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England 222 for 9 (Liddell 4-45) lead Australia 131 (Brunt 5-47) by 91 runs
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England ground out a first-innings lead over Australia on the second day of the second Test at Worcester, but it was an affair for the diehards. In 101 overs, they reached 222 for 9 at the close, a lead of 91.Australia’s tail had wagged to great affect in the first Test at Hove, but it succumbed with barely a whimper in the opening overs today as their last three wicket added only five runs to their overnight 126 for 7. In 15 balls Katherine Brunt took all three wickets, giving her a Test-best 5 for 47.England’s innings was solid but never remotely spectacular, with the run rate struggling to stay above two an over for most of the day. Jenny Gunn (38) Clare Connor (37) and Claire Taylor (43) all played themselves in without ever accelerating, but in the context of the match it was important for England to build a lead, and they had the luxury of having the time to do so.Cathryn Fitzpatrick led the attack with typical fire, taking 3 for 76, while Emma Liddell took crucial late wickets, finishing with 4 for 45.

A British TV crew was ordered to leave Zimbabwe on Thursday night after the government claimed that they had entered the country illegally. According to officials, the two-member crew from Sky Television had “arrogantly” flown in, without government authority or permission from Zimbabwe’s mission in the UK.Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe’s information minister, said, “What makes the conduct of this crew appear deliberately contemptuous and thus reprehensible is the fact that before leaving Britain, the crew actually received a clear response from the department [of information] outlining the government position and expectation before its proposed visit.”Accordingly, the department requires that forthwith, the Sky News crew complies with our national laws … including the requirement that foreign media applicants secure permission to fly into the country for purposes of accreditation from their country of origin and work. Failure to comply would, naturally, trigger a decisive response from agencies whose duty it is to uphold the rule of law in the country.”That rule of law has been working overtime when it comes to foreign journalists. The BBC is already outlawed as a “terrorist organisation”, and forced to do their reporting out of South Africa. And in the past week, Mihir Bose of the and Telford Vice of the Reuters agency were both asked to leave the country. ‘s Andrew Meldrum is another to have fallen foul of the authorities.For their part, Sky denied that there had been any attempt to deceive the Zimbabwe government, saying that they believed that they had clearance to film a cricket-related story. “We are not sure that we are being thrown out,” said Adrian Wells, head of Sky’s foreign news. “We are just waiting to hear from the government to clarify what their attitude is. We are a bit surprised.”The Cricket Writers’ Club has already complained to the International Cricket Council about the draconian restrictions placed on journalists seeking to cover cricket in Zimbabwe. “Our members must be allowed to carry out their duties free from censorship, threats or bullying wherever they are working, and we call on the authorities to safeguard our rights,” said a statement earlier this week. “The International Cricket Council has a duty to ensure that our members, who promote and publicise the game of cricket, are treated with respect by all ten Test-playing nations.”

The contents of reports compiled for the UCBSA by the FitnessTrainer and Psychologist of the South African cricket team whichcompeted in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 have appeared inthe media today.Members of team management and specialists routinely compilereports after tours and tournaments to assist in assessing andimproving the team’s performance and preparation. Their reportsare regarded as confidential and are circulated only to membersof the relevant committees of the UCBSA. These reports werereceived after the World Cup and – in particular that of FitnessTrainer Andrew Gray – have been discussed at the meeting onApril 15 of the UCBSA’s Medical Committee. They are also due tobe discussed at the next meeting of the National CricketCommittee scheduled for the end of this month.”We are concerned about the issues mentioned in Andrew Gray’sreport in particular and they are being addressed as part of anongoing process to improve the team’s performance. Andrew’sown work with the team is also ongoing and we receive regularreports from him. He has already raised some of these concernsin a verbal report to the NCC at its last meeting on 27 March2003. Following that verbal report, the NCC recommended to theGeneral Council on 29 March 2003 that all player contractsshould stipulate specific fitness requirements and this will beaddressed by the Board of Directors of Cricket SA (Pty) Ltdwhich governs professional cricket,” said UCBSA CEO GeraldMajola.”In addition, certain players missed out on selection for theteam’s current tour because they did not reach the requiredfitness level. Other players were put on strict fitness regimes onAndrew Gray’s advice,” Majola said.”Andrew’s written report and the details contained in it are stillto be discussed by the NCC. Our discussions are informed by arange of documents and opinions, including the teammanagement and specialist reports, and are aimed at ensuring afrank and honest assessment of our squad’s strengths andweaknesses. We will obviously also be looking at building on thecurrent tour to Bangladesh, one of the hallmarks of which hasbeen the new spirit which has begun to emerge in the side,”Majola added.”I am concerned that reports containing confidential medicalinformation about players have been leaked to the media,particularly as they have not yet been fully discussed by theUCB,” Majola stated.Fitness Trainer Andrew Gray, who is currently with the team inBangladesh, said: “My observations about diet and lifestylementioned in my report were not made in the immediate run-upto the World Cup. I made observations through 2002 and thoseobservations were contained in letters to each player when theWorld Cup squad was announced at the end of December 2002.All the players in the squad reached their required fitness levelsin advance of the World Cup.”Media Enquiries:Bronwyn WilkinsonCommunications Director083-212-8255

Bermuda, Canada, Argentina, the Caymans, USA, and a Combined team (from Belize, the Bahamas and Panama) are contesting the Americas Under 19 championships in Bermuda this week. Halfway through the competition, Bermuda lead the table with two wins and a draw, closely followed by Canada and the Caymans.The first day of play was washed out completely, and Canada’s second match against the Caymans was also abandoned due to a wet pitch, although two other matches were completed on the second day. Bermuda scored a massive victory over the Combined squad in a match reduced to 32 overs. Bermuda totalled 286/3 with Dion Stovell making 122*, and the Combined squad (playing with kit loaned to them by the BCBC) could only muster 48 all out. Argentina beat the USA.Yesterday Canada beat Argentina by 136 runs. G. Roberts was top scorer with 31 but five others had scores of 24 or more. The Caymans defeated the Combined XI, and Bermuda had another convincing win this time over the USA squad.Friday’s matches pitted Canada against the Combined team, Bermuda took on Argentina, and the USA plays the Caymans. The final day of the tournament on Saturday will see what may be the tournament decider between Bermuda and Canada.The standings as of Thursday’s games

GP  W  L  D  PTBermuda   3  2  0  1  10Canada    3  1  0  2   8Caymans   3  1  0  2   8Argentina 3  1  1  1   6USA       3  0  2  1   2Combined  3  0  2  1   2

Championship leaders Surrey were left with a minimum of only 32 overs in which to attempt to bowl out Yorkshire when conditions improved sufficiently at Scarborough for a start to be made at 4.00pm on the final day of a match in which feelings ran high after Yorkshire had been docked eight points for preparing a ‘poor’ pitch.Surrey’s declaration at their overnight 89 for three left Yorkshire to make an improbable 288 for victory but fears of a collapse similar to the first innings quickly subsided as young openers Simon Widdup and Vic Craven made confident progress against the pace of Alex Tudor and Ben Hollioake.Surrey posted four slips and two gulleys in the first few overs but Widdup and Craven still managed to score runs in front of the wicket and the pair were largely unconcerned when spinners Saqlain Mustaq and Ian Salisbury entered the attack, Widdup twice in one over hammering boundaries off Salisbury to raise the 50.When Widdup had reached 32, he was bowled aiming a sweep at Saqlain only to see no-ball signalled and when the sides called it a day, Yorkshire had reached 68 without loss, Widdup leading the way with 38 to Craven’s 17.Yorkshire squeezed seven points out of the game – one less than they started with – but Surrey were left to ponder over whether they would have stood a better chance of forcing a win if they had enforced the follow on instead of deciding to add to their first innings lead of 198.Surrey’s 11 points increased their lead over second placed Lancashire to 19 points and they now appear odds-on favourites to retain the Championship – although the two teams will clash in the final round of matches.Yorkshire can still occupy the runners-up spot but their cause has been damaged by the loss of eight points.

Tasmania’s Cricket Australia board director Tony Harrison has lashed out at what he perceives to be a campaign to shift future Test matches typically earmarked for Hobart instead to Canberra, ahead of what is expected to be a small turnout at Bellerive Oval for Australia’s meeting against a West Indies side currently sitting eighth on the ICC Test rankings table.Bellerive has been extensively redeveloped since the most recent Test match held at the ground, against Sri Lanka in December 2012, with the new Ricky Ponting Stand dominating the southern side of the oval. However slim ticket pre-sales and the questionable drawing power of a struggling Caribbean outfit has left many wondering whether Hobart will be able to prove itself as a venue before CA schedules one of next summer’s six Tests at Manuka Oval instead.Harrison recently stepped down from his role as Tasmanian Cricket chairman in order to remain on the CA board as one of nine independent directors. However his loyalty to his state shone through in comments directed at the ACT, who Harrison felt were not working according to the “one team” philosophy adopted as a way of helping the game’s custodians work in a more unified manner.”I have read comments like, ‘we deserve the Test, Hobart doesn’t’ kind of thing. I don’t think that’s helpful,” Harrison told . “We are going through a process in Australian cricket at the moment called ‘one team’, which is the states and Cricket Australia all acting as one, and what has disturbed me most out of Canberra is that it is hardly ‘one team’ behaviour.”[CA] spent a lot of money and effort getting this one team thing going, and here instantly we have an issue… I think that is disappointing. I am frustrated that this debate is on and Tasmania hasn’t been given an opportunity to demonstrate that [the new grandstand] was a worthwhile investment and people will come and support it.”Canberra’s status as the country’s capital with the highest average weekly income in Australia contrasts with that of Hobart as the lowest, and Harrison said money had also been a factor in the ACT bidding successfully for other fixtures, such as last year’s ODI against South Africa in November. Harrison said there were elements of CA who operated with money in mind more so than cricket.”The workers of Tasmania are competing with the fat-cat bureaucrats in Canberra who have the highest disposable income in Australia,” Harrison said.”I do know that [the ACT] have made financial contribution to playing one-day international cricket there. So I suspect that may be the case [for a Test Match], but it hasn’t been confirmed to me. There are certainly people in Cricket Australia management who don’t necessarily look at it from a cricket perspective. They look at it from the dollars and cents perspective. But that’s why we have a board of directors.”Other factors are conspiring against Hobart, Harrison said, such as the lack of a Test match culture based on matches not being scheduled in the state on an annual basis, while the modest state of the West Indies side – something pointed out by plenty of commentators and former players – also serves to discourage spectators.”In the other capitals, they know there is a Test match every year whereas there hasn’t been one in Hobart for three years. So there isn’t the culture, people aren’t used to it,” Harrison said.”The thing that has distressed me most is the talking down of the West Indies, which sends a very poor message to the Tasmanian public. I’ve been very disappointed by the comments of former cricketers who have made a lot of money out of cricket.”

Loots Bosman is a doubtful starter for the Twenty20 World Championship after hurting his lower back while attempting a catch in the second ODI against Zimbabwe at Harare on Saturday. Initial reports suggested Bosman might require surgery, but Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, indicated that the injury might not be so serious.”Loots has been examined by a specialist in Johannesburg and it seems it’s not as serious as we thought,” Arthur was quoted as saying by . “We will know later in the week what the position is.”Bosman suffered the injury when trying to catch Tatenda Taibu off Dale Steyn at the boundary. He failed in his attempt, and instead crashed into the advertising boards, hurting his back in the process. He was carried off the field in a lot of pain and didn’t bat later in the afternoon.Bosman hasn’t had a lot of success in one-day internationals so far, but he has been a star in the domestic Twenty20 matches, scoring 679 runs in 23 games at 32.33 and a phenomenal strike rate of 147.93, with a highest score of 104.

Never let it be said that West Indies cricket is incapable of maintaining a level of newsworthiness to keep it almost perpetually in the public eye.This CJ issue thing will eventually boil down like bhaji and then we will all move on to some other matter to keep the fires of politically-inspired bacchanal burning. Israel will sooner or later complete the obliteration of southern Lebanon, especially with their civilised Western allies facilitating the process of annihilation in adopting a hands-off policy. And a month after Trinidad and Tobago’s final game at the World Cup, the football frenzy has run out of steam.But, as always, sports editors wondering about the prospects for a good lead story can always rely on the players, administrators and apparently now even the accountants associated with West Indies cricket to provide them with main headline material, unless of course someone like George Bovell goes and wins gold and bronze medals in the swimming pool on the same night at the CAC Games, as he did on Wednesday in Cartagena.The challenge, of course, is to choose from the many items generously spread across the massive buffet table. Would you like to try the auditors’ damning report on the level of the West Indies Cricket Board’s indebtedness? How about the decisions to overlook Dwayne Bravo for a retainer contract and investigate Brian Lara’s public criticism of selection and pitches? Don’t forget that you can also satisfy your appetite with a bit of what the Players’ Association is now saying in response to the WICB’s latest pronouncements. Maybe you should get a bigger plate, but still come back for a second helping.If this is a calculated effort to distract attention from the inaugural Stanford 20/20 in Antigua, then it is a masterstroke, although, to be fair, the tournament hasn’t exactly ignited much interest in this part of the Caribbean as yet (I don’t know too many people losing sleep to watch the delayed television coverage).While none of the information leaked or released in the past week is entirely surprising, it is still instructive as to the real depth and scope of the problems in West Indies cricket, raising enough questions to suggest that a few too many trumpets were used in all of the fanfare about running a tighter, more efficient ship and establishing a new relationship between administration and players.If the WICB and its World Cup subsidiary can incur a net loss of over $120 million for the financial year ended September 30, 2005, what will be the situation at the end of September, 2006, given that considerably greater activity would be taking place in the lead-up to the hosting of the 2007 World Cup? Are we to believe that such losses are normal, given the size of the undertaking, apart from the general year-to-year operations, even if it meant that the WICB’s accumulated deficit at that stage had soared beyond $210 million?One of the many things we learnt in school was the danger of putting all your eggs in one basket, yet the Board is relying heavily on the success of the World Cup to haul it out of the abyss, even though the auditors have observed that “the extent of the financial success of this event is not guaranteed”. No roti shop worth its dhalpouri would operate like this.Dinanath Ramnarine, West Indies Players’ Association president and chief executive officer, has stated that the decisions to bypass Bravo for a retainer contract on the basis of his recent personal endorsement deal with Cable and Wireless, and to appoint a committee to investigate Lara’s comments after the fourth Test against India earlier this month, “contravene fundamental aspects” of agreements in relation to the Memorandum of Understanding and Collective Bargaining Agreement, among other matters, between the WICB and WIPA.If so, was the Board engaged in mamaguy tactics three months ago just so that the home series against Zimbabwe and India could proceed untroubled by the threat of industrial action? Given the evidence of the last year-and-a-half, is this how it’s going to be ahead of every series or tour for the foreseeable future, especially with speculation already in the air that the proposed money-spinning one-day series against India in Toronto next month is in jeopardy because it was agreed to without any consultation with WIPA?And what is to be made of this investigation of Lara? Right or wrong, good or bad timing, Lara’s remarks in Kingston were the culmination of a series of comments relating to selection and pitches throughout the series against India, all of which were made publicly and were extensively reported in the regional and international media. So what are Sir Alister and Messrs Gordon, Lloyd and Shillingford going to investigate?As usual, such a bewildering course of action could only come from an organisation divided unto itself, with some members determined to show the captain who is boss, especially after they were apparently sidelined in the process to appoint Lara as captain for a third time. So now, two of the Caribbean’s leading personalities – Sir Alister McIntyre and Clive Lloyd – have been dragged into this foolish exercise to give it legitimacy.If anything, the real challenge for these four gentlemen is how to come up with a report that will accomplish the dual purpose of saving face for the Board and not getting the captain blue mad.I wish them well.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa is set to lose a major sponsor – MTN, the cellphone company – after it refused to renew its contract which expires in September, citing excessively high demands from the board. According to a report on the News24 website, South African cricket could be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy within the next 18 months if the financial condition doesn’t improve.”We do not have unlimited funds and the question had to be asked whether we can put our money to better use,” said Victor Rahkale, a senior sponsorship manager at MTN. “A decision was taken to focus on soccer and the World Cup tournament in 2010 in particular. Soccer is the ideal vehicle to support our involvement in the rest of Africa and our expansion into that market.”However, Rahkale didn’t rule out the possibility of negotiations in future. “If South African cricket can come up with a more affordable option, we could look at it again sometime in the future.”MTN sponsored South African cricket to the tune of about R10m every year and the total annual contribution was about R20m. During the seven-year involvement, MTN contributed more than R100m, sponsoring the Test side to club tournaments and development programs.Steve Elworthy, the commercial manager of Cricket South Africa, hinted that Castle Lager may be appointed as the sole sponsor of the national side in future, and hoped that MTN would continue their cellphone contract sponsorship of the board. “We still have 083 numbers and hopefully we can get MTN to stay on board as far as our cellphones go,” said Elworthy. “We are now negotiating with Castle Lager – the other Test sponsor – about a package to sponsor Test cricket of the next three years and hopefully this will include an increased financial contribution.”Elworthy further added that they were negotiating with South African Airways to become the new sponsor of amateur cricket.

Sri Lanka’s selectors have named a 22-man training pool for the forthcomingfive-match one-day series against Zimbabwe. The squad will start trainingfor the tour from April 4.The pool includes several new faces, including Farveez Maharoof, a medium pace allrounder who captained the Sri Lankan Under-19 team in Bangladesh, andThilina Kandamby and Ian Daniel, batsmen who had an impressive tour of New Zealand with the A team.Sri Lanka are scheduled to play five one-dayers and two Tests during their month-long tour to Zimbabwe, beginning April 20.Pool of 22 1 Marvan Atapattu, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Russel Arnold, 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Nuwan Zoysa, 11 Dilhara Fernando, 12 Muttiah Muralitharan, 13 Saman Jayantha, 14 Nuwan Kulasekera, 15 Rangana Herath, 16 Thilina Kandamby, 17 Farveez Maharoof, 18 Prasanna Jayawardene, 19 Ian Daniel, 20 Avishka Gunawardene, 21 Chamila Gamage, 22 Kaushal Lokuarachchi.