In a dramatic about-turn Marvan Atapattu, the former Sri Lanka captain, has been included in the Sri Lanka squad for the tour of Australia following a request made by the sports minister Gamini Lokuge.Atapattu will join the team as the fourth opener – alongside Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga and Michael Vandort – increasing the tour party to 17 players. Atapattu was originally selected in the squad on the belief that he met the national selection committee and thrashed out his problems. But Atapattu refused to attend as long as Ashantha de Mel was the chief selector.The matter was then taken up by Lokuge who summoned the national selectors and the hierarchy of Sri Lanka Cricket to sort out the issue. The outcome of the meeting was that the minister would speak to Atapattu and, if he was willing to tour Australia, he should be included in the team.Atapattu asked for time to make a decision on the offer and was abroad on an official assignment in Rome. On his return on Thursday he met Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Duleep Mendis and informed him that he was available for the tour to Australia. “I met Duleep and we spoke about the terms and conditions under which I will be playing. I was satisfied with them and I told him that I was available for Australia,” said Atapattu.Atapattu’s return to the national team marks the end of a six-month ordeal which began with the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean where he, although being a member of the team, was not selected to play in any of Sri Lanka’s 11 matches in the tournament. He was then overlooked for the one-day series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and when the selectors named him for the home Tests against Bangladesh, Atapattu pulled out saying that he was not mentally prepared to play Test cricket.Atapattu then wanted Sri Lanka Cricket to release him from his central contract and went onto play a season of league cricket in England with Lashings. He was subsequently left out of the inaugural World Twenty20 tournament and the recently concluded one-day series against England.”We would welcome Marvan into the team,” said captain Mahela Jayawardene. “He is experienced and has done so well for Sri Lanka that you always welcome a guy like that. It all depends on how keen and committed he is to the team. That is the most important thing.”Sri Lanka leave for Australia on Tuesday and the first Test starts at Brisbane on November 8.

The Ugandan government has instructed Interpol, the international police, to hunt down the two international players who defected to live in Adelaide. They want Jimmy Okello and Patrick Ochan deported after the pair fled the ICC World Cricket League final in Darwin in June.However, the players, both 19, have defied the demand for the arrest, instead playing for West Torrens, their adopted club.Uganda’s Minister of State for Sports, Charles Bakabulindi, said it was “indiscipline of the highest order for sportsmen to disappear in countries where they are representing their nation. We cannot simply sit and watch as our sportsmen who go to developed countries simply disappear in those countries.”We have to react because they damage the image of our country. We have requested Interpol to arrest them and deport them back.”Ochan said he wasn’t aware of the developments, but that he wasn’t too concerned as he was applying for refugee status. “I am not worried,” he told the newspaper. .”But I don’t want to be sent back home. I want to stay and improve my cricket here.”He and Okello are both orphans and say it would be too hard to go back to Uganda. “There are a lot of wars, people fighting too much in the north – sometimes you survive, sometimes not. It’s a hard life over there.”An Australian Federal Police spokesman said no request from international authorities had been received, and the pair are not, as yet, listed as wanted on the Interpol website.

Brad Hogg will face another last-minute battle to resume his Test career after he was named in a 12-man squad alongside Shaun Tait for the first match against India. Hogg lost a bowl-off to Stuart MacGill for the opening game of the Sri Lanka series, but he is now in a different fight as the selectors decide whether to field an all-pace attack at the MCG on Boxing Day or include his left-arm spin.Steve Waugh has pushed for Hogg’s inclusion and Harbhajan Singh would love him to play, believing he is significantly inferior to MacGill or Shane Warne. “Brad deserves the opportunity to once again represent Australia in Test cricket,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said.Hogg, who has not appeared in a Test since 2003, has been an outstanding performer in Australia’s one-day sides, but he has struggled in first-class fixtures since taking eight wickets against Victoria, adding another five victims in three games. With MacGill out following wrist surgery for at least two matches, and probably the entire series, Hogg has an opportunity to play a string of games.However, containing India’s batsmen during 25 overs a day is a much harder task for Hogg than attacking them during a one-day international when they are obliged to hit out. India’s plans could involve going after Hogg or sitting on him – and his hard-to-pick wrong’un – while waiting for a loose delivery. The threats are much easier than the dangers provided by Tait.India have come from a series on their low-bouncing pitches and they have only three days to acclimatise during a match against Victoria at the Junction Oval. Tait’s pace has been fierce against New Zealand over the past week and Australia will wait to analyse the drop-in surface at the MCG before making a call. Originally in the opening squad for Sri Lanka, Tait pulled out with injury and is looking to play his first Test since 2005 after regaining his spot from Ben Hilfenhaus.Australia already have three bowlers who complement each other, with Brett Lee providing the pace, Stuart Clark the consistent steep bounce and Mitchell Johnson the left-arm variety. If four fast men were employed Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds could break things up with their part-time spin, but it is a risky option against players who mastered MacGill and Shane Warne in previous series.Australia squad Matthew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Few gave West Indies any chance of breaking their downhill slide when they started the three-Test series in South Africa, but it has taken them just four days to turn things around in a quite spectacular manner. Thirty-one months after they last won a Test match, West Indies demolished South Africa by 128 runs, and inside four days, to take a 1-0 lead in the series. It provided a glorious finish to their year, and a glorious start to Chris Gayle’s tenure as captain.West Indies dominated large parts of the Test, but it seemed they had given South Africa a sniff when they collapsed on the third evening. They managed just 175 in their second innings, but their fast bowlers turned in another awesome display to ensure that 389 was more than enough runs to defend.For South Africa, it was a shock defeat, their first at home to West Indies. For the second time in the match, the top order collapsed without a trace – the first four wickets went down with just 45 on the board. Jacques Kallis revived the run-chase with a flawless 85 and added 112 with AB de Villiers to give them a chance, but once he was at the receiving end of an unfortunate decision, the result was never in doubt.The blows that made the difference were delivered within the first ten overs of the run-chase. The last time West Indies won an overseas Test against meaningful opposition – against England, in June 2000 – Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh were the new-ball operators, but Fidel Edwards and Daren Powell turned in the sort of display that even those legends would have been proud of.Powell and Edwards began in superb fashion. They raced in, consistently clocking around 140 kph, and tested the batsmen with pace, swing and bounce. Powell kept it mostly on a good length around off, and attempted to beat the batsmen by swing and seam, while Edwards varied his length cleverly, either bowling it full, or attacking the body with well-directed short balls. One such delivery accounted for Graeme Smith, who tried to fend off a snorter, and could only glove it for Daren Ganga to take a diving catch at short leg.By then South Africa had already lost two wickets: if Smith had a poor game with the bat, his opening partner had a nightmare. For the second time, Herschelle Gibbs was done in by Powell without scoring – this time, he shouldered arms to one which came in with the angle and was crashing towards off stump. It was his second pair in Test cricket – both of which have come in his last ten Tests – and his extended poor run suggests South Africa will have serious questions to answer before the next match. Hashim Amla, coming off successive hundreds in his previous two Tests, failed to negotiate Edwards’ pace and swing, and when Smith fell soon after, South Africa were reeling at 20 for 3. It got even worse immediately after lunch, when Ashwell Prince failed to come up with the answers to Jerome Taylor’s probing off-stump line.South Africa’s best batsman, though, was still around, and he batted like one. The footwork was precise, the defensive technique was immaculate, and the strokeplay was fabulous. Three glorious fours just before lunch – a cover drive, an on-drive, and a square cut, all off Taylor – were ominous signs for West Indies, and the break only made Kallis’ concentration stronger. The on-drives were a feature of his innings, but he also cut and pulled powerfully. Powell tested him midway through the afternoon session with a fiery spell peppered with plenty of short stuff, but Kallis negotiated it all with scarcely a hiccup.de Villiers, meanwhile, continued from where he had left off in the first innings, driving strongly square on the off side. Not only did the pair get plenty, they also did so quickly, scoring at more than three-and-a-half an over. Gayle even tried a few overs of spin, but nothing worked till Edwards banged in a short ball that Kallis tried to hook. The ball missed bat and glove, took his shoulder, looped to Denesh Ramdin who dived, held on to the catch, and then threw the ball in the air in sheer delight. Umpire Russel Tiffin agreed with the appeal, but replays indicated Kallis was hard done by.Once Kallis fell, the rest was easy. Mark Boucher fell to the pull shot for the second time in the match, Paul Harris chopped one on to his stumps, and de Villiers holed out to mid-on. Dale Steyn and Andre Nel prolonged the innings with an entertaining 67-run partnership, but that was only delaying the inevitable. The end finally came when Makhaya Ntini spooned a top-edge to Powell. The celebrations were fairly low-key, which perhaps suggests West Indies are looking for much bigger rewards from this tour. The three-match Test series is, after all, only one game old.

The Women’s World Cup qualifiers have been switched to South Africa in mid-February following political turmoil in Pakistan in November which forced the ICC to postpone that event. The tournament had to be rescheduled within six months and following some quick work by the ICC and the South African board, it has been rearranged within just three months.The new dates are 18 to 24 February for the tournament which will be held in the Stellenbosch region. An ICC statement said: “The decision was arrived at following independent security reports and extensive discussions by ICC management and the ICC Women’s Committee.”Pakistan couldn’t host it because of the general elections which start on 18 February. The proposed election date had been 8 January, but following the rescheduling, the decision was made to move the event to South Africa.Zakir Khan, PCB’s director cricket operations, confirmed to Cricinfo: “It was clashing with election dates and the ICC couldn’t organise it much later. We tried to find a way but the schedule clash meant we couldn’t go ahead with it.”Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, regretted that the tournament couldn’t be in Pakistan. “It is unfortunate that the timing of the event ended up clashing with the elections and forcing us to change the venue,” he said.”I would like to thank all those from the PCB who so enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to host this event. We remain committed to international cricket being played in Pakistan but, sadly, events beyond the control of the ICC and the PCB have conspired against us on this occasion. Thanks are also due to Cricket South Africa and particularly those from Boland who have been able to take over the running of this tournament at short notice.”The safety of all participants is our number-one priority and on the basis of the independent advice we have received – as well as the material concerns expressed by many of the participating countries – we concluded it was not appropriate to stage the tournament at this time.”So now South Africa have the home advantage. They were disappointed to have just missed out on the previous World Cup, when a tight finish in their last match handed the fifth automatic spot to the West Indies. They are one of the favourites to qualify in this tournament, where the top two sides go through to the eight who will contest the World Cup in Australia next year.Ireland and Zimbabwe were particularly disappointed that the Pakistan event was, rightly, called off as they were coming into some decent form. Ireland’s players will now have to come in from the off-season and hope to get used to conditions immediately.The players, all of whom are amateurs, will of course have to arrange time off work and study to attend this event. Ireland are already down one player. Jillian Smythe has had to withdraw due to a clash with her final year examinations – she will remain in the senior squad but will not travel. Instead, Melissa Scott-Hayward will now travel in her place with Carol McGuire being named as the non-travelling reserve.An Ireland spokesperson told Cricinfo of their tentative plans which are still to be finalised with less than a month to go. “We’re all set. We intend to travel out on Saturday 9 February and spend a week in camp in Stellenbosch or Port Elizabeth – all to be decided – and rejoin the formal ICC event on 16 February.”Pakistan have already announced a 20-player list of probables for a month-long training event which will start next week. The camp will run from 13 January to 11 February at Lahore Country Club, Muridke.Training squad Bismah Maroof, Taskeen Qadeer, Sana Javed, Almas Akram, Sabeen Abdul Samad, Saima Jamil, Sana Mir, Urooj Mumtaz Khan, Nain Abidi, Batool Fatimam Arman Khan, Javeria Khan, Sajida Shah, Sumaiya Siddiqui, Asmavia Iqbal, Naila Nazir, Qanita Jalil, Nida Dar, Sadia Yousaf.

Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, is likely to head to South Africa for his next coaching assignment with the Highveld Lions. Newspaper reports suggest Fletcher may replace current coach Gordon Parsons for the two limited-overs tournaments still to be played this season.The Johannesburg-based reported that the Lions were keen to have Fletcher, but they would first have to sort out the roles for Parsons and Jimmy Cook, the batting coach. The paper indicated the two coaches had problems working together, but Parsons denied there was any bad blood between him and Cook. “Jimmy and I get on very well,” Parsons told the daily. “I’m not saying we’re perfect. We spent three days in a dressing room together last weekend without any problems.”Maybe expectations were a little unrealistic in terms of us having come second [in the SuperSport Series] last season. Losing Tyron Henderson and Charl Langeveldt and only having Vaughn [van Jaarsveld] coming back last weekend means that a burden has fallen on inexperienced players like Craig Alexander and Brian Mathebula.”The Lions also lost their captain Neil McKenzie mid-season when he was called up to South Africa’s squad for the second Test against West Indies. He tore his right calf muscle during the match and has been put of action since. Justin Ontong, who replaced McKenzie as captain, was picked in the one-day squad, but a knee injury has forced him out of the second and third ODIs. Alviro Peterson is leading the Lions in their absence.Cook said the Lions coaches, players and selectors were scheduled to meet on Monday. “I know people aren’t happy, so I’m expecting some clear-the-air type talks,” Cook said. “It’s all about knuckling down and getting our season back on track.”The Lions are at the bottom of the Super Sports Series points table and haven’t won a single game of the tournament so far. If Fletcher joins them this season, he will take charge of the side for the MTN Domestic Championship and the Standard Bank Pro20 Series.

Jason Gillespie will become the latest of Australia’s thirty-somethings to call time when he announces his retirement during South Australia’s Pura Cup tie against Queensland which starts on Friday.Gillespie, who will turn 33 in April, is widely reported to have signed with the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League, and that means he has delayed any announcement to allow him to bow out in the match. Gillespie would have been barred from playing were he to confirm a deal with the ICL .A source close to the player told The Australian newspaper that there would be a press conference at the close of the first day of the match. “He’s not allowed to announce it prior because it is not a sanctioned league.”Gillespie was one of Australia’s leading quick bowlers during their outstanding period of dominance. In 71 Tests he took 259 wickets at 26.13 with a best of 7 for 37 at Headingley in 1997. His last major act for Australia came in his final Test when he was recalled in 2006 after a dismal Ashes campaign the previous year and hit 201 against Bangladesh.Although Gillespie enjoyed a good season in 2006-07, taking 30 wickets at 28.43 for South Australia, this summer he managed 24 wickets at 35.87 and there was speculation that his contract would not be renewed.The news also caught Glamorgan, who Gillespie had signed to play for in 2008, on the hop. Only yesterday they issued the details of their squad to the media, but if he does sign with the ICL then he will be unable to honour that commitment.

Shane Warne believes Australia must improve their spin-bowling depth by using the slow men more often and more aggressively in state cricket. The retirement of Brad Hogg and uncertainty over Stuart MacGill’s fitness has left Australia without a clear first-choice Test spinner and Warne says the lack of opportunities in some domestic teams is contributing to the dearth of options.”A lot depends on the conditions they play under,” Warne said. “Sometimes it’s harder for some of the guys, like in Queensland for instance, where the Gabba should be one of the best places to bowl spin bowling.”They’ve got to educate the captains up in Queensland about how to actually use the spinners, they’re generally an afterthought. [They think] quick, quick, quick, let’s go for another quick, let’s go for a part-time quick, last day before lunch [ask the spinner to] have a bowl. That process is unfortunately around in a few places.”This year’s domestic statistics back up Warne’s concerns, with Victoria’s legspinner Bryce McGain the only slow bowler in the Pura Cup’s top 12 wicket-takers. Queensland’s first-choice spinner, Daniel Doran, has been given only 16 overs per match on average, compared to McGain averaging 37 overs a game.The trend is something Warne is trying to change in his new role as a spin coach with Cricket Australia. He is in Melbourne this week and will visit Sydney and Hobart next week, continuing his nationwide tour working with the tweakers and trying to help their captains understand how to use spin as an aggressive tactic.Australia’s main aim is to find somebody who can step into Warne’s old role at international level and Warne believes MacGill remains the top choice, if he is fit and bowling well, with McGain the next best candidate. MacGill is 37 and McGain turns 36 this month, but Warne said it could be risky to give a younger man opportunities purely because of his long-term prospects.”Sometimes it can be quite damaging for a young spinner that hasn’t got the confidence to throw them in there and that could be the end of them, or they can be lost for a few years until they find their feet again,” he said. “It can be good, but sometimes you’ve got to know what the personality is of the player, what makes them tick.”We’ve got some good spinners there. [We don’t] expect to turn up a spinner in a year or two that can take 500 Test wickets but what I could hope is that the spinners can actually perform consistently well over a period of time. If that happens then I think we’re doing okay.”

Walking out with his captain settled Sewnarine Chattergoon as he began his Test career with a composed 46 against Sri Lanka. Chattergoon’s innings assisted the home team to reach 137 for 1 before his dismissal started the slide towards a stumps score of 268 for 7, a deficit of 10 runs.Chattergoon was expected to make his debut in the opening match of the two-game series, which Sri Lanka won, but he was ruled out by illness and had to wait for his first cap. Despite Gayle’s struggles against Sri Lanka, Chattergoon felt extra confidence as the openers stepped out together.”I was a bit nervous, but the good thing was that I was with my captain and also a senior member and I rallied around him and he told me to relax and play my normal game,” Chattergoon said. “I was looking for the single to get down to the non-striker’s end and Gayle helped me a lot because he was playing positively and the Sri Lankan bowlers put more emphasis on him than me.”Gayle, who has five zeroes against Sri Lanka in Tests, reached 45 off 44 balls to give his side a boost after his unbeaten half-century at the end of the first contest. “He has been struggling against Sri Lanka,” Chattergoon said, “but he is a world-class batsman and he can come out anytime and destroy any bowling attack, so I was confident going out with him.”Chattergoon, who turned 27 on the first day of the game, hit five fours in his display and stayed for 78 deliveries until being bowled by Chaminda Vaas. In the lead-up to the match he had placed extra emphasis on facing Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, who combined for four of the West Indian wickets.”The two of them are two great bowlers and to get an opportunity to face them in my first Test innings, it was a bit difficult,” he said. “But I played to my ability and I was successful in the end.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

In a match dominated by South African stars, the batting efforts of Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis edged the all-round contribution of Shaun Pollock, as Bangalore Royal Challengers recovered from Friday’s mauling to register their first win of the tournament. Set a challenging 166 by the Mumbai Indians, Bangalore rode on an unbeaten 39 from Boucher, and his 55-run stand with Kallis sealed a five-wicket win with two balls to spare.The absence of Sachin Tendulkar would have been a huge downer for the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium, but none of them could complain about the quality of action. The bounce on the pitch kept the bowlers interested, and the batsmen on their toes – one of them, Mumbai’s Dominic Thornely, was so surprised by a Zaheer Khan bouncer that he copped a blow above the eye which required 15 stitches. Robin Uthappa and Pollock were the two major contributors for Mumbai, with Sanath Jayasuriya chipping in with a cameo at the start.A target of 166 suggested a close finish, and that’s exactly how it panned out. Bangalore had contributions from all their batsmen, though none of the top five stayed through the chase. Shivnarine Chanderpaul biffed a few before getting a painful blow on the knee, while Rahul Dravid alternated between the sublime – with glorious straight- and extra-cover drives – and the tentative – five runs from 14 balls off Pollock. Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli both made 23 in identical fashion, but when Kohli fell, the match hung in the balance, with 60 needed from 39 balls.While Kallis played a typically patient hand, Boucher put in the decisive knock which turned the match Bangalore’s way. Striking the ball freely and cleanly, he ensured the asking-rate never climbed beyond ten, and got the boundaries so regularly that the pressure slowly moved to the home team. Harbhajan Singh, the Mumbai captain, was creamed through point in the 15th over, while Jayasuriya was clubbed for a straight six. When Nehra was pulled for four and blasted out of the ground for the biggest six of the game in successive balls, the requirement had suddenly come down to 11 from 12 balls, after which the result was never in doubt.Mumbai’s innings was built largely around Uthappa’s 48, which held the innings together, and a whirlwind 12-ball 28 from Pollock which turned an average total into a substantial one. The absence of Tendulkar was felt at the top of the order, as Luke Ronchi, his replacement as opener, lasted just ten balls before falling to an outstanding catch by Kohli. Jayasuriya gave every indication of making up for Tendulkar’s absence, creaming the hapless Kallis for three fours – two bludgeoned down the ground, one flicked fine – and a huge six over long-on. When he fell against the run of play, run out by a direct hit from Zaheer, Mumbai needed a steady hand to guide the innings, and Uthappa played that part well.

His familiarity with the opposition bowlers – Vinay Kumar, Sunil Joshi and B Akhil are all state-mates in first-class cricket – helped him along too, as Vinay was late-cut delightfully and then hooked for six off successive balls. Uthappa improvised cleverly, moving to leg to clip the ball fine, or walking down the pitch to upset the bowlers, but he also reined in his attacking instincts, knocking the ball in the gaps during the middle overs.When he fell just two short of his half-century, though, Mumbai only had 125 on the board with just 19 deliveries to go. Enter Pollock, who immediately turned it up a few gears. After Abhishek Nayar had creamed a straight six off Vinay, Pollock dismissed the same bowler for a four and a six off consecutive balls. Praveen and Zaheer were taken for boundaries as well, as 40 came off the last five overs. The opposition team, though, had two other South African heavyweights to seal the deal.