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Scorecard

Callum Ferguson finally gave South Australia something to smile about when he joined Nathan Adcock in an 84-run stand as they battled for an unlikely draw against New South Wales at Adelaide Oval. Hopelessly out-played through the first three days, the Redbacks were set an improbable 495 for victory and were 4 for 155 at stumps after their first fifty partnership of the match.Ferguson remained unbeaten on 70 while Adcock was 32 after the second innings started badly. Luke Williams was run out in a terrible mix-up and Stuart Clark removed Greg Blewett, the side’s real hope for a big innings, in his first over and then bowled Mark Cosgrove as the Redbacks tumbled to 3 for 29.The Blues racked up the massive lead before Brad Haddin’s declaration, with Matthew Phelps finishing unbeaten on 127 to add to Dominic Thornely’s aggressive 102, including 12 fours and two sixes from 131 balls. Shaun Tait was again the pick for South Australia with 4 for 62.

Forty-two years after making his debut as a television commentator in England, Richie Benaud bowed out today at The Oval.His final words were simple and typically Benaud. “Thank you for having me,” he said. “It’s been absolutely marvelous. I’ve loved every moment of it.’A little while before his last stint, the crowd at The Oval had been informed over the PA that Benaud was about to embrak on his final spell, and they reacted with spontaneous applause. The players also stopped and clapped.”He knows his subject inside out and has a sense of timing and a wit that few people can match,” Channel 4’s Mark Nicholas, a former captain of Hampshire, said in an interview. Benaud, 74, insisted that he remained in love with the game, and was delighted to end with such a dramatic series. “It’s my view, and people may disagree with it, that this series shades that tour,” he explained. “And that’s saying something.”He will continue to be heard regularly in Australia where he recently signed a new three-year deal with Channel Nine. And Michael Slater, a co-commentator at Channel 4, hinted that Benaud would be looking for another extension at the end of that deal.Benaud ended with some words of encouragement for the beaten Australians. “There are plenty of good young players around in Australia,” he said. “They’ll fight back very quickly.”

Javed Miandad has come out strongly against Bob Woolmer’s coaching methods and is extremely sceptical about Pakistan’s chances in the Test series against Australia. Miandad’s comments came just two days before the start of the first Test at Perth, with the Pakistan team suffering crushing defeats in the last warm-up game.Miandad, who was sacked from the coaching position before Woolmer took over, pinpointed what he says are some basic flaws in the set-up. “When you are constantly experimenting with the team, when you are not sure about your playing XI and batting positions, when the coach is unaware of the particular cricket culture and psychology of Pakistan cricket, what do you expect?” Miandad told .These comments came in the wake of Pakistan’s humiliating ten-wicket defeat at the hands of Western Australia in their latest tour game. “It hurts to see a talented bunch of players struggle like this,” Miandad said. “The problem lies in the fact that Woolmer doesn’t have any idea of our cricket culture and background. Read his statements and you know this is a man not confident and sure about what he is doing.”Results, according to Miandad, were the bottom line in gauging a team, and he felt nothing much had changed ever since he was forced to step down. “He [Woolmer] has been in the saddle for six months now and we are still as inconsistent and erratic. When I left, the team was among the top three in Tests and one-day internationals, although when I took over after the 2003 World Cup we blooded several new players. Since I left has there been any improvement in the rankings or our performances?”Elaborating on the coaching methods that he felt were ideal for Pakistan’s players, Miandad said, “Our players need to be told and coached things in a simplified manner. If you drop a batsman to even give him a bit of rest to recover from a bad patch he loses his confidence and forgets everything he has learnt while in the team. That is why Yasir Hameed is now struggling to score runs.”And Miandad had no hesitation in pointing out that Pakistan will be the team playing catch-up throughout the series. “Given the present state of conditions in the team I am not really hopeful of any major surprise being sprung by our players in the Test series. A series in Australia is not the time or place for experiments or building for the future.”

David Saker is returning to his native Victoria as their assistant coach. Saker joins his former coach Greg Shipperd on the coaching panel in a role which also includes responsibility for Cricket Victoria’s high-performance unit.Saker, who is 38 on May 29, played for Victoria as a handy medium-pacer before transferring to Tasmania in 2000. In all he took 247 first-class wickets at 30.10, and also scored 1384 runs down the order at 19.77. Latterly he was Tasmania’s assistant coach.He said: “I’m indebted to Tasmanian cricket for the opportunities they have provided me, and I’m just thrilled at the chance to further my knowledge and experience with Victoria. The Bushrangers obviously had a great season but the real challenge is to now ensure that success is sustained over a long period of time.”Commenting on a move which will see him return across the Bass Strait to Melbourne, Saker added: “The wheel has certainly turned full circle, but I felt the timing was right. I’ve been out of the Victorian scene for four years now and honestly can’t wait to get back involved.”Ken Jacobs, the chief executive of Cricket Victoria, said the selection process had been a thorough and comprehensive one. “The assistant-coaching/high-performance role attracted an outstanding field of candidates, another positive sign for Victorian cricket. The selection panel were very definite in their requirements and the board had no hesitation in endorsing the panel’s recommendation of David Saker. David was a terrific player for Victoria and we look forward to him having similar success as a coach.”Saker played 49 first-class matches for Victoria – taking 182 wickets at 28 – before joining Tasmania for the 2000-01 season. His three seasons in Tasmania left an indelible mark on Shippered, his coach at the time: “David just had this wonderful ability to inspire his team-mates through his actions. His competitiveness and passion for the contest were second to none and I think he will be really important for our group and in particular our young crop of bowlers.”Shipperd concluded: “He has a great understanding of what is required to succeed at first-class level, and is a great communicator – both key factors in his appointment.”

For the first time in its colourful history the Board of Control for Cricket in India is selling tickets online. Fans wishing to go to any match in the Champions Trophy – at Mumbai, Mohali, Jaipur or Ahmedabad – can now log on to www.bcci.tv, take a tour of the seating arrangements and pick the seats they want and pay by credit card.The limit per card is four tickets and only visa card holders can buy tickets online. Visa, which is a one of the sponsors of the Champions Trophy, has exclusivity on online ticketing for the first 15 days.The sale of tickets online began at approximately 8pm on Tuesday evening and within an hour huge numbers had been snapped up. “Rupees one lakh worth of tickets were sold, and that too without an advertisement or an announcement that the sales were live,” Lalit Modi, vice-president of the BCCI, told . “The initial buyers were mostly from overseas – America, the United Kingdom and even some from Australia,” he added.At present the only tickets you cannot buy online are the discounted student tickets and the president’s box. The student tickets require verification of an identification card from an educational institution and will be available at the venues. The tickets to the president’s box have been set aside for the ICC, its guests, and sponsors.To avoid a situation like the one Cricket Australia experienced over sales of the Ashes tickets where a large section of tickets got sold very quickly, servers crashed and disgruntled fans were left empty handed just hours after sales began, the BCCI has decided to stagger the sales of tickets. Initially about 10000 tickets of varying denominations will be available for each ground, and at a later date a further such lot will come up for sale.The back-end for the sales of the tickets is being handled by Ticketmaster, a company that has worked with the ICC in the past. “A team of people from Ticketmaster have been in India over the last two weeks working on the integration of their site and ours. Now that is complete,” said Modi. DHL and Blue Dart are the companies involved in the delivery of the tickets, and the BCCI suggested that orders placed now will be delivered from September 22 onwards.Modi was confident that the sales of tickets would yield substantial revenues, and was especially pleased with how things had gone at Jaipur, where he is the president of the state cricket association – Rajasthan. “We’ve already registered sales worth Rupees eight crore,” he said. “The three key areas that needed work were bathrooms, catering, and where applicable air-conditioning. We’ve spent a considerable amount of money on ensuring that the stadium at Jaipur is world class in these aspects. Since the last game we’ve spent about Rs. 25 crore on infrastructure.”

Tony Dodemaide is convinced Michael Vaughan’s men can give Australia a run for their money come next year’s Ashes series in England.And the former Australia pace bowler is in a good position to assess the strength of the “old enemy”, who have been outclassed in every Ashes campaign since they last won a series in Test cricket’s longest-running contest back in 1986-87.For the past five years Dodemaide, 40, has been head of cricket at Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) but is set to return home later this month to become the chief executive of Western Australia.And on the eve of his departure from Lord’s, which he labelled the “Vatican City of cricket”, Dodemaide told AFP he expected a closely fought Ashes series in 2005.”I think it will be more competitive,” Dodemaide said at Lord’s as behind him potential stars of the future were put through their paces during one of MCC’s Easter coaching course in the indoor nets. “England have got talented young players coming through. They’ve got an attack which is gaining in confidence.”The England team has been developing over time. It does take time. It did in Australia, it took several years for players to come through and to understand what was required.”But Dodemaide, who played 10 Tests and 24 one-day internationals in the late 1980s and early 1990s, added that English cricket as a whole would not be fully convinced of a reversal in fortunes until they defeated Australia. “Everyone in England does measure themselves against the old enemy so next year is a pivotal time. But on this indication they should perform strongly. So it’s perhaps fortunate that I am going now because if England do beat Australia next year it won’t be a good place to be.”However, not everything is rosy in the garden of English cricket. Legendary Australia wicketkeeper Rodney Marsh, now an England selector, publicly questioned whether the players he managed on England A’s unsuccessful tour of India had the determination and passion required to play at the highest level.Marsh’s comments were all the more acute as he is also the head of England’s academy and charged with developing the country’s next generation of Test cricketers.But Dodemaide said that the structure of English cricket, with its 18 counties, made Marsh’s job harder than it was when he held a similar post in Australia. “We take a pyramid structure for granted. There are only six states [in Australia]. I recall playing my first game of Premier League Grade cricket in Melbourne and the captain said to me ‘keep going because you are only two steps away from Test cricket’.”Because there are so few available places and the competition tends to be much fiercer players do come to the party or they are weeded out quite early. I don’t think there’s less capability in England; in fact there should be more because there’s so many more players playing the game.”

Bangladesh put up a magnificent account of themselves in the Test series, but are likely tofind the going tougher in the one-day series. Much of their resistance in the Tests wasattritional: batsmen seeing off sessions, bowlers – especially Mohammad Rafique – stickingto their task with discipline. Their stern defence was at the heart of their struggle there,but what they will need now is aggression and the instinct to attack. That could be aproblem.Javed Omar and Rajin Saleh would, thus, both be much less effective in the one-dayers,and Habibul Bashar’s importance will be amplified. Mohammad Ashraful is a combativehustler, but he can sometimes go overboard. Bangladesh failed abjectly in the 2003 WorldCup because they all tried to attack from the start of their innings and they threw it away.Their aggression must not be wanton if they are to stretch Pakistan in this series.Dav Whatmore has done an outstanding job of motivating his team, and if they continue toplay with the same intensity, they could yet be a handful. Pakistan, meanwhile, is notquite full-strength. They have been a transitional team for a long time – most spectacularlyshowed up in their `home’ series against Australia last year – and young blood can workboth ways. The youngsters in the team could be hungry to prove themselves; or they couldbe impetuous and impatient. Bangladesh’s victory will depend as much on Pakistan as onthemselves.Abdul Razzaq is back for Pakistan, as is Yousuf Youhana, but Younis Khan has, oddly, beenrelegated to the reserves. Kamran Akmal replaces the banned Rashid Latif, while theyoungsters who impressed in the Test series – Yasir Hamid, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Guland Shabbir Ahmed – have all been included. One curious inclusion, though, is Junaid Zia, afast bowler who was once accused of chucking and underwent corrective action. He is alsothe son of Taufeeq Zia, the PCB chief, and his selection – especially as it is against arelatively weak opponent – has raised a few eyebrows in Pakistan.Bangladesh’s bowlers, meanwhile, will feel less inadequate in the one-day series. Theyhave rarely looked like picking up 20 wickets in a Test match, but restrictive bowling in aone-day match is within the bounds of possibility. Khaled Mahmud, whose Test career -barring the last couple of games – has been indistinguished, is actually a decent one-dayplayer. He was Man of the Match in Bangladesh’s famous victory over Pakistan in the 1999World Cup, and he will have more than that to inspire him in the coming games.Bangladesh are fighting for respectability – the hunger is palpable – and their time mustsurely come.Probable teams
Pakistan 1 Imran Nazir, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Yasir Hameed, 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq(capt), 5 Yousuf Youhana, 6 Abdul Razzaq, 7 Shoaib Malik, 8 Kamran Akmal (wk), 9 ShabbirAhmed, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Junaid Zia.Bangladesh 1 Hannan Sarkar, 2 Javed Omar, 3 Habibul Bashar, 4 MohammadAshraful, 5 Rajin Saleh, 6 Alok Kapali, 7 Khaled Mashud (wk), 8 Khaled Mahmud (capt), 9Mohammad Rafique, 10 Mashrafe Mortaza, 11 Tapash Baisya.

The Kenya Cricket Association (KCA) has been stung by accusations that its selection of only one black player in the 14-man U19 squad for the World Cup qualifying tournament is racist.As soon as the squad was named the protests started with critics arguing that the selection did not mirror Kenya’s multiracial society. Timothy Muange, a wicketkeeper-batsman who played for the title-wining Swamibapa side, is the only indigenous Kenyan in the side.The objections have been given more force by the inclusion of three Kenyan-based Indian citizens. Jimmy Rayani, chairman of the KCA, defended the decision by withdrawing behind the ICC’s player eligibility rules under which the three qualify to represent Kenya. "We do not want to be disadvantaged against other teams at international level," he explained, "and that is why it is our desire that we send our strongest team possible for the tournament."But that hasn’t mollified the protestors. "The message we are sending to other cricket-playing nations is that we don’t have enough players to make up a truly Kenyan team," one said. "What is the use of having foreigners in the team when we are trying to get Test status? Who knows where they will be tomorrow?"The reality is that cricket in Kenya continues to be far more popular among the Asian community, and despite the best efforts of the ICC and KCA the indigenous population remain largely indifferent to the game.

Scorecard

Matthew Elliott made a magnificent 154 not out, taking Victoria to 8 for 331 declared in their Pura Cup game against South Australia, a lead of 106. His innings helped put Victoria within touching distance of securing home advantage for the final. South Australia survived four nervy overs, reaching 0 for 3 by the close.Elliott batted for seven hours to move to within reach of the fourth thousand-plus first-class season of his career. His fourth Pura Cup ton of the summer – he also has one ING Cup hundred – gives him 916 first-class runs, just 10 shy of team-mate Brad Hodge, who made a quickfire 73 at the start of the day. More importantly, Elliott’s innings took Victoria past SA’s first innings 225 and the two points earned means the only way they can miss out on a home final is if they lose this match spectacularly and then suffer two innings losses against Tasmania.Victoria, who last won the domestic four-day title in 1990-91, are now 12 points clear of second-placed Tasmania but have vowed to continue their aggressive approach in pursuit of outright wins. “We’ve talked about [the final] but I think we really need to just keep playing for six points, and keep playing to win games,” Elliott said. “That’s why we’ve been so good this year, we’ve always found a way to win games and we need to keep doing that into the final … we can’t take our foot off the pedal. I think tonight if we could have got one wicket it was probably worth 30 runs.”Elliott played anchor role to Hodge at the start of the day and then to Jonathan Moss (46) in the middle before opening his shoulders with the support of Berry (16) and Mick Lewis (16). The tail offered valuable support after Shaun Tait (3 for 55) hit back for South Australia with three wickets in successive overs before tea.

At the start of their Ashes-winning series against Australia in 1986-87, the England side were famously mocked by one local journalists under the headline “Can’t bat, can’t bowl”. Following their crushing defeat in the first Test at Lord’s, Zimbabwe have attracted similar criticism from the English media, but unlike Mike Gatting’s side, it is hard to see that there is any way back for Zimbabwe.They have only one match ahead of the second Test which starts in nine days time – a four-dayer against Middlesex at Shenley – but so outclassed were they at Lord’s that their main objective would appear to be trying to avoid another humiliation at Chester-le-Street.”It will be difficult to come back from this but we have got to pick ourselves up, there is a lot of work between now and then,” Heath Streak, Zimbabwe’s captain, admitted. “We have a young side but they have to learn quickly and show a bit of character. We don’t have the time not to learn from these experiences.”Streak was also aware that Zimbabwe’s poor bowling performance was simply not good enough at Test level. “Our guys just haven’t adapted to conditions here,” Streak said. “We had problems against the Duke ball as it swings consistently throughout the innings and we did not seem to know where our off stump was.The long and short of it is that we didn’t get enough in the right zone and create enough pressure. We gave too many four balls which released any pressure we built and allowed them to keep ticking over”The batting was equally disappointing, with inadequate technique to blame for two collapses – something that cannot be remedied in nine days. “We showed that on wickets that swing and seam you cannot play with hard hands and I think that this was the big difference between the sides at Lord’s,” Streak continued. “There were a lot of soft dismissals throughout for us and we have to learn from that. A lot of guys were sparring at balls they needn’t have played at, well outside off stump, and they will have to learn to leave better and play straighter.”