ICC Test Championship

The International Cricket Council has admitted its world Test championship system is flawed and hopes to have a new system in place this year. Cricket's governing body has been heavily criticised for a system that has ranked South Africa the best team in the world after completing a 2-0 series sweep of Pakistan this week, even though Australia beat the Proteas 5-1 last year. ICC general manager of cricket David Richardson said the current format was unbalanced and was under review. "We're looking at a system in which each Test will be given some importance rather than just the results of series. But we want to incorporate the results of series as well, if at all possible," he said. "The initial premise was for the series to count because, after all, in Test cricket the all-important thing is the series result." Australian opening batsman Justin Langer has rejected South Africa as world Test cricket champions, calling the idea "absurd". The Proteas' series win against Pakistan has taken them to the top of the ICC Test Championship table, but Langer told the Cape Argus that "if we look the South Africans in the eye and if they look us in the eye, they know who the best Test team in the world is". Langer also questions the Proteas' mental strength: "They have played some good cricket around the world, but whether they truly believe they can beat Australia is another matter." After their comprehensive defeats by Australia last summer, Langer thinks that "they have a few scars". The umpire who made two highly contentious lbw decisions in the Sydney Test faces being pushed aside on the International Cricket Council's elite eight-man umpiring panel. Umpire Russell Tiffin gave 10 hotly disputed verdicts in his two Tests on Australian soil, including two in England's 225-run win in Sydney. His lbw decisions against England opener Michael Vaughan and Australia's Justin Langer left both teams bemused. While he wouldn't comment directly on Tiffin, ICC general manager of cricket David Richardson admitted yesterday that poor performing umpires would be put on the backburner. "The guys who aren't performing won't be getting so much work," he said. Richardson said the standard of international umpiring needed to improve.

World Cup

Four leading Zimbabwe players are against World Cup matches being played in their country, according to an English newspaper survey. Six matches are scheduled to be held in Harare and Bulawayo during the first round of the tournament in February. But England and Australia are coming under increasing government pressure to boycott Zimbabwe in protest at the controversial rule of President Robert Mugabe. "It's a question of morality. I'm completely against World Cup games being played here," The Guardian quoted one player, who wanted to remain anonymous, as saying. "You've got more than six million people starving; there's no fuel - people were queuing at petrol stations on Christmas Day - and basic commodities have run out." So far only captain Heath Streak has spoken out on the issue, expressing support for the matches going ahead.

VB Series

Ashley Giles could return to action in England's remaining one-day matches in Australia after recovering from a broken wrist. The left-arm spinner, who suffered the injury batting in the nets in Adelaide six weeks ago, will rejoin the England squad this weekend. "I'm sure I'll be fine by February" Ashley Giles And he is confident the injury will not stop him taking part in the World Cup, which begins in South Africa next month. "I'm bowling properly now, I've taken throw-downs with the bat and there's no pain," he said. England have at least four matches left in the VB Series in Australia, and expect to take on the hosts in the best-of-three finals before flying to South Africa. In a career often dogged by injury, Giles has played in 22 one-day internationals, taking 22 wickets at an average of 37.45. Sri Lanka's preparations for the second half of the VB Series took a massive blow when the tourists were defeated twice on the same day by Australia A. The original match, scheduled for 50 overs per side, lasted under three hours after the tourists were bowled out cheaply. Once Australia's second stringers had reached their target within 12 overs, the teams arranged to play a second match for the benefit of a 7,000-strong crowd. But things barely got better for Sri Lanka in a 25-over exhibition. Although they bowled the home side out for 171 they were still 25 runs short of victory. And their form is unimpressive ahead of Thursday's match against a full Australia side in Sydney. Match 1 (50-over match): Australia A 66-0 (11.5 overs) beat Sri Lanka 65 all out (25 overs) by 10 wickets Match 2 (25-over match): Australia A 171 all out (23 overs) beat Sri Lanka 146-8 (25 overs) by 25 runs

The Ashes series

Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie Tuesday blamed Sydney Cricket Ground staff for an injury which will sideline him for three weeks. Gillespie, 27, tore ligaments in his left elbow when he slipped after a delivery stride on Sunday in the fifth Ashes Test against England. The injury will keep him out of crucial games against England and Sri Lanka in the tri-nations limited-overs series. Groundsmen had reinforced crumbling areas of the pitch during Australia's heavy defeat. Gillespie said he was told by a specialist he would miss up to three weeks because of the latest problem in an injury-cursed career. "It gets frustrating," Gillespie said on returning to his home city Tuesday. "Especially for something to happen like that, which really shouldn't have happened. "The footmarks were quite deep. The groundsmen repaired them, but I didn't think they repaired them properly and it was very slippery out there." Nasser Hussain's father and England coach Duncan Fletcher have said Hussain would have probably resigned if England had suffered an Ashes whitewash. Fletcher said he believed Hussain would have found it difficult to continue in the role had the Test series against Australia been lost 5-0. And Hussain's dad Joe confirmed his son had been close to quitting. He said: "I can't be 100% sure but I believe had England lost 5-0 then they would be looking for a new captain." Michael Vaughan's performance to finish man of the series playing in a losing England side has been acclaimed by Steve Waugh as one of the best in Ashes cricket history. The Yorkshire right-handed opener was man of the match in England's commanding 225-run victory to deprive Australia of only the second 5-0 Ashes series whitewash in history with his epic second innings of 183. It was 28-year-old Vaughan's third hundred of the series to top the series batting aggregates with 663 runs at an average of 63.3. That followed his feat of ending 2002 as Test cricket's most prolific scorer with 1 481 runs. It was a considerable feather in Vaughan's cap that he was highest-scoring batsman ahead of Australians, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer. "To get three big hundreds in a losing side against probably the best attack in the world, playing away from your own country that's a great performance, one of the best in Ashes history," Waugh said after Monday's loss.

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