Spectators wanting prized Ashes tickets will push for a small allocation of at least 1700 seats at each Test day when they go on general sale from Monday. While Cricket Australia announced 340,000 spots were available after the Australian Cricket Family’s priority access expired, most of those are for the one-day internationals.Approximately 2000 tickets will be available to the first four days at the Gabba, 1800 for each day at Adelaide, 1700 at the WACA and 3,500 at the SCG. About 2000 seats will go on sale for Boxing Day in Melbourne, but there are still large areas available for the second to fourth days.Sales for Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Hobart begin on Monday, with Brisbane seats being offered on Tuesday and Melbourne’s on Wednesday. The staggered dates have been introduced to avoid the severe jamming of phone and internet lines during the initial Australian Cricket Family release on June 1. Purchases are limited to four and buyers can line-up at ticket agency outlets.”I encourage fans to get in quick for tickets because availability is limited and demand is likely to exceed supply in most states,” James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said. “Fans deciding to queue at outlets need to be aware that only those very early in the queue are likely to be successful.”If you do miss out on your match of choice and are really keen to experience Test match cricket this summer, then your best chance is at the MCG due to its larger capacity. You can also catch Australia in action around the country in the one-day international series against England and New Zealand.”

While England were being pasted 5-0 by Sri Lanka you could have forgiven one man for allowing himself a wry smile. But England’s forgotten man, Surrey allrounder Rikki Clarke, is having none of it. “No, obviously I’d like to be playing for England,” he says. “I’m also an England fan, I want them to do well.”England players were dropping like flies, Clarke was simply dropped from the selectors’ thoughts – at both senior and now A-team level – despite hitherto solid performances for England A, despite being named in the 25-man development squad and despite strong showings for Surrey.”It’s quite strange that I’ve been named in the England Development Squad of 25 and you don’t even get in the A-team,” he says. “There’s people coming in from the outskirts.”He’s had to watch while Tim Bresnan (“a great prospect”) and Jamie Dalrymple (“he’s done well”) were brought in above him. He’s generous in his praise of the new boys, whom he calls the youngsters – somewhat ironically as he’s 24 and Dalrymple, at 25, is actually his senior.Clarke seems older, though, perhaps because he’s so battle-hardened from having taken punch after punch in his short career. “That’s cricket for you – so many highs and lows and setbacks. There’s been so many disappointing sides to cricket, being dropped and left out. You just get on with it. And that’s what I’ve done again.”But he’s not battle weary – yet. “It just makes me stronger as a player.” And his answer is to let his game do the talking. It’s a well-rehearsed response too with, by his reckoning, ten setbacks for England already. “Another one isn’t going to affect me too much.” And he means it.He remains, much like fellow allrounder Paul Collingwood who was on the England fringes for years, surprisingly unbitter. And look where Collingwood is now.If there’s one thing that’s changed recently it is that he is now cautious. Does he think he will make the World Cup squad? “Don’t know,” he replies in a beat. “I really don’t know. I thought that I would be playing against Sri Lanka this one-day series. I thought I would be in the A side against Pakistan. All I can do is just concentrate on what I’m doing for Surrey, making runs and taking wickets.”

He would, of course, love to return to the West Indies in 2007 to some happy, balmy hunting grounds. “I just love to play cricket in the Caribbean,” he says. “You’ve got Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago… And St Lucia is a wonderful place.”It’s only just come about as a Test ground, but it’s fantastic – they really look after the outfield. There was a proper party atmosphere when I played there – there were lots of schoolkids, there were whistles, the buzz really takes you through. There were a lot of bars, and it’s got everything in a compact place. I’ll definitely go back there for a holiday.” Time will tell whether that will be a working holiday.But it’s not just the one-dayers that figure large in Clarke’s aspirations. He has dreams of making his Test debut. “Hopefully I can make my debut for England it they pick me,” he says, “and start afresh.”Now, many people may have forgotten he’s already played two Tests, against Bangladesh, but surely the man himself can’t have wiped those games from his memory? “It seems ages ago, it really does. But that’s what I loved. People said, ‘Oh it’s only Bangladesh’ and for me Bangladesh isn’t really a Test match. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I get another chance.”In the meantime he can concentrate on his vice-captaincy of Surrey – he’s being groomed as their future skipper – and leading them in the Twenty20. “I’m enjoying it; it’s quite hectic, you lose your voice shouting.”He can cling to the development squad, too, although the purpose of the squad is something of a moot point, especially when the England management haven’t had that much communication with Clarke since they named the 25.He talks to them, though, sending out strong messages with his 165 against Leicestershire when he missed out on one-day selection. “I’ve always liked to prove a point.” How many more signals does he need to send, though? “You can only go so far keeping on proving a point but hopefully I’ll read that stage where it’s impossible not to pick me.”

Dale Steyn has said that Shaun Pollock’s inclusion will allow him to play the role of a `shock’ bowler in the second Test against Sri Lanka beginning on Friday in Colombo. Pollock missed the first Test that South Africa lost by an inning and 153 runs because of the birth of his child.”I bowled one decent bouncer in the first Test and, with Polly [Pollock] keeping one end tight, I will concentrate on bowling, basically, two lengths – short and full. With the new ball I’ll bowl full and try to get it to swing, but I will also concentrate on bowling more short balls,” Steyn told Supercricket.co.za. “If you get enough short balls in the right place then they’ll make a mistake.””Every time we bowled a short ball they would play an attacking shot so, while I would never say they were lucky, at some time those aggressive shots will go wrong and there will be a man there to take the catch. Hopefully!,” he said.Steyn took 3 for 129 in the first Test and had given South Africa a perfect start by reducing Sri Lanka to 14 for 2 before Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene put on 624 runs for the third wicket. Steyn had Sangakkara dropped by Jacques Rudolph when he was on seven and one run later bowled him with a no-ball.”I wanted to break my head against a wall. It was always going to be harder from that end because you had jump up a slope as you got into your delivery stride and your front landed before it normally does. Vinnie Barnes warned me about it before the Test started so that made it even worse when it happened.”

Nicky Boje is the notable omission from South Africa’s 14-man squad for the Champions Trophy. Robin Petersen has been selected as the lone specialist spinner, while Jacques Kallis will lead the side against Zimbabwe, in three ODIs which act as a warm-up, with Graeme Smith still recovering from ankle surgery.However Kallis, along with Justin Kemp and Charl Langeveldt, will undergo fitness tests in Bloemfontein on Tuesday and there will be four additional players who will make up an 18-man squad to face Zimbabwe.The omission of Boje is interesting, considering that South Africa are not blessed with spin bowling options. He, along with Herschelle Gibbs who makes the trip, had indicated they were willing to travel to India despite the risk of being questioned by Indian police about match fixing.Haroon Lorgat, Cricket South Africa’s national convenor of selectors said: “With several of our key players needing to pass fitness tests before they can be considered for selection, we had little choice but to select a larger than usual squad.”It is expected that Smith will be fit to resume the captaincy in India and Lorgat added: “We continue along our path of building a pool of players from which the final World Cup 2007 squad will be selected.”We will be using the games against Zimbabwe and the ICC Champions Trophy as preparation for the ICC World Cup and to settle on our final combinations.”South Africa’s planning was disrupted by the aborted tour to Sri Lanka last month after the team flew home following bombings on Colombo. However, Lorgat insists that the squad is still on track to be ready for the World Cup and to meet the quota targets.”More than enough players, including black players, are making an impact on the field to warrant selection into our final squad. All selected players will be encouraged to play for their franchises at every given opportunity, in order to stake a claim for a place in the final World Cup squad.”The door is open for any player outside of the squad who performs and fits the role that the selectors will be looking for, as evidenced by the selection of newcomers Alviro Petersen and JP Duminy. [Both] were impressive in the recent SA Emerging squad tour to Australia.”The three match series against Zimbabwe starts at Bloemfontein on September 15, while two additional matches have been arranged against the Lions and Titans for the national side.Champions Trophy squad Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis, Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Robin PetersonAdditions for Zimbabwe series and World Cup training squad JP Duminy, Alviro Peterson, Roger Telemachus, Johan van der Wath

England’s Twenty20 defeat to Pakistan at Bristol, on Monday, means they have yet to win a limited overs match against serious opposition this summer. Their lone success came against Ireland, in the warm-up to their series against Sri Lanka, but even that included the warning signs of what was to come.Their 5-0 whitewash to Sri Lanka included some of the worst bowling England have produced for a long while. They now have another five matches against Pakistan, who are even more daunting opposition as Shahid Afridi amply demonstrated in the Twenty20. The selectors have opted for a new collection of bowlers, with one-day recalls for Darren Gough and Jon Lewis, but they are now without the services of Steve Harmison – ruled out with a back problem.However, the brightest spot of the five-wicket defeat in the Twenty20 was the performance from one of England’s newcomers, Stuart Broad. His rise into the international ranks has been widely expected throughout the season. It gathered pace while his compatriots were flayed to all parts earlier in the summer as he was taking domestic cricket by storm. His first taste of the big time could not have started any better as he removed Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan in two balls.”It was superb, it was nice to get my first wicket and to get Younis [Khan] next ball was great,” he told Sky Sports News as England prepared for the opening ODI at Cardiff. “I was excited before the game and when I got into it I was really enjoying it. To get a couple of wickets on my debut, I was over the moon.”After his 2 for 35 at Bristol he was pushing his claims for a start in the ODIs, but that has now been virtually rubber-stamped by the withdrawl of Harmison. “The injury to Steve is very sad but he will come back fighting fit,” he said. “The opportunities are there for me and hopefully if I get a chance I can do well and enjoy it.”With such an impressive debut thoughts have inevitably turned to Broad boarding the plane to Australia, with his new team-mate Darren Gough among those tipping him for a bright future. “He’s playing for an Ashes place so he’ll be champing at the bit to prove he can perform at that level,” said Gough. “I would take him as a 17th person – even if he’s the 17th of a 16-man party – and if he keeps improving then he’ll take plenty of wickets.”However, Broad is not getting carried away: “I’m not setting targets, I just want to perform to my best in each game. I just try to take wickets wherever I bowl and try to enjoy it. The rest will take care of itself. To play in the Ashes would be a dream come true. Going on an Ashes tour at such a young age would be brilliant and a great learning experience but I’ll let the selectors make the decision.”Pakistan are likely to field an unchanged team at Cardiff and Shoaib Akhtar, who returned to international action in the Twenty20, has an ominous warning for England. “Now we have a first-choice side, we are back on track, we have the bowlers back so we should be making our way towards a winning squad,” he said. “The first two one-dayers will set the tune for us. I think we are a great one-day side and it will be a tough series for England.”England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Ian Bell, 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Andrew Strauss (capt), 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Jamie Dalrymple, 7 Michael Yardy, 8 Chris Read (wk), 9 Sajid Mahmood, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Darren Gough.Pakistan (probable) 1 Shoaib Malik, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Kamran Akmal (wk), 9 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Mohammad Asif.

The annual ICC Awards has been postponed to November 3 to ensure the attendance of all the teams after the original date conflicted with the festivals of Diwali and Eid. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had earlier written to Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, about the function in Mumbai to request the change from October 23 as the Indian team was due to be on a five-day break.”The new date adds an extra dimension to the last week of the Champions Trophy with the ICC Awards slotting in between the two semi-finals in Mohali and Jaipur and the final at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai,” Speed said. “And the fact this year’s ceremony is taking place in India, which has such a passion for the game, and in Mumbai, which is the entertainment capital of India, should add to the excitement, glamour and expectation that this event is likely to generate.”This will be the third time the ICC Awards will be staged after the first two events were held in London and Sydney.

English cricket has received a pre-Ashes boost with the announcement of a new £10 million, three-year extension to their existing deal with the energy company, npower.The deal, which was signed at Ruskin Park in South London, will cover all levels of English cricket, including both men’s and women’s Test teams, village cricket, and an expansion of the “Urban Cricket” grassroots initiative, which was launched last summer and was enthusiastically received.”It’s investments like this which have helped the success the team has had,” said England’s spinner Monty Panesar, who departs for Australia with the Ashes squad on Friday. “Npower has been a fantastic supporter of English cricket from playgrounds right to the top of the sport.”Kevin Miles, managing director of npower, added: “It’s a fantastic time to be a sponsor of cricket and a stunning time to be a fan. We think that cricket’s on a roll. It’s the overwhelming success of the Ashes which is allowing us to build a great relationship with the general public and to introduce children to the game in a way which has never been achieved before.”

Fahad Masood, the Habib Bank Limited fast bowler, achieved career-best figures of 7 for 27 as HBL defeated Pakistan Customs by eight wickets inside three days of their fifth round Patron’s Trophy Cricket Championship match, at the National Bank of Pakistan Sports Complex Stadium.After gaining a first-innings lead of 136 HBL dismissed Customs for 151 in their second innings. Needing 16 to win, HBL lost two wickets on the way before they got the required runs.Habib Bank have won all their four matches in the five-team Pool A and have 36 points. Customs, who were defeated in three of their four matches and won none, collected only three points. They will finish at the fourth spot in the points table, just above Attock Group who haven’t got any points at all.Fahad, 25, actually represents Lahore where he is settled. He started the match against Customs with exactly 200 wickets in his 56-game first-class career. After bowling normally in the first innings, with a return of 1 for 41, he was in a devastating mood in the second innings.After having lost three wickets with 46 runs on the board — two to Fahad and one to a run out — Customs were well-served by a 74-run fourth-wicket stand between Wajihuddin and Shahid Qambrani. Wajihuddin’s 37 came off 89 balls with five fours and a six while Shahid got 39 off 89 deliveries with seven fours.Fahad then got into his act, as he picked up five more inexpensive wickets and Customs’ last seven wickets crashed for the addition of only 31 runs.Earlier Farhan Iqbal and Sajid Shah added 55 for the eighth wicket. Rizwan Akbar’s fast bowling matched Zulfiqar Ali’s slow left-arm when Akbar got 4 for 98 and ended first innings at 330.Habib Bank will now join Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), both of whom qualified from Pool B, in the Quadrangular stage round that will be played from December 5 to 18. stage.Adnan Raza, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited ‘s (ZTBL) middle-order batsman, hit a splendid maiden century as ZTBL gained the first-innings lead over Attock Group, on the third day of the Patron’s Trophy Cricket Championship match at the United Bank Limited Sports Complex Ground.All ZTBL needed, at the start of this match, was to gain the three first-innings lead points in order to move ahead of defending champions National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), into the Quadrangular stage of the tournament.Both ZTBL and NBP were tied on 18 points but ZTBL had a game to spare.At 79 for 4 overnight, ZTBL were still 146 runs behind Attock Group’s first innings score of 225. Adnan came in to bat at 68 for 4 and contributed 137 of the next 184 scored. With wicketkeeper Shakeel Ansar, who scored only 15, his sixth-wicket stand was worth 103 runs. The lead was achieved after the fall of the eighth wicket. The next highest score was Umar Javed’s 40.By the close of play, Attock Group were 91 for 3 in their second innings. They have a lead of 64 runs.

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Bermuda’s recent performances have been the subject of some intense media criticism in the wake of a poor African tour where they were whitewashed by Kenya and also beaten by Netherlands and Canada. Now Richard Done, the ICC’s High Performance Manager, has questioned the side’s fitness levels.”It’s generally application of what they’ve already got,” Done told the in Bermuda. “There’s some talented players there. But I think they don’t always give themselves the best opportunity to get their minds right and their bodies right to perform on the field.”Fitness is critical, not just at this level playing one-day internationals, but also playing the longer version of the game,” he continued. “You just can’t get by without it in the modern game. West Indies, through the 1980s and Australia through the 1990s and the early part of this decade have been outstanding, and I think without doubt they’ve been the fittest sides in world cricket, and the most athletic and most physical sides playing the game. Of course, they’ve had great skill levels as well.”Gus Logie, the former West Indian batsman and current coach of Bermuda, expressed concern over the margin of defeats; Canada and Holland won by nine and seven wickets recently. “In the field, we were the slowest team in the competition,” he said. “A lot of excuses can be given. People talk about playing for their places in the World Cup, but if that’s the way they’re going to play for their places well, I’m sorry, their places will be up for grabs.”Logie was happy with the presence of David Hemp, the Glamorgan captain, who was recently recruited after he completed a 100-day residency period that allowed him to play for Bermuda. Hemp, 34, was born in Hamilton, Bermuda, but his family returned to Swansea soon after his birth. In a drawn four-day Intercontinental Cup against Holland in South Africa, he smashed an unbeaten 247 in Bermuda’s total of 620, and broke the previous mark of 220 set by Kenya’s Steve Tikolo.”Having Hemp here has been a big plus,” said Logie. “The players have been able to watch and appreciate how, as a professional, he prepares and his dedication to getting the best out of himself.”

Ricky Ponting’s “relentless” Australia will push for the second 5-0 result in Ashes history and a 12th win in a row next week in Sydney. The innings and 99-run victory at the MCG added more despair to a wretched England tour, but they can expect no let-off as the series winds down.Ponting said the side would celebrate their two days off but he wanted his players to prepare as well as they did for the first Test in Brisbane when they meet in Sydney. “When we do get to training we’ll make sure we’re ready to go,” he said. “We’ve got an opportunity to create something very special.”Warwick Armstrong’s side managed an Ashes cleansweep in 1920-21 and only Steve Waugh’s team has achieved more consecutive wins than the current outfit. By posting their 11th success this side has matched the West Indies of the mid-1980s.Shane Warne, who was the Man of the Match, refused to say this was the greatest outfit he had appeared in, but he felt the previous teams could not match the result. “To play against the second best side in the world, who are a very good side, and to be 4-0 up, I don’t think any side I’ve played with has been as good as at the moment,” he said. “It was a great exhibition from a very good team.”Ponting said Australia’s low error rate and the ability to win the important moments set them apart from their “demoralised” opponents. “When you’re playing at the standard we are and not making mistakes, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” he said. “We’ll get in as much trouble as any team in a Test, but we’ll find a way of scrapping away and getting our noses in front. When we’ve had the chance we’ve made the most of it – the Symonds-Hayden partnership in this game or the last day in Adelaide. We’ve been relentless.”Andrew Flintoff spoke for England and had no revealing answers about his side’s demise. Ponting tried to be kind to his opponents but finished with a crushing statement. “After losing a game like today after three days and winning the toss, I think they’d be pretty demoralised.”