Speculation that Michael Atherton would make an imminent decision on his international future has been refuted by the England opener.The 33-year-old denied reports that he would announce a decision this weekend and reaffirmed that he would take his time before deciding on whether to continue his England career.In his column for The Sunday Telegraph, Atherton said: “There is obviously alot of speculation around at the moment as to my immediate internationalfuture.”Unfortunately some sections of the media cannot seem to comprehend the factthat when I say I will make a decision at the end of the season, then I will betrue to my word.”I believe that while you are under contract to the England team, you seethat contract through and then, only then, if there are any decisions to bemade, you make them.”As I said last year, the end of this season marks a natural watershed forme.”It is unlikely that I will face Australia again after the current tour and,since most of our international calendar builds up to the Ashes, it is naturalthat this should be so.”The former England captain has suffered with a long-term back injury and said that his continuing fitness battle may influence his decision.He said: “There are other considerations for me too; it is no secret that Ihave had some fitness problems with my back and I need to see how that isshaping up at the end of this year. The time for cortisone injections is near an end.”I have also been playing constant international cricket now for 13 years. Itdemands absolute commitment. Since I do not have children it is easy for me tosay, but I believe you either play or don’t play.”So, if I were to be available to tour this winter it would be for both toursand again it would be a long commitment.”I need to ask myself whether I still have the drive and whether thecompetitive instinct remains as strong as ever.”These decisions, I believe, can only be made with a clear head and certainlynot in the middle of two very important Test Matches.”I have played in games where players have announced their retirementsbeforehand and it can be a distraction to the rest of the team.”So while it would no doubt make a nice story I am afraid that if, and when,I retire I will do so in a low-key manner.”For a player, the timing of retirement is the most important decision hewill have to make. Once made there is no going back and therefore I intend togive myself a little time to make the right choice.”

Bangladesh may have lost by an innings for the second time in a fortnight,but they left Sri Lanka on a high after a scintillating hundred from ateenage prodigy, who booked himself a place in the record books as theyoungest ever player to score a Test century.The tourists had started the day on 100 for four, still 365 runs in arrearsafter the mauling they had received on the first two days. Everyone expecteda quick death this morning, but the newest Test nation launched a bravefight-back, before they were eventually bowled out for 328.Sri Lanka had won by an innings and 137 runs within three days, theirhighest ever victory in their 112-Test career, and booked themselves a placein the Asian Test Championship final in February 2002.The day, however, will not be remembered for a predictable win in aone-sided contest, but Mohammad Ashraful’s 114 off 212 balls.The teenager, just 17 years and 63 days old (though he claims his passport gives his date of birth as 9th September – making him just 16), became the youngest ever player toscore a Test century on debut, beating a 30-year-old record, which had been setby Pakistan batsmen Mushtaq Mohammad (17 years 81 days) against India atDelhi in 1960/61.The diminutive right-hander was also making his debut, so he smashed therecord for being youngest player to score a century on debut set by Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza (17 years 354 days) in the second Test against theWest Indies at Harare just two months ago.He came to the wicket late last night and at the close he had scored justfour. He admitted afterwards to having had strange dreams throughout thenight: “I had difficulty sleeping last night as I dreamt about Lara’s 375and me scoring a century. I told my captain this morning and he told me Icould do it, so I just decided to play positively.”He did just that during a 126-run stand for the fifth wicket with theexperienced Aminul Islam, who had scored 145 in Bangladeshi’s inaugural Testmatch against India last November.Ashraful maintains that he did not feel under any pressure out in the middleand looked completely at ease at the crease. He had a couple of streakymoments along the way, when he sliced between the slips and should have beenrun out when he had made just 14, but he also played some brilliant strokes.He played the faster bowlers well, pulling Chaminda Vaas for two fours inhis second spell of the morning, but played the slower bowlers best, dancingdown the track and impudently lofting them straight down the ground. EvenMuralitharan wasn’t spared, as he pull-swept high over mid-wicket and latecut the ball delicately.Aminul was bowled on the stroke of lunch for 56, as he tried to sweep theleft-arm spin of Sanath Jayasuriya, to leave Bangladesh on 207 for five andAshraful on 68. He carried on in the same entertaining vein afterwards,however, and added 96 further runs with captain Naimur Rahman.With the Sri Lankan fielders showing increasing signs of frustration SanathJayasuriya took the second new ball after 83 overs. Ashraful reached hiscentury in the following over off 167 balls as he edged between third slipand gully for his 14th boundary.The harder ball eventually did the trick for Sri Lanka, though, as RuchiraPerera picked up three quick wickets and Bangladesh lost their last fivewickets for 25. Ashraful was eventually caught and bowled by Perera.Fittingly, it was Muralitharan who sealed the match with a return catch offMohammad Sharif to give him ten wickets in a game for the seventh time in hiscareer. Only Richard Hadlee has done so on more occasions (nine).More importantly, it meant that Muralitharan, who was playing his 66th Test,reached the 350 mark quicker than any other bowler in the history of Testcricket, beating the previous record of 69 matches set by Richard Hadlee.Muralitharan will travel back to England for one more county game withLancashire, whilst his team-mates take a welcome break after two tough monthsof cricket, their next assignment being a tri-nation series in Sharjah.

Glamorgan coach Jeff Hammond has announced his retirement from cricket. The Australian, who succeeded Duncan Fletcher last season, is to return home to pursue business interests.Hammond, 52, leaves the 1997 champions on their way back down to DivisionTwo after promotion last year. But he said: “I’ve had two fabulous years with Glamorgan and have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Wales.”After a lot of soul-searching and discussions with my family I have decidedthat now is the right time for me to be leaving cricket.”We’ve enjoyed a little bit of success in the time I’ve been here – andalthough we’ve been a bit disappointing in the championship this year it’s goodto see us finish the season on a high with the achievement of the SecondDivision championship in the Norwich Union League.”Glamorgan chief executive Mike Fatkin said: “We respect Jeff’s decision andas well as thanking him for his contribution over the past couple of years wewould in turn want to wish both him and his wife Pauline the best of success forthe future.”As far as the timing of an appointment is concerned, we have two excellentcoaches on hand already in John Derrick and Steve Watkin, so there is noimmediate emergency.”Although we recognise the importance of making a new appointment well beforethe start of the 2002 season, we naturally want to make sure we have looked atevery option to ensure we have the right person to take over from Jeff.”

Former England captain Alec Stewart has revealed another reason for making himself unavailable for England’s winter tour to India.38 year-old Stewart, who has been playing an important role as a middle-order batsman as well as keeping wicket right up until the final Ashes Test of last summer, has made it known that he has been suffering from a complaint affecting both elbows for the last eighteen months and has only been able to continue playing with the help of intensive medical treatment.”The problem is a form of chronic tennis elbow which is affecting both my arms” said Stewart. “For the last eighteen months have only been able to play cricket thanks to a course of injections and intense physiotherapy. Now I want to try and get it sorted out.”Stewart will have the operations at the end of October and will then spend two weeks with both arms in plaster. A rehabilitation course should see Stewart available for selection in the New Year.The England management did state that players could not pick and chose tours this winter and when Stewart said that he needed a rest and withdrew from the Indian leg of the itinerary, he was not selected to go to New Zealand.Warren Hegg and James Foster have been selected as the two wicket-keepers to go on both these trips, but should injury intervene between now and the end of the Indian expedition, it would be interesting to see whether they might turn again to a Stewart restored to full fitness.The other interesting aspect of this announcement is whether Stewart informed the selectors of his problem before the touring parties were chosen, or whether he has decided that this first break in almost continuous cricket for a number of years is a good time to have the necessary treatment. Otherwise, it is conceivable that he could have had the operations immediately after the Oval Test and still have been fit to travel to India.Stewart made his Test debut for England in the first match of the 1989/90 series against the West Indies, since when he has played in a total of 115 Tests averaging just a fraction under 40 with the bat, has recorded 14 centuries and has made 231 dismissals. He has also played in 146 one-day internationals.

Queensland dished out another Brisbane hiding to New South Wales today but the Blues still left the Gabba believing they were sneaking up on Australian cricket’s best domestic team.The eight-wicket win in less than three days flipped Queensland back to the top of the Pura Cup points table and left the Blues with another Gabba disaster to paste into their scrapbooks.The Blues haven’t taken a point from Brisbane in eight seasons and they were always in trouble today when their second innings total of 222 left the Bulls with just 133 runs for their second outright win of the season.Jimmy Maher (61) and Martin Love (65no) made short work of the run chase on a drying wicket, steering the defending champions to 2-133 and leaving no doubtthey were the favourites for a third successive title.The Bulls were simply smarter on a greentop, with Michael Kasprowicz taking nine wickets, Ashley Noffke claiming four and Andrew Symonds scooping six withhis dangerous medium pace.But NSW captain Shane Lee wasn’t wincing at the scorecard as he contemplated three days of dropped catches and near misses for the Blues.”New South Wales have been up here plenty of times and been absolutely thumped on a wicket like that,” Lee said.”If we had managed to get 200 or 250 ahead, it would have been a totally different game with Queensland chasing on a wicket still doing a bit.”But losing wickets in clumps really cost us in the end and the catches that went down made the difference.”Lee was the main catching culprit, spilling Wade Seccombe yesterday just 14 runs into a 109-run partnership with captain Stuart Law which gave Queensland amatch-winning plank.Even Law wasn’t glowing about Queensland’s performance, admitting NSW quick Stuart Clark (4-61 and 2-34) was the pick of the bowlers from both teams.Law said the Blues “outbowled” his team and declared some of his batsmen were lucky to get away with shots that would normally cause their downfalls.But the Blues failed to take their chances, especially late yeasterday when they reached a healthy 2-142 before the wheels fell off.Brisbane is becoming a barren battleground for the Blues, who are joining Victoria as non-winners at the ground, and Law said the conditions might worry the visitors.”They don’t like to walk out there and see grass on that wicket,” Law said.”That’s the way it used to be and you see the other guys walking up and looking at it and they just don’t want to get out there and play on it.”(The wicket) does a bit more than anywhere else in the country and it’s an advantage we’ve got but we’re going to have to play better cricket if we want to beat teams.”New South Wales had their opportunities here but we probably outbatted them in the end.”The teams return to the Gabba on Friday afternoon for an ING Cup one-day match.

Struggling first to bowl Haryana out early, Services then compoundedtheir bad performance by collapsing to 219/6 by the close of play onDay Two of their Ranji Trophy league match at Faridabad.Resuming at 275/8, their overnight score, Haryana added 72 vital runsfor the loss of the last two wickets, finally being bowled out for347. Services started off strongly, with PMS Reddy (77) and K Chawda(33) put on 103 runs for the first wicket.Haryana came back into the game with the help of twin strikes from SVidyut as he removed first Chawda and Reddy. Amit Mishra and Vidyuttook two and three wickets respectively, destroying Services’ toporder.By stumps, Services were down six wickets for only 219, with onlySarabjit Singh contributing substantially. CD Thomson and SachinNadkarni were unbeaten on 13 and 12 respectively.

Ewen Thompson, the 21-year-old Central Districts left-arm bowler, joined the small ranks of one-armed cricketers when he batted one-handed against Auckland on the third day of their State Championship four-day match on the Eden Park Outer Oval today.Thompson suffered a broken bone in his right forearm when batting on Monday, and the forecast seemed to be that while he might bowl again in the match batting was out of the question.As the Central Districts second innings wickets fell steadily today Thompson sat on the sideline, feeling more than one kind of pain.”Then I decided I owed it to the team to try and get some runs at the end,” said Thompson, “so I had a go.”I felt a bit awkward, but managed to get some runs (in fact 18 from 14 balls in a 26-run last-wicket stand with Michael Mason).”Thompson even managed two fours and a sweetly timed one-handed reverse sweep to the leg-spin bowling of Brooke Walker. He confessed that even batted one-handed gave him twinges of pain.However, later in the day, Thompson joined the CD bowling as they tried to slow Auckland’s growingly confident pursuit of 210 runs for victory, but could not bear the pain.”It really hurt, and I could not really get my right arm up in its normal bowling position, so it was not much use.”Thompson managed only three overs and is now facing four weeks with the arm in plaster, and perhaps some coaching work in Wairarapa, before he can consider re-starting his cricketing heroics.

It is that time of the year again, when there is a brief lull in India’s international itinerary and the Challenger Trophy takes place. This year’s edition will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore from the 10th to the 13th of January. As has been the format, three teams will participate – India Seniors, led by Sourav Ganguly, India ‘A’ under Rahul Dravid, and India ‘B’ skippered by Anil Kumble. The limited-overs fest loses some of its gloss, with Sachin Tendulkar and Javagal Srinath not taking part; the pair will enjoy a well-deserved rest. There is some doubt too about Dravid, who has been troubled by a shoulder injury.The India Seniors side boasts a strong line-up, with 10 of the 13 members coming from the squad that took on England in the recent three-Test series. Tamil Nadu batsman Hemang Badani makes a return, as do Sunil Joshi and Debashish Mohanty.Following India’s return from South Africa, the fast bowling department was revamped, with Iqbal Siddiqui, Tinu Yohannan and Sanjay Bangar being drafted into the side. The Challenger Trophy gives the bowlers who were dropped – Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra – a chance to force their way back into the team. The chairman of selectors, Chandu Borde, was present at Bangalore and fielded a host of questions. As ever, there was disagreement on various selections and omissions. As ever, Borde said that the selectors “have an open mind” towards all players, and no one was permanently ruled out of selection.He further stressed on the need to plan for the 2003 World Cup, thereby almost ruling out the chances of a comeback for either Robin Singh or Nayan Mongia.Borde further added, “The form of Ganguly is worrying the selectors. But this kind of bad patch happens to all cricketers. It is just that Ganguly is going through a prolonged bad patch. We all know he is a talented batsman and will bounce back soon.”The squads:India Seniors: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Shiv Sunder Das, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Hemang Badani, Sanjay Bangar, Deep Dasgupta, Harbhajan Singh, Sunil Joshi, Tinu Yohannan, Iqbal Siddiqui, Debashish Mohanty, Jacob MartinIndia ‘A’: Rahul Dravid (captain), Connor Williams, Daniel Manohar, Rohan Gavaskar, Sangram Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Ajay Ratra, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Sarandeep Singh, Sitanshu Kotak.India ‘B’: Anil Kumble (captain), Mohammad Kaif, Sridharan Sriram, Dinesh Mongia, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Arjun Yadav, Zakaria Zuffri, Vijay Bharadwaj, Pankaj Dharmani, Ashish Nehra, Sanjay Pandey, Amit Bhandari, Devendra Bundela

Simon Katich handed national selectors a timely reminder with an inspired century to guide Western Australia to within sight of an ING Cup final berth tonight.The crushing 116 run win over Victoria elevated the Warriors into second position in the ING Cup table just one point behind competition leader Queensland.Western Australia is four points clear of equal third-placed NSW and South Australia, but they both have a game in hand.Katich set up the win with his highest score in one-day domestic cricket, 118, which was the foundation of the Warriors 7-234 off 50 overs. He and Michael Hussey (61) combined for a record fourth wicket one-day partnership for Western Australia, combining for 167 off 174 balls.But it was Western Australia’s second string pace attack that earned the bonus point by running through the disappointing Victorian lineup for a paltry 118.With Matthew Nicholson and Brad Williams unavailable, big Jo Angel (5-16) ripped through the Bushrangers middle order after debutant Michael Clark (3-34) impressed by taking the first three wickets including captain Matthew Elliott.The Victorians provided little resistance besides Elliott’s quickfire 35 off 32 balls.Earlier, in between some glorious strokes, 26-year-old Katich had his fair share of luck on his way to his second one-day domestic ton.He received a life on 22 after he top-edged a catch to Ian Hewett on the boundary with the score at 3-73.But the lanky paceman’s momentum sent him sprawling ball in hand over the boundary rope to give Katich a six.And on 83 Katich was again fortunate when Jon Moss dropped an easier catch at mid-on.But in between Katich and Hussey provided fantastic entertainment for the home crowd with a mixture of slogging and great improvisation.Katich was eventually out trapped in front in the second last over by Andrew McDonald while Hussey was caught in the deep by Moss from Michael Lewis’ bowling.Lewis ended up with figures of 4-41 off nine overs after capturing three wickets in the 50th over.Western Australia was in trouble early after opening pair Justin Langer and Scott Meuleman were dismissed with only 26 runs on the board.Test opener Langer didn’t help his chances of a national one-day call up after he skied a hook shot to Lewis off the bowling of Mathew Inness for three.

North Otago’s Neil Rushton has been drafted into the Otago Volts team for the next two State Championship matches.The left-armer replaces Kerry Walmsley who is sidelined with a back strain, the injury suffered in the early stages of Central Districts’ second innings in Alexandra on Wednesday.Walmsley has been Otago’s most productive bowler this summer – in both the Championship and one-day series. He joins an ever-growing list of injured fast and seam bowlers with Shayne O’Connor, Warren McSkimming, Evan Marshall and Bradley Scott also all unavailable for selection.Rushton played three Shell Cup matches for Otago during the 1999/00 season, taking four wickets at an average of 30.75. His best effort was 2-36. If Rushton plays on Otago’s northern excursion it will represent his first-class debut.Otago plays Wellington and Auckland on its trip north, the players undoubtedly still reeling from their pitiful 425-run loss to Central Districts at Molyneux Park, the fourth largest defeat by a runs margin in New Zealand first-class cricket history.No other changes have been made.