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Indian skipper Rahul Dravid is backing Pakistan to beat England in the four-match Test series this summer, writes Khalid Hussain.

Dravid, who led an International XI against Pakistan in a match to raise funds for last year’s earthquake victims at The Oval on Monday night, told reporters that he believes Pakistan were a stronger team as compared to England.

“Pakistan are a superb side and in spite of injuries to some of their players I expect them to play good cricket and win here,” Dravid told reporters after his team lost against Pakistan in the charity game.

Kevin Pietersen has told England’s novice bowlers to “stand up and be counted” as the team prepare for their Test series against Pakistan.

England head into Thursday’s first Test at Lord’s on the back of seven straight defeats against Sri Lanka — one in a Test match, one Twenty20 and five One-day International (ODIs) reverses — and with several key players out of action because of injury.

Flamboyant batsman Pietersen is himself fit after a knee problem but captain Michael Vaughan and Simon Jones (both knee) are sidelined, as is left-arm spinner Ashley Giles (hip), while star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff only made his comeback from an ankle problem in a Twenty20 clash on Sunday.

Former Pakistan skipper Mushtaq Mohammad is a great fan of current national team captain Inzamam-ul-Haq but only as far as the gentle giant’s batting exploits are concerned. As a leader, Inzy hasn’t impressed Mushtaq much.

“If I were in charge of Pakistan cricket, I would have replaced Inzamam as the team captain with a younger and fitter player at least a year before the World Cup,” Mushtaq told this correspondent here on Monday referring to the 2007 World Cup in West Indies.

The three-match ODIs cricket series between Kenya and Bangladesh originally set for Nairobi later this month have been postponed by a further three weeks due to lack of sponsors, the officials said on Monday.

Cricket Kenya Chief Executive Tom Tikolo said they required about 13 million shillings (176,000 dollars) to host the Bangladeshi side, with half of the amount raised through TV rights and the rest through sponsorship or Cricket Kenya.

“We don’t have the money. But we are talking to a few sponsors,” said Tikolo. “We are still discussing with them and hopeful we will reach a deal within the next two weeks.” The series was initially scheduled for July 19, 21 and 23.

England fast bowler Simon Jones says he has not given up hope of recovering from knee surgery to play in this winter’s Ashes series in Australia.

Jones was virtually ruled out of the series after having surgery to repair damaged knee cartilage last month. But the 27-year-old expects to be back in training by September, giving him a month to prove his fitness. “There’s always a possibility for me to go. I want to push for a place to go on that tour,” he told BBC Sport. “I’ve got to work as hard as I can because there is no better feeling than to play against Australia in Ashes. That is what’s keeping me going.”

Work has been started on scrubbing of the grass of Arbab Niaz Stadium, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) curator in NWFP Mir Bashar Khan said here on Monday.

It would take another month to make the stadium playable for any class of cricket activities, Bashar added. Bashar, who is also assistant director in the NWFP Sports Directorate, disclosed that earlier they had scrubbed the grass and levelled Arbab Niaz Stadium in June 1998, it had decided to repeat similar work after eight years in order to shape up the stadium according to international needs.

Matthew Hoggard is to spend time in an oxygen chamber during the next few days as he attempts to get fit to face Pakistan in the first Test at Lord’s starting on Thursday.

The 29-year-old paceman, an ever-present for England’s last 32 Tests, had his run threatened after Yorkshire team-mate Tim Bresnan trod on his hand during the warm-up before Saturday’s third day of the four-day clash between England A and Pakistan at Canterbury, a match that ended in a draw.

Andrew Hilditch, the Australia chairman of selectors, has hinted Glenn McGrath may miss the ICC Champions Trophy which begins mere weeks before the start of the Ashes.

McGrath, 36, missed Australia’s tours of South Africa and Bangladesh earlier this year owing to his wife’s battle with cancer. Jane’s health has improved in recent months and, in May, McGrath hit back at the critics who said his career could be over when he said he had “been working on a number of things I believe will make me an even better bowler come the start of the Ashes”.

Mianwali-born Samiullah Khan Niazi, a fast improving left-arm medium-fast bowler, has been called up y the team management for the current tour of England. The move has been necessitated by the withdrawal from the team of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan through injury and fitness problems faced by some other pace bowlers.

Samiullah will turn 24 years old early next month. His career has already progressed in leaps and bounds and, after just four seasons of first-class cricket, he has gathered 138 wickets in 32 matches at an inexpensive 19.48 runs apiece.

Andrew Flintoff made a spectacular return to senior cricket with an astonishing bowling haul here at Old Trafford.

In his first match in a month since being ruled out with an ankle injury, Flintoff took three wickets for four runs in three overs in Lancashire’s seven-wicket Twenty20 win over Nottinghamshire.

Although the man England hope will captain them in the Ashes will not feature in the first Test against Pakistan starting at Lord’s on Thursday, the selectors hope to have him leading the side at his Old Trafford home ground when the second act of the four-match series gets underway there on July 27.