Sharad Ghai, the chairman of the Kenyan Cricket Association, has called on the International Cricket Council to push for Kenya to be given more matches against major nations, arguing that the lack of exposure is hampering their development.”How are we expected to improve without a chance to play the likes of Australia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh?" he asked. "You can see the progress Bangladesh has made because they have a chance to play the top teams.”Ghai added that Kenya only has seven guaranteed one-day internationals ahead of the 2007 World Cup. Since reaching the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament a year ago, Kenya have played three ODIs – all in Sharjah – against leading countries. They have also met Sri Lanka A as well as participating in the Caribbbean’s Carib Beer Series.The next competitive matches will be against Pakistan A and India A in Nairobi in August.The KCA has severe financial difficulties and is still seeking a major sponsor to fund either the senior team or any of the domestic competitions.

Ehsan Mani has criticised the Zimbabwe rebel players for adopting what he calls a “high-risk” approach. He said that the dissident players were making it more difficult to find a permanent solution to the crisis that has rocked Zimbabwean cricket.However, Wisden Cricinfo understands that the players are angry and disappointed that the ICC has made no attempt to speak to them and hear their side of the story, and appears to have relied entirely on what they have been told by the ZCU. There is a strong feeling among the rebel players that the ICC statement was heavily biased in favour of the board.In a statement in London on Wednesday, Mani spoke about how this approach could end of the players’ careers and affect any team that Zimbabwe put together in the future.”I am not going to pass comment on the rights or wrongs of what has happened in this case, but what is clear is that by walking out on their teammates on the eve of a Test match, the rebels have placed Tatenda Taibu and his team in an invidious position. I am concerned that even if an agreement is now reached between the ZCU and the rebel players, this tactic of walking out on their teammates could irreparably split the dressing room, making a lasting solution even more difficult to find.”Mani added that disputes between players and administrators in any country should be sorted out at the local level. “If the rebels believe that walking out will result in other countries interfering in Zimbabwean cricket, I think that they have been very badly advised. Many of our members have faced similar issues and are very strongly of the view that the only way to find a solution is at the local level.”

The Pakistan board is trying to schedule a one-day series in India before the team embarks on their tour to Australia in December 2004. The News, a Pakistan daily, quoted sources from the Pakistan board who said that Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, and Rameez Raja, its chief executive, were keen to ensure a series in India, or arrange a tournament in Sharjah.”The idea is to either convince the Indian cricket board to ensure Pakistan’s participation in a one-day series in India or to ask the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series to organise a tournament [in Sharjah],” the newspaper quoted the source as saying. “The Pakistan team will then be playing at home in October against Zimbabwe and probably another team in a Test and one-day series, while they embark on the Australian tour from early December. But November remains free for the national team.”Pakistan recently hosted India in a Test and one-day series for the first time since 1989, and a return series is due next year. Meanwhile, the crowded international calendar has also meant that Sharjah hasn’t hosted a showpiece event since April 2003, when, in a low-profile event immediately following the World Cup, Pakistan put it across Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Kenya, the two other teams involved in a quadrangular tournament.

The ICC Awards, cricket’s equivalent of the Oscars, have been officially launched, and will be held for the first time this year at the Alexandra Palace in London on September 7.The awards, which will recognise and honour international cricket’s best players of the past 12 months, have already been endorsed by several of the world’s leading players, including the captains of Australia, England, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Players from all ten full-member countries, as well as Kenya and the United States of America, who will be in London preparing for the ICC Champions Trophy, are expected to attend the awards ceremony.”With so many ad hoc cricket awards around the globe, I think it’s great that world cricket now has an awards ceremony with genuine meaning – where winners are decided by their peers and recognised in front of an international audience,” said Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain.”I know how much the Australian players value the Allan Border Medal at the end of our home season, so to see a similar concept evolve on a world scale is terrific news. To have players from all nations in attendance will be something special. Let’s hope it develops into a lasting tradition.”Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, agreed with Ponting’s comments, saying “For a player there can be no greater accolade than to be judged by one’s peers and those who are intimately involved in the game.”The ICC Awards are an exciting addition to the cricket scene and will add a new dimension to the game at the highest level,” he added. “The depth of knowledge and first-hand experience of the game on the voting academy lends great significance to the awards.”Seven awards, in two categories – individual and team – will be presented on the night. The awards include cricketer of the year, Test and one-day player and team of the year, and emerging player of the year, as well as a spirit of cricket award.The awards will be judged by an academy made up of current captains, umpires, former prominent players and respected media representatives. The Test and one-day teams of the year will both be World XI sides made up of the best individual international players in the respective forms of the game.In addition to the seven player-related awards, an award will be presented to the umpire of the year. The judging period for the ICC Awards is August 1, 2003, to July 31, 2004, and includes all Tests and one-day internationals played during that time. Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, made the point that the awards will “generate a great deal of interest, discussion and debate in the cricket community about nominations and selections”.Marvan Atapattu, the Sri Lankan captain, said creating the different award categories meant that all international players had the chance to be acknowledged and recognised for their performance at the highest level. “This is a great incentive by the ICC to honour the players who have shone in international cricket during the year.”The awards were established by the ICC in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA). Tim May, the chief executive of FICA, said the ICC awards were an important way to ensure players around the world are acknowledged for their performances. “In presenting these awards in conjunction with the ICC, FICA is able to continue its tradition of honouring the world’s best-performed cricketers on an annual basis,” he said.And England’s captain Michael Vaughan, who will have the task of voting on the awards as part of the academy, said he will be giving plenty of thought when casting his vote in the various categories. He also added to comments made by Smith and Ponting, saying, “I think that the awards will really mean something to individual players because their efforts will have been acknowledged by their peers and colleagues. This is a good idea and I’m sure that it will become a fixture in the international cricket calendar.”

Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, is keen that former players and officials refrain from unsubstantiated comments regarding the match-fixing issue. Shaharyar said that it would be one of the points that he would bring up in the International Cricket Council meeting in London, for which he left for yesterday.”We have prepared a proposal,” Shaharyar said before his departure, “through which we will press the ICC and its executive-board members to have some sort of code of conduct to discourage former players and officials from making unsubstantiated match-fixing allegations.”Shaharyar added, “We know that the ICC has already said it is not in a position nor does it have any legal framework through which it can prevent former players and officials from giving statements on match-fixing.”But at the same time he wished that the ICC understood the potential damage that these allegations could inflict and wished that they had a protocol in place for such incidents. “Players around the world, including in Pakistan, are being damaged badly because of former players and officials making unsubstantiated and damaging allegations of match-fixing from time to time in the press.”Shaharyar’s comments come in the wake of Rashid Latif’s remarks regarding the one-day series between India and Pakistan. Latif, the former Pakistan captain, had expressed his fears that the series might have been fixed. That provoked a severe backlash from the board, which contemplated legal action, while Inzamam-ul-Haq threatened to walk out of the team.

After going 51 Championship innings without reaching three figures, John Crawley underlined his return to form in the most emphatic manner possible – by marching on and on to his maiden triple-century, as Hampshire took command at Trent Bridge. Crawley was 154 not out overnight, and eventually finished unbeaten on 301, from 442 balls with 35 fours and two sixes, as Shane Warne declared on a whopping 641 for 4.Elsewhere, Warwickshire extended their lead at the top of the Frizzell County Championship, and in the process exacerbated Surrey’s relegation worries, with an emphatic seven-wicket win at Guildford. Ian Bell was the star of the final day’s play – he finished unbeaten on 96 as Warwickshire hunted down their target of 207 with ease. At Cheltenham, Lancashire were denied a morale-boosting win, as Stephen Adshead and Martyn Ball added 75 for the eighth wicket to secure a draw for Gloucestershire, and at New Road, Owais Shah returned to form with an unbeaten 140, to give Middlesex control against Worcestershire.In the second division, Darren Gough secured Essex’s first championship win of the season with a four-wicket haul at Grace Road. But, inevitably, Essex had to do it the hard way. There was little prospect of an upset as Leicestershire set about their pursuit of 398, but John Sadler made 95 and the tail chipped resolutely away at the total to give Essex’s supporters one or two jitters. But when Ottis Gibson was run out, Gough returned to trap Charlie Dagnall lbw for 0 to seal a 48-run victory.

County Championship Division One

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Day 1 report: Ruthless Bell takes full toll of Surrey – The Times Online
Day 2 report: Ramprakash underlines evergreen talent- The Times Online
Day 3 report: Butcher left to ponder on sidelines – The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 report: Bell knocks out Surrey – The Guardian

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Day 1 report: Franklin leads late fightback – The Independent
Day 2 report: Anderson makes quick impact- The Times Online
Day 3 report: Mongia sets frantic pace – The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 report: Weston weighs in to keep Lancashire waiting – The Independent

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Day 1 report: Fulton and Smith take their lead from Key – The Times Online
Day 2 report: Dozy day by the sea for Kent – The Sunday Telegraph

County Championship Division Two

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Day 1 report: Ponting takes bow in debut frenzy – The Guardian
Day 2 report: Ponting provides instant impact – The Guardian
Day 3 report: McLean and Dutch seal the victory – The Times Online

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Day 1 report: Adams stuns on debut – The Telegraph
Day 2 report: Cook puts Essex on the brink – The Telegraph
Day 3 report: Fired-up Gough on form – The Telegraph
Day 4 report: Hair-raising stuff for Essex – The Telegraph

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Day 1 report: Durham suffer most as wickets tumble – The Times Online
Day 2 report: Desperate Durham suffer Davies blow – The Telegraph
Day 3 report: ‘Wizard’ works wonders – The Telegraph

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Day 1 report: Crawley returns to his fluent best The Times Online
Day 2 report: Crawley rolls back the years – The Independent

Eric Simons, South Africa’s coach, is seriously considering giving up his job. Upset with the performance of his team in the recent Test series against Sri Lanka, Simons has decided to assess his position at the end of the ICC Champions Trophy in England.”If I get to the end of the ICC and I feel it’s not working, then I must go,” he is quoted as saying after South Africa were handed a 313-run thrashing in the second Test in Colombo. Simons stood by his assessment that their performance was “gutless”, according to South Africa’s Sunday Times: “I don’t usually shout and scream but I did after this one. In sport you win some and lose some, but to capitulate the way we did is unacceptable.”Simons recently had his two-year contract with South Africa’s United Cricket Board extended by a year, but said he was under no illusions about his position. “I’ve said all along that I’m examining myself as well. There is only so much a coach can do, and if someone else can do a better job they must get the chance.”We came away from Galle really pleased. I thought we had turned a real corner there,” said Simons, who conceded that his side was a young one and still developing at the highest level. “I’m not using them as excuses, because the South Africa A side would have put up a better performance, but we’ve got a very young top six. Just Herschelle [Gibbs] and Jacques [Kallis] have a lot of experience. Even Graeme Smith, the captain, is young.”Simons also defended the role his support staff have played. “As a management team we’re giving it our best shot … we’re giving the players a lot of information, direction and advice. We ask ourselves all the time, if we could roll the clock back what would we do different. There’s not an awful lot. Especially after a performance like Galle, where we played really well on a spinners’ track, Colombo was doubly frustrating.”And finally, Simons laid down the law. “We are a young side, a learning side, but the one thing that is controllable is guts and determination.”

The cricket authorities in Australia may invite an alternative side to replace West Indies in the VB Series in January if West Indies do not manage to resolve the dispute with many player of their full-strength side.Peter Young, the general manager of public affairs for Cricket Australia, indicated that an alternative team would be considered for the triangular one-day series which will be hosted by Australia and also includes Pakistan. “At the moment we’re talking about hypotheticals,” he said, “but if they don’t [agree], we will start thinking about alternatives.”Normally, the host and visiting teams agrees to a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ that obliges sides to be full-strength. However, it is not clear whether or not such a clause exists in any agreements between the boards in West Indies and Australia.Ricky Ponting, who will be leading Australia in the second Test against on New Zealand that starts this Friday, expressed his disappointment at the protracted negotiations between the West Indies cricket board and the players association. “Hopefully it will be sorted out and resolved and hopefully they do send outtheir full-strength side,” he said.James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia said: “Our view also is that international cricket should be about the best playing the best. All we can do for now is [to] monitor the progress of those parties. The issue is a matter for the West Indies board and its players to resolve.”A week is a long time in cricket and we have seven more before the West Indies join us for the VB Series on 14 January.”The only available full international teams would be India or Kenya, although Australia A could also be considered.

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Reetinder Singh Sodhi amassed a mammoth 251 as Punjab trampled all over Maharashtra on the second day at Mohali. After being shot out for just 123, Maharashtra were flogged all day as five Punjab batsmen passed the 50-mark. Ravneet Ricky carried on his great form this season with a patient 119 while Yuvraj Singh, Ankur Kakkar and Pankaj Dharmani made quickfire half-centuries. But the hero of the day was Sodhi who smashed 28 fours and two sixes on the way to his highest first-class score.
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Hemang Badani led the run-feast as Tamil Nadu piled on 485 for 5 before declaring their innings at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. Resuming at 288 for 3 overnight, Tamil Nadu rode on Badani’s fine 146 with the rest of the middle order chipping in with plucky knocks. Badani hammered 14 fours and two sixes to bring up his 12th first-class hundred while Subramanium Badrinath and Sreedharan Sharath managed half-centuries. Assam were 123 for 2 at the end of the day with Vasanth Saravanan and Zakaria Zuffri sharing an unbeaten 76-run stand.
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After Wasim Jaffer had given Mumbai a solid platform yesterday, Nishit Shetty capitalised with a fine hundred. Shetty, who has been in and out of the Mumbai side, got a chance because of Vinod Kambli’s illness. But he took the opportunity and reached his third first-class hundred with the help of 15 fours and a six. Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar and Vinayak Samat took Mumbai past the 500-mark and all but assured themselves of the first-innings lead.
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Thilak Naidu bailed Karnataka out of trouble with a dogged century as his side gained a slender 39-run lead at the end of the second day in Bangalore. At around the same time last year, Naidu was in the reckoning for the wicketkeeper slot in the national side. But a poor run with the bat lead his dropping from the Karnataka side and he hasn’t been considered ever since. But today, he held things together as the Andhra Pradesh bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals. Most of the other top-order batsmen managed to get past 20, but none kicked on to make it count. Naidu, though, creamed 20 fours in his innings and helped Karnataka take the lead.
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Amay Khurasiya and Devendra Bundela thwarted the Delhi bowlers at the Jamia Millia Ground as Madhya Pradesh inched towards a first-innings lead on the second day. Sanjay Pandey and Sunil Dholpure snared four wickets apiece and helped restrict Delhi to just 239. Though MP have faltered against lesser opposition like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, they secured two points in Mumbai and were on their way to gaining the upper hand here as well.
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Narender Pal Singh’s seven-wicket burst helped Hyderabad gun down Baroda for just 93 at the Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad. After restricting Hyderabad for 170, Baroda found the going extremely tough with Singh accounting for seven out of the first eight wickets to fall. Shekhar Joshi and Nayan Mongia were the only two batsmen who crossed 20. Hyderabad replied with 179 for 6, with Daniel Manohar making a battling 58 and were strong favourites to wrap up the game tomorrow.
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Jai Prakash Yadav and Kulamani Parida picked up three wickets apiece as Railways clawed back at the Motera in Ahmedabad. Resuming at a commanding 201 for 2, Gujarat were restricted to just 384. Siddharth Trivedi notched up a breezy half-century, which included six fours, while Kirat Dhamani made a solid 43. Railways were 62 for 2 at stumps.

Mashrafe Mortaza, or the Norail Express as he is known in these parts, is the talk of Dhaka after his rousing comeback to Test cricket against the Indians. However, speculation is rife that he will be rested for the second Test in order to facilitate a smooth comeback to international cricket. Mortaza, who dismissed Rahul Dravid, induced several chances and was easily the pick of the bowlers, missed more than a year of international cricket after suffering a knee injury in the second Test against England at Chittagong in November last year.Dav Whatmore, the Bangladesh coach, confirmed that there was thought of resting Mortaza for the second Test against India that starts at Chittagong on December 17. “The decision to play or not to play Mashrafe will be based on the best interests of Mashrafe’s long-term return to international cricket,” he explained. “You know that we have three one-dayers one day after the next Test match, and within less than three weeks we have another two Test matches and five one-dayers against Zimbabwe. So you have to understand that there is good reason to have lot of discussion about Mashrafe in the best interest of him.”The Dail Star newspaper reported that Mortaza was set to sit out the second Test, and that Nazmul Hossain, the 17-year-old fast bowler, would make the playing XI in his place.The Bangladesh squad for the second Test will be named later on December 13.