Category Uncategorized

Glamorgan travel to Worcester for Sunday`s Norwich Union League game knowingthat victory in the match would clinch not only a move up to Division One,but also the Division Two title as well.The top three teams in the Division will be promoted, and should teams finish on equal points, the positions are decided by firstly the number of wins, and then run rate.As the table shows, Glamorgan have a far superior run rate and at the moment they also have a greater number of wins. A win at Worcester would give Glamorgan 46 points and 11 victories, and even if Durham win their two remaining games they would have 46 points but only 10 victories.Glamorgan travel to Worcester with the same 12 that did duty on Wednesday night at Cardiff, plus Steve James, and they will be hoping that the weather forecasters, who are predicting a rainy day at the New Road ground are wrong, and that the Welsh county can win both the game, and the Division Two title.

P W Pts Net Run Rate1st Glamorgan 13 10 42 +17.662nd Durham 14 8 38 + 2.293rd Worcs 13 8 34 + 8.044th Hampshire 14 8 34 + 3.38

Tom Westley, an 18-year-old batsman from Cambridge, has signed a two-year contract with Essex after impressing during a two-year stint at the county academy.Westley made his first-team debut in June 2006 against the touring Sri Lankans, and played his first first-class match against Cambridge UCCE in May this year. He featured in four County Championship games in 2007, as well as two Pro40 games, and made a highest score of 72 against Somerset at Chelmsford in September.”Tom is another shining example of how well our Academy system is working,” Essex’s chief executive, David East, told essexcricket.org.uk. “His progress over the last couple of seasons has been excellent, and we are all very hopeful that we have another star in the making.”Westley himself was delighted at the news. “With the Academy pro contracts I’ve had over the last couple of years I was obviously hoping to get a full-time one so, after a pretty decent year, I’m privileged to get a two-year contract,” he told the county website.”It helped massively to go on the pre-season tour of Dubai because it was the first time I’d got to be around the players for a long time and also made me start to think that if things went well I might get to play the odd first-team game. As the season went on I finished in the first-team, which has been an honour.”Westley also featured in one Under-19 Test and five Under-19 ODIs this summer, and showed great promise with his offbreaks, taking match figures of 7 for 131 in the first Test against Pakistan at Scarborough.

South African pathologist Lorna Martin has told the inquest that former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer had died of natural causes by pointing to flaws in the original autopsy conducted by Jamaican government pathologist Ere Sheshiah. Martin is the third pathologist after Nathaniel Cary and Michael Pollanen to conclude that Woolmer did not die of manual strangulation.Martin, who signed the cremation certificate after Woolmer’s body arrived in South Africa, said she had reached the conclusion after viewing a video of Sheshiah’s autopsy.”It doesn’t appear that the international practice was followed in the examination of the neck,” Martin testified on Tuesday. “I am of the opinion that he died of natural causes.”Pollanen, the Canadian pathologist, had told the inquest on Monday he was aware that a toxin had been detected in Woolmer’s body, though he wasn’t certain about the details. When asked to justify her findings, Martin said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Woolmer was weakened with the toxin before being allegedly strangled.”My disagreement with the cause of death (of strangulation) doesn’t come from whether the person was weakened or not, but comes from the injury or lack of injuries,” she said.The inquest is expected to end on November 9.

Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait have been called into a bowler-heavy 13-man squad for the first Ashes Test at the Gabba next Thursday. The allrounder Shane Watson has beaten Michael Clarke in the race for the No. 6 spot while Stuart Clark was named alongside Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.Australia have picked an attack with six fast-bowling options, but there were no spots for Nathan Bracken and Jason Gillespie. If Johnson, a left-arm fast bowler, is picked for the final XI he will make his debut on his home ground while Tait has been recalled for the first time since injuring his right shoulder after playing two Tests last year in England.”The inclusion of extra pacemen in the squad reflects one of the strongest starts to the domestic season of young talent in recent memory,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. “It reflects the development of Mitchell in the past 12 months, some eye-catching fast bowling from Shaun and the performances of Stuart in South Africa and since his return from injury [in the domestic competitions].”Hilditch said the panel had showed faith in the players who had contributed to Australia’s recent success. “At the same time we are injecting some youth into the squad with the inclusions of Watson, Johnson and Tait,” he said. “As far as Watson is concerned we see his inclusion to the Test squad as an exciting development for Australian cricket.”Shane has an outstanding first-class record with the bat, averaging over 45, and his bowling ability gives us the flexibility in our attack that we have been looking for.” The final XI will be picked in Brisbane after assessing the pitch, form and weather conditions and all 13 players will stay with the squad until the morning of the match.Hilditch also defended the selection of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer following the pressure placed on them by Phil Jaques’ twin centuries against England over the past week. “The performance of the opening pair in this series will be crucial against a classy English bowling attack,” he said. “Matthew had a great international season last year and is in fine touch. Justin has started the domestic season strongly, averaging over 70 so far.”Ricky Ponting said now the outfit had been named the players could relax and prepare for the highly anticipated game. “Our last 12 months of Test cricket have been terrific, there’s been huge excitement, anticipation and build-up for this Ashes series,” he said. “We have got an experienced team going into this series but I think historically what you want in any team is a good mix of youth and experience – we’ve certainly got that.”Australia squad Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting (capt), Damien Martyn, Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath, Shaun Tait.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Bangladesh are staring at their second three-day defeat of the series as they finished on 131 for 4 after losing 14 wickets on the second day at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. Dilhara Fernando was the destroyer-in-chief with 5 for 60 in the first innings and another brace of wickets in the second as Bangladesh still trail by 135 runs.Bangladesh at least showed some application during an extended evening session as Mohammad Ashraful and Shariar Nafees halted a second-innings collapse with a 75-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Nafees dropped down the order in the second innings and battled hard for his maiden Test fifty but fell just before the close of play to Muttiah Muralitharan.Ashraful, batting with uncharacteristic caution, much to the delight of coach Dav Whatmore who has been frustrated by his inconsistency, was on 21 not out. Bangladesh need him to press on and make a really big score if they are going to be able to make Sri Lanka bat again.Ashraful was also the only top-order batsmen to offer resistance in the first innings, cracking a 41-ball 42 that included five fours and two sixes before Bangladesh were bowled out for 191. The rest of the team succumbed lamely – except Khaled Mashud who batted resolutely for his 26 – as Muralitharan (3 for 47) and Lasith Malinga (2 for 32) devoured the scraps that Fernando left behind.

Rumours were doing the rounds that Sri Lanka may bat again to give Sanath Jayasuriya a chance to shine in his 100th Test. But this would have flown in the face of the team ethic fostered by Tom Moody and Marvan Atapattu and Sri Lanka duly enforced the follow on soon after tea.Chaminda Vaas, wicketless in the first innings, triggered a second-innings collapse as Javed Omar tried to pull a short ball from outside the off stump. Fernando followed up with the key scalp of Habibul Bashar, who was caught at backward point by a delighted Muralitharan, and Nafees Iqbal (30) who gloved a lifting delivery.At that stage Bangladesh reeling on 56 for 3, with almost 25 overs left in the day, looked like they might capitulate. But Nafees recovered from a nervous start and battled hard for survival and then took the attack to Sri Lanka, hitting boundaries and forcing Atapattu into making frequent bowling changes. Unfortunately, for Bangladesh, Muralitharan snared him at slip just before stumps.Earlier, Sri Lanka had opted to continue batting on the second morning despite having piled up 449 runs on the opening day. But the search for quick runs, and a possible first Test century for Vaas, was swiftly brought to a halt as Shahadat Hossain bowled Muralitharan for 24 and Syed Rasel bowled Vaas for 65.The pitch still offered some life by the time Sri Lanka’s bowlers started their work and Malinga began with an unplayable outswinger that whistled past Omar’s defensive bat but had to wait until his third over before picking up his first scalp as Nafees edged a sharp ball behind.Although Malinga looked threatening and Vaas probed away diligently, curving the ball in, it was Fernando, who bowled just four overs in the opening game of the series, that left Bangladesh on the ropes with a triple strike in the final hour before the break.

Bashar was his first victim as he top-edged an attempted hook and Vaas rushed in from the boundary ropes to take a fine tumbling catch. The breakthrough ended a 30-run stand and was followed soon after by the fall of Omar, who was caught on the crease and bowled by a in-dipper. Sangakkara clung to a superb one-handed diving catch in front of first slip to dismiss Iqbal.Bangladesh, 80 for 4 at lunch, raced ahead as Ashraful showcased his bountiful natural talent with a string of cover drives and wristy leg side swats. But Fernando’s slower ball deceived him and Atapattu calmly took a catch running backwards at mid-on. Aftab Ahmed (23) was then caught down the leg side off a gloved pull before Muralitharan and Malinga mopped up the lower order.

Sri Lanka
Muttiah Muralitharan b Hossain 24 (453 for 8)

Chaminda Vaas b Syed Rasel (457 for 9)

Bangladesh 1st innings
Shariar Nafees c Sangakkara b Malinga 5 (16 for 1)

Habibul Bashar c Vaas b Fernando 18 (46 for 2)

Javed Omar b Fernando 18 (52 for 3)

Nafees Iqbal c Sangakkara b Fernando 5 (72 for 4)

Mohammad Ashraful c Atapattu b Fernando 42 (115 for 5)

Aftab Ahmed c Sangakkara b Fernando 23 (135 for 6)

Mohammad Rafique c Dilshan b Murali 6 (143 for 7)

Syed Rasel c Vaas b Murali 5 (157 for 8)

Shahadat Hossain c Sangakkara b Malinga 7 (166 for 9)

Khaled Mashud st Sangakkara b Murali 26 (191 for 10)

Bangladesh 2nd innings
Javed Omar c Atapattu b Vaas 9 (22 for 1)

Habibul Bashar c Muralitharan b Fernando 10 (44 for 2)

Nafees Iqbal b Sangakkara b Fernando 30 (56 for 3)

Shahriar Nafees c Samaraweera b Muralitharan 51 (131 for 4)

As far as falls from grace go, Yuvraj Singh’s has been steep enough to warrant a parachute. After a magnificent century at Lahore, albeit in a losing cause, the Indian team management were impressed enough to consider him indispensable. When Sourav Ganguly returned for the Rawalpindi Test a week later, Aakash Chopra made way, despite having been part of four hundred-run partnerships with Virender Sehwag in the eight Tests where they opened together.At the time, Yuvraj was supposed to slot in as an opening batsman, but after India knocked Pakistan over after tea on the opening day, it was Parthiv Patel who strode out to face the wrath of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami. The logic then was that the in-form Yuvraj was too precious to be sacrificed at the top, and Ganguly went so far as to say that he deserved to play in his natural habitat – the middle order.Six months on, Yuvraj did poorly in the opening Test against Australia at Bangalore, but he was hardly alone in that regard. And after a solitary failure as opener in Chennai, he finds himself surplus to requirements, with Chopra -axed for Chennai – curiously back in the fold. If Yuvraj is confused, you could scarcely blame him. Considered a better bet at the top of the order than Chopra just ten days ago, he’s now not good enough for a middle-order slot, even with Ganguly missing.Mohammad Kaif’s gritty 64 in Chennai won him the vote, which doesn’t say much about the team’s philosophy of keeping faith in its players. After all, if Patel – whose keeping continues to be wretched – can be persisted with, why not Yuvraj, who has hardly had enough opportunities to be labelled a failure? Indian cricket can’t afford a profligate approach to young talent, what with Test-class performers so thin on the ground.

After three months of wall-to-wall one-dayers, it might have been expected that Test cricket would return to centre stage with relative calm and order. But the first day of the first Test at Georgetown provided enough thrills and spills for even the most impatient spectator. Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s magnificent 69-ball hundred took the plaudits, but when the dust settled it was Australia who ended the day with a firm grip on the match.That Australia took such a stranglehold was largely thanks to their assured batting in the final session, coupled with some indifferent batting from West Indies and three poor decisions from the umpires – the most crucial of which was that dished out to Brian Lara.But it was Chanderpaul who won the hearts of his home crowd with the third fastest Test hundred (in terms of balls faced) at a time when West Indies appeared to be down and out. He came in to join Lara, who had looked at his imperious best during his brief stay, at 53 for 4, and within an over was the last recognised batsman as Lara departed.Whereas Chanderpaul is renowned for dogged – some would say downright dull – rearguard actions, this time he attacked, and in style, unleashing a string of quite exquisite cuts, pulls and drives. None of the bowlers were spared, and so wayward were they that for an hour after lunch Australia were rendered impotent. Catches were dropped, overthrows given away and brows grew more furrowed as Chanderpaul and a hobbling Ridley Jacobs added 131 for the sixth wicket at six an over.The support given by Jacobs was invaluable. He pulled a thigh muscle early on attempting an ambitious sweep off Stuart MacGill, and played almost all his innings on one leg and with severely limited mobility. And yet he kept his end up, and even produced the shot of the day, a towering drive off MacGill which cleared the triple-decker stand at long-on. If Chanderpaul’s innings was savage dissection, Jacobs’s was courageous determination.The problem for West Indies was what happened either side of that stand as ten wickets fell for just 106 runs. The rot started as early as the fifth over when Devon Smith (3) was on the sharp end of the first dubious decision of the day (9 for 1), and an over later Daren Ganga was bowled for 0 by a ball which kept a little low (10 for 2). Lara, briefly threatening to unveil a masterpiece, needed someone to stay with him. Instead, Wavell Hinds holed out to Justin Langer at mid-off courtesy of an infuriatingly loose drive off Brad Hogg (47 for 3), and next ball Marlon Samuels edged to Matthew Hayden at first slip. But the hammer blow came in the next over when Lara was given leg-before for 26 (53 for 5). It was a dubious decision from Asoka de Silva, and it seemed set to usher in another humiliating capitulation.But Chanderpaul and Jacobs fought back, and it took the afternoon drinks interval to end their resistance. Two balls after the break Chanderpaul fell leg-before to Andy Bichel trying to pull a ball which wasn’t short enough (184 for 5). The blow to his knee was sickening and he hobbled off to add to West Indies’ injury worries. Four balls later Vasbert Drakes sparred at Bichel and was excellently caught by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist low down to his right for 0 (184 for 6).Merv Dillion’s spirited assault was cut short by the inconsitent MacGill – aided by another poor lbw decision from de Silva. He made 20 in a breezy eighth-wicket stand of 38 with Jacobs, and the last rites were completed after tea with the increasingly distressed Jacobs left high and dry.Australia’s customary aggressive response was briefly checked when Hayden (10) paid for his own calling error, failing by inches to beat Drakes’s sharp pick-up and throw (37 for 1). But Langer and Ricky Ponting relentlessly ate into the deficit, and as the day drifted towards a close it was increasingly hard to see where a wicket was going to come from. The forecast of intermittent rain over the next four days already appeared to give West Indies their only hope of salvation.

In terms of match practice, India could have done without the final day of the three day practice match against Sri Lanka Board XI being abandoned, but Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly was philosophical. “It’s a little bit disappointing, but we got a day to bowl and day to bat. So it’s something rather than nothing,” he said.When a journalist asked whether he had ever come across such a sub-standard wicket, Ganguly avoided another controversy: “All I can say is that I have been involved in a match which was abandoned due to similar conditions.”The curator of the venue, Milroy Muttuvele, tried to get the game going by repairing the pitch after the captains had called for the umpires to let them have some match practice. His efforts were unavailing, as the game was called off after a 3pm inspection.Ganguly said: “They tried their best you know. Normally in a cricket game you can’t do too much about the wicket once the game starts. But since two captains requested some practice, it went on. It was a mutual effort, but unfortunately we couldn’t get going because the wicket was still wet.”The visitors played four batsmen who have come fresh from India for the Test series, and the captain emphasised the positives. “The openers got some runs. I got some runs as well. Sameer spent some time in the middle, so it’s not bad,” Ganguly said. “It would have been nice if the middle order batsmen had got a go as well.”But the Indian skipper added that they must start again from the beginning when the Test match comes around: “We got some good batting practice, but a Test match is a different ball game: the pressure is much higher.”The Indians go into the crucial Test series with just two days’ match practice. Ganguly added: “Now we’ve got to go for the Tests straightaway. The conditions are similar to India; it’s no different to back at home.”In the absence of star player Sachin Tendulkar and the consistent VVS Laxman, Ganguly is aware that the Indians need to rethink their batting strategy for the Test matches. “Probably Rahul would bat high in the order I might move up the order as well,” he said.

The Karnataka – Hyderabad encounter petered out to a tame draw on the fourthand final day at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore. When ‘play’ wascalled, openers Daniel Manohar and Nandakishore were at the crease with 9and 0 respectively. Having been forced the ignominy of a follow on,Hyderabad showed that their batting had more stuff than was on display intheir first essay. Manohar, who grafted well, was caught at forward shortleg off the bowling of Sunil Joshi just one run short of his fifty. Thisbrought Ranji Trophy star VVS Laxman to the crease.The day belonged to the him, and he celebrated his recall to the Indian team by scoring an unbeaten century. In the previous season, Laxman made over a thousand runs in the Ranji Trophy. His innings of 100 not out (159 balls, 11 fours, 1 six) helped Hyderabad reach 233 at stumps. In the meantime, Nandakishore was snared by Anand Yalvigi for 43. Vanka Pratap (26 not out) and Laxman (100 not out) saved Hyderabad the blushes.

Bermuda’s national cricket team may have some of their senior players back – but now they have nowhere to train.Gus Logie’s training squad is currently doing gym work as the BCB tries to find them a home ahead of the tour to Dubai and Kenya. And though he now has the likes of Janeiro Tucker, Kwame Tucker, Chris Foggo and a host of stars of the Under-19 team at his disposal, Logie has nowhere to coach them.”The National Stadium has been made unavailable to us. I’ve been told we won’t be able to use it from September 21 to October 15. I don’t know why. We are just doing gym work and we are trying to sort something out with Bailey’s Bay and Berkeley so that we can have some cricket sessions. It’s not an ideal situation but that’s where we are at. It’s always been a problem [lack of training facilities] but we just have to deal with it.”The situation is made worse by the fact that many of the island’s cricket grounds are now in the process of converting to football pitches for the upcoming soccer season.Logie added that wide-ranging improvements were needed to Bermuda’s cricketing infrastructure – not just for the national team but for the domestic league as well.”Those of us who watch cricket on a weekly basis have seen the standard of the pitches and of the grounds. You can’t say that it is good. We need to improve it. We need to put more effort towards improving everything we are doing.”Reprinted with permission of the Bermuda Sun