The West Indies Cricket Board is reportedly in a mess over its handling of player contracts and payments, against the backdrop of a complication between its new sponsor, Digicel, and its former sponsor of 20 years, Cable & Wireless, according to an article on the Caribbeancricket.com website.It is claimed that in 2003, Cable & Wireless signed an endorsement contract with Brian Lara, and later signed several other players, all with the Board’s co-operation. When the new deal was struck with Digicel, the Board then sought to buy out the deals through the retainer contracts negotiated with the West Indies Players’ Association.According to the website, “Two weeks ago, the board did an about-face on the agreed-upon buyout … One can only assume that they failed to get Digicel’s buy-in for their buy-out, and the new sponsor applied some pressure on the board to prevent its newly acquired rights from being diluted by the Cable & Wireless players. C&W, not surprisingly, is standing by its endorsement deals with those players and is not about to give them up.”It has led to an awkward situation, involving the Board, the players’ association, Digicel and C&W, with neither of the sponsors seemingly willing to back down. Whatever the outcome, it’s the players – particularly those with C&W contracts – who seem to be at risk the most.

It is the issue that dares not speak its name, but is nonetheless bubbling away beneath the surface of the South African team at present. The question of quotas – whether to play your best side regardless of race, or whether to compromise the short-term quality of the team to enable society to reap the long-term benefits – is a uniquely South African debate, and one that was intensified at the start of the England series, when Thami Tsolekile was controversially retained as wicketkeeper ahead of the vastly experienced Mark Boucher.The Tsolekile experiment was shelved for the second Test, because the return of Herschelle Gibbs, coupled with Hashim Amla’s home debut, enabled the selectors to keep up their non-white numbers while improving the balance of the side. But the debate still rages, with several pundits and former players having their say on the matter – not always entirely constructively. But the former South African opener, Andrew Hudson, is an exception. Now an SABC commentator, Hudson is universally regarded as one of the good guys of the game, and he gave Cricinfo a candid assessment of South Africa’s dilemma.”It’s difficult to strike the balance,” admitted Hudson during a break from his commentary duties. “People who don’t live in South Africa find it difficult to understand the concept of transformation. We’ve got to be careful about saying ‘We’re just going to select on merit’ and to hell with it, because with everything that’s happened in this country over the last couple of years, opportunities have to be given to players of colour.”I’m certainly not a politician,” he said, “but it seems to me that this generation has to pay for the sins of our forefathers. It will take some time to strike the right balance, and it’s unfortunate for sport that it has to happen this way, but we do have to try to normalise society.”After missing out for the first Test at Port Elizabeth, Amla – the captain of Dolphins, formerly known as KwaZulu-Natal, – was a shoo-in to make his debut in front of his home fans for this match. “There’s so much potential and talent in all communities in South Africa,” said Hudson. “There’s a big Indian community here in Durban – they are passionate about cricket and always have been, and I’ve no doubt there will be several Indian cricketers representing South Africa in the future. Likewise there’s a strong black community in the Eastern Cape, and a strong coloured community in Cape Town. These are the communities where resources need to be spent, so that players can come through and be selected on merit.”But these things take time,” he added, while pointing out – quite reasonably – that there are very few societies in the world where equality of opportunity has been achieved. “You find disadvantaged communities in other countries all round the world. In South Africa it was caused by politics, but elsewhere it can be a natural state. You get disadvantaged communities in India, England, West Indies … are those cricket unions pumping in huge amounts of resources to help? I don’t think so.”Although he is unequivocally in support of the transformation process, Hudson sounds a note of caution as well. “I just hope that the process ends sooner rather than later, and is not something that drags on into the future. I’m looking forward to the day when there’s a line drawn in the sand, when we’ve given a lot of opportunities to all different race groups in South Africa, and a stream of raw talent starts to come through the system, irrespective of colour.”At present, with all these quotas and things, what we are actually doing is reintroducing the colour issue back to our children. The sooner we get to the point where we go back to merit, and treat everybody as individual human beings, the better it will be for the game of cricket.”Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Cricinfo. He will be following the England team throughout the Test series in South Africa.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary

An innings of grace, poise and immense character from Yousuf Youhana lit up Melbourne on Boxing Day and allowed Pakistan to hit back in style after their Perth debacle. Youhana struck a classy 111, and along with Younis Khan (87) and Salman Butt (70) lifted Pakistan to 6 for 318 at close of play on the first day.After being thoroughly outplayed on a bouncy WACA pitch, Pakistan’s batsmen found the conditions much more to their liking here – there was none of the steepling bounce that characterised that wicket, and Australia’s bowlers couldn’t obtain much pace or seam movement either. Jason Gillespie was easily the outstanding bowler, though. He tested all the batsmen with his pace and outswing – especially with the second new ball – and his two late wickets kept Pakistan in check after the 192-run fourth-wicket stand between Youhana and Younis threatened to take them towards a huge score.Faced with a pitch closer to the kind they are bred on back home, Pakistan’s batsmen showed a refreshing change in attitude. At Perth, most of their batsmen were guilty of being stuck in defensive mode, waiting for the inevitable good delivery to nail them; here, they put the Australians on the defensive with some excellent aggressive cricket. Butt led the way at the start, but the innings which made the day memorable was Youhana’s.Throughout his 54-Test career, Youhana has been accused of milking weak opposition and choking in the face of pressure against tougher teams. There was nothing weak about this Australian attack, and coming into the match, Pakistan were under severe pressure – they had been pummeled at Perth, were written off by fans and critics alike, and then were hit further by the unavailability of Inzamam-ul-Haq. Youhana, standing in as captain, soaked up all that pressure and played an innings of impeccable composure and glittering strokes. His knock came off just 134 balls, and contained 11 fours and four sixes, most of them an exquisite combination of skill and elegance.He came in to bat when Pakistan had lost three wickets for nine runs on either side of the lunch interval, and the innings threatened to unravel quickly after a promising start – Imran Farhat edged one to the slips, Yasir Hameed, in the side to replace Inzamam, was trapped in by Gillespie, and Butt ran himself out with his lackadaisical running (3 for 94).Youhana and Younis then put the house back in order. Both started off circumspectly, keen to see off a testing spell by Gillespie. They did that, and then gradually flourished against the rest of the attack. Youhana was especially severe on Shane Warne, lofting him for three magnificent straight sixes and pulling and cutting whenever Warne erred even fractionally in length: in all Youhana scored 59 of his runs off Warne from 82 balls.

At the other end, Younis performed the sheet-anchor’s role to perfection, secure in defence and reining in his tendency to attack. He was comfortably outscored by Youhana in the first half of the stand, but came into his own after tea, clattering drives down the ground and through cover, and upper-cutting the fast bowlers over the slips.Warne finally got his own back after suffering at Youhana’s hands, when he slid one down the leg side and Adam Gilchrist completed a fine stumping (4 for 286). That sparked off the second collapse of the day as Gillespie, armed with the second new ball, struck twice in two overs – Younis nicked a perfect awaygoing delivery to the keeper, and Shoaib Malik – in the side for Mohammad Khalil – perished to the bounce and movement as well.Earlier, Butt was the star of the morning session, scoring his maiden Test fifty in his third match. He pulled the first ball of the match for a couple, and continued to go for his strokes at every opportunity, slashing hard whenever offered the width. He edged and middled those strokes in equal measure, but either way he was rewarded – the edges flew over the slip cordon, and the middled ones clattered through the covers. He benefited from an early fielding lapse too – Matthew Hayden made a mess of a regulation chance at gully when Butt slashed at the third ball of the day. Butt survived, and it seemed Pakistan’s openers would do a repeat of what Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra had achieved exactly a year ago. They didn’t quite manage the 141 that the Indians added, but it was just the start to prop up a demoralised side. Youhana and Younis capitalised on it, but Gillespie’s late strikes evened a contest which Pakistan dominated for most of the day.

Worcestershire have announced a pre-tax surplus for the second successive year, despite being relegated from the Championship top flight.The profit in 2004 was £49,839 against around £3000 in 2003, largely boosted by an increase in membership income and good gate revenue from Twenty20 matches.”All our income streams have shown an increase in the last year whilst our trading expenditure is still well below the 2001 levels,” said Mark Newton, Worcestershire’s chief executive. “Our policy of diverting as much of our resource to cricket, particularly our Academy, continues to be our primary financial objective. We are particularly pleased to note that revenue from membership subscriptions has risen by 29% in the last two years and gate receipts from the Twenty20 Cup rose by 26% in 2004 despite the fact we had one less home game.”

Billy Bowden, the New Zealand umpire, has defended his mistakes in the first one-day international between Australia and New Zealand in Wellington. Bowden had a few verbal exchanges with Daniel Vettori, but has clarified that relations between the two of them are normal.Bowden appeared to have made two mistakes in the thrilling 10-run win for Australia, one of which was declining a loud leg-before appeal by Vettori against Matthew Hayden. Bowden got it wrong the second time as well, when Hayden gloved a leg-side delivery from Kyle Mills on 31. Hayden went on to score 71.”I’ll have a look at the highlights, my sister tapes them for me, but whenever I umpire I do so to the best of my ability,” said Bowden to . “As a batsman or an umpire a ball always has your number on it and if I made a mistake, so be it.”Bowden and Vettori were engaged in a vociferous debate when Bowden turned down an appeal against Hayden. Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain, had to intervene to put an end to the issue. Bowden was concerned with Vettori’s behaviour, who snatched his cap in disgust, and Vettori in turn felt that he could have been shown the respect due to someone playing his 147th match.”After 10 overs players get frustrated with the way they have bowled or the way decisions went,” Bowden said. “I talked to Stephen and we got on with the game. I haven’t got a problem with Dan, I’ve umpired him a long time and I think we have mutual respect.”There won’t be a problem in Christchurch, in fact I hope he bowls at my end. I would be disappointed in myself if I couldn’t be professional and look any player in the eye the next day. The cap thing wasn’t a big issue. I’ve had guys almost rip my elbow off, Dan’s was just a little tickle.”Bowden, who also umpired in the recently concluded Pakistan series, had faced criticisms from Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, who claimed that the decisions went 29-5 against Pakistan, and that the umpires were biased towards the dominating Australia. Ken Rutherford, the former New Zealand captain, and Martin Crowe also criticized the umpires in their newspaper columns. Rutherford claimed that Bowden had become too familiar with the Australians, while Crowe felt the umpire was suffering from fatigue.”I don’t appoint myself to umpiring Australia, that is the ICC,” Bowden said. “It can be a heads and tails thing. If you are umpiring a team you know it can help because you learn how certain players bat and how they bowl,” said Bowden defending his stance. “Before any game you do your stats and you often know how many times a certain players has been out lbw or caught behind recently. The more you do of one side the more you learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Having said all that, whenever you walk out into the middle you are always operating in the `now’.”

Scorecard