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The PCB has settled its dispute with Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland over his comments about the Justice Qayyum commission on match-fixing. In April, Sutherland had suggested that last year’s spot-fixing scandal – after which three Pakistan players were banned for five years – might not have occurred if the PCB had acted properly on the recommendations of the Qayyum commission in 2000.An irked Pakistan board had asked the ICC to “investigate” Sutherland’s comments but the row has now been resolved without the ICC’s intervention. “PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmad talked to Sutherland on the matter,” PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said. “James clarified that his comments on the Qayyum inquiry were not meant to put PCB in a difficult position. Sutherland explained that it was in response to a question during an interview and not intended to criticise anyone. PCB enjoys cordial relations with CA so we have decided not to pursue the matter any further.”The Qayyum report had several recommendations for tackling match-fixing. The main ones involved banning for life players such as Salim Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman, and fining a host of others, including Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saeed Anwar. Some of these players, such as Akram, were to be prevented from holding any positions of responsibility in or around the team.Last year, soon after the spot-fixing controversy broke out, Qayyum himself had said the PCB had not been “strong enough” in implementing some recommendations in his report.

ScorecardTwo partnerships, of 66 and 92 runs respectively, carried Uttar Pradesh to 279 for 6 amid regular wickets against Tamil Nadu on the opening day in Chennai. Captain Mohammad Kaif, for whom this season has been productive in terms of runs, scored a half-century before falling to offspinner Malolan Rangarajan, who claimed three wickets. Kaif’s stand with Umang Sharma took their side to 123 for 2, but then four wickets fell for 64 runs. In trouble at 187 for 6, Ali Murtaza and Prashant Gupta added a further 92 runs before stumps.Tamil Nadu’s M Vijay took his third wicket in first-class wicket in the two overs he bowled.
ScorecardAn unbeaten 172-run partnership between Kedar Devdhar and Aditya Waghmode took Baroda to a strong 256 for 3 against Maharashtra in Pune. Baroda started their innings poorly with two quick wickets falling to seamer Shrikant Mundhe before the 10th over of the match. But opener Saurabh Wakaskar stuck with No. 3 Waghmode to add 70, before falling for 50 to spinner Akshay Darekar. Devdhar, the next batsman in, dominated the stand with Waghmode to reach a hundred before stumps. Waghmode ended the day with an unbeaten 87.
ScorecardOdisha’s combined bowling effort, led by medium-pacer Biplab Samantray, reduced Vidarbha to 188 for 8 on the first day in Cuttack. Five batsmen got starts, but no one scored more than 40. The innings was based on two productive stands, for the fourth wicket worth 74 between Amol Umarhande and Hemang Badani, and for the sixth wicket worth 49 between Gaurav Upadhyaya and captain Sairaj Bahutule.The scoring was slow throughout the day. Basant Mohanty, who bowled the maximum number of overs of all the bowlers, registered an economy rate of 1.06.
ScorecardHubli and its 31 degrees sunshine provided Haryana a stark contrast from the chilly, foggy north Indian towns where they have played much of the season, but for the first two sessions against Karnataka their batting floundered just as it has so often over the past two months. The several thousand fans who turned up to see the first first-class match in Hubli for a couple of decades would have returned home a happier lot had it not been for Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav’s 125-run eighth wicket stand that lifted Haryana to 293 for 7.Read more of the report here.

ScorecardTim Phillips recorded career-best one-day figures of five for 28 as Essex hammered the Unicorns by eight wickets at the Victory Ground.Phillips removed Josh Knappett, one of only three home players to reach double figures, and then blew away the lower order as the Unicorns could muster only 137 despite 58 from Chris Benham. They never looked like defending that total and the Eagles made virtually untroubled progress to 140 for 2 with 5.5 overs to spare.After the Unicorns had won the toss and chosen to bat, Robin Lett fell cheaply to Friday’s hat-trick hero Graham Napier. Michael Thornely made 25 before being trapped in front by David Masters and wicketkeeper Knappett put on 32 with James Campbell before the latter fell for seven.Captain Keith Parsons was bowled by Ravi Bopara two balls later as the England hopeful’s seven overs yielded two for 23, and Knappett then became Phillips’ first victim, bowled for 23.That was 71 for 5 and Benham was left to carry the tail end, the next four wickets grinding out 27 runs in a little over 10 overs. Phillips took all of them, Neil Saker offering limited support to Benham with nine while Amar Rashid and Glen Querl made it three second-ball ducks in the innings and Dan Wheeldon scored four.Benham then cut loose, the bulk of his seven boundaries coming in a stand of 39 with last man Tom Craddock – who was obliged to face just nine balls in 34 minutes for his one not out. The expensive Lonwabo Tsotsobe returned to claim top-scorer Benham, caught by Matt Walker, and Essex were left to chase just 138.Openers Mark Pettini and Alastair Cook made a fine start with a stand of 53 before England’s new one-day captain was bowled by Saker for a pleasing 38 from 40 balls, which contained seven boundaries.New man Napier launched one six but otherwise failed to live up to his big-hitting reputation and made just 11 from 20 balls before Benham, as catcher, and bowler Craddock once more teamed up to good effect.Pettini and Bopara, though, progressed to the winning post in serene fashion, the former reaching an unbeaten 48 from 100 balls while Bopara made 29 from 46, hitting Benham’s first ball for four to finish the match.

ScorecardJonny Bairstow has struggled for form since a testing Test baptism•Getty Images

Poor Jonny Bairstow. Ever since he was selected for England in mid-May, he has been expected, willed even, to score runs. Whether he is appearing in Test cricket, in T20 or, as now, in a championship fixture, out of form and in conditions wholly alien to his strokeplay, he is a failure if he does not make a sizeable contribution.In ten innings since that debut at Lord’s, he has mustered just 131 runs. He did not add to this tally at West End.The major incident of the rain-hit day – a sad one from all but Hampshire’s perspective – was that Bairstow was dismissed for a golden duck. It was not a propitious time to bat, Hampshire having won the toss on the washed-out opening day of this match and been delighted to put Yorkshire in.Bairstow came to the crease when Phil Jacques edged Kabir to Michael Bates. Since he was chosen to play for England at Lord’s in May, his scores in his ten innings have been 16, 0 not out, 4, 68, 18, 17, 2, 5, 1 and 0. In that time he was unsettled by some short-pitched bowling from West Indies’ Kemar Roach and his technique against the quicks has been analysed far and wide.True, most of these innings have been played in t20 cricket, but even there he has failed individually to shine in a successful Yorkshire side which reached the quarter-finals by topping the group.It is axiomatic that he is out of form, but the first ball he received would have dismissed many a batsman in touch.Kabir Ali, for once fully fit, his troubled knee “behaving itself” as he put it, had taken the new ball and he swung it at a full length at fast medium. He pitched up his first ball to Bairstow, found late movement off the pitch and defeated a defensive push. Bates took a straightforward catch.England’s selectors gave Bairstow their blessing to play in this fixture, one involving a lengthy journey, constant rain and conditions far from ideal for any batsman feeling his way back to prominence. Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan are regartded as ahead of him in the pecking order for the first Test at The Oval.The other wicket to fall was that of Adam Lyth, whom James Tomlinson had leg before in the fourth over. Joe Root batted throughout the 26 overs that were bowled, and will resume – always assuming there is a resumption – four runs short of a half century. He will have to contend with a refreshed Kabir, who had spoken to Craig White, the former Yorkshire all rounder and now Hampshire bowling coach, as to how best to dismiss Bairstow.”I was trying to bowl in-swingers but I didn’t know what was happening,” he admitted. “And if I don’t know what is happening, the batsman won’t either. It is a slow pitch but the ball is nibbling around a bit. This is my fifth championship match of the summer and I am feeling fine.”So another day of high summer and another wholly accurate forecast of rain: for Nigel Gray, Hampshire’s head groundsman,it is the wettest cricket season he can recall. He is not the only one.

Scorecard
File photo: Manish Pandey finally broke his century drought with an attacking hundred•Fotocorp

If the quarter-final had been a league game, we would have been set for a dull fourth and final day with Saurashtra looking to bat out time. Instead, the additional day in the knock-outs has led both captains to call the game “still open” though Saurashta have gained a 73-run first-innings advantage, thanks again to their spinners who have taken the majority of the wickets for them this season.Karnataka’s Manish Pandey finally broke his century drought with a stylish, attacking hundred, but when you are looking to overhaul 469 you need more than one batsman to score big. Both openers Robin Uthappa and KL Rahul promised much, but neither could go on to really hurt Saurashtra.Uthappa made his ninth score above 40 this Ranji season, but is still searching for his second hundred of the campaign. He began with three crisply off-driven boundaries in one Chirag Jani over and Saurashtra looked to tie him down by getting the spinners to bowl at his pads and keeping three men close in on the leg-side. He avoided that trap and confidently progressed to 60 off 65 deliveries before he gloved a Jaidev Unadkat delivery that kicked up from a length to the keeper.Rahul had been subdued when Uthappa was finding the rope, but he too showed off some of his shots after the first wicket. His initial few boundaries came mainly on the off side, but he also played several sweeps off the spinners to move to his half-century. He gave it away soon after, though, as he chipped a pitched-up delivery to mid-on. He knew it was a bad mistake, shaking his head much of the way to the dressing room.The season’s highest run-getter CM Gautam, who has been Karnataka’s rock this season, was promoted to No. 4, ahead of Pandey. He couldn’t repeat the heroics of recent months though, and was out lbw for 4 after missing a sweep. Karnataka were 154 for 4 in the first session and looking at a massive deficit.Pandey changed that though. Even with the wickets tumbling, and men crowding the bat, he didn’t rein in his shots. There were plenty of drives past mid-off and just before lunch he muscled a six over long-on. His attacking mindset was highlighted by his running between the wickets as he pushed his partners for the extra run – one of his late cuts even fetched him a rare all-run four.The one serious moment of trouble early in his innings came when he was on 24, bowler Kamlesh Makvana seemed to have palmed the ball onto the stumps and the third umpire was needed to decide whether he was back in his crease. The other genuine chance came only when he was in his 130s, when a loft to long-off was pouched by the fielder Aarpit Vasavada, who stepped over the rope as he completed the catch.There were supporting cameos from Amit Verma and Abhimanyu Mithun to help Pandey prevent Karnataka from slipping to a hopeless situation. The trio of spinners -Makvana, Dharmendrasingh Jadeja and Vishal Joshi – didn’t get any sharp turn from the wicket, but bowled accurately to beat the bat several times, prompting plenty of appeals either for caught-behind or bat-pad. Verma, who has struggled for form this time, survived an over with four appeals from Jadeja. After some initial patience, he whacked Jadeja for a six and a four over midwicket before nicking a catch to the keeper in the same over.That 80-run stand had still just helped Karnataka avoid the follow-on, and their only specialist batsman remaining was Pandey. K Gowtham perished to the first of two athletic low catches at long-on, but Mithun proved more difficult to dislodge. He was initially content to work the ball off his pads towards fine leg but showed his growing confidence by punching Undakat down the ground for four. With the partnership swelling to 80 despite umpteen appeals – Jadeja had his heads on his head in frustration plenty of times in the final session – and Saurashtra’s lead dwindling to double-digits, there was an outside chance of Karnataka taking the first-innings honours.Jadeja, who played a starring role in his debut game last week to help Saurashtra qualify, delivered again late in the day, first trapping Mithun lbw and then knocking over KP Appanna’s off stump. With the last man in, Pandey had to go for his shots and he holed out to Unadkat at long-on, to spark joyous celebrations from the Saurashtra camp. The odd ball is bouncing unpredictably and the pitch is expected to wear significantly over the next two days, which means Saurashtra still have work to do to book their semi-final spot.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Robin Uthappa struck a blistering ton and was involved in a double-century opening stand•Sivaraman Kitta/K Sivaraman

A blistering opening partnership between Robin Uthappa and S Anirudha set up an impressive win for India Green against India Blue in Nagpur, and secured their place in the final of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy. India Green were asked to bat first once again, however, this time they made better use of the fine platform laid by their openers and piled up 348 for 9 in their 50 overs to all but shut India Blue out of the match at the halfway stage.Uthappa carried his form from the first match into this game, launching his aggressive knock with a lofted four to long-off and a well-executed pull off Irfan Pathan. Anirudha played the support role in the pair’s century stand in the previous game, but here he matched Uthappa shot for shot. He struck Irfan for two boundaries as well, before depositing a short ball on the leg stump from Pradeep Sangwan beyond long-on.The pair was aided by some wayward bowling from Irfan early on, as he repeatedly strayed on to the pads in an attempt to get the ball to swing in. India Blue captain S Badrinath tried to stem the flow of runs by bringing on Amit Mishra in the fifth over, but Uthappa and Anirudha continued to pick up fours and sixes at will. After the openers pummelled 34 runs off two overs, India Green had raced to 86 after eight. Unlike against India Red though, they did not waste their fine starts and pushed on to centuries, bringing the 200 up as early as the 23rd over.The bowlers finally found some relief after Uthappa retired. Mohammad Kaif struggled to keep the momentum going before rushing down the track and playing down the wrong line to hand Mishra his first wicket. Anirudha gifted his wicket away, lofting a full toss on the leg stump to midwicket off part-timer M Vijay. Uthappa returned after India Green lost Mohnish Mishra and Ishank Jaggi in quick succession, but could not match his early tempo, striking just one more four before P Parameswaran had him bowled. Sangwan claimed wickets late in the innings as the batsmen looked for quick runs, to finish with 4 for 58 form his ten.India Blue, who needed to win to make the final, made a poor start in the chase as Tanmay Srivastava edged behind off left-arm medium pacer Samad Fallah, with CM Gautham completing a spectacular diving catch. Vijay and Saurabh Tiwary did not let the asking-rate get out of reach though, in an 87-run stand for the second wicket at better than a run-a-ball. After Vijay fell, beaten by Iqbal Abdulla’s turn, Dinesh Karthik provided Tiwary with adequate support. The pair added 48 before Tiwary hit straight to Jaggi at long-off, cutting short his promising innings of 74 off 70. India Blue had one last go at the target through Karthik and Manish Pandey, before Karthik was adjudged lbw off Abhimanyu Mithun for 49.From then on, wickets fell at regular intervals and the required rate soared, and India Green closed out the game in the 42nd over courtesy a fine tumbling catch by Kaif to get rid of Sangwan. Badrinath, who had gone off the field during the first drinks break of the India Green innings, did not bat. Uthappa was named Man of the Match.India Green will play India Red in the final on Thursday at the same venue.

If 2011 was the year of the debutant, Albie Morkel and Rory Kleinveldt will be hoping that 2012 is the year of the comeback men. Morkel, the South Africa pace-bowling allrounder, has played 51 ODIs and 31 Twenty20 internationals but has been out of international cricket since November 2010. Kleinveldt, also a fast-bowling allrounder, has played just two Twenty20 internationals for South Africa but was in and out of the squad till 2010, after which he was not part of the national team’s plans until now. Both are in the squad for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. Morkel said he had a better mental attitude now than he did in 2010.”I’ve gone back and forth for various reasons, whether it was injury or loss of form,” he said. “Your mental attitude is the most important thing. You can lose your place and just give up or decide to play somewhere else. But I knew when I was dropped that I was a good senior player at the Titans and if I performed I’d get noticed. I am probably the same player I was before I got dropped but have a better mental attitude, and that’s the most important thing you can bring to the team.”Morkel was left out of the 2011 World Cup squad, with South Africa deciding to go to the subcontinent without a big-hitting allrounder. When he was recalled, ahead of the Twenty20 series against Australia in October, his body had other plans. He suffered an abdominal muscle injury while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the Champions League T20 and had to withdraw from the national side. “It took me about five weeks to get match-fit again,” he said. He then returned to play for the Titans in the Franchise 1-day Cup but, after one game, appendicitis struck. “It was quite sudden, I was fine on one day and the next I needed an operation.”Morkel recovered completely by mid-December and has been a regular in the Titans’ starting XI since. He has played three first-class matches since his return, with improving results each time. In his most recent outing, against the Warriors, Morkel scored an unbeaten century in the first innings, a half-century in the second and took five wickets in the match. That performance, coupled with a knee injury to Knights batsman Dean Elgar, earned him his national recall.Where he fits into the team is still unclear. Gary Kirsten, the South Africa coach, and Morkel were due to meet on Monday afternoon to discuss Morkel’s role, which will most likely see him bat in his traditional lower-order position. Morkel is likely to function primarily as a bowler but his hitting down the order could become a key factor as well. “Bowling is what people will judge me on,” he said. “Batting is always a bonus, though, and something I work on every day in the nets.”Morkel will jostle for a place in the XI with Kleinveldlt, who earned his recall after a promising showing for Cape Cobras in the Franchise 1-day Cup. Kleinveldt picked up 13 wickets in the competition and showed his value with quick runs at the end of innings. He said the fact that he had come back into the reckoning for the national team, after being left out of squads since 2010, showed his character.”Being dropped is never nice but it’s how you come back from that that matters. It shows your character,” Kleinveldt said. “It’s easy to fall into a trap and think your chance is gone but you go back, put in the numbers and show people you can play this game.”Kleinveldt’s franchise, the Cobras, won the one-day cup this season and are top of the rankings in the SuperSport Series. They have also seen their fast bowler Vernon Philander achieve success with South Africa. Kleinveldt said being part of a strong side with experienced players had helped him develop. “It’s very handy having experienced players around, especially Charl [Langeveldt]. He has played a lot of international cricket and his knowledge has always been a good thing for me and for Vernon. We’ve fed off him quite a bit.”The first match of the ODI series is in Paarl, where the Cobras play a fair number of their home games, and local knowledge could see Kleinveldt get the nod ahead of Morkel. “It was quite flat, slow and low,” Klenveldt said about the last time he played on the Paarl pitch. “We chased down 280-odd recently and the surface played really well. I’d say 280 or 290 would be a good score there.”Having just completed a domestic 50-over tournament, Kleinveldt said the experience of having played with two new balls would be crucial in this series. “During night games, the ball moved around a lot longer and the reverse-swing factor didn’t come into play as much.”That could have a significant impact on how Sri Lanka’s trump card, fast bowler Lasith Malinga, fares in the series. “He is a handful with the new ball and especially the older ball,” Morkel said. “With two new balls it will be interesting to see how his style of play changes because he was very dangerous when the ball was older and reversing.”

Brendon McCullum is not the sort to shirk a challenge so when New Zealand’s wicketkeeper, BJ Watling, was ruled out of the second Test at Headingley because of injury, he wasted little time in deciding to take up the gloves that he supposedly relinquished for good in Test cricket nearly three years ago.McCullum kept for part of England’s second innings at Lord’s – without pads on day three – after Watling injured his left knee attempting to run out Joe Root with a dive. Watling left the field and speculation began over who would take the gloves at Headlingey.Watling seemed to come through practise on Wednesday reasonably well to most observers, which begs the question whether New Zealand viewed his bruised knee as an injury of convenience after what McCullum himself described as their “hour of madness” – the collapse to 68 all out as England forced an abrupt victory in the opening Test at Lord’s.Watling’s absence allows New Zealand to slot in Martin Guptill, who has extensive experience in English conditions with Derbyshire, as an extra batsman at No. 6, rather than as an opener in place of Peter Fulton whose tour of England has so far brought 34 runs in five knocks.Captain, wicketkeeper and New Zealand’s most pugnacious batsman: McCullum will not be short of roles when the second Test begins in Leeds on Friday. All this with a back complaint which puts him under strain whenever he returns to the keeping role.McCullum announced that he would only keep wicket for New Zealand in limited-overs cricket after the IPL in 2010. In New Zealand’s next Test against India in Ahmedabad, Gareth Hopkins deputised and in 24 subsequent Tests, the role has passed between Hopkins, Reece Young, Watling and Kruger van Wyk. Watling has been the only one to suggest he might make a long-term go of it and he can expect to return after this series.Such heavy demands upon McCullum make it almost inevitable that Dan Vettori, a former New Zealand captain, will make his Test comeback for the first time for almost a year’s absence with Achilles trouble. McCullum, an “ideas” captain, likes to keep lines of communication open with his bowlers, but he feel less need for endless dashes up and down the pitch in the middle of an over if he sees the familiar figure of Vettori fielding.One of the New Zealand bowlers to recognise the advantage of that was Neil Wagner. He is a garrulous sort – a refreshing change in the sanitised media conferences of today – and it was all he could do to stop himself pronouncing that Vettori would definitely get the final place ahead of Doug Bracewell and an all-seam attack. These days at Headingley, the temptation to rely on pace bowling alone should be resisted because the pitches can show extremes of character and are just as likely to go flat if the clouds lift. Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire legspinner, took five wickets in the second match of the season at Headingley, so it should not automatically be assumed that a spinner has no role here.”Brendon’s back has been playing up a bit, but he is going to grit his teeth and do a job for the team, that’s just the sort of guy that Brendon is,” Wagner said. “There is going to be quite a bit of running up and down because he likes to talk to the bowlers about plans but having the opportunity maybe to have Dan at mid-on and mid-off and pick his brains and pass on messages will be pretty awesome.”It’s exciting seeing Dan around the changing room and training with us again. He is just one of those guys you can always rely on. He brings a good spirit into the team, and brings in humour in tough situations sometimes, but he also has such massive experience. If as a bowler you want to pick someone’s brain, he is going to be the one you want to talk to.”Vettori will be a like-for-like replacement for his fellow left-arm spinner, Bruce Martin, who has left the tour because of a calf injury he picked up at Lord’s. That will at least stop the England fans wondering – as they have for the past three months – why nobody is clobbering him down the ground.Vettori, veteran of 112 Tests, bowled for half-an-hour, had a bat against some throw-downs and took some high catches on a middling Leeds morning, dry and largely overcast. Mike Hesson, New Zealand’s coach, then rejected requests to speak to him, leaving the bowling coach, Shane Bond, to indicate that Vettori himself would be trusted to make the call on his fitness.”He’s the sort of guy who will know whether he can do it or not,” Bond said. “He’s got that experience and he knows how he’s going physically. Either way I’m sure the right decision will be made.”Vettori’s last Test came against West Indies in Antigua last July. After an inactive time in the IPL, even a long-haul flight from New Zealand could not disguise the feeling that he was itching to play again.Vettori would join an attack that has come close to breaking England’s batting on several occasions over the four Tests stretching back to March, something Wagner takes comfort from.”We have come close a couple of times so it has been a bit frustrating for us as a bowling unit,” he said. “At Lord’s we got ourselves into a perfect position and then two guys came out with serious class and bowled unbelievably well.”Jonny Bairstow at the moment is trying to find his feet a bit. Nick Compton played a bit of a rash shot in the first innings after showing a bit of patience. Matt Prior hasn’t got a run in two innings. There is stuff we can thrive on.”

Sony Six has secured the exclusive broadcast rights for India’s tour of New Zealand, which is scheduled from January 19 to February 18. The tour consists of five ODIs, followed by a two-match Test series.”We are delighted to partner [with] New Zealand Cricket as the official broadcaster to this series,” NP Singh, the CEO of Multi Screen Media, which owns Sony Six, was quoted as saying in several newspaper reports.Sony has been the host broadcaster of the IPL since its inception in 2008, having rights to the tournament till 2017. It also has the rights to show the ongoing series in the UAE between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. NEO Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd was the original broadcaster for international matches in New Zealand, but stopped coverage of the recent West Indies tour of New Zealand after the 3rd ODI in Queenstown.NEO Sports had signed a deal last year guaranteeing it exclusive broadcast rights across Asia, excluding West Asia, for both domestic and international cricket tournaments to be played in New Zealand till 2020.

Ryan Harris’ recovery from shoulder surgery has consumed his BBL campaign for the Brisbane Heat, as the highly regarded fast bowler strives to be considered for Australia’s 2013 Test tours of India and England.Having undergone rotator cuff surgery in August, Harris had originally hoped to be fit in time to take part in Australia’s home Test series against Sri Lanka, starting on Friday in Hobart.But a careful recuperation process has taken longer than first thought, first ruling him out of any cricket before Christmas and now extending into the BBL phase of summer. While Harris has returned to the bowling crease, he is yet to deliver a ball at full pace or off his long run, and it has been decided that he is better off not rushing back for Twenty20 duty.”It’s disappointing because I am pretty close but to push now might not turn out to be the best thing for longer term,” Harris said. “Everyone agrees that I will be best suited to come back with Toombul in club cricket first up in January and then aim to be considered for the first Queensland games after the BBL.”I’ve been feeling pretty good in the nets so far, and while I’m not bowling off the full run-up or at full pace, I’m very positive about getting up to that level soon.”James Hopes, captain of the Bulls and the Heat, was hopeful that Harris’ conservative approach would reap benefits at the international level in the new year.”I pushed myself too hard with a knee injury last year for the first half of the BBL,” Hopes said. “I was fortunate enough to be able to take stock and opt for a less aggressive recovery schedule that got me back fit and well in time for the remaining Shield and one-dayers, and that’s what we’re going to do with Ryano.”He is bowling really well at this stage of his recovery, but it would have been unfair to throw him back into a BBL game and expect him to go full tilt from the outset. This is the best thing for him and will give him plenty of playing time for Queensland and allow him to build a case for the Australian tours to India and England.”I’m firmly convinced that with his bowling skill set, he is comfortably in the ranks of the best Test bowling line-up that Australia can field.”When fit, Harris is greatly valued by Australia’s captain Michael Clarke and the national selectors for his combination of swing, speed and accuracy. His bowling was a key plank of Australia’s series win in Sri Lanka in 2011, utilising a skidding, wicket-to-wicket method that will be suited to India.Beyond that lies the trip to England for the first leg of dual Ashes series.