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Chris Adams led from the front with a 49-ball 70 to steer Sussex to a two-wicket win with seven balls in hand over Hampshire at Hove. Michael Lumb (108) and John Crawley (68) got Hampshire off to a flier with a first-wicket stand of 147 and when they were parted Sean Ervine with a 41-ball 56 kept the scoreboard rattling along. Set 261, Sussex wobbled after a good start before Adams and Andy Hodd added 61 for the sixth wicket and even though Adams was caught and bowled by Shaun Udal, Hodd, who helped Sussex bat out a draw yesterday, kept his head to see his side to victory and hand Hampshire their first defeat.Stephen Fleming smashed 90 off 60 balls to lead Nottinghamshire to a resounding win over Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. Fleming, left out of New Zealand’s Twenty20 squad for the World Championships, hit 12 fours and three sixes as Notts reached their target of 212 with six wickets in hand 62 balls to spare. David Hussey took 3 for 26 for Notts while Chris Rogers and David Sales struck 58 and 52 to take Northants to 211 for 6, a target that proved insufficient after Fleming’s onslaught.Heath Streak claimed four wickets as Warwickshire pulled off a six-run win against Essex at Southend. After the frustration of their Championship draw against Sussex it was a timely result for Warwickshire. Grant Flower’s 49-ball 53 gave Essex a decent chance of claiming the points, but Streak removed him late in the chase. Alex Loudon produced a tight spell of offspin and Lee Daggett grabbed two scalps. After the match was cut to 34 over per side Darren Maddy and Kumar Sangakkara hit 41 apiece then useful innings from Loudon and Tim Ambrose lifted Warwickshire to 188.

An all-round performance from Darren Stevens, who took 3 for 15 and then thumped an unbeaten 85, guided Kent to a three-wicket win over Durham in the table-top clash at Canterbury with seven balls to spare. Michael Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein looked to be guiding Durham to a formidable score but James Tredwell removed Di Venuto and that triggered a slide in which the seven wickets fell for 58. At 101 for 5 chasing 204, Kent had problems of their own, but Stevens and Geraint Jones put on 60 for the sixth wicket and Stevens kept his head despite Gareth Breese’s late three-wicket haul.The rain already moving into the west of the UK put paid to Glamorgan’s match against Somerset at Colwyn Bay. The umpires called play off two hours before the start with the outfield saturated.

Middlesex’s Pro40 play-off match against Northamptonshire on Sunday, September 23 will be staged at Southgate.It had been reported that the game might be held at Lord’s as opposed to Southgate, an outground with a limited capacity.But an MCC spokesperson told Cricinfo that Lord’s was unavailable. “Our winter works programme begins the day after the Cockspur Cup final, and this was already delayed by a day because of the floodlit fixture [on September 10] being switched to Lord’s from Southgate.”We play more cricket at Lord’s than probably any other first-class ground in England and so Mick Hunt has to get on with the works the minute the season finishes. The square was top dressed last Wednesday.”The play-off starts at 12.45pm and the gates will open an hour and a half earlier.

The Indian board has put down a minimum qualification of 25 first-class matches for the members of its technical committee. At its annual general body meeting yesterday, the BCCI also announced the formation of a women’s selection committee headed by former captain Anju Jain.Following a Supreme Court order to settle membership matters under dispute, the board has also decided to set up a member affiliation committee.Other decisions taken at the meeting include:Upgrade of venues
Jaipur, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium and Visakhapatnam are likely to attain Test status if the cricket associations of Rajasthan, Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh fulfil the conditions stipulated by Alan Hurst, the ICC match referee, who inspected the venues recently.Hyderabad is scheduled to host the third ODI between India and Australia on October 5 and the ICC will wait for a report from match referee Chris Broad to see if the conditions have been fulfilled before granting it Test status. Hurst has asked the Hyderabad Cricket Association to remove CCTV cameras from the players’ dressing rooms to maintain privacy.Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Stadium hosted its only Test in 1987 between India and Pakistan and only after recent renovations has it begun to host ODIs regularly, including six Champions Trophy matches last year.Distributing television revenue
The BCCI will distribute the Rs 9.36 crores (US$ 2.3 million) that it received as television revenue among the state associations that hosted Tests and ODIs during the 2006-07 season. India hosted the Champions Trophy and played one-day series against Sri Lanka and West Indies before the World Cup. So 12 associations – Punjab, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Bengal, Goa, Baroda, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Vidarbha and Orissa – will accordingly receive a share each of the revenue. The other members will share Rs6.7 crore (US$ 1.6 million) between themselves.World Twenty20 prize money
The Indian team will receive their prize money for winning the ICC World Twenty20 after the BCCI receives the money from the ICC. “The winner’s prize money is US$ 490,000,” Niranjan Shah, the board secretary told the . “In all the team has won close to US$ 1million.”Annual report
The BCCI has published an abridged version of its annual report and accounts which highlights the board’s activities over the last season.Technical Committee: Sunil Gavaskar (chairman), Chinmoy Sharma, Dr. MV Sridhar, Snehashish Ganguly, CR Mohite, Vinod Kumar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Yashpal Sharma, VK Ramaswamy, Niranjan ShahWomen’s selection committee: Anju Jain (chairman), Poornima Rao, Mithu Mukherjee, Vrinda Bhagat, Sandhya Agarwal, Niranjan Shah

The Somerset chairman, Giles Clarke, has been elected as the new chairman of the England & Wales Cricket Board, after seeing off the challenge of his only rival for the role, the current deputy chairman and former head of Surrey, Michael Soper.Following David Morgan’s appointment as the president-elect of the ICC, the two candidates went head-to-head in the original poll in August, but were tied at nine votes each. This time the margin was more comprehensive, with Clarke emerging victorious by 12 votes to six, with one abstention.The call for nominations closed on Monday, September 3, and all 18 first-class counties and the MCC went to a ballot. The endorsement from the full membership of the ECB is scheduled to be completed on October 10, and Clarke will remain in the role until March 2009.The 53-year-old Clarke began the ballot as the underdog, having become an unpopular figure in English cricket after brokering the £220million deal with BSkyB that took home Test series away from terrestrial television. But he is currently overseeing the redevelopment of the county ground in Taunton and is believed to be keen on attracting investment to try to boost the finances of county cricket.Soper admitted after his failure to win the first ballot that he had failed to make a strong enough case for his election, and tendered his resignation as ECB deputy after the results of the second ballot had been revealed.”It is with great regret that I am tendering my resignation,” he said. “Over the last five years I have endeavoured to unite this great game of ours and bring a sense of balance and fair play to both the Test match grounds and non-Test match grounds.”The last few weeks have saddened me in that nine county chairmen told me to my face that they were supporting me. I have now found that three nameless individuals have, in fact, lied. I cannot represent the game at the highest level while people do not honour their word. It has never been my way because I have always believed in the maxim ‘my word is my bond’.”I will always be available to serve our wonderful game should the need arise and I hope that English cricket in the long run will always remain a vibrant force for young people to enjoy.”

I’m back
The moment Shoaib Akhtar’s name was inked on to the team-sheet, some excitement was expected. But in his very first over back, playing an ODI after 13 months and a 13-match ban? His first ball caught Herschelle Gibbs completely off-guard and struck him on the shoulder. Gibbs flicked a boundary next, before two successive no-balls and free hits. Graeme Smith then played-on the first ball he faced and the over finally ended, eightminutes after it began, with South Africa 7-1. Not a bad way to come backinto the side.Oops I’ve dropped it again
Is there a man in Pakistan luckier than Kamran Akmal? He has gone through over a year dropping catches like Elizabeth Taylor dropped husbands and yet remains the first-choice wicketkeeper. He’s dropped Jacques Kallis already in the Test series, though that was at least off spin, against which Akmal has as much clue as Inspector Clouseau. But his clanger today, dropping Kallis on 2 off Shoaib, has to go down as the worst of his drops,and there is stiff competition. Drop him? No, we’ll take him to India as the only keeper. Meanwhile, Indian batsmen are queuing up to sign on to Pakistan’s ‘Give a batsman another chance’ policy.Six or out?
Already in his short career, Sohail Tanvir has made a habit of looking completely nonchalant in all areas of his work. When Shaun Pollock launched a sky-high loft towards long-on, the ball took some catching. Tanvir moved in, took it cool as a cucumber and just inside the boundary. Or was it? Replays suggested some doubt for it appeared as if Tanvir might have brushed the rope with his foot. He even looked back to see if he had, but walked away, naturally too cool for school. Pollock stayed at the wicket, and trudged off slower than Inzamam-ul-Haq when given out. He stopped at regular intervals but the umpires were unmoved and no replay was called for. Technology: it’s either too much or too little.He who laughs last
If international cricket ever has a five-over game, Imran Nazir would be its king. In Makhaya Ntini’s very first over, Nazir punched, clipped and whipped the last three balls for boundaries, through extra cover, midwicket and square leg respectively. Off the first ball of Ntini’s next over, he drove past mid-off to make it four emphatic boundaries in four Ntini balls: Pakistan were blazing, Nazir was the arsonist. But as has been a hallmark of Nazir’s career – and a testament to the bowler’s perseverance – it was Ntini who laughed last and loudest. Off the last ball of that over, Nazir tried to drive again, his feet not budging an inch, and only succeeded in edging behind. Like most Nazir knocks, it was short, sweet and pointless.

It’s a long-on, no it’s a long-off, no wait it’s a two-in-one
Johan Botha was going to bowl the 27th over and Graeme Smith decided that he wanted to save a fielder. So he placed Shaun Pollock directly behind the bowler in front of the sight-screen to do the duties of both long-off and long-on. The batsmen – Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf had a word with the umpires who in turn had a word with Smith. Pollock was not moved after the discussions. Botha, however, bowled a tight over and was not driven down the ground even once.And that’s how Jonty would do it
Pakistan needed 16 off 26 balls with three wickets remaining, but no sweat, Shahid ‘Boom-Boom’ Afridi was still around. Not quite, though. He threw his bat at an Ntini delivery on the off stump, but only managed a top edge. The ball flew towards the backward point and third man region and just as it seemed to fall safe, AB de Villiers emerged, sprinting hard from point to take a tumbling catch. Even outside the context of Pakistan’s panicky batsmanship, this was spectacular.

The West Indies selectors have always been a contrary lot. The present generation has maintained the reputation with some confusing choices among the 23 called to the High Performance Centre at Cave Hill to prepare for the imminent tours of Zimbabwe (for five ODIs) and South Africa (three Tests, five ODIs, two Twenty20s).The most baffling are the omission from the group of Lendl Simmons and Keiron Pollard, the two young Trinidadians who had been seemingly identified as among those for the future but have quickly been shunted aside.Over the past year, Simmons, the slim, 22-year-old opener, was in the ODI teams in Pakistan, the World Cup and England. Pollard, 19, was picked for the World Cup on the evidence of his spectacular power-hitting in both Carib Beer Series and KFC Cup in his debut season.Simmons had limited success in spasmodic appearances that did not allow him to establish himself. Pollard has not been called again since his solitary opportunity against South Africa in the World Cup, a decisive contest in which he achieved nothing.Both did no less than most in the recent KFC Cup and Simmons’ ability as a back-up wicket-keeper and Pollard’s stiff medium-pace might have added to their credentials.While they are excluded, all of the “incumbents”, as Andy Roberts calls them, are retained, even the several with little to recommend them. It is a sad reflection on the present state of West Indies cricket.

Adam Gilchrist and Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland have dismissed reports that there is a rift between the players and the board over the Indian Premier League (IPL). The printed a letter in which Sutherland expressed his disappointment that 11 Australian-contracted players had not consulted Cricket Australia before signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would let them play in the IPL.However, Gilchrist said there was no substance to suggestions that the players could choose to play in the IPL ahead of Tests or ODIs for their country. “No one will play [in the IPL] without consent,” Gilchrist told . “We’re not trying to be rebels here. It’s a new opportunity for cricketers and it’s a very exciting one that I know Cricket Australia are endorsing and encouraging.”We’re not looking for a moment to bend the rules or our contracts with Cricket Australia. They are our employer, as simple as that. We’ll abide by their rules at all times and we’re not trying to bend those rules what so all. If the opportunity comes up to play IPL, which a lot of us have signed a MOU to allow us to do, (we will play) but that will always be secondary to international cricket and playing for our country.”Sutherland said although Cricket Australia supported the officially-sanctioned IPL, he would have preferred the players to consult Cricket Australia before signing the MOU. “There was an element of disappointment there that players and/or their managers didn’t think to advise us of that,” Sutherland said.However, he echoed Gilchrist’s sentiment that no player was likely to turn down the chance to play for his country. “I haven’t seen any intent on the part of the Australian players that is going to compromise international cricket and their commitments to Cricket Australia,” he said. “No-one has signed a binding contract, and they can’t until they have clearance from Cricket Australia.”Because of Australia’s hectic Test schedule next year and beyond, the chances for Australian players to take part in the IPL could be limited. Next year the tournament is likely to clash with Australia’s Test tour to Pakistan and Sutherland said that would mean only a few fringe players might be free to join IPL teams.”The workload and the timing of when the Indian Premier League is, in spite of perhaps players looking to sign contracts, it might be over the course of the next three years that Australian players are only able to play one of the next three years. In terms of that conflict, or players choosing to play in the Indian Premier League instead of their international commitments, it’s just not going to happen.”Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey are among the stars believed to have signed MOUs. Sutherland said Cricket Australia had no problem with the players signing binding agreements provided the terms were satisfactory.

Almost every preconception, all based on solid statistical or circumstantial evidence, was negated on the opening day of the first Test at St.George’s Park.Only the assumption that the captain winning the toss would choose to bowl followed the prescribed script and even that decision turned out to be flawed. At the end, West Indies, weak, woefully under prepared and seemingly with little hope against superior opponents, were standing tall at 281 for four. Everyone who went to the wicket made a contribution and even Clive Lloyd’s plea for “stickability” was heeded by two unlikely candidates during a period of attribution between intervals and into the final session.The pitch, under cover for much of the previous four days as rain lashed Port Elizabeth, was widely expected to encourage the fast bowlers. It didn’t. It turned out to be slow and provided little movement. A little uneven bounce was its only snag and it contributed to the dismissal of Runako Morton, who jabbed one that lifted from a length to point.Dale Steyn, South Africa’s wrecker of New Zealand with 20 wickets in the two Tests last month, was primed to do the same to West Indies, who had folded for 193 and 218 against lesser bowlers in their preceding match against the A team. He didn’t. Unable to ignite the fire out of the surface as he did on the fliers in Johannesburg and Centurion, he had to wait for the second new ball and his 19th over before he claimed his solitary wicket.It was significant since it ended Marlon Samuels’ quality innings, an extravagant drive flying to slip when he was six short of a long overdue second Test hundred, a quarter-hour before fading light halted play for the day. Until half an hour before the start, it was doubtful whether Chris Gayle’s slowly healing hamstring would allow him to lead West Indies in his first Test match. He did, after declaring himself ready following a casual jog on the outfield, and, in the manner of all worthy captains, made the assertive statement for his men to follow.Soon assessing that the pitch was as flat as South Africa’s early bowling and realising he had chosen a good toss to lose (he admitted he would have done what Smith did), the tall left-hander thumped 13 fours in all directions with typically dismissive power, scoring 66 from 49 balls. Such an immediate assault was not unfamiliar to South Africa. Gayle has blasted them more than once in the past but this was his first innings since his injury in Zimbabwe on December 2.After initially, if inadvertently, putting it to the test with a sharp single and a full length dive for home to get off the mark in the first over, he thoroughly dictated terms. In successive overs from Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel, he reeled off three fours each to raise 50 from 42 deliveries. He and Daren Ganga, who applied a steady approach, raised 98 for the first wicket before two careless strokes claimed them within three balls of each other and spoiled the growing optimism.Two of Ganga’s boundaries were delightful drives through cover and mid-off from Nel. Seemingly sweetened by the effect, he went for another from a delivery too wide to give merit to the stroke and nicked to Mark Boucher. At the opposite end, Gayle punched Paul Harris’s first ball for his 13th four and, trying to repeat, edged a sharp catch to Jacques Kallis at first slip. His commanding play suggested much more but he didn’t give himself enough time to scrutinise the left-arm spinner.West Indies went into lunch at 130 for two, Samuels saved at 14 in the last over to the break by umpire Aleem Dar’s call of Steyn’s no-ball that was edged into Smith’s lap at slip. Soon after, Dar’s eagle eye was again to the rescue, spotting that Samuels’ hand was off the handle when another catch was deflected to slip off the glove, also off Steyn.The morning session yielded 22 fours from 27 overs. It was enough to place South Africa on the defensive and the tactics on resumption involved Jacques Kallis and Steyn testing the batsmen’s patience by bowling well wide of off-stump.The name Larry Gomes is not the first one brought to mind in association with Samuels or Morton but, for long periods during the afternoon, they followed Lloyd’s mantra to dig in like the left-hander used to in his era.The first hour brought 36 runs from 14 overs, the second to tea, also involving the more Gomes-like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 24 off 14. The difference was that neither Morton nor Samuels remained to post the hundreds of which Gomes tallied nine.Morton’s 33, with seven fours, mostly with his trademark straight drives, occupied 71 balls in a stand of 66 with Samuels. Once he had gone, Samuels’ next partnership with the typically adhesive Chanderpaul was worth 109 when he was snaffled at second slip slip by the leaping Kallis.Either agitated by Nel’s annoying verbal taunts that once drew censure from umpire Dar or seduced by the approach of his hundred, Samuels suddenly changed his long period of defence into all-out attack and stroked four boundaries each off Nel and Harris in successive overs. There are few more graceful batsmen around and it was exciting stuff. It was also fraught with danger and, making no provision for the harder new ball, Samuels fell to a drive executed with a flourish.Chanderpaul, entrenched for three hours already for 43, resumes tommorow with the sizeable total necessary to support the bowlers mainly in his hands. In the circumstances, it was West Indies’ most encouraging start to a series since 2005 when a team, decimated by the loss of captain Brian Lara and four key players through one of the interminable rows with the board, declared at 503 for five after two days at Bourda against the same opponents featuring many of the players they kept in the field for 84 overs here.They might recall that, in spite of enforcing the follow-on they couldn’t quite force victory then and eventually went down 2-0 in the series. A lot of hard work lies ahead here.

Eight losses in nine Tests in South Africa; 17 defeats in the last 20 overseas Tests; not a single Test win against a meaningful opposition outside home in more than seven years; and a humiliating ten-wicket defeat to a South Africa A team in less than three days. Going into the Boxing Day Test in Port Elizabeth, there is little to suggest that West Indies can somehow shrug off another appalling year and give their fans a year-end gift to take into 2008, especially against a buoyant South African side that is coming off a series win in Pakistan and a fearful mauling of New Zealand.Against all those negatives, the only ray of hope for West Indies is their promising pace attack – Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards showed just what they are capable of in the Twenty20 game at the same venue last week, destroying the South African top order with an outstanding bowling performance. Mickey Arthur, the South African coach, is aware of the threat they pose: “They have genuine strike bowlers and I think the one battle will be them against Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs. If they all fire at the same time, they could set us back seriously.” The wet conditions in Port Elizabeth – it has been raining for the last few days and the forecast is for more of the same on Wednesday – suggest Taylor and Co might have similar conditions to exploit, especially if West Indies win the toss.What it also means, though, is that their batsmen could face a torrid examination if they are put in to bat on a juicy track. Dale Steyn has been in outstanding form, with 20 wickets in two Tests against New Zealand, and with at least two from Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel and Shaun Pollock certain to be around, easy runs is one thing West Indies cannot expect.The conditions will probably favour the seamers, but Graeme Smith, who’ll be leading South Africa for the 50th time in Tests – indicated Paul Harris, the left-arm spinner, will still be part of the mix. “I think it’s important we develop our spinner and give him responsibility in all conditions. With tours to India, England and Australia next year, he’s going to play an important part. He’s played an important part in our setup, and I wouldn’t like to leave him out. It will take a very, very green wicket for the selection panel to leave him out.”West Indies have already suffered an embarrassing defeat, and to make matters worse they are still fretting over Chris Gayle’s availability. Gayle had injured his hamstring in Zimbabwe, and if he doesn’t recover sufficiently, Dwayne Bravo will make his debut as Test captain. West Indies have responded well to Gayle the captain in the past, but given the brittleness of their top order, they need Gayle the batsman far more desperately.Daren Ganga has had an extended run in Tests now, playing 14 in a row, but his form has tapered away alarmingly – his last six Test innings read 5, 9, 5, 0, 0, and 6. Devon Smith doesn’t inspire confidence, and with Ramnaresh Sarwan missing due to a knee injury, much depends on Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the one West Indian batsman who has consistently put a value to his wicket. “What we need are a couple of Larry Gomeses, a couple of stickability guys,” Clive Lloyd, the West Indies manager, said a couple of days back. Chanderpaul can play the Gomes role and much more, but he will need the rest of the line-up to come to the party as well.Apart from their fast-bowling line-up, what will also give West Indies hope is the inconsistent South African top order. The mighty Jacques Kallis remains an immense force in the middle order – he has five centuries in his last seven innings – while Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince have played fine support acts, but the rest have been patchy at best. Smith is fit again after picking up a virus in Pakistan, but he’ll want to shrug off his poor form too – his last 36 Test innings have fetched him just one century. It’s even worse for Gibbs, who hasn’t scored a hundred in his last 43 innings. With the two of them listed to open the batting against a charged-up new-ball attack, West Indies have the opportunity to strike early, and then build on that momentum.That, though, is the best-case scenario for West Indies. Against a team which has been impregnable at home against all opposition except Australia, even a well-fought defeat will represent progress for West Indies.South Africa’s record at home is pretty impressive, but Port Elizabeth is the one ground where they haven’t got it right, with eight wins and ten defeats. Smith admitted that’s a record he wants to rectify: “It’s fair to say we haven’t played our best cricket down here in Port Elizabeth, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play good cricket. We just want to keep on improving our game, and getting better and better. If we do, I’m pretty confident that once we get into the series, we can take control of it.”South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 AB de Villiers, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Paul Harris, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Makhaya Ntini.West Indies (from) Chris Gayle (capt), Daren Ganga, Devon Smith, Brenton Parchment, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Rawl Lewis, Pedro Collins, Fidel Edwards, Daren Powell, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor.

Jacob Oram, the New Zealand allrounder, has been ruled out of the second Twenty20 international against England in Christchurch on Thursday after pulling a hamstring in the first game yesterday in Auckland. He will be replaced by Daniel Flynn, the 22-year-old Northern Districts left-hander.Flynn, who captained New Zealand in 2004’s Under-19 World Cup, cracked 149 against Canterbury on Wednesday in Northern Districts’ 313 for 7.”This is a great opportunity to introduce another exciting young player into the New Zealand squad,” Sir Richard Hadlee, the New Zealand selection manager, said. “His innings today was at better than run-a-ball and as a left-hander he will fit beautifully into our middle order at No. 6 or 7.”Fortunately for New Zealand, Oram’s injury isn’t very serious and he is expected to be fit for the first of five one-dayers starting on Saturday in Wellington.”I have a wee bit of a sore hamstring. It’s not completely torn and it’s not overly bad,” Oram told . “It’s similar to what I did in South Africa [in November] where I missed a Test match [in Centurion] but it’s nowhere near as bad as that, thankfully.”Nevertheless, Oram’s absence will be a big blow to New Zealand after their 32-run loss at Eden Park. He was the most economical among the bowlers, conceding 24 off his four overs, and picking up the wicket of Ian Bell. His 40-ball 61, which included seven fours and two sixes, was a last ditch effort after the top order collapsed in pursuit of the target of 185. Only three batsmen in total managed to cross double figures, with extras contributing 23.