Jim May appointed new Sussex chairman

Ill health has forced David Green to stand down as Sussex chairman after six years. He will be replaced by Jim May, who held the position of treasurer and who takes over with immediate effect.”It has been an honour and mostly a pleasure to chair SCCC through the most successful years in its long history,” said Green. “In recent months I have had to take a health-induced sabbatical due to having three major operations in a ten-week period. I am now recovering, but will not be fully fit to resume my duties for some months to come. I have therefore decided it is in the club’s best interest that I stand down as chairman. I will stay on as a main board director both of Sussex and the ECB for as long as I am required.”May paid tribute to Green, saying: “Under David’s leadership, Sussex achieved unprecedented success – winning three County Championships in five years. This will stand in the history books. In addition, David worked tirelessly behind the scenes. In particular his drive to create the youth ground at Blackstone near Henfield, the new Indoor School at Hove and ensuring we maximised the Spen Cama [their benefactor] inheritance are evidence of his contribution to Sussex cricket.”May added: “I am honoured to be elected by the board. There is no doubt that county cricket faces an exciting, but challenging future. Uncertainty at international level coupled with domestic restructuring in 2010 means that at Sussex we will have to be smart to remain a top county. Off the field, the challenge of redeveloping the ground at Hove and improving the trading performance are two topics high on the agenda.”May has significant connections in Sussex. He is deputy chairman of Shoreham Port Authority and a non-executive director of Brighton & Hove PCT. He was a banker for 35 years, latterly managing director, South, Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was responsible for the RBS and NatWest commercial business.Gus Mackay, Sussex’s chief executive, said: “It is with regret to learn that David will be stepping down. He has been a great asset to the club. I am delighted that he is to remain on the board.”But he welcomed May’s appointment: “Jim brings with him a wealth of experience and business knowledge,” he said, “which can only be a benefit to the club. I am looking forward to working closely with Jim on some of the exciting projects ahead of us.”

Steve Waugh signs for Kent

Kent County Cricket Club today announced that Steve Waugh will be joining the Club as a replacement for Andrew Symonds until the end of the season. His first match will be on Wednesday 21 August 2002 – a Norwich Union League floodlit match against Leicestershire – and he will participate in all remaining one day and championship fixtures.Earlier today, Steve commented:”I am looking forward to the opportunity to play some tough cricket and this stint will provide excellent preparation for the upcoming season. It has been 15 years since I last played county cricket so it is quite exciting and I look forward to making a strong contribution at Kent County Cricket Club.”Ian Brayshaw, Kent’s Director of Cricket, added:”We are thrilled that Steve has agreed to play for us for the rest of the season. We are obviously sad to see Andrew go but are delighted to have been able to secure the services of such an experienced cricketer to help us in our push for success in the remainder of the season. It is a great boost for everyone at the Club.”

Hussain moves England beyond WA's first innings total

PERTH, Oct 29 AAP – Captain Nasser Hussain was guiding England towards a sizeable total at tea on the second day of a three-day cricket tour match against Western Australia at the WACA ground today.In reply to Western Australia’s first innings total of 213, the tourists were 4-243 with Hussain (88no) and Alec Stewart (0no) at the crease.Hussain played a fine hand on an increasingly lifeless pitch with some impressive cover drives in his unbeaten 162-ball knock which included 15 fours.Earlier today opener Robert Key (33), who looked dangerous last night as the tourists cruised to 0-54 at stumps, didn’t add to his score being caught by Matthew Nicholson in the gully off Brad Williams’ bowling.Left-handed opening partner Marcus Trescothick (46) also looked in fine touch but flashed at a wide ball from Nicholson and was well caught in slips by Michael Hussey.Mark Butcher (29) and Hussain then put on a 59-run third wicket partnership before Butcher’s luck ran out.The Surrey left-hander lived dangerously, surviving a difficult caught and bowled opportunity by Brad Hogg on 27, before being dismissed after padding up to WA quick Jo Angel just before the interval.Hussain and John Crawley (45) then overhauled the WA first innings total before Crawley chopped a wide ball from Stuart Karppinen back onto his stumps.The 31-year-old Hampshire batsman had looked unconvincing in his 105-minute stay before playing well away from his body and edging the ball onto his wicket.Big Jo Angel had the best figures for the home team with 1-27 off 13 overs.

The ramshackle heritage of Frank Worrell

Five years have passed by, and the small pink house looks forlorn. Earlier, a man used to live here with his girl-friend, but without any idea of who the original inhabitant of the house might be. Now the local scribes say that the house at night is a den for Bridgetown’s anti-social elements.During his childhood, this was where Sir Frank Worrell lived. A small, white marble slab says as much: “This is the house where lived Sir Frank, and the house is now the property of the government.” A special board of trustees, at a meeting attended even by the Barbados Prime Minister, was formed on June 26 1991 to look after the house. In the 11 years since then, the trustees seem to have lost all interest in preserving the house.Adjacent to the house is the famous Empire club, one that spawned cricketers like Worrell, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith. Griffith, once the president of the club, has resigned now, and the club has gone downhill along with Caribbean cricket.With nobody living in the house now, grass grows out of the cracks in the stairs. The electricity has been cut off, but the brackets still remain. The window-panes are broken, and, peering through them, one can see the wash-basin that the residents once used. But there is no photograph visible of the man who once reshaped the game in this country. Were it not for the marble slab, there would be no indication that this ramshackle structure was Sir Frank’s birthplace.Griffith and Weekes are worried about the preservation of the house. “Something has to be done. The administrators have to look into the matter seriously. We have his face imprinted on a five-dollar note, but his house is in such a state and nobody is taking any initiative to preserve it in the proper way,” they say.Sir Frank continues to be honoured, though. The university here arranges a yearly lecture in his memory. Even a few days ago, former British prime minister John Major delivered a speech on the occasion. But for some reason, there is no initiative to preserve the house.

On the shoulders of giants

Sachin Tendulkar against all bowlers – India innings at Trinidad
© CricInfo

An army may well win a battle with pop-guns and catapults, buthow much less concerned the soldiers and their supporters wouldfeel if their tank – even one with ailing treads – were rolledout to back up the infantry. Allegorically, Sachin Tendulkar putteam interests before his shoulder bursitis – tendon inflammation- and slipped into one-day colours for the deciding one-dayinternational at Port of Spain.As it turned out, Tendulkar scooped his 44th Man of the Matchaward by hitting a crucial 65 off 70 balls and guiding India to achallenging total of 260. But the innings itself could hardly betermed vintage Tendulkar, and his sore shoulder takes primeresponsibility for the nature of the knock.Tendulkar’s MRF-emblazoned bludgeon, treading the line between”bat” and “lethal weapon” ever so delicately, weighs almostthree pounds, making it difficult to hoist into position with apainful shoulder. Accordingly, his innings was almost completelydevoid of his pet horizontal-bat shots – the cut and the pull.Six runs came in front of point and six in the square-leg region,both areas that would have been thicker in run-density ifTendulkar had the freedom to unleash the full flourish of his baton his shots. Instead, Tendulkar adapted his game to move the batas little as possible. He glided 14 runs to third man and as manyas 18 to fine-leg. Eleven runs came in the mid-wicket region,mostly from effortless nudges off his legs.At the post-match press conference, Tendulkar admitted that hisshoulder hampered him. “There were some shots that I justcouldn’t play,” he said. “My shoulder is still a little stiff, alittle sore, but I’ve been told it’s nothing serious. It shouldbe okay in the next five-six days; it’s just an inflammation.”Under such circumstances, Tendulkar’s knock was all the morepriceless, as much for its contribution to the win as for thesheer effort and dedication it exemplified.

Johnson's innings not enough to save Notts from defeat against Sussex

Sussex’s acting skipper James Kirtley led from the front with four wickets as his side eased to their first CricInfo Championship win of the season by an emphatic 162 runs against Nottinghamshire at Hove.Kirtley took 4-65 while there were also four wickets for new ball partner Jason Lewry to give him 9-160 in the match as Notts, chasing 371 to win, were bowled out for 208.Sussex were in the driving seat by lunch having reduced Notts to 45-3. Kirtley removed Guy Welton and Usman Afzaal while Lewry accounted for Darren Bicknell.Kirtley struck again when he took the key wicket of Greg Blewett with the first ball after lunch when the Australian gloved a catch to wicketkeeper Matt Prior and Notts were soon reeling at 67-6 when Kevin Pietersen was caught behind off Lewry and Chris Read lbw to Kirtley offering no shot.Veteran Paul Johnson staged a brief recovery in partnership with Paul Franks, the seventh wicket pair putting on 63 in 17 overs before Robin Martin-Jenkins struck in successive overs to remove Franks and then Gareth Clough leg before.Johnson duly went to his second fifty of the match and finished on an unbeaten 88 from 126 balls with 14 fours, but Sussex wrapped up victory 35 minutes after tea when David Millns was leg before to Lewry offering no shot and Smith bowled by Lewry’s inswinger after an entertaining last wicket partnership of 52 in eight overs with the impressive Johnson.Earlier Sussex had batted on for an hour in the morning before declaring on 298-8 with a lead of 370. South African Smith took two more wickets to finish with 5-37 and a match haul of 10-101.

Inzamam bludgeons the Black Caps into submission

LAHORE – It was the day of the ‘big fella’, and braving heat despite struggling with his fitness, cramps in his legs making matters worse, he made the New Zealand bowlers suffer nevertheless. The modest Black Caps attack felt the full weight of his bat, and he bludgeoned them into submission without an ounce of mercy in his huge frame. When he was last out, Pakistan had posted a massive 653, their highest against New Zealand, Inzamam’s contribution being 329 in a vigil lasting nearly 10 hours.If the Kiwis expected any respite at finally seeing the back of Inzamam, a rampant Shoaib Akhtar most rudely dashed their hopes. At close, the Black Caps were rather perilously placed. Akhtar’s thunderbolts combined with spin duo Saqlain Mushtaq and Danish Kaneria’s contribution of a wicket apiece, reduced them to 58 for six at stumps.Bowling with pace and venom, on the same placid turf where the Kiwi attack was torn asunder, Akhtar’s missiles homed in with unerring accuracy. And the stumps of the first four batsmen went flying with only 21 runs on the board. Matthew Horne’s leg stump was sent cartwheeling by a fiery toe-crusher and undone by pace, Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming could hear only the rattle of the uprooted middle stump, while Chris Harris had the mortification to see his off-stump laid back.Within no time, Akhtar, whose figures at that point read six overs, three maidens, five runs, four wickets, had destroyed the Kiwi aspirations of making a match of it.Kaneria and Saqlain produced a wicket apiece with their sharp turners. The former snapped up Craig McMillan when Afridi brought off a good catch at silly-point and the latter induced a big outside edge from Lou Vincent with Rashid Latif pouching the opportunity.From here on, the Kiwis would really need something special to lift themselves and avoid a big defeat. But the Pakistanis, having scented the kill, are now literally going for the jugular. It would be really surprising if the match lasts the full five days.Inzamam’s was only the 16th triple hundred in all, the 10th highest in Tests and only the second by a Pakistani, 44 years after Hanif Mohammad’s 337 at Barbados in 1957-58.When he got out attempting his fourth six in five balls off leggie Brooke Walker, he was just nine runs shy of a new highest individual innings for Pakistan and 47 from the world record.Fatigue and exhaustion, not to mention the cruel cramps in the legs, and the fact he was batting with the No 11 Danish Kaneria, made him hit out. But by then the 32-year-old had made 329, off 436 deliveries in 579 minutes with 38 fours and nine sixes.Unbeaten at 159 on day one, Inzamam didn’t go after the bowling straightaway. He made only four out of 29 in the first hour as the Black Caps bowled with a whole lot more discipline than the previous day. But from then on, it was one milestone after another for Inzi. Three boundaries quickly took him past two landmarks: Saleem Malik’s (5768) career aggregate to make him Pakistan’s second highest run-getter after Javed Miandad (8832), and also his previous best in Pakistan, 177 against the West Indies in 1997-98.Then he went past 200, his previous best. Tuffey trapped an unsettled Razzaq (25, with six fours) in front of the wicket, and Harris snapped up Rashid in an excellent return catch. With six gone at 399, Inzamam (211) went to lunch with Saqlain (13 not out) having posted an unbeaten 55 runs for the seventh wicket. Though Fleming did not allow him a runner post-lunch, Inzamam carried on from where had left off, going for quick runs. McMillan brought one in to knock back Saqlain’s off-stump at 510, but by then the seventh wicket stand had added 111 runs.Inzamam was now running out of partners, but he stroked ahead of Javed Miandad’s 280. In the meanwhile, Waqar had been caught by McMillan off his own bowling. Shoaib Akhtar struck McMillan for three fours as he helplessly looked on, and Inzamam hit Vettori for two sixes at long-on and long-off. By now struggling with a pronounced limp, Inzamam still continued gamely to go to tea at 287.He came out and blitzed past 300 when Shoaib Akhtar, having already hit Walker for a six, jumped down the crease for a repeat, only to be stumped. With last wicket in Inzamam despite his serious discomfort, had no option but to hit out. He smote three glorious sixes, and the fourth seemed to be going the same way when Tuffey got him at deep mid-wicket to end a glorious knock.

Blues assume honours after day of mixed fortunes

It was a day of mixed fortunes for New South Wales on day one of the important Pura Cup match against Queensland here at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.After a slow and shaky start, the Blues cranked up the run scoring in the afternoon, thanks to a superb second wicket partnership between Michael Bevan (111) andGreg Mail (71), who together built a solid stand of 174 runs off 389 balls. In the process, they lifted the Blues out of the doldrums and helped their side to the morethan respectable scoreline of 4/287 by the end of the day.The innings did not get off to an auspicious start After captain Shane Lee had won the toss and decided that his team would bat, the Blues lost Brett van Deinsen (1)to Adam Dale’s first ball of the match. Things always looked awkward from that point until lunch. Bevan and Mail were cautious and batted in uninspiring fashion.Both concentrated on survival and sturdy defence; there was accordingly a lack of flair in their strokeplay and, at times, both looked very heavy-footed.By lunch, the Blues had crawled to 1/46 and it looked as though it was going to be a very slow day’s cricket. Thankfully, looks can sometimes be deceptive and thenew session brought with it a totally new attitude.The first fifty runs of the innings were accumulated off 179 balls. But matters soon changed; the second half century came in ninety balls and the third was struck offjust seventy-six.Within minutes of taking the field after lunch, they launched an assault on the scoreboard, helping themselves to fifty-three runs from the first sixteen overs upon theresumption. The Bulls were suddenly struggling to contain the flow of runs and, for one of the few times in recent memory in first-class cricket, their game began tounravel. Bevan was dropped by Jimmy Maher from the very next delivery after he had registered a half century of his own.True to lore, he punished the Queenslanders for the error in an innings that spanned 197 deliveries and was punctuated by ten fours and three sixes. He looked atouch unlucky to fall to a low catch at mid on by Scott O’Leary; even exhaustive television replays failing to fully eliminate doubt about the complete validity of thedismissal.Mail lived through a close call that almost saw him run out in the thirty-sixth over but was eventually trapped on his crease by a quick delivery from Andy Bichel inthe day’s final session.Michael Clarke (0) came in and promptly fell to a beautiful darting ball from Dale that pitched just outside leg stump, straightened, and ensured that his stay wasneither long nor productive.Upon Clarke’s downfall, Mark Higgs (60*) patiently took twenty-two balls to open his account, but celebrated breaking the shackles in style by blasting a fourthrough the covers. It was the start of an enjoyable exhibition which netted the powerful batsman a maiden first-class fifty against the gloomy backdrop of rain cloudswhich were gathering to the east.Spectators waiting for one-day international star Andrew Symonds to take the ball were finally rewarded at the end of the day – albeit with only five overs remaining.It seemed that Bulls captain Stuart Law was going to persist with the exclusive use of his four specialist bowlers, – Bichel, Dale, Joe Dawes and O’Leary – and to pinhis hopes on the three pacemen and the off spinner to do the job.Symonds, in his three overs, conceded six runs and was not particularly inspiring. But, given the Bulls’ relative lack of success in the field today, it might well be thathe sees more action at the bowling crease tomorrow.By the end of the day, New South Wales had clearly assumed the honours, albeit that Lee might well need to make a delicate decision as to how long he extends theinningsThe Queenslanders, on the other hand, will need to produce some more penetration tomorrow if they are to successfully go about preserving top spot on the PuraCup table and limit some of the damage that Bevan, Mail and Higgs wrought upon them today.

I stand by promise to ICC to hold KnockOut tournament, says Bharti

“I stand by my commitment of all help in holding the ICC KnockOut tournament in India,” Sports Minister Uma Bharti said in New Delhi on Thursday. “I had invited the ICC to hold the tournament in our country and promised them all help including tax exemption, when Mr Gray met me in March,” Bharti told PTI when contacted for her reaction to International Cricket Council President Malcolm Gray’s letter to her.”I will be very happy if the tournament is held in our country,” added the Sports Minister who described cricket as “an expression of the nation’s sentiment”.Earlier, apparently worried by the statement of BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele that India was “not necessarily keen” to host the ICC KnockOut tournament next year, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Malcolm Gray appealed to Sports Minister Uma Bharti to continue to lend support to the event.In a letter to Bharti, a copy of which was obtained by PTI, Gray said the ICC was still keen to hold the event in India. “I have been watching with great interest some of the statements about cricket emanating in the Indian press and have been encouraged by your statement and the line you are taking,” Gray said a day after Lele’s remarks sparked doubts that the Board might not host the competition. I hope that you will continue to lend your support to the event being held in India and to the obtaining of tax exemption for the tournament. As we discussed, whenever major sporting tournaments areheld around the world, they are only located in tax-friendly environment.”"We are holding a meeting at the end of this week at which we hope tofinalise our decision as to the venue for the 2002 KnockOut tournament,” the ICC chief added.Overruling Lele, BCCI President AC Muthiah said in Udhagamandalam on Thursday that India would host the event.

Hughes stands tall after Cutting ton


ScorecardBen Cutting scored 109 from 78 deliveries•Getty Images

Phillip Hughes was within touching distance of a century at stumps on day two of his first match for South Australia, but Queensland were in a powerful position thanks to Ben Cutting’s maiden first-class hundred. The Redbacks finished the day in major trouble at 7 for 164, still 234 runs adrift of Queensland’s first-innings total, and the only positive for South Australia was that Hughes was still at the crease on 95, alongside Joe Mennie on 5.In his first outing for the Redbacks since moving from New South Wales during the off-season, Hughes carried with him the strong form that he showed for Worcestershire in county cricket this year. He struck 12 boundaries and was a lone resisting hand for South Australia as none of the rest of the top six managed to score more than 11.The wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman (28) gave Hughes some support in a 58-run partnership but the Bulls, led by their captain James Hopes with 3 for 26 from 15 overs, did not allow South Australia to gain any sort of momentum. There had been plenty of momentum during the tail-end of Queensland’s innings as Cutting propelled himself to triple-figures for the first time.Cutting was in an aggressive mood and struck four sixes and 12 fours, and brought up his century from the last ball before lunch with a leg glance for two. Gary Putland picked up 5 for 100 but there wasn’t much for South Australia to celebrate.