A decision on whether to tour Pakistan should not come down to individual New Zealand players as younger members of the squad may feel pressured into going, according to Heath Mills.

Graeme Smith has revealed that he has been struggling with worsening tennis elbow during the England tour and says he will need to take some time out over the next few months to be ready to face Australia.

Steve Harmison has come out of ODI retirement and has been added to England's squad to face South Africa after Ryan Sidebottom was ruled out of the opening match at Headingley due to a groin injury.

The fate of the Champions Trophy hangs on Sunday's telephone hook-up after it emerged that India and Pakistan have hardened their position on the tournament going ahead as scheduled from September 12 onwards in Karachi and Lahore, leaving the ICC with the possibility of a cancellation otherwise.

Azeem Rafiq, the 17-year-old Yorkshire offspinner, who was at the centre of the club's elimination from the Twenty20 Cup when he was found to be ineligible, has been given special dispensation by the ECB to play first-team cricket for the rest of the season.

A round-up from the latest Championship matches as Kent take control against Lancashire and Essex suffer an injury blow to Danish Kaneria.

After a full day's play - finally - Somerset enjoyed a good six hours and effectively shut Hampshire out of the match, going into the final day. Ian Blackwell hit a responsible rather than devastating century, and was backed by his team-mates all the way down the order. It remains to be seen whether the bowlers can do their bit to win the match on the final day - and if the weather will let them.

Zimbabwe's confirmation that they won't take part in next year's ICC World Twenty20 in England comes as a relief for Scotland, who will replace them by virtue of finishing third in the recent qualifying tournament.

Cricinfo previews the first of five ODIs against South Africa at Headingley.

At 36, most first-class cricketers are winding down and perhaps trying to eke out a couple more years while their bodies and skills hold up. They are rarely considered exciting prospects, yet those are the words Australia's chairman of selectors used on Wednesday to describe Bryce McGain, the Victoria legspinner.

Bangladesh are ready to step into the Champions Trophy if any teams pull out of the tournament, according to the coach Jamie Siddons.

The captain Ramnaresh Sarwan guided West Indies to an easy six-wicket win over Bermuda in their opening match of the Associates Tri-series in Canada.

Richard Levi's 72 of 88 balls helped the South Africa Academy beat the Bangladesh Cricket Board Academy by 18 runs.

It could very well have been Sri Lanka's day had it not been for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Subramaniam Badrinath. Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene believed their partnership took the game away from his side and helped India square the series 1-1..

Finding some dry weather appears to be the biggest challenge ahead of the one-day series between England and South Africa, but when the contest does get under way - hopefully at Headingley on Friday - one of the major focuses will be how Kevin Pietersen takes on the South Africa attack.