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The ECB have announced their 15-man squad for the ICC Under-19 World Cup, which takes place in New Zealand from January 16-30, 2010. The bi-annual tournament involves 16 teams with England facing Afghanistan, Hong Kong and India in the group stages.The squad will be coached by Sussex’s cricket manager, Mark Robinson, who will select the captain in the lead-up to the tournament, after spending time with the squad over the four weeks leading up to Christmas.The players will undergo an intense period of training in the run-up to the tournament, including fitness and skill work at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough, fielding and team building in Cardiff, leadership challenges at Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire, and fitness and fielding at Manchester United’s training ground at Carrington.The squad will leave on January 1 for Wellington, New Zealand, where they will spend a week acclimatising before reporting to Christchurch for the start of the World Cup. England will play two warm-up matches against Papua New Guinea U19 on January 11 and New Zealand U19 on January 12.England’s first match in the group stages will be against Hong Kong on January 16, followed by Afghanistan on January 18 and India, the current World Cup holders, on January 20. The top two teams in each group will progress to the quarter-finals.Elite Player Development Manager John Abrahams said: “The U19 World Cup is a fantastic opportunity for the squad to test themselves against some of the most talented young cricketers in the world and we will be working hard over the next six weeks to ensure that we are able to produce our best cricket in New Zealand.”England’s best result at the Under-19 World Cup was in 1998 when they defeated New Zealand to win the tournament.Squad Michael Bates (Hampshire), Paul Best (Warwickshire), Danny Briggs (Hampshire), Nathan Buck (Leicestershire), Jos Buttler (Somerset), Chris Dent (Gloucestershire), Matthew Dunn (Surrey), Calum Haggett (Somerset), Ateeq Javid (Warwickshire), Jack Manuel (Worcestershire), David Payne (Gloucestershire), Azeem Rafiq (Yorkshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), James Vince (Hampshire).

Indian captain MS Dhoni has injured himself while batting during a nets session in Vadodara, but is likely to feature in the first match of the seven-ODI series against Australia on Sunday. Dhoni was apparently hit on the back of his left knee off a Munaf Patel delivery, and having played one more ball, he limped off the practice area on Friday. An ice pack was promptly put on the affected area, but he didn’t appear to be in too much pain.”I should be alright tomorrow,” Dhoni said. “But have to wait and see how it feels in the morning.” There is no reserve wicketkeeper in the squad of 15 named for the series and Dinesh Karthik, who was the back-up during the Champions Trophy in South Africa, had not received any call from the BCCI until late on Friday night.The news does not augur well for the Indian team, who have been hit a spate of injuries to players recently. While Virender Sehwag had suffered a shoulder injury, which kept him out of the the World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy as well as the subsequent tours of West Indies and Sri Lanka, Yuvraj Singh had injured the the little finger on his right hand during the Champions Trophy. Both players have recovered since, and have been picked for the Australia series. Also, Suresh Raina had suffered a hairline fracture to his thumb, and Zaheer Khan looks to have worked his way back to fitness after picking up a shoulder injury.

Queensland 9 for 233 (Carseldine 73, Reardon 55, Doherty 3-25) beat Tasmania 209 (Bailey 87, Rimmington 3-25) by 24 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Lee Carseldine’s 73 was an important part of Queensland’s victory•Getty Images

Lee Carseldine and Nathan Rimmington set up Queensland’s third consecutive FR Cup victory despite the best efforts of Tasmania’s captain George Bailey. The Tigers were chasing a gettable 234 but four run-outs and a lack of support for Bailey, who made an FR Cup career best 87, left them 25 runs short of their target.Rimmington, who took a hat-trick in Queensland’s previous game, was again the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 25 from 9.3 overs. Bailey was threatening to almost single-handedly get the Tigers over the line when he paddled Rimmington to short fine-leg and the bowler picked up two more wickets in the final ten overs.It was the run-outs that really hurt Tasmania, beginning with the debutant Brady Jones, who departed despite the initial throw from the man at midwicket overshooting the stumps and being backed up at point. Jones returned as a runner for Ed Cowan, who took a blow to the knee, and was involved in another mix-up when Bailey seemingly forgot there was a third Tasmania player on the pitch.A fabulous diving catch from Queensland’s captain Chris Simpson accounted for Luke Butterworth, who scored 43 and was the main assistant to Bailey in the chase. Bailey was particularly disappointed that his batting line-up had failed to capitalise on a strong bowling effort that restricted the Bulls to 9 for 233.Carseldine made 73 and was the anchor of the Queensland innings but things moved slowly at the other end as Ryan Broad toiled to 39 from 74 balls. Xavier Doherty’s 3 for 25 from ten overs was key in keeping the runs under control, although a late flurry from Nathan Reardon (55 from 54 balls) ensured things didn’t stagnate irrevocably, and the runs proved vital by the end of the night.

Leicestershire have become the first side to declare an interest in signing the former England seamer, Matthew Hoggard, who was last week released by Yorkshire after a 15-year career at Headingley.”We haven’t spoken to him yet but we do want to talk to him,” Leicestershire’s chief executive, David Smith, told the BBC. “It has only come about since yesterday and we’re hoping to speak to him at some point in the next day or two. We’ll take it from there, but he is a player of the calibre we are interested in.”Hoggard’s hopes of a contract could lie in the hands of Leicestershire’s head coach, Tim Boon, who knows the bowler well from his days as Duncan Fletcher’s assistant in the England set-up. “He knows Matthew quite well,” said Smith. “We would like to speak to him about his intentions on continuing to play first-class cricket.”Hoggard finished the 2009 season as Yorkshire’s leading wicket-taker, and in total claimed 331 wickets in 102 first-class matches for the county, as well as a further 248 in 67 Tests since 2000. “I still feel as though I’ve got a good few years in me,” he said, “and it’s up to me now to prove that Yorkshire were wrong to let me go.”

Clyde Butts, the West Indies’ chairman of selectors, has warned striking players to make themselves available for the region’s domestic one-day tournament next month or face exclusion from the ensuing tour of Australia. Butts was hopeful, though not certain, that the industrial dispute between the board and the players will be resolved before the touring squad to Australia is announced, but raised the possibility that another weakened side, such as that humbled by Bangladesh in July, could be named if the unofficial deadline is not observed.”The board is hoping to resolve this as quickly as possible,” Butts told Cricinfo. “The board has asked the players to make themselves available for a domestic tournament from October 10, and if they do that, then I am confident we will have a strong squad for Australia. There has been a statement released about this.”If that doesn’t happen, then it depends on how the board views things. I believe there is a rule that players have to play in the domestic tournament preceding a tour to be considered. I am hopeful most, if not all, the players will make themselves available for that tournament and we can proceed as normal.”Certainly, it would be very difficult for a young team to go to a place like Australia and not have the senior players to rub shoulders with and learn from. I am hoping the impasse will have been resolved by then, but I just don’t know for sure. I am optimistic, however.”Butts, a former Test offspinner, admitted that neither the players nor the board could afford a long-term continuation of their industrial dispute, from both a financial and general interest perspective. Since the likes of Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan withdrew their candidacy for selection, West Indies have suffered embarrassing Test and one-day series defeats to Bangladesh and named a severely weakened side for this month’s Champions Trophy in South Africa.”This will probably go on for a little while yet (but) I don’t think West Indies cricket can afford to go down this road much longer,” Butts said. “There isn’t a person in this region who doesn’t want to see their best players represent them, and the hope is that the impasse will soon be over so cricket can again be the winner.”It is difficult as chairman of selectors when you are unable to pick your best team. There is a concern about (players retiring to play Twenty20 cricket), but from the players I have spoken to that is not on the cards. Most want to play cricket for the West Indies and are looking forward to doing so again at some point in the future.”Butts added that Darren Powell’s withdrawal from West Indies’ Champions’ Trophy squad was due to injury, and not pressure exerted by WIPA, the players’ union. Powell, the most experienced member of West Indies’ original 15-man squad, has been replaced by uncapped fast bowler Kevin McLean.”As far as I know it was injury related,” he said. “He hurt himself playing a game in Jamaica and that’s why he has had to pull out.”

Ricky Ponting is not given to hyperbole, so when he declares this week’s Ashes finale the most important match of his 135-Test career, it is worth taking note. In a revealing column in the , the Australian captain predicted the pain of England’s 2005 Ashes victory would prove a motivating factor for his side entering The Oval Test, and hinted reverse swing could play a role in determining the outcome of the match.But by far Ponting’s most eye-catching statement was that regarding the personal significance the fifth and final Ashes Test holds for him. In a career that has spanned 14 years, four continents and every major trophy, Ponting insisted his 136th Test would be the preeminent match of his career.”I have played in 135 Test matches but never played in a match as big as this one,” Ponting wrote. “There is nothing bigger than playing a deciding Test in an Ashes series, and you have to grab these moments when they present themselves because you may never experience such a match ever again.”That kind of excitement adds a bit of zip to your training and when that starts happening it generally spills over into the week of the game. There has been a very positive feel about our training during the last couple of days. We enjoyed a few days of rest in Leeds but since arriving in Canterbury we have trained very hard and I’m happy with where we are at the moment.”Ponting has previously denied any lingering disappointment from the 2005 Ashes defeat but, since Australia’s series-leveling triumph at Headingley last week, has been more forthcoming in discussing the topic. Immediately after the fourth Test, Ponting conceded redemption in England was “a chance I’ve been waiting this whole tour for”, and has since gone on to discuss the pain of watching Michael Vaughan hold hold aloft the urn at The Oval.”The only motivation I need this week is the memory of having to search out Michael Vaughan, congratulate him and shake hands at the end of the Ashes series of four years ago,” he wrote. “We were off the field when we lost the match due to bad light and the fact that we never had a chance to have a crack at chasing down our target left a bitter taste in the mouth.”I also remember we made sure we stood outside and watched the ticker tape, the popping of champagne corks and the fireworks. We made sure we took it all in to make us better and stronger for the next time we played in 2006-07. But heading to The Oval this week it is clear that roles have been reversed completely since 2005.”Then we were the team facing questions over selection. They had a settled line-up and just come off a victory in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge. Now it is us who have the momentum gained from comprehensively winning at Headingley. We are comfortable with what we have achieved in the last Test-and-a-half.”Most pundits have given Brett Lee little chance of breaking into the Australian XI at The Oval, but Ponting has kept the door ajar for his most senior paceman to make an improbable comeback. The Australian captain suggested reverse swing could play a role in deciding the outcome of the final Test; an art at which Lee has proven particularly adept in recent years, never more so than when he claimed 6 for 76 against England Lions at Worcester six weeks ago.”Brett Lee is jumping out of his skin to get involved,” he wrote. “It was very exciting watching him bowl with reverse swing in the match at Worcester, and if he had not been injured he would have played in the first Test.”In 2005 reverse swing dominated the series. This year it has probably been a damper summer and we have only seen conventional swing. The Oval is the one ground where that may change, especially if we have a dry, hot week.”

Glamorgan are aiming to stage a Twenty20 between England and Pakistan next year after putting Cardiff forward as a hosting venue. Sophia Gardens has already been granted a 50-over game between England and Australia in 2010, but the county is eying further international action with Pakistan and Australia scheduled for two Twenty20s in England next July.”There are two England-Pakistan Twenty20 games up for grabs and we will be having a chunky attempt at gaining one of those games to supplement our England-Australia one-day international,” said Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell.Russell said Glamorgan will not bid for one of the Tests due to security concerns. “We don’t think we would stand a chance against grounds like Edgbaston and Headingley,” said Russell. “Those grounds are basically guaranteed sell-outs because of the ethnic populations present in Birmingham and Leeds.”Sophia Gardens held its first Test in July, the opening match of the Ashes series, despite it only having a capacity of 15,600. Russell confirmed that Glamorgan would bid for a 2013 Ashes repeat in October.

The summer season of Associate cricket continues to take shape with various announcements about games being arranged.Afghanistan’s first foray into mainstream competition starts in the rather unlikely setting of Mutare where they take on Zimbabwe in a four-day Intercontinental Cup tie starting on August 16. From there the Afghans head to Europe where they meet Netherlands in the same competition starting on August 24 and follow that with their first two stand-alone ODIs on August 30 and September 1.Kenya, meanwhile, head to Toronto where their Intercontinental Cup tie against Canada starts on August 7 and is followed by three ODIs on August 12, 14 and 16.On August 17 Scotland’s game with Ireland starts, and that is followed by an ODI weekend as two matches are held on August 22 and 23 ahead of Ireland’s ODI against England on August 27 and Scotland’s against Australia on August 28.In the new Intercontinental Shield, Bermuda host Uganda in a four-day match starting on August 17 and the two then play a brace of one-day games on August 22 and 23 with a one-off Twenty20 clash on August 24.

The 16 players named in England’s preliminary Ashes squad boarded a Eurostar train on Friday morning, armed with their passports, as the management prepares to step up the intensity ahead of the first Test in Cardiff on July 8 by organising a team bonding session in a secret overseas location.An ECB spokesman confirmed that the trip was set to take place, but added that the exact details would remain undisclosed to enable the players to unwind without any cameras or TV crews tracking their movements. “This was something that the players themselves very much wanted to do as a unit,” the spokesman told Cricinfo.The unconventional plans are very much in keeping with the methods used by the ECB’s newly acquired consultant, John Buchanan, who as Australia’s coach from 1999 to 2007 took his players on a bootcamp to the Queensland jungle ahead of the 2006-07 Ashes, as well as trips to Gallipoli in 2001 and the Somme in 2005. According to some reports, the destination this time could be a two-day camp in Belgium, to coincide with Armed Forces Day.Whatever the length or the destination of the trip, the players are due to be back in England next Wednesday, when the first XI takes on Warwickshire in a three-day fixture at Edgbaston, while the England Lions face the Australians in a four-day match at Worcester. And for Andrew Strauss, the get-together will mark his return to the England captaincy after he handed the reins over to Paul Collingwood for the recent World Twenty20.After a month away from the limelight, Strauss didn’t shake off his cobwebs in the most conventional of manners, as he was chased around a boxing ring by the Olympic champion, James Degale, during a Vodafone sponsors’ event in Loughton, Essex. By the end of the session, however, he had worked up enough of a sweat to prepare himself for the full heat of England’s summer.”I’ve got seven weeks’ work ahead of me, and it’s going to be hard work,” said Strauss. “More than anything I tried to charge the batteries during my time away, so that by the time we meet back together there’s a lot of energy there, and we’re ready to hit the ground running. The greatest challenge in an Ashes series is to go out and play your cricket despite the added interest. My job as captain is to keep the guys focused.”One of the players who stands to gain the most from the team get-together is Monty Panesar, who has managed just six wickets at 90 in the County Championship this season since being usurped by Graeme Swann as England’s No. 1 spinner. Cardiff, the venue for the first Test, is expected to favour the inclusion of a second spinner, but with Adil Rashid on the rise after impressing during the World Twenty20, Panesar’s performance against Warwickshire could make or break his summer.Strauss, however, gave his full backing to a man who has taken 125 wickets in 38 Tests, at an average of 33.72. “You look at Monty’s record for England, and it’s exceptional,” he said. “It’s up there with some of the best spinners that have played the game. He’s gone through a bit of a tough patch, but we’ve all been through that – I’ve been through it myself, and so have others in the squad – and you come back much better for the experience.”When you’re going through a rough patch you question what you’re doing, but I’ve got a lot of hope he’ll come through this and be an exceptional bowler going forward. Hopefully the other members of the squad will give him the confidence to go out there against Warwickshire, take a bagful of wickets, and become an important member of the side again. People who’ve been writing him off are unwise. He’s got a hell of a lot to give England in the future.”Critics have seized on Panesar’s lack of variation, particularly when compared to the more adaptable Swann, and Shane Warne memorably remarked that Panesar had played the same Test 38 times. But Strauss backed his man to showcase the skills that earned his first cap back in March 2006, and return to the forefront of England’s Ashes plans.”I’ve spoken to Monty a lot about it, he’s been in contact with Mushtaq Ahmed as well, and other members of the England management. He has been working on variations but the reality is that Monty has taken 99 percent of his wickets by bowling a very good left-arm spinner that turns and has good pace on it. That’s his default and he shouldn’t stray too far from it. It’s like me triyng to bat like [Brian] Lara, it doesn’t work. He shouldn’t stray too far from that, and just do what he does well. If he does that, he’s going to be a handful.”Another man who will doubtless use England’s mini-break to good effect is Andrew Flintoff, whose year has once again been blighted by injury. He missed the middle part of England’s Test series in the Caribbean after picking up a hip complaint, and though he starred in the subsequent one-day series win with a hat-trick in the series decider in Gros Islet, he went on to sustain a knee injury during the IPL in South Africa, and has not played for England since.Flintoff remains crucial to England’s Ashes plans, however, especially in light of his performances in 2005, and Strauss was ready to welcome him back on board. “Andrew seems very fit and is bowling at a good pace,” he said. “It’s obviously early in his comeback but we’ve got to assume he’ll be fit for the five Test matches. It’s a massive plus for us if he is. He adds balance to our side and we know the Aussies don’t like facing him.”We’re all hopeful that after a long period of bad luck he has the rub of the green for a while and produces a really good Ashes series. It will be fantastic to have him back.”

Chad Keegan, the former Middlesex fast bowler, has been offered a trial with Sussex.Keegan, who was released by Middlesex at the end of 2007, represented Sussex in the Second XI Championship last week and today made his first team debut for the club in their Friends Provident Trophy match against Surrey.”Today is another opportunity to see what attributes Chad could bring to the squad,” Mark Robinson, Sussex’s professional cricket manager, said. “It’s a dead match now, as we have qualified for the quarter-finals in the competition, so we will be using the match to rest a few of the regulars and also give a few of the fringe players a chance to perform.”