Ponting left out of Australia Twenty20 squad

Michael Clarke will take over as captain of Australia's Twenty20 team to play England after Ricky Ponting was given permission to go home after the last Ashes test.

Ponting will return to Britain to take charge for the bulk of one-day international series but the selectors wanted to give him a rest as they start blooding younger players for next year's Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies.

"Ricky Ponting is having his workload managed and will return home to Australia after the fifth test at The Oval and will miss the ODI against Scotland, the two Twenty20s and the start of the of the ODI series against England," Australia's chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said in a statement on Tuesday.

"This is the last opportunity we have to give Ricky a break until next year, with the ICC Champions Trophy, ODIs against India and of course a full domestic summer against the West Indies and Pakistan to finish 2009.

"The plan for him to return to Australia before rejoining the team is considered the most appropriate course of action.

"This gives Michael Clarke another opportunity to captain the Australian Twenty20 and ODI side."

Clarke's promotion is a further sign that he is being groomed to eventually replace Ponting as test skipper.

Clarke is the current vice-captain of the test side and has been Australia's best batsmen this year, scoring two hundreds and averaging 89 in the Ashes.

The selectors named separate squads for the Twenty20 matches and one-day internationals as part of their building process for the West Indies next year.

Promising opener Phillip Hughes and paceman Stuart Clark failed to make either side while batsman Mike Hussey and pace bowlers Peter Siddle and Nathan Bracken made the one-day side but not the Twenty20.

"We obviously know what Mike Hussey and Nathan Bracken are capable of in one-day and Twenty20 cricket, but with limited opportunities at international level in this format of the game we wanted to look at different players as we look to improve our Twenty20 performances," Hilditch said.

"Their omissions do not mean we won't look to them for the World Twenty20."

Zimbabwe goes down fightinghttp://cricket.yahoo.com/prematch-ZimbabwevsBangladesh_23000

Chasing 321 runs to win, Zimbabwe fell short by 49 runs as they were bowled out for 271. Shakib-al-Hasan's all-round show won him the man of the match.

BCCI doctor not consulted on Zaheer's injury

Cricket Board''s Sports Medicine Consultant, Dr Anant Joshi today said that he was not consulted by the BCCI about the shoulder injury sustained by pace spearhead Zaheer Khan for which the left arm bowler underwent a surgery last month.

"In Zaheer's case I was not consulted (by the BCCI)", Dr Joshi said.

According to Joshi, Zaheer's injury and its treatment shows very clearly there needs to be better co-ordination between the physio and the surgeon in treating injuries.

"One has to have a balance while taking decisions as far as surgery or rehab is concerned.

It should be a joint decision between a physio and a surgeon. One should neither rush into a surgical treatment nor drag the physiotherapy treatment too long.

Both should strike a fine balance together," Dr Joshi told TV9 news channel.

Zaheer sustained the injury in mid-May while playing for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League held in South Africa.

But he waited till July 13 before going under the surgeon''s scalpel in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The left-arm pacer carried his injury into the Twenty20 World Cup that followed the IPL in June in England and underwent the surgery much later after skipping the next tour by India to the West Indies. He's now expected to be out of action till the end of this year.

Expecting Zaheer's recovery time to last from four to six months, Dr Joshi feels a nodal sports medicine centre with several branches is the ideal way to treat injuries to cricketers in India.

"I do not think that having a couple of therapists - a physio and a trainer - is adequate for a country like India.

We should have a nodal agency with state-of-the-art facilities as well as zonal infrastructure and a referral centre where coaches, physios and surgeons can work together", he said.

Dr Joshi had brought flamboyant batsman Yuvraj Singh back on his feet without surgery on his injured knee before the last World Cup in the West Indies.

Dr Joshi said Yuvraj's recovery was successful because his progress was monitored closely for two months and, after seeing improvements in his muscle strength, he (Dr Joshi) decided to go ahead with non-surgical management.

Fitness test for Champions Trophy probables

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will be among the ICC Champions Trophy probables from

West and South Zone who will undergo fitness Tests to be conducted by BCCI physio Nitin Patel here tomorrow.

"This is a routine test ahead of any series after a break," Cricket Board sources said today, adding North Zone players and others will undergo a similar fitness tests in Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla today.

Among the cricketers who would be tested tomorrow are Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma.

The test results would be forwarded to the BCCI ahead of the national selection panel sitting at Chennai on August 16 to choose the final 15-member team for the September 22-October 5 tournament in South Africa and the squad to Sri Lanka for the September 8-14 triangular ODI series.

Younis Khan rebuffs match-fixing allegations

Pakistan cricket captain Younis Khan has rebuffed match-fixing allegations levelled against his side saying that his team-mates earn well enough not to participate in corrupt practices for extra money.

The News quoted Younis as saying that match-fixing might have been possible in the 80s and 90s, as players could be lured into corrupt practices because of lower wages.

"Now, a player earns around seven to eight hundred thousand rupees per match. So, I don't think he needs to get involved in such things. I am thankful to God for what he has given me. I wouldn't like to earn my living by sacrificing my self respect and honour," he said.

Confident Ponting eyes Ashes urn in series decider

A confident Ricky Ponting is ready to erase the biggest blot on his captaincy record in next week's Ashes decider at The Oval and sees everything going in Australia's favour for a match his team needs only to draw to retain the urn.

It is for the first time in 43 years that the scores have been tied heading into the final match of an Ashes series. But England is wracked by injury and form woes coming off their innings and 80 runs fourth Test defeat at Headingley.

"It will be difficult for them to bounce back now. It'll only be that because of what we've got out of this game and what we felt we got coming out of the Edgbaston Test," said Ponting.

"We've got some of our guys that have been struggling for a little bit of touch, some of them probably in the best form of their careers which is great. Everything is heading in the right direction for us at exactly the right time of the tour," FOX Sports quoted him, as saying.

With his side firing on all fronts, Ponting said the south London clash would be one of the biggest moments of his stellar career.

It is a chance for him to atone for the 2005 Ashes series defeat that is still considered as the lowest moment in his five years in charge.

"It's a chance I've been waiting for this whole tour and a chance the whole team has been waiting for," he said.

But England has a good record at The Oval, having been undefeated in their last seven Tests at the ground. England captain Andrew Strauss insisted his side's poor show at Headingley wouldn't mean a thing next week.

Zaheer faces lengthy layoff after shoulder op

Indian strike bowler Zaheer Khan has been ruled out of action until the end of the year after undergoing surgery on an injured shoulder, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Friday.

Zaheer had an arthroscopic labral repair carried out on his left shoulder in South Africa last month, the BCCI said in a statement.

"Zaheer is undergoing rehabilitation in South Africa and is recovering very well. He is expected to return to international cricket by the end of this year," the statement said.

The 30-year-old left-arm bowler suffered the injury while fielding during the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year, although he still played in the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June.

He subsequently missed India's four-match one-day series in West Indies.

India's next assignment is a triangular one-day series involving hosts Sri Lanka and New Zealand from Sept. 8-14, followed by the Champions Trophy in South Africa from Sept. 22-Oct. 5.