All posts by csb10.top

January 7, 2010
News – Chris Cairns to sue Lalit Modi
March 23, 2010
News – Distressed by Modi’s claims – Cairns
March 5, 2012
News – Accusation reduced my career to dust – Cairns
March 6, 2012
News – Cairns’ former team-mates allege fixing demands
March 7, 2012
News – Rumours made Cairns ‘barking’ angry
March 7, 2012
News – ICL officials had their own ‘agenda’March 8, 2012
News – Cairns fixing investigation ‘shambolic’ – Beer
March 9, 2012
News – Cairns’ fury as Modi fails to give evidence
March 12, 2012
News – Players stand by Cairns accusations
March 14, 2012
News – Judge refuses late witness for Modi
March 16, 2012
News – Cairns a ‘scapegoat’ court hears
March 26, 2012
News – Cairns wins libel case against Modi

John Wright has said New Zealand will be “in a better position to pick a side to play South Africa” after trying out several uncapped players during the ODI and Twenty20 matches against Zimbabwe. However Wright, who is both New Zealand coach and selector, said the emphasis while playing Zimbabwe was “on winning the series, and always will be”.New Zealand named four uncapped players – left-arm seamer Michael Bates, legspinner Tarun Nethula, allrounder Andrew Ellis and wicketkeeper-batsman Tom Latham – in the ODI squad against Zimbabwe. They also picked Bates for the T20s, along with allrounder Colin de Grandhomme and left-arm spinner Ronnie Hira on the on the basis of their HRV Cup performances.”We’ve got Ross [Taylor] out, Jesse’s [Ryder] out. We had to find replacements. and tried to pick a side that has produced form this year,” Wright said. “I go through numbers really rigorously, I think that’s really important.””Plus, you look at someone like Latham and you think, ‘well, he’s had outstanding form, but it’s very early for him,’ then again, ‘against Zimbabwe, it’s probably not a bad time to have a look.’ There are some match-ups in both the teams [ODI and T20s] that we are interested to see how they fit into the team, how they conduct themselves and the quality of their cricket.”Latham is presently the top scorer in the Ford Trophy, New Zealand’s domestic one-day tournament, with 310 runs in five innings at a strike-rate of 94. He also made 61 runs in two innings at a strike-rate of 156 in the HRV Cup.While Latham and Ellis play for Canterbury, Bates and de Grandhomme represent for Auckland, the top two limited-overs sides in New Zealand. Wright said those players had contributed to the success of their teams.”The reason they were part of the two best teams was that individually they were some of the best-performed players. That’s how good teams get results, the individuals perform. The guys that have been selected, if you look at the numbers, they all justify the selections.”Someone like Luke Woodcock has been unlucky, but we have given the opportunity to Ronnie Hira and we also want to see how Nethula goes in the longer form of the game. That will give us a line on those two players as well. Then you match-up Ellis, who we feel could have been picked in either form of the game, we’ll get a line on him and Colin de Grandhomme.When asked if he was pleased with a specific selection, like Latham who is 19, Wright said: “Not really … but I’m pleased, I looked at perhaps Bates. He’s been around and he hasn’t had the opportunity at the international level. But he’s been a very good domestic performer for a couple of years now. We don’t know how he’s going to go at the top level, but he did bowl very well in the Champions League when he went to India, and he bowled well in the [HRV] final, which is a pressure situation. Let’s see how Michael takes that opportunity.”

Mashonaland Eagles‘ fast bowlers shot out Mountaineers for 55 in the second innings to set up a seven-wicket win at the Harare Sports Club. Tatenda Manatsa led the way with seven wickets in the game but Kyle Jarvis’ four strikes in the second innings were not far behind, as was Elton Chigumbura’s 121 that rescued Eagles from 34 for 5 in the first innings. Mark Pettini’s 55 was the top score for Mountaineers in the game but Manatsa claimed 4 for 33 to restrict them to 219 in the first innings. Shingi Masakadza ran through Eagles with a career-best 6 for 54, but Mountaineers were thwarted by Chigumbura’s century that featured 15 boundaries. Chigumbura and Jarvis added 99 after Eagles were tottering at 133 for 8. They ultimately managed to take a slender lead of 19. Manatsa struck with his second delivery in the second innings, Jarvis with the first ball of his second over, and Mountaineers crumbled in 26.3 overs to 55, never recovering from 8 for 4. Masakadza claimed more three more wickets in the small chase to make it nine victims for the match, but the target of 37 was never going to trouble Eagles.Southern Rocks did not crumble the way Mountaineers had, but their average first-innings performance was responsible for a seven-wicket loss to MidWest Rhinos at the Kwekwe Sports Club. Ed Rainsford’s five-wicket haul kept Rocks to 178 despite Hilary Matanga’s 63 and Rhinos then rode on centuries from captain Gary Ballance and Riki Wessels to post 444. Brian Vitori grabbed 5 for 90 but there was little support from the rest of the Rocks’ attack. Richmond Mutumbami’s 92 was the only score of note from the Rocks’ top order in the second innings, but Vitori stretched their innings past 300 with his highest first-class score of 71. Graeme Cremer mopped up the rest of the lower order to finish with 5 for 107 and Vitori’s dismissal brought the Rocks’ innings to an end on 313. Vitori was not done yet though. He struck twice more to have Rhinos at 6 for 3 in their chase of 48 but Malcolm Waller was around to take them home.

Brett Lee’s bouncer to break the nose of Brendon McCullum gave the nascent Twenty20 Big Bash League a visceral image to stand comparison with the Andy Roberts bumper that shattered David Hookes’ jaw in the first season of World Series Cricket.Significantly, it was winced at by a record television audience for a domestic Twenty20 match in Australia, suggesting the true measure of the BBL’s opening night went beyond the mediocre crowd of 12,285 that made it to the SCG to watch the Sydney Sixers blaze past the Brisbane Heat.Foxtel recorded an average audience of 342,000 and a total of 858,000, surpassing the 316,000 average of the 2010 Big Bash final. Greater numbers were anticipated for Saturday night’s match between Shane Warne’s Melbourne Stars and the Sydney Thunder at the MCG.Television is a critical element of the BBL package, as Cricket Australia hopes to generate enough groundswell for the competition to allow it to sell the next round of broadcast rights for the competition to one of the free-to-air commercial networks, so taking the tournament into homes beyond the reach of subscription TV.Those in attendance were given a good idea of what can be expected from the BBL, as old heads like Stuart MacGill, Matthew Hayden, James Hopes and Brad Haddin complimented youthful teams. The colours worn were garish, causing one spectator to compare them to a “kids dress-ups party”, but looked striking on television. Dancing girls, seemingly mandatory at a Twenty20 tournament worth its name, were on hand to keep those on the boundary entertained, while the re-introduction of full-strength beer to the outer was another significant decision.Corporate hospitality was in full swing, as CA and the Sixers strove to offer plenty of attraction to men and women of influence from the corporate and media worlds. There was a distinct hint of IPL flavour to the Sixers’ box in the Victor Trumper Stand, as music blared with the lights dimmed down and precious few of a raucous crowd turned to watch the cricket for long.Next door CA’s function was a more considered affair, featuring the BBL trophy itself and a glad-handing chief executive, James Sutherland. Taking some time to sit and watch the cricket itself, Sutherland was happy to see the tournament begin after a year of rushed organisation to launch it a summer ahead of the original schedule.He answered the question of how the summer might unfold with the BBL going head-to-head with Test matches by saying that audiences would now have cricket to attend in each city across December and January, not just those hosting Test matches as has traditionally been the case.”When this goes head-to-head with Test cricket, we go through the summer and play four Test matches like we are against India, the cricket circus is only in one place at one time,” Sutherland said. “In a six-week period, it comes to Perth once, Adelaide once, Sydney and Melbourne once, and it doesn’t come to Brisbane and Hobart because they’ve already had their share.”So this is a little bit about giving something more to the fans in terms of live stuff, but it is also playing cricket at different times. People will look at it and say we’re trying to do too much, but it is the best time of year, the cricket season, the time where people want to come out and go to matches. It isn’t like the football season where every second week you’ve got a home game, in some ways that is what we’re trying to give to people.”Many have contended that the BBL’s emergence will hurt the performance of what has become a maddeningly inconsistent national team. But Sutherland maintained his view that the new competition was intended to draw a greater and more diverse following to the game, one that may eventually find as much joy in Test matches as those who are sure to fill the MCG on Boxing Day.”People forget from time to time what we’re all about and understand that international cricket is the premium product,” Sutherland said. “We want that to be successful, we don’t want to compromise that. But the future is also about making sure we’ve got young fans who are going to have an interest in cricket, and international cricket. This [the BBL] gives them a flavour of cricket that hopefully will introduce a whole new raft of fans to the game.”On night one of the competition, those fans saw McCullum sent reeling and blood spilled onto the pitch. It was not the sort of moment one can easily forget, and in its brutish way did far more for the BBL than any number of marketeer’s schemes.

Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor and Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown will both play in this year’s HRV Cup for Wellington. The former Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is also one of Wellington’s overseas players.Taylor is available for the whole tournament which begins on December 18 against Auckland. Muralitharan will play in the first five rounds, having initially signed for the duration of the tournament, and Hamilton-Brown from the sixth round onwards.Wellington director of cricket Robbie Kerr was delighted with the quality that they have been able to attract. “Murali’s record over a number of years speaks for itself,” he said. “He is the greatest Test and ODI wicket taker of all time and to have him in the Firebirds this summer is very exciting.”Muralitharan retired from Test cricket in 2010 with a world-record 800 wickets but he has continued to play T20 cricket for Chennai Super Kings and Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the IPL and Gloucestershire in the Friends Life t20.Kerr is also pleased to have two players with captaincy experience on board. “Having two captains join our squad will add hugely to the leadership within our team during the HRV Cup competition,” he said. “Brendan is an extremely impressive young man and his recent form at international level has been outstanding.”Taylor, 25, has been the Zimbabwe captain since June and became the first Zimbabwean to score consecutive ODI centuries when he made 128 not out and 107 not out against New Zealand in October.”Rory Hamilton-Brown comes highly regarded by England coach Andy Flower,” said Kerr. “For a player to captain his county at the age of 22 emphasises how highly he is thought of. His match-winning innings in the English county 40-over final recently, showed what Rory is capable of on the big stage. He is an extremely ambitious young man.”Together with his 78 from 62 balls in the Clydesdale Bank 40 final, Hamilton-Brown, the youngest Surrey captain for 138 years, also led Surrey to promotion back to Division One of the County Championship.

There was an element of déjà vu to this contest. Two seasons ago, in one of the most exciting Ranji Trophy finals, chasing 338 runs for victory on treacherous green pitch in Mysore, Karnataka had nearly pulled the rug under Mumbai’s feet before falling short by six runs. Karnataka’s charge was led by a 209-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Manish Pandey and Ganesh Satish. In front of a baying home crowd, against hostile bowling, the pair had shown the right character, grit, spirit and imagination to take the bull by the horns, but couldn’t take them past the finish line.Remarkably, today, it was the same pair that inflicted damage on Mumbai in the first match between the teams after game. Pandey and Satish added 182 for the third wicket, recovering from early setbacks and helping Karnataka end the day in a dominant position.Karnataka won the toss and opted to bat on a track different from the one used in the Mumbai-Rajasthan game last week. Its character, though, was the same: slow, offering innocuous bounce with little turn unless the bowler bent his back. Yet KB Pawan, one half of the visitors’ opening pair, went into a cocoon straightaway.Robin Uthappa was playing his shots fluently, proving there were no demons in the pitch. After 80 excruciating minutes, Pawan left, edging an away seamer from Dhawal Kulkarni that was caught safely at second slip by Rohit Sharma. Until the 77th delivery of the game, only Uthappa had scored runs for Karnataka before Satish picked up a single. Disappointingly for Mumbai the new-ball pair of Ajit Agarkar and Kulkarni failed to dominate with the new batsman at crease. Mumbai captain Wasim Jaffer even shelled an easy catch at second slip from Satish when the batsman was on 15, depriving Abhishek Nayar of a wicket.Uthappa, by now, was dictating terms. With a lofted drive over mid-on against Kulkarni, he went past his previous best of 41 against Mumbai to move five short of a half-century. Then, on 49, facing Nayar, a part-time medium pace bowler, Uthappa walked across a delivery that was going down the leg side and tried to flick it hard only to get a thick edge. Onkar Gurav moved swiftly to his left, then threw himself to complete a spectacular catch that no TV or media photographers were present to record.The wicket brought together Pandey and Satish. Their contrasting batting styles made it easier for the pair to complement each other and simultaneously ensured it was difficult for the bowlers to set plans to attack them. Pandey’s was a dynamic unbeaten century; Satish started off vigilantly before opening up toward the latter half of his innings.Pandey initially countered Nayar smartly when he was offered tempting fuller but wider deliveries outside the off stump. Though patient, he never let go any scoring opportunities. He was severe on Iqbal Abdulla, who gave him enough time and space to play his shots. At lunch, he had raced past Satish – 42 against 20 – but had to be wary. In the first round against Rajasthan he hit 58, including eight fours and two sixes. He then failed against Railways last week with just four runs in a game Karnataka won comfortably. The challenge today was to build on the starts. The presence of Satish at the other end proved crucial. Satish may lack a silken touch to his shot-making, but he knew which balls needed to be left alone and where the gaps were. Pandey only prospered due to his partner’s patience.Pandey, who topped the aggregates in 2009-10 season, resumed confidently, clipping an easy four between short midwicket and mid-on. He then stepped out against Ramesh Powar to push a cover drive for four, which got him to his second half-century of the season. When Kulkarni bowled a short delivery on the off stump, Pandey collected a powerfully-driven four.Pandey nearly hit a straight six off Abdulla after lunch but the resultant four got him three runs within reach of his first century of the season; it also turned out to be his second ton against Mumbai and eighth overall. Suffering from cramps, Pandey retreated to the dressing room.The onus was on Satish to maintain the tempo established by Pandey and he did so with gusto. Short balls were either pulled or slapped in front of square and yet he never played with any undue haste. By the end, Satish would have faced 141 dot balls and run 20 runs in singles and fourteen in twos. It only showed his perseverance. Unfortunately, 17 runs short of his century, Satish mistimed a pull against Chavan to square leg and slumped to his knees in disbelief at his mistake.Though Mumbai grabbed two more wickets in the space of nine deliveries for ten runs, Vinay Kumar and Amit Verma did not allow Mumbai to wrest control and were involved in an undefeated 48-run stand for the sixth wicket. With Pandey ready to walk in tomorrow, and declaring that Karnataka could target a score of at least 450 in the first innings, Mumbai’s troubles are far from over.

ESPNcricinfo has learned that the eight Kenyan players who refused to agree to national contracts and were subsequently dropped by their franchises have had their request to rejoin the teams rebuffed.The eight did not agree to the terms offered by Cricket Kenya, resulting in the board offering deals to alternative players. They also withdrew from the second round of matches in the two new East Africa competitions giving than 24 hours notice, resulting in them being barred by their franchises. With Kenya’s selection based on performances in those tournaments that in effect ruled them out as far as the selectors were concerned.In the past players have used similar tactics to hold the board to ransom, but now things have changed. Faced with CK’s steadfast approach, the rebels approached their franchises to ask if they could return, but were told that would not be possible.It is likely CK will look to broker a deal, but with only two rounds of games left, as well as a finals weekend, it seems unlikely if any of them will be back this year.

Scorecard
Alan Richardson made excellent use of a helpful pitch to boost Worcestershire’s survival hopes•PA Photos

Lancashire have put themselves in contention to win the County Championship by being in some ways a team greater than the sum of its parts, winning eight matches by pooling their resources more effectively than rivals with more obvious stand-out performers. Above all, their asset has been character and it is that quality that will come under close scrutiny now.They were beaten here by 10 wickets in a day and a half, having batted poorly in both innings. The result, built around a valiant near-century by James Cameron and the excellence of veteran seamer Alan Richardson, who finished with 6 for 22, not only makes the race for the title even more of a close-run battle but gives Worcestershire every chance of avoiding relegation at Yorkshire’s expense.Given that they began the season as every pundit’s favourite to go back to Division Two, their achievement deserves almost as much attention as Lancashire’s apparent attack of the jitters although inevitably it will not be given it.The fact is that Glen Chapple’s side began this round as title favourites but will end it having been knocked off the top of the Division One table and possibly down to third place. Warwickshire – perhaps even Durham, though they have only one match to go after the current round – will look at their own chance with fresh enthusiasm.Lancashire picked off the last four Worcestershire wickets in the first hour, Chapple himself – showing no sign of the knee problem that had kept him off the field for part of the previous afternoon – taking three after Kyle Hogg had broken the key partnership between and Cameron and Ben Scott at 97 when the wicketkeeper edged a wideish ball to his Lancashire counterpart. Richard Jones was lbw offering no stroke before Cameron, having reached 98, was rather cruelly denied his hundred, bowled by one of several balls at the Diglis End that kept low. Kemar Roach followed him in quite quickly after another straight ball beat his optimistic swing.Worcestershire’s lead of 76 looked handy but Lancashire nonetheless would have expected to set themselves something relatively testing for the last innings. Instead, they were dismissed for 80 in just over 30 overs, the end coming just before 3pm. It is their lowest all-out total since Glamorgan dismissed them for 51 at Liverpool in 1997.Richardson, who is enjoying the most productive season of his career at 36, followed Chapple’s example of bowling full and straight and Lancashire’s batsmen, gripped by a combination of impatience and panic, succumbed one after another, whether by failing to move their feet, playing back when they should have been forward, or else just swinging carelessly across the line. Five of his six wickets were leg-before.Roach, the West Indian fast bowler whose pace only added to Lancashire’s jitters, bowled Chapple and Saj Mahmood with two frighteningly quick deliveries, claiming a third victim when Hogg, who had hit him a few meaty blows in the first innings, stepped back in search of another but was again beaten for pace.Stephen Moore, the Lancashire opener, was absent, attending the birth of his first child in Manchester at the very moment his teammates were falling apart. But even Peter Moores, the Lancashire coach, admitted it would have been unlikely he would have made much difference.”I don’t know what difference Stephen would have made but babies take precedence over cricket matches and quite rightly so,” Moores said. “He has had a little girl and we are delighted for him. There was never a dilemma over whether he would stay because family comes first.”It is disappointing result obviously but we batted poorly on both innings. We did not score enough runs in either to create any kind of pressure and there can be no complaints. The pitch had a little bit in it, a little bit uneven in bounce, but we lost five wickets to full straight balls which you cannot afford to do, especially in the top six.”But like the defeat in the Twenty20 semi-final last weekend, we have to take it on the chin. We will scrub ourselves up and prepare for next week. We have two matches left and if we win both I think we will win the title. Win one and we are in the frame. We will find out over the next two games if we have the character to do it.”Lancashire’s batting was collectively bad and while Moores backed away from coming down hard on his own players – in public, at any rate – he must have despaired at their lack of application and times and his assessment of Cameron’s performance said plenty.”He showed what could be done. He played himself in, didn’t play and miss an awful lot and didn’t get hit on the pad an awful lot. He showed the right game for that pitch and can take pride in the fact that, batting wise, he was the difference between the sides.”Richardson, meanwhile, having raised his tally to 62 wickets for the Championship season confirmed the view of pitch liaison officer Jack Birkenshaw that only negligible blame could be attached to the behaviour of the track.”I have played on a lot worse wickets this year, a lot more bowler friendly at least,” he said. “It did a little bit and maybe the odd one stayed down but in general I thought it was a really good wicket, certainly not a day and a half wicket.””We did not see that coming this morning, for sure, and I was a bit surprised that Lancashire crumbled as they did because they have shown a lot of fight this season but it was just one of those days when we bowled well and it all clicked.”The Staffordshire-born seamer reckons Worcestershire have earned the right now to determine their own fate after putting clear daylight between themselves and next-to-bottom Yorkshire.”We set out this season to be as competitive as possible and apart from in a couple of games we really have been competitive,” he said. “We have surprised some people, given some teams a bit of a fright and we have scraped together four wins. The fact that we are two games from the end and not in the relegation zone is a reflection of how well we have played.”At both ends of the table, at this stage what lies ahead is as much a test of nerve as technique. Lancashire, under pressure every season to stop the constant reminders of how long it is since they last won the Championship – 1934 in their own right, 1950 when they shared it with Surrey – must now prove that theirs is strong enough. Hampshire are their next opponents, at Liverpool next week, followed by Somerset at Taunton in the final round.

Cecil Marshall, the former Canada allrounder, who represented the side in the 1979 World Cup died on Saturday aged 71. His performances in the 1979 ICC Trophy helped Canada qualify for the World Cup. His personal highlight in the qualification campaign was against Malaysia, when he top scored with 77 in a match where no one else made a half-century, before taking 3 for 16. After his Canada career, he played cricket and umpired in Ottawa.

ScorecardA career-best 144 from captain Alviro Petersen in a record score of 328 for4 helped Glamorgan to a convincing Clydesdale Bank 40 victory over LancashireLightning at Colwyn Bay.The South African shared in a record opening stand of 199 with Gareth Rees(76). His century came off only 89 balls and included 10 sixes – one whichsmashed the window of Lancashire’s dressing room. In all there were 18 sixes in the Dragons innings, and in total 208 runs came in a clatter of boundaries.Even when Petersen was out the momentum continued with Stewart Waltersplundering a half-century from just 19 balls. In reply Lancashire could only make 259 all out in 30.4 overs to slip to a 73-run defeat. Glamorgan were indebted to slow left armer Dean Cosker, who recorded impressive figures of four wickets for 43 runs from seven overs.Glamorgan’s total was all the more impressive considering the match was reducedto a 33 overs a side contest because of rain. The Dragons were set on their way when they reached 50 in only seven overs with Petersen the main aggressor – he reached his 50 from only 36 balls, including two sixes.He struck Oliver Newby for three consecutive sixes in an over before Rees gotin on the act hitting Stephen Parry for two sixes as the 150 came up in the 19thover. Rees also lofted Steven Croft for six onto the pavilion roof before Petersenreached his first one-day hundred for the Dragons from 76 balls.When the total become 184 the stand beat the previous best for the firstwicket, passing the 181 made by Jimmy Maher and Robert Croft against Essex atSophia Gardens in 2003.But the first wicket stand was ended when Rees, who had gone to a run-a-ballhalf-century, was caught on the boundary at long-on. The Dragons took the batting powerplay but Petersen fell to the first delivery when he holed out at long-off.Glamorgan lost Chris Cooke and Mark Wallace but Walters and Graham Wagg, whoput on 75 in 25 balls, ensured Lancashire would have to chase nearly 10 an overfor victory. In the urgent need for quick runs Lancashire lost Tom Smith in only the firstover when he was caught at midwicket attempting a sweep off Nick James.A breezy half-century from 20 balls from Stephen Moore kept the Lightning upwith the required rate but he was bowled by Will Owen and 82 for two became 103for three when Karl Brown was stumped off Cosker.Steven Croft and Paul Horton put on 94 runs in 10 overs as they attempted toget Lancashire back in the game – but their momentum was checked when Coskerbowled Croft, who scored 85 in 55 balls. Cosker also accounted for Paul Horton and Luke Procter as the pressure became too much for the Lightning.