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Leeds United left-back Junior Firpo could be available against Watford this weekend, according to medical expert Ben Dinnery.

The Lowdown: Knee ligament damage

The Spaniard, who has been hailed as ‘strong’ in the past by Kevin Campbell, started Jesse Marsch’s first two games in charge at Elland Road but hasn’t been seen since being stretchered off against Aston Villa.

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Firpo suffered knee ligament damage after colliding with Emiliano Buendia and has watched on over the last three games as the Whites collected seven points from nine.

Marsch gave Firpo a timescale of three to five weeks over a possible return prior to the win at Wolves in mid-March, and it seems as if the 25-year-old could now return for the trip to Vicarage Road.

The Latest: Firpo return imminent?

MOT Leeds News relayed an update from Dinnery’s injury tracker, which shows that a possible return date Firpo is this Saturday.

Leo Hjelde, who has also been sidelined with a knee problem, also has the same date with regards to a possible return.

The Verdict: Boost for Leeds

Stuart Dallas has had to fill in at left-back for Firpo in recent weeks, but it would be good news if the Spaniards is able to travel with the squad for the crucial meeting with Roy Hodgson’s side.

A win against the Hornets would be a major step towards safety for Leeds, so even having the 25-year-old back on the bench would provide some much-needed strength in depth at left-back.

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Marsch had limited full-back options last time out against Southampton, making Firpo’s return even more important.

In other news: ‘Bad news from Elland Road…’ – Big Leeds injury update emerges on Joe Gelhardt

Don’t expect Shoaib Akhtar or Virender Sehwag to show any bonhomie once the action begins © AFP

Sehwag v Shoaib
Action v reaction doesn’t get fierier. It’s the longest run-up against the most exhilarating bat-swing, the fastest ball against the speediest bat. Sehwag doesn’t do defence, Shoaib doesn’t do half-measures. Earlier collisions have produced fireworks. There’s also been plenty of lip. Sehwag has a strike-rate of 103.66 against Pakistan, Shoaib reserves his fastest for India. Both are on a comeback. Both like to make an instant impact. There are few more exhilarating ways to start a one-dayer. Blink and you’ll surely miss it.Younis v Sreesanth
This may turn into a battle for the stump mics. Sreesanth will talk, mostly with a scowl, and Younis will chat back, mostly with a smile. Expect mid-pitch skirmishes and plenty of banter. Younis likes to cheer his partner after every quick single and Sreesanth is rarely short of a word while walking back to the start of his run-up. Both are capable of swinging matches – Sreesanth will rely on moving the ball at a good pace, Younis on finding the gaps in the middle overs. Both love to improvise – Sreesanth with his slower ones and Younis with his cheeky paddles and glides. Don’t miss this street-fight. It’s as spicy as it gets.Uthappa v Afridi
Seasoned cheek meets youthful brashness in a high-energy battle. Whether it’s with his electric hitting or waspish legspin, Shahid Afridi likes to impose himself. A charged Afridi is usually a sign of a successful Pakistan set-up. He provides momentum quicker than the rest and turns games in a matter of minutes. In Robin Uthappa he could meet his match. Not one to shy away, Uthappa’s gung-ho approach has worked so far. Whether it’s his nonchalant walk down the crease or cool shuffle across it, he’s shown his value as a finisher. Incidentally, neither is likely to back away from a chat.

Both Shoaib Malik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be eager to have their hands on the trophy at the end of the ODI series © AFP

Pathan v Tanvir
Left-arm seamers rarely come with so much of a contrast. Irfan Pathan has transformed from a genuine swing bowler to a containing middle-over specialist. Sohail Tanvir, with his unusual wrong-footed action, is a new-ball threat. Pathan’s stump-to-stump line is ideal for the middle and late overs while Tanvir’s discomforting bounce off a good length can be used to exploit any early fizz on the pitch. Both are handy batsmen lower down the order – Pathan more conventional with a wide array of strokes, Tanvir more unorthodox, relying on a crisp flick off the hips.Malik v Dhoni
India v Pakistan provides a captaincy challenge like few others. Both Shoaib Malik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are relatively new to the job, both are trying to build sides for the future, and both saw their sides reach the final of the World Twenty20 before subsequently stumbling in home series. Both are versatile batsmen capable of floating up and down the order and equipped to attack as well as defend. Both have faced the heat of an India-Pakistan series before but how they tackle the burdens of captaincy could decide the fate of the series.

Graham Roope: one of the finest slip fielders of his generation © Getty Images

Graham Roope, the former Surrey and England allrounder, collapsed and died in Grenada yesterday. He was 60.Roope will probably be best remembered for his outstanding close catching – he was one of the best slip fielders of his generation – and it was this as much as his batting that won him 21 Test and eight ODI caps between 1973 and 1978. He scored 860 runs in Tests at 30.71 as well as holding 35 catches, and was unlucky in that he seemed to be on the verge of finding his feet when he was discarded – he made seven fifties, but never reached three figures.He was at his best in backs-against-the-wall situations. At Karachi in 1977-78 he batted for almost five hours in making 56 (ended by a shocking lbw decision) to bail England out after they had collapsed to 107 for 5. And in 1975 at The Oval he made his Test-best of 77 against Australia after England followed-on. They saved the match, but England did not tour that winter and Roope was given a torrid working over by West Indies early the following season in a warm-up match and that cost him his place when the Test series started.He toured twice with England. In 1972-73 he visited India and Pakistan, where he made his Test debut, and in 1977-78 was on the trip to Pakistan and New Zealand.Geoff Arnold, the current Surrey bowling coach, who played with Roope for club and country, spoke to Cricinfo about his memories of his former team-mate. “He was a very affable and jovial guy. He was especially good against quick bowling and would often walk back with them to try and get them on his side.””As a slip fielder he was outstanding, I’d put him in the top half a dozen I’ve ever seen. He held some stunning catches off me for Surrey and England. In fact, if he ever did drop a catch it was often the easier ones that were coming straight at him. He had great reflexes as a goalkeeper and this showed when he was at slip.”And off the pitch, too, Arnold said Roope was a character: “He could talk the hind legs off a donkey in the changing rooms and was a great weather forecaster. We thought he could sense a drop of rain 300 miles away.”

Roope is struck on the head by a bouncer while playing for MCC against the West Indies tourists in 1976. © Getty Images

The corkscrew-curled Roope was also a bit of a lucky charm – England only lost twice when he played. He was also the man at the other end when Geoff Boycott completed his 100th first-class hundred at Headingley in 1977.A front-foot middle-order batsman, Roope was a mainstay for Surrey for a decade and a half, and his best season came in 1971 when his 1641 runs at 44.35 were key to the county winning the Championship ( he also took 59 catches in that summer). His medium-pace bowling was also effective, more so in his early career. In 1968 he captured 50 wickets. He appeared in four one-day finals, finishing on the winning side only the once in the 1974 Benson & Hedges Cup.He represented Berkshire both before and after his first-class career, and was also a decent football goalkeeper, playing for Wimbledon, Kingstonian, Woking and Corinthian Casuals. After retiring he coached and did some commentary work.

Scorecard

Charlotte Edwards stroked a fine 91 to take England women home © Getty Images

Powered by Charlotte Edwards’s unbeaten 91, England Women crushed the India Under-21 Women’s side, cruising to a 10-wicket victory at the Kailash Prakash Stadium in Meerut. Set to chase a meagre 147, Edwards partnered with Laura Newton (51 not out) and reached the target inside 23 overs in front of 4000 spectators.The sponsors had promised about US$2 for every four and about US$12 for every six and by the end of the run-chase the opening duo ended up with a hefty purse. Edward’s knock was studded with 16 fours while Newton smashed two sixes and the money raised will go towards worthwhile causes.Diana David top-scored for the India U-21 Women with 40 not out, with the 34 extras the next highest contribution. After Katherine Brunt sent back the openers, Angha Deshpandey and Shweta Jadhav, the Indian side reached a reasonable position at 72 for 2 when Sindu Ashok was stumped by Jane Smit, the wicketkeeper. Then on, the wickets kept falling at regular intervals as Laura Harper grabbed three wickets for 16.England now play India A on Friday, a team that will include seven members from the India U-21 line-up and four members of the Indian national side.

Flintoff’s performances and attitude have come in for heavy appreciation© Getty Images

Michael Vaughan refused to let his own dismal run with the bat take the sheen off England’s emphatic victories in the NatWest Challenge against India. England followed up their facile seven-wicket win at Trent Bridge with a crushing 70-run triumph at The Oval, on the back of brilliant innings by Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood.Vaughan, who has led England to 10 wins in their last 11 Tests, insisted that a run of failure which has produced just 51 runs in his last seven one-day internationals, wasn’t preying on his mind unduly. “I just try to keep doing what I have been doing and not change my game from Test match cricket to one-day cricket,” he said. "Hopefully, sooner rather than later it will happen. I’ve not got enough runs yet to find my form. All I can do is keep going. I got a good ball on Wednesday and strangled down the legside today.”Flintoff made a blistering 99, and put on 174 for the fifth wicket with the impressive Collingwood (79 not out), and Vaughan was effusive with his praise afterwards. "He [Flintoff] is a big player. He’s playing as well as anyone in the world.” He didn’t ignore Flintoff’s contribution with the ball either, saying, “He’s bowling very straight and is our most experienced one-day bowler behind Darren Gough.”Vaughan pinpointed last summer’s Test series against South Africa as the turning point in Flintoff’s career. “He got a hundred at Lord’s in a dead game and then a 95 at The Oval which must have given him a huge amount of confidence," he said. "The game depended on him getting those runs and since then he’s been our most consistent batsman.”Sourav Ganguly, India’s captain, was once Flintoff’s team-mate at Lancashire, and he admitted that he was impressed by the rapid strides that he had made. "He always had the talent – I could see that when I was at Lancashire – but he has improved immensely.”Flintoff himself put the improvement done to greater self-awareness. “I am more confident and I know my game a lot better, the way I play, and I am a bit more mature on and off the pitch,” he said, refusing to be too downcast on missing a century.Though the series is already won, Vaughan said that there would be no let-up in intensity for the final match at Lord’s. Both teams will want to go into the Champions Trophy on the back of a victory, and Vaughan said there was no question of fielding a weakened side. “We’ll pick a team to win," he said. "It will be the best 11 players out of the squad of 14 to beat India at Lord’s.”

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has come forward to help the cash-strapped Bangladesh board, doling out US$500,000, most of which will be used to install world-class facilities at the Mirpur Stadium. According to a report in The Independent, a Bangladesh daily, Ali Asghar Lobi, president of the ACC and the Bangladesh board (BCB), announced the decision after the ACC annual general meeting in London on June 14.”The decision to help Bangladesh cricket team will be a milestone,” Lobi said. “I asked ICC’s help to enhance Bangladesh’s performance and it requested the ACC to do it. The BCB will spend a chunk of the money to renovate the Mirpur Stadium where we can set up our cricket home. We need practice facilities for national teams at all levels round the year."Apart from sprucing up the outfield, pitch, gymnasium and indoor practice facilities at the Mirpur Stadium, the fund will also be used to appoint a coach for the Bangladesh under-19 team, and for training curators and coaches.Inevitably, Lobi was asked about Bangladesh’s woeful performances in the international arena. Agreeing with the comments from Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, that the number of international tours for Bangladesh might be reduced, Lobi stressed that the critical need was for Bangladesh to improve their standard by playing more at home.Meanwhile, Syed Ashraful Haq, the ACC chief executive, informed that Rumesh Ratnayake (Sri Lanka), Roger Binny (India) and Iqbal Sikander (Pakistan) had been appointed as ACC’s full-time development officers, while Afghanistan, Iran, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia had been granted associate membership to the ACC.The ACC also announced that the Australian board (ACB) would help in setting up cricket academies in Nepal, Malaysia and the UAE, while the New Zealand board would assist in pitch-preparation programmes.

Nick Chouhan, chairman of the Mashonaland league and discipline committee, is delighted that more adult cricket is to be played in Mashonaland than ever before this coming season.The Vigne Cup, the Mashonaland provincial competition that began on 16 September this season, has been expanded to include 34 clubs in five leagues. With 16 teams playing in the Saturday afternoon friendly league, that gives a total of 50 clubs in the province.The first three leagues are all composed of six teams, while 16 development sides will play in the fourth and fifth leagues. These will include three teams from small centres outside Harare: Bindura, Shamva and Marondera.Mr Chouhan says that, when placing teams in the various leagues, two factors were taken into account: playing strength against strength, and integration, which meant an equal number of `black’ and `white’ clubs in each league. It is still a sad legacy of the past that, for various reasons, the races are still polarized into clubs that can be classified according to colour; we still await the emergence of genuine multi-racial clubs.Zimbabwe’s current economic hardships have hit the clubs, who can no longer survive on members’ subscriptions and club funds alone. So the Mashonaland Cricket Association has now agreed to assist clubs, giving each team Z$25 000 for such items and lunches and transport, and both match and practice balls. They will also donate new kit to teams from the second league downwards. They are organizing appeals to the public to donate second-hand cricket kit, and boxes will be provided for these donations at the coming one-day internationals in Harare.The increase in the number of teams playing in the league has made match venues a problem, as many do not have their own grounds. MCA will also assist financially schools who are making their grounds available for club cricket: Prince Edward, Churchill (three fields each), Lord Malvern (two fields) and Westridge (one field).The number of schools playing cricket has also increased, with a record 43 teams, up ten from last year, taking part in the recent schools festival at Prince Edward. A primary schools league competition has been in operation for more than ten years. Cricket in Mashonaland province is flourishing.

Sam Northeast has been named as Kent’s captain for 2016, succeeding Rob Key in the role. Northeast led the side in Key’s absence during much of the 2015 season and was the unanimous choice to step up from vice-captain, which he has held for the past two seasons.While Key dropped himself from the Championship side, Northeast was Kent’s outstanding batsman, scoring more than 1000 first-class runs for the first time. He was also their leading run-scorer in the T20 Blast, as Kent reached the quarter-finals in both limited-overs competitions.”It’s a great honour to become club captain of a team I’ve supported from a young age and follow in the footsteps of some great captains,” Northeast said. “Hopefully the future is bright for Kent and I can help bring some silverware back to the club.”I would like to congratulate Keysy on an excellent job as captain and am sure he will have a large input going forward.”Key was in his second spell as captain, having been in charge between 2006 and 2012, then resuming the job after Kent spent a season under James Tredwell.The former England batsman has indicated he will continue to play on in 2016, when he will be 37, for which he is already under contract. He finished the season in good form, scoring consecutive hundreds in Kent’s final two Championship matches against Lancashire and Glamorgan.Of Northeast’s appointment, Kent chairman of cricket, Graham Johnson, said: “Sam has been seen as a potential leader as he has developed through the Kent cricket system. He has shown maturity in the role, without it affecting his form, and he commands the respect of the dressing room.”He is ambitious both personally and for the Kent team. The next stage of Kent cricket development at the highest level is in good hands.”

Scorecard2:41

Highlights – New South Wales v Western Australia, 1st day, Lincoln

The New South Wales top order put together a quartet of solid innings without anyone going on to a hundred in the ground-breaking Sheffield Shield match at Lincoln, near Christchurch.It was the first time in the history of the Shield that a match had been played beyond Australia’s borders, and on an evenly-grassed pitch at Bert Sutcliffe Oval the Western Australia captain Adam Voges elected to send the NSW in to bat.Ed Cowan (57) and Daniel Hughes (65) responded with a partnership that was at first considered then increasingly fluent, blunting the new ball and then adding some attractive strokes to the equation. They had added 116 and looked good for more when Cowan perished to the offbreaks of Ashton Turner.Hughes was to fall soon after, edging David Moody, who bowls seam up like his uncle Tom, through to Sam Whiteman, who was fit again after missing the Big Bash League through injury. Kurtis Patterson (75) and the captain Nic Maddinson (65) then played contrasting innings, the former’s more deliberate style offering a sound counterpoint to the latter’s aggression.They prospered for 104 runs in 24 overs, until Moody chimed in again to defeat Maddinson. The remainder of the day swung towards WA’s bowlers, as Ben Rohrer and Trent Copeland fell cheaply either side of Patterson’s exit. The Test gloveman Peter Nevill was left to hold the fort with Sean Abbott against the second new ball, with hope of building on the second morning.

Hugh Morris: England’s new director of team affairs? © Getty Images

The former Glamorgan captain, Hugh Morris, has been unveiled as the new managing director of the England cricket team, while Mike Gatting and the former England women’s captain, Clare Connor, have been handed major new roles at the England & Wales Cricket Board, as part of the wide-ranging managerial restructure as recommended in the recent Schofield Report.In the wake of England’s 5-0 Ashes humiliation in January and their subsequent early exit from the World Cup in the Caribbean, Ken Schofield, the former chief of the European PGA Tour, was commissioned to chair an inquest into the state of English cricket.He drew up a list of 19 recommendations, chief among which was: “The establishment of a new management structure within the ECB with full accountability and responsibility for the selection and performance of the England cricket team.”Morris, who played in two Tests for England in 1991, has been the ECB’s deputy chief executive since December 2005. He was also a member of the seven-man Schofield committee, having retired from playing in 1995 to take up a role of technical coaching director with the ECB. His new role gives him responsibility for all aspects of England team affairs – including the thorny issue of discipline, which was addressed last week by the incoming ECB chairman, Giles Clarke.The selection of players with injury problems would also come into Morris’s remit – a problem that has become especially acute in recent months given Andrew Flintoff’s ongoing struggle with his ankle. By acting as a liaison between the players and the head coach, the intention is that players would be better placed to admit to injuries without jeopardising future selection.Gatting, who played in 79 Tests and captained England on their last victorious Ashes tour in 1986-87, has been handed the role of Managing Director Cricket Partnerships, which will cover first-class as well as recreational cricket, with a view to enhancing communications between the various levels of the game.Connor, who retired in 2006, succeeds Gill McConway as the Head of Women’s Cricket and will represent ECB on the ICC Women’s Committee. It promises to be a tough act to follow. McConway is responsible for such innovations as the Super Fours – which were credited with assisting in boosting England to No. 2 in the world – as well as finding the team a permanent home at Taunton and bringing about the deal for the team buses to be England-branded – an innovation which was taken on board by England men and the England boys Under-19s.ECB chief executive, David Collier, said: ‘I am delighted that Hugh, Mike and Clare have accepted these positions. Their experience as captain of their counties and England together with their knowledge of the Cricket Foundation, Chance to Shine, Club cricket and the Lord’s and Lady Taverners will greatly strengthen the Cricket Department within ECB. These appointments were recommended within the England Review and approved by the Board this summer.”