The ECB has invited nominations for a deputy chairman following the recent resignation of Mike Soper following his failure to be elected chairman when he lost out to Giles Clarke.The deadline for nominations is October 19 and if more than one is received, a ballot of the chairmen of the 18 counties and MCC will be held in accordance with the ECB constitution and under the supervision of the Electoral Reform Society.It has been agreed that, in order to prevent the need for another election in January 2008, that whoever is elected will serve the remainder of Soper’s term – up to March 2008 – then a full two-year term after that.
For the umpteenth time in his career Chris Harris bailed Canterbury out of an awkward spot today, hitting a measured and unbeaten 103 as their game against Otago meandered towards a draw . Harris shared a 162-run partnership with Craig McMillan, who hit 101 and is pressing a claim for an unlikely recall to the national side for the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka, as Canterbury finished the third day on 330 for 7.McMillan has made his displeasure at being dropped abundantly clear but this time he was doing his talking with the bat. With Scott Styris unlikely to play in the first Test, there is an outside chance McMillan could fill the slot. He eventually fell to his cousin, James McMillan, who ended the day with 5 for 77, an impressive return on a docile wicket.Otago will almost certainly claim first innings points tomorrow, but Harris will make it as difficult as possible.
Martin Love’s counterattacking hundred helped Queensland escape with a draw against the touring West Indians at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, despite Marlon Samuels’s five-wicket haul. Queensland appeared to have done enough when Love (108) and Andrew Symonds (77) added 175 for the fourth wicket to take them to a comfortable 262. However, Samuels spun a web with his offbreaks, scuttling out Symonds and James Hopes in the space of 13 balls, and along with Gayle, who removed Love soon after, reduced Queensland to 6 for 272.Samuels removed Chris Simpson and West Indians went to tea needing only three more wickets to wrap it up. But they were thwarted by Chris Hartley, who made an enterprising 60 not out, including three sixes, with one mighty hit landing on the roof of the Queensland Cricket building. He was ably assisted by Michael Kasprowicz, who joined Hartley with the score on 9 for 343 and hung around for 39 valuable minutes as the duo denied the West Indians a morale-boosting win ahead of the first Test at the Gabba.The West Indians, though, will be heartened by the form of some of their batsmen, especially Samuels, and will begin the Test with some positive signals. However, the Gabba remains an Australian fortress – they haven’t lost a single Test there since 1988 – and West Indies will face a far more daunting task when they stride out on November 3.
Distraction is a professional hazard for anybody playing a spectator sport. But Indian cricket grounds can stretch the nerves to the limit. Right from cheering the home team and its stars, to booing the opposition, to the Mexican waves, to the slogan-mongering, the air is always filled with excitement, noise and distraction. How does a player shut all this out and go about doing his job? Well, they call it being in the zone. Sachin Tendulkar manages to get into that state of mind more often than most. But on the second day of the Nagpur Test, playing his first innings after that much-talked-about tennis-elbow problem, he failed to maintain his concentration.On the verge of tea, as he was settling into his stance Tendulkar spotted a gentleman standing in the press box as Jason Gillespie was about to start his over. Apparently distracted for just a moment, Tendulkar missed the next ball and was trapped in front, and walked off with his head bowed after Aleem Dar raised the finger. Sources close to the team revealed later that Tendulkar complained bitterly about the journalist whose wander had cost him his wicket. Next morning, a request in bold was pasted up in the press box, reading: “Please remain seated. Movement in this enclosure causes inconvenience to players.”Tendulkar may have had a grouse, but the media too has its own complaints. The Indian team’s briefings at the end of the day’s play are a good case in point. As the players stretch themselves after a hard day’s work, the reporters wait, desperately hoping for a story. No interviews are granted during the game, and editors are forever demanding more than just the match report. Apart from commenting on the Indian team’s failings in this Test, the media has also been trying to unravel the mystery behind Sourav Ganguly’s injury, and whether he will be fit for the last Test. On the first day, Andrew Leipus, the team physiotherapist, held a briefing but failed to answer clearly questions about the cause, the symptoms, or the duration of recovery. He only mentioned that there would be a bone scan done the following day.Just after the close of play on the second day, the media rushed to the pavilion to get a fresh update. After a frustrating wait of about 20 minutes, they were informed that no further information was available. It was an utterly unprofessional attitude when the team would actually have been better served by quelling the speculations, which continued in the absence of any concrete information.And when information was finally given this morning, it only added to the confusion. They released a press statement which could only be decoded by medical professionals. The statement ended with: “He is now receiving medical treatment for this condition and his progress will be monitored carefully over the next few days.” Meat enough for hacks?
Rashid Latif’s letter to the ICC is significant for one reason: he implies that fixing is still a problem in the game. Not matchfixing, as most people think of it, but what he terms “Fancy Fixing” – fixing elements of matches without necessarily affecting the result or arousing suspicion.This is not new by itself. It is fairly common knowledge that a lot of cricket betting focusses on micro-aspects of a game – how many runs a bowler will concede, how many boundaries a batsman will hit etc. But what is significant is that now a current international captain has chosen to confirm what has been suspected for quite a while. For obvious reasons, Latif cannot name any names. But would he have bothered to write this letter if he did not know for sure that ‘Fancy Fixing’ does indeed take place?What grants this letter further credibility is that it comes from a man who put more than just his career at stake when he first blew the whistle in the mid-’90s. Few people took him seriously then; he has since been vindicated in full.The solutions that Latif offers on ‘Fancy Fixing’, however, will not resolve the problem. Even if the 15-overs-restriction rule is annulled, betters – and fixers – will find some other aspect of the game to exploit. How many runs a bowler will concede in his quota of 10 (or 12, as Latif suggests) overs. How many quick singles a particular pair of batsmen will take. How long a batsman (particularly a hard-hitting strokeplayer) will take to hit his first boundary. The possibilities of finding things to bet on are as endless as the possibilities in cricket. Latif suggests eliminating a couple of these possibilities; but more exist, and there can be no end to them.The first step to finding a solution to a problem, though, is acknowledging that the problem exists. Latif’s letter should force the authorities to accept that those dark days of bookies bribing cricketers and subverting the game are not necessarily over. They have it on the word of a current Test captain. They will ignore it at their peril.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden CricInfo in India.
South Australia’s youngest player Paul Rofe got his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket as Western Australia was dismissed for 227 on day one of their match at Adelaide Oval today.The 20-year-old former Australian under 19 team member bowled 23 extremely tight overs, including 11 maidens, for figures of 5-30, the best of his eight-matchfirst class career.Basing his attack on patience and accuracy rather than tearaway pace, Rofe said he modelled himself on Australian Test spearhead Glenn McGrath.”I love that guy a lot, to be honest, I love watching him bowl and the way he goes about his cricket, it’s fantastic,” he told reporters.Rofe’s haul began in his first over, the second of the match, when he had WA opener Scott Meuleman caught in the slips from his second ball before the Warriors had scored.Captain Simon Katich (42) joined Mike Hussey (40) and after a sluggish start their partnership blossomed late in the opening session, with 15 runs coming from the first over of part-time medium pacer Ben Johnson, the 21st of the innings.Katich belted two consecutive sixes off Mike Smith five overs later as they took the score to a seemingly comfortable one for 86 to recover from the shaky start.But Johnson struck back to have Hussey caught behind in the following over, then dismissed Katich in his next over, the last of the opening session, to put theWarriors back under pressure at three for 94 at lunch.Wickets tumbled cheaply soon after lunch, with Murray Goodwin caught in the gully slashing at a wide ball from left-armer Mark Harrity.Then Rofe chipped in to have Marcus North caught behind and Ryan Campbell caught at slip to have the Warriors six for 127, a slump of five for 41 in 20 overseither side of the lunch break.Brad Hogg and Matt Nicholson fought back with a dogged 57-run partnership, before veteran leg spinner Peter McIntyre bowled Nicholson as he was attemptingto sweep him over the midwicket fence.Hogg was the Warriors’ top-scorer with a dogged innings of 56 not out from 146 balls, although he had a life on 38 when Brad Young dropped him at first slip after he top-edged a cut shot from McIntyre’s bowling.It took the second new ball to finish off the WA tail, with Rofe bowling both Jo Angel and Brad Oldroyd in the space of two balls in his third over with the new ball to complete his five-wicket haul.Then Harrity bowled Brad Williams to end the innings.SA was none for six at stumps after three overs, with Young and Johnson at the crease.
Prenelan Subrayen, the 22-year old Dolphins offspinner, has been suspended from bowling in domestic cricket with immediate effect because of an illegal action. All his deliveries were found to exceed the 15-degree limit by an analysis conducted by an ICC-accredited human movement specialist at the Powerade CSA Centre of Excellence in Pretoria.Subrayen was reported for a suspect action after he picked up four wickets against Titans in the Ram Slam game on November 1. He played three more games, and took another four-for, against Warriors, before his action was deemed to be illegal.Subrayen can’t bowl in domestic cricket until he remedies his action and clears the reassessment. Subrayen was earlier suspended for a suspect action in December 2012 but was later re-instated by Cricket South Africa the following month, after clearing his action. He was also pulled up for a suspect action in the Champions League T20 in 2014.
West Brom are lining up a summer move for Anderlecht forward Dieumerci Mbokani, according to reports from The Metro.
The Baggies will have to approach next season without Romelu Lukaku, whose impressive form at The Hawthorns has led to Chelsea refusing to grant him another temporary move to the Midlands.
Steve Clarke is keen to replace the teenager, and sees Mbokani as the ideal man to fill the void left by the burly Belgian.
The Democratic Republic of Congo international has been attracting attention from a number of European clubs of late, but has recently admitted that he would jump at the chance of a move to the Premier League.
“I want to play in England and I can confirm that there is some interest at the moment,” he said.
“Let’s relax and see what happens by the end of June.”
Newly promoted Hull are also keen on the striker, but West Brom are thought to be leading the race, with Lukaku having advised Mbokani to join the Midlanders
However, Anderlecht are believed to be holding out for a fee in the region of £17million for their star man, after witnessing the impact Christian Benteke – who moved to the Premier League from Belgium – has had.
Could Dieumerci Mbokani mirror the impacts of Romelu Lukaku and Christian Benteke?
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ScorecardFile photo – Parthiv Patel provided a brisk start in a thrilling chase by hitting 10 fours in his 57•BCCI
It was a thriller that didn’t look possible at one stage, but Gujarat’s batting meltdown in a modest chase meant their lower order had to squeeze out every ounce of temperament against a spirited attack. In the end, a composed unbeaten 36 from Axar Patel, who also had two scalps earlier in the day, proved to be the difference in a nail-biter as Gujarat won by two wickets in Alur to seal a semi-final berth at the Vijay Hazare Trophy.Truth be told, the conditions weren’t half as bad as the scorecard suggested. On the day, Vidarbha were guiltier of the two as they were shot out for 195 after bucking the trend and opting to bat on a surface where most teams have had no hesitation in fielding first. That they got there was courtesy Jitesh Sharma and Faiz Fazal, the openers, who made half-centuries, with Ganesh Satish conjuring a fighting 47 even as the lower order caved in without a fight.Vidarbha fought valiantly to make a match of it courtesy Ravikumar Thakur, the left-arm seamer, and offspinner Akshay Wakhare who picked up three wickets apiece to deflate Gujarat, who were batting as if they were trying to beat the evening traffic. Amidst the ruins, Axar found an ally in Hardik Patel as the pair’s unbroken 36-run stand for the ninth wicket helped them squeeze out the win that would also somewhat ease their disappointment of having failed to make it into the Ranji Trophy knockouts.On a new surface with even bounce and decent carry, Jasprit Bumrah, the medium pacer, made the ball talk by subtle changes in length to finish with 4 for 38. Vidarbha’s last eight wickets fell for 63 to hasten their collapse that undid all the good work done by the top three who contributed 150 to the total.Gujarat were clinical with their execution on the field for most parts. There was a brief flutter at the start when Fazal (51) and Jitesh (52) were going strong, dispatching the loose deliveries while treating the good ones with respect, in a 96-run opening stand. But while the breakthrough remained elusive, Gujarat were unlucky despite creating a number of openings.They broke through finally in the 21st over, when Fazal miscued a lofted hit to deep cover, and Parthiv Patel went back to his trump card Axar immediately. The left-arm spinner, unfazed by recent criticism over his bowling style, held his own and was complemented from the other end by offspinner Rujul Bhatt.As well as they bowled, the moment that turned the tide in Gujarat’s favour was Jitesh’s run-out, a result of total breakdown in communication. Then came a double strike of S Badrinath and Ravi Jangid in the space of three deliveries that exposed a relatively inexperienced lower middle order with too much to do. Satish, who has played most of his cricket for Karnataka before moving to Vidarbha, held the innings together. But frequent wickets every time he tried to accelerate resulted in his dismissal that hastened the end with two overs left unconsumed.Gujarat came out all guns blazing as Parthiv repeatedly pierced a packed off side field, hitting six boundaries in the first four overs alone and unleashed his trademark cut shots as his innings progressed. The effect of Parthiv’s exuberance – the team total was 71 when he got to his fifty – meant Vidarha were simply going through the motion before an inspired team talk that followed Parthiv’s stumping turned things around.Chirag Gandhi kept milking the bowl to make 31 before an ugly hoick resulted in his downfall, sparking a lower-order implosion as Gujarat slipped from 139 for 4 to 162 for 8. All along, Axar kept picking singles, and as the target got within touching distance, Hardik Patel wasn’t afraid to take a risk. After surviving a run-out call that left players from both sides on tenterhooks for nearly five minutes with Gujarat needing eight, he muscled a boundary over cover. The final nail in the coffin was hammered when Axar slapped one over the off side field to seal a heart-stopping thriller in the penultimate over.
Nottinghamshire are on the verge of securing promotion after an emphatic innings-and-six-runs victory an hour after lunch on the third day against Derbyshire at Chesterfield. Following on, Derbyshire were always up against it and although they lifted themselves past 300, they still couldn’t make the visitors bat again. Travis Birt top scored with 85, while Hassan Adnan made a fifty. Samit Patel ended with three wickets. The promotion spot is now Nottinghamshire’s to lose: Middlesex need to win their last two matches to even have a sniff, while Notts only have to take six points from their final match at champions Somerset.Nicky Boje took 6 for 110 as Northamptonshire capitalised on their dominant position to take the honours in the lower-table clash with Leicestershire at Grace Road. Paul Nixon’s brave century and the efforts of the lower order propped them up for a while, but ultimately they could not stave off defeat and they sank 177 runs behind with more than 23 overs remaining.
Team
Mat
Won
Lost
Tied
Draw
Aban
Pts
Somerset
15
9
1
0
5
0
244
Nottinghamshire
15
6
2
0
7
0
211.5
Middlesex
14
5
1
0
8
0
172.5
Essex
15
5
4
0
6
0
162.5
Northamptonshire
14
4
5
0
5
0
147
Derbyshire
15
3
5
0
7
0
137
Gloucestershire
15
3
5
0
7
0
133.5
Leicestershire
15
2
7
0
5
1
112
Glamorgan
14
1
8
0
4
1
83.5
Surrey did their chances of staving off relegation no end of good at Edgbaston, ending the third day on 2 for 0 chasing a target of 177 to beat fellow strugglers Warwickshire. Surrey’s first-innings lead of 88 was wiped out for the loss of one wicket as Ian Westwood and Jonathan Trott put on 101 for the second wicket, but Jade Dernbach’s dismissal of Westwood, who had been dropped by James Benning when in single figures, started a slide in which nine wickets fell for 142 runs.