Dolphins 413 for 4 (Amla 177*, Kent 68*, Mall 66) leadEagles 334 by 79 runsScorecardA career-best 177 from Dolphins captain Hashim Amla put his team into afavourable position at the end of the third day of the SuperSport Seriesfinal against the Eagles at Goodyear Park, Bloemfontein on Saturday.Amla and Dale Benkenstein resumed for the Dolphins on 215 for 3 and, with the pitch easing up and the ball coming on to the bat, the batting conditions were ideal for the team to post a big first innings lead. Benkenstein was caught behind for 38 off the bowling of Victor Mpitsang in the tenth over of the morning: the only wicket to fall in the day as rain brought a premature end to the proceedings.During the 64 overs that were possible, Amla and Jon Kent took fulladvantage of the conditions to put on 171 runs for the fifth wicket withAmla going past his career best of 159 to end undefeated on 177. His 24boundaries off 374 deliveries showed that he has the temperament for thelonger version of the game. Kent scored his fourth half-century of the series off 118 balls as the two batted through to the early end of play.The Dolphins now lead the Eagles by 79 runs with six wickets in hand andstill two days of play remaining. Lifting the run rate should be theprime objective of the remaining batsmen with a result still firmly onthe cards.

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Anthony McGrath’s dominant unbeaten 165 helped Yorkshire to chase an unlikely 404 and pull off a dramatic victory against Leicestershire at Grace Road with six wickets to spare. In completing their mission improbable, Yorkshire posted their highest-ever fourth-innings score to win a match. It also gave them their third win in four matches. A confident Leicestershire had declared on the third day at 267 for 9, but an opening stand of 94 between Matthew Wood and Phil Jaques set up what was, in the end, a comfortable win. The openers fell within six runs of each other, but McGrath went on to add 84 with Michael Vaughan for the third wicket and 133 with Ian Harvey for the fourth as Yorkshire coasted home in style. McGrath’s epic innings came from just 218 balls and included 20 fours.
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Graeme Hick launched a boundary blitz on the Derbyshire attack to speed Worcestershire to their target in less than 17 overs on the final morning. Hick blasted 62 from 48 balls with 13 fours, adding 96 with Stephen Moore as Worcestershire, claimed a full-points victory. Ian Hunter dismissed Stephen Peters early but that was the lone success for Derbyshire as their miserable start to the season continues. Reducing Worcestershire to 151 for six on the first day will now be a distant memory. It is difficult to see anything other than more struggles ahead unless the batsmen can build significant innings and give their attack something to bowl at.
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A career-best 195 from Alastair Cook and an unbeaten 142 from Andy Flower guided Essex to a draw against Northants. Cook further enhanced his blossoming reputation with his eight-and-a-half hour innings, striking 27 fours, before he was caught by Martin Love off Ben Phillips. When Ronnie Irani fell quickly Northants still had hopes of running through the lower-order. But James Foster provided solid support as Flower remained steadfast. Flower’s century took 209 balls, so his last 42 runs took 121 deliveries, but his job was to save the match for Essex. They had been completely outplayed over the first two days but showed admirable fight qualities and will be stronger when Darren Gough and Alex Tudor return. Northants will feel they missed an opportunity, but the pitch was very good for batting, and although the bowling attack persevered it did not have the strike power to dismiss Essex twice.

Shane Warne’s regrowth has always been a style issue, but his baldness has forced him to join a campaign to get back his receding hairline. Warne, who is a perennial bottle-blond, has completed replacement treatment from Advanced Hair Studio in a bid to return his locks.”It’s great,” Warne, the Hampshire captain, said. “My hair is growing back and my hair loss has stopped.” While he hopes the program increases his thatch, the exercise also opens up a valuable box of sledges for England during the Test series starting on July 21.Warne told an international video conference from London that he was taking tablets to prevent the hair loss and when asked if they were acceptable under the sport’s drug rules he said: “Do I really need to answer that one? Of course I have. I have checked them all out.” reported that he was also quizzed about ditching his mobile phone, whether he was getting paid more than for his failed quit-smoking campaign with Nicorette, and if having hair was more attractive to women. “You can speculate all you like about that stuff,” Warne said. “The most important thing to me is to re-grow my own hair.”Warne, 35, said being blond was his trademark and he “wanted to feel young again”. He also said he would check out Ricky Ponting’s pate to see if his was thinning. “I’ll have to study him very closely in the change room,” he said. “I might have to pull him aside and have a quiet little word.”Turning on bald patches isn’t foreign for cricketers. The offspinner Greg Matthews led a high-profile “yeah, yeah” promotion and Graham Gooch and Martin Crowe have also endorsed the product. Warne had his first Advance Studio session late in the Australian summer and will use laser therapy and a special thickening shampoo to help his recovery.

Andrew Symonds, whose big hitting and canny offspin have made him an integral part of the Australian team in recent times, has been suspended for two matches, and fined his fee for the same, after he was found to have breached team rules by drinking and staying out late on the eve of the game against Bangladesh. At the toss, Ricky Ponting had said that Symonds had the flu, but by the close of the Australian innings, it emerged that he had been omitted for disciplinary reasons.To compound Australia’s woes, they were at the receiving end of a stunning Bangladeshi performance, though Simon Katich, who replaced Symonds, acquitted himself creditably with a rapid cameo. Symonds had apparently come out for the warm-up with the smell of alcohol on his breath, and in no fit state to play.After the shock defeat, Ponting, John Buchanan and Steve Bernard – captain, coach and manager – met to discuss the issue, and exchanged views with Cricket Australia headquarters in Melbourne. The nature of the reprimand and suspension will be announced before Australia clash with England at Bristol later on Sunday. Though the possibility of sending the player home was discussed, he will stay with the squad for the remainder of the NatWest Series.According to Australian Associated Press (AAP), Ponting became aware of the situation only minutes before he went out for the toss. He was quoted as saying: “Was I angry with Andrew this morning? Of course, yeah. I think all of his teammates would be as well.” Incidentally, Ponting himself had come through well-documented problems with the booze, having been suspended for his part in a bar brawl in 1999.Symonds had attended a dinner with seven other team-mates to celebrate Shane Watson’s 24th birthday, but while the others retired at a reasonable hour, he opted for more liquid refreshment. Afterwards, Ponting spoke of what was expected from his players when he said: “As a team, under the players’ spirit of cricket pledge, we pride ourselveson playing cricket hard but fair, but also on being good role models.”We take this sort of thing very seriously and I am very disappointed with what has happened, as is Andrew. Andrew is aware he has let the team down, as well as all his cricket fans, but most of all he has let himself down.”While Ponting referred to the incident as an unwanted distraction, Symonds was contrite when asked to explain his actions. “I know no-one has to accept this, but I apologise to everyone for what I have done,” he said. “I know it was the wrong thing and I am very embarrassed.”

Deb K Das talks exclusively to Gladstone Dainty, the president of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA)Gladstone Dainty has made clear that he is far from impressed with the International Cricket Council (ICC), and furthermore, he is refusing to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) with it regarding Project USA, the ICC-sponsored initiative for the development of cricket in the USA.Dainty said it was important for US cricketers, and the cricket world in general, to understand why he was taking this position. This was why he had sought me out on the sidelines of the US National Championship finals in Los Angeles.Project USA was uppermost in his mind at the time. He said that the ICC was pressing the USACA to sign a Memorandum of Agreement that would validate the role that Project USA would play for the next ten years in the USA. And he did not like the terms that were being offered, let alone ICC’s attitude, which was more of an ultimatum — “take it or leave it” was the way it was described.Dainty’s objection, he made clear, was a fundamental one. He was opposed to the idea that funds raised by Project USA would be transferred to an “offshore” bank account, and would be administered by officials based outside the United States at their own discretion and judgment. He had no problems with an independent body being in charge of administering the funds. However, in Dainty’s view, such a body should include individuals based in the USA, with background and experience with the circumstances that applied to US cricket.Over the past few years, he said he had seen persons and organisations from inside and outside the USA operating within the US cricket scene under their own agendas, which were not always in the best interests of US cricket. And further, US cricket was simply not understood by the ICC — this was exemplified, he continued, by its obdurate refusal to simplify ICC eligibility requirements or to provide sufficient funds as “seed money” for proper development for a vast country like the USA, although the complexities of the marketplace had been repeatedly communicated to the authorities.There were other difficulties cited by Dainty. For instance, there could be possible problems with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in maintaining USACA’s non-profit status. Then there was the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), whose tendentious and protracted post-9/11 procedures had led to ICC’s eligibility requirements becoming a stranglehold on development. A comprehensive MOU would need to address these issues as part of any overall agreement between USACA and ICC. Yet none of these items had been included in any of the discussions that had taken place so far. USACA could hardly sign an agreement that did not cover these points.These matters of detail boiled down to a single overriding principle, according to Dainty. US cricket was not just a marketplace for the ICC to sell itself and its programs, and dole out money as and when it wished — this was a kind of “colonialism” which he wanted no part of. To him, Project USA would work only if it combined marketing and development in a single US-based entity, and this was something he was pushing for.We parted on a note of mutual acknowledgement. I had never met Dainty before. He had been described by supporters and critics alike as a kind of godfather of US cricket, inaccessible to all except the few he chose to communicate with, and yet exercising absolute control over USACA affairs.Nothing he said to me dispelled any of those impressions, but I became aware of something I had not known before — his passion and total commitment to what he saw as US cricket, and his willingness to do whatever he could to sustain his vision.

Nasser Hussain today spoke of the colossal importance of England’s forthcoming tour of Australia, while giving an assurance that he is completely focused on the massive challenge that lies ahead.Hussain flies out to Australia tomorrow – a week ahead of the rest of the England party – with his wife Karen and 16-month-old son Jacob. Their second child is scheduled to be born on November 20, between the first and second Test matches in Australia.”It’s going to be a huge tour for me personally,” said the England captain. “I’m going to be fully focused. The present regime is helping as much as it can.”We have a coach and captain who understand there is no reason why you shouldn’t play your best cricket just because you have your family around. In many ways it is the other way round.”But in many ways it will always be a problem. Wives and families do have other jobs and commitments and sometimes players will have to consider the two – a great career as an international cricketer and their family lives.”Everyone’s situation is different and sometimes you have to choose between how many pound signs you want against what you want to do personally.”Hussain also warned that Graham Thorpe, who pulled out of the original Ashes squad for family reasons, might need to score a hatful of runs to win his England place back. He also backed Thorpe’s replacement, Kent’s Robert Key, to win his spurs Down Under.”Graham will be missed – I’m not hiding from that – but the lad replacing him is a fine player,” said Hussain. “All four selectors wanted Robert Key on the plane to Australia. He played in the summer – it isn’t a selection committee that looks backwards.”Other players have come in – the Flintoffs, Trescothicks and Vaughans – and taken their opportunities. There is no point playing Robert in two Tests and then going back. You have to move forward. If he was good enough to be in our team this summer then he’s good enough now.”However Hussain indicated that the door might not be closed on Thorpe forever. “I would hope at some stage he will be back playing for England. He has always been the sort of player who can turn on a switch and get runs as long as he is mentally right.”England cannot just dismiss one of their best players of the last 10 years but Graham will have to prove to the selectors that he can get runs in international cricket,” he added.Hussain, who was launching the England party’s new range of off-field clothing, also responded to comments made by Darren Gough, who expects to miss the first two Tests as he continues to recover from knee surgery.”We knew Darren wouldn’t be getting off the plane straight into 100% cricket because he needs rehab. Obviously it’s disappointing to hear what he said about the first two Tests but maybe he’s being a bit pessimistic because of all the injuries he’s had. I’d rather wait and see how he goes out there.”Hussain himself insists there is cause for optimism. “If key areas and key battles are won – and the first Test is a very important area – there’s no reason why not and I hope everyone in my squad will feel like that.”For us to beat Australia a few things have to go right off the field but there is no reason why that shouldn’t change.”

Australia insist a slow Edgbaston wicket will put them on the fast track to victory in the second Ashes Test which starts on Thursday. Opener Matthew Hayden said Ricky Ponting’s team, already 1-0 up in the five-Test series after the 239-run win at Lord’s, are expecting a slow wicket in Birmingham which will nullify England’s pace threat from Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff.The torrential rain which followed the tornado which struck the Midlands city last week has left Edgbaston groundsman Steve Rouse hoping for hot weather to dry out the Test wicket.The Australians experienced similar batting conditions in the tour game at Worcester on Sunday after the virtual washout of the first day Saturday. But they still managed to reach 406 for nine thanks to half-centuries from Hayden, Justin Langer, Brad Haddin and Jason Gillespie.”Flintoff and Harmison hit the deck hard and can bowl genuinely quick balls but I can only go on what the one-day wicket at Edgbaston was like and it was really slow,” said Hayden.”I think we can plan on it being a reasonably slow wicket for the Test which plays into our hands. This game at Worcester will certainly help in terms of our preparations.”Hayden scored his 79 off only 97 balls but he stressed the importance of being patient in English conditions even though the natural instinct of the Australian side is to look to score quickly. “The conditions made it pretty hard work so we were just trying to bat time. The tempo of our innings in the Test match was pretty rapid so it was just good to spend time in the middle really,” he said. “We will have a look at the wicket when we get to Birmingham but you have to adjust. You can only bat on the wicket you have been given but we are confident.”

Sachin Tendulkar has opted out of the Test series against Zimbabwe as he felt he wasn’t strong enough to return to the rigours of Test cricket. According to a report sent by John Gloster, the team physio, to the Indian board, Tendulkar, who is recovering from an elbow surgery, wasn’t yet ready to return to competitive cricket.The national selection panel have picked Dheeraj Jadhav, the opener from Maharashtra, as Tendulkar’s replacement for the two-Test series, beginning at Bulawayo on September 13.SK Nair, the BCCI secretary, confirmed this and added that though Tendulkar had returned to light net sessions, he didn’t feel confident enough to return to Test cricket. Nair also revealed that Gloster, the team physio, had sent a mail to the BCCI “where he further stated that the strength component of the rehabilitation plan was progressing positively acording to plan but it was not yet sufficient to progress to the next level of competetive play.”Tendulkar has been dogged by a painful tennis-elbow for nearly a year and it forced him to miss one-day tournaments in Holland and England as well as two Tests against Australia. After the home series against Pakistan last season, Tendulkar decided to get his elbow operated.Nair also added that the selectors had decided to pick Jadhav as the replacement after a telephonic discussion. Jadhav, who was the leading run-scorer in domestic cricket two seasons back, had been included in the Indian squad for the final Test against Australia at Mumbai last year but didn’t make it to the final XI.

A company was used to mask the identity of brokers International Sports Marketing and to avoid revealing the identity of Digicel when the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) asked Cable & Wireless to match their rival’s bid.This was revealed in the report of the Sponsorship Negotiations Review Committee (SNRC) handed in by Justice Anthony Lucky to newly-elected WICB president Ken Gordon on August 15 and which will be discussed at an executive board meeting on September 4 in St John’s, Antigua.And the firm is to have collected a 10% commission on the deal even though the WICB Chief Marketing Officer Darren Millien, who took over that post in September 2003 from then WICB president Teddy Griffith, claimed to have no knowledge of this aspect of the commission agreement that was signed on February 23, 2004.ISM had had a business relationship with the Ireland-based telecommunications company Digicel and evidence given by ISM director David Brookes showed where ISM deliberately used the sevices of a firm referred to as SBI to “mask the indentity” of Digicel to Cable & Wireless (C&W).”The reason for this,” Brookes explained to the SNRC, “was because I had been informed that during the negotiations, Cable & Wireless had a clause in their contract whereby they had a right to see any offer made to the WICB for team sponsorship, and furthermore, had a two-week period to match any such offer.”Brookes continued: “Naturally knowing of the highly competitive commercial nature of the C&W/Digicel relationship, I assumed that C&W would not wish to be replaced by a competitor and, therefore, would automatically match the offer if they were aware it was on behalf of Digicel. I felt this put Digicel at an unfair disadvantage and because ISM had worked with Digicel in the past, ISM could be easily linked to them. To avoid this, I hired the services of SBI simply for client confidentiality reasons with the aim of ensuring that the Digicel offer was viewed fairly, reasonably and on a level playing field that C&W were therefore given the right to match this offer.”Millien told the committee that Griffith and WICB CEO Roger Brathwaite were the “driving forces” behind the negotiations to secure Digicel as the main sponsors. “The only people that received the offer were the chief executive officer and the president because they had to sign non-disclosure agreements as to the terms of the agreement and who it was, so there were some high level discussions going on at that point.”Asked if he was brought in after the agreement with Digicel was a fait accompli, Millien answered in the affirmative. Millien further recalled Griffith and Brathwaite stating to him that “this is what we have agreed to and we want you guys to hammer out a contract. So to that extent, I got my first meeting with Digicel attorneys and ISM/SBI in Jamaica,” he stated of his mid-June 2004 meeting with them.So who brought SBI into the matter? “I don’t know,” he stated. “We were just thinking this is a broker. We did not know if it was a bank appoaching us, a financial institution, a cellular entity, a mortgage company. We did not know.”Millien also disavowed knowledge of the 10% commission for SBI before asking the committee to refer the question to the WICB CEO when they showed him a copy of the February 23 commission agreement. “I never knew that there was a 10% commission for SBI in the negotiations,” he stated, “I know there was a commission payable but my understanding was that it was for bringing the deal, like a finder’s fee and that was it. During the course of this tour, I was informed it was paid on what the players get and that kind of thing.”Before negotiations had reached this stage, there were other conflicting reports according to the SNRC report. After informing the WICB by letter on March 16, 2004, that they decided not to match SBI’s rival alleged bid, C&W general manager in Barbados David Austin indicated that he approached then WICB president Griffith with a verbal offer of US$4 million for the Home series only “sometime between March 17 – March 20, 2004.”However, when Austin contacted Griffith on March 29, 2004, the then WICB president said he had already met with “potential new sponsors and that there was a 21-day exclusive discussion agreement with this party”, making Griffith “unable to consider” C&W’s offer at the time. That 21-day exclusivity position was reiterated on that same day by WICB CEO Roger Brathwaite at a function for the West Indies cricket team.However, when the committee questioned Digicel’s Business Development Director and Sponsor Relations Liam Mc Dermott about the exclusive agreement, he responded: “The Review Committe referred to a “21-day exclusivity letter” signed at the meeting in March 2004. No exclusivity agreement was signed at the end of that meeting. An exclusivity agreement was however signed at the end of May 2004 in the circumstances set out below.”In March 2004, Mc Dermott went on to explain that Digicel, who had indicated their interest in sponsoring West Indies cricket “albeit informally” whilst sponsoring a golf tournament in Jamaica “some time before 2003, was advised that Cable & Wireless “had declined to match its offer and accordingly the WICB was prepared to meet with Digicel and negotiate terms under which Digicel would become the new principal sponor of West Indies Cricket.”

Matt Prior says he will be ready to step in as a batsman – and not just a wicketkeeper – should England require him to do so on their tour of Pakistan in November. Prior, Sussex’s wicketkeeper-batsman, knows he has been included in the Test squad as an understudy for Geraint Jones, but he says he would be able to replace a frontline batsman, too. He does not, however, expect to play if the first-choice players are fit.”I want to make sure that if anyone slips up – and it doesn’t have to be Geraint Jones, it could be one of the batsmen – then I will be 100 per cent ready to come in and perform,” he told , a Brighton-based newspaper. “I’m completely prepared for the fact that I might go there and not play a single game. At the moment I’m more prepared for that than actually playing.”But Prior, 23, promised to seize any opportunity that comes his way. “This might be my one chance and if I don’t get another one then I want to be able to look back, say I gave it 100 per cent and that I couldn’t have done any more. If I don’t play then that’s because the team has done well. But I don’t want to come home with regrets. I just want to work hard and when I think I can’t work any more I will work even harder.”England squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones (wk), Simon Jones, Alex Loudon, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Shaun Udal.