Keith Mitchell, Grenada’s prime minister, has suggested a “cooling-off period” between West Indies’ players and their cricket board in the ongoing dispute about endorsement contracts.”Some of the problems that are now emerging can be resolved with a cooling-off period during the holidays and during the tour,” he said on BBC World Service on Tuesday. “Then we will engage the private-sector bodies, both Cable & Wireless and Digicel, in the whole question of a final solution to the problems faced by the board and the players.” Mitchell would “offer some constructive solutions” to ensure the West Indies team’s imminent tour of Australia continues “without any disruption whatsoever”.Mitchell, who helped settle the initial stalemate in November, is set to meet officials from both the players’ association and the board today. Judge Adrian Saunders, the mediator in the dispute between the board and several of the players over contracts, will present his report at that meeting.
Bournemouth left-hander Tom Webley made his County Championship debut for Somerset today – against the fastest bowler in the world !Webley is expected to open the Somerset batting against Durham at the Riverside, with Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar – the Rawalpindi Express – steaming in at the other end.”It certainly promises to be a baptism of fire, but it will be a great experience for me,” Webley said last night.Webley, 20, who lives with his parents in Corfe Mullen, got his full county call up after a string of encouraging performances for Somerset’s 2nd XI and Academy sides.”Tom did well at the Cambridge UCCE at the start of the season, has been batting well in the second team and thoroughly deserves his chance,” praised Somerset 2nd XI coach Mark Garaway.Webley, who played for Bournemouth colts as a 14-year old and graduated into the club’s Premier League side three years ago, hit a First Class century for Cambridge UCCE against Northants at Fenners in May.A former pupil at King’s Taunton, Webley is studying at Anglia University.To see how he is getting on, click on the link on the match below
Overcoming their first-innings debacle, Goa surged back into the gamein their Ranji Trophy league match against Kerala at Panaji onWednesday.Having Kerala overnight at 6/2, Goa did not let up on the pressure.Barring C Prashanth Menon, who made 55 off 148 balls, and Ajay Kudva(44 off 120), none of the Kerala batsmen was allowed to convert astart into a significant score.Kerala were bowled out for 210, with Narayan Kambli taking 4-49 andAvinash Aware taking 5-67. At stumps on the third day, Goa were 33/0,chasing a fourth-innings total of 213 for victory.
A third wicket partnership of 108 runs between Devang Gandhi andSrikkanth Kalyani enabled Bengal to draw their Ranji Trophy SuperLeague encounter at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Chasing a victorytarget of 310 in 46 overs, Bengal finished the day at 180 runs for theloss of five wickets. Earlier, Rajasthan had declared their secondinnings closed at 216 for the loss of eight wickets. Rajasthan managedfive points from the match. Bengal, on the other hand finished withthree and their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage nowappear slim as they have two tough matches against Karnataka andMumbai.It was a day when a number of personal achievements wererecorded. Utpal Chatterjee took five wickets in the second inningsonce more to have match figures of 10 for 160. It was the fourth timethat Chatterjee recorded a haul of 10 wickets in a Ranji Trophy gameand the 20th time that he had five wickets in an innings. Kalyanibecame the 27th player and fourth from Bengal to score over 5,000 runsin the Ranji Trophy. When he reached 40, square cutting left armspinner D.P.Singh, Kalyani had joined the elite ranks of Pankaj Roy,Arun Lal and Ashok Malhotra from Bengal.Bengal, aspiring for an outright win had two early successes in theday. Skipper Chatterjee sent back Nikhil Doru and off spinnerSourashis Lahiri accounted for Kuldip Singh to have Rajasthantottering at 96 for 5. However, a sixth wicket stand of 90 betweenSanjeev Sharma (54 with seven boundaries) and Saket Bhatia (48, 8×4)dashed their hopes. The partnership was finally broken by Lahiri whohad Sharma bowled as the batsman tried to swing him over midwicket. Shortly afterwards, the Rajasthan skipper Gagan Khoda declaredthe innings at 216.When Bengal batted, Sanjeev Sharma had Alokendu Lahiri caught behindand Singh had Rohan Gavaskar caught bat-pad at short leg to haveBengal tottering at 23 for two. But Gandhi and Kalyani with some finestrokes brought things under control. Gandhi had one huge six over midwicket of Jaykumar and eight boundaries in his 67. Kalyani who got hissecond fifty of the match also had eight fours in his 56. Most of themcame through pleasing drives in the `V’ between mid on and mid of. Atfinal draw of stumps Saba Karim (17) and LR Shukla (1) were at thecrease.
Chris Brunt has dismissed speculation that he is talking about a new contract with West Brom.
The Baggies skipper claims that he does not know where quotes came from that appeared in the newspapers on Sunday saying that discussions between him and the club were happening.
He said to The Birmingham Mail: “There are no talks going on. I’ve barely played any football so I’m training to try to get fit to get back into the first team. If that comes it comes, if it doesn’t it doesn’t but I still have to do my job by playing football and earning that. I still have two and a half years with the option year. It looks like I’m begging for a contract. I’m not sure where they (the quotes) came from. It’s a strange one.”
The captain is also hoping to make it into Monday night’s team to play Southampton.
He said: “Southampton is a target. Hopefully nothing will go wrong during this week and I’ll be fit enough. It’s up to the gaffer but it would nice to be involved. A few of us were out there yesterday so we should be back to full strength for the Southampton game. I have a job getting back into the first team because the lads have done very well.”
Steve Clarke is waiting on many players who currently have injuries, including Billy Jones and Jerome Thomas.
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Brunt sustained a hamstring injury in the Baggies’ Premier League match with Aston Villa, which ended as a draw, in September.
Shane Warne believes Muttiah Muralitharan’s action should be assessed in a Test match to end any lingering speculation over its legality. Warne is set to be overtaken as the world’s leading Test wicket-taker by Muralitharan, who needs seven more victims to pass Warne’s mark of 708.Muralitharan’s action has been repeatedly cleared by biomechanical tests over the past decade but those trials have never taken place in a match situation. Warne’s bowling mentor Terry Jenner said on the weekend that Muralitharan needed to be tested during a game to clear his name completely, and Warne agrees.”He should be tested under match conditions,” Warne wrote in his column in newspapers. “I’m sure he is sick of it all, but it would be well worth the exercise and hassle.”I think for his own peace of mind and everyone in world cricket, do the testing in the heat of battle – a Test match. Surely the ICC, Sri Lanka and Murali would want that.”Muralitharan was first no-balled for throwing during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in 1995-96 and again during a one-day game in Adelaide three years later. In 2004, when he troubled Australia with his doosra during a Test series in Sri Lanka, he was reported by the match referee Chris Broad.Along the way Muralitharan has undertaken biomechanical tests in Perth, Hong Kong and England, and has been repeatedly cleared to keep bowling. The former Australia batsman Michael Slater took part in the 2004 analysis and he said despite going into the trial with doubts about Muralitharan’s action, by the end he was totally convinced Muralitharan did not throw – even when bowling the doosra.”In Australia, there is an almost universal belief Muralitharan is a chucker,” Slater said in the . “But if they were to see this footage they would be amazed. When people see the video, they say, ‘I’ve changed my mind, he’s not a chucker’.”Muralitharan has a chance to pass Warne’s Test wicket record during the second Test, which starts in Hobart on Friday. Australia and Sri Lanka are competing for a new prize in the two-Test series – the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.
India’s defeat in Durban triggered off the sort of hystericalover-reaction that has become a sad accompaniment to the country’scricket, but Rahul Dravid, who has faced much of the flak – along withGreg Chappell, the pet peeve – was philosophical when asked about theviciousness of some of the criticism. He insisted that his team were doingthe best, and that he couldn’t afford to expend energy thinking of thingsbeyond his control.”My team is not pretty aware of what is happening,” he said. “We’re verymuch focused on our cricket. It’s a country of extreme reactions andextreme emotions. We’re trying to play good cricket. We know we can playbetter and we’re focused on trying to put up a better performance on tour.We’re not aware or worried about what’s happening back home.”We’re always feeling the pressure to win, but that does not change thesituation. We need to win after that loss and we needed to win beforethat. We need to win all the time.”An official of the Indian board had gone on record to say that the playershouldn’t be paid for the Durban match, and the parliament in New Delhihad resonated with voices calling for Chappell’s head on a platter – withor without an apple in his mouth. “Can I be worried about something whichI cannot control?” said Dravid with a shrug, when asked about the flamesbeing fanned back home. “Somebody’s going to make a comment and someone’sgoing to react. We’re all entitled to our opinions, and I’m just asentitled not to react.”He also rubbished suggestions made by an Indian TV channel that he andChappell had a serious altercation prior to the Durban game. “I’m havingto laugh at some of these things,” he said. “There’s absolutely no issuebetween us. It feels funny to even deny such things. Everyone is allowedto say anything they want. You don’t have to prove it [these days].”Asked whether the criticism would act as a spur to his players, Dravidreiterated that it shouldn’t be the case. “I don’t think that should be amotivating factor for anyone,” he said. “It has never been for me. Everytime you walk out to play for India, you should be proud enough to go outthere and compete. You might not always do well and succeed.”There were some similarities to be drawn with 2003, when India followed upa disastrous 2-5 reverse in New Zealand with an embarrassing nine-wicketdefeat against Australia in their first big game of the World Cup. Perhapsstung by the vitriol, the players put together an eight-match winningstreak that only came to an end in the final. “I’d like to think that wefought back because we played good cricket and not because we werecriticised,” said Dravid. “You shouldn’t need anything other than the factthat you’re playing for your country to motivate you. I’m pretty confidentthat my boys have really worked hard, irrespective of the results. They’veshown enthusiasm, energy and a lot of desire to get things better.”
“Probably with the exception of Sachin Tendulkar, everyone in this team has gone back to domestic cricket, and come back a better cricketer for it. And sometimes, they haven’t come back” – Dravid
He stressed that no board official had been in touch with him since theDurban loss, and added that criticism was par for the course no matter howaccomplished a player you were. “I’ve withstood a lot of criticism as abatsman,” he said. “I’ve been out of the team for a year. I was goingthrough a period in 2001 and 2002 where I attracted a lot of criticism. SoI’ve had my share. It’s not always been smooth sailing as a player. It’sno different [as captain]. It’s not hard to accept as long as you know youare doing your best and trying to get the best out of your players.”You’re going to make mistakes, and things won’t work out as planned. Youhave to accept that some amount of criticism is justified, and some of itis obviously over the top as well. There’s only so much you can do as aplayer or a captain. You have to take some of the criticism with a pinchof salt.”And with the axe being sharpened for the likes of Suresh Raina, Dravidsaid that it was hard to draw a line when it came to success and failure.”If you fail consistently at this level, then the decision will have to betaken by the selectors,” he said. “Some will be better off going back todomestic cricket.”Some of these guys have been through that. It happens constantly. Youcan’t put a number to it, but there does come a time you have to reassessand look at your game. Probably with the exception of Sachin Tendulkar,everyone in this team has gone back to domestic cricket, and come back abetter cricketer for it. And sometimes, they haven’t come back.”If Andrew Flintoff and friends think that they’re having a hard time of itin Brisbane, they have no idea. Along with English football and SouthAfrican rugby, Indian cricket remains sport’s biggest soap opera, withfickle fans and inflated expectations making for an incendiary cocktailthat even Molotov couldn’t have thought up.
Kenya’s players have finally received about two-thirds of the money owed to them from the 2003 World Cup and the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy after the government, and not, as reported elsewhere, the Kenyan Cricket Association, paid a lump sum of US$41,000 to help clear the arrears.Wellingtone Godo, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Sports, said he hoped the payment would boost the team’s morale ahead of next week’s Intercontinental Cup tournament in Namibia. “The money may not be enough,” he said, “but we hope it will motivate the team to do well in the coming event.”It was these arrears which led to the players’ strike in 2004, an action which help escalate the demise of the old KCA regime headed by Sharad Ghai.The news came at the same time that the ICC finally released the remaining US$100,000 it owed under the old Project Kenya scheme. That had been withheld after serious issues arose about the way earlier funding had been used by the old regime. A strict condition of the final payment was that the money had to be put towards identified development projects and could not be used to clear existing debts.The KCA has inherited debts of at least US$500,000 from the Ghai regime, and there are almost no assets. Much of the paperwork for the final period of Ghai’s tenure has gone missing, and as a result it has not been possible to finalise accounts for 2004. As a result, the ICC is withholding quarterly payments of US$13,000 due to the KCA, arguing that without such financial details, it cannot hand over any more money. In the meantime, Ghai is due in court soon to face changes of stealing around US$3.3 million from the KCA in 1999.
Kyle Mills will not travel with his team-mates to Napier and will stay in Auckland to recover from a stiffness in his back. Mills sustained this stiffness in the first game, which New Zealand won comprehensively, and felt a twinge during the third over of his spell.This was not the first time that Mills had this problem and had recovered from similar trouble a couple of times in the past. On those previous ocassions, he had been back to full fitness within a couple of days. John Bracewell, the coach, was optimistic that Mills would be available for the second match on Wednesday. Mills had a good first game in which he conceded only 24 runs in his economical eight-over spell. He also took the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara.Ian Butler, the fast bowler, will also rejoin the squad early on Tuesday morning to be ready for Wednesday’s second ODI. Butler left for Wellington to play in Northern Districts’ State one-day match against Wellington tomorrow so that he could be match-fit for the Napier game.