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At an age when teenagers start thinking about what to do with their lives Ellyse Perry probably needs to think of what not to do. Perry, 16, is not only likely to be the youngest Australian player if she appears against New Zealand in the Top End Series, which starts on Thursday, but also perhaps the youngest double international when she represents the Australian soccer team in Hong Kong soon after the series.A long professional career playing both cricket and soccer is something her cricket and soccer coaches know she may not be able to have. “Ellyse knows she will have to make a decision somewhere down the track,” Lisa Keightley, the Australian women’s cricket coach, told . “Does cricket have as big a drawcard as soccer? I’m not too sure. From when I started playing to now, it’s worlds apart.”In cricket Perry is considered a genuine all-round prospect and toured New Zealand with the Australian Under-23 team earlier this year. She was picked with the intent to fill the huge gap following the fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick’s retirement.”She’s definitely capable of playing senior international football and cricket, so there probably will come a point in time when she won’t be able to do both,” Alen Stajcic, the New South Wales Sapphires coach, said. “I think women’s football offers a lot in terms of what girls can do now, and definitely down the track.”But both coaches are careful not to put any pressure on Perry to make a choice. “We really haven’t put any pressure on her at the moment, and neither has cricket,” Stajcic said. “We’re all being fairly flexible and letting her cope with both. It’s difficult, and I don’t know if it can last forever.”Keightley felt the team was lucky she could combine both sports. “She’s getting her fitness at soccer, so we concentrate on more skill-based activities for her,” Keightley said. “She still wishes to continue both, and I feel it’s her decision. Good luck to her, she’s a very talented sportswoman, and she’s got fantastic parents who drive her around and support her away from sport.”Perry herself isn’t too worried right now. “At the moment, I’m really lucky I can still play both and I have supportive people around me that allow me to play both sports,” she said. “While I can, I sort of think, why not?”I think it’s really important, especially at my age, to have balance. I really enjoy doing both, and that makes it easy to fit in.” Perry said it was hard to pick a favourite. Australia play New Zealand in five ODIs and one Twenty20 at Darwin from Thursday.

Darren Lehmann has confirmed that this will be his last year of county cricket, after first playing for Yorkshire in 1997 and having six seasons at Headingley.Lehmann’s 172 in the current Championship match against Kent was his 25th hundred for Yorkshire and his fifth century of the season. Earlier this year, Lehmann was named in the Greatest Ever Yorkshire XI by in a readers’ competition.Talking of his announcement, Lehmann said: “I have had some great times playing for Yorkshire over the years and I have been honoured to wear the White Rose of this famous county. I will certainly miss the players, staff and supporters who have been fantastic to me over the years.”Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, said: “Darren is not only a fantastic cricketer but is also a genuinely nice bloke who is adored by our fans. His contribution to this club has been immense and he will be sorely missed.”However, he has made it known for a number of weeks that his body was struggling to cope with the demands of a rigorous first-class cricket schedule and this season was likely to be his last for Yorkshire. Having made up his mind, we fully respect his decision and thank him whole-heartedly for a magnificent Yorkshire career”.

USA beat Canada by 39 runs
Defending champions Canada were on the receiving end of a surprise first-day defeat at the hands of the USA on the opening day of the Americas U19 Championships in Toronto. The host nation, winner of both previous U19 Championships in 2001 and 2003 respectively, were beaten by a committed United States outfit by 39 runs.After being put in to bat, the USA scored consistently to set themselves up with a good total, thanks largely to second and third wicket partnerships of 47 and 83 respectively. Opening bat Ravi Timbawala, later named Man of the Match, put together an excellent innings of 67 in 94 balls, and his partnerships with Akeem Dodson (23 in 40 balls) and Hemant Punoo (32 in 56 balls) put the US side in a commanding position at 148 for 2 after 25 overs.Accurate bowling from Krunal Patel (3 for 44 in 10 overs) and Trevin Bastiampillai (2 for 38 in 10 overs) brought Canada back into the frame, but a 51-run sixth-wicket partnership between Ramsabad Kumar (42 in 73 balls) and Danai Nathanial (22 in 32 balls) eventually guided USA to 246 all out in 50 overs.In reply, Canada were pegged back by some consistent bowling and tigerish fielding, and in contrast to the USA innings, simply could not put any meaningful partnerships together, being reduced to 100 for 5 after 20 overs. It was left to middle-order batsmen Gunjan Patel (28 in 73 balls) and Waqas Junaid (37 in 60 balls) to try and mount a real challenge, but eventually 207 all out in 46.1 overs was as far as the Canadians could go.Excellent bowling from Usman Mohammad (2 for 49 in 10 overs) and Anil Deopersaud (3 for 44 in 10 overs) were the best of a fine all-round team effort.Bermuda beat Argentina by nine wickets
Argentina elected to bat first, but apart from a determined innings of 30 by Pedro Bruno, no other batsmen really mastered the Bermudan attack, and they were bowled out for 92 in just 26.5 overs. Man of the Match Stefan Kelly ended with fine figures of 4 for 22 in 9,5 overs. Bermuda made light work of their target, romping home in the 16th over, led by 49 from skipper Oronde Bascome.

Virender Sehwag dishes out the verbals with the same frankness and confidence that he clatters the ball over the infield. In an interview featured on the BBC website, Sehwag said that India are as good as Australia. “Definitely we are on par with them [Australia]. If we can go there and beat them on their home ground, definitely we are up there.””To beat a team like Australia, we have to battle it out for all the five days of a Test, and that’s what we did when we beat them in Adelaide,” said Sehwag. “We hope that we can put up a similar fight when they come here, and win the series.”When India toured Australia last, and drew 1-1, Australia were without Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. When they tour India later this year, Australia hope to have a full-strength bowling attack at their disposal and Sehwag has taken note of this. “If you ask me about their bowling strength as such, yes, it would definitely be a lot better than what they had in the last series in Australia, with four good bowlers in Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Shane Warne.”Sehwag, however, is not overawed by Australia’s bowling arsenal. “Against such high-quality bowling scoring runs will be a worry, but it would depend very much on what form the batsman is at that time. If the batsman is in good form, it does not matter what the bowling attack is,” he said.”One-day cricket is a difficult game, the result is achieved inside a day,” said Sehwag. “In one-day cricket there is always this fear, tension, as to what’s going to happen and when, but I don’t think they have any psychological hold over us. Maybe they are a better team, and a better team always wins.”Sehwag looked back at his record-breaking 309 against Pakistan with some degree of pride. “It feels good but the feeling was the same as that I have upon reaching any other milestone,” he told the Press Trust of India. “Very few cricketers manage to come even close to the 300-mark, so I am happy to have that figure to my name. To make 300, you need to stay very long at the crease and for that you need patience, dedication and technique too.”Sehwag also brushed off suggestions that his technique was lacking. “In my case, I kept attacking,” he said. “Maybe I was lucky too, I had my chances before crossing 300. But technique is essential, without that you can’t survive, at least for such a long time. Many say that I am not technically sound but as far as I am concerned I am comfortable with my technique. It is a good technique, which was why I was able to make 300.”

Kenya’s best chance of reaching an astounding semi-final slot in the World Cup almost certainly rests in their Super Six match against Zimbabwe, a team they have never beaten, at Bloemfontein. Implausible though it may still seem, a win tomorrow would see the Kenyans through to the last four, regardless of whether they can achieve an upset of volcanic proportions in their final Super Six game against Australia.Past form makes Zimbabwe red-hot favourites – they have won 12 out of 14, with two washed out – but misfortune with injuries has hampered them, most recently against New Zealand when Brian Murphy was unable to deliver a ball after injuring a calf muscle in the nets. Neither he nor Mark Vermeulen, who suffered another net injury, a hairline fracture of the skull, will take any further part in the tournament. Their places in the squad have gone to Stuart Matsikenyeri and former captain Alistair Campbell, whose omission from the original 15 surprised many.Zimbabwe’s progress thus far has been achieved without a win over significant opposition. Their points are from wins over Namibia and the Netherlands, a forfeit from England and a washout with Pakistan. Beaten by New Zealand on Saturday, they desperately need a win. And Kenya’s former captain Maurice Odumbe, who has found timely form with bat and ball, believes now is the time to draw first blood.”They have had the better of us over the years, although we have come close to beating them," Odumbe said. "But there’s a new confidence in our team these days. We’re playing good cricket at the moment, and we’re enjoying it.”Kenya made their first international splash in the 1996 World Cup, beating the West Indies, but unlike Bangladesh, whose victory over Pakistan three years later catapulted them prematurely into the Test arena, Kenya are still waiting. Their Group B win over Bangladesh was a succinct statement on the situation, while to defeat Sri Lanka as well was an outstanding result. Add to that the New Zealand forfeit, and Kenya remain in third place despite losing to India last Friday.”We’ve been criticised that we’re not supposed to be in the Super Sixes,” Odumbe said. “In any World Cup you want to see surprises, and that’s just what we have delivered. But it seems some people are still not happy. We deserve to be here. We didn’t ask New Zealand not to come to Kenya. Who knows, maybe we could also have beaten them?”Odumbe is confident of overcoming a thigh strain by tomorrow, and is looking to current captain Steve Tikolo and Ravindu Shah for telling contributions. “Steve is due for a good score, and Ravindu should also enjoy himself here,” Odumbe added.One man Kenya will not want to see in the Zimbabwe line-up is fast bowler Henry Olonga, who took six for 28 in their last encounter in Bulawayo in December. Olonga has played in just one World Cup match so far, against Namibia, in which he and Andy Flower wore black armbands as a protest at human rights abuses in their country. Olonga bowled just three overs and was then dropped.”I had a great game against Kenya last time and I’d love to have another crack at them,” Olonga said today. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity of playing against them again, but it’s not up to me. I’ve done a lot of fielding (as 12th man) but I’m very fresh, there’s plenty of energy left in these legs."Flower, who has retained his place in the team despite the protest, is still troubled by a groin strain but is unlikely to sit out such an important match. If Zimbabwe win tomorrow, they still have a chance of reaching the semi-finals, depending on other results and whether they can beat Sri Lanka in East London on Saturday.

Kent completed the ‘double’ over near-neighbours Essex with opening bowler Martin Saggers returning figures to influence another wretched batting display by the bottom-of-the-table side.The visitors had declared half an hour before lunch having built a first innings lead of 246 runs. Robert Key added another 23 runs to his overnight 100 before Justin Bishop ended his six-hour 45-minute vigil. That was one of four wickets for the 19-year-old bowler who returned figures of 4-120, a personal Championship best.Mark Ealham, with 44 which is his best CricInfo Championship score of the campaign, helped his side to their fourth batting point and a total of 353-7 before the declaration came.Although Essex negotiated the five overs before the lunch interval, they floundered in the next session losing eight wickets for 102 runs with only Paul Grayson appearing to relish the challenge.He eschewed any semblance of risk with an innings of composed restraint while his colleagues’ application fell wantonly short of the required application as a number of batsman brought about their demise with self-inflicted wounds.Spinner Min Patel provided the initial breakthrough, finding the edge of Richard Clinton’s bat where ‘keeper Paul Nixon took a uniform catch to start the Essex collapse.Saggers then made his striking intervention on proceedings as Darren Robinson became the first of his five victims, caught at short-leg for two runs. But it was the capture of two wickets in the space of three deliveries for the 29-year-old that tore the heart out of the home side as Stephen Peters was bowled for two and then Ronnie Irani completed a ‘pair’ after pushing feebly forward to be caught at second slip.Ben Trott offered chief support for his fellow paceman Saggers, initially accounting for James Foster for eight before he too grabbed two wickets in an over. Ashley Cowan and Bishop both fell in the penultimate over before tea and, with Tim Phillips having already been prised out by Matthew Fleming when he dabbed the Kent skipper to Nixon, Essex were facing another ignominious defeat at 110-8 wickets at tea.All the while, Grayson offered resolute resistance and seemed likely to become the first Essex opener since John Stephenson in 1991 to carry his bat through an innings but after losing Peter Such, who gave Saggers his fourth wicket, the former Yorkshire player’s model approach spanning almost three hours ended when the 136th delivery that he faced clipped off stump. That afforded bowler Saggers his best Championship figures of the season and his side victory by an innings and 132 runs earning them 19 points.Meanwhile Essex, with just two points, were left to lick the wounds of a fifth Championship defeat on their last six matches and they now look odds-on certainties for a return to Division Two at the end of the summer.

Gloucestershire missed out on promotion from the second division of the County Championship, despite an exciting three-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire at Bristol.Mark Alleyne’s side were hoping to add promotion to their unprecedented one-day treble this season, but were undone by events elsewhere.Glamorgan secured enough bonus points from their draw with Middlesex at Cardiff to take one of the two remaining promotion places, while Essex secured the other with a run chase win over Warwickshire at Chelmsford.Even so, Gloucestershire can look take satisfaction from their championship campaign. Six wins and fourth place was a considerable improvement on last year, when they finished bottom.With Nottinghamshire also in the hunt for promotion, both captains were keen to set up a contrived finish on the final day.Play was delayed for an hour by a damp outfield and Nottinghamshire were handed a first innings advantage of 143 when Gloucestershire declared on their overnight 73-1.Nottinghamshire then raced to 104-3 in 18.5 overs before captain Jason Gallian declared their second innings shortly after lunch to leave the home side needing 248 for victory in a minimum of 59 overs.Usman Afzaal passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season during his innings of 36, which ended with a superb, one-handed catch by Ben Gannon at square leg off Jon Lewis.Guy Welton and Mark Bowen, in his final first-class innings before retirement, also fell victim to Lewis, whose 3-50 lifted his tally of wickets for the season to 72 – second only to Worcesterhsire’s Glenn McGrath.Dominic Hewson and Kim Barnett got the Gloucestershire run chase off to a good start with a stand of 42 in nine overs before Hewson was bowled by Bowen for 18.Bowen then had Barnett caught behind by Chris Read for 28, while Ian Harvey was caught down the legside by Read off David Lucas for ten.When Matt Windows was brilliantly taken by Bowen at mid-on off Lucas for 38, the game was neatly poised at 138-4 in the 33rd over.But Jack Russell then swung it Gloucestershire’s way with a fine 53 from 94 balls before he was caught by Read off Paul Franks.Left-arm spinner Richard Stemp had already taken the wickets of Jeremy Snape and Alleyne by then, but there was no denying Gloucestershire their victory.Chris Taylor was joined by Lewis and the pair shared an unbroken eighth wicket stand of 36 in six overs, as Gloucestershire got home with nine balls to spare.Taylor finished with three boundaries in his 51-ball innings of 38 not out, while Lewis was unbeaten on 16.

Match facts

Sunday, April 27, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The bottom-ranked Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers are desperately chasing their first victory after three outings each. As if the absence of Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t bad enough, Mumbai have been further hurt by the temporary suspension of Harbhajan Singh, their acting captain, after his row with Sreesanth on Friday. Top-order failures have hurt their batting, adding pressure on the middle and lower-order that mostly comprises young and inexperienced batsmen.Deccan suffer from the same problem too, with the likes of Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman and Shahid Afridi failing to provide a rousing start yet. Laxman might feel his team was unlucky to have lost narrowly against Kolkata in the opener and then against Rajasthan Royals in the last game, but he has failed to be flexible if the original plan has not gone according to the script.

Watch out for …

… a final blast from Andrew Symonds before he returns to Australia for a preparatory camp ahead of the Caribbean tour next month. He won’t have to encounter Harbhajan, who had his number during the CB Series finals, which could make Symonds even more destructive.

Team news

Harbhajan’s suspension has compounded the problems for the team management, who now have to keep the dressing room atmosphere positive in addition to working out winning strategies. Shaun Pollock takes over as captain, while Rajesh Pawar, the left-arm spinner, could be Harbhajan’s replacement in the XI. The question mark over Tendulkar’s fitness still remains to further add to the worries. The only piece of good news is the arrival of Loots Bosman, who is coming off an excellent Twenty20 season in South Africa – he was the highest run-getter of the tournament, with 257 runs at an average of 42.83 and a strike rate of 143.57. Bosman is likely to replace Luke Ronchi, while Pinal Shah will keep wicket in that scenario with Saurabh Tiwary missing out.Mumbai Indians (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Loots Bosman, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Dwayne Bravo, 5 Pinal Shah (wk), 6 Shaun Pollock (capt), 7 Abhishek Nayar, 8 Musavir Khote, 9 Rajesh Pawar, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Ashish Nehra.It is highly unlikely Hyderabad would change their line-up, but they might be tempted to open with Gilchrist and Afridi.Deccan Chargers (probable) 1 VVS Laxman (capt), 2 Adam Gilchrist, 3 Shahid Afridi, 4 Andrew Symonds, 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Arjun Yadav, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 RP Singh, 10 Pragyan Ojha, 11 D Kalyankrishna.

Sri Lanka have named Paul Farbrace, a coaching director at Kent, as their new assistant coach.”We have picked Paul as the assistant coach and his appointment will be ratified this Friday,” Kangadaran Mathivanan, the secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket, told AFP.Farbrace had a brief first-class career as a wicketkeeper with Middlesex and Kent before moving into coaching, initially with the England women’s team and then the Under-19s before moving to Kent.”The chance to work with Trevor [Bayliss] in Sri Lanka is a fantastic opportunity for me,” said Farbrace. “It has been a difficult decision to make because I am really enjoying the job here at Kent. There is real talent within the Kent system and I believe there a number of our youngsters who could make a significant impact on Kent cricket in the future. I shall be watching progress with great interest.”Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka’s new coach, asked for Farbrace and the pair will team up to help with preparations for the Twenty20 World Championship in September.

The ICC is to launch a comprehensive research project into the contentious issue of player burnout, according to their chief executive, Malcolm Speed.Speaking at the ICC’s annual Business Forum at Lord’s on Friday, Speed said: “Two words that concern some of our stakeholders are `burnout’ and `saturation’. They are highly emotive words [and] they are too often used in the absence of facts and evidence.”Though the details of the research have yet to be determined, it is expected to compare player workloads across different eras, as well as assessing injury trends. “It is time some proper research is undertaken into these two often-raised but little-understood areas,” Speed added.”Many of the game’s top players are playing fewer cricket matches than their predecessors while international cricket is in greater public and commercial demand than ever.”During the course of his speech, Speed also responded to criticism of the recently-adopted six-year Future Tours Program (FTP). “A lot has been written about this FTP, some of it critical [and] not all of it based on facts,” he said. “Let me say today that the FTP is fundamentally good for the game.”Far from being concerned about the excessive volume of cricket being played by our members, we believe many of them should be looking for opportunities to program more cricket.Speed pointed out that New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all have fewer than 55 Test matches scheduled over the next six years, while South Africa and West Indies’ annual schedules of Test cricket only hit double figures three and four times respectively.”When the schedules of our members are looked at over the course of the forthcoming six years,” Speed added, “only three teams ever come close to reaching the players’ recommended upper limit [of 15 Tests and 30 ODIs in a 12-month period] – Australia, England and India.”Of those three, Cricket Australia, whose players are currently on a five-month break, and the England & Wales Cricket Board both have formal agreements with their player groups concerning the volume of cricket they play and both have consistently honoured those agreements.”And the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which has more cricket scheduled than anyone else, has regularly assured us their schedule has the full support of their player group.”Speed added the responsibility for managing player workloads lay in the hands of the ICC’s Member Boards. “They need to balance the demands of player workload with public and commercial interest,” he said. “The directive we have given to our members is that in instances where they are considering adding to the current schedule, they should do so in consultation with their elite players.”