India in England

Final Test, The Oval (day two): India 66-1 vs England 515 all out The deciding fourth Test remains in the balance after India bowled England out for 515 and then reached 66 for one on the second day at The Oval. Harbhajan Singh finished with his ninth five-wicket haul in Tests as England's middle order collapsed. And it was left to the tailenders to gain a total the home side deserved after dominating the first day. Indian bowler Harbhajan Singh believes his side still have a good chance of claiming their first series win outside the sub-continent for 16 years, despite England's lead. "We are pretty much back in the match, we just need to bat well on Saturday," he said. "Our confidence was a bit low after the first day, but it's part of the game and we came back strongly. "It is now quite open, it's only the second day and there is a lot of time left. We have batsmen in form and ideally I won't have to bat. "We have two spinners and the ball will turn more as time goes on." "There are three important days left in this Test match and that's what we are focusing on."

ICC Champions Trophy

Surrey all-rounder Rikki Clarke has been drafted into the England squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. Derbyshire skipper Dominic Cork and Middlesex batsman Owais Shah will also be on the plane, with the selectors forced to find replacements for Paul Collingwood, Michael Vaughan and Craig White. England squad for the Champions Trophy: N Hussain(capt), ME Trescothick, NV Knight, AJ Stewart(wkt), DG Cork, RC Irani, AF Giles, RJ Kirtley, AR Caddick, MJ Hoggard, JN Snape, ID Blackwell, R Clarke, OA Shah.

ICC Contract row

India's top players are set to play in next week's Champions Trophy tournament after settling a contracts dispute. The squad, currently on tour in England, had threatened to boycott the event because they were unhappy with clauses covering image rights and personal endorsements. But a breakthrough was achieved after talks between the players and International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said: "As per our knowledge, the players and the ICC have reached agreement." A day after the Indian cricketers and the ICC resolved the contractual disputes that threatened to disrupt the Champions Trophy, beginning in Sri Lanka next Thursday, and next year's World Cup, the players formed a representative body to protect their interests. The new body is in the process of being registered. Three former players, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Ravi Shastri and Arun Lal, will be the office-bearers of the organisation, whose formation was announced on Friday, and will deal with the BCCI on behalf of the players. The ICC contract row seems to be stretching a bit too far with the so-called second-string players feeling the brunt of it the most as they are faced with an uncertain situation. Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, who is among the 25 probables picked by the Cricket Board for the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka next week, echoed the general sentiment saying on Friday "everything is so uncertain, we do not know how to go about it". "There has been no official intimation to any 25 of us as to what the actual position is and what the composition of the playing eleven would be," Kartik, who was here to inaugurate the Delhi leg of the National Bowling Championships, said. "I do not even know if I am in any of the teams - the original or the second-string. I was just given the Players' Terms form to sign and that's it," he said Former Indian captain Kapil Dev on Friday termed ICC's reported attempts to force players to sign the controversial contract for next week's Champion's Trophy as "sheer dictatorship". "Forcing a player to sign the controversial ICC contract under threat of dropping him from the game is not an agreement but sheer dictatorship," he told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Kinetic Engineering's new four-stroke motorcycle 'Boss' in the city. Questioning as to how the Indian Cricket Board could sign the contract with ICC without consulting players, Kapil said "telling players that sign it or you can't play is not proper and tantamounts to dictatorship. It is an injustice to players", he said.

PSO triangular tournament

Young Australian allrounder Shane Watson is barely satisfied with his performance against Kenya in Nairobi on Thursday - despite making his career best score with the bat. "I had to make sure I got us home, because I got us into trouble," Watson said after the match. "Obviously it's good to win a game for your country, but I wasn't very happy with the way I hit the ball - I hit the ball to the fielders a lot."

Miscellaneous

South Africa’s coach Eric Simons realises his job is dependant on good results, but is committed to rebuilding the image of the national team "from scratch." "This is a very fickle job - everything hinges on results - and if at the end of the day I'm not producing the goods as coach, my employer and the South African public will have my head," Simons declared succinctly. "I fully understood that when I took on the assignment and if I'm not good enough at the end of the day, then someone else has got to do the job - it's simple as that," he added. Pace bowler Shane Bond took five for 32 as New Zealand warmed up for next week's ICC Champions Trophy with a 30-run win over New South Wales in Sydney. It was their fourth successive victory over Australian state opposition and put Stephen Fleming's men in good heart to defend the title they won in Kenya two years ago. Michael Vaughan voiced confidence about England's prospects for the winter Ashes series in Australia after compiling his fourth Test hundred of the summer. But the Yorkshire batsman is set to miss the one-day ICC Champions Trophy tournament, which starts in Sri Lanka next week, because of a knee problem. He is confident that he will be on the plane to Australia despite needing minor surgery on his knee. "We had it scanned a few weeks ago and it showed a couple of tears in the right knee. It's just a precaution that we feel it needs cleaning out.

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