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ECB cracks down on ICL recruits

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David Collier: ‘The board stands ready to discuss the detail and impact of these steps with counties and individual players potentially affected’ © Getty Images
 

England players face missing an entire summer if they choose to play for the Indian Cricket League, after the England Cricket Board tightened up regulation to prevent county players from signing up the unauthorised Indian Cricket League.The board said that while any action would not be retrospective, any players who turn out in the ICL would be refused registration for a year. “A cricketer who has played in an unauthorised event in the 12 months leading up to 1 April in any given year will not qualify for registration,” a spokesman said. Although the ECB did not mention the ICL by name, referring to “events which are not authorised by the ICC and its members” the implication is clear.”Counties and the Professional Cricketers’ Association have sought clarity concerning this complex situation,” said the ECB chief executive, David Collier. “The [legal] advice received has informed the steps that the board has taken and the board stands ready to discuss the detail and impact of these steps with counties and individual players potentially affected.”The position with overseas players remains as before. The ECB maintains that such cricketers need a No Objection Certificate from the board of the country they are qualified to play Test cricket for, as per ICC instructions. “Without an NOC a cricketer is not entitled to registration,” the spokesman said. “The ECB will not exercise its discretion in favour of a cricketer who has contracted with an unauthorised event, save in the most exceptional circumstances.”That means that players such as Mushtaq Ahmed (Sussex), Jason Gillespie (Glamorgan) and Shane Bond (Hampshire), who have all signed with the ICL, will be prevented from taking up their positions with their counties. Although the ECB statement implied that no action would be taken against such players “who are already registered with the ECB, and who have already contracted with an unauthorised event,” without the NOC from their respective boards, they will be unable to proceed.But what seems apparent is that Kolpak players fall through the net. They do not need registration as with England players, but nor do they need NOCs from their home boards. “Kolpaks still have to abide by the regulations as set out by ECB, same as any other cricketer,” said an ECB spokesman. What that appears to mean is that it is relying on the counties to fall into line with the overall policy.

Ugandan chairman sent packing

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There was a major upheaval in Ugandan cricket when William Kibuuka Musoke was ousted as chairman of the UCA by Dr Kato Sebbaale at a feisty meeting in Lugogo.Musoke has been a controversial figure and it was obvious from early on that he was in trouble, as a succession of speakers lined up to attack his tenure. “We have struggled with this game for long,” said John Naganda, who opposed Musoke’s re-election. “Seeing someone destroy it hurts. Those who are anti-cricket should go to hell,” He also moved a motion to suspend discussing the accounts because they were received late.The UCA was also attacked by Jasper Aligawesa, the general secretary of the National Council of Sports. “You must improve UCA’s public image,” he said. “You should also bring an end to divisions in cricket.”When it came to the vote, Musoke and his committee were sent packing. Kampala’s New Vision described him as possessing an ability “to divide all that stood before him”.

Washout dampens South Africa U-19's prospects

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ScorecardA washed out game at the Sinovich Park in Sinoville, Pretoria meant hosts South Africa Under-19 need to win their final encounter against India Under-19 on Saturday to have a chance of qualifying for the final of the triangular tournament.After rain affected Thursday’s game between India and Bangladesh, it ruined the match between South Africa and Bangladesh, with even the toss not having taken place. South Africa had lost their earlier match against Bangladesh and with only two matches remaining before the final, the hosts must win against India, and hope India beat Bangladesh, which most likely will see South Africa qualify on a better net run-rate.South Africa, though, face a tough ask, as India have won both their matches thus far in the tournament.

McGrath set for Twenty20 comeback

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Glenn McGrath had Sydney farewells in ODI and Test cricket last season but he will now say goodbye in a state match on Tuesday © Getty Images
 

Glenn McGrath hopes to bat for the first time in his New South Wales limited-overs career when he makes a one-off Twenty20 appearance against Queensland on Tuesday night. While McGrath got a series of Test farewells in 2006-07, he did not receive a significant goodbye from the Blues and will break his retirement to bowl fours overs and, hopefully, get a hit.Last season Andrew Johns, the rugby league star who was a guest player, was shepherded from the strike by Simon Katich in the final over as the captain tried to command a failed chase. It’s unlikely the same thing will happen to McGrath, who spent most of his career as a No. 11.”There’s been talk I’m moving up the order,” he said. “I’ve never batted in a one-dayer for New South Wales, so I will wait to see what happens.”McGrath had a bowl in the SCG nets during the second day of the Test and is pleased with his condition. “I thought I’d be struggling a bit, but I am surprised how good I feel,” he said. “The ball came out pretty well.”The match is being played at the Olympic stadium in Sydney and McGrath will use it as preparation for his Twenty20 stint with the Indian Premier League in April. He has watched Australia in Tests and ODIs since retiring and has no desire to return to the longer forms. “To me four overs is the maximum I want to play, so I’m fairly happy.”

Bangar and Yadav give Railways the edge

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Railways 287 for 5 (Bangar 79, Yadav 63) v Punjab
Scorecard
How they were out

Sanjay Bangar set things up perfectly for Railways with 79 at the top of the innings© Getty Images

Three obdurate half-centuries put Railways on top but a controlled spell of seam bowling helped Punjab claw their way back in an engrossing opening day of the Ranji Trophy final at Mohali. Pankaj Dharmani might have rued his decision to field first around tea time but Vineet Sharma’s incisive spell in the third sesssion, on a day when he picked up his 100th Ranji Trophy wicket, kept Punjab afloat in the attritional contest.Sanjay Bangar and Jai Prakash Yadav, both pivotal in Railways’ remarkable turnaround from relegation contenders to finalists, consolidated a rapid start and defied the Punjab medium pacers for three hours. Bangar overcame the initial seam movement, two perilously close lbw appeals and a few edgy moments before settling down into a dogged mode.Both made sure that the loose balls weren’t spared and neither attempted anything fancy. Yadav had moments of uncertainty in the 40s and was even dropped by the wicketkeeper, Dharmani, when he edged VRV Singh, who was in the midst of a fiery spell. But the spinners, bowling at the other end, couldn’t exert any sort of pressure and Yadav cashed in on some half-volleys and half-trackers.At the other end Bangar was entering his grinding zone. It wasn’t anywhere as monastic, and nowhere as demanding, as Headingly 2002, but the Punjab seam attack has consistently run through sides after sending them in and Bangar ensured against any such collapse.The day had begun with a flurry of boundaries as Amit Pagnis, who had made a superb 98 not out in the semi-final, capitalised on the full length that the bowlers employed while trying to extract maximum swing, and the score had surged to 60 for no loss after just 12 overs. It was the sort of innings that could be used as a template for advertising domestic cricket – greentop, bowlers attacking and a batsman counterattacking – but precisely 10 spectators were present to enjoy the thrill. After surviving several confident lbw appeals, Pagnis was undone by Sharma’s cutter, as he tentatively pushed at a good-length ball and was rapped on the pads in front of off stump. Sharma’s 100 wickets had come in 25 Ranji trophy games. Tejinder Pal Singh swished, missed and finally nicked one outside off, but in Jai Prakash Yadav, Bangar found an ally with a similar mindset.Either side of the tea break, Sharma triggered the Punjab fightback with both wickets – Yadav was rooted to the crease as an incutter crashed into his stumps, while Bangar was at the receiving end of a sensational catch at second slip. Raja Ali helped gather some impetus with a fluent 50, but Punjab hung in there with one more wicket at the other end. VRV Singh, who cranked up some disconcerting pace in a few spells, was finally rewarded as Yere Goud was late in coming down on one that came in.While Punjab had frittered away the advantage at the toss, Railways hadn’t managed to build on their dominance. The absorbing contest between bat and ball deserved more than 50 people in attendance.How they were outRailwaysPagnis lbw b Sharma 40 (60 for 1) Not fully forward to a good-length ball. Rapped on the pads and adjudged lbw.Tejinder Pal c Dharmani b Sodhi 11 (77 for 2) Flashed at a wide one and snicked to the wicketkeeper.Yadav b Sharma 63 (200 for 3) Rooted to the crease and misread an incutter that crashed into his stumps.Bangar c Sawal b Sharma 79 (213 for 4) Tried to cut a wide one but only managed to edge it to the right of second slip where Sandeep Sawal pulled off a fantastic one-handed catch.Goud lbw VRV Singh 15 (269 for 5) Rapped on the pads as he missed one that came in.Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Cricinfo.

Somerset young cricketers set off for South Africa

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Over the weekend a group of young Somerset cricketers set off for South Africa on the trip of a lifetime that will culminate with them watching the Cricket World Cup Final later this month.The Somerset Under 13’s party of fourteen players will away for two weeks during which time they will take part in a specifically arranged cricket tournament in Johannesburg that will involve teams from Namibia, Botswana, St Stithians School, and Barbados.If the Somerset ream are successful in their early tournament matches, that include two day-night games, they could well end up playing against other Under 13 teams from England which include Cornwall, Worcestershire or Mid Wales who are also taking part.Somerset Under 13 John Davey, who accompanied the team along with Youth Development Officer Pete Sanderson and coach Ben Wellington told me just before the team departed from Taunton: "Without a doubt this will be the trip of their young lives. They have all worked hard to raise money to pay for themselves and have been looking forward to it for a very long time. There are some very talented players in the team and as you can imagine they are all very excited about it."Meanwhile nearer to home a group of nearly fifty Junior Sabre members of Somerset County Cricket Club went along to Ashton Gate to watch Bristol City beat Peterborough United on Saturday.The visit was part of the arrangement that Somerset have with the soccer club whereby all Junior Sabre members can enjoy free entry to some Bristol City home matches.Membership secretary Joanne Arnold said: "The tie up with Bristol City has been very well received by Junior Sabre members who all had a good time in the sunshine at Ashton Gate on Saturday."

Sri Lanka hit by fast bowling injury crisis

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World Cup star Chaminda Vaas will miss Sri Lanka’s crucial first Sharjah Cupmatch against Pakistan on Friday.Vaas, who took a record 23 wickets at 14.39 during the World Cup, hasinjured his right landing ankle in practice.There is also a serious concern over the fitness of his new ball partner,Dilhara Fernando, who was unable to train on Thursday because of a soreback.”Chaminda (Vaas) is out and Dilhara was unable to bowl this morning,” saidteam manager Ajit Jayasekera.The management hopes that Vaas will recover in time for Sunday’s revengematch against Kenya.There is an outside chance that Fernando could still play but there is already concern that he has aggravated an old stress fracture.”He is being treated by the physio now and we will just have to see how thatgoes before we select the side tonight,” said JayasekeraWith the selectors having axed Pulasthi Gunaratne, their fifth seamer, SriLanka are now left with only the inexperienced Buddhika Fernando and PrabathNissanka as back-up.

England make it eight wins in a row

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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Andrew Strauss: England’s rock with 126 and an undefeated 94© Getty Images

Andrew Strauss made short work of wrapping up an historic victory for England on the final morning of the first Test at Port Elizabeth. Time may not have been of the essence, although winning before the forecast rains came was, but Strauss and the solid Graham Thorpe hurried England along to the 49 runs required in just 36 minutes. This is their eighth consecutive Test victory, a new national record, and the seven-wicket win gives them a 1-0 lead in the series.The young Dale Steyn was forced out of the attack after two overs, as Strauss steered him fine for four, hooked a six picked from outside off stump and then slashed another four high and long over third man. Graeme Smith replaced him, but he could find no breakthrough with his part-time offspin.The winning runs came when Strauss cut Makhaya Ntini past backward point for four. It was fitting that Strauss – the obvious choice as Man of the Match – should deliver the historic eighth win. He dominated the scoring this morning, collecting 41 runs to Thorpe’s eight, and still has a spotless record as an England player: played eight, won eight.Just to rub it in for South Africa, two hours after the match finished the rain poured down: it’s unlikely that any play would have been possible after lunch.In the end, the historic win came at a canter for England. But victory was no foregone conclusion in a match which ebbed and flowed like the tide on the nearby Port Elizabeth beaches. England shaded the first day by taking seven wickets – including Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis for ducks – and bossed the second through an opening stand of 151 between Strauss and Marcus Trescothick, only for South Africa to bounce right back into the match on the third.They removed Strauss early on, then Makhaya Ntini took three wickets in four balls to shake England to the core – and they went on to lose seven wickets for 159 runs. But in a madcap scramble after tea, England’s tail put on 67 for the last two wickets, which must have done some serious psychological damage to the South Africans.Steve Harmison should have been out twice to Dale Steyn, but was dropped once and then when he was caught – by Thami Tsolekile – the umpire had called no-ball. Harmison and Simon Jones should both have been run out as well, but South Africa let them off the hook in what was probably the decisive passage of the match. Still, it could have gone either way at the start of the fourth day – until a collapse even more dramatic than England’s had been.South Africa lost their last seven wickets for 87 runs – and this time there were no low-order high jinks, as England wrested back the initiative one last time. Mind you, South Africa had a ray of hope as Trescothick and Mark Butcher both fell for ducks – and Michael Vaughan’s departure represented a further wobble at 50 for 3 – but the impressive Strauss made no mistakes and, with the phlegmatic Thorpe, applied the finishing touches to a very real test.Jenny Thompson is assistant editor of Cricinfo.

South Africa win toss and bat

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Scorecard


Ricardo Powell: made a valuable 50 before the rain came down
© Getty Images

Heavy rain had the final word at Kingsmead, as the third one-day international between South Africa and West Indies was abandoned early after the change of innings. West Indies will be especially disappointed, as they would have fancied their chances of victory after Duckworth/Lewis calculations meant South Africa faced a potentially tricky run-chase. The five-match series is now beyond Brian Lara’s grasp.West Indies made an encouraging start to defending their total of 147 for 8 from a reduced 40 overs, restricting the South Africans to 15 for 1 from five overs. On a soggy, seaming pitch, Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs started uncomfortably before the heavens opened, and they still required 154 runs from 35 overs. Smith was the man out, caught at mid-off by Lara, off the impressive Merv Dillon (10 for 1). The bowlers’ tails were up, but another downpour washed out their hopes.West Indies’ innings began slowly, but ended in dramatic fashion, with a flurry of wickets and an entertaining array of poor shots, as they failed to make good use of a nine-over dash, once rain had shortened the game.Resuming after two breaks, with the score on 98 for 3, Lara immediately upped the tempo, swivelling outside off to hit the shot of the innings down to the fine-leg boundary, much to Lance Klusener’s bemusement. Ramnaresh Sarwan countered Shaun Pollock’s menacing bounce on the damp wicket, with a majestic blow to the cover boundary, but the very next ball he was comfortably caught on the ropes by Boeta Dippenaar (118 for 4).Two balls later and Lara was gone as well, just when his team desperately needed him to stay for the duration. He top-edged Jacques Kallis’s first delivery, and Mark Boucher took a high catch (119 for 5). Dwayne Smith enjoyed a scintillating, if brief, dual with Klusener, first smashing him through mid-off for four, and next ball hoisting him over midwicket for six. But Klusener had the last word, as Pollock raced round to mid-on to catch Smith after he mistimed a wild swing (134 for 6).The batsmen continued to come and go, with Kallis accounting for Ryan Hurley and Dillon in successive balls, and Ridley Jacobs was left marooned at the non-striker’s end. It represented a tame end, and the beginning wasn’t much better either.From a slow start, Ricardo Powell wrestled West Indies back to some sort of parity amid the gloom, with a responsible 50 runs from 71 balls, after Pollock and Andre Nel kept things tight. Chris Gayle fell to Nel, spooning a leading edge to the safe hands of Gibbs (3 for 1).Powell and Shivnarine Chanderpaul then shared a 49-run partnership, but Chanderpaul was completely out-of-sorts, struggling to 17 off 55 balls. Eventually he realised he had to get on or get out, and he duly obliged, edging Klusener to deep square-leg, where Jacques Rudolph held a steepling catch (52 for 2).Powell, who played with a confident fluency and hammered a series of boundaries on the on-side, claimed his seventh one-day half-century, but two balls later he was out, lofting Klusener to Dippenaar at square-leg (79 for 3). In the grand scheme of things, his innings meant little, but at least it brightened up a dull Durban day.

de Villiers set for one-day debut

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Geraint Jones: promotion is no Christmas present© Getty Images

South Africa’s rising star, AB de Villiers, will make his one-day debut against England on Wednesday, after being controversially overlooked for the opening fixture at the Wanderers over the weekend.De Villiers, 20, eased into international cricket during the recent Test series, where he performed with such aplomb in a variety of different roles that his selection for the one-day side seemed to be a given. But instead the selectors, in their wisdom, plumbed for Adam Bacher instead, whose first international appearance in seven years ended with an ugly smear across the line.”We had selected Adam because of his experience, but we were very disappointed with the irresponsible shot he played when he lost his wicket,” said Haroon Lorgat, South Africa’s convener of selectors. Bacher made just 4 from 18 balls, although there is the possibility that he will yet earn a reprieve, as Herschelle Gibbs is nursing a groin strain.As for de Villiers, his omission was yet another example of the selectorial meddling that has coloured his career to date. Lesser characters would have been cowed by the treatment he has received, which included opening the batting on debut, taking the wicketkeeping gloves for his second and third games, and then propping up the fallible middle order for his fourth match at the Wanderers. Graeme Smith’s head injury in that match meant he had returned to the opener’s position by the end of the series, and responded with innings of 92 and 109 at Centurion.South Africa’s main problem all summer has been in the middle order, and so there is the distinct possibility that de Villiers will once again be charged with an extra responsibility when he finally makes his one-day debut. Among the bowlers, Andrew Hall may come in for Nicky Boje. Despite Mark Boucher’s experience, he may well be sacrificed to accommodate an extra specialist batsman, with de Villiers set to open and keep wicket, just as his opposite number, Geraint Jones, now does for England.Jones’s first innings of the series was not particularly auspicious – he made just 8 from 11 balls – but his fearless hitting surfaced on two occasions during the Test series, at Durban and Centurion, and when in the groove, he can be relied on to take advantage of the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs. “The captain told me that it was not a Christmas present,” Jones told BBC Sport. “I’ve been told I’ll have a good spell there, and I can get my head around the job for this whole series.”England have few concerns going into their second match. Kevin Pietersen overcame a predictably hostile Johannesburg crowd to open his account for the series, while Michael Vaughan shrugged off the controversy surrounding his run-in with Clive Lloyd, the ICC match referee, to top-score with a matchwinning 44 not out.England’s actual matchwinners, however, were the bowlers, all of whom “hit the right areas”, to borrow the phrase that did the rounds during the Tests. Most impressive of all was Darren Gough, who bowled with skill and speed to pick up 2 for 27 in his 10 overs, and afterwards rejoiced at being able to strike back at his critics. “I’ve been dead meat for two years,” he admitted, but even at the age of 34, his Dazzleness is undoubtedly back on the throne.With a 1-0 lead and a settled side, England will once again be favourites when the first of their five day-night encounters gets underway in Bloemfontein, but as was demonstrated in the Test series, nothing can be taken for granted when these two sides take the field.South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 AB de Villiers, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Adam Bacher, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Justin Kemp, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Nicky Boje, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Andre Nel.England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Geraint Jones, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Andrew Strauss, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Ian Bell, 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Kabir Ali, 10 Darren Gough, 11 Matthew Hoggard.