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Weston is moving north to be closer to his family © Martin Williamson

Gloucestershire have announced that Phil Weston is to leave the club at the end of the season to spend more time with his family. Weston joined Gloucestershire in 2003 after leaving Worcestershire, who he played with since making his debut in 1991.”I have asked to be released from the final year of my contract with Gloucestershire primarily for family reasons; this is to move back to my home in the north,” Weston said. “This has been a difficult decision and one which I have not taken lightly as I have enjoyed many happy and successful times during my four years at Nevil Road.””I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved at the club especially the supporters and players to whom I wish every success in the future.”Weston has enjoyed a solid final season, scoring 911 runs in the Championship at 39.60, with two hundreds and six fifties.”It was a great bonus to sign Phil in 2003 and he has been part of a very successful opening partnership with Craig Spearman,” Gloucestershire’s chief executive, Tom Richardson, added. “Obviously we are sorry that he is no longer playing with us but in this sense we do respect his wishes.”

Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle have parted company with their attorney, Sanjeev Datadin, after he released a statement on their behalf expressing their disappointment with the manner in which the ongoing contracts dispute had been handled.In a press release dated July 27, 2005, Sarwan and Gayle hit out at the “painful and difficult situation” in which they had been placed regarding the ongoing tour of Sri Lanka, adding that they had been presented with two equally unpalatable options:”Firstly, to refuse to play … and appear to be selfishly abandoning West Indies Cricket and the many loyal fans who have supported them faithfully over the years … and secondly, to choose to participate [and] appear to be abandoning their team-mates and colleagues who have sought their support.”The July 27 release also criticised “the unrelenting and unnecessary dispute” between the West Indies Cricket Board and West Indies Players Association. “Both players wish to express their disappointment with the handling of the entire matter. They fear that the current approach to the resolution of the dispute is only likely to deepen the divide between the stakeholders.”However, the pair have since gone on record to distance themselves from those remarks, and have released an independent follow-up to Mr Datadin’s remarks:”In order to provide clarity and remove the speculation that has been rife as a result of a press release issued by Mr Sanjeev Datadin on the 27th day of July 2005, we wish to state the following:

We have never given any instructions to say or suggest that we will break or have broken away from, disapproved of or had any complaint about WIPA or its handling of any matter.

We have been made aware and have been involved in the decision-making by WIPA on our behalf and other players throughout.

We deny categorically that pressure was placed on us by WIPA to make any decisions at any time.

We have informed Mr. Sanjeev Datadin that his services will no longer be required with immediate effect.

We are totally committed to West Indies Cricket.

Day 1 of 3 Central Districts 36 for 2 trail South Africans 286 for 5 (McKenzie 100*, Boucher 58) by 250 runs
ScorecardNeil McKenzie ran up an unbeaten 100 to provide the South Africans some solidity after a shaky start to their match against Central Districts at Napier. After McKenzie reached his hundred, Mark Boucher, the captain, declared the innings at 286 for 5 and gave his bowlers a dozen overs in which they reduced their opponents to 36 for 2. Andre Nel and David Terbrugge bowled with hostility and picked up a wicket each, and left Central Districts with a rebuilding job on their hands.McKenzie walked in with the South Africans tottering at 86 for 3, and struck 12 fours and four sixes in the kind of innings his team sorely needed after their failures in the one-day series. He found an ally in Boucher, who scored 58 in a 115-run partnership for the fifth wicket that rebuilt the innings. Then Nicky Boje tonked a quickfire 38 and added 81 runs with McKenzie before the innings came to a close.Jacques Rudolph struck 42 and put on 44 with Herschelle Gibbs, who was the first of Andrew Schwass’s three wickets. However, Rudolph could not convert his start into a more substantial innings, and when Schwass removed Gary Kirsten (4) and Martin van Jaarsveld (21) soon after, the score was 90 for 4. It was then that McKenzie made his case for selection.

There were a number of interesting features of this match. Firstly, SachinTendulkar passed his own record for the most runs scored in a World Cup tournament. He had scored 523 runs (avg 87.16) in 1996.Most runs in a World Cup tournament

Name Team M Inns NO Runs HS Avg SR 100 50 YearSR Tendulkar Ind 8 8 0 571 152 71.37 90.34 1 5 2003SR Tendulkar Ind 7 7 1 523 137 87.16 85.59 2 3 1996ME Waugh Aus 7 7 1 484 130 80.66 85.51 3 1 1996GA Gooch Eng 8 8 0 471 115 58.87 70.29 1 3 1987R Dravid Ind 8 8 1 461 145 65.85 85.52 2 3 1999MD Crowe NZ 9 9 5 456 100* 114.00 90.65 1 4 1992PA de Silva SL 6 6 1 448 145 89.60 107.69 2 2 1996DC Boon Aus 8 8 0 447 93 55.87 76.67 0 5 1987Javed Miandad Pak 9 9 2 437 89 62.42 62.33 0 5 1992GR Marsh Aus 8 8 1 428 126* 61.14 68.26 2 1 1987

Tendulkar was dismissed for the 8th time in the nineties in Limited OversInternationals, passing the 7 dismissals in the nineties by Aravinda deSilva. De Silva has also made two not out scores in the nineties, making 9 scores in the nineties in total, one ahead of Tendulkar’s 8.The Sri Lankan innings included 5 ducks. This one short of the most ducks ina Limited Overs International innings. It was, however, the first time inLimited Overs Internationals that the first four batsman dismissed in an innings all made ducks.Most ducks in a Limited Overs International innings

Ducks For Against Venue Season6 Pakistan England Birmingham 19876 Pakistan West Indies Cape Town 1992/936 South Africa Australia Sydney 2001/025 England West Indies Lord’s 19795 England Zimbabwe Harare 1996/975 West Indies Pakistan Melbourne 1996/975 South Africa Pakistan Sharjah 1999/005 West Indies Zimbabwe Sydney 2000/015 New Zealand Pakistan Auckland 2000/015 Zimbabwe Sri Lanka Colombo-SSC 2001/025 Canada Sri Lanka Paarl 2002/035 Sri Lanka India Johannesburg 2002/03

Finally, Mohammad Kaif became the first fielder to take 4 catches in aWorld Cup match. For the record the following fielders all held theprevious record of 3:

Name For Against Venue SeasonCH Lloyd West Indies Sri Lanka Manchester 1975DA Reeve England Pakistan Adelaide 1991/92Ijaz Ahmed Pakistan Australia Perth 1991/92AR Border Australia Zimbabwe Hobart 1991/92CL Cairns New Zealand UAE Faisalabad 1995/96GP Thorpe England Sri Lanka Lord’s 1999NJ Astle New Zealand Australia Cardiff 1999IL Philip Scotland Bangladesh Edinburgh 1999RT Ponting Australia Bangladesh Chester-le-Street 1999SC Williams West Indies Scotland Leicester 1999AR Whittall Zimbabwe South Africa Chelmsford 1999V Sehwag India Holland Paarl 2002/03LJ Burger Namibia England Port Elizabeth 2002/03HH Dippenaar South Africa Bangladesh Bloemfontein 2002/03D Mongia India Namibia Pietermaritzburg 2002/03V Sehwag India England Durban 2002/03AF Giles England Australia Port Elizabeth 2002/03

The National Squad is taking the service of two pace bowlers from Bangladesh-A for their net sessions in BKSP and Dhaka. Monir from Surjatarun Club and Tareq Aziz from Dhanmondi Club are practicing with the Bangladesh team without a break.It happened when Mohammed Sharif got himself injured and had to take some days off. The team felt that they are lacking enough pace bowlers for batting practice. So, they went for Monir and Tareq Aziz to help them out.Sharif is still out of the field, therefore, the pace duo is still with the team.Monir’s domestic performance was good enough to get him a call from Bangladesh-A. He captured 22 wickets from 11 matches in Premier Division 2000-2001. A tall and lanky Monir acted as a new ball operator for Surjatarun Club with Ahmed Kamal at the other end. He is going to have a training tour in Australia in October 2001. Wayne Philips, the present coach of Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy of Australia, will guide a five-member team where Monir is the only fast bowler. Two of them are from Bangladesh-A and the rest are members of Under-19.Tareq Aziz could not play that well in the Premier League, yet he was called in for the A-team. Alike Monir he is a pace bowler who used to open for Dhanmondi Club.The practice sessions with the national side is tough but very exciting, they acknowledged." It is really thrilling to have Trevor Chappell just behind when you are bowling in nets. Besides, we are bowling against the best batsmen of the country, which is helping a lot to reveal the weaknesses we have," they said.The 29-member Bangladesh-A team run their practice in BKSP, four days a weak under coach Dipu Roy Chowdhury and Golam Farooq Suru.

Vanka Pratap in the process of giving Hyderabad the upper hand with atimely century, put to shade a good bowling performance by Keralaseamer Tinu Yohannan (6 for 177). Such was the dominance of Hyderabadthat they declared at 489 for 9 well into the second day of theirSouth Zone Ranji Trophy match at the Nuclear Fuel Complex Ground atHyderabad on Thursday. Kerala at stumps were tottering at 69 for 4.Resuming where he left off the previous evening, Vanka Pratap (128)went on to complete his century after a 317 minute stay at the crease.His overnight partner Vinay Kumar (71) was not far behind, reachinghis half century off 85 balls. After forging a 146 run fourth wicketstand with Vanka Pratap, Vinay departed caught by Ananthapadmanabhanoff Ramprakash. Then Vanka Pratap fell leg before to Yohannan afteradding 45 run for the fifth wicket with PR Satwalkar. Stumper MSrinivas joined Satwalkar and put on 56 runs for the sixth wicket.After the fall of Satwalkar, the Hyderabad innings folded up with theaddition of 41 runs. In reply Kerala made a circumspect start with theopeners V Girilal (22) and MP Sorab (24) adding 48 runs. But disasterstruck Kerala when former Indian spinner Venkatapathy Raju wasintroduced into the attack. Raju drew first blood for Hyderabad in the18th over when he trapped Girilal in front. Two balls later he sentback Sorab in much the similar manner. Kerala’s woes were not to endthere as Raju in his very next over picked up the wicket of S Shankar(0) caught by Vinay Kumar. Kanwaljit Singh joined in the act and inhis very first over trapped Sunil Oasis (6) leg before.

ScorecardSteven Finn was back in the groove in his comeback performance for England Lions (file photo)•Getty Images

Steven Finn enhanced his prospects of a belated call-up to England’s Test tour of South Africa with a hostile three-wicket comeback performance for England Lions in Dubai, but his efforts were trumped by the Pakistan A opener Sharjeel Khan, whose 70 from 50 balls set his side up for a tense four-wicket victory and a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.Finn, who was withdrawn from the recent Test series against Pakistan due to a stress-related injury in his foot, showed plenty hostility and no signs of discomfort to claim figures of 3 for 22 in four overs, including two wickets in two balls in the second over of his spell.”It just felt nice to be playing again, and I’m very happy with how it went,” Finn said. “Bowling in the nets can’t give you that competitive edge you get in a match. I really enjoyed being back out there. It’s definitely a good starting block.”Defending a target of 143 after another promising start from Dawid Malan and a strong finish from Liam Dawson, Finn found his range in conceding two runs from his opening over before a change-up in pace confounded Sohaib Maqsood, who was bowled round his legs for 3. One ball later, Mohammad Nawaz had no response to a perfect outswinger that curled off his edge and into the gloves of Sam Billings behind the stumps.It was a statement of intent from a bowler whom Alastair Cook, in his departure press conference at Heathrow on Thursday, had admitted was ahead of schedule in his comeback from injury, having spent most of the last month with his left foot in a moon boot. “Steven has made big strides over the last couple of weeks,” Cook said. “That’s really encouraging for him.” On this evidence, he can probably start making plans for a Cape Town New Year.However, Finn’s figures were dented in his third over by Sharjeel, who pulled a four then smeared a six to kick-start his own innings and Pakistan’s run-chase. He galloped along to a 30-ball half-century, with six fours and a six, adding 52 for the third wicket with Iftikhar Ahmed, who played a willing second-fiddle with 15 from 19 balls before flapping a short ball from Jamie Overton to midwicket.Their stand had given Pakistan command of the contest but, at 92 for 3, Finn returned in the 14th over to complete his spell. Sure enough, with his second ball, he beat Babar Azam for pace as Dawson at midwicket collected a top-edged pull.Sharjeel, however, responded immediately with a four through an unguarded fine leg and, one over later, the new batsman, Saad Nasim, lifted Tom Westley over fine leg for six to restore Pakistan’s ascendancy. England’s death bowlers battled valiantly to keep their side in the game but Nasim added two more sixes, including one in the final over off Reece Topley, to all but seal the victory with 33 from 21 balls.Nasim was denied the winning shot when Topley completed a caught-and-bowled with two runs needed for victory, but Saifullah Bangash walloped four to seal the result with two balls to spare.After winning the toss and batting first, England’s innings failed to ignite despite a handful of promising cameos at the top of the order. For the third match running, Malan provided the early impetus, making 35 from 29 balls with three fours and a six over long-on off the spin of Bilal Asif.But at the other end, James Vince fell in the second over, well caught by the diving keeper, Bangash, off Mir Hamza for 6, and though Westley came out swinging with three fours in the space of four balls, he fell in search of his fourth, a miscued pull off Rumman Raees that picked out deep fine leg for 13.Billings was unable to get going in his run-a-ball 15. Although he top-edged his fifth ball, off Raees, over fine leg for six, he then added six more singles in the space of his next ten balls before mowing across the line at Asif and holing out to Ifhikhar at long-on.Malan and Ross Whiteley then fell in the space of six balls to a pair of expertly judged catches – first Azam flung himself full-length at midwicket to intercept Malan’s flat pull before Junaid Khan leapt in the covers to send Whiteley on his way for a third-ball duck, as England slipped to a precarious 76 for 5 in the 12th over.However, Dawson marshalled his side’s recovery with 45 not out from 37 balls, including a final-ball six over fine leg as Junaid strayed on to his pads. He added a restorative 54 runs for the sixth wicket with Ben Foakes, whose 16 from 18 balls ended when he inside-edged Raees on to his stumps, then farmed the strike well with Jamie Overton to give his bowlers a total to defend. Despite Finn’s best efforts, it wasn’t quite enough.

Habibul Bashar didn’t make the cut for the Twenty20 World Championships © Getty Images

Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud are the major omissions from Bangladesh’s 30-member provisional squad for the Twenty20 World Championship in September. The squad also includes 13 uncapped players from the A team and the recently created National Cricket Academy.Bashar had relinquished the ODI captaincy after the recent series against India, and went through a lean patch with the bat, scoring 417 runs at an average of 21.94 during the 2006-07 season. Mashud lost his place to the uncapped Dhiman Ghosh, who joined Mushfiqur Rahim as the second wicketkeeper in the squad.”We have included a number of young cricketers in the provisional squad, to give them a break if they can prove their worth,” said Faruk Ahmed, the chief selector. The final 15-member squad will be selected by August 15.Squad
Mohammad Ashraful (capt), Aftab Ahmed, Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Tushar Imran, Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Farhad Reza, Mohammad Sharif, Tapash Baisya, Alok Kapali, Mohammad Rafique, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim, Abdur Razzaq, Junaid Siddique, Jahurul Islam, Nazmus Sadat, Nazimuddin, Nadif Chowdhury, Suharwardi Shuvo, Syed Rasel, Nayeem Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Dhiman Ghosh, Shahadat Hossain, Dollar Mahmud, Mohammad Shahjada, Ziaur Rahman and Gazi Salahuddin

Bangladeshis 199 for 5 (Aftab 60, Javed Omar 45) beat Zimbabwe Board XI 198 for 8 (Strydom 57, Hove 50, Mortaza 5-29) by five wickets

Mashrafe Mortaza is checked by physical training coach Paul Chapman after his five-wicket haul © Bangladesh Cricket Board

Mashrafe Mortuza made a superb start to his African safari, taking 5 for 29 as the Bangladeshis beat a Zimbabwe Board XI by five wickets in a warm-up match at Harare’s Alexandra Sports Club.Mortuza, the only member of the squad not have played in Zimbabwe before, ripped through the home side after Habibul Bashar had put them in on a green pitch only for them to reach 107 for 2 thanks to half-centuries from Tinashe Hove and Gregory Strydom.Set a modest target of 199, Aftab Ahmed hit a breezy 60 to get the Bangladeshis off to a good start and then Javed Omar and Habibul Bashar pressed home the advantage as they eased to victory with more than four overs to spare.”Mashrafe bowled brilliantly in the match,” team manager Shafiqul Haque Hira told The Daily Star. “He not only exploited the condition but also bowled consistently on the right spot. He certainly enjoyed his bowling and looked to have carried his form he had shown during the practice matches at home.”Zimbabwe and Bangladesh start their five-ODI series at the Harare Sports Club ground on Saturday (July 29).

‘As soon as I take over as the president of the board, you will see how I work’© Getty Images

Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the new BCCI president, emphatically denied being a proxy candidate for Jagmohan Dalmiya and claimed that the election had been conducted as per the rules and regulations of the board.”This point has come up now and then,” Mahendra said when asked about him being propped up by Dalmiya, “As soon as I take over as the president of the board, you will see how I work. My only endeavour would be to seek the co-operation of each and every one.”He said that his political affiliations – he is a member of the ruling Congress party and the son of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal–had no bearings on his role as a cricket administrator. “I have been associated with the board for 30 years, and have worked as joint secretary, secretary and then vice-president of the BCCI .I am connected with the parties but my political career hasn’t been connected with this.”He claimed that the bitterness of this election would not spill over to the functioning of the board. “This type of groupism is always there in every election. So you can’t say it is a division in the board. Everybody is working for the BCCI and the game of cricket.”He admitted, however, that the BCCI needed to be more professional. “The time has come for professionalism and the board members will be taking some steps towards that.”Sharad Pawar, the losing candidate, insinuated that the election process had been hijacked by Dalmiya. “He was both the bowler and the umpire. He decided the final result,” Pawar said while ruling out the possibility that he would take the matter to court. “I will be the last person to go to court. We will fight this type of elements and we will see that the board runs democratically. I will give full co-operation to the next president to manage the board.”Pawar accused the Dalmiya camp of deliberately postponing the meeting to buy time. “It was the duty of the BCCI’s outgoing president to complete this election procedure,” Pawar said, “but the meeting was again and again adjourned and without any official communication to Justice Mohan. Knowing fully well that I have got a clear majority, deliberate disturbance was raised and the representative of Maharashtra, DC Agashe, who has been the member [of the Maharashtra Cricket Association] for 20 years, was sent [away] from the meeting place and not allowed to vote.”