Bangladesh have named two new caps in a 15-man squad for their maiden tour of the Caribbean in May and June.Faisal Hossain and Abdur Razzaq, both batsmen who bowl part-time offspin, have been called up in place of Al-Sahariar Rokon and Manjural Islam, who toured Zimbabwe in February but were unable to make an impression.The tour party leaves Dhaka on May 6, with the first of three one-day internationals beginning in St Vincent on May 15. The tour concludes with two Tests in St Lucia and Jamaica from May 28.Bangladesh squad
Habibul Bashar (capt), Rajin Saleh, Hannan Sarkar, Shahariar Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Alok Kapali, Mushfiqur Rahman, Khaled Mahmud, Khaled Mashud (wk), Mohammad Rafique, Manjural Islam, Faisal Hossain, Tapash Baisya, Tareq Aziz, Abdur Razzaq.

Brad Hodge, the Australian-born batsman, has been named as the new captain of Leicestershire. He takes over from Phil DeFreitas, who stepped down on Monday after 20 months in the role. Leicestershire have also named Darren Maddy, who made his debut for Leics 10 years ago, as the new vice-captain. Hodge, 29, has been in terrific form this season, averaging 64 in the County Championship and just under 50 in the National League."We are delighted that Brad has agreed to take on the captaincy," said James Whitaker, Leicestershire director of cricket. "As vice captain he is the natural successor to Daffy, and I am confident his knowledge, experience and enthusiasm will help us in our quest to get to where we want to be. I am excited about working with Brad.""I am also pleased that Darren, who has excelled as captain of the side on a number of occasions already, will now become official vice captain," he added. "He has been at the club for a long time and been a dedicated professional."

Keen to find a solution to the injury problems which had become such a huge issue for their team last season, the Pakistan board is looking for a full-time physiotherapist for the players.Apart from looking after the fitness of the cricketers during the busy months, he will also be expected to draw up a training schedule for the players during the off season and prepare a diet chart for them. He will report directly to the PCB chief executive – or the manager during tours – and will receive an attractive remuneration package.The board’s search for a physiotherapist comes in the wake of serious concerns being raised about the fitness levels of the players following Pakistan’s defeat in the Tests and the one-day series against India. The tendency of their fast bowlers to break down was particularly worrying: Shoaib Akhtar missed a crucial part of the final Test due to injury, while Umar Gul, Shabbir Ahmed and Abdul Razzaq were all unavailable during various times in the series.The move to hire a physiotherapist is also the latest in a series of decisions taken by the Pakistan board to make their set-up a more professional one: Greg Chappell, Daryl Foster and Barry Richards have all been hired as consultants to help budding players at the National Cricket Academy, and also to advice the senior team.

ScorecardAfter a day of fluctuating fortunes for each side, the match ended up poised just about evenly at the end of the second day of England Under-19’s first Test against Bangladesh at Headingley. After Luke Wright rescued England to 269 with an accomplished 78, Bangladesh closed at 126 for 4, with a lead of 87.The remainder of England’s innings was a stop-start affair, with handy stands interspersed with mini-collapses. First Ravi Bopara and James Hildreth added another 50 runs in the morning with Bopara reaching his half-century. However, then Nadif Chowdhury, the left-arm spinner, struck four times in quick succession to peg back England’s progress.Hildreth was the first to go, caught by Dhiman Ghosh for 27, then Samit Patel was also caught for a nine-ball duck. Bopara went shortly after for 59, and Tom New didn’t last long, becoming Chowdhury’s fifth victim of the innings for nought. England had lost four wickets for only three runs and Bangladesh had the momentum.Mark Lawson was shortly caught and bowled by Enamul Haque jnr for 3, but Wright and Adam Harrison resuscitated the innings and gave England a lead with a stand of 114. Wright, from Leicestershire, scored 78, including 15 fours. Harrison, on the other hand, was more watchful, grounding out 33 from 103 balls. In keeping with the nature of the innings, though, after Harrison was finally dislodged, the remaining two wickets did not add any more runs, with last man David Stiff run out for nought.England had a slender lead of 39, and Simon Cusden struck early on with the scalp of Shahriar Nafees, lbw for 3. Nafis Iqbal raced to 44 before Stiff had him caught by Patel, and Bopara removed Shamsur Rahman for a handy 23. Patel then trapped Mushfiqur Rahim leg-before for 1 towards the close, but Aftab Ahmed kept his cool to be 45 not out at the end of play with the match finely balanced going into tomorrow.

The West Indian allrounder, Dwayne Smith, has been forced to withdraw from next week’s Champions Trophy, after injuring his right shoulder during the final Test against England at The Oval last month. Ryan Hinds, the Barbados allrounder, has been called up in his place.Smith reported pain while bowling during the Oval Test, and a furtherexamination at the West Indian training camp in Bermuda revealed marked swelling and tenderness in the muscle, with limited movement due to pain. The injury has not responded to treatment, and he will return home to Barbados.Hinds, his replacement, has also been in Bermuda, but with a touringBarbados team. He will return home immediately, in order to leave for England on Sunday. West Indies are pitted against South Africa and Bangladesh in the group stage of the tournament, with their first game on September 15.

Sir Donald Bradman was indisputably the greatest player the game has ever seen. He broke nearly all of cricket’s records, and most of its rules as well, with a wonderfully unorthodox technique that suggested that his eyesight must have been second-to-none.In fact, that assumption could not have been further from the truth. Bradman’s vision was so faulty that he was invalided out of the Australian Army during the Second World War. Instead, he owed his success to other attributes – namely his supreme concentration, nimble footwork and natural talent.The talent was God-given, but the rest he had to work at – and most of that work was done in his own backyard as a small boy, where he used to practise for hours on end, using a cricket stump to hit a golf ball against a galvanised iron water tank.”To me, it was only fun,” Bradman later admitted, “but looking back, it was probably a concentrated exercise in accuracy and wonderful training for my eyesight. The golf ball came back pretty fast and I had very little time … to get into position for a shot.”The training paid the richest of dividends. Bradman retired from Test cricket in 1948 after a 20-year career, in which he had scored 6996 runs in 52 Tests, at an average of 99.94. No player – past, present or future – has, or ever will, come close to surpassing his achievements.

Marcus Trescothick will captain England against the Nicky Oppenheimer XI on Wednesday in the first warm-up match ahead of the Test series against South Africa which starts later this month.Michael Vaughan, who led the side to the recent 4-0 series whitewash against Zimbabwe, has been rested.The eight Test specialists who have linked up are also in the line-up. Andrew Flintoff and Stephen Harmison will gain some vital match practice while Chris Read has been handed the gloves as Geraint Jones is rested.Harmison, who returns to action after three months off, told BBC Sport: “I bowled off a full run for the first time yesterday and it felt good.”England team for first match
1 Marcus Trescothick (capt), 2 Robert Key, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Graham Thorpe, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Gareth Batty, 9 Simon Jones, 10 Matthew Hoggard, 11 Stephen Harmison.

Scorecard

Andy Bichel put Queensland on the verge of victory, taking 5 for 70 as Tasmania were bowled for 253 in the second innings of their Pura Cup match at Brisbane. Michael Bevan led the resistance with 93, but none of the other batsmen topped 50, leaving Queensland with a target of just 86 to chase tomorrow.At one point Tasmania were 7 for 152 after following on, 16 short of making Queensland bat again. Bevan held the innings together as wickets fell from the other end, before Bichel him caught behind seven short of his hundred.In the course of his innings, Bevan became the second active player after Darren Lehmann (11,467) to have passed 9,000 Pura Cup runs. Others who have reached the milestone include Dean Jones and David Hookes.After Bevan’s fall, Tasmania fought back with an unlikely 62-run ninth-wicket partnership between Xavier Doherty (27) and Adam Griffith (37), that took the game into a fourth day. Both fell within an over and Bichel ended the innings by having Doherty caught to complete his five-for, and took his career tally to 300 Pura Cup wickets in the process.”He’s just invaluable,” Jimmy Maher, Queensland’s captain, said of Bichel who also scored 69 on the first innings. “He just charges in no matter how hot it is or what’s going on out there. It’s hard to describe how good it is to have a bloke like him in the team. You literally need pliers to extract the ball out of his hand, he’s unbelievable.”

At the start of the Test, it was England’s turn to put their coach beforethe press to explain away their bad day at the office. Today however, itwas Ray Jennings’ job to front up for South Africa, after they had beenput to the sword by Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss. And true toform, Jennings had plenty to say for his players and their performance.”Cricket to me is all about how you put the effort in, and what you getout of it,” he said, after his players had put in 80 overs of hard toil,and got the solitary late wicket of Trescothick as a reward. “The lack ofwickets, plus the perception that the wicket was flat, maybe affected ourperformance. There’s no such thing as a flat wicket, just as there’s nosuch thing as an easy catch.”But I’m not unhappy with the performance,” Jennings insisted. “Nicky Bojemaybe could have exploited the rough better, but in the last 45 minutes,we were full of energy and the wicket didn’t look at all flat. This matchhas been dominated by three batsman – Jacques Kallis and the Englandopeners – and it all depends on the mood of the game when they first getin. For the first 20 or 30 balls, any player can look out of nick on thiswicket.”By the close, England led by 88 with nine wickets standing, and despitetheir tough day in the field, Jennings had no doubt the match was still inthe balance. “Our guys are upbeat,” he insisted. “We were full of energyin the last 10 or 15 overs, and there was a positive rap in thedressing-room at teatime. It takes a lot more to get this South Africanside down. Not many sides would have handled the heat and the mindset ofhaving a lead and losing it like we did. We see 250 runs in 80 overs forone wicket as a positive.”A winning lead on this pitch could be anything from 150 to 400,” addedJennings. “It’s that type of game. The way Kallis is playing, he can chasethe target himself. I’m sure we are good enough to handle the pressure,and we’ll handle the conditions as well. There are still 180 overs to go,and I reckon we’ll be set about 300.”But with Andrew Strauss at the crease – again – South Africa have theirwork cut out if they are to claw their way back into the game. Jennings,naturally, had an interesting take on his instant impact on Test cricket.”I think Strauss’s youth adds value to the package,” he said, somewhatcryptically.”He’s young, he likes a challenge, he has freedom to play, and he’s happyand he smiles. It’s when you get older that the expectations increase, andyou become a bit bored of spending too much time away. That’s when the troublestarts. But he’s not thinking too much just yet. He’s in Phase One of hisTest career.”South Africa will be hoping he becomes a cynical old pro overnight.

Matthew Hoggard was left rueing England’s misfortune with the weather at the close of the second day’s play, after a bold overnight declaration backfired to allow South Africa back into the game. By the close, they trailed by just 105 runs, thanks to a brilliant unbeaten century from Herschelle Gibbs."That was a change of fortune with the weather," said Hoggard. "When it was overcast, the wicket was doing things, but then 20 minutes [after we declared], the sun came out. It’s evenly poised now, but if South Africa get past our score, it’ll be a bit of a dogfight in the last innings. But hopefully we’ll get four quick wickets and put the pressure back on them."A tough day for England’s bowlers was made even more arduous when Steve Harmison pulled up in the middle of his 13th over, suffering from pain at the top of his left calf. "Harmo’s been our leading bowler all year, so it was a massive blow," admitted Hoggard. "But we just had to pull our socks up and get on with it."I wasn’t too tired by the end," he insisted, adding that he had picked up four wickets despite bowling as badly as he has done all tour. "My energy levels were good, but unfortunately the fluid in my body disappeared and I was shuffling in with cramp. The altitude doesn’t help, and it’s been a long day with an extra half-hour at the start and half-an-hour at the end, but it was the worst I’ve bowled all tour, so to get four wickets, I’m quite happy."Hoggard had some words of encouragement for James Anderson as well, who came into the Test as a late replacement for Simon Jones, and bowled without much rhythm, having not had any opportunity to play competitively for more than a month. "He bowled a few wides at the end of his spell, but it’s hard to come straight from the nets, so he’s done really well and there are no worries about how he bowled. I tried to impart my words of wisdom, for what they’re worth, and tried to keep his spirits up."The afternoon session included a controversial catch at slip for Marcus Trescothick, who removed Boeta Dippenaar for a duck, even though some commentators openly questioned whether the ball had carried. But Hoggard had no doubts. "Tres says it went straight in and he got his fingers underneath the ball, and really you’ve got to take the fielder’s word for it. He’s a very honest lad and wouldn’t cheat, especially with the cameras about."There was also some puzzlement as to why Ashley Giles only bowled only seven overs, despite England being a seamer short. "It wasn’t a tactical thing," said Hoggard, "but the ball was doing a bit for the seamers. If you get the ball in the right areas there’s something in it, but when the sun comes out, there’s not as much around."We knew it was going to be a hard series," said Hoggard. "South Africa are a competitive side, and we have to keep playing well to beat them. But we’ll put our feet up tonight, and come out refreshed tomorrow."