Bopara fills in for injured Trott

Essex's Ravi Bopara has been recalled to England's squad for the third Test against India at Edgbaston, starting on Wednesday, after Jonathan Trott failed to recover full fitness after landing heavily on his shoulder while fielding during last week's Trent Bridge Test.

Bopara, who played the last of his ten Tests against Australia in August 2009, was reportedly unlucky to miss out on selection against Sri Lanka earlier this season, after Eoin Morgan's 192 for the England Lions tipped the balance in his favour. He has been given his opportunity this time around, however, despite a strong challenge from the uncapped Leicestershire batsman, James Taylor, who made 98 for the Lions against Sri Lanka A at Scarborough on Friday.

"We have seen some very pleasing performances during the first two npower Test matches," said the national selector, Geoff Miller. "But there is still plenty more to do in this series and the squad and management will be determined to carry the momentum from recent weeks through to the remaining two Tests and push for a comprehensive series victory.

Also included in the 13-man squad is the Middlesex seamer, Steven Finn, who came in as cover on the eve of the Trent Bridge Test after Chris Tremlett succumbed to a back spasm. Though Tremlett is also retained in the squad, his replacement, Tim Bresnan, performed superbly in his absence, making a free-flowing 90 in England's second innings, and sealing the 319-run victory with career-best figures of 5 for 48.

"Ravi Bopara comes in for Jonathan Trott who is continuing his rehabilitation from his shoulder injury," confirmed Miller. "Chris Tremlett is recovering well from the back spasms that ruled him out of the second Test and although we are expecting him to be fully fit ahead of Wednesday we felt it was prudent to include an extra seam bowler at this stage meaning Steven Finn comes into the squad."

Bopara made just 25 and 19 in the England Lions game this week, but confirmed his current form with an impressive 178 for Essex against Leicestershire last week. If England persist with six batsmen, he is likely to slot into the middle order, while Ian Bell is Trott's probable replacement at No. 3 following his superb 159 in the second innings at Trent Bridge. Bopara had a mixed time at No. 3 in his last spell in the Test side. He made 143 against West Indies at Chester-le-Street, but then managed just 105 runs in seven innings in the Ashes.

England are currently riding high in the series, leading 2-0 with two Tests to come, and one more victory will guarantee they succeed India as the No. 1 team in Test cricket.

Squad: Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Matt Prior (wk), Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn.

Dravid announces limited overs retirement

Rahul Dravid has announced his retirement from international limited-overs cricket following the England series. In his announcement, which came hours after he was handed a shock recall to the one-day side for that tour, he said he wanted to retire from the shorter forms and concentrate on Test cricket.

Dravid, 38, is the seventh highest run-getter in ODIs, with 10,765 runs in 339 matches, averaging just under 40. He hasn't been a regular in the Indian one-day side since late 2007 - a couple of months after he reached his career-high ICC ranking of No. 5 - though he made a brief comeback during the 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa. He admitted he hadn't expected a recall for the upcoming England series.

"Since I had not been picked for one-day cricket for the last two years, I was obviously a little surprised," he said after India's tour match against Northamptonshire. "To be honest, because I had not been picked, I had not informed the selectors or the board of my desire to solely focus on Test cricket.

"At the end of this one-day series, I would like to announce my retirement from one-day and Twenty20 cricket and concentrate only on Test cricket. I am committed, as always to give my best to India in this one-day series and obviously the Test series that follows.

"In the short term I am committed because now I have been picked for the series, but in the long term I think it is best for me and Indian cricket that I focus on Test cricket."

Dravid recently became the second highest run-getter in Tests, and has had a resurgence in form over the past couple of months, scoring three centuries in five Tests to end a relatively lean run in the last few years.

When he started his international career in 1996, he was seen as a batsman more suited to the longer form but he soon adapted to the challenges of one-day cricket. Among the highlights of his ODI career was the 1999 World Cup, where he was the top scorer and put on the then largest partnership in a one-dayer, 318 with Sourav Ganguly. Six months later he bettered that with a 331-run stand with Sachin Tendulkar that is still the biggest in the format.

As in his Test career, he routinely fitted into roles the team needed him to, notably in the 2003 World Cup, where in order to accommodate an extra batsman in the side, he took over the wicketkeeping duties. One of the lows of his career was the 2007 World Cup, when under his leadership, India crashed out in the first round.

Collingwood commits to Durham

Paul Collingwood has ended months of speculation about a possible move away from Durham by signing a three-year contract that will commit him to Chester-le-Street until at least the end of 2014.

Collingwood's international career ended after he lost the Twenty20 captaincy following his retirement from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes and he had been the subject of a 28-day approach from Derbyshire in July, fuelling rumours that he may move on from the North East.

But having returned to form with Durham he said he was happy to stay at his home club.

"I'm a Durham lad through and through and I've really enjoyed being back in the dressing room with the guys," he said. "The club is ambitious and the quality of the team shows how committed we are to winning more silverware over the coming years and I want to be part of that - bringing more sporting success back to the North East."

Geoff Cook, the Durham coach, said, "We are delighted that Paul has decided to commit his future to Durham - he is a fantastic player with a great attitude and a real desire for the club to continue to move forward. He has consistently produced match-winning performances for us since his return to the side and to have him representing the club, on and off the field, is brilliant."

Vaseline cannot affect Hot Spot

The company behind Hot Spot, BBG Sports, has said the application of Vaseline to the edge of a bat has no discernible effect on the technology. A batsman would have to apply a whole centimetre of Vaseline to the edge of a bat for it to have any effect, the company told ESPNcricinfo.

 

 

A controversy over the system erupted when Michael Vaughan, the former England captain and now commentator, sent out a tweet that suggested India batsman VVS Laxman may have applied Vaseline to the edge of his bat, which helped him escape a caught-behind appeal on the second day of the Trent Bridge Test. England were convinced Laxman had nicked a James Anderson delivery, and though Snicko showed there was a noise as ball passed bat, Hot Spot did not show any deflection. Stuart Broad admitted to checking Laxman's bat and said he found nothing. Broad also said the England players were not convinced Hot Spot picked up faint edges

 

 

BBG Sports decided to undertake tests to see whether the cameras used for Hot Spot could be tricked by the use of artificial substances on the edge of the bat. They have now released a statement saying: "We have done testing over the past two days in our office and can conclude that putting Vaseline on the side of a cricket bat has no discernible effect on our Hot Spot system. Maybe if you were able to apply 10 millimetres [one centimetre] of Vaseline on the side of the bat it would make a difference but we believe that this would be near impossible to achieve."

 

 

Warren Brennan, the owner of Hot Spot, had previously said the device's accuracy was around 90-95% and could be impacted by factors like bright sunshine and the speed of the bat in the shot. He had also suggested at the time that there was a chance a substance like Vaseline could restrict the friction of the ball hitting the bat and therefore reduce the effectiveness of Hot Spot, but after conducting tests BBG have found that it would take too much Vaseline to have that effect.

 

 

The company will also conduct tests to see if stickers on the edge of a bat can possibly dull the heat created by a nick and thereby reduce its presence on the Hot Spot cameras. The technology providers however said their observations during the Trent Bridge Test were that Hot Spot did register contact with the bats that had stickers on them.

 

 

Hot Spot has been made a mandatory piece of technology for the DRS system following the ICC's meetings in Hong Kong last month, where it was also decided to make Hawk-Eye optional. The infra-red cameras have been especially effective at deciding bat-pad catches and whether a batsman has been hit pad first in an lbw appeal, although in the England-India series the DRS is not being used for any leg-before decisions.

 

 

There have been a number of occasions when Hot Spot has proved inconclusive in caught-behind decisions. During the last Ashes, Kevin Pietersen survived in Melbourne, which incensed Ricky Ponting, while in Sydney Ian Bell survived an appeal which Snicko - which isn't used with the DRS - later suggested was out.

Hot Spot to undergo testing





England were sure they had VSS

The company behind Hot Spot will undertake tests to see whether the cameras can be tricked by the use of artificial substances on the edge of the bat. There is a belief among players that Vaseline can reduce the chances of a thin nick showing up, although it has only ever been rumoured that such tactics are used.

Concerns about the effectiveness of Hot Spot came to the fore when VVS Laxman survived a caught-behind appeal on the second day at Trent Bridge. England were convinced there was an edge but Laxman was equally convinced he hadn't hit it. The third umpire said there was a noise but it wasn't clear from where. Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, sparked controversy by tweeting the suggestion of Vaseline and Stuart Broad was later asked and admitted checking the edge of Laxman's bat but finding nothing.

Warren Brennan, the owner of Hot Spot, has previously said the device's accuracy is around 90-95% and can be impacted by such things as bright sunshine and the speed of the bat in the shot. He now says that it is possible that a substance like Vaseline could reduce the technology's effectiveness and tests will be conducted to try to find conclusive results.

Tendulkar hits the middle,
as shown on Hot Spot

"I would imagine that Vaseline would restrict the friction of the ball hitting the bat so if you reduce the friction you are going to reduce the Hot Spot," Brennan told ESPNcricinfo. "That is pure and simple physics. From what I can remember, quite often the outside of the bat has a layer of some sort of coating.

"Now if you put extra layers on the bat that might do the same thing. As long as it is a harder type of surface then you will get the Hot Spot. But if it is a soft, absorbant type of material then that will probably reduce the friction. It might take us a week or even longer to test all possibilities."

The other theory is that bat stickers on the edge of a blade can also help reduce the chances of a Hot Spot showing up - by showing one, long heat signature down the side of the bat - but Brennan said it is likely to work the opposite way and actually increase the visibility of individual marks.

"What I noticed last week when I was at Lord's was these stickers down the side of certain players' bats," he said. "When I looked at it through the cameras it actually looked like a Hot Spot, four or five little white spots. That was quite unusual so it must have be some sort of logo or the sticker. Through the infra-red I could see those spots.

"I just don't know why a manufacturer would put it on the side of the bat that would make it look like a Hot Spot. I had this conversation with the ICC less than a month ago and told them that we are noticing some of these stickers tend to reflect heat a bit like a mirror. The ICC said if that is the case they might have to look changing the regulations so that the side of the bat does not have any advertising, no stickers and no logos. But that is still a work in progress."

There have been a number of occasions when Hot Spot has proved inconclusive in caught-behind decisions. During the Ashes Kevin Pietersen survived at Melbourne, which incensed Ricky Ponting, while at Sydney Ian Bell survived an appeal which Snicko - which isn't used with the DRS - later suggested was out.

Hot Spot has been made a mandatory piece of technology for the DRS system following the ICC's meetings in Hong Kong last month, where it was also decided to make Hawk-Eye optional. The infra-red cameras have shown themselves to be especially effective at proving bat-pad catches and whether a batsman has been hit pad first in an lbw appeal, although in this series DRS is not being used for any leg-before decisions.