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Graeme Smith is confident his plan to use only two specialist fast bowlers will pay off as the Super Test ages on an SCG pitch already assisting the spinners. The World XI decided to strengthen the batting in the six-day Super Test and preferred the allrounder Jacques Kallis to Shaun Pollock for the third seamer’s role.Kallis, who took 0 for 35 from seven overs, has been used as a specialist first-change bowler only twice for South Africa in the past four years and Smith said the move was a “gamble that would reap benefits”. “The two spinners are definitely going to offer a lot and the selection panel decided on an extra batsmen and Jacques doing the top-up,” he said. “It’s turning a lot out of the rough and from day three onwards things will start to happen.”The World XI will start the second day with a new ball and Smith said he hoped to dismiss Australia for under 400. “The first innings is crucial, we need to get into a good position and then push things in the second,” he said. “It was a reasonable day. We grafted hard, if anything the total was 20 or 30 runs too much.” Smith said the match felt like a Test and he was pleased with the bowling performance on a slow pitch and conditions offering swing for only the first 30 minutes.Smith also responded to claims in Michael Vaughan’s autobiography that he had called Andrew Flintoff, who bowled well with Steve Harmison in the morning session, a “big baby” during England’s tour of South Africa last year. “There are no problems,” he said. “It’s sad when you take things on the field off the field.”Following Smith’s debut series in 2001-02 he exposed the Australians’ sledging in a magazine article and his stance has changed. “When you play competitively you sometimes say things you regret and I was naïve when I did it,” he said. “We are all playing to win for our countries, and we are all getting on well this week.”

Northants have signed two Australians for the remainder of the county season – even though they won’t be playing at the same time.Martin Love, who has played five Tests for Australia and played for Durham in the past three seasons, will arrive at Wantage Road later this month. He will replace Martin van Jaarsveld, who is to tour Sri Lanka with South Africa in August.Love will stay until the middle of August, from when Paul Rofe, the fast-bowler from South Australia, will take his place. Rofe, 23, has played for Australia Under-19s and took 36 wickets at 27.47 in 10 Pura Cup matches last season.”The thinking behind this is quite simple really,” said Kepler Wessels, the Northants coach. “We have five Championship matches after Martin Love leaves, we need to get some wins and to do that we have to take 20 wickets. Paul had a good season with the ball in Australian domestic cricket and so he comes with a useful pedigree.”Northants were promoted to Division One of the County Championship last season, but are yet to win this season.

LOOKING FORWARD TO ZIMBABWE’S VISITI would just like to make a few comments regarding Zimbabwe cricket.Firstly, well done to the team for making the Super Six stage! It’s a shame they couldn’t progress further. Hopefully in the Caribbean in 2007!!!Also congratulations on hosting such a great tournament!!! It was excellently done, and has clearly got to be the best for organisation, entertainment, etc. . . All three hosts did great and Africa should be proud!Next, in regards to the Zimbabwe Cricket Website, I was just wondering why there is no section for contacting, mailing or supporting players and the team. Both the Australian and Sri Lankan sites have these sections for fans! I only say this as I have been trying in a variety of ways to contact a player (Brain Murphy), but have been unsuccessful and had no response. Which in comparison to the Aussies and Lankan players is very disappointing. My main aim was to send support messages amongst other things.Finally, I noticed under the ICC Test Championship that Zimbabwe is scheduled to tour Australia later this year. I was wondering if any games will be played in Melbourne, as I’m looking forward to see the team play. To meet my favourite player(s) would be an added bonus.I have been very honoured and fortunate to have met and even hosted my favourite player(s) from West Indies, England, Pakistan, India, and of course especially Australia and Sri Lanka. (About which I’m happy to go into details if needed). I’d love to be able to do the same with Zimbabwe (but as in each case I seek approval from the appropriate authorities).By the way, what is the chances of getting a autograph photo/picture from a Zimbabwe player? (I know it varies from nation to nation).Delan Adikari (Melbourne, Australia)Reply: You write about ideas that actually haven’t reached Zimbabwe cricket yet. I thought that Zimbabwe players would not appreciate having their e-mail addresses made widely available, as they can so easily be abused, but I will see what their thinking is. And I’m afraid autographed photos or pictures are not yet part of Zimbabwe cricket either!Regarding Zimbabwe’s tour of Australia, I have had provisional news of the venues for the two Tests we will be playing there, but cannot release them yet as they are still unofficial.

Three Indian cricketers – Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and SachinTendulkar – were among a pool of 69 from whom the legendary Sir DonaldBradman made his selection of the ‘World Best Team’ before he died.The `All-time ideal team’ of Bradman will be announced on Monday,Roland Perry, who chronicled the careful considerations of individualtalent and corporate balance behind how the Don selected his best XI,wrote in his book ‘Bradman’s Best’, a report in The Times, said inLondon on Saturday.”In interviews for Bradman’s Best, the Don, over a concentrated sixmonths in 1995 and intermittently over the next five years, discussedthe greatest players of the game, from WG Grace and Victor Trumper atthe beginning of the 20th century to Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkarat the end of it,” the report said.Bradman exhibited an enormous capacity for analysing the strengths,weaknesses, technical skills, temperament, personality and characterof scores of cricketers who have graced the world stage over more than120 years.”I was intrigued to know his all-time ideal team. At first wediscussed it in terms of achieving the perfect balance under normalplaying conditions,” Perry wrote.According to the report, Bradman opted for the following: tworecognised opening batsmen of whom one shall be a left-hander, threeother batsmen of whom one should be a left-hander, one all-rounder,one wicketkeeper who is also a good bat, one fast bowler to open withthe wind, one fast or medium-pace bowler to open into the wind, oneright-arm off spinner or right-hand leg spinner and one left-armorthodox first-finger spinner.Perry said Bradman’s understandable obsession to avoid publicity madea book on his best team untenable. “But I was still interested to knowhis world best XI. I suggested that the team only be made publicposthumously and sent him a range of selections for the positions inthe team, based on our discussions,” Perry said.How the idea of an ideal team came into the mind of Bradman makesinteresting reading.Bradman had been retired eight years when he returned to England forthe 1956 Ashes battle as a journalist. England won 2-1 and had thesuperior team, with right-arm off spinner Jim Laker in blisteringform, especially in the fourth Test at Old Trafford when he took 19wickets for 90 runs on a dustbowl.”This went very close to perfect (balance)” Bradman said. “Englandhad a left and right-hander to open, but there was neither a left-handbatsman nor an all-rounder in the next four.”The Australia 1921 teams also went close: Collins, Bardsley,Macartney, Andrews, Taylor, Pellew, Armstrong, Gregory, Oldfield,McDonald and Mailey.Bradman also liked his 1948 “invincibles”, the unique squad that wentthrough an entire Ashes tour of 34 games without losing a contest.Asked whether the 1948 team was the best since cricket’s inception,Bradman replied with diffidence. “It’s difficult comparing teams fromera to era,” but conceded that it was “the best team I was everinvolved with as a player.”But was it the best in history?”I suppose that could be argued” Bradman replied. “It’s biggestchallenger would probably be (Warwick) Armstrong’s 1921 side or theWest Indies teams of the 1980s (under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards).”He paused, smiled wryly and added: “A match between any two of theseteams would have been worth seeing.”The pool of players read:Openers (one a left-hander) from Gavaskar, Greenidge, Haynes, Hobbs,Hutton, Ponsford, Barnes, Lawry, Simpson, Morris, Sutcliffe, BarryRichards, Slater.Three other bats (which was two given that Bradman would be anautomatic selection), ideally one should be a left-hander: from(Bradman), Lara, Tendulkar, Viv Richards, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh,Graeme Pollock, Headley, Weekes, Hammond, McCabe, Harvey, Macartney,Greg Chappell, Compton, May, Trumper.One all-rounder: from Sobers, Miller, Davidson, Benaud, Proctor, KapilDev, Botham, Hammond, Grace.One wicketkeeper, who is also a good bat: from Tallon, Healy, Knott,Dujon, Marsh, Evans.One fast bowler to open with the wind, and one fast or medium pacer toopen into the wind: from Ambrose, Hadlee, Lillee, McGrath, Lindwall,Donald, Marshall, Holding, Roberts, Walsh, Alec Bedser, Tyson,Larwood, Wasim Akram, Davidson, Johnston, Barnes.One right-arm off-spinner: from Laker, Gibbs.One left-arm orthodox first-finger spinner or an orthodox leg spinner:from Verity, Rhodes, O’Reilly, Grimmett, Mailey, Warne.

By his own standards, Lance Klusener has had a quiet time of it in the Standard Bank one-day series against New Zealand, but on Kingsmead on Wednesday night he showed that there’s still a bit left in the great lump of wood he uses as a bat.Klusener’s ferocious onslaught in the fifth match of the series brought him 41 off 18 balls, the last 27 coming off just seven deliveries as the game was snatched away from New Zealand for South Africa to win by six wickets and take a 4-0 lead in the series.The South Africans had been chasing a revised target of 153 off 32 overs after two rain breaks while New Zealand were batting ended their innings at 114 for five off 32.4 overs. It might have looked tricky for the home side but Jacques Kallis batted through after coming in at the end of the second over of the innings, and Klusener battered the last of the life left out of New Zealand to see South Africa home with nine balls remaining.Kallis took the man of the match award, finishing not out on 50 to add to his 100th ODI wicket – picked up when he ripped out Roger Twose’s middle stump – and two catches at slip. The award might just as easily have gone to Klusener, though, as South Africa again denied New Zealand with another confident and assured performance.Kallis had to survive an awful blow to the nether regions when he was hit amidships by Shayne O’Connor. So fierce was the blow that it shattered his box and he noted afterwards (with his voice back to its usual pitch) that he was thinking of asking his sponsors for a couple of extras and might employ three protectors in future.But while nothing really serious can seem to go wrong for the South Africans, New Zealand remain stuck in the starting blocks. They were caught on a tricky pitch that offered bounce and lateral movement, lost two early wickets, rebuilt their innings through Stephen Fleming and Twose and then had to rebuild it again after both went in the space of six balls.”We’re getting closer to competing well enough,” said Fleming afterwards, “but we’re certainly not happy with not getting over the mark. It’s frustrating.”This was, perhaps, the closest of the four matches won by South Africa in the series after the adjustment. In effect, the South Africans had to face four fewer deliveries than New Zealand, but were asked to score 39 more. Kallis wasn’t the only one at Kingsmead somewhat perplexed by the arithmetic of it, but in victory he was able to concede that “I don’t think they’ve come up with the right system yet, but it’s probably the best system so far”.The South Africans claimed afterwards that they always felt they had the match in hand. This nonchalance may have stemmed from the fact that they chased down the target with a bit to spare, but it is also the product of the confidence that comes from winning.”They’ve got a number of quality players throughout their batting,” said Fleming. “Klusener hasn’t done it in this series for a while, so he was due his turn. It’s nice when you get into that rotation and we’ve had it. We had it against the West Indies at home. It’s a confidence thing. You know you want to be it and someone else is going to do it as well. Once you get on that roll, it’s a case of keeping it.”New Zealand, though, haven’t managed to peg down that elusive “it” since leaving Kenya. There’s one last chance in the final match of the series at Newlands on Saturday and for the sake of the confidence of the entire squad with the Test series lying ahead, they desperately need to break the rhythm of defeat.

Australia captain Steven Smith has won the top ICC awards for 2014-15, being named Cricketer of the Year as well as Test Cricketer of the Year.Smith became the seventh player after Rahul Dravid (2004), Jacques Kallis (2005), Ricky Ponting (2006), Kumar Sangakkara (2012), Michael Clarke (2013) and Mitchell Johnson (2014) to bag both awards in the same year.Smith was “thrilled” to receive the awards, but said he would end 2015 with “mixed feelings”.”Given that there are so many great players around the world, I’m incredibly honoured to receive these awards,” he said. “While team success is always my number one motivation, awards like this are very special. I’m thrilled and very proud to receive them.”I will look back on 2015 with mixed feelings. Winning the ICC Cricket World Cup at home was a career highlight, and being appointed captain is a great honour, but the disappointment of losing the Ashes remains.”To be the best team that we can be, we have to become better at winning away from home, and that remains our motivation heading into 2016.”South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers was named ODI Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year, while his compatriot Faf du Plessis won the T20 Performance of the Year award for his 56-ball 119 against West Indies in January. Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was named the Emerging Cricketer of the Year.The two awards in women’s cricket, for the ODI Cricketer of the Year and T20I Cricketer of the year, went to Australia captain Meg Lanning and West Indies allrounder Stafanie Taylor respectively.Former UAE captain Khurram Khan was named Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year, while Richard Kettleborough got the Umpire of the Year award for the third straight year.New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, who has announced he will retire from international cricket in February, bagged the Spirit of Cricket award, for “inspiring his side to play the game in its true spirit”.McCullum said his team-mates deserved as much recognition for buying into his sportsmanlike vision of cricket.”The team has loved how the New Zealand public and cricket fans from around the world have responded to the way we’ve played our cricket in the last 12 months,” he said. “I think the Spirit of Cricket is hugely important and I feel extremely honoured to have received the award. It does take buy in from the entire team though and the rest of the Blackcaps squad needs to be recognised for this as well.”The awards were given on the basis of performances during the voting period between September 18, 2014, and September 13, 2015. In that period, Smith was the leading run-getter in Tests, with 1734 runs at an average of 82.57. In that period he also made 1249 ODI runs at 59.47, his excellence across the two formats contributing to his winning the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year.De Villiers, the ODI winner, made 1265 runs in that format in the voting period, at an average of 79.06 and a just-as-astounding strike rate of 128.42. The 24-year-old Hazlewood, who made his Test debut in December 2014, took 40 Test wickets in the voting period.Lanning was the top Women’s ODI run-getter in the voting period, with 531 runs at 88.50, while Taylor finished on top of the Women’s T20I charts with 340 runs at an average of 42.50 and a strike rate of 105.91.Awards list
ICC Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Steven Smith
Test Cricketer of the Year – Steven Smith
ODI Cricketer of the Year – AB de Villiers
Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Meg Lanning
Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year – Stafanie Taylor
T20I Performance of the Year – Faf du Plessis
Emerging Cricketer of the Year – Josh Hazlewood
Associate/Affiliate Cricketer of the Year – Khurram Khan
Spirit of Cricket Award – Brendon McCullum
Umpire of the Year (David Shepherd Trophy) – Richard Kettleborough

Hark, yonder mobile phone is abuzz with a text message. From Zimbabwe.”Are you coming up for the tour? Need some warning to go hunting for food!”No, your correspondent does not eat more than the average reporter. It’s just that he has loads of good friends in Zimbabwe who make damn fine dinner hosts.But it would seem that these days Zimbabweans – even those with the means to “go hunting for food” – don’t know where their next meal will come from.Not that the South Africans who will play three one-dayers in Zimbabwe next week will have to worry about such trivialities as they ponder their room-service menus. Actually, cricket aficionados of all stripes don’t seem to have expended much thought on South Africa’s imminent jaunt northward to take on the world champions (of inflation, that is).The media remains confused over Jacques Kallis’ omission from the squad for the Twenty20 World Championship and with Mark Boucher’s spirited reaction to his friend and team-mate’s fate. The absence of both Kallis and Boucher from the squad to tour Zimbabwe was explained away by Cricket South Africa (CSA), which also labelled the matches against Zimbabwe as preparation for the Twenty20 event.None of the selected players have said anything about the dangers of lending legitimacy to one of the planet’s most oppressive regimes. Perhaps that is the price we pay for raising a generation of abject professionals. Or are the players mindful of what happened to Errol Stewart, who withdrew from the 2003 South Africa A tour to Zimbabwe on moral grounds and was promptly barred from representing his country again?It would be cynical to wonder whether CSA created the Kallis situation with the express aim of taking the sting out of this disgraceful tour. But we need to forgive our cynical selves considering CSA is a bedfellow of the ICC. After all, it is the ICC who has refused to take Zimbabwe off the international fixture list.”The Zimbabwe issue was debated fully, and at length, at the ICC annual meeting in London,” Norman Arendse, CSA’s president said on August 9 after Cricinfo’s broadside against South Africa A’s tour to Zimbabwe. “Despite initial criticism from countries like Australia, England and New Zealand, after full debate and discussion, the Full Member countries of the ICC unanimously agreed to retain Zimbabwe as a full member.”That can only mean the cricket bosses of nice, civilised, First World places like England, Australia and New Zealand are not repulsed by the starvation, routine violence and strife that is part of the daily reality of living in Zimbabwe.In other words, they just don’t give a

Sean Ervine, the former Zimbabwe allrounder, is eyeing a long-awaited debut for Western Australia after he was picked in the Ford Ranger Cup squad for the one-day game against Victoria at the WACA on Friday. Ervine moved to Perth to escape the problems of his national team and was unable to earn a starting spot over the past two seasons.However, he has performed strongly in two warm-up matches, scoring 122 in the WACA zone competition and 127 in the Retravision Shield, and received a call-up to the 12-man outfit. Ervine, who performed solidly for Hampshire in the off-season, appeared in five Tests and 42 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe during a three-year career. Justin Langer will lead the Warriors and his squad also includes Brett Dorey and Shaun Marsh.Western Australia FR Cup squad Justin Langer (capt), Marcus North, Luke Ronchi (wk), Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Chris Rogers, Sean Ervine, Peter Worthington, Brett Dorey, Ben Edmondson, Steve Magoffin, Aaron Heal.

Greg Chappell’s suggestion that Sourav Ganguly should step down from the captaincy was an honest opinion expressed during mutual discussions, and not an open demand as it has come to being portrayed after Ganguly made it public at a press conference during the first Test between India and Zimbabwe.In fact, this was a matter strictly between the captain and coach till the day before the Bulawayo Test when Ganguly chose to involve Rahul Dravid, the vice-captain, and Amitabh Chowdhary, the administrative manager. Cricinfo has spoken to a few sources close to the Indian team to piece together the full story.Chappell’s suggestion was neither abrupt nor out of the blue, but a result of several discussions over the composition of the team and planning for the future. Chappell was a strong proponent of picking the best possible XI, and during one of the frank discussions between coach and captain, he suggested that India would be better served if Ganguly focused on getting his batting organised by stepping down from the captaincy.Perhaps taken by surprise, Ganguly asked Chappell if he was serious. Chappell said that if Ganguly was interested in an honest opinion, then he had it. The ideal Indian Test middle-order, according to Chappell, was Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj and Kaif. This discussion took place in Mutare, where India were playing a warm-up game.The matter of team selection came up again before the first Test. Mohammed Kaif, who had looked India’s best batsman in the triangular one-day series that preceded the Test, was included in the XII and when it came to choosing between him and Yuvraj Singh, another batsman who had done well in the one-dayers, Ganguly asked Chappell for his preference. Chappell reiterated that he should pick the best XI and when Ganguly pushed him for a frank opinion, Chappell said that left to him, he would have them both in the team ahead of Ganguly.Ganguly once again asked if Chappell was serious and Chappell replied that he should consider the long-term future of Indian cricket and think about his legacy rather than his immediate future. He added that it was a decision that he should take himself, and if and when he chose to step down, he should do so with good grace.Ganguly then stormed off to the dressing-room, summoned Dravid and Chowdhary and informed them that he was packing his bags and leaving because Chappell didn’t want him in the team. Chowdhary then asked Chappell to join in and it was decided that the captain leaving in the middle of a tour would be disastrous. Ganguly stayed on, but the matter didn’t stay inside the dressing-room.”By choosing to go public, Sourav has drawn the battle lines,” said a source close to team. “It’s now difficult to see how they can both work together. The Indian board will now have to choose between one of them.”Click here to send us your feedback on the issue.

At a glitzy function to mark the India launch of the ICC Champions Trophy 2004, Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, and Malcolm Speed, the chief executive, spelled out the plans they had for the tournament, and what they hoped to achieve.When asked how the ICC planned spent the money generated by the event, Mani said: “All the money coming out of the Champions Trophy goes into development. We have allocated US$13million from each event for development in associate and affiliate member countries. Anything over that goes into development of full member countries. So, every penny of profit or surplus earned from these tournaments goes into development.”On the subject of money, Mani was reminded of the problems the ICC faced with relation to players’ contracts. Mani was emphatic in stating that he expected none of the problems that blighted last year’s World Cup to crop up this time around. “Since then we have been in discussion with all the boards and our commercial partners and there is no disagreement on the way forward, so I don’t expect their to be any dispute at all on this matter.”While Mani dealt with the big picture, Speed got down to the nitty-gritties. As has already been announced, the ICC will be experimenting with the use of technology to aid umpires in the Champions Trophy. The first stem would be “wiring the umpires” to earphones that play the output from the stump microphones. The second step involves giving the third umpire the power to adjudicate on no-balls. This gives the standing umpire an opportunity to focus on decisions at the batsman’s end.”That Champions Trophy is the perfect opportunity to experiment, in that we have the twelve teams together,” said Speed. “It’s a short, sharp tournament played over three grounds, so it’s not difficult to get the cameras in place to do the research. All of the top umpires and referees are there, so we get feedback from them at one time. We can talk to the captains about their response to it.”This experimentation has minimum impact on the cricket that is played. It is not going to affect anything that the players are doing. They will be told that the umpires are wired and that the third umpire would call the no-balls. There might be a slight delay between the third umpire being able to signal to the standing umpire and he then signalling the no-ball. The players want the umpires to focus at the business end and get it right there.”The last edition of the tournament, held in Sri Lanka, was jointly won by India and Sri Lanka, when rain washed the final out at the halfway mark even on the reserve day. That is something that won’t happen this time around. “We play on the first day. If the match is not concluded we continue, not replay, it on the second day,” said Speed. “If we get to the second day and the match is then weather-affected, Duckworth Lewis will apply on the second day only.”The participation of the United States of America, who qualified through an ICC feeder tournament, has been a big step forward in the development of the game in that region. This is something both Mani and Speed looked forward to with excitement. “We have targeted that USA as an important region for development of cricket,” said Mani. “There are huge amounts of people who play the game there. Expatriate West Indian and Asian cricketers make for a very active scene. I believe there are about 10,000 active cricketers in the USA and that’s more than, say Nepal. What we have done is agreed to allocate resources in the United States, we will appoint a chief executive there soon.”However, Speed was quick to clarify that the ICC was not looking to compete with established sports in the USA: “We’re not saying we want cricket to be the next NFL, NBA or MLB. But, there is an opportunity for cricket to come into the USA because of the huge number of expatriates. What we’re seeking to do is start the game using these expatriates, and then take the game forward. We see it ultimately as being an effective niche sport in USA, not something that challenges the big ones.”