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Zimbabwe’s coach Walter Chawaguta will join Tim Nelisen, Australia’s coach, for a fortnight during the one-day series between Australia and Pakistan in the UAE next month.The attachment is part of an ongoing education programme that Zimbabwe Cricket initiated to build its capacity in the various spheres of the game and is running in conjunction with Cricket Australia (CA).”ZC is very grateful for all the assistance and cooperation we are getting from CA,” Ozias Bvute, the board’s chief executive, said. “We believe that Walter will benefit immensely from this exposure and will return to impart the knowledge he gains from Nielsen to his fellow coaches and the players.”Last year, Chawaguta was attached to the CA Centre of Excellence in Brisbane for five weeks, along with Under-19 coach Shepherd Makunura. They then attended a level three coaching course afterwards, together with national team assistant coach Douglas Hondo.This year, two administrators, Esther Lupepe and Shingai Rhuhwaya, have attended the programme. Three staff members from the Cricket Operations department and four players will also be going to Australia during the course of the year.

Tamil Nadu’s victory in the Ranji one-day tournament was a collective effort, the team’s coach Woorkeri Raman has said. Tamil Nadu beat Bengal by 66 runs in the final in Agartala on Monday despite missing big names like L Balaji, Dinesh Karthik and M Vijay. “It’s not all about names. It’s about performing collectively,” he told the . “It was a competition where everyone contributed.”Abhinav Mukund starred for Tamil Nadu, scoring 118 in a total of 284. Despite a determined 76 by Manoj Tiwary, Bengal fell well short of the target as the Tamil Nadu bowlers kept chipping away, with fast bowler R Suthesh and offspinner R Ashwin taking three wickets each. “We batted Bengal out of the match,” Raman said. It was a crucial innings for Abhinav on a personal level as well. Having scored heavily in the Ranji Trophy, he needed to make his presence felt in the shorter version of the game.”Tamil Nadu faced some stiff competition in the knock-out stages, most notably in the semi-final against Uttar Pradesh where they recovered from a hopeless 48 for 5 to win by 36 runs. The batsman who helped them do so was Suresh Kumar who made 94 and took two wickets as UP were dismissed for 162. “Suresh Kumar is a batsman with immense possibilities,” Raman said. “He has time to play the ball and should blossom into a very, very good batsman in a couple of years from now.”Raman also praised his bowlers who managed to defend a moderate score despite missing L Balaji. “It was a good pitch and Uttar Pradesh has depth in its batting. We did extremely well on the field,” he said. “Newcomer R. Suthesh, a left-arm paceman, bowled well. So did C. Ganapathy, who operated with control. Yomahesh is gradually gaining back his confidence. R. Ashwin (was restrictive and) struck with his off-spin.”We made it hard for the opposition to score freely and forced mistakes. We played only four specialist bowlers and the occasional bowlers chipped in usefully.”Raman admitted he was disappointed at not reaching the Ranji Trophy finals after losing on first innings to Uttar Pradesh in the semis. But he was happy about ending the domestic season with a victory in the one-dayers. “I would have been happier had we travelled to Hyderabad for the final. But it is nice to end the season with a triumph. There is a lot of promise in this side.”

England fast bowler Steve Harmison feels the umpire review system still lacks consistency and clarity and fears it will only make a “mockery” of the on-field umpires. Harmison was reacting, in his column in the , to one such review that went against him during the first Test against West Indies in Jamaica, an lbw verdict against Ramnaresh Sarwan.Harmison and the on-field umpire Tony Hill felt Sarwan was trapped in front of the stumps but the batsman challenged Hill’s verdict. The third umpire, Daryl Harper, felt the ball may have missed the top of the stumps and Sarwan, then on 5, went on to score 107 and shared an important 202-run stand for the second wicket with Chris Gayle.What surprised Harmison, however, was what Harper communicated to Hill after studying replays, which seemed to suggest that Harper himself wasn’t entirely convinced that the ball was missing the stumps.”When I trapped Ramnaresh Sarwan back in the crease, I was convinced he was out,” Harmison wrote. “So was Hill, which was why he stuck up his finger.”When Hill, after consulting Daryl Harper, then reversed his original decision and gave Sarwan not out, I asked him why, and he said something like: ‘Daryl said he couldn’t be sure but it may have been going over the top.’ I said to Tony: ‘That’s not right. He’s got to have seen something that proved you were wrong.’ Then he said: ‘Yeah, I thought so as well.'”There doesn’t seem to be any consistency or clarity,” Harmison wrote. “That means umpires are in danger of being isolated on the field and terrified to make a decision.”And I have to say, such is my continuing confusion, that I fear the new system is in danger of making a mockery of the time-honoured authority of the officials on the field. “The review system was tried out in two earlier series, but the rule has been modified for the current four-Test series against West Indies, with the number of reviews per innings per team reduced from three to two.Harmison said the defeat, which culminated in England being bowled out for 51 and suffering an innings and 23-run defeat, was one of the worst in his career.”I have never felt worse in my cricketing career than I do now, apart from when we were beaten by Australia in Adelaide on the last Ashes tour after setting up a position from which we might have won.”Five years ago I produced my best ever bowling spell here, 7 for 12, as we routed West Indies for 47 to win the first Test and set up a series victory. Now I know what it is like to be on the other end – and it’s c**p.”

Andy Kirsten, the Kenya coach, has offered no excuses for his side’s dreadful start to the one-day series against Zimbabwe. Kenya were soundly beaten in the opening two matches, twice conceding more than 300 runs.”To beat Zimbabwe we have to be on top of our game,” was Kirsten’s simplistic response. “We have to improve on our batting and the bowlers have to be more disciplined.”The wickets in the first two ODIs in Mombasa have suited the batsmen, and Kirsten said his team were at a disadvantage by bowling first on such a flat track. But regardless of the true nature of the pitch, Zimbabwe’s batsmen have made the most of it: Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda, Stuart Matsikenyeri and Elton Chigumbura have each scored half-centuries. Chigumbura has been particularly cavalier, cracking a brilliant 29-ball 68 in the second match to follow his equally thrilling 38-ball 79.Kirsten is understandably keen to return to the seamer-friendly surfaces of Nairobi for the final three matches but will miss the services of Thomas Odoyo, who pulled a thigh muscle in the second ODI.”Zimbabwe have come from two back-to-back series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and have shown a tremendous improvement to their game,” he said.

Injury concerns over Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson have hampered Australia’s lead-up to the Boxing Day Test against South Africa. Watson suffered a back problem at training on Wednesday and left the nets for medical attention, although he later returned to bat.Symonds is battling a knee injury that also affected him in the Perth Test, where he bowled three overs in the first innings but was unable to bowl in the second. Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, said he was unsure if Symonds would be fit to play in Melbourne.”It’s really a day-to-day thing with him at the moment,” Ponting told the . “He went into the game okay and bowled in the first innings but couldn’t really bowl after his second over. He got through his second over and that was it. He got better on days three and four and limped about on day five. It’s one of those things that comes and goes a little bit.”We’ll just have to see how he is on the morning of the game. If we bowl first, I’ll just have to put it on him and see if he can bowl his medium pacers or not. Obviously, on the last day of the Perth game that’s the reason he didn’t bowl, because of his knee. We’ll just have to keep a pretty close eye on him.”Symonds trained lightly on Wednesday and if he was unavailable, Australia would be keen to include Watson – assuming he himself was fit – as a replacement allrounder. The opener Matthew Hayden said losing Symonds from the line-up would be a major blow.”I think Symo is at the moment in reasonable shape,” Hayden said. “He has got a sore knee but they’re urging on the fact that things will calm down over a number of days. That’s what he’s hoping anyway. Symo in our side just adds a great characteristic and flavour in our side as well so we really want him to get up.”

In the past ten years Australian teams have almost picked themselves, butas Ricky Ponting realises the damage caused by the loss of a clutch ofgreats he is changing his outlook and adopting a more flexible approach toselection. The method started in Brisbane, where the 12-wicket debutantJason Krejza was dropped, and will continue in Adelaide as a way ofdiscovering which men can be depended on in specific conditions.So Australia fly south-west expecting the wicket to assist reverse-swingand the only thing they know is they don’t have to worry about fitting inthe allrounder Shane Watson, who was cut from the squad and replaced byPeter Siddle, the right-arm fast bowler. It eases the options for Ponting,who had spoken about picking only two pacemen for the second Test – ordropping a batsman – and supplementing the attack with Watson’s improvingbowling.Even though it was a move quashed quickly by Andrew Hilditch, Ponting’swillingness to discuss upsetting traditional thoughts means there arefewer certainties in a team that is used to them. “I just think we’ve gotto be a bit more flexible on our selection in different places,” Pontingsaid. “We need to look at every way you can to have the most impact.”They’re some of the lessons we all learned in India. We could have beenbetter equipped for those conditions and if we come up against conditionslike that, in Australia or the world, we need to have guys who can playwell in them.”Usually in Australia there is a slight debate over which bowler to chooseor whether the form batsman in the Sheffield Shield should come in. Whenthe players reconvene in Adelaide on Tuesday night there will be a lot ofteam management discussions. Could Siddle come in for Brett Lee, who tookhis 300th Test wicket at the Gabba, if Australia pick only three pacebowlers? How long can Matthew Hayden and Brad Haddin carry on? Will AndrewSymonds stay ahead of Watson, who will play for Queensland instead, afterhis muted return? And is Krejza really Australia’s spin answer?Nothing will probably change and Siddle will be 12th man, but the fact somany debates are occurring lead some Australians to feel like they aresuddenly following England outfits of the 1990s. “We’ve got a decision tomake, or maybe a few decisions to make, on our team for Adelaide,” Pontingsaid. “Once again we’ve got to be a bit more specific with the way we pickour teams now. We’ve really got to pick horses for courses with ourselections.”It is a way of developing for the future following the exits of ShaneWarne, Glenn McGrath et al and learning from the struggles of India, wherethe team realised it was no longer a dominator. The 149-run win over NewZealand turned out well, but it is the warm-up for two tougher seriesagainst South Africa ahead of the 2009 Ashes.”It’s no good a lot of the time going on tours carrying around 14 or 15blokes and not seeing how they go,” Ponting said. “Especially with some ofthe cricket coming up, we’ve got South Africa here at the WACA, which willbe a good place for the swing and quick bowlers, and then we’ve gotMelbourne and Sydney, which will be the other way. Then we take them onover there on wickets which, we saw last time, seamed all over the place.”We have to start looking at the guys who are going to be suited to thoseconditions and even look ahead to England as well. We’re going to needpeople over there who can swing the ball and stand the seam up and do thatall the time. That’s what I’m talking about with those selection things.”Mitchell Johnson is one player who has continued to develop and shown hecan break through in a variety of conditions. After leading the list inIndia, Johnson captured a career-best 9 for 69, including his maidenfive-wicket haul, to end the contest on Sunday.”He is doing everything right at the moment,” Ponting said. “He continuesto work on things. He’s done as well as any of our bowlers over the last12 or 18 months, but he’s the first one to go and have a look at videofootage, whether it’s his wrist or his action or whatever. He is alwaystrying to find ways to improve.”Johnson was nervous in the opening stages of the first innings but cameback to take 4 for 30, and captured three wickets on the final morning,finishing the game by knocking over Chris Martin. “I felt that I’m bowlingreally well,” he said, “and I’m happy with the way I’m going and hopefullykeep improving.”Australia 2nd Test squad Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich, RickyPonting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, BradHaddin (wk), Brett Lee, Jason Krejza, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark,Peter Siddle.

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Andrew McDonald and his fast-bowling colleagues caused major problems for Tasmania on the MCG’s first day of Sheffield Shield action for the season as the Tigers went to stumps at 8 for 189. George Bailey was the only batsman to show serious application on a pitch that shouldn’t have been that difficult and at the close Gerard Denton was on 5 and Ben Hilfenhaus had 1.Play finished half an hour early and 16 overs short as bad light set in but it was a predictable outcome. The first ball was not bowled until 1pm and stumps was scheduled for 7.50pm to give players from both sides time to fly back from Brisbane where several had taken part in Friday night’s All-Stars Twenty20 match. Cricket Australia is keen to pursue day-night Tests and this match confirmed that red balls in the evening are not the way to go.McDonald was one of the men who had made the rush to Melbourne but he showed no weariness after the late night; he finished with 3 for 29 and took two magnificent diving catches. He symbolised the sharpness in the Victoria outfit – no chances were dropped, the players hared through between overs and the fast men bowled with effort and purpose on a reasonably benign surface.Even without key bowlers Peter Siddle, who is with the Test squad, Dirk Nannes, who was a late withdrawal with the flu, and Darren Pattinson, who has a groin injury, Victoria were constantly dangerous. Clint McKay and Damien Wright picked up two wickets each in the early stages as Tasmania wobbled to 5 for 62.Only when Bailey and Luke Butterworth combined for a 62-run stand did Daniel Marsh’s decision to bat begin to look like it might work out. But McDonald ended that partnership when Butterworth (25) clipped Shane Harwood to square leg, where McDonald hurled himself to his left and clasped a strong chance.Bailey, renowned as a dasher, displayed impressive resolve in reaching 73 from 185 balls. He still found opportunities to hit the rope on eight occasions, including a swatted pull off his former Tigers team-mate Wright. But Bailey became another victim of Victoria’s excellent fielding when he top-edged an attempted pull off McDonald and a deceptively agile Harwood ran back at midwicket to take a superbly-judged catch.The best catch was yet to come. Brett Geeves (31) had just lofted McDonald over long-on for six when he checked his next shot and prodded the ball back down the pitch, where McDonald flung himself to his left to grab the sharp chance at full stretch.McDonald clearly adjusted better after the flight south than his All-Stars team-mates Michael Dighton and Marsh. Marsh poked Wright to point for a laborious 7 off 41 balls and Dighton, who had mesmerised the Gabba crowd with 34 from 13 deliveries, managed only 20 before edging behind off McKay.Dighton’s innings was one of many stark contrasts between Friday night’s extravaganza and the dour first-class day that followed. In Brisbane, the All-Stars managed 203 from 20 overs; at the MCG, a Tasmania outfit featuring some of the same batsmen struggled to 189 from 80 overs. A thrill a minute it was not, but it was a good, hard-fought day of first-class cricket.

Minutes after speaking about maintaining the “primacy of test cricket”, the International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat announced a World Twenty20 would be staged in the West Indies in 2010. A similar tournament will be held in England next June before the rescheduled Champions Trophy is due to start in Pakistan next September.”There was a choice that the board had between holding a Champions Trophy or Twenty20 and it was decided it would make more sense, and get a better spread of events, for that to be a Twenty20,” Lorgat said. After the 2009 Champions Trophy, the tournament will not be played again until at least 2012 because the World Cup is being staged in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2011.Concerns have grown over the future of Tests with the emergence of Twenty20, which is quickly gaining in popularity. Lorgat, who attended a full ICC board meeting in Dubai this week, said the world’s cricket boards “respect the primacy of test cricket” and the ICC was considering its position on a number of issues involving the abbreviated format.The unofficial Indian Cricket League met with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the owner of the sanctioned Indian Premier League, this week but the talks failed. The ICC will wait for an official report from the BCCI before considering an application from the ICL to become an official competition.Players in the event, which is currently being held in India, are banned from representing their home domestic and international teams. “We are going through a process and part of that process is to wait for a report from the BCCI and we will consider that report and deal with that application,” Lorgat said.The ICC is also involved in “on-going discussions” over Sri Lanka’s in-doubt tour of England next May after a US$70m proposal from the BCCI for Sri Lanka’s players to appear in the IPL instead of the Test tour. “What we are seeing is the challenge between the way players want to be in terms of their earnings, the potential to earn the most while they have a window in their own careers,” Lorgat said. “It’s clear what the position of the Sri Lanka cricket board is, they want to see their team to tour England to go through. Equally the England cricket board is keen to see it go ahead.”Lorgat said a “window” for the IPL competition, which would allow players to switch between international and Twenty20 duties, had not been discussed by the ICC. “We are waiting to see how it all unfolds,” he said. “This is the first occasion we have this challenge with the Sri Lanka players. When we do a complete review of the Future Tours Programme that will be up for discussion.”Crowds in Mohali for the second Test between India and Australia have been poor and Lorgat said the attendances were a worry, especially on Friday when Sachin Tendulkar became the leading run-scorer in Test cricket. “Absolutely, all of us who came through yesterday were quite concerned at the lack of spectators,” he said. “It is something we will have to look at very seriously.”Lorgat also said the ICC would be more careful over its handling of the 2009 Champions Trophy following the postponement of this year’s event due to safety and security concerns in Pakistan. “We want to make sure long before the September and October dates next year that we make a final choice on the security situation,” he said.

Andre Nel, the South African fast bowler, has said that a desire to play a bigger role in mentoring junior players caused him to switch from the Titans to the Lions. The move has denied Nel the chance of playing the lucrative Champions League with the Titans.”(McKenzie) wanted me to come here and help him lead and set an example for these guys,” he was quoted as saying in the Gauteng-based . “I wasn’t used like that at the Titans. I just felt like a part of the furniture there. I’ve got a lot of knowledge and I want to teach guys and that’s what I’m excited about.” Nel has played 36 Tests for South Africa and 107 first-class matches since his debut in 1996-97.Nel, an aggressive fast bowler who doesn’t shy away from exchanging words with the opposition on the field, said that he could instill the energy which he felt the Lions, who finished bottom in two of the three domestic competitions last season, were missing. “(I bring) that killer instinct, that deep-down desire to do well, and passion,” he said. “Maybe that was lacking here, and maybe I can teach these guys to get that and to bring that aggression to the fore at the right stages.”Nel will be available for the first two rounds of the SuperSport Series before heading to a camp with the national team ahead of the home series against Bangladesh. The Lions kick off their campaign in Johannesburg with a game against the Warriors which starts on Thursday.

Sourav Ganguly, who will retire from international cricket after the Australian series, has said he was tired of the constant humiliation and at being singled out for scrutiny. He has also issued a sharply worded criticism of his team-mates, saying some “have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored”.”I am bound to feel bad. I had to fight with my heart,” he told , a Bengali daily. “If there is a gun to your head all the time, how long can you bear this? After all, I have played 400 matches for India. I have played badly in only one series. Yet every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing in the team.”There are players who haven’t scored in the last three series for India, even for the last one year. There are some who have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored for India.”How long would I have played? Maybe upto 2009. Maybe seven more Tests. For that I was not prepared to take any more humiliation. I was tired of being humiliated again and again. I don’t want to play cricket at the mercy of others.”Ganguly made an impressive return to international cricket after losing his captaincy, and his place in the side, in early 2006. “Everything is possible in Indian cricket,” he said. When Greg (Chappell) dropped me, TP Singh (of Railways, now with the ICL) was my replacement. Where is he now?”Asked what hurt more, being dropped by Chappell or being excluded from the Irani Trophy squad this year, Ganguly said: “Definitely the Irani Trophy. I couldn’t imagine being dropped for that. That’s when I said, not again.”I thought a lot before reaching this decision. I have also thought about my plans for the next one year. If this (selection) committee had come three years earlier, the situation would have been slightly better for me.”