Pedro Collins and Corey Collymore, the two fast bowlers sidelined due to injuries in the last few months, are set to return for the Carib Beer Cup semi-final against Guyana starting on Friday. Both trained at the nets at the Barbados Defence Force’s Paragon ground and Hendy Springer, their coach, felt both have been recuperating well.Collins, the left-arm fast bowler, sidelined due to a stress fracture to the back since September, recently played in two limited-overs matches for a West Indies Select XI against Scotland. Collymore hasn’t played since being operated in December to remove a bone spur in his right patellar (knee) tendon. Springer also confirmed that the West Indies team management requested that Fidel Edwards, the right-arm fast bowler who was with the senior squad in New Zealand, be rested.Their inclusion, along with Tino Best and Ian Bradshaw, would mean that Barbados had plenty of fast bowlers to pick from. Given Guyana’s vulnerability to pace, it is likely that they will opt for a four-pronged pace attack, and the bowler who could find himself unlucky to miss out is Ryan Austin, the offspinner. With 22 wickets in four matches, Austin is Barbados’ joint highest wicket-taker with Bradshaw.While Barbados were spoilt for choice, Guyana braced themselves for the absence of two key players, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. While the nature of Chanderpaul’s injury is not known, Sarwan has not recovered from a thigh muscle injury he sustained in New Zealand, pulling out of the tour mid-way. Sarwan and Chanderpaul were replaced by Leon Johnson and Stephen Jacobs.However, Chetram Singh, president of the Guyana Cricket Board was confident that Guyana will pose a challenge to Barbados, despite the setback. “I think the loss of Sarwan and Chanderpaul is a setback to Guyana’s chances,” Singh told a Guyana based daily. “Both are senior West Indies batsmen and they both have scored heavily against Barbados in the past. Notwithstanding that, I think we have a good chance, as the guys have been playing cricket for the last month. I’m hopeful they will get through this hurdle and reach the finals.”Albert Smith, the Guyana coach, agreed with Singh. The side contains a number of enthusiastic youngsters, given the selectors’ emphasis on youth, and he added that the bowling attack will remain unchanged, and that it is up to the batsmen to stand up and be counted.

Although not part of the official tour schedule, Sri Lanka played a match today against a Getty XI in the idyllic setting of Wormsley, Buckinghamshire. It would have been a light-hearted, social, affair but for one young batsman it was further recognition of someone expected to go a long way in the game.Sam Northeast, 16, who has been prolific for Harrow School and already made a mark for Kent 2nd XI, lined up alongside more household names such as Graeme Hick. But he was far from overawed as he struck a fine 62 against some of the bowlers who will front up at Lord’s next Thursday.However, for many, his innings will not come as a huge surprise. His progress has been charted from early school days where he broke records galore. If the hype is to be believed Northeast won’t remain anonymous for much longer.When he left Wellesley House in Broadstairs, his prep school, he’d racked up 19 centuries during his last term and earned a sport scholarship to Harrow. He played for the first XI at Lord’s when he was just 14 and, last summer, scored 96 on his Kent 2nd XI against a Derbyshire attack including Chris Schofield and Travis Friend.”Playing at Lord’s was a wonderful experience but probably making 96 for Kent against Derbyshire has been by best moment so far,” Northeast said late last year after picking up the Gray-Nicolls Trophy for the most outstanding school cricketer. “I played alongside Martin Saggers and he just showed his class.”Northeast’s path to first-class cricket is laid out in front of him, with only GCSE exams standing in the way, but he still recalls the day he witnessed one of the world’s worst recent tragedies. He was on tour in Sri Lanka with Harrow, and practising at Galle, when the tsunami struck. The quick thinking of Simon Halliday, their coach, saved the day but Northeast still thinks about it.”It crosses my mind now quite a few times how fortunate I have been and although I do not think it has changed me, I still find it hard to talk about,” he told earlier this week. “A very strong bond was created between that team.”He is certainly not a one-sport man, or boy, and still has the tough decision to make as to whether he leaves behind rugby. Roger Uttley, the former England coach who now works at Harrow, believes he could go far with the oval ball, too.The signs are, though, that cricket will be the one. David Parsons, England’s new spin coach, who worked with Northeast at Loughborough, told that he has star quality. “Sam is one of the most exciting talents and there is no reason why he should not go far. A fantastic ball player, very fit and a stroker of the ball rather than a hitter. He is Michael Vaughan-esque.”Those are views echoed by his Kent coach Paul Farbrace. “Sam is extremely talented but the thing that has struck me is his mental strength, he doesn’t get fazed by anything. He is very focussed at what he wants to achieve but remains level-headed at the same time. If he continues to develop there is certainly a Test cricketer in the making.”The word is that he will have played first team for Kent before this season is out, then it will be a case of balancing academic life with his playing career. It is easy to load young players with unfair levels of expectation but, so far, Northeast has taken everything in his stride. Watch this space.

Four weeks ago, as England struggled to believe summer was on its way, the most curious of sights was seen on the streets of London: a 28-foot tall statue of Shane Warne, atop a lorry, racing past various landmarks in the city. At least, we assumed it was Warne.No sooner had the giant (and altogether rather frightening) statue been unveiled slap bang in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, to the incredulity of Londoners, than it was whisked off again to another location. A six-foot-tall Warne is a fearsome enough prospect for England, but 28-feet of Warne rather takes the biscuit. Indeed, it was revealed today, that is precisely Cricket Australia’s intention.The whole event forms part of Cricket Australia’s TV campaign, titled `Big Warnie’, to advertise the forthcoming Ashes in November. Cue humorous clichés of “Warne wreaks havoc with the English: again!”.”The excitement ahead of the Ashes series is building by the day and being a part of it, in any shape or form, is an honour,” Warne commented. “Hopefully the excitement and passion about the series translates into some really vocal Aussie support when it all starts at the Gabba in November.”The statue, made of wire and plaster, was ushered past many of London’s most iconic landmarks on its way to its final destination, Piccadilly Circus, where it was officially unveiled to the bemusement of hundreds of stunned English onlookers.Some of the places ‘Big Warnie’ visited during his tour included Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, the Millennium Bridge and Tower Bridge.Speaking to the BBC at the Stella Artois Tennis Championship in London, Warne – commenting on the Ashes tickets farce a couple of weeks ago, said: “It will be 95,000 people every day for five days. They’ll all be behind us unless there are 75,000 tickets sold to the Poms.”All of Australia is looking forward to seeing something like last year, with the same spirit and the same sportsmanship. Let’s hope it’s exactly the same series as last year but with a different result.”The commercial airs on Sunday, June 18 or can be viewed at Cricket Australia’s site by clicking here. Alternatively, have a look at our gallery.

Tyron Henderson, the East London allrounder, is set to leave South Africa for a stint with English county Kent. Kent recently released Justin Kemp in order for the South African allrounder to recover from niggling injuries and be fit for future one-day assignments as well as the 2007 World Cup, and in his place has stepped Henderson.Henderson, the Standard Bank Pro20 cricketer of the year in 2004-05, has a reputation of being a destructive batsman with a strike rate of 152.22 in Pro20 cricket. His canny fast-medium bowling has been seen as a plus. Against Western Province, he finished with the outstanding figures of 2 for 8 off four overs, the best figures by any bowler in Pro20 cricket. He has even represented his country’s A team as well as in the Hong Kong Sixes last season.Henderson has been slated for a Twenty20 debut against Essex at Canterbury on Tuesday, followed by games against Surrey at The Oval and Middlesex at Lord’s later in the week. Kent have also reported that he may play certain Pro40 limited-overs matches and the eight remaining county games.Henderson, who made his first-class debut for Border in 1998-99, has signed a contract to play for the Highveld Lions next summer.

England have named an unchanged 12-man squad for the final Test against Pakistan, at The Oval, starting on Thursday. Jon Lewis has been retained although it is unlikely that there will be any changes from the team that sealed the series with a 167-run at Headingley.There had been a suggestion that with the series secured the selectors might take the chance to draft in Stuart Broad, the Leicestershire seamer, who has impressed throughout the season. However, that temptation has been resisted with the upcoming one-day series the more likely place to watch a few new faces.David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said: “The team has played really well in the last two Test matches and the challenge now is to maintain those standards and keep playing cricket of that quality in the final Test of the series.”The one possible opening for Lewis to win a second Test cap would be if Matthew Hoggard continues to struggle with his knee after jarring himself at Headingley. He will be assessed when the squad meets up on Monday, but the early indication is that the problem will not be serious enough to rule him out.Graveney also praised the role of Andrew Strauss, leading the team in the absence of the injured Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff. Earlier this season Strauss was in charge while England went down 5-0 in a one-day series against Sri Lanka. “Winning the series was an outstanding team effort with everyone playing a part and I am particularly pleased for Andrew Strauss, who took on the Test captaincy in difficult circumstances after our defeat by Sri Lanka in the NatWest Series.””He deserves full credit for his leadership of the team and I am sure he and the rest of the players will be doing their utmost next week to ensure that we can finish the series with a win.”Squad Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Chris Read (wk), Sajid Mahmood, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar, Jon Lewis

Kent 213 for 8 (Bravo 45) beat Somerset 104 (Henderson 5-28) by 109 runs
ScorecardA brilliant spell of accurate and incisive swing bowling from Kent’s Tyron Henderson condemned Somerset to a thumping 109-run defeat in the latest Pro40 encounter at Taunton.Henderson, who bowled unchanged for his entire eight-over spell, returned figures of 5 for 28, as Somerset slipped to an embarrassing 58 for 5. He started the rot by bowling Justin Langer for 5 (14 for 1) to bring a tame end to his extraordinary five-week stint with the county, and then ran through the middle order, aided by some slapdash shots, before crowning his spell with a perfect inswinging yorker to trap Wesley Durston lbw for a first-ball duck.James Hildreth and Andrew Caddick helped Somerset scrape into triple figures as Somerset’s spinners came on to mop up the tail, but by then the game was long dead. Earlier, Dwayne Bravo had top-scored for Kent with 45, as they mustered 213 in their 40 overs. It looked like setting up a tight encounter, but Henderson had other ideas.

Six South African grounds will compete to be one of the three venues for the Twenty20 World Championship in 2007. The decision will be made by the newly-formed Policy Committee which met for the first time on Wednesday after the ICC limited the number of grounds to three.John Smith will chair the committee and Steve Elworthy will be the tournament director, a press conference in Johannesburg announced. Smith hhas chaired the Ministerial Committee on Cricket Tranformation before, while Elworthy has already proven his worth as a commercial cricket director.Gerald Majola, the chief executive of the South African board, heaped glowing praise on both, calling Elworthy “the ideal tournament director” and Smith “an outstanding chair.” He added: “John is one of South Africa’s leading jurists and has an extensive knowledge of South African cricket and its vision.”

Australia gave Karen Rolton and Cathryn Fitzpatrick the perfect result to celebrate their 100th games for their country with a nail-biting one-run win in the opening match of the Rose Bowl Series in Brisbane. Chasing 202 for victory, New Zealand wanted 21 from the last 18 balls and seven from the final over, but it took the last-ball run-out of Sarah Burke to end the valiant attempt.A fine 71 from Aimee Mason, who hit ten fours and a six, kept the visitors in sight of the target and when she was another of the four run-outs Anna Dodd struck 15 off 10 balls to ensure a thrilling conclusion. Fitzpatrick finished with figures of 2 for 49 while Rolton, the captain, contributed with a brisk 44 after winning the toss.Lisa Sthalekar marked her 50th one-day international by top scoring with 51 and she passed another milestone by becoming the eighth Australian to reach 1000 career runs. Melissa Bulow picked up 29 at the top of the order and some late contributions from Jodie Purves and Julie Hayes pushed Australia to 9 for 201. The second match of the five-game series is at Allan Border Field on Sunday.

Day 3 The third day’s play of the ICC Intercontinental Cup between Kenya and Bermuda at Nairobi was washed out. Bermuda, after conceding a 72-run first innings lead were 19 for 2 at the end of the second day’s play. The loss of play has loosened Kenya’s grip a bit, but they should still be backing themselves to bowl Bermuda out and chase, if they have to, successfully, in case they get a full day’s play on Wednesday.