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Ryan Harris is confident he will be fit ahead of the Ashes after receiving encouraging results from scans on his injured Achilles tendon. This week, Harris was named in Australia’s 16-man Ashes squad but he also flew home from the IPL due to the injury, which, if more serious, might have placed his England tour in jeopardy.However, scans and the inspection of Cricket Australia’s chief medical officer Justin Paolini showed that Harris’ Achilles is not seriously injured, with an early estimate of six to eight weeks on the sidelines described by Harris as “the worst case scenario”. It is more likely that Harris will be bowling again in three to four weeks, winning him time to play well before the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.”Australia A isn’t discounted just yet either,” Harris told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve got to do some serious rehab and the doctor’s confident that 6-8 weeks is the worst case scenario – if I do things right I could be right in a couple of weeks. The good thing is there is time to get it right and then bowl some overs. I’ll have something under my belt for England.”It’s very disappointing to leave the IPL because as I said from the start it was crucial for me to keep bowling, but this is something I’ve had on and off for a long time and it’s just flared up. The last four weeks of the season in Australia it was all fine. It’s disappointing to leave Kings XI, but my main priority is obviously England.”Harris had felt Achilles discomfort for some time, and initially was left out of the Kings XI starting line-up for reasons of team balance rather than his inability to bowl with the ailment. But as the team met a succession of unhelpful pitches, Harris decided in concert with the Kings XI and Queensland coach Darren Lehmann that an early flight home was the best option.”I knew anyway it wasn’t going to be too bad, purely because I played at the end of the season here and then went over to play games over there,” Harris said. “To be honest the reason I hadn’t played since the 14th wasn’t really to do with that, it was more about the make up of the team and the wickets we were playing on.Ryan Harris has had to leave the IPL but says he should be fit ahead of the Ashes•Associated Press

“Boof [Lehmann] had a think about it, I was a little bit more sore than I’d been at the end of the season. So the potential of me maybe only playing another three games, we got together and thought the best thing to do would be to come home and get right.”Having spent all but the final few weeks of the 2012-13 season recovering from shoulder surgery, Harris was delighted by both the renewal of his CA contract and the public statements of the captain Michael Clarke and the national selector John Inverarity that he had a key role to play in the Ashes if fit. He has resolved to repay that faith.”It’s very rewarding to know your captain and chairman of selectors back you and have a lot of confidence in you,” Harris said. “That’s why it’s so important for me to get fit and play as many games as they need me to play. That’s me repaying them for the faith they’re putting in me.”The last year has been terrible, and getting another CA contract for me is just another chance, and there’s no better series to get that second chance than in an Ashes series. I’m that keen, that enthusiastic and that hungry to get back in that series, win the Ashes back and repay them.”As for injury being Harris’ almost constant companion, he admitted to wondering when he might be blessed with a clear six months in which to deliver the sort of high quality bowling that has made him respected by batsmen around Australia and the world.”It’s fair to say a few things go through my mind – someone upstairs has got to give me a decent run somehow before I finish,” he said. “It’s not as if I’m tearing hamstrings or calves, the things I’m doing are structural things, purely through what I do. You get to the stage where you get a niggle and push yourself through that until it becomes something else, and that’s when you stop. You push yourself to the maximum every time you bowl.”If you mindset gets negative then you’ve probably got to make the decision in calling it quits, but I’m not ready to do that yet. I’ll do whatever I can to get right, especially for a series like England.”

New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder has been moved out of the intensive care unit and has reassured his well-wishers that he is feeling “heaps better” and overwhelmed by the number of messages wishing him a speedy recovery from his assault on Wednesday night in Christchurch. Ryder is in a stable condition in a ward at the Christchurch hospital.”I just want to let everyone know that I’m ok. I feel heaps better today but still really tired,” Ryder stated in a press release by New Zealand Cricket. “I’ve been reading your messages that have been sent so thank you to everyone for thinking of me over the last few days.”I want to thank everyone who has been caring for me at the hospital – they have been awesome. Thank you to my family and friends who have been here also.”Ryder’s manager, Aaron Klee, said the batsman may not be making further statements in the immediate future, as he focuses on his recovery.”Now that Jesse is out of intensive care, we aren’t planning on providing further updates in the media, as it is time for Jesse to focus on his recovery and getting back to full health,” Klee said.Ryder: “I’ve been reading your messages that have been sent so thank you to everyone for thinking of me over the last few days”•Getty Images

Ryder had come out of his induced coma on Saturday and had begun talking again and breathing without the assistance of the ventilator. Earlier on Thursday, he had given a ‘thumbs up’ sign to the neurosurgeon and had started interacting with his family and manager.Klee said on Sunday that Ryder was itching to get out of hospital when told of how the country was worrying about his welfare.”He’s been quite cheeky. We’ve had some giggles this afternoon, mainly one-word-type conversations,” Klee told the . “I’ve told him he’s one of the most talked-about people in New Zealand.”He asked me about cricket but I just said to him, ‘It’s going to be a while before you are playing cricket, mate’.”Ryder had gone with team-mates to Aikmans Bar in Merivale where around 12.30am, while making his way to join other Wellington players at a nearby McDonalds, he had been attacked twice in the space of a few minutes, suffering heavy blows to the head and chest that left him with a skull fracture and a collapsed lung.Police have arrested two men in connection with the assaults, a 20-year-old Christchurch resident and a 37-year-old relative who was visiting the city. They have been bailed to appear in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday, April 4.

Despite being around for two years in the Indian Premier League, Pune Warriors – the most expensive franchise in the event – seem to be struggling to find their feet. In both the editions they have featured in, they have finished near or at the bottom.No wonder then that their third successive season will see a new captain and coach going into the tournament. While both their previous coaches – Geoff Marsh in 2011 and Sourav Ganguly as captain-cum-mentor last year, when they participated without a head coach – were diplomatic ahead of they stints, Allan Donald, who has been elevated from bowling coach to head coach this year, spelled out his expectations from the players in no uncertain terms.Referring to his new role as “intimidating” in a tournament that moves “at a million miles per hour”, Donald, the former South Africa pace spearhead, urged the players to “care” for one another.”I am going to have a meeting with our overseas players on their own to explain their commitment to our cause for the next two months. Every one of those players wants to play. I would be disappointed if I wasn’t picked. But what is important for Pune Warriors is for everyone to be swimming up one stream, [and] not every way and direction like it went last year,” Donald said, referring to a disgruntled unit in the latter half of last year’s IPL.”And negativity spreads cancer. It does because it gets people talking, players talk among each other. And my message to the team is [to] be up front and honest. [This] is going to be the key. I am not here to make anyone promises.”That’s what this format requires. You just can’t be pleasing cricketers for the sake of it. I just want guys to be part of the team and helping each other out. The care factor for me is huge. I want guys to look after each other. That creates that relaxed environment that I talk about. That’s pretty much what I look for. How we gel as a team, how we grow as a team and how we care as a team is going to be the key for us.”In a season in which Pune Warriors tried out 23 players during the season, not many players were given a long rope. It led to team harmony going for a toss as the tournament progressed, and affected the team both on and off the field. Donald seems to have learned the lessons from the disappointing previous outing: “[I] don’t think last year was a great example for me. That was my first year, and I felt that at times, we were a bit gung-ho with our selection.”At times, [we tried] quick fixes, which didn’t work. I see that the teams that have been successful in the IPL have stuck with a certain group of players for a long period of time. And that’s what I intend to do.”Why fix [something] if it’s not broken? All coaches and teams are looking for early momentum and confidence, and we have to earn the right to do that first of all. The hard part about this competition is to get your nose in front. I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game. If it doesn’t work and we go down fighting, so be it. To try and stick to certain processes is the key.”

Blessed with a God-given talent bequeathed to only the chosenfew, Brian Lara became the finest batsman of his time, and one ofthe finest of all time.He created individual scores higher than anyone has ever reachedin either Test or first-class cricket and fashioned innings ofsuch dazzling brilliance they brought applause from even themost cynical of wizened old players.He earned fortune and fame, was accorded his nation’s highesthonour, and was elevated to the most exalted post available toany West Indian cricketer, the captaincy of the Test team.Such is the stuff of which the wildest dreams are made but, forLara, they were repeatedly transformed into the reality ofdreadful nightmares.Now 31, he should be at the height of the exceptional powers thatwere first manifested when he was a boy in short pants at FatimaCollege in Port-of-Spain, in his native Trinidad.Instead, he has been overpowered by the enormous pressures towhich every international celebrity is subjected. They havedrained him of the enthusiasm and the yearning without which noteven the greatest artists can perform. Now he cannot even bringhimself to hold the bat that he had wielded with such devastatingeffect.Lara had the world at his feet when, within six weeks of eachother in 1994, he set the new standards of 375 in a Test againstEngland in Antigua and 501 not out for English county,Warwickshire, against Durham. It was an incredible double andbrought gifts and adulation from his grateful countrymen and fatcontracts from eager sponsors.A friend warned him at the time that his headaches had justbegun. He soon came to realise what he meant. Within a year, ithad all become too much.On the West Indies tour of England in 1995, Lara complained tomanager Wes Hall that ‘cricket is ruining my life’, announced hisretirement and left the team. Only sympahetic persuasion fromthen president of the West Indies Board, Captain Peter Short,influenced him to return, but things would never be the same.Time and again, the mercurial temperament of a genius has beensince exposed with upsetting consequences.He withdrew from the tour of Australia in 1995-96 two days beforethe team was scheduled to leave. When he returned from thesubsequent World Cup in India and Pakistan, he was censured bythe board for his biting criticism of the team management thatwas picked up by the tape recorder of a snooping reporter and foran open spat with team trainer Dennis Waight. In the Caribbean,he was fined, not for the first time, for turning up a day lateprior to a Test against Sri Lanka.Not only did he seem to be self-destructing. He was also causingchaos within West Indies cricket itself.When the board overruled the selectors’ recommendation that theyreplace Courtney Walsh with him as captain for the 1997 tour ofPakistan, the Trinidad and Tobago Board charged there was ‘acalculated plot’ against ‘its captain, its national hero and itsworld-class performer’ and that it was ‘sowing the seeds ofdestruction’.Jamaicans, on the other hand, accused Lara of deliberatelyundermining Walsh as all three Tests were lost in Pakistan.For all his unpredictability, two things remained constant aboutLara. He was a very special player and he had an understanding ofthe game that made him the obvious, if not only, choice for thecaptaincy, a post for which he had been prepared since he led theWest Indies team to the first Youth World Cup in Australia.Inevitably, if belatedly, Lara was installed in his predetermined role as captain against England in 1998, replacing theadmirable Walsh, and proceeded to lead the West Indies to adouble triumph, 3-1 in the Tests and 4-1 in the One-DayInternationals.His boyhood dream, it appeared, had finally come true.In less than a year, it had again turned sour. On the way to atour of South Africa as eagerly anticipated as much for itssocial and political significance as for its cricket, the playerschose London’s Heathrow Airport as the venue for an unexpectedstrike to air their grievances against the board.Lara, and his vice-captain Carl Hooper, were immediatelydismissed, only to be reinstated after a settlement was reached.What followed was the shame of a 5-0 whitewash in the Tests and a6-1 thrashing in the One-Day Internationals.Lara returned home with his captaincy in jeopardy and his publicstatus as low as it had ever been. Had there been a clearalternative, there is little doubt he would have been sacked.As it was, he was retained, yet castigated, by the board for his’weakness in leadership’, told he had to make ‘significantimprovements in his leadership skills’ and placed on probation ascaptain for two Tests.What happened next beggared belief and revealed a strength ofcharacter in Lara not previously obvious.When the West Indies were bowled out for their all-time low 51 tolose the first Test to the dominant Australians by 314 runs,there was justifiable reason to fear the absolute worse. Instead,the crisis seemed to light a fire in Lara’s belly.He had not scored a hundred for 13 Tests. Now he successivelyreeled off three of his most magnificent. His 213 in Jamaica and153 not out in Barbados inspired remarkable victories.If his even 100 in Antigua could not prevent Australia fromlevelling the series and retaining the Frank Worrell Trophy, atleast he had almost single-handledly restored West Indian prideand self-esteem and his own reputation and credibility asleader.Once more, the euphoria was short-lived. Exit from the firstround of the World Cup followed immediately and a succession oflimp performances in later short-game tournaments in Toronto andSharjah presaged a new crisis in the life of Lara and of WestIndies cricket.It came in December and January on the tour of New Zealand whereboth Tests and all five One-Day Internationals were surrenderedto unified, committed but hardly intimidating opponents.It was the last straw.

ScorecardKarachi Blues pacers set up a 114-run win on the last day of their first Super Eight fixture against Hyderabad. Set a target of 394, Hyderabad started the last day on 164 for 4 and the Blues’ bowlers took less than 40 overs to dismiss them for 279. Only Sharjeel Khan anchored the innings at the top with an 80-ball 101, but the remaining batsmen could not provide much resistance against the Blues pacers.Once Hyderabad chose to field on the first day, left-arm quick Lal Kumar picked five wickets to curb the Blues innings to 205 after Khurram Manzoor made 62. They were struggling at 154 for 9 but 41 runs from No. 10, Tabish Khan, took them past 200. Blues then turned the tables with their bowling, led by Tariq Haroon who finished with 4 for 24, to earn a 64-run lead. In the second innings, Blues piled up 329 with the help of 161 from Rehman and a fifty from Tabish Khan which set the stage for the Blues bowlers to finish the things on the last day.
ScorecardThe group A fixture in Islamabad, between Sialkot and Karachi Whites, ended in a drab draw after no play was possible on the first day. After Sialkot were put in to bat, their middle order batsmen helped them score 254, even though Atif Maqbool dismissed four of their top five batsmen. Karachi Whites looked set for a first-innings lead, being 132 for 1 at one stage, but Nayyer Abbas, Shoaib Malik and Ali Khan restricted them to 238 which eventually got them three points.Sialkot batted again and Majid Jahangir scored a hundred on the last day but not much was left for them to achieve by then.

Seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, who took nine wickets in the Ranji Trophy final to help Mumbai to their 40th title, has attributed his success this season to adding extra pace to his bowling and new variations he has worked on. He will be a key member of Mumbai’s bowling attack when they take on the Rest of India in the upcoming Irani Trophy.”This is a big game for me; (I have) never been part of a winning (Irani Cup) side,” he said. “I am aiming to do well in this game. I am quite excited about it. Feeling quite confident after my last two games.”I have worked more on my fitness, worked hard in the nets. The aim before the season was to bowl at a consistent pace which was not there earlier and I worked on that. I wanted to increase pace and that’s what I did.”Kulkarni took 30 wickets at 22.90 in nine matches this Ranji season. Before his impressive performance in the final, he took 5 for 32 in the semi-final against Services. Kulkarni said he was also helped by the seniors in the Mumbai side, including Ajit Agarkar and Sachin Tendulkar. With Agarkar out of the Irani Trophy game due to injury, Mumbai would depend on Kulkarni’s positive showing.”I am happy with my performance, have been bowling well throughout the season but the only thing missing was wickets. I managed to get wickets in the last two games. (I am) feeling quite good about it.”Kulkarni will also play for India A in their tour game against Australia in Chennai on February 16.

ScorecardCanterbury recorded their second straight win in Nelson, where their score of 185 proved to be just out of reach for Central Districts. Electing to bat after winning the toss, Canterbury’s innings was held together for the first half by Rob Nicol, who took them past the 50-run mark. But his wicket was followed by two more, leaving them at 73 for 5 in the eleventh. Andrew Ellis and Brendon Diamanti took charge from there, though, and clobbered 112 runs off 57 balls with 17 boundaries, including eight sixes. Maiden HRV Cup fifties and personal best scores for both the batsmen helped Canterbury reach the challenging score of 185.Central Districts were off to a flier as openers Mathew Sinclair (38) and Ben Smith put together 68 runs at more than nine runs per over before Smith was run out. Twenty-year-old Will Young and captain Kieran Noema-Barnett (38) then added 61 runs off 46 balls but couldn’t find boundaries regularly. The required rate went up and when the partnership was broken, Central Districts needed 32 off 14 and they eventually fell short by five runs.This was only Canterbury’s second win in six games, the other one being against the same opposition at the same venue on January 1. Central Districts have just one win from six, and sit at the bottom of the table right below Canterbury.

While domestic matches in India are not known to fill seats in stadiums in the bigger cities, the first day of the Karnataka-Delhi Ranji Trophy match in Bangalore actually had the few spectators who showed up turned away; security has been tightened around the Chinnaswamy Stadium in the lead-up to the Twenty20 between India and Pakistan on December 25.A top Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) told ESPNcricinfo that the stadium has been handed over to the police, who have the final say on letting spectators in. He added that it is possible for a spectator to watch the Ranji Trophy game in select stands, but will have to furnish personal information to convince the security team. It will also help if the spectator is a member of the adjoining KSCA club or can get authorised by a member.The issue came to light when a fan, posting on ESPNcricinfo’s Ranji Trophy blog, said he was not allowed entry. The ongoing match, against Delhi, will be the only Karnataka game affected by these security arrangements, as they play their next two home games in Mysore and Hubli.Such security arrangements are likely to be employed in Delhi too, and so their next home Ranji game, from December 15, will probably not be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla which is the venue for the final India-Pakistan ODI on January 6.

James Trewell, the Kent offspinner, will fly out to India and join up with the England Test squad on December 1.The 30-year-old Tredwell, who was appointed captain of Kent earlier this month, was not selected as part of the England Performance Programme – who are currently in India playing their first match on tour – but he will join the Test squad as back-up for the first choice spinners, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann.With England now committed to playing two spinners in the remaining two Tests in the series, the team management decided it was wise to ensure there was cover for illness or injury.”Tredwell has performed really well for us,” Andy Flower, England’s team director said. “He can make a real impact as a spin bowler. He is arriving in Kolkata as cover. We have some spinners with the performance programme but Tredwell is our senior spinner and will stay with us for the Tests.”Tredwell has only represented England in one Test, but he made a favourable impression in it – claiming six wickets in the match as England defeated Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2010 – and has continued to perform decently as a fringe member of the ODI side.He took 4 for 48 in England’s crucial victory over West Indies at the 2011 World Cup and last summer took 3 for 35 at Lord’s, doing the majority of the damage in victory over South Africa.The strength of his recent ODI performances saw him named as England’s premier spinner for the T20 and ODI series against India either side of Christmas. Swann has been rested from both series.England do have the option of calling on left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan, legspinner Scott Borthwick or offspinner Azeem Rafiq, all of whom are currently in Mumbai as part of the England Performance Programme. But none have the experience of Tredwell.

ScorecardThe South Africa Women bowlers ripped through the Bangladesh Women line-up to hand their side a comfortable seven-wicket win and the three-match ODI series 2-1 in Mirpur. Shabnim Ismail led with four wickets as Bangladesh were dismissed for just 60 but it was the opening pair of Marizanne Kapp and Susan Benade who rocked the hosts immediately.After Bangladesh chose to bat, Benade had Shukhtara Rahman caught behind in the first over of the game. Kapp bowled the other opener Sharmin Akhter in the next over. Lata Mondal was run out soon after, and Bangladesh were reeling at 5 for 3 in three overs. Kapp and Dane van Niekerk did more damage, leaving Ismail to run through the rest of the batting order to end with 4 for 10 from 5.1 overs. Rumana Ahmed and extras were the highest run-getters for Bangladesh with 16 each.South Africa lost Shandre Fritz early but Trisha Chetty and Benade added 40 for the second wicket with Chetty remaining unbeaten on 30 as the visitors won in the 21st over.The first of three Twenty20 internationals will be played in Mirpur on September 11.