All posts by csb10.top

As Steve Harmison lurches into his latest crisis following an insipid performance in Hamilton, Allan Donald, the man who last summer was charged with trying to coax him into action, has revealed Harmison came to him and admitted he was ‘scared’.Donald was England’s bowling coach during the 2007 season but turned down the full-time position so that he could spend more time with his family and has joined Warwickshire as their bowling coach. The moment when Harmison opened up came at Old Trafford during the third Test against West Indies after he’d struggled to hit the cut strip.”He needed confidence,” Donald told the . “He needed to feel appreciated. I’ve never seen a cricketer as low as he was. He came off the field in the Test at Old Trafford and told me he was scared. It was so sad.”From his low point in the first innings at Old Trafford, Harmison did manage to regain some composure with an improved performance on the final day and in the fourth Test on his home ground at Chester-le-Street. However, just as he was finding some confidence another injury came along and he missed the rest of the summer. He has continued to suffered fitness issues, especially with his back, during the winter tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand.Harmison’s fate is now in the hands of Ottis Gibson after Donald opted against a full-time role. “To be honest with you, I wouldn’t have taken the England job even if this role at Warwickshire hadn’t come up,” Donald said. “Working with the England team was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it and feel I made a positive impact. And, I have to say, the ECB were brilliant. They are a highly professional organisation and, in many ways, everything about the job was great.”But I’ve been on the road for years. At some stage you have to put the family first. I want to see my children grow up.”

Every Indian Premier League match will be broadcast live in Australia after the Ten Network bought the rights for five years. Ten is believed to have paid between $10 million and $15 million to show the games, which begin on April 18.The deal provides a challenge to Channel Nine, which has dominated cricket broadcasting in Australia for 30 years. “It is the biggest new cricket competition and the most revolutionary thing that’s happened in world cricket since Kerry Packer started the World Series in the mid-70s,” David White, the Ten Network’s general manager of sport, told the .It was originally anticipated that the IPL Twenty20 matches would be shown on pay television in Australia, if at all, but Ten’s decision means every match will be telecast free to air. The station intends to show the games live, with start times from 9.30pm to 1.30am [AEST] followed by repeats on its high-definition digital channel.Ten has been a long-time broadcaster of motor sports in Australia, and in more recent years Australian rules football, but its lack of cricket experience means it will need to build a commentary team from scratch. Grant Blackley, the network’s chief executive, kept his cards close to his chest when asked if he would attempt to poach any of Nine’s established callers.”You shouldn’t draw any conclusions at this point,” Blackley said. The participation of Australia’s current players in this year’s tournament is still unclear, with the in-doubt Test tour of Pakistan set to clash with the IPL. However, former stars such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and the soon-to-be-retired Adam Gilchrist will take part.

Ramnaresh Sarwan will lead defending champions Guyana in the Stanford Twenty20 tournament, starting in Antigua on January 26.Guyana’s hopes of regaining the title were given a boost by the inclusion of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who will join their 13-man squad after West Indies’ tour of South Africa comes to an end. Joining Chanderpaul will be his West Indies team-mate Sewnarine Chattergoon, who had been included in the national squad for the forthcoming ODIs in South Africa.Besides Sarwan, the squad includes seven other players who appeared in the 2007 final, when Guyana defeated Trinidad and Tobago to claim the $US 1 million top prize; the more prominent among them being vice-captian Travis Dowlin and Narsingh Deononarine.Royston Crandon, Zaheer Mohamed, and Jeremy Gordon have been named as stand-bys, while the team management consists of Albert Smith (coach) and Carl Moore (manager), both of whom were part of Guyana’s support cast in the 2007 season.Squad
Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Travis Dowlin (vice-captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Narsingh Deonarine, Lennox Cush, Leon Johnson, Derwin Christian, Christopher Barnwell, Esaun Crandon, Neil McGarrell, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Deon Ferrier.

Shoaib Malik’s ongoing battle with a troublesome ankle means he is still not a certain starter for Pakistan’s first ODI against Zimbabwe in Karachi.Malik, Pakistan’s captain, injured his ankle during a post-match football session after the Delhi Test against India in November. He subsequently sat out the remaining two Tests of the tour and though undergoing rehabilitation since then, he has still not fully recovered. He is currently taking part in a three-day training camp in Lahore as Pakistan prepare for the five-ODI series and he told reporters after the first day that he was feeling better.”My ankle is improving. I have started running and the ankle will get better over the next few days,” he said. “But if I am not 100% fit by the time the first ODI comes round, I will tell the board management.”Observers at the Pakistan camp suggest that the first ODI, on January 21, might be too soon for him. If that is the case then Pakistan will be looking for a temporary captain. Younis Khan, vice-captain in India, stood in when Malik first injured himself, but has in the past been reluctant to take on the role. Other possible options include Mohammad Yousuf and even Misbah-ul-Haq.Pakistan will be without a number of first-choice players during the series, the selectors keen instead to test new faces, particularly in the bowling department. Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar are out of the series due to injury – though the latter did make himself available. Mohammad Asif has yet to recover fully from surgery on a long-standing elbow problem.

Michael Vaughan will miss the first month of the domestic season, the England & Wales Cricket Board has announced. The ECB awarded Vaughan the break following England’s intensive winter tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.This means he will play just two matches for his county, Yorkshire, before his England duties resume at the end of May, in the first Test against Bangladesh at Lord’s. But most other counties will be delighted by the amount of cricket their centrally contracted players will be able to play. James Anderson, who was a lost soul for much of England’s campaign, has been freed up to play in all matches for Lancashire, where he will attempt to rediscover his form and fortune.Vaughan, meanwhile, will compete for Yorkshire in the County Championship against Northamptonshire at Headingley on May 6, and will be available for their clash against Leicestershire from May 11. But then he will join his England side once more to play against Bangladesh and to compete in the Ashes series which starts in July.Some of the other centrally contracted players will also be allowed some time off. The left-arm spinner, Ashley Giles, will sit out of Warwickshire’s opener against the MCC. Steve Harmison, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick and Graham Thorpe will all concentrate on the County Championship, although they will be permitted to play in the C&G one-day tournament.It is likely that Mark Butcher will miss the start of the season after a wrist operation, but will then be available for Surrey. Andrew Flintoff, who is expected to sit out the Bangladesh Tests, can play for Lancashire once he has made a full recovery from his ankle surgery. The pace bowlers Anderson, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard will be available for all of their counties’ games.Availability of centrally contracted players
James Anderson
Fully available for all county cricketMark Butcher
Available once fully fitAndrew Flintoff
Available once fully fitAshley Giles
Championship matches from April 13 and C&G Trophy on May 17Steve Harmison
Championship matches and C&G Trophy on May 17Matthew Hoggard
Fully available for all county cricket from April 13Geraint Jones
Available for all county cricket from April 17Simon Jones
Fully available for all county cricketAndrew Strauss
Championship matches from April 20 and C&G Trophy on May 17Marcus Trescothick
Championship matches and C&G Trophy on May 4 and May 17Graham Thorpe
Championship matches and C&G Trophy on May 17Michael Vaughan
County championship matches on May 6, May 11 and C&G Trophy on May 17

The Kwekwe first team travelled to Bulawayo to play against the MacDonald club first team. Kwekwe won the toss and decided to bat first.Kwekwe scored 321 runs for five wickets in their allotted 50 overs, the top scorers being Doug Marillier with 96 runs, which included 10 fours and 2 sixes, Raymond Price with 89 runs which included 11 fours and 1 six, and Terry Duffin, who scored 84 runs which also included 11 fours before he was run out chancing a short single so as to increase the run rate to over six an over. This was once again an excellent spell of batting by the Kwekwe batsmen, who got off to a rather slow start.The partnership between Raymond and Terry was worth 133 runs off 128 balls; it lasted 85 minutes and included 17 fours and 1 six. The partnership between Terry and Doug was worth 60 runs off 69 balls and lasted 46 minutes and included 6 fours.Best bowlers for Mac Club were Gavin Wren, who took two for 67 in his ten overs, including the wicket of Doug Marillier, and Stephen Brown, who took one for 58 from his ten overs. Brown’s wicket was that of Raymond Price.Mac Club then batted after lunch and scored 179 for eight in 33 overs. The top scorer for Mac Club was Frank Marara with 57 runs that included 6 fours.The best bowlers for Kwekwe were Dirk Viljoen (2/13), Colin Delport (2/20) and Heath Fourie (2/30). Raymond Price and E. Rainsford each took one wicket. It was a fine spell of disciplined bowling by all concerned.The second team hosted Old Georgians Second Team and unfortunately, although I know that they won, at the time of writing this report no information was available.Kwekwe Queens, who take part in the Northern Zone League, travelled to Harare to play against Shamva and yet again no results are available for this game.I am pleased to report yet again that the development sides here in the Midlands are doing well and have again started having their friendly games on Saturday mornings. There are plans under way for this little tournament to include the Gweru Sports Club side.The Inter-town 30-over a side matches played on Saturday afternoons here in the Midlands are due to start shortly, as well as the Logan Cup games, and this year there are going to be three games played at the Kwekwe Sports Club.

The last week has been a turbulent one to say the least. We started with a loss to the Northern Knights in our first warm up game, convincingly won our second and then lost our way in the series opener with New Zealand.

One thing which has been obvious is the huge change in playing conditions. It is amazing how your reflexes become tuned to playing in India, and it has taken a few days to revert to home-style conditions again. The seam bowlers appear a lot chirpier now as they see some movement off the wickets, a rare sight on the sun-baked wickets of the sub-continent.So chirpy in Caddy’s case that he decided to invite everyone around to his Christchurch home for a celebratory `Barby’. All the team enjoyed the relaxing evening as we were treated to roast beef, lamb and of course prawns!! It was interesting to see a few of the senior players browsing through the local property supplement the following day! New Zealand really is a great country, and in Christchurch, we saw its most English element.The day before the opening game, we attended the official series launch hosted by the New Zealand team sponsors. On arrival at this formal occasion, we were greeted by a lady in a particularly scruffy grass skirt, which we thought was strange? It was soon explained that she was the leader of the local Maori group who were going to `welcome’ us.The welcome consisted of 20-odd grown men and women, face painted and scantily clad charging at us, screaming and sticking their tongues out in unison! We had to hold back a couple of the `Yorkies’ from retaliating and explain that it was just a ceremonial dance!! We then had to accept the welcome by calmly rubbing noses with the Maori group who performed the traditional display brilliantly. Later, we had a more conventional welcome by our hosts and enjoyed another great `summer’ buffet.

Wednesday saw us at Jade Stadium for the opening game of the series. We had discussed the importance of the first game in our meetings and were keen to get off to a good start. After 25 overs of the reduced 42-over game, the England camp was relaxed and confident, but an hour later the mood had changed dramatically. A combination of great fielding and a lack of batting partnerships meant that we fell short of the 250, which we looked at one stage like posting.As in India, we managed to get back into the game and looked like having another tense finish, but the Kiwi batsmen scraped home to take the lead in the series. Obviously we were disappointed with the game especially after we had such a commanding start, but lessons were learnt and we have four games ahead to win.The next stop for the one-day road show is Wellington and many of us breathed a sigh of relief as the plane sidled up to the Wellington airport terminal buildings. Locally known as the Windy City, our turbulent descent resembled a mosquito approaching a desk fan! Thankfully we arrived safely, and I now have a chance to reminisce over the two seasons spent playing and coaching in here during the mid-90s.Our second game is being played at the new stadium here, which again, hosts huge rugby games as well as cricket matches. Sharing resources like this means that the stadiums can be perfectly equipped but whether this time-share philosophy could work in England is open to debate.With only 2 weeks of the tour remaining, the work is still going on behind the scenes for me as I push to develop my game further and seize a regular position in this developing squad. There is a great deal to play for and we have our sights set high on winning this series, Saturday’s game will be a crucial for us and we relish the next challenge.

The Northern Territory Chief Minister’s XI lost three wickets for five runs late on the second day to leave Bangladesh with a slim hope of reviving their fortunes after another poor batting performance. At stumps the Chief Minister’s XI were were 32 for 3, with an overall lead of 82. Unless the Bangladesh bowlers cause more havoc early on the third day, their batsmen will be left with a daunting fourth-innings target.Manjural Islam, the left-arm seam bowler, caused the early problems for the Chief Minister’s XI when he had Nick Berry out for a duck in the first over of the second innings. Then, in his third, he took the key wicket of Michael Clarke for 1. In between Islam’s two wickets, Ian Redpath was bowled by the medium-fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza for a duck in Mortaza’s first over.Ashley Williams and Kenneth Vowles stopped the rot and were unbeaten on 13 and 16 respectively at the close. The slow portable pitch made runscoring extremely difficult, so the first-innings lead of 50 conceded by Bangladesh could well prove to be a crucial factor.Bangladesh struggled throughout their innings to make any impact against a side which is not even a first-class combination. They were bowled out for 139 – hardly the ideal preparation in the last match before their first Test on Australian soil.Hannan Sarker was the sole figure of defiance. He batted 128 minutes for his 34 – the top score of the innings – but in doing so he highlighted the battle with concentration that the Bangladesh players have had ever since making their appearance on the Test stage. Nurtured on one-day cricket, they have still to acquire the temperament to play consistently long innings.At lunch Bangladesh were 56 for 3, but they had slumped to 120 for 8 by tea. Alok Kapali scored 21 and the last pair offered some token resistance, but it was too little against an attack which played to the conditions perfectly. Eight bowlers were used by Northern Territory, and while he picked up only one wicket for seven runs, Brian McAdam, the former North Melbourne AFL player, bowled 10 overs for that.Bradley Hatton took 2 for 20 off his 12 overs of medium-pace, while the Australian one-day offspinner Nathan Hauritz took 2 for 32 from 21 overs.Day 1 Bulletin

It was a tale of two centuries, an exciting game in glorious September sunshine, everything except a Hampshire victory. Their third in a row leaves them a nail biting visit to Derby in their attempt to gain the last promotion spot in Division Two of the National League.Nic Pothas and Simon Katich gave Hampshire a superb start after being invited to bat when losing the toss. The pair put together 144 for the first wicket, the Hawks highest opening stand in the competition for 7 years.Pothas was first to be dismissed when he lofted a catch to deep mid-off, but not before he had struck a run a ball 78 with 10 fours, his highest one-day score for the county. Derek Kenway played a brisk innings of 22 before he too mistimed a drive and was caught.Katich shortly after reaching his century played on to a ball from Paul Weekes, who struck again next ball by having John Crawley bowled to a ball that hardly left the ground.Will Kendall back in the side for the absent John Francis played a cameo innings, sharing a 43 run stand with Dimitri Mascarenhas, including pulling Weekes for six almost falling over in the process. Mascarenhas also struck a six, and Hampshire finished with their highest ever total against Middlesex.On a good Lord’s wicket, Middlesex got off to a flying start, Paul Weekes shared in two speedy stands of 77 with Andrew Strauss and 80 with Chad Keegan, and suddenly 277 did not seem quite enough.Weekes finally fell when Mascarenhas caught him on the long off boundary from the bowling of Prittipaul, and for a while the home side seemed to be getting behind the clock.Owais Shah the young England prospect however brought them to the brink, leaving the Crusaders requiring 9 runs to win off the last over.Mascarenhas who had not been at his best was entrusted with the task of bowling the 45th over. He was immediately pounced on by Shah for a huge six and ensure victory was almost theirs. Shah fell next ball, well caught by Shaun Udal to give Mascarenhas the new Hampshire record of 32 wickets in a NL/SL Season, a record taken from Udal himself.With 3 to win from 4 balls, Dalrymple drove straight to Katich but was dropped and they scampered a single, Joyce then brought the scores level, before a hurried run with the fielders enclosed to save the run, won it for Middlesex and give the Hawks a nervous week.For the statistically conscious Hampshire’s 277 runs was their highest ever losing score, defeating the 276 they scored in a losing cause against Surrey in 1997.

The Australian board has defended its policy in handling matters relating to sexual assaults despite failing to alert the Pakistani officials about the rape allegation levelled against one of their players. Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s public affairs manager, admitted that he had been informed of the allegation two weeks ago while “comparing notes” with the Victorian police force on dealing with sexual-assault claims.The meeting between Young and the police force was held after a manager from the Centre Against Sexual Assault – the crisis centre which the woman (who claimed she was the victim) contacted to lodge her complaint – had enquired about the boards’ procedure to deal with sexual-assault claims. Young said that though Cricket Australia had been informed of the allegation, the Pakistan team management weren’t alerted as the board was extremely busy with organising the charity game for the tsunami relief victims.”Clearly, we should have told them [Pakistan],” Young told . “I was told by this police officer, who was telling me about a third-hand conversation that no one was supposed to hear about. It is no excuse for not acting on other stuff, but the urgent priority was sorting out the tsunami match. If this happened in the off-season, it would have been handled in 30 minutes.Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, asserted that the recent events hadn’t affected the team’s preparation for the VB Series clash with Australia at the SCG. Inzamam termed the allegation as “a story” and added, “Everything is OK so far and we are looking forward. I think there’s nothing in it, there’s nothing officially complained [about] and the boys are not taking it seriously.”