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Andrew Strauss insists England have learned from their post-2005 mistakes and will use their stunning Ashes victory as a springboard to higher honours. England’s series win four years ago was honoured with an open-top bus parade through Trafalgar Square, a round of MBEs and a meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace; a response many felt eroded the team’s focus in future series.England won just two of their next ten Tests after the 2005 Ashes, and suffered an embarassing 5-0 defeat at the hands of Australia two years later. Injuries to key personnel undoubtedly played a role in England’s decline, however it was also felt the team basked in the glory of their Ashes victory far too long while losses to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka mounted.Strauss said England’s ambitions were now loftier than Ashes success, and challenged his players to further establish their Test credentials on the winter tour of South Africa. England’s victory at The Oval allowed Graeme Smith’s men to overthrow Australia as the top-ranked Test nation, ensuring England will now play back-to-back series against the world’s No. 1 Test team.”The last time we hadn’t won the Ashes for 17 years or so,” Strauss said. “It was almost a step into the unknown for all of us. No one in the team had won an Ashes series before. This time, there were a few in the side that have. I think we’ve also got to be conscious of the fact that this is just a stepping stone. It’s not the end in itself.”We’re not the No.1 side in the world, we’re far from it, and we’re honest enough to admit that. To become the No. 1 side in the world you have to win consistently home and away, and our next challenge is a massive one. Away in South Africa is probably as hard a tour as you can go on. We can take confidence from this. The long term goal is to be No.1 in the world but it’s going to take a lot of graft to get there.”We’re a young side and we can get better than we are at the moment. We’re still pretty inconsistent as we’ve ably demonstrated this series. But we’ve shown some guts and determination and character.”The ballast provided by Strauss and Andy Flower since assuming their leadership roles has been crucial in reviving a team with a recent penchant for instability. An Ashes victory in the same year as the Pietersen-Moores row and the humiliation of Sabina Park was considered improbable in the extreme several months ago, and Strauss credited much of the team’s success to the influence of Flower.”The England coach is a massive job and Andy’s fallen straight in and hit the ground running,” Strauss said. “One of the important things is having a vision of where you need to go. That’s something we’ve had to sit down and think about. The most important thing is driving that vision through.”For those of us who go on the pitch we can do a certain amount but you need guys pushing and pushing it, going out for dinner with people, chatting with people in a quiet corner – being almost relentless in your vision and how you aim to get there. It’s encouraging to me to hear guys in the team speaking about this as a fantastic team. Once you start getting that feeling you become greater than the sum of your parts. That’s something we will continue working on. We’re not going to relinquish that easily.”England’s victory at The Oval inside four days has earned them an extra 24 hours to shake-off their post-Ashes hangovers before boarding a flight to Belfast for the one-day international against Ireland. The aftermath of the team’s 2009 triumph over Australia could scarcely be more contrasting to that of four years ago, when the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan were paraded around the streets of London amid great fanfare.”There will be some celebrations tonight but I don’t think there will be a massive fanfare this time,” Strauss said. He did, however, observe the significance of Sunday’s result. “I suppose it is better than 2005 for me because I’ve captained the side,” he continued. “We’ve moved forward from 2005: there are different personalities involved, a different management team as well. Any time you win an Ashes series it’s an unbelievably special moment for all of us”Over the course of an Ashes series everyone has to stand up. That’s the reality. In an Ashes series there is nowhere to hide. Weaknesses will be exploited and the guys have got to deal with a lot of off-field stuff as well. They have done that and we have come through.”

Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, does not agree with many former Pakistan players that the team’s Test series defeat against Sri Lanka was caused by poor team spirit and an inability to cooperate with the captain, Younis Khan. Butt said it was too early to think of a change of captaincy, given that Younis took over a few months ago.”There can be no chance of factionalism in the team as I believe Younis has good relations with seniors like Misbah-ul-Haq and others,” Butt said in Lahore. “It is not a joke to change the captain again and again.”Three batting collapses over the two Tests contributed to Pakistan’s series defeat. In the first Test in Galle, Pakistan needed 97 to win with eight wickets in hand on the fourth day, only to lose by 50 runs. In the second match at the P Sara Oval in Colombo, they crashed to 90 all out after opting to bat first. After a commendable recovery in the second innings, the batting crumbled again as Pakistan lost their last nine wickets for 35 runs to be dismissed for 320, thereby setting Sri Lanka a less than challenging target of 171 in the fourth innings.Former players, ranging from Abdul Qadir to Inzamam-ul-Haq, have blamed factionalism for the defeat. Qadir said the fault lay with the players for not cooperating with Younis.”When I resigned as chief selector, I am on record as saying that Shoaib Malik should be punished for letting captain Younis Khan down and I maintain that there is factionalism in the team,” Qadir told AFP. “What I said was on the basis of what I saw during the series against Australia in UAE two months ago and I said that seniors were not co-operating with Younis.”I said this before and I reiterate that the coach and manager’s reports of this Sri Lanka tour should be made public. Had the UAE series report been made public, things would have been sorted out by now.”His opinions were echoed by Inzamam, the former captain. “The situation in the team is not good,” Inzamam said. “I can smell factionalism within the team and Younis is not doing his best to keep the team united, and that does not augur well for our cricket.”Former fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, often an outspoken critic of Pakistan cricket, said the former captain Shoaib Malik should take responsibility. He also slammed Younis, despite Pakistan winning the ICC World Twenty20 in England under his captaincy less than a month ago. Younis said after the defeat that Pakistan had been caught short due to the lack of exposure to Tests over the last two years.”Malik, along with four senior players, is doing politics,” Nawaz said. “Misbah-ul-Haq should be excluded from the team as he has failed and should be replaced by new players.”Younis doesn’t have leadership qualities,” Nawaz said. “If a captain is not able to handle his players’ batting failures and comes out with lame excuses of playing less Test cricket, he doesn’t have the qualities of a good captain.”

Division One

Jonathan Trott scored 166 for Warwickshire at Edgbaston•Getty Images

Warwickshire recovered from a top-order wobble to end the second day against Sussex in a commanding position at Edgbaston. Resuming on 5 for 1 after rain ruined the first day, Warwickshire slumped to 16 for 3 – Ian Bell making only 2 – before the innings was rescued by Jonathan Trott. He was the fulcrum around which the middle order batted, scoring 166 with 20 fours. He shared useful partnerships for each wicket from fourth to eighth and was the penultimate wicket to fall with the score 329. Warwickshire eventually declared on 349 for 9 with Yasir Arafat and Luke Wright taking three wickets apiece for Sussex.

Division Two

A hundred from Stephen Peters and two half-centuries from lower-order batsmen powered Northamptonshire to 433 for 8 before they declared against Derbyshire in Northampton. Peters, who was unbeaten on 11 on a rain-shortened first day, carried on to score 175 with 22 fours and a six. The other top-order batsmen failed, though, and Northamptonshire were in trouble at 89 for 4 at one stage before the rest of the batsmen chipped in. Andrew Hall scored 52 off 64 balls and his South African team-mate Johan van der Wath blitzed 82 off 71 with half a dozen sixes. Nantie Hayward, another South African, was Derbyshire’s most successful bowler, taking 4 for 99 while Jake Needham took 3 for 47. In reply, Derbyshire were 11 for no loss at stumps.Glamorgan all but batted Essex out of the match at Chelmsford, reaching an imposing total of 515 for 9 before declaring. The game was evenly balanced at the start of the day with Glamorgan on 155 for 3 but the remaining batsmen performed solidly. All but one of their batsmen got into double figures with Mike Powell scoring 102 and Jamie Dalrymple and James Harris scoring 50 and 76 respectively. The others also contributed useful 30s and 40s to ensure that Essex’s bowlers were always on the back foot. Essex’s openers had progressed to 34 by the end of the day and were left with a massive task ahead of them on the third day.

The rapid rise of Twenty20 leagues will soon force internationalplayers to choose between their countries and private franchise-basedTwenty20 events, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations(FICA), has warned. Tim May, FICA’s chief executive, said “more and moreplayers” have stated in surveys conducted by the association that theyhave “less of an attachment” to international cricket with the arrival oftournaments like the IPL.In an interview to Cricinfo, May said the ICC and its members should rework their Future Tours Programme (FTP) – the current version lapses in 2012 – to reduce international fixtures and create windows for domestic events such as IPL, which involves international players.”Simply, something must give or players will be faced to make a decisionbetween representing their country and playing in franchise-type Twenty20events,” May said. “A healthy balance of optimising commercialrevenues and player workload needs to be set by the ICC and its members inorder for international cricket to retain its attractiveness to players.The more Twenty20 events that are programmed in any calendar year, theeasier it will be for players to turn their back on international cricket.”The trend that we observe, through our surveys of players, is that moreand more players state that they have less an attachment to internationalcricket with the emergence of competitions such as IPL. More and morecricketers are frustrated with the clustered international calendar andthe time that is being spent away from wives, families and friends.”The international cricket calendar will soon be dominated by at least fiveTwenty20 leagues involving international players – IPL, P20 in England,Southern Premier League (SPL) involving South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Champions League, a possible IPL Season 2 and ICC events – and they will have to be accommodated along with Tests and ODIs.May also said the FICA was concerned about the new ICC Anti Doping Codethat has been modelled on norms specified by the World Anti DopingAgency (WADA). He said that the new ICC code, which came into force fromJanuary 1, has a “high, inherent risk” of catching players who aren’t”administratively inclined”.Tim May: “FICA have been staunch critics of the governance structure of the ICC for•Getty Images

“The ICC Anti Doping Policy now includes, as per a mandatory instructionfrom WADA, a requirement for players named in an ‘International RegisteredTesting Pool’ to provide whereabouts information,” May said. “Thisrequirement requires players to inform ICC 90 days in advance (eachquarter) a location and time that they will be available each day in thatquarter for testing. If the player is not in the location at the timespecified — the player will have a strike recorded against his name. Threestrikes and the player will have breached the code and can face a two-yearsuspension from the game.”Such a system has also raised concerns of privacy among players, May said.”Obviously, there are concerns on a privacy level and also concerns on apractical level – the administration responsibility is extreme and thewhole system, whilst designed to catch the drug cheat, has a high inherentrisk of catching athletes that just aren’t administratively inclined.”Then again, at a time when cricket’s headed for “an exciting future”, Maysaid, the ICC should also give FICA a more important role in the game’sgovernance, possibly in its all-powerful executive board. He said the ICCboard, which comprises senior ICC officials, and representatives ofits 10 Full Members and three associates, is “full of conflicts ofinterests”.”FICA have been staunch critics of the governance structure of the ICC fora long time,” May said. “It’s full of conflict of interests and doesn’tcontain a healthy balance of skills to address the key areas of both sportand commercial issues. Rarely are decisions made in the interests of thegame as a whole – they are typically made on “party lines” and what isbest for that particular directors’ constituency.”

The Queensland allrounder Ashley Noffke will consider switching to Western Australia after being told he is not part of the Bulls’ Twenty20 plans despite making his international debut for Australia in the format two seasons ago. Queensland have also confirmed Noffke would not initially be part of the one-day side in 2009-10.Currently with Worcestershire on a county deal, Noffke is now seen as a four-day specialist in Queensland following an injury-interrupted home summer. After winning the Ian Healy Trophy as the state’s player of the year in 2007-08 for his effective fast bowling and impressive batting, his injuries limited him to five first-class games and four FR Cup appearances. He missed the entire Twenty20 campaign when a young Queensland line-up reached the preliminary final of the lucrative competition.”I was stunned and still am,” Noffke said. “I did miss a major part of our last summer with a hip injury but as soon as the problem was finally diagnosed and I underwent surgery I was back playing English county cricket within seven weeks.”The decision comes less than a month after Noffke lost his Cricket Australia contract. Western Australia are believed to be on the verge of formalising an offer to Noffke while there is also some interest from Worcestershire.In six Twenty20 games with the county he has taken nine wickets at 18.33 to lead the list and has also collected 91 runs at a strike-rate of 165.45. He has been productive in the one-day formats, but captured only one victim in the opening two county games.”My recent results show I’m really getting back to top form and I feel I still have plenty to offer in all forms of the game for at least another two or three seasons,” Noffke said. “As a proud senior player for the Bulls, I feel really let down and will definitely be looking at what options I may have elsewhere.”Unlike national contracts, state players can negotiate their own deals before the list is finalised. However, Queensland’s juggling became even harder over the past week when Andrew Symonds was cut by Australia, leaving the state to reorganise its roster to cope with the international player’s pay demands if he does not retire.Graham Dixon, Queensland Cricket’s chief executive officer, said the state’s offer to Noffke was fair. “The contract offer we have made is for one year and if accepted, it would be the highest contract offer he has received from us during his long career,” Dixon said. “Our long standing policy is to provide one-year contracts to senior players, and that is all that Andy Bichel or Michael Kasprowicz or Martin Love had in the latter stages of their careers.”Noffke was picked by Australia for two Twenty20s and a one-day international two years ago before going on the Test tour of the West Indies. Queensland have lost Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson over the past two seasons, with the men heading to Western Australia and New South Wales to be with their partners.

Zimbabwe Cricket has set up training centres countrywide in order to develop the sport, expanding on initiatives started a decade ago.In 1999, the board established the CFX Cricket Academy with the objective being to develop a stream of first-class players to underpin the playing and coaching strengths of the provincial sides. This produced a number of internationals, such as Andy Blignaut, Douglas Hondo, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Ray Price and Mark Vermeulen.In 2002, the board expanded that with the launch of Cricket Development Centres (CDCs) with the aim of improving the playing technique of promising younger cricketers and exposing them the critical eye of a qualified coach from an earlier age.”How it generally works is that identified talent from the various surrounding schools register to attend age-group sessions run by Zimbabwe’s top coaches,” Shingai Ruhwaya, Zimbabwe’s Cricket’s media manager, told Cricinfo. “Of late, we’ve been encouraging former players with at least a Level 2 coaching certificate to volunteer to spend an hour or two a week with these kids. These CDCs have over 4000 registered children using them between the ages of 9 and 18.”Most recently, ZC decided to concentrate its technical development efforts in a select number of centres rather than spread its resources thinly. Each of these centres has been earmarked to benefit from re-investments in kit and equipment. We should have six to eight fully functional such centres by the end of August this year.”

England’s case for hosting the IPL has received a huge boost with the support of an influential lobby within the BCCI and the Indian team management, which feels that such a move would help in preparing for the World Twenty20 in June. Even officials in South Africa, the other possible venue, admit that they are beginning to sense that the “wind has begun blowing England’s way”.”It’s 70% in favour of England now as per the indications we have got this morning,” a South African official told Cricinfo. “We have been told that apparently, England may be a better fit in terms of crowds, the economics for the franchises who have signed up England players, and travel which would mostly be by road.”Indian officials say the final decision – expected within the next 24 hours – is now almost entirely dependent on the ECB overcoming considerable obstacles related to costs and logistics and the approval of its stakeholders, including the counties, many of whom fear that their domestic schedule will be affected by the IPL.The Indian team management, meanwhile, has made it clear that they would prefer England as the IPL venue. “It would make sense to have the event in England as it would help our cricketers prepare for the Twenty20 World Cup,” Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, told PTI in Auckland on Monday. “They could get a good feel of the conditions there.”Prasad’s view was privately echoed by a powerful group of Indian officials including Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, and N Srinivasan, the board secretary who also owns the Chennai franchise. In fact, an Indian official told Cricinfo on Sunday night that “at this point of time, it looks 90% that the event is going to happen in England”.”They (Manohar and Srinivasan) believe England is the best option because it gives the Indian players the best chance to prepare for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup,” a BCCI official said. “It also means less stress and travel for the players who are currently in New Zealand and will play the World Cup after the IPL. There is also a significant amount of goodwill here towards England for the manner in which they returned to play after the Mumbai attacks.”What has also worked in England’s favour is its “multi-racial, multi-cultural cricket crowd” that would ensure a sell-out at most venues during the tournament, which features international stars from across the world. The England move has also received the backing of many IPL franchises, especially those who have signed up English players and hope to leverage that factor in terms of brand and market value.Yet, there is significant support among officials who actually run the IPL, including its chairman Lalit Modi, for South Africa, which is seen as a more viable option. Modi and Gerald Majola, the Cricket South Africa chief executive, are known to enjoy a good personal relationship, especially after the two boards became founding partners of the Twenty20 Champions League last year. “This gives both the boards a lot of room for negotiations, adjustments and quick decisions, something that may not be possible with the ECB, which has to go by its board for almost every decision,” an IPL official said.South Africa are still holding on to the hope that the logistics, weather and the basic expenditure involved in hosting a multi-team event of this magnitude will work in their favour. “We still feel that South Africa is a better bet for the IPL when it comes to weather, TV timings and logistics,” the South African official said. “For instance, to start a match at 4 pm IST, as the IPL wants to, you need to start at 11.30 am [summer time] in England. Who will come to watch a Twenty20 match at that time? The ECB has some serious problems to sort out first.”Besides, the lobby rooting for South Africa claims that England could present a nightmare scenario in terms of expenditure and logistics. “Where are the grounds?” a franchise official said. “The English domestic season is starting around the same time, and then you have the Test series against West Indies in May. Besides, the cost of hotel rooms and television production in England will be exorbitant when compared to South Africa.”Apparently, there is also a certain amount of concern at the ICC level about the state of venues in England for the World Twenty20 starting on June 5 – the IPL will run until May 24 alongside the English domestic season starting in April and the West Indies Test series in May. “It’s the beginning of the season in England and Wales and there is a lot of Twenty20 cricket being played including the ICC World Twenty20,” David Morgan, the ICC president, told . “I do think there will be great difficulties in relocating it.”Some of the English counties have not quite warmed up to the idea, either. Stewart Regan, Yorkshire’s chief executive, says any move to host the IPL in England would be risky for county cricket.”Having discussed it with some of the coaches and players here I think the view of Yorkshire is that it would be very difficult to put together a tournament in England at short notice for several reasons – the main one being the overlap with the English county cricket season,” Regan told .”But equally there are a number of logistical issues such as team security, swapping over advertising boards and certificates and so on that would have to be dealt with. I think there are more logistical issues than possibilities and I think it’s unlikely that England could handle this at very short notice.”

Sachin Tendulkar will miss the fourth one-day international against New Zealand in Hamilton on Wednesday because of an abdomen injury. The Indian team management will monitor Tendulkar’s fitness and he has not been ruled out of the final ODI on March 14 as yet.Tendulkar sustained the injury when he was hit on the stomach by Iain O’Brien during the second match in Wellington. He played the third game but aggravated the injury during his innings of 163 off 133 balls; he had to retire hurt at the end of the 45th over. Scans have revealed that Tendulkar has suffered swelling and bruising.The news is a blow to India since Tendulkar has been solid at the top of the order with scores of 20, 61 and 163 in the series. With him missing, Gautam Gambhir will open with Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma is likely to make a comeback.

England have expressed a willingness to relocate the second Test to Antigua’s old venue, the Recreation Ground in St John’s, after the first day of the match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound was abandoned after only 10 deliveries because of an unsuitable outfield.The managing director of England cricket, Hugh Morris, told Sky Sports that the team was willing to agree to a switch of venue at short notice, both for the sake of the thousands of England tourists who have booked holidays on the island, and for the sake of the team itself, which is desperate to bounce back from their 51 all out humiliation in Jamaica last week.”It’s critical that we play this match and we want to do that for ourselves after our defeat in Jamaica,” said Morris. “For the fans that have come over here it is really important that we get this game going. Giles Clarke [the ECB chairman] has put that proposal forward to the West Indies Cricket Board and the ICC and we are awaiting the result of that.”Officials from the WICB were understood to be inspecting the ARG, which hosted its last Test match in 2006 but was used by England for net practice in the lead-up to the second Test. The ground has become seriously run-down in the years since it was a prime Test venue, but England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, was happy to put up with the situation for the sake of a rescheduling.”It’s not in a great state but in terms of injuries or whatever it is fit to play on,” said Strauss. “We don’t know what state the wicket is in. It might not have been covered all night but I think it’s fit for bowlers to bowl on and batsmen to play on.”Morris revealed that England’s concerns about the outfield at North Sound had been raised in a letter to the ICC on the eve of the match. “We only came out here the day before yesterday for practice and to have a look and we were concerned about the pitch.”I wrote a letter to the ICC match referee and delivered it yesterday evening because we were clearly concerned at what we saw.”

No matter how far Michael Hussey goes in international cricket, there’s always someone there to remind him of his roots at the Wanneroo District Cricket Club. His Perth grade side was also the home of Damien Martyn, who was part of the Test unit when Hussey broke into the squad, and of course his brother and ODI team-mate David Hussey played for the club in his younger days before moving to Victoria.Now another link in the Wanneroo chain has emerged: Marcus North. If North makes his Test debut in Johannesburg on Thursday as expected, more than a quarter of the side will have links to Wanneroo. When Mitchell Johnson moved to Perth he also signed with the club, which was North’s junior side before he moved on to the Bayswater team.”We’ve known each other since I think we’ve been about 12 or 13 ,” Hussey said of North. “It’s quite nice really to think that two young kids from Wanneroo are able to hopefully play in a Test match together for Australia. It’s quite a strange sort of feeling but really exciting as well.”Hussey has in the past captained North at Western Australia, where North himself is now the skipper. If he gets the nod following his strong performance in the tour match in Potchefstroom, North will add not only a strong batting presence at No. 6 but also a handy offspin option, a solid first slip fieldsman and a smart cricketing brain.”I’m quite chuffed that Marcus is on the tour,” Hussey said. “He’s someone that’s really performed very well for Western Australia, deserves his chance at this level, and just speaking to him, he seems very calm, very collected and he seems very comfortable with being around the team. I think that augurs well for him to perform well at Test match level.”One man who is guaranteed to make his Test debut at the Wanderers is the opener Phillip Hughes. Although he is only 20, Hughes has impressed everyone in the Australian squad not only with his outstanding ability with the bat but also with the way he has handled his rapid rise to the top.”From what I saw up in Potch [he is a] very impressive young guy, really likeable young man around the group,” Hussey said. “[He] just loves cricket and loves batting, so he’ll fit into our team pretty well I think. The signs that we saw from him up in Potch are pretty exciting for the future as well.”Hughes and North are two of four uncapped players in Australia’s 14-man squad, along with Ben Hilfenhaus and Bryce McGain. It makes for an inexperienced and unfamiliar-looking side but Hussey insisted all four men, along with the recently-capped Doug Bollinger and Andrew McDonald, were up to the task.”They’ve got a big role to play in this team,” Hussey said. “It’s not a case of we’re expecting less from the new guys. They’re in the Australian cricket team so they’re expected to do their jobs as well as the most senior guys in the team.”