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New Zealand had Brendon McCullum and Scott Styris at the crease, andonly needed a further seven runs in the 20th over to win. The matchwas theirs for the taking, provided they didn’t lose any furtherwickets, and the series would have been levelled. But at 7.25pm, sixballs away from ensuring a result for either side, the umpires gave into the lashing rain at Edgbaston. New Zealand were well and trulyrobbed, as were a hardy and patient crowd of 16,000.”It’s a game we would have won if we’d played all the overs,” DanielVettori, the New Zealand captain, said, “or even got that 20th over,so there’s a sense of disappointment in the dressing room. It’s almostlike a loss.”Fortune generally favours the brave, but not on this occasion. New Zealand desperately needed a slice of luck, a break – anything to get their tour back on track after losing the Test series, and receiving a whipping in both the Twenty20 and first ODI. Despiteoutplaying England, today it was not to be, thanks to the most anal ofregulations. Rain and poor light had prevented play from startinguntil 3pm, but even so, it was decided they would take a 30-minuteinterval in between innings, in spite of the awful weather forecastdue and the excellent light the ground was enjoying at that precisetime.”It’s just one of those common-sense solutions [that was needed],”Vettori said. “We bowled one allotment of 13 overs and one of 11, soit wasn’t like we were tired or anything. It could have been reducedto ten minutes and we’d have gone straight back out there,[especially] with that knowledge of what weather was coming. If youcan take the common-sense approach to most things, they normally getsorted out.”In addition to the interval, England were themselves a little slow intaking nearly an hour to bowl 13 overs, further hampering the game’sprogress, and Vettori was quick to emphasise the umpires’responsibility. “There were a lot of stoppages. Some were necessary,some were not. I’ve played for a long, long time and never been finedfor a slow over-rate. If some people can do it, then I think youshould push the case through.”It’s all too easy to blame the umpires on occasions like these, butthere was undoubted gamesmanship from England that could easily havebeen nipped in the bud by Steve Davis and Ian Gould. A stray plasticbag seemed to take an age to be removed, while England’s oddlyenthusiastic fielding changes appeared to take place after nearlyevery delivery. Responding to their tardy over-rate, Paul Collingwoodinsisted that there was no foul play from England or dirty tacticsinvolved.”It wasn’t a tactical thing or anything like that,” he said,pointedly. “I guess we were chasing the ball a little bit at times.That happens, and you’re not going to get through your overs as quick.It wasn’t tactical and I didn’t realise it was that slow. I waswatching the Duckworth-Lewis all the time and we were there orthereabouts. We were only one wicket away from clinching it really, soit was going down to the wire.”Like Vettori, though, Collingwood blamed the no-result on the fattenedinterval between innings. “That’s probably the disappointment of the day actually,” he said.”When you’ve got a shortened game like that, to have a 30-minute breakbetween innings surprised us a bit, to be honest. We were ready to goout in 10 or 15 minutes.”It’s a shame that it was 30 but it’s in the regulations and we can’tchange it. It needs to be looked at, because we’d all had lunch beforethe game had started, so there was nothing to do between innings.”I can understand [the crowd] getting frustrated when it goes down tothe wire. It’s in the rules and regulations so there’s nothing we can doas players, but I do believe it’s something that has to be looked out.We could have gone out there in 10 or 15 minutes; from a player’spoint of view, we were ready to go.”In the current climate, it is unfortunate timing for 50-over cricketto be made to look so foolish. Its younger, hip cousin has it allwrapped up in half the time, after all. Cricket’s regulations areoften its Achilles heel, and in times like these, when the landscapeis changing so quickly, common sense simply must prevail. One-daycricket remains a huge income stream for boards, but its dissenterswill be quietly chuckling at the archaic regulations that were playedout so perfectly today.

Matt Bulbeck and Richard Johnson bowled Somerset into a good position at the end of the first day of their final championship match of the season against Lancashire at Taunton, where the visitors will resume 133 behind with four wickets intact.After being put into bat openers Jamie Cox and Matt Wood took the Cidermen onto 46 when they were both dismissed, Cox who made 24 became the first of Peter Martins four victims and Wood who had scored 22 was bowled by Kyle Hogg.Piran Holloway was out for no score and one run later Arul Suppiah was caught by wicket-keeper Warren Hegg off Martin before he could get off the mark.From 46 without loss Somerset had slipped to 47 for 4, and were rescued by Mike Burns and Pete Trego who had taken the score onto 108 before lunch.Burns brought up his 1000 championship runs for the season, but with his score on 32 he was caught by the wicket keeper off the bowling of Martin. The fifth wicket partnership had realised what could turn out to be a vital 75 runs.With the score on 137 Trego became another of Martins victims when he was caught by Alec Swann off Martin after scoring 47.The `old firm’ of Rob Turner and Keith Dutch then put together another important partnership and added 60 runs for the seventh wicket before Dutch was caught by Chris Schofield off the bowling of James Anderson for 23.Turner stayed to see Somerset past the 200 in the 55th over, but 13 runs later he was LBW to Schofield for 45.Johnson was caught by Swann off Anderson for 2 and when shortly afterwards Simon Francis was run out leaving Bulbeck stranded on 18 Somerset were all out for 221.When Lancashire replied they were soon in trouble against the Somerset opening attack of Johnson who was bowling from the Old Pavilion End and Bulbeck from the River End.It was Johnson who got the first blood when in the fifth over he bowled Mark Chilton. With the score on 6 Bulbeck struck at the other end when he trapped Swann LBW.Johnson disposed of David Byas to make the Red Rose county 21 for 3 and after looking threatening Stuart Law was caught at slip by Piran Holloway off Bulbeck to make the visitors 47 for 4.Tim Rees followed shortly after when he fell LBW to Bulbeck, and the left armer picked up another wicket before with the score on 88 for 6 at 5.35pm umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Ken Palmer offered the light to the Lancashire batsmen who gratefully accepted.The Somerset bowlers had remained unchanged and by the close Bulbeck had sent down 14 overs and taken 4 for 51 whilst Johnson had bowled 15 overs and taken 2 for 35.The Somerset coach Kevin Shine was delighted and told : "We are very pleased with the day. When we batted it looked like we had made an under par score, but some excellent bowling from both Matt Bulbeck and Richard Johnson has put us in a good position. The pair created a lot of chances and if we had taken them all then Lancashire would have been in even deeper trouble."He continued: "In the morning we will be looking to finish them off quickly and then give `Johnno’ and `Bully’ a rest whilst we set a decent total for them to bowl at."One of the Somerset bowling heroes Matt Bulbeck told me: "It swung around out there today for us and both sides put it in good areas. We were a bit disappointed to only get 221, but then when they batted and we started to get amongst them it felt good and we just kept going."He continued: "We’ve managed to fight back well and set up a good position for ourselves, and hopefully we’ll be able to pick up in the morning where we have left off tonight."

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.

Auckland have appointed South African-based New Zealander Mark O’Donnell as their coach to replace Tony Sail next summer.Auckland Cricket’s chief executive Lindsay Crocker announced O’Donnell’s appointment today. O’Donnell, 39, will take up his position next month.O’Donnell has spent 14 years coaching in South Africa with Eastern Province, Griqualand West, Gauteng and the South African National Academy.His latest stint has been with Gauteng where he has been the team coach since 1995. They won the domestic one-day competition in 1997/98 and the four-day competition in 1999/00.Auckland will be defending the State Championship for first-class cricket in New Zealand in the new summer.His appointment was made after interviews and discussions held by a selection panel of: ACA chairman Rex Smith, Crocker, and ACA directors John Graham and Justin Vaughan.Eighteen applicants were received for the position.”Mark impressed the selection panel with his no nonsense attitude, strong work ethic and considerable experience at the first-class level,” Crocker said.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Hooper and Chanderpaul.For the second time in three matches, the two Guyanese featured in a mammoth partnership in which both batsmen completed centuries and other landmarks.At 11:22 a.m. yesterday, Carl Hooper arrived at his 12th Test century and first at Kensington Oval to the delight of his adoring fans.Fifteen minutes later, Shivnarine Chanderpaul reached his fourth hundred in Tests, his second on the ground and his third against India.Their fifth-wicket stand of 215 went a long way in helping the West Indies build an impregnable lead of 292 that has left India under pressure to avoid defeat in the third Cable & Wireless Test.However, neither Hooper nor Chanderpaul want to read too much into the personal landmarks which have continued from the first Test at Bourda where they added a record 293.In the process of this innings, Hooper passed 400 runs for the first time in the series, made two hundreds for the first time in a series and is nicely pushing up his batting average since coming out of retirement a year ago.I am not one for figures. I always say that figures sometimes really do not tell the true tale, the West Indies captain said.I just want to do the best that I possibly can. If it means that the average has jumped, it does. If it means that it remains the same place, so be it.When he reached his first Test century in his native Guyana three weeks ago, he said it was a moment he had waited 15 years for. This one did not carry as much significance, even though thousands of Barbadians have long conferred a knighthood on him.This one is different. Home is home at the end of the day. There is nothing like scoring a hundred in front of your home crowd, he said.I’m not Barbadian, even though I have got a lot of supporters here. It is good to score a hundred in Barbados, but if you ask me if this was just as special as the one in Guyana, [the answer is] no.Chanderpaul, his place in the side seemingly tenuous at the start of the series, has been a new player of late, batting with supreme authority, especially at the start of his innings.When asked what had brought about the recent turnaround, he said: I thank God for that.He never once felt there was a need to worry about his place, in spite of impressive claims staked by Ryan Hinds.I don’t worry about what people say. Whenever the day comes for me to play, I just go out there and do what I have to do, Chanderpaul said.He too, said there was nothing special about Kensington or the Indians.It’s just that I am happy to get runs whenever I can and wherever I can, he said.With India trailing by 123 runs and with six wickets in hand, West Indies are overwhelming favourites to win the match and level the series 1-1, but Hooper does not want to count the chickens before they are hatched.It’s never over until it is over. Obviously, we want to remove them as early as possible, but this is a game of cricket and you’ve got to be prepared for anything. Who knows? They may come out tomorrow [today] and bat the whole day. We’ve got to keep working. We can’t take it for granted that this is already in the bag, Hooper said.

South Africa drew maximum reward from a hard weekend of cricket as they beatthe West Indies by eight wickets in the fourth one-day international atQueen’s Park stadium on Sunday and took a healthy 3-1 lead in the seven-match series.It is perhaps the emphatic manner of South Africa’s two wins in Grenadawhich will haunt the West Indies most – after taking a 1-0 lead in theseries in Jamaica, they again appear punch-drunk and demoralised.As defeat loomed, one fan with a loud-hailer broke into song. “Oh dear,what can the matter be?” he lamented over and over again. “There’s somethingwrong with my cricket team.”The mood was not enhanced by the extraordinary events before a ball wasbowled, captain Carl Hooper arriving an astonishing 17 minutes late for thetoss and then appearing to forget the names of the players coming into hisside for Sunday’s game when interviewed for television.As it was, South Africa chased a modest victory target of 201 withlittle trouble, the winning run hit coming with three overs and five balls tospare.Gary Kirsten struck his second consecutive half-century after a leanspell, and just to underline the strength in depth of the tourists’ squad,Boeta Dippenaar contributed an unbeaten 62 in his first innings in fullcolours after over two months on tour.Kirsten fell to Hooper for 72 off 104 balls, a moment’s indecisionproducing a checked drive and a scoop to Ricardo Powell at mid-off. WithSouth Africa’s specialist finisher Jonty Rhodes (30 not out) coming to thewicket, the game was as good as over.Earlier, the West Indies batting effort was undermined by a poor start,an inability to accelerate in the middle overs and a tail lengthened by theexclusion of Wavell Hinds, replaced by Nixon McLean.Although 20-year-old Marlon Samuels (65 0ff 71 balls) again looked aclass act with his fourth one-day half-century, only while he and Hooper (46off 78) shared a partnership of 67 for the fifth wicket did the SouthAfrican bowlers come under sustained pressure.Brian Lara provided another fleeting reminder of his class with 25 highquality runs, including consecutive fours off the first three deliveriesbowled by Allan Donald. Typically, though, Donald found his rhythm and gothis man, Lara charging down the track and checking an attacking stroke, onlyto edge to Mark Boucher.Donald went on to finish with 4-38 from his ten overs and while JustinKemp took three wickets, the most impressive bowling came from theniggardly Pollock (1-16 from ten) and Makhaya Ntini (2-26 from ten).Pollock accounted for Samuels, trapping the youngster leg-before with alow full toss, by which time it was clear the West Indies would have toproduce their best bowling and fielding performance of the summer if theywere to defend their modest total. On a beautiful batting track, it was apoor effort.

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.

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.

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.