After the setback of hearing the news that his wife has suffered a recurrence of cancer, Glenn McGrath could yet continue to play in the VB Series, and might return to the side which faces South Africa at Sydney on Sunday.”I know he is quite keen to play, so that’s what they [the family] will have to work out,” Adam Gilchrist, Australia’s vice-captain, said on Saturday. “Longer term, I don’t know. We just have to let the dust settle a little bit and really give them a chance to work out what’s best for them and then secondary to that is what’s best for the team.”I have just spoken with Pigeon [McGrath] this morning [and he is] very optimistic and very positive,” Gilchrist added. “If anyone knows how to deal with it, those guys do.”Australia have already booked their berth in the finals of the VB Series. Meanwhile, South Africa must beat Australia on Sunday or else face “live” final qualifying match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Graeme Smith, South Africa’s out-of-form captain, was dismissed for a second-ball duck against Australia on Saturday; he has yet to make a fifty this series.Herschelle Gibbs – who, on 33, played a rash slog and was bowled by James Hopes – was criticised by his coach, Mickey Arthur. “It was an irresponsible shot,” Arthur said, “bearing in mind that we had got Botha in to take the pressure off him.”

Yorkshire have made a loss of £1.2million for the financial year, the club has announced. The loss stemmed from Headingley being overlooked as one of the Ashes Tests venues in 2005, as well as the late conclusion of the ground deal, which was finally sorted in December.Despite the shortfall, the club are confident that they will be able to turn in a profit of around £300,000 for the current year, owing to buying the ground, and hosting a Test.A statement on the club’s website said: “The situation is much healthier now – thanks to the ground purchase and agreement with the ECB to stage international matches at Headingley until 2019.”But the finance director Brian Bouttell admitted that after buying Headingley, finances would be tight at Yorkshire for some time to come. Bouttell said: “As with any first-time mortgage, things will be tight for the first five years, reasonable for the next five and then much easier.”In order to ease the financial burden, Yorkshire plan to hold a ground appeal, which they hope could bring in £3million, and to hold a club benefit, which they believe could raise £1million.

Luke Radford, the son of the former Worcestershire and England seamer Neal, has joined the Warwickshire academy for the 2006 season. He has impressed with performances for Bromsgrove School and his club, Evesham.Warwickshire have been keeping tabs on the youngster for the past year and are excited by the promise he shows. Richard Cox, the academy director, said: “He is a right-arm seamer and right-hand batter who strikes the ball cleanly and will win games for Warwickshire this season.”He has overcome a back complaint over the winter and remodelled his action under the guidance of the Warwickshire medical staff and bowling coach Steve Perryman and we are delighted with his efforts. We are delighted to have captured him at a key point in his career and hope that he will progress to higher levels of cricket whilst he is with us”Radford is excited by the opportunity and keen to get started. “I am delighted to have been asked to join the Warwickshire Academy. All the lads who are involved in the set up have huge potential and I am delighted that people think highly of me as a cricketer. I know that the support I will be getting will be second to none and I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that come my way.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSuperb bowling from Pierre Joubert and Mandla Mashimbyi led Northerns to the SAA Provincial Challenge title after defeating Western Province by the convincing margin of 100 runs. Chasing 284, Western Province slumped to 184 all out .Needing quick runs in the morning, Kruger van Wyk set about with purpose for Northerns and reached his hundred from 169 balls. However, it was Gerald Dros who gave the innings much-needed momentum with a quick-fire fifty from 38 balls, with five sixes and a four.This left Province a tricky total of 284 from 81 overs, yet they got off to the worst possible start when Alistair Gray fell to the second ball of the innings. With Mashimbyi and Francis Nkuna picking up two wickets each, leaving Province wobbling on 26 for 4, the impetus was with the Northerns bowlers.Only Ryan Canning delayed the inevitable with a brisk and aggressive half-century, but even his bold effort was in vain as Northerns’ bowlers wrapped up the game and the title in the 45th over. Joubert finished with the impressive figures of 3 for 10 from nine overs.

Sajid Mahmood and Jon Lewis have been called up for the first Test against Sri Lanka which gets underway at Lord’s on Thursday. As expected, Andrew Flintoff will captain England in the absence of Michael Vaughan.Mahmood and Lewis, both of whom are uncapped, are in fine early-season form; Mahmood took four wickets for Lancashire in their recent victory over Kent, and Lewis decimated Sri Lanka with nine wickets in England A’s crushing win at Worcester.”Andrew Flintoff did an outstanding job as captain in difficult circumstances in India with a young team and he will lead the side again while Michael Vaughan continues with his rehabilitation from injury,” explained David Graveney, the chairman of selectors.”We are delighted with Marcus Trescothick’s early season form and he will return to the team in his normal position opening the innings with Andrew Strauss. Alastair Cook enjoyed an excellent start to his Test career in the sub-continent and he will occupy the number three position in the order.”England have been dogged by injuries all winter, and their luck hasn’t improved with the start of the season: Vaughan, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Chris Tremlett and James Anderson are all missing with injuries.”We have a number of bowlers out so it is a great opportunity for the likes of Jon and Mahmood and Plunkett,” Graveney added. “The final decision between which seamers play will be down to Duncan [Fletcher] and Andrew when they see the wicket next week.”The weather at this time of this year will also be a factor.”England squad: Andrew Flintoff (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones (wk), Monty Panesar, Liam Plunkett, Matthew Hoggard, Sajid Mahmood, Ian Bell, Jon Lewis.

Ben Hutton, the Middlesex captain, has dropped himself for their next Championship match, against Yorkshire at Southgate on Wednesday. Having scored just 170 runs in five matches this season he has been demoted to the second eleven and the captaincy has been handed to Scott Styris.It is a significant decision and John Emburey, the director of cricket, said it showed that no one was safe in the team if they didn’t perform. This is not the first time Hutton has stood aside for the benefit of the side; he has previously left himself out of the one-day team. His place as opener will be taken by Nick Compton, who has performed encouragingly in the middle order.Last year wasn’t full of runs for Hutton, either, with 16 Championship games bringing 899 runs at 32 and he was criticised at times for some negative captaincy. His replacement, Styris, didn’t set the world alight in his first match of the season, scoring 13 runs and going wicketless against Warwickshire two weeks ago.

Transportation continues to be a major headache ahead of the 2007 World Cup, and this week some of the major players will be meeting to chart a road map.Stephen Alleyne, chief executive of the Barbados Local Organising Committee, said yesterday that the issue of movement of people during the tournament has been a major concern, and that they would be tackling this “strategic area” from Tuesday to Thursday at the Royal Antigua Hotel. He added that all other areas of the tournament’s organisation were given positive grades, but transportation needed to be tackled “head-on”.”The transportation and the movement of people between the nine countries hosting matches have been the most significant issues we have faced and we will be meeting in Antigua to look at these,” Alleyne said after a tour of Kensington Oval.”We will be having senior officials in many strategic areas present. There will be top officials from all the major airlines in the region, Cricket World Cup officials, customs, immigration, government, and so on. We have to get a road map as to where we are heading. The road must be clear.”Organisers have projected that about 100,000 visitors will be in the Caribbean during the March 5 to April 28 tournament. Alleyne said several air charters have indicated willingness to play a part in the movement of fans. He added that the organisers were close to signing on the charter airlines to move players, officials and VIPs.Last week the major airlines in the region – Air Jamaica, LIAT, BWIA West Indies Airways, and Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun – announced they would be making a joint bid to be the official carrier.

Simon Jones is reportedly planning club appearances in Perth as he tries to recover from a serious knee injury in time for the Ashes. Andrew Flintoff has been a target of Australian cricket’s attention this week after David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, suggested a grade stint for the allrounder, who had ankle surgery on Wednesday, before the defence of the urn.Jones was operated on in June and was told the recovery would take at least three months, giving him some hope of regaining fitness by November 23, although he hasn’t played a Test since England took a 2-1 lead in the Ashes at Trent Bridge last year. said Jones had spoken to Perth’s Subiaco-Floreat club, but was unable to confirm whether he would appear for the side if he did not make the tour squad.”He is hopeful of being fit but doesn’t know how soon he will be able to play,” Alan Bolton, the Subiaco-Floreat cricket director, said. “He may come out and work on his cricket so that even if he misses the start of the tour, he can push for selection later in the summer. We have had someone in contact with him and although he remains an outside chance, it would be tremendous for the club and for the WACA if he played.”Jones suffered an awful knee injury while fielding on the first day of the Ashes series in 2002-03, but he recovered to play a crucial part in England’s 2005 triumph. With Troy Cooley, the current Australian bowling coach, working on his action, Jones exposed the Australians with his reverse-swing and picked up 18 wickets at 21 in four games, including two five-wicket hauls.Australian clubs are encouraging the England players to fine-tune with them to help increase the standard of the local competitions. Queensland Cricket officials have asked Stuart Law to tell Flintoff, his Lancashire team-mate, he could get 13 days of cricket in before the first Test at Brisbane. “As well as playing grade,” a Queensland Cricket spokesman told , “they could train with the Bulls if they wanted to.”

Graeme Hick has been offered a new one-year contract by Worcestershire.Hick, 40, who has been with the county for 23 seasons, had been pondering his future after a poor start to the season, but he hit good form in June and has not looked back since. Recently he became only the second player since the war to score 100 first-class hundreds for his county (the other being Geoff Boycott).”Graeme is a legend of Worcestershire cricket and is having another good season,” Mark Newton, the Worcestershire chief executive, explained. “I can confirm we recently discussed the situation with him and would love to see him continue to re-write the record books here at Worcestershire. The offer has been made and Graeme has asked for time to consider the situation.”

The ECB have announced that their contingency plans for the forthcoming Twenty20 and one-day series against Pakistan have been stood down following the Pakistan Cricket Board’s commitment to honour the series.The ECB made arrangements to cover the vast potential loss of earnings had Pakistan pulled out of the series; the West Indies were confirmed as Pakistan’s replacement team, and a hastily formed International XI was also arranged in case Pakistan failed to play the Twenty20 match.”Our contingency plan has now been stood down following the unequivocal commitment from the PCB to fulfil the remainder of the tour,” David Collier, the ECB chief executive said, “and we now look forward to an exciting Twenty20 at Bristol on Monday and the five-match NatWest Series One Day Internationals.”In particular I wish to express our gratitude to the West Indies Cricket Board, Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and Glamorgan County Cricket Club in addition to our sponsors and broadcasters for their fulsome support of ECB’s contingency plan which was actioned to ensure that we could guarantee matches throughout the Nat West Series for spectators, television viewers and radio listeners,” he said.”ECB also wishes to thank the 12 players who had agreed to play in the International XI and the management team who had been invited to support the International XI.”