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Greg Chappell, India’s coach, has confirmed that Sachin Tendulkar is “fully fit and in good spirits” ahead of the DLF Cup in Malaysia, a tri-series involving West Indies and Australia that’s set to begin on September 12.”The time spent in the middle was excellent for Tendulkar,” said Chappell after a practice game between Virender Sehwag XI and Harbhajan Singh XI. Tendulkar got himself into form ahead of the tri-series with a fluent 83-ball 101, including 12 fours and three sixes, while opening the innings for Sehwag XI at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.Tendulkar added 164 in an opening partnership with Rahul Dravid (44), someone who he has opened with just three times in one-day internationals. “We know each other well,” said Dravid while commenting on the stand. “I have come a slot up or down, and then we have batted together on a lot of occasions over the last 10 years. It’s the same when we are opening.” He added that the opening combination for the DLF Cup would depend on the conditions and the match situation.The faster bowlers didn’t enjoy a great time in the practice games but Dravid wasn’t too harsh while judging their performance. “The conditions were pretty flat. It wasn’t easy for them. But there were lessons to be learnt for the bowlers.”Chappell was pleased with the commitment shown by Suresh Raina, who played in Saturday’s game braving an injury to his jaw. “He was desperate to get back into the middle. You always want to see that in a young cricketer. He is talented, also has character.”He was happy with the efforts of VRV Singh, the young fast bowler, and added that left-armer Rudra Pratap Singh had bounced back well in the second game. Dravid spoke about the tough challenge ahead: “These two teams [West Indies and Australia] have a good record against us in recent times. We are determined to reverse that.”He confirmed that Yuvraj Singh, recovering from a viral fever, would join the team in Kuala Lumpur.

Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, has said that he was pleased with his county stint after he captained Nottinghamshire to win the county chamionship.Fleming was happy to have returned to form during the English summer where he scored 908 runs in 11 matches at an average of 60.53. “On a personal front, the batting side went really well, so I’m feeling pretty confident about my game again,” Fleming was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz. “But winning the championship was an enormous thrill. No side has ever won the first division a year after winning the second so that is something I will never forget. I actually found it quite hard at the start walking into a successful and experienced side and that was a great challenge for my leadership skills.”Nottinghamshire’s county championship win came under much criticism from Shane Warne, the Hampshire captain and Chris Adams, the Sussex captain. While playing Kent, Fleming had an arrangement with David Fulton, the Kent captain, by which Fulton agreed to declare Kent’s innings in return for Fleming not enforcing the follow on.The arrangement was that Nottinghamshire would set Kent a target to chase, albeit a virtually impossible one of 420 runs in 70 overs, and Kent fed them runs to speed up the process. In the end Kent fell well short, being bowled out for 205 giving Nottinghamshire the county championship. “Neither of those blokes [Warne and Adams] are exactly quiet types,” said Fleming. There was some flak and we accept that but the bottom line is we were the best team and no one disputes that.”Fleming was enthralled by the Ashes series that England won 2-1. “England were able to stay at full strength till the last game whereas Australia didn’t have McGrath for a fair bit,” said Fleming. “You need your best team on the park and that is something we continually battle with by having to fire on three cylinders rather than six.”Fleming will captain New Zealand on their tour of South Africa in October 2005 to play five one-day matches. “I support any move that will have Chris [Cairns] at full fitness for the World Cup [in March 2007 in the West Indies],” said Fleming after Cairns was left out of the team for the South Africa tour. He termed Cairns’ omission as disappointing but added that he understood the selectors’ thinking.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has revealed that the Pakistan board didn’t take him into confidence in the matter of appointing a new coach. Speaking to The News, Inzamam stated he had no idea that Javed Miandad would be replaced by Bob Woolmer.”Initially, I heard something about the board trying for a foreign coach. But then later on I got the impression things were settled between the board and Miandad and he would continue,” Inzamam told the daily. “I had no idea Woolmer was in line to take charge of the team.”Speaking about Miandad’s tenure as coach, Inzamam said: “Javed was sincere as a coach. I didn’t have any communication problems with him. We collectively tried to do what was best for the team. But it is a board decision and I have to go with it. Their decision obviously is based on future planning.”Looking forward to the training camp which begins on July 2, Inzamam stated that it would give him an opportunity to familiarise himself with Woolmer’s training techniques. “I will get to know what his methods are to bring about improvements in the team. But I have not had any direct interaction with the man so far in my career.”He also pointed out the difference between Woolmer and Richard Pybus, the South African who had unsuccessful stints as coach of Pakistan. “The way I look at it, Pybus was a sincere individual but he was trying to establish himself as a coach of international standing. Woolmer does not need to establish his credentials. He is a proven performer and has produced results with Warwickshire and South Africa. He has achieved results and that is his biggest strength when he works with our team.”Looking ahead to the challenges for the team, Inzamam pointed out that the most important task would be to inject more discipline and professionalism among the players. “Hopefully Woolmer would be able to introduce both these things among our players to make them consistent performers.”Woolmer’s first assignment with the team will be the six-nation Asia Cup, which starts in Sri Lanka on July 16.

ECB and the counties have extended their partnership with BBC Local Radio around the country to provide unrivalled audio coverage of the new Twenty20 Cup.

All the five launch-day matches on June 13 will be streamed live online, as will the complete opening weekend line-up and many of the games through the June group stages of the competition. Finals Day from Trent Bridge on July 19 will be broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live, and streamed online.

The links can be accessed from the Live Audio section on ecb.co.uk (as well as county websites and BBC Local Radio sites) and will be updated to allow you to keep right up to date with all the action in this exciting new domestic event.

And if you’re a fan of either Worcestershire or Northants and want to hear suitably partisan coverage of their opener at New Road, then you’re in luck as you can listen to either BBC Hereford & Worcester or BBC Radio Northampton with both stations streaming live commentary.

There will also be live coverage of the official Twenty20 curtain-raiser between south coast rivals Hampshire and Sussex from a sell-out Rosebowl courtesy of BBC Radio Solent, as well as the capital derby between Surrey and Middlesex from the AMP Oval on BBC London 94.9.

To complete the first-day line-up, you can listen to BBC Radio Nottingham’s coverage of Nottinghamshire up at Durham, or BBC WM as Somerset host Warwickshire at Taunton.

Twenty20 audio schedule:

Fri June 13
Durham v Nottinghamshire
BBC Radio Nottingham
Somerset v Warwickshire
BBC WM
Worcestershire v Northamptonshire
BBC Hereford & Worcester
BBC Radio Northampton
Hampshire v Sussex
BBC Radio Solent
Surrey v Middlesex
BBC London 94.9

Sat June 14
Yorkshire v Derbyshire
BBC Radio Derby
Surrey v Essex
BBC London 94.9BBC Radio Essex
Gloucestershire v Worcestershire
BBC Hereford & Worcester

Mon June 16
Leicestershire v Yorkshire
BBC Radio Leicester
Nottinghamshire v Lancashire
BBC Radio Nottingham
Glamorgan v Northamptonshire
BBC Radio Wales
Kent v Hampshire
BBC Radio Solent
Surrey v Sussex
BBC London 94.9

Identifying the 50/50 situations capable of turning Test matches, quicker than opposing sides, made Australia an awesome force but Stephen Fleming is undeterred as he takes his New Zealand team across the Tasman at the weekend fully geared to have a crack at the world champions.Fleming, who watched Australia’s Ashes tour while on duty with Middlesex in the English summer, said it was that ability to regularly sum up situations that saw Australia shine brighter than the home side.It is a sign Fleming knows from his own experience when Australia toured here two summers ago and provided the same chances which the New Zealanders were unable to pick up.Recognising those chances, and capitalising on them, will be central to New Zealand’s hopes of making an impression on the great fortress that is Australia’s Test side.With that in mind the non-tour of Pakistan should at least ensure New Zealand goes to Australia with a full-strength team.”I must admit that sending us to Pakistan before Australia to me was a bit like South Africa last year when we suffered so many injuries.”But the guys appear in good shape and I am excited by having them [Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Shayne O’Connor and Daniel Vettori] available.”There is naturally some apprehension they will get through but firstly getting them there is the great thing.”I am also excited by what’s left behind with the stand-by players all being quality players which means there is great competition for places and that is a strength for us,” Fleming told CricInfo today.He wasn’t prepared to say the return of such a core of bowling experience was the icing on the selection cake.”What we’ve got are the ingredients for the icing, we’ll just have to stir the mixture as much as we can to see how it comes out in the baking,” he said.Now New Zealand’s most capped Test captain, Fleming believes Australia is beatable.”But it will take a mammoth effort and it involves us implementing our own plans. The more we are under pressure from them the less chance we have of beating them,” he said.From his own point of view, Fleming, after his Middlesex season, wants to keep the consistency that has developed in his batting and to add the big scores his Test cricket CV needs.”I want to lead from the front,” he said.That requires a change in fortunes for Fleming who in six Tests and 12 innings against Australia has managed only 242 runs at 20.17.The measure of the work he has done in England would be seen in the Test matches.”I achieved many of the things I wanted to, and it is a cast of confirming things in the middle,” he said.Fleming said he regularly works with former Test captain and batsman Martin Crowe on his batting and since returning from England had two sessions to work on batting matters.Improving his record against the Australians is not a need he shares alone. For New Zealand to be competitive, all the batsmen need to up the ante.Fleming acknowledged that the pressure was on the top order to perform against the Australian attack because they were so good at creating pressure after early breakthroughs.The New Zealand team, without Cairns, leaves for Australia on Friday. Cairns will join the team in Queensland on October 20.

ScorecardChris Rushworth took his 80th scalp of the season as wickets tumbled at Chester-le-Street•Getty Images

On a day when 19 wickets fell at a heavily overcast Chester-le-Street, the one which got away proved costly for Durham.Dawid Malan was dropped first ball and went on to reach 56 as Middlesex recovered from 29 for four to close the second day on 118 for 4 in their second innings, leading by 145.As the sun threatened to put in an appearance in the final hour conditions eased and no wickets fell in the last 20 overs as Neil Dexter assisted Malan in the revival.Durham also lacked support for Chris Rushworth, who took three for six in seven overs to equal Ottis Gibson’s Durham record (set in 2007) of 80 first-class wickets in a season, 75 coming in the championship. He returned for three overs at the end without joy as Dexter moved on to 46.Malan was put down at third slip by Gordon Muchall, spoiling a day on which he made his first home half-century in the Championship for four years. He was last out for 64 with Durham’s total on 169.The drop also marred Graham Onions’ day as he had just had Nick Compton lbw to add to his 7 for 68 in dismissing Middlesex for 196 in their first innings.Resuming on 141 for 5, Middlesex lost Dexter to the second ball of the day, completing Onions’ second five-wicket haul of the season. The ball stood up off a good length to take the shoulder of the bat on the way to Ryan Pringle at fourth slip.There were six slip catches in the innings, with Paul Collingwood holding four at first and Muchall taking a sharp one at third to give Onions his revenge after Toby Roland-Jones had taken 15 off his previous over.When Durham batted Roland-Jones struck timber in both his first two overs, Mark Stoneman playing across a full-length ball to lose his leg stump before Graham Clark shouldered arms to one which didn’t have to deviate much to hit off stump.It became 7 for 3 when Collingwood was squared up by a ball from Tim Murtagh which lobbed off a thick edge for Compton to dive to his right at gully to hold an excellent catch.Roland-Jones produced a beauty to have Scott Borthwick caught behind and two wickets in two balls for James Harris had Durham rocking on 51 for 6.Debutant James Weighell began the recovery when he went in to face Harris’s hat-trick ball and scored 19 off his first seven balls.With Muchall briefly joining in the spree 31 came off 15 balls, but only four more were added before Weighell drove at Harris, bowling round the wicket, and lost his off stump for 25.John Hastings helped Muchall add 30 before slicing to deep cover and there was a second wicket for Dexter when Rushworth fell to a sensational one-handed catch by Roland-Jones, diving to his left at mid-off.Onions contributed 13 not out to a last-wicket stand of 39 before Muchall guided Murtagh to James Franklin at slip.When Middlesex went in again Rushworth nipped the second ball back to take out Sam Robson’s leg stump. Paul Stirling flashed wide of off stump and edged behind and Franklin was lbw when half forward.Onions snared Compton, but with Hastings struggling Durham’s lack of back-up allowed Malan and Dexter to ease Middlesex’s jitters.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum will retire from all forms of international cricket at the end of the home series against Australia in February 2016. McCullum, 34, made the announcement in Christchurch a day after his team won the Test series against Sri Lanka 2-0.McCullum will not play the World T20 in March in India, where Kane Williamson will captain the New Zealand team. He will play his 100th Test against Australia in Wellington from February 12 – the first player to play so many consecutive matches from debut – and retire after the second and final Test of that series, in Christchurch from February 20.McCullum said he would have preferred to reveal his retirement after the series against Australia, but the impending announcement of New Zealand’s World T20 squad had forced his hand.”Ideally, I would have preferred to wait until after the Test in Christchurch to make this news public,” he said today. “However, the schedule for naming the ICC World T20 squads means I couldn’t have managed this without causing a lot of confusion and speculation – something I was keen to avoid. I’ve loved my opportunity to play for, and captain the Blackcaps, but all good things have to come to an end, and I’m just grateful for the wonderful experience of playing for my country.”There’s a time and place for reflection and that’s at the end of your career. For now, I’ll be giving all my attention to helping the team focus on what’s coming up over the next few weeks – and making sure we’re in the best possible shape for what’s going to be a very challenging summer.”McCullum had stepped into the New Zealand captaincy amid much controversy over the sacking of previous captain Ross Taylor, and his first Test series as captain, in 2013, was disastrous. That series featured an innings of 45 all out for New Zealand in Cape Town, and brought the team two innings defeats.But New Zealand made significant strides under McCullum in the years since. In particular, he was credited with formulating New Zealand’s highly aggressive brand of cricket, which has brought them much success, especially at home. With the victory against Sri Lanka in Hamilton on Monday, McCullum’s New Zealand equalled the team’s longest undefeated home streak, of 13 Tests. McCullum’s current 11 victories from 29 matches also makes his win percentage the highest of any New Zealand captain, marginally better than that of Geoff Howarth, whose team had 11 wins from 30 games.McCullum’s captaincy also saw the blossoming of several New Zealand players. Trent Boult and Tim Southee have become one of the most feared new-ball pairs in the world during the past three years, while 25-year old batsman Kane Williamson has become the top-ranked Test batsman. New Zealand also played in their first World Cup final in March, under McCullum.As a batsman, McCullum had been a high-impact, aggressive player for much of his career, batting largely in the middle order in Tests, and as an opener in the shorter formats. Recent years have seen improvements in his defensive game. In 2014, he became New Zealand’s first triple-centurion, against India in Wellington. He was also the first New Zealand batsman to breach 1000 runs in a calendar year in 2014, having also hit a double-century against Pakistan, and 195 against Sri Lanka that year. McCullum is currently the joint-record holder for most Test sixes alongside Adam Gilchrist. He had hit his 100th six in the recent Test in Dunedin, and later said: “It’s the only record I care about.”Having been designated wicketkeeper for 52 of his 99 Tests, McCullum also has 194 Test catches and 11 stumpings to his name.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the two Pakistan bowlers who returned positive dope tests last year, have cleared the latest tests held at the fitness and training camp in Karachi earlier this week.”Akhtar and Asif are among 26 players who have cleared these tests for which weasked urgent reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] accredited laboratoryin Malaysia,” Ahsan Malik, the Pakistan board’s director of communications, told .The PCB had ordered dope tests for all camp attendees and had decided to hold back naming the squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship until results were received. Both Shoaib and Asif were the focus of attention as they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone and were handed bans last year which were overturned later.Malik said the PCB had expected all tests to be negative in accordance with its zerotolerance policy on doping. He also said that three players – Younis Khan, Danish Kaneria and Yasir Arafat currently involved in county cricket – were tested in England and the samples were sent to the same WADA-accredited laboratory as the rest of the squad.The third and final fitness and training camp with special emphasis on the forthcoming Twenty20 World Championship concludes on Monday with the squad announcement expected next week as well.

Matthew Elliott, the South Australia batsman, has spoken of his desire to return to Glamorgan as a player, and, in the longer term, to become a member of their coaching staff.Elliott, who has fully recovered from the troublesome knee injury which ruined his county campaign last season, telephoned the Glamorgan chief executive Mike Fatkin earlier this week to discuss the possibility of returning to Sophia Gardens in 2007.”I had a very positive discussion with Mike and it was really good of him to say that Glamorgan would talk to me first before signing any overseas players for next year,” Elliott told the South Wales Evening Post.The 34-year-old Elliott is half way through his coaching qualifications in Australia, and sees coaching as the ideal progression from playing: ”When I am qualified, and after retiring, I would be very interested in joining Glamorgan’s coaching staff as a batting coach”.For the moment though, he is focused on playing, which he hopes will include a spell with Glamorgan next summer: ”I want to keep playing for a few years yet and it would be nice to return to Sophia Gardens and help the development of the clubs younger players”.

After being reappointed Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that there are no fissures in the side, and certainly no personality clash with Rahul Dravid, who had led the side while he served out a four-match suspension. While admitting that the team’s performance had declined over the past season, Ganguly categorically denied that different camps had sprung up within the squad.”I want to make it very clear that there is no rift, no trouble, no problem between us [himself and Dravid],” he said, in an interview with . “Rahul has also made that very clear. We know each other for a long time, we know how things work here. We’ve had a great working relationship, and we hope to continue our partnership.”Ganguly was also loathe to compare Dravid’s style of leadership with his own. “Basically, every captain has his own way,” he said. “We have different styles but any two people will have different styles of leading a team. We may react differently to the same situation. “I’m not going to comment of which style is better because it is a very relative thing.”The debacle in the tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka continued India’s miserable run in one-day internationals since the team led by Ganguly lost the World Cup final to Australia in 2003. Admitting that the slump was a matter of concern, Ganguly said:”Winning is a habit and we’ve got out of that habit. We just need to get a few wins under our belt, and then everything will get back in order.”When we were losing last time in 2002, we got a few wins in the West Indies and that sparked off a great run, starting from England right to the Pakistan series last year. We just need to make something like that happen again.”There were plenty of frayed tempers on show in Sri Lanka, but Ganguly brusquely refuted suggestions that it had become every-man-for-himself. “No, I don’t believe that,” he said, when asked whether it was true that the team had become faction-ridden. “But if anyone does this kind of stuff, they will themselves suffer. The most important thing is to have a winning team.”If you’re part of a side that’s losing, whatever you do, all 16 members of the team will be shaky and unsteady. Scoring big runs or taking lots of wickets doesn’t help anyone’s cause if the team is losing.”Having gone through a wretched run of form at the end of last season, Ganguly accepted that there would be pressure on him the next time he walked to the crease. “I just got into a very bad patch during that [Pakistan] series. I was in bad form, and I’m not trying to make excuses, I didn’t play well. If you don’t play well, you will get under pressure.”However, he pooh-poohed notions that his perceived frailty against the short ball had been his undoing of late. “If I genuinely had a problem against short bowling, I wouldn’t have scored runs in international cricket for the last nine years,” he said. “People would have figured me out long back. You can take a look at the stats, it’s just a monkey that’s riding on my back. Some people keep writing about it, that’s all.”Ganguly, who scored a brilliant century at Brisbane in December 2003 after being greeted with headlines about “chin music” buttressed his argument by pointing out the case of his old adversary. “Steve Waugh always looked uncomfortable against the rising ball, but look at how well he did. It’s not about how you look, it’s about how many runs you score.”