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Graham Thorpe, the former England batsman, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours.Just over 12 months ago, Thorpe made an unbeaten 66 for England against Bangladesh; his 100th Test, It was to be his last as England opted to introduce Kevin Pietersen to the Australians the following month.His 100 Tests earned him 6,774 runs at the healthy average of 44.66; in a 13-year career, dogged by back injuries, marital problems, and a period out of the game, he was one of England’s finest middle-order batsmen.”I was really taken aback by it,” Thorpe told BBC Sport. “But I am extremely proud I have been recognised in this way. This is not the reason you play cricket – but getting this sort of recognition is something I am very proud of.”Thorpe, England’s 10th highest run-scorer in Tests, joined a select band of players to make a hundred on debut (114 not out against Australia, at Trent Bridge, in 1993), and later shone against Sri Lanka and Pakistan on England’s successful subcontinent tour in 2000-01.

How quickly fortunes are reversed. Two months ago, Yorkshire were a club in decline: no captain, no coach, and disharmony aplenty. Now, with Darren Gough returning to steer the ship, the old flock are heading back to Headingley and, today, Darren Lehmann has announced he is interested in coaching the club next season.”I would love to go and coach Yorkshire in 2008,” Lehmann, 37, told the . “I enjoyed many happy times as a player at Headingley, with the highlight being when we won the championship in 2001, and I am very keen to help develop the club’s next generation of players. It would be fantastic to work with Martyn Moxon.”In 88 matches for Yorkshire Lehmann scored 8871 runs at 68.76, including 26 hundreds. He left the club last year after six seasons.”I played 27 Tests and 117 one-day internationals for Australia and I’ve played first-class cricket since 1987, so I would bring more than twenty years of experience and knowledge of the game to Yorkshire,” he said. “I have always made it clear that I want to return to Yorkshire after finishing with South Australia.”I can’t think of anywhere else I would rather start my coaching career.”

A recent magazine survey suggested that 41% of Australian men would give up sex for a month if it meant their cricketers would regain the Ashes. This time next week, that period of abstinence could finally be at an end. Australia are 2-0 up with three to play, and need one more victory in tomorrow’s third Test at Perth to ensure the return of the Urn.Ricky Ponting, however, has taken an even more drastic vow than the readers of Zoo magazine. Mindful of all the hype and hysteria that consumed their campaign last time around, he has banned all talk of the Ashes from Australia’s dressing-room. Victory in the series will be a byproduct of victory in this match, he told reporters on the eve of the Test, and not the other way around.”That’s not what this week is about for our team,” said Ponting. “It’s about being ready for tomorrow morning, and playing better cricket than we did last week and at Brisbane. As soon as you start looking too far ahead in this game it can turn back and bite you, as we’ve seen in the past. The Ashes won’t be mentioned about the group at all.”We’re going out to win the game, and win the game as best we can,” he added. “But winning the Ashes will be a result of that, not something that’s going to motivate us to play well. We’re just going to have a relaxing afternoon and turn up tomorrow with a great attitude for the Test match.”Relaxation is the key for all the Australians, but particularly so for one man. Andrew Symonds, Ponting confirmed, will return at No. 6 for his 11th Test, with Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke bumping up the order to No.4 and 5 respectively. “I’m confident in him,” said Ponting. “I’ve watched him closely and he’s extremely excited to be around this group. He might have thought his Test career had passed him by a few months ago, but he feels better about his game than ever before.”Symonds averages 19 with the bat and 45 with the ball in his ten previous Tests, the last of which was against South Africa at Johannesburg in April, and admitted on Monday that he had been hampered by anxiety in the past. “What Symmo brings to the team is excitement and energy,” added Ponting. “We want him to have that around the group, but he needs to keep his emotions inside in check. Once he gets out there in the middle, he’ll no doubt be nervous, but he’ll have learned a bit from last time.”

Symonds was the pick of Queensland’s attack in their recent match against Western Australia at the WACA. He bowled medium-pacers in the first innings and offspin in the second, and Ponting predicted that his versatility would be a great asset to the Test team, especially when the Fremantle Doctor blows into town after lunch. “Apparently his medium-pacers nipped about and he was a handful,” said Ponting. “We’re going to need a few guys to bowl a number of overs up into the breeze, to give Shane and Glenn a bit of a rest, and Symmo gives us that.”Medium-pacers, spinners … it’s a far cry from the traditional pace-bowling paradise at the WACA, a fact that Ponting lamented, for all that Australia possess, in Warne, the best possible weapon for the new conditions. “It’s not good for the game if all our grounds lose character,” said Ponting. “This wicket is not as fast and bouncy as in the past, so I think it will turn and turn early. But whether it turns quickly, which is what Shane likes, we’ll have to wait and see. But in the form he’s in at the moment, you wouldn’t want to be facing him on a bit of glass.”Warne needs just six more wickets to become the first bowler to take 700 in Tests, a statistical skyscraper that puts into perspective Monty Panesar’s probable first appearance of the series. Andrew Flintoff was characteristically guarded when asked about the make-up of his team, but Ponting was already planning a hot reception for the new face.”He’ll be under pressure and no doubt he’ll be putting pressure on himself,” said Ponting. “If he plays he’ll be a bit nervous, and that’ll dictate the way he bowls. He might bowl quick and spear them in early on, so we will be very positive against him, try to put it right back on him and see how he copes. We’ve got a lot of left-handers, and they’ll enjoy the balls spinning into them.””Monty has started his international career very well,” added Flintoff. “He’s bowledwell, he’s got fine players out and he is someone who works really hard athis game and he’s improving all the time.” It was hardly a glowing endorsement of his credentials, but that is England’s guarded way at present.

Flintoff was hardly any more effusive about his friend Steve Harmison, whose woeful lack of form has been a key reason for England’s struggles in the first two Tests. “Everyone is staking a claim and everyone wants to play in this Test,” he said, when asked if Harmison was certain to start. “The lads have all worked hard and today all the bowlers have run in and hit the nets hard.”As Alec Stewart pointed out over the weekend, Harmison is a matchwinner, and therefore he has to play in a must-win match. But until the team-sheet is unveiled tomorrow morning before the toss, England’s bowling attack will remain one of sport’s most guarded mysteries.The likeliest change is Panesar for Ashley Giles, although that would completely contradict Duncan Fletcher’s first law of team balance. Alternatively they could field two spinners, with James Anderson – the pick of the bowlers in the warm-up match – missing out.A third and less trumpeted alternative would be the introduction of Sajid Mahmood for Anderson – Fletcher’s team balance would be maintained, with an extra dose of incisiveness thrown in for good measure. “These selection issues crop up,” shrugged Flintoff. “For four days at Adelaide it wasn’t really an issue and then for one-and-a-half hours of almost crazy cricket everyone’s looking at the side.”For four days that side performed and performed well I thought,” he added. “It wasn’t really an issue apart from at 12 o’clock on the Tuesday at Adelaide. But this Perth Test is huge. We’ve got to believe we can get back into the series.” If for no other reason than to keep Australia’s population growth in check.Australia 1 Justin Langer, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Glenn McGrath.England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Andrew Flintoff (capt), 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Sajid Mahmood, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.

Fresh from their successful tour of Uganda, Kenya’s cricketers face a different kind of challenge this week when the set off for a three-day team-building exercise at the Malewa River Lodge.Set in the Great Rift Valley some two hours drive out of Nairobi, Malewa is a small eco-friendly lodge built entirely from local mud, timber and thatch. It nestles in the shade of huge Acacia trees on the banks of the Malewa river close to the Aberdare National Park.This will be no holiday, however, as they will be taking part in a specialised outdoor boot camp involving survival in the wild. Pupils at nearby Greensteds School regularly attend such camps as part of their preparations for challenges they are expected to encounter in life.”It’s meant to get the players mentally and physically fit,” Tom Tikolo, Cricket Kenya’s chief executive. explained. “They’re going to be together during the period and we are hoping to build a lot more responsibility in their teamwork.”Martin Bentley, the headmaster of Greensteds and a member of the Cricket Kenya board, explained that the programme for the Kenyan team will involve a number of difficult physical and mental challenges to enable each of them to learn to perform better individually and to understand and help each other by working as a team.

Australia’s selectors deferred the looming hard call on their batting order by adding Usman Khawaja to the squad for the Boxing Day Test, as it emerged that the captain Steven Smith will need to be managed carefully over the remainder of the summer due to hip and knee niggles.Picked to bat at No. 3 against New Zealand, Khawaja made sparkling hundreds in Brisbane and Perth before injuring his hamstring.In his absence, Shaun Marsh was recalled and promptly compiled a critical 49 in Adelaide before clouting the West Indies for 182 in Hobart.Marsh was thought to be the man to make way when Khawaja returned to full fitness, but his runs have left the selectors pondering how to deal with an unexpected batting logjam. Joe Burns, anointed as David Warner’s new opening partner following the retirement of Chris Rogers, has enjoyed a solid summer but has trailed off slightly in his past two matches. Smith stated his satisfaction with Marsh’s performance and also his preference to keep him in the middle order if possible.”I’m sure it gives the selectors a few headaches but I think that’s a great thing,” Smith said. “I thought Shaun played beautifully throughout this Test match. Him and [Adam] Voges certainly changed the course of the game. It was 3 for 120 and the game was in the balance. Those guys put on a terrific partnership and set the game up for us.”I’ve said that for a while now, I think he is best suited at five. He’s played some very good cricket at five. He did last summer as well. I was really impressed with the way he batted last week, he did well in tough conditions and tough circumstances, and again backing it up again this week with a big hundred. He’s batting really well.”Marsh will join Burns, Voges, Peter Nevill, Nathan Lyon and Nathan Coulter-Nile in being available for the opening two rounds of the Twenty20 Big Bash League, but Smith will not be joining them. Knee trouble he has been carrying since the back end of the Ashes tour of England flared up during the Hobart Test, and he also complained of a hip flexor problem to the team physio David Beakley.Smith has duly been ruled out of duty for the Sydney Sixers, along with Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson (all rested) and David Warner (unsigned) in taking time out from the T20 tournament. In describing the niggles and how they affect him, Smith said they were easier to manage while playing Test cricket than shorter formats, so it is within the realm of possibility that he may need to sit out an ODI or two against India in the new year.”I’m experiencing a little bit of knee pain that I experienced before the first Test in Brisbane,” Smith said. “I landed on it yesterday and it sort of aggravated it a little bit, as well as a little bit of hip flexor soreness in my right leg as well. So I’m going to sit out the first two Big Bash games unfortunately. I think it’s just precautionary.”I don’t think I’ll be able to go at 100%, which is what you need to do in T20 cricket. I don’t want to do any further damage. I probably can’t run quite 100%, which I think in Test cricket you can hide that a little bit. Hopefully they improve over the next couple of weeks and I’ll be back to normal.”One issue that seems far less pertinent for Australia after their innings trouncing of the West Indies in Hobart is the matter of bowling workloads. Given a match that ran for less than half its scheduled duration, Hazlewood, Pattinson and Siddle can expect to be able to turn out in each of the Melbourne and Sydney Tests through the holiday period.”It was a clinical performance,” Smith said. “The game was in the balance and we were able to put on a big partnership that changed the course of the match. I thought the bowlers bowled terrifically. In the first innings Nathan Lyon really stepped up again and in the second innings it was nice to see James Pattinson back to his best and bowling fast.”He bowled extremely well. He wanted to go out and do it today, and enjoy it and I thought he bowled beautifully. I had a little word to him this morning actually and just said go out and enjoy it and have some fun and do what you do well – and that’s bowl fast. I think the ball came out a lot better today. He got the ball in the right areas and reaped the rewards from it.”In addition to recalling Khawaja, the selectors also included Steve O’Keefe in a 14-man squad for the SCG Test.

“So you think you are Klusener?” Anil Kumble shot out at Abhishek Nayar after being hit for three consecutive fours on the second day’s play at the Wankhede Stadium. Replay this for a moment: after Nayar stepped out to swing the first two balls to cow corner, Kumble shrugged, “That was just a slog”. He fired the next one in quick and short, Nayar went back to slap it to the cover-point fence and smiled at the comparison with Klusener.However, if Pravin Amre and Sachin Tendulkar had not helped, the aggressive 24-year old Mumbai allrounder would not be here today, having a chuckle on the cricket field. He was dropped after three ducks in the 2005-06 Ranji season but just as the self-doubt started sinking in, Tendulkar happened. Nayar recalls with gratitude a special 45 minutes he spent with Tendulkar at the Bandra-Kurla complex in suburban Mumbai.”I was down and was having problems with my batting. I was unable to get any power in my strokes off the back foot,” Nayar told Cricinfo. He says he could drive but knew his back-foot play was going to hinder his cricketing career. Tendulkar asked him to take his stance and play a few back-foot shots. Nayar, who crouches in his stance before shuffling across from an outside-leg-stump guard, tried changing his stance in the Under-16 and 19 days but felt uncomfortable and returned to what he knew best – attack. Tendulkar spotted that his weight was on the heels rather than toes and that Nayar’s shift in balance was not smooth.”He suggested a few drills – playing with a cone, he told me not to bother about changing my stance and talked a lot about the mental strength. He gave examples from his own career – how he once famously played out seven quiet overs from [Glenn] McGrath in a Test before returning the next morning and going onto the attack.”Nayar told himself that if such a famed batsman could swallow his ego and play according to the situation, so could he.Amre, Mumbai’s coach, worked on Nayar’s batting at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana club and gave valuable input on the mental aspect of cricket. Two years ago, Nayar says, he would’ve probably said something back at Kumble but not now. Because Amre has made him realise the importance of being cool, calm and collected.Flash forward to the 2006-07 season when, after playing three games without a point on the board, Mumbai recalled Nayar for a game against Gujarat. Ajit Agarkar was set to play the next game and Nayar knew if he failed there, he would be dropped again. Remembering Tendulkar’s words, he fought hard initially before exploding in the end to finish with 97 from 173 balls. He added 213 with Rohit Sharma, and that turned the tide for both player and team. Nayar was the third highest run-scorer for Mumbai, with 360 runs in five matches, and took 15 wickets to finish third in the bowling tally. Two breezy centuries this season, including one in the Irani Trophy, and life is suddenly sunnier for Nayar.

Unlike many others in India Nayar didn’t play much tennis-ball cricket. Instead, he started off with the leather ball as a 10-year old. One man who shares that uncommon trait is his team-mate Prashant Naik, who tackled Kumble with a straight bat to score a crucial 78 to help Mumbai stretch the lead in the first innings. Like Nayar, he too was drafted into the squad in the last season for the Gujarat game. He didn’t play, but instead of idling his time, Naik hit the gym and lost four kilogramsIf Nayyar’s association with Amre was at the Shivaji Park, Naik came under the former India batsman while playing for Air India, with which Amre was involved. Ironically, for a man who took a confident front-foot stride to tackle Kumble with aplomb, the front-foot movement used to be his major flaw. “I had a very short forward stride and I was struggling a touch with my front-foot play. Amre sir gave me specific drills [he was made to hit golf balls thrown at him with a shortened bat and had to stretch well forward to make proper contact] and that helped.”Naik too has a special Tendulkar moment. Earlier in his life, he used to bowl an assorted mixture of legspin and medium pace. On one occasion Tendulkar, batting at an adjacent net, spotted him bowling his spinners and told him to concentrate on just that. “He gave me tips on my run-up, action, follow-through and the other nuances of the art,” says Naik, who bowled a few overs today against Rahul Dravid, mirroring Tendulkar’s action. He has that same walk to the crease and although he doesn’t turn it big, you can see the Tendulkar imprint all over him.Naik played his junior grade cricket in Pune before he moved to Mumbai upon the advice of his cricket-crazy father and uncle. He missed the U-14 trials as he arrived late to the city, but was given a chance in the U-16 round. He impressed and has risen through the ranks to play for Mumbai and now dreams of representing India. The signs have been good, based on a century on first-class debut in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy recently, and 78 here.In Nayar, Kerala-born but raised in Mumbai, and Naik, from Pune, the defending Ranji champions have found two talents for the future.

Tom Jones, the Otago opener, will lead a fairly experienced New Zealand side at the 2026 Men’s Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Five of the 15 squad members have domestic caps, and three, including Jones, had participated at the 2024 edition of the tournament.Last month, Jones scored a hundred on his first-class debut against Wellington. Others with domestic experience are batter Snehith Reddy, wicketkeeper Aryan Mann, fast bowler Mason Clarke, and bowling-allrounder Jaskaran Sandhu.Reddy and Clarke made their List A debuts earlier this year. Like Jones, they had also participated in the last edition in South Africa. Reddy had brought up the highest score of the tournament (147*) against Nepal, and Clarke had taken 4 for 62 against runners-up India.Hugo Bogue, Brandon Matzopoulous, Marco Alpe and Jacob Cotter have been picked after their impressive performance with the bat at the national U-19 tournament in Lincoln last week.Allrounders Harry Burns and Flynn Morey will bolster the seam-bowling attack; both took a five-wicket haul each at the tournament and ended up on ten wickets overall.For players to be eligible for the tournament, they must be under 19 years of age on August 31 2026. The squad will leave for Africa on January 2. They will have a training camp in Bulawayo before the tournament’s warm-up period begins on January 9. New Zealand are in Group B, and start their tournament against USA on January 18. India and Bangladesh are the other two teams in their group.Former New Zealand batter Anton Devcich will be the head coach, with NZC High Performance coaches Paul Wiseman and Graeme Aldridge supporting him.

New Zealand squad for Men’s Under-19 World Cup

Tom Jones (capt), Marco Alpe, Hugo Bogue, Harry Burns, Mason Clarke, Jacob Cotter, Aryan Mann, Brandon Matzopoulos, Flynn Morey, Snehith Reddy, Callum Samson, Jaskaran Sandhu, Selwin Sanjay, Hunter Shore, Harry Waite

The organisers of the Stanford 20/20 have announced the creation of a Stanford 20/20 Professional Team in Antigua as part of their ultimate goal of establishing a professional 20/20 cricket league in the West Indies.Made up of Antiguan nationals, the team in Antigua is being described as a test case to establish the format for setting up other such professional teams throughout the region. Players on the team will be paid to play cricket full-time. They will also be able to carry out West Indies, Leeward Island Cricket Association and Antigua national team duties as part of the programme.”In addition to creating more competitive play in the Stanford 20/20 tournament, the purpose for the Stanford 20/20 Professional Team in Antigua and the league overall is to provide the West Indies with a pool of players that they can tap into when making selections for their National and West Indies Cricket Teams,” explained Sir Allen Stanford. “These players are going to live, eat and breathe cricket.”They are going to be paid for it. Their job will be to play cricket and they will make a living doing so. The West Indies cannot help but benefit from the caliber of cricket that we are going to see come out of this team and the league when it all comes together. We are very excited about what this means for West Indies cricket.”Along with training and playing cricket, the Stanford 20/20 Professional Team members will also participate in educational classroom activities focusing on such topics as motivation, financial planning and advanced technical cricket and work with the youth programme and in the schools with up and coming youth cricketers. The players will also travel extensively in order to gain valuable competitive experience.Seventeen players have been selected for the team following a camp in May. Another 13 will train with the team on a regular basis.The selection panel comprised the local selectors from the Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association along with the coach for the team, Eldine Baptiste and the Stanford 20/20 legends from Antigua – Sir Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Richie Richardson and Curtly Ambrose.The team will have a full time coach and personal trainer in Antiguans Eldine Baptiste and Evans ‘Jawakie’ Jones, as well as a full-time manager. Other specialists will be brought in when necessary to assist in the physical and mental development of the players.Stanford 20/20 Professional Team Sylvester Joseph (capt), Justin Athanaze, Michael Challenger, Wilden Cornwall, Juari Edwards, Chad Hampson, Larry Joseph, Anthony Martin, Stephen Matthew, Branco Payne, Austin Richards, Mali Richards, Curtis Roberts, Carl Simon, Devon Thomas, Gavin Tonge, Gavin Williams. Coach – Eldine Baptiste. Trainer – Evans ‘Jawakie’ Jones.