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An avulsion fracture on the middle finger of his right hand has ruledRahul Dravid out of the rest of the one-day series. He will also miss the Twenty20game on Friday, and the warm-up game for the Test series at Potchefstroom(December 7-10).He will stay on in South Africa for treatment, and experts expect him to be available for theTest series that starts in Johannesburg on December 15. In his absence,Virender Sehwag will lead the side.Meanwhile, VVS Laxman has been asked to join the squad in South Africa as replacement for Dravid. “He might or might not play the next ODI but will be available for the Centurion match, which will be preparation for the Tests as well,” Venkatapathy Raju, the national selector, told Cricinfo. In South Africa Laxman has played just two matches in October 2001, scoring 15 and 5.Laxman’s experience will complement the resources already available in the form of three specialist batsmen – Wasim Jaffer, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Mongia – who sat out the defeat at Newlands in Cape Town. However, the gap Dravid leaves will be hard to fill given the current travails of the Indian top order and his own consistent perfomance – he has scored two half-centuries and a 49 in India’s last five matches.Dravid sustained the injury while trying to catch Shaun Pollock off thebowling of Harbhajan Singh at first slip. The ball flew off the edge andappeared to snap the finger back. “He does not require surgery, and theinjury will be treated conservatively,” said Rajan Nair, the Indian teammedia manager, who also added that John Gloster, the team physio, would bemonitoring the situation in consultation with a local expert.Dravid batted through the pain for 179 minutes on Sunday, scoring 63 from103 balls as India went down by 106 runs in Cape Town. He was treated onthe field during the 38th over, but was taken for an X-ray on Mondaymorning after he complained of severe pain during the night. India arealready 2-0 down in the ODI series, with games remaining at Port Elizabethon Wednesday and Centurion on Sunday.Sehwag has captained India before but, significantly, is struggling with his own form; he was out without scoring at Cape Town on Sunday.Dravid’s is the latest injury problem for India on this tour after Sehwag missed the second one-dayer at Durban. Fast bowler Munaf Patel sat out of the third match on Sunday owing to a sore left ankle. Yuvraj Singh, who hurt his knee during the Champions Trophy in late October, was earlier ruled out of the entire ODI series.

Pubudu Dassanayake, Canada’s coach, has announced a new coaching team who will take charge across the various levels of the game.Shaun Miller who played minor counties cricket in England will be the deputy national coach and he will be responsible for Western Canada which includes the areas of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. He holds an ECB Level 3 qualification.Anderson Cummins, the former West Indies and Canada opening bowler, will look after the Under-19s, who have not qualified for the World Cup in Malaysia this month but will definitely take part in the 2012 event as hosts. Farooq Kirmani who represented Canada in the ’80s, will be undertaking the future of the juniors, in looking after the Under-15s. George Codrington, who represented Canada at last year’s World Cup in the West Indies, will undertake the women’s program.The trio do not, as yet, have formal coaching qualifications, but do have extensive experience of developing players’ skills over many years. “All three have played a considerable amount of international cricket – in Anderson’s case, at Test level,” a Canada spokesperson told Cricinfo. “It is important for Canadian cricket that we maximize this type of expertise which exists within the country.”Geoffrey Crosse will resume his role as technical analyst, team with specific skills in video analysis. “He has formal, college-level qualifications in that area,” said the spokesman, “which is becoming increasingly important for us.”There has been a change in the selectors’ panel too, as Errol Townshend has tendered his resignation as national selector. Richard Hawes, Chris James, Bhan Deonarine and Arvind Patel will soon be joined on the panel by a replacement Ontario representative. The Ontario Cricket Association will recommend a replacement to the CCA. The CCA will then appoint a replacement who will be formally elected to the position at the next AGM.Their big job this year will be to select the side they believe will help Canada win the Twenty20 World Cup Qualifiers in Ireland in August. This will be Canada’s singular focus for the foreseeable future, with two teams from six going through to the World Cup. Project Stingray, as it has been called, will be led by Dassananayake and moves into high gear immediately.The efforts will include the following: an expansion of indoor winter training, with indoor nets and indoor games being played three times a week; specific Twenty20 training; much usage of DVD footage; input from qualified sports psychologists; and the inclusion of promising Canadian Under-19s in the process.

Bosman sent back due to incomplete paperworkLoots Bosman, the South African batsman signed by the IPL, was forced to return to Johannesburg late on Tuesday night after immigration officials at the Mumbai airport found that he had incomplete paperwork. Bosman, who is a member of the Mumbai Indians outfit, has now sorted things out with diplomatic officials and is expected to land in India on Thursday.Warne’s birthday wish for SachinShane Warne has wished Sachin Tendulkar as many playing years as he wants. This came a day before Tendulkar’s 35th birthday. “He is a great player. We may have to wait for many-many years to have another player like him. He should be allowed to continue till he wants to,” Warne was reported as saying.Maxwell misses the point
Neil Maxwell, the CEO of the Mohali franchise, can’t understand the fuss over members of the side being given preferential treatment with regard to the hotels they are staying in. “I could stay under the table to play alongside some of the best in the world,” he was reported as saying in the . This comes in the wake of reports about lesser-known players of the franchise being asked to move out of the five-star hotel to accommodate important guests.Meanwhile, Maxwell, while talking to the Sydney Morning Herald, said that Australia cannot sustain its own version of the IPL since its market is too small. Maxwell, who is the chief executive of Kings XI Punjab, said it would be a good idea if the Australian board charged a transfer fee for players signing on with domestic leagues like the IPL.Gayle arrives but still uncertainChris Gayle has joined the Kolkata Knight Riders’ squad but his participation in team’s next few games is still uncertain. He didn’t take part in the net session on Wednesday. His groin injury, which he picked up in the recent home series against Sri Lanka, is still being monitored and he remains a doubtful starter for the next match against Chennai on Saturday.McGrath looks to expand breast cancer foundationGlenn McGrath and wife Jane are looking at expanding their breast cancer foundation into India to help tackle a soaring incidence of the disease, the reported. “Obviously there’s huge opportunities for us to get involved with something over here,” he said. “I think we need to do our homework. It’s doing amazingly well back home, so if that could be a blueprint for other countries, that would be great.

Chris Gayle’s management have retained the services of a “leading Australian media lawyer” with the intention of “immediately” launching defamation action against Fairfax Media over allegations that he indecently exposed himself to a woman in Sydney during the World Cup last year.The allegation arose following Gayle’s widely decried actions in an interview with the Ten Network sports presenter Mel McLaughlin while playing for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League.The Renegades fined Gayle $10,000 for the incident, and the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland declared the West Indian opening batsman would be facing far more severe consequences if he transgressed further.It is believed a substantiation of Fairfax Media’s indecent exposure allegation against Gayle, which it claimed had taken place during a training session at the SCG before the start of the tournament, would be viewed by CA as sufficient cause to tear up his existing contract with the Renegades.Gayle would also be banished from playing for any club in the BBL – a competition designed in part to be a welcoming tournament for females – in the future.”Chris Gayle has strongly denied allegations first published by Fairfax Media that he indecently exposed himself to a woman during last year’s World Cup in Sydney,” Gayle’s manager Simon Auteri said in a statement.”Despite such denials Fairfax Media continues to publish the false and defamatory allegations which have received widespread re-publication in media throughout the world.”As a result Chris Gayle has retained Mark O’Brien, a leading Australian media lawyer to immediately commence defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media.”

South Africa will assess the security situation in Karachi before anyfinal decision is taken on the status of the last ODI, scheduled in theport city for October 29.Twin suicide bombings directed at the motorcade of former prime ministerBenazir Bhutto last week killed 140 people and injured hundreds.Bhutto was returning to the country after eight years of self-imposedexile.”A South African security official will go to Karachi today to assess thesituation on the ground there,” Ahsan Malik, PCB’s director communicationssaid. “He is expected to report back tomorrow afternoon after which thesituation will become clearer.” One PCB official will also travel withhim.Various high-level meetings have been held between the South Africancontingent and local security officials, as well as the interior ministry.Speculation has been rife about the fate of the last ODI since the blasts.One report in , a leading English daily, said the game islikely to shift to Lahore, where the first two ODIs were played, thoughnothing has yet been finalised.South Africa have already played a Test and a warm-up in Karachi, afteravoiding it altogether on their last tour in 2003.

Ed Joyce, who starred for Ireland when they qualified for the World Cup, hopes his inside knowledge of the team will give England an edge when they meet Ireland on Friday. Joyce said Ireland were a better all-round unit than some people gave them credit for but England should win by “keeping it simple”.Joyce made two centuries for Ireland in the 2005 ICC Trophy, ensuring the team’s place in the Caribbean. He is now in strong form for England, having made 66 and 75 in the last two group matches against Canada and Kenya.Joyce said his familiarity with England’s next opponents could come in handy. “I have told team analyst Mark Garaway a little bit,” he said on . “I know 11 or 12 of the Irish guys pretty well but there are couple who have come in who I haven’t seen very much of.”I will be able to help out with a few tips but you have to keep things pretty basic against most teams whether you are playing against Australia or against Ireland so I think we’re going to be keeping it pretty simple. Ireland play as a unit very well, they field very well, they bowl as a unit and they’ve got a lot of medium-pacers and spinners who bowl very straight. They bat all the way down to number 10.”Joyce was pleased at Ireland’s success – they made it to the Super Eights with a win over Pakistan and a tie with Zimbabwe – but hoped any further progress would not be at England’s expense. “You want to peak at the right time in these tournaments and we’d like to think we are getting there after the first match,” Joyce said.Adrian Birrell, the Ireland coach, said Joyce had been a great servant of Irish cricket but his history with the two teams would not give England too large an advantage. “We owe a big thank to Joyce for helping us through to the World Cup and look forward to playing against him,” Birrell said.”I am sure he knows all our players, but we also know their players and other players from all the countries. I think with a lot of video available on all teams it’s not a huge advantage, it certainly does help.”Birrell said his side had nothing to lose now they had reaching the Super Eights. “We know all the pressure is on England, they need to beat us to get to the semis,” he said. “They are not carrying any points and if they don’t pick two against us then they are under pressure.”

Sri Lanka are eyeing Jonty Rhodes and Greg Blewett as assistant coach to newly appointed head coach Trevor Bayliss.Rumesh Ratnayake, the former fast bowler, was offered the position but turned it down citing personal reasons, thus sparking the search for another name.”We were looking up to Rumesh with the future in mind, but now that he is unavailable we have to weigh our options,” a Sri Lanka Cricket spokesman was reported as saying by . “Rhodes and Blewett are two names that will be approached because we want someone whose speciality was fielding.”Rhodes was regarded as one of the world’s best fielders during his 11-year career that ended in 2003 after 52 Tests and 245 one-day internationals. He worked briefly with Pakistan last year and has been working with the South African national side since.Blewett played 46 Tests and 32 one-dayers for Australia from 1995 to 2000 before retiring from first-class cricket last month.Bayliss, former New South Wales coach, is due to take over as Sri Lanka coach from August, after Tom Moody decided not to stay on and return to Western Australia. Trevor Penney, Moody’s assistant, is in temporary charge of the side before he too goes to Western Australia.

Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka’s new coach, believes that his teams attacking style of cricket would suit them in the upcoming Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.”Sri Lanka hasn’t played a lot of Twenty20 cricket. But the style of cricket they play can be suited to the Twenty20 game. Sri Lanka is a team that plays an attacking style of the game. With a bit of experience and playing a few practice games, I am hoping the players can learn fairly quickly. I’m confident that we can give a good showing.”Bayliss who coached New South Wales before taking up the Sri Lanka job, had his first session with the national team today.”They are a bright bunch of guys and very friendly people. Before we came here everyone was telling us how good these guys were, lovely people, hard trainers and hard workers. Certainly that’s what we got this morning. I am looking forward to working with them.””The opportunity to coach an international team and also a very successful one at that, was no contest. It’s a dream, I suppose, where you can reach the top in whatever endeavours that you try. I am very happy and honoured that I’ve been given the opportunity to coach the Sri Lankan cricket team,” Bayliss said.Bayliss admitted that he had spoken to Tom Moody, whom he succeeded as coach, on several occasions. “We have got a fairly similar views on the way cricket should be played and the way it should be taken forward. Not a lot will change in the process. Sri Lanka has been very successful in their last 18 months. I don’t want to change too much but continue along those lines. If one or two small things come up we will make the appropriate changes”.”Tom’s opinion of the team was that they were a bunch of guys, very talented, easy to work with and easy to talk to. They play an attacking style of cricket similar to Australia. From that point of view and coming from Australia, there won’t be a big change in the way we are going,” Bayliss said, adding that he would be quite happy for the selectors to select the team and for him to coach it.”Before the match starts, Mahela (Jayawardene) and I will be able to give our views. The attitude I had in New South Wales when I was coaching was the same thing. I didn’t actually have a vote on the selections, but the one rule we put in place for the players was that there should be no whinging. Whatever you have been dealt, just get on with it.”Along with Bayliss, assistant coach Paul Farbrace and trainer Jade Roberts also had an interaction with the media.Bayliss, who had a hand in the appointment of Farbrace, said: “Paul is a coach who knows his stuff and is a very hard worker. He is also a guy whom I will be able to get on with. He’s probably got a similar personality and similar views on the way the game should be played. I think it is important that the two of us should work together.”Farbrace, who was the coaching director at Kent before joining the Sri Lanka team, was upbeat about his new job. “To work with Trevor and the other guys here, it really wasn’t a contest. It’s an exciting opportunity. You don’t very often get the chance to work with exciting teams who are playing good cricket.””Normally in sport you go with things like ‘perhaps I am doing well’ but that’s when things change. This time it is an opportunity to handle a side and an excellent set up. I really want to get into and get stuck in.”Roberts, who is also a dietician, said he would rely on the players to be professional. “I’ve talked to the guys and my opinion is they are a very professional outfit. It’s really upto them.”The three newcomers will join physio Tommy Simsek in the support staff. Simsek is the only remaining member of the Sri Lanka coaching staff from the 2007 World Cup.

Lalman Kowlessar, an executive member of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), has called the recent strike by the West Indies Umpires’ Association (WICUA) during the sixth round of the Carib Beer Series a “total failure”.Kowlessar also praised the six umpires belonging to the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Umpires and Scorers Council (TTCUSC), which was not a part of the strike, and who were drafted in to fill in the void created by the WICUA’s boycott. “The games went on and the umpires did a great job,” he said.The WICUA had withdrawn its services for the last two rounds of the 2007-08 Carib Beer Series to protest against the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) decision to remove Trinidadian umpires Hayden Bruce and Kaso Dowlath from the list of officials for the tournament’s sixth round. The duo are linked to the newly-formed Association of Cricket Umpires of Trinidad and Tobago, a body which is not aligned with the Trinidad board.But Kowlessar said Bruce and Dowlath were not on the list of umpires recommended by the TTCUSC to the Trinidad board, though their names appeared on the list approved by the West Indies board’s sub-committee for umpires. “This was noticed by the TTCB, which informed the WICB, pointing out the perceived error. The WICB then removed those two names.”

Following New Zealand’s exit from the World Cup semi-final, Stephen Fleming, the Test captain, is hopeful their coach John Bracewell will stay on after his contract expires next month. “I think Braces should stay on, I think he’s a fine coach, he’s worked well with this side,” Fleming said in The Press.Bracewell, who is expected to submit a detailed performance appraisal of the squad to New Zealand Cricket (NZC), said a review of the World Cup campaign would determine his future. He was recently under-fire from Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, who suggested that he should resign.However, Bracewell hasn’t given any indication he would join the mass exodus of international coaches and said the priority would be to sort out the player contracts for the forthcoming season. “Once we’ve gone through that review process I’ll make that decision on whether to continue, or that decision will be made for me,” Bracewell told .”Ric Charlesworth [the NZC high performance manager] has a lot of things on the table when we get back in terms of the development plan. We have a month of hard cricket ahead of us, not in terms of playing, but players’ contracts have to be sorted out. There’s a lot of work to do.”New Zealand impressed through the group stages but faltered towards the end of the event. They were exposed in all departments in the semi-final against Sri Lanka, raising questions about their ability to lift their performance in knock-out games. This was their fifth semi-final loss in World Cup history.Though NZC were non committal on Bracewell’s future, Justin Vaughan, the newly-appointed chief executive, was also hopeful that he would continue. He said the off-season would be ideal time for the players to reflect on their performances. “They have been going at it since the series against Sri Lanka in December so they deserve the chance to sit back and reflect on things,” Vaughan said.Reflecting on his side’s showing in the tournament, Bracewell said they had performed above expectations, but admitted they were completely undone by a far superior side in the semi-final. “We were as well prepared as any side that’s has been put together,” he said. “We really have to put our hands up and say we didn’t perform on the day. A good dose of Test cricket will do us the world of good – players like Ross Taylor and Peter Fulton need it to continue their development.”