Graeme Smith suffers finger injury, team management says not serious

South African captain Graeme Smith suffered a finger injury while fielding during practice today but the team management ruled out any serious problem after preliminary medical reports.
   
Smith sustained the injury on his left little finger while fielding at slips during their morning practice at Eden Gardens and he was rushed to the medical unit of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).
    
South Africa's media liason officer Michael Owen-Smith ruled out a fracture and said it appeared to be a ligament injury.

"As far as Smith's injury is concerned, he had an X-ray on the little finger of his left hand. It says no fracture at all.

"We are having an MRI scan this afternoon just to be 100 per cent certain about the injury. Obviously, it looks to be some sort of ligament damage. But at this stage it's treated as a sprained ligament," he told reporters.
    
This is for the third time in last two years Smith is rocked by an injury. During IPL in April 2008, he had suffered a tennis elbow that had also forced him to sit out of three ODIs against England in the same year.

Later, Smith broke his hand in a Test against Australia in Sydney. He missed the subsequent ODI series and decided to delay the surgery on his injured tennis elbow until after the return series against the Australians at home last year.
    
Earlier, South African players had a three-hour long practice session. The visitors started the net session without fast bowlers Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell and the trio joined their team-mates later.
    
Having thrashed India by an innings and six runs, South Africa are 1-0 up in the two-Test series and they just need a draw in the Eden Test to reclaim the number one spot in ICC Test rankings.