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Mark Butcher’s hopes of making the third Test against West Indies suffered a big blow after he was ruled out of Surrey’s Twenty20 Cup semi-final today against Lancashire at Edgbaston.Butcher was originally named in Surrey’s squad for the finals day, but had to withdraw because of an ongoing thigh injury. England name their squad for the third Test, which starts next Thursday, (August 12), tomorrow, and it is doubtful whether Butcher will be included.”I’ve given up trying to project when I’m going to be back.” Butcher told the BBC. “I tore a thigh muscle and then tore it a second time. I’m having to err a little bit on the side of caution because they can just keep recurring. It’s not irritating that’s just the nature of sport.”

Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, is far from happy with his team’s schedule, complaining that the balance between playing and time spent practising is not right. Fletcher said that the amount of one-on-one coaching he is able to do with players is insufficient.”It’s all about getting the balance right,” Fletcher explained. “It would be nice if we had a break of about two or three weeks before a tour so we could get them together and go through certain things. I want them to develop in their games but you can’t do that sort of thing during the season and we’re not alone in that because everybody is saying the same – we just have to hope we can slot it in at some stage.”England are in the middle of a three-week spell during which time they will play as many as ten one-day internationals, and no sooner is that finished than the five-Test series against South Africa gets underway. England then play Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before Christmas, moving on to the Caribbean next February before returning home for the most hectic summer of cricket yet, ending with the ICC Champions Trophy next September.Fletcher explained that while he had plenty of time with players, he was unable to make any significant changes to their techniques. “It’s very difficult because on days like today you have to have a light practice. You don’t want to start new innovations because they have a game and they have to establish themselves. It’s better they get in and establish themselves and then you can start changing things. If we change something small now and then they don’t perform, everybody will be jumping on them.”Given the increasing amount of international cricket foisted on players, it is not a situation which is likely to get any easier.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today announces that MarcusTrescothick, Craig White and Ashley Giles have confirmed their intention totour India next month. Robert Croft and Andrew Caddick have made themselvesunavailable for the tour.This means that 14 players of the original party of 16 will tour, subject tothe proviso that they and the Professional Cricketers’ Association aresatisfied that appropriate security arrangements will be in place.Replacement players for Croft and Caddick will be named later this week.John Carr, ECB Director of Cricket Operations, said: “The ECB is delighted that the players have now made their decisions and thanks them for respecting the ECB’s urgency on the matter. Tim O’Gorman and I are travelling to India tomorrow to confirm all the security arrangements for the tour. The Indian authorities have a great deal of experience in implementing appropriate security measures and we look forward to undertaking a successful tour both on and off the pitch.”Ashley Giles said: “I am very grateful to the ECB for allowing my family and I extra time to come to my decision and, subject to my passing a fitness test on 7th November, I now look forward to flying to India with the rest of the touring party.”Marcus Trescothick said: “The additional time provided has enabled me to make my decision in the right frame of mind. I would like to thank the ECB and all concerned for their patience.”Craig White said: “I am undergoing a fitness test on November 7th and if passed fit I confirm I will travel to India with the England squad next month. I am very grateful to all concerned for their patience while making a very difficult decision.”Andy Caddick said: “My decision to opt out of the touring party was extremely difficult. My choice does not reflect any lack of commitment to English cricket and, had circumstances been different, I would love to have toured India.”Turning down the opportunity to represent my country is something I would never have believed possible. I needed to be 100% confident that my family were happy for me to tour, unfortunately that is not the case. I have two children, Ashton who is three and Fraser, born only on the 12th October – for them and my wife I have made the very personal decision not to go to India.”My family and I did appreciate the additional time provided by the ECB and my very best wishes go with Nasser and the team.”Robert Croft said: “It has been an immensely difficult decision to make butafter further discussions with friends and family I could not guarantee fullcommitment to the England Team, knowing that my family would worry about mysafety.”I would like to thank the ECB for allowing me more time to reach my decision and assure them that I am fully committed to the New Zealand Tour.”I have many Indian friends and for all concerned I am very disappointed.Extraordinary circumstances have led to my decision and I would like to takethis opportunity to wish Nasser and the guys a successful tour.”David Graveney, Chief Executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association and Chairman of Seclectors, said: “I realise that it has been a very difficult decision for all concerned. I would like to reiterate, in my selectorial capacity, that the statements made regarding players who understandably have opted out of the tour remain true relating to their future selection.”Nasser Hussain, England Team Captain, said: “I am delighted that Craig, Marcus and Ashley have made their decision to tour. On behalf of all the players I would like to thank all concerned for their understanding in what has been an incredibly difficult period for the team. I fully respect and appreciate both Andrew and Robert’s decisions.”

Match facts

September 5, 2015
Start time 10.30am local (0930GMT)1:11

England look to restore parity

Big Picture

So often it seems that Australia lose an Ashes series in England and then win the one-dayers that follow. Perhaps they feel the need to prove themselves after such a defeat, perhaps England take their foot off the gas, or perhaps Australia are simply a better ODI side.Whatever the case, Australia’s Ashes disappointments in 2009 and 2013 were followed by victories in the ODI series. In 2005, they also beat England in the one-dayers, though they came before the Ashes loss. And they have started this series in the same vein, with a big win in the first ODI in Southampton to follow on from their Ashes defeat. It is, of course, no consolation, but Steven Smith and his men will nevertheless hope to retain that winning feeling at Lord’s.At the Ageas Bowl, Australia’s strong top-order batting set them on the path to victory, although it took some late hitting from Matthew Wade and Mitchell Marsh to really push the target up into challenging territory after a collapse. All the same, their 305 for 6 was the kind of score that England could have overhauled, especially when they reached 152 for 2 in the 27th over.But Australia’s impressive fast-bowling unit put the brakes on, and showed that despite some personnel changes since the World Cup triumph in March, they remain an imposing one-day unit. If they can make it 2-0 on Saturday, it’s a long way back for England.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
England LWWLL
Australia WWWWW

In the spotlight

Four wickets was a fine return for Adil Rashid in Southampton, even if two did come off full tosses. His legspin had the Australians guessing and given their struggles against quality slow bowling in the past, he could be a key man throughout the remainder of the series.Things couldn’t be going much worse for Shane Watson right now. Dropped from the Test side during the Ashes, he then missed an attempted kick to keep the ball off his stumps in the T20 in Cardiff and was bowled, and in Southampton was the run-out victim of a bad call from his partner Matthew Wade. Surely he must be due for a change in fortunes. Surely.

Teams news

England are unlikely to panic after defeat, but could look at rejgging the pace attack. Liam Plunkett and David Willey are both in the squad and would offer different challenges: Plunkett extra pace and Willey the left-arm angle.England (possible) 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jason Roy, 3 James Taylor, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Steven FinnAustralia are unlikely to change their winning side. Should they wrap the series up early they might consider debuts for Ashton Agar and Marcus Stoinis, but they will be reluctant to tinker just yet.Australia (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Joe Burns, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 George Bailey, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Shane Watson, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Mitchell Marsh, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 11 Pat Cummins

Pitch and conditions

In the past decade, only once has 300 been scored in a one-day international at Lord’s. It just so happens it was in the most recent one, when Sri Lanka’s 300 for 9 batting first was a winning total last year. The forecast for Saturday is for a fine day and a top of 18C.

Stats and trivia

• Australia have won their past six ODIs against England
• England won the most recent Lord’s ODI between these two teams, in 2012, but Australia had won four in a row before that
• England are sixth in the current ICC ODI rankings, only one point ahead of Bangladesh
• Matthew Wade needs 18 runs to become the fifth Australian wicketkeeper to reach 1000 in ODIs

Quotes

“Australia put us under the pump, but I think we’re a better side than that.”
“It’s nice to win … especially in a five-game series and it’s really back-to-back, all the games. To get a win is really important for us and hopefully we can take the momentum down to London and keep winning.”
Matthew Wade, after Australia’s victory in the first ODI

Afghanistan’s 49-run win in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Sharjah on Friday meant they displaced Zimbabwe to enter the top 10 in the ICC ODI charts for the first time.The key architects of the win were opener Noor Ali Zadran and left-arm spinner Amir Hamza, who made 63 and took four wickets respectively as Afghanistan successfully defended the lowest total – 131- for an Associate against a Full Member.Afghanistan will have an opportunity to remain at the tenth position should they win the five-match series against Zimbabwe. A series loss, however, means they will return to their original No. 12 ranking, behind Zimbabwe and Ireland.The year 2015 has been a watershed year of sorts for Afghanistan, who made their maiden World Cup appearance in Australia in February-March, where they beat Scotland by one wicket.They built on that success by registering their first bilateral series win over a Test nation when they beat Zimbabwe 3-2 in a five-match series in Bulawayo in October. Interestingly, they came back from one match down to win the series, which made them the first Associate to topple a Full Member in a bilateral series.

4th dayShane Warne could miss the rest of the English season after fracturing a rib while bowling in Hampshire‘s draw with Lancashire at Old Trafford . He will be out for at least three weeks, a major blow for Hampshire, who are seeking their first Championship title since 1973. The game had draw all over it from the start, but Paul Horton pushed on to a career-best 152 and Luke Sutton hit his second century of the season to guide Lancashire to full batting points.Rob Key and Martin van Jaarsveld made centuries as Kent and Worcestershire shared the points in an inevitable draw at Canterbury. There was no change for the bottom three, though, as Surrey didn’t manage to fit in a ball against Sussex who watched Yorkshire slide past them to the top. They have a game in hand, though.3rd dayFor John Ward’s report on the third day at Scarborough, where Yorkshire played gloriously to crush Warwickshire inside three days click here.

3rd dayDerbyshire held their nerve to bowl out Glamorgan at Cardiff just when the home side were looking good for their second win of the season. Heading into the final session, Glamorgan needed 60 with six wickets in hand, but added just 18 of those before being blown away by Ant Botha’s five-for and three wickets for Tom Lungley.Nottinghamshire will hope that their last six pairings can triumph where Glamorgan failed, in easing the last 104 runs they require to beat Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. A team effort took Northants to 229 in their second innings, leaving Nottinghamshire to chase 232. The visitors were boosted by removing Stephen Fleming for 50 shortly before stumps.Jerome Taylor blew through Essex‘s defences with five wickets, and he was well supported by David Masters (4 for 40) as the home side crumbled to Leicestershire at Colchester. Varun Chopra was caught at slip off the first ball of the day off Masters, who will be an Essex player next season, and resilient fifties for Ryan ten Doeschate and James Middlebrook were the only consolation for them. Leicestershire then reached 52 for 2 and a final-day run-chase may be negotiated between the two captains.A draw is likely at Lord’s where Middlesex reached 305 for 7 before declaring, although a late Gloucestershire collapse to 97 for 5 keeps the game interesting. Andrew Strauss made 75 and Ed Smith 69 before Middlesex lost 4 for 1 in the middle order. Chaminda Vaas and Murali Kartik added 64 to hasten the declaration, then Kartik impressive with the ball with two wickets leaving Gloucestershire 208 behind.

Pakistan have strongly denied that there was any tampering of the ball during the fourth Test at the Oval, accusations of which eventually led to the forfeiture of the game by Pakistan.Umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove changed the ball in the 56th over of England’s second innings on the fourth day and punished Pakistan with a five-run penalty as a result. Pakistan protested after the tea break by refusing to come out, a decision which eventually led the umpires to forfeit the match in England’s favour.But a Pakistan official told Cricinfo, having inspected the ball, that there was no evidence of tampering. “There was no evidence of any tampering on the ball I saw. It was a 55-overs old ball and one that had been hit into the stands on a couple of occasions by Kevin Pietersen. I can honestly say that it had not been scratched to gain any reverse swing.”The official also questioned the approach of the umpires to the entire incident. “Most umpires would give some sort of prior warning, just have a word with the captain and may be give a warning before taking action. They don’t have to but they do. Nothing was said to Inzamam by either umpire until the ball was changed.” The official also confirmed that no individual had been named by the umpires and no specific incident was highlighted either.Sky TV commentators repeatedly pointed out that none of the 26 cameras at the ground had picked up any images which suggested the ball might have been tampered with. On past occasions when players have been charged with ball tampering, ICC match referees have been able to take into account images captured on television cameras. In light of what Sky’s commentary team said, it seems unlikely such evidence can be provided.Ultimately, this is a moot point in any case as the decision on whether the ball has been tampered is down to the umpires. The ICC match referee for the Test, Mike Proctor, is now reviewing the case and his report will be considered by the ICC in the aftermath of this Test. According to an ICC press release, Pakistan has been charged under Level two of the Code of Conduct, 2.10, which relates to changing the condition of the match ball.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has rejected Cricket Australia’s (CA) request to reschedule the proposed Australian tour due to take place in February 2008 to August 2007. Australia are due to play three Tests and five one-day Internationals in Pakistan.”CA had sent us a request that they would like to undertake their scheduled tour,” a senior PCB official told . “But we’ve declined because the weather in August – specially in Punjab – is not conducive for international cricket.”Citing security reasons, the Australian team refused to play in Pakistan in 2002 and the series was shifted to two neutral venues – Colombo and Sharjah – with a subsequent tri-series in Nairobi.The PCB official also informed the board is currently chalking out the programme for the next four years. “We are presently sitting down and chalking out a schedule for the next four years so that itineraries can be finalised well in advance unlike the past when these things happened too late.”Pakistan recently finalised the itinerary for the England series, which gets underway on October 26 and includes three Tests and five one-dayers. Pakistan are also scheduled to host India – the itinerary for which is yet to be agreed – besides staging the Asia Cup from mid-February next year.Asked about India’s agreement to play a Test and a one-dayer in Karachi, the PCB official said: “India are certain to play a Test in Karachi but they’ve to get the itinerary formally approved from some of their ministries before making a final announcement.”

Javed Miandad has come out strongly against Bob Woolmer’s slamming of the bonus-point system in the Asia Cup. “There is no point in crying hoarse over the bonus-point system,” Miandad said while speaking to a private news channel in Kolkata.Since all teams were informed of the rules and regulations prior to the tournament, Miandad felt that Pakistan should have played according to the situation. “Atleast the people who are sitting in the dressing room should have intimated the players and made them aware of the situation,” and added, “Rules like bonus points have their pros and cons.”About India’s climactic victory over Sri Lanka, he zeroed in on two moments that made the difference. “First, Jayasuriya’s dismissal at a very crucial juncture and secondly, Irfan Pathan’s 49th over which was very economical.”Miandad also likened Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy to Imran Khan’s and said, “Sourav is a lucky captain like Imran Khan. During Imran’s time, we had ended up on the winning side on number of occasions despite a number of tactical and on-field mistakes.”When asked about the chances of him accepting a coaching role in India, like a batting consultant for the NCA, he was candid in his response. “I am free now and is open to any such offer. In fact this is way to develop the mutual camaraderie between the two nations. [Intikhab] Alam’s taking up the job of Punjab Ranji team coach is a very happy sight.”

Cricket coaching opportunities in the South Somerset are in the process of improving considerably thanks to an initiative between Yeovil College and Somerset County Cricket Club and the involvement of former Combined Services coach Richard Askew.For sometime Somerset Cricket Development Officer Andrew Moulding has been aware of the need to improve coaching in the area, so when John Hole who is the Sports Centre Manager at Yeovil College made contact with him Mr Moulding was only too pleased to be able to help out.He said: "When John came to us to ask for help we were only too delighted to help him. He has managed to get some funding to upgrade the sports hall and we are going to present them with two mats that they can make use of."He continued: "One of our coaches Dan Hodges has already worked with Westlands Cricket Club to develop their cricket coaching but we still need more coaching activities to develop the game in the area."One of the E.C.B. Level 3 coaches who will be working in the Yeovil area is Richard Askew who until he was pensioned out of the Royal Navy in 2002 was cricket coach to the Combined Services XI and based at Yeovilton.Richard was born and raised in Warwickshire and obtained his degree atBangor University. He played club cricket for Birmingham League side Kenilworth Wardens before joining the Royal Navy and represented the Navy side and United Services (Portsmouth) until he was posted to RNAS Yeovilton in late 1997, since when he has played for North Perrott Cricket Club.He told me: " I suffered a frostbite injury on exercise in Norway in late 2000 and have had problems with my hands and feet ever since and although the Navy were good enough to try and give me every opportunity to recover there had been no significant improvement, so in December 2002 I was pensioned out of the service."Richard continued: "When Somerset made contact with me and invited me to be involved with grass roots cricket in my adopted county I was delighted .It is fantastic and the challenge of getting the game into schools in the South East Somerset area is very exciting. I think it is typical of Somerset’s pro-active approach that they are geared up to support a schools programme of such a professional nature."He concluded: " Without doubt, Somerset County Cricket Club is one of cricket’s leaders; from first class through to junior levels. In Kevin Shine and Mark Garaway we are lucky to have two of the most qualified and respected coaches in county cricket and I am therefore delighted to have been asked to join that team!"