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A Glasgow Rangers podcaster has given their reaction as some more early team news has now emerged ahead of their Europa League match tonight.

The Lowdown: Balogun in, Ramsey out

Speaking in the pre-game press conference ahead of the clash against Borussia Dortmund, Gers defender Leon Balogun revealed that he is back fit and available to play, having not featured since the 2-0 win at home to Hibernian in the Premiership earlier this month.

However, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has confirmed that Aaron Ramsey will not be in the squad, as the Welshman continues to battle a minor injury.

The Latest: Podcaster reacts

Taking to Twitter, Rangers podcast Heart & Hand, an official media partner of the club, have now given their reaction to the news of Balogun’s return, claiming that it is ‘massive’.

Reacting to a summary of pre-match team news, they tweeted: “Balogun back is massive though.”

The Verdict: Big boost

Indeed, having Balogun back, especially given that Filip Helander is not registered in the European squad, is a big boost for Rangers.

The Nigeria defender played in their first four matches of the group stage and even managed to bag a goal against Brondby, before missing the last two group games through injury (Transfermarkt).

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He is currently ranked as the Light Blues’ second-best player in the Europa League so far this season and has averaged more tackles and blocks than any of his team-mates in the competition (WhoScored), showing that he will likely be a key player if they are to progress tonight.

In other news, Rangers fans have been handed some encouraging team news ahead of tonight

Ashish Nehra, who was recently recalled to the Indian squad for the upcoming T20 series in Australia, has urged greater consistency in the selection of fast bowlers for national duty. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Nehra said that it was important to “look after and nurture” fast bowlers to ensure they can have an extended stint at the international level.”For ODIs and T20s, you have to choose your five-six bowlers, that these are the guys we are going to back,” Nehra said. “I know it is very difficult sometimes for the captain and selectors; sometimes when you lose series you are picking different bowlers and nobody settles in. Injuries are a major part of fast bowling as well, like we’ve seen with [Mohammed] Shami, Ishant [Sharma] and Mohit [Sharma]. Even if you see Australia right now, Nathan Coluter-Nile, [Mitchell] Starc and [Pat] Cummins are all injured, so Australia is almost playing with their second string of bowlers.”If somebody says India doesn’t have talent, I won’t agree. But the only thing is you have to look after them well, nurture and support them. When Test cricket is not on and you have three-four bowlers who only play T20s and ODIs, you have to keep an eye on them. How to look after fast bowlers is very important, if you want them to sustain for 10-12 years and play for India. When they are young, 90% of fast bowlers don’t know what to do. When they mature, sometimes it’s too late.”Nehra last played for India in the semi-final of the victorious 2011 World Cup campaign against Pakistan. After missing the final due to a finger injury, he was overlooked for nearly five years before being recalled on the back of an impressive IPL season, where he finished fourth on the wicket-takers list with 22 scalps from 16 games. Nehra, who will turn 37 in April, admitted that while the disappointment of being ignored for such a long period will linger, he is looking to make the most of this opportunity on the home stretch of his career.”I was surprised when they weren’t picking me for the last two-three years to be honest,” he said. “Better late than never, hopefully I can do well, I am just working hard. If I go to Australia and play the World T20 and deliver, people will say ‘Oh he should have been there earlier.’ If I don’t, people will say, ‘It was right that they didn’t pick him!’ That’s how it works in India. Whatever is gone is gone, I am just looking forward and hopefully everything will go my way.”I have always worked hard to play international cricket. Once you have been there, you know how much pleasure you get playing for India. There were times when it was very difficult for me to motivate myself, despite not being picked, to go to the gym or ground and train. It was difficult. Age is just a number for me. If you can keep yourself fit, you can keep playing.”Since featuring in the IPL final for Chennai Super Kings in May, Nehra hasn’t played much competitive cricket. Over this domestic season he has played only one game of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy and two games of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy for his state team Delhi.He will not be playing in the Super League stage of the Mushtaq Ali tournament starting later this week despite making himself available as Delhi has decided to give its younger bowlers a run. Nehra though isn’t worried about the lack of match practice leading into the series in Australia.”Some people really want match practice, I am among those who wants a lot of practice,” he explained. “Most of the time I like to practice in open nets, so I get the same kind of feeling. If I am bowling well in the nets or to a single wicket, I get that confidence, that’s how I have been playing for the last seven-eight years, this is not the first time I will be doing it.”People say T20 is a young man’s game, all those theories I don’t believe in. You have to be on top of your game, especially as a bowler and the kind of job I do, bowling two-three of the first six overs and one or two in the last four. In the sub-continent or outside also these days, wickets will be flat. You have to be physically fit and mentally strong, especially as a bowler. It’s a fast game but I have been playing IPL, and that’s a big boost. The intensity is as good as international cricket.”Nehra has identified being selected for the World T20 as his major “goal” before taking a call on his international future. He is also eager to mentor India’s emerging crop of fast bowlers on his return to the dressing room after this long hiatus.”This is a short tour, but whatever little I can help the youngsters, I will,” he says. “If I can play till the World T20, I will definitely look at that job, I have done it for CSK and I really enjoyed it. Most of the bowlers have different strengths, but you can’t buy experience. I made my debut 17 years ago. In the sub-continent, somebody like me, who has had so many injuries, undergone 10-12 surgeries, still standing there and playing the fastest format of all, it has taught me something which I can pass on to the youngsters and give my experience.”

Imran Farhat: In hot water © Getty Images

The Pakistan Cricket Board has served a legal notice on batsman Imran Farhat over his decision to join the Indian Cricket League after his omission from the Twenty20 squad for the World Championship. It has asked him to explain how he joined the ICL while he was still a contracted player and to substantiate his remarks at the time about the selectors.”I have received this notice [on Monday] and my lawyer will respond to it appropriately,” Farhat told . “I am not going to back down from my stand. I maintain I have not been treated justly – I asked them to release me from the central contract before signing up for the ICL.”The notice said Farhat had violated the terms of his contract by signing up to play elsewhere without obtaining the board’s consent. Farhat has seven days to respond to the notice, failing which he will be taken to court.”Even though Imran had requested for his exclusion from the central contract, the board still considers him on the contractual list which is why the opener was served a legal notice for levelling allegations on some of the PCB officials and the national selection committee,” Shafqat Naghmi, the chief operating officer of PCB, said.Farhat was on the tour of South Africa earlier this year but overlooked for the World Cup and the subsequent series in Abu Dhabi and Scotland. Though he was handed a central contract, he said he felt humiliated after being put in a Future Players Programme and being dropped from the Twenty20 squad despite being called for the preparatory camp in Karachi.Farhat and two others – Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq – who were also excluded from the Twenty20 event turned their backs on Pakistan and joined the ICL, a league which has not been recognised by the PCB or the ICC.

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.

Tatenda Taibu: ‘ I am not happy with the way things have been going’ © AFP

Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s captain, has admitted that his side are finding the going tough in the face of a string of heavy defeats.Since the end of the strike by rebel players in the spring, Zimbabwe have lost all six Tests they have played – five by an innings and one by ten wickets, with two finishing inside two days. They have also lost all five ODIs played. The nadir came against New Zealand at Harare Sports Club when Zimbabwe became the second side to be bowled out twice in a day in a Test. The on-field performances have been widely lambasted with increasing calls for the ICC to intervene.Taibu, whose own form has understandably dipped in the face of constant hammerings, said that despite the results, there had been some progress. “But collectively we have not improved,” he told the Harare-based Herald newspaper, “and I am not happy with the way things have been going.”The improvement has been in bits and pieces and most disappointing is the fact that it has been the young players who have been doing well while the seniors have not been doing well. If both the young players and the seniors had been playing well then we would have fared far much better.”In the last series against India there was a vast improvement in our bowling especially considering that a number of bowlers like Douglas Hondo and Tinashe Panyangara were injured. For instance, if you look at our performance on the second day of the final Test, we managed to take nine wickets for 175 and that was a good achievement. However, I was not impressed with the fielding. Zimbabwe have been known to be one of the best teams in terms of fielding but we were just not up to it and it has been up and down.”Also, our batting still troubles me and there was not even a single batsman to reach a century in the eight innings against India and New Zealand. Something has to be done. Now that we have seen our shortcomings, it’s up to the guys to look at how to play. I hope that the guys who will be going to India will learn how to deal with left-arm seamers, left-arm spinners and swing bowling in general.”Taibu revealed that he had held long discussions with India’s Rahul Dravid and had learned much from him. “He [Dravid] felt that our problem is worsened by the fact that we only have one left-arm seamer playing in Logan Cup [Allan Mwayenga] who however, gets the ball to move away from the batsman. When New Zealand came guys were lacking confidence in the ability to deal with balls coming back at them but instead of learning fast, it is a weakness that stayed with us even for the India series. We did not adapt quickly and that is a worry.”Taibu is also rumoured to be increasingly at odds with Zimbabwe Cricket. Sources close to the team say that he was not even informed by the board when Phil Simmons was sacked as coach, only finding out from the media. When he complained, he was told in no uncertain terms that it was not his concern.That unease is said to be mirrored across the team, with several sources agreeing that the side is not a happy unit. That was highlighted by the recent press release issued on behalf of the players which slammed the conduct of the board and its treatment of the country’s cricketers.

ScorecardDay 1
Bulletin – Trescothick sets the pace for England
Verdict – Bravo keeps the discipline
Roving Reporter – Age concerns
Day 2
Bulletin – Windies fight back after Flintoff blitz
Verdict – Flintoff confirms his coming-of-ageDay 3
Bulletin – England build the foundations
Verdict – A new and triumphant England
Roving Reporter – Give us a clueDay 4
Bulletin – England retain the Wisden Trophy
Verdict – Giles rips out the cream of the Caribbean batting

In the July issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly Stephen Fay argues that the Twenty20 Cup may solve cricket’s image problem but it is a big riskIt had better work. The £250,000 the ECB is spending to promote Twenty20 cricket is a gamble based on the marketing department’s faithful response to a survey. The ECB’s annual report spells it out: "It became evident from consumer research … that there was a considerable demand for a shorter, fast variation of the game."For two weeks in high summer, starting on June 13, it will be a jacuzzi at Worcester and a pyjama party at Glamorgan. "A good night out and a few beers with your mates," say the marketing people. Atomic Kitten – our older readers might like to know that this is a fashionable pop group – have been hired to sing at the final on July 19. Westminster council found the prospect so forbidding that it refused the MCC a licence. The final will be at Trent Bridge, which has only half the capacity but neighbours who are more tolerant of amplified noise.Stuart Robertson, the ECB marketing manager, gave a succinct summary of cricket’s perceived problem at the launch of Twenty20 cricket in London on May 8. "The audience profile for cricket is disastrous: middle-aged, middle class and white. Kids think it’s for oldies and women think it’s for men. Twenty20 cricket is about addressing these structural barriers and the research says it is women and kids who want this sort of cricket." The idea is that a new audience will then transfer their attractions to the first-class game.What they will get is 20 overs a side played over three hours. The 18 first-class counties have been divided into three regional groups and will battle for £108,000 in team and individual prize money. The game is a hybrid. It is part serious with rules from one-day cricket like fielding restrictions for six overs, bowlers limited to four overs and short-pitched balls limited to one an over. These are rules to suit batsmen. And it is part frivolous: microphone links to the players and the third umpire; the Sky Sports team interviewing players "direct from the dugout"; and batsmen being timed out if they take more than 90 seconds to reach the wicket. American baseball will be gratified that cricket is copying some of its principal features. No more jeers about it being like rounders, please.Sponsors arrived late on the scene but there are three of them now: the Test sponsor npower, the Dutch electrical company Philips, whose screen will show instant replays, and Nectar, whose vouchers can be turned into bonus prizes. Now they are ready for the off, what are the prospects?The most productive comparison is with New Zealand where a longer 40-over, four-innings version called Cricket Max started in 1996-97. "The formula was devised by Martin and Jeff Crowe as an off-beat, television-geared form of the game but public interest was minimal," WCM’s New Zealand correspondent Don Cameron reports. "The offer of a NZ$1,000 prize to spectators to catch sixes failed to excite the few hundred fans. At some grounds wits reckoned it was a better idea to introduce all the spectators to all the players. The lesson seemed to be that you could put all manner of gimmicks into a package but people might not want to buy it."When costs rose too high the tournament was scaled down; last winter’s players’ strike put paid to this year’s tournament and Max is likely to languish as a too expensive event for regular competition among the six first-class teams in New Zealand. In Australia an attenuated version of Cricket Max called Super Eights – eight players on a team bowling 14 overs and a six counting eight – was used as a pre-season tournament but it lasted only two years and finished in 1997.Perhaps neither example will prove relevant to the success or failure of Twenty20. The ECB’s gamble will be difficult to judge this summer. A generous publicity budget ought to bring the crowds. It will be harder next year when the originality has worn off. The gamble is like a bet on a horse. There are no ifs and buts. You know whether you have won or lost. A win may alter the image for the good of the game. A loss will have damaged the integrity of cricket in England. That would be a disaster.Click here to subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly

The July 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.25.

The South African cricket team will arrive in Zimbabwe 5 September 2001 to play two Tests, a one-day warm-up and three One-Day Internationals. The following is a squad of 17 which will represent Zimbabwe against the touring South African team:Heath Streak (captain), Guy Whittall (vice-captain), Andy Blignaut, Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Dion Ebrahim, Andrew Flower, Grant Flower, Travis Friend, Douglas Hondo, Hamilton Masakadza, David Mutendra, Henry Olonga, Raymond Price, Tatenda Taibu, Brighton Watambwa, Craig Wishart. Babu Meman (manager), Carl Rackemann (coach), Amato Machikicho (physiotherapist), Malcolm Jarvis (fitness trainer).

Republic of Ireland have been drawn against Estonia in the Euro 2012 playoffs.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s men earned their spot in the knockout round of qualification by beating Armenia 2-1 on Tuesday night, and have avoided some of the bigger teams after being seeded for Thursday’s draw.

Estonia finished runners up behind Italy in Group C, beating Serbia to a playoff spot and will be eager to qualify for a major tournament for the first time.

Trapattoni has stated that he respects his opponents, and that it will not be an easy task for Ireland to qualify.

“It is extremely positive for Ireland that we will play the first leg away,” the Italian told Sky Sports.

“We should not underestimate our opposition, or any team, including Estonia. To have made it through to the play-off, they must have quality and mental fortitude.

“Our build-up to this stage of the competition has shown us the importance of organisation, attention to detail, and self-belief. That will be vitally important to us as we prepare for these games in November,” he stated.

In the remainder of the draw, Turkey take on Croatia, Czech Republic face Montenegro and Portugal entertain Bosnia Herzegovina.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Trinidad and Tobago’s (T&T) women cricketers defied St Lucia – and the rains – to lift the West Indies Women Cricket Federation regional tournament league title in Barbados. Stacy Ann King and Anisa Mohammed played star roles in the victory at the Passage Road Ground. King hit a robust half-century to take T&T’s total to 213 in 48.3 overs, before Mohammed wrecked St Lucia’s innings, which ended 33 runs short of the revised target.St Lucia followed the tournament trend by winning the toss and asking T&T to bat. King responded by blasting 83, and T&T also had useful contributions from Devika Singh, who scored 22, captain Marissa Aguillera (17), as well as Gaitri Seetahal, who remained unbeaten on 24. Naralee Cooper took 4 for 35 off ten overs for St Lucia while her sister, Roylin Cooper, took 2 for 33.In reply, St Lucia stumbled to 49 for 3 after 14 overs, when rain interrupted the innings. Aguillera and Co would have been hoping desperately for the weather to clear, with the other two fixtures of the day – Barbados v Grenada and Jamaica v St Vincent and the Grenadines – being washed out.T&T had already failed to complete two matches due to inclement weather. In their first outing against Jamaica, T&T batted but were awarded a point after rain flooded the outfield. A day later, T&T were unable to take the field after the weather ruined their match against Barbados. But with successive victories against defending champs St Vincent and Grenada, they were level on points with Barbados going into today’s match. The bad weather meant only a win would ensure them the title. This time, the elements were on their side.St Lucia resumed their innings and were still in contention to pull off an upset at 116 for 6. However, Mohammed’s figures of 5 for 26, and Gaitri Seetahal’s 2 for 26, made sure there was no repeat of 2004, when T&T narrowly lost out on the title to hosts St Vincent, after suffering two rained-out matches. St Lucia folded for 138, chasing the revised target of 171. Swaylyn Williams top scored with 30 while West Indies batsman Nadine George (22) and Purner Thomas, who scored 20, also gave good support.T&T and Barbados will both enjoy a bye today, while the other four teams play for the other two semi-final spots in the knockout phase of the competition.