square leg for six, takingIndia to 60 for 2 at the halfway stage, marginally better than the 57 for3 they had against South Africa.Virender Sehwag had gone cheaply, edging Mitchell Johnson behind, andGautam Gambhir’s bright 24-run cameo ended with a stunning catch in theoutfield, but that merely set the stage for dazzling strokeplay thatripped up whatever plans the Australians may have had.Symonds came on and was straight away flicked for four, before both Yuvrajand Uthappa pulled him for sixes in a 19-run over. Neither NathanBracken’s slower variations nor Clark’s steadiness could stem the tide, asYuvraj played sumptuous shots over cover.Another massive pull for six off Clark took him to 50 from just 20 balls,in an over that went for 21, and the return of Johnson provedjust as expensive, with Uthappa slamming a straight six and poweringanother over midwicket. Australia were wobbling, but respite came in theshape of a nonchalant direct hit from Symonds after Yuvraj had turned downUthappa for a single.Dhoni, usually a watchful starter, was into his stride right away, carvingSymonds down the ground, and with Yuvraj carrying on merrily, Gilchristturned to his final bowling option, Clarke. The first ball was heaved forsix over midwicket, but Yuvraj didn’t quite time the next one, and Husseyran in to take the catch.Australia came out prepared to swing, and RP Singh, who had sent SouthAfrica tumbling out of the tournament on Thursday, found the best openingpair in the business a different proposition. Gilchrist repeatedly flickedhim over midwicket, once for six, and also lofted one straight down to thesightscreen.Hayden struggled against Sreesanth, whose eccentricities shouldn’t obscurejust how beautifully he bowled. There was pace and swing as Haydenrepeatedly swished at air, but it was Gilchrist that departed first,castled by a wonderful delivery that swung back in. That was the signalfor Hayden to move through the gears, and Sharma was the first to feel theimpact, taken for two huge sixes over midwicket as 18 came from the over.

Brad Hodge didn’t last long, heaving one to short fine leg, but the adventof Symonds changed the complexion of the game. Both men heaved Pathan forsixes in an over, and Dhoni’s gamble to give Sehwag an over, after he hadtweaked his hamstring while batting, backfired. Hayden heaved a six to getto 50 from 40 balls, and another loft down the ground saw 20 come from theover.When Symonds then clattered Harbhajan over midwicket for six more, the DJstarted to play Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of my Head, areflection perhaps on how the match was moving inexorably towardsAustralia. It was clear that India needed a hero, and they found one inthe swing bowler with the long stare and the quirky mannerisms.Sreesanth came round the wicket and send Hayden’s off stump for a walk toend the 66-run partnership, and though Symonds continued to swing to thebitter end, the rest of his mates weren’t up to the task. Sreesanthfinished with sensational figures of 2 for 12, but the no-name Sharma’slast-over best summed up what was a tremendous team effort.Australia will have to wait to get their hands on this trophy, but forIndia and Pakistan, who exited the World Cup in such humiliatingcircumstances just six months ago, Monday afternoon at the Wanderers can’tcome soon enough. It will surprise no one if the DJ decides to kick offthe festivities with .

Richard Bates, the former England women’s coach, will take over the reins of the New South Wales Breakers following Lisa Keightley’s promotion to the Australian job. Bates resigned from his England post earlier this year with the plan of moving his family to Australia and the exit of Keightley has allowed a smooth transition.The Breakers have won nine of the 11 national league titles and Bates will be in charge of continuing the dominant run. “He has an excellent record as coach of the English women’s side and we believe that his experience and knowledge will be an important factor in the on-going success of the Breakers,” David Gilbert, the Cricket New South Wales chief executive, said.Bates, a former Nottinghamshire offspinner, worked with England for four years and was in charge when they defeated Australia in the Ashes. He is familiar with Sydney after spending the 2002-03 season with the UTS Balmain club and is excited by the southern hemisphere challenge. “There is undoubted talent in the Breakers squad,” he said, “and it seems there is a good mix of experienced international cricketers with some exciting young players coming through the ranks.”