Scorecard

Victoria will host Queensland in the Ford Ranger Cup final after a David Hussey century set up a crushing 143-run win for the Bushrangers over Tasmania. Hussey made 116 as the Bushrangers gave the Tigers a challenging target of 284 but the home side’s finals hopes evaporated and they crashed to 140.The demoralising loss was worsened for Tasmania when their captain Dan Marsh retired hurt with a potentially season-ending calf tear. The timing of Marsh’s injury would be a major worry for the Tigers, who are still in real contention for the Pura Cup final with two matches remaining.Hussey’s 103-ball innings was punctuated by six fours and five sixes and no bowler was safe as he and Rob Quiney built an important 98-run partnership for the third wicket. Quiney continued on from his impressive Pura Cup debut during the week and finished with 50, including two sixes beautifully clipped off his pads over square leg and midwicket.A quick 31 late in the innings from Adam Crosthwaite pushed Victoria to 6 for 283 and only Xavier Doherty (2 for 43) escaped with acceptable figures. Early wickets to Mick Lewis and Shane Harwood started the downward spiral for Tasmania, who virtually lost any chance when Marsh went to hospital with his leg problem.George Bailey top-scored with 35 but two wickets each to Harwood, Darren Pattinson, Andrew McDonald and Grant Lindsay sealed the win. Victoria’s home final will give them a chance to add to the Twenty20 title they earned last month.

Every single World Cup since 1992 has seen a major upset, and Ireland andZimbabwe could be forgiven for looking too far ahead as they square off inGroup D’s battle of the minnows.These are heady times for Irish sport, with the rugby team having clinched their third Triple Crown in four years, and the team that Trent Johnston leads will fancy their chances against Zimbabwe, especially after they gave South Africa an almightyscare in a warm-up game at St Augustine.Dave Langford-Smith and Johnston himself did the damage with the ball inthat game, as South Africa slumped to 91 for 8. As Johnston said at thepre-match press conference on Wednesday, it was “just unfortunate thatthey had a guy with a Test hundred batting at No. 9 [Andrew Hall].”Will Porterfield, Andre Botha and Kevin O’Brien made runs in that defeat,and Johnston was confident that Ireland could trump Zimbabwe if they”executed the basics”. The team have also been aided by Phil Simmons, theformer West Indian opener who will take over as coach when Adrian Birrellsteps down after the World Cup.For Zimbabwe, it’s a question of proving the doubters wrong. Enfeebled byplayers moving to pastures new, and not helped by the continuinginstability back home, they’re desperate to avoid defeat to an associatenation. Such a reverse would be an almighty setback as they bid to regainTest status, but both Kevin Curran, the coach, and Prosper Utseya, thecaptain, were quietly confident that Zimbabwe could put pressure on themore fancied teams in the group.Of the squad, only Stuart Matsikenyeri played at the last World Cup, andUtseya admitted that his experience and inputs had been invaluable. Currancited Vusi Sibanda, Elton Chigumbura and Sean Williams as players with theability to make a mark at the highest level, and much will also beexpected from the likes of Utseya, Anthony Ireland and Brendon Taylor.The pitch had a smattering of grass and the captain who wins the toss willmost likely exercise the bowl-first option. And though the crowd isn’texpected to be anything like as large as it was for the opening game, afew hundred travelling Irish could well transform a stand or two into apond of green. And whatever the result, they’ll savour the experience.

Talat Ali, Pakistan’s manager, blamed the team’s miserable World Cup performance on the paucity of their batting displays, as the probe launched to investigate Pakistan’s latest failure continued into its second week.”Our batsmen failed to set an imposing total against minnows Ireland besides failing to chase an achievable target set by the West Indies,” Talat told reporters after giving his statement before the performance evaluation committee headed by Ijaz Butt, Salahuddin Ahmed and Salim Altaf.None of Pakistan’s much-vaunted middle order trio made even a half-century; only Shoaib Malik and Imran Nazir crossed fifty in the three matches. Talat added that had the batsmen shown their potential, Pakistan would have advanced from the group stage.Referring to the last-minute withdrawals of fast bowling pair Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, Talat acknowledged that preparations for the tournament were far from ideal.”We went to the West Indies with 13 players and among them Shahid Afridi was not available for the first two matches, due to a ban. Therefore I think it was not an ideal situation for any team to prepare themselves for such a huge contest.”Of the media manager, PJ Mir’s assertions that the squad was focused more on religion than cricket, Talat refused to comment, adding only that, “I would not like to comment but will say that prayers have their own worth and cricket has its own.”Tauqir Zia, former chairman, also appeared before the committee and seconded Talat’s remarks that the issue of Shoaib and Asif created problems during preparations.There will be no further proceedings in Lahore after Shaharyar Khan, another former chairman, did not confirm his appearance to the PCB. Shaharyar was expected to appear today but instead asked the committee to send him a list of questions in advance.The committee will proceed to Karachi now to meet Wasim Bari, former chief of the selection committee, one of its members Iqbal Qasim, and more current and former cricketers.They will then head to Islamabad before announcing its findings, expected before the end of the month.

Scorecard
Sri Lanka A swept to their second successive victory by beating Bangladesh A by 101 runs on the final day at the Colombo Cricket Club Ground. Chasing an improbable 341 for victory, Bangladesh were dismissed for 239, the same score they had achieved in the first innings.Bangladesh A began the final day on 16 for no loss, needing another 325 for victory. Their openers, Jahurul Islam and Mehrab Hossain jnr, gave them a solid start by adding 60 for the first wicket. Jehan Mubarak gave Sri Lanka A the first breakthrough by catching Islam off his own bowling for 21 after which Upul Chandana broke the back of Bangladesh A’s chase.Chandana took three wickets in quick time and reduced Bangladesh A to 76 for 4. They never recovered from that severe setback although Nadif Chowdhury resisted with 75. They lost wickets at regular intervals to the spinners and folded for 239. Chandana finished with figures of 4 for 67 and was ably supported by Mubarak and Herath who took 3 for 53 and 3 for 38 respectively.

The profits from the World Cup may entirely clear the debts of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). Board president Ken Gordon told the Express last week: “I’m optimistic enough to hope that it might wipe it all out.”The beleaguered board are carrying a debt of US$15m. And it was the pre-tournament hope of Gordon that the six-week tournament, which will end on Saturday in Barbados, would go some way to relieving that burden.Asked last week if the WICB would in fact reap the expected financial bounty, the president said, “I expect that if we don’t reap the full benefits, we will get pretty close. There may be a shortfall but I don’t think it will be of any significance. I think we will come close to the targets we set. And I think overall, we will look back on this as a tremendous event.”Elaborating on what the World Cup profits could mean for the board, Gordon continued: “West Indies cricket expects to get a fair investment on it and out of that it intends to put in place plans for the developing of cricket. That’s what we want to do. We’ve been carrying a deficit of US$15m. If we can find a way to clear that, it eases our overall structure. It gives us the ability to have bank-borrowing, to do things which we can’t do now. Now we can hopefully work our way out of that.”The Caribbean’s first-ever hosting of cricket’s biggest event, however, has been marred by the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, complaints about the numbers of spectators at some venues and the restrictions on them.”Many things have gone wrong,” Gordon admitted. “But,” he asked, “who could have expected Bob Woolmer, right at the beginning of the series, to go like that? Who would have expected India and Pakistan to be withdrawn and so many thousands of people who were planning to come canceling? Who could have expected these things? Some countries have paid the price for it.”In spite of the difficulties, though, Gordon insisted that the World Cup was more success than failure. “This is the third largest event in the world. And we have done it when people didn’t think we could. And I think at the end of the day, we should all take some little pride in achieving it.”Gordon said he was impressed with the manner in which the local organisers have responded to the various problems. “We have dealt with enormous problems and our people have grown every time they have addressed them. And I think even though there were all these setbacks which I referred to, we moved into a second gear. And other things were done to put in place.”Grenada was happy, Guyana was happy. From what I see here, Barbados looks happy. We’ve had some empty stands, but you always have empty stands when you have weak games. The challenge is how you handle that in a way that would minimise the damage to the visible, while at the same time, not affecting the sales you’re trying to build, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job at this.”And Gordon noted further that he was especially pleased with “the tremendous personal growth I’ve seen amongst the people who have been managing this. The volunteers have been one of the great successes of this thing … because they have been absolutely superb. I’ve heard so many tourists talk about that. You can’t quantify the benefit of the warmth that has been generated at that level when those people leave here We must understand that this is not a project that you can expect your investment to be returned in a year or two, it’s a long-term investment.”Gordon, who has tendered his resignation as WICB boss but who has been asked to re-consider, is expected to give the board his final decision on Sunday at a special meeting.The WICB have been busy this week with planning meetings on the way forward for the cricket following the West Indies’ disappointing World Cup performance. Gordon said last week a change of culture was needed, “by laying down rules on which you are first of all absolutely serious about implementing. Those who don’t conform to those rules will know it’s their option to conform or otherwise…the new people you bring in, people who are committed to those standards, will ensure that they are maintained.”Asked why such change was taking so long, Gordon said: “I can only speak for the last 18 months and I will tell you that we have attempted to do so. But when you are dealing with a culture that has been inculcated over a very long time, you don’t do that and press your fingers and it disappears.”Gordon said he felt Brian Lara’s appointment as captain for a third time, last year, and his re-commitment to really do everything that he could to put cricket on a new footing, was the start of “an important beginning.”But the president conceded last week that West Indies cricket must now go back to the drawing board again. “We were found sadly wanting. We tried but it wasn’t good enough because we were not trying the right way, because we are not prepared properly enough to do it. And that’s what we’ve got to correct.”

Cricket Kenya has confirmed that India A will tour Kenya in late July or early August to play two four-day matches as well as taking part in a one-day series which will involve at least one other country’s A team.The deal was brokered by Samir Inamdar, CK’s chairman, while he was in India attending the Afro-Asia Cup. Indian board officials told him that they were keen to attract another side to ensure there was a high level of competition.Sri Lanka have expressed an interest in visiting in August on their way home from England, although Pakistan have declined, explaining that their players have too many commitments. South Africa A are scheduled to tour Zimbabwe which rules both of those sides out, although India had indicated they were keen to have Zimbabwe take part.Inamdar told Cricinfo that he had also written to the West Indies board suggesting that if their A team does go ahead with their tour of Zimbabwe then they might consider stopping in Kenya on their way home. If, however, the tour is cancelled, then he has still offered to host West Indies outright.

Joel Garner, the former West Indies fast bowler, has been appointed the Barbados Cricket Association’s tenth president, comfortably beating Calvin Hope by 40 votes, and has vowed to implement a five-year plan to put Bajan cricket back on the map.”I’m honoured to be elected to lead Barbados’ cricket forward,” Garner told . “I’m going to try to put cricket back in the main focus of the BCA and at the end of the year, try to have people thinking the way they should in terms of cricket.”I think it [the election] came down to people trusting and believing that I’m the best person to lead Barbados cricket at this time. We have to sit down and have a meeting to look at the way forward. We’ve got a five-year development plan that we’ve started working with. We’ll proceed with it, but look at all aspects of cricket.”Conde Riley, who has been on the association’s board for several years, was chosen as Garner’s vice president following an emphatic victory over Philo Wallace, the former West Indies opening batsman.”I’m humbled by the result,” Riley said. “It is a vote of confidence in my work. I hope that I can continue to work with the cricket development committee to ensure that we have our Centre of Excellence in place in the next three months.”I believe people realise that I work hard and I think they are convinced that I am someone that can serve Barbados’ cricket.”

Daren Powell has said that West Indies deliberately targeted Kevin Pietersen in their decisive one-day international at Trent Bridge on Saturday. Pietersen, who has slipped to No.2 in the world rankings, was given a hostile welcome with a first-ball bouncer then edged his next delivery to second slip.It was a classic piece of fast bowling from Powell who said: “After the first Test at Lord’s [where Pietersen made a hundred], we realised that if we attacked him, he tried to go out of his shell and it progressively worked for us in the one-day series. We attacked him a lot and it paid off for us.”To me, he’s the kind of person who doesn’t like people to get on top of him. When he comes out to bat, I normally talk to him and stuff like that, tell him things that probably make him uncomfortable. This time I didn’t do that. I bowled a sharp ball at him and give him a stare. Then I got my ball in the right area, he went and played a stroke and he nicked one.”Powell, who took 4 for 40 and claimed the Man-of-the-Match award at Trent Bridge, added that he tried to learn from some of the world’s best pace bowlers. “When you watch Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock, they just give a batsman a stare and the great Glenn McGrath did the same thing. I just tried that and it worked.””For the past couple of seasons representing the West Indies, when it’s come to crucial games like this I haven’t picked up any wickets at all, even in the last game of the World Cup [where England beat West Indies in Barbados].”On Friday night I sat in my hotel room and thought about what I had to do to create pressure and take early wickets. On Saturday morning, I assessed the wicket when our guys went out to bat and I realised I had to bowl straight and vary my pace. I thought about my game, and put the ball in the right areas.”Powell, who has previously expressed a desire to play county cricket, also confirmed he’d been in talks with Glamorgan. “I’m still in negotiations. It would be nice to play some county cricket here whether it’s Glamorgan or whoever.”Playing county cricket, would help my game improve a notch for West Indies cricket as well. I just want to use it to propel my game to the next level.”

Rory Hamilton-Brown has been reinstated as England Under-19 captain after the ECB was forced to make an about-turn, less than a week after it had stripped him of the captaincy and banned him from the first of two Tests against Pakistan.On Monday, it was reported that Hamilton-Brown had been punished for drinking on the eve of the first Test. He was named in the squad for the second match at Derby, which starts today, but only as a player with Ben Wright continuing as captain.But this morning the ECB issued a statement which said: “Following an investigation, Rory Hamilton-Brown has been reinstated as captain. Following the original decision taken by the England Under-19 team management there were suggestions that Hamilton-Brown had been involved in purchasing and consuming alcohol. Those suggestions have now proven to be unfounded.”The ECB has launched a full inquiry into the circumstances which led to the initial suspension which was imposed by the team management of John Abrahams and Andy Pick on the morning of the first Test.Whatever the outcome, board officials are likely to face some embarrassing questions as to how he was so swiftly banned on what now appears to be unsupportable evidence.

Spin bowlers should be encouraged to bowl more in the early overs of one-day games, says Dipak Patel, the former New Zealand offspinner who famously opened the bowling in the 1992 World Cup.Patel’s comments come in the wake of Rahul Dravid’s comments about the Powerplay rule, saying an extra fielder outside the circle would encourage spinners during that phase of the game.”The problem with many captains is that they tend to use spinners either too attackingly as too defensively,” said Patel when asked about the modification. “Spinners need to be used smartly, with inside out-fields. You need to attack and defend at the same time.”Martin Crowe, the former captain, and Warren Lees, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper who was appointed coach, came up with a plan to open the bowling with Patel in the 1992 World Cup. On small grounds with fielding restrictions in operation, Patel ended with eight wickets in as many games with an economy-rate as impressive as 3.10.”The role of the captain is vital. I was lucky to have Martin leading me and he knew exactly where to place the fielders when I was bowling,” said Patel, currently in England doing research on spinners for the High Performance wing of the New Zealand board. “He always used to tell me, ‘We’re going to keep the runs down at the other end. So you throw it up and try to get them out. They’ll try and hit you and give their wickets.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”But how easy is it for a spinner to be bowling with a hard, white ball? “It’s great, especially with such a prominent seam. It helps your grip and turns enough to beat the bat. I sometimes think spinners look for too much turn these days. You just need an inch or so.”