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Loots Bosman, the South Africa opening batsman, has been suspended for one domestic match after being found guilty of “unbecoming or detrimental” conduct by Cricket South Africa.Bosman was withdrawn from South Africa’s World Twenty20 squad with a back injury, but he angrily denied he was anything other than fit to play. In the newspaper , he accused Mickey Arthur, the national coach, of lying.The reports said the first specialist Bosman visited had said he should recover in time to play in the tournament. A second opinion recommended that he did not play for six weeks. Arthur found Bosman’s reaction and comments to the whole affair “shocking”, but defended himself and the procedures he followed.”I have the findings of the leading neurosurgeon in the land. How can I argue against that?” he said. “Does Loots not realise that there is a possibility that he could be paralysed?”Bosman is suspended suspended for the Eagles’ match against the Dolphins in Durban from October 11 to 14.

Comeback medium pacer Shahid Nazir is aware he doesn’t have the pace of Shoaib Akhtar but promises that Pakistan can expect him to live up to expectations in England this summer.”It is a great challenge for me to fill in for Shoaib Akhtar,” the 28-year-old said in an interview on Friday after being preferred over Rao Iftikhar and Mohammad Khalil as a replacement for the injured Shoaib in the 16-man Pakistan squad for the series against England.”There is no doubt that Shoaib is among the world’s fastest bowlers and is somebody who takes a lot of wickets. But I have a lot of confidence in my abilities and believe that I can play a useful role for my team in England,” said Shahid, who last played a Test for Pakistan way back in 1999.Shahid said his absence from Test cricket has not affected his abilities as a medium pacer. “I have been regularly playing competitive cricket in Pakistan and abroad and in fact never lost hope of playing for Pakistan again,” he said.Shahid is one of the five fast bowlers selected for the tour of England and might spend most of the tour on the sidelines. The player hopes it won’t happen. “I am anxiously waiting for the opportunity to be in the playing line-up,” he said.Shahid was not even part of the 21-man preliminary squad Pakistan selected for the tour of England last month.But his forceful showing on the domestic circuit last season, Shoaib’s injury and Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq’s strong support paved the way for his return to the national team.Shahid added that he has ample experience of playing in England and hopes that it would be of some use for Pakistan.The Faisalabad-born player made his international debut for Pakistan in 1996 but has since played in just eight Tests and 17 One-day Internationals (ODIs).

Ottis Gibson was named man-of-the-match as Durham wrapped up victory over Hampshire in the Friends Provident Trophy final on Sunday leaving Shane Warne’s dreams of a domestic title shattered.Durham needed just 38 minutes to clinch a 125-run victory at an almost-empty Lord’s after the conclusion of the final had been held over from Saturday because of rain. Hampshire were already facing an uphill task when they resumed on 158 for five in reply to 312 for five and were eventually all out for 187 at the end of the 41st over.Former West Indies seamer Gibson, 38, who began the Hampshire reply with wickets off the first two balls and then dismissed dangerman Kevin Pietersen as well, was the star performer.”Unbelievable,” said Gibson who took 10 wickets in an innings against Hampshire in a county championship match earlier in the summer. “But we’ve got four games left and if I’m going to get through them I’m going to have to cut down on the celebrations a little bit.”Durham’s Paul Collingwood, England’s one-day skipper, was delighted to finally see his county clinch a first major domestic title. “We’ve had lots of ups and downs at the club – just after I joined in 1996 I think we won one game all season – but we learned a lot and it pulled us together as a team.”Warne, Hampshire’s captain had been greeted with a no-ball bouncer by old foe Collingwood, but it was Liam Plunkett who bowled the Australian for five to end the innings. Shivnarine Chanderpaul had top-scored for Durham with 78 on his 33rd birthday.”I hate losing and this is right up there,” said Warne. “But Durham just played better and I think this could inspire us to achieve some special things.”

Wellington v Central Districts Day 3
New Zealand hopeful Michael Mason tore through the Wellington lower order on a rain-shortened day to leave this match delicately poised with a day to play. The third day ended early with rain and bad light but not before Wellington picked up the vital wickets of Jamie How (9) and Mathew Sinclair. Central, chasing 227 for victory, require another 175 runs on a pitch that has proved difficult to score heavily on. Mason, with 4 for 44 from 18.2 overs, was the best of the bowlers but Wellington will be disappointed with their total. All the top-order batsmen bar nightwatchman Jeetan Patel made starts but only Michael Parlane (53) passed 50.Auckland v Otago Day 2
Big scores from Tim McIntosh and Rob Nicol might have lit the fuse, but it was Andre Adams who provided the pyrotechnics on day two of this match at the neutral venue of Lincoln, just outside of Christchurch.Adams, batting at No. 8, hit 10 fours and a staggering eight sixes in his unbeaten 117 off 94 balls to allow Auckland the luxury of declaring with more than 600 runs. Otago will know the feeling well, having declared on 601 for 9 in their opening match against Canterbury last week. Adams’s innings completely overshadowed the meritorious, though sedate by comparison, 160 from Nicol. McIntosh took his overnight 173 to 205 before being dismissed and Reece Young hit 79.In reply Otago were in dire trouble, losing three quick wickets. Adams removed the promising Jordan Sheed for 1 and Aaron Redmond for a duck while Chris Martin removed the in-form Craig Cumming for 7.Cantebury v Norhern Districts Day 2
Shanan Stewart guided Canterbury to first-innings points in this low-scoring match. No Canterbury batsman passed 50 – Craig McMillan top scored with 42 – but Stewart’s 26 not out, batting lower than normal at No. 8, was the difference between the sides. The most notable feature of a dull day, however, was the return of former New Zealand bowler Daryl Tuffey, who impressed with 3 for 61 from 24 overs. Mark Orchard took 4 for 33, also off 24 overs.

Otago poured on the runs and the misery against a star-studded Canterbury when they declared on 601 on the second day of their State Championship match in Christchurch. Incidentally, it was just one run less than their record score against Canterbury.Greg Todd, in his first match back for Otago after a horrific leg injury he suffered last season, hit a career-best 160. He was well supported by wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins (38) while bowlers Bradley Scott (52*) and Craig Smith (49) put on 75 for the ninth wicket.In reply, Canterbury limped to stumps at 144 for 4. Brendon McCullum, in the unfamiliar role as an opener, blitzed his way to 67 off just 72 deliveries, but found little support. Peter Fulton (17) and Nathan Astle (6) both fell to McCullum’s brother Nathan. Much of Canterbury’s resistance tomorrow will centre on Craig McMillan and Chris Harris, both at the crease.

The Australian pressure came from all angles, and India could not cope. As the only team consistently to repel the world champions over the past three years, India are now expected to absorb it and move on towards a win or a draw. But after the top order’s second surrender of the match, reaching stumps on the final day would rate alongside the 2001 Kolkata miracle.While the Border-Gavaskar Trophy remains in Cricket Australia’s Melbourne headquarters, it has not really belonged Down Under since the 3-0 whitewash in 1999-2000. Under Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy, a young side was outclassed by a blend of bounce, line and impatience. Lessons learned, they rebounded and twice held the Australians’ gaze. But in dropping to 2 for 4 in the first innings and 4 for 19 in the second here, they suffered a relapse that could take matches to recover from.A line change – from outside off to zeroing in on the stumps – has worked immediately for Australia’s bowlers. While eight of Australia’s second-innings batsmen went to close-in catches, four of India’s top six fell lbw. The tumble began with a terrible decision for Virender Sehwag, but the bowling was superb as both openers cut the ball viciously across the maze of cracks … thinkHarbhajan Singh nearing 140kph.Glenn McGrath’s first spell of five overs contained four maidens and leaked one miserly run. While Sehwag was still shaking his head McGrath almost trapped Rahul Dravid with a similarly sharp mover. This time the edge was heard before it hit the pads. The relentless accuracy continued, puncturing the batsmen’s confidence and opening wounds to exploit through theremainder of the series.Out of sorts until the end of the first innings, Jason Gillespie charged through Aakash Chopra, and softened up Sourav Ganguly’s stomach before his awful run-out. Shane Warne whirled closer to Muttiah Muralitharan’s world record as McGrath was pastured, and the vice did not loosen as Michael Kasprowicz began, Gillespie returned, and the pressure increased.Following his first-innings relaxing of the gap between bat and pad, Dravid played as he could – and how the others should. He dragged Yuvraj Singh along with him until McGrath scratched him out in his first over back. Another offcutter, another Indian lapse and another Gilchrist catch. As a reward McGrath ran in for seven overs, his longest spell of the match, and his 12 overs brought eight maidens and cost only nine runs. Once again India had been well and truly Scrooged.Peter English is Australasian editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

Once again, West Indies cricketers have been caught in the middle of a row that is no fault of their own. Such seems to be the case after billionaire Allen Stanford made it known that the US$5 million Stanford 20/20 Super Stars match between West Indies and South Africa, slated for November 10, would be scrapped if the team was weakened by the withdrawal of West Indies players for the simultaneous tour of Pakistan.Why should players have to make the choice between a West Indies cricket tour of Pakistan or playing in the lucrative Stanford 20/20 Super Stars match? Why can’t the players have the best of both worlds? It is unfortunate that a supposedly trivial issue such as the clashing of dates has the potential to create another impasse in our cricket that has indirectly led to the resignation of Clive Lloyd from the Stanford 20/20 board of directors.While debate rages on as to whether the inaugural 20/20 tournament was developmental for West Indies cricket, the financial incentives for our players and the resurgence in spectator appeal was most welcomed. With the Pakistanis not in the most accommodating mood to revisit the itinerary, the players will be caught between playing for pride and peanuts or a heavy one-off pay day.Where does Lloyd, who is a member of the West Indies Cricket Board, now stand in the midst of all this? Lloyd said if any of the players were selected for the West Indies for the tour of Pakistan, they would be replaced in the Super Stars squad.Stanford obviously saw it differently. When you are investing millions of dollars, you want the best and nothing but the best. Now Lloyd has resigned and it will be interesting to see if the other legends follow suit. Lloyd seemed to have been saying that if push came to shove, West Indies cricket should be given priority and no one should question a former Test great having that view. There is a school of argument that Lloyd and others with key roles in West Indies cricket, such as Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts, should have distanced themselves from the 20/20 board.On another note, it was a little puzzling that CBC, which so often boasts of being the Caribbean’s best connection, would miss the opportunity to televise the 20/20 final between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana live after there was so much excitement in the air created by the novelty of the game.

Richie Benaud, the former Australian captain, has urged Shane Warne to prolong his Testcareer until the next Ashes series in England in 2009.Warne, the most successful bowler in Test history with 651 wickets in 133 games, will turn 40 during that tour. “I was talking to him the other day and said to him ‘You can do this’,” Benaud toldBBC TV. “He is bowling better now than I’ve seen him for years and years. It’s been wonderful to watch.”Warne took 40 wickets in a losing cause during this summer’s Ashes series and earlier this week established a new record for the most Test wickets in a calendar year when he surpassed Dennis Lillee’s total of 85 in 1981.Benaud believes if Warne continues his policy of not playing one-day internationals, despite pressure for him to relent in time for next year’s World Cup, he will still be a force to be reckoned with when they next visit England. “I told him ‘They thought they’d seen the back of you, now why don’t you give some serious thought to going across there for the next Ashes battle?’.”He looked at me for a long time and just turned and said ‘Thanks’, though whether that’s ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ or ‘Thanks, thanks’, I don’t know,” said Benaud, who called time on his own Test career at the age of 33. Warne had a number of injuries between 1998 and 2001, and was banned for a year in 2003 after failing a drugs test.But he remains at the peak of his powers and confirmed he wants to help Australia regain the Ashes on home soil next winter. “My record in my last 40-50 Tests has probably been better than at any stage of my career,” he said recently. “If I’m enjoying my cricket and bowling injury-free, then I hope I am playing in the next Ashes series. I have no immediate plans to retire. I’m enjoying my cricket, simple as that.”

John Wright, the former Indian coach, has said that the row between Greg Chappell and Sourav Ganguly should have remained confidential and never have left the dressing-room.Wright said that the issue would have been handled differently had he been coach. “I was very fortunate from the point of view that we always believed what goes on in the changing-room stays in the changing-room,” he was quoted as saying by AFP. “Sometimes as soon as things come into the public area they can take on a momentum all of their own.”In his controversial email to the BCCI, Chappell had accused Wright of allowing Ganguly to practice “deceit”, “rumour-mongering” and “divide and rule”. “John Wright obviously allowed this [Ganguly’s behaviour] to go on to the detriment of the team,” wrote Chappell. “I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue.”Wright refused to take sides in the ongoing fracas but defended his approach during his five-year stint as the Indian coach. He said that his success at team building was one of Chappell’s alleged weaknesses. “I stand by my record,” said Wright. “I worked with the team I was given by the selectors. I worked as hard as I could with the whole team to try and get the performances that the Indian people wanted.”Greg [Chappell] has only been in the job five months and at the moment it doesn’t look like (he and Ganguly) would go on holiday together. It looks like they’re having some teething problems at the moment and it will be interesting to see how it goes,” Wright was quoted as saying by, the Melbourne-based, . “I always looked at it this way – the team was selected for me, whoever that was, with a captain, with a player. You didn’t get a vote on selection but my job was to ensure that as coach they were prepared and performed to the best of their ability. It was almost like performance coaching and I hope we made some progress over the four years I was there.””I had criticism from all quarters during, after and before my tenure, it’s part of the role of being coach,” said Wright. “The only thing that I tried to do was ensure that we played well as a team and we got results as a team, that was it. I’ve moved on, I’m no longer the coach, I believe we made progress during my time with the team, I thoroughly enjoyed it.”Wright added that he hoped that Chappell would succeed in his mission to take India to the next level. “In any team situation there are always issues – sometimes personal, sometimes performance. You want Greg to come on and hopefully he’ll take it that little bit further. He’ll obviously do it in his own style and that may be different from the methods I used. It’s a process. I’ve always tried to be very honest with the players. At times the players don’t appreciate that.”

Kerala beat Karnataka comfortably by ten wickets in their Ranji TrophySouth Zone clash at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi to complete only a secondvictory against their northern neighbours in 46 encounters in thecompetition. Set a princely target of five runs in the fourth innings,Kerala’s win came in slightly bizarre fashion. Vijay Bharadwaj bowled ano-ball, which went for four byes, to finish with the unusual figures of0.0-0-1-0.Earlier Karnataka, resuming at 31/4, folded up for 133. Overnight batsmen,Bharadwaj (32) and AR Mahesh (31) waged a grim battle in the first sessionbut both were out in successive overs at the stroke of lunch to leave thevisitors at 93/6. Little resistance was offered by the tail with theexception of Dodda Ganesh who hung around for an hour and a quarter toproduce 22. The curtain came down when skipper Venkatesh Prasad knocked offspinner Ramprakash into Tinu Yohannan at cover, Karnataka labouring for79.2 overs to make 133. Left arm spinner Sreekumar Nair and leg spinner MSuresh Kumar finished with three wickets apiece.Kerala’s only other victory over Karnataka – by six wickets – came at theGovernment Victoria College Ground, Palakkad on 28-31 December 1996.CricInfo’s zealous scorer, Sudhir Aly also informs us that umpire Sanjeeva Raoofficiated in both Kerala triumphs. The result queers the pitch in the zonalstandings, lifting Kerala to 18 points from four games, ahead ofKarnataka’s 16.