New Zealand have joined the Twenty20 bandwagon by introducing a tournament for the 2005-06 domestic season. Martin Snedden, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, announced the schedule today and said the competition would be used to gauge its popularity after successful trials in England and South Africa.The Twenty20 tournament will involve two pools of three teams playing a home and away game before the top qualifiers contest the final on February 6. “There was a lot of interest in the international Twenty20 against Australia earlier this year and with the availability of the New Zealand players for the state teams we anticipate high interest,” Snedden said.New Zealand face a relatively quiet international summer with visits from Sri Lanka and Australia for one-day series and a Test and limited-overs tour from West Indies in February and March. “The increased availability of the New Zealand players for domestic cricket will be good for the quality of the domestic competition overall and will be an added promotional drawcard for State Shield and State Championship matches,” Snedden said.Snedden said gaps between games in the State Shield and State Championship had been lengthened after talks with the Cricket Players Association. “This initiative will provide better management of player workloads,” he said.

Ozias Bvute, the managing director of Zimbabwe Cricket, has defended the controversial policy of issuing new contracts to their professional players based on performance in terms of runs, wickets and fielding.Senior players Heath Streak, Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut have already met thecriteria but more than 20 others will be assessed by a panel including national team manager Babu Meman and coach Kevin Curran.”This is and will be a detailed assessment, on the basis of past, current andperceived future results and performance,” said Bvute. He said the 24 remaining “Level One” (lower rated) players had been offered basic salaries and expenses.This new policy lies at the root of the current dispute with the players. Bvute said that Stuart Carlisle, Barney Rogers and Neil Ferreira had demanded a minimum contractual income and had not been offered any contract at all. “If I wanted a 737 Boeing aircraft parked at Harare airport, that would be unreasonable, not a negotiating position,” he said, replying to a question abouttheir position perhaps being one for negotiation. “What I’m saying is that as far as those three are concerned there is no room for any negotiating position now.”But Bvute insisted: “We are not in a crisis.” Talks between Zimbabwe Cricket and players’ representative Clive Field are expected to resume later this week. Field warned that the dispute, which blew up last Thursday, “could become a major issue detrimental to Zimbabwe and indeed to international cricket”.”Some players have said it could become as destructive an issue as last year’s strike,” said Field, “which had been triggered by senior player accusations of national team selections based on race, and I think they could be right. This is a cause for real concern. The players have decided they will still be making themselves available for selection to matches remaining on the India tour (two Tests and a warm-up game) on the basis of them keeping the high moral ground.We have reached a situation where trust is paramount. We are told the contracts will now be re-presented on September 14 rather than the original date of September 30.”

While cricket’s profile in England has not been this high for decades, the success of the England team could actually be to the detriment of the inaugural International 20:20 tournament, which kicks off at Leicester on Thursday. Such has been the public’s interest in a thrilling Ashes series that the event will inevitably have something of an anti-climactic feel about it.The concept itself shows vision. Assemble the best Twenty20 sides from around the world for a champions’ league of domestic cricket. The format lends itself to such an event – the six-team tournament is condensed into three days, ideal for public and television alike. And it is television, especially Indian TV, which is the main reason for it happening at all. Leicestershire have strong links with Asia through Investors In Cricket, the county’s financial backers, and they are the driving force behind the whole thing.The main problem is that, while a football tournament of this type would inevitably draw the crowds, domestic cricket sides are on the whole unsexy from a marketing point of view. Add into the equation that there is no representation from Australia, New Zealand and West Indies – none have yet staged a Twenty20 competition – and the package is dangerously weakened.The teams that are taking part leave a little to be desired. Leicestershire and Somerset are known quantities but neither contains big box-office draws. Nashua Titans, from South Africa, have a very second-team feel about them, because many of their star names – AB de Villiers, Justin Kemp, Andre Nel, Martin van Jaarsveld and Dale Steyn – have stayed away, opting to play in a Jacques Kallis benefit match, while Daryl Cullinan has retired.The two Asian teams are Chilaw Marians from Sri Lanka and Faisalabad Wolves from Pakistan. While Faisalabad will send a decent side, the reality is that their star attractions, Naved Latif and Mohammad Hafeez, are hardly household names. And the first-string Sri Lankans are all playing in the Test series against Bangladesh, so Chilaw are unlikely to contain anyone familiar to the casual spectator.Making up the numbers are the PCA Masters XI. At least this team contains some familiar faces, albeit rather aging ones. Phil DeFreitas, who this week mercifully lost his tag as the only active cricketer to have won the Ashes, bows out here. He is joined by Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and quite a few who were only confirmed at the 11th hour. And To-Be-Confirmeds are not the stuff of good advance box office.The only place that the matches will be shown live is in South Africa. India are rather preoccupied with the Test at Bulawayo, and in the UK, Sky Sports will be showing end-of-day highlights packages.The organisers will also be glancing nervously towards the heavens. September’s weather in England can be notoriously unpredictable, and with no reserve days, the entire event is at the mercy of the elements. Other late-season ventures over the years have been scuppered by cold and rain, and it was more by luck than judgment that the ICC got through last year’s Champions Trophy in September unscathed.The concept deserves to succeed, and if it can survive what is sure to be a difficult first outing, then the prospects for the future are good as more countries embrace the format. What they need at Leicester is good weather, a few more names, and a great deal of luck.

The England cricket team were named as the recipients of the Spirit of Cricket Award at the ICC Awards celebration in Sydney on Tuesday. The Spirit of Cricket Award was presented to the Full Member team which, in the opinion of the Emirates Elite Panel of Umpires and Referees and the captains of the ten Test teams, has best conducted itself on the field within the spirit of the game.This Spirit is described in the preamble to the Laws of Cricket: “Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself.”The preamble goes on to say:”The Spirit of the Game involves respect for:
*Your opponents
*Your own captain and team
*The role of the umpires
*The game’s traditional values”
Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, said: “On behalf of the ICC I wish to congratulate England for winning the Spirit of Cricket Award. Michael Vaughan’s side has enjoyed considerable success on the field during the voting period and this award shows they have done so by upholding the traditional values of the game.”Andrew Flintoff, who also shared the Player of the Year award with Jacques Kallis, said that the credit belonged to his captain, Vaughan. “Over the past two years since he has taken over we have beaten every side we have come up against,” said Flintoff. “Vaughny has wanted the lads to have no fear of failure, enjoy playing cricket and enjoy each others company.”I think we have played the game in the right way. He’s brought the best out of me, and is still bringing the best out of me. We are a happy bunch of cricketers, we enjoy playing cricket and I think it shows in the way we play.”England were the second recipients of the Award after it was won by New Zealand in 2004. The Spirit of Cricket Award was one of eight individual and team honours handed out during the ICC awards.

Ashish Nehra, the Indian left-arm fast bowler, said on Thursday that Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, was right in giving youngsters an opportunity to prove themselves but senior players who have been left out of the team should be given priority if they consistently prove their fitness and form.Nehra said he did not see any ulterior motive on anyone’s part in Zaheer Khan, the fast bowler from Baroda, or any other “senior player” being kept out of the Indian team. “Chappell has come in and has tried out a few youngsters. It is not that he wants anything bad for Indian cricket. He wants good players to come in and be given an opportunity. Nobody is permanent in the team. Senior bowlers like Zaheer Khan, if they do well, should be picked. If not now, later. There is nothing personal with Zaheer Khan. I don’t think anyone has a problem with Zaheer. If he is fit and picks wickets, he will be back.”Nehra declared he was targeting the Pakistan series early next year for his comeback into the Indian team after a ‘niggle’ put him out of action for the past two months. Nehra, who returned home at the end of the tri-series in Zimbabwe after missing the two Tests against the hosts due to a lower back injury, said he did not foresee playing in the Test series against Sri Lanka next month. He also stated that he would be available for the Delhi team from the third game for the Ranji Trophy which he would use to gain 100 percent fitness and form to stake his claim for a place in the Indian squad.”I am getting better. I haven’t started to bowl yet, I would start doing that in 10 days’ time from now. I would be playing the third match in the Ranji Trophy. I am looking forward to the Pakistan tour. I don’t think I will be completely back to my best before that. I will be playing two or three matches during the Sri Lanka series.”Nehra was conscious of fact that he had to reach peak fitness before he plays Tests again. He began training six weeks ago and has been running and sprinting but was “yet to touch the ball”. “For a fast bowler it is not advisable to play straight away in Tests. You need those 30-40 overs to get the rhythm. And on pitches like in Pakistan, you need to be 100 percent fit.”He should know. After an ankle surgery soon after the 2003 World Cup, he was eased directly into the one-day squad and went for 60-odd runs as he bowled his 10 overs on the trot in a tri-series match against Australia at Bangalore. “Yes, I said after the match I should have played some domestic matches and I did play some.”Nehra, however, was aware that the scenario in the Indian team had changed drastically in the two months he had been away, and that it was not going to be easy for him to stake a claim for the Test or ODI team. “It is never easy to get back into the national team. And it is not just me. If someone like Sourav Ganguly can be left out after scoring runs [in domestic cricket] … Everyone has been performing, so it is going to be tough.”

Steve Harmison believes Darren Gough would make the perfect replacement bowling coach for Troy Cooley. Gough, 35, who last night won the BBC’s show, is uncertain whether he will be picked for England’s tour of India in March.”I still believe he could do a job for us as a bowler and I think he would be a great addition to the squad for India,” Harmison told the . “Whether or not he is picked again as a player, I would love to have him as coach.”England are actively seeking a replacement bowling coach after Troy Cooley’s decision to return home to Australia. Yesterday, Cooley suggested it was the ECB’s hesitancy in offering him a renewal which forced him to leave; he had requested a two-year deal in May which was turned down by the board.Gough retired from Test cricket in 2003, but has remained available for selection in one-day internationals, where he has been an exceptional exponent of bowling at the end of the innings.”He is a master of the art of bowling with the new ball and ‘at the death’ and some of that knowledge would be invaluable, particularly in the one-day game,” Harmison added. “He would have the instant respect of all the bowlers because he’s been there and done it, the kind of man you would always go the extra yard for.”

Pakistan A’s thrilling one-wicket win over England wouldn’t have been the only news to have pleased the Pakistan selectors from the Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore. Abdul Razzaq, who captained Pakistan A and is expected to play a key role in the ODI series, came through his first match after missing the Test series due to an elbow injury.Although he only made eight and picked up one wicket from five overs, Razzaq was satisfied with his performance. “This was a practice match and as captain I had to look after the team performance. I wasn’t too concerned about my performance. I treated it as practice. I was under a little pressure with my bowling because I hadn’t bowled for some time but I am happy I came through it.”The defeat is England’s fourth in their last five games on the tour, including the Test series. Razzaq insisted that although it was only a practice game, the Pakistan camp would take some confidence from it going into the ODI series that begins from Saturday.”We should get some confidence out of this for the one-day series. I said before the match it was an opportunity to gain a psychological advantage over the England team and hopefully this result should help us. You win at any level of the game and your confidence increases. I guess they must be under some pressure now because a loss is still a loss at any level. And we must be happy because our A team has beaten them.”Bazid Khan, son of Majid and a regular in the Pakistan squad this year, scored an unbeaten 90 – off 88 balls – to guide his team home with one ball and one wicket to spare. Off the fourth and fifth balls of the last over Bazid hit two boundaries, one a ramp over the wicketkeeper’s head and one through the covers to seal it.Razzaq praised his efforts as well as others in the team, such as Raffatullah Mohmand (who scored a fifty and has attracted Inzamam-ul-Haq’s attention with his domestic performances this season), who are close to national selection. “Bazid played very well. He was a little slow to start with but paced his innings at the end very well. He played his shots at the right time. He won the match for us. The boys generally did well. Some of them are close to selection and performed when they needed to. The selectors will be very happy with their contribution.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken measures to ensure that no persons without valid tickets will be allowed inside the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium tomorrow for the second ODI between Pakistan and India. The board’s statement comes after reports that the first ODI at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar was seen by many people without a valid ticket for the ground.Shaharyar Khan, the board chairman, said in a press conference: “Measures have been taken to ensure that the paying public is given its right and due share in viewing the match. I am conscious of the fact that in Peshawar this wasn’t fully achieved and we are going to make sure that there will be no element that comes into the ground without a ticket. Simply you have to have a ticket to get in.”There were reports, confirmed by Khan, that as many as 32,000 people made their way into the ground on Sunday. The stadium’s capacity is 16,000. On the morning of the match, many fans were left outside the ground and not let in, while others with valid tickets entered only to find their seats occupied by people without tickets. A large number of fans even attempted, soon after the match started, to enter the press box and occupy seats in there.Khan added that all tickets for the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, which holds 19,000 have already been sold. He added: “The public should not come to the ground if they don’t have a ticket so there won’t be any unnecessary crowding. This will not be allowed to happen. Once you have the ticket we are ensuring that you get to the seat that is yours. It should never happen that someone has bought a ticket for a certain amount and when they get to that seat it is occupied by someone else. This happened in Peshawar. I have been assured by the administration that this will not happen again. No-one will be allowed in the outer ring of the stadium and if you don’t have a ticket please don’t come.”Despite the fact that the crowd at Peshawar was mostly good-natured, Khan once again called on fans to be on their best behaviour during the match. “I would like to call on the people of Islamabad and Pindi to show discipline and also show that they are a welcoming public who can appreciate good cricket. This has happened in the series up to now and the only problem was in Peshawar where instead of having 16,000 people we somehow had 32,000 people. The extra 16,000 were occupying seats that legitimately belonged to those who had paid for them.”

Neil Rider originally resigned from his post as manager after the World Cup in April last year. He cites his reasons as not being able to combine his two jobs; working as England manager and as county cricket development manager at Hampshire County Cricket Club. But, having left his Rose Bowl job in September, when the England job opportunity arose again Rider was keen to apply.”It is an exciting time for the women’s game,” he says. “In the time I have worked with the women’s team they have certainly made huge strides forward”.A part-time 80-day-a -year contract is a challenging job to take on and ideally Rider would like to be involved full time, particularly as his standards are set for the top level. “I want the team to become number one in the world. We are not far off that”. The world champions Australia hold that honour.Last summer’s Ashes success of both the men’s and women’s teams “has had a huge impact on the game itself”. But are those long memorable summer days starting to fade? Is Ashes fever wearing off? “No, I don’t think this is the case,” says Rider. “Certainly, because in the next few months cricket clubs will be starting to open up again – then it can be seen how many youngsters join up”.Rider founded and runs Serious Cricket, a specialist cricket equipment shop and part of the Serious Sport Group. It also offers coaching in the Berkshire and North Hampshire Area. These courses are often fully booked; Rider sees this as a reflection and an ongoing interest of the Ashes series.Hopes are set realistically high to what England’s women can achieve -but can women’s cricket catch up with the attention paid to the men’s? “This is difficult because firstly the men’s game is professional and they play the game day in and out, but the standard of women’s cricket has vastly improved and has become a spectacle in its own right.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball
3rd day
Bulletin – Clark drives Aussies to seven-wicket success
Verdict – South Africa miss the supporting act
Quotes – Australia’s batting was the crucial difference
Gallery – Australia take first blood with seven-wicket win
2nd day
Bulletin – Lee’s late burst hands Australia the initiative
Verdict – Smith’s brave new philosophy
Gallery – All the action from day two
Quotes – Nel still upbeat but Hayden smells victory1st day
Bulletin – Clark bursts South Africa’s bubble
Verdict – Journeyman Clark papers over the cracks
Gallery – All the action from day one
Preview
Preview – Warne looms large for confident South Africa
News – South Africans unhappy with Newlands pitch
News – Ponting unsure of line-up
News – Wessels targets Australia’s attack
News – South Africa lose fear of failure