Graeme Smith and Justin Ontong have had X-rays after picking up hand injuries during South Africa’s final ODI in India last night.Both players were examined by orthopaedic surgeons soon after their arrival back from India. According to Shane Jabaar, South Africa’s physiotherapist, Smith’s X-ray did not show a fracture, but his finger will need protection for the next 10 to 12 days. “The clinical examination revealed that he had sustained a partial tear of the volar plate over the DIP joint of his fourth left-finger.”Jabaar said that he will continue to treat and monitor his progress ahead of the first Test against Australia at Perth starting on December 16. Smith is likely to miss the opening three-day match between the South Africans and Western Australia the WACA which begins a week on Thursday.There was less good news for Ontong, who was also injured fielding in the same match. “An X-ray revealed a displaced fracture of the first metacarpal of his left hand,” Jabaar said. “He will undergo an operation today to reduce the fracture and he will then have to wear a plaster for 4 to 6 weeks.”

South Africa have complained of another incident of racial abuse by a spectator against Andre Nel during the third day of the final Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.Nel was fielding close to the boundary and reported the taunts to Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, who informed the match umpires. They in turn reported it to Chris Broad, the match referee. All three Tests in the current series have been marred by racist incidents.”None of the team minds any form of abuse because it happens in any country, the home side really gets behind it,” said Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach. “But we feel once it becomes a racist taunt then the boundaries are being overstepped and the South African team categorically deplores that type of behaviour.”Peter Young, the Cricket Australia (CA) spokesman, said that CA had a zero tolerance view to racism and had sent extra security staff to the section of the crowd but were unable to identify the culprit. Ground authorities reminded the crowd with a public announcement and a notice on the electronic scoreboard that such behaviour was unacceptable.”We made our point again and it has been reported and I’m sure it’ll be dealt with through the right channels,” added Arthur. “I don’t think we can do too much more other than just make our point that we categorically deplore it and we do feel that boundaries are being crossed when that sort of thing transpires out there. A lot of it’s been light-hearted and a lot of it’s been really good and that type of barracking is acceptable and beefed him [Nel] up. Everyone boos when he (Nel) comes on but I think he’s going to leave Australia as one of the more popular guys. It’s a bit of a love-hate relationship.”In the first Test at Perth, Makhaya Ntini, Ashwell Prince, Garnett Kruger and Shaun Pollock were taunted in Afrikaans as “kaffirs” or “kaffir brothers”. This prompted Ali Bacher, former South African captain and chief executive, to call for life bans for offenders. In the second Test in Melbourne a man was ejected from the ground for making racist and offensive comments towards Nel.

Allan Donald has withdrawn his application for the vacant England bowling coach position after meeting with South African board officials.Donald’s announcement came after he held talks with Gerald Majola, the board’s CEO, and Vince van der Bijl, its general manager of professional cricket.The meeting was called by Majola to discuss comments in the media last weekend that Donald, who is employed in CSA’s high performance programme as a specialist bowling coach, that he had applied for the English post.”I have given much thought to the matter, and have withdrawn my application for the England bowling coach post,” Donald told reporters. “I will rather stay with Cricket South Africa’s high performance programme and throw my full weight behind it.”My heart lies with South African cricket, and I want to do everything I can in the effort to make us the best in the world. I will also be writing to the board of Cricket South Africa to apologise for making a public statement about my England application before discussing the matter with CSA. I want to put the whole matter behind me, and carry on working with the high performance structures in South Africa”.”Vince and I had a full and frank discussion with Allan,” Majola said. “We are delighted that he has decided to stay with South African cricket, and build the game here for the future. Allan was one of the South Africa’s greatest bowlers and we regard him as a national asset.”We recruited him into our high performance programme as soon as it was possible after he stopped playing international and domestic cricket.He will continue working in the high performance programme as a specialist bowling coach in terms of a two-year contract, renewable after the next World Cup in 2007.”His tasks are to identify and groom promising young fast bowlers, and to assist established bowlers should they lose form. Allan will also be available on request to assist the national team.”Donald had emerged as the favourite to replace Troy Cooley, who finishes as England’s bowling coach in May, after the India tour. With Donald out of the way, others being linked with the vacancy include Phil DeFreitas, Mike Watkinson, Steve Watkin, Kevin Shine and Andy Pick, although the ECB wouldn’t confirm exactly who had applied.”We wouldn’t comment on any application for roles at the ECB,” their media relations manager Andrew Walpole told Cricinfo. “Interviews will be taking place shortly and we would hope to be in a position to make an announcement during England’s tour in India.”

Scorecard

Half-centuries from Alex Blackwell and Karen Rolton steered Australia to a sweat-free victory in the third and final women’s one-day international against India at Adelaide. Rolton, the captain who was dropped three times, continued her impressive series with an unbeaten 56 off 86 balls while Blackwell carried her bat for 63 as Australia wrapped up the contest 3-0.Jodie Purves, the wicketkeeper, was the only casualty, falling to Jhulan Goswami for 3 in the third over, as they reached 1 for 129 with 15.4 overs to spare. Rolton replaced the retired Belinda Clark as captain this season and she produced a string of superb allround performances to be named Player of the Series. In the first match she collected a hard-hitting 47 before picking up 4 for 29 in the second game, and today she added 2 for 6 in six overs to her half-century.India’s batsmen again found the home side’s bowlers a daunting prospect as they battled to keep the rate at two-and-a-half runs an over, finishing with 7 for 128 on the Woodville Oval. Jaya Sharma (23) and Anjum Chopra (22) made steady starts, but no player could go on to a half-century and Reema Malhotra was unbeaten on 27 when the overs ran out.

Darren Gough remains convinced that he should still be in England’s one-day side and is keen to make the World Cup side. “I still believe I can do a job,” he told reporters. “I know my team-mates in the England side think I’m good enough to be there, but it’s not up to them.”A serious threat to a dodgy knee forced Gough to retire from Test cricket three seasons ago but he was a part of England’s one-day outfit in last summer’s NatWest Series also featuring Australia and Bangladesh. The 35-year-old Essex fast bowler did not find a place in the England side for the tour to India after opting out of last winter’s trip to Pakistan. But with England’s bowlers struggling in India – they have lost all four one-day games so far – Gough remained confident of a recall.”It’s my 18th season and I’m looking forward to it as much as I did my first. I’ve really got a buzz for this season,” he said. “It’s up to me to go onto the field and perform [for Essex]. But it’s up to the selectors whether they want to ignore me or whether they say ‘Yes, he’s still fit, he can still play, he deserves a chance’.”Gough conceded that it would be upto the selectors to decide if sticking to young bowlers was the policy or if falling back on his experience was an option. With 464 international wickets for England, Gough said the fire in him still burned as bright as ever.Although he missed both of Essex’s friendlies last week, sources said he is just building himself up ahead of the season. He should make his first appearance of the year in England next week, either in the pre-season match against Middlesex at home on Thursday, or the three-dayer against Loughborough starting on Saturday.

Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, has expressed his concerns about player burn-out but says that it is down to the individual boards, not just the ICC, to address the issue.He said: “One of the reasons to change from the five-year to a six-year cycle in the Future Tours Programme was because of fears of player burn-outs. It’s a matter of concern.”But we have seen [instances] when respective cricket boards try to squeeze in more cricket to fill up the gap in their programme. It’s entirely up to the individual boards to address the issue.”India have recently organised two matches in Abu Dhabi against Pakistan, while they are also considering games in Europe. “In India’s case they will be playing 40 ODIs in 2007, much above the prescribed limit of 25-30 ODIs per year,” added Mani.”But the BCCI has said their players want this. The responsibility lies with the individual boards. Ideally the cricketers should be given a rest period of six weeks. For a series to be taken for rankings it must have at least two Tests and three ODIs.”Mani explained that it was the ICC’s concerns about too much cricket that led to a limitation being put onto Twenty20 matches. “There are concerns that the players workload would increase with the introduction of Twenty20 internationals. That’s the reason we have decided that not more than two such matches can be held in every series.As well as too much cricket generally, another concern for Mani is the amount of games being played between India and Pakistan. He believes this could take away the iconic status of their rivalry.”The two boards have agreed upon a four-year cycle for bilateral series, with one country hosting a series every four years. But the plan to hold more matches in off-shore venues could devalue the event in future. I do have reservations, but let’s see how it goes. Though it will be terrific for the subcontinent people in the venues where the off-shore matches are being planned.”

Professor Syed Sirajul Islam Bukhari, secretary of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), has made an impassioned plea to Shahid Afridi to withdraw his decision to retire from Test cricket.Bukhari said that looking at Afridi’s 10-year stint in Test cricket during which he was given the chance to play just 24 Tests in which he scored 1634 runs including five centuries and took 44 wickets, he should have been restrained from making this decision.”His ODI record is also highly impressive as he has scored 4824 runs and taken 184 wickets in 222 matches, which confirms that he should continue to be an integral part of both Test and one-day teams.”It was unfortunate that Shahid was sidelined from the Pakistan team for quite some time before he staged an exciting comeback. He appears to be upset after being dropped in the recent Kandy Test against Sri Lanka.”Afridi should learn a lesson from Asim Kamal, another young Karachi Test cricketer who is constantly being ignored by the national selectors after his Test debut against South Africa when he made a swashbuckling 99.”Asim also has an impressive Test record scoring 717 runs with eight fifties in just 12 Test matches in which he was given the opportunity to play. It is heartening to learn that Shahid wants to focus his full attention to prepare for the 2007 World Cup but that does not mean that he should deprive Pakistan of his services in Test matches during this intervening period.”Shahid should have consulted his mentors and well-wishers before coming out with such a startling and shocking announcement.” Bukhari hopes that Shahid will reconsider his decision and make himself available to the national selectors for both Test and ODI Pakistan teams.

The dates for Bangladesh’s tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe have now been agreed, and the schedule is a punishing one for the Bangladeshis, with eight ODIs in 18 days.They arrive in Nairobi on July 15 and play three ODIs between July 19 and 23. The matches were brought forward by two days as the Kenyans had been scheduled to leave for Canada, where they play an Intercontinental Cup tie at the end of the month, on the evening of July 25.From Nairobi the Bangladesh side head south to Zimbabwe on July 26, where they have five ODIs in eight days at venues yet to be confirmed. It is understood that negotiations are ongoing between the two boards over the exact schedule.Cricinfo has learned that the Zimbabweans had tried to postpone the tour until September as many of their first-choice players are out of the country, most playing club cricket in the UK. But Bangladesh, who have kept all their first-team squad on stand-by, made clear that this was not an option under the terms of the Future Tours Program.The back-to-back itinerary is probably in part due to the need for the Zimbabwe players to be in and out as quickly as possible to enable them to honour their club commitments.The full Bangladesh tour to Zimbabwe will be preceded by a five-week visit by their A-team.

Victoria’s selectors have dropped 13 players, including the squad’s two back-up wicketkeepers, in a smaller contract list for 2006-07. Shaun Graf, the Cricket Victoria operations manager, said they faced a “reasonable squeeze” on the budget after Cameron White and Mick Lewis lost their Cricket Australia contracts and had to be covered by the state.The glovemen Brad Pilon, who played the final three Pura Cup games last season, and Peter Roach have been cut from the squad, with Adam Crosthwaite retained as the No.1.Graeme Rummans, Brendan Joseland, Tim Welsford, Clinton McKay and Simon Dart also had their full-time deals discontinued while the rookies Matthew Innes, Cameron Huckett, Matthew Harrison and Robert Quiney were axed. Grant Lindsay and Liam Buchanan, who both played nine one-day games for the state last season, also missed out.New players to the squad on rookie deals were the Australia Under-19 players Jon Holland, the left-arm spinner, and the batsman Aaron Finch. The fast bowler Matthew Gale and Peter Nevill and Grant Baldwin also joined the junior section of the outfit. “We’re delighted that these emerging players can be supported alongside our existing group,” Graf said. Cricket Victoria plan to add one more rookie to their squad.Squad Jason Arnberger, Rob Cassell, Adam Crosthwaite, Gerard Denton, Shane Harwood, David Hussey, Nick Jewell, Michael Klinger, Brad Knowles, Michael Lewis, Lloyd Mash, Andrew McDonald, Jon Moss, Dirk Nannes, Peter Siddle, Cameron White, Allan Wise.Rookies Grant Baldwin, Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Matthew Gale, Jon Holland, Peter Nevill.

The Ashes series will be contested by the top two teams in the world rankings after England’s 167-run victory against Pakistan at Headingley sealed the series. Whatever the result of the final Test at The Oval, England will leapfrog Pakistan back into second place when the ratings are calculated following the final matchThe gap between England and Australia ahead of their series, beginning at Brisbane in November, is still to be decided but it could be as few as 11 points if England beat Pakistan again in the fourth Test, starting on August, and claim a 3-0 victory.England’s series win is its first since it beat Australia 2-1 last year to reclaim The Ashes while, for Pakistan, it is its first loss in a series since it lost all three Tests against Ricky Ponting’s side in 2004-05.Sri Lanka have also consolidated their position in fifth spot after the nerve-jangling one-wicket win over South Africa, in Colombo, which secured a 2-0 series win. South Africa, in sixth spot, have lost four points and are now just two points ahead of New Zealand.For the full rankings click here