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Peter Siddle will take the place of an injured Ryan Harris in Australia’s team for the third Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Usman Khawaja has been left out to make way for the return of Ricky Ponting, who missed the Pallekele Test for the birth of his child.Harris was ruled out due to a minor hamstring strain, meaning a recall for Siddle ahead of his less-experienced fellow Victoria fast bowler James Pattinson. “I guess we’re going to be safe, rather than sorry,” Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, said of Harris.”He’s [Harris] played an unbelievable part throughout this series, [he is] the leading wicket-taker and someone who we think is really important to our success in the Test format. I certainly don’t think it’s worth the risk of playing him here; if that minor strain becomes a big tear he could be out for a lot longer. I think he’s too important to us to risk him at this stage.”Siddle struggled for rhythm and the right length in the warm-up game in Colombo that preceded the first Test, but has been working hard in the nets and the gym to build his strength and stamina since. He will have a critical role to play, for Harris has been the leading bowler in the series so far, claiming 11 wickets at the cost of just 14.54 runs each and consistently troubling the Sri Lanka top order. Siddle has the ability to move the ball, and took a hat-trick against England at the Gabba last year by bowling a full length.Khawaja, meanwhile, makes way for Ponting, but his spot at No. 6 will go to Shaun Marsh, who made a stirring 141 on his Test debut in Pallekele when deputising at No. 3. In the three Tests he has played so far, Khawaja has a top score of 37, but has looked the part each time he has batted. Nevertheless, Marsh’s resolve in exploiting his first opportunity to the fullest meant the selectors on tour could not leave him out for Colombo.”It’s brilliant to have Ricky back, he’s been an amazing player for such a long time. He’s always going to walk back into the team,” Clarke said. “Hard for Uzzie because, without going and making a big score individually, he’s shown he can bat anywhere in the order.”The way he’s played spin at the start of his innings has been really positive so he’s shown the selectors going forward that he can play anywhere in the top six. It’s obviously a tough selection but we thought with Shaun making 140 on debut it was really hard to leave him out.”I think he [Khawaja] might have felt there was a chance he was going to miss out. Tim and myself spoke to everyone last night. The key with this stuff, not only for the guys who are missing out but just as importantly for the guys who are playing, [is that] it’s important to let everybody know as soon as you find out. As soon as the selectors know you should make it known what the team is.”Uzzie was, obviously like anybody, disappointed. He wants to play every game he can for Australia but he was fantastic. He understood our reasons. The one thing Uzzie made very clear was that he wants us to go and win this Test series 2-0. A big part of why we’ve had success is guys are putting the team in front of themselves and Uzzie’s another example of that. The one thing that came out of his mouth was ‘let’s just go and win this third Test, go home 2-0 winners’, which is brilliant.”Khawaja is the first player to be dropped under the new selection structure, recommended by the Argus review, that had Clarke sitting officially on the selection panel, and playing a key role as the man to relay this news to the players. His predecessor Ricky Ponting spent his entire captaincy pushing for such a structure, and Clarke said even though it was not a palatable part of the job, he and other players always felt more comfortable receiving the bad news from the captain.”It’s certainly not something you look forward to, but what it does do is it allows the player to understand the captain’s feelings, on how he [the player] has performed throughout the tour,” Clarke said. “As hard as it is to go and front a player and let him know he’s not selected in the Test match, I can give him the honest feedback.”It’s 100% what I feel and that’s something I’ve tried to do throughout the whole tour since taking over as a selector: make sure I’m 100% honest with the guys who have been selected but also the guys who are missing out. The ‘no bullshit’ policy is very important to me. I want guys to know the truth and unfortunately for Uzzie, a big part of the reason is Shaun got 140 on debut. It’s really hard to leave him out.”

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They may have gone into the season as one of the bookies favourites to suffer relegation but, going into the final four weeks of the season, Warwickshire are emerging as genuine title contenders.If they win this game and other results go their way – notably the match at Blackpool – Warwickshire will go top of the table over the next day or two. As Warwickshire wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose put it: “There isn’t a side whose position I’d swap with. No-one has really considered us as potential winners, but we’ve won more matches than anyone and we have a game in hand.”The next day or two could also have strong ramifications for Hampshire. While they will not be mathematically certain to suffer relegation if they lose here, their realistic chances of survival will be horribly slim.This match isn’t decided just yet, however. While Hampshire only lead by 54 with four of their second innings wickets spent, Warwickshire will not fancy chasing many more than 250 in the fourth innings against Imran Tahir. The pitch is no minefield, certainly, but there’s enough assistance for bowlers of all types to ensure batting is never an easy business. The involvement of Warwickshire’s Rikki Clarke, who nowadays is a vital member of Warwickshire’s bowling attack, may also be heavily restricted after he strained a hamstring.There was a time, while Michael Carberry and Neil McKenzie were together, when it looked as the visitors might well set a testing fourth innings target. But when Carberry, who had looked in tremendous form, played across a swinging yorker and McKenzie felt for a fine ball that bounced and left him, Hampshire were left on the back foot again. Earlier Jimmy Adams missed a straight one and Liam Dawson edged one angled across him. Keith Barker, the left-arm seamer, claimed the first three wickets to fall and generated decent pace and pleasing swing into the right-handers.If Warwickshire do fail to win this match, they may well come to rue their first innings performance with the bat. While they established a useful lead of 109, it could have been far more and a series of soft dismissals meant they squandered the chance to bat Hampshire out of the game.Indeed, for a while, it seemed the visitors might snatch a first innings lead. When Jim Troughton flashed at the second ball of the day and Rikki Clarke held his bat out at one he should have left, Warwickshire had lost their sixth wicket and were still 28 behind. Troughton hasn’t passed 50 in the Championship since April and has only made three half-centuries in this competition in since August 2009.Ambrose and Chris Woakes, however, ensured that Warwickshire retained the initiative. The pair both made polished half-centuries as they added 73 for the seventh wicket, with Woakes following up his excellence with the ball by making the top score of the match so far.Both, however, undid some of their good work with soft dismissals. Ambrose edged a loose drive moments before lunch, while Woakes ran himself out attempting an improbable single. On a blameless pitch, a haul of just two batting bonus points was a missed opportunity. It may yet come back to haunt them.It was another decent day’s work from Ambrose, however. After enduring a miserable 2010 when he considered giving up cricket, he’s back to something approaching his best with bat and gloves. The stats might not show it, but his five half-centuries in a summer of tricky batting conditions have played a huge part in Warwickshire’s success.Ambrose is out of contract in a month and, as yet, has not held formal discussions over his future. While Warwickshire would like him to stay, there will surely be other offers waiting.”I went into this season with an open mind: if I hadn’t enjoyed it, I would have given up cricket,” Ambrose admitted. “But I can honestly say I’m enjoying my cricket as much, if not more, than I ever have done. I haven’t thought about next year just yet. There will be time for that soon. For now I just want to concentrate on winning a second Championship title [Ambrose also won one with Sussex].”I feel I’m in fantastic nick at the moment. I’m seeing the ball really well at the moment and I’m enjoying keeping to this attack. Boyd Rankin is as hostile as anyone out there on his day, while Chris Woakes is a high-class bowler who just keeps building up the pressure on batsmen. I’d fancy us to chase 200 in this game. And, if we wrap this up, we’re in a better position than anyone to win the title.”

Surrey lost their 100% record in Group B of the CB40 League when they had a wasted journey to face Durham at Chester-le-Street. The match was washed out without a ball bowled following heavy rainfall in the north-east over the weekend. Durham began the day in third place with four wins from six matches.

Mickey Arthur, the coach of Western Australia, believes Australia has handicapped its chances of returning to the No.1 spot in the world Test rankings by docking the pay of international aspirants on state contracts to offer more money to Twenty20 specialists.Players and state associations around the country have been digesting the weighting of contracts under the new MOU for state and national player payments, with the sizeable reduction in money available for state contracts causing plenty of discontent.Where last summer a Sheffield Shield player was able to earn up to A$140,000 a season, now the maximum has been cut to $115,000, while the minimum state contract has been reduced from $50,000 to $40,000. Contract numbers have been reduced from a maximum of 20 to a maximum of 18.State players who do not also earn a Big Bash League contract will be afforded a “top-up” payment, but the incentive to concentrate on first-class cricket has been substantially reduced.Arthur, who has said he sees plenty of talent available to return Australia to the pinnacle of the global game provided it is managed adroitly, was adamant that this approach was wrong-headed.”To be honest it has been very difficult with the amount of money available to keep all your squad happy, and personally I think it’s the wrong way round,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo. “Your biggest salary cap should be your state contracts with the smaller salary cap being your Big Bash. If we’re really serious in Australia about getting Australia to the No.1 Test playing side in the world, we should be reflecting that in our salary caps and budgets.”You can (feel the squeeze) just through the salary caps that we have to work with. You’re getting a bigger salary cap for six weeks’ work over the holiday period than you are for trying to make yourself a Test cricketer. I think that’s the wrong way round.”It’s no secret that all of the players around all of the states have been very disappointed by their contracts, and that just reflects the salary cap we had to work with. It’s been a really tough contracting process.”Paul Marsh, chief executive of the players union, has previously defended the balance by saying he had “tried to balance Test and one-day cricket in this model so players are still motivated to play all three forms of the game”.”The total player-payment pool is going up by 10%. There’s a 6% reduction in the CA retainer pool, the state retainer pool is reduced by about 30%, but then you’ve got this new pool of Big Bash money,” Marsh told ESPNcricinfo in a feature interview. “So everyone will get two contracts: the traditional contracts are going to be less, but they will get a Big Bash contract on top of that. So all things being equal, players are going to push forward here. We have thought of all these different scenarios, and I honestly think we have maintained that prioritisation of Test cricket as well as we can.”Western Australia have unveiled a trio of new signings to the state squad, all seasoned players designed to compliment a young squad that will need the guidance of experience if it is to bloom into a group of Australian representatives.As the coach of the Perth Scorchers in the BBL, Arthur has mapped out his own T20 squad, but is yet to secure it via contracts, which cannot be offered until the state rounds are complete. Cricket Australia has had its hands full trying to maintain the integrity of that process, as state associations peer expectantly over at the talent available elsewhere.”First and foremost we’ve picked a side of must-haves, and we’ve tried to incorporate all of those guys in our salary cap,” Arthur said. “It does become difficult when one guy that you’re chasing, and I suppose you can think of Chris Gayle, he’s not going to come cheap, so you could realistically have a guy like Chris Gayle taking one fifth of your salary cap.”So it is quite tough, but I’ve put together a team and squad that I feel we need, and hopefully we can secure. Then for your replacement players there is going to be a bit of jostling in the market for them.”

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Vikram Solanki was struck on the back of the head after ducking into a bouncer from Boyd Rankin•PA Photos

Perhaps it was fitting that, as Steve Rhodes put it, there should be a “farcical end to quite a farcical game”?Worcestershire, with two batsmen retired hurt and another ‘absent injured’, were forced to accept defeat by Warwickshire by a margin 218 runs even though they had lost only seven second-innings wickets. Memories of India’s defeat at the hands of the West Indies at Sabina Park in 1976 spring to mind.In truth, there was an element of protest in Worcestershire’s decision not to send their remaining batsmen into the line of fire. Had the team had even a chance of victory, both Vikram Solanki and Alan Richardson would have batted. As it was, they decided it was better not to risk them.It was a sensible decision. With the pitch every more unpredictable, the batsmen were taking blow after blow and Ben Scott, after sustaining a third hit on the gloves in a gutsy innings, was forced to retire hurt. There was no hope of resisting for long. The game was up.Some might rebuke Worcestershire for a lack of fight. They will point to examples such as Brian Close and suggest players from the past might have battled a little harder. Maybe.Generally, however, such criticism is facile. It is easy to sit the other side of the boundary and chastise players for a lack of fight. But spectators would do well to remember that these players are expected to play many more games in the coming days, weeks and months and that any injury sustained here could have damaging effects on their team’s season and, perhaps, even their own careers. This pitch, by the end, was simply dangerous and it is a blessing that no-one has been seriously hurt during the game. It is, by some distance, the worst pitch I’ve seen for a Championship match.Certainly Rhodes was scathing in his criticism at the end of the game. Reacting to news that Warwickshire had been penalised eight points for a track deemed ‘poor’ by the pitch panel, Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, suggested a 24-point penalty for an ‘unfit’ wicket would have been more appropriate.”I can safely say that is probably the worst pitch I’ve seen in professional cricket in England,” Rhodes said. “I would have voted it as unfit.”If you ask the question: is that fit for first-class cricket?’ then the answer has to be ‘no.’ It had extravagant bounce. I don’t feel it was fit for first-class cricket.”Rhodes has a point, of course. But he and Worcestershire supporters baying for blood may do well to remember the sympathetic response Worcestershire received when they unsuccessfully tried to host a Championship game against Kent at a recently-flooded New Road in 2007. Groundsmen, like chief executive, players and journalists, sometimes make mistakes. The ECB judgement in this game, the result of three highly-experienced individuals’ lengthy analysis, looks about right.Despite all this, however, Warwickshire have decided to appeal the Pitch Panel’s decision to dock them eight points for a track deemed to be ‘poor.’Warwickshire continue to play their cards quite close to their chest on the issue, but it seems their appeal will focus on the procedure used by the ECB to come to the decision. That is because the ECB were not alerted to concerns about the pitch by the match umpires, but by a member of the media. Oddly, the phone call made by the newspaper journalist to the ECB was not even answered or returned.That having been said, Warwickshire are not claiming that the pitch was acceptable. They just feel there were extenuating circumstances relating to the new stands, outfield and drainage system and that the ECB’s own procedure was not followed. On that basis, they may have a point, though it seems a shame they couldn’t have accepted the penalty with some grace and moved on.ECB rules on the issue are not absolutely clear, but it does not appear as if Warwickshire’s points penalty can be increased. Instead, however, it seems that the ECB can charge them £5,000 (to be deducted from their next fee payment) should the appeal be unsuccessful. A new pitch panel will be convened within the week and they will review video footage of the match and interview relevant officials as required.The ‘pitch battle’ should not disguise the fact that this was Worcestershire’s fifth loss in five Championship games. Whatever the challenges, they were second best in every department in this match. Their support bowling was poor and their support batting flimsy. They’ve played some decent cricket without reward this season, but here they looked second best from the start.At least Scott showed some fight in this game. The Middlesex keeper, with Worcestershire on loan, showed excellent skills with the gloves and bravery with the bat. He’s a fine addition. Matt Pardoe and Moeen Ali batted nicely, too. And, if one or two of their colleagues are playing as if relegation is inevitable, they will find their coach will intolerant of such a view.”We have to learn to fight a little harder,” Rhodes admitted. “We’ve given too many wickets away to spin. We had a chance to win the game if we had we played better. Both teams played on the same wicket, after all.”Worcestershire lost three wickets in 14 balls on the final day. After Shaaiq Choudhry, surely batting too high at six in the order, missed one that may have kept a little low, Gareth Andrew edged one that took off from a length and Moeen Ali clipped to square-leg. Damien Wright then helped Scott add 44 for the seventh-wicket, before the former slogged to mid-off. Shortly afterwards, Scott was struck on the hand by a lifter from Boyd Rankin and the match was over.The big difference between the sides was simply the batting of Mohammad Yousuf. Warwickshire supporters have taken some time to warm to the Pakistani and, in his early matches, there have been times, in the field in particular, when he hadn’t appeared overly anxious about the match situation.Such reservations have evaporated now. Yousuf played two magnificent, match-shaping innings in this game and the chances of him winning a longer-term contract at the club have increased significantly. Ashley Giles also admitted some interest in Dale Steyn, who is available in July. Tim Ambrose, back to his best with bat and gloves and Rikki Clarke also enjoyed good games, while Ian Bell, who sustained a very minor muscle strain, will now miss the CB40 match against Leicestershire having initially asked the ECB for special permission to play.Giles, meanwhile, insisted that the poor wicket was purely accidental. “We want to play on the best possible wickets,” Giles said. “I think we were the stronger side and providing a wicket like that usually just brings the weaker side into the game more. No-one wants to see anyone get hurt and none of us have said it was a great wicket.”But the guys were brilliant as a collective. They didn’t moan if they got an unplayable ball. They just got on with it.”[Hosting] International cricket is very important to us, so the groundstaff have to learn very quickly. It [the redeveloped ground and re-laid outfield] is a bit of an unknown quality for everyone.”It may also be worth noting that the umpires rated the behaviour of both sets of players as exemplary. Despite the treacherous conditions, there was no moaning, no arguing and no dissent. Indeed, they showed considerable bravery. Whatever other issues there may have been with this match, the players of both sides have emerged with great credit.