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Andy Roberts, the former West Indies fast bowler, has won the Grand Cross of the Most Illustrious Order of Merit. The honour, Antigua and Barbuda’s second-highest civilian decoration, was conferred during the annual Independence Day parade at the Antigua Recreation Ground.Roberts, 56, who was the first Antiguan to play Test cricket for the West Indies, took 202 wickets in 47 Tests at 25.61 and 87 wickets in 56 ODIs at 20.35. He was part of the famed quartet of fast bowlers who took West Indies to the top of world cricket in the 1970s and early ’80s, the others being Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft. He was also part of the West Indies team that won the 1975 and 1979 World Cups.Antigua and Barbuda was celebrating its 26th Independence Day anniversary.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has issued summons to Jagmohan Dalmiya, its former president, following his failure to reply to a show cause notice. He will face a Disciplinary Committee headed by Sharad Pawar, the current BCCI president, and includes Shashank Manohar and Chirayu Amin.”Dalmiya has been asked to appear before the Disciplinary Committee on July 26 at one o’clock (afternoon) in New Delhi,” Niranjan Shah, the BCCI Secretary said.The Board had issued a show cause notice to Dalmiya, asking him to furnish details of a transfer of Rs 40 crore (approx. US$85561498) from an Indian Overseas Bank account in Bhawanipur to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), of which he is the president, between 1996 to 2005. After Dalmiya failed to reply to the notice, the Board debited the amount to CAB and also decided to withhold all subsidies to it.Earlier, the Board had alleged misappropriation of the 1996 World Cup funds by Dalmiya and filed an FIR at a Mumbai police station a few months ago. The case was subsequently transferred to the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai Police who interrogated Dalmiya and two other colleagues when he was at the helm of Board’s affairs.

In a new twist to the Sachin Tendulkar retirement story it has emerged that he is yet to make an official statement on the issue. A news agency quoted Tendulkar on Thursday as saying he had not thought about retirement but the Indian team’s administrative manager, Rajeev Shukla, confirmed on Friday that the quotes were not from the player.”That was my statement on Tendulkar’s behalf,” Shukla, also a vice-president of the Indian board, said while referring to the denial. “Tendulkar hasn’t spoken officially to anyone. It was wrongly reported as Tendulkar’s quotes.”Tendulkar’s statement sought to end speculation over his retiring from one-day cricket after India’s home engagements against Australia and Pakistan later this season. It followed a story reported by Cricinfo on Wednesday, quoting sources close to Tendulkar, that he was inclined to announce his retirement on this tour of England but had been persuaded by friends to do so at home.The confusion also stemmed from the post-match press conference at The Oval. Rahul Dravid was asked to comment on reports that Tendulkar had planned to retire and had been talked out of it by his team-mates. His answer was brief: “False reports.”

ScorecardIt was a day for the Das’s at Cuttack. Shiv Sunder Das, the former Indian opener, amassed his maiden first-class triple hundred while Rashmi Ranjan Das chipped in with his first hundred as Orissa continued to dominate against J&K. SS Das took 500 deliveries to reach his landmark, before the declaration arrived, while RR Das, the more aggressive of the duo, cracked ten fours and two sixes in his knock. J&K began their reply on a disastrous note – going into stumps at 6 for 2. The Orissa Cricket Association declared cash prizes of Rs 30,000 and Rs 10,000 for the heroes of the day.
ScorecardJai Prakash Yadav led Railways’ fightback against Kerala on a rain-affected day at Delhi, polishing off the tail to end with a five-wicket haul. Resuming on 223 for 6, Kerala lost their last four wickets for only 41. Railways were soon reduced to 64 for 3 before a spate of showers, at 1:11pm, abandoned play for the rest of the day.
ScorecardRobin D’Souza and Saahil Dhuri snaffled three wickets apiece as Goa edged ahead of Madhya Pradesh on the second day at Indore. A 60-run stand for the second wicket between Monish Mishra and Amit Pal helped MP cruise to 72 for 1, chasing Goa’s 223, before D’Souza triggered a mini-collapse. Murtaza Ali, in just his second first-class game, chipped in with 49 but the rest of the batsmen struggled against Goa’s medium-pace duo.
ScorecardAnand Katti’s 93 led a lower-order revival to lift Assam to 308 but Vidarbha foughtback with 151 for 2 at the end of the second day at Nagpur. Katti’s knock spanned more than five hours and he received valuable support from the tail – Nos.9,10 and 11 added 60 between them. Vidarbha, though, weren’t done yet with Amit Deshpande (59) and Harshal Shitoot (51) piloting them to a healthy total.
ScorecardTimir Chanda ensured that Tripura had the better of the attritional battle at Agartala. His cautious unbeaten 98 helped Tripura extended their total to 275 before his three wickets rattled Jharkhand’s top order, reducing them to 59 for 3. Rajiv Kumar and Santosh Lal steadied the innings with a couple of plucky innings, taking Jharkhand to 169 for 5 at stumps.
ScorecardOnly 28.5 overs were possible on a curtailed day at Delhi as Himachal Pradesh extended their total to 315 before Services responded with 31 for no loss. Manish Jha, the medium-pacer, polished off HP’s lower order to end with his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Canterbury were forced to follow on after finishing 234 short of Otago’s 601, but half-centuries by Todd Astle, Brendon McCullum and Peter Fulton ensured that they comfortably drew the game. Otago were led by James McMillan, who took career-best figures of 7 for 105 to restrict Canterbury to 367, but in the 51 overs left in the day Canterbury cantered to 213 for 2.Resuming at 330 for 7, Canterbury added only 37 more before being bowled out, with McMillan adding two more wickets to the five he had on the third day. Chris Harris was the first batsman to be dismissed on the final day, being bowled by McMillan for 122. The tail didn’t contribute much, allowing Otago to have another shot at the Canterbury batsmen.Todd Astle and McCullum immediately eased the situation with a 111-run stand for the first wicket. When Astle and McCullum fell after getting half-centuries, Fulton took over, making an unbeaten 62 before play was called off. Otago took two points from the game, thanks to the first-innings lead they managed.

The two security experts reviewing arrangements for England’s proposed tour this October have spent the first day of their three-day trip examining the facilities at Karachi’s National Stadium. Karachi is the most contentious venue at which any of the three Tests or five ODIs will be staged.Andy Allman and Douglas Dick, representing Oliver Security, a private firm appointed by the England & Wales Cricket Board, visited the ground, which is scheduled to host the third Test, and spoke to local police and military officials. The pair declined, however, to talk to reporters.”You can’t hide the environment of a city in the computer age,” Ghulam Mohammad, the home secretary of Sindh province, said after the visit. “But we have answered their questions over security arrangements and they will give their analysis to the ECB.”The pair will visit other venues and hold more discussions with local police and security officials before submitting their report to the ECB at the end of the week.

Steve Harmison feels England will have a “slight advantage” in Saturday’s crucial encounter against Australia at Jaipur as they’re accustomed to the pitch that will be used. Asserting that he didn’t look at the contest as a prelude to the Ashes, Harmison added that Australia’s defeat last night wouldn’t alter England’s plans too much.The game, which neither team can afford to lose, will be played on the same surface on which England crumbled for 125 against India. The curator at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium felt that the track wouldn’t be as dry as it was the previous Saturday, adding that the Sri Lanka-Pakistan clash – when Pakistan chased 254 and won – could be used as a template.Harmison, though, felt England would just have the edge. “I think it would be a slight advantage if we play on the same wicket,” he said. “I don’t know what the schedule is and what wicket we’re playing on, but if we play on that wicket, we’ll have a slight, slight advantage. Australia haven’t played on it but at the end of the day they’re good players and they can adapt to any surface. As I said, it’s just a advantage.”While revealing he’d struggled to locate the channel that was showing the Australia-West Indies game, Harmison didn’t want to read too much into the game. “We all know what their weaknesses are,” he said, “we’ve played against them often enough, we’ve seen them on TV often enough. We’ve had two days’ preparation, a day off yesterday, something you need to calm yourself after five days in a row.”Would England’s tactics change after watching Australia? “Not really,” he said, “I think a few field placements. I can’t imagine we’ll bowl any differently to Ponting, Gilchrist, Martyn than we planned before. Just because West Indies beat them yesterday, it won’t change the way England performed. I think West Indies played well yesterday. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. Bangladesh beat Australia last summer and West Indies have looked a good, compact unit for a while now. And they played great last night. I think they won’t be anymore fired up or we any less fired up when they come up against us on Saturday.”Harmison didn’t want to be drawn into discussions about Ashes preludes – he preferred to stick to a simple “No” – but said his training was definitely geared towards the events in Brisbane on November 23. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t [thinking of the Ashes]. I’m not going to sit here and talk bullshit about we haven’t got one eye on the Ashes. Because we have. Everybody’s got one eye on the Ashes, you have as well.”Everybody’s looking ahead to the big occasion. But we’re here to do a job, here to win a competition and if there’s any more spice into it then, whoever loses on Saturday goes out. I’d be lying to say we haven’t got one eye on Australia on the 23rd November but we need to win this game to go forward in this competition. Hopefully we’ll do it on Saturday.”But wasn’t it the Twenty20 clash at the Rose Bowl that kicked off the whole Ashes campaign last time around? “As I’ve said before, the Twenty20 was the start of 10-12 weeks of hard cricket in England,” he said. “It was the same environment, same pitches, same conditions. At the end of the day, you’re playing in India, it’s a one-offgame and I imagine 15-20% of the players who’ll play on Saturday will not be involved in Brisbane on the 23rd of November. They aren’t in the Ashes Test squad.”At the end of the day we’ve got 11 match-winners and that’s what we realise. Any one of them on any given day can win a match for England. If any one of them puts up their hand and makes a match-winning contribution, we can end up beating Australia.”

Prior to South Africa’s morale-boosting win at Brisbane on Sunday, Bob Simpson, the former Australia coach, launched an attack on Graeme Smith, accusing him of having a wandering mind.”Smith has shown he wants to be aggressive, but I would like this to be more with his bat and less with his mouth,” Simpson said in his column in Indian magazine .”His bid to boost the confidence of his team with ill-advised words is not working and will not work. All of his time should be spent getting the most out of his players and himself. At present his mind is wandering too much … to be out four times in a row to tactics devised to get him in such a manner is not acceptable and shows to me a mind that is not relaxed and concentrating on every ball.”Although Smith fell for 12 on Sunday, he did lead his team to an excellent victory despite the best efforts of Australia’s fieldsmen. Andrew Symonds completed a slick run-out, and Michael Hussey sprinted about 15 metres to take an outstanding diving catch that nearly turned the game Australia’s way. The South African fielding has also annoyed Simpson, who described it as “just terrible”.”Their ground fielding has lacked security and concentration and enthusiasm,” he said. “This is a comparatively young team and I am amazed at the number of simple errors that are being made and the lack of pride being expressed.”History, and I am sure the modern computer, would show that first slip takes the most catches followed by the second and the third slips. Yet, because other countries are using spread slips, though without much or perhaps any success, Smith is being influenced by it without understanding the law of averages. I don’t know who is helping the South Africans with their fielding, but whoever is doing so should examine why so many catches are being spilt.”

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has dismissed as “baseless” reports in a leading British newspaper that there was a rift between him and Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain. And though he admitted he had considered resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Oval Test, he told Cricinfo that “was no longer the case.”Woolmer was reacting to a report in which alleged that not only was he on the verge of resignation, but also that “Woolmer’s relations with Zaheer and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq have descended into acrimony,” since the chaos that enveloped the Oval on Sunday.”I won’t deny that I considered resigning and I did very seriously,” Woolmer said. “I enjoy coaching cricket and I missed that over the last few days. I am very unhappy about the general situation as well, but as far as resigning is concerned, that is no longer the case.”Since the forfeit, all manner of rumours, speculation, allegations and contradictions have emerged from the Pakistan camp. Woolmer denied at least one – that there was a rift with Inzamam. “Inzi and I are absolutely fine. We have had misunderstandings in the past and we had a sort of misunderstanding on Sunday. Until I have a complete grasp of the Urdu language these things may occur but as things stand now, we are fine. We are getting on well and want to do whatever we can for Pakistan cricket.”It is yet to emerge what exactly occurred during and after the tea break on the fourth day of the Test. Reports suggest that a few options were discussed as to a course of action, including protesting on the field or going back to the hotel. Woolmer refused to comment though he stressed “it wasn’t a confused and angry place as is suggested. I was 100% behind Inzamam and the team though and supported whatever decision they took. Advice was offered but in the end we all supported Inzamam’s stand absolutely. I am the coach and my job is to offer support to him – whatever decision he would’ve taken I would have supported him.”Too many questions, however, remain unanswered. With growing suspicion and criticism in Pakistan that their board has bungled their way through this crisis, the questions will keep coming until exactly what happened that day becomes clear.

England will play New Zealand and Kenya in the group stages of the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007. The defending champions Australia will face South Africa, while second-ranked Sri Lanka are grouped with India and Bangladesh. West Indies and Pakistan should be the crunch match in the final group.The draw was based on world rankings, although Australia, England, India and West Indies had already been pre-seeded into separate groups in July 2004 because of logistical concerns: those countries have the largest amounts of fans likely to travel to watch matches.The World Cup will involve 16 teams for the first time, which includes the 11 teams with one-day international status. The remaining five teams will be decided by the ICC Trophy to be held in Ireland later this year: the top five will be rewarded with a place at the World Cup.The 16 teams at the World Cup will be split into four groups of four for a round robin first stage. The top two teams will progress to the Super Eights stage, a round which has been expanded from what was the Super Sixes.Groups and rankings
Group 1 – St Kitts & Nevis
Australia (1)
South Africa (5)
ICC Trophy qualifiers
Group 2 – Trinidad & Tobago
Sri Lanka (2)
India (8)
Bangladesh (11)
ICC Trophy qualifier
Group 3 – St Lucia
New Zealand (3)
England (7)
Kenya (10)
ICC Trophy qualifier
Group 4 – Jamaica
Pakistan (4)
West Indies (6)
Zimbabwe (9)
ICC Trophy qualifier