Marvan Atapattu, the injured Sri Lankan captain, has put his health and family ahead of his career in order to live a pain-free life after years of cricket. The rigours of international cricket have taken its toll on his 35-year-old frame, with his spinal cord being especially badly affected.”The back injury was there since I was young. It came and went and wasn’t a major concern,” Atapattu confirmed. “What I used to do was to take a couple of injections and carry on since I was 20. It wasn’t a real problem. It triggered in a bad way in India and that was very bad.”In Australia during the VB Series I had to take an injection in almost every state and had to go for MRI scans. It didn’t look like working and there was no progress,” he added. “It came to a stage where I had to decide whether I am going for surgery. The doctors diagnosed a disc pro lapse, that means the disc is jumping out from the spinal cord and touching the sciatic nerve that runs down my leg. I had to make a decision whether to do surgery and I knew surgery meant that I would be out for a couple of months.”It was at this point that Atapattu turned his thoughts away from cricket and underwent a micro-disc hectomy. “I thought of putting my health in front more than anything else. I thought this is enough as it was a vital time of my life,” he said. “I had to give everything back to the family. It was about living a comfortable, pain-free life after the years of cricket. I had to take that decision along with the family.”Atapattu went under the knife and surgeons removed disc material that was touching the troubled nerve. “The doctor said that three months after surgery I will have a chance of playing again. Now it is almost three months. When I saw him last on June 19, he said I was six months away from playing cricket. It’s a gradual process. You’ve got to do things slowly. If you go fast, you will fall back to zero again and all the symptoms come back.”Atapattu admitted that he was feeling much better now than when he last played for Sri Lanka in March. “If it gets to me again I know how tough it is,” he said. “We are doing all things possible to strengthen the muscle. I would like to try something away from the international level in a warm-up game perhaps to test my fitness level. It’s not like fielding ten balls which we do at practice. It’s going to be for three-and-a-half hours and you’ve got to be 100%. There are no half measures.”All these years you have been wanted by the public, team-mates and the selectors. I don’t want to create a situation where people don’t want you, but you just want to hang on. I guarantee I won’t do that.”

Scorecard

James Kirtley, who was not a fixture in the Sussex team at the start of the season after remodelling his action, took 5 for 27 as Sussex pulled off a thrilling 15-run win in a low-scoring C&G final at Lord’s. All five of his wickets were leg-before, as he knocked the top off the Lancashire run chase and returned to mop up the tail as Dominic Cork was threatening to carry his team over the line.The highest score of the match was the 37 made by Michael Yardy and Yasir Arafat as Sussex struggled during their turn to bat. Lancashire bowled and fielded outstandingly, with Sajid Mahmood claiming an impressive three-wicket haul, but Sussex weren’t going to roll over and let Lancashire claim the trophy. When Kirtley snared the final wicket, trapping Murali Kartik in front, he fell to his knees and was swamped by his team-mates while the balcony erupted. This may not have been classic one-day cricket in favour of the batsman, but it was still a classic one-day match.Mal Loye went first in the chase, plumb lbw to a ball that nipped back, and four runs later Nathan Astle went in very similar style as he planted his front foot and the ball angled back and would have hit middle and leg. While Lancashire could have little complaint about the first two dismissals, the third will have left them stewing. Stuart Law went to defend his first ball, getting a thick inside-edge onto his pads but Jeremy Lloyds’s finger went up for a third time.With each wicket Kirtley’s celebrations became more flamboyant as he sprinted towards his team-mates, but Law was mortified, waving his bat at the umpire as he turned and trudged off. Luke Sutton survived the hat-trick ball, but Kirtley continued to extract surprising pace and carry.

In a week where most stories about cricket have not been the most pleasing for the game, Kirtley’s tale is one of a player battling back from adversity. He was forced to remodel his action over the winter after he was reported and was carefully handled by Sussex at the start of the season. There was some talk that he may even struggle to resume a full career – but he couldn’t have picked a better stage to banish those memories.With Kirtley’s burst leaving Lancashire 27 for 3, Mark Chilton and Sutton were forced to consolidate and boundaries were few and far between despite the fielding restrictions. When Kirtley was rested following a fine seven-over burst, Lancashire passed 50 but Luke Wright removed Sutton to swing the match again.This left Chilton as the last recognised batsman – but not for long. He charged early at Mushtaq Ahmed, who fired the ball down the leg side, and Matt Prior pulled off a fine stumping. Mushtaq was at his probing best, giving the batsmen virtually nothing to hit, and he removed Glen Chapple, who had the ability to blast Lancashire close to their target, via a wonderfully taken catch at silly point by Richard Montgomerie. Mushtaq’s spell meant that as well as losing wickets, Sussex were also stifling the batsmen and the required rate was rising.However, Cork and Kyle Hogg played sensibly to form a stand of 58 and when Hogg was dropped by Montgomerie at mid-on, on 24, it appeared Sussex’s earlier under-par showing with the bat would eventually cost them. But Montgomerie made amends an over later and Lancashire needed 43 off eight with three wickets left.

Chris Adams captained his team with courage, retaining men round the bat for Mushtaq and hold Kirtley’s remaining three overs back for the very end – knowing his skiddy trajectory would cause the lower order problems. The plan worked like a dream as Tom Smith was trapped lbw, then Yasir Arafat bowled Mahmood, who wasted a chance to show calmness under pressure with an ugly heave. No one, though, was going to deny Kirtley his moment and he became only the third bowler (after Mark Ealham against Zimbabwe and Ian Harvey against Somerset) to claim five lbws in a limited-overs match.Lancashire stood forlornly at the presentation with the realisation that the match was there for the taking as Sussex crashed to 78 for 6. The openers had gone early and Mahmood claimed the vital wicket of Adams, who had been so wound up for the match he was unable to play his natural game. Some of Sussex’s running was suicidal and Carl Hopkinson was the second run out, after trying a quick single to Cork at mid-off.However, Sussex are fighters and Yardy showed the qualities that have attracted him to the England selectors with a battling 37. His crab-like style is not pretty to watch, and this innings was certainly on the stodgy side, but it did a job for his side as Yasir Arafat used the aggressive approach in a stand of 56 for the seventh wicket. That partnership gave Sussex an outside chance. They took it.

India Under-19 reduced their Pakistani counterparts, who required 446 for victory, to 63 for 5 in their second innings on the third day of the first four-day match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Saturday.India declared their second innings at 303 for 6 after resuming on 42 without loss, setting Pakistan, already 142 runs in arrears on the first innings, a daunting victory target. Opener Cheteshwar Pujara hit 85 in the second innings while spinner Imad Wasim took three wickets for Pakistan.In the Pakistan second innings, the Indian fast bowler Vijakumar Yo Mahesh claimed three wickets and Piyush Chawla got two victims with his legbreaks.

Australia 5 for 141 (Rolton 71*) tied with New Zealand 7 for 141 (Fahey 43, Rolls 41). Australia won the bowl-off 2-1
Scorecard

Australia won a thrilling women’s Twenty20 international against New Zealand in a bowl-off after the match had finished in a tie.Karen Rolton was Australia’s hero with the bat, cracking 71 off 59 balls. With Australia needing three to win from the final delivery, she smacked the ball to deep midwicket but could only manage to run two.In the bowl-off, both sides missed with their first two attempts before Australia’s Sarah Andrews hit the stumps in the third round, only for Nicola Browne to level things up immediately. Julie Hayes, who took 2 for 19 during the New Zealand innings, secured Australia’s victory when she hit with the fifth and final ball.Twelve past Test players from Queensland were presented with baggy green caps during the day as part of Cricket Australia’s attempts to recognise all their male and female representatives. Five one-day internationals also received a commemorative lapel pin with their player number.Joyce Brewer, a 91-year-old who appeared in the first women’s Test in Brisbane in 1934, was honoured alongside players including Katherine Raymont, Julia Price and Joanne Broadbent.

Brian Lara, captain of the West Indies team, admitted that it was a huge disappointment to come so close to defending the Champions Trophy and then stumble at the final hurdle. “It’s very disappointing to lose the final. We were quietly confident going into this match,” he said. “But I think we have a bit of a stage-fright when it comes to the big occasions.””We got off to a great start but unfortunately, we lost wickets in groups. We didn’t bat the way we wanted to, and there was another collapse, we have to accept it. We have been in two finals in the last two months, and in both matches, we didn’t even get to 150. We have to have a look at that and come up with a remedy. We didn’t give ourselves a chance today. We didn’t bat smart. I thought after the start, if we could have got to even 225, it would have been a fighting total. But we lost it with the bat.”At the same time, Lara refused to believe that it was pressure of playing against tougher opposition in crunch games that led to the collapses his side has suffered. “The collapses have nothing to do with pressure. It is a part of the game we have to eradicate, it has no bearing on who the opposition are,” he said. “Saying that, Australia played the better cricket today. They had their backs to the wall after the first eight-ten overs. They never say die, and they got right back into it. Australia have played so many finals recently that they know how to bounce back. They are very professional, and know how to win and get out of tough situations.”At the end of the day, though, there were many positives Lara could take out of the tournament, and with how West Indies finished up. “But not many people expected us to reach the final here, and we are glad we got this far,” he said. “We are an improving team, and now we need to build on this momentum.”Chris Gayle, player of the tournament for his 474 runs, accompanied Lara to the post-match press conference, and spoke of his dream run in the tournament. “This is a dream tournament for me,” he said. “I am glad I contributed a lot to the team, I have always wanted to contribute to the team’s cause. But I will not do anything different from here on. I want to keep my feet on the ground, be myself and don’t get over-excited. I will need to start from scratch the next time I go out to bat.”

One of the few positives to emerge from the debacle at Kingsmead was thereturn of one of Indian cricket’s prodigal sons. Zaheer Khan may only haveimpressed in patches, but the manner in which he nipped out Graeme Smithand Loots Bosman suggested that he may yet have a big role to play on thistour. And though the Durban defeat met with hysterical over-reaction backhome – talk of pay cuts, and selectors being flown out to convey thefeelings of the nation are frankly laughable – Zaheer remained quietlyconfident that India could turn things around.”We are very positive,” he said, speaking after India had finished atraining session in the indoor nets at the University of Cape Town. “Theconditions have been tough, we have had a lot of indoor practice. It’s along tour, there’s a lot of cricket to play. We are looking to improve asthe series progresses.”The Durban game was Zaheer’s first for India since February, when he hadan appalling one-day series in Pakistan. Fat, allegedly lazy and with apoor attitude, it could have marked the end of the road for him. But tothe man’s credit, he went away and worked on what needed to be done topush himself back into the selectors’ thoughts.”For any player, playing at the highest level is most important,” he said.”I was missing playing for India after being dropped. I sat down andanalysed what had gone wrong.” One of the answers he came up with wascounty cricket, and a stint with Worcestershire that reaped rich rewards.”A lot of senior players also advised me to go and play County cricket,and I decided to give it a shot.”He took 78 wickets there, and by the time he returned, he had also tonedup his physique so that he once again looked like a fast bowler, and notsome rugby prop forward. “Even when I was out of the side, I had faith inmy ability,” he said. “I backed myself to come back to the Indian side. Iknew it was essential that I take my game forward, and playing countycricket was the right decision. Once I took those many wickets and gotthat many overs under the belt, a recall was certain. I now want to focustotally on my game and cement my place in the side.”When asked what specific gains he had observed as a result of the countysojourn, Zaheer said, “It helped me in terms of match fitness, and infinding my rhythm. Picking up wickets consistently meant my confidence wasback – it gave me a huge mental boost and a sense of stability. I feel Ihave grown as a cricketer and as a bowler, I have improved a lot after thestint with Worcester[shire].”South Africa’s bowlers were hugely impressive in the rapid dismantling ofthe Indian batting line-up on Wednesday, and India’s pace attack will needto conjure up similar performances to keep the likes of Jacques Kallis andGraeme Smith at bay. The likes of Munaf Patel and Sreesanth are relativelynew to the game, and even Irfan Pathan has never bowled in theseconditions before. Zaheer, who has, reckons that the secret to success isnot to get carried away by the pace and bounce.”It helps that I have been here earlier,” he said. “You have a fair ideaof what lengths to bowl here, especially when you have played here in thepast. I spent a fair amount of time in the nets working out the lengths,and I have shared my past experiences with the other quick bowlers in theside as well.”Though India couldn’t build on their bright start to the Durban game -they had South Africa 63 for 3 at one stage, before Kallis and AB deVilliers took the game away – Zaheer said that providing the initialstrikes had done wonders for his confidence. “It was my comeback game, andto get that early breakthrough calmed my nerves,” he said. “The pressurewas always there, and I was a bit tentative to start with. But Smith’swicket helped. In future, I need to build on this performance.”After so many false starts over the course of a career that started up inKenya in 2000, you’d like to believe that he will.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

One side chipped away at history, another kept fighting with their backs to the wall and the series-deciding Test entered an engrossing phase on the third day at Newlands. Countering a distinctly sub-continental type wearing wicket, caught in a web of spin and swing, facing a daunting first-innings score South Africa refused to surrender and kept India’s lead down to 41.India were the dominant side for most of the day, what with the ball ripping across at unplayable angles and the fielders prowling close by. But two tenacious partnerships – one that ate up valuable time, the other that added crucial runs – thwarted them. Jacques Kallis, with good support from an unflappable Ashwell Prince, waded through the uncertainty before Mark Boucher led a lower-order charge that propelled them close to India’s score.It was day when revival followed trouble, when dismissals followed rescue acts. Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla glided through the early stages before falling in quick succession; Kallis and Prince pitched their tents for a little more than two-and-a-half hours until being undone by spin; Shaun Pollock and Boucher cobbled together a plucky stand of 69 prior to India breaking through. The pitch deteriorated through the day, the faster bowlers summoned swing, both conventional and reverse, the ball spun all day long – Sachin Tendulkar got it to dip, turn, soar, crackle and do everything other than sing Bollywood numbers – but South Africa simply didn’t relent.Barring the first ten overs, when Smith continued his aggressive methods from yesterday, South Africa weren’t allowed to express themselves freely. Anil Kumble might not have been as devastating as he would have expected to be, toiling for 42.3 overs, but his persistence produced four wickets. Smith, six short of what would have been a cracking century, was undone by a sensational reflex catch from Virender Sehwag, Prince played on after being beaten by a faster legbreak, and the tail didn’t have much of a chance against scything flippers.The support cast were equally vital: Tendulkar produced a mesmerising spell of legspin that had the batsmen in all sorts of tangles, Sehwag taunted them with breaking it from the off, while Sreesanth removed Hashim Amla to snap up his 18th wicket in the series, equaling Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble for the best performance by an Indian bowler in this country. But everytime India produced an opening, South Africa found batsmen to stem the leakage.

The partnership between Kallis and Prince that consumed 38.1 overs could yet be the defining act of the match. Neither was in complete control, yet both showed the gumption to hang in there. Kallis was lucky when on 6 – Wasim Jaffer missed a direct hit – and he was forced to grind his way against Munaf Patel, getting it to reverse from wide of the crease, and Kumble. Prince was his customary doughty self, decisive with his footwork and appeared more at sea against the faster bowlers angling it across.Tendulkar, called on to bowl as late as the 87th over, produced the breakthrough, striking in his fourth over when Kallis risked a slog-sweep across the turn. Prince fell to Kumble in the very next over, Gibbs was soon undone by Sehwag and South Africa found themselves at a perilous 281 for 6. That’s when Pollock and Boucher reversed the trend with a 69-run union, unsettling the bowlers with their attacking intent.All three Indian fast bowlers appeared to have run out of steam at the end of the day – Munaf appeared to be struggling with his fitness and couldn’t summon much speed – and the batsmen were quick to cash in. The new ball was taken as late as the 116th over and the bowlers ended up spraying it around, giving away important runs. Zaheer and Munaf were gifted with a wicket apiece, with both batsmen trying to glide the ball to third man and edging, and India managed to eke out a slender lead in the end. It left the game superbly poised, with the series wide open for the final two days.Short cuts

Highlight of the day: When Jacques Kallis thumped a Sachin Tendulkardelivery in the direction of deep midwicket, Indian hearts would have beenright up the oesophagus. The ball headed unerringly towards Munaf Patel,perhaps the worst fielder in international cricket. Along with jubilationas he held on to the chance, there would have been more than one sigh ofrelief.Lowlight of the day: India’s ground fielding was just abysmal, with SwanLake dives and shoddy collection adding plenty of runs to South Africa’stotal. Munaf, with his unathletic awkward gait and his excuse for thethrow wasn’t the lone offender, with Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly alsohaving moments that they would rather wish away.Shot of the day: Graeme Smith looked on course for a rollicking centuryuntil Anil Kumble had his say, but before that, he unleashed two spankingon-drives when Zaheer Khan overpitched. It was hard to choose between thetwo strokes, both of which scorched the turf on the way to the rope.Ball of the day: Along with Kallis, Ashwell Prince was the man bestequipped to bat time and keep India at bay. But the game changed whenDravid brought Kumble on from the Wynberg end. The last ball of the secondover pitched in the footmarks and spun in to take the inside edge on tothe stumps. Suddenly 260 for 3 had become 260 for 5, and India were rightback on top.Catch of the day: He may not cut the most svelte figure on the field, butVirender Sehwag has a knack of picking up stunning catches, and he showedthat today with a sprightly leap to his right at silly mid-on to snaffleSmith.Message of the day: A little fellow just behind the fence after the day’splay had ended gave Smith his opinion with a confidence that only aneight-year-old would possess. While waiting patiently for his miniaturebat to be autographed, he piped up: “I liked the way you batted today,Graeme.” Smith looked up, took stock, laughed and carried on signing.Off the park: Allan Donald devastated more than a few touring sides duringhis time as South Africa’s premier fast bowler, and the pitch prepared forthis game took his breath away. “I’ve never seen anything like it in SouthAfrica,” he said, shaking his head ruefully as the groundstaff swept awayhuge puffs of dust during the tea interval.

Aaqib Javed, the former Pakistan fast-medium bowler, has been appointed chief coach of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced.A PCB spokesman said that Aaqib’s appointment as the head of coaching at Lahore’s NCA would be highly beneficial for the young players training at the academy. “Aaqib brings to this position vast experience as an international cricketer and as a professional coach,” said the spokesman.Aaqib, 34, played the last of his 22 Tests in 1998, having taken 54 wickets. He was an under-recognised part of a much-feared Pakistan pace attack of the 90s, overshadowed mostly by Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. He did however forge a more successful one-day career, taking 182 wickets from 163 matches.He was part of Pakistan’s triumphant 1992 World Cup squad and once held the record for the best bowling figures in an ODI – 7 for 37, including a hat-trick – which he achieved against India in Sharjah in 1991.Aaqib has stayed attached with international cricket since his exit nine years ago and has attended several coaching courses and workshops in recent years. He completed a PCB Level-2 Coaching Course (2003) and has participated in Asian Cricket Council (ACC) High Performance Course (2004). He has also attended the Cricket Australia/ACC Cricket Skills course for fast bowling and batting, held in Bangkok (2004-05).Aaqib has successfully completed assignments as fast bowling coach at the Lahore Regional Academy at Sheikhupura (2001), head coach of Lahore Region at Muridke (2002) and fast bowling coach at NCA (2004-05).His stint as fast bowling coach was widely acknowledged as a successful one, having worked with and improved several young fast bowlers, including Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Mohammad Khalil, Mohammad Irshad and Samiullah Niazi.Aaqib has also coached several national age-group teams and under him Pakistan won the Under-15 Asian Championship in 2002 and the Under-19 World Cup in 2004. He also had a successful coaching stint with the Pakistan ‘A’ squad.

Bermuda might have been crushed by Kenya in the opening match of the tournament, but – on the surface at least – their spirit is seemingly unwavering.”It was a terrible performance by us,” Lionel Cann, the Bermuda allrounder, told Cricinfo after a net session at Nairobi Gymkhana on Tuesday. “But we’re still positive and understand the situation we’re going into. We’ve got to move on.”Indeed they have. Even before the tournament started, they were considered the rank outsiders and yesterday’s match did nothing to alter that opinion. “We let ourselves down,” Cann said. “There were a lot of rash shots, we didn’t take responsibility and no one ‘went on’. It was just one of those days.” That as maybe, but they can’t afford another one for the rest of the tournament.Curiously, their position as the least-likely-lads to lift the trophy next week is in stark contrast to the fame they are afforded. Of all the Associates, Bermuda’s cricketers are perhaps the most celebrated among their home supporters. Football reigns supreme in Kenya and the Netherlands; Ireland and Scotland are also dominated by football but also rugby, and Canada are still reliant on expats to nurture interest in the sport.”We’re still coping,” Cann said, wiping the sweat of infamy from his forehead, “but it’s a big, big thing for us. Just making it into the World Cup is huge for us. There are only 60,000 people [in Bermuda] and just to get this far is a remarkable feat.”Remarkable, perhaps, but Bermuda simply cannot afford to rest on their laurels, in spite of the $11m grant handed to them by their government. A brief net session during today’s game between Ireland and Scotland was preceded by an early morning swim which, as one member of the team told Cricinfo, helped sooth the physical aches and pains, if not the mental indignation of losing so convincingly. Fitness, or the lack thereof, remains a huge problem.One member unofficially entrusted with improving the team’s fitness is David Hemp. “At the end of the day, Bermuda are amateurs,” he said. “They’re not professionals and they all have jobs. They realise that this is new but they’re slowly starting to realise it’s not just about the technical things.”But how? “From playing. Playing against Associate countries. Seeing how much fitter and stronger they are. Other countries just don’t get tired, whereas our players do. [Fitness] is just not part of their job, their culture – and we’re trying to change it quickly, but it’s very hard and it takes time. But it’s not just that; it’s the dietary side of things as well.”Hemp’s role is less about his ability as a batsman, more his experience with Warwickshire and now Glamorgan. The years of discipline and training are ingrained in him, but foreign (painful) territory for his team-mates. “The guys do talk to me a lot and ask me a lot of questions,” he said. “The system we use in the UK; practice; training and, from that point of view, they do talk a lot. And I do my best to communicate [my knowledge] as best I can.”There will always be negatives but it’s about building on the positives. We need to look at how the other sides play and learn from them. Keep learning and don’t make the same mistakes. Unfortunately, though, we’ve got to learn quickly. We’re in the World Cup now – all eyes are on us.”

Sourav Ganguly was satisfied with both his own form and the form of the Indian team after their seven-wicket win at Visakhapatnam, which helped them seal a 2-1 series win against Sri Lanka.Ganguly, who contributed two half-centuries and a 48 to win the Man-of-the-Series award, said: “We are going into the World Cup in the right frame of mind. We will get similar wickets in the West Indies and it is good that the players are in good form. This is a good outfit.”Talking about his own form, Ganguly, who has scored four fifties in his last six ODI innings, said: “I have been playing well consistently and scoring runs when required. Since the South Africa series I have been getting runs. It has been going well.”Talking about a bout of dizziness which forced him to retire hurt early in the Indian innings, Ganguly attributed it to fatigue and lack of sleep. “I did not sleep last night and I bowled six overs which I had not done in a long while.” Ganguly retired hurt in the first over, and then came back after the fall of the second wicket.Rahul Dravid, who continued his fine run as captain in home ODIs, praised the team’s comeback after being 1-0 down in the series. “Credit to the boys for the way they fought back into the series. In a three-match series (the first match was washed out) against this kind of opposition, it is tough to come back from being one match down. It is a great team effort.”He also had encouraging words for Yuvraj Singh, who made a magnificent unbeaten 95. “It is great that Yuvraj is back in form. It was also great to see Sachin, Sourav and other batsmen get runs in the series. Our bowling upfront was also good. It has been a fantastic effort.”