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Jonathan Batty’s unbeaten 102, his fourth century of the season, guided Surrey to a comfortable draw on the last day against Durham at Chester-le-Street. Surrey had been set an improbable target of 447 after a remarkable late onslaught from Liam Plunkett, who belted five sixes in his unbeaten 59 from 44 balls. Plunkett then took the first wicket to fall, that of Scott Newman for 34, before Ottis Gibson extracted Mark Ramprakash’s off stump to give his side a massive lift. But without the injured Steve Harmison, Durham’s attack lacked the penetration and the game meandered to the close.Ryan McLaren was the star at Edgbaston for the second time in a fortnight, as Kent exploited seaming conditions to dismiss Warwickshire for 213. McLaren took a hat-trick earlier in the month as Kent secured the Twenty20 Cup, and he was on target again with 4 for 42. Martin Saggers jagged the ball around for figures of 3 for 53, and Warwickshire’s best resistance came from Luke Parker, who made 49. Martin van Jaarsveld, who took the final wicket, chipped in with five catches. In reply, Rob Key compiled a bullish half-century, as Kent reached the close on 108 for 1.Adil Rashid took one step closer to securing a winter tour berth with England as he rescued Yorkshire’s innings with his maiden first-class century against Worcestershire at Kidderminster. It was a crucial innings too – Yorkshire had at one stage slipped to 125 for 5 in seamer-friendly conditions – but Rashid’s effort, from 152 balls with 17 fours, ensured a healthy total of 319. Click here for John Ward’s report.

Owais Shah made a spectacular and timely unbeaten 177 to show the selectors he’s in form ahead of England’s seven ODIs against India against Northamptonshire. Shah added 196 for Middlesex’s third wicket with Ed Joyce, who made 106, before exploding into action with 17 fours and three sixes as wickets fell away around him. There is little chance of a result after just 9.2 overs over the first two days at Northampton, but Middlesex were in some trouble at 36 for 2 when Shah and Joyce came together. And after Joyce had been dismissed by David Wigley, they stumbled again; Eion Morgan made a second-ball duck, and Jamie Dalrymple and Ben Scott both went cheaply too. Shah, however, found useful support in Chaminda Vaas, who was run out for 28, as Middlesex reached 380 for 7 at the close.Andy Caddick burst into action after two days of inactivity at Cardiff, grabbing two early wickets with the new ball and returning to dismiss Mark Wallace for 16, to give Somerset control against the Championship stragglers, Glamorgan. At 92 for 6, Glamorgan were deep in the mire, but Alex Wharf and Robert Croft pulled them round with a vital half-century stand for the seventh wicket.

Michael Vaughan, the England captain, has pulled out of England’s three-day practice match against Board President’s XI at Baroda due to the recurrence of soreness in his right knee.Andrew Walpole, the England media manager told , “The soreness was also there during the first warm-up match against CCI XI in Mumbai and he was not comfortable in the nets here. It was decided as a precautionary measure to rule him out of the three-day game. We are hopeful he will be fit for the first Test”.Coincidentally, Vaughan suffered the same injury in Pakistan last year during his side’s second warm-up game, against Pakistan A at Lahore. Vaughan retired hurt after facing just one ball in England’s second innings and subsequently missed the first Test at Multan.It was the recurrence of a long-standing cartilage problem that required surgery ahead of the 2002-03 Ashes tour, and then reoccurred in the nets at Lord’s in May 2004. Vaughan’s absence paved the way for Andrew Strauss to make his debut.

On a day when their new-ball bowlers were smattered in the first session, their third seamer over-stepped on 15 occasions and their fielders let slip three catches, the Indians could take heart from Zaheer Khan’s spell in the middle session, one that read: 7-3-10-2. It was an effort that both Andrew Strauss, captain of the England Lions, and Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, spoke highly of and would serve as a consolation at the end of a tough opening day.A year back Zaheer was uttering phrases like “all I want to do is be back in the side” and “I’m desperate to return”. He was at Worcestershire, troubling batsmen in the second division of the County Championship, and doing his best away from the spotlight. It was an experience that got him fitter, gave him a chance to bowl long spells and enabled him to return to England as India’s spearhead. He ended as the highest wicket-taker in the division (78 wickets in 16 games) and helped Worcestershire gain promotion.He wasn’t at his best on the opening day at Chelmsford. He struggled with his length in the first spell, though he got rid of the out-of-form Andrew Strauss, struggled with his line in the second, when he strayed down leg, before turning up for an inspired seven-over burst in the middle.He showed the value of experience – keeping it on and around off – and mixed his length well. Jonathan Trott, who recently made his England one-day debut, was forced to edge to first slip in a sequence that read yorker, slash and miss, leading edge, outside edge. Tim Ambrose, the Lions’ wicketkeeper, was taunted from over-the-wicket before he quickly changed to round the stumps and induced the edge. The bowlers had discussed a specific plan at the lunch break, as Prasad was to reveal later, and decided to avoid the trap of keeping it too full or too short. Bowling back of a length and mixing up the angles worked just fine.”Being a left-armer adds something to your armoury, something most batsman aren’t used to and he can swing it both ways,” said Strauss of Zaheer. “He knows what he’s doing with the ball and is someone to watch out for from the Indian side.”The fact that Sharma sent down 15 no-balls, on a day when he hardly threatened, didn’t seem to worry Prasad. “He’s just 18, he’s bowling well in the nets and this is a chance for him to learn. He’s shown signs of improvement and will be better off after this experience.”But were India anywhere close to deciding their third seamer for the first Test at Lord’s? “RP Singh has been the most impressive,” said Prasad providing a clear indication but quickly added, “Ranadeb Bose and Ishant have done well too. It’s upto the team management to finally decide.”Strauss said he was happy with the total but cautioned that they’d get an indication of how good a total it was only when they bowled on the pitch tomorrow. “Bresnan batted exceptionally well and both he and Broad saved us today,” he said. “Broad showed what talent he has with the bat and Bresnan we all knew had a lot of capability anyway. At 380-odd at the end of the day we’re pretty happy with that, a few guys have shown what they can do.”Strauss himself didn’t make much of an impact though, and couldn’t get much practice before the first Test at Lord’s, starting on July 19. “I was looking forward to getting a big one but there is a second innings to come and hopefully things will turn around. I was feeling pretty jaded at the end of the last Test at Durham [against West Indies] and felt I needed some time away. It was a case of getting myself ready for the Tests and part of it involved technical work indoors before hitting the ground running with Middlesex. Hopefully I can get a good score in the second dig, before the first Test.”

The national selection committee will have certainly one, and possibly two, new faces when the BCCI’s annual general meeting takes place in Mumbai on September 27 and 28. Kiran More, the former Indian wicketkeeper who’s currently the chairman of the committee, has completed four years, and will make way for someone else from the West Zone. VB Chandrasekhar, from Tamil Nadu in the South Zone, could also be out, as it is Hyderabad’s turn to nominate someone from South Zone to the national selection panel.”I am tired of answering this question. He [More] has been selector for four years, as per the constitution, and his term is over,” Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, emphatically told Cricinfo, scotching all speculation that this committee could continue intact till the end of the World Cup. Earlier there were suggestions that this committee should continue, with an extra-constitutional extension as a one-off case, as it would benefit the team if there was a sense of continuity in the selection panel till the World Cup was over.”How can the term be extended? Can a secretary’s term be extended just like that?” asked Shah, “[this is ] unnecessary speculation in the media. Why should there be any confusion?” As per the board’s constitution, which is to be amended in September at the forthcoming annual general meeting, the term of office is two years with a possible extension for one year. This means that future selectors could have a three-year term, but that would not be applicable till the constitution is amended.In the current system each of the five zones – North, South, East, West and Central – nominates a candidate to the national selection committee. In the South this is done in rotation among the major teams – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Hyderabad. At the end of this term, it is Hyderabad’s turn to nominate someone from the zone, and the name of Venkatapathy Raju, the former Indian left-arm spinner, is doing the rounds. Raju is currently head of the Hyderabad selection committee.In the West, the front-runner is Dilip Vengsarkar, but it is unclear whether he wants to take up the post. The West Zone does not follow the tradition of rotation among teams, and could nominate anyone. The name of Dhiraj Parsana, the former Gujarat and India allrounder, has also cropped up. If he becomes a selector Parsana will be the first from Gujarat.Ranjib Biswal (East), Sanjay Jagdale (Central) and Bhupinder Singh (North), the three other members of the selection committee, are likely to continue as they have not completed their terms yet.

After unprecedented scenes during last year’s Somerset-St George’s Cup match, the Bermuda Cricket Board has brought in two top English umpires to officiate in this year’s game.Retired Test umpires David Shepherd and Mervyn Kitchen will take charge of a two-day game which in among the most fiercely competitive in the world.Randy Butler, the secretary of the local umpires’ association, was less than thrilled at his men missing out, and he had a warning for both teams:”I just hope they realise the seriousness of abiding by the ICC’s code of conduct because these guys are very experienced and will not tolerate any of the nonsense that we saw in Cup Match last year or fans running onto the pitch.”

Adam Gilchrist considers retirement "almost daily" and could bow out at the 2007 World Cup. The end-of-career revelation, which is based on his desire to spend more time with his family, comes despite an amazing surge of three run-a-ball centuries in his last four Tests and baseball interest from the Boston Red Sox.In an interview with Inside Cricket Gilchrist said he was "excited" when he thought about not touring. “The big question which I find myself pondering on an almost daily basis lately is how much longer can this last?” he said. “That’s why my battle to survive in cricket these next few years is going to be a mental battle more than a physical one. It seems I’m always questioning myself now as to whether I should be away and how good it would be to be at home."Gilchrist, 33, said he has felt like this since his two children were born. "At this stage Harrison and Annie are at an age where it’s all lost on them," he said. “But by the time they reach a stage where they can identify with what I’ve done or where I fit in society, I plan on being around a lot more and in a better position to keep a rein on things.”The World Cup in the West Indies is Gilchrist’s "carrot" to continue playing. “I suspect I won’t be going around three years from now," he said. “That’s providing I still warrant a place in the one-day team and even that’s coming from a guy who’s said he’s never going to go on and on and sap it for everything possible."During his last four Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand Gilchrist scored 113, 121, 162 and 60 not out. At the end of the 2-0 series win against the Kiwis an approach from the Red Sox, who were impressed by his clean hitting, was revealed.

Sachin Tendulkar, who recently ruled himself out of India’s tour to West Indies, has been advised to wait at least another six weeks before returning to competitive cricket. Tendulkar met with the same doctors in London who conducted surgery on his shoulder in March, and it has been decided that he will continue with “a structured rehabilitation programme” of his right shoulder.The medical team at the Hospital of St John and Elizabeth reached the conclusion that Tendulkar, though recovering “well and as expected” was not fit for international competition yet. In a statement released by the hospital, it was reported that his shoulder was now stable and had regained “a full range of motions although strength remains slightly weak”. Though the doctors said that his biceps repair was good, there was still some discomfort in stressing a “weak” tendon.Though the expected timeframe for a recovery from a major tendon stress would be 10 to 12 weeks, the doctors said that in Tendulkar’s case the priority was to regain strength over the next four to six weeks. Tendulkar will be reassessed after a fortnight but will continue his rehabilitation during this time.Meanwhile, Tendulkar has dismissed all suggestions of retirement and insisted that he would continue to compete in both forms of the game.

Gus Logie has signed a four-year contract extension as the coach of Bermuda.Logie originally took on the role for six months in April, but following Bermuda’s success in qualifying for the World Cup in 2007, the board has offered him a longer deal, which he has accepted. The official start date of the new contract is October 5.Under Logie, Bermuda have also reached the semi-finals of the ICC Intercontinental Cup which will be held in Windhoek, Namibia in October.”We are excited and very pleased,” said Reginald Pearman, the president of Bermuda’s board. “We understand that it is a major change for Gus and his family, but we believe they will be very happy in Bermuda and that Gus will continue to do a great job.”The funding for the contract comes from a number of sources, including the government, the ICC and the Bank of Bermuda Foundation.

Rob Key has pledged to investigate England players’ conduct during their mid-Ashes break in Noosa and described drinking heavily as “completely unacceptable” for an international cricket team.England travelled to Noosa, the affluent resort town on the Queensland coast, after their eight-wicket defeat in the second Test at the Gabba for a four-night stay which the team stressed was a “mid-series break” rather than a “holiday”. Brendon McCullum, the trip’s architect, said it was “excellent” and would allow England to head into the third Test feeling fresh.Key, England’s managing director, did not travel to Noosa and said that he believed his players had been “very well behaved”. But reports since their subsequent 82-run defeat in Adelaide have compared the trip to a stag do, and Key said at the MCG on Tuesday that he will “look into what happened” to determine whether any further action is required.Related

• ECB investigating Ben Duckett video amid drinking allegations

• Ashes fallout: Contrite Key admits New Zealand white-ball tour was planning error

• Cricket Australia, ECB seek to address Ashes warm-up concerns

• England's failure demands change

• Rob Key in a bind as McCullum's wild ride hits Ashes skids

“If there’s things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively then of course we’ll be looking into that,” Key said. “Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage, and it would be a fault not to look into what happened there. But from everything that I’ve heard so far, they were very well behaved.”I’ve read what’s been written in the last day or so, and if it goes into where they’re drinking lots and it’s a stag do, all that type of stuff, that’s completely unacceptable. I’m not a drinker. I think a drinking culture doesn’t help anyone in any stretch whatsoever.”I have no issue with the Noosa trip if it was to get away and just throw your phone away, down tools, go on the beach… Everything that I’ve heard so far is that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn’t go out late, had the odd drink. I don’t mind that. If it goes past that, then that’s an issue as far as I’m concerned… There’s lots of people there that might disagree with that, but that’s what we’ll find out.”Key also revealed that Jacob Bethell and Harry Brook had been warned by team management before the series, after they were filmed drinking at a bar the night before England’s third ODI in New Zealand. He said the incident had been a “wake-up call” for the scrutiny that the squad would come under in Australia, which he denied England had underestimated.”I don’t mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that I think is ridiculous, really,” Key said. “There wasn’t any formal action… I didn’t feel like that was worthy of formal warnings, but it was probably worthy of informal ones.”Key also confirmed that England had turned down the opportunity to play a warm-up match against Australian opposition in Adelaide ahead of the first Test, reasoning that they would have more control over a warm-up match involving England Lions at Lilac Hill, a club ground in Perth.Jacob Bethell looks set to come into the side for the fourth Test•Getty Images

“I don’t necessarily believe that had we just gone and played there then we’d now be 3-0 up in the Ashes,” he said. “Even with that, we’ve still got to get more out of our players… You’ve got to look at yourselves as a set up, I think. If your players are playing to their potential and they’re getting beat, that’s fine. But in this series so far, we haven’t done that.”He conceded that England have stripped back their support staff too far, leaving the set-up without a fielding coach for this tour. “When we started, I looked at the huddle on the first day at Lord’s [against New Zealand in June 2022] and there were 38 people in there… We wanted to strip all of that back and go, ‘Right, we want the messaging to come from just a few people’.”I don’t think the argument is to bring in loads of specialist coaches… [But] there’s probably a few spots where we’re weak in terms of our set-up at the moment, where we’ve stripped it back too much and there’s probably a few places we need to start bringing in some of that resource again.”Key described McCullum – whose contract he extended last year – as a “bloody good coach” and backed him to continue despite England’s heavy series defeat, and said that his own future as managing director is in the hands of the ECB’s board.Brendon McCullum and Rob Key look on at training•Getty Images

“The decision really for the ECB will be whether or not they want to rip it up and start again, or whether they want to evolve and whether we’re the right people to do that. Clearly, I believe that Brendon… He’s an excellent coach. His record is very good. This is only the third [Test] series we’ve lost in four years. His win record [25 out of 44 Tests as coach] is very good as well.”Clearly, we’ve mucked up on the big occasions, whether that was the home Ashes series, whether that was last summer against India… The big ones have eluded us. There’s been some brilliant moments along the way. I still feel like there’s plenty of life in this whole thing now, but we have to evolve. We have to make sure that we’re doing things better.”Key also implied that England had made a mistake by backing Ollie Pope as their No. 3 ahead of Bethell, saying: “You start looking at some of the decisions that we’ve made and think, ‘Should we have made a change there much sooner?’ I don’t think that’s right to speculate on who those people are at the moment, but they’re the things that you look at.”Bethell looks set to play in the fourth Test at the MCG on Boxing Day, and Key described him as an “incredible talent” with the potential to become a “world-class” batter. “I have no issue with him being able to go out and play a match-winning innings in the Ashes for us.”

It is a partnership between the very old – one of cricket’s most traditional establishments, the MCC – and the sport’s newest tournament, the Indian Premier League (IPL). Lalit Modi, the chairman of the IPL, has said his league will adhere to the MCC’s Spirit of Cricket, in order to maintain decorum amid all the excitement.”This partnership between the DLF Indian Premier League and MCC is both exciting and important,” Modi said. “It is exciting to be associated with the most famous cricket club in the world, which is the custodian of the Laws of Cricket and the upholder of the spirit of the game.”More importantly, all the cricketers playing in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League are role models for an entire generation of youth and it is crucial for youngsters all over the world to learn straight away the values of this great game and the spirit in which it should be played. The eyes of the world will be on the IPL and we want to see cricket, and the Spirit of Cricket, at its best.”The Spirit of Cricket first appeared as a preamble to the MCC’s Code of Laws in 2000 and is designed to emphasise sportsmanship and good grace in the game.”We are delighted that, right from the outset, the IPL is embracing the MCC Spirit of Cricket initiative,” Keith Bradshaw, the MCC secretary and chief executive, said. “This is an innovative and forward-thinking league that has captured the imagination of the cricketing world and it is pleasing that each player and each team will play their part in supporting the very best traditions of the game.”The Spirit of Cricket is a worldwide concept that affects all players of the game, from the grassroots to the elite level, and we believe it’s fitting for MCC – a worldwide cricket club with an independent voice in the game – to promote the Spirit of Cricket in partnership with the IPL. We look forward to a league full of great cricket and superb cricketers playing in the right way – hard but fair.”The inaugural season of the IPL gets underway on April 18 with the Bangalore Royal Challengers taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore.