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A few minutes into the tea interval at the North West Stadium on Sunday, just as the clouds above Potchefstroom started to look really threatening, a chirpy public address announcer declared that there was no need to worry, she’d phoned the weather bureau and it wasn’t going to rain. Talk about tempting fate.Within 10 minutes the covers were on and that was it for the day with Australia 218 for three in their first innings on the first day of their three-day game against South Africa `A’. Usually a bit of rain wouldn’t arouse a great deal of alarm, but this has not been a good summer for touring teams. India had the two first-class games outside the Test matches entirely washed out earlier in the season, and while the Indians’ lacklustre tour could not be entirely blamed on this, lack of preparation certainly didn’t help their cause.In this light, the Australians might already be ahead of the game. They had 60 overs at the crease and while the `A’ attack managed something their elders and betters had failed at in Australia – dismissing Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden cheaply – there was also time enough for Mark Waugh to find some sort of form with an attractive 62 while, weather permitting, new captain Ricky Ponting is poised to score the first century of their tour.When bad light forced the players off the field five minutes before the scheduled tea break, Ponting was not out on 93. It was not an entirely unblemished innings – he enjoyed a couple of slices of good fortune just after lunch – but it was the performance of a man wholly at ease with his game.He said afterwards that he had relaxed after the understandable excitement of his elevation to the one-day captaincy, and had slept well on Saturday night. It looked like it on a pitch that offered few favours to the batting team.Steve Waugh’s decision to bat first almost certainly had less to do with the conditions than to give his batsmen a feel of South African soil. By any standards the pitch is underprepared (through no fault of the North West authorities – the groundsman has been able to work on it for only one-and-a-half days out of the last 10 because of rain) and the Australians had to work for every run during the morning session as they ground out 74 for two.Well almost every run. Ponting announced himself with three successive boundaries off Charl Langeveldt, a passage of play all the more remarkable for what had come before.This South African `A’ attack is an oddly shaped beast with two frontline quicks and a third seamer, Andrew Hall, who has played one-day cricket for South Africa mainly as a batsman (he has bowled fewer than 40 overs in 18 ODIs). These three are backed by two spinners, Claude Henderson and Gulam Bodi and to suggest that, given the conditions, the whole is rather less than the sum of its parts, is to understate the case.Still, while Andre Nel, Langeveldt and Hall were all fresh, life was not easy for the Australian openers on a pitch that offered some movement off the surface, some swing through the air and uneven bounce on the first morning. Hayden made 18 before Hall straightened one down the line at him to trap him lbw and six balls from Hall later Langer dragged an attempted pull down onto his stumps for 12.In between the two wickets Ponting had clobbered his three boundaries off Langeveldt, but at lunch Australia would have felt they had been made to work for it. After the break, however, it was a different game. Ponting and Waugh smashed Hall out of the attack, 35 coming off four overs, and Dale Benkenstein’s gentle medium-pacers served only to allow the batsmen to adjust their timing.The chief spinner, Henderson, persisted in dropping one short an over, usually allowing a free hit through the off, and the Australian pair put on 125 in 122 minutes for the third wicket before Waugh contrived to chop another short one from Henderson straight to backward point.Ponting produced a pair of classic on drives off Henderson and Steve Waugh had one or two decent hits before the light went and although the captains agreed to turn on the floodlights during tea, rain had the final say.

Until it receives an official response from its equivalent body inIndia, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) has no plans to look for anew opponent for the series of three one-day international matches tobe staged in the country in September.Following a decision late last week from India to play in Asian TestChampionship matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh instead, it nowseems that the ACB’s first-choice guest will be unable to commit tothe series unless its proposed dates are the subject of significantrevision.Originally, the ACB had been seeking India’s participation in matcheson 14, 16 and 18 September. But, after the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI)’s move to accept a request to play againstPakistan – from 13 to 17 September – as part of the Asian TestChampionship series, hopes that such a contest would proceed nowappear to have been scuttled. Following that Test – which will betheir first in Pakistan since December 1989 – the Indians are alsocommitted to playing a home Test against Bangladesh from 21 to 25September.Reports emanating from India today have quoted BCCI spokesmen asconfirming that a decision to decline the Australian invitation hasbeen taken.An ACB spokesman said on Monday, however, that no official responsefrom the BCCI has been received at this stage and that no contingencyplans necessarily exist at this point in time.If it were to be received, a negative reply from India would likelyforce the ACB to quickly direct its efforts to seeking a positiveresponse from another team. Sri Lanka, to which strong attentionreportedly turned in original discussions. Sri Lanka would shape asone strong contender to be invited to play in the match at the ‘Gabbaground in Brisbane and the two matches at Colonial Stadium inMelbourne that are expected to form the core of the series.South Africa, the Australians’ opponent in the corresponding serieslast year, is not likely to receive a return invite as it will beinvolved in Test and one-day international cricket in neighbouringZimbabwe throughout September.

Scorecard

Sri Lankan opening batsman Malinda Warnapura and captain Mahela Jayawardene struck form against an inexperienced Guyana President’s Select XI (GPS) bowling attack and steered the visitors to 343 for 5 on the opening day of the tour match at the Providence Stadium.Warnapura struck 14 fours and a six before retiring on 132 off 184 balls, while Jayawardene was dismissed for 99 off only 110 deliveries with 12 fours. None of GPS’s bowlers impressed and the attack which contained three Under-19 bowlers – Jason Dawes, Steven Jacobs and Sharmarh Brooks – struggled to contain an experienced Sri Lankan batting like up after choosing to bowl.GPS’s captain Patrick Browne was the most experienced player since choices for the team were restricted because players were participating in the sixth round of Carib Beer Series matches.Warnapura took advantage of an inexperienced new-ball attack – Kemar Roach and Dawes – and added 115 for the first wicket with Michael Vandort. Dawes’ time in the middle was brief, as he pulled up after bowling 2.1 overs and was forced to leave the field. Vandort fell soon after lunch, bowled by legspinner Davendra Bishoo for 29. Kumar Sangakkara added 59 for the second wicket with Warnapura before Brooks bowled him for 22.Jayawardene had a stroke of luck early on when he was dropped on 6 by Roach on the midwicket boundary. At tea, Sri Lanka were 253 for 2 and Warnapura retired during the break to allow Thilan Samaraweera some batting practice. They continued to dominate and put 68 for the third wicket before Jacobs bowled Jayawardene and Samaraweera was run out just before the close.In addition to dropping four catches, the President’s XI were handicapped early in the day when the genuinely quick Jamaican teenage pacer Jason Dawespulled up’ and was forced to leave the field after bowling 2.1 overs.

ScorecardA captain’s knock of 86 from Charlotte Edwards and a brisk 56 from Claire Taylor couldn’t prevent New Zealand sweeping to their second win in the 4th match of the Women’s Women’s Quadrangular Series in Chennai.Chasing a sizeable 292, England lost Caroline Atkins with the first ball of their reply – and Laura Newton didn’t last much longer either. But the two Taylors – Sarah and Claire – put on 82 for the third wicket to stage a recovery. Though they fell in quick succession, Edwards took the attack to New Zealand’s bowlers, smacking 13 fours in her 93-ball innings. Once she fell to Louise Milliken, England slumped to Suzie Bates and Sarah Burke.”New Zealand batted really well,” Edwards said, “but then we were going really well too and I thought we’d be able to chase 291. We lost wickets at vital times – losing Sarah [Taylor] and Claire Taylor very close together. That’s when we lost the game though me and Beth Morgan had a good partnership too. It was a good game of cricket and its disappointing to be at the losing end of it.”In contrast to England’s stuttering effort, New Zealand’s innings contained four half-centurions with Sarah Tsukigawa contributing a violent 78 from just 56 balls. Whereas England’s lower order rather petered away, New Zealand’s fizzed with aggression as Aimee Mason (19 from 23) and Nicola Browne (36 from 23) pushed their side up to a large, winning total.”We got off to a good platform and Browne and I had a good partnership,” Tsukigawa said. “In this ground when you bat first you need at least 300 because the outfield is lighting quick. While bowling it wasn’t easy. I think me and a few other bowlers got two bad balls an over and [let] them off the hook for a while. But we managed to pull them back in.”

On the same night that the official New Zealand Cricket Awards were being presented at a prestigious dinner in Auckland, the Beige Brigade, the country’s official unofficial supporters group, revealed their own less serious annual gongs.The comments appended to each award are those made by the judging panel.Disappointment of the Year
South Africa, for ruining New Zealand’s world record run chase by more than 100 runs.Jerry Collins Trophy
Awarded for the most meritorious tackle by a security guard or policeman at one-day international: Security Guard v Woman Streaker at the Twenty20. Unconsciousness almost Dean Lonergan-style shaking. And she was quite nice looking.Merv Hughes Memorial Trophy
Awarded for the most meritorious effort by a piece of cricket clothing in international cricket: Although Chris Cairns’ beige shirt was hanging on for dear life in the Twenty20, Lou Vincent’s self-downtrou was a winner. The risk factor was brilliant – it was almost an on-field streak. Extra points for partial nudity as well.Bloodbath Cup
Awarded to the crowd with the most arrests at international cricket: Eden Park, Twenty20. The high calibre of security guards in place after the Australian series debauchery in the terraces was no match for this crowd. There were streakers galore, none of whom even came out of the terraces. The ones from the out of the family area were magnificent.The Adolf Medal
Awarded to the ground with the stupidest rule: A hotly contested prize with loads of contenders but the “No sitting in the front three rows” rules at Eden Park, Wellington Stadium and Jade Stadium was the dumbest of the lot. Even our nanas could throw an apple, a bottle or a small child that far if they really wanted to hit a player. Other nominations included Eden Park where spectators were only allowed to buy two beers at a time at the terraces, even if there was no queue; McLean Park, scene of the infamous “No girls kissing” farago; Wellington Stadium where spectators were told not to “yell too loud”; and the runner-up was Eden Park where, it is claimed, men weren’t allowed to buy wine.The Beige Brigade Player of the Year
A pre-eminent award, presented to the player whose performances in New Zealand Cricket have best honoured the “yesterday’s men” of cricket: Disappointing that it goes to an Aussie, but Victorian Mick Lewis should be Adidas’ new poster boy (‘Impossible is Nothing’) for his extraordinary effort to destroy Martin Snedden’s worst bowling figures in an ODI record. Lewis bowled a full two overs less than Sneds and we assume he is now ‘retired’ from all international cricket. Other nominees included Andre Adams for his consistent use of the headband even in domestic cricket and Jeetan Patel, for his sneaky little moustache he grew for the Twenty20 match.“In A Terrible State” Plate
Awarded to the oddest looking person in New Zealand cricket: F Payne. Good bloke, great statistician. Look for him on Sky TV (perhaps even with his own show?)

The twilight twist
With gloom settling in and bad light almost certain tobe offered, enter India’s favourite umpire,celebrating his 100th test. Sachin Tendulkar and RahulDravid were in the midst of a rescue act, quicklytransforming into a match-turning one. Tendulkar hadjust completed his half-century, with a rasping square-drive off Abdul Razzaq.Razzaq, in the middle of a disciplined and variedspell, started testing Tendulkar with short balls. Inhis next over, the first ball was again short, it wentpast Tendulkar’s outside edge and swung away aftergoing past his bat. As replays confirmed, the ballmissed the outside edge by some distance. Kamran Akmaldived to take the catch and appealed meekly, as didRazzaq, protractedly. Nothing came from Steve Bucknor,Tendulkar moved away from the crease and as Razzaq’sappeal withered, Bucknor suddenly raised his finger.Tendulkar jumped as if facing another short ball,stunned, Pakistan went ecstatic and the match took, ona day of twists, one final controversial one. A caseperhaps for offering light to the umpire?The Golden Arm
Younis Khan drove a full one back past Lakshmipathy Balaji and haredoff down the pitch. Sourav Ganguly from mid-off and Sachin Tendulkarfrom mid-on gave chase, and Ganguly pulled the ball up just before theropes. Tendulkar received the flick, and threw the ball to thelongest distance on a ground that is acres big. The ball thudded intoDinesh Karthik’s gloves at the far end, and he had the bails offbefore Asim Kamal got back for the third run. Tendulkar’s throw wasjust another reminder of the man’s presence of mind and his sheernatural ability on a cricket field.

Aravinda de Silva, the vice-president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), has made it clear that .Marvan Atapattu is in line to inherit the Test captaincy from Hashan Tillakaratne."Marvan knows that it is only a matter of time before he is handed over the Sri Lanka Test captaincy," said de Silva, himself a former Sri Lanka captain and the country’s leading run-scorer in both forms of the game. "He is aware of it and he has been told that he will be Hashan’s [Tillakaratne] successor.""We want to make the transition as easy as possible for Marvan and the best time to hand the captaincy over to him is when the team is performing well and when the batsmen are in good form. This way there will be no extra pressure on Marvan," added de Silva. "We have identified that Marvan is the best player to lead the country to the 2007 World Cup and we don’t want to burden him with the captaincy too early.""Marvan has been told what our future plans are and to make our intentions clear we have always invited him to all selection committee meetings so that he is aware of what is happening," said de Silva."However strong a personality you are, captaincy affects you in some ways. It may even affect your individual performances. Our main worry was that it should not affect Marvan’s batting because he is our premier batsman."The reason why we decided on two captains was to give Marvan enough time to establish himself as one-day captain before taking over the Test captaincy. We thought one year would be sufficient.” The 33-year-old Atapattu was appointed as Sri Lanka’s one-day captain in May last year following the resignation of Sanath Jayasuriya. After a disappointing beginning in the Bank Alfallah Cup triangular against New Zealand and Pakistan, in which his team failed to qualify for a home one-day final for the first time, he has led Sri Lanka to series wins over West Indies (2-1) and England (1-0).De Silva refuted accusations in some sections of the media that he was siding with Tillakaratne for the Sri Lankan captaincy, because of their common background of school (D.S. Senanayake) and club (NCC). "I will be the last person to favour anyone. To me individuals don’t matter. The best team should play for Sri Lanka. We cannot allow such loose talk to divert our attention from carrying out our responsibilities as selectors.""My opinion on certain individuals may not necessarily be shared by the other members of the selection committee," said De Silva. "There are four of us including the chairman and we discuss what is best for Sri Lanka cricket and take a collective decision. We also invite the coach John Dyson who gives us a lot of input into selections."

Somerset County Cricket Club have decided to switch the three-day friendly match against Cardiff UCCE which starts on Saturday April 13th to Millfield School at Street.One of the main reasons behind the fixture switch is that the that the whole squad can travel to the match at Millfield School and those who are not selected to play can enjoy the excellent outdoor and indoor practice facilities that the school possesses.Meanwhile back at The County Ground in Taunton, Somerset Head Groundsman Phil Frost told me: “It’s all looking good for the start of the new season, and we are just waiting to kick off with our preparations. The grass is a bit dormant, especially on the table where it is a different colour.”We have sprayed for diseases and will start to work on the ground in mid-February.”

England Under-19 defeated West Zone Under-19 by 58 runs in a practice one-dayerat the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Pune on Tuesday. England Under-19 scored 223all out in 50 overs in reply to which West Zone Under-19 were bowled out for 165runs in 39.3 overs.After the first two days of the scheduled three day warm-up game were washed outby rain, both teams decided to play a 50 overs a side game on the last and finalday.The Jawaharlal Nehru stadium ground was still wet in patches but overall theconditions were fruitful for play. Skippers Parthiv Patel and Ian Bell met forthe toss, the former winning it and inviting the tourists to bat first.The tourists were cautious in their appoach early in the innings, both openersJohn Sadler and Gary Pratt batted defensively. They struggled early on but stillmanaged to put on a 76 run partnership for the first wicket in 17.1 overs. GaryPratt scored the first fifty of the tour, his 59 coming off 102 balls with tenhits to the fence. Pratt was the highest scorer of the innings. The othercontributor was Ian Bell who scored a decent 40 off 68 with one six and threehits to the fence. John Sadler was run out by Vinit Indulkar for 33 off 55 ballswith one six and four hits to the fence.The West Zone medium pacers Uday Karkera and Siddarth Trivedi were guilty ofbowling too many extras. The bowlers overstepped eleven times between them.Karkera bagged three for 43 and Trivedi picked up two for 54.In reply, West Zone had a disastrous start when Andrew McGarry sent VimalJoshi’s middle stump on a cartwheel ride with the first ball of the innings. Onedrop Vinit Indulkar played a brisk knock scoring 22 off 22 balls with one sixand three boundaries. Kashinath Khadkikar was the topscorer with 39 off 37 ballshitting seven boundaries. Skipper Parthiv Patel hung around for his 25 off 54balls with five hits to the fence. Jaideo Shah chipped in with 27 off 44 ballsincluding one six and two hits to the fence.The West Zone batsmen failed to convert the good starts into a big score as theinnings folded up in the 40th over. Spinner Robert Ferley bagged three for 31while Monty Panesar, Andrew McGarry and Nadeem Malik chipped in with two wicketseach.The England Under-19 team is off to Mumbai where they face the Rest of IndiaUnder-19 in a practice game from January 4-6.

Following on from the ICC issuing a set of 39 terms and conditions that the USA Cricket Association must meet in order to be reinstated as an ICC Associate member, ICC chief executive David Richardson recently stated that the USACA may be “rebranded”. It’s another hint that USACA’s time as the ICC’s member governing body in the USA may be coming to an end, at least in its current form.At a press gathering in Ireland during the World Twenty20 Qualifier, Richardson was asked if the ICC views the American Cricket Federation or some other third party group as a viable alternative to USACA in the event that the board is unable to fulfil the stringent reinstatement demands made by the ICC. His response indicated that the board may be reshaped, one way or another.”The bottom line is we have to try to get all of the stakeholders together and take USA cricket forward from there,” Richardson said. “Hopefully, USA Cricket Association in title may be rebranded. Who knows under a new strategy who will be the ones to do that but it will only be possible if they are able to unite the country from a cricket perspective.”The 39 terms and conditions include passing a new constitution with sweeping governance reforms recommended in a 2013 report by TSE Consulting as well as turning over numerous financial records and accounting documents. The USACA has shown reluctance to fulfil these in the past two years. Richardson was optimistic that they will work towards fulfilling the conditions but acknowledged the challenges the organisation would face in doing so.”We are hopeful they will work with us,” Richardson said. “I think on their own, they will find it difficult to meet all of those terms and conditions simply because in my view it’s probably harder to run USA cricket than it is to run Indian cricket. It’s such a vast country. There are so many leagues that are going on. Some are part of USACA, some part of other bodies, some on their own. It’s going to take a major effort to bring them all together. I don’t think the ICC could do it alone and USA cricket on its own will battle.”Expulsion of the USA Cricket Association or US cricket will be no good to anybody. You only have to look at Ireland going back a number of years where they used to have a governance structure where all clubs were voting for their representatives on the board and were going really nowhere. The changes they implemented on the governance side were the catalyst for Ireland taking huge leaps forward as a cricketing nation. They’ve done it. There’s no reason why USA can’t do the same.”Under previous ICC suspensions handed down to USACA in 2005 and 2007, USA had their participation in the 2005 Intercontinental Cup and 2007 World Cricket League Division Three rescinded. As a consequence, USA dropped down to WCL Division Five when they were reinstated in 2008 and have found it difficult to climb back up the Associate ladder ever since. However, USA were allowed to play at the qualifier in Ireland in spite of the suspension and produced impressive wins over Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. Richardson reiterated the ICC’s on-field support for USA.”The idea is not to prejudice USA cricket in any way if at all possible,” Richardson said. “So hopefully we can work with the USA Cricket Association in trying to remedy those resolutions and recommendations that were made to make sure that the suspension is lifted. There’s a lot of work to be done in that regard but I’m confident that it can be done and the necessary governance changes can be made.”But in the mean time, we don’t want to prejudice cricketers who are playing cricket in the US. Ideally, we keep an eye on how the competition structures are run there, how the trials and teams are selected so that we give every chance for cricketers in the USA to go to these tournaments and hopefully qualify.”Aside from assisting the national team development with projects like the upcoming ICC Americas Cricket Combine next month in Indianapolis, Richardson once again highlighted the ICC’s hopes of tapping into USA’s commercial market potential if the administrative issues can be sorted out.”There is enough potential for the USA to be participating at major global events,” he said. “There’s enough cricketers, there’s enough money in the country and the economy is strong. So we think if correctly administered, there is the potential. It’s not for other member countries to benefit financially from cricket being strong in the US.  Yes, the ICC might benefit from the fact that if USA is at a major global event, then we are hoping to attract sponsors from the part of the world of our events and obviously broadcasters as well.”