Adam Hollioake, the former England allrounder, has been forced to stop playing four-day Championship cricket because of an ankle injury.Hollioake, 32, had already announced that he was to quit all forms of the game at the end of this season, and he will now play in only the National League games, and the Twenty20 Cup finals day this Saturday at Edgbaston.His ankle problem had been affecting him for the majority of the season, and he had been having cortisone injections on the injury for the last six weeks. However, to help relieve the pain, he won’t play in any more Championship games this season, with his last four-day game for the club being the six-wicket defeat at Northants last week.Hollioake, who was born in Melbourne, played four Tests and 35 one-dayers for England, captaining the one-day side 14 times between 1997 and 1999. He explained at the end of last season that he wanted to devote more time to other things, particularly charity work for the Ben Hollioake Fund and his own business interests in Perth.

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.”

India were comprehensively outplayed by Pakistan in the opening match of the Videocon Cup, and after a 66-run loss in a rain-shortened encounter, Sourav Ganguly rued the team’s lack of consistency, and hoped they could pick themselves up in a hurry. “All of us need to be more consistent, not one match here or there, said Ganguly.” Unfortunately that is not happening.”Ganguly said the target of 194 was not out of India’s reach, but conceded that batting second was tricky. “Batting second did make a difference, but not much. Even in the first innings, the wicket was slow and gripping when the seamers were bowling.”PTI reported that Ganguly also said that the last two overs of India’s bowling, when they conceded 32 runs, had made a big difference.Inzamam-ul-Haq was understandably delighted with his team’s performance and dished out the praise all around. “The boys played well and it was a total team effort.” Two cricketers came in for special mention: “[Shoaib] Malik has been playing well for us in the last few matches,” he said, “and [Abdul] Razzaq is a good all-rounder. I hope he continues his good performances.”When asked about not reaching the Asia Cup final because of a bonus point they conceded, Inzamam said, “What happened in the Asia Cup was unfortunate but we were determined not to let that happen again.”

Muttiah Muralitharan has struck back after years of suspicion about the legality of his bowling action, by accusing three of Australia’s leading pacemen of being chuckers.Last week, an ICC panel announced that, after extensive studies of the actions of the leading bowlers in international cricket, up to 99% of fast bowlers occasionally exceed their permitted 10-degree leverage.Murali, whose entire career has been clouded by accusations of an illegal action, has latched onto these findings, and in an interview with Melbourne’s Radio Sport 927 he pointed the finger at three of Australia’s finest – Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee.”McGrath is bowling about 13 [degrees], Gillespie about 12 and Brett Lee about 14 or 15,” he said, “so what about them then, the Australian players? And what about other international players?”Murali, whose world-record tally of 532 wickets was recently surpassed by Shane Warne, has endured a rough time at the hands of Australia’s fans and umpires over the past decade. He has been no-balled for throwing twice, in 1995-96 and 1998-99, and earlier this year he declined to travel to Darwin and Cairns for a two-Test series, because of the abuse that he expected.”The [Australian] people are not a problem, it is the cricket-playing people that are a problem, they are a little bit ignorant,” added Murali. “When you perform well from an ordinary country rather than a big country, then people think there is something wrong. That’s not my problem, they have to clarify themselves.”Unsurprisingly, Murali’s comments did not go down well with Cricket Australia, which hit back in an official statement. “In standing behind the good name of current players such as McGrath, Gillespie and Lee, we call on all observers to examine the detail of the ICC’s draft findings. This includes the ICC’s own comment that it is false to suggest its expert bowling panel’s work has labelled a number of great bowlers as chuckers.”

Australia’s cricketers have donated their prize money from the Melbourne Test to the disaster relief funds of the tsunami and earthquake victims in South-East Asia.Ricky Ponting, who hit an unbeaten 62 to lead his side to a nine wicket victory over Pakistan at the MCG, indicated that Australia had more fund-raising projects in mind. “We’ve got a number of things in the pipeline as a team that we’re looking at that haven’t been finalised yet,” he told reporters after the Test. “One thing that we have decided to do from today’s game is to donate all of our winning prizemoney from this Test match, which is about $13,000, which the team has decided to donate to the fund.”Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, was also sympathetic. “I think the two teams have signed shirts and they’re being auctioned somewhere to help them,” he said. “It’s a tragedy that puts everything into perspective as far as cricket goes. We understand that and it’s very sad for all the people who have suffered and are still suffering.”More than 56,000 people so far have been killed, and many more left homeless by the effects of the massive earthquake and tidal waves that hit shorelines of all round the Indian Ocean.

Scorecard

Victoria clinched their third straight victory in the ING Cup, notching up a comfortable five-wicket win against South Australia at Melbourne. Darren Lehmann, back in the state side after being left out of the Australian Test team, did his best to prop up the South Australians with a 96-ball 92, but Victoria easily reached their target with 28 balls to spare.The stars for them were Matthew Elliott and Brad Hodge, who put together 110 for the second wicket after the early loss of Jonathon Moss for a duck (1 for 4). Both fell within 11 runs of each other, though, and at 3 for 125 SA sniffed a comeback. However, David Hussey and Cameron White then added 64 for the fifth wicket to ensure that Victoria eased to victory. White remained unbeaten on 46.Earlier, Lehmann made the most of a rare opportunity to play for his state, leading from the front with 92. Lehmann’s innings, his first for South Australia this season, lifted his team to 227. Lehmann was comfortable against Victoria’s bowling attack, and struck ten boundaries in his innings, before being caught behind off a top edge in the 48th over off Michael Lewis. Lehmann shared in a 99-run partnership for the third wicket with Callum Ferguson after South Australia were in some trouble at 3 for 95.

Doug Walters believes Michael Clarke’s brilliant run as opener should not save him from another dumping down the order. Clarke, whose high-energy batting is regularly compared to the style of Walters, made his second one-day century in last night’s win against Pakistan and has scores of 66, 97 and 103* not out since standing in for Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist.Australia dropped Clarke to No. 6 when the usual openers returned at Brisbane and Walters said he would have to accept more similar treatment. “Michael has done a fantastic job as an opener and I don’t blame him for wanting to stay there,” he said. “Gilchrist goes down to No. 7 for the Tests, so it’s probably fair enough if Michael has to do it in the one-dayers.”With Gilchrist resting, Clarke will start with Hayden against West Indies at Adelaide on Wednesday and expects to be demoted when Gilchrist returns on Sunday. Damien Martyn has also been given a week’s break and should be back for the same match against Pakistan at the WACA.Walters said he was disappointed by the SCG crowd’s booing of Hayden’s 27 off 65 balls as he took the strike from Clarke. “It’s not the way an SCG crowd should behave,” Walters, who has a stand named after him at the ground, said. “He’s obviously struggling a bit at the moment but he’ll come good, he’s a very important part of the Australian team.”Ricky Ponting felt the crowd was upset by Hayden getting singles from the final ball of the over rather than his slow scoring. “It’s disappointing when you’re trying your absolute best and hardest and you’re copping it from your home crowd,” he said. “But that happens, that’s sport.”

Security personnel yesterday foiled an attempt by miscreants to vandalise the pitch at the Mohali Stadium, which is scheduled to host the first Test between India and Pakistan.It appears to have been a politically-activated move, but one that was curtailed quickly as the men shouted anti-Pakistan slogans upon entering the ground, which alerted the staff to their presence. Police said the damage to the pitch was minimal.IS Bindra, the president of the Punjab Cricket Association, was quoted by as saying, “This kind of thing has happened for the first time in Mohali. But our security staff did a commendable job. One should not take an alarmist view of the situation. I have spoken to the DGP [Head of police] and we will further tighten up security.”

Scorecard

Guyana pushed home the advantage on the second day of their Carib Beer Cup match against Leeward Islands. Shivnarine Chanderpaul made sure his good form counted, going from an overnight 118 not out to 194. He was given good support by Neil McGarrell, who made 84 at No. 8. With these two contributions leading the way Guyana reached 448. In response Leeward Islands reached 82 for 1 at the end of the second day.
ScorecardJamaica made Windward Islands pay for a first-innings batting failure as they piled on 385 for 4 in response to 212 and secured a lead of 173 at the end of the second day’s play. Chris Gayle helped himself to 88 at the top of the order but it was Marlon Samuels who read the scoring charts with an unbeaten 130. Carlton Baugh, the diminutive wicketkeeper, chipped in with a vital unbeaten 76 in the lower order.
ScorecardBarbados eked out a 59-run lead against Trinidad & Tobago at the end of the second day of their Carib Beer Cup match at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Beginning the day on 6 for no loss, Barbados went to 303 thanks to 113 from Ryan Hinds and 71 from Dale Richards. Merv Dillon was the best of the bowlers for Trinidad & Tobago, and ended with figures of 4 for 47. In their second dig Trinidad & Tobago were put in a spot of bother as Corey Colleymore picked up three wickets with only 47 runs on the board when the day ended.

It was the perfect one-day performance by Pakistan. If Bob Woolmer had written an over-by-over script for how this match should go, he would have struggled to come up something to beat this display.For a start, they put in a clinical batting performance. It isn’t often that such an adjective is used for Pakistan, but today their discipline stood out as much as their flair, and no-one epitomised it more than Salman Butt, who recorded his second one-day century against India in four matches. In both the earlier matches, Butt had thrown it away attempting audacious strokes after getting starts; here, free of the pressure of batting in a run-chase, he did the sheet-anchor’s job superbly, eschewing risks, finding the gaps, and running like a hare.Butt’s exclusion from the side for the last two Tests was one of the more inexplicable decisions taken by the Pakistan team-management in recent times, but here was proof, once again, of his ability. Performance in a one-dayer might not necessarily indicate much about a player’s Test-match ability, but he has shown his skills in the longer version too, against Australia, no less. Pakistan’s selectors would be fools not to give him an extended run in both forms of the game.For a long time in Pakistan’s innings, it seemed they had missed a trick by not forcing the pace earlier. The first 27 overs yielded just 14 fours and 134 runs in all, fractionally less than five an over. Going by the trend in the series, that was well below par. However, by constantly nudging the singles and taking no chances, Butt and Shoaib Malik laid a solid foundation upon which an explosive middle and lower order could build on – the last 23 overs disappeared for 185, with 16 fours and three sixes.The real surprise of the day, though, came from Pakistan’s bowlers. Pummelled to all parts in the earlier games, here they obtained pace, bounce, and, quite amazingly, appreciable seam movement, something they’d struggled to achieve throughout the Test series. Naved-ul-Hasan, another highly under-rated player, performed like a champion, striking the early blows from which there was no comeback for India. The curator at the Keenan Stadium deserves plenty of praise for preparing an excellent pitch. It had pace and bounce to facilitate strokeplay, but it also offered joy to the pace bowlers who were prepared to bend their backs – how often do you see Rahul Dravid get out fending a short ball in Tests, leave alone ODIs – and to spinners, who obtained turn and bounce.One-dayers have been reduced to a bowler-bashing extravaganza far too often, rewarding batsmen with little skill. Pitches like this one redress the balance somewhat, but the sad part is that this track might be the anomaly – Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Delhi, the venue for the last three games, are all likely to be heartbreakers for bowlers.For the Indians, this result, especially their debacle with the bat, was a disaster waiting to happen. The 2-0 lead they held coming into this match owed a great deal to Virender Sehwag, Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but their huge scores had hidden the failures of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif – the four had contributed 53 from eight innings in the series before this match. It was only inevitable that the three Indian batting stars would fail at some point – they did today, and the rest of the cast were found badly wanting.Not only was the Indian batting effort lamentable, they were also shockingly lackadaisical in the field, bringing to light once again a problem which keeps rearing its head, and about which the team management seems to be doing absolutely nothing. With nine overs to go and just 13 minutes to bowl them in, Sehwag ambled towards the umpire to hand over his hat, while the rest of the fielders walked towards their fielding positions without the slightest bit of urgency. The stifling heat is clearly a factor, but that might excuse a delay of five, maybe ten minutes; when a team is 25 minutes late, it shows an utter disregard for rules. Ganguly will be lucky to get away with anything less than a suspension.For now, though, it’s time for Pakistan to savour the win. It should go down as one of Pakistan’s finest all-round performances, one that should be canned and pulled out whenever the players needs reaffirmation of just how good they can be.