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With the Ashes secured in historic style for another two years England’s quest for world domination now turns to the one-day game with the World Cup little over a month away. The players were put through a tough fitness session in Canberra just two days after their Ashes triumph in a clear sign they don’t want to let their momentum slip.The day after winning the Ashes in 2009 the team flew to Belfast where they held on for a one-run victory before losing the one-day series against Australia 6-1. This time they face a Prime Minister’s XI in the national capital before two Twenty20s and seven ODIs. Even though conditions in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be far different to the next four weeks it’s a vital period and Paul Collingwood believes motivation won’t be an issue.”We’ve got a few new players in who give you that extra bit of enthusiasm and spark,” he said. “It’s up to every single player to get their feet back on the ground, to keep that intensity up that we’ve been showing in practice and our preparation and hopefully transform that into our performances on the pitch.”We’ve got a group of lads who are very focused. We are very happy with what we have achieved so far on this trip, but we also realise that it’s not the end of the tour yet. We have a lot of things to do well before this World Cup. We knew it was going to be a huge six months for coming over here and then on to India afterwards and we are not finished yet.That tournament is England’s chance to complete the ultimate triple-whammy to go alongside their Ashes and World Twenty20 success, but the World Cup has often brought out the worst in England. However, the team’s success in the Caribbean last year, when they beat Australia in the World Twenty20 final to claim their first global trophy, has instilled a belief that they can compete for the main prize as well.There is also the small matter of not giving an inch to a struggling Australia over the next few weeks and living up to the tag of world champions. “We’ve won seven [Twenty20 internationals] on the trot and will set a new record if we make it eight. The guys are very focused and ambitious,” said Collingwood, England’s Twenty20 captain, who will also lead against the PM’s XI while Andrew Strauss rests.”It’s not easy to win that many games on the trot in T20. They are another two huge games for us leading into the Twenty20 World Cup and the guys are looking forward to it. Whatever form of the game it is against Australia we are desperate to win. We’ve got the momentum and obviously don’t want to let Australia back in.”After the Sydney Test defeat Michael Clarke admitted Australia will have to learn from England and Tim Paine, the PM XI’s captain and vice-captain of the Twenty20 side, said they had also laid the benchmark in the shortest format.”They certainly have recently,” he said. “They’ve been playing fantastic cricket. It’s also a new era for our Twenty20 side as well and we’ve certainly got a good side ourselves. We don’t want to let them break that world record, then we want to start something similar ourselves. We’ll be confident going into the T20 game, but England are the current world champions and it will be a huge game.”For Collingwood this is the beginning of being purely a limited-overs cricketer for England after retiring from Tests. In 14 months there is a chance for him to lead the defence of the Twenty20 crown in Sri Lanka, but his priority is using all his experience to help the World Cup campaign.”It is a new phase and that’s exciting. One of our main goals as a team is to win a World Cup, we haven’t done it as a team and we really believe we can achieve something like that,” he said. “All of our efforts over the series will be directed towards trying to win it and give us the confidence that will help us to win a World Cup.”England are likely to rest a number of their major players from the Test series who remain with the one-day squad when they take on the PM’s XI. Collingwood also hinted there could be some rotation of personnel during the limited-overs matches to keep key names fresh.”The management will, as each game goes, look at the situation and make decisions on who plays and who needs rest,” he said. “Andy Flower has been very good at identifying those times in the past. Whether we need that during the series I’m not too sure, but the guys are very focused on this World Cup coming up.”Possible England team to face PM’s XI Michael Lumb, Steven Davies (wk), Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood (capt), Eoin Morgan, Michael Yardy, Luke Wright, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes, Ajmal Shahzad, Steven Finn

Ed Joyce, the former England batsman who also plays for Sussex, has been picked in the 15-man Ireland squad for the 2011 World Cup. Ireland, led by batsman William Porterfield, have also selected allrounder Alex Cusack and seamer Boyd Rankin, players who didn’t feature in their last ODI assignment, a lost series against Zimbabwe in September. Rankin, who was Ireland’s leading wicket-taker in the 2007 World Cup, has recovered from a stress fracture in his foot that has kept him out of the team since July 2010.Joyce, who last played an ODI in 2007, was cleared by the ICC in November 2010 to represent Ireland, the country of his birth, and he subsequently joined the team in a pre-World Cup preparation camp in India. Joyce has played 17 ODIs for England, averaging 27.70, though he’s been a prolific run-getter on the List A and first-class circuit.Ireland surprised one and all in the 2007 World Cup, knocking Pakistan out of the league stage, qualifying for the Super Eights and beating Bangladesh. Nine Irish players who featured in that tournament are part of the 2011 World Cup squad.”I like the balance of the squad. As with most Irish teams of the past few years, there are quite a few allrounders, and that gives us plenty of options in all departments,” Ireland coach Phil Simmons was quoted as saying in a release. “What is different this time, from 2007, is that 13 of the 15 earn their living from cricket – that’s practically a full-time squad.”We were also able to spend a month in India acclimatising, and that will stand us in good stead.”Porterfield added: “There has been a lot of hard work put in over the past few weeks and months and being in India in November for the training has really helped the lads in getting to where they want to be.”Ireland travel to Dubai for a training camp on January 28, and play warm-up games against New Zealand and Zimbabwe in the lead-up to the World Cup.Ireland squad: William Porterfield (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, Niall O’Brien (wk), Kevin O’Brien, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, John Mooney, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Gary Wilson (wk), Andrew White, Ed Joyce.

Kevin Pietersen has denied reports that he could quit one-day cricket after this month’s World Cup.The said, on Friday, Pietersen wants to retire from one-dayers because he wants to spend more time with his family but Pietersen wrote on Twitter: “Just to set the record straight … I have NO intention of retiring from ODI’s after the World Cup!!”Pietersen, 30, has played 110 one-dayers so far, and has been in poor form in the format over the past two years. He has managed only one half-century in that time, and his average has tumbled from around 50 to 41.37.He has been a vocal critic of England’s hectic schedule. England fly out to Bangladesh on Saturday for the World Cup, just four days after returning from a three-month tour of Australia. “Our schedule is ridiculous going into this World Cup. It has been for England teams for a very long time, and that’s probably why England have not done well in World Cups,” he had said towards the end of the one-day series against Australia, which England lost 6-1.

New Zealand’s horror run of results in the subcontinent over the last year has some benefits at least. Since the tri-series with India and Sri Lanka in Dambulla in August last year, New Zealand have lost 12 of 16 ODIs in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India, the three counties hosting the World Cup. That sequence included a shattering, scene-changing 4-0 series loss to Bangladesh and a 5-0 blank-out in India.Two of their three wins in that period have come in the World Cup, against Kenya and Zimbabwe. The one big game, against Australia, was lost by seven wickets. But the lead-up to the tournament has given the side valuable time in the middle in these conditions and Tim Southee believes, regardless of the results, it may work in their favour.”We’re lucky a majority of the side came over and we played a lot of cricket on the subcontinent in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India in the last six months,” Southee said in Pallekele, ahead of the side’s game with group leaders Pakistan. “Although the results didn’t go our way and weren’t that great we learnt a lot and we’ve put those wrongs and managed to learn from those poor experiences,” Southee said.Southee has been one of the few bright spots for New Zealand in that time, picking up 13 wickets in ten ODIs in the subcontinent. He has fairly extensive experience of the conditions, having played in Sri Lanka in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup. “That was a long time ago and there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then but all that experience helps. A lot of the guys have played a lot of cricket in the subcontinent to know what to do. [For fast bowlers] It depends on each wicket and how conditions are. There’s times when it will swing and when it won’t. It’s just about being able to adapt to the conditions.”He’s the side’s leading wicket-taker, with seven in three games so far in the tournament; they are the numbers of a spearhead, though Southee is not so sure he is one. “You’re never really safe in a side where you have guys like Kyle Mills coming back and playing the way he did was outstanding. It wasn’t that long ago where he was No.1 in the world. It’s good to have that competitiveness among the bowlers. That’s a healthy thing but I guess your spot is never cemented in the side.”Pakistan will provide a stern test, but Southee believes there isn’t much between the two sides. In the six-match ODI series just before the World Cup, Pakistan triumphed 3-2 and familiarity will aid both sides. “It was a fairly close series and in all games both teams had a chance of winning,” Southee said. “We’d take confidence out of the last game at Eden Park which we won, so the guys are in a good space and looking forward to the game. It’s a chance to put the wrongs we did against Australia and turn them into rights, against a non-minnow side.”We’ve watched bits and pieces [of them] where ever we can but we’re more worried about what we want to do. Having that series against them we know a bit about them, so hopefully that proves to our advantage though it’ll be the same advantage to them. “The threats, Southee acknowledged, will come from various players, foremost among them Misbah-ul-Haq; in New Zealand Misbah scored six fifties in eight innings across Tests and ODIs. That form has filtered into the tournament, with two more half-centuries and a position atop Pakistan run-getters. “He’s in a rich vein of form so hopefully we’ve learnt from the way we bowled against him in New Zealand and we can work on a couple of things to try and put an end to that form. He’s playing exceptionally well along with the likes of [Shahid] Afridi and they have a couple of guys who are standing up in key moments in games.”Given the relative lack of surprises in Group A and the weakness of the two Associate sides, irrespective of the result against Pakistan, New Zealand should still make it to the knock-out stages, though Southee remains cautious. “It’s the kind of tournament where you take each game at a time and you don’t want to look too far ahead. We’re just looking at the Pakistan game at the moment and then we’ll move on to Canada. You can’t get complacent and look too far ahead. We still have three games to go in pool play.”

West Indies captain Darren Sammy has urged his new-look team to play with unity after their successful start in the Twenty20 against Pakistan, which the hosts won by seven runs. West Indies used five debutants in that game, which was the first Twenty20 played between the two countries, and there are several relatively new faces in the squad for the first two ODIs of the series which begins in St. Lucia on Saturday.”We have to continue to play as a team,” said Sammy. “We created some great opportunities and we took them [in the opening Twenty20]. The batsmen gave us a good total to bowl at and the bowlers followed up well. The fielding was outstanding and you could see the total commitment in the outfield. We’re happy with the positive start.”Controversy surrounded the start of West Indies’ home series against Pakistan after the omission of several senior players from the limited-overs squads.The spat between the discarded Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board quickly escalated, the board expressing its disappointment at his decision and Gayle, who smashed an unbeaten century in his first IPL innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore, offering a strongly-worded riposte. Sammy insisted the players selected were good enough to win games despite the absence of big names.”I know we have players that can do the job,” he said. “We saw how Simmons batted on his return to the team. We saw how well Bishoo bowled and won it for us. At the end there, Russell bowled an excellent last over. I looked into his eyes and saw he could do it. I could see he would do the job for us.”The tour opener at Gros Islet also marked Sammy’s first match as captain on home soil, and so he was particularly pleased with the positive result. “This is a really good way to start at home,” he said. “We planned well and the players went out and executed. Things went well and I’m happy for the team. We have a new-look team and we saw the players showing the energy and passion we asked for. They put in the maximum effort and we got the result.”The ODIs will be a different kind of challenge. Pakistan are a good one-day team and are confident following their good showing at the World Cup in Asia. We have to continue playing as a team and showing the confidence and self belief we demonstrated out there today. We have to keep winning the situations within the game and benefit from the opportunities we create.”

Zimbabwe are re-adjusting the focus of their bowling attack from spin to seam in preparation for their return to Test cricket against Bangladesh in August. Spinners have increasingly become Zimbabwe’s mainstay in limited-overs cricket, but national coach Alan Butcher believes that in order to be successful in Tests good fast bowlers are a necessity.”We are working with about 14 fast and medium-fast bowlers hoping that they will be fine-tuned to get them ready for the Test matches,” Butcher told in Zimbabwe. “In the limited-over games we would get away with playing three or four spinners and one fast bowler but for the Tests we will need more of the fast bowlers.”We have a number of young bowlers that we have brought in and we will have to fast-track some of them so that they are ready for our first Test against Bangladesh. It is a big challenge and Test matches are more challenging but we are confident we can get them ready well in time.”Before the series against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe will face Australia A in two four-day matches and a one-day tri-series also involving South Africa. Butcher pointed to the first-class games, in particular, as being vital to Zimbabwe’s preparations for home Tests against Bangladesh, New Zealand and Pakistan.”If we win those matches then it means we will be well ready for the Bangladesh Challenge. They [Australia] selected a very strong squad, never mind the ‘A’ tag, and if we can win against such a team I am sure we will be able to beat Bangladesh. We will also play a triangular 50-over series that will include South Africa and it will be important that we compete because these are two very strong teams that we will be facing.”Chris Mpofu, Shingi Masakadza and Ed Rainsford are Zimbabwe’s senior fast bowlers, but they were away on national duty for much of last season and in their absence a younger crop of largely untested seamers has come to the fore, some of whom could well feature in Zimbabwe’s Test plans.Tendai Chatara, a 20-year-old seamer with both pace and movement at his disposal, topped the Logan Cup wicket tables with 55 scalps at 17.69. Chatara has already played for Zimbabwe – in a Twenty20 against India last year – but it is his commendable first-class record that will grab the selectors’ attention.Also in the running for a Test debut is Matabeleland Tuskers allrounder Keegan Meth, who does not have Chatara’s pace but whose control and ability to move the ball brought him 54 wickets at the eye-catching average of 13.31 in nine first-class games last season, culminating in the extraordinary match figures of 13 for 109 in the Logan Cup final, won by Tuskers.Ian Nicolson, probably one of the fastest bowlers in the country, appeared out of his depth against South Africa in October but had a strong domestic first-class season. Tuskers’ Njabulo Ncube has developed into a skiddy, attacking fast bowler and, though he did not play any first-class cricket last season, Kyle Jarvis could yet force his way back into national reckoning. Jarvis, 22, bowled with impressive pace before picking up a stress fracture in his back before Zimbabwe’s trip to the Caribbean early last year. After a lengthy rehabilitation, Jarvis secured a club contract with Burwell in the East Anglian Premier League and was then picked up by Essex to play in their Second XI, starting impressively against MCC’s Young Cricketers.

Steven Finn’s performance in the Lions match at Derby has been the story of his season – feeling like he’s bowling well without getting the rewards to show for it. He went wicketless in the first innings, but claimed two important scalps in the second to help the Lions begin the process of chipping away at the Sri Lankans after an opening stand of 200.With Tim Bresnan suffering a torn calf there is a pace-bowling vacancy in the England squad which will be announced on Monday, although the chosen player is unlikely to play in Cardiff ahead of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett.Finn has fallen down the pecking order since being dropped after the third Ashes Test and Ajmal Shahzad, who has taken three wickets in the Lions match, is at the head of the queue. Finn, though, believes he has made significant strides since Australia and is far more comfortable with his own game.”The figures don’t suggest that I bowled particularly well, but this is probably the best I’ve felt this season,” he said. “This season I’ve felt a lot better than before, and a marked improvement on where I was in Australia.””I’ve been steady and consistent but haven’t quite had the eye-catching performances. But I feel far better about my cricket, and in far better place than I did when I was in Australia.”However, Finn understands that there is now huge competition for England’s fast-bowling places. He is ready to deal with the disappointment of not being in the line-up at the start of the season, but has set his sights on proving his worth.”There are guys who performed very well in Australia and people who’ve done very well in domestic cricket this season and have been taking wickets,” he said. “I’m open to criticism, and I didn’t bowl as well as I should or could have done in Australia. To come back on to home soil and have a chance to put that right has been great. I’ve always got something to prove to people that I’m good enough to get into any given Test squad.”Finn’s two wickets of Tillakaratne Dilshan, who made a 110-ball 117, and Kumar Sangakkara meant the Lions were able to regain their grip on the match during the afternoon session. Overall, though, it was a much-improved display from the visitors and with Thilan Samarweera still at the crease they’ll hope to extend the lead beyond 200 on the final day.”We applied ourselves a lot better today,” Stuart Law, Sri Lanka’s coach, said. “I think we learnt from the first innings. These are very different conditions from where the boys have come from. The ball has swung, there has been a bit of pace and bounce in the pitch and the England guys have bowled very well.”While Dilshan played the most entertaining innings, the role of Tharanga Paranavitana was equally important and Law believes he can play a vital role in the Test series. “He’s only played a few games of Test cricket but he’s really impressed,” he said. “He got a hundred against India last year and can certainly play. He’s the perfect foil for Dilshan who just plays his game while he digs in and did that beautifully today.”

Allan Donald, the newly-appointed South Africa bowling coach, wants to create an attack that is “cocky and arrogant in all the right ways,” during his time with the national team. Donald, who retired from international cricket after the 2003 World Cup, believes that bowlers who don’t back down will be key to South Africa’s success in the future.”The training ground is meant to be the most hostile,” he told ESPNCricinfo. “That’s where it must all happen so when the captain goes in the match, he will be absolutely sure of what everyone can give him.” Donald aims to use net sessions to inject a match-day type of antagonism into the bowlers, similar to the one he had in his playing days.South Africa’s bowling attack can hardly be accused of a lack of aggression, especially after their performance at the 2011 World Cup. They were the only side to bowl out their opposition in all six of their group stage matches. The pace and swing of Dale Steyn combined with the bounce of Morne Morkel has earned them the reputation of being the most feared new ball pair in Test cricket. Donald said that although the two men were as “technically sound” as can be, mindset was something that could always be worked on, both with Steyn and Morkel and with the younger players coming through the ranks.”It starts with the A team. That’s where the message must get across so that the players aren’t scared and know what international cricket is about.” Donald’s first task as the bowling coach will be to travel with the A team to Zimbabwe later this week, where they will take part in an ODI tri-series which includes the hosts and Australia A. The trip means that Donald’s work will begin a month earlier than head coach Gary Kirsten and assistant Russell Domingo, who will report for duty on August 1, because of Donald’s desire to get to know the country’s bowlers.Despite having worked with England, the Mountaineers in Zimbabwe’s domestic competition, and most recently New Zealand, Donald has never coached in South Africa. He has watched some of the bowlers but wants to take the time to get to know them in order to “get into the psyche”.Most importantly, Donald wants to create an internal environment of competition, to ensure a strong of supply of players for the national team. “I want the younger guys to punch a hole into the line up and not just sit and wait for their turn.”Donald’s commitment to developing the best South African attack he can stems from his passion for the country he represented, the one he was willing to change his future plans for at short notice. He accepted the job of bowling coach on the eve of relocating his family and signing a two-year deal with New Zealand, who he had worked with since January and was involved with when they knocked South Africa out of the World Cup in March.Donald applied for the Australian bowling job, which Craig McDermott won, before recommitting New Zealand and has expressed his commitment to them. “We had just started to spark something there and I think the players were looking forward to what was going to happen. I had been in close contact with some of the guys during the IPL, like Brendon and Nathan McCullum.”Some of New Zealand’s players, including Jacob Oram, credited Donald with teaching them to be more aggressive and infusing them with self-belief. Even though he won’t be around to continue that work, Donald says he hopes to “stay good friends” with the players and administrators at New Zealand cricket.He singled out Tim Southee and stood by his statement that the 22-year-old would go on to become the best swing bowler in the world. Donald also added to his prediction, saying that Southee has the potential to become a genuine allrounder.”He is such a talented guy. We were working on some other variations to his bowling which I hope he develops. What people don’t know about him is that he can hit a cricket ball a very long way. He has the skills to become a very good allrounder.”

New Zealand’s Chris Martin has backed fellow seamer Tim Southee to become “one of the finest” bowlers to play for the country. Southee has made an impressive start to his career that includes a 2011 World Cup haul of 18 wickets, making him the third highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Martin, who is near the end of his international career, believes Southee has it in him to build on the bright start and serve New Zealand for a long time.”He’s made a huge amount of improvement over the last year and is just at the beginning of a fine career,” Martin said on the side-lines of an event in Invercargill. “I can’t really see any problems with him physically. He’s going to be able to play as much cricket as he wants. It’s all going to be about drive.”Martin, long considered a Test specialist, is one wicket shy of becoming the fourth New Zealand bowler with 200 scalps in the longest format. “When I sit back with my pipe and slippers at some stage, it will mean a lot more,” Martin said about the impending milestone. “It feels like part of my job and part of what I do at the moment. I thought 50 was quite a lot. I’m pleased to have slowly climbed up the wicket table as I’ve gone along. I’m not finished yet.”Martin, 36, has had a relatively injury-free career, an exception to the norm among New Zealand fast bowlers, and believes he is fit enough to carry on at least until the end of the year. “I’m really professional with what I do off the field to make sure I stay on the field. I’m blessed with quite an economical action and have reasonable genetics.”At the start of last year, I felt like it might have been my last year, but I enjoyed it so much and actually played quite well. It meant I could give myself another year. We’ll have a look at the end of the year.”New Zealand’s next Test assignment is in Australia in December but Martin will be in action before that, for the Auckland Aces in September’s Twenty20 Champions League in India.

Scorecard
Alfonso Thomas claimed 6 for 60 – his best figures in English first-class cricket – as Sussex were bowled out for 245 by Somerset on the opening day of the County Championship match at Taunton.The 34-year-old all-rounder, making only his third appearance in the competition this season, bowled with pace and skill from the River End to cause havoc, beating the bat on numerous occasions in sending down 22.1 overs.Ed Joyce (59) and Murray Goodwin (55) bolstered the Sussex total but Murali Kartik took two for 63 and Steve Kirby two for 43 in an impressive Somerset bowling display.By the close the hosts had replied with 36 for one, the Championship’s leading run-maker Marcus Trescothick falling to a slip catch off Ollie Rayner for 14. Kirby made the first breakthrough for Somerset as Chris Nash, on 14, waved his bat at a wide delivery and top-edged a comfortable catch to James Hildreth at first slip.Luke Wells enjoyed some good fortune against Thomas before the seamer got his man via an outside edge to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, standing in for Craig Kieswetter who is away playing for England Lions. Joyce had played well to reach his half-century off 92 balls with eight fours. But in the final over before lunch he fell leg-before to Thomas and it was 97 for 3 at the break.Michael Yardy looked in good touch making 31 before a poorly executed pull shot off Kirby saw him well caught by Charl Willoughby to his left at fine leg.At 156 for 4 much depended on Goodwin, whose top score of 344 not out was made at Taunton. He was still there at tea, but by then Ben Brown (23) and Ollie Raynor (10) had departed to Buttler catches off Thomas and the scoreboard read 215 for 6.Goodwin reached his fifty off 107 balls with six fours before losing his wicket in uncharacteristic fashion, cross-batting Kartik to deep mid-wicket where Hildreth took a simple catch running in. Somerset were through to the tail and Monty Panesar shouldered arms to Thomas to departed lbw before Joe Anyon gave Buttler his fourth catch, feathering a leg-side delivery from Kartik.When Wayne Parnell (19) drove a catch to mid-off, Thomas completed his first six-wicket haul in the Championship. His career-best figures remain seven for 54 in South African cricket for Titans against Cape Cobras in 2005-06.Sussex ended the day on a high when Trescothick pushed forward to Rayner and edged to Yardy.