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Selling of rights for next year’s World Cup in South Africa is going well and deals have recently been completed in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, World Sport Group chief executive Seamus O’Brien said today.WSG has made several deals and the only problem areas in regard to television rights had been in Britain and Australia.However, O’Brien said today that Newscorp, who now had full financial control of the World Cup, were dealing with their own people in those countries.Deals had earlier been done in New Zealand, where Sky has the rights, and South Africa.O’Brien added that some large deals had been done for the World Cup in India and there were eight or nine that had been completed and the marketing was on track for the event.O’Brien also clarified an earlier report that his company was to be sold to Newscorp.It was the Global Cricket Corporation that had been fully acquired by Newscorp, he said.

Fast bowler Steffan Jones has set himself the target of bowling at 90mph this season.To help him achieve this target Steffan, who joined the county in 1997, has built a home gymnasium in his garage .”I’ve always wanted a gym of my own, so I saved up some money and kitted it out. I’ve painted the garage and put a carpet on the floor. I’ve bought some free standing weights, and other equipment to help me do some power work.”During the winter Steffan has spent at least two hours a day , six days a week in his home gym, and feels he is well on the way to achieving his target.”I’m not there yet, but since I joined the club I reckon that I’ve increased my speed by six or seven miles per hour.”Steffan has been helped this year by Richard Johnson who joined from Middlesex during the winter. “As an opening attack they have worked together well and forged a good relationship, which has been a great benefit to Steffan,” said Somerset coach Kevin Shine.

Canterbury’s cricket clubs are being asked to consider some far-reaching changes for the benefit of cricket throughout the region.New chief executive Richard Reid has written to all clubs seeking comment on some suggestions he has made.Among the suggestions he has made are:A region-wide premier club competition in three divisions.The club season to start later and to run from November-April.Later starts on Saturdays at 12 noon, with finishes around 7pm.Automatic promotion-relegation between divisions.A guaranteed place for the nine senior clubs, and involvement of no more than seven teams from the Suburban and Districts’ associations.Integration of the two-day and one-day competitions.A new points format.Implementation of a region-wide subsidised coaching policy.Initiatives in schools and lower grade cricket.Reid stressed that he was seeking comment on his suggestions and has asked all clubs to consider them and report back with their own thoughts.Reid said the delay in the start of the season would need a change of thinking in several codes.”Ground availability, cricketers who play winter sports, dew, day-light hours, are all relevant points but conceptually I need to know what you think.”I am aware that if cricket is to go down this path it cannot do it alone. There needs to be a quantum shift in the thinking of other sporting codes. It would require their buy-in and co-operation,” he said.Coaching was an area where improvement was vital.”This is a crucial area and something that we, as a body, do not do well.”Canterbury Cricket will be moving towards next season offering each club/district a coaching subsidy to assist in this key component.”My personal view is that we need a Canterbury (Inc) approach in coaching and development.”What I mean by this is that we should agree on a philosophy in all that we do and replicate it throughout the region. This allows for continuity of approach and makes it easier for players as they know what to expect as they progress through the grades,” he said.However, he warned the coaching subsidy would come with hooks.These would be dependent upon a coaching and development plan for each club and district, regular checkpoints which would be the decider of whether the subsidy would continue to be paid and clubs and districts would be responsible for prioritising the coaching and development areas within their organisation.

Just when you thought Australia couldn’t become any stronger, it duly appeared to emerge from today’s Carlton Series encounter against Zimbabwe in Sydney in even more formidable shape. Beyond the mere matter of a crushing eighty-six run win, this was a game which offered it a great chance to experiment. And it did so in particularly successful style.In again reshuffling its batting order, in again rotating its playing list, in setting Test-style attacking fields, and in turning to unlikely change bowlers, the home team’s most difficult challenges today were again provided by its own brains trust – and not the opposition. Captain Steve Waugh conjured up one of the sternest tests of all, perhaps, when he won the toss and decided that his team would bat in possibly the most demanding conditions of the day.But, after Adam Gilchrist (63) and a slightly-tentative Mark Waugh (36) had weathered the swing and seam extracted by new ball bowlers Heath Streak (1/56 from ten overs) and Bryan Strang (1/50 off ten) in muggy, humid conditions, this proved another stroll in the park. The fifth successive Australian opening stand to exceed the half-century mark in this series provided the platform for a brutal onslaught that ultimately took the Australians to within twelve runs of their highest ever one-day international score against Zimbabwe.Ninety-eight runs had been added by the time that the Gilchrist-Waugh stand was eventually ended – by means of a bizarre run out. Waugh was the unlucky batsman, departing after Gilchrist had powered back a straight drive with such force that his partner had no chance to regain his ground at the non-striker’s end as the ball went past him. He could only watch in horror as it took a thin deflection from bowler Brian Murphy’s fingers back on to the stumps. Gilchrist made his own exit shortly afterwards, when he was deceived by a Strang delivery and lofted a simple catch to mid wicket.For as much encouragement as the sight of the two openers returning to the pavilion must have provided, though, there was only more in the way of punishment for the Zimbabweans to follow. Characteristically, Michael Bevan (74*) proceeded to anchor a succession of productive stands.Importantly for the Australians, theirs was an innings which offered valuable time in the middle for a number of players who have barely been required to bat in this series. Together with Bevan, Steve Waugh (36) and Andrew Symonds (21) also capitalised upon chances that have been far from readily forthcoming.The Zimbabweans, for their part, toiled manfully. With the new ball, Streak and Strang were steady and also generated sideways movement and variable bounce at different moments. Spinners Murphy (0/38 from eight overs) and Dirk Viljoen (3/62 off ten) also bowled tidily during the middle stages of the innings.But there were times when the bowlers and fieldsmen looked helpless, powerless even. At no point was this more obvious than during the closing eleven overs of the innings, when Bevan, Darren Lehmann (36) and Symonds combined to help themselves to a gargantuan 110 runs and clobber the total toward 6/291. It was a feast of brilliantly improvised strokeplay and electrifying running between the wickets that again served to underline the vast gulf that exists between Australia and its opponents in this series.Despite a gallant stand of ninety-two for the third wicket between Stuart Carlisle (44) and Andy Flower (39), Zimbabwe never really looked like challenging the rival score. Let alone overhauling it. Carlisle and Flower responded attractively upon being joined in the fifth over after another poor Zimbabwean start. In composed style, they defied excellent new ball bowling from Damien Fleming (2/21 from six overs) and Glenn McGrath (1/26 off 6.5) before cutting loose against the pace of Nathan Bracken (0/25 from five) and, more specifically, the leg spin of Shane Warne (2/52 off ten).It was Flower who frustrated the Australian star early with some contemptuous reverse sweeping through the off side. But Carlisle was quick to join in. He hit two massive sixes over mid wicket in quick succession to have Warne looking unsettled at the bowling crease for one of the few times in recent memory.However, a dubious shot and a dubious decision soon had matters reverting to type again. Ironically, Flower was removed almost as soon as Steve Waugh had turned to another unlikely slow bowling option, left arm wrist spinner Bevan (1/25 from seven overs). He cut, in rash fashion, at a ball spinning well away and landed a comfortable catch in the hands of Symonds at point. Carlisle was far more unlucky, harshly adjudged lbw by Umpire Peter Parker after being struck in line with off stump by a Warne delivery that appeared to be turning even further away.And that was about the end of that. Another disappointing Zimbabwean batting collapse ensued around some valiant strokeplay from Viljoen (31) and Grant Flower (30) as Waugh threw the ball to Symonds (2/35 off eight overs) and medium pacer turned off spinner Ricky Ponting (1/12 from five) just for good measure. Paradoxically, it was Australia – delighting in its success at stumbling upon new strategies – which seemed the team more interested in staying on the field by then.

Uma Bharti sees no hurdles for India’s participation in ICC KnockOutThe Union Sports Minister Uma Bharti on Wednesday said in Ahmedabad that there would be no hurdles in India’s participation in the ICC KnockOut tourney next year. Talking to reporters, Bharti said the decision not to allow the team toparticipate in Sharjah was a collective decision of various ministries. Bharti denied that the Sports Ministry had unilaterally decided not to permit the Indian cricket team to participate in the triangular series.”Cricket is played for commercial considerations in Sharjah”, Bharti said. She added that other ministries like the External Affairs had also influenced the decision. Moreover, together with Singapore and Toronto, Sharjah was not recognised as a cricket venue by the ICC, she added. On the recent notice by the IT department to the BCCI seeking details, the sports minister said she was unaware of it.We have a very good seam attack: TendulkarFormer Indian captain and master player Sachin Tendulkar said he was in favour of the board’s decision to include seven seamers in the list of probables for the forthcoming tour against Zimbabwe. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, the batting maestro said “The ball in Zimbabwe might seam around and probably spinners will not be assisted by the wicket there, so it is better to have seamers in the attack.” Tendulkar, who was in Delhi to inaugurate a sport-goods showroom, said India could now boast of a “very good seam bowling attack”. He added”We have got a lot of youngsters who have experience at the international level and we can expect a good performance from them…I am sure we will have an even better attack in years to come.”On the recently concluded Australian tour, Tendulkar said “In the previous Australian series, I had scored 440 runs. This time I have scored 330 plus…So both the series were good for me personally. In the last six Test matches against Australia, I have scored three hundreds and four or five 50’s..It’s not a bad performance,” the star batsman said.On breaking milestones, the little master said “Once you have achieved something, obviously you feel proud of it and feel happy that after playing for so many years you have achieved some goals,” he said. On the youngsters, Tendulkar opined that “the junior players in the last series really played well. The Australian series was big one for all of us and the way youngsters like Shiv Sunder Das, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan performed is really commendable. They all contributed a lot to the team.”Marsh calls for high standard of wicketsThe BCCI consultant and former Australian coach Geoff Marsh on Wednesday said in New Delhi the quality of the three Test wickets that produced a fantastic series between India and Australia should hold good for all the wickets in the country if India were to excel in world cricket. “All the three wickets on which the Test matches were played during the recent Australian series were excellent. But every wicket in the country needs to be of a very high standard. It is also important that the trainees, selected for various zonal cricket academies for a two-month training stint, are provided with good wickets if good results are to be achieved,” Marsh said.Marsh, on a whistle-stop visit here, examined the pitch and interacted with the 20 trainees of the North Zone cricket academy undergoing practice at the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds. “The best 120 kids are undergoing training at academies all over the country – the results can only be good, to say the least. This is going to do a lot for Indian cricket,” Marsh said. The ex-Aussie opener said the boys were extremely fortunate to undergo training under former cricketers of great repute. “India is lucky to have former cricketers who have immense experience and knowledge of the game. The boys are really lucky to have this opportunity to interact with the best cricketers at the age of 16 or 17”. He said the boys must appreciate this and make full use of it. “They are already enjoying their training stint. They are very enthusiastic and I did not see them complain about anything.”ICC anti-corruption unit submits preliminary reportThe International Cricket Council’s (ICC)anti-corruption unit has submitted its preliminary report to Lord Griffiths, head of ICC’s code of conduct committee. Confirming that it has been submitted, an ICC spokesman said in London on Wednesday that Lord Griffith would now convene a panel to consider the report, which would be forwarded to the ICC board scheduled to meet here on June 15.The board would consider the confidential report on June 18, the spokesman said. He, however, said that details of the report would not be made officially known till then. According to sources, the scourge of match-fixing was still going on in international cricket and at least a couple of the matches in the recent one-day series between Pakistan and New Zealand might have been affected, quotes PTI.Sir Paul Condon, head of ICC’s anti-corruption unit said the probe into the match-fixing scandal would go beyond allegations made in India’s CBI report on bribery and corruption in the game. His team’s investigation would cover a “whole realm of charges not contained in the CBI report and it will expand to further material not in the public domain.”Sir Paul, who is currently in Sri Lanka as part of the world-wideinvestigation, said he would not be part of any cover-up. “I can assure you that our investigation will be independent. Nobody will be spared. Nothing will be kept from my inquiry,” he told journalists in Colombo. Condon said two ICC investigators, both former Scotland Yard detectives, would remain in Sri Lanka for a week to help the local cricketing authority conduct its own probe. Sir Paul will travel to Pakistan in a few weeks to monitor the inquiry there.

Chris Tremlett has committed his short-term future to Surrey after a signing a one-year deal following the loss of his ECB central contract.Tremlett had an injury-hit 2012 season, with back and knee problems, which restricted him to a single Championship appearance. He has since undergone knee surgery and is now targeting a full return for Surrey’s pre-season training.”I’ve signed the new contract at the end of the season and I’m absolutely delighted to stay at Surrey for another year,” he told Surrey TV. “We’ve got a big year ahead of us next year so I’m looking forward to that challenge. In the meantime it’s all about working hard and getting my body in the best shape ready so I can hit the ground running for the new season.”Tremlett last played for England in the first Test against Pakistan, in Dubai, in January before being forced out of that trip with his back injury. When the latest round of central contracts were announced earlier this month his name was absent meaning he now goes back on Surrey’s payroll. However, Tremlett does not see this as an end to his international career.”I’m very keen to get back out there and almost start a new chapter in my career,” he said. “I still feel as though I have a lot to offer at Surrey and hopefully again at England at some point.”

ScorecardTwo centuries by Canterbury captain Peter Fulton weren’t enough to force a win as Otago hung on for a draw in a tight contest in Dunedin. On the final day interrupted by rain, Otago were in control of their chase of 235, after opener Aaron Redmond and Neil Broom had a 53-run stand to take them to 118 for 2. But wickets starting falling regularly thereafter, a slide triggered by Ben McCord’s quick strikes, and they were in trouble at 185 for 7. Lower-order batsmen Darren Broom and Mark Craig played safely through to stumps.After choosing to bat, opening batsman Fulton controlled Canterbury’s first innings, and his second-wicket partnership with Shanan Stewart, who scored 76, helped them reach a position of control at 176 for 1. But Fulton’s dismissal led to a slide, with six of the following batsmen scoring in single digits, and nine wickets fell for 78 runs. Otago bowled their opponents out for 254.Otago’s approach in their reply was different, as most of their batsmen made small but crucial contributions, without anyone reaching a half-century. It helped them gain an 18-run lead. Canterbury, led by Fulton’s second century, declared on the final day at 252 for 9. The debutant WSA Williams became only the fourth batsman, and the first in 20 years, to be given out handled the ball in New Zealand first-class cricket.With 15 overs remaining in the day, all four results were possible as Otago needed 91 runs with six wickets in hand. Middle-order batsman Jimmy Neesham batted positively to score 21 off 20 deliveries, but then three wickets fell quickly and the team played for a draw.Otago gained five points from the game due to the first-innings lead and moved to second in the points table. Canterbury were fifth.

Having been bridesmaids in two of the last three World Twenty20s, Sri Lanka have already set their sights on the next edition in Bangladesh in March. Coach Graham Ford will no longer be with the team when that tournament arrives, but he said Sri Lanka have begun down the path to success, ahead of the first Twenty20 against New Zealand. The match in Pallekele is the first of six scheduled T20s for Sri Lanka before the world tournament.”As far as the T20 World Cup goes, the team has got a fantastic chance,” Ford said. “They have played good T20 cricket for a period of time now, and are drawn in a favourable group. Plus the conditions should suit our style of cricket and the real bonus is that we’ll have a series in Bangladesh just prior to the world tournament. There’s lots to be positive about and I’m really looking forward to watching from a distance and seeing the boys lift the cup.”Specialised training sessions intended to spur innovative batting have been introduced during Ford’s tenure, and they have begun to pay dividends with several batsmen having widened their stroke repertoire. Ford said the benefits from these sessions would be most keenly felt in the shortest format, where Sri Lanka have been the top-ranked side since last September.”It is important to play with freedom and be inventive,” Ford said. “Tillakaratne Dilshan was the leading example initially, of being able to play and be inventive – especially in T20 cricket. As we progressed, we realised that if we could have more guys able to hit the ball in awkward areas, it would make us a more powerful unit. If you’ve only got one or two guys who can improvise, if they don’t have a good day we are going to come second on the day. It is also about being confident about improvisation. It’s no good suddenly trying to play an invented shot which you have never practiced.”Sri Lanka’s selectors have picked five spin-bowling options in the 15-man T20 squad, and Ford said this too was a strategy devised with the World T20 in mind. In addition to frontline spinners Sachithra Senanayake and Ajantha Mendis, spin-bowling allrounders Ramith Rambukwella and Seekkuge Prasanna have been named in the squad. Dilshan’s offspin has also been increasingly used in internationals over the past year.”The selectors have had a look ahead and they are thinking about possible conditions in Bangladesh, where preparing spinners is important. The spinners are all quite unique. A couple of them are spinning allrounders, and in T20 cricket, allrounders are important. We’ve got a number of seamer allrounders, but maybe down the line, conditions are better suited to spin allrounders. They are just having a look at covering the options at the moment.”Ford also lauded the quality of the cricket produced by New Zealand’s visiting side, despite the absence of several key players. The visitors drew the ODI series 1-1.”I am not all surprised (the way) New Zealand have performed. There were a few comments about them not having a full-strength side, but I am very much aware that their cricketing depth has increased massively over the last couple of years. They played an under-strength team in South Africa in ODI cricket, and they beat South Africa, which doesn’t happen that often. They also beat England in an ODI series in England. They are a dangerous team and they’ve got some very good one-day and T20 players.”

New Zealand will go into the third ODI against Bangladesh without ever playing or even training at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium. Ross Taylor said this will be the first time in his international career that his first visit to the ground is on the day of the match.The visitors had earlier scheduled all their training at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. Even when the Twenty20 fixture was set for the Sylhet Stadium on November 6, before the ground was ruled not to be ready, New Zealand’s plan was to train in Mirpur before the day of the game.As a result, they will have to rely on statistics from the current Bangladesh domestic campaign because the playing surface there was relayed before the start of the 2013-14 season. There have been 12 Dhaka Premier League matches, three of which featured former New Zealand players Jacob Oram and Scott Styris.Taylor spoke to Oram who has played just one game there for Gazi Tank Cricketers, where he earned the Man-of-the-Match award for picking up three wickets.”I have never been there,” Taylor said. “This is the first time in international cricket where I will turn up at the ground on the day of the match. Jacob Oram played a club game there couple of weeks ago. He said its low and slow, they got 180-odd, the second team got out cheaply. We expect the bounce to deteriorate as the day goes on, but the opposite can happen too.”Taylor added that New Zealand will have to play a lot better to make it 2-1 and said it was important they could head to Sri Lanka in a better frame of mind. “Every time you’re 2-0 down you have disappointment, and your confidence takes a hit. We have one more game in the series so we want to make it 2-1, which sounds better than 3-0. If we can get momentum and confidence from tomorrow and hopefully take it to Sri Lanka.”Shane Bond, the team’s fast bowling coach, admitted on Friday that Bangladesh have done things better than New Zealand in all areas of the game.”We have been outplayed,” he said. “I think with the ball we have been good in patches but probably not for long enough. Bangladesh have created a couple of good partnerships and we have always felt that 230 was a good score and they went beyond that both occasions so we knew that it was going to be a tough chase.””Bangladesh have bowled well up front so we have never been able to generate a strike rate, the run-rate slant, and then we have put struggled to put partnerships and wickets have fallen in clumps and as a result we lost the games.”Bond said that a defensive mindset can creep into a side after conceding a series but added that New Zealand are a good enough side to start playing better cricket.”I think when you get beaten, you can sometimes be afraid of losing and forget about playing to win, like when you go into a shell and play defensively,”We talk about learning from the last series and what we would do differently. But that doesn’t change the fact that if the opposition still outplays you, you get beaten. We have got a good side. We just need to play better.”Despite the scoreline, Taylor backed the side’s younger players. The opening pair of Hamish Rutherford and Anton Devcich have struggled, but there have been promising signs from the allrounders James Neesham and Corey Anderson.”They [the openers] are young,” Taylor said. “When you do lose two wickets up front, the rest of the players have to step up. We haven’t been doing that. We have to give the openers a lot of confidence.”We have been screaming out for a genuine allrounder since Jacob Oram’s retirement. They [Anderson and Neesham] are both equally good bowlers and batsmen. Corey has been consistent on this tour. Jimmy will get better with both bat and ball. They will give exciting times to New Zealand cricket.”

ScorecardGraham Onions hasn’t been able to pull the England shirt back on in a Test this year but may have bowled Durham to another Championship•Getty Images

The dream of an England recall in his home Ashes Test might have been denied to Graham Onions in a summer of frustrations in his international career but he may look back and decide that bowling Durham to the title was reasonably adequate consolation.He is on the brink of that now after taking 5 for 23 at the Racecourse, where Derbyshire, against all probability, were comprehensively blitzed, bowled out for 63, leaving Durham needing to score only 37 runs to complete a victory that leaves them just one more win away from winning the Championship for a third time in six years.After Yorkshire’s bid to chase down a contrived target at Hove was foiled by the weather, Durham lead Division One by 27 and a half points and will look to finish the job against Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street, starting on Tuesday.Their final match is against Sussex at Hove, while Yorkshire’s remaining games are against Middlesex at Headingley and Surrey at The Oval.Onions took 45 Championship wickets in seven matches as Durham won their second title in 2009. This year he has 60 wickets in 10 appearances, five times taking five wickets or more in an innings. Nine of those came in this match, the last five in the space of 41 balls with four runs conceded during a 15-over unbroken spell.Paul Collingwood, whose captaincy record now stands at 13 wins from 20 Championship games in charge, praised Onions for his resilience in the face of the repeated disappointments he has been dealt by the England selectors since winning his last Test cap in June last year, a comment to which Onions responded by saying he had learned how to put setbacks of that nature to one side.”I learned a lot about myself when I was injured for such a long time,” Onions said. “I learned about mental preparation and getting yourself ready for the tough games you have to expect every time you play.”You have to push those disappointments to one side and forget about it. If you perform well against good opposition you get recognised. It’s trying to force my way into the side and trying to win things that keeps me going and we are close to winning things.”A place on the plane to Australia this winter would fulfil his own goal but Onions agreed that a title would bring just as much satisfaction.”It would be incredible,” he said. “It is hard to put it into words what it would mean. There are a lot of very good teams that don’t win championships and the character that the lads keep showing to put in performances and win us games is unbelievable, although we have to remember that we have not won it yet.”Nonetheless, it is difficult to imagine them being overhauled now, given that the unpredictable September weather is more than likely to play a part in denying Yorkshire points.For Derbyshire, the two weeks ahead are beginning to look bleak again after three wins in four had raised the prospect of an unlikely act of defiance from the season’s short-priced relegation favourites.Having begun the fourth day 41 runs in front, with the first innings still incomplete, no outcome but a draw could be envisaged. Durham, who had found scoring runs on a slow pitch no easier than their hosts, increased their tempo enough to claw a third batting point but that seemed sure to be the extent of their gains once they were all out for 325, giving them a lead of 27 and Tony Palladino 6 for 90 after taking four on the day, his dismissal of Collingwood, caught off a top-edged attempted pull, sparking a Durham collapse in which their last six wickets fell for 42.Yet even that did not really hint at the possibility of a win, even though Derbyshire were one down in the second over when Chris Rushworth thumped one into Ben Slater’s pads.But once Paul Borrington had been caught off the glove at short leg in the 10th over, Derbyshire’s inexperienced side folded alarmingly, only just scraping past the season-low 60 for which they had been dismissed at Lord’s in April.Then again, Onions was in supreme form, in the face of which few batsmen would have come out on top. Even Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with his weight of experience, had no answer, set up by a couple of short balls and then pinned in his crease, trapped leg before by a ball that almost knocked him off his feet.”He is a class act,” Derbyshire’s head coach, Karl Krikken, admitted afterwards, with admiration in his voice. “If you look at the video, the ball is basically on a string and swinging all over the place.”Derbyshire’s last nine wickets fell for 37 runs in the space of 20 overs, with Rushworth and the rookie Usman Arshad good value too for their successes. It took Durham fewer than eight overs to score the same number of runs to win, for the loss of Mark Stoneman, whose disappointment at being dismissed for seven came with the consolation of passing 1,000 first-class runs for the season, the fourth Durham-born player to pass that milestone, and the second in two days.