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Former Australia captain Mark Taylor, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Holding, the ex-West Indies fast bowler, are among the people who will form part of the ICC’s newly-constituted cricket committee. Also included are Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel, chief ICC match referee and former Sri Lanka captain Ranjan Madugalle and Craig Wright, the former Scotland captain.The new structure is designed to be representative of all interests in the modern game and replaces the previous set-up which was made up of the nominated representatives from each of the Full Members (boards and players) and leading Associates.The new 13-member committee, which will meet for the first time on May 30 and 31 in Dubai, will be chaired by ex-India captain Sunil Gavaskar, a World Cup winner in 1983. It will also feature recently appointed Western Australia coach Tom Moody, another player to enjoy World Cup success – with Australia in 1987 (as a squad member) and 1999 – and someone who coached Sri Lanka to the final earlier this year.The ICC executive board, which previously approved the recommendation of the chief executives’ committee (CEC) to amend the structure of the cricket committee, approved the personnel set to sit on it at its meeting in Cape Town in March.The remit of the cricket committee is to discuss and consult on any cricket-playing matters and to formulate recommendations to the CEC which relate to cricket-playing matters.The committee (and the interests from which its members are drawn) will be made up of the following people:Chairman – Sunil Gavaskar (former India captain and opening batsman and World Cup winner in 1983)Past players (2) – Ian Bishop (former West Indies fast bowler) and Mark Taylor (ex-Australia captain)Representatives of current players (2) – Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka captain; Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman, was the original nominee for this position but he is unavailable due to commitments playing county cricket in the UK) and Tim May (ex-Australia offspinner, World Cup winner in 1987 and now CEO of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations)Full Member team coach representative (1) – Tom Moody (former Sri Lanka coach)Member Board representative (1) – Duleep Mendis (former Sri Lanka captain and now SLC Chief Executive)Umpires’ representative (1) – Simon Taufel (member of the Emirates Elite Panel and named Umpire of the Year three times in a row at the ICC Awards)Referees’ representative (1) – Ranjan Madugalle (ICC chief match referee and former Sri Lanka captain)Marylebone Cricket Club representative (1) – Keith Bradshaw (took over as the MCC’s Secretary and Chief Executive in October 2006 in succession to Roger Knight; former first-class cricketer for Tasmania in Australia. MCC is the custodian of the Laws of Cricket)Statistician (1) – David Kendix (a statistician/scorer and the man responsible for the creation and development of the LG ICC Test and ODI Championships and nominated by the ICC to sit on the committee)Media (1) – Michael Holding (former West Indies fast bowler and now part of the commentary team for Sky Sports in the UK)Associate representative (1) – Craig Wright (former Scotland captain)Commenting on the change to the cricket committee, ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said: “It is excellent news that both the new structure and the make-up of the committee have been approved. The game of cricket now has at its disposal a group of outstanding cricket brains covering all aspects of the game and with their collective input we will be able to ensure that, moving forward, a strong sport is able to grow even stronger.”Simon Taufel said: “The Emirates Elite Panel of umpires is very pleased to have representation on the cricket committee and be able to have input into how the game is structured at the highest level. There is an enormous amount of cricket experience on the Elite Panel of umpires and we hope to be able to contribute in a positive way to improving the game for all participants and spectators.”Michael Holding, who has already sat on an ICC panel of experts that examined the issue of illegal bowling actions, said: “If the ICC believes I can make a contribution to the committee then I am delighted to take part as I am always happy to be involved in anything that is for the betterment of the game.”Details of the committee’s agenda and of the meeting itself will be announced in due course.

Ethan Dube, on of Zimbabwe’s leading administrators, has quit as chairman of the Matabeleland Cricket Association, citing “confusion” in the structure of the game.Dube has been at loggerheads with Peter Chingoka and the interim Zimbabwe Cricket board, and in March he was one of the senior administrators who wrote to the ICC explaining their major grievances with the way the sport was being run. That letter was effectively ignored.”All structures have collapsed,” Dube told Zimbabwe’s Independent newspaper. “I do not want to be associated with that confusion. Cricket in Zimbabwe is in a sad state. The level of destruction has been alarming. We have lost our best players and our best administrators. This doesn’t bode well for Zimbabwe cricket.”Dube, a former national selector, became Matabeleland’s chairman last year when Ahmed Esat left for the USA. But his tenure has coincided with the collapse of the domestic game, and in March most of Matabeleland’s senior clubs split from Zimbabwe Cricket and decided to form their own breakaway league.”So many things have happened that we do not know what normal is anymore,” Dube said. “Domestic cricket has collapsed. Development programmes have gone to waste. Right now there is not even a first-class competition although we keep being told that it will be played before the end of the year.”The Logan Cup, which has been played for more than a century, has not been staged this season, although a Zimbabwe Cricket spokesman insisted that this would be held when the West Indies tour was over.”We need to sort out domestic structures,” Dube insisted. “We need to get back the players we have lost if we are to have any respectability on the international stage.”Elsewhere, as revealed by Cricinfo last week, Themba Mkhosana, ZC’s general manager, has also quit only a few months after returning from England where ZC had paid for him to study for a sports management degree.It is thought the ZC interim board initially refused to accept Mkhosana’s resignation, although ZC declined to comment when asked.

Stuart MacGill leaves the field with a torn calf muscle © Getty

It will be another 24 hours before a conclusive appraisal can be made on the injuries that Stuart MacGill and Jason Gillespie have picked up during the first Test at Perth. Both will be monitored closely to assess their availability for the second Test, which starts in Sydney on Friday.Errol Alcott, the Australian team physiotherapist, said, “Given the nature of the injuries and the short amount of time between matches, it is concerning, and I guess that puts a cloud over their availability for Sydney. With Jason Gillespie, he felt a degree of discomfort early in yesterday’s second innings. He wanted to keep bowling, he wants to bowl today, but scans have revealed that his grunt [sic] muscle is strained, so in the interests of his longer-term future, we need to hold him back.”Gillespie said it was another injury at a time when he felt the ball was coming out nicely. “I understand the need to take a cautious approach to this injury because it has set me back in the past,” he said. “I will do whatever it takes to get things right prior to the second Test, and I guess we will have a better idea as to how the injury is going over the day or so.”Alcott said MacGill had experienced sharp pain while he was bowling. “The calf is torn, which is a genuine concern considering it is his set-up and landing leg. We will treat him and assess his progress over the course of the next 24 hours.”Australia’s squad for the second Test is expected to be announced at 11am tomorrow (Sydney time).

The new cover featuring Australian captains past and present, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting© John Wisden and Co.

Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, has been named as the Leading Cricketer in the World by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, whose 141st edition is published on Thursday, April 8.Ponting is the first recipient of the new Wisden accolade, started as a counterpart to the traditional Five Cricketers of the Year award, which dates back to 1889. This year’s Five Cricketers include two Englishmen – Andrew Flintoff of Lancashire and England, and Chris Adams, the Sussex captain – two South Africans – Graeme Smith and Gary Kirsten – and the Australian Ian Harvey.No-one can be among the Five more than once and, with the arrival of the new honour, the Five are once again being chosen on the time-honoured criterion “influence on the English season”.But the Leading Cricketer award can be won an unlimited number of times. The almanack has also named The Wisden Forty, including Ponting and his 39 nearest rivals, based on their form in 2003. The list includes 14 Australians, seven South Africans, five Indians, four Pakistanis, three Englishmen – Flintoff, Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan – three Sri Lankans, two New Zealanders and one each from West Indies (Brian Lara) and Zimbabwe (Heath Streak).Ponting shares the cover with his predecessor as Australian captain, Steve Waugh. This follows Wisden’s first-ever pictorial cover in 2003, which featured Michael Vaughan. This year, the front has been redesigned to re-incorporate the famous woodcut by Eric Ravilious. Readers who object to pictures on the cover (or to Australians) can write off to Wisden for a picture-free version.The Notes
Wisden’s Notes by the Editor, cricket’s traditional fire-and-brimstone annual sermon, breaks with precedent by praising the game’s administrators. Matthew Engel – returning as editor after three years’ absence, spent mainly in the US – says “the game has been better run for the past few years than at any time in history”.But Engel then attacks both the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over the current crisis involving Zimbabwe and the Champions Trophy tournament, scheduled to be held in England in September.Describing Zimbabwe as a “wretched tyranny”, he says the majority of cricketing countries will earn “the contempt of thoughtful individuals across the globe” if sanctions are invoked against England for refusing to tour there. But he adds that the English position has been “incoherent and inconsistent” and says the ECB’s plans for the Champions Trophy look like producing something “between a squandered opportunity and a total fiasco”.

Mike Atherton – critical of the county game© Getty Images

Engel points out that the competition is due to go on almost until October – far later than any major cricket has ever been staged in England – and that the final will be at The Oval rather than Lord’s. Even The Oval will not be properly ready: it is being rebuilt for the 2005 Ashes. He adds that the England team will be “knackered” after a non-stop six-month programme, thus endangering any prospect of a home win to build popular support for the game.Engel also criticises the ECB’s domestic opponents, the Cricket Reform Group, headed by the former England captains Mike Atherton and Bob Willis. After analysing their manifesto, which proposes a greater emphasis on club rather than county cricket to produce England cricketers, he concludes: “I am gobsmacked that Mike and Bob expect English cricket to be more competitive by becoming more amateur.”The Articles
The lead article of Wisden 2004 is a graceful tribute to Steve Waugh, the most successful Test captain of all time, by the former England captain Nasser Hussain. Another ex-captain, Mike Atherton, profiles Graeme Smith as one of the Cricketers of the Year.The other articles all add to the long tradition of Wisden as a repository for some of the best writing in sport. They cover such subjects as the future of wicketkeeping, Over-Forties in Test cricket, the role of players’ agents and a comparison of the lives of footballers and cricketers. (“I reckon the only advantage they have over us is that their game lasts 90 minutes not five days,” says Graham Thorpe, the former England Schools midfielder and current Test batsman.)There is a tribute to Sussex, the county champions, by their former captain, and trenchant journalist, Robin Marlar. The weatherman Philip Eden shows that 2003 was not quite such a long, hot summer as people believe. This year’s book reviewer is Barry Norman, who chooses No Coward Soul, the biography of Bob Appleyard, by Stephen Chalke and Derek Hodgson, as his book of the year.The Round the World section includes reports from inside one of Saddam Hussain’s palaces on the Baghdad Ashes (four for the first landing of the marble staircase, six for the second landing), from the salt plains of East Timor and the lava fields of Rwanda, where the players learned about volcanic bounce the hard way. The Chronicle section reports on Darren Gough’s debut in The Beano and on the player who missed most of the season after breaking his collarbone – in the fathers’ sack race.And Wisden also attempts to answer the one cricketing question the book has never tackled before: What

Overcoming the disappointment of their early exit from the World Cup and switching back into Test mode will be the key to New Zealand’s hopes of holding their Test ranking of No 3 in the world in their forthcoming Test series with Sri Lanka.The side leaves for the Test leg of the series next week, and will be going without stalwarts Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan and Chris Cairns. Astle is having surgery on a long-standing knee problem, McMillan has been dropped for this tour and Cairns is available only for the One-Day International tri-series after the Test matches.That third ranking is important to the Kiwis, it is not a position that has often been their property in the past, even in the unofficial rankings before the implementation of the ICC Test Championship.”Everyone else refers to it so we have to and we want to hold onto the third position which I think we have deserved over the last two years,” New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming says.With all the emphasis on one-day cricket this summer in preparation for the World Cup, New Zealand has been starved of Test action, playing only two Tests over the summer.That has made life tough for Test match specialists like opener Mark Richardson who only really picked up his best batting form in the latter stages of the domestic season, this despite playing some key innings in the Test series victory over India.Fleming said there would be no problem getting prepared for the Sri Lankan series after the disappointments of the World Cup.Just like falling off a horse really, the best medicine is to get straight back on.”There was a disappointing feeling after the Cup but the best medicine is to get back into it straight away. The challenge of the Tests is what I am looking forward to in Sri Lanka,” he said.Fleming enjoys touring Sri Lanka and recalls the success he had during the last Test tour when hitting his highest Test score of 174 not out.”Winning the first Test is crucial in a two-Test series and we will have to go hard for that.”We will have to soak up the pressure in their conditions and they will be very tough Tests,” he said.The Test series is an important one for many reasons. New Zealand has a winter off this year, but once the summer of 2003/04 starts it is all on in a big way.It has a tour to India and then the two home series against Pakistan and South Africa before a tour to England. Somewhere along the way the missing Test against Pakistan from that disrupted by the bomb which forced New Zealand home from Karachi last may has to be fitted into the calendar as well.Depth is lacking in some areas, especially the opening role and also in spinning. The spinning lack is probably the longest-standing problem in the New Zealand game. From the days through the 1970s and 1980s, when every New Zealand province had at least one quality spinner, the situation has deteriorated badly.Various methods have already been tried to improve the situation and another is to be tried on this tour with two promising young spinners, left-armer Bruce Martin and off-spinner Jeetan Patel being taken along for the ride to get some exposure to the international scene, and no doubt to do a lot of bowling in the nets.Their involvement is seen as part of a longer-term initiative, the finer points of which are still to be worked out.Off-spinner Paul Wiseman has been included for the tour despite some unconvincing performances in the New Zealand domestic season.But Fleming says Wiseman has experience of Sri Lankan conditions and he expects him to relish the opportunity the tour provides to shore up the spin-bowling options in the New Zealand side. He does come off some lengthy match bowling having sent down 63.2 overs in Canterbury’s last State Championship match against Central Districts this year. His reward was one wicket for 165 runs.Adding to the concern in the spin department is the relative lack of use of key spinner, left-armer Daniel Vettori.He had been hamstrung by the pitches that have been provided in New Zealand over the last summer, and on the portable pitches in the first and third Tests against England last summer.While Fleming looked to attack with him as often as possible, it was a fact that the wickets the side had been playing on had not allowed the opportunities.”You have to keep looking at the wickets, and the figures of the domestic cricketers are just the same.”The return of Matt Horne should strengthen the batting options at the top of the order while Fleming’s Wellington team-mate Richard Jones should bring a strength of attitude when he gets the chance.Going on tour without the support in talent and experience that Astle, McMillan and Cairns offered him did make for tougher going for Fleming but he said their absence provided chances for Horne, Mathew Sinclair and Jones.The extra responsibility that will go on Fleming would be significant and his recent run of form could be just what he needs to set the pace from the front. He has been happy with his form of late, and there has been a sense of reward for the work he has put in. But there is still more he wants to do, and that has to be encouraging.The tri-series with Sri Lanka and Pakistan will offer more opportunities for New Zealand to address their shortcomings in the one-day game.Fleming commented that it is the lack of opportunity for the one-day side to play together, with all its key performance elements, as often as possible that has been one of reasons for the side not achieving a level of consistent success since he has been captain.There was also a need for a greater understanding of the game and learning to apply the lessons of defeat at the right time when opportunities arose.Chopping and changing of players, especially in the twin areas of concern, opening the batting and the bowling at the death, had not helped this development.On this occasion Chris Nevin, a controversial omission from the World Cup team as an opening batsman, had the chance to stake a more permanent claim in the side while Horne was another who had plenty to offer.The problem with settling the issue of bowling at the death was that it was really a skill that was acquired as the result of experience at bowling in tight situations.Shane Bond still represented a chance in that role, although he had been used in the World Cup to try and polish off sides earlier. But Daryl Tuffey, Andre Adams and Ian Butler were others who could have a role to play.There are still plenty of questions to be asked, and answered, for the New Zealanders but Sri Lanka represents a significant opportunity for some players, and the success of the tour may depend on how well they take them.

Having been declared winners on a better run rate in a rain affectedmatch on Thursday, West Zone lost a match the same way on the secondday of the Inter-Academy cricket tournament for the Col. Hemu AdhikariTrophy in Bangalore on Friday.West Zone had got the better of North Zone in the group B match on theopening day. Today at the Central College grounds, Central Zone weredeclared winners on a better run rate.Winning the toss, Central Zone were all out for 212 off 49.5 overs.The final total constituted a good recovery for Central Zone had lostfive wickets for 86 runs. MV Surendra Singh (60) and wicketkeeper NVOjha (28) initiated a rally by adding 50 runs for the sixth wicket off10.3 overs. The momentum was maintained with Surendra Singh and AfrozKhan (12) putting on 48 runs for the seventh wicket from 6.4 overs.Surendra Singh who faced 68 balls and hit seven fours, was eighth outat 193 in the 47th over. KR Adhav was the most successful bowler withthree for 46.West Zone lost two wickets for 29 but their hopes were revived by athird wicket partnership of 56 runs between opener SO Kukreja (30) andRK Solanki (18). Thereafter however wickets fell at regular intervalsand a valuable unbeaten 34 by VA Indulkar who hit three boundariesproved to be in vain. Central Zone conceded 35 extras but were stillable to get two points as West Zone were reduced to 160 for nine off43.3 overs. Rain halted the match at 4.21 pm and it was called off at4.45 pm. SK Shulka who caused most of the damage late in the inningstook three for 37 off ten overs.

Rangers starlet Rory Wilson has ‘knocked back’ a historic contract offer from the club, according to Football Insider.

The lowdown

16-year-old Wilson, billed a ‘wonderkid striker’ by FI, has already racked up 40 goals this season. The Daily Star’s Chief Sports Writer, Jeremy Cross, has called that an ‘astonishing’ tally.

And at international level, he’s also been prolific, bagging six goals in his first seven caps for Scotland’s Under-17 side.

Cross writes that Rangers are likely to receive only £300,000 in compensation if Wilson seals a move away.

The latest

The contract on the table is thought to be ‘the most lucrative first-year professional deal’ in Rangers’ history, FI report.

A source has revealed that the player and his family met for talks with sporting director Ross Wilson and manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who tried to ‘sell the club to them’.

But neither the offer nor the pitch were enough to win the player over, and he’s made it clear that he wants to leave Ibrox this summer.

It looks as if he’ll be joining a Premier League club amid ‘extensive interest’ from the English top-flight.

He’ll sign a scholarship deal at first before penning a potential contract with his new team when he turns 17.

This, FI say, will come as a ‘major blow’ to Van Bronckhorst and the Gers.

The verdict

Where could Wilson actually end up?

Well, Cross claims that three of the Premier League’s top six – Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United – have all been monitoring him.

Leeds United and Newcastle United could join them in fighting it out for his signature.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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If it’s any consolation for the Gers, arch-rivals Celtic are in a similar position with one of their ‘brightest academy prospects’ right now.

The Athletic’s James Pearce reports that Ben Doak, who is the same age as Wilson, has turned down a professional contract too as he seeks a move to Liverpool.

Both clubs are having trouble preventing youngsters’ heads from being turned.

In other news, there’s been a worrying injury blow ahead of the Old Firm.

Somerset 282 for 6 (Hildreth 98*, Gazzard 58, Phillips 4-43) beat Essex 278 (Bopara 91) by four wickets
ScorecardRavi Bopara sent the England selectors a timely reminder of his talents with a fine innings of 91 but Essex still fell to a four-wicket defeat to Somerset in the Pro-ARCH Trophy in Abu Dhabi.Bopara hit ten fours and a six during his 104-ball stay at the crease that was ended by a terrific stumping down the leg side by Craig Kieswetter off the bowling of Peter Trego. Essex were 93 for 4 at one stage before James Foster (40), Tim Phillips (41) and James Middlebrook (30) hauled them up to the respectability of 278 on a benign pitch at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.It was Somerset’s debut in the competition, having arrived in the Middle East without Marcus Trescothick on Saturday. But they hit the ground running with the bat and didn’t hesitate during the chase, even after falling to 151 for 5 with the required rate loitering around six per over.Trego (22) and Carl Gazzard (58) opened the innings superbly with an first-wicket partnership of 48 but after Phillips (4 for 43) had smashed through the middle order, Somerset’s aspirations of becoming the first team in the tournament to win a match batting second were only rescued by James Hildreth, whose unbeaten 98 not only clinched the match but will no doubt interest the England selectors as a sign of his growing maturity.Hildreth switched comfortably between nudger and blaster to steer Somerset home, enjoying the strong support of Omari Banks (27) and Steffan Jones (30*) but he was denied the century he so richly deserved when Jones thumped successive boundaries through extra cover off the bowling of Ryan ten Doeschate to seal victory with eight balls to spare.Defeat for Essex was their second in three nights, having also fallen to Lancashire, and they return to Sharjah for their final match in the PRO-Arch Trophy on Thursday, against Sussex.

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

Niall O’Brien edges behind to hand Muttiah Muralitharan’s first wicket © Getty Images

Ireland’s World Cup adventure ended with a chastening experience as they crumbled for 77 against Sri Lanka in Grenada. Farveez Maharoof took three wickets in an over and Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled the middle order before Sri Lanka raced home in 10 overs, leaving everyone with an early lunch.All ten Ireland wickets fell for 49 in 20 overs – 23 of those coming in a final-wicket frolic – as Maharoof and Muralitharan shared eight victims. A mark of the ruthlessness shown by the Sri Lankans is that this was an even more destructive performance than the Australians managed.But Ireland’s campaign has been highlighted by their spirit and excitement. They remained buoyant until the end – albeit an early one – as Boyd Rankin and Dave Langford-Smith finished their World Cup with a wicket apiece. Mahela Jayawardene, though, didn’t want to be back after dinner, finishing the chase with a flourish. His mind will already have switched to the semi-finals.After Jayawardene put Ireland in, the early overs lulled everyone into a false sense of security, while the start of Maharoof’s first over didn’t suggest the bounty that would soon come his way. Jeremy Bray dispatched the opening two balls to the boundary, a flick over square leg and a drive through cover, before being deceived by a slower ball, popping an off side drive.Ireland then changed the batting order, promoting Andre Botha to No. 3, but that experiment lasted two balls as he flashed outside off stump with no footwork. While Botha’s was a poor shot, Eoin Morgan couldn’t do much about his dismissal – a perfect line and length from round the wicket producing an edge, which Kumar Sangakkara pouched brilliantly low to his left with the ball almost behind him.Chaminda Vaas, back in the side after controversially missing the match against Australia along with Muralitharan, wasn’t at his best with the new ball, drifting into the pads too often, but Nuwan Kulasekara kept a tight line. William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien survived 10 overs before Maharoof struck again, Porterfield top-edging a pull to mid-on, but Ireland’s problems were only just starting. At the start of the 19th over Muralitharan – 447 ODI wickets, the Ireland team had 85 – took the ball and by the end of it had added two more scalps to his tally.

Farveez Maharoof began Ireland’s slide with three wickets in four balls © Getty Images

Ireland’s batsmen are not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, to be made to look foolish by Murali’s skills. Niall O’Brien edged a conventional offbreak and Kenny Carroll’s first World Cup outing lasted two balls before he swept and missed at a doosra. Muralitharan collected one of the easiest four-wicket hauls of his career as the lower order proved clueless against his variations.There was also time for Maharoof to show his fielding skills. Trent Johnston drove a ball back down the pitch, Maharoof dived in his follow through, picked up and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end. His day wasn’t quite faultless as he spilled Langford-Smith at deep square-leg and Langford-Smith brought out the long handle, swinging a maximum over deep midwicket and shimmying down the pitch to whip Muralitharan through the on side. It was a shot to tell the grandchildren about; the innings won’t be remembered quite so fondly.But the reputation of Ireland’s players has been unanimously lifted by their World Cup exploits, none more so than Rankin who now heads to Derbyshire to take up a county contract. He claimed his 12th tournament wicket when Upul Tharanga slashed to point in the opening over. Sangakkara drove a sharp catch to cover, one final chance for Langford-Smith’s distinctive celebration, before Jayawardene added the finishing touches in a stand of 56 off 41 balls with Sanath Jayasuriya. The one consolation for the Irish fans is a few extra hours to spend on the beach. Then it’s back on the plane and a return to their normal lives, with enough stories to last a lifetime.

Kevin Pietersen: shooting from the hip as the season begins © Getty Images

England’s injury crisis may be spreading from the winter into the start of the home season, but Kevin Pietersen is confident that the Ashes-winning team – which hasn’t played together since that momentous day at The Oval on September 12 – will be reunited on the field in the future. Michael Vaughan, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones all have injuries of varying seriousness, but Pietersen says they will be back.”I’m sure it will happen, I’m just not sure when,” he told reporters. “It is a worry but it gives opportunities to others and the guys who got a chance in India did really well. Owais [Shah] played well and Alastair Cook did well. They did fantastic jobs.”Now it is just the case of trying to get that Ashes team back on the field. Come November 23 in Brisbane we have to make sure we have a full-strength team to take on the Aussies.”The Ashes verbals, or probably more correctly, banter, considering how well the two teams get along, is already in full swing. In a recent interview with magazine, Matthew Hayden claimed how England are carried by Andrew Flintoff while Shane Warne, Pietersen’s team-mate at Hampshire, has not been shy at suggesting that England won’t be comfortable coming to Australia with the Ashes to defend.But Pietersen has never been one for listening to what other people say, whether it be barracking crowds in South Africa or confident Australians. He says the talk is nothing he didn’t expect and thinks it will only increase as the winter approaches.”I’ve heard that line about Freddie carrying the team before but you can name every player and they did a job for England in that series. It is probably the start of the banter they want to get going before the Ashes.”We know the Australian guys are great guys and we’re good mates with them, which means the series will be played in good spirits. We are just waiting for another Australian to make a comment now. It is all good banter adding to the build-up for what will be an amazing series.”And he was quick to get in a little jab of his own. “If it wasn’t for Shane Warne in that Australia team then we would have won the Ashes 4-1. He probably had a bigger influence on Australia than Freddie did on England.”Pietersen was speaking at the launch of Urban Cricket, a new joint initiative between the ECB and npower, the sponsor of England’s home Tests, aiming to distribute 60,000 cricket kits to youngsters around the UK. Pietersen – along with Charlotte Edwards, the England women’s captain, and the chairman of selectors, David Graveney – launched the event at a Peckham housing estate in South East London, accompanied by break-dancers that put even Pietersen’s quick feet to shame.The slogan for Urban Cricket is that ‘there are no rules’, a philosophy that Pietersen sometimes looks like taking when he dispatches the world’s best pacemen and spinners into the stands. His batting will be a vital cog in the England team this summer and he says he’s eager to get started.”Right here, right now, I’m as fit as I can be and raring to go. It’s been fantastic playing for Hampshire again and I can’t wait to get going with the internationals.” With England’s current injury catalogue mounting up that will be music to the selector’s ears.