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Keith Dutch has rejected the offer of a one-year contract with Somerset.”I moved to Somerset from Middlesex in the hope of securing a permanent first team place in all forms of the game,” he explained. “That’s not happened and obviously no player can be guaranteed a place. At my age [27] I do not want to be playing 2nd XI cricket”.Commenting upon Dutch’s decision, Peter Anderson, Somerset’s chief executive, said, “The cricket panel is disappointed but fully understands the reasoning. Keith was a popular player with both his colleagues and the supporters. We thank him for his service and enthusiasm whilst representing the club”.

Scorecard

Hyderabad Heroes were powered to a seven-wicket victory over the Chennai Superstars by their South African recruits Nicky Boje (61*) and Justin Kemp (66*).In the first match of the ICL to be held in Hyderabad, the Heroes went against the trend in this edition of the tournament at the toss and instead chose to field. Their decision seemed to have backfired as Ian Harvey and G Vignesh gave the Superstars a breezy start with 41 coming off the first six overs.Boje was then introduced into the attack and he struck immediately, dismissing Vignesh for 19, and sent down a miserly three-over spell, giving away only seven runs. Harvey, though, continued to plunder runs off the other bowlers before being trapped lbw by left-arm spinner IS Reddy for a 36-ball 49. Hemang Badani then carted three sixes and two boundaries in an express 33 to lift the Superstars to a respectable 152.The Heroes’ reply got off to a dreadful start as Jimmy Maher and Anirudh Singh were both dismissed in the first over. The runs didn’t flow until Thiru Kumaran’s first over; 17 runs came off it. Boje then picked off three consecutive boundaries off Harvey as he and Ambati Rayudu put on 50 runs in quick time.Rayudu’s dismissal left the Heroes at a shaky 53 for 3 and brought Kemp to the crease. By the end of the 12th over, the asking-rate had climbed to 9 before Kemp showcased his ability to muscle the ball out of the park. Four sixes and six fours flowed off his bat as he clobbered his way to the tournament’s highest score. Boje also completed a superb half-century as the two put on 103 to take the Heroes to victory.The result leaves the Superstars at the bottom of the table having lost both their matches while the Heroes now have one win and one loss so far.

Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, has appealed against the six-match ban imposed on him by the International Cricket Council for India’s slow over rates in the current one-day series against Pakistan. A media release confirmed that the ICC had received formal notice of the appeal late afternoon London time.This means that Ganguly is eligible to play India’s fifth one-dayer against Pakistan at Kanpur on April 15. Under the code of conduct the ICC will appoint a commissioner to adjudicate the appeal within 48 hours. After this commissioner is appointed, and hears from the relevant parties (including Chris Broad, the match referee who imposed the ban) he has seven days to reach his verdict. The appeals commissioner has the power to increase or decrease the penalty as he sees fit.The ICC has not yet announced who the commissioner will be, but the person will be drawn from the following list: Michael Beloff QC, Chairman of the ICC Code of Conduct Commission, Richie Benaud, Sir Oliver Popplewell, Tim Castle, Gamini Marapana, Justice Albie Sachs, Justice Anthony Lucky, Clive Barnes.This will be the second time Ganguly has come before an appeals commissioner. The last time around Tim Castle adjudicated when Clive Lloyd, the match referee, handed Ganguly a two-Test ban in November after India failed to bowl their overs in time in the Platinum Jubilee one-dayer against Pakistan at Kolkata. On that occasion Castle set aside the ban.

Bermuda is being lined up as a possible venue for a mini World Cup between the six second-tier cricketing nations. The top five finishers in the ICC Trophy in July – Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland – were granted ODI status by the ICC, joining Kenya who already held such a position.The ICC is reportedly keen to stage a tournament ahead of the 2007 World Cup to help the six prepare for the main event in which they will all play, and Richard Done, the ICC’s high performance manager, recently visited Bermuda to look at the facilities.”We have discussed having it in this country; that’s a possibility. South Africa is also on the agenda,” he told the local media. “We have just got to decide where and when it will be.”Done said the six-nation tournament would be just one of a a number of initiatives to help the second-tier countries get ready for the World Cup. One such scheme would see the best young players from each of them being sent to an academy in South Africa. “It would be for players with the potential to play a role in 2007 who are available and willing to make that commitment,” said Done. “It should be a great opportunity for a couple of players.”

VVS Laxman, Murali Karthik and Parthiv Patel have been included in India’s 14-man one-day squad for the first three matches of the triangular TVS Cup. The squad, which was announced during lunch on the second day of the India-New Zealand Test, also includes Aavishkar Salvi, who will undergo a fitness test on October 21 to see if he has recovered from a split webbing on his hand which forced him out of the second Test squad.Ashish Nehra has been omitted from the squad as it was felt that he needed more time to recover from his ankle injury. He is undergoing physiotherapy, and might be picked for the later matches in the series. It was also announced that Sourav Ganguly would definitely be fit to lead the team.India play the first match of the tournament against New Zealand on October 23, before clashing with Australia on October 26 and November 1.Squad
Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid (wk), VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Aavishkar Salvi.

The Queensland team-mates Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds have tried not to speak about their head-to-head battle for the allrounder’s spot in next month’s Test series. Both players will fit into the limited-overs side, which begins its campaign on Friday with a Twenty20 International, after Watson recovered from a shoulder injury to make the squad, but there is only one vacancy for the three Tests.Symonds, who performed spectacularly in the VB Series, is the incumbent and Watson is desperate to grab back the position he lost when he dived to stop a drive against West Indies in November. “We haven’t talked about it,” Watson told . “We are still very good mates but it’s one of those things you don’t want to be talking about too much.”Watson said the situation was similar to the one faced by Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz when Lee was kept out of the side for more than a year in 2004-05. “He and Kasper are really good mates,” he said, “but you try not to get too in-depth because in the end it’s out of your control.”Symonds made his mark in the Test arena on Boxing Day with a powerful 72 and five wickets for the match while Watson has played only three matches. “It’s great for me and him as well, two guys that are really good mates who are pushing each other to be at the top of their games,” he said. “It’s really helpful in that regard.”

Bob Woolmer has given his full backing to Shoaib Malik in his role as opener and asked the media to end speculation about Pakistan’s opening combination. Malik is the latest solution to Pakistan’s opening conundrum and on the opening day of the first Test, he scored a neat 59. That innings followed an indifferent performance in the series against England where although he made steady starts, spent time at the crease and contributed to three fifty-plus opening stands, he never managed to make a significant score himself.Malik’s fifty – his fourth in Tests – was his second as opener, following one against the West Indies in June last year. “There’s a lot of media speculation about Pakistan’s opening position. Shoaib Malik was chosen because he is less likely to get out caught in the slips. For some reason everyone in the media thinks he is more likely to get out caught in the slips. I’m not denigrating any of the past openers we’ve had but they used to get out caught in the slips. Malik is a very fine three-in-one cricketer. He can bowl off-spin very well, he is a very fine batsman and he is a brilliant fielder. He doesn’t have a permanent place in the side but I think he has done very well against England and batted very well here too. Quite frankly he is a quality cricketer so cut the speculation,” Woolmer said.Inevitably, on a day dominated by talk of the gloomy weather and the blandness in the pitch, Woolmer also expressed his frustration at the lack of play today. “Obviously it is frustrating when you get weather like this but nobody can do anything about it. We have to just put up with it. If the forecast is the same as before, as I have heard, then this Test is likely to be a draw.”The weather, Woolmer said, also played a part in the pitch turning out as it did. “Considering the weather conditions you don’t know what to get. We’ve had cold and wet weather leading up to the match and that must have hampered the preparations of the pitch. I think we can all see that it is a perfect batting wicket. You need a hot sun to make it turn a bit on the last day and we haven’t got that.”But he insisted that the groundsman wasn’t to blame. “Every cricket team has to put up with the surface that you are given so you can’t ask for much more when the groundsman hasn’t had an opportunity to prepare a different pitch. I’m not going to blame anyone for it but I hope the Faisalabad pitch has a little bit more life than this one. My view on pitches is straightforward. I don’t deal with the groundsman, I give my view to those who do. Test pitches should give both batsmen and bowlers a chance. We had three very good pitches for the series against England and I believe good pitches produce good cricket.”On India’s openers, Woolmer expressed surprise at Rahul Dravid’s decision to come out first – “he is a very good player and has all the attributes for an opening batsman so it was a good move” – and less so at Virender Sehwag’s blazing, undefeated 96. “I have always rated Sehwag. We’ve studied lots of ways of bowling at him and certain bowlers tend to get him out quite easily. Ntini seems to have the wood on him.” Sehwag averaged 98.2 against Pakistan before this series and has hit three hundreds against them, including one triple and one double. “He plays well against Pakistan; certain cricketers like playing against certain teams.”Woolmer also ruled out concerns about Shoaib Akhtar’s left ankle. Shoaib was seen receiving treatment and heavy strapping on TV during the day and the ankle had also bothered him during the last Test against England last month. Woolmer said the impact on the left ankle when Shoaib landed on the pitch in his delivery stride was tremendous. “When Shoaib lands on the turf there is a tremendous force. If the footholes are concave then he will catch it every now and again. But there is no real problem there, he can play.”

For the second week in a row Army came from behind to snatch victory after conceding a first-innings lead and maintained their position atop the Premier Tier B standings.With the Tier A clubs enjoying a free weekend, the focus was on Tier B and whether Panadura, the nearest challenger to Army’s position, would be able to close the gap. By the end of the second day it looked likely that they would do so with Army struggling against Air Force. But Army were able to come back strongly and overcome a first-innings deficit and win, Panadura were denied victory by Police, who managed a draw at the Police Park Ground in Colombo.Panadura were in a strong position, having reduced Police to 104 for 9 in reply to their first-innings total of 272. A follow-on looked inevitable for Police but they managed to avoid it with a last-wicket stand of 36 which meant that Panadura had to bat again. In the process, they lost precious time while setting Police a target of 335 to chase in the fourth innings. When play ended on the final day, Police were 215 for 7.Army’s match-winner was once again right-arm spinner Ajantha Mendis, who helped dismiss Air Force out for 92 in the second innings, leaving Army only 146 to chase. The victory was Army’s sixth of the season and they maintained their unbeaten streak.Third-placed Saracens also lost ground when they conceded a narrow first-innings lead of 13 runs to Singha in a drawn match Nondescripts Cricket Club.Sebastianites were the only other club apart from Army to record a win Burgher Recreation Club Ground, beating Burgher by 170 runs, their first victory of the season in six matches.Player of the Week: Ajantha Mendis
Ajantha Mendis isn’t playing in one of Colombo’s most influential club sides and his team isn’t competing in the elite Tier A but the less glamorous Tier B of the Premier League. However, Mendis’ spin bowling is one of the main reasons why Army are on top of Tier B and could be promoted to Tier A next season if they keep up their current form and emerge champions.Although classified as a right-arm, slow-medium bowler, Mendis is a spinner who bowls a mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks. Batsmen have been confounded by the variety of deliveries he has up his sleeve and are at a loss to figure out what his stock delivery is.”I had only two variations when I started to play for the Army but within a period of one year I have managed to increase it to four. Now I can bowl in six different ways,” said Mendis, who bowls with an unorthodox action.Mendis is the season’s top wicket-taker with 46 wickets at an average of 10.56 and strike-rate of 31 from six matches with five five-fors and one ten-wicket haul.Sri Lanka’s spin-bowling coach Ruwan Kalpage predicted a bright future for him and said that Mendis should be nurtured carefully because he was going to be Sri Lanka’s next Muttiah Muralitharan”The most impressive aspect of Mendis’ bowling is that he maintains a consistent line and length while still bowling five different deliveries in an over. To be a good bowler at international level you need to have a lot of variations and Mendis has them,” said Kalpage, a former Sri Lanka off-spinner.”Mendis came under the watchful eyes of Mahela Jayawardene, when he played in the provincial one-day tournament, and the captain was quite impressed with his bowling,” he said. Mendis turns 23 on March 11. He has a whole new world waiting for him, if he can be guided on the right path.

In the latest of a spate of books published in the wake of the Ashes, Ricky Ponting has written of his fury at Andrew Symonds’s behaviour during the tour of England. Arriving at the ground on the morning of Australia’s match against Bangladesh – which, famously, they lost by five wickets – Symonds was found by Ponting and Adam Gilchrist to be more than a little worse for wear.Symonds was duly suspended for disciplinary reasons and, while the incident was largely forgotten as the tour rumbled on, Ponting’s anger at what happened has been revealed in his book, , which is soon to be released.”When Gilchrist and I got to Symonds I did not beat around the bush,” Ponting wrote. “His eyes looked puffy and I could smell alcohol on his breath. ‘Were you out late last night having a drink?’ I said.”‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘What time did you get back?’ I responded. ‘About 1.30, I think.'”Given the state he was in eight hours after that, I found his claim hard to believe. My blood was beginning to boil. I did not shout, but let Symonds know exactly what I thought about his behaviour.”Ponting told Symonds he would not be in the team to play Bangladesh.”‘Right,’ was his response,” writes Ponting. “But he said it in such a casual ‘see-if-I-care’ way that it wound me up even more. ‘Don’t encourage me,’ I said.Ponting also uncovers more about the disturbing death threats he and his team-mates received: “Emails suggesting I deserved a bullet in the head for my efforts were received; apparently the writer also explained that he knew people in this country who were willing to carry out the threat,” he wrote.”As a cricketer I am used to facing catcalls and barracking from opposition fans, although this is an altogether new level of intimidation and I have never been threatened in this way before. Rianna [Ponting’s wife] was upset and quite shaken when I told her about the emails.”Ponting also wrote that he intended to remain Australia’s captain after the Ashes defeat and denied that Shane Warne was virtually running the team in England. “There was only one person in charge on the field and that was me. If he [Warne] does still have captaincy aspirations he had better join the queue, because I am not planning on going anywhere just yet.”Ponting also did not rule out the possibility of Warne returning to one-day cricket. “I would not rule out the idea of him coming back into the one-day side for the 2007 World Cup. The trouble is that I do not think he will make himself available unless he gets an assurance from the selectors that they will pick him. He will not want to go to the trouble and possible embarrassment of announcing his availability only to be overlooked.”

Peter Chingoka’s leadership of Zimbabwe Cricket is again under threat with revelations that a group who had previously backed him are now calling for him to quit.A report in today’s Independent newspaper in Harare says that eight provinces, including five new provincial associations seeking affiliation to ZC, have written a letter demanding his resignation along with the interim board he heads.It would seem that the provinces, which had largely backed Chingoka until now, have allied with disgruntled stakeholders and are threatening to form a breakaway union.If this is correct, then it would represent a bitter blow for Chingoka. Until now, he has dismissed protests, including the attempt led by Ahmed Ebrahim last year, as being fuelled by self interest and those with “hidden agendas”. This latest insurrection would appear to be far more widespread.At the heart of the move is Themba Mliswa, the highly controversial sports consultant and the man who allegedly threatened Tatenda Taibu, a move which led to Taibu quitting Zimbabwe, and one whose track record is far from savoury.”Already we’ve been talking,” Mliswa was quoted as saying. “One must understand that Peter is not good for the game. I never said Peter was good. I just didn’t want players to be involved in the politics of the game.”Mliswa, whose record of involvement in other sports is hardly a reason for anyone to welcome his role here with enthusiasm, accused Chingoka’s interim board of mismanagement. “The interim board has been plundering resources, and they have to watch out because when we get there, we will find out. They must remember that their time is coming to an end,” he said. “What the interim board was supposed to do was to reunite people. Even people who they did not get along with in the past were supposed to be spoken to. Taibu is important regardless of the fights we had. It’s time for peace. You don’t talk of development when you keep rebuilding. You build a team because it’s old. We’ve become a breeding ground for teams overseas.”Mliswa also said that the hemorrhaging of administrators from within ZC, which has accelerated recently, was of deep concern. “We are worried about the people being lost. We are losing good black people. There seem to be an elimination process and it’s detrimental to the game.”Mliswa, who gave every impression of being closely linked to Chingoka last year, fell out with him during a special general meeting in December when the ZC board refused to force through the recognition of the new provinces, one of which was headed by Mliswa. “We saved Chingoka but what we fought for is not what is happening,” he fumed. “The issue of affiliation was never a way to protect him.”Under his [Chingoka’s] reign we have lost more players than those who’ve come through. He’s used the game to propel himself and to have a good CV. He could get away 10 years ago because we had no black administrators. Now we have better, more educated, better understanding and politically correct black administrators.”Mliswa added that the new provinces have also opposed the application for an extension of tenure by the interim board when its six-month period expires next month.