Martin Snedden has ended his role as New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive after six years in the job. Snedden will be replaced by Justin Vaughan, the former Test player, and is leaving to join the company organising the 2011 rugby World Cup.”I have enjoyed my time at New Zealand Cricket and admit to feeling some sadness that I am leaving after a long association as a player, board member and chief executive,” he said. Snedden began his international career as a medium-pace bowler in 1981 and played 25 Tests and 93 ODIs.”I would like to thank the management and staff of New Zealand Cricket, the major and district associations, our commercial partners and contracted players for their efforts and the support they have given me during my time as chief executive.” Vaughan, who is a qualified medical doctor, will take over in June.
If anyone doubted the progress that Bangladesh have made in the last 18 months, their improved performances against Sri Lanka and their emphatic wins in the opening two matches of the one-day series against Kenya should have made it clear that they are on the up.Habibul Bashar, their experienced captain who has been through the bad – and the very bad – times was keen to underline that his side is now looking up for their next victims rather than being worried about who might beat them. “I don’t want to compare our team with Kenya,” he said after the nine-wicket win at Khulna. “You all know we have defeated teams like India, Australia and Sri Lanka in the recent past. And I believe as a team we should compete consistently against the big teams and it is actually our ultimate goal.”As I have repeated often, our performance against Sri Lanka was quite decent and there was a clear sign of improvement within the squad. And I think that impressive performance has helped us to do much better against Kenya.”We have won the first two matches quite convincingly and we are looking forward to winning the remaining matches in the same fashion,” added Bashar, before curtly dismissing suggestions that Bangladesh should experiment in the remaining two matches at Fatullah. “I am totally against that,” he stressed. “I want to field my best side to finish the series on a high note ahead of the tough home series against Australia in April. We are all enjoying the game that’s why it would be unwise to break the rhythm.”We have improved in every department especially the way the top order has been batting in the series is refreshing for us. But what has impressed me most is the effort of the two new ball bowlers, especially Syed Rasel who has injected new blood in the attack. The right-left bowling combination has worked brilliantly since our Sri Lanka trip. Our new-ball attack was erratic in the past but the new pair has bought real discipline. It is now proved that if we bat to our potential we can give any of our opponents a tough time.”
Contrary to earlier reports, Ricky Ponting’s bat – which is reinforced by a thin carbon graphite strip running down the spine – has not yet received approval from the International Cricket Council. Earlier this week, MCC kicked up a minor storm by suggesting that the modification gives Ponting an unfair advantage, although this was dismissed in the Australian media as an attempt to destabilise the team in the run-up to this summer’s Ashes.Peter Young, a spokesman for Cricket Australia, confirmed that the Australian board had no objections, but an ICC spokesman told Cricinfo that the matter had been referred back to the MCC who, in their capacity as the guardian of the laws of cricket, would determine whether the bat conforms to the regulations.”The bat is permitted pending a decision from MCC,” added the spokesman, who explained that it is the ICC who decides on the playing conditions of cricket, and so had the power to override the laws if necessary. The whole issue will be examined in greater detail by the ICC Cricket Committee at their meeting in Dubai in May.In a later press release, the ICC chief executive, Malcolm Speed, confirmed that the issue of bat reinforcement was of growing significance. “The ICC is increasingly concerned with issues surrounding the way in which bats are manufactured and `enhanced’,” said Speed. “During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 there were a number of oversized bats detected and manufacturers were put on notice that it was expected that they would produce bats that comply with the laws at all times.”One of the concerns we currently have is with the practice of `corking’ bats. We are getting consistent reports of bats being corked and that is something that we will be investigating further. One of the potential implications that arises if corking is taking place is that we may need to be able to be able to see the blade clearly from all angles to see if it has been tampered with.”Sam Halvorsen, Ponting’s manager, termed the whole issue as “absolute nonsense”, while Rob Elliot, the managing director of Kookaburra, said that Ponting’s bat met all the criteria. “In cricket the balance between bat and ball is critical,” Elliot said. “Golf and tennis have lost their way with the new technological advances in clubs and racquets. We understand more than anyone how important the fundamental elements of bat and ball are in cricket.”Ponting began using the bat in late December last year and cracked a fantastic double- century against Pakistan in the New Year’s Test in Sydney. He carried on the momentum with a hundred in the tsunami-relief game before tearing the New Zealand attack to shreds in the recent series.
England finally arrived in Sri Lanka late on Thursday night to a low-key reception from the public but a considerable one from the police and militia. The authorities denied suggestions that the security accompanying the side would be the same as that afforded to visiting heads of state, but there was no shortage of muscle on hand to ensure England had a trouble-free trip to their hotel.The weary team were greeted in the foyer of the Taj Samudra Hotel, their beachfront base in Colombo, by locals proffering garlands of flowers – a traditional Singhalese welcome – and quickly headed for the bedrooms to sleep off the effects of their long journey. Such is the lot of the international cricketer.One thing which was subject of speculation amid the travelling media was that England might consider sending for another spinner – almost certainly Robert Croft if they did – in the light of Ashley Giles’s continuing poor form and the belief that the Sri Lankan pitches will take considerable turn.The other concern which has travelled with the England team from Bangladesh is the form of one-day opener Vikram Solanki. He is an attractive strokemaker, but in eight innings following his hundred against South Africa in June he has scored 82 runs, including scores of 10, 0 and 1 against Bangladesh.Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, admitted that it was a worry, but said that Solanki would play in Saturday’s warm-up match. “If you start saying ‘tighten up a bit’ then you get indecision,” Fletcher explained. “You have to be very careful. I want to say to a player, ‘Go out there and play your own game’.” But another failure for Solanki would probably open the door for Middlesex captain Andrew Strauss to make his ODI debut.
The Australian cricket team has donated its $51,000 prize money for beating South Africa today to the Salvation Army’s bushfire relief fund.The Australian Cricket Board said it would match the $51,000, meaning a donation of $102,000 to help victims of the fires that have been burning around NSW fornearly two weeks.After accepting the winner’s cheque at the end of the third cricket Test against South Africa in Sydney, captain Steve Waugh said: “It’s been a great couple of weeks for the Australian team.”But while all this has been going on, the real heroes have been the firefighters saving lives and houses.”The Australian cricket team would like to donate all our prizemoney to the bushfire relief fund.”Earlier this week, Waugh said the team had been prepared to play a benefit match, but that wasn’t realistically possible given the crowded itinerary for the rest of the summer.He said the whole team agreed on the idea of donating the prize money.”We’ve been watching the news every night and quite a few of us have been affected by bushfires in the past.”It’s a small sacrifice from us, it’s not a large amount of money, but we thought it was the right way to go.”Prizemoney is usually divided among team members, which means today’s donation equates to about $4,000 for each of the 13 players who played in the series.
Sri Lanka inningsThe match was played at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Ground Karachi. Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first. They opened the innings with Harish Ratnayake and Ishan Mutalip. They lost the 1st wicket at 33 when Harish was bowled by Indran for 9. The 2nd wicket also fell at 48. Ehsan Mutalip, however, remained in command of the game punishing the Malaysian bowlers well and proper. After playing an aggressive innings of 61 he was trapped LBW by Sathiswaran. His excellent innings that spanned over 70 balls contained 5 fours. Sri Lanka was now 117 for 3.Another enterprising innings that mounted Sri Lanka’s total was played by Jehan Jayasuriya who scored a scintillating 69 in 63 balls included 6 exciting hits to the boundary and a towering six. The 4th wicket was down at 185. In 38 overs, Sri Lanka was 213 for 4.The third batsman who joined in Sri Lanka’s grand run spree was Jeewan Mendis who contributed valiant 65 in 59 balls with the help of 5 fours. Supplemented by 37 extras conceded by Malaysia, Sri Lanka ended the innings with a massive total of 289 for the loss of 8 wickets. B. Indran clinched 4 wickets for 61 runs.Malaysia inningsFacing a massive target of 290 runs, Malaysia crumbled for a total of 70 runs in 21 overs. Maroof Mohammad (18), Mohammad Yusairi (11) and Mr. EXTRAS (18) were the major contributors to the petty total. The wickets were evenly shared with Wijesiriwarkdena claiming the maximum of 3 for 14 runs in 5 overs. Sri Lanka defeated Malaysia by a humiliating margin of 219 runs.
Aaron Finch ‘s disastrous Twenty20 campaign for Yorkshire looks likely to end prematurely because of a foot injury.The news continues a bleak sequence for Finch in T20 cricket. He played only three matches without success for Mumbai Indians in IPL – his fifth IPL franchise – before his tournament ended early because of a damaged hamstring.He was also taken to hospital after been hit on the chest while desperately searching for form in Yorkshire’s 2nd XI, struck while attempting to pull Worcestershire 2nd XI seamer Chris Russell.Finch has made only 76 in six innings for Yorkshire and sat out their defeat on Sunday against the bottom club, Derbyshire, which saw their hopes of a stealing quarter-final place hanging by a thread.The Australian batsman has a suspected stress reaction in his right foot and did not play the four-wicket defeat to Derbyshire at Chesterfield, which left Yorkshire needing to win their last three games to stand even a faint chance of reaching the knockout stages.Finch sustained the injury during Friday’s match against Durham at Headingley, and Yorkshire’s director of cricket Martyn Moxon admitted he may not play again for the club this year.”In a worst-case scenario, it could be the end of the season for him,” said Moxon. “It’s not looking great; he’s had a scan and, from an initial reading of that scan, it looks as though there’s some kind of a stress reaction.”We’re going to get another reading on it and, hopefully, a conclusive diagnosis, but it looks as though Finchy could be out for a while. He set off to run for a ball in the field on Friday, and he felt a little crack in his foot; he must have had his weight at the wrong angle, or something.”Moxon confirmed that Glenn Maxwell, the club’s other overseas player, would cover for Finch if he is unable to return from this latest setback, which follows a recent hamstring injury.Finch has also played only two Championship matches for Yorkshire, who are top odf the table with strong hopes of retaining their title.The contribution from their second Australian star, Glenn Maxwell, has also been disappointing: remove an unbeaten 92 against Nottinghamshire and he has made only 120 runs in nine knocks and, like Finch, has only played twice in the Championship.
West Brom managed to snatch an unexpected draw in their previous Championship game against Huddersfield Town with two late goals from Karlan Grant and Andy Carroll rescuing a point for the Baggies after they found themselves 2-0 down with 74 minutes on the clock.
Tonight, the Midlands club are back in action against another tough side as Fulham make the trip to the Hawthorns as they look to increase their hefty lead at the top of the league table.
On the chalkboard
One player that did start against Huddersfield that shouldn’t be in the team on this occasion is defender Semi Ajayi.
Despite assisting Carroll’s dramatic goal against the Terriers, the centre-back showed in that game that he may not be the best defensive option for the Baggies as he failed to block any shots or make any interceptions or tackles.
He also showed that he can be a liability at times in terms of his defensive play having lost six of the eight duels he was involved in last week and getting dribbled past on three occasions.
This ultimately earned the 28-year-old, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £13k-per-week according to Salary Sport, a disappointing overall match rating of 6.3 from SofaScore, making him the lowest-rated Baggies player on the day, which would have presumably been even lower had he not grabbed the assist that gained his team a point.
Having been slammed in the past for being “very poor” on the ball and dropping a “stinker” of a performance against QPR earlier in the season by West Brom podcaster Adrian Goldberg, Ajayi has shown that he isn’t the most consistent of performers.
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With this in mind and the fact that tonight’s opponents have scored a whopping 90 goals in 36 league games this season, it’s safe to say that the Midlands club will need to be at their very best to get a positive result against Marco Silva’s side, which could then lead to the Nigerian being left out of the team.
In other news: Sold for £10m, now worth £2.7m: Dowling sealed WBA masterclass on £60k-p/w “disaster” – opinion
The latest intake for South Africa’s High Performance Programme (HPP) includes a number of players with international experience as the selectors continue to assess the depth of talent available. The 23-man squad will attend the high performance centre in May and June before an Emerging Players tournament in Australia during July.JP Duminy, Johan Botha and Robin Peterson – who are in the current Test squad touring Bangladesh – will spend their off season with the HPP while ODI members Albie Morkel and Justin Ontong are also included. After the recent quota row that hit selection for the Bangladesh tour, coloured players are strongly represented.A number of players have been rewarded for impressive domestic seasons including quick bowlers Dillon du Preez and Lonwabo Tsotsobe and batsman Henry Davids. Vaughn van Jaarsveld, who turned his back on a Kolpak deal with Warwickshire, makes his first step towards a possible international career.Joubert Strydom, the convenor of selectors, said more players could be included on a short-term basis depending on their commitments with the national side.”We are extremely happy that these are the players we have earmarked as the next wave of players that should take South African cricket forward,” Strydom said. “Some of them have played for the country at the highest level already; hence, they have been identified to undergo the high performance training in order to ensure their wonderful talents are developed to the full.”Unfortunately, the busy schedule of the South African squad has ruled out some of the younger players currently playing for the Proteas. However, ad hoc invitations could be extended to other individuals where the camp’s content might warrant skill specific development.”Alongside the HPP there will also be a specialist spin camp, in Port Elizabeth, as Cricket South Africa tries to bolster one of the weakest areas of the game which will be led by the national spinners co-ordinator and selector, Shafiek Abrahams. At this camp wicketkeepers will also be invited as will a wider range of talented spinners outside the performance squad.”The HPP is designed to help the South Africa aspirants to take the step to become significant Test, ODI and Pro20 players. The HPP works closely with the franchises as we are all part of CSA integrated pipeline working together to help these players reach their full potential,” Vince Van der Bijl, the high performance general manager, said.Gerald Majola, the CEO of CSA, said South Africa’s recent successes show the value of the HPP: “A number of last year’s graduates from the HPP have made the jump from domestic professional cricket most successfully into international cricket,” he said. “The franchises are to be congratulated on helping to widen the pool from which the Proteas are selected by providing most capable replacements for established players who have retired or lost form.”The HPP has also made it possible to develop more variety into the South African set-up, and this was graphically illustrated in the recent successes against Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies. We face a challenging season, touring India, England and Australia. The HPP squad and the programme itself will be there to provide meaningful backup in our bid to be the very best”.Squad Ahmed Amla, Gulam Bodi, Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Henry Davids, Dillon du Preez, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Matthew Harris, Imraan Khan, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Ethy Mbhalati, Albie Morkel, Justin Ontong, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Blake Snijman, Thandi Tshabalala, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.
Gloucestershire are hopeful Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, will be available for some part of the coming season despite the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB’s) refusal to release him. Gul and Mohammad Asif have been instructed by the PCB to refrain from accepting any contracts owing to their fitness problems.Speaking to BBC Sport, Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive, said the club was very keen on Gul. “This is disappointing news. We’ve been trying over the last few days to secure Umar Gul’s release. We’re still hopeful we’ll be able to get him over here for a period of time this summer. That said we are, of course, looking at alternatives.”Gloucestershire, in the expectation that Pakistan would be in the Super Eights stage of the World Cup, signed Ashley Noffke, the Queensland fast bowler and recent recipient of the Ian Healy Trophy, as cover for the early part of the summer.Gul isn’t the only bowler likely to miss out as the PCB crack down on the multitude of fitness problems their fast bowlers have faced in the last year: Mohammad Asif, who was due to begin a second season at Leicestershire this season has also been asked to not play.Zakir Khan, director of cricket operations of the board, told : “The bowlers have faced fitness problems and it hit the performance of the team. For the moment, we have told them not to accept any contracts.”The board is in the process of finalising a comprehensive international and domestic programme after the World Cup. We want all our pacers fit and available,” Zakir said.Younis Khan and Danish Kaneria are also due to represent Yorkshire and Essex respectively but no decision has been made as to whether they will be allowed to honour their contracts or not.A number of Pakistan players, after returning from the West Indies, have been involved in the ongoing Pentangular Cup and Pakistan’s next international assignment is a proposed three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka has been planned for May. If that does not materialise then they have a clear international schedule until September.