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The ICC’s Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) has recommended that the Champions Trophy in September be shifted from Sri Lanka to South Africa following concerns over weather conditions in the island nation during that period. The ICC board is expected to take a final decision on the matter on Monday.

According to the ICC, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) were unable to provide a guarantee during a teleconference on Wednesday that there would be no rains in Colombo during the tournament which runs from September 24-October 5.”It was felt that it would be too great a risk to stage the tournament in Colombo at a time of year when there was a distinct possibility of rain,” Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, said. “This was especially relevant given the length of this year’s ICC Champions Trophy has been reduced to 12 days, part of our desire to make it a short, sharp event, as on that basis there would be no room for reserve days.”Lorgat, however, said the decision to recommend South Africa as the new host of the tournament was subject to agreement over various financial arrangements. Sources in the CEC told Cricinfo that if the ICC board approves the committee’s recommendation, Cricket South Africa (CSA) will then have to confirm whether they accept the event’s revenue model.”South Africa was a successful and excellent host of the ICC World Twenty20 at much the same time of the year, two years ago, and the weather pattern in the area around Johannesburg in September and October is stable and ideal for cricket,” Lorgat said.Duleep Mendis, the SLC’s chief executive, had on Tuesday said he was confident Sri Lanka would remain the event’s host as they did not expect heavy rains during the tournament.”We are extremely grateful for Sri Lanka Cricket’s willingness to step aside in this matter and for Cricket South Africa’s willingness to be considered as the host for the event,” Lorgat said.The Champions Trophy was originally scheduled to be held in Lahore and Karachi from September 12 last year but has since been subject to a series of revisions due to the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan and a packed international schedule. Sri Lanka, originally the reserve venue, was officially declared as the event’s host in January.

Victoria 5 for 366 (Jewell 83, Rogers 82, Hodge 79) v Tasmania
Scorecard
Points table

The leaders Victoria dominated Tasmania’s bowlers as they turned what should have been a difficult day into an impressive total of 5 for 366 at Bellerive Oval. Sent in on a pitch expected to suit the fast men, the Bushrangers negotiated all of the early problems and the top three of Chris Rogers, Nick Jewell and Brad Hodge registered half-centuries.There were no rewards for the second-placed home side, which holds a two-point lead over Queensland, until after lunch as Rogers and Jewell put on 165 to eliminate Tasmania’s advantage at the toss. Jewell had a stumping reprieve on 32 off Jason Krejza, who was brought on before the break in an effort to make something happen after the quicks failed.The numbers of the openers were similar: both faced 143 deliveries, Rogers scored 82 with 13 boundaries and Jewell gathered 83 with 15 fours. Rogers nicked Brett Geeves to Tim Paine a couple of overs before Jewell was run-out by Jonathan Wells’ throw from square leg.David Hussey, who was caught short at the bowler’s end on 44, was also a victim of a run-out with Hodge as his partner. Hodge was undeterred by the setbacks and made his way to 79 before giving Paine one of his three catches. Cameron White had 23 when Geeves got his second breakthrough, but by stumps there were still some problems for the hosts, with Rob Quiney on 34 and Matthew Wade 11 not out.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies middle-order batsman, is hoping his inexperienced team-mates “pull their weight” in the four-Test home series against England, which begins in Kingston on February 4.”I think the young fellows around are learning. [Brendan] Nash did well in New Zealand in the last Test match and we have other players like Xavier Marshall and Dale Richards. Hopefully all these guys can go out there and all pull their weight, because everybody has to pull their weight in all these games,” he was quoted by the . “I don’t know what is going to happen on Wednesday but we just have to go out and do our best. Hopefully we can all do well and win the game.”England have had tremendous success against West Indies this decade, and have won 10 of their last 12 Tests against them – the other two were drawn. England won the four-Test contest 3-0 on the previous visit, in 2003-04. “It is for us to come out on top in all the games because winning the series is the main focus now,” Chanderpaul said. “Starting ahead and staying ahead will be the main focus for us. I am hoping to go out there and do better than the last time they were out here.”Nash, who had scores of 74 and 65 in Napier Test against New Zealand, sounded optimistic ahead of his first home series. “I am looking forward to this home series because this is something I have waited for a long time and hopefully if given the opportunity, I would like to come out and play well for the West Indies.”I am still very new to Test cricket and one-day cricket and for me it is still a learning curve and hopefully I can continue on the good work I have done so far and keep working hard in the nets and whenever I get my opportunity, I will really try and grab it with both hands.”With not many changes made to the squad that drew the two-Test series in New Zealand 0-0, Nash said the mood was upbeat. “We are very confident because it has only been a few changes from the last Test squad and so we still have the nucleus from the last Test match in New Zealand. We are hoping that the experience that we have gained playing together can help us in this series.”

Scorecard
Points table

Andrew Symonds failed for the second time after Queensland sneaked ahead of Western Australia by gaining an 11-run lead on first innings. On another tense day at the Gabba, the Bulls were 4 for 110 at stumps with Symonds caught behind for 3, leaving his Sheffield Shield tally at 88 runs in four matches this season.Symonds is trying to prove his fitness for the Test tour of South Africa following knee surgery, but after scoring 5 on Friday he entered with Queensland at 2 for 19 and soon left in an angry mood. However, Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, did not seem too concerned by Symonds’ lack of batting time.”He’s failed in what are pretty difficult conditions with the new ball and most of the match has been played in these conditions, so we’re not reading too much into it,” Hilditch told AAP. “They’re good new-ball bowlers on a wicket that is giving a little bit so everybody is struggling to get runs.”Ryan Broad and Lee Carseldine moved Queensland away from the trouble but Broad’s dismissal late in the day for 39 kept the match delicately poised. Carseldine was unbeaten on 49 as the Bulls took a 121-run advantage in to the third day.The Warriors appeared to be headed for a significant total when Wes Robinson and Luke Pomersbach put on 143 to lift them from 4 for 30, but the Bulls hit back to shut them down for 236. Ashley Noffke’s run out of Pomersbach in his follow through started a slide of 6 for 63 after the Bulls were guided by Ryan Harris’ 4 for 60.Harris gained the first three wickets to start Western Australia’s problems, including two in his opening over of the second day, and returned to bowl Luke Ronchi. Chris Swan and Carseldine chipped in with two victims each while Noffke had Robinson caught by Harris at square leg. Robinson, the No. 3, earned his 78 while Pomersbach was much more comfortable during his 79, which included 14 fours and a six.

Match facts

Sunday, January 11
Start time 7.35pm (08:35 GMT)

The Big Picture

Can anything really live up to the Test series we’ve just witnessed between these two teams? Probably not. But the world’s two top-ranked limited-overs sides going head to head in a Twenty20 match in front of a likely crowd of more than 75,000 at the MCG should be a terrific spectacle in any case. Australia will be desperate for some strong performances to ease the pressure after losing their first home Test series in 16 years. South Africa have declared that they are treating this portion of their trip as a separate tour. Both teams are taking the opportunity to trial some fresh talent.

Twenty20 form guide

Australia – LWWLL
South Africa – WWLWL

Team news

Australia have rested Brad Haddin due to his heavy workload in the past month and Luke Ronchi will take up the position behind the stumps. Ronchi was excellent with both bat and gloves in the West Indies this year but his domestic batting form has been down this summer and a lower-order position is likely. Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson have also been given time off. Australia’s major decision was over which bowlers to include. They are keen to get some overs into Shaun Tait, while squad members Ryan Harris and Nathan Hauritz will have to wait until Tuesday at the Gabba for potential Twenty20 international debuts.Australia 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 David Warner, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 James Hopes, 8 Luke Ronchi (wk), 9 Nathan Bracken, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Shaun Tait.South Africa have named their starting line-up and there is no Hashim Amla, Neil McKenzie or Morne Morkel. Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Vaughn van Jaarsveld are set to make their international debuts, while all eyes will also be on Herschelle Gibbs in his return to the national side.South Africa 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Jacques Kallis, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Vaughn van Jaarsveld, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Johan Botha (capt), 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Lonwabo Tsostobe.

Watch out for …

David Warner was the bolter in Australia’s squad. At 22 and having not yet made his first-class debut, Warner was picked on the strength of a couple of brilliant limited-overs performances for New South Wales. He made a state record unbeaten 165 in from 112 balls against Tasmania and followed it a week later with 97 from 54 balls – narrowly missing the fastest one-day hundred in Australian domestic history – against the same opponents in Hobart. He will be especially fascinating to watch if he uses the double-sided bat he has trialled this season; it allows him to play the reverse-sweep without changing his grip.Herschelle Gibbs turns 35 next month but South Africa view him as an important part of their campaign for the 2011 World Cup. Those plans were derailed slightly in November when Gibbs was demoted from the national setup after breaking a team curfew. A month-long alcohol rehabilitation programme was the result and this will be Gibbs’ first appearance since the incident. The coach Mickey Arthur has told Gibbs he expects him to lead from the front as the senior man in the top order; it will be interesting to see how he responds.

Pitch & conditions

The MCG’s drop-in pitches have not been easy to score on in recent years. The surfaces are often two-paced and in limited-overs formats bowlers have had more reason to cheer than usual.

Stats and trivia

• The teams have met in two Twenty20 internationals for one win each.
• The MCG has hosted only one Twenty20 international and the 74 made by India last year was the lowest innings total ever recorded by a Test-playing nation in the format.
• Australia have never been beaten in a Twenty20 match at home
• This is only the second Twenty20 match South Africa have played outside their own country

Quotes

“We’re expecting a huge backlash from them in this series and they have to start as favourites. There’s no doubt about that.”
“It’s just about, I guess, starting the series well and that starts here with the Twenty20. The big thing is we’ve got some young blokes who add something different.”

Bhutan woman tasted success in their first outing in international cricket when the Under-19 side beat Singapore by 14 runs in the Asian Cricket Council’s inaugural U-19 tournament at the Chiang Mail Gymkhana in Thailand. Bhutan’s 101 was the highest total of the opening day which featured three other matches. However it was a score boosted by 48 extras conceded by Singapore, with Ugyen Dema top scoring for Bhutan with 17.Nepal, who reached the ACC women’s tournament final last year, easily overhauled Malaysia‘s 51 with seven wickets to spare at the Prem Oval. Keshari Chaudhari was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 8 off her five overs.UAE could not match Hong Kong and were skittled out for 60 with medium-pacer Keenu Gill getting incredible figures of 5 for 3 at the Prem Oval. After losing fast bowler Godiva Li to a hamstring injury early in the game, Hong Kong’s attack rallied around their captain Gill and kept the pressure on UAE with their disciplined bowling.Natasha Cherriath’s 29 was UAE’s top score in an innings where six batsmen registered ducks. After tearing through UAE’s line-up, Gill returned to smash 28 off 22 balls to take Hong Kong to an eight-wicket win. Hong Kong’s manager Angela Kwan was impressed by the way the players responded after Godiva’s injury. There were two difficult starts for us when we batted and bowled but we came back well and it’s been a very good start by us,” Kwan was quoted as saying on the ACC website.Siwaporn Kosathong’s unbeaten 33 took hosts Thailand to a five-wicket win over Qatar at the Chiang Mai Gymkhana. Piraorn Kamla took 3 for 17 to bowl out Qatar for 74, a total that included 32 extras. There were some nervous moments in the chase when Rishika Reddy reduced Thailand to 19 for 3 but Kosathong stayed calm and added useful partnerships with Nathakan Chantham and Naruemol Chawai to take Thailand to victory.

Sourav Ganguly has said he believes people outside the team poisoned Greg Chappell against him, leading to his removal from the captaincy and, for a while, from the team. Ganguly, who will bow out after the Nagpur Test against Australia, said he would not have been in the team for the current Test series against Australia if the “old selection committee had stayed” and that he would have “thought differently” about his retirement had he still been playing one-day cricket.”The thing that hurt me the most, in my whole career, was that public email he [Chappell] sent – what was written in it and the tone in which it was written,” he told the . “It was very upsetting, and I found it strange because I didn’t think we’d spent enough time together in the team for him to form such a strong opinion about me. I’m convinced that some people had poisoned him against me.”Asked whether they were people in the team, he said, “No, outside the team.’The email was subsequently leaked to the media and Ganguly was out of the team till he staged a comeback late in 2006.Chappell was appointed as coach with the backing of Ganguly, then India captain. “I’d discussed my batting with him a couple of times and he’d been very helpful. Most of the others wanted [Tom] Moody but I pushed for Chappell. You could say it was my biggest mistake, but I had the best for Indian cricket at heart. People joke with me that I was to blame for getting them stuck with him.”Ganguly suggested he might have continued for longer if he was still a part of India’s ODI team. “I’m sure it’s [retirement] never easy for anyone,” he said. “But there were a lot of factors. I’d been left out of the Irani team, and I’d been out of the one-day side for a while. The fact that I wasn’t playing ODIs played a big part. If I’d been playing in both forms of the game, perhaps I would’ve thought differently. I always wanted to leave on a high. There is no point being pushed around, dragging on for the last few years when nobody wants you.”Ganguly, however, said he still had “great respect” for Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of the previous selection committee. “If he hadn’t been the chief selector, I would’ve never made a comeback in 2006 [in South Africa]. I may not have agreed with his dropping me from the one-day team and the Irani, but that’s okay.”Ganguly felt his fielding was the reason that cost him a place in the ODI team; he was dropped for the CB Series in Australia earlier this year. “I did think I should have played one-day cricket for longer. I was included in only some 30-odd matches in the last three years. In no other country can a player who’s scored 12,000 runs in his career be used so sparingly.”I believe it had to do with my fielding, and because they wanted to build a team for the 2011 World Cup. I didn’t think I’d be around for that long, so I knew my one-day career was over after being left out for the Australia series.”

VVS Laxman, the India batsman, has signed for Lancashire as the club’s overseas player for 2009.Laxman spent a month with Lancashire in 2007 when he scored 541 runs in eight matches, but this latest stint will be he first full season with a county. Subject to approval from the BCCI, he is expected to be available to Lancashire one week after fulfilling his contract with the Indian Premier League. The 2009 IPL is scheduled to finish on May 29.”I thoroughly enjoyed my short stay with Lancashire in 2007, and I am thrilled to be returning to Old Trafford next year,” Laxman told the club’s website. “My last memory playing for the county was that heart-breaking loss at The Oval, but next year I hope to play a significant role in leading Lancashire to Championship success.”Mike Watkinson, the Lancashire manager, added: “It gives me great pleasure to secure the services of this extremely talented batsman for next season. He will bring star quality to our batting line-up for both Championship and one-day cricket, and his wealth of experience is perfect for our younger batsman to learn from and develop around.”His contributions both on and off the field during his short stay in 2007 were outstanding and left a lasting impact on the players.”

Rahul Dravid has said that he was batting well and remained confident the runs would come despite not making substantial scores in the first two Tests against Australia. Dravid aggregated 95 in three innings, with a half-century in Bangalore.”It has been little disappointing for me,” Dravid said. “I played on good wickets in Bangalore and Mohali but couldn’t convert the starts that I got. I will just try and keep batting well. Keep the routine and runs will come. My runs-per-ball average is pretty good this series. I think you have to be a little patient and I am ready to be patient.”Dravid was hopeful that India will wrap up the series, which they lead 1-0, in the Delhi Test starting Wednesday. “It’s a great venue for us. I haven’t played in a Test that we have lost here. So it’s always nice to come back here. Hopefully we will wrap it up here and make it seven in a row.”Dravid was optimistic that Anil Kumble, who made the venue memorable for India by taking all ten wickets in an innings against Pakistan in 1999, will be fit for the Test. Kumble had to miss the match in Mohali after injuring his shoulder. “Kumble practised today,” Dravid said. “He bowled and even batted. The physio is positive about his fitness.”

The mood in the two camps couldn’t have presented a starker contrast. The Australians were looking to absorb as much as possible from a net session in preparation for the Test series. The India hopefuls in the Board President’s XI, on the other hand, endured a nail-biting wait for news of the Test squad that ended in disappointment for everyone except S Badrinath.Yuvraj Singh, the captain, tried to say the right things in the pre-match press conference in Hyderabad. “There can be changes any time in the team,” he said. “I am sure if anybody performs in this game it won’t go unnoticed. Everyone is aware of that. Even if you’re not selected, you still have to go there and give 100%.”No such ambiguity for the Australian machine, which rolled on in Hyderabad with another intense session to keep the momentum going from Jaipur. Their coach Tim Nielsen considered it perfect fine-tuning for the series ahead. “It’s winter in Australia. It’s cold and we don’t have turf wickets of the same quality and soil as we have here,” he said. “Jaipur was perfect. We have this game in Hyderabad and then another couple of days of training before the first Test. We should be as ready as we can be for the Indian spinners come the first Test.”

Australia do have a couple of worries, though. Bryce McGain, their frontline spinner, has already been ruled out of the first Test with a shoulder injury and might be on the flight back home soon. Allrounder Shane Watson has been laid up for the past 24 hours with viral fever.”At the moment we are making sure he [Watson] gets fit. We also wanted to keep him away from the rest of the group so that no one else is affected,” Nielsen said. “We will know tomorrow morning whether he is fit to play.”However, they don’t have any concerns about the pitch. “It should be a good batting wicket for the first two days before it starts spinning,” Nielsen said. “That’s the whole point; to expose our players to more of the Indian conditions over the next four days.”Nielsen said the selection for the Bangalore Test is still wide open. “We will get a better idea of who has best adjusted to the conditions once this game is over and also see what mix of left-handers and right-handers the Indian team will have. That will also affect the selection of our bowling attack.”Mitchell Johnson is under the most pressure. He had a poor series in the Caribbean that accentuated an inability to bring the ball back into the right-hander. His competition is Doug Bollinger, the left-arm swing bowler, and Peter Siddle, the right-arm fast man.Bollinger is currently the frontrunner to challenge Johnson and appeared bullish on his chances. “I bowled well for Australia A in the last series,” Bollinger told Cricinfo. “I am getting the ball to swing in and I’m confident of pushing my case for selection with another good performance here.”The circumstances have made the game a mouth-watering prospect. The Australians are gathering steam ahead of Bangalore while several in the Board President’s line-up, like Yuvraj Singh, have a point to prove to themselves, and to the selectors.