Shaun Tait is about to embark on his second World Cup, confident he made the right decision to stop playing first-class cricket two years ago. Tait played the last of his three Tests in January 2008, after which he took a break from the game to deal with physical and mental fatigue, and he has no plans to return to four-day cricket any time soon.

Although he has sometimes broken the 160kph mark in the shorter formats, and he is an especially dangerous weapon in short Twenty20 bursts, Tait knows his body can't handle the rigours of the longer game. He also knows there will always be critics of his decision, but he is certain that giving up the four-day game was the best thing he could have done.

"People are probably disappointed and think I'm copping out and turning my back on my country, which is not the story at all," Tait told reporters in Ahmedabad on Thursday. "The reason I'm not playing first-class cricket and not playing as much cricket as people maybe think I should be, is because of my body. I'd love to be able to play all forms of the game but it's just not the case.

"You try to do the best you can to keep your body right and stay on the park but you can't do anything about it. You read things and get a little bit cranky at times but who cares? It's my career, not theirs. There's going to be critics all the time and 'back in our day we were tougher' and all this sort of bollocks.

Graeme Swann will join up with his England team-mates in time for their opening World Cup match after the spinner's wife gave birth to a baby boy Thursday.

The talented off-spinner stayed in England while his team-mates flew to Bangladesh last week in order to be present at the birth of his first child.

While Swann will miss England's two warm-up matches, he is expected to reach Dhaka in time for next Tuesday's Group B opener against Holland.

"This is an incredibly special day for us, and we are both absolutely delighted and very proud parents," said Swann, who named his son Wilfred.

ECB announced that England cricketer Graeme Swann's wife Sarah has given birth to the couple's first child. Wilfred Swann, weighing 8lbs 9oz, was born on Thursday 17th February.

Graeme Swann said: "This is an incredibly special day for us and we are both absolutely delighted and very proud parents. Both Sarah and Wilfred are doing very well and I am looking forward to enjoying the next couple of days with them both before I fly out to join the team for the World Cup."

Goa squeaked past Andhra by one wicket with one ball to spare in a thrilling encounter at the Perintalmanna Cricket Stadium in Malappuram. The win was Goa's third in five games, leaving them tied on points with Karnataka though after playing an extra match, while Andhra languished close to the bottom of the table after their fourth loss in five games.

Goa chose to field and the decision was vindicated by the opening bowlers who restricted Andhra to 17 for 2. Satyakumar Verma hit five fours in his 23 to revive the innings, but his dismissal in the 17th over prompted Venugopal Rao into consolidation mode. Bodapati Sumanth played in a similar vein and the pair played through the bulk of the innings, adding 112 in 33.1 overs before Rao departed for 82 off 96 balls. Sumanth lost his wicket soon after, and the lower crumbled in a spate of wickets, depriving the innings of late momentum. Harshad Gadekar and Shadab Jakati snared seven wickets, making up for the fact that they conceded 117 runs between them, as Andhra were bowled out for 241.

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has said there will be no going back on the decision to reduce the 50-over World Cup from 14 to ten teams, despite protests from the Associate countries who are likely to be left out of the tournament in 2015.

"We have felt in the past few years that Twenty20 is the best format to develop the game world-wide and it provides a better environment for competition," Lorgat told PTI. "The 50-over format is more skill-based and suitable for the top teams."

To compensate for the loss of places in the 50-over tournament, the ICC has added four spots to the Twenty20 World Cup, making it a 16-team event, but Cricket Kenya chief executive, Tom Sears, told AFP that the ICC will not be acting in the interests of the game if the smaller teams were locked out of the next World Cup.

"If we have to improve on the standards, there is no point of denying us the opportunity of competing at the top level." Sears said. "We had a meeting with the other Associate countries during the World Cup training camp in Dubai last week, and we plan to raise the matter again at the World Cup. We are disturbed about the whole issue."

In an earlier interview with The Wisden Cricketer, Sears, called the decision "scandalous and bloody ridiculous", saying "I've no desire to be diplomatic... Not to let anyone else in is scandalous. It's all about money, power and votes - and that's not good for cricket."