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Retravision Warriors Jo Angel and Chris Rogers have been ruled out of WA’s PURA Cup Clash against the SpeedBlitz Blues starting at the SCG tomorrow.Angel has strained an abdominal muscle. It was sustained during training before Sunday’s ING Cup loss to the Blues and Angel missed that game. Angel will head back to WA for an ultrasound and is likely to be out of action for a fortnight.This means he will miss the Retravision Warriors ING Cup clash against the West End Redbacks on November 9th at the Adelaide Oval.Rogers will miss the PURA Cup match with a strained lower abdominal muscle. Rogers was struck on the hip during the ING Cup match against the Redbacks at the WACA Ground on October 24th and the injury flared up during the ING Cup loss to NSW on Sunday.He to will return home and is only a fifty-fifty chance to be fit for the ING Cup match against the Redbacks on November 9.Willetton all-rounder John Taylor will now make his first-class debut. The right-arm fast-medium bowler moved to WA from Victoria prior to the 2002-2003 season and starred for Willetton in the Vodafone Cup.This led to the 24-year-old being offered a Warriors contract for 2003-2004. Taylor made his ING Cup debut against NSW on Sunday. He took 2-48 and earnt the praise of Australian Test Captain Steve Waugh after the game.Scott Meuleman has travelled to Sydney and will take on 12th man duties.The Team in likely batting order:Justin Langer ©, Michael Hussey (VC), Murray Goodwin, Marcus North, Shaun Marsh, Ryan Campbell, Peter Worthington, Beau Casson, John Taylor, Callum Thorp, Paul Wilson and Scott Meuleman 12th man.Radio Fremantle 107.9FM will provide ball by ball coverage starting at 8am Perth time.

Day three scores from the Southern Zonal Boys’ Under-15 tournament in Dunedin yesterday were:Canterbury Black 303/4 dec (Mitchell Shaw 127, Adam Coleman 91; Tim Riley 1-12, Brayden Hill 1-30) met Otago Gold 101/4 (Michael Higgins 34, Ben Munro 31; Mitchell Shaw 3-20) at Culling Park, Dunedin.Otago Blue 177 (Shaun Fitzgibbon 35, Thomas Cooney 31 not out; Todd Astle 3-58, Chris Gleeson 2-15) met Canterbury Red 82/3 (Todd Astle 21 not out, Chris Bartholomeusz 20; Kieran Parker 1-3, Thomas Cooney 1-28) at Bayfield Park, Dunedin.

In a battle between two teams occupying the cellar in the South Zoneleague, Goa had made steady progress in reply to Kerala’s firstinnings score of 370. At stumps on the second day at Cochin, thevisitors were 86/2 with opener YC Barde and Satyajit Medappa manningthe fort.Resuming at 266/6, the overnight pair of S Nair and KNAnanthapadmanabhan were in no mood to relinquish their occupation ofthe crease in the morning. They extended their seventh wicketassociation to 120 before the latter was bowled by SA Khalid for 63(131 balls, 6 fours). The bowler struck again in his next overremoving wicket keeper Kamaruddin.Nair soldiered on to 88 (249 balls, 9 fours) – his highest score infirst class cricket – before becoming the persistent Khalid’s thirdsuccessive victim and Tinu Yohanan fell just after lunch as Keralasettled at 370. Khalid who had taken two wickets on Wednesday,finished with 5/63.The Goa reply began on the wrong foot as skipper Kolambkar fell to thedebutant medumpacer Prasanth Chandran in the fourth over. Barde andDinesh Rao added exactly 50 for the second wicket before off spinnerRamprakash sent back the latter. Medappa and Barde then played out thefinal twenty overs watchfully as Goa closed at 86/2 in 51 overs.

Aston Villa have been one of the busier clubs when it comes to being active in the transfer market and bringing new players to the club for significant amounts of money.

They have also shown that they are capable of attracting big names to Villa Park such as Philippe Coutinho, who joined the club on a loan deal from Barcelona until the end of the season back in January.

Looking ahead to the upcoming summer transfer window, it seems as though Johan Lange is eyeing up another potential deal that could be put in the same vein as their recent swoop for Coutinho.

What’s the news?

According to a recent report from Sport (via The Sun), Villa are lining up a £21m summer transfer move for Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum.

During spells with Newcastle United and Liverpool, the Dutchman racked up 217 appearances in the Premier League with 27 goals and 16 assists under his belt.

Another masterclass?

Having spent so long in the Premier League, the majority of which was spent with Liverpool, before making a move to one of Europe’s big clubs in PSG, it’s easy to see why this potential swoop for the 31-year-old could be seen as a similar sort of deal to the one that they secured with Coutinho.

Labelled as a “beautiful” player by Jurgen Klopp, Wijnaldum could be the answer that Gerrard was looking for in January after the Villans were unable to bring a central-midfielder in.

They tried and failed missing in a bid to bring Rodrigo Bentancur to Midlands and reportedly had a bid rejected for Brighton enforcer Yves Bissouma.

Also, with the Midlands club being linked with £50m moves for Wilfred Ndidi and Bissouma again in the summer, the PSG figure, who is currently picking up a hefty weekly wage of £180k-per-week according to Salary Sport, would be a cheaper option if they secure him for the £21m fee that has been reported.

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Since signing, Villa’s Brazilian recruit has managed to score three goals and provide three assists in just seven league appearances, making himself the highest-rated player at the club in terms of his overall performances according to WhoScored.

Thus, if his former Reds teammate decides to make a return to England with the Midlands club and ends up having a similar sort of impact, this would surely be another brilliant piece of business from the Villans.

In other news: NSWE had big Aston Villa transfer howler over “unbelievable” £34.2m-rated machine – opinion

Kent have signed Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder, on a two-year deal. Mahmood has applied for British citizenship and is expected to hear confirmation in the near future meaning he will be an English-qualified player.Mahmood has previously had successful stints with Surrey, but is excited by the opportunity presented to him at Kent. “This is a big move for me in more ways than one,” he said. “I look back on my days with Surrey with great fondness, but the opportunity to utilise my British passport and join a county such as Kent is one that will provide a fresh challenge for me and it’s something I’m really looking forward to.”Kent has always been a county that I have respected and will now become my cricketing home. I will be giving it my all, on and off the field. Robert Key and Graham Ford have plans for the club and I want to work with them and the rest of the squad in building on 2007’s success.”Key, the captain, said that Mahmood will add to the depth in Kent’s squad as they aim to build on their Twenty20 success from last season. “We are thrilled to have secured Azhar’s services. He is a proven cricketer of the highest level and will bring a vast amount of experience to our squad. He has been successful in all forms of cricket and, in our recent discussions with him, has shown a real desire to bring further success to Kent.”

Craig Wright is in line to break the Scotland appearance record © Getty Images

Scotland will play their first official one-day international matches on foreign soil when they travel to Bangladesh next month.The eight-day trip, departing from Glasgow on December 10, will feature one warm-up game before the two ODIs, in Chittagong on December 15 and Dhaka two days later.If Scotland captain Craig Wright plays in both games he will overtake Greig Williamson as Scotland’s most capped player of all time with 154 caps.Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith said: “This is the start of a tremendous adventure for Scottish cricket. Over the next four months, Scotland’s top cricketers will play full international matches in places they’ve never visited, and we will be judged by our performances. Bangladesh is just the beginning.”Several of the squad have played in Bangladesh before; Dougie Brown with England and Ross Lyons and Omer Hussain, for Scotland in the 2004 U19 World Cup.Scotland have played only eight official ODIs – five of them in the 1999 World Cup, and national coach Peter Drinnen added: “The Bangladeshis will certainly want to win both these games, after we defeated them in Edinburgh two seasons ago. But we will be just as hungry for success, because we want to continue to build our international reputation.”Squad Craig Wright (capt), John Blain, Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Paul Hoffmann, Omer Hussain, Dougie Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Colin Smith (wkt), Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts.

Laying the foundation stone for the stadium at Kurunegala © Sri Lanka Cricket

Jeevan Kumaranatunge, Sri Lanka’s Miniser of Sports and Youth Affairs, laid the foundation stone for the Welagedara Cricket Stadium in Kurunegala.The stadium will be equipped with a modern scoreboard, a grand stand, two pavilions, a sprinkler system, sight screens, enclosed terraces, a boardroom and complete media facilities. There is also a plan to install flood lights in the next two years.Salinda Dissanayake, the president of the Kurunegala District Cricket Association, hoped that after completion, the stadium would qualify as an international stadium and be able to host a four-day match against Pakistan in March 2006.

Brian Lara: set to play fund-raiser© Getty Images

Doubts looming over the availability of Brian Lara, the West Indies captain, for the fund-raiser match have been put to rest with the team management giving him the green signal to play in the one-dayer for the tsunami victims to be held on January 10.Lara, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo had earlier been named in the ICC XI, but the West Indies team management had expressed their concern in permitting the cricketers to play, as the team had consecutive practice matches against Australia A on days before the fund-raising match in Hobart.Imran Khan, the West Indies media liaison, told CMC Sport: “There was some concern by the coach. He was just a bit cautious to ensure that all the logistics were properly worked out so that the guys would be able to participate.”Of course they always wanted to participate given the purpose of this game [is] to assist the tsunami victims in that terrible tragedy.”Many of the star players are slated to play in the two-match one-day series to be held in Australia and Asia to generate funds for the victims of the tsunami disaster that has killed over 150,000 people across 13 countries.The second one-dayer is likely to be played in February in either India or Sri Lanka.

Derbyshire have signed Damien Wright, an allrounder from Tasmania, as their second overseas player for next season.Wright, 28, was recommended by Michael Di Venuto, the captain and fellow Tasmanian. To date, Wright has a batting average of 20.55, and has taken 120 wickets at 34.48 since his first-class debut in 1997. He has also represented Australia A, and played twice for Northants last season.David Houghton, Derbyshire’s director of cricket, said, “He is a talented pace bowler, and dangerous lower-order batsman, who really fits the bill for us.”Meanwhile, Wright added: “I’m really looking forward to a full season of county cricket with Derbyshire.”

Opener Sridharan Sriram took Tamil Nadu to a five-wicket win in their Ranji one-day match against Kerala at Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.Winning the toss, Kerala opted to bat first. A 53-run opening stand seemed to have justified captain Sunil Oasis’ decision, but things then started to go wrong. Three quick wickets saw Kerala reeling at 56/3 before Oasis and SR Nair took matters into their own hands.Oasis top-scored for his side, making 66 off 84 balls. After Nair departed, he was given good support by K Chandrasekhara, who scored 56 off 71. The two shared a 106-run fifth-wicket partnership and took Kerala past the 200-run mark. Their side ended on 238/7.To score 239 for a win, Tamil Nadu benefited from a 91-run second-wicket stand between Sriram and S Suresh. Suresh made 40 off 63, while Sriram scored 76 off 94, his highest in the competition. He was the fourth wicket to fall, at 146, but useful knocks from Robin Singh, SV Saravanan and J Madanagopal took Tamil Nadu to their target in 47.4 overs.