Flintoff doubtful for Zimbabwe Test

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is doubtful for next week's first Test against Zimbabwe after suffering a compressed nerve in his shoulder, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Wednesday.

Flintoff will undergo further tests later this week after being ruled out of Lancashire's county championship match against Essex at Old Trafford, which started on Wednesday.

No decision has yet been made on whether he will be available for Lancashire's National League match against Hampshire at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Flintoff, who has played 21 Tests for England, scored a century in Lancashire's last championship match against Middlesex before he was forced off with his shoulder injury later in the match.

England are already without all-rounder Craig White, who has been sidelined for around three months after undergoing surgery on a rib injury, for the first Test against Zimbabwe that starts next Thursday at Durham.

England play two Tests against Zimbabwe this year, followed by five against the South Africans.

Streak fit for Hove match

Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak was declared fit for the team's final warm-up game ahead of the first Test against England at Lord's on May 22.

Streak, 29, injured his back while bowling in the tied match with Worcestershire.

The all-rounder however got through a full net session at Hove on Wednesday ahead of the four-day match with Sussex and leads an attack which also includes Mluleki Nkala and Sean Ervine.

Doug Marillier, rested at New Road, also returns after scoring 175 for his former club Kenilworth in a friendly against Water Orton on Sunday, with Barney Rogers omitted.

Coach Geoff Marsh said: "Heath Streak is fit and keen to go after missing most of the last game."

"That game at Worcester gave us four days of competitive cricket with some good pressure situations for batsmen and bowlers.

"Ideally we are looking for the same against Sussex to complete our Test build-up."

Ranatunga in battle for BCCSL leadership

Sri Lanka's former World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga on Tuesday entered the race for the leadership of the country's cricket control board, officials said.

Ranatunga, 39, will contest for the post of president of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka against local businessman Thilanga Sumathipala in elections to be held on June 6.

The BCCSL has been run by interim committees since March 2001, when  the then government sacked the Sumathipala administration.

Ranatunga, who captained Sri Lanka to the World Cup title in 1996, joined politics after retiring from cricket in 1999 and is a member of parliament.

Aravinda de Silva, who retired from cricket at the last World Cup, was elected vice-president of Sri Lankan cricket board on Tuesday. He was elected unopposed.

"Cricket has given me so much.I feel now is the time to give some of it back to the game," de Silva told reporters.

'No Indo-Pak cricket till cross-border terrorism continues'

Following the footsteps of former captain Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath on Tuesday expressed reservations about the revival of Indo-Pak cricketing ties till terrorism from across the border stops.

"India should not play cricket with Pakistan as long as terrorism continues from across the border," Amarnath, who was in Kolkata to coach trainees at the Eastern Zone of the National Cricket Academy, told newspersons.

Kapil Dev had said on Monday that resumption of cricketing contests between the two neighbours is a matter to be decided by the government.

"I standby whatever I have said in the past. You cannot be playing cricket when people are dying on either side of the border," Kapil, who led the World Cup-winning Indian side in 1983, said.

The sharp division among former cricketers regarding the Indian Cricket Players Association was evident once again, with Mohinder Amarnath questioning its existence and favouring the revival of the now defunct Association of Indian Cricketers.

"There's no need to create a new association. It would have been better to revive the AIC," Amarnath told reporters.

Amarnath, said most of those at the helm of affairs at the ICPA were also in the AIC, formed in 1989.

"It's not proper to display rift among players. The idea should be to work together. But that has not been the case," Amarnath said.

Asked whether he felt that the ICPA would be able to stand the test of time, Amarnath said, "Honestly, I don't know. But similar such efforts in the past, like the AIC, and even the association formed during Bishen Singh Bedi's time, have not survived."

Amarnath, who was a founder member of the AIC, said he is not interested in joining any players' association as the Cricket Board is 'doing a lot' for cricketers.

"I am not interested interested in the ICPA or, for that matter, any other such association. The BCCI is now doing a lot for players, both former and present, as well as youngsters. This is enough for me," he said.

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