West Australian Brad Hogg doesn’t believe the surplus of left-handers in the West Indies squad will help his chances of ending his six-year exile from Tests when the Caribbean series begins in Georgetown on Thursday.Hogg has come into contention after taking nine wickets in Australia’s tour-opening match against the Guyana Board President’s XI, placing him within reach of his first Test cap since October 1996.His left-arm wrist spin will turn away from the left-handers, including Windies captain Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Wavell Hinds, and that could be important for the Australians.But Hogg doesn’t expect that to assist him as Australian selectors decide whether to take two spinners or choose between Hogg and Stuart MacGill for the Test at the Bourda ground.”There’s been no indication,” Hogg said.”Obviously Stuey has been a quality bowler over the last decade when he’s had the opportunity and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does get the nod but that’s out of our control.”Whatever situation you’re put in, whether you’re 12th man, 15th man or playing you’ve still got a job to do in a touring party.”I’m just looking forward to the opportunity of being around these guys and it’s a great bunch of quality blokes and it’s been a great team.”Andrew Bichel, MacGill and Hogg seem likely to fight for the final two bowling spots with pacemen Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee certain to play.The Australians will enter the series as firm favourites, with the Windies battling more internal problems with sacked captain Carl Hooper withdrawing from the 14-man squad.Both squads trained on Tuesday, with Windies selectors yet to announce the team which they hope can regain the Frank Worrell Trophy.

According to George Dobell, writing in the Birmingham Post, Warwickshire are lining up Kenyan leg-spinner Collins Obuya as their second overseas player for the coming season. The county have not made any comment on the possibility.New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has already signed a contract to take one of the overseas spots, but despite being linked with a number of players, none of the negotiations have borne fruit as yet.Obuya shot to prominence during the World Cup when the 21-year-old took five for 24 against Sri Lanka. In 28 one-day internationals he has taken 25 wickets at a cost of 45 apiece while his ten first-class matches have resulted in 27 wickets at 32.44. He is, however, learning all the time and could prove to be an interesting acquisition for Warwickshire.If he does sign, there is some doubt about who his captain will be. Michael Powell has broken a toe in the nets and will be out for some six weeks. Vice-captain Dougie Brown has taken over for the time being, but Nick Knight has had captaincy experience, leading the England A team to Kenya and Sri Lanka in 1998, while Mark Wagh captained Oxford University before joining the Warwickshire staff on a full-time basis.

New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond could be facing a long lay-off as a result of a back injury he picked up during Sunday’s ODI against Pakistan.Bond limped out of the match after bowling five overs, and there are fears that he may have a stress fracture in his lower back. “He’s got a terrible lower back strain," explained Jeff Crowe, New Zealand’s team manager. "We’re going to get a scan on Shane’s back when we get to Colombo.”Bond will almost certainly miss Tuesday’s one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Dambulla, and Stephen Fleming admitted that his absence had already been discussed. “You can’t replace Shane easily," he said, "but if he doesn’t play we’ll bring in Kyle Mills or Andre Adams.”Crowe added that Paul Wiseman had been asked to stay with the squad in case Bond’s injury does turn out to be serious. Wiseman was originally brought in as cover for Daniel Vettori.

Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s former captain, has bemoaned the decision toappoint two separate captains for Test and one-day cricket in a recentinterview with the .

Ranatunga also criticised the selectors for not consulting Marvan Atapattu,the current one-day captain, who they believed would be overburdened by theresponsibility of handling both jobs at the outset.”I vehemently object to having two captains for the national team,” saidRanatunga. “If Marvan (Atapattu) was not good enough for the (Test)captaincy then they should have handed it to someone who could have handledboth. I think the selectors should have consulted Marvan on the issue.””If you look at the last two one-day international championships (in Sharjahand Dambulla), where we failed to make it to the final, the problem was notthe captaincy issue but the fact they were not given a proper team. AvishkaGunawaradene, Romesh Kaluwitharana and even Upul Chandana, who made usefulcontributions in the Caribbean, were not given the nod when they were ingood touch.”

Ranatunga doesn’t doubt the captaincy skills of his former colleague, HashanTillakaratne, but he believes that he should have been given a chanceearlier instead of Sanath Jayasuriya, who was appointed after Ranatunga’ssacking. “I don’t say that Hashan is not fit for the captaincy,” he says.”He should have been made captain in 1999.”Ranatunga only recently lost the race for the cricket board presidency,winning just seven votes compared to the 121 clinched by ThilangaSumathipala. But Ranatunga rubbishes the suggestion that his candidacy was amistake.

“Actually, I am very happy with the way things went,” he claimed. “I cameforward to prove a point, which many people did not want to accept. But theman on the street understood. I chose to bell the cat, which in future willbe an example to BCCSL aspirants.””Experience has shown how an organized group is influencing the BCCSLaffairs. It culminated on June 6 when the election was held. I don’t thinkwith this situation and single good cricketer or administrator would want tocome forward.””The situation is such that even if you led Sri Lanka to five world crowns,you cannot win the BCCSL election. It is very hard to beat them. If RanilWickremasinghe, the Prime Minister, had contested, he would have lost too.”Defiant to the end, Ranatunga pledged to continue his battle. “I think thegeneral public is aware of the corrupted system and I will continue toexpose these things in the future as well.”

Graeme Smith is doubtful for the NatWest Triangular Series clash against England at Old Trafford on Thursday after injuring his shoulder during South Africa’s 46-run victory against Zimbabwe at Canterbury.Smith fell twice while attempting to catch Travis Friend in the outfield and though scans and X-rays revealed no serious damage, he faces a race against time to be fit for the day-night game.”It’s not the best preparation for the next match, but Shane (Jabbar) [the physio] and I have been working extremely hard and will continue this evening,” he said. “I had a couple of injections today which seem to have helped as well as I’m not feeling nearly as much pain. It has definitely improved a lot from Monday. If I play I will play with a fair bit of pain – but I would love to play and give 100%. I am working very hard on getting myself fit.”A final decision regarding Smith’s participation will be taken on Thursday morning. South Africa are currently bottom of the table, though they have played one game less than the other two teams. A continuous light drizzle prevented them from practising on Tuesday.

Calmore Sports face their biggest test in years when they travel to play Liphook & Ripsley tomorrow, 11.30am, in an ECB Southern Electric Premier League basement battle they dare not lose.Defeat for Calmore – already 20 points adrift at the bottom – would be unthinkable and mean virtual relegation."It needs a massive effort from everyone," said opening batsman Gary Stinson, who hit a gritty half-century in Calmore’s recent drawn match with South Wilts."There have been signs of an improvement. We might have beaten South Wilts and had Havant 58-3 when it rained last week."But this really is the big one and I believe we’ve got the ability in the team to win," he added.Calmore, minus Lord’s-bound Stuart Bailey, need a big performance from all-rounder James Hibberd."Hibbo’s been producing the goods for Hampshire 2nd XI and Wiltshire. Now we need him to do it for us," Stinson said.Liphook are doing little better in the league and have major doubts over opening bowler Tim Wheatley, who missed last week’s visit to the Academy, and 16-wicket off-spinner Alan Crawford (shoulder).Fellow strugglers Portsmouth will have Hampshire all-rounder Lawrie Prittipaul on duty against Andover at St Helen’s, Southsea.Andover are hampered by the absence of Jerry Hayward, Ian Langdown and the influential Mark Miller, who is organising a fielding clinic at the Rose Bowl.Table-topping BAT Sports will be virtually out of sight if they extend their 43-point lead at the expense of the Hampshire Academy at Southern Gardens.They are without Damian Shirazi, who is Lord’s Groundstaff duty at the Test Match, but call up King Edward VI School captain Graham Noble, who has been in good form for Hampshire Under-21s.The Academy team includes Ed Bruce – younger brother of Hampshire newcomer James Bruce – who this week became the first batsman in ten years to score consecutive centuries for Hampshire Under-16s.Bruce minor hit 122 in the U16s drawn match against Middlesex at Lensbury.Bashley (Rydal) need to complete the double over neighbours Bournemouth at Chapel Gate to stand any prospect of wresting the `time’ cricket pennant away from BAT Sports.It’s the last of the nine-week session of all-day `time’ matches and Bashley have a seven-point leeway to make up on BAT, who host the Hampshire Academy at Southern Gardens."In some ways it’s out of our hands," said Bashley’s 32-wicket strike bowler Matt King."We’ve just got to get on with the business of beating Bournemouth and hope that the Academy lads can do us a favour by holding BAT."

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