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Richard Johnson has been ruled out of next week’s NatWest Challenge series against Pakistan after sustaining a knee injury. He played a limited part in training in Cardiff ahead of Saturday’s warm-up match against Wales and was ruled out for the next week after consultation with England medical staff.It is the latest in a long line of setbacks for Johnson, who was first called into an England squad for the trip to South Africa in 1995-96, but had to withdraw with a back injury. He had remained on the fringes ever since, but eventually made his international debut against Zimbabwe in last week’s second Test at Durham, at the age of 28, and picked up two wickets in his first over en route to figures of 6 for 33.Sussex’s James Kirtley will become Johnson’s temporary replacement, although he will not be in consideration for the Wales match. England are optimistic that Johnson will be fit again in time for the opening match of the NatWestSeries against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge next Thursday.”Richard’s knee is swollen and sore and we have ruled him out of all cricket for the next week,” said Dr Peter Gregory, England’s chief medical officer. “But we are hopeful he will be ready to return for the NatWest Series.”

A maiden first-class century from Robin Martin-Jenkins transformed the first day of Sussex’s crucial Championship match with Gloucestershire at Hove.Martin-Jenkins made an unbeaten 111 as Sussex recovered from 70-5 to reach 263-6 before rain and bad light brought a premature close after just 3.1 overs were bowled after tea.Martin-Jenkins hit three boundaries in four balls off Mark Alleyne in the penultimate over before tea to reach his hundred which was made off 126 balls and featured 17 boundaries and two sixes.Sussex were in all sorts of trouble after they had been put in, but they were revived first by Martin-Jenkins and Michael Yardy (46) who put on 94 in 25 overs before Yardy fell leg before to Martyn Ball’s off-spin.That made Sussex 164-6, but Martin-Jenkins and Mark Davis then produced a thrilling counter-attack which is so far worth 99 off 112 balls with Davis resuming on Thursday on 43.Sussex have already been assured of promotion but Gloucestershire’s hopes of joining them have hardly been helped by their crippling injury list.Six players, including wicket-keeper Jack Russell, are out through injury while Ian Harvey has been press-ganged into playing solely as a batsman despite rib problems.Skipper Mark Alleyne’s woes increased during the afternoon when James Averis limped off with a groin problem and may not be able to bowl in the match again.There had been nothing wrong with his seam attack during the morning when they exploited a pitch offering plenty of help to bowlers who could put the ball in the right areas. There was some swing movement and the occasional ball lifted off a length.None of the Sussex top order could make an impression as Averis, Alastair Bressington and debutant Roger Sillence shared the spoils before Martin-Jenkins led a superb Sussex fightback.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes put together their first century stand to set a strong platform for Bangladesh in the third ODI in Mirpur•AFP

In three spells that tested the skill of the Zimbabwe batsmen and drew plenty of oohs and aahs from the crowd at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mustafizur Rahman claimed figures of 5 for 34 to ensure Bangladesh’s 3-0 sweep of the ODI series. He is the first bowler in history to have as many as three five-wicket hauls in under 10 matches played.Mustafizur conceded boundaries from time to time but Zimbabwe’s batsmen could not dominate him. There were many plays and misses, and edges that almost carried to the slips. There were several occasions when the ball missed the stumps by a whisker as he got the ball to swing and cut. When he ran in to bowl with Zimbabwe nine-down, Mashrafe Mortaza gave him eight slips.Mustafizur’s first two strikes upset the boundary-filled start that Zimbabwe made in the first seven overs. Off the second ball of the chase, Chamu Chibhabha had little clue as Mustafizur got the ball to swing enough to get past his driving arms. Craig Ervine and Regis Chakabva kept finding fours but in the seventh over again, Mustafizur removed Chakabva with a slower delivery that the opening batsmen could only lob to cover.Ervine fell to Nasir Hossain in the ninth over when he played back to a delivery that didn’t get up as much as he anticipated and he was trapped lbw for 21 off 25 balls.Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura then joined Sean Williams in an attempt to resurrect the innings and get a measure of the required run-rate. Williams was given a lifeline when the substitute fielder Anamul Haque dropped him at mid-off on 23. The two batsmen found boundaries, too, and Mashrafe started to look for his sixth bowler. Sabbir Rahman bowled an excellent delivery to get rid of Chigumbura in the 23rd over after he had added 80 runs for the fourth wicket with Williams. Chigumbura made 45 with six boundaries and was removed before he could open up in a big way.Zimbabwe could have ended this ODI series without a single fifty from their batsmen had Arafat Sunny not trodden on the stumps in the 30th over when Williams – batting on 49 – was short of the crease.For the next six overs, Bangladesh had to contend with a dangerous partnership between Malcolm Waller and Williams but Nasir intervened, taking a head-high catch in the covers to dismiss Waller. Next over, Williams fell to an easy catch at cover after he failed to time a drive off Mashrafe. He made 64 off 84 balls with five fours.Mustafizur came back to remove Sikandar Raza, who was caught splendidly by Sabbir as he ran from mid-on to mid-off. Next ball, Luke Jongwe holed out at midwicket, but his hat-trick ball was kept away by Graeme Cremer. Later, Mustafizur took a return catch to dismiss Tinashe Panyangara and complete a third five-wicket haul in ODIs, figures that complemented the work of Bangladesh’s opening batsmen.Earlier, Bangladesh’s innings was split into two parts after they opted to bat. The first part comprised the 147-run opening stand between Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal. It was enough of a base to get close to 300 runs but it wasn’t to be, and the second part saw them restricted to 276 for 9.Tamim started the early rush of boundaries with a pull off Panyangara; it was his only four through the leg side as the remaining six fours were played through the covers. Tamim’s only six came off a blast over the bowler’s head. But by then Kayes had struck four sixes – three between midwicket and square-leg and, the best of the lot, one over extra cover. He also struck six fours, three on either side of the wicket.Kayes was dropped on 35 and survived a stumping and caught-behind off the same delivery on 48 after Chakabva missed a stumping and replays showed there was an edge. Both Tamim and Kayes fell for 73 in the space of five overs, but Bangladesh still had their eyes on a bigger total with Mushfiqur Rahim in the middle after the fall of the first wicket.Mushfiqur, too, fell before they reached 200, which meant much of the work depended on Liton Das and Mahmudullah, two batsmen who had struggled to get going in the first two matches. Liton gave a catch one to cover after making 17 while Nasir Hossain and Sabbir Rahman fell to Luke Jongwe in the space of three deliveries, Cremer holding on to easy catches at point.Bangladesh slipped from 222 for 3 to 226 for 6 within 11 deliveries and were in danger of getting bowled out before 50 overs. Mahmudullah, who was on 32, then got mixed up with Mashrafe in the 45th over only for wicketkeeper Chakabva to knock down the bails seconds before Sikandar Raza’s direct hit found Mahmudullah short of the crease.Mahmudullah stood near the dressing-room while TV umpire Enamul Haque saw many replays and finally decided it was not-out. Chigumbura, however, protested the decision and the broadcasters then showed a replay in which Chakabva had uprooted the stump but did so after Aleem Dar had initially given out to the direct throw.With the second decision also not out, Zimbabwe gathered into a huddle for a few minutes but both captains shook hands and the game resumed.Mahmudullah added another 20 runs, and was run-out in the last over as Bangladesh scampered towards their highest score in the three-match series.Jongwe and Cremer took two wickets each while Panyangara, Raza and Waller took one each. Among them, Panyangara bowled the best spells.

Paulo Dybala is currently one of the most exciting strikers in Europe, tearing up Italian football at Juventus this season with 25 goals in all competitions, but could he be on his way to the English Premier League.

He’s been linked with a move to Liverpool this week, a transfer rumour that has caught the imagination of Reds supporters, even if they think it’s pretty unlikely it will be pulled off.

The striker has scored an excellent 67 goals in 132 appearances for the Italian giants, making him one of the most devastating strikers at the club in recent memory.

At just 24 years old he isn’t even the finished product either and has plenty of improving to do.

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Would he be a good fit at Liverpool? Supporters seem to think so with many taking to social media in the wake of the rumours to share their excitement at the potential addition of the Argentinian.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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After reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, is such a move as unrealistic as it first appears?

Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts…

The Pakistan board is certain that the twin blasts that rocked Pakistan’s northern city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday will not affect either the ongoing Australia A tour or the forthcoming home series against South Africa later in September. The blasts occurred on Tuesday morning and killed at least 24 people”We have not had any concerns from either the Australian or the South African authorities so far and as far as things stand, both tours are still on,” Shafqat Naghmi, the board’s chief operating officer, told .Although there are no matches against Australia A scheduled for Rawalpindi, the one-day international between Pakistan and South Africa initially scheduled for the city was moved to Karachi last month. The Pakistan board cited the lack of cricket facilities in Peshawar and Rawalpindi as reason for the change. However, it was widely reported that the South Africans had expressed concerns over playing in Rawalpindi due to its close proximity to Islamabad where the standoff between the government and the radical mosque clerks took place in July.

A Pakistan legends side will play their Indian counterparts at the Rogers Centre, Toronto on March 3, 2007. The match comes one week before of the start of the World Cup in the Caribbean.Wasim Akram will captain the Pakistan side, and Mohammad Azharuddin India in the 50-overs-a-side game. The organisers and the Canadian Cricket Association President, Mr Ben Sennik, hope for a capacity crowd of 60,000.Canada holds the record attendance for a cricket match in North America, when around 43,000 watched a game at the same venue in 1989 (when it was called the Skydome).This new event, which is billed as an attempt to bring “community togetherness through sports and entertainment”, is being presented by M+D Community Corporation in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cricket Association.

Scorecard

Zander de Bruyn scored a rapid 45 to guide South Africa across the line with Andrew Puttick © Getty Images

South Africa A produced another impressive performance as they completed a comfortable six-wicket win against New Zealand A in Colombo. After routing Sri Lanka A by 10 wickets on Wednesday the South Africa bowlers were again on form, constantly chipping away at the New Zealand batting. Andrew Puttick guided South Africa home with a composed 84, in a stand of 99 with Zander de Bruyn.It was a team effort from the South African with the six bowlers each taking a least a wicket apiece. Dale Steyn, Tyron Henderson and Johann van der Wath troubled the top order and New Zealand couldn’t creat a solid foundation to build from. Matthew Sinclair and James Marshall battled hard but Robin Peterson and Johan Botha claimed a brace each to stifle any thoughts of a fightback.New Zealand’s predicament was highlight when Jamie How was introduced as the Supersub and he managed to hold the tail together with a grafting 31 from 50 balls. But Steyn claimed his second wicket as New Zealand failed to use up their full allocation of overs.New Zealand were determined to make a game of it and their seamers exploited the same assistance that their South African counterparts had enjoyed. Daryl Tuffey struck twice and at 39 for 3 the game was suddenly thrown wide open. However, Andrew Puttick, a compact left-hander, settled in to anchor the innings and when the new-ball threat had disappeared batting became easier. De Bruyn provided the attacking imeptous and the target was knocked off with almost 15 overs remaining.

Olonga: ‘Heath dug himself a hole and they jumped in with him’© Getty Images

Henry Olonga, who staged a black armband protest mourning the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe at the World Cup last year, is surprisingly unenthusiastic about the current tour of the Zimbabwean rebel players, who have reformed as a team called the Red Lions.The team yesterday played the first match of their three-week tour, against a Lashings XI, which Olonga was part of, at Wimbledon cricket club. The game ended in a tie off the last ball.”I don’t endorse or support the tour, I just think it’s a great way for them to stick together,” Olonga told BBC Sport. “A lot of them have lost their careers and it’s a very uncertain time for them.”"There could have been different ways of showing their solidarity for Heath in a way that didn’t result in drastic action being taken against them," he continued. "They ended up being in breach of contract, which gave the ZCU every right to fire them. Heath dug himself a hole and they jumped in with him.”However, Olonga agrees with the rebel players’ complaint about the politicisation of cricket in Zimbabwe, saying: “The administrators of the ZCU are for all intents and purposes working along lines one can deem to be political. The kinds of decisions they’re making don’t make sense."If they wanted the best team to be on the field they wouldn’t have sacked all these players and the kind of results the team has turned in of late wouldn’t have happened.”Olonga added that the current crisis in cricket is only "a small part of the jigsaw puzzle" of Zimbabwe’s many problems. He believes one solution to these problems would be "the due process of democracy being allowed to prevail – free and fair elections for a start."If those fall into place everything else does – the independence of the judiciary, freedom of speech and the media, opening up the airwaves."All the players on the Red Lions team are white, although Stuart Carlisle, who captained the team yesterday, explained: “Three or four black players were interested in joining us a couple of months ago but the ZCU were quick to put pressure on them.”Carlisle added that he thinks the rebel players could be playing for the national side by next year, but only if the arbitration process put in place by the ICC is successful.”This is a trial period for us. If arbitration doesn’t come through, or isn’t effective, we’ve got other players at home," he added. “We could certainly play some of the first-class sides, some counties and state sides, if they were interested.”

There could be a big-name casualty when South Africa’s United Cricket Board (UCB) announces its list of contracted players at the end of this month. Meetings at the weekend and next week will determine which players – and there will be a maximum of 20 – will be on the UCB’s books for the next 11 months.The suits who sign the cheques will be guided by Omar Henry, South Africa’s convenor of selectors, who will make recommendations on individual players. And Henry declined to give Lance Klusener a vote of confidence when Wisden CricInfo spoke to him on Wednesday.”We know what he can do and what he can’t do,” Henry sidestepped when asked if he was satisfied with Klusener’s performance during the past year. “Andrew Hall had a fantastic domestic season and he has done well in the South African team, and then there’s Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp. We didn’t know enough about them before last season. Now that we do we need to put Klusener’s name among those and discuss it.”Eric Simons, the recently appointed national coach, also couldn’t bring himself to back the previously pyrotechnic left-hander when asked whether there was a place for Klusener in his blueprint. “There’s always a place for anyone who is playing good cricket,” Simons said. “I’m happy with the way Klusener has performed … uhh, well, I’m not unhappy.”Klusener scored just one half-century in this year’s World Cup, and he was left out of the squad for the subsequent tour of Bangladesh. He was also deemed surplus to requirements for the South Africa A tour of Australia. That would seem to indicate that he will not be part of the forthcoming tour of England, because there won’t be any cricket in or involving South Africa before they arrive in the UK on June 16.If Klusener does not have his current top-tier contract renewed it will mark a spectacular fall from iconhood. He terrorised almost every bowler he faced in the 1999 World Cup, where he averaged 140.50 and was the single major reason why South Africa reached the semi-finals.His efforts were recognised when he was named Player of the Tournament, and when he was ordained as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year in 2000.Klusener belied no sense of impending unemployment on Wednesday, and revealed that his services were being sought outside South Africa. Would he consider playing abroad if his UCB contract was not renewed? “Absolutely! I’d be off before the dust had settled,” Klusener told us.”I’ve certainly had offers from Australia, which are very inviting.” But there were cons as well as pros: “Playing in Australia would coincide with South Africa’s domestic season, which is a problem. And if I play in England that would mean a year of nonstop cricket.”Klusener, who’s now 31 and married with a young child, was philosophical about his prospects. “If there’s a future for me in South African cricket, that’s great. If there isn’t, that’s tough. It’s a big world out there.”Only the six players who will enter the second half of two-year contracts can be sure of keeping their jobs in the unsettled scenario in which South African cricket finds itself after a disastrous year – last season’s thrashing by Australia and this year’s World Cup debacle, where South Africa, the main hosts, were tearful first-round casualties.The smug six are Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, Makhaya Ntini, Mark Boucher and Paul Adams. Graeme Smith, as captain, must surely be contracted. Gone from the current pool will be Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes, who have retired. Nantie Hayward (now with Worcestershire) and Roger Telemachus are unlikely to be re-signed – and nor is the unlucky Steve Elworthy.Klusener may well suffer a similar fate. If he does, it will be a clear case of “Come in No. 69: Your time is up.”

Four of the most distinguished names in cricket – Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Richard Hadlee, Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar – have accepted invitations to become international ambassadors for the 2003 Cricket World Cup, it was announced on Monday.All four volunteered their services after being approached by 2003 CWC executive director Ali Bacher and will visit South Africa for a two week-period during February and March 2003.They will visit schools, conduct coaching clinics, assist sponsorship drives and generally promote cricket during the tournament.Another "three or four" international ambassadors are to be invited, said Bacher, along with 20-25 prominent current and former South African sportsmen and women who will perform similar roles.Also announced on Monday were the venues where the various World Cup teams will be hosted during the tournament.The venues are: South Africa in Cape Town; West Indies in Bloemfontein; Sri Lanka in Kimberley; England in Port Elizabeth; Kenya in East London; India in Durban; Bangladesh in Pietermaritzburg; Pakistan in Johannesburg; Canada in Johannesburg; New Zealand in Centurion; Australia in Potchefstroom; Holland in Paarl; Namibia in Benoni; Zimbabwe in Harare/Bulawayo.Bacher said that hosts South Africa had been placed in Cape Town because they would be playing in the opening match of the tournament against either England or the West Indies on February 6.He said England would go to Port Elizabeth because of the historical associations of the city – South Africa played its first Test match against England in PE in 1889 while Australia had asked to be billetted in Potchefstroom at the recommendation of Allan Border who coached the Australian team in South Africa during the 1999 Youth World Cup.In other announcements on Monday, the names of 10 team liaison officers for the tournament were announced. The liaison officers are: Patrick Steytler (Kwazulu Natal), Collin Dettmer (Northerns), Michael Kaplan (Kwazulu Natal), Haroon Nosarka (Gauteng), Bruce Risien (Western Province), Lux Qoboshiyana (Border), Leon Coetzee (Eastern Province), Fezele Mguqulwa (Western Province), Pankie Mangisa (Gauteng), Sundra Reddy (Kwazulu Natal).A further two liaison officers have still to be appointed, said Bacher, and all would receive intensive training from Doug Russell and Gulam Rajah before taking up their positions.Bacher said that the World Cup policy committee had approved the following budgets: R8-million for safety and security during the tournament R6.9-million to improve playing and practice facilities at the 12 World Cup venues in South Africa R5.6-million for the improvement of the sound systems at the 12 venues. R650 000 for the provision of emergency electricity generators at the venues in the event of power failures.He also said that the International Tour Operator for the tournament would be a consortium consisting of Gullinjet Sports Travel (London), Edusport Travel (South Africa) and Autshumatu Investments Pty Ltd (South Africa). Autshumatu Investments is a black empowerment company and will provide the executive director of the consortium.