All posts by csb10.top

Somerset chief executive Peter Anderson has once again spoken out strongly in support of the English summer game.Speaking at the County Ground he told me: "For a number of years several leading national media commentators have tried to state the case that interest and playing the game of cricket is dying. The facts that they choose to ignore do not support this view."In 2002 despite being relegated to the second division in both the county championship and the National League interest in Somerset County Cricket Club and cricket in general across the south west seems to be as strong as ever.Membership of Somerset topped the 7000 mark and the official club website received a record breaking 1.5 million hits during the month of August, with Ciderman supporters logging on from as far afield as Australia, Brazil, U.S.A. and Hawaii.Mr Anderson continued: "Cricket is very much alive and well in Somerset and the south west of England. This season over 7000 members joined the club and we enjoyed new record levels of hits on our website."Referring to a recent report from the ECB the he continued: "This document tells us that more adults and juniors are playing cricket in Somerset and Devon and Cornwall, where we also have a large number of members, than before,which is very good news for the Club."He concluded: How much longer do we have to put up with these people saying that the game of cricket is dying?"

North Division

Yorkshire, at least, will be relieved at the rain that brought their match at Derby to an untimely conclusion in the 22nd over, . The Derbyshire seamers had put their team well in the ascendancy, on course for another victory, but in the end it was the weather that had the last word.Yorkshire were put in to bat on a greenish pitch in a damp atmosphere, and were in trouble right from the start. Charl Langeveldt quickly found the conditions to his liking, whipping out Craig White, caught at slip for 1, and Anthony McGrath, caught at the wicket for 0; 6 for 2. Andrew Gale (11) chipped Graham Wagg low to mid-on to make it 23 for 3.Jacques Rudolph got his head down and fought it out, but Adam Lyth ignored the conditions and played some handsome drives, most notably a cover drive that was through the fielder before he could react effectively. His 18, a little cameo, came to a cruel end: he was hit a crippling blow in the box, and when he eventually decided he was fit to face up again, he was immediately bowled by a beauty from Tom Lungley.Shortly afterwards the rain came, and Derbyshire could only survey the dismal landscape with regret. Rudolph finished unbeaten with 14 and, had the rain stopped, he would have carried quite a weight on his shoulders.Stephen and Ben Harmison conspired for Durham to consign Scotland to a 38-run loss at Chester-le-Street. Fifties for Phil Mustard and Neil McKenzie lifted Durham to a useful 230 and as soon as Gavin Hamilton fell to Callum Thorp, the visitors started slipping – they slid from 22 for 1 to 51 for 5, the Harmisons doing most of the damage with three wickets apiece. Neil McCallum and Richard Berrington essayed a mini-rescue – McCallum was in good touch with 60 – but their efforts were, in the end, cosmetic.

South West Division

Gloucestershire and Hampshire got in some early Twenty20 practice at Bristol – and it was a thriller, Gloucestershire emerging winners and new table-toppers with two balls left. Somehow they picked themselves up from 15 for 3 and 27 for 4 – Shane Bond the chief wrecker with 3 for 11 from four overs – and gradually began to pick up the run-rate chasing 145 through Craig Spearman (67 from 44 balls) and Mark Hardinges, who made 49 not out off 44 deliveries. Michael Lumb topscored with 76 to push Hampshire to 144 for 6, while Jon Lewis shone with 3 for 17.Glamorgan continued a gloomy week at Swansea: after being crushed by Northamptonshire in the Championship, Worcestershire outplayed them on Sunday. The visitors restricted them to 135 for 9 from their revised 31 overs; hardly even a competitive Twenty20 total. Worcestershire made light work of the ask, losing only Steve Davies, Moeen Ali and Vikram Solanki, who made 69, as they completed the job comfortably with 17 balls remaining.

South East Division

Surrey wasted no time hunting down Essex‘s 215 in a match reduced to 40 overs, with their captain Mark Butcher and Usman Afzaal leading the charge in an unbroken 109-run stand, each reaching fifty, after Scott Newman’s half-century. James Benning also made 38. Varun Chopra’s 79 from as many balls was the platform from which Essex had built their total but even lower-order contributions from James Middlebrook and David Masters were not enough at Chelmsford and Surrey were home with 22 balls remaining.Middlesex‘s tie with Sussex called off very early at Southgate, leaving Sussex rooted to the bottom with only one win in six.

Midlands Division

The Midlands league was hardly the joy division, with both scheduled fixtures abandoned through rain without a ball bowled. Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire stay joint second in the Midlands Division after watching the rain at Northampton, while the wash-out between Warwickshire and Ireland at Edgbaston confirmed the sides’ status as the bottom two. The wooden spoon slot is yet to be determined.

Luton:
Suffolk 337 (IS Morton 73)
Bedfordshire 12/0Reading:
Berkshire 278 (JC Morris 80, NJ Wilton 56, KJ Nash 5-96)
Wiltshire 57/1.Beaconsfield:
Staffordshire 81-9 (A Umpleby 6-38)
BuckinghamshireOxton:
Cheshire 327-6d (N Cross 79, DN Leech 61, RG Hignett 61)
Wales 0/0Luctonians:
Dorset 129 (TJ Deakin 53, KE Cooper 7-49)
Herefordshire 32-5.Grantham:
Hertfordshire 364-8d (SJ Lowe 105, BJ Frazer 63, TP Cranston 59)
Lincolnshire 27/0.Banbury:
Devon 215/5 (M Hunt 58, R Dawson 51)
OxfordshireFenners:
Cambridgeshire 106/7 (G Freear 62)
Northumberland

Cameron Cuffy’s place in the West Indies team for the forthcoming International Cricket Council’s Champions Trophy isn’t altogether certain.In light of concerns over his fitness, chief selector Sir Vivian Richards confirmed yesterday that following an assessment by the selection panel over the next few days, a final determination will be made.A West Indies Cricket Board release later in the day, which outlined details of an agreement reached with the West Indies Players Association, mentioned that the team "will proceed to Sri Lanka on September 5 barring injuries".After a recent knee operation, the gangling Vincentian fast bowler made an unimpressive return to competitive cricket by playing in the last two preliminary matches of the Red Stripe Bowl.He hardly looked the part and often struggled when bowling and fielding.Cuffy is usually impeccable in line and length at regional level, but he went for 56 runs from his 10 overs on his first appearnce in the Bowl against Barbados a week ago.

Australian vice captain Adam Gilchrist has received a formal reprimand for weekend comments deemed to have been detrimental to the interests of cricket.Gilchrist was made aware of his fate at the end of an Australian Cricket Board (ACB) hearing in Sydney this evening. His appearance at the three-and-a-half hour long hearing, before ACB commissioner Alan Sullivan, followed remarks made on Sunday in which he suggested that Sri Lankan off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan possessed an illegal bowling action.Gilchrist escaped the prospect of being either fined or suspended for his actions, instead drawing the lowest punishment among a list of ten possible penalties prescribed under the ACB’s Code of Behaviour.Under the provisions of the Code, he was not permitted to make any public statement about the decision and duly left the offices of Cricket New South Wales without offering further comment.ACB Chief Executive, James Sutherland, who participated in the hearing by means of a telephone hookup from Melbourne, meanwhile said that he was satisfied that the case had been handled appropriately.”As administrators we do not enjoy taking action against our own players, particularly those of Adam’s upstanding nature,” he said.”The ACB recognises Adam’s outstanding contribution to the image and success of Australian cricket through his conduct, both on and off the field.”However the Code of Behaviour is in place for a very important reason. Its fundamental purpose is to protect the integrity and credibility of the game of cricket, in this case, particularly in the context of the ACB’s relationship with other countries.”The ACB’s decision to reprimand Gilchrist followed a Victorian newspaper’s publication of comments about Muralitharan’s action that the world’s number one ranked batsman believed had been made in private at a Carlton Football Club function in Melbourne last Sunday.Gilchrist has the right to appeal against the imposition of the reprimand at some time within the next 24 hours. In the immediate aftermath of the hearing, it was not expected, however, that he would pursue this course of action.

Somerset fans will be delighted at the news that they will have the services of their two England players Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick for some of their early season matches before the start of the home test series and the triangular one day international tournament.Both players will be missing from the match against Cardiff UCCE at Millfield School, and they will also miss out on the County Championship opener against Sussex at Hove on April 24th, plus the first three Benson and Hedges matches.However Caddick and Trescothick will be available to play for the Cidermen in the Benson and Hedges games against Gloucestershire at Bristol on Sunday May 5th, and against Worcestershire the following day at the County Ground, and the pair will also be able to play in the county championship match against Yorkshire, which starts on Wednesday May 8th.Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson told me: "As last year we are disappointed that they are going to be missing from the first three Benson and Hedges matches, but we will just have to get on with it. However we are delighted that they will be available to play in the Queens Golden Jubilee match against reigning champions Yorkshire."The Somerset Chief added; "We have also had it confirmed that Richard Johnson will not be a centrally contracted England player and will be available to play for Somerset from the start of the season."Meanwhile Marcus Trescothick who returned from New Zealand last Friday was at the County Ground watching his county team-mates play a forty over match between themselves on Saturday and also again when they beat the West of England Premier League XI on Monday.

North Zone made a relatively easy entry into the Vijay Hazare TrophyUnder-16 tournament with the help of the massive 198-run first innings leadover West Zone in the semifinal match at the Maharaja Jayachamaraja WodayarSports Centre in Bangalore on Tuesday.Resuming at 160 for three, West Zone’s overnight pair of opener SOKukreja (79) and CR Suryavanshi (74) took the socre to 207. Kureja was thefirst to be dismissed on the final morning, stumped by Bhupinder Singh offAbhinav Bali. During a 224-minute stay at the crease, Kukreja faced 185balls and hit eleven fours and two sixes. Yousuf Pathan (6) did not lastlong and in the 63rd over was trapped leg before by Paras Dogra. ParagMadkaikar (54) then joined Suryavanshi and forged a 68-run partnership forthe seventh wicket. Suryavanshi was the next to be dismissed, caught byRahat Ali off Gaurav Gupta. During a stay of two hours at the crease,Suryavanshi faced 121 balls and hit six fours. Thereafter, an eighth wicketstand worth 52 runs ensued between Madkaikar and Sunasura (32). ThoughMadkaikar battled at one end he lost partners and the innings folded up at359.North Zone in their second innings scored 107 for 1 in 25 overs. OpenersRahul Arora (25) and S Dhawan (66) added 72 runs in 17.3 overs. Arora wasthe only casuality of the day for North, when he found himself run out.Then Kuldeep Rawat (12) and Dhawan took the team to stumps.

There were few surprises in the list of 25 probables for India’sforthcoming tour of Zimbabwe which Board secretary JY Lele announced at theGujarat State Fertilizer Corporation ground in Baroda on Sunday. Only threeof them have not represented India before in either Tests orODIs: medium pacer Rakesh Patel and rookie wicket keepers Ajay Ratra andDeep Dasgupta. Amongst the probables are three protagonists from the ongoing Ranji Trophy final: Zaheer Khan and Rakesh Patel from Baroda andHarvinder Singh from Railways.Chairman of selectors Chandu Borde and his four colleagues Madan Lal, AshokMalhotra, TA Sekhar and Sanjay Jagdale conferred with Indian skipper SauravGanguly before exercising their verdict. The squad includes seven mediumpacers, four spinners, three wicket keepers and eleven batsmen, many ofwhom can bowl to varying degrees of proficiency. The only major hiccup wasthe exclusion of both Nayan Mongia and Vijay Dahiya. In their absence SamirDighe is pitchforked into the hot seat as India’s No.1 wicket keeper. CoachJohn Wright indicated after the series against Australia that the Indian team needed players with ‘attitude’ like Dighe. The 32-year-old Mumbai skipper’s brief but spunky knock in the climactic stages of the Chennai Test doubtless sealed the vote in his favour.He will however have two young pretenders breathing down his neck at thepreparatory camp. Haryana’s Ajay Ratra is fairly well known for hisexploits at the junior level. Earlier this year he skippered the IndiaUnder-19s to victory over their English counterparts in both the Test andone-day series. But Bengal’s Deep Dasgupta is still something of an unknownquantity. Dasgupta, 23, began his first class career as a specialistopening batsman and struck a century on debut in the Super League againstBaroda at the Eden Gardens in 1998/99. Next season he took additionalcustody of the keeper’s job but flitted in and out of the side untilfinally shaking off the shadow of veteran Saba Karim.Nine of the 11 batsmen operate in the middle order, leaving no reserve opener apart from Ramesh and Das who were not entirely convincing in the Test seriesagainst Australia. While the pair need to be persisted for the moment, itwould have been ideal to have someone pushing them like Baroda’s SatyajitParab who struck four centuries in the Ranji Trophy this season, thehighest by any batsman.The preponderance of seamers is in accordance with the hard, grassy wicketsexpected in Zimbabwe but contrary to general impression, India’s spinnershave received plenty of purchase on two previous tours of Zimbabwe. In twoone-off Tests India played in Harare, 16 of the 34 Zimbabwean scalps fellto the slow bowlers. Three of the four spinners from the third Test squadat Chennai are retained while Rahul Sanghvi gets an opportunity toresurrect his career, having been harshly jettisoned after the pipeopenerin Mumbai where Saurav Ganguly gave him ten overs in five spells, in whichhe took two wickets.Of the quicker bowlers, Rakesh Patel, lively and industrious, collected 34wickets in the Ranji season. But for a knee injury which severely curtailedhis participation in the final he might have ended up as the highest wickettaker in the competition. Harvinder Singh who played two Tests againstAustralia in 1997/98 is slightly luckier to earn a recall; although hebowled well in bursts his presence seems more a token concession to theemergence of Railways as a domestic power. A better choice would have beenYere Goud whose unruffled temperament is admirably suited to the demands ofTest cricket; the 29 year old tops the Ranji aggregate this season with 898runs going into the final day. Indeed only one of the top 56 run getters inthe Ranji Trophy figures in the probables: Dinesh Mongia who finished 28thin the final standings. It makes one wonder whether domestic performancesreally count.Separate teams are likely to be chosen from the probables for the Test andone-day legs of the tour. India begin their engagements with two three daywarm-up games, followed by two Test matches, and wind up with a triangularone-day series also involving the West Indies. A five day camp for theprobables will kick off in Bangalore from May 13 and the final team is tobe announced on May 18.The probables:Saurav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman,Sadagopan Ramesh, Shiv Sunder Das, Hemang Badani, Yuvraj Singh, VirenderShewag, Dinesh Mongia, Mohammed Kaif, Sameer Dighe, Ajay Ratra, DeepDasgupta, Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Debashis Mohanty,Ashish Nehra, Rakesh Patel, Harvinder Singh, Harbhajan Singh, SarandeepSingh, Sairaj Bahutule and Rahul Sanghvi.

He stands elegantly in the lounge of the MCC Club in Kingston where, once upon a time, his mother worked as a cook to earn her living. He owes much to the club; the officials sent little Courtney Walsh to school at the expense of the club.Walsh is not so little any more, physically or figuratively. The gangly fast-bowler became the most prolific wicket-taker in Test history, but he shows no regret as Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne have his mark of 519 wickets firmly in their cross-hairs. By his own admission, Walsh is “a satisfied ex-cricketer” with no intention of involving himself in the sport for the moment.Instead, Walsh runs Courtney Walsh Sports – a shop adjacent to the MCC Club building – and enjoys life in his spare time. “For 17 long years, I played continuously,” he says. “Now my body and mind deserve rest, and I am eager to provide them with it.”To get from 400 Test wickets to 434 took you some time. But once you got past 434, it seems like you just zipped to 519.Yes, that happens sometimes. No matter how hard you try, you may not get wickets. But after that (the 434-wicket mark), luck was probably on my side.Now that you hold the record at 519 wickets, have you ever thought that it may not stay in your name for long?I did not think of it that way. When I left the international arena, I was the highest wicket-taker in the world, and I left cricket with my head held high. I was satisfied.Your partner with the new ball, Curtly Ambrose, is now playing guitar, and your skipper Richie Richardson is running a pub. Do you have any plans to do such things?At the moment, no. I am too tired. I need rest, and I have not thought about what to do in future. It can wait a bit. When I am fresh, I’ll consider different options and decide what I’ll be doing.If the West Indies Cricket Board offers you the post of the coach of the national team, will you accept it?Again, at the moment, there is no such possibility. I’ll do everything, but only after resting myself to the content of my heart as well as my body. I had had no hurry to do anything in my life even when I was playing, and I have no such hurry now.People are saying that the West Indies are slowly returning to a team of some strength. What do you think, as a former skipper of the team?At least they are playing better in this series. Each of them is playing with motivation, and that is evident from their performances in the ongoing series. That augurs well for the future.The West Indian on the road thinks you and Ambrose could have given two more years, which would have let the new crop of bowlers adjust to the pressures of international cricket. The current bowling would be better, and you could have increased your tally too.I think I retired at the right moment, and I have no regrets. My body was not permitting it any more. I played for the country, led the country, and enjoyed my cricket fully in those 17 long years. But during those last days, I was not enjoying it as much as I used to. I am thankful to the Almighty that he has given my body the power to resist the toil of bowling relentlessly for 17 years. Believe me, I am really enjoying every moment of rest now, being far away from cricket and living the cool and composed life of a retired person.

Match facts

October 26, 2012
Start time 1730 local (1530 GMT)Mitchell Starc: a possible Test star for years to come•Getty Images

Big Picture

As expected of a young tournament with potentially different qualifiers every year, we have a semi-final between two sides that have never met each other. However, these two sides – not literally, but the regions they are derived from – are traditional powerhouses in their respective countries.It is generally said that a healthy New South Wales equals a healthy Australia. The same can be said of Pretoria and surrounds, the region the Titans represent, and South Africa. This is one of the appeals of the Champions League. We can quibble about the formats, but here are two teams, traditionally best or thereabouts in their own domestic tournaments, facing each other for a right to play the final of a lucrative tournament.Sydney Sixers don’t have Shane Watson or David Warner (both New South Welshmen now) available, but Titans have lost out on more stars for various reasons. Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers all come from the region, yet they are either injured or representing other franchises, South African or Indian. Sixers, on the other hand, have retained services of a homegrown pace attack that has even Test fans excited. If only Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were going up against Steyn, Morkel and Marchant de Lange, we could even have looked at this as a bit-sized precursor to the blockbuster Test series next month.

Watch out for…

Starc and Cummins have been known outside Australia for some time now, but this was an important tournament for Josh Hazlewood. The rest of the world now knows of another potential baggy green holder. He might not have taken many wickets, but he has bowled his quota in all the four matches he has played, and has gone at just 4.5 per over. Starc, who is leading the charts with 11 wickets, will no doubt acknowledge Hazlewood’s contribution to his wickets.Forget homegrown players, Titans have the services of one who has taken a rather circuitous route. Alfonso Thomas was born in Cape Town, moved to the North-West team in Potchefstroom, then joined Titans, before leaving for Dolphins and then came back to Titans. Despite his one Twenty20 international representing South Africa, he is mostly known to those outside South Africa as a Somerset professional. He will be key if Titans are to exploit what remotely resembles a weakness: Sixers’ batting.

Weather and conditions

The forecast point to a “mostly sunny” day and a “mostly clear” evening in Centurion. If it does rain enough to wash the game out, we still have a reserve day on Saturday. That reduces the teams’ challenge to dealing with the slightly tacky bounce at SuperSport Park. That this is Titans’ home ground should give them a slight advantage.

Quotes

“There won’t be any change in game plan. Everybody knows their role and we will continue to play our roles whether Shane’s here or not. So, I don’t think that is going to be an issue.”