Chris Read has been named as Nottinghamshire’s captain for this season’s Twenty20 Cup, which comes as some consolation after the harsh manner in which he has been removed from England’s Test and one-day plans.It was Read’s perceived batting weaknesses that led the England selectors to opt for Geraint Jones in both roles, but so far this season, Read had made two centuries in the County Championship, and averages more than 50 in both forms of the game. In addition, his ability to pull out big shots at the latter stages of an innings will stand his team in good stead in the Twenty20 format.”It’s going to be an interesting few weeks for me," admitted Read, whose first match in charge will be against Durham at Trent Bridge on July 2. "I’ll need to learn quickly, but I’m really looking forward to leading out the lads.”

Sir Viv Richards has resigned as West Indies’ chairman of selectors after two years in the job. His commitment to commentate with the BBC was cited by the West Indies board as the main reason for his decision. Richards himself was unavailable for comment.Richards will be replaced on the three-man selection panel by Clyde Butts, the former Guyana and West Indies offspinner – Joey Carew and Gordon Greenidge are the other two selectors. Carew will take over from Richards as chairman.The WICB has appointed interim selection committees for the next two months pending the conclusion of the review of the management structure of the West Indies team. The recommendations of the review are expected to be implemented following the ICC Champions Trophy in England this September, and will have an impact on the role of selectors.Richards, 52, took over as chairman of selectors in May 2002, but his last few months in charge became increasingly controversial, with reports of rifts between him and Brian Lara, the captain. On West Indies’ tour to South Africa earlier this year, the two were involved in an extraordinary incident, when Lara made a last-minute change to the fourth-Test team during the toss – apparently against Richards’s wishes – bringing in Merv Dillon for Adam Sanford.

Pieter Strydom, a former South African international, has been named captain of the Eastern Cape for the next season. Strydom, nicknamed “Striker”, had played two Tests and 10 one-dayers for South Africa in the 1999-00 season apart from captaining Border for several years.Reunert Bauser, the CEO of the Eastern Cape franchise, said that Strydom’s experience of captaining Border for a number of seasons was one of the main reasons for the appointment. iAfrica.com quoted Bauser as saying, “He is a shrewd captain and his all-round ability with both bat and ball has earned him the respect of many an opposing team.”Reacting to the appointment Strydom termed it as a “challenge” and added, “I am proud to be named to lead the franchise for next season. I hope my captaincy and the results we achieve will repay the faith the Board have in me.”Strydom, 34, was born in the Eastern Cape and studied educated at Grey High School, which also has Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbe and Nicky Boje on its alumni rolls. Strydom shifted to Border in 1992-93 and played as vice-captain to Peter Kirsten for a few years. He took over as captain in 1997-98 and carried on for six seasons.Under his captaincy, Border reached the SuperSport final in three consecutive years apart from making the final of the Standard Bank Cup in 1999. last year, he surprisingly lost the captaincy to Justin Kreusch.Strydom’s best bowling in first-class cricket was 4 for 12 against Northerns at Centurion Park, while another highlight of his career was the 6 for 17 that he snared against Western Province in 2001-02. In 2002-03, Strydom played his 100th first-class match and was awarded a benefit year as well.

Scorecard
Despite Ravindu Shah’s entertaining 90, Kenya suffered a six-wicket defeat against India A at the Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi. This was Kenya’s third loss in as many matches and their hopes of entering the final now hinge on their final league game against Pakistan A on Friday.Kenya made a fine start to their innings after opting to bat, with Kennedy Otieno and Shah racing along at a healthy pace. Even after Otieno fell, sweeping uppishly to square leg, Hitesh Modi filled in responsibly and along with Shah took the score to 153 for 1.But the Indian spinners put the brakes after the 35th over and none of the batsmen provided the final kick. The last seven batsmen contributed just 21 between them and Sridharan Sriram finished with four wickets with his part-time left-arm spin. Ramesh Powar, the offspinner, joined in the act, snared three wickets to help keep Kenya down to just 216.Deeraj Jadhav, the Maharashtra opener who was the highest scorer in the Ranji Trophy last season, piloted the chase with a composed 76. The rest of the top-order batsmen chipped in with vital contributions and India A coasted home with more than ten overs to spare. Sriram’s plucky 35, off 30 balls, along with his bowling exploits, won him the Man-of-the-Match award.

Tillakaratne Dilshan, a key allrounder for Sri Lanka, has been passed fit to play in Sri Lanka’s first Champions Trophy match against Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Dilshan’s right hand had needed stitches after the webbing was split in the last one-dayer against South Africa.Dilshan sat out the opening warm-up match of Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy campaign, but returned for their final practice game against a weak ECB XI on Friday, scoring 41. Crucially, Dilshan, who is expected to play an important supporting role with his flat offbreaks on the dry end-of-season pitches, also resumed bowling in the nets.Sri Lanka’s main selection dilemma as they prepare for the tournament has been whether to play six or seven batsman. Their recent success was achieved with six batting specialists backed up by bowling allrounders. But England’s more bowler-friendly conditions may persuade them to add Saman Jayantha as an extra batsman; if not against Zimbabwe, then probably against England.The bowling attack will be led by Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa. Upul Chandana will probably be the first-choice spinner. The final bowling slot, assuming seven batsmen play, will then be a tight contest between Farveez Maharoof, Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga. But Maharoof’s fielding and batting may get him the nod. Sanath Jayasuriya and Dilshan would then add support with their part-time spin.However, if the weather is bright and sunny against England at the Rosebowl on Friday – the weather forecasters are predicting a dry and sunny week on the south coast – and the pitch offers assistance for the spinners, then they will be tempted to stick with their winning formula and include Kaushal Lokuarachchi; a move that will undoubtedly add more teeth to a bowling attack missing Muttiah Muralitharan.The bowling had a good day out in the hopelessly one-sided encounter against the ECB XI at Shenley. Dilshan’s return was the only real benefit to emerge from a match in which Sri Lanka piled up 261 and then bowled out the team of recreational cricketers for 91, with Zoysa and Lokuarachchi sharing six wickets.

Gerald de Kock was one peeved communications officer. A prominent local newspaper had published a picture of Graeme Smith’s girlfriend with a caption. The problem was, she wasn’t his girlfriend, but his manager. It was a rare error by an Indian media obsessed with the wives and girlfriends of the South African squad, but it had to be fixed. It was another day in the life of de Kock.de Kock was involved in South African sport for 17 years as a radio broadcaster. Then, one day, after years of being a regular at Wimbledon, Roland Garros, cricket World Cups and numerous Olympics, the opportunity to be the media liaison for the South African cricket team arose.Every day, he monitors anything and everything said and written about South African cricket around the globe. “During the game I have to gauge the pulse of the media box and, based on the chief talk of the day, I warn the players about certain points. I don’t tell them what to say, I just need to let them be aware of things.”For instance, a big match-fixing ring was busted recently, and a gang of six bookies was charged with the intention of fixing the first Test at Kanpur. The players had no clue about it. de Kock silenced all rumours by stating, “It was news to us when we saw the story in the newspapers. As far as we are concerned it is a matter being handled by the local authorities and we have nothing to do with it.” Clear, precise communication to cut down speculation.de Kock laments the lack of trust between the players and the media. He feels that when South Africa returned to international cricket in 1991 there was mutual trust between the players and the media. “Both could trust each other – the player could talk off the record and still trust the journalist.” But not too long afterwards, intense competition between media men resulted in that trust being breached, making the players more cautious.”In each country the relationship between the player and the media is different. Some are close while [in other places] there is a gulf which can’t develop that trust. The trust has steadily dissipated,” de Kock says, “as there is a lot of competition now.”He understands and agrees that both sides need each other. “The media needs the game to keep their jobs, and the game needs the media to get the money.”de Kock has toured every Test-playing nation, apart from Australia, with the team. Of the lot, he says, England had the best media set-up, which made his job as a media manager easier. But when Smith hit two double-hundreds on the trot in 2003, the job was anything but easy. “Graeme Smith had scored those back-to-back double-centuries at Edgbaston and Lord’s and there was this barrage of media requests every minute. I had lost my privacy.” There were dozens of calls at all times of the day, and sleep suddenly became a rare commodity.Having played as an amateur in the Birmingham leagues, de Kock says that watching the game becomes monotonous at times, but the same cannot be said about his job. “Every day is a new one.” Especially during home series, where he needs to make sure that the media are catered for. “During the home series I am not just a media manager, I have to look after the media and make sure that they are satisfied not only with their reporting requests but [are also kept] happy by providing them with good facilities.”His experience in the media has helped him deal with it in this new role. But he has to maintain a very fine balance, and find the middle ground. “I am always in the middle where the media sees you as the enormously high barrier, whereas players feel you are a low barrier. I am not there to keep anyone happy but to facilitate, to make sure that there is access and communication on both sides.”Still, how did he handle the error about Smith’s girlfriend? Were there frayed tempers, shredded newsprint, or anything dramatic? “I spoke to both Graeme and Minki and both of them are fine. They laughed off the report.” An anticlimactic outcome, but one a media manager could count as a minor success.

The India hangover didn’t make it to a third day. Australia drank away 35 years of frustration with their series win last month, but in celebration there were no lands except Bangladesh left to conquer. Revisiting the same territory is often challenging and rarely as fun.Australia expect their pesky Trans-Tasman rivals to morph every time they meet, but their start to a series that concludes in less than two weeks was worryingly sluggish. As the first Test venue, the Gabba is a ground where rust is shaken off, but the Baggy Greens have been together for most of six weeks.Catches were dropped and overthrows conceded on day one, and the opening bowlers took only one wicket in an innings that allowed 147 for the last three combinations. Australia spent most of the second day struggling for parity. By stumps they were two wickets away from an almighty fight.The Berocca tablets and raw-eggs breakfast finally kicked in through Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist. Their bouncing, high-energy display returned Australia’s attacking spirit and the summer’s opening style was restored, allowing the traditional thunderstorm alerts to arrive on cue.Horizontal bat shots as hard as the wicket flooded the ground once Clarke and Gilchrist exploded. Clarke, nicknamed pup, overshadowed his vice-captain in a 216-run partnership that was a sixth-wicket record between the teams. Once Clarke departed Gilchrist held the stadium’s attention for his 12th Test century and the New Zealanders had the headaches with muffed catches and haemorrhaged lower-order runs.Stephen Fleming’s only break came in the morning when he moved a loose man in the cordon to leg gully, opening up Damien Martyn’s favourite region. Next ball Martyn lifted a short ball from Chris Martin and Craig McMillan barely needed to steady himself at third man. It was a small victory on a day of heavy losses.Worse came for Fleming when Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie pushed the score past 500 before setting about 550 and personal bests. A slog-swept McGrath six sent the dressing room into fits of shock and laughter, and the pair knocked back offers of the light. McGrath’s 62-ball fifty was scarcely believable on the ground or the dressing-room – Darren Lehmann cheered so hard he threatened to re-injure his hamstring.Fleming remained stern and kept striding around as he wondered how the day, the match, and probably the series had turned. New Zealand were in with a shout in the morning but instead had shaken and stirred Australia into action.Peter English is Australasian editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

As an Indian cricket writer, there are few better things than watching India on tour. And when the tour is Bangladesh, it is obviously India winning on tour. Yet, when India had just wrapped up a comprehensive but largely unexciting 2-0 win in the Test series, it was tough to focus on the one-dayers. Not because the work was any less demanding, or because the matches were any more one-sided – if anything, Bangladesh had a better chance to make a good fist of things in the shorter version of the game – but because VVS Laxman wouldn’t be about.At a time of bounty for Indian cricketers – every one of the newcomers on this one-day tour have been guaranteed at least two matches by the captain and coach – it is unbelievable that Laxman was not given a go. It is now common knowledge that he did not want to be ‘rested’. Even the remarkably media-shy Laxman went on record to say that he was remembered only when he scored runs. That no-one backed him when he was going through a lean trot and needed the support most.The merits of his omission barely merit mention. But, because the selectors routinely seem to pick him as the fall guy, the one person to leave out when they need a spot to either try out youngsters or make way for one of their zonal candidates, it bears repetition. Not long ago – but obviously too long ago in the fickle minds of selectors – Laxman scored three one-day hundreds in the VB Series in Australia, and a further crucial ton in a deciding match in Lahore. For most in the Indian team this would have been enough to cement a place in the team.Many reasons can be advanced for Laxman’s omission, and the selectors are the obvious target. But, Sourav Ganguly has fought harder for lesser men. Could this have anything to do with the fact that Laxman’s value to the team is best utilised at no. 3 and that the captain wants this very spot? This is not an effort to further conspiracy theories about unrest in the team, and yet, this is the only reasoning that bears any scrutiny. With Sachin Tendulkar not budging from the opening slot, and Virender Sehwag being a sure-shot to open, Ganguly has to bat at no. 3. Is this the real reason why Laxman is missing out?The logic that Laxman was being rested may be good enough for the board secretary to announce soon after a selection meeting, but it will not stand up to to questioning by a serious cricket enthusiast. With a tough home series against Pakistan looming, Bangladesh would have been an ideal platform for Laxman to get some runs under the belt, and confidence going. But no, the selectors would rather plump for Dinesh Mongia and Sridharan Sriram.Mongia has done well in county cricket, but no-one should forget he went to England to play league cricket for a little-known club team, and then got his chance at a decent level because Carl Hooper else was unavailable. He was nowhere in the reckoning then. Sriram has put in impressive performances with with Tamil Nadu and India A, and deserves another go at the highest level. But, if you sat a table with Mongia and Sriram, they would be the first to admit that they are not in the same class as Laxman. They deserve a chance, but not at Laxman’s expense.When Laxman left Dhaka, he did so in the full knowledge that he was going to return home and turn out the next day for Hyderabad in a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab, who have done exceptionally well this season. He rattled off 79 in a first-innings total of 233 and then 60 out of 149 to lead his team to victory. Will Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, please tell us why a man who was "rested" needed to go out and play for his state side?Laxman does not need rest. Not when there is a month-and-a-half gap between this one-day series and India’s next assignment. He needs time out in the middle. He needs scores. And for once he needs to be told that he is an invaluable member of this Indian team. But perhaps no-one will give him that because he is not the sort to demand it, either directly or indirectly.His rare outburst, when he was "rested", should have been enough of a warning to the selectors. This is a man who is crying out for help, but has too much pride to ask for it. And why should he, after the matchwinning performances he has put in? It is typical of the man. Not a week ago, I tried to re-introduce myself to Laxman, thinking he may have forgotten the few times we’ve met. "You first interviewed me at the India Pistons ground in Madras in 1999, during the Buchi Babu tournament, and wrote something about me being an enigma," he said. That was before the 281 in Kolkata that changed his life. I barely remembered it, and yet, countless media interviews later, he did.Perhaps that’s why all of us – selectors, team-mates, coaches and reporters – take him for granted. Because he won’t, for a second, blow his own trumpet at a time when, it seems, words speak louder than deeds.

Looking down across Johannesburg from the top of the Wanderers stadium, it can feel as though you are situated at the highest point of the highveld. Though the city itself is as unprepossessing as they come – a loose alliance of hilltop settlements, lured here in the last century by the prospect of gold, and loitering ever since – from the birds’-eye view of the fourth-storey press-box, it is possible to appreciate the subtler side to the city.Everywhere you look, there are trees, which comes as something of a surprise to the uninitiated. Apparently, in that respect, Jo’burg is the greenest city in the whole of southern Africa, but it is only when you reach a high enough elevation to see across the security fences that you grow to appreciate that fact.As you stare down the length of the Wanderers pitch, your line of vision takes you through the twin floodlights of the imposing Centenary Stand, which wraps itself around the northern end of the ground, and off into the distance, over and beyond the adjoining Wanderers golf club, and all the way to the tip of the Sandton City shopping and hotel complex. It is here that the teams are based for this final fortnight of the series, and the roof of the main tower is clearly visible, as it pokes through the canopy like Cleopatra’s Needle.For more than 74 years, the Wanderers Club has provided the focal point of Johannesburg’s sporting aspirations, whether they be cricket or golf – which between them dominate the district of Illovo, where the club is based – or tennis, squash and bowls, which can also be found tucked away in the back streets. But tragically, in October last year, the clubhouse itself was entirely gutted by fire. It began in the kitchens and spread through the ventilation ducts, and by the time it had incinerated the venerable wooden rafters, there was little that could rescue three-quarters of a century of tradition.A vast section of the roof collapsed, taking with it the club’s imposing clock-tower, and as a match between South Africa A and New Zealand continued unawares down the road, the devastated members were left to salvage what they could of a mass of sporting memorabilia. Among the trophies, photographs and cricketana lost forever was the bat with which Graeme Pollock scored 274 against Australia in 1966-67, which to this day is ranked among the finest innings of all time.The stadium itself is a fair way removed from the clubhouse, however, and if you arrive late at the ground on a matchday, you soon discover that the Wanderers lives up to its name. It is a veritable hike from from the car-park to the ground, although for the morning stroll, at least, it is downhill all the way. Upon arrival, you then take a further plunge into the basin of the ground itself, which is entered through an imposing gateway that sports a banner declaring the Wanderers to be “our battleground”.It is unequivocal stuff, and when play takes place in front of 20,000 fans, as was the case on the Saturday of this match, the ground certainly takes on a gladiatorial feel. It is universally known as “The Bullring”, a nickname that is amply backed up by the sheer scale of the stands at either end. These are four storeys vertical, and leer over the events in the middle with such intrusiveness that the slightest whisper is echoed and amplified as it bounces between them. But never mind careless whispers – the throaty roar that greeted Herschelle Gibbs’s hundred came close to matching the din created by the South African Airways fly-past that launched the World Cup final here in March 2003.For all the imposing splendour of the main stands, however, perhaps the finest seats in the ground are those at midwicket. On the one side, there is the grassy bank in front of the pavilion, with its preponderance of beach towels and umbrellas, and of course, the ubiquitous bikinis. The players are shielded from all this by a neatly trimmed hedge, which marks the boundary of their viewing area and stands in stark aesthetic contrast to the intimidating perspex tunnel through which they must walk to reach the boundary’s edge.The opposite side of the ground is served by a magnificently rickety wooden stand, so steep that, at this rarefied altitude, anyone who gallops up it too quickly can require an oxygen mask by the time they reach the summit. On the first day of the match, this entire area was claimed by a local primary-school outing, not that any of them had any qualms about scurrying up and down the benches all day long. In fact, while Andrew Strauss and Robert Key were rattling along in that afternoon session, the majority of the kids found that the safety netting beneath the stand was of far greater entertainment, as they slipped through the slats and turned the Bullring into their very own adventure playground.

ScorecardCentral Province made a nightmare start just before the close in reply to North Central Province’s 314: they lost three wickets for six runs on the first day at the P.Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. Nandika Ranjith took two wickets, and Omesh Wijesiriwardene picked up the other to leave Central with much work to do as they head into the second day.All of North Central’s top order made decent starts, but their real stars were the middle order batsmen Jeevantha Kulatunga (93) and Janaka Gunaratne. The rest of the tail fell away, but it didn’t matter as North Central posted 314 and soon had Central in trouble.
Scorecard Western Province blew Southern Province away for 134, then rattled up 120 for 5 before the close of play to leave them in a strong position on the end of the first day at Khettarama, Colombo. They now trail by just 14 runs with five wickets heading into the second day of four.Thilan Thushara was the star bowler for Western, taking 4 for 46, with only Harsha Vithana (46) offering any resistance for Southern before he fell victim to Thushara’s left-arm pace. In their reply, Ian Daniel struck a solid 40 to lift Western to a firm position by the close.