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Jeff Thomson has angrily rejected calls for Brett Lee’s promotion to the Test side against New Zealand at Christchurch tomorrow. Thomson said Michael Kasprowicz had done the “hard yards”, and deserved to retain his place in the most contentious selection issue of the tour.The debate will rumble for another day after Australia delayed naming their team until they had another look at the Jade Stadium pitch tomorrow morning. Ricky Ponting said Lee had a strong claim, but the form of the three other fast bowlers meant they did not deserve to be dropped.”All those guys deserve their spot in the side, and we’ve got Brett, who’s been outstanding on this tour and right through the VB Series as well,” Ponting said. “At the moment Brett has a bit of a psychological edge over some of the NZ batsmen. So there’s all those things you have to consider. I know if I was in their side and looked at a teamsheet and saw his name wasn’t on it I would be reasonably relieved at this stage of the tour.”Thomson told the Brisbane Courier-Mail that the decision was easy: “Lee’s bowled well in one-day games against a team of no-hopers. One-day cricket is a joke. Kasper has done the hard yards, done nothing wrong. An idiot can get wickets in one-day cricket.”Thomson said Lee was dropped because he “doesn’t do the job” in Tests, and he was not impressed with his limited-overs performances. “Why should he get picked again? It’s not as if he is taking a bagful of one-day wickets. If Brad Hogg, Andrew Symonds and Darren Lehmann take wickets in one-day cricket then what does that tell you about bowling in one-day cricket?”Clive Lloyd this week rated Thomson, who had 200 victims in 51 Tests, a more intimidating proposition for batsmen than Lee, but Justin Langer said that his team-mate would scare the New Zealand batsmen. “There’s always some sort of fear factor,” observed Langer. “You know in the back of your mind that even if you have a great day you’ve got to put up with some bruises and aggression, and you’ve got to be quite strong to get through that.”Stephen Fleming has confirmed that he will open, filling the gap left by Mark Richardson’s retirement after the Australia home series, and has given himself the job of blunting Australia’s attack. Fleming said he was under pressure after a poor one-day series, where he was a regular target of Lee, but was confident he could give his side a strong start.

The postponed Logan Cup resumed last week, but Macs Ebrahim, the head of the county’s selectors, was far from amused at the outcome of the two matches.At Mutare, defending champions Mashonaland eased to a nine-wicket win over Manicaland, who were blown away for 78 in their second innings. The highlight for Mashonaland was an excellent 151 from Tatenda Taibu. At Kwekwe Sports Club, Matabeleland cruised to a five-wicket win over Midlands.”We have tried to pit strength against strength in the compositions of the sides," Ebrahim said. "And you have got a side like the Midlands which has seven players who have either played for the national team or Zimbabwe A. I don’t think there is an excuse of the sides not being balanced.”But Taibu did well. It was also nice to see Craig Wishart get two half-centuries and we hope that when he settles, those sixties will be converted into hundreds. It was also good to see home-grown Midlands talent like Friday Katseni, Ian Nicolson and Anthony Ireland doing well. But on the negative side, there was not enough big scores from national team players and I hope next week these guys will come to the party.”Cricinfo did not carry close-of-play scores from this round of the Logan Cup as it was not possible to get accurate scorecards – the ones supplied carried several errors – and so in conjunction with other independent sites, we decided to wait for the final verified cards before publishing.

Shoaib Akthar has expressed his disappointed after being excluded from the Pakistan squad for the West Indies tour and has hit back at the selectors, saying he was not given a chance to prove his fitness before the team was picked.”I am very upset and disappointed that they have not picked me for the West Indies tour,” Shoaib told , a Mumbai-based tabloid. “Missing the Indian tour due to injury was a big blow for me and I was very keen to make a comeback in this series. They could at least have called me and asked me to go through a proper fitness test and medical check-up before taking a decision.”Shoaib, 29, was not part of the 17-member squad announced on Monday, despite showing an impressive return to form with 5 for 23 in a Twenty20 game, as the selectors felt he was overweight and needed more time to regain full match fitness. However, he felt that the selectors’ assessment was a bit over the top. “I don’t think I am overweight,” he said. “It is just that I have not played enough first-class games since recovering from my injury because the domestic season has come to an end. But in the matches that I have played I have bowled my full overs and taken wickets.”

Shane Warne joined a select band of cricketers when he unveiled a portrait of himself at Lord’s on Tuesday. The oil-on-linen painting of the legspinner will be hung in the ground’s famous pavilion where it will be only the third portrait of an Australia player – late cricket greats Sir Donald Bradman and Keith Miller are the two others – to go on display.”It’s taken a lot of sittings with Fanny. It’s a privilege for me. I feel very proud of the achievement. It (Lord’s) is a fantastic ground,” said Warne, after unveiling the portrait by London-based artist Fanny Rush. The portrait will initially be hung in the Pavilion’s Long Room, meaning Warne, the world’s leading Test wicket-taker, is set to walk past it when he takes the field for the first Ashes Test against England at Lord’s starting on July 21.Ever since bowling the ‘ball of the century’ to dismiss Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in 1993, Warne has tormented England batsmen. “Some of the members might want to throw darts at it,” he joked. “But seriously, I think they have respect for what I’ve achieved.”Warne was more concerned about the reaction of his Australian team-mates. “I hope they don’t let Brett Lee anywhere near it with a black pen because I might end up with a moustache like Merv’s (Hughes’s).” The former Australia batsman Mark Waugh recently suggested his old team-mate’s powers were waning. “I don’t think Warney is quite the bowler he was five to to 10 years ago,” Waugh wrote in .”He’s still very good but he relies more on accuracy, subtle variation and reputation these days than on vicious ripping leg-breaks and unplayable flippers.” But Warne, 35, countered by saying that he was still at the top of his game. “Mark’s a great friend of mine and he’s got to make a few quid somehow, even by joining you blokes (the media).”He’s got a great cricket brain and he’s entitled to his opinion. But the way I look at it, the last 25-30 Tests, I’ve played some of the best cricket of my career and I haven’t played against Bangladesh. My role in the team has changed, bowling behind Lee, (Jason) Gillespie, (Glenn) McGrath and (Michael) Kasprowicz.”We’ve been bowling first a lot lately and that means I’ve been bowling on day one, two and three wickets. Under Mark Taylor we’d always bat first and so I’d be bowling on day four of five when it turns more.”Warne has been in England since the start of the season, captaining Hampshire, currently top of the First Division of the County Championship. He is the county’s joint leading bowler so far this season alongside Chris Tremlett. Tremlett, the young seamer, also has 35 wickets including a hat-trick against Nottinghamshire that sealed an improbable win last weekend.”Chris Tremlett is dynamite at the moment and it wouldn’t surprise me if he played against Australia at some stage this season,” said Warne. He has also repeatedly called for Hampshire team-mate Kevin Pietersen to be given a Test debut.But the South African-born batsman was left out of England’s recent 2-0 series win against Bangladesh and Warne, while refusing to talk up his county colleague’s chances further, said that he should have played.Rush’s portrait shows Warne in cricket whites tossing up a ball in the air. “The painting took 10 months because Shane went back to Australia,” Rush said. “He was a good sitter. I didn’t feel intimidated but I got the sense he’s a great strategist.”Adam Chadwick, the curator of collections for Lord’s owners Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), said there was a simple reason for the commission. “He (Warne) is one of the greats of the game, the leading Test wicket-taker. Unfortunately, not long after the commission, he had his break (a one-year drugs ban) but now he’s back and bowling as well as ever.”

Shane Warne has decided to stop using his mobile phone and asked his family and friends to communicate with him via e-mail instead. Warne left a message on his existing phone saying that he has decided to stop using the device, one that had embroiled him in a series of sex-texting controversies over the years.Warne’s decision came a day after his wife Simone and three children joined him in England from Australia. In the voice message that he left on his phone, according to , Warne said, “I am not sure if it’s going to work or not. So I won’t be getting any more messages on this number via voice or text, but you can contact me via e-mail.”Warne’s current action comes ten weeks after his latest scandal while on tour in New Zealand. Warne was also targeted in 2003, the year when he was banned for using a banned substance, by Helen Cohen Alon, a South African mother who said she was harrassed by text messages. In 2000 Warne said he and Donna Wright, an English nurse, had conducted “dirty” phone calls but there were no harrassing notes.

Matthew Maynard, a six-time veteran of the Hong Kong Sixes and an assistant coach to England for one-day internationals, will again captain the England side. They will hope to emulate last year’s success when the comfortably beat Pakistan, themselves four-time winners, in the final. Dimitri Mascarenhas has been seleceted after a productive season with the ball for that won praise from his captain at Hampshire, Shane Warne.The Hong Kong Sixes, still played at the Kowloon Cricket Club wherethey started in 1992 and will take place for the tenth time this year on November 6-7. The teams will be competing for a prize fund of US$260,000, with the winners taking away US$80,000. Heavy international and domestic schedules have prevented Australia and New Zealand accepting their invitations to play.England, who have won three times, will compete against SriLanka, Kenya and Hong Kong in Pool One, where one win will see themprogress to the semi-finals. Pool Two consists of Pakistan, SouthAfrica, India and the United Arab Emirates.The full squad is Matthew Maynard (Glamorgan, capt), Kabir Ali (Worcestershire), Glen Chapple (Lancashire), Darren Maddy (Leicestershire), Dimitri Mascarenhas (Hampshire), Graham Napier (Essex), Chris Tremlett (Hampshire). David Graveney will act as manager.

John Buchanan, the Australian coach, feels that Shane Warne would benefit from an attacking game-plan since Australia had many bowlers who could provide restricting options. Buchanan said that Warne’s main problem on the previous tour, in 2001, was that he was forced to perform a dual role of attacking and defending at the same time.The quoted Buchanan as saying: “We’ve also got a couple more defensive options in the squad. And that’s why it was picked like it was.”If we get it right this time, we hope he’ll just be able to more or less wheel away, and not have to play a dual role. Or, if he has to play two roles during the series, it should be made pretty clear what he has to do. That’s important, because last time it meant he was bowling a huge amount. That wears you down.”Unlike the previous two tours, when he was hampered by shoulder and finger injuries, Warne had no fitness worries. “It’s the first time that [Warne] has come to India in really good shape. That’s got to be a big plus for us and will mentally help him.”Warne also had a fantastic return from his one-year layoff as his 26 wickets engineered the 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka arlier this year. “That is still fresh in his mind,” said Buchanan. “It’s not just his results but how he actually bowled. If he continues in that vein he’ll really enjoy this series.”

New Zealand have left for Zimbabwe to play a two-Test series despite strong opposition to the tour because of the president Robert Mugabe’s campaign to demolish urban slums, leaving thousands homeless. According to polls, most New Zealanders are opposed to the tour because of the human rights violations in the country.Rod Donald, the New Zealand Green Party co-leader who has been leading a campaign to prevent the tour, said on Monday the trip could be prevented. “Our government could still find the courage to stop the tour,” he told . “There is also the prospect that the fuel and food shortages in Zimbabwe will deteriorate to such a point that New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will decide that it’s unsafe for our team to be there anyway.”The New Zealand government had asked the ICC to allow NZC to cancel the tour without facing a fine of US$2 million and being liable to compensate Zimbabwe for lost revenue. The ICC said NZC could refuse to play without penalty only if the government made it illegal to tour Zimbabwe. However, Phil Goff, the foreign minister, said the government was not willing to restrict its citizens from travelling overseas. NZC then said that it could prevent the tour if the security of the players was threatened.New Zealand will train and play warm-up matches in Namibia before arriving in Zimbabwe on August 4. They will also feature in a triangular one-day tournament involving India and Zimbabwe.

Ian Botham and Imran Khan, two of world cricket’s leading allrounders in the 1980s, returned to the High Court yesterday to argue over the settlements of the costs from the high-profile libel action that took place there in 1996.According to London’s , Imran, who won the verdict in the original trial, is claiming £250,000 but says that he will settle for £75,000 less. Botham’s lawyers yesterday asked the presiding judge, Justice Richards, to throw out the cost application. However, if Imran’s claim is not thrown out, Botham will claim counter-costs and negotiations between their lawyers will be complex. Botham and Imran have argued over the costs since the original action eight years ago, and the hearing lasted all day yesterday.Botham brought the original libel action after reading an interview given by Imran in the magazine . He alleged that Imran had libelled him by saying that he was a racist and a cheat, and saying that he had no class or upbringing. But halfway through the trial Imran stopped trying to say his comments were justified, and instead claimed he had been misquoted.Justice Richards is expected to give his judgment within the next week or so.

Andrew Leipus, the Indian physio, plans to quit after the tour of Bangladesh in December. Leipus had earlier asked the Indian board to relieve him of his duties with the team as he wanted to spend more time with his family as well as pursue a professional course in sports physiotherapy.Speaking to , Leipus confirmed that he planned to quit after the team completed the Bangladesh tour. “It won’t be after the South Africa series,” he said. “After that the team goes to Bangladesh and there’s not too much gap between the two series. After the Bangladesh tour there is a decent break in play before Pakistan tours India. The time is enough for the BCCI to finalise on another candidate.”Leipus, 34, spoke about how he couldn’t stay on for India’s series against Pakistan. “That’s not possible at all. My Masters course in Sports Physiotherapy at the University of Adelaide beings in February and the Pakistan tour is scheduled in February and March 2005.”He was also surprised at reports that spoke about a communication gap between him and the board. “That was disappointing. There were strange reports in different sections of the media about the BCCI not knowing about my decision to resign. My stand was clear ever since I communicated to the board about not being able to be with the team on a full-time basis.”In his letter to the Indian Board Leipus had suggested that John Gloster, the former Bangladesh physio, be considered as a physio. Gloster, who has also worked with Surrey in the past, spent about two years as the physio of the Bangladesh team, but left them on October 9 when his contract ran out.