Players chase unpaid IPL 2010 money

Simon Katich is still owed IPL money

Simon Katich and Ramnaresh Sarwan are among a group of cricketers still owed contract payments from the BCCI for the 2010 Indian Premier League.

FICA, the international cricketers' representative body, has revealed that the money has remained unpaid for more than 18 months despite numerous entreaties by the players and their management. Tim May, the FICA, chief executive, said no response had been forthcoming.

"A number of players whose contracts were 'subsidised' by the BCCI, have recently contacted FICA to assist in recovering the amounts owed by the BCCI," he said. "These amounts relate to IPL 3, which was held in March-April in 2010. Affected players include Simon Katich and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

"Despite numerous attempts by the players to recover these amounts, not only do the amounts still remain unpaid, but the IPL and the BCCI have recently failed to respond to communications made by the players and their representatives.

"FICA last month wrote to the IPL Chairman Mr Chirayu Amin on behalf of the players to draw his attention to the matter, but to date, neither we nor the players have received a response to this matter.

"We trust with the recent appointment of Mr N. Srinivasan as President of the BCCI, and the appointment of Mr Rajiv Shukla as Chairman of IPL, that these two gentlemen will ensure that BCCI will address these payments as a matter of urgency."

Neither Katich nor Sarwan took part in the 2010 IPL, but were still under contract to King's XI Punjab, having been signed for three years after the initial player auction in 2008.

The episode follows the saga of T20 Champions League prize money being delayed by months after the 2010 tournament, with the boards of some countries including Australia and South Africa choosing to pay the money themselves rather than wait for it to arrive from the subcontinent.

de Villiers to miss Australia series

AB de Villiers will miss South Africa's
T20 and ODI series against Australia

AB de Villiers has been ruled out of cricket for between four and six weeks with a hand injury. He will miss South Africa's T20 and ODI series against Australia, of which the former was due to be his first as captain. De Villiers broke the third finger on his left hand during fielding practice with the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Champions League T20 on Wednesday.

"He saw a hand surgeon this morning and will undergo an operation tomorrow [Friday] where they will insert a pin or a plate to stabilise the finger," Mohammad Moosajee, team manager told ESPNCricinfo.

De Villiers' injury sets South Africa's plans of starting a new era, with Gary Kirsten as head coach and de Villiers as captain in limited-overs formats, back. Instead, they will have put contingency plans in place as their international season starts in unexpected fashion.

The national selectors met at the Wanderers Stadium, where one of season-opening first-class fixtures was taking place, to finalise the T20 and ODI squads. Top of the agenda was the issue of who will lead the team against Australia. "We debated that at length and we will release the information around the captaincy at the same time as we release the squads, which will be early next week," said convenor of selectors Andrew Hudson.

Hashim Amla was named the vice-captain in June and, according to Moosajee, "all things equal" should captain the side. But, all things are not equal, because Amla has never captained the national team, although he did lead his franchise, the Dolphins in the 2004-5 season. His inexperience with the armband means that South Africa could return to an old hand. Graeme Smith, who stepped down as T20 captain last August and ODI captain after the World Cup or Johan Botha, who was stripped of the T20 captaincy in June, could return to the role as a stop gap.

The captaincy is not the only issue the selectors had to discuss. "AB's injury does not only affect the captaincy, its also the wicketkeeper and a top order batsman," Hudson said.

The wicketkeeper position has been a hotly debated one in South African cricket circles, with no clear successor having been identified for Mark Boucher, with some of the opinion that there is no need to look for a replacement yet. Although Boucher is 34 years old, he has made clear his desire to make a comeback to the ODI side after missing out on selection for the World Cup.

Boucher would be the safe option, but de Villiers' injury could pave the way for South Africa to start experimenting with who they would like to don the keeping gloves. Heino Kuhn, who has played three T20s for South Africa - the last was against Zimbabwe in Kimberley almost a year ago - is the favourite.

Morne van Wyk, who was part of South Africa's World Cup squad, and could bat in the top four is another option. Thami Tsolekile may come into the fray, although he has never played a limited-overs match for South Africa. Davy Jacobs may have finally got his chance, but sustained a hip injury during training with the Mumbai Indians at the Champions League and will likely be unavailable.

"The Champions League hasn't been kind to us," Hudson said. "Last year we lost Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and Albie Morkel and we can only hope we don't suffer more." Steyn fell on his head after backpedalling to take a catch while Kallis sustained a back injury and Morkel strained his side, which caused the trio to miss out on matches against Zimbabwe.

With a more important series, against Australia, coming this year, Hudson hoped that the casualties will not mount, with 10 days remaining in the Champions League, but feared they may have to brace for more. "What we are realising is that T20 is hard on players, it's intense," Hudson said. "We're going to have accept that we will get injuries."

Harbhajan dropped for first two ODIs

Offspinner Harbhajan Singh has been left out of India's squad for the first two ODIs against England on October 14 and 17. Karnataka medium-pacer S Aravind and Punjab legspinner Rahul Sharma have received their maiden international call-ups.

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt and wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.

de Villiers out of Champions League

AB de Villiers' broken finger places him in doubt for
South Africa's home series against Australia

AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the remainder of the Champions League Twenty20 after fracturing a finger on his left hand during a Royal Challengers Bangalore training session at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The injury could force de Villiers to miss the start of Australia's tour of South Africa, which begins with a Twenty20 international on October 13.


"He [de Villiers] will probably be coming back to South Africa tonight," South Africa's team manager Mohammad Moosajee told ESPNcricinfo. "He will see our panel of hand specialists after that, and we will decide what the plan of action is.


"I understand from the Bangalore physio that he broke the third finger on his left hand during a fielding drill. It is quite serious, that's why he is coming back."


The home series against Australia will be de Villiers' first after taking over as South Africa's limited-overs captain from Graeme Smith in June. South Africa play the first of two Twenty20s against Australia on October 13, followed by three one-dayers that begin on October 19.


In de Villiers' absence, either Tillakaratne Dilshan or Arun Karthik will keep wicket for the Royal Challengers. "Not having AB is a big loss," Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers batsman, said. "But we have quality players in our squad who can cope with it."


The Royal Challengers play Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore on September 29, with games against Somerset and South Australia to come. They lost their first game of the CLT20 and another loss would make a semi-final berth unlikely. However, three wins would make their qualification almost a certainty - two other sides in Group B would need to be tied on three wins for net run-rate to come into contention.

Mitchell Marsh in line for T20 debut

Matthew Wade has been named in
Australia's Twenty20 squad

Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade and Patrick Cummins are all in line to make their international debuts after being named in Australia's squad to tour South Africa next month. Australia's selectors have chosen separate 14-man groups for the Twenty20s and ODIs in South Africa, with Mitchell Johnson axed from the Twenty20 outfit and David Hussey cut from the one-day side.

Cricket Australia are still in the process of choosing their new selectors, so the squads were picked by an interim panel led by the outgoing chairman Andrew Hilditch, along with Greg Chappell, Jamie Cox and the stand-in coach Troy Cooley. The captains were also part of the panel - Michael Clarke for the ODI squad and Cameron White for the T20 group.

A serious shoulder injury that ruled the allrounder John Hastings out of the trip opened the door for Marsh, 19, who is set to follow his older brother Shaun and father Geoff in representing Australia after being picked in the Twenty20 squad. A promising allrounder who played for Australia A on the recent tour of Zimbabwe, Marsh had been earmarked for higher honours since captaining Australia to the Under-19 World Cup title in 2010.

Rigorous pre-season training has helped Patrick
Cummins develop the musculature that can support
his brand of bowling

He's not the only teenager in the touring party, with Cummins, 18, having made both the T20 and ODI groups. A fast bowler who was the bolter in Cricket Australia's contract list this year, Cummins would be Australia's youngest ODI debutant if he plays in the series, beating his New South Wales team-mate Josh Hazlewood, who played at 19 last year.
It has been a remarkably quick rise for Cummins, who has played only two one-day matches for his state and has not yet taken a wicket in the format. His inclusion in the ODI squad means he will miss the first two rounds of the Sheffield Shield season.

The retirement of Brad Haddin from Twenty20 internationals, combined with Tim Paine's finger injury, meant Wade was the logical wicketkeeping choice for the shortest format. Wade, 23, has been third in line behind Haddin and Paine since playing for Australia A last year, and he confirmed his credentials with a standout summer in the Ryobi Cup.

But the news wasn't so good for two of the older members of the side. David Hussey, 34, lost his ODI place despite being part of the World Cup squad earlier this year and winning a CA contract, while the selectors preferred Doug Bollinger to Johnson in the Twenty20 side.

"Mitchell [Johnson] has struggled in this format of the game to date," Hilditch said. "Most Twenty20 internationals have been at the start of tours and Mitchell has not always been at his best in these matches. Obviously Mitchell has a great skill set for Twenty20 cricket and we are sure he will put a lot of pressure on us to pick him in the future in the Twenty20 team.

"We consider we have picked an extremely strong Twenty20 squad, which has a good balance of experience and exciting young talent. There is flexibility in the squad to deal with conditions in South Africa as we continue to prepare for the ICC World Twenty20, which is only a year away."

A key man in the T20 squad is David Warner, who has also been given a chance to resume his career in the 50-over format, having not played an ODI in more than two years. Hilditch described Warner's recent form as "irresistible", including three centuries in first-class and one-day cricket on the recent Australia A trip to Zimbabwe.

The inclusion of Warner comes after Haddin, who opened with Shane Watson during the World Cup, moved down the order during the recent ODIs in Sri Lanka. That could mean a battle between Warner and Shaun Marsh to become the next long-term opening partner for Watson in the one-day international side.

Australia play two Twenty20 internationals, in Cape Town on October 13 and in Johannesburg on October 16, before the series of three ODIs in Centurion, Port Elizabeth and Durban. The squad for the two Tests, in Cape Town and Johannesburg in early November, will be announced in the coming weeks.

ODI squad: Shane Watson, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin (wk), Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Xavier Doherty, James Pattinson, Patrick Cummins, Doug Bollinger.

Twenty20 squad: Shane Watson, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Aaron Finch, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Steve O'Keefe, Brett Lee, James Pattinson, Patrick Cummins, Doug Bollinger.

Pomersbach faces discipline from Western Australia

The Western Australia batsman Luke Pomersbach is facing potential disciplinary action after failing to turn up for a state practice match on Monday. The WACA has confirmed it is investigating the matter, which is far from the first time Pomersbach has found himself in trouble.

"The Western Australian Cricket Association is looking into a disciplinary breach by Retravision Warriors batsman Luke Pomersbach, who failed to attend an intra-squad practice match at Stevens Reserve in Fremantle, scheduled to commence yesterday," the WACA said in a statement. "The WACA will be making no further comment until the matter has been fully investigated and finalised."

Pomersbach, who turns 27 this week, was suspended by Western Australia in August 2009, when he avoided a jail sentence after admitting to assaulting a police officer who was trying to arrest him for drink-driving. The then state coach Tom Moody said at the time that Pomersbach was on his last chance.

Earlier in 2009 he had been suspended and fined after failing to show up for a club match, while in 2007, Pomersbach and Shaun Marsh were suspended indefinitely after a late-night drinking session in the lead-up to a state match. While Marsh, who is now part of Australia's Test team, credited the ban as the wake-up call he needed, Pomersbach's disciplinary issues continued.

Pomersbach made a surprise international debut for Australia in a Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Perth in December 2007, after Brad Hodge suffered a back spasm in the rooms before the match. Pomersbach has not played for Australia since then and has been in and out of the Western Australia side over the past few years.

Cooley named Australia's interim coach

Troy Cooley will be Australia's interim head coach for next month's tour of South Africa, but he has confirmed he will not apply for the full-time job as Tim Nielsen's replacement. Cooley is the head coach at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, having spent five years as the bowling coach and Nielsen's assistant with the national team.

The current assistant coach, Justin Langer, and the fielding mentor Steve Rixon had been the two favourites for the interim position after Nielsen stood down at the end of the recent tour of Sri Lanka. However, Cricket Australia's general manager of cricket, Michael Brown, said Cooley was a good fit for the stand-in role, which covers the two Twenty20s, three ODIs and two Tests in South Africa.

"Troy has filled this role successfully in the past, and has worked extensively with all players within the Australian set-up and with our younger squad members at CA's Centre of Excellence," Brown said. "Troy has advised that he will not be an applicant for the head coach role, given his significant and important duties at the Centre of Excellence. This appointment will therefore allow the Australian squad continuity as they attempt to cement their No.1 ODI ranking and attempt to climb the ICC Test rankings."

Rixon is expected to be a strong contender for the full-time position as head coach, while Langer could also feature in Cricket Australia's considerations. Cooley, who was in charge of Australia A's tour of Zimbabwe earlier this year, said he was looking forward to taking on the interim role.

"I feel excited and comfortable coming into this caretaker's role knowing that Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Tim Nielsen have been planning this South African campaign for a while now," Cooley said. "My immediate task will be to come up to speed with their plans and work with the players and support team to ensure the preparation is spot on for a successful tour.

"My working knowledge of the Australian team and our opposition will no doubt be an asset in the short term as we look to build on the successful tour of Sri Lanka. My role is to ensure all players have what they need to prepare for the tour and to oversee the support staff to ensure the best possible results."

As the acting coach, Cooley will be part of the selection panel and will have a say in the ODI and T20 squads for the South African series, which will be announced later this week.

South Australia to persist with three spinners

Callum Ferguson wants a braver approach
from South Australia's batsmen

Though South Australia Redbacks' three spinners conceded 69 runs for no wicket in eight overs against the Warriors, they are planning to play the same combination against Kolkata Knight Riders.

"The three spinners have worked very well for us over the last two years," batsman Callum Ferguson said. "I don't see that being any different coming up on Tuesday or for the rest of the tournament. We are very confident about the strategy and we think that it will bring success."

Spinners Nathan Lyon, Adil Rashid and Aaron O'Brien played a major part in South Australia's victorious Big Bash campaign in February, taking 29 wickets in seven games at under seven runs an over. However, insisting on including all of them could backfire against a side like Kolkata Knight Riders, with fine players of spin in Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan.

In the game against the Warriors, South Australia's plight was compounded by the fact that there wasn't any control from the other end, with an erratic Shaun Tait going for 53 in his four overs. It was left to Daniel Christian and Daniel Harris to somehow keep the Warriors from exploding with 4 for 47 from eight overs of tight medium-pace.

It might be too much to expect the two Daniels to perform the holding role again, but Ferguson maintained that South Australia had things covered. "Our attack has good all-round capability. Dan Christian fills that [holding seamer's] role very well. Dan Harris did a very good job containing yesterday as well. While they may not be express, we think that Christian has got enough pace."

Another worrying aspect for South Australia was the way their batsmen approached the chase of 172 against the Warriors. Only two of the top seven managed to strike at above 100 and Ferguson was hopeful of a more purposeful approach against the Knight Riders. "We didn't think that our guys got out to outrageous shots. When you lose early wickets, it makes it difficult to rebuild the momentum straight away on a slow pitch.

"Coming up on Tuesday, we are looking to be a bit braver with how we go about it. We are going to go out and play like we normally do. We are confident that our results over the last two years have shown that this does not happen to us very often and it was just a one-off.

"We are a better side than we showed last night. We are very confident we will turn it around against KKR."

Swann left stumped by England 'horror show'

Garey Mathurin put England under the cosh with 3 for 9 in four overs

England's captain, Graeme Swann, admitted that a "bit of pressure, a bit of inexperience and a bit of ineptitude all added up to a horror show", as an entirely unfancied West Indian team rallied round in defence of a below-par target of 114, and pulled off an impressive 25-run victory thanks to a Man-of-the-Match spell of 3 for 9 in four overs from the debutant left-arm spinner, Garey Mathurin.

Needing less than a run-a-ball from the outset, and with the memory of their ten-wicket cruise in the first Twenty20 on Friday night, England began their run-chase fully expecting to seal a 2-0 series win and conclude their international summer on another upbeat note. But Mathurin's nerveless spell, in his very first appearance in any form of cricket in England, choked their ambition from the Powerplay onwards, and left the lower-order with too much momentum to claw back.

"God works in mysterious ways," said Mathurin, a childhood friend of the captain, and fellow St Lucian, Darren Sammy. "Everybody has their turn and it's just that my turn came at the age of 28. The English people hadn't seen me before so I knew I could go out and get the job done. We have a good team unity going on and the cohesiveness just worked."

The result left Swann feeling a touch humbled at the end of what has been a remarkable season for England, but even after being bowled out for 88, he felt that his side had been "exceptional" in the first half of the contest, and believed they would probably learn more from this setback than could ever have been learnt in victory.

"For half the game we were exceptional and we put ourselves in a position where we should never ever lose a game of cricket," said Swann. "Let's face it, to not chase 113 in international cricket is unacceptable. West Indies bowled and fielded well, but not well enough to bowl a team out for 88. It was good fielding mixed with a bit of panic, and four run-outs is crazy chasing such a small total on such a big field."

After a short end-of-season break, England head off to the subcontinent next week to embark on a five-ODI tour of India, where their failure to deal with a turning surface will doubtless impact on the type of wickets they can expect to face when they arrive. Further down the line, England will be defending their World Twenty20 crown on the spin-friendly surfaces of Sri Lanka next year, and on this evidence, they need to work on their manipulation of the field as much as their boundary-clearing ability.

"For all the positives of Friday night, there were quite a few negatives that need to be ironed out of our game before we play on pretty similar tracks over the next 12 months," said Swann. "We are going to face spin in the first six overs again, and if we can take one good thing out of the way we batted, it's that it's completely unacceptable, and won't be allowed to happen again.

"It's a harsh environment in international cricket and you find out a few things about people when they are under the pump," he added. "Today, one or two guys didn't respond that well, but I'm sure, knowing this team as I do and the way they have trained, it's a mere blip. I wouldn't write off any of this XI who have played tonight, or indeed any of the 14 in the squad, because they are all superb cricketers."

In England's defence, their side was missing several of its most experienced campaigners, not least Eoin Morgan, whose deft use of the angles would have been ideal for keeping the run-rate moving. But Swann believed the chosen team should still have performed much, much better. "I'd love to find an excuse for them and say they're inexperienced, but they're not inexperienced in Twenty20 cricket," he said. "I'm not just blaming the top six, I'm blaming the 11 players with the bat because we were pretty appalling.

"The left-arm spinner, you can't argue with 3 for 9, but the three guys who got out to him will probably look at the shots they played and be pretty horrified," he added. "We allowed him to get exceptional figures and he did catch us on the hop. But I'd hope each batsman who got out will look at it and think 'I won't do that again'. We were still in the game at six-seven down at a run-a-ball, but of the wickets that fell, very few were caused by the ball deviating. It was poor shots and poor execution of those shots."

For Mathurin and his team-mates, however, the result was the ideal tonic for their defeat on Friday night, and went a long way towards answering their many critics - in the Caribbean and worldwide. "Yeah, we had a point to prove," said Mathurin. "England played really, really well on Friday, so we were playing for some pride, and then we were coming back hard at them. We knew we could do it. Hopefully this shows everyone the energy and enthusiasm we have got, and hopefully everyone sees what we can do."

Tim Paine set for surgery on finger

Matthew Wade is the most likely beneficiary of Tim Paine's injury

Tim Paine has been ruled out of Australia's tour of South Africa next month due to a finger injury, which is likely to open the door for Matthew Wade to make his international debut. Paine will have surgery later this week following a slower than expected recovery after he hurt his right index finger while batting at a Tasmania training session a month ago.

The decision for Paine to have an operation means that Australia will need to find a new wicketkeeper for the two Twenty20s against South Africa on October 13 and 16 in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Brad Haddin last week announced his retirement from Twenty20 internationals, which is likely to make Wade the favourite for a national call-up.

Wade, 23, has played for Australia A over the past 18 months and was productive for Victoria last summer, when he finished second behind Brad Hodge on the Ryobi Cup run tally and also score 553 Sheffield Shield runs. It would be a major surprise if Wade was not chosen, with Chris Hartley having hardly been used in T20 by Queensland over the past two seasons, and Western Australia's Luke Ronchi having slipped down the pecking order.

And while the T20s in South Africa are the immediate opportunity, there could be further chances to provide backup for Haddin in one-day or Test cricket, depending on how long Paine is sidelined. Australia's physiotherapist, Alex Kountouris, said Paine was still experiencing significant discomfort a month after sustaining the injury.

"Tim Paine injured his right index finger batting at training with his Tasmanian state team four weeks ago," Kountouris said. "He sustained a fracture in a similar part of the same finger late last year and required surgery. Tim has been resting the injury in recent weeks but is still experiencing considerable pain.

"His surgeon has advised that the fracture is healing slower than expected and may not heal without surgical intervention. As such, Tim will be undergoing surgery later this week. He is likely to need an extended recovery period following surgery and will not be available for selection for the T20 and ODI tour of South Africa."

Paine is not the only one of Australia's contracted players set for surgery, with the allrounder John Hastings likely to have an operation on his right shoulder. Hastings suffered the injury while training with Victoria and he too will be out of action for the T20 and one-day series in South Africa.

"John Hastings injured his right shoulder during a training session with Cricket Victoria after returning from Australian duties in Sri Lanka," Kountouris said. "He has had ongoing shoulder pain since this incident and has been unable to return to training. He has consulted a surgeon who has recommended surgery.

"It is possible that he will have surgery sometime in the next week after further assessment from the surgeon. His return to cricket will be dependent on the management approach pursued but he will not be available for selection for the T20 and ODI tour of South Africa."

Broad unlikely to play again this year

Stuart Broad suffered his season-ending injury
in the one-day series against India 

Stuart Broad has admitted that he is unlikely to play again this year as he recovers from the shoulder injury he picked up against India, although has been told he won't require surgery.

Broad had already been ruled out of the matches against West Indies and the return one-day series in India, but had been given some hope of playing in the Twenty20 at Kolkata at the end of October. Now, though, that appears unlikely and Broad's aim is the tour of UAE in January which includes three Tests, four ODIs and three Twenty20s.

"The shoulder is still quite sore. It's a two-month injury so I'm concentrating on making sure I am in the best possible shape for the games against Pakistan in January," Broad said at the PCA awards dinner where he was named England's ODI player of the year. "It's not 100% confirmed I'll not play in India but I'll only play if the rehab goes fantastically well.

"It's good news that I don't need surgery. There is always an extra risk with surgery so that would be a worry. It is a two-month recovery time though so I need to get that right and make sure it is completely over and I don't have any side effects with it."

Broad's injury means he loses out furthering his captaincy experience in the Twenty20s against West Indies and Graeme Swann will lead the side in his absence. Missing the match against India next month will leave him only four or five matches before England's title defence at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka next September.

However, the season has ended in a far more positive way for Broad than appeared likely at one stage when his Test place was under threat at the beginning of the series against India. He responded with a Man-of-the-Series display where he took 25 wickets in the 4-0 whitewash, along with vital runs at Lord's and Trent Bridge, to cement his place in the side.

"It was nice to repay the faith in the selectors, the coach and the captain," he said. "I managed to do that. Winning man of the series showed I can perform at the top level and that will give me a bit of confidence going into the future."

Nielsen takes new role with South Australia

Tim Nielsen will be casting his eyes over young
South Australian players in his new role

Tim Nielsen will switch his focus to developing young cricketers in his home state of South Australia after quitting as coach of the national team. Nielsen will head up the newly-created Emerging Redbacks Program, which will allow him to return home to Adelaide nearly a decade after he left to become an assistant to John Buchanan with the Australia side.

Nielsen, 43, spent four years as Australia's head coach before he stepped down this week, following the successful Test tour of Sri Lanka. The South Australia coach Darren Berry said Nielsen would provide invaluable experience in his new role, in which he will lead a high-level academy-style program aimed at preparing players for state cricket.

"Tim has clearly travelled the world and coached at the highest level, so to have him involved is going to be another string to our coaching bow," Berry said. "With Jeff Vaughan, Joe Dawes, myself and now Tim Nielsen we believe we have got the best coaching panel in first-class cricket in the country. I can't emphasise enough, how delighted I am that Tim has decided that this is the role that he'd like to take up."

The new program is the brain-child of Jamie Cox, the South Australian Cricket Association director of cricket, who as a national selector has worked closely with Nielsen over the past four years. Cox said he was thrilled that Nielsen had decided to rejoin the SACA.

"I have had a close association with Tim during his time in charge of the Australian team and I have always greatly admired his energy and passion for coaching," Cox said. "We are clearly delighted that the timing of our search for a head coach for the Emerging Redbacks Program has enabled such a high quality candidate to be attracted to the role."

A former wicketkeeper-batsman who played for South Australia for ten years, Nielsen moved into coaching after retirement and began as an assistant with the Redbacks. He was head coach at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane from 2005 to 2007, when he replaced Buchanan at the helm of Australia's side.

Bennett out of Zimbabwe series

Hamish Bennett picked up his third injury in a year

Hamish Bennett, the New Zealand fast bowler, will miss next month's tour of Zimbabwe due to a sore back.

A lower back soreness has put Bennett out of contention. "It seems like the trouble is muscular, the scans show nothing. I've just got to stop bowling for a few weeks and become pain-free, then I can resume gradually again," Bennett was quoted as saying in theDominion Post. "It's really frustrating obviously but could be a lot worse, I guess. Things should settle down fairly quickly, I'm told."

"Unfortunately injuries are just part and parcel of being a fast bowler. I'm just due for a better run and hope I can get that over the remainder of the season."

Bennett, 24, has had a string of injuries since his surprise elevation to the national side last year. He suffered a groin strain on the opening day of his Test debut in India, ruling him out of the series. Earlier this year, an ankle injury put him out of the second half of New Zealand's run to the semi-finals in the World Cup.

Injured Southee out of Champions League Twenty20

A knee injury has ruled out Tim Southee
from the Champions League Twenty20

Tim Southee, the New Zealand and Chennai Super Kings seamer, will miss the Champions League Twenty20 after injuring his knee. He was supposed to join the Chennai team this week but will remain in New Zealand to undergo treatment.

"Tim has suffered some cartilage damage to his left knee while preparing for the Champions League.," John Buchanan, the New Zealand director of cricket, said. "He requires further assessment to determine the seriousness of the injury but initial signs indicate that he is unlikely to require surgery.

"He will undergo a period of intense rehabilitation and attempt to return to training shortly." Whether or not he will be available for New Zealand's tour of Zimbabwe next month will be made known later, Buchanan said.

Southee won the ICC Twenty20 Performance of the Year award for his spell of 5 for 18 against Pakistan in Auckland. He has picked up 74 wickets in 59 Twenty20 matches at 23.05 but has been expensive, conceding 8.07 runs an over. He'd been in good form of late in Twenty20 cricket and took 6 for 16, including a hat-trick, for Essex against Glamorgan in the Friends Life T20 in July.

Chennai, the defending champions, play their first Champions League game on September 24.

Ricky Ponting to miss second Test

Ricky Ponting played in his 100th Test win
in Galle, but will miss the second Test

Ricky Ponting's 100th Test win arrived in the nick of time to allow him to fly home for the birth of his second child, which will rule him out of the second Test starting in Kandy on Thursday. The reserve batsman Shaun Marsh is set to make his debut, while David Warner, previously seen as a Twenty20 specialist, will join the group as a standby player.

Ponting's wife Rianna is pregnant and medical advice that the birth was imminent had Ponting booked to board a plane home hours after the tourists completed a 125-run victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle. Ponting will remain at home for about a week and is hoping to be back in time for the third Test.

"Rianna had another scan on Tuesday and the doctor believes it's going to be [due] in the next few days, so I've been keen to get this Test match over pretty quickly and get a flight out tonight," Ponting said. "I'll then get back Sunday night, so I'm pretty sure the little one will come a couple of days after I've got back hopefully.

"Hopefully the baby comes in the next couple of days and hopefully I'll be around for a few days and hopefully be able to get them out of hospital and be back in time to get prepared to play the third Test. As the tour's worn on, one thing I didn't want to do if at all possible was miss the birth, and Rianna's started to struggle a little more the last few days so she just needs me home at the moment."

Reflecting on his feat in becoming the first man to participate in 100 Test wins, Ponting said each victory had gained in significance for him as the Australian team began its transition from an all-conquering unit to the battling group of 2011.

"You always do [appreciate them more], yeah," Ponting said. "My proudest moment as captain was walking off the field in Durban [in 2009] when we beat South Africa over there. That was with a very young team. That was the proudest moment of my captaincy, and I think Michael [Clarke] will say something similar now.

"Michael's played in a lot of Test wins as well, but take away the fact this was his first Test as captain, I think anytime you teak a young team onto the ground and you can win a game I'm sure it's something we can all be proud of. It goes to show things aren't all doom and gloom in Australian cricket, and if we play the way this group knows it can play I'm sure we'll be competitive over the next few weeks as well.

"It's been a great week for this team, for us to eke out as many runs as we did in the first innings set the game up for us, but a lot of good things have happened this week, not just my thing, Michael's first Test as captain, and a couple of the debutants playing a big role in the result as well. It's been an enjoyable week."

Clarke's tribute to his predecessor was warm.

"We just had a toast in the changing room and I think there was about eight or nine of us that it's their first Test match win, that includes support staff, and for Punter it's his 100th," Clarke said. "It's a very special victory for Punter. I think the one thing I've always said is a great player is determined by his longevity and Ricky's played a hell of a lot of Test cricket, scored a hell of a lot of Test runs and captained a hell of a lot of Test victories as well.

"He's an amazing player. His bowling wasn't even too bad yesterday."

Cox quits as Australian selector

Jamie Cox (right) was the selector
on duty at The Oval in 2009

Jamie Cox has cleared the way for a complete overhaul of Australia's selection panel by standing down and declaring he will not reapply for the role of part-time selector. Cox's decision means that all four of the Australian selectors who picked the side during last summer's disastrous Ashes campaign have now moved on.

The Argus report last month recommended a five-man selection panel with a full-time chairman, a move that ruled Andrew Hilditch out due to his business commitments, while there will also be no place for the national talent manager, Greg Chappell. The fourth selector, David Boon, had already quit during the off-season to become an ICC match referee.

Cox spent nearly five years as a selector, but it was far from a successful tenure. He was the selector on duty at The Oval in 2009, when he was responsible for leaving Nathan Hauritz out of the side on a dry pitch that proved to be of great assistance to the spinners; Graeme Swann took eight wickets in the match and England's victory meant they won the Ashes.

Cox also faced criticism over a potential conflict of interest, as he juggled the selection role with his full-time job as South Australia's director of cricket. By declaring he won't reapply for one of the two part-time positions on the new selection panel, Cox has ensured Australia can make a clean break from the Hilditch era, although he will stay on until the new panel is appointed.

"There is a clear mood for change and I think it's time for a new panel to be given the opportunity set its own direction without links to the past," Cox said. "It has been a true privilege to serve Australian cricket in this role since the 2006-07 summer and whilst the transition from our era of dominance has been challenging, I leave the role strong in the belief that we have a terrific group of young men emerging, to lead Australia back up the Test cricket rankings."

Cricket Australia's new selection panel, which will include the captain and coach, won't be confirmed until after the appointment of a general manager of team performance, a new role that will be created as a result of the Argus report.

I've lost nine kilos from not eating - Meth

Keegan Meth: "At first, I didn't know where it had hit me.
But then, I looked down and saw blood, and I could hear
someone saying, 'Here's one of his teeth'."

Two days after Keegan Meth had four teeth knocked out in the fifth ODI against Bangladesh on August 21, he logged onto his Facebook account. He had 380 friend requests and they were all from Bangladeshis who were concerned after Nasir Hossain had hit the last delivery of the innings straight back at Meth, who, in his follow through, copped it in the mouth.

"That ball could have gone anywhere on the field, but it picked my mouth," said Meth during the second day of the lone Test between Zimbabwe and Pakistan in Bulawayo. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, but it's part of the game and I just have to think of a way to get over it."

The 18 stitches Meth had on the inside of his mouth were removed on Friday, but it will still be weeks before he can have the necessary surgery to replace the teeth. "We have to wait for my lip to heal and then the implants can be put in," he said. "But I started training today - running and that sort of thing."

It may seem too soon for Meth to be back on the park, but he wants to move past the incident as soon as possible. He shows no hesitation when talking about it. He can recount most of it fluently and does not blame himself, or anyone else, for the accident. "I just didn't pick up where the ball went and then, at first, didn't know where it had hit me. But then, I looked down and saw blood, and I could hear someone saying, 'Here's one of his teeth'. The fourth umpire on the radio said I was bleeding on the pitch and had to get off."

Meth was taken to hospital, where he got stitches, and returned to the ground later that day although he did not bat. The teeth he lost were at the front of his mouth and it resulted in him not being able to eat for five days, surviving on liquids. "I've lost nine kilograms from not eating, so I have to work to get some of that back." He is now able to get solid food to the back of his mouth and chew from there.

It's a massive setback for a young man who was trying to cement a spot in the national team and Meth is down that he will play no part in the ongoing series against Pakistan. Elton Chigumbura's knee injury meant that the allrounder's spot was up for grabs in the Test, a role that Meth could have filled. "I'm very disappointed, especially because I missed out on the first Test and I thought I had done enough to play there," he said. "But I can't be too upset, this was a freak accident and I'm going to try and be ready for the New Zealand [Test] series in November."

Meth says he is "not too bothered" that he may always be known as the man who got hit in the mouth and is quite proud that the YouTube video of the incident has been viewed almost 180,000 times so far. "I actually want to say thank you to everyone who has sent me messages, there's been a lot of concern shown for me."

Queens Sports Club, Meth's home ground, has been a snakepit for the allrounder in recent times. Earlier this year, he had a head collision with Bradley Staddon in a Logan Cup match when both men were going for a high catch. Meth was concussed and out of the game for a week. "Yes," he said, "My home ground has been a bit of shocker."