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.”

Chris Harris appears almost certain to sign with the Indian Cricket League after officially rejecting a new contract with Canterbury. Harris, who has spent the off-season playing one-day league cricket in England, told Canterbury of his decision on Monday.”It is a massive blow for us,” Dave Nosworthy, the Canterbury coach said in the . Harris, 37, had played for Canterbury for 18 years and was not only the team’s captain but also one of its most consistent performers last season.Richard Reid, the chief executive of Canterbury Cricket, said Harris had not discussed whether he would sign with the ICL. “We are sad to lose Chris,” Reid said. “He has been an outstanding player and leader for Canterbury and has had a distinguished career. Chris has not indicated whether he will be taking up other cricket playing opportunities.”New Zealand Cricket’s announcement last week that it would not release any contracted players to play in the Indian league – including those with provincial deals – could have forced Harris’ hand. Nathan Astle also declined a Canterbury contract for next season and has been linked with the Indian group.

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.

Worcestershire are still hopeful of securing the signing of Simon Jones although he hasn’t yet made a decision on where his future lies.Jones was due to meet with Matthew Maynard, Glamorgan’s cricket manager, on Monday but a bout of food poisoning put that back a day. He is out of contract and is considering offers from big-spending Hampshire as well as Worcestershire and his current county.However, Glamorgan’s lowly results over the last few seasons are likely to tempt Jones into making a move away from Wales as he tries to get his career back on track following a series of serious knee injuries since the 2005 Ashes series. He hasn’t played for England since the Trent Bridge Test in August 2005 and managed just four Championship matches this season.Jones lost his ECB central contract when the latest batch were announced last month but, although it means he will come with a hefty price tag, that hasn’t quelled interest in trying to sign him.”I haven’t heard anything yet,” Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, told the . “I’m remaining optimistic that he will still come here. I’m hoping that I will hear something this week.”I have spoken to Simon on the phone since our meeting and I have texted him as well He hasn’t committed himself but I am optimistic.”Worcestershire are currently trying to strengthen their seam attack after Championship relegation and are also showing interest in Middlesex seamer Chris Whelan. He is out of contract at Lord’s and has played only three Championship and five one-day games since making his debut in 2005

Simon Katich believes Phil Jaques should partner Matthew Hayden in next month’s first Test, but the opener insists it is too early for him to be a certain selection. Jaques scored a second-innings 167 in the Pura Cup match against Western Australia this week to out-point his rival Chris Rogers, who made 9 and 17.Katich, the New South Wales captain, expects his “run machine” to be at the Gabba when Australia play Sri Lanka from November 8. “We’re going to find it hard to replace him if he gets picked, but obviously 160-odd thoroughly deserves selection,” Katich told AAP. “But not only that, what he’s done in the last four or five seasons. He’s been a run machine, both here and in England, so he thoroughly deserves his chance if he gets it.”Jaques, who has played two Tests, was more cautious about his prospects and said a promotion was “too early to call”. “It’s out of my hands,” he said. “I put a score on the board in the first couple of games, which I was asked to do, and we’ll just see what happens.”He will have another opportunity to impress when New South Wales host Queensland in the Pura Cup from October 26. Injuries will make Jaques’ task slightly easier as Andy Bichel, Shane Watson and Michael Kasprowicz will be absent. “Each of those players is making progress,” Ray Phillips, the Queensland selection chairman, said. “We expect them to come under consideration for the tour match against Sri Lanka.”The internationals Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Mitchell Johnson and James Hopes will bolster the Bulls after returning from the one-day series in India. They will replace Aaron Nye, Greg Moller, Chris Swan and Ben Cutting, who played in the first-innings win over Tasmania.Bichel missed the first round of Queensland fixtures with a shoulder problem and realises the injury could be career-threatening if it does not respond to treatment. “There is no doubt that is the worst-case scenario,” Bichel said in the . “But I am confident I can get back.”He said it could be two weeks before he is bowling again, putting him in danger of missing Queensland’s tour game against Sri Lanka starting on November 2. “It is a bit of a setback,” he said. “At this stage it is not as good as we would like it.”Martin Love has been chosen in Queensland’s 2nd XI squad to travel to Perth as part of his comeback from knee surgery while Watson (hamstring) and Kasprowicz (calf) are expected to be eased through the club system. The Bulls kept the same FR Cup side that lost the opening match to Tasmania for the contest with New South Wales at the SCG on Wednesday. The Blues also did not make any changes to their squad.Queensland FR Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Ryan Broad, Aaron Nye, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Michael Buchanan, Chris Simpson, Chris Hartley (wk), Ashley Noffke, Nathan Reardon, Scott Brant, Grant Sullivan.New South Wales FR Cup squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Simon Katich (capt), Peter Forrest, Dominic Thornely, Stephen O’Keefe, Daniel Smith (wk), Grant Lambert, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Doug Bollinger, Mark Cameron.Queensland Pura Cup squad Matthew Hayden, Ryan Broad, Clinton Perren, Jimmy Maher (capt), Andrew Symonds, James Hopes, Chris Hartley (wk), Chris Simpson, Ashley Noffke, Mitchell Johnson, Daniel Doran, Grant Sullivan.

Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has said the ICC will move the Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in Pakistan next year, only as a last resort.”All ICC events have been allotted till 2015,” Speed said in Mumbai. “The Champions Trophy was allotted to Pakistan last year and it’s still almost a year away. The ICC will transfer a scheduled event only if it’s [venue] unsafe.”The ICC had cut short one of its scheduled preliminary visits to Pakistan in connection with the tournament following the imposition of a state emergency in the country. Then on November 6, the ICC announced that the women’s World Cup qualifiers, to be played in Pakistan this month, had been postponed.But Speed said the ICC was on course to stage the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September-October next year. “There has been some good cricket in Pakistan in the South African series. Australia and Zimbabwe are due to visit. I am very hopeful all issues will be resolved.”

Brad Hogg is a better bowler than when he last figured in a Test because he has added patience to his repertoire, according to Adam Gilchrist. Hogg’s chances of playing against India on Boxing Day grow with each episode of the Stuart MacGill injury saga and Gilchrist has been impressed with his form.”He’s more patient,” Gilchrist told AAP. “He doesn’t feel he has to produce the big deliveries to get a wicket, it’s going to be a build-up.”Often even in his one-day cricket he has proven that. In that first-class game I kept to him in Melbourne a few weeks ago, he definitely showed that patience and better understanding of what he can do to go about getting a wicket.”Hogg captured 8 for 83 in the Pura Cup match with Gilchrist behind the stumps, but he went wicketless against South Australia last week. Strong performances in the one-day side have kept Hogg in with a chance of reviving his four-Test career, which was last updated against Zimbabwe in 2003. At the World Cup he earned 21 wickets and on the tour of India the locals struggled to cope with his variation.”A lot of batsmen around the world can’t pick him,” Gilchrist said. “The Indians are definitely fine players of spin but certainly he has got a lethal wrong’un that is very difficult to pick.”

New Zealand have included openers Matthew Bell and Peter Fulton in the squad for the two-Test series against Bangladesh. Michael Papps, who opened with Craig Cumming in New Zealand’s recent tour of South Africa, has been dropped, while Cumming, who suffered multiple facial fractures after mistiming a hook off Dale Steyn in the second Test, is part of the 12-man squad.Bell last played in a Test in 2001 in Australia. But he has been picked based on his domestic form – 722 runs at 103.14, including a double-century in this season’s State Championship. John Bracewell had hinted at Bell’s selection a day before the squad was picked. And on being asked what he expected Bell to bring to the Test side, Bracewell told the , “Hopefully a large percentage of those 700 runs.”Scott Styris was dropped in favour of Fulton after averaging 14.75 in the two Tests against South Africa.Jamie How, included in the one-day side for the Chappell-Hadlee Series and against Bangladesh, missed out on a Test spot, while Sinclair, who replaced Cumming for the ODIs against South Africa, gets a call-up to the Test side.With Shane Bond out because of injury, New Zealand will go with Michael Mason, rather than Mark Gillespie, who was Bond’s replacement for the second Test in South Africa.Jeetan Patel will be added to the squad for the second Test in Wellington. The University Oval in Dunedin will be hosting its maiden Test when the two sides meet for the first Test on January 4.New Zealand squad
Matthew Bell, Craig Cumming, Mathew Sinclair, Stephen Fleming, Peter Fulton, Brendon McCullum (wk), Daniel Vettori, Chris Martin, Michael Mason, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram.

On a day of rapidly shifting events and wild rumours, which began early in the morning with the fallout of the previous day, the focus shifted from the umpiring in the Sydney Test to the three-Test ban imposed on Harbhajan Singh for racial abuse. The ball is now with the Indian board, which has come under increasing pressure from the Indian team – and highly charged public opinion at home – to take a tough stand on the issue and back Harbhajan.It is understood the players want the ban imposed on Harbhajan to be lifted before the next Test, in Perth; they feel there was insufficient evidence on which to find Harbhajan guilty. Sachin Tendulkar, the team’s senior-most player, is believed to have sent Sharad Pawar, the board president, a message saying the board should stand by Harbhajan and the team should play at Perth only if the ban is lifted.The board responded through several measures: it issued a statement saying it did not accept the ban and, later in the day, said it had filed an appeal with the ICC against it; it sought the withdrawal of Steve Bucknor from the Perth Test, where he is due to umpire. It also directed the Indian team to remain in Sydney instead of leaving for Canberra on Monday morning as scheduled.Though rumours of the team pulling out of the tour remained just that, with Cricket Australia saying it was satisfied that the matches would go ahead, Pawar struck a warning note. “We are giving serious thought to whether we should continue,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We feel that we must take action, enough is enough. We would like to keep an extremely good relationship with the Australian board. Our relationship is extremely cordial and we would like to continue that, but this [Harbhajan’s ban] is totally unacceptable.”It is believed the BCCI, which has called an emergency Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, will wait on that decision till it hears from the ICC.The day’s action began in Sydney, where the team was preparing to leave the Radisson Hotel for Canberra – where they are due to play a tour game from Thursday – by coach at 10.30am. However, instructions were issued to the contrary and the baggage was taken off the coach. Around 4.15pm, the media manager, MV Sridhar, confirmed the team had been instructed by the board to stay in Sydney till the formalities for Harbhajan’s appeal were completed. The players spent the day mostly in their rooms.An hour later Sridhar said the team had received the official document regarding Harbhajan’s ban, one where he was accused of a ‘monkey’ taunt against Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds. The team was intent on reading the detailed written order from the match referee, Mike Procter, to find out what the exact racism charges were.Around the same time the board, in New Delhi, released a statement expressing its intent to fight the allegations against Harbhajan. “The unfair allegation of racism against our player is wholly unacceptable,” the statement read. “The game of cricket is paramount but so too is the honour of India’s cricket team and every Indian. The BCCI is committed to protecting the country’s fair name. India’s national commitment is against racism. Our national struggle is based on values which negate racism.”The board also requested the ICC to replace Steve Bucknor from third Test in Perth following poor umpiring decisions in Sydney. That is still up in the air, though. An ICC spokesman invoked the playing conditions both teams signed up to before the series, saying: “Neither team has a right to object to an umpire’s appointment.” To remove Bucknor, the issue would have to be discussed and voted on by the ICC’s executive board, with a majority of members voting in favour of removing him.Soon after, Ricky Ponting added to the debate in an interview with Channel Nine, when he declined to reveal what was said between Harbhajan and Symonds on the field but offered a blunt assessment when asked if the situation “smacks of racism”. “I think that’s been proven,” Ponting said.Ponting also said he was surprised by the speculation that India’s tour might be cancelled and that they had not sent their players to Canberra as planned. “They’re entitled to do whatever they think is appropriate at the time but for me that would be a little bit extreme, I must admit,” he said.

Scorecard
Andre Fletcher’s 70 helped Grenada post 177 for 6, the highest score of the season, which was enough for them to scrape past Anguilla by a 16-run margin to move into the quarter-finals of the Stanford 20/20 in Coolidge.Anguilla’s chase was off to an inauspicious start when they lost openers Lyndel Richardson (18) and Chesney Hughes (8) for the addition of 33 runs. However, Montcin Hodge, who remained unbeaten on a 39-ball 75 that included seven sixes, and Omari Banks, who made 44 runs with a couple of sixes and a four, added 93 runs in 10 overs to briefly threaten Grenada.The duo went on the attack at the half-way mark. With the required run-rate having gone past 10 an over, they blasted 58 runs between the 10th and 14th over, but were kept down to only 35 runs in the next six overs. By the time Banks was run out in the 16th over, the target had gone beyond the reach of Hodge, who ensured Anguilla went out with a bang by taking 18 runs off the last over.Earlier, Man-of-the-Match Fletcher, in partnership with Heron Campbell (27), gave Grenada an aggressive start, striking two consecutive sixes in the fifth over off left-arm spinner Hughes. The duo’s 82-run stand came in only 7.3 overs, after which Fletcher brought up his half-century by glancing a Hodge delivery to the fine leg boundary. Fletcher, who was troubled by cramps, scored 20 more runs before holing out to long-off.Shridath Rey, the 17-year-old left-arm spinner, brought down the run-rate with some tight bowling, conceding only ten runs in his first three overs. But he finished with figures of 1 for 28 as 19 runs were taken in his final over, with Clyde Telesford (who scored 21) blasting two consecutive sixes in the 17th over. Grenada looked set for a massive score, but their middle order added only 22 runs in the last three overs without the help of any boundaries. In the end, their total proved to be sufficient.