India's tour of England

Leg-spinner Anil Kumble will undergo a test on his injured calf on Wednesday to ascertain if he would be fit to play in the second Test against England starting on Thursday. This is the third time in the tour that Kumble has been afflicted by the calf injury and this has cast a doubt over his inclusion in the team for the Test. Kumble was first injured during a NatWest triangular one-day game against England at Oval and needed a runner while batting. According to physio Andrew Leipus the bowler was also troubled by the injury after the first two sessions of play during the first Test at Lord's after which he was rested for the four-day game against Worcestershire last week. Though Kumble was very confident of being fit in time for the Trent Bridge Test, the physio said they wanted to be absolutely sure the injury does not recur during the match. Meanwhile, captain Sourav Ganguly himself developed a little sprain in his neck while batting during nets but soon recovered to bat for over an hour. England did not appear a good bet to win the first Test against India and, by the same criteria, look even less likely to win the second. Missing their top two fast bowlers and their leading batsman at Lord's, the patched-up home team contrived to win that initial contest by a thumping 170 runs. If India have not yet recovered from the disappointment, England have probably not got over their surprise either. Captain Nasser Hussain, a man with both feet always planted firmly on the ground, had to concede: "I think that's about as well as this side can play." His opposite number Sourav Ganguly might have been tempted to suggest his team could not have played much worse. A second English success at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, in the four-match series, though, would be more impressive still. Alex Tudor has been released by England ahead of this week's second Test against India. The Surrey seamer was a surprise inclusion in the 13-man squad for the Trent Bridge encounter after playing in just two one-day games since sustaining shin splints during the NatWest Series. But after training in Nottingham on Tuesday, the selectors decided to allow him to return to Surrey to play in their championship match against Sussex at Hove. Tudor's absence means Durham faster bowler Steve Harmison is almost certain to make his debut. Harmison insists he is far from terrified at the prospect of bowling to Sachin Tendulkar. "Hopefully I am not overawed by it. I'll just enjoy bowling to someone like that," he said.

Australia's tour of Pakistan

A schoolyard shooting massacre outside Islamabad has unofficially ended any chance of Australia making a cricket tour of Pakistan in October. Gunmen killed six Pakistanis when they opened fire on a Christian school attended by the children of foreign missionaries, including Australians, on Monday. The shootings at The Murree Christian School represented the sixth attack on foreign targets this year, reinforcing Australia's deep reluctance to make the tour. The incident made a mockery of claims by Pakistan Cricket Board president General Tauqir Zia last week that Australians would be guaranteed maximum security and a safe passage if they toured Pakistan for the three-Test tour. The Australian Cricket Board is expected to announce soon it will not tour Pakistan, leaving the host nation the option of either scrapping the series or holding it at a neutral venue. The prime neutral venue options are Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the favoured choice of the players.

Miscellaneous

Australian Test captain Steve Waugh, short on match practice after being left out of the world champions' one-day side, said on Tuesday he was considering playing county cricket in England. Waugh said missing out on two Australian one-day tours had left him short of match practice before a scheduled three-Test series against Pakistan in October. He and twin brother, Mark were dropped from Australia's limited overs team at the end of last season. Their hopes of regaining their places for the World Cup next year nose-dived when they were overlooked for Australia's triangular series against Pakistan in Kenya later this month and an "A" tour of South Africa in September. Steve Waugh said he had spoken to a couple of English counties recently about playing before the Pakistan Test tour. "There's an opportunity there to go and play county cricket, so that would be a possibility because there's nothing back here and it's not a good preparation going into a three-Test series against Pakistan not playing a game of cricket," Waugh said. Sydney's 80,000-seater Olympic stadium could become a regular venue for one-day international cricket, it was revealed on Tuesday. The first game of cricket at the Telstra Stadium will be on 16 February 2003 when New South Wales play South Australia. NSW, the defending champions in Australia's ING Cup one-day tournament, will hope for a crowd of 20,000. The match will be starved of the side's best players, however, since it will be staged during the World Cup in South Africa. A drop-in pitch will be inserted in January with the ground measuring 170 metres long and 128 metres wide, dimensions which would make it similar to the Adelaide Oval. NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert said it was "inevitable" the ground would eventually be used for international one-day games. For now, however, the Australian Cricket Board is contractually bound to play its Sydney fixtures at the Sydney Cricket Ground until the 2004-05 season. "International cricket will come here sooner rather than later because how can you say no to 80,000 crowds and the income that produces for the game," Gilbert said. Third one-day international, Toronto. Canada 207-5 (49.2 overs) beat West Indies A 204-7 (50 overs) by five wickets. Canada win series 2-1 Canada showed they could well cause an upset at the World Cup when they clinched the deciding match in the series in nail-biting fashion. The Caribbean men were fresh from a largely-successful tour of England and the side beaten in the decider at Maple Leaf CC had six international stars in it. Canada strengthened their bowling by bringing in Sanjay Thuraisingam, one of their more effective bowlers in the ICC Trophy. Thuraisingam had a good start, dismissing Daren Ganga for just 3. It completed a poor series for the tourists' captain. West Indies A were in danger of collapse at 39 for 3, but sensible batting from Dwayne Bravo (45) and Gareth Breese (68) took them out of danger and eventually to a competitive total.

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