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Reports in the weekend newspapers that a group called Keep Cricket Free were going to lobby the government to overturn the ECB’s TV deal with BSkyB have drawn a firm response from Richard Caborn, the sports minister.David Brooks, the former strategy director of Channel 4, set up the group in a bid to get the four-year exclusive contract reviewed, but Caborn made it clear that it was a non starter.”On Friday during the Oval Test this lad stopped me and said he had set up a website for Keep Cricket Free, and would I listen to him,” Caborn told The Daily Telegraph. “I will listen to anyone. But as far as the deal is concerned this is a commercial deal and there is no intention of the Government to intervene.”I am very supportive of cricket and all that the ECB have done. The deal the ECB have done is confidential and we do not know who bid what. But it is clear the terrestrial broadcasters did not bid enough, and the ECB had to do the best deal for cricket.”It was always extremely unlikely that the government would interfere in a private deal which satisfied both the ECB and the broadcaster, and had also been run past media regulator Ofcom before it was completed.

Scorecard

Tom Plant and Callum Ferguson were hanging on for South Australia as they faced the almost impossible assignment of batting for more than two days to force a draw against New South Wales at the SCG. Plant was unbeaten on 64 and Ferguson had 41 as they tried to restore some pride to a team that had fallen to 3 for 33 after being dismissed for 29 yesterday.Phil Jaques, who resumed on 154, cruised to his double century as New South Wales built the intimidating lead. Nathan Bracken, who took 7 for 4 on day one, was unbeaten on 34, five more than the Redbacks’ first-innings total.Shaun Tait collected four wickets for South Australia but was slightly expensive through 34 overs while Dan Cullen claimed two victims.

International Women’s Cricket Council TournamentYesterday’s reportIreland moved to the leading position in the International Women’s Cricket Council tournament being played in the Netherlands when they beat the Pakistan team by eight wickets yesterday. It was Pakistan’s first loss of the tournament.Ireland will now be favourites to take one of the two positions up for grabs at the next Women’s World Cup in South Africa in 2005. Ireland played at the last event in New Zealand in 2000.Pakistan scored 143 for 7 in their 50 overs with Zehmurad Afzal scoring 34 and Nazia Nazir 22. Barbara McDonald proved highly effective with her bowling by taking 1 for 13 from nine overs. Ireland reached 144 for 2 in 35.5 overs with Miriam Grealey scoring 61 not out and Catriona Beggs 35 not out.The Netherlands beat Japan by 301 runs after batting first and scoring 375 for 5 in their 50 overs. Pauline te Beest scored 143, the sixth-equal highest-score in women’s ODIs and an extension of the Dutch record she set with her 138 two days ago against Scotland. The total was the fifth highest in all women’s ODIs and bettered the Dutch record they set two days ago against Scotland. Caroline Salomons scored 60 and Helmien Rambaldo 46. Their winning margin of 301 runs is the fourth-highest in all women’s ODIs. Again the Scotland match was their previous highest with a 219-run margin while before that their best was 70 runs against the West Indies at Stoke-on-Trent in the 1993 World Cup. The 74 that Japan scored in reply was their highest innings to date.West Indies were untroubled in crushing Scotland. The hapless Scots were all out for 74 in 35 overs while West Indies scored 75 without loss in only 8.5 overs.

Match 9/15 P W L NR T Pts Net-RR For AgaIreland 3 3 – – – 6 +1.355 291/94.5 257/150Netherlands 3 2 1 – – 4 +3.333 800/150 274/137Pakistan 3 2 1 – – 4 +1.148 488/150 286/135.5West Indies 3 2 1 – – 4 +0.753 253/95.5 283/150Scotland 3 – 3 – – 0 -3.193 264/150 539/108.5Japan 3 – 3 – – 0 -4.599 162/150 619/109

Scattered India face tough task against South AfricaConnor Williams has now swung between two extremes in the littlematter of a week. He appeared a child of destiny when just one, orlet’s say two knocks put him on the plane to South Africa. The scriptseemed to be running the expected course when his seniors encouragedhim on the first two days of the nets and the word leaked he would beplaying the first Test, despite the Chatsworth wash-out. Standing in acorner while Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid practiced in the middleon Friday, he indeed cut a sorry figure. Openers are a dying breed inIndia. There were never many in the first place. A senior member ofthe side was spot on when he said the young openers must be given anextended run. “From pop-gun attack of home, you are suddenly put inthe firing line of the genuine quick bowlers. And then they get only afew Tests to play in a year.”

“The rest of the time, it is Sourav and Sachin opening the innings insome 40-45 one-day internationals per season. How does a young guygain in experience and confidence?”Indeed, the Test openers in India get international matches in fitsand starts only. Either you got to be patient with them or ask recordbreakers Ganguly and Tendulkar to make way for young openers in onedayers so they get more used to international fast bowlers. It is amalaise which befalls a lot of young Indian openers including oncehighly rated Wasim Jaffer of Mumbai. “He looked an extremely goodopener to me at one stage,” said legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar “Butlately I am not too sure of that.” Vinayak Mane is another youngsterwho has been shortlisted by those who matter as an opener with afuture.Wright has no doubt the success of openers will go a long way indetermining India’s performance in this series. A case in point is theHarare Test in Zimbabwe where Das had two partners in Hemang Badaniand Sameer Dighe in the two innings and both came a cropper. Theresult – India couldn’t chase even a score of 200-odd and lost thematch.

It has fallen on Rahul Dravid’s lot to shore up the sagging Indianship as its helmsman for the first Test. He is a team – man but nottoo inclined on opening the innings. His dilemma is understandable -he is well and truly established in the middle order and if hesucceeds, he might just be burdened with the job for many more Testmatches to come. He must be asked to produce the goods within hiscapacity and every issue of the team must not be laid in front of hisdoor.So we have a situation where a South African team is announced a weekin advance whereas the Indians are struggling to put their elevenliterally going into toss on the morning of the match. The wash-out atthe Chatsworth has been a body blow for the Indians. It was the onlygame they could have tried out the five new members flown especiallyfor the Test series. The sad part is, everyone knew there was littlepossibility of play at least a day before the match was set to roll.But neither the Indians tried too hard nor the KwaZulu-Natal Union,the cricket body under which falls the purview of Chatsworth body aswell, was keen to arrange a game for the visitors elsewhere in Durban.Indians did not protest aloud then and are now sulking in silence atthe lost opportunity for some time in the middle.Ganguly meanwhile has now received his new bats from a Meerutmanufacturer and it weighs more than 10 grams less than his 150-gramplus stick of willow for the one-dayers. Quite possible the Indiancaptain realises he would be peppered with short stuff and he musthave a light stick to move into position quickly in the Test series.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin will travel to the Midlands and is expected to play in Australia’s tour match against Derbyshire as he seeks to regain his place after standing down from the team for the Lord’s Test for family reasons.As Peter Nevill made himself at home in the XI who dealt out a 405-run hiding to England, Haddin spent parts of the match in hospital with his ill daughter, Mia. Nevill’s seven catches – a record for a wicketkeeper on Ashes debut – and 45 nifty runs were significant aids to Australia’s cause, but as the senior man, Haddin will be given the chance to press for his place.None of the vice-captain Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson or Josh Hazlewood will make the journey to Derby, allowed some time off in London after their exertions over the first two Investec Ashes matches. The coach Darren Lehmann said the tour match would be a factor in the deliberations he and the selection chairman Rod Marsh have about whether Nevill should stay or Haddin return.”Selection’s always difficult, so Rodney and I will have to sit down and work out which way we go,” Lehmann said. “We have to get Brad back playing cricket before we cross that bridge, if that makes sense. Just trying to work out what happens moving forward and hopefully he’ll be available for the Derby game.”Both Nevill and the allrounder Mitchell Marsh made strong contributions to a winning team, Marsh’s energetic batting and high impact bowling providing a marked contrast with the performance put on by Shane Watson in the first Test. Lehmann said the selectors were gratified by the way their changes had helped the side, and now looked forward to watching England face some of the harsh critiques directed the tourists’ way after their opening defeat in Cardiff.”It’s always tough to have those decisions to make, one forced and one unforced,” he said. “For us we were really pleased with both performances from Mitchell and Peter, I thought they did a really good job for us and injected some enthusiasm in the group, played really well and did their job, which was pleasing for us.”For us it was about doing a lot better job than we did in Cardiff, I was really pleased with the way the players turned that around really quickly in a short space of time. It’s a good thing for us to have that short break, they’ve got a bit more time to think about it,” Lehmann said.”The media gave us a pretty torrid time in Cardiff and fully deserved, we didn’t play well enough, it’ll probably be the same for them for a bit. For us it’s about getting on with the next game. We will have to play with the same intensity we had in this game, if we back that up then the result will look after itself.”Lehmann offered rich praise for Mitchell Johnson, who terrorised England on an unhelpful surface, and also gave a broad tick to the whole bowling attack. After two Tests they have picked up the full tally of 40 English wickets – take 100 over the five Tests and there will be little doubt as to the destiny of the Ashes.”He was brilliant today, bowled fast, I thought he bowled alright in Cardiff and bowled better in the second innings,” Lehmann said of Johnson. “He didn’t get the rewards he would have liked but he’s a great athlete to watch, we enjoy watching him when he’s on song. He’s had some difficult times in England in the past but he’s a different Mitchell Johnson you see playing for Australia now.”Our whole bowling group was fantastic, even Mitch Marsh and I thought Nathan Lyon bowled beautifully as well today and first innings. The whole bowling unit got us 20 wickets again, and we’ve done that for the last four Test matches, they keep finding a way, and that’s really important when you’re trying to win Test matches all the time.”

Big Picture: Can England stop the wheels falling off?

While some might say the point has already been reached at 3-0 down, there is a sense this tour could descend into chaos for England with the Ashes gone. The build-up to the Boxing Day Test has become dominated by continued fallout from their mid-series trip to Noosa, firstly with director of cricket Rob Key saying claims of too much drinking would be investigated and then, a few hours later, video emerging of Ben Duckett late at night.Captain Ben Stokes looked emotional when speaking to the media on Christmas Eve, saying that he will do everything in his power to protect his players. He insisted there was still the belief that they could take something from this tour, but stopped short of echoing Zak Crawley’s comments that 3-2 wouldn’t be such a bad scoreline.Related

• Australia prepare for life without 'shattered' Nathan Lyon

• A brave keeper, an unhappy bowler, and the genesis of an ingenious plan

• Stokes promises 'complete support' to embattled Duckett

If England can play as they did for the latter half of the Adelaide Test they may stand a chance against an Australia side that won’t be at full strength, although that was also the case in the first two Tests and still, to a lesser extent, last week given Josh Hazlewood hasn’t featured at all. Having not really answered a question about where this Australia side compares to others he’s faced when asked after Adelaide, ahead of the fourth Test, Stokes said: “I hope it doesn’t get lost, but this Australian team is very, very good.”Pat Cummins declared it “job done” after Adelaide with the Ashes retained, but while the major prize is secured, their drive is now for a whitewash and important World Test Championship points. In 2021-22 they were denied the 5-0 when England survived nine down at the SCG while in 2017-18 it was Alastair Cook’s double ton on a featherbed MCG surface that forced the stalemate. This team is looking to emulate 2006-07 and 2013-14 in sending England home with absolutely nothing.However, for Cummins himself, it is mission accomplished: he won’t feature in the remainder of the series with the decision made that there is no value in risking long-term damage to his back, after a remarkable comeback to bowl brilliantly in Adelaide after five months with no cricket.As in Brisbane, Australia will be without three of the big four but this time Nathan Lyon has been sidelined by injury rather than selection. However, they have opted against a like-for-like replacement, leaving out Todd Murphy in what will be an all-pace attack for the second time in the series. It could include Jhye Richardson for the first time in four years and there is a sense of the next generation getting closer to their moment.In terms of the Australia’s side post-Ashes, the most intriguing decision was around Usman Khawaja who scored 82 and 40 in Adelaide after a last-minute recall to replace the ill Steven Smith. That has been enough for him to keep his spot in the middle and his career could now play out on his terms. Australia will make more changes than England, but their adaptability and pragmatism has been a hallmark of this series.

Form guide

Australia WWWWW
England LLLLDJacob Bethell will return to the England side for the Boxing Day Test•Getty Images

In the spotlight: Jake Weatherald and Jacob Bethell

Largely by accident, Australia have stumbled across a new opening pair. Jake Weatherald and Travis Head have had two significant impacts together in the second innings in Perth and first in Brisbane. Weatherald played superbly at the Gabba for his tone-setting 72, but away from that the returns have been a little lean although he would have saved himself with the DRS in the second innings in Adelaide. The selectors will be desperate to stop the revolving door but Weatherald probably needs one more substantial score in this series to avoid months of speculation before Australia play Tests again in August.Is Jacob Bethell, who has yet to score a first-class century, really the next big thing in English batting? After pre-series talk that he may challenge Ollie Pope for the No. 3 spot the change has come with the Ashes gone after Pope’s increasingly underwhelming series to continue a year of diminishing returns. Bethell averages 28.27 in 26 first-class with his high score of 96 coming in a Test against New Zealand. He scored half-centuries in all three second innings of that series in 2024. His left-arm spin will provide another option for Ben Stokes alongside Will Jacks.Todd Murphy bowls in the nets•Getty Images

Team news: Australia delve into their depth, Pope dropped

For the second time this summer, and third occasion in the last five Tests, Australia will go all-pace with no place for Todd Murphy, although Steven Smith said he was a very good chance for Sydney. The final decision will come down to two out of Michael Neser, Brendan Doggett and Jhye Richardson. If the latter gets the nod it will be his first Test since the 2021-22 Ashes. For Neser, it would be his first red-ball Test. Meanwhile, Cameron Green has been demoted to No. 7 in the order amid a lean time with the bat. Khawaja will bat No.5 and the in-form Alex Carey continuing at No. 6.Australia (possible): 1 Jake Weatherald, 2 Travis Head, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Usman Khawaja, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Cameron Green, 8 Michael Neser, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Brendan Doggett/Jhye Richardson, 11 Scott BolandEngland have backed Ben Duckett amid the controversy of the last 24 hours but Ollie Pope has finally paid the price for his underwhelming returns with Jacob Bethell recalled to bat at No. 3. Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the tour with a side strain so Gus Atkinson returns to the pace attack. There remains no space for specialist spinner Shoaib Bashir.England 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Will Jacks, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Josh Tongue2:46

Is this the end of Nathan Lyon’s Australia Test career?

Pitch and conditions: Hoping for the perfect balance

Matt Page, the MCG curator, said he was hoping to replicate the surface which produced the gripping Test against India last season that finished deep on day five. On that occasion he left 7mm of grass with the surface offering something for everyone following a few years of it being very bowler-dominated but Steven Smith said there was still 10mm on as of Christmas Day and he expected plenty of assistance for the quicks. There will be a range of temperatures during the game: Boxing Day is set to be cool with things warming up to the low 30s later in the match. There is a chance of a shower on the first and last days.

Stats and trivia

• Harry Brook needs seven runs for 3000 in Tests. If he did it in his next innings, he would equal Denis Compton (57 innings) as the second-fastest for England. Ben Duckett needs 31 to reach 3000 runs.
• Only Adam Gilchrist, on four occasions, has scored more runs in a year as an Australia Test wicketkeeper than Alex Carey.
• Travis Head’s strike-rate of 90.63 is the highest for an opener in an Ashes series (minimum 100 runs)

Quotes

“Pumped to be back at the ‘G. I think, for me, getting towards the back end of my career, anytime I can play at the ‘G, and play the home Test is pretty special. So I’m really looking forward to the next week.”
“We still have a hell of a lot to play for. I’m very determined to leave Australia with something positive to look back on.”

Australian batsman Simon Katich will not be returning to Derbyshire next season after turning down a new offer with the club. He doesn’t feel he can commit to another 12-month cycle of cricket and wants to put his efforts into playing for New South Wales and aiming for an Australia recall.During the 2007 season Katich has already scored 1780 runs in all cricket, while also leading the side during another tough season where success has been hard to find and David Houghton, the director of cricket, left midway through the summer.”I have thought long and hard about this decision and it has been a difficult one for me to make,” said Katich. “I have never played two back-to-back full seasons of county cricket and being captain of both sides would make it very difficult because you can’t keep going at 100% the whole time.”Derbyshire’s new head of cricket John Morris said: “I am obviously disappointed that Simon feels unable to come back next year due to the fact that he still has ambitions to play for Australia. As I have said before, I would have loved the opportunity to work with Simon next year as I know how good a player he is.”He has never returned to England for a back-to-back second term with any of the other counties that he has represented in the past. Simon feels that if he is to achieve his ambition to one day play for Australia again, he needs to commit his future to New South Wales.”However, the club has agreed new two-year deals with Graham Wagg and Tom Lungley. Both players have passed 50 wickets for the first time in 2007, while Wagg has also provided useful late-order runs.Wagg was one-year into his current deal, but 51 wickets and 431 runs has persuaded the club to offer him a longer and improved deal.

Andrew Strauss took heart from England’s series-leveling win against Pakistan at Edgbaston yesterday and said his team had turned a corner in the right direction. “There’s a lot of fight there and a lot of belief,” he told reporters after the match. “It’s been a tough summer in one-day cricket but hopefully there’s some light there at the end of the tunnel.”Strauss believed his team’s back-to-back wins could inspire them to greater deeds: “If we can continue that over the course of this winter and beyond we could be a very, very good side.”England’s one-day summer had been dismal, with a 0-5 drubbing at Sri Lanka’s hands and two bad losses as the series opened up against Pakistan. But Strauss found comfort from England’s Test performances and the come-from-behind one-day wins. “I’m pretty happy with the way the summer has gone because it started off not so good and improved as it went on and that’s what you’re looking for,” he said. “Young guys are coming in and taking the opportunity and showing what they can do and playing with freedom. Hopefully we can continue that in the Champions Trophy.”On the tense, three-wicket win in the final match, Strauss was relieved that the tail was able to scrape through. “We made a bit of a mountain out of a molehill,” he said. “We shouldn’t have left it to the tail-enders to finish off the job. We bowled really well. Chasing 150 you should really do nine times out of 10.”Meanwhile, Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, admitted the ball-tampering row at The Oval had affected his side’s performance as they rounded off their tour on a losing note. “Coming back from a terrible week to play so well in four games – including the Twenty20 – took a lot of energy and it finally petered out,” he said. “There was no fuel left in the tank – it’s been a big emotional drain.”It was tougher to bat in the morning than the afternoon,” Woolmer added. “Saying that, we bowled beautifully and when suddenly we had a bit of a sniff of getting England out, the boys showed what they can do in those situations. We are disappointed because we had a pretty good chance to win the series. We played well in the Twenty20 and the first three one-dayers but failed to continue that. But we’re not going to make excuses and say we were tired after a long tour – England played the better cricket in the last two games.”

Scorecard

Faisalabad Wolves beat Chilaw Marians in the final of the inaugural International 20:20 championship, thanks to a captain’s innings of 45 from Naved Latif.The Wolves appeared to be coasting to their victory target of 133, as they reached 96 for 2 with little trouble, with Mohammad Hafeez stroking six fours in his 31 and Asif Hussain supported him well. But Nimesh Perara led the fightback for the Marians, dismissing Hussain, Ijaz Ahmed and Mohammad Salman in quick succession.Latif, like the chilly autumnal air, remained cool through to the end, striking a six to complete victory with eleven balls to spare. His bowlers had earlier restricted the Marians to a modest 132; only Perera demonstrated any fluency with some flamboyant strokeplay in his innings of 37. Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was the pick of the Faisalabad Wolves bowlers with 2 for 25 – and the Marians lost two further wickets to run-outs in the closing stages of their innings, as the Wolves applied the pressure.In the end, their total wasn’t enough, and Latif took the Pakistani side through to victory, collecting the Man-of-the-Match award and the winner’s cheque.Full report and photos to follow shortly

Thilanga Sumathipala, the former president of the Sri Lankan board, has reportedly acted as a mediator and brokered a truce between Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s captain, and Asantha de Mel, Sri Lanka’s controversial selection chief, after their angry public dispute during the Pakistan tour, according to the newspaper.De Mel, a former fast bowler, incensed Atapattu when he publicly criticised the team management and senior players for being "selfish" and undermining the selectors’ attempts to blood young players. The rift deepened when Tillakaratne Dilshan was surprisingly axed from the Test team despite averaging 36 since his return to Test cricket last year.The spat led to a complete breakdown in communication between the two, forcing Sumathipala – a key powerbroker in the Sri Lanka cricket scene, who has returned to the limelight having started to emerge from the humiliation of an immigration scandal – to intervene and organise a face-to-face meeting.Sumathipala met with de Mel on Wednesday at his private residence and arranged a meeting for Thursday. During that meeting, the Daily Mirror says Atapattu had explained how "certain [recent] selection decisions could undermine his status as captain" and made it difficult to win the full confidence of his players.A third meeting was arranged on Friday, to which Duleep Mendis, the board’s chief executive, also attended. The meeting apparently also touched on other issues, including the vice-captaincy, currently held by Mahela Jayawardene, which de Mel’s committee are in favour of handing to Chaminda Vaas. Atapattu, though, was given an opportunity to provide his input on the issue.Both Atapattu and de Mel agreed that the present bloated seven-man selection panel should be urgently trimmed back to the normal four-person committee. A special request is to be made to the Sports Minister, who appoints the selectors, to reduce the size of his panel.Atapattu is due to leave for a three-week break with his family at the weekend, but when he returns a major summit meeting of past captains, senior players and top officials is expected to put together a plan for the coming few years.