Duncan Fletcher claims to have the confidence of the England players and will continue to review his position on a six-monthly basis despite the crushing Ashes loss in Perth. England’s playing defence of the prize they won in 2005 lasted only 15 days and Fletcher has been seen as a crucial figure behind the loss.However, he said he would not rush a decision on his future and believed he was capable of improving the side. “I still have the players’ confidence, they still come to me on numerous occasions and still talk to me about tactics,” he said. “I have the respect ofthe players and that’s very important.”Fletcher will speak to David Collier, the ECB chief executive, when he arrives in Melbourne next week and will continue to judge his suitability for the position every six months. The only problem is that he’s not sure when the period starts or ends. Fletcher usually considers his role at the conclusion of the English domestic season and the beginning of the next campaign, but today he spoke of a “moving sixmonths”.”I’ll look at it when I feel like I’m enjoying the job or not enjoying the job, as simple as that,” he said. “I am enjoying it. You have your ups and your downs and as long as there are more ups than downs you enjoy the job.”England suffered a severe trough on Tuesday when they lost by 206 runs at the WACA to hand over the urn and Fletcher did not take individual responsibility for the series defeat. “There is blame on all of us,” he said. “Everyone has to be blamed. How we performed, how we selected it, if they feel they want to blame us in those areas we have to take thoseresponsibilities.”Despite the speed at which England handed over the Ashes, Fletcher said he was happy with the squad’s preparation for the series and would not have changed the teams for the first two matches. The selections of Ashley Giles, James Anderson and Geraint Jones were scrutinised as they underperformed while Monty Panesar, who came in for the Perth Test, made an instant impact with eight wickets.”The decisions aren’t easy and to select is very, very difficult,” Fletcher said. “From our point of view the people criticising now are the ones who run with the foxes and hunt with the hounds. All we can do is run with the fox. At the end of the day all we can do is make these very difficult decisions.”

Allan Donald, the former South Africa fast bowler, has said he “can’t think of a more experienced coach” than Bob Woolmer to take over from Duncan Fletcher as England coach, should the position become available.Yesterday Woolmer, the Pakistan coach who played 19 Tests for England, told that he “will be open to offers after the World Cup,” and that he “would be foolish not to be”.”I have always been proud of playing for England and just missed out on coaching them [in the past] because the timing was not right. Coaching is my life,” he said. “It is what I do best and I am keeping fit through hitting catches and walking for 45 minutes every day, and swimming 1,200 metres every other day.”And Donald, who played under Woolmer during his tenure as Warwickshire coach in the 1990s, is certain England have a worthy replacement for Fletcher. “He is such a dedicated bloke,” he said, “very professional, he understands the England system very well and will set new challenges for an England squad.”Tom Moody, the Sri Lanka coach and John Wright, the previous India coach, are two other possible names England might consider. While both have played county cricket, neither is as experienced a coach as Woolmer.

Tom Moody’s future as coach with Sri Lanka seems fairly secure following his withdrawal from the race to become Australia’s next coach and the statement from David Morgan, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman, to BBC Radio that Duncan Fletcher would remain as England coach.Moody was mentioned as a potential replacement for Fletcher in the event of his resigning, the speculation being underlined by the fact that Moody’s wife was English and his family stayed in England and not in Sri Lanka.”To be quite honest, it was important to clear the air there on the Australian offer. I felt it was a distraction to me and a distraction for the team leading into the World Cup. It wasn’t the right time for me to look at that position. As for the rest of the issues with regard to the ECB and any other opportunities that are out there I haven’t looked at anything,” said Moody.”I’ve had conversations with Sri Lanka Cricket about my future here. At this stage we have agreed to look at it post World Cup, ” he explained. “I really don’t want any personal distraction or team distractions leading into the World Cup. I haven’t mind set my course anywhere post World Cup. It’s very much here and I am concentrating on that. When the time is right I will sit down and concentrate on what is the right thing for me in a post World Cup. That may well be a continued role on a contract here.”Moody’s contract with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) runs till the end of May 2007. Reflecting on the two years he has been in charge as head coach Moody said: “It’s been a fascinating coaching and life experience. I’ve really enjoyed working with the players, a terrific bunch of guys, very talented, good company and good people. We’ve made some significant progress as a team during that period. There are some exciting times ahead for Sri Lanka cricket.”I’ve enjoyed the people. In general they have been very friendly – a trait recognised the world over – and I’ve enjoyed the culture. All my experiences here personally and with my family have been terrific. When I look back on these two years there have been a lot of fond memories.”SLC president Jayantha Dharmadasa expressed confidence that Moody would remain with Sri Lanka after the World Cup. “I am 99 percent certain that he will stay with us. We met recently and he said, ‘let’s get over the World Cup and we will talk about it’,” said Dharmadasa. “There is mutual trust between SLC and Moody and the working relationship between the two is top class. He is part of our five-year plan to make Sri Lanka a top cricketing nation. That is why we made him head coach. The changes that are taking place in our cricket structure are part of his plans.”

Scorecard

Adam Crosthwaite and the Victoria tail held on for a nail-biting draw after the Bushrangers’ knack for reining in big targets deserted them at Melbourne. Ben Edmondson led Western Australia’s charge for victory with three wickets but he could not break the final partnership in the last over.The Bushrangers hit big trouble early in their chase of 346, falling to 4 for 41 and steadily sinking further as the afternoon progressed. After their disappointing start, they abandoned all thoughts of a win and Crosthwaite looked set to salvage a draw with his three-hour 31.He was trapped lbw in the second-last over, leaving Peter Siddle and Darren Pattinson eight balls to survive. Siddle, in his Pura Cup debut, managed comfortably and finished his crucial 76-minute innings on 7.Edmondson’s 3 for 50 included the important victims David Hussey and Michael Klinger but he was wayward in the final over as the home side crawled to 9 for 182. The Warriors set Victoria the challenging target from 85 overs after declaring at 7 for 271.Western Australia and Victoria both retain a hope of playing Tasmania in the Pura Cup final, provided the Tigers do not lose to New South Wales next week. The Bushrangers face Queensland while the Warriors will fancy their chances against South Australia.

Suspicious starter of the Day
By the time Matthew Hayden had faced 18 deliveries in his last matchagainst South Africa at St Kitts he had boshed his way to 32 not outwith three fours and two sixes. Today, on a virgin pitch at Antigua’sbrand-new stadium, it took him that many balls to dribble his firstrun, a cagey steer behind point. It was a deceptive beginning,however. By the time he’d gauged the pace and bounce of the pitch andclobbered the highest Australian score in World Cup history, few couldrecall its humble beginnings.Misjudgment of the Day Mark 1
Ricky Ponting was looking ominously set, as he pretty much alwaysdoes, when he poked one into the covers and set off for a tight,though not entirely suicidal, single. Waiting for him, however, wasnone other than Ramnaresh Sarwan, who picked up in an instant and pinged downthe stumps at the non-striker’s end. Ponting was gone for 35 from 36balls, and Australia’s momentum had been stunted at a crucialjuncture.Misjudgment of the Day Mark 2
But the next time Sarwan clearly felt that Antigua’s boundaries were quite bigenough. Standing ten yards in from the ropes at long-off, he wasnutmegged, David Seaman-style, by a rare miscued drive from Hayden on109. He leapt backwards but failed to get even a fingertip to the ball,and gestured that the ball had gone for six, perhaps to save face asmuch as anything else. In fact the shot had dipped late and bouncedsix inches inside the rope. Had he been right back to start with, whoknows what would have happened?Catch of the Day
Nothing much could stem Hayden’s march, and in the final ten overs,he demonstrated that short boundaries were only a partial excuse forall the six-hitting that went on at St Kitts. His slap over long-onoff Jerome Taylor was a beauty – a shot that managed to be both high and flatat the same time. And yet … positioned in the deep, 15 rows back inthe top tier of the grandstand, an Aussie fan (it always is …) leaptout of his seat and back-flipped his way to a remarkable one-handedpluck. He didn’t even let go of the beer in his other hand (as it always is…).Let-off of the Day
By the time the drizzle eased with just under two hours of play stillpossible, the word doing the rounds in the stadium was that we wereall set for a 20-over slog fest. Duckworth and Lewis had decided on atarget of 163, a figure which may have been justified by the old ruleof thumb that you take your score after 30 overs and double it, but inthis era of Twenty20 cricket it was generous in the extreme. In theend, the rain rolled in to leave Australia quite content with theirday’s work.

ScorecardRohit G Sharma and Pankaj Singh steered Rajasthan to the finals of the Ranji Trophy one-day tournament with a seven-wicket win over Punjab at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Chasing 262, Sharma laid the foundation with 62 while Singh polished off the target with a breezy 36 off 22 balls.Punjab won the toss and elected to bat first and the innings was anchored by opener Karan Goel, who scored 72. Ravneet Ricky chipped in with 48 and added 112 with Goel. Pankaj Dharmani and Reetinder Sodhi added the finishing touches to push the score to 261. Rajasthan began their reply in a steady manner with Sharma and Anshu Jain adding 89 for the second wicket. However a steady fall of wickets followed and Punjab clawed back, reducing the home side to 203 for 7. Rajesh Bishnoi and Singh ensured no further fall of wickets and took their side home with an over to spare.Rajasthan will meet Mumbai in the finals at the same venue on Wednesday.

John Buchanan believes Adam Gilchrist’s use of a squash ball in his batting glove during the World Cup final is “a non-issue” and wants suggestions the move was unethical to be dealt with harshly. The MCC, who are the guardians of the Laws, said the squash ball was legal, a sentiment echoed by Buchanan.”If you want to go down this road, where do you draw the line?” Buchanan told . “Should it be illegal for players to receive strapping to injuries, or for batsmen to use extra grips on their bats?”There is an argument that there is some benefit there. I hope that over time, people will ignore something like this and remember the innings for how good it was.”Gilchrist revealed his secret weapon after belting 149 in the final against Sri Lanka, which led Sri Lanka Cricket’s secretary, Kangadaran Mathivanan, to call the move “unethical” and consider taking the matter up at the ICC annual general meeting in June. Buchanan said such comments undermined one of the most memorable innings in World Cup history.”Everybody will be disappointed about this,” Buchanan said. “The final should be a celebration of cricket and Adam’s innings was outstanding. Comments like these should be ignored by the public, and be dealt with harshly as quickly as possible.”Ian Healy, Gilchrist’s wicketkeeping predecessor, said he “had a giggle” about the furore. “Let them all put squash balls in their glove and see how they go,” Healy said in . “Maybe a tennis ball is better, they could try that. All protective equipment and strappings which sportsmen wear are performance-enhancing. I’m not too sure a squash ball would enhance the performance of too many people.”

Given the number of nerve-wracking, frequently doomed last days that West Indies have endured in recent times, Monday’s wet weather that restricted play to 20 overs and settled the first Test as a draw came as welcome relief. Yet, as Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga competently compiled their unbroken opening stand of 89, there was the growing sense that, even on a fine day, the script would have been different to what it has so often been over the past year or so.At Auckland against New Zealand, in Antigua against India and at Lahore and Karachi against Pakistan last year, nervous second-innings batting led to defeat or, in the case of Antigua, to Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore grimly hanging on for the last 19 balls for a draw. At Lord’s, there was an unmistakable hint that old uncertainty had been replaced by new resolve.Even after a reduced opening day on which England compiled 200 for 3 after they were put in by Ramnaresh Sarwan in grey, damp conditions, supposedly ideal for bowling, the headline over the former England captain Nasser Hussain’s newspaper report read: “They’re not good enough but at least they’re fighting”.Midway through the third day, when they were 187 for 5 following the four individual hundreds that pushed England to 553 for 5 declared, whatever fight Hussain and others had detected was severely tested. Now, surely, a team under brand new leadership, without its one great batsman, just out of a disastrous World Cup tournament at home and with no pre-Test preparation would stagger.The response of the last half of the order, from the ever-reliable Shivnarine Chanderpaul at No.6 to Jerome Taylor at No.10, defied expectations. To each his own: Chanderpaul provided the solidity at one end while Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin free-wheeled at the other as they did in their partnership of 182 against Australia at Hobart in 2005. Most noticeably, Ramdin’s favoured, suicidal sweep shot, so often his downfall, was not in evidence in his sparkling 60. So emboldened, Daren Powell and Taylor similarly took to the bowlers the following day.It was a boon to West Indian spirits so crushed after the World Cup. As Bravo and Sarwan both noted, it was a team effort. It is not a phrase usually associated with the West Indies in recent times. Without Lara’s runs, on whom they so heavily relied, even if unconsciously, the need for shared responsibility has quickly sunk in.There was, too, a refreshing camaraderie on the field and in the dressing-room as well. It was similar to the attitude of the second-string side in Sri Lanka two years ago that was decimated by the withdrawals of the leading players over a contract row with the board. They were clearly outclassed but they never gave up. It is often the consequence of adversity.A friend of mine, an MCC member whose seat in the pavilion was directly beneath the West Indies’ dressing-room balcony, said he had seldom heard such constant and enthusiastic encouragement for their teammates on the field.Not everything was pleasing, of course, and England’s bowling problems need to be factored into the optimism. The one-dimensional attack lacked control and penetration, crucial catches were dropped and Ramdin’s keeping was scrappy. Each deficiency might have been a result of the lack of practice, match and otherwise, but there are only three days before the second Test at Headingley to get them right. Even then, it is difficult to imagine England being bowled out twice on good pitches.

The absence of Andrew Flintoff, the muscle strain that restricted Matthew Hoggard to 10.5 overs, and the wild offerings of Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett on a slow pitch were unforeseen benefits for West Indies. Hoggard is unlikely to return for the series and Flintoff’s chronic ankle injury is a limitation, even if he is passed for Friday.More significantly, Harmison was a shadow of the menace he was in the back-to-back series in the Caribbean and here in 2004 when he, Flintoff, Hoggard and Simon Jones (now also missing with injury) bowled West Indies to defeat in seven of the eight Tests.England sprung a surprise by replacing Hoggard with Ryan Sidebottom for the second Test. Sidebottom is 29 and played his only Test six years ago. The point is that he is a left-arm swing bowler who will bring variety to the attack, a point overlooked by the West Indies selectors in the omission of Pedro Collins from their squad. But their reasons, apparently, were more than simply cricketing.Michael Vaughan, the captain who missed the first Test with a broken finger and has not played a Test for a year and a half because of one injury or another, and Flintoff are both in the 13. But they need to prove they are fit enough by Friday.In the meantime, the West Indies team travelled to Leeds yesterday, happier and more confident than they were when they entered the series last Thursday. The challenge is to maintain the self-belief and the team spirit over the three Tests, two Twenty20 Internationals and three ODIs that lay ahead. The early signs are hopeful.

South Division

Kent leapfrogged into second place with a straightforward 26-run win over Middlesex at Beckenham. Kent’s innings was founded on a second-wicket stand of 56 between Joe Denly and Martin van Jaarsveld. Denly made 40 from 23 balls including three sixes. Middlesex never got over the loss of three early wickets, including Andrew Strauss who was caught at second slip in the first over.

North Division

Leicestershire were left to rue a washout against Durham at Leicester, and the point they gained for the no result was not enough to lift them into the top two and left their hopes of a quarter-final place in the balance. They reached 41 for 3 after 4.4 overs of a match shortened to seven overs a side before heavy rain returned.Yorkshire beat Nottinghamshire by eight wickets in a five-over-a-side thrash at Headingley. Chasing 62 to win, Craig White bludgeoned 31 off 11 balls to set Yorkshire on their way.

Midlands-West-Wales Division

Bottom and winless Somerset upset the form book as they romped to a six-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Bristol with 19 balls to spare. Gloucestershire’s innings never got out of second gear, Cameron White the pick of a tight bowling attack with 3 for 16 in his four overs. Somerset were wobbling on 39 for 4 when Ian Blackwell grabbed the innings by the scruff of the neck and led them home with an unbeaten 42.Northamptonshire boosted their quarter-final hopes with a surprising four-wicket win over runaway leaders Warwickshire at Northampton. Warwickshire stumbled to 100 for 7 in 18 overs, Jason Brown proving the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 16 from his four overs. Northamptonshire’s nerves were settled by a 45-run fifth-wicket stand between Chris Rogers and and Riki Wessels.

The PCB is unlikely to accede to Gill Woolmer’s request to play a Twenty20 match against India, to raise funds for a cricket academy Bob Woolmer had planned to set up in South Africa, due to a congested fixture list.”We got a letter asking us to play a Twenty20 match with India for the academy. But this seems unlikely in the near future,” Ehsan Malik, PCB spokesman, told Reuters.Malik said a packed international schedule for both teams was the reason behind the decision and that the PCB was looking at other means of helping establish the academy. The PCB has dedicated the practice area of its National Cricket Academy in Lahore to Woolmer and named it after him.A proposal to play a Twenty20 match against England in August was earlier rejected as the England team had prior commitments.Woolmer died in Jamaica on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a shock defeat against Ireland and were knocked out in the first round of the World Cup. His death was investigated as murder until after the tournament when Jamaican authorities u-turned and announced he had died of natural causes.