Supporting Somerset must have been a roller-coaster ride over the years, especially of late when one prize after another has been snatched from their grasp. Missed run-out chances by Middlesex kept them on top.

David Lloyd at Taunton06-Apr-2012
ScorecardWhat could possibly go wrong? Nothing, it seemed, as Somerset worked their way through Middlesex’s middle and lower order and then made a sprightly start to their reply. But those who watch Somerset on a regular, rather than occasional, basis, know better than to take anything for granted – and they were right to urge a bit of caution.Supporting Somerset must have been a real roller-coaster ride over the years, especially of late when one prize after another has been snatched from their grasp. But, really, followers cannot help but be optimistic about a team containing so many talents and, by close of play on the second day, most of those leaving the County Ground were once again anticipating a home victory in this first championship match of the season.Mind, it needed an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 99 between Nick Compton and Craig Kieswetter to halt Middlesex’s fightback. Both made half-centuries and they trooped off with their team only 44 runs in arrears at 202 for three.From purring along in cruise control, Somerset had threatened to lose their way with Marcus Trescothick and James Hildreth falling in the space of five balls before Kieswetter survived a clear run out opportunity on six.Middlesex deserve a fair share of the credit for the home side’s failure to take complete charge of this contest. They might have been rolled over for not much more than 150 as Vernon Philander converted three first-day wickets into a well deserved five-for, but instead clambered up to 246 with Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones making 45 and 23 not out at Nos. 9 and 10.Things looked bleak again for last season’s second division champions with Trescothick, initially outscored by opening partner Arul Suppiah, threading sweetly-timed drives through the covers. Another hour or two of Trescothick in vintage form and Middlesex would have been staring down both barrels but the slightly belated introduction of offspinner Ollie Rayner for the 27th over changed the picture.Trescothick, having hit nine fours in his 47, pushed tentatively forward at Rayner’s fifth ball which turned enough to find the outside edge and travel to slip. With Hildreth promptly yorked by Gareth Berg, Middlesex suddenly had a spring in their step again – and all it needed then, from their point of view, was for Joe Denly to run out Kieswetter.England’s one-day wicketkeeper almost reached the far crease before realising that his partner,Compton, was going nowhere but he still managed to regain his ground, with the help of a desperate dive, after Denly had thrown at the striker’s stumps, and missed, when he could have waited for a team-mate to arrive at the timbers.Kieswetter had eased the tension by pulling Rayner a couple of times when the slow bowler dropped short – and it was he who reached 50 just ahead of his colleague. Compton, though, had moved ahead by the close to finish a good day personally following his earlier direct hit run out of Murtagh.It was another run-out incident, the one that saw Kieswetter escape, that really cost Middlesex dear, however. A scoreboard reading 111 for 4 was what might have been.

Australia coach Mickey Arthur has said Ricky Ponting is “not going anywhere” and remains firmly in Australia’s plans for the next Ashes tour of England in just over a year’s time

Brydon Coverdale01-May-2012Australia coach Mickey Arthur has said Ricky Ponting is “not going anywhere” and remains firmly in Australia’s plans for the next Ashes tour of England in just over a year’s time. Arthur has returned to Australia after Michael Clarke’s men completed a 2-0 Test series win over West Indies, a series in which Ponting made starts and finished with a half-century but was the least prolific scorer of Australia’s top seven.However, Ponting was coming off an outstanding home series against India, in which his 544 runs at 108.80 was second only to Clarke. As a Test-only player, Ponting now has no cricket on his schedule until the domestic summer begins in October, and he must then find his form ahead of home campaigns against South Africa and Sri Lanka ahead of the 2013 Ashes.”I know there was a lot of media pressure and talk around Ricky [in the West Indies], but Ricky’s not going anywhere,” Arthur told reporters in Perth on Tuesday. “We hope Ricky’s scoring enough runs to go to the Ashes, most certainly, in England. Ricky’s still got a lot of Test runs still in him, there’s no doubt about that.”I thought Ricky was very unlucky [in the Caribbean]. He was always bubbling away. His form was always good, so no worries about Ricky Ponting at all. Ricky is definitely no way considering retiring, I wouldn’t have thought from my conversations with him and he’ll be fit and ready to go against South Africa … I think if we win the Ashes, then maybe he’ll go out on the top of his game.”While Ponting has a decade and a half’s worth of Test cricket experience to call on, a less experienced pair will also be aiming to regain their best touch at the start of the home summer. The openers David Warner and Ed Cowan were Australia’s fifth and sixth best scorers in the West Indies and each managed only one half-century, but Arthur believes they are on the improve.”I think Warner and Cowan will get better and better,” Arthur said. “Ed Cowan came on through the summer … he got better and better at playing spin bowling. We want Dave to get more consistent but it’s not his style. We certainly don’t want Dave to lose his character, because that’s what made him special.”Some of the Australians have headed to India to take part in the remainder of the IPL and the limited-overs players have series against England and Pakistan during the off season, followed by the ICC World Twenty20. For others like Ponting and Cowan, a long winter at home has just begun.

Sachin Tendulkar has officially become a Member of Parliament after taking oath at a ceremony in New Delhi

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jun-2012Sachin Tendulkar has officially become a Member of Parliament after taking oath at a ceremony in Delhi. He had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, in April and has become the first active India sportsperson to become an MP.Tendulkar was named as one of the 12 presidential nominees for Rajya Sabha membership that is reserved for those persons “having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service”. A Rajya Sabha MP’s tenure is six years.After the ceremony, Tendulkar said his cricket career would remain top priority. “I’m here because of my cricketing career,” he said. “I can’t take any focus away from my cricket that is where it all started for me… as and when there is time in between, I will look at other things, how I can help and bring in whatever changes not only (for) cricket but all other sports demand.”Tendulkar also said that as MP he would look to improve not just cricket but other sports as well. “I think I’m in a better position, not only to help cricket but also other sports in the country which is really important, it means a lot to me,” he said. “I’d be happy if I’m remembered as someone who has contributed to all sports in India rather than just my cricket statistics, that would be fantastic.”The swearing-in ceremony was held in the chamber of Hamid Ansari, the vice-president of India, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha. reported that while few MPs were around as the parliament was not in session, the parliament staff had lined the corridors in anticipation of Tendulkar’s arrival. Accompanied by wife Anjali to the function, Tendulkar read out his oath in formal Hindi. The ceremony lasted longer than the normal hour, vice-president Ansari telling Tendulkar after the formal signing-in, that he was a cricket enthusiast. Tendulkar in turn enquired about the functioning of parliament.

The opener Kieran Powell has said he needed to divorce himself from Chris Gayle’s brisk scoring to ensure he did not throw his own wicket away on the second day in Antigua

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-2012The opener Kieran Powell has said he needed to divorce himself from Chris Gayle’s brisk scoring to ensure he did not throw his own wicket away on the second day in Antigua. West Indies will now set their sights on batting into day four after making such a strong start to the first innings against New Zealand, with the total having reached 145 for 0 at stumps on the second day.It was already the highest opening stand in a Test by a West Indies pair since Gayle and Daren Ganga added 162 in Multan in November 2006. The performance highlighted the importance to the West Indies side of Gayle, who was playing his first Test in more than 18 months, and he moved along to 85 from 124 deliveries while Powell shuffled along at his own pace to 58 from 164.”It’s a big relief because it takes all the pressure off your scoring,” Powell said of having Gayle at the top of the order. “The shots you see him play, you just have to put yourself in your own bubble and get away from that or you try and do things and get out. It wasn’t difficult, I just got myself in my own little bubble and just tried to steady. It didn’t matter what I saw at the other end from Chris. I just tried to stick within my limitations.”The West Indies openers had already undone much of the good work New Zealand had put together over the first day, although he deficit remained 206 runs at stumps. But with the world’s No. 4-ranked batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, still to come, along with men like Marlon Samuels and Narsingh Deonarine, finding a way through to the West Indies tail looms as a tough challenge for New Zealand.”It’s always important to get a good start when you’ve got guys like that in your team,” Powell said of Chanderpaul and the middle order. “They know they can come in and play under no pressure and express themselves a bit earlier in their innings as well. We’ve got a good start early, so if we can bat the whole of tomorrow and a piece of day four we should be in a good position to bat once and have New Zealand out twice.”The New Zealanders felt they were on top after the first day, when they closed at 232 for 4, but Sunil Narine’s first five-wicket haul in a Test match meant they were dismissed for 351 soon after lunch on the second afternoon. Daniel Vettori said that although New Zealand’s bowlers hadn’t started as they would have hoped when Gayle and Powell walked to the crease, they believed the pressure was building by the end of the day.”It wasn’t the way we wanted to start but I thought by the end of the day we were actually bowling pretty well and starting to create some pressure and maybe if the session had gone a little bit longer we could have taken some wickets,” Vettori said. “You can’t give those freebies away to Gayle because he’s like a Sehwag, he’ll just really hurt you.I think we were going at sixes and sevens pretty early on and it puts you on the back foot and you have to bowl to defensive fields and you probably don’t bowl as well as you’d like. That was pretty disappointing after what was a reasonably good batting performance.”We created some pressure at my end, I thought Kane [Williamson] bowled really well and then Neil Wagner at the end, being able to get it to reverse and starting to ask some questions. That’s going to be a handy asset for us tomorrow. I think the goal is to keep West Indies around a par score, because that wicket is going to get tougher and tougher to play on.”Wagner finished his first day of Test bowling with 0 for 35 from eight overs and although he leaked eight boundaries, Vettori said that was not a reflection on how he had bowled.”He can actually bowl reverse and he does it really well. He runs in hard and asks a lot of questions,” Vettori said. “On these sorts of wickets he’s going to be tough going and we’ve got to make sure we create that sort of pressure so we can attack.”We need to make sure they come away about par and that’s by getting early wickets tomorrow, particularly Gayle’s wicket and probably Chanderpaul’s as well, because he has the ability to bat for a long time. If we can do that, who knows, we can create some pressure and the chance to win the game.”

The cricket operations committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has suggested that the domestic first-class competition, the National Cricket League (NCL), be completed before the commencement limited-overs tournaments in the 2012-13 season

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2012

BPL franchises face tax issues

The National Board of Revenue in Bangladesh has frozen the bank accounts of Shihab Trading Company, the firm that bought the ticket-selling rights for the inaugural edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and owns one of the league’s franchises, the Dhaka Gladiators.
“We have asked our officials to attach, or freeze, all bank accounts of Shihab Trading Company after they failed to pay us any of the tax levied on the BPL’s ticket sales,” Kanon Kumar Roy, director general of Directorate of Inspection (Taxes), said. “We asked them to pay 5% of all ticket sales, which amounted to Tk 2.25 crore [$275,000 approx]. They insisted it was Tk 2.16 crore [$265,000 approx], but they haven’t paid any money as tax.”
In response, Shihab Trading Company chairman Salim Chowdhury told : “I think there has been a miscommunication. The tickets that we gave to the BCB [to distribute] are worth Tk 20-22 crore, so those tickets can’t be taxed.”
Also, Roy said, till now, only one out of the six BPL franchises have met tax requirements. “One franchise [unnamed] has been forthcoming, but the rest haven’t followed their lead.”

The cricket operations committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has suggested that the domestic first-class competition, the National Cricket League (NCL), be completed before the commencement limited-overs tournaments in the 2012-13 season. A final decision on the recommendation will be taken a board meeting on August 6.The 2012-13 domestic calendar, for the main local competitions, looks quite structured at this early stage of discussion: The first-class competition has been scheduled to begin in early October, running till mid-January, after which the cricketers will take a break and then play the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) from mid-February. The one-day Dhaka Premier League (DPL) tournament is slated to begin in March and run till May.”The committee has recommended that after completing the NCL, there will be the BPL and the DPL. If the national cricketers are not available during the one-day competition, we will not be using the players’ pool,” the BCB spokesman, Jalal Yunus, said on Wednesday.The cancellation of the players’ pool would mean that the DPL clubs are no longer bound to pick three current national cricketers each, as they won’t be available during the time – Bangladesh are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in March and Zimbabwe in April next year.The 2011-12 domestic calendar took on a disorganised air, after the BCB’s decision to stop the NCL, which had begun in October, with just one match remaining in its second round. The DPL then began, only to be interrupted by the BPL in February. Though the NCL was eventually completed in April, the DPL dispute added to the scheduling confusion. The season ended in June, the longest it has run.A proposal for a franchise-based four-day domestic competition will also be discussed at the meeting on August 6. Currently, negotiations with various companies interested in buying franchises for the proposed tournament are on.

South Africa have inched closer and closer to that edge in their quest to become the No.1 ranked Test team in the world and now they find themselves right on it.

Firdose Moonda12-Aug-2012There is a thrill that comes with being on the edge. It is a mixture of exhilaration in knowing that something potentially amazing awaits and fear of the possibility of falling off.South Africa have inched closer and closer to that edge in their quest to become the No.1 ranked Test team in the world and now they find themselves right on it. In less than a week, something they have worked toward for years could finally come together. And they don’t even have to win a match for that happen.All South Africa need to do is the thing they have become almost flawless at doing for the last six years: not lose. In six years, since Sri Lanka 2006, South Africa have not been defeated in a series away from home. Whatever the result of the Lord’s Test, that record will remain intact. But if the result is either a draw or a South African win, the record will sprout some bells and whistles and it’s those sounds that the players are starting to hear.”I’m pretty excited about Lord’s,” Dale Steyn, South Africa’s premier fast-bowler, said. “Gary Kirsten mentioned the other day that we are on the brink of something special. In a few days’ time we could be the number one Test team in the world. He said we should enjoy this time because this is what we’ve worked for.”Since Kirsten took over last June, this is the most excited he has allowed the team to be. One of his first acts was to promote a mood of stability. Wins and losses were treated with fairly similar feelings, there was no over-celebration for the former and no deep disappointment of the latter. All of them were part of a “process,” a word Kirsten has used to often it has become nauseating to listen to.The actual details of the process have not been revealed to those outside the dressing room except to say that it does not end in England, irrespective of whether the No.1 status has been achieved or not. It seems obvious that some part of the process will be completed next week at Lord’s and the sense of anticipation has become too big to simply file away and Kirsten is allowing a little more than expression.Not too much, because when Steyn was asked whether there was a feeling that something special was around the corner, he immediately reigned in his thoughts. “It’s weird. We’re just in a really nice groove and in such a good environment that we haven’t had too much pressure. Everybody seems so up for it.”Guys know what their job is. There’s a lot of trust. If we go on and win then in a month, two months after this, maybe in a year, we might sit back and say maybe we should have had different feelings. But we’re 1-0 up with one game to go and I’m not going to change the way we do things.”Consistency has been a major advantage to South Africa in this Test series, highlighted perhaps by the chaos in the opposing dressing room.England have had their first-choice No.6 batsman, Ravi Bopara, pull out because of personal reasons and had to replace him with a debutant. They have also the person many consider their best player, Kevin Pietersen, embroiled in a text message controversy and were forced to drop him and bring in someone who has not fared well in his previous international encounters, Jonny Bairstow. They changed their attack, leaving out a spinner for the first time since 2003 and it did not work and their bowling attack cannot seem to find the venom they once had.By contrast South Africa have seemed serene. Their big guns, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn, fired in the first Test. Then one who struggled, Alviro Petersen, was their standout player of the second Test. Their biggest worry has been Imran Tahir’s no-ball issue and he may have rectified that, having not overstepped once during the two-day match against Derbyshire. While England have to iron out dressing room creases, South Africa have had endless bonding sessions, starting in Switzerland and most recently having dinner cooked by the country’s first Masterchef winner.They are, as Graeme Smith told ESPNcricinfo before the series started, at peace. Ironically, that means their killer instinct has never been sharper. Even though they have the option to play defensive cricket and hold on to their 1-0 lead, they do not want to do that. Steyn gave a guarantee that they will go for the win at Lord’s, the same way they did at Headingley when Smith declared and put England in on the final day and later confirmed he did it with the intention that South Africa could for the win.”If the weather wasn’t around I reckon we would have been in a better situation,” Steyn said. “A draw is not in our eyes. We’ve come out here to play good, attacking positive cricket. It’s the way we want to play and we are definitely going for it at Lord’s. It just shows Test cricket is definitely alive and that this current South African team is trying to push for it.”

Keaton Jennings’ first Championship half-century for Durham took his side a good way towards parity against Lancashire

Myles Hodgson at Aigburth30-Aug-2012
ScorecardGraham Onions took another five-wicket haul to hit Lancashire’s chances of a big total•Getty Images

After their experiences over the last few weeks, the selectors may not welcome another South Africa-born player intent on qualifying to play international cricket for England. Yet, by the time the dust has settled on the Kevin Pietersen affair, they may find themselves drawn to another talented young batsman happy to serve out his qualification period in county cricket.Keaton Jennings is a tall left-hander, still only 20, and has adapted impressively to county cricket with Durham, marking only his third Championship appearance with an assured 70 against Lancashire. He is also a former South Africa Under-19 captain, the son of former South Africa coach Ray Jennings, and is keen to serve out his qualification period, which will be a minimum of four years, to follow in Pietersen’s footsteps and play for England.For the time being that is to Durham’s benefit. He is eligible to play county cricket through his Sunderland-born mother and has forced his way into the side after scoring two double hundreds for the second team. Promoted to open against the champions, he passed his latest challenge with great assurance, relishing the battle with Glen Chapple before falling to a bat-pad catch facing Gary Keedy, Lancashire’s left-arm spinner.”Even from a young age my Dad has tested me and put me under pressure and always taught me never to back down, so if you can test yourself against someone like Chapple, someone who is at the top of his game, and succeed then you grow as a person,” Jennings said. “To have him bowl at me and to test myself against him was a privilege.”Jennings was given the platform for his assured display by another masterful performance from Graham Onions, which all but ended Lancashire’s hopes of taking control of a match that has been heavily disrupted by rain. Taking the new ball from the River End, Onions ensured Lancashire lost their last four wickets for 22 runs, by claiming 3 for 12 in 21 balls.Having resumed on 221 for 6, Lancashire’s only hope of a positive result was through weight of runs and they were instead dismissed for 262, with Onions taking his tally for the summer to 62 Championship wickets. In 26.1 outstanding overs at Aigburth, he was only hit for five boundaries, should England’s selectors want to take note.Lancashire’s collapse allowed Jennings the time to build an innings. He saw off the new ball without any great difficulties and although he edged Tom Smith twice through the slips, deserved his maiden Championship half-century.He had more difficulty coping with Simon Kerrigan and Keedy, Lancashire’s pair of left-arm spinners, and it was little surprise he gave a catch just one over after he should have departed when he advanced down the wicket to Kerrigan and Gareth Cross fumbled the stumping.Jennings was clearly frustrated at being unable to complete his century but has no doubt that, like Pietersen before him, he has made the right decision in turning his back on South Africa to try and qualify for England.”There are a lot of reasons why I have come over here, but you get a good opportunity in the county system,” Jennings said. “I am all for fairness and if you’re not good enough you can hold your hands up and accept you are not good enough. It was a difficult choice, but in terms of my career I think it was the right one and my Dad is backing me 100%.”Kerrigan and Keedy continued to make inroads but by the close Durham had progressed to within 75 runs of parity. Unless the two sides contrive a result, having lost over a day and a half to the weather, the match looks destined for a draw to leave Lancashire possibly needing victory in their final two matches to avoid relegation.”Everyone is frustrated by the weather,” Keedy admitted. “This is looking like a draw, but we can only go into the next two games pushing for two wins and seeing where it gets us.”Durham have won the last four, so a draw would probably see them safe. The first aim is to get as many bowling points as we can. If we bowl them out, we will try and smack a few and then bowl them out in 30 overs. Crazy things happen.””We will go for the bonus points first and see what happens. Every point is one step closer to staying up. We have to win the last two games, even though that wouldn’t guarantee us staying up, but that has to be our focus – last year we needed to win our last two games to win the title, so we know it is possible.”

Perth Scorchers success in CLT20 could be the drought-breaker for Western Australia, but with a bowling line-up lacking international experience, the task will be hard one

Brydon Coverdale12-Oct-2012Western Australia was the powerhouse of Australian domestic cricket during the 1980s and 1990s but the state has had a lean past decade, having not won a title in any format since 2003-04. The only time they have made a final since then was in the 2007-08 Big Bash, when they lost to Victoria. Reaching the decider was enough to qualify them for the inaugural Champions League Twenty20, which was cancelled due to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Finally, four years later the state has regained its place at the Champions League, although now the team is called the Perth Scorchers and they have on their books players from all over Australia, as well as abroad. Still, success at this tournament would be considered a drought-breaker for the state of Western Australia. But they will enter the Champions League as the less-fancied of the two Australian teams.The Scorchers are captained by Marcus North and they are a side with plenty of experience – Simon Katich, Paul Collingwood, Herschelle Gibbs and Brad Hogg have all spent a decade or so playing at international level. They could also have had Michael Hussey, who was part of their squad for the Big Bash League but instead is playing with the Chennai Super Kings at this tournament, and Mitchell Johnson, who is with the Mumbai Indians. But, throw in the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, and the wicketkeeper-batsman Luke Ronchi and there is plenty of batting depth on the Scorchers roster. They had three of the top six run scorers in the BBL last season: Mitchell Marsh, Gibbs and North.The challenge will be restricting their opponents. Their two main spinners, Hogg and Michael Beer, both have international experience, but none of their fast bowlers have played for their country. Nathan Coulter-Nile is a fine young prospect who played for Australia A this year and has been earmarked for higher honours by the national selectors, but otherwise the pace stocks are made up of journeymen – Ben Edmondson and Nathan Rimmington – and newer faces – Joe Mennie and Ryan Duffield. They are solid enough domestic performers but containing some of the world’s best batsmen will require a major step up in class.How they qualifiedThe Scorchers finished on top of the table after the BBL qualifying matches and beat the Melbourne Stars in the semi-final. It meant they were favourites in the decider, playing at home to the Sydney Sixers, but Moises Henriques and Brett Lee led a strong Sixers outfit to deny the Scorchers, who had to settle for being the runners-up and qualifying for the Champions League.Key PlayerMitchell Marsh is only 20, but already he has established a reputation as a damaging T20 player. He was the second leading run scorer in the BBL with 309 runs at 51.50 and also provides a useful bowling option. His clean hitting and ability to clear the boundary will make him a very important man for the Scorchers, who have several other batsmen – North, Katich and Collingwood, for example – who are likely to score their runs more conventionally.Surprise packageBrad Hogg was 40 when he was enticed out of retirement by the Scorchers for the BBL and his enthusiasm and hard to read wrong’un made him one of their major weapons. He finished equal third on the wicket tally and even earned a recall to Australia’s team and a place at the World T20, where he was solid without really having a major impact. At least he should be well warmed up for this event.WeaknessThe two question-marks around the Scorchers concern their fast bowling and their middle order. It is not that they do not have quality fast men – Ben Edmondson was the BBL’s second leading wicket taker, for example – but that they have not been tested at international level. Edmondson, Duffield, Rimmington, Coulter-Nile and Mennie will need to find ways to contain some of the world’s best batsmen. And the middle order lacks the kind of explosive hitters that the best T20 sides usually possess. They will need plenty of boundaries from Mitchell Marsh and Ronchi.