When Makhaya Ntini speared one in to Mohammad Sami and had him caught off the inside edge by Mark Boucher, he became only the third South African – and the 21st bowler in the world – to get to the 300-wicket club in Test cricket. It was a well-deserved milestone for a bowler who is at the peak of his powers and has been leading the team’s bowling attack for more than a year now.Back on March 20, 1998 Ntini began his Test career with a caught-Boucher dismissal – Aravinda de Silva was the victim then – and in nine years since then, many other accomplished batsmen have fallen to his pace and his sharp indippers. (Click here for Ntini’s complete list of wickets). More lately, though, he has added another bow to his armour – the delivery which straightens after pitching – and that has made him a significantly more potent bowler – his last 100 wickets have come in a mere 19 Tests.

Not only has Ntini been the leading bowler for South Africa in the last couple of years, he has been among the best in the world. Since 2005, he has averaged more than five wickets per Test, while the rate of 23.53 runs per wicket has been bettered only by Muttiah Muralitharan and Glenn McGrath.

Among South African bowlers, Ntini has been far and away the best since 2005. Shaun Pollock, who incidentally also reached the 300-mark in his 74th Test, has only averaged 32 during this period.

Ntini’s stock delivery has been the one bowled from wide of the crease angling into the right-hander, and while that has made it very tough for him to win lbw verdicts, it has been the ideal ball to nail left-handers. The three batsmen he has dismissed most often in his Test career are all left-handers – Marcus Trescothick has fallen to him nine times, while Chris Gayle (eight) and Matthew Hayden (seven) have succumbed to him pretty often too.That angle, though, has made it extremely tough for him to win lbw decisions – only 20 of his 301 wickets have been won in that fashion, a percentage of just 6.78. Among bowlers with at least 200 wickets, only Bishan Bedi, India’s left-arm spinner, has a lower percentage. Ntini’s preferred modes of dismissal are caught by fielders (51%), bowled and caught by wicketkeeper (21% each). Boucher has accounted for 60 catches off his bowling – only off Pollock has he taken more catches (79).

Despite all the successes in the last couple of years, there’s still one area that needs huge improvement – his record abroad. Ntini averages a poor 38.08 runs per wicket in 34 overseas Tests, in which he has only managed 98 wickets. In his last eight series away from home, only twice has he finished with an average of less than 30. In home games, on the other hand, his stats read an outstanding 203 wickets from 40 games, at an average of 22.65. That’s one stat he will want to rectify before he finishes his career.

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Ian Butler and Devon Smith turned in stellar performances with the ball and bat to secure Windward Islands’ spot in the KFC Cup final against Trinidad. Butler took 4 for 30 to restrict Barbados to 155 and Smith carried his bat through the chase to lead Windward to victory by three wickets at the Arnos Vale Ground in St Vincent.Butler backed up Rawl Lewis’s decision to bowl first by taking four of the top five Barbados wickets in quick time. They were struggling at 92 for 5 at one stage, a position from which they never sufficiently recovered. Floyd Reifer top-scored for Barbados with 42 but their hopes of a fightback were snuffed out by Rawl Lewis, who took 3 for 29.Chasing a modest target of 156, Windward lost Lyndon James for 13. After a partnership of 42 for the second wicket, Smith lost Andre Fletcher and Miles Bascombe in quick succession and Windwards were struggling at 62 for 3. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals but Smith, who struck 75, provided a steadying hand right through. The required run-rate was never a problem and Smith held up one end as wickets fell at the other to take Windward home with 35 balls to spare.

Now that both India and Sri Lanka have announced their 15-member squads for theWorld Cup, the third one-dayer at Goa on Wednesday will provide a sneak preview about their respective strategies.India, as they have been doing over the last six games – four against West Indies and two against Sri Lanka – will continue to ask questions of themselves. Sri Lanka,wearing a more settled look and with a lead in the series, will havemore on the agenda – to seal the series and avenge the 6-1 drubbingwhen they last toured India. Quite against the run of form, theyhad lost out in the first round of the Champions Trophy too. For Indiathis match is another part of a protracted finetuning, for Sri Lankaanother step in a confidence-building exercise, while the 27,000 or soGoans, who will be packing the stadium to the rafters, would surely want to witness another humdinger of a contest.India go in with a few changes from the previous game. Irfan Pathan is still not 100 per cent fit and will miss out, while Sreesanth will be rested. Anil Kumble will miss the match due topersonal reasons. Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar are set to makea comeback, while Dinesh Karthik is most likely to make way for YuvrajSingh. Sourav Ganguly batted with a bandage on his left thumb – he had injured his thumbat Rajkot – and looked in a bit of discomfort early on. But after a few knocks, helooked okay, as Dravid later confirmed. Suresh Raina and RP Singh, stand-in for the unfit players, were expected to join the team later in the day and not play tomorrow.Yuvraj’s fitness and form will be closely watched as he will be the most crucial batsman inthe Indian middle-order for the World Cup. Last April, at the same venue, he had looked unstoppable. Probably at the brightest of his purple patch then, he had decimatedEngland with a 76-ball 103. He is yet to get a century since and willlook for a happy return to form. After a cruciate ligament tear duringthe Champions Trophy forced him out of international action, he hasplayed only two one-dayers, against West Indies in therecently-concluded series. In those two matches, he did not show anypalpable signs of his earlier form, and was forced out of the next twogames against Sri Lanka because of back spasms. At the nets today Yuvraj batted, bowled, and fielded with a knee cap on. “In the last couple of games he had back spasms. He’s fielded and batted. We feel he is fit enough to be considered in the 12. So we picked him,” said Rahul Dravid at the pre-match press conference.The other closely-watched Indian player will be Sehwag.Sometime ago his opening slot was set in stone; now recalled, the teamis not sure where to use him. He batted in the middle-order in thelast game and scored 19 off 23 before featuring in a soft late-cutdismissal. Dravid said they had notruled out the option of Sehwag opening the innings tomorrow. “”We areall hoping he comes good. I think he’s an innings away from cominggood. If it happens tomorrow, great, if he doesn’t we’ll just have towait a little longer.”Sri Lanka have not chosen their twelve sofar and will take one final look at the pitch tomorrow morning beforedoing so. Missing from the nets was Kumar Sangakkara who had come downwith an upset stomach. Sangakkara had scored a century at Rajkot andwon the man-of-the-match award. But Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankancaptain, didn’t sound worried. “It is nothing serious as such, he hada stomach upset in the morning. We felt that he doesn’t need to cometo the practice. He should be okay tomorrow,” Jayawardene said.

With a series to be won, the Sri Lankans are not expected toexperiment too much – two of their 15-man squad on this tour are notgoing to the World Cup and hence may not feature in this match. “Everygame is a motivation for us. Winning is a good habit to have. We wantto win every game and that has been the attitude for the last 12months. The team that wants to beat us have to play really well.Winning the series would be a great achievement,” Jayawardene said.After losing the last match at Rajkot, Dravid, mindful that he was not leading the youngest team around, had conceded that a superior fielding effort from Sri Lanka had made the difference in the end. Fielding was indeed the focus for the first forty minutes at the netstoday. After the team had a meeting for around 45 minutes, withall the members sitting on the ground in a circle, they got intofielding and running-between-the-wickets practice before they went forthe nets. Greg Chappell, the coach, chucked balls at Ian Frazer, theteam biomechanist, while the fielders ran in to field and throw andtwo batsmen were made to run between the wickets at the same time. SriLanka followed a more orthodox routine at the nets, an indicator of lesser concerns in fielding.The pitch at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda looks a batting beauty, agood flat one-day track as the euphemism would have it. Both thecaptains were of the opinion that the pitch should produce a bigscore while Dravid thought it would help spinners in the latter partof the day. Suryakant Naik, the curator, said the wicket would playevenly through the day, predicting 280 to 300 should be a good score.The weather in Goa promises to be rain-free, with temperaturesexpected to range between 26 and 31 degree Celsius. Humidity of 59 percent is expected. India have played four matches at the Nehru Stadiumand have lost three – two of them to Sri Lanka, who have played onlyone other game here, losing to Australia in 1989-90.Squads:India (from): 1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 RobinUthappa, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Virender Sehwag, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 MunafPatel, 11 Zaheer Khan, 12 Dinesh Karthik.Sri Lanka (from): 1 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3Upul Tharanga, 4 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5 Marvan Atapattu, 6Tillakaratne Dilshan, 7 Chamara Silva, 8 Russel Arnold, 9 UpulChandana, 10 Farveez Maharoof, 11 Lasith Malinga, 12 Dilhara Fernando,13 Malinga Bandara, 14 Nuwan Zoysa, 15 Nuwan Kulasekera.

“Herschelle, at what stage did you realise it was a million dollars and not a million bottles of Johnnie Walker that was up for grabs?”The question was irreverent and came at the very tail-end of the press conference, but it was worthy of being asked. Herschelle Gibbs hasbeen accused of many things in his career, but an ambassador for responsible drinking is surely not one of them.And yet, the man who once claimed his return to form against West Indies had come on the back of “a pizza and a couple of Jack Daniels”had just won a whisky company’s million-dollar challenge as the first man in the World Cup – and all international cricket for that matter -to slam six sixes in an over. The company in question, Johnnie Walker, apparently encourages the players in this tournament to “know theirboundaries”. In a colourful career that has encompassed match-fixing scandals, racism charges and dope-smoking, Gibbs has certainly crossed many more boundaries than the seven he pulled off today.”The message came out that Jacques Kallis and I could have a dip, and we probably had a bigger dip than was needed,” Gibbs said.”After the fourth one, I thought it could be on. I thought about using my feet and coming down the pitch, but then I changed my mind anddecided to stay in the crease. The idea was for me to have another two goes at it [the record] and luckily I didn’t miscue any of them, so it was quite nice.”They weren’t miscues by any stretch of the imagination, but conventional shots they were not. Smears one and all, over long-off,long-on and midwicket, it was arguably some of the most reckless driving ever seen on a cricket pitch. “If the ball presents itself, I’ll try everything,” he said. “I was lucky the straight boundaries were quite small but the six sixes was a bonus, it was just nice to get a hit in the middle.”Related

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• Netherlands v South Africa, Group A, St Kitts

“Nice” was not an adjective the Netherlands captain, Luuk van Troost, was about to use in a hurry. Looking utterly shell-shocked, he gave an honest assessment of a gruelling day. “They totally outplayed us,” he said. “This was world-class batting and the small boundaries were never going to help us. In the end we didn’t do well enough, simple as that.”I was quite happy with the start actually,” he said after South Africa struggled to 4 for 1 after five overs. “But after that they were cruising. After we came off everyone was very negative, obviously, and so we thought, well, let’s try to get them. It’s the only way.”van Troost said his team had been suckered by the torrential morning rain, and erred in omitting both of their frontline spinners,Muhammad Kashif and Adeel Raja. Into the breach, and straight into history, stepped Daan van Bunge and his part-time legbreaks. “Daanbowled very well against Kenya and we thought he could be our spinner,” van Troost said. “Well, it didn’t work out very well that plan!”What followed was an onslaught straight out of the annals of village cricket. “What can you say? There were a few good balls in it and a few shit balls,” van Troost said. “I told Daan after the third ball, ‘try to bowl a quicker one’. He said, ‘I just did!’ He had some flashbacks since then. Seriously, he started laughing as he was sitting in the dressing-room. Before the game we said let’s make history today, well, we made history!”It’s terrible to be a captain in that situation. For the last couple of overs I didn’t know where to put my players any more or where to bowl. I thought I’ll take the last over, someone’s got to do it.” In the event, he too felt the wrath of a well-set international cricketer, as Kallis lashed each of his final three deliveries into the pavilion.The nightmare, however, may only just be beginning for Holland. In two days they take on the Australians and van Troost was wincing atthe prospect. “I don’t want to think about it now,” he said. “We’ve just got to take the positives out of this performance. The first tenovers were pretty good, I thought our fielding was pretty good, and Ryan ten Doeschate got a good 60. But perhaps tomorrowwe’ll have a team meeting and find a new game plan. We have to improve a lot in the next two days.”

Andrew Symonds, Australia’s pivotal allrounder, looks set to be passedfit for Australia’s crucial Group A encounter against South Africa,although a final decision will be delayed until the eve of Saturday’s match.”He’s pretty much trained unrestricted, or with limited restriction,so they [the selectors] have had a good chance to look at himthemselves,” Alex Kountouris, the team physiotherapist, said. “He’sgoing alright. His batting is unrestricted, his bowling isunrestricted. Most parts of his fielding are unrestricted. He’s comingalong pretty well. We’re just building up his throwing.”The throwing aspect would appear to be the biggest barrier toSymonds’ early recall. Though his recovery from a torn right biceps isahead of schedule, he has been attempting returns of no morethan 25-30 metres which, even on a ground as notoriously small asWarner Park, is short of a full boundary’s length.”From my point of view, I just want to get him right and obviously Iwant it to be 100% but I’m realistic, ” said Kountouris. “He’s hadsurgery not that long ago, so I’m just trying to get him to thehighest possible level that I can, and let the others make thedecision on what he can and can’t do, and whether they want to playhim or not.”We haven’t actually cleared him to play, there’s still a couple morethings that we want him to do until we reach that point and we’vestill got a couple more days to do it. But he’s got a very positiveattitude. He’s not demanding [selection], but he’s confident with whathe can do, which is what you want. You want someone to be positiveafter coming back from a long-term injury.”Symonds is not the only member of the Australian squad who is itchingto get stuck into their first big contest of this World Cup. “The boysare so pumped up for this game, they can’t wait,” Michael Hussey,whose contributions have been limited by the successes of hiscolleagues higher up the order, said. “It’s a huge game and we want to betested. We want a real serious contest and see how it pans out.”Recent Australia-South Africa encounters have been marked by a glut ofcomments flying back and forth between the two camps, but forthis match, the hype has been more measured. “The teams have a healthyrespect for each other,” Hussey said, “but I think they’ve realisedthat that sort of banter doesn’t really work.”You can have all the mind games you want and all the slanging matchesgoing back and forth. But at the end of the day I don’t think itreally works at all. What matters is out on the field. It’s how wellyou play the game. These are two proud countries with two pretty proudhistories. It’s just such an important game.”The short boundaries at Warner Park have raised several eyebrows inthe opening four matches of the tournament, with many punditspredicting record totals in Saturday’s match. “As a batsman you alwayslook at a ground and target certain areas,” Hussey said. “At Auckland,for instance, it’s slightly off-centre for the left-hander, so you lookto adapt. But I don’t change my training too much. I just make surethe basics are in order then practise a few hard-hitting shots at theend.”Even so, Australia will have taken note of the success that Scotland’stail had against South Africa’s death bowlers, Andrew Hall and CharlLangeveldt, clubbing them for 55 runs in five overs on Tuesday. “Idon’t really want to say they’ve got a problem in that area,”Hussey said, “because in one-day cricket and on these grounds you can gothe journey a bit in those last few overs.”We’re going to be targeting a lot of areas, not just one or two. We need a complete game of cricket, because if we don’t comeoff in just one of our areas, we’ll come up short. We’ll be focusingon a full 100 overs, rather than just their death bowling, but for usthere’s going to have to be a little more planning from the bowlingpoint of view. We need to get them to hit the ball in different areas,instead of attacking those straight boundaries.”

Ricky Ponting is confident Australia’s strong record in big matches will help them through the semi-final with South Africa in St Lucia on Wednesday. The teams are set to play for a place in the decider after South Africa thrashed England on Tuesday.”It was a big game for them, but not as big as a World Cup semi-final or final,” Ponting said in The Australian. “We have a great record in those games and we are looking forward to playing them. It’s a little way off. We have a good game to play against New Zealand first, but we are very excited about the prospect of playing South Africa.”Australia’s most famous success against South Africa came in the 1999 World Cup semi-final when they tied the game at Edgbaston and went through to the final on a superior run-rate. However, Australia lost the most recent series 3-2 when South Africa overhauled Australia’s 434 to take the trophy. “They have been good rivals of ours,” he said. “They have played excellent cricket of late against us as well.”Ponting is wary of the depth of South Africa’s side and considers them a threat on the Caribbean surfaces. “By the looks of things they might have got conditions to suit them a little bit with their bowling early on, but their batting was very good,” he said. “They are a dangerous side.”

Holly Colvin and Lydia Greenway were the stand-out performers on the opening weekend of Super 4s action. Colvin, the England left-arm spinner, took 5 for 7 and Lydia Greenway hit 147 runs over the two days. Ebony Rainford-Brent also impressed in her first outing in the Super 4s.During the first round of matches, Rosalie Birch’s Sapphires fell to defeat against a strong Diamonds outfit. Jenny Gunn began the competition in fine form, hitting 51 and captain Nicky Shaw chipped in with 43 not out as the Diamonds reached 196 for 4. In reply the Sapphires were all out for 154, Kent spinner Jo Watts taking 3 for 10.In the second match on Saturday the Rubies beat the Emeralds by seven wickets. The Emeralds, batting first, reached 207 for 7, with Beth Morgan making 44 and Laura Joyce 40. In reply Greenway smashed an unbeaten 87 as they reached their target with 5.1 overs remaining.The Rubies remained unbeaten for the weekend as they beat the Sapphires by 66 runs on Sunday. Greenway once again led the way making 60 before falling to Jenny Laycock, who returned impressive figures of 4 for 7, including three wickets in four balls. In reply Colvin picked up her five-wicket haul as the Sapphires were bowled out for 61.The Emeralds won their match against the Diamonds by 15 runs. Jane Smit made the highest score of the innings, 39, for the Emeralds before being run out by Gunn, as they made 167 for 9. In reply, the Diamonds fell to 152 all out, as only Kate Oakenfold made a contribution with 44.After the first weekend of matches, the Rubies are unbeaten and sit at the top of the table, whilst last year’s winners the Sapphires are yet to open their account and sit at the bottom of the table.

Given that this is the eve of the Old Trafford Test match, England’s captain Michael Vaughan might have preferred to be concentrating on such matters as personal preparation and team selection. Instead he was being forced to justify his controversial comments earlier this week, when he seemed to lay the blame for England’s World Cup disaster at the feet of his colleague and team bon viveur, Andrew Flintoff.Whatever the motives or otherwise behind Vaughan’s “despicable” comments (as they were branded by Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive), Flintoff will not be on hand to provide his own riposte – except when the pair sit down for a peace-making lunch today. Last week he underwent his third bout of ankle surgery in as many years, and could yet be missing for the entire summer. But despite the furore, Vaughan said his position with the rest of the England team hadn’t been affected. “The team looked at it and laughed,” he said. “We’ve all been very honest about our own performances at the World Cup and they didn’t make that article. It hasn’t affected our preparations at all.”For what it’s worth, the saga has distracted from what is otherwise a pretty unappetizing contest. Last week at Headingley, West Indies were routed by a record margin of an innings and 283 runs. This week they are still facing up to the loss of their captain, Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has flown home after damaging his shoulder in a fielding accident. In fact, England are so confident of a series-sealing victory that on Sunday, they took the unusual step of naming not only their squad of 12 but an unchanged starting 11, with Ryan Sidebottom rightly retained after his matchwinning eight-wicket haul.It’s a dismal state of affairs. West Indies were once the biggest drawcard in the game, but now their decline seems nothing short of terminal. Daren Ganga, Sarwan’s replacement as captain, spoke of his pride as he prepared to lead the region for the first time, but no-one truly believed him when he insisted his side were still in with a chance in the series.

Everywhere this current squad turns, there are memories of their predecessors to haunt them – from the giant replay screens that delight in showing footage of former series, via the omnipresent Brian Lara, through to the luminaries lined up to pass judgment from the commentary boxes. “Brian spoke to us before the first Test, and I had discussions with Desmond Haynes, Viv Richards, Michael Holding and Ian Bishop,” said Ganga. “The former players giving their advice to the team, that’s very important. All the younger players need a role model and some guidance apart from the coaching staff.”It’s very difficult to compare eras in terms of players,” said Ganga. “We have a great legacy as a West Indian people, a West Indian team and we understand that as players but a lot more than that is necessary to move forward.” But quite how they hope to move forward is less obvious. Although the team has been boosted by the return of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who missed the Headingley match with a knee injury, they have been badly hindered by a stomach injury to their most potent remaining player, Chris Gayle, who is likely to play as a batsman but may not be able to bowl his offspin.If that happens, then Marlon Samuels, Sarwan’s replacement in the squad, could be parachuted into the middle order, but it’ll take something special for West Indies – who were bowled out twice at Headingley in less than a full day’s play – to survive on an Old Trafford pitch that is green, hard and expected to be lively. “We didn’t deal with the English conditions well and we need to adapt better,” said Ganga. “We need to think about the process of partnerships, the process of bowling in partnerships and the process of creating chances for us to get 20 wickets. The series is not beyond us. A lot of people have written us off but cricket is played on the field.”Given the popgun nature of their new-ball attack, West Indies are likely to trade one of their job-a-day seamers – probably Jerome Taylor (for all that he took a five-for against MCC at Durham) – and opt for the extra pace of Fidel Edwards. But either way, they will be hard-pressed to restrain an England batting line-up that has helped itself to seven centuries in just three innings of this series. They have shown neither the accuracy to contain, nor the incisiveness to dismiss, and England have declared in every innings they have played.Aside from the embarrassment that could be headed Vaughan’s way when he leads his team out in front of Flintoff’s Lancashire faithful, there’s little cause for unease in the England camp. Steve Harmison showed glimpses of a return to form when he wrapped up West Indies’ tail at Headingley, and the arrival of Allan Donald could just provide the spark of confidence that has been missing from his game ever since the departure of England’s former bowling guru, Troy Cooley.Harmison memorably grabbed 11 wickets in his last Test at Old Trafford, against Pakistan last summer, and a similar display this week would enable his captain to become England’s most successful leader of all time, overhauling the record of 20 that he currently shares with Peter May. And if that happens, then even the Lancashire boo-boys might afford him a grudging cheer.England 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Liam Plunkett, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Daren Ganga (capt), 3 Devon Smith, 4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Runako Morton, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 9 Daren Powell, 10 Corey Collymore, 11 Fidel Edwards.

Andrew Symonds believes it is a shame that Twenty20 is being legitimised to the point of staging a World Championship and says Australia would prefer to keep having fun with the concept. Symonds said his team-mates had viewed previous Twenty20 internationals as “a bit of a spectacle” but they would need to take their must-win attitude to South Africa in September.”The thing people love about Twenty20 is that it’s fun and fresh, but it’s also not played that often,” Symonds told the . “It’s a good thing as long as it’s not taken that seriously. Now there’s a World Cup it’s obviously going to be taken seriously. That might be a bit of a shame.”Symonds’s comments have come a week after Nathan Bracken also expressed his concerns about the World Championship and said Australia should not get too stressed over the tournament. Symonds said the players, like the fans, enjoyed the laid-back nature of Twenty20 matches.”The best part is having the captains wired up for TV and being able to play with the kids on the boundaries,” he said. “We’ll lose all that because everyone will take it seriously.”So far Symonds has enjoyed his Twenty20 international experience – he has played four matches and made 125 runs from 63 balls at an average of 62.50. Australia’s World Championship begins with group matches against Zimbabwe and England in Cape Town but to win the 12-team competition they will need to play a further five games.

Shane Warne’s manager says the legspinner’s chances of joining the Indian Cricket League (ICL) are “reasonably slim” because he does not want to be part of an unofficial event. The Indian board has threatened any local players with life bans if they join the league, which is focussing on Twenty20 matches and is planned for September.Warne’s manager James Erskine told the Australian the bowler had not made a decision on whether to join the competition. “There’s the small thing about grounds not being made available, the Indian players not being available and being threatened with bans,” he said. “I would think the chances are reasonably slim that Shane would do it because it’s flying in the face of officialdom and I know he doesn’t want to be part of anything that’s not officially sanctioned.”However, AAP reported Dean Jones, who is on the ICL’s board, had returned from an overseas holiday and would resume negotiations with Warne and Glenn McGrath. McGrath said in Canberra this week he was interested in playing, but Brian Lara is the only high-profile player committed to the league.”I’m not going to make any comments about players signing or anything like that,” Jones said. “Obviously we’re talking to them, we’re just trying to make sure it goes ahead, that’s all.”No players contracted to Cricket Australia have approached the body requesting to appear in the tournament in India. Despite the lack of big names, Jones was confident the series would go ahead.”The fans and the viewers will be quite happy with the signings we’ll get, trust me,” he said. “The fixtures and the squads will be released soon, sooner than you think.”