After seeing his side come within two wickets of an innings victory against Essex after taking the extra half hour, Somerset Coach Kevin Shine told me, “It has been a fabulous day, what else can I say.I’m only sorry that we didnt finish it off.Sadly it was pretty dark at the end and we were’nt able to use our fast bowlers. Providing it stays dry it looks like twenty points in the bag.”
South Africa captain AB de Villiers has been fined 40% of his match fee for maintaining a slow over rate during the first ODI against India in Kanpur, while his team-mates were docked 20% of their match fees.The charge was laid by the on-field umpires Aleem Dar and Vineet Kulkarni, the TV umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin, and the reserve umpire Anil Dandekar. The fine was imposed by the match referee Chris Broad, who ruled that South Africa were two overs short of their target after time allowances were taken into consideration. De Villiers pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.De Villiers had previously been found guilty of minor over-rate offences on two occasions in the last 12 months, and subsequently served a one-match suspension during the first ODI against Bangladesh in July. If South Africa commit another over-rate breach in ODIs within 12 months with de Villiers as captain, it will be deemed a second offence by de Villiers and he will again face a suspension.South Africa won the first ODI by five runs, thanks to a 73-ball 104 from de Villiers, who was named Man of the Match.
Before the Zimbabwe tour he looked complacent and confident when I met him in BKSP. He told me candidly that his performance against Australian Bank Academy( CBCA) had raised his level of self-reliance undoubtedly and he was looking forward to do much better in Zimbabwe. There is no way denying the fact that a scintillating century against CBCA and couple of good knocks in the exhibition one-day matches propped our idea that Mushfique was a perfect replacement of Khaled Mahmood, the ex-alrounder of the national squad.However, things turned into an upsetting finish for Mushfique after the tour had been over. He played all matches including the practice ones. Only the first ODI could serve him some contentment( he scored 31) when after a rapid collapse he hold the rope to seek for a partnership with Akram Khan. The rest two and the four test innings brought only gloom and despair. Why so?" I could not get on and that was all happened there. I played some nasty shots in the test innings and got the payment accordingly. Besides runs are hard to find against themthey are too good for us. You can’t just find a single gap where you can take a single with comfort. I contrived for power shots to get some quick runs on the board but I am unlucky, that’s all."Had he been promoted to number five or six, he could have done better because he feels much better there. " But they won’t allow me to bat in a position where players like Aminul Islam or Akram Khan are apt to. Certainly it feels good to bat with specialist batsman on the other end than to bat with the tails," he added resentfully, " may be they are thinking to drop me off the squad and I heard some of them calling me only a slow-medium bowler while before the tour they kept calling me a batsman who can bowl medium pace. I don’t have any answer right now-I will prove it through my performance. As for Zimbabwe, I really did bad and I have nothing that can stand any cause behind my failure."We hope that this only genuine al-rounder of our team will soon be found with his rhythm backbefore the Asian Test Championship begins.
Former Sri Lankan cricketer turned umpire Asoka de Silva will be the man to restore the battered image of Sri Lankan umpires. Asoka has been assigned to officiate the second test between India and Zimbabwe along with Zimbabwean Ian Robinson starting on this Friday, at Harare.The standard of Sri Lankan umpires has been highly criticized in the recent past and during the recently concluded English tour, it was at its lowest ebb in the first two Tests. Sri Lanka had the benefit of some dubious umpiring decisions in the First Test at Galle while England had there share of luck in the second at Kandy.However Asoka de Silva, who has been on the international stage for just over two years, commanded the respect of the players in the Third Test at SSC.According to Director of Umpiring of the BCCSL, K.T Francis, English skipper Nasser Hussain praised Asoka in his report and even recommended him to be picked to officiate regularly in further international matches.At the retirement of B.C Cooray, Asoka was nominated for the ICC panel of umpires. Francis said the second umpire will be nominated after a close look at those used in the “A” series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The CFX Academy: three years on
The CFX Academy in Harare has just completed its operation. John Ward talks to the man who did more than any other to get it going, and is now the Academy coach, former Test cricketer Dave Houghton. Dave also gives his views on the future direction of cricket in Zimbabwe."The idea of the Academy originated from my trip to Australia in 1985. I saw their academy, and also their centres of excellence in different states, and I brought back that idea then. But Zimbabwe cricket in those days was living from hand to mouth, and there wasn’t enough money to proceed with a project like this. So it just stayed on the shelf as no more than a good idea for 13 or 14 years.Then, when I took over as fulltime national coach and was no longer involved with English cricket [Dave coached Worcestershire from 1994 to 1997], I was back here all year round. I decided we would try to pursue the idea again, but there was still no money at that stage. I came up with the idea of copying Ian Botham and doing a sponsored walk from Harare to Bulawayo to see if we could get some money in.That brought in almost Z$1 million, and we started digging straight away, which forced us to continue to raise funds to finish the job, because otherwise it would always be no more than a nice idea that never happened.I managed to involve a few others besides myself: Rod Bennett from Schweppes and Simon Parkinson from Radio Three. They got behind me to help me do the walk. At that time I was already in negotiation with Gwynne Jones to come back and run the Academy.This was the first money to come in. Some of the money came simply in the form of donations, while some was sponsorship per kilometre, and of course there were a lot of donations given on the road while we were walking. The walk also created an awareness that allowed us to market the Academy and get it going financially.Three years ago in Zimbabwe, a million dollars was going to cover most of what we needed. We had organized a committee that was going to help us build the pavilion, and the quote at that stage was for about Z$3 million. But it was never going to cost us anything, because we had a subcommittee tasked with sourcing funds from extra sponsors. Things changed dramatically over the next three years and in the end it cost us about Z$15 million to put it up.But a lot of it has been sponsored; where there were shortfalls we found other sponsors to help us out, and Zimbabwe Cricket Union also came in. ZCU put money into the completion of the pavilion and also into the car park, and they have been covering salaries for Gwynne Jones and myself. A lot of people feel ZCU haven’t contributed to the Academy, but in fact they have.CFX [the official Academy sponsors, a foreign exchange company] were our first major sponsors, who were sourced and secured by Gwynne Jones. It’s amazing how golf does things in this country, because it was through a golf game that Gwynne met Shaun Molony, the CFX managing director, who agreed to meet and talk further on the project, and after a couple of weeks of discussion CFX decided to come in and assist us for the next three years with our running costs. It is still continuing and has been absolutely invaluable, because it’s one thing to have buildings but there are also running costs to be covered.We wanted the Academy to be sited near the centre of town, but not at Harare Sports Club, because with their calendar the way it is – club cricket, first-class cricket and international cricket, together with the use of their nets for development coaching and so on – the demands on that ground were astronomical. So there was no way we could also move in there and run an academy.Country Club was selected because it is fairly central and is a beautiful facility that was being underutilized. I think the cricket area was actually being used as a chip-and-putt practice area for their golf course. So we had discussions with Country club, who have quite a progressive committee, and they saw the value in it as well, so we signed a 25-year lease with them.We really started much too early with the first intake, but it was at my insistence, even though nothing was ready except for the field, because if we hadn’t started it would have been put off until the next year, and then to the next, and so on. My feeling was, rather like starting the Academy itself, that if you don’t get it going it just remains a good idea.So we started, and we started with about 18 kids, mainly hand-selected. It proved to be too many and we didn’t really have the facilities. I was involved with the national side, so Gwynne was not only having to try and co-ordinate the building of the Academy but also to coach. I feel sorry for the first-year students because we feel we didn’t really give them the course they should have got, but we had to start.Through my connections in England we also got a couple of English pros out to join us [Mark Wagh of Warwickshire and Nathan Batson of Worcestershire]. We charged them for coming to the Academy – not money, but Worcestershire bought us an overhead projector and Warwickshire a digital video camera, equipment we really needed here.My input at that stage was mainly background connection, as I was national coach: advice for Gwynne and assisting as a trustee, and on the management committee, giving advice, because I couldn’t be here often enough to run it. I would occasionally do a few coaching sessions, but it has really only been since I stopped travelling, in September last year, that I’ve been fully committed as head coach.My television commentary duties made it a bit of a problem this year because we played so many matches in winter. But normally it should work out nicely, as the Academy runs through winter and I will be doing commentary during the summer.We are obviously now in the process of re-staffing this place. Gwynne has now left, so we need someone to replace him on an admin side. His actual job, which was mainly connected with the building of the Academy, has now fallen away, so we really need an administrator to replace him.I also want to get in at least another two coaches. That again will ease the problem should I happen to be away for the odd week doing commentary.As we go along, we are learning year by year. This year was better than last year; next year will be better than this year, because we’re learning to run an Academy just like the players are learning to play cricket. Being a national team coach is a lot easier than being an Academy coach, for example, but we want to try to increase the staff and also increase the curriculum.I don’t think we’re doing enough at the moment about everything outside the playing of the game that is still part of cricket. We’re not doing enough on marketing or teaching the kids about reading or negotiating contracts, or about how to run clubs – because that will eventually be the case in ten or 15 years’ time; people will have to go and run sports clubs – ground maintenance and the preparation of pitches, practice areas and so on. They all need to know these things and we haven’t done enough of it, so this year we want to make sure our curriculum included these extra parts of the game.For the future, there are plans for a sports science institute to go in above the ground floor behind the sightscreen. Some people in the management committee have that as a priority; I don’t. I would much rather see us do this thing well first before we go on to the next thing. My priorities would be to improve the equipment on the grounds – a better tractor, for example. I’d rather see money put into those areas, and into transport. I think we need a bus, preferably something like a 22-seater, because at the moment we’re rather static and we can’t travel without hiring vehicles, which is a major expense. Those are my personal priorities, but I’m just one of the management committee and others think that the sports injuries side is a bigger priority.We are in negotiation about getting an electronic scoreboard for the ground; the people who helped us out with the sightscreen, the present scoreboard and the netting seem to be quite interested in it. But it’s not a major priority to me, because the scoreboard we have is adequate for the cricket we play, and that would be a luxury bonus. I’d rather see us build up what we have and produce better cricketers first, and then look to those other areas.We have reached the stage now where we feel 15 or 16 at the Academy is the ideal number. In our first year we had 18, plus two England professionals, and in our second year we took 17, and those were too many. This year we took 15, which we think is an ideal number. In the first two years we arranged to send the kids over to England in the winter to play club cricket, which was quite a good idea but a huge expense.I think we have now got down to where we are going to end up, which is to run the Academy from March to September, through the winter months. That doesn’t affect club or provincial cricket, so we’re not being accused by anybody of stealing their players. I think things are starting to fall into line quite nicely.We have a problem in that the Logan Cup usually starts in February, but we will get around that because we will know who will be at the Academy during the next year by the end of December. So I will advise them that we start the Academy on 1 March, but we do have Logan Cup in the middle of February, so I will call the guys in for a week, train them up as a team and we will play the Logan Cup games. It’s nice to be part of the first-class system, but it’s not our priority. Our priority is to teach them everything we can about cricket in six months.So we will still get through the Logan Cup, but obviously playing at the start of our Academy year is not ideal. It would be better to play later in the year, but I live in hope that once they have finished the restructuring in ZCU they will appoint someone with vision as director of cricket who will organize that.In the last three years we have set about building up a local first-class structure, which I think has gone well. The standard might not be the best ever, but it will be much better in a few years’ time. Everybody else seems hell-bent on playing national league one-day cricket and getting our sides to play in the South African first-class competitions. This defeats our object.The view is that next season our A side will play in the SuperSport Series, which is nice, but it takes all season and we just won’t see those guys. They also want to field another side, a third team, in the Castle Bowl. If we have those two sides, together with our national side that we never see, that takes 45 first-class players out of our system. How are we ever going to have a decent first-class domestic competition?That is what we need in this country, a reasonably strong domestic first-class competition. There is no reason why, if we didn’t put a bit of effort into it, we couldn’t have a domestic first-class system as good as, say, New Zealand. Their first-class structure in New Zealand produces some decent players and they hold their own in international cricket. We should be doing the same.But we seem to be pushing everything to go and play in South Africa with a select band of people. We need somebody to direct cricket in this country who has a feeling for improving the standard of local cricket. That’s where we’re heading and that’s where we’re trying to put our focus. "
Far from being overawed by the huge total put up by the visitingKenyan team, Maharashtra CA XI replied in kind and with batsmencalling the tune, it was no surprise that the two day match at thePoona Club ended in a tame draw on Saturday. In fact the two sidescould complete only their first innings at the end of two days.Kenya led off with 432 for eight declared off 90 overs at the end ofthe opening day. Maharashtra batted the whole of the second day andwere 374 for seven in 90 overs when stumps were drawn.Consistent batting down the order saw Maharashtra come up with afitting reply. The Kenyans did get an early wicket with NA Godbolebeing out for 18 at 29. But after that, they found success hard tocome by. The other opener JS Narse (60) and skipper HrishikeshKanitkar (56) added 117 runs for the second wicket. While Narse faced109 balls and hit nine of them to the ropes, the left handed Kanitkarplayed 100 balls and hit eight fours. Medium pacer Odoyo dismissedboth in successive overs but the recovery process was maintained withveteran Santhanu Sugwekar (50) and KD Aphale (54) figuring in a fourthwicket partnership of 91 runs off 21.4 overs. While Aphale faced 93balls and hit eight fours, the more aggressive Sugwekar faced only 60balls, while also hitting eight of them to the ropes.Tikolo finally dismissed both of them but the innings was kept goingby a sedate unbeaten 32 by S Shah who batted two hours, faced 76 ballsand had four boundary hits and a breezy 60 off 63 balls bywicketkeeper SM Komdhalkar. He hit ten fours and two sixes. The twobatsmen added 102 runs for the seventh wicket off 20 overs. Odoyofinished with three for 35 while Tikolo had two for 90.The Kenyans, who had lost their opening fixture to Tata SC at Mumbaiby two wickets, now play the MCA President’s XI in a one day game atMumbai on Monday.
Australia’s vice-captain David Warner is facing the tightest of schedules to make the October Test tour of Bangladesh after x-rays revealed he had suffered a fractured left thumb when struck by his first ball from Steven Finn in the second ODI against England at Lord’s.Warner’s injury is expected to keep him out of action for up to six weeks, meaning he will struggle to be available for at least the first of the two Tests on the subcontinent, leaving the Australian selectors needing to consider an all-new opening combination for the assignment following the retirement of Chris Rogers.Joe Burns and Cameron Bancroft are leading contenders to go to Bangladesh. Warner will be eager to tour as part of a new leadership combination alongside the recently-appointed captain, Steven Smith.”I’m not 100% sure if he’s out of the first Test yet, but he’s got a little fracture in his thumb,” Smith said of Warner. “It was disappointing to lose him in that fashion today, but I thought the boys stood up really well and got the job done. That was the most important thing at present, and I think looking forward got to find someone else to potentially fill the role that he won’t be able to do.”I’m really looking forward to it [Bangladesh] to be honest. I can’t wait to captain Australia in Test cricket, and hopefully I’ll be able to have a few senior players around to lean on.”Aaron Finch, who missed initial selection for this squad as a result of a broken foot sustained while playing for Yorkshire, is now fit again and has been called into the squad to replace Warner for the England ODIs. “It’s very exciting to be back,” Finch said. “It’s unfortunate for David Warner for me to come in under these circumstances, that’s not ideal, but these things happen in cricket and it’s great for me to be back.”Upon being struck by Finn in the day’s first over, Warner immediately retired hurt and did not bat again in the innings, though he did briefly test out the injury in the Nursery End nets after taking painkillers. Warner has played every Test for Australia – 24 in all – since his recall to the team for the third Test of the previous Ashes tour.Shane Watson also spent time off the field in the afternoon, having suffered what a Cricket Australia spokesperson described as a “minor right calf strain”. He will undergo scans once the team arrives in Manchester on Sunday to determine his availability for the rest of this series.
ScorecardVarun Chopra’s half-century helped set a winning total for Birmingham•Getty Images
Reigning NatWest T20 Blast champions Birmingham booked a home quarter-final this time round by beating Northamptonshire by one-run in a thriller at Edgbaston.Set a target of 154 for a victory which would have secured their own place in the last eight, Northamptonshire needed 23 from the final over, from Recordo Gordon – and almost got them. But despite the heroics of Alex Wakeley and Rory Kleinveldt, who hit 29 from just 11 balls, they fell just short so must win their last game, at home to Durham on Friday, to be sure of qualifying.Birmingham’s hopes of a valedictory Brendon McCullum masterpiece in his last home game for the club floundered when he perished for just 26 but captain Varun Chopra’s 54 from 48 assured his side a decent total, albeit one that looked a little below par.The loss of early wickets undermined the Northamptonshire pursuit and it was only down to that spectacular last over that they came so close.Northamptonshire chose to bowl and face the threat of McCullum straight away, a decision they might have questioned when he cracked four of his first ten balls for four. That was as far as his boundary count went though before he was superbly caught at point by Kleinveldt off Steven Crook.It was left to youngster Tom Lewis to show McCullum how to clear the ropes, but that blow was one of only two sixes hit by the Bears as the Northamptonshire seamers, led by Azharullah (4-0-24-1), bowled an excellent length. Chopra hit five fours and a six before becoming one of three victims for Crook.On a good batting track, the Steelbacks began their reply as slight favourites but lost early wickets. David Willey, Ben Duckett and Richard Levi all went for broke in the first six overs and sent up catches, the latter superbly taken by Lewis at deep midwicket.Another fine opening spell by Rikki Clarke (4-0-16-0), providing more ballast to those who believe he is worth an England recall in limited-overs cricket, cranked up the required run rate and spinners Jeetan Patel and Josh Poysden maintained the pressure to send Northamptonshire into the last six overs needing 69.That came down to 23 from six balls and when Kleinveldt clobbered the first two for six it was game on – but, with four needed from the last ball, Gordon held his nerve, just, and conceded only two to long-on.
The Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court has approved the BCCI’s appointment of selection committees to pick Rajasthan teams for various domestic tournaments in the upcoming 2015-16 season. The court approved the committees on Friday during the hearing of a writ petition filed by a section of Rajasthan’s players, in which they sought help to play the forthcoming season.The uncertainty over the participation of teams from Rajasthan is the effect of the dispute between the BCCI and the Rajasthan Cricket Association. The board has had to appoint selection committees for Rajasthan teams for a second consecutive year, after it suspended the RCA following Lalit Modi’s election as association president in May 2014.
Seniors: Rajinder Singh Hans (national selector), Sanjay Vyas, Vivek Bhan Singh, Najmul Hussain, Vinod Mathur, Bharat Bhushan
Juniors: Pritam Gandhe (national selector), Sukhvinder Singh, Pramod Yadav, Kuldeep Mathur
Women: Hemlata Kala (national selector), Megha Gour, Shabana Khan, Pratima Bharti
All three selection committees for the 2015-16 season include national selectors. Rajinder Singh Hans is a part of the men’s selection committee, while Pritam Gandhe and Hemlata Kala are in the junior and women’s committees respectively.Amrit Mathur, a former manager of the Indian team, has been appointed coordinator of the selection committees and will be assisted by Taposh Chatterjee. Mathur is also the coordinator of the BCCI’s ad-hoc committee that was appointed earlier this month to run cricket in Rajasthan.The Jaipur bench of the court also observed that the appointed selection committees would continue to exist until the RCA matter is resolved. Last year, the tenures of the court-appointed committees and coordinator had stretched only until the end of the 2014-15 season.The BCCI legal counsel, led by its senior lawyer Ushanath Banerjee, informed the court that the board has taken the steps to ensure players’ welfare. It is understood the court had no objection to approving the selection committees put forth by the board’s ad-hoc panel. “The court was happy and mentioned that the main motive – the players’ interests – were not hurt,” a BCCI official said.On Thursday, a group of nearly 60 players, including senior cricketer Pankaj Singh had urged various stakeholders, including the court and state government, to resolve disputes related to the RCA and allow players to participate in domestic cricket. A section of the players had also filed writ petitions with the Jaipur and Jodhpur benches of the Rajasthan High Court. The second writ petition will be heard before the Jodhpur bench on September 14.According to the official, the second petition is unlikely to create any further hurdles for the BCCI. He said the BCCI’s ad-hoc panel will now discharge duties the RCA ought to have fulfilled as the court had taken the “significant” decision to allow the selections panels and the coordination committee to continue until the matter was resolved.”At the end of last season, all activities ceased so there were no off-season camps, fitness camps. Selections tournaments were not held as the tenure of the selection committees approved by the court last year ended after the 2014-15 season. Now that is not the case. You will not have the suspense and uncertainty at the beginning of the season, which has been the case for the last two years. The players would not need to raise a cry for help,” the official pointed out.According to Mathur, the coordination committee has already set the wheels in motion. “We have started work straightaway. We have decided to organise selection trials for the Under-19 women’s team on September 14 and 15 so that they can play the domestic tournament starting soon,” he said.Mathur also said the coordination committee would meet on September 14 in Jaipur to decide on the plan for the men’s teams, including selection trials and preparatory camps ahead of the Ranji Trophy, which starts from October 1.
ScorecardJames Hildreth has given Somerset the upper hand at Taunton•Getty Images
The Taunton wickets are much loathed for not being conducive enough to results – no-one drew more matches than Somerset’s 10 in 2014 – but the opening two matches of this season have seen a more even contest between bat and ball and, with 30 wickets falling in the opening three days of this match, a second consecutive positive result is possible.Somerset are the favourites after setting Middlesex 402 to win but Middlesex have a sporting chance following a third afternoon where they chipped away at the hosts’ second innings and took the final five wickets for 50. In the final analysis, James Hildreth’s 86 was a vital innings as the middle order fell away. It was no bad thing for the match.To win, Middlesex need to make their fourth-highest fourth-innings total but they can take some confidence from the 472 for 3 they made last season to beat Yorkshire at Lord’s – their second-highest fourth-innings total – albeit the architect of that chase, Chris Rogers who made 241 not out, is no longer at the club.They will hope Rogers’ replacement, fellow Australian Adam Voges, can create something similar. Or indeed, Nick Gubbins and Sam Robson who played carefully to reach the close unscathed.The danger for Middlesex is the fragile nature of their line-up. They lost 8 for 118 in the first innings and this wicket has offered assistance to the seamers throughout the match. Somerset will hope to probe that weakness and have in their attack two young Devonians showing the best form of their fledgling careers.Jamie Overton, who turned 21 at the start of the month, is a big and genuinely quick bowler who appears to have calibrated his radar over the winter. A quick spell on the second evening whittled out the Middlesex lower order. But it appears his injury worries, having blighted his career since breaking into the Somerset first XI, are not yet behind him. He limped off after seven balls of the chase. More will be revealed later.Lewis Gregory has his own injuries last season but, fit for the start of 2015, has been rewarded for his progress over the last 12 months with a call up to England’s squad for the ODI against Ireland next week. He celebrated by taking two wickets in five balls, both lbw, to see off the Middlesex first innings in the fourth over of day three.The swift end gave Somerset a 102-run first-innings lead, which was comfortably built on in a stand of 82 for the second wicket between Marcus Trescothick and Tom Cooper. The latter’s ill-advised reverse sweep, to be bowled for 42, did not appear crucial at the time but it ended what turned out to be the highest stand of the innings.Trescothick looked set for a second century in the match, having twice played the deftest of late cuts off Steven Finn to take boundaries fine of third man, and looked to have successfully covered a Rayner delivery on 76, only to lose his off stump. Again, the bounce Rayner generates created problems. The dismissal should encourage Somerset’s Abdur Rehman on day four.Thereafter only James Hildreth spent significant time at the crease. He passed fifty in 109 balls with five fours – a far more sedate effort than the first innings – but, as Finn returned from the River End, he pulled his first ball down the throat of deep midwicket to be ninth out. Overton then clubbed a six but Finn cleaned him up next ball.There were three more wickets for James Harris, who continued his impressive form, bringing a beauty into the off stump of Tom Abell. Two other middle order wickets followed as Middlesex kept themselves in the match.