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Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava has been named Zimbabwe’s new Test and ODI captain.Ngarava, 27, takes over from Craig Ervine, who stepped down from the role, according to a media statement from Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC). Allrounder Brian Bennett was announced as Ngarava’s deputy. Veteran Sikandar Raza will continue to captain Zimbabwe in T20Is.The new appointments were made following the Zimbabwe board’s fourth quarter meeting in Harare. “Ngarava has shown remarkable growth as a player and leader over the years,” ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said. “He commands respect within the dressing room and has consistently delivered for Zimbabwe across all formats. We believe he is ready to lead the team into its next chapter.”Craig Ervine led with professionalism, resilience and dignity during a challenging period. ZC is deeply grateful for his contribution to the team’s stability and progress.”Ngarava has played 11 Tests and 145 white-ball internationals for Zimbabwe since making his debut in 2017. He is Zimbabwe’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is, with 108 strikes in 90 matches at an economy rate of 7.30. He also has franchise T20 experience, having had stints in the UAE’s ILT20, Lanka Premier League and Bangladesh Premier League.At 22, Bennett has scored centuries in all formats for Zimbabwe and is known for his attacking enterprise at the top.”Brian’s appointment as vice-captain reflects our confidence in his cricketing intelligence, maturity and long-term leadership potential,” Mukuhlani said. “He represents the future of Zimbabwean cricket.”

Lance Klusener, the former South African allrounder, has been left out of the Dolphins squad set to play the Eagles in the season-opener at Kingsmead from Thursday.Cassim Docrat, CEO of the KZN Cricket Union, said there was a “hitch” regarding Klusener’s eligibility to play, the Natal-based reported. This comes in the wake of Cricket South Africa’s decision to ban players involved with the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Cricket South Africa’s chief executive officer Gerald Majola had said anyone who joined the ICL would not be allowed to play in matches organised by the board.Klusener, who signed for the ICL, an unofficial league that intends to stage Twenty20 games across India, had lashed out at the board’s stand. Tony Irish, the CEO of the SA Cricketers’ Association, has taken up the matter with the board on Klusener’s behalf.Another star Dolphins cricketer, Dale Benkenstein, will also miss the four-day match. Docrat said Benkenstein is still in England but will be available for the second round of the competition.Meanwhile, the Inland selectors have named the squad from which the XI will be chosen for the opening SA Airways Challenge round against Boland at the Maritzburg Oval from Thursday. The Durban-based KZN Coastal side was also selected for their match in East London.TeamsKZN Dolphins Imraan Khan, Doug Watson, Wayne Madsen, Ahmed Amla (capt), Jon Kent, Daryn Smit, Johann Louw, Morné van Vuuren, Yusuf Abdullah, Quinton Friend, Saidi Mhlongo, Mafinki Serame. Coach: Yashin Ebrahim.KZN Inland André van Vuuren (capt), Ross McMillan, Clint Bowyer, Brad Moses, Lyndon Brown, Kivershan Padayachee, Michael Matika, Sashen Dorasamy, Garry Hampson, Murray Hampson, Lennox Lwana, Qasim Khurshid, Olly Humphries, Mbasa Gqadushe, Glen Addicott. Coach: Robbie Coutts.KZN Coastal Rivash Gobind (capt), Kyle Smit, Fabian Lazarus, Martin Bekker, Calvin Flowers, Cedric Mabuya, Chad Hauptfleisch, Viyaash Gobind, Andrew Tweedie, Dan Horsfall, Tyron Pillay, Keegan Africa. Coach: Sakele Simon.

November 27, 1992 – At 21, he replaces Dean Jones in the Australia middle order and makes his Test debut against West Indies at Brisbane, scoring 36 and 15 in a drawn match.December 8, 1992 – Makes his one-day international debut, also against West Indies, but scores 0 in a 14-run win.December 29, 1992 – Curtly Ambrose gets him a third consecutive time in Tests, but he scores an unbeaten 67 in the second innings at Melbourne.May 23, 1993 – Hits his maiden ODI half-century, an unbeaten 43-ball 51, against England at Lords to help Australia to a 3-0 sweep.January 6, 1994 – Scores his third Test half-century at Sydney against South Africa, but a rash cover-drive in the second innings when Australia needed seven runs to win costs him his place in the Test team for six years. Australia lose by five runs.March 3, 2000 – Opening the innings in an ODI against New Zealand at Auckland, he scores an unbeaten 116 – his first ODI hundred.March 11, 2000 – Returns to the Test team to replace an injured Ricky Ponting at Auckland. In a series that Australia win 3-0, he scores two half-centuries.July 7, 2001 – Gets his maiden Test hundred against England at Edgbaston. Despite 382 runs in the series the Man-of-the-Match awards continue to elude him.March 23, 2003 – Batting with a broken finger that will rule him out of the West Indies tour, he strikes an unbeaten 88 as Australia win the World Cup final.March 2004 – Posts two marathon second-innings centuries – the 161 at Kandy taking almost seven hours – as Australia complete their first series whitewash in Sri Lanka.

October 2004 – He continues his great form in the subcontinent with back-to-back centuries on his first visit to India – 104 in the dehydration-inducing conditions of Chennai and 114 and 97 on the bouncy pitch at Nagpur.November 2005 – Dropped for the home series against West Indies after a poor Ashes series. He returns when Australia tour South Africa in March 2006 and picks up his final century in Johannesburg.October 29, 2006 – Under pressure, Martyn takes Australia into the semi-final stage of the Champions Trophy with a classy, unbeaten 73 in a six-wicket win over India at Mohali.November 5, 2006 – In what turns out to be his final ODI, his unbeaten 47 steers Australia to their first Champions Trophy title. The celebrations are marred slightly over Martyn’s pushing of Sharad Pawar, the Indian board president.December 8, 2006 – Low scores in the first two Tests of the Ashes lead to his mid-series retirement.

Today’s final of the KFC Cup West Indies limited-overs championship between hosts Guyana and Barbados at Bourda Oval is shaping up to be quite intriguing.Guyana’s strong batting line-up, headed by two of the West Indies’ leading batsmen, will have to confront Barbados’ feisty attack that can call on no less than four West Indies fast bowlers. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies captain, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, his deputy, have been at the very heart of Guyana’s batting throughout the competition in which their side has played unbeaten. Chanderpaul and Sarwan could have a first-hand look at Corey Collymore, Tino Best, and Fidel Edwards, three of the fast bowlers that will comprise the West Indies’ attack in their three-Test series against Australia next month Down Under.”I think we will have to respect Barbados’ bowling line-up, since they have an attack with players that have the experience of playing for the West Indies,” Albert Smith, the Guyanese coach told CMC CricketPlus.”Our strength definitely is our batting, since we have two of the top West Indies batsmen, so it is clear that it will be the ball against the bat in the Final. He added: “Our batsmen will be more comfortable playing against Barbados’ fast bowlers at Bourda. Of course, they will not get the same kind of pace and bounce from the pitch that they get in Barbados, and when it comes our time to bowl at them, their batsmen will have to adjust to the lower bounce of the pitch, so I think we will start with a bit of an advantage there.””Matches between Guyana and Barbados are always competitive,” Smith said. “For both teams, it will come down to our planning, and execution of those plans. We have two very experienced captains in this match, both teams are looking forward to winning, and the team that performs better under pressure will do this.”Guyana have appeared in the final of the regional limited-overs competition a dozen times and this will be their fourth appearance in the last five years.”It all has to do with our preparations, and the competitiveness in our county championship. We want to be consistently doing well in regional cricket, and we try to inculcate this into the younger players in our domestic competitions. It’s good that we have been consistent. It’s been a lot of hard work, and plenty of commitment. We won in 2001 and 2003, but we lost the final last year with some silly performances that we do not want to happen again this year.”For Barbados, they will be looking to get the monkey of losing to Guyana on a regular basis in the regional limited-overs competition off their backs.Speaking to the reporters, Courtney Browne, the Barbados captain, said: “It’s always a tough ask for us to beat Guyana because they always seem to play the type of cricket that places severe restrictions on our batting a lot. I think if we are to going to beat Guyana, we will have to bat well because I think we have the bowling attack that can limit them. Whether we are setting a target, or chasing runs, we always seem to fall down in our batting against Guyana, particularly against the spin bowlers.”Although Guyana and Barbados have made more appearances in the final of the regional limited-overs competition than the others, they have only met twice in the Championship decider, and on both occasions Guyana won.Squads:Guyana(from): Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Krishna Arjune, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Derwin Christian, Esaun Crandon, Lennox Cush, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Rayon Griffith, Reon King, Neil McGarrell, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Ryan Ramdass, Ramnaresh Sarwan.Barbados (from): Courtney Browne (capt), Tino Best, Ian Bradshaw, Shirley Clarke, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Ryan Hinds, Alcindo Holder, Martin Nurse, Floyd Reifer, Dwayne Smith, Kurt Wilkinson; Dale Richards (injured)..

After two months of keeping a nation and a half guessing about when he would be better, and what a tennis elbow really was, Sachin Tendulkar is fit enough to play cricket. Going into the third Test against Australia at Nagpur, the Indians suddenly have a selection conundrum that stems from his return. Australia, for their part, have brought Brett Lee back into the fray, including him in the 12 in place of Nathan Hauritz. But Adam Gilchrist stressed that the playing XI was far from decided, and that a final inspection of the pitch on the morning of the match will have a role to play.The pitch does have some grass on it, but quite clearly it has not been watered in days and should be fairly brown by the time the first ball is bowled. The curator insists this will be a sporting pitch, and Gilchrist called it an Australian kind of wicket, but there’s every chance it will become more Indian in the hours to come. Sourav Ganguly had called the curator from Kolkata before this Test, and requested that the authorities prepare a pitch that would favour the spinners. “But nothing much seems to have been done about that,” he said, nervous smile plastered across his face. And, nothing much can be done at this stage, for the grass can merely be trimmed, not shorn. This means that that there’s little chance that this strip will crumble even later in the game.That should suit Tendulkar just fine. He had a longish stint in the nets, and certainly did not hold back. Batting first in a net where only the spinners operated, he clouted several balls far and wide into the stands. Then, when he took on the quicker men, the punch – off front and back foot – sent the ball thudding back past the bowlers. “Even if I’ve scored two hundred in the last two Tests, there’s still pressure,” said Tendulkar in an interview recently, countering the assertion that his comeback to top-flight cricket after approximately two months makes it extra hard.

What does become hard for the Indians is to choose whom to leave out to accomodate Tendulkar. On the eve of the match Ganguly said, “Ajit Agarkar will play. Parthiv Patel will not open. We are considering either Yuvraj Singh or Aakash Chopra as the opening partner with Sehwag.” This virtually means Mohammad Kaif is out of contention despite his fighting 64 at Chennai. There were also question-marks over the availability of Harbhajan Singh, who was down with viral fever on the eve of the match and was rated only a 50% chance of playing. If he is ruled out, Murali Kartik will come into the side.Meanwhile, Gilchrist knows that his team is better prepared, man for man, than any Australian team that has toured India since Bill Lawry’s series-winning team in 1969-70. Glenn McGrath has proved an extremely effective force in India – his record here in six Tests is better than his career average – and is well set to ensure this series is no different. He went wicketless in Chennai – only the fifth time in his 99-Test career – and will bend his aged Narromine back over to make sure he sets the house in order in his 100th Test: he has never gone wicketless in successive matches.But, this India-Australia series has refused to be defined by individuals or individual contests. The fact that rains denied India the chance to level this series in Chennai, with 210 runs to score, ten wickets in hand, and on a pitch that had eased out, makes this game all the more vital. This is a venue where teams usually resign themselves to a high-scoring draw. But, neither of these teams likes draws, or resigns, so the script could yet be an original one.India (probable) 1 Yuvraj Singh, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Harbhajan Singh/ Murali Kartik, 11 Zaheer Khan.Australia (probable) 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Justin Langer, 3 Simon Katich, 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Darren Lehmann, 6 Michael Clarke, 7 Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Jason Gillespie, 10 Michael Kasprowicz, 11 Glenn McGrath.

Alec Stewart has confirmed speculation in the weekend’s newspapers by announcing his retirement at the end of the season. With it unlikely that he will play in Surrey’s final Championship match starting on Wednesday, his last game was the final Test against South Africa, fittingly at The Oval.Yesterday, Surrey announced that financial contraints meant that Stewart would not be offered another contract, and in The News of the World he ended suggestions that he would look to extend his career at another county. “I’m not that sentimental,” he explained. “I said my goodbyes to the Oval crowd during the South Africa Test and that couldn’t have gone better. If Surrey had still been in the hunt for the Championship, it would have been different. I’ve always striven to get to the top, ie England. Once that has gone, why are you playing?”In a press release today Stewart said that it had been a “fantastic privilege” playing for Surrey. “I have been lucky enough to play with some great players and particularly to be a part of the huge success the Club has achieved over the last eight years. I look forward to contributing to Surrey’s continued success both on and off the pitch in years to come.”Keith Medlycott, Surrey’s first-team coach, had earlier confirmed that Stewart – and Ian Ward – had been released because of a need to cut outgoings. “We are part of a bigger industry and that is the business itself and we have to deal with what is put in front of us. We have to abide by certain rules and as much as we’ve tried to bend those and eke out extra money we weren’t able to do that. It’s an unfortunate scenario but players’ worth in recent years has gone up in astronomical amounts but income has not followed suit.”Stewart made his debut for Surrey in 1981 and scored 26,165 runs at an average of 40.06 in 447 first-class matches.Alec Stewart – his career in numbers

The last day of the Patron’s Trophy Grade-I National CricketChampionship was dominated by a bizarre incident Sunday whenMahmood Rasheed, the match referee at the PIA-PWD tie,breached the Pakistan Cricket Board rules by dereliction ofduty.Mahmood, younger brother of ex-Test batsman Haroon Rasheedand a former first-class cricketer himself, instead ofcompleting the final day’s rituals left everyone in thelurch at UBL Sports Complex.The referee apparently decided to give priority to anotherwise inconsequential final of a veterans tournament -organized by a controversial group – since he was a keyplayer of one of the teams.Raees Ahmed, who is also on the PCB panel of match referees,took over from Mahmood after some 45 minutes of play whenthe latter left for Clifton.According to sources, Mahmood had presumably taken priorpermission from one of the Cricket Management Committee’scity-based members to make himself unavailable Sunday.A referee, who is the liaison between the umpires andplayers, has to ensure that the match for which he isappointed is completed in a fair and friendly environment.In between, he can’t skip the match unless in exceptionalcircumstances, such as illness or a family-related problemetc.Therefore, Mahmood’s action had clearly violated the rulesprescribed by the PCB since he was neither ill nor was thereany emergency where the referee’s presence was needed. InMahmood’s case, the only reason was personal satisfaction.Just last week, Sajid Abbasi, a match referee, turned down asimilar request to make himself available for anotherveterans game because he was supervising the PWD-Allied Bankfixture at the same venue.Coincidentally, Mahmood, who was allotted just one Patron’sTrophy, had failed to pass the referees’ examinationconducted by Pakistan’s representative on the ICC panel ofmatch referees, Col Naushad Ali, here sometime ago.Efforts to contact Mahmood proved fruitless at the time offiling the report as he was busy playing at Asghar Ali ShahStadium in a night tournament!

Like still waters, South Africa cricket’s talent pool runs deeper than it may seem according to former international and long-time coach Jimmy Cook. Despite the recent results of the A side – who returned home from a tour of India without a single win – and Under-19 team – who lost home and away series to Bangladesh – Cook is optimistic about the upcoming summer and the long-term future.”We’ve got enough depth; it’s just about blending the youth with the experienced guys and making sure they work well together,” Cook, who has coached at various levels, told ESPNcricinfo. Cook, who played three Tests and four ODIs between 1991 and 1993, is now involved with the King Edward VII School, which Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith attended.”I think what happened with the A side is that the selectors were looking to give guys opportunities and took a lot of guys who they thought they would look at picking in future and because of that, they had a lot of young guys in the group and not a lot of experience and that could have led to the results. But that’s why they went there – to get experience.”The A side was made up mostly of second-tier players who do not hold regular spots in the national team and are challenging the incumbents. The only exceptions were Quinton de Kock, who was sent to India to regain form after being dropped from the South African team during their July series in Bangladesh, and Stiaan van Zyl, who is the new Test opener and was part of the four-day squad to get used to his role at the top of the line-up ahead of the senior side’s four-Test tour of India later this year.The rest of the 50-over and four-day outfits were players who know they are either next in line or back in line and are young enough to wait in line, which results suggest they will have to do.The average age of both the South African four-day squad and one-day squad was 26 with the oldest being 31-year-old Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who has also played the most international cricket. Across all formats, Tsotsobe holds 89 caps and was once the top-ranked ODI bowler in the world. Wayne Parnell is next, having played 85 matches for South Africa and Quinton de Kock, is third with 75 appearances.Dean Elgar (22) Stiaan van Zyl (5), Temba Bavuma (4), Marchant de Lange (10), Beuran Hendricks (5), Reeza Hendricks (5), Dane Piedt (1), Dane Vilas (2) and David Wiese (15) have all played some international cricket and have collectively earned 69 caps across all formats. None of that seemed to count for much as far as their performances went and the numbers do not make for good reading, although it should be remembered that the squad suffered a food poisoning incident midway through the tour, which resulted in 10 players being hospitalised.South Africa A lost all four of their 50-over matches – two to India A and two to Australia A – and lost them badly. They only posted a total over 250 once and managed to bat out their overs only half the time. They also only bowled out their opposition only once and of the possible 40 wickets, they could have taken in the series, only claimed 16.On an individual level, they also had very little to shout about apart from Quinton de Kock. He finished fifth overall on the batting charts with two centuries and went on to score a century in the first unofficial Test to confirm his return to the runs. Cook, who coached de Kock, believed he needed the trip to refocus. “He is a very talented lad and I have no doubt he will do well, especially as he gets older and gets a calmer head on his shoulders,” Cook said.Other than de Kock, Khaya Zondo, Reeza Hendricks and Dean Elgar all scored fifties. In the bowling department, Lonwabo Tsotsobe was the only one to feature among the top ten wicket-takers, with five scalps.With the next 50-over World Cup still four years away, South Africa will be more interested in the performances of the four-day side, who lost their two-match series 1-0.The team began strongly in the first game when they piled on 542, largely thanks to centuries from Omphile Ramela and de Kock, and even bowled India A out cheaply with fit-again Dane Piedt’s claiming a five-for. But they did not enforce the follow-on and did not give themselves enough time to bowl India A out again. Everything fell apart in the second match, when South Africa A were bowled out for 76 in their second innings on a crumbling deck and lost by an innings and 81 runs.Dane Piedt picked up 11 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls, in the two unofficial Tests, in India•AFP

Piedt took five in that match as well to push for a Test return, but South Africa may be more perturbed by the players they lost. Wayne Parnell (hamstring) and Beuran Hendricks (back) will both not be fit for the start of the home summer. Neither of them were likely to feature in Test cricket though, where South Africa now have tough choices to make.Cook advised to keep Stiaan van Zyl at the top of the order for the eight Tests because “he has shown he can do it at that level.” Van Zyl performed well in Bangladesh and scored 96 in the second unofficial Test in India and Cook expects him to be able to handle the conditions without trouble. “It shouldn’t be a problem facing the new ball because it does not move much but obviously batsmen have to be fairly good players of spin, because they will face a lot of that in India.”That is where de Kock’s technique has sometimes come into question, and Cook has suggested taking both de Kock and his replacement, Dane Vilas, who Cook also coached, to India. “Dane is very mature and knows his game well. He’s been given a go so now he must have a proper run – five, six or seven Tests to see what he can do. As things stand, South Africa are very lucky to have those him and de Kock to choose from.”Cook believes that in years to come, South Africa will have more to choose from, despite the disappointing performances of the Under-19s, who are a different group to the one that won last year’s World Cup. “That kind of thing happens – some years you get a really good group and some years you don’t. I see that at school level a lot, it can go in cycles,” Cook said.

Chemar Holder was bowling in Basseterre in St Kitts and Nevis less than three weeks ago when West Indies Under-19 were playing a bilateral series in Bangladesh, just before the World Cup warm-ups. West Indies lost all three youth ODIs against a second-string Bangladesh side, but Holder finished with a five-for while playing for Combined Campuses and Colleges in Nagico Super50, West Indies’ domestic 50-over tournament, in only his fourth List-A match.About ten days later, Holder got a call that one of the Under-19 players, Obed McCoy, was injured in Bangladesh and that he had been picked as the replacement. Needless to say, Holder was not expecting it.”It was a big news. I was happy but shocked,” Holder said with a laugh after West Indies got through to the semi-final with a five-wicket win against Pakistan. Holder flew in, got two practice sessions and made his debut straightaway. He grabbed everyone’s attention by cranking up some good pace along with their lead pacer Alzarri Joseph. Holder stuck to a strangling line outside off, got the ball to move off the pitch and picked up two wickets in his first three overs.”Well, yes it is different conditions compared to the ones back home,” Holder said. “The pitch is a bit faster at home. So I had to bowl at fuller length.”Not many people knew where Holder had come from. Just 17 years old, he had not been picked for any of the three West Indies Under-19 camps in 2015 and had only played for Barbados Under-19s until then. He had not really set the Under-19 regional tournament on fire, with three wickets from four matches, but was soon picked for the Nagico Super50.”Well, really and truly it was a good feeling because I played against international players,” Holder said about his five-wicket haul. “And taking five is a big thing. So coming here now, I am not getting complacent. The wickets may not be as good, so I just keep it simple.”West Indies captain Shimron Hetmyer could hardly stop smiling after the quarter-final win, and sung praises of Holder, who joined the team only a few days back.”The boys have coped with the wickets and conditions very quickly,” he said. “Even Holder bowled very well today. Just leading from the front with the ball with him and we have Alzarri Joseph also, so he was very good. Very good day for us.”Holder and Joseph provided their team with a dream start by reducing Pakistan to 57 for 5 before Umair Masood led their recovery with a century and put on 164 runs in 28.1 overs with Salman Fayyaz. Hetmyer admitted that the team became a little “complacent” after taking the early wickets.”Possibly I think we got a little bit too relaxed after taking the first five wickets of the game,” he said. “We got complacent and possibly we could have just kept grinding them and possibly it would’ve been a lower score for us to chase.”Even though the pitch was not flat like it usually is in Fatullah, Hetmyer said West Indies were always confident of chasing down the target. Opener Gidron Pope looked to slog from the first ball he faced and even though he did not succeed in his first four attempts, the openers soon set the tone with an important stand of 45 in 6.2 overs. Pope fell for an 18-ball 25 and Imlach top-scored with a more composed 54.”I think that probably wasn’t the plan (how Pope started),” Hetmyer said with a smile. “That’s how he plays his natural game and for a couple of balls he played, he should have given himself a chance. After he got accustomed to the pitch and how the bowler was bowling and he got on top of them and kept banging them as hard as he could.”We thought we gave them a score of possibly about 190 and they scored 227. We still thought we could get this score because it wasn’t that much of a big score. And just have a bat and get a few good partnerships. That’s what we did today, got good opening partnerships and with me and the keeper (Imlach) as well.”For the game today, how I came on to bat, I was just trying to play my natural game. The way I play back home in the Caribbean and how I play my cricket right through. I think it helped me today because I came out in a positive mindset and to play my shots, hit the balls in the air, I played my shots and I guess it came off for me.”Hetmyer also agreed that many people may not have expected his team to come this far in the tournament after having a poor run of form in the build-up to the tournament. But their fortunes turned once the World Cup started. Including the warm-ups, West Indies have now lost only one of the six matches they have played so far.”I think probably coming into the tournament a lot of people thought that because we lost the three games against Bangladesh all here, we wouldn’t really get this far. I think the guys got accustomed to the conditions and adapted as fast as they could, very fast I should say. We have just been playing our normal cricket as we play in the Caribbean and that’s what we have to continue from now on and play our normal cricket.”

Ireland women have named the squad they hope will earn them a place at the 2009 World Cup. Heather Whelan, who has been captain since 2005, will continue to lead them in the qualifiers in Lahore next month.Their latest World Cup campaign, in 2005, was disappointing: they came bottom, having failed to win a match. Most of the squad have experience from that campaign, though, and with a busy summer under their belts – including a full domestic programme, participation in a men’s league, summer tour to Sussex and the European Championships in Holland – and intensive training, they are confident of making the World Cup.Pakistan represent the biggest challenge of the group. Though Ireland women have never lost to them, Pakistan will be out to settle some scores from when their men fell to Ireland men in the World Cup earlier this year.But some of Ireland’s players from that match, and indeed the World Cup, are on hand to lend their experience. Trent Johnston, Adi Birrell and Matt Dwyer are helping out the women with one-to-one coaching, alongside their bowling coach Thinus Fourie, who is also an Ireland international.The women’s coach Miriam Grealey said of the preparations to come: “We will be working on playing spin, footwork, and batting with more aggression and confidence, but also on areas for individual development. We are working hard on our consistency which is the key to winning.”Our fielding has really improved over the last couple of years, we have watched and learned from the likes of Australia and New Zealand and, in this area, I feel we are on a par with any of the top nations.”We recognise that the conditions will be tougher in Pakistan, so physical fitness, conditioning and circuit training are all part of our overall preparation.”Squad Anne Linehan, Caitriona Beggs, Cecelia Joyce, Ciara Metcalfe, Clare Shillington, Eimear Richardson, Elaine Nolan, Heather Whelan (capt), Isobel Joyce, Jean Carroll, Jill Whelan, Jillian Smythe, Marianne Herbert, Nicki Coffey.