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Research into youth health will benefit from an Otago Cricket fund-raising initiative to be launched next week.In a mail drop to 12,000 business houses in Otago and Southland, Otago Cricket will offer membership of the Volts Club, the name a play on the State Otago Volts team.Club members will contribute by way of a ‘tax’ on the anticipated success of the Volts in this summer’s State Shield one-day competition, the payments comprising $1 for every 10 runs scored, $2 for each wicket secured and $10 ‘penalties’ for centuries and four-wicket bags.The membership fee is capped at $350 with a guaranteed $50 from each going to the Otago and Southland division of the Cancer Society for research and the promotion of physical activity among the young. The remainder will be invested in Otago Cricket’s talent identification, coaching and junior development programmes which cost more than $200,000 a year to run.Otago Cricket’s events and fund raising manager Steve Davie said the sport was particularly pleased to assist with the on-going research of the Cancer Society, especially in the youth area.”Many of our players and administrators are aware of the society’s terrific work and the effects of cancer, especially on young folk,” Davie said.”We are in a position to enlist the support of the business community of Otago and Southland and I’m sure those people will be as enthusiastic about helping as we are in promoting the concept.”It is estimated about 40% of cancers can be avoided by adopting healthy lifestyle choices and the Cancer Society is particularly keen to offer the right choices to young people to reduce the risk of problems in later life.The society’s Otago branch health promotion coordinator, Wyn Barbezat, said evidence of increased cancer risk from inactivity and being overweight was well established.”As well as the established Sunsmart and Smokefree programmes the Cancer Society is very keen to join others in the promotion of physical activity and good nutrition,” Mrs Barbezat said.”More needs to be learned about making the right choices to lessen risks later on.”We are grateful to have the support of Otago Cricket and its commitment to supporting us in our endeavours to reduce the impact of cancer in our community.”As well as assisting local cancer research and the development of junior cricket Volts Club members would also receive tickets to the New Zealand v India One-Day International in Queenstown in January, seasons’ passes to domestic games and the chance to win a $1500 travel voucher.Otago Cricket had also enlisted the assistance of the Otago Chamber of Commerce and the Dunedin Casino in ensuring its mail drop covered as much of the North Otago, Otago and Southland business community as possible.

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–>The ICC is considering a Test championship to ensure that, amid the increasing popularity of the Twenty20 format, “a special place is maintained for Test cricket in the calendar”.”The ICC will consider a number of options in the upcoming board meetings (in Dubai later this month), one of which is an option to introduce a Test championship or league,” the ICC’s acting chief executive, Dave Richardson, said at the launch ceremony of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.The details of the championship, though, are yet to be worked out. “There are so many ways this could be done, a league over one year, two years or four years,” he said. “I am certainly in favour of looking at such an option to make sure we provide a good quality context for Test cricket to take place so that it can be preserved as the pinnacle of the game.”Richardson acknowledged that domestic Twenty20 leagues such as the IPL had been a “fantastic success” but maintained that international cricket remained the game’s highest level. “If you ask any player around the world what he would like to do, he would like to play Test cricket for his country.”The first ICC Test Championship was launched in May 2001 and was a ranking system based on the results of the most recent series (a minimum of two Tests constituted a series), home and away, between each of the teams. It was then revamped in 2003 to reflect the results of each Test, rather than an entire series, and also to take into account the strength of the opponents while awarding points.

“West Indian batting sensation Brian Lara has agreed to turn out for theLashings Rest of the World XI which takes on a Gloucestershire XI in two 20over clashes on Sunday 11 August at Nevil Road.GCCC are looking to add to their own squad for this match and plan to playIndian stars Mohammed Kaif (a century versus England in the final of theNatWest Trophy at Lords) and Dinshan Mongia as well as the mighty DavidTerbrugge from South Africa.For advanced tickets contact 0117 – 9108013 or 9108010.”

Wellington’s Stadium Trustees have been given a deadline of May 31 to provide assurances to the board of New Zealand Cricket that the Basin Reserve will receive a substantial upgrade before next summer.NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said that unless those assurances are given Wellington, and the Basin Reserve specifically, will be in danger of losing the Boxing Day Test.That requirement has been sent to the Trustees after the debacle that occurred during the second National Bank Series Test against England last month.The scoreboard at the ground became an international laughing stock with mis-aligned letters and dreadfully inappropriate placements making it almost impossible to read at times.The pitch, after years of similar occurrences, suffered yet more problems with drainage and seepage of rain beneath the covers, especially onto the previously used pitches. Play was unnecessarily delayed while mopping up occurred at nature’s pace. The pitch itself also needs to get back to the harder and faster model previously associated with the ground and of the type NZC are trying to achieve at all their international grounds.Public and player amenities, especially the changing rooms beneath the R A Vance Stand, are also in need of a significant upgrade.Wellington has become the home of the Boxing Day Test matches since they were first introduced against India in the summer of 1998/99. They have proved very popular and have always attracted good-sized crowds.Even a match against the acknowledged minnows of the world game, Bangladesh, was well supported, once the game was able to start after rain delays.The natural blooming of the pohutakawa trees on the banks around the ground have seen the Test labelled, ‘The Pohutakawa Test’ and the scene has been among the most colourful in the New Zealand cricket.

Test discard Vikram Rathour will lead the 16-member Punjab Ranji team on a tour of Kenya from July 22 to August 12. The team will play one two-day, one four-day and seven one-day matches in the course of this tour.Announcing the team, Mr M P Pandove, sectetary of the Punjab Cricket Association, said that the Punjab team has Dinesh Mongia and Yuvraj Singh in its ranks. These two players are currently touring England with the Indian team but, in all likelihood, will be released from national duty once the one-day three nation series is over.The other members of the team are Ravneet Ricky, Munish Sharma, Pankaj Dharmani, Ankur Kakkar, Vineet Sharma, Gagandeep Singh, Babloo Kumar, Reetinder Sodhi, Sandeep Sanwal, Harikishan Kali, Amit Uniyal, Chander Madan and Rajesh Sharma.

Admirable as the work of the International Cricket Council’s anti-gambling squad may be, the reported intention to expunge transgressors names from the record books is not one of the more illuminating suggestions.It is to be hoped that other recommendations put before the ICC from Sir Paul Condon and his investigation team are more realistic than this foolhardy notion of retrospectively rewriting cricket history.There is no doubt that physically chipping the players from their place among the all-time playing records would be a suitable punishment if cricket were a game for individuals.It’s not, and therein lies the fault in the suggested disincentive to future violators of the game.Match-fixing has been a blight on cricket. It has gone against everything that cricket is supposed to represent.Those found guilty of falling prey to the lures of Mammon deserve banishment.But to remove those players’ records from the game is impractical, unsuitable and nonsensical.By all means insert an asterisk beside every reference to a player’s name in the records forever marking him as having been proven by law to have besmirched the good name of cricket by accepting money for wrongful reasons.Even that option is going to involve an awful lot of extra space taken up by asterisks.To take a player’s name out of the records is going to leave some pretty strange looking scorecards in the annals of the game’s history.What of the partnership records, or the dismissals where the offender has taken catches for a bowler?And by eliminating a player from scoresheets does that suggest every game he has played in has been affected by match-fixing? Some of these players have more than 300 matches behind them. Has every one of them been affected?Add that up by however many players have been implicated and there will be some pretty sorry looking statistics databases around the world.The closest comparable example in baseball was the famous “throwing” of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago eight. Now known as the “Black Sox” because of their deeds.When confronted with the evidence they confessed.They were banned from baseball, but their records are still part of the statistical database of baseball. They were individuals competing in a team game.What should be worth remembering by the ICC and Condon is that despite the confessions from the players concerned the Black Sox were acquitted by the courts.Where the misery was compounded for the baseballers was that their involvement in the game was cut, and their ability to be included in halls of fame was also cut.Debate still goes on in the United States about the absence of one of the eight, Shoeless Joe Jackson, from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.What was more pertinent, and is the same in cricket’s case, are the words of Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Landis.He proclaimed after the verdict acquitting the eight: “Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ball game, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where they ways and means of throwing games are discussed, and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever again play professional baseball.”The game is the thing. Deny the miscreants their access to it and the punishment is done.What is done cannot be undone.The records should be left as a memorial to misdeeds and as an example of what can befall those who cross the line.

The newly constructed CSA board will be chaired by one of the country’s top bankers and also includes high-profile businessman and legal experts. The five independent directors were selected by a nominations committee as part of the Nicholson Committee recommendations that the organisation completely overhaul its governing structures and streamline its board.What was previously a 22-member board has been halved and five of the 11 members on the new board come from the corporate world. The remaining six will come from five provincial presidents and CSA’s chief executive and will be voted in at the AGM on October 27. By then, suspended boss Gerald Majola’s disciplinary hearing, which is continuing in his absence, will be complete and he will either be back at work or CSA will be in the process of appointing a new head.The process of choosing the independent directors took two months and resulted in the selection of Louis von Zeuner, Dawn Mokhobo, Vusi Pikoli, Mohamed Iqbal Khan and Geoff Whyte. All the nominees are of high pedigree and have been met with approval from CSA’s current leadership.”I am delighted by the quality of the independent component of our new board and I know they will work well with the other members to lead CSA into an exciting new era,” Willie Basson, CSA acting president said.Von Zeuner is currently deputy group chief executive of Absa Group Ltd, one of the country’s big four banks.Mokhobo is a former South African businesswoman of the year and was previously involved with the UN. She chaired a committee which looked into women in economic decision making. Currently, she is chairperson of a mining company and serves on the boards of several other companies.Pikoli is a member of the EU Foundation for Human Rights and the Magistrate’s Commission and also serves as a Trustee of the Constitutional Court – the highest legal authority in the country. He was fired as head of the country’s National Prosecuting Authority but is known for being behind the laying of criminal charges against former police commissioner Jackie Selebi, who has since been found guilty of corruption, and president Jacob Zuma.Khan is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and works as chief operating officer for Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa, a financial institutional. He is also a former cricketer and played for SA Schools under the South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board (the body set up for non-white players).Whyte has worked for Unilever, Pepsico, Cadbury Schweppes and SAB-Miller. He was named marketing person of the year in 2009 by the and was a judge of the major marketing and media experience awards in the country.The independent directors will be ratified at the AGM in 11 days.

The first day of the opening three day game between Australia and India A at the Vidharba Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur was a day of mixed fortunes. The Australian skipper Steve Waugh began the day on a happy note winning the toss on a good batting wicket. Little could he have realised what was in store for the day.

Australia were bowled out for 291 off 69.1 overs, sixty minutes after the tea interval. Michael Kasprowicz was the top scorer with 92 runs under his belt. Rahul Sanghvi was the wrecker-in-chief for India A bagging five for 40. At stumps India A were 71 for one after 18 overs.Earlier, a fiery spell by left arm seam bowler Ashish Nehra reduced the Australian innings to 25 for three in six overs. Michael Slater pulled a short ball onto his stumps to set off the disaster trail. Two overs later, one drop batsman Justin Langer was back in the pavilion after being rapped on the pads by Nehra.The skipper was a bit surprised to be batting at the wicket 20 minutes from the start of play. He looked rusty in his six ball stay at the wicket. He was dismissed when he edged a short ball moving away from his body, carrying to the wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia.The India A skipper VVS Laxman had a big smile on his face until Ricky Ponting walked into the middle and turned the smile into a brow on the forehead. Ponting dispatched the mediumpacers to the boundary mercilessly, plundering the short pitched deliveries.Nehra had figure of three wickets from three overs giving away 16 runs. After Ponting got stuck into him, he was hammered for 35 runs in the next five overs. Ponting raced away to 56 off 58 balls with nine hits to the fence. His dismissal came shortly before the lunch interval and also ended a 91-run partnership off 17.4 overs for the fourth wicket with Mathew Hayden.The introduction of the spinners pegged back the Australian batsmen as seven of the ten wickets to fall went to spinners. Rahul Sanghvi and Harbajan Singh spun a web around the Australian middle order in the second session of the day.The post lunch session saw three quick wickets falling, that of Hayden, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist. Hayden had been playing patiently and watching the damage from the other end. He was unlucky to have missed out on his half-century by one run when he skied a sweep shot off Sanghvi.Australia were reeling at 133 for seven before Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz put on a face saving 155-run partnership off 37.4 overs for the eighth wicket. Jason Gillespie made a chanceless halfcentury, scoring 57 off 131 balls with nine hits to the fence. He was foxed by Sanghvi with a flighted delivery resulting in a caught and bowled dismissal.On the way, Kasprowicz reached a personal milestone of his highest first class score. He was unlucky to miss out on his century by eight runs. He was the last man out. He faced 114 balls and hit 12 fours and three sixes.The India A openers S Ramesh and SS Das came out confidently and negotiated the new ball well. They raced on to 23 runs off five overs. Das was unlucky to be run out for 12. He played 31 balls and had two hits to the fence. An accurate throw from Steve Waugh caught Das short of his grounds.One drop Laxman and Ramesh played safely and ended the day on 71 for one off 18 overs. Ramesh was on 43 off 61 balls with nine hits to the fence, Laxman was on six off 22 balls with one hit to the fence.

Gavin Pfuhl, the former Western Province wicketkeeper, died in Cape Town on Monday. According to the South African Press Association, Pfuhl, who recently had a heart transplant operation, contracted a virus that resulted in complications causing his death.Pfuhl played 95 first-class games for Western Province between 1967/68 and 1979/80, scoring 2 331 runs at 21.58 while taking 280 catches and 34 stumpings. He later became an astute and informative television commentator.Former South African captain and currently executive director of the 2003 World Cup, Ali Bacher, paid tribute to Pfuhl."Gavin played for Western Province around the time that Eddie Barlow was captain and I captained Transvaal," said Bacher. "In those days the rivalry between the two provinces was particularly intense and Gavin was a key member of the side. He was an excellent `keeper in the days that Province had Denys Hobson bowling legspin and I believe that he was easily good enough to have played international cricket."He became a TV commentator in recent years and what I liked about his commentary was that he was always so positive about South African cricket," said Bacher.

“I don’t know what it feels like,” groaned James Anderson on the morning after the night before. The Ashes had been retained and the celebrations had, by all accounts, been a controlled explosion – sufficiently forceful to shake the foundations of the team hotel in South Yarra, but at the same time respectful to the circumstances of a series that remains to be wrapped up. It is a measure of an astonishingly well-thought-out campaign that even the moments of euphoria have been professional.And so it was that, even through the fog of his hangover, it was possible to glimpse in Anderson the character that has carried him towards the pinnacle of his career. His softly spoken words were made softer still by the throbbing in his head, but if you listened carefully they had an unmistakable edge to them – emboldened, no doubt, by the triumph to which he had contributed only 24 hours previously.”I always knew that I had a lot more ability and skill than I showed in my early career,” said Anderson. “I knew I could improve a hell of a lot, and I also knew I could perform at this level because I did so to a certain extent when I started out. So I just thought if I could try and improve as much as I can, work hard at my game, I could perform for England.”It’s a great achievement, and it was an amazing place to do it at the MCG,” he added. “It was a fantastic atmosphere from the English fans, and a great place to retain the Ashes. For me and the rest of the team, we’ve grown up watching some unsuccessful trips to Australia, and I’ve been involved in one in the past, so it was a dream come true, and brilliant to be part of such a fantastic performance.”Anderson deserves his moment more than most. Not only is he the leading wicket-taker in the series with 17 scalps at 29.29, he has also matured into his role as the true leader of the England pack – a process that might have looked inevitable when he made his international debut at the MCG back in 2002-03, an astonishing eight years ago this month, but which had seemed virtually inconceivable in the latter years of Duncan Fletcher’s reign. On the last Ashes tour Anderson had seemed belittled and withdrawn, an ever-wobbly spare wheel whose five wickets at 82.60 were a precise reflection of his fragile state of mind.Now, however, he is a character transformed, a player who has burrowed so deep into Australia’s psyche that one of his worthier opponents of the series, Shane Watson, described an error that he made while batting as a nightwatchman on the third evening at Perth as “one of his favourite moments on a cricket field”. Such hyperbole betrays the extent to which Anderson has rattled the opposition on this trip – the “pussy” who was derided by Justin Langer in his leaked dossier during the 2009 Ashes has grown a mane and learnt to roar.In the opinion of David Saker, England’s plaudit-strewn bowling coach, Anderson is close to becoming the best fast bowler in the world, with only South Africa’s No. 1-ranked Dale Steyn challenging him in terms of current form, and on the evidence of 2010 it is hard to disagree. At Melbourne, he became the 13th England bowler to pass 200 Test wickets, but 49 – or nearly a quarter – of those have come in the past 12 months, including a career-best 11 for 71 in the first Test against Pakistan in July, and two critical first-innings four-fors in each of England’s Ashes wins at Adelaide and Melbourne.While Anderson acknowledges Saker’s role in tightening up his methods on pitches that do not offer natural swing, he puts the rest of his dramatic improvement down to the work ethic that comes from representing a team on the up in the world game, and an eye for detail that comes with experience of international cricket.”It’s just practice,” he said. “I’ve learnt from watching a number of other international cricketers, and tried to develop different sorts of deliveries. Mohammad Asif hits the seam and wobbles it, and can swing it as well, so I learnt from that last summer, and last time we were in India, Zaheer Khan was hiding the ball went it was reversing so I picked that up from him and tried to develop it to suit me. Also you also listen to your own top-order batsmen, and what they find difficult facing.”Long consigned to the dustbin is the notion that Anderson would be an easy beat on the flat Australian pitches, when armed with the Kookaburra ball and its mechanically stitched, bowler-unfriendly seam. Like Matthew Hoggard on the 2006-07 tour, Anderson has developed his methods as a natural swinger of the ball, and armed himself with enough tricks to prove a handful regardless of the conditions.The process, however, has not been an overnight one, no matter how suspicious the Aussies may have been of his credentials going into the Gabba Test. And in the same week in which Kevin Pietersen revisited old feuds with his reference to the demise of Peter Moores, Anderson provided another reminder that, regardless of how maligned the former coach may have been by hindsight, he did have his moments during his brief stint at the helm.The start of Anderson’s second coming as an international cricketer was at Wellington in March 2008, when Moores purged Hoggard and Steve Harmison from England’s front line, and the thrusting young pairing of Anderson and Stuart Broad were handed the pace bowling duties alongside Ryan Sidebottom. Anderson’s first act was to take five first-innings wickets in a series-levelling victory, and since that date he’s taken 143 of his tally at 28.23.”When Peter Moores was in charge, he wanted me to lead the attack and gave me a lot of responsibility in New Zealand,” said Anderson. “Hoggard and Harmison got dropped, me and Broady came in – it really was a lot of faith in us, and it boosted my confidence. And we’ve also had the bowling coaches since then – Ottis [Gibson] was fantastic, Allan Donald I really enjoyed working with, and now Sakes has been brilliant. We’ve all been developing some good skills, because we’ve shown in the four games so far we can swing the ball, seam the ball and reverse-swing the ball.”David Saker has been credited with bringing the best out of England’s quick bowlers•Getty Images

More than that, however, Anderson has been learning how to lead, and right now he is the kingpin in an England seam attack in which any three of six fast bowlers could be trusted to front up and perform their duties for England. It’s a far cry from the little boy lost who once used to take the field for England in venues as diverse as Johannesburg, Adelaide and Colombo, and find his methods dissected as quickly as his morale used to evaporate.To his credit, Anderson recognises his flaws of yesteryear, and like his counterpart in the middle order, Ian Bell, has worked extra hard to eradicate them. Instead of shirking the confrontation, he’s developed a willingness to square up to all opponents, not least Mitchell Johnson whose one glorious spell at Perth has been undermined by a raft of supine performances, in which he himself has looked a bit like the Anderson of old – toiling for swing, baffled by its absence and bereft of explanations for why.”Body language is a huge thing, certainly as a bowler,” said Anderson. “You don’t want to be seen trudging back to your mark all the time, so I try to keep my shoulders back and be as positive as possible, because in the past I’ve been pretty average in that respect. There’s a difference between various people telling me and me actually seeing it when we look at games back on TV. I could obviously see that it wasn’t good enough.”And much like the excitement surrounding Australia’s increased chirpiness in the field at Perth, Anderson has discovered that a well-placed comment is every bit as potent as a well-directed bouncer, especially when you are the side on top. “I think it’s just part of my natural game,” he said. “I don’t always do it, but it gets me fired up when the time is right, and I try to pick my players as well as I possibly can.”I don’t really have a favourite, but there are players not to pick,” he added. “Ponting, if you get under his skin, he’s more likely to dig in and enjoy the contest, so we might stay away from him. I think in the past it was an emotional thing that just came out, but over the last couple of years I’ve learned to control it much better. Whatever goes on when I’ve bowled a ball, I know when I go back to my mark I’m 100% focused on what I’m about to do with the ball.”For all of the revelry of Melbourne, however, Anderson concedes that the job’s not done yet. “We want to go out on a high, whether that’s 2-1 or 3-1, because to go home 2-2 would take the gloss off,” he said. “Four years ago was a completely different story and not worth remembering to be honest, but it will be a nicer feeling knowing that we can not just retain the Ashes but win the series. We celebrated [on Friday] and deservedly so, but we’ve put that behind us to focus on five days at Sydney. It’s really important we go out on a high in the series.”