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Warwickshire are concerned that Makhaya Ntini will not be allowed to play for them next season. Ntini, who took 23 wickets during South Africa’s tour of England, held talks with the club earlier this week before flying home.But to be able to play he needs to get permission from the South African board, as do all their contracted players. A Warwickshire spokesman said: “We’d like to see him here, he would like to be here, but the stumbling block could be the UCB. It is becoming more difficult with overseas players, particularly bowlers, because they do have a heavy workload.”Ntini has taken 123 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 29.69, and won the joint Man of the Match award at the second Test this summer after becoming the first South African to take ten wickets at Lord’s.The concerns about his move to Warwickshire follow more problems they have had this season with their overseas players. Corey Collymore was the latest player to join Waqar Younis after Shane Bond, Michael Clark and Collins Obuya were forced to withdraw.Meanwhile, Neil Smith, a former captain, and Melvyn Betts and Mo Sheikh are to be released at the end of the season, while Trevor Penney has been awarded an extension to his one-day contract.

Nasser Hussain has stepped down as a national selector, to allow someone who watches more county cricket to take his place. Hussain, who retired from one-day cricket after the World Cup, is likely to be succeeded by Michael Vaughan next week. It was felt by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that having two different captains sitting in on selection meetings would lead to complications.Hussain has also argued that the England team would benefit from extra scouting experience on the selection panel. “[We] have grown increasingly worried about how little county cricket and how few young cricketers we are able to watch because of the hectic international schedule,” wrote Hussain in his Sunday Telegraph column. “At the moment half the selection panel can have very little input when we are trying to work out whether a young player has what it takes to make it at the highest level. This cannot be right.”Hussain played a single County Championship match for Essex last season because of his international commitments. Among the favourites to take the vacant fourth spot on the panel is the director of the ECB Academy, Rod Marsh, who is a regular on the county circuit as he decides on his yearly intake for the academy. Hussain added that he would still like to retain an influence before Test selection, and called for the selectors to keep the policy of consistent selection from the last three years.The former England cricketers, Mike Atherton, Angus Fraser and Vic Marks – all of whom have since turned to journalism – have also been shortlisted to join David Graveney, the chairman, Duncan Fletcher and Geoff Miller on the panel.

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club announces today that Acorn Recruitment will be their shirt sponsor for 2003.Chief Executive, Tom Richardson says, "We are really pleased to be going into partnership with Acorn Recruitment because we feel that both companies will benefit from the strengths of each other. They are a dynamic company and we think it’s a very good fit."The sponsorship is for 2003 but we hope that with success it will be one that is extended."Acorn is one of the UK’s fastest growing recruitment, training and development and employment services companies, with plans to expand and open offices in Bristol and the West.Acorn’s Managing Director, Matt Southall says, "We are looking forward to a great summer – both on the cricket field for Gloucestershire and off it as Acorn launches its recruitment, training and managed services across the West of England. Gloucestershire is an ambitious club with fine traditions – we’re proud to be associated with them."For further information please contact :
Jane Lobb, Executive Assistant on Tel: 0117 9108000.For further information on Acorn please contact:
Kate Geiss, Howell Petersen 01633 255015

It is unfair to expect any player to score a hundred every time he walks out to bat. Try explaining that, however, to the average cricket fan. You will find that logic exits speedily out of the window when it comes to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, in particular. Making an unbeaten 137 (275 balls, 18×4), Tendulkar entertained the swelling weekend crowd at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium and took India to 437/5 at stumps on the third day. Zimbabwe, for their part, found themselves yet again at the receiving end of a Tendulkar special.Minutes before tea, Tendulkar turned a full delivery from Travis Friend to square leg, scurried two, and reached his 28th Test hundred, going past Steve Waugh and Allan Border in number of Test tons scored. The little man from Mumbai is now just one century away from Sir Don Bradman and six away fromthe all-time leader Sunil Gavaskar. In the course of this innings, Tendulkar also passed the milestone of 7500 Test runs.So Tendulkar made a ton against Zimbabwe on a belter of a batting track at Nagpur – not too surprising. Perhaps less expected was the manner in which Sourav Ganguly batted. The Indian captain, who has been out of sorts for many Tests now, looked perfectly comfortable at the wicket. But just when it looked like he would emerge unscathed with a big score, he threw his wicket away. Let us face it – Ganguly has a certain contempt for left-arm spinners, and he simply cannot resist the urge to walk down the wicket and thrash them out of the park. It looks spectacular when it comes off, very silly when it does not.After knocking the ball around sensibly for 38 (99 balls, 7×4), Ganguly sauntered down the track and deposited a Ray Price delivery straight down the throat of Grant Flower at long on. With 344 on the board, VVS Laxman then walked out to the middle. And, from his performance today, one would have to conclude that VVS Laxman is fast becoming one of those enigmas of world cricket.The man who slammed 281 in the most trying of conditions against Australia in the second Test at Kolkata has since struggled to make a big score. The pressure of failure has turned a free-stroking batsman into a nervous prodder. The Hyderabadi stylist put his head down today, cutting out many of the shots in his repertoire and settling in – before falling tamely. Laxman, who prefers to use his bat rather than pad the ball away, gave Price a classical dismissal when the shoulder of his bat deflected a delivery to the close-in fielder on the off-side. Laxman made just 13 (47 balls, 2×4).Earlier, after adding eight runs to his overnight score, Rahul Dravid was dismissed on 65, chopping hard at one that kept low from Heath Streak. The ball kissed the inside edge and went straight back onto the stumps.Sanjay Bangar, in the side at the expense of Virender Sehwag, played his part well, batting sensibly and feeding his senior partner the strike. When the loose ball was on offer, Bangar was sharp enough to take full toll. Coming to the wicket to join Tendulkar with India on 376/5 in the 140th over, Bangar’s unbeaten 22 (87 balls, 2×4) helped Tendulkar take India through to stumps without further damage.For Zimbabwe, Price, the 24-year-old left-arm spinner playing in his seventh Test, stood out. Bowling with a fair degree of accuracy against batsmen who eat spinners for breakfast, Price returned figures of 4/130. Unfortunately for the visitors, though, the other promising young bowler, Travis Friend, was put out of action in the 149th over of the innings. Having bowled one “high full-pitched ball,” as the rules describe what is commonly known as a beamer, and being no-balled and warned for it, Friend repeated the mistake. Umpire S Venkataraghavan had no choice but to remove him from the attack for the course of the innings.It was an eventful day, but it will all amount to nought for the spectators if this game meanders into a tame draw. India will need to score quickly on the fourth day and give themselves enough time to bowl Zimbabwe out. With a lead of150 on the board already, India should be looking to force the pace first thing on the morning of the fourth day.

Northern Districts will be bolstered by the return of bowlers Graeme Aldridge and Bruce Martin for their State Championship match with Canterbury in Hamilton starting tomorrow.Both players are returning from injury.The full side for the game is: Robbie Hart (captain), Graeme Aldridge, Ian Butler, Matthew Hart, Nick Horsley, Hamish Marshall, James Marshall, Bruce Martin, Mark Orchard, Michael Parlane, Gareth West, Joseph Yovich.

Tamil Nadu played analytical cricket on the fourth day of their RanjiTrophy league match against Hyderabad at Chennai, picking up fivepoints by virtue of a first-innings lead.With the match destined for a draw, Tamil Nadu batsmen TR Arasu (78off 268) and MR Shrinivas (28 off 154) made the required runs with adisplay of grit and resolution. Arasu fell with the score on 290, butShrinivas and R Ramkumar (37 off 60) took Tamil Nadu past Hyderabad’sfirst-innings total of 336.Bowled out for 351, Tamil Nadu then reduced Hyderabad to 150/2 by theclose of play, with Ramkumar picking up both wickets. Daniel Manoharwas unbeaten on 65, while Arjun Shivlal Yadav was unbeaten on 38.

The draws have been made for the 2002 Thwaites Lancashire Cup/Shield Competitions. Cup Holders Tonge CC from the Bolton League visit Ribblesdale League outfit Blackburn Northern. Shield Holders Shadoos from the Greater Manchester Amateur Cricket League entertain Northern from the Liverpool Competition. Cronkbourne from the Isle of Man, victors over Wigan in 2001, although drawn at home, will visit Wythenshawe.LCB Assistant Secretary Neil Girvin said "The Board would like to thank Thwaites Brewery for their continued support of the LCB open-age Knockout Competitions."The full cup draw:Clifton v Woodbank, Prestwich v Tarleton, Freckleton v Denton West, Jinnah v Read, Rainford v Irlam, Shadoos v Northern, Baxenden v Ormskirk, Cronkbourne v Wythenshawe, Woodhouses v Longridge, Kearsley v Norley Hall, Golborne v Great Eccleston, Sefton Park v Hindley St Peters, Lytham v Bury, Cherry Tree v Burscough, Westhoughton v Skelmersdale, Blackpool v Rainhill, Thornton Cleveleys v Vernon Carus, Ainsdale v Swinton Moorside, Fulwood & Broughton v Wigan, Great Harwood v Bootle, Wavertree v Leyland, Farnworth v Dukinfield, Darwen v Monton & Weaste, Netherfield v Prescot Oddysey, Adlington v Atherton, Leigh v Chorley, Winton v Southport Trinity, Liverpool Manweb v Eagley, Walshaw v Little Hulton, Blackburn Northern v Tonge, Walkden v Astley Bridge, Padiham v Kendal.The Shield Draw:White Coppice v Withnell Fold, Old Trafford v Levenshulme Wesleyan, Daubhill v Werneth Freehold, Moston v Lee Lane Cong, Forresters v PCC, St Johns v East Lancashire Paper Mill, Whittle & Clayton Le Woods v Jay Hind, Karmad A v Blackley, Clayton Methodists v Ladybridge, Red Rose v Glodwick, Kashmir v Bharat, St Mary’s OPC v Coldhurst Vale, Haughton Green v Rochdalians, Walton-Le-Dale v Fothergill & Harvey, Brinscall v Rochdale Catholic Club, MSJ Combined v Greenfield.All ties will be played on Sunday 19th May 2002.For further information contact Neil Girvin at the LCB on 0161 282 4029 or Email: [email protected]

The baggy green worn by Don Bradman during his final tour as Australia’s captain to England in 1948 has been sold at auction for a world-record sum of Aus$425,000 (£175,000). This dwarfs the Aus$88,835 (£36,000) that his cap from the 1946-47 Ashes series fetched in London last month.”This is not just the holy grail associated with Bradman, it’s the holy grail associated with the cricket world,” Graham Halbish, the chairman of Melbourne-based auctioneers Ludgrove’s International, said when asked whether he thought the price was too high. But Richard Mulvaney, chairman of the Bradman Museum at Bowral, said the price was totally “unrealistic”. He insisted that the price had been fuelled by marketing and media hype.”To be honest, the media campaign has heightened public interest, and has well truly overvalued the cap,” Mulvaney said. " It will be a real disincentive for people donating items to cultural institutions, whether they be Sir Donald Bradman memorabilia or otherwise. It does price us well and truly out of the market. You wonder whether the items are purchased for investment gains, and so fall out of public hands.”The winning bidder, who lives in New South Wales, helped fund his acquisition with winnings from the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. A spokesman for the new owner said that he was a cricket-lover and was keen that the cap should go on public display.Bradman gave the baggy green to Richard Robins, his godson and the son of England captain Walter Robins.

If the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) had returned tothe bargaining tables, a decision could have been reached tosatisfy all the players in the lottery game.Steve Stoute, president of the Barbados Olympic Association(BOA), was reacting to the announcement of the cricketassociation’s lottery.After the BCA made their final decision, there has been noofficial dialogue since then between us. Certainly, if theBCA had come back to the table from the BOA perspective wewould have been receptive, Stoute said.My response would be one of regret that the sporting bodiescouldn’t respond to the Prime Minister’s plea to formulate alottery to finance sport in Barbados.The BCA recently announced they would be going ahead to joinwith the Leeward Islands Lottery Holding Company (LILHC) tohave their own lottery, independent of the merger betweenthe BOA, the Barbados Turf Club and the National SportsCouncil.Stoute stands firmly behind the view that the market is toosmall for two lotteries.I don’t think the market can really sustain two lotteries.We have two lotteries going right now and the revenues havebeen reduced substantially not in profitability. They arestill profitable, but for the various sporting bodies to beaggressively fighting each other for market share, it is inmy opinion a sad commentary, he said.The long-serving administrator said the pie had to bedivided among those four players and Government also wanteda fund for culture and the arts, but the offer to the BCAwas fair and equitable.

It was a day of anticlimax for a packed house on Sunday as the Ormeau ground inBelfast hosted its last major game of cricket. The international betweenIreland and the touring Australians was cut short when rain ended play afterjust 23.4 overs.In a game intended as a send-off for Ormeau before it is turned into a housingdevelopment, Australia had reached 86 for the loss of one wicket before raindescended on the ground after 100 minutes of play. As the rain became morepersistent, the match was finally abandoned at 3.30pm.Approximately 4000 people had turned up for this game, which had been a selloutwell in advance.The Australians were sent into bat by Irish captain Kyle McCallan, with MatthewHayden and Justin Langer opening the batting for the tourists. Hayden got awayto a brisk start, but Langer was struggling for form, and was out for 22,caught by Dom Joyce at point off the bowling of Conor Armstrong. This wasalmost certainly Langer’s final innings of this Ashes tour, with the Fourth andFifth Test the only remaining matches on the Australians’ itinerary.When the rains came, Hayden was unbeaten on 52 from 74 deliveries, while SimonKatich, who will almost certainly make his Test debut at Headingley on Thursdayin place of the injured Steve Waugh, was on 5.Most impressive of the Irish bowlers was 21 year-old right-arm seamer AdrianMcCoubrey who, despite bowling three wides, conceded just 15 runs from hisseven overs.With the Australians returning to England planning to extend their 3-0 Ashesseries scoreline to 5-0, Ireland have a busy, if more mundane, program ahead ofthem this month as they try to put the disappointment of missing out on the2003 World Cup behind them. The Irish, too, head off to England today to takepart in the oddly-titled Triple Crown tournament, an annual four-teamcompetition also including Scotland, Wales and an England Amateur XI. Theirfirst game will be against Wales at Horsham on Tuesday. Then, on August 29,Ireland will play Wiltshire in the first round of the new split-season formatof the C&G Trophy.