Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka’s most successful fast bowler, has opted out of next month’s Afro-Asia tournament. Kangadaran Mathivanan, Sri Lanka Cricket’s secretary, said that that Vaas, who is currently involved in county cricket with Middlesex, informed the board that he will be unavailable.Vaas becomes the second notable absentee from the Asia squad. Shoaib Akhtar, the Pakistan fast bowler, was earlier dropped on fitness grounds having been initially selected.The series is due to kick-off with a Twenty20 game on June 5 followed by a three-match ODI series between the combined Asian and African continent teams at Bangalore on June 6 and at Chennai on June 9 and 10.Vaas joined Middlesex to play in the early part of the English season before he returns to Sri Lanka mid-June to play in the home series against Bangladesh.

Gareth Hopkins has transferred to Auckland for the 2007-08 season to avoid a clash with Brendon McCullum, who has returned to Otago. The two are New Zealand’s contracted wicketkeepers and the move should allow each of them to play first-class cricket while not on national duties.Hopkins joined Otago four seasons ago but spent the last two years commuting from Auckland, where his wife lives and works. With McCullum’s move back to Otago the time seemed right for Hopkins to switch teams. “I have enjoyed playing for Otago very much and it was a hard decision to make,” Hopkins said. “I appreciate the opportunities that have come playing for Otago Cricket, and the support they have given me.”Hopkins had a prolific season for Otago last summer, scoring three centuries and averaging 85.66. However, Auckland now have the challenge of deciding how to use Hopkins and their current wicketkeeper Reece Young, who has played 68 first-class matches.”Auckland Cricket is delighted to welcome a player of Gareth’s obvious class and quality,” Auckland’s CEO Andrew Eade said. “His batting will clearly strengthen our top order and our selectors will have an interesting choice to make regarding the wicketkeeping berth, as the incumbent Reece Young is also very accomplished behind the stumps and has served Auckland well for many years.”Ross Dykes, the CEO of Otago Cricket, said it was disappointing to lose Hopkins but he understood the decision. “We appreciate that in each of the last two years it has been difficult for Gareth to make the migration to Dunedin due to personal circumstances and we wish him every success in his future cricketing endeavours,” Dykes said. Hopkins, who is currently playing club cricket in Netherlands, will join the New Zealand A squad in Australia early next week.

The West Indies Players’ Association has expressed concern over the forthcoming A-team tour of Zimbabwe which is due to get underway in early July.Dinanath Ramnarine, the WIPA chief executive, said that the doubts “resulted from discussions with various stakeholders and persons with intimate knowledge of the existing situation in that country”. He added: “They have spoken of security treats, violation of human rights and a highly volatile situation that could threaten the safety of the players.”WIPA has been placed in a further quandary by media reports that a team has already been selected and that a decision to proceed on this tour will be contingent on the advice the WICB receives from the CARICOM Secretariat. Furthermore, under the Memorandum of Understanding between the WICB and WIPA both parties are required to agree on the tour.”Although WIPA has no knowledge of the team selected, it has, nevertheless, taken the opportunity to speak with some likely candidates and the CARICOM Secretariat about their views on the tour to Zimbabwe. Their input will be critical to WIPA’s determining its final position later this week.”We appreciate the difficulty of this situation for all parties concerned given the importance of such tours for the development of West Indies cricket. However the safety of our players is of paramount importance.”

The West Indies national team have called for the resignation of Bruce Aanensen, the WICB’s chief executive who has been in office for less than three months, highlighting what seems an almost irreparable divide between players and officials.In a strongly-worded letter, originally posted on caribbeancricket.com, to Dinanath Ramnarine, the chief executive of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), the players wrote that they were highly offended that Aanensen publicly labelled them as incompetent.”We are now left with the rather difficult situation of determining whether as players we would be able to continue working with Mr. Aanensen,” the letter concluded. “Unfortunately, given the unfair and frankly thoughtless nature of his comments we would not be keen in having any further interaction at a professional level with Mr. Aanensen. From Mr. Aanensen’s comments, for which, significantly, he has made no withdrawals or apologies, we would find it virtually impossible to engage him in any meaningful manner.”Gordon, who leaves office in 12 days, responded to Ramnarine, who forwarded the players’ letter along with a few asides of his own, by saying that he was not satisfied by the letters as there was no justification in the charges made.But he rounded on Ramnarine, accusing him of being “frequently abusive to Deryck Murray [WICB director] and his team at negotiations.” Gordon wrote: “You have stated at meetings with one of our board members and two executives of WICB present that I am a liar. You have since denied saying so, while everyone present heard your comment …”Reacting to the attack by the players, Aanensen said that he was anything but happy about it though he added that his response would be measured and forthcoming at the appropriate time. About the charge of calling the players “incompetent” following the second Test, Aanensen told the : “I had discussions with some of the players long after that interview [in the second Test] was done and I got no sense of animosity from them.” He accused Ramnarine of wanting to unleash an assault on him. “[He] thought that [the players’ letter] was a good support mechanism for his assault.”

Chris Harris could be the latest former international to join the Indian Cricket League, with reports from New Zealand that the allrounder has already reached an agreement with the group. However, his domestic side Canterbury and the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association (NZCPA) were doubtful that Harris had made a decision.A number of news sources said this week that Harris would be joined in the ICL by Chris Cairns and Nathan Astle, with a fourth unnamed player also set to follow their lead. The reports said Harris had rejected a new deal with Canterbury and would further boost the league’s list of international players that includes Brian Lara, Lance Klusener, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf.But Heath Mills, the manager of the NZCPA, told the no New Zealand players had made agreements with the ICL. “I’d definitely know if Harry had signed,” Mills said. “The ICL have approached a number of our players, but I’m not aware of any who have signed.”The chief executive of Canterbury Cricket, Richard Reid, was also unconvinced by the reports. “I don’t know whether he’s signed or not,” Reid said. “I would presume that he would tell me if he had. Neither Dave Nosworthy [the Canterbury coach] nor I know that he’s signed.”Harris, 37, has not played for New Zealand since 2004-05 but has remained a first-rate contributor in domestic fixtures. Last season he was Canterbury’s top one-day run-scorer with 362 at 60.33 and chipped in with nine wickets, while also averaging 42.80 in a solid first-class campaign.He was outstanding in the State Twenty20 competition, where he led the competition’s tally with 237 runs from five games at a strike-rate of 160 and claimed seven wickets with an economy rate of 6.45. The only man to make a State Twenty20 century last summer, Harris was included in New Zealand’s preliminary 30-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship but was cut from the final line-up.Cairns and Astle, both of whom have retired from first-class cricket, have been mentioned for some time as potential ICL recruits but they have not confirmed the rumours. Stephen Fleming has also declined to publicly comment on the speculation that he would join the group.

Shane Warne will not play in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) but has not ruled out taking part in a proposed Twenty20 tournament sanctioned by the game’s governing bodies. Warne sent a letter to the ICL on Wednesday declining its offer – reported to be worth A$900,000 a season – after he decided joining the group could be detrimental to Australian cricket.”Shane had a tremendous send-off last year, Cricket Australia were unbelievable and he feels he has another 30 years with the game and he wants to keep on side with officialdom,” Warne’s manager James Erskine told the . “He wants and needs to protect his standing in the game and the respect for his achievements.”The paper said the Indian board had asked Warne to play in an official Twenty20 league that would have ICC approval, however Erskine did not confirm if Warne intended to take part. Details are being hastily arranged by national boards but the broad idea is for the top Twenty20 sides in domestic competitions to compete in a Champions League-style format. It is likely that teams would be able to recruit international stars to boost their squads.The reported that the top sides would eventually represent regions, such as Australasia, and two New Zealand teams would join Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition. However, a Cricket Australia spokesman told the paper it was too early to be discussing such details.Victoria are so far undefeated in Australia’s Twenty20 tournament and their coach, Greg Shipperd, said the Champions League concept was an excellent idea. “We’ve been promised that this was going to happen for a couple of years, and we’ve been itching to have a go and get involved from a team perspective,” he said in the . “We would love to be playing at an international level, albeit not for your country.”

Andrew Symonds has described playing in India as “hostile” and says Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh have been the major instigators of on-field conflicts between the two sides. However, Symonds seemed less concerned by the off-field dramas at Vadodara on Thursday, where he was reportedly subjected to racial taunts in the form of monkey chants from the crowd.”You have to be pretty thick-skinned to survive in the Australian dressing room, let alone out on the paddock,” Symonds wrote in his column in newspapers. “It is a sensitive issue and guys have been made an example of in the past, but what do you do in this instance if it’s coming from the crowd? I’m not allowed to comment on exactly what went on, but I’m not the most deadly serious bloke. Life goes on.”While Symonds appeared to brush off the spectators’ behaviour, he was less inclined to forgive Sreesanth for his repeated clashes with the Australian players this series. Symonds said Sreesanth had crossed the line of acceptable on-field conduct and had acted “like a goose”.”I get on well with most of them. Sachin Tendulkar is a gentleman and I have played in England with Murali Kartik, he’s a good guy,” Symonds said. “There are just a couple of them who seem to spark things. Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh are the ones we are clashing with most.”The thing that annoys us the most is when they are going well, they will have a shot at you. But when they aren’t going well, they forget to shake hands at the end of the game. That’s not on in my opinion. If you play the game properly, shake hands, get over it, and move on to the next game.”Relations between Symonds and Sreesanth have become strained several times, notably during the fourth match at Chandigarh when Sreesanth, the 12th man, reportedly taunted Symonds after he was dismissed for 75. “I was wild. I was really angry when I got out and then for him to run past and say things I didn’t think were right,” Symonds said. “I thought: ‘Right, I’ve had enough of this bloke’.”His carry-on in this series has been way over the top. We don’t mind blokes having a go and standing up for themselves, but he has gone above and beyond what’s acceptable. Information in this game travels and people remember when someone is carrying on like a goose.”Symonds said such incidents, combined with the major celebrations in India following their ICC World Twenty20 triumph, had made Australia even more desperate to win the series. After the first five games in the seven-match tour Australia held an unbeatable 3-1 lead.

Canada 203 beat Kenya A 193 by ten runsCanada got their tour of Africa off to a winning start with a 10-run victory over Kenya A at Ruaraka Sports Club.Canada were stuck in by the Kenyans and struggled throughout their innings, with none of their batsmen able to go on and make a decent score as they ended on 203. Moses Otieno and Dominic Wesonga shared three wickets while Ashif Mulla top scored with 36.Kenya started solidly to reach 67 for 1 but lost regular wickets and fell short.With Canada set to meet the full Kenyan side in the Intercontinental Cup later this week, Steve Tikolo, the captain, said his side were ready. “The team is alright and we have been in intensive training for three weeks where we have worked on rectifying our mistakes,” he told The Standard. “We believe we will put a good performance to lay a platform to reach the Intercontinental Cup final next year as well as prepare for the next World Cup.”

James Hopes has become the fourth Australian to suffer a hamstring injury during the tours of South Africa and India and will miss the Twenty20 match in Mumbai on Saturday. Hopes, the allrounder, was hurt during the final game of the one-day series on Wednesday after appearing in each contest as a replacement for Shane Watson, who fell to the same problem during the World Twenty20.Michael Hussey also left that tour with a serious tear while Ricky Ponting was able to recover from his strain in time to play a part in India. Hussey hopes to be fully fit for the first Test next month while Watson will aim to make Queensland’s side for the tour match against Sri Lanka starting in Brisbane on November 2.Hopes’ injury provided him with a sad end to a satisfying tour. Batting at No. 7, he collected 136 runs at more than one a ball and picked up six wickets with his medium pace. Hopes, who had played only nine ODI games before the tour, gave up 4.6 runs an over while bowling and his list of victims included Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.Matthew Hayden is Australia’s other injury concern after missing the past two matches with a hip complaint. He batted in the nets on Thursday and will be closely monitored in the lead-up to the final fixture of the tour.

Scorecard

Brad Hogg’s five wickets helped Western Australia complete a thumping victory against Queensland on the final day, by an innings and 170 runs. Queensland could not recover following a brutal day of Warriors batting on Sunday, which left them 260 runs off the pace.They headed into the fourth day four down and they finally crumbled in the afternoon session, spun out by Hogg. He picked up three in the morning, quickly removing Chris Simpson in the fourth over of the day. Queensland were in trouble at 5 for 87, and their woes were compounded when Ashley Noffke’s resistance finally gave out, caught behind for 44.Jimmy Maher batted with a runner after injuring his hamstring during his first-innings century, and he was joined by Andy Bichel in a 41-run stand broken by Trent Kelly when Bichel bottom-edged on to the stumps. Hogg’s third victim came up when Chris Hartley sent him a return catch on 3 to complete a miserable morning.Eight down at lunch, it was only a matter of time before Queensland succumbed to their first defeat of the season, and Daniel Doran was duly trapped on 4. Hogg finally wrapped up the match and the five-wicket haul when he removed Maher for 32, the batsman edging to Luke Ronchi, a fitting take for the man who had wreaked such destruction on the third day with a 51-ball hundred.