What was an excellent season on the field for Tama Canning was spoilt after a late-night drinking session left him red-faced and out of pocket.Canning allegedly urinated over a bar in an Auckland nightclub last week. He told an Auckland Cricket Association (ACA) meeting that he had no recollection of the incident, but accepted that his behaviour at the bar was inappropriate due to his heavy consumption of alcohol on the night.After discussion of the alleged incident Canning acknowledged he was in breach of his Domestic Playing Agreement, and that his actions were clearly not in the best interests of the ACA or himself.As a result, he was fined an undisclosed amount by the ACA, while a support programme will be put in place to ensure there is no repetition of the incident.”This is an extremely unfortunate incident that reflects very badly on Tama after he had enjoyed a successful season on the field,” said Andrew Eade, the ACA’s chief executive. “He deeply regrets his behaviour and understands that it is totally unacceptable if he wishes to remain part of Auckland cricket in the future.”Canning and the ACA have both apologised to the nightclub.
England could face Jermaine Lawson, the West Indies fast bowler, in the first match of their tour next week.Lawson has not played a Test since May last year, in which he took 7 for 78 against Australia. He has since been out of action because of a suspect bowling action, on which he has been having remedial work, and back problems.However, Jamaica’s selectors are reportedly considering picking Lawson, 22, for a three-day warm-up match next week after watching him back in practice. “He bowled with some pace, the only problem was his accuracy,” Robert Haynes, the coach, told the . “But he hasn’t bowled for a long time so these things are expected. Once he is fit enough and the doctor gives the go-ahead, and the West Indies development coach Phillip Service agrees that he should play, I believe that he definitely should.”Dr Akshai Mansingh, the board’s orthopaedic specialist, also sounded encouraging. “So far, he has done very well,” Mansingh said. “He has prepared well in the nets and will have further sessions this week for us to see how he does.”Wavell Hinds, the top-order batsman, who was forced to return home during the recent tour of South Africa with a groin strain, could also make his comeback in that match.
Worcestershire CCC can confirm the recent speculation concerning South African fast bowler Nantie Hayward. Nantie will be joining the County for the 2003 and 2004 Seasons as one of the County’s two Overseas Players along with Andrew Hall.Nantie will join the County once his contract runs out with the United Cricket Board of South Africa in a few months time. He says “I am really looking forward to playing County Cricket with Worcestershire. I want to perform the best I can and to help the team achieve increased success. I am confident that if I do well it will help the team do well and that we will be competing for trophies.”Chief Executive Mark Newton expressed the Club’s delight with the signing. He says “Nantie is an experienced Test Match opening bowler as he has proven recently against Pakistan. He will give our opening attack pace and hostility as we strive for First Division status in the Frizzell County Championship.”
ScorecardArun Harinath: a career-defining season?•PA Photos
The boisterous rendition of Surrey’s team song – a legacy of Mark Butcher’s time as captain – spoke of a deeply contented squad. They had much to be contented about. Surrey had just won their fourth consecutive game, lifting themselves 54 points clear of third-placed Glamorgan with four games left to play.Although three late wickets gave Surrey’s run chase an ostensible tension, they chased down 313 with a palpable swagger befitting a vibrant young team who will soon leave Division Two cricket behind.In a side not lacking for razzmatazz, Arun Harinath and Gary Wilson are two undemonstrative cricketers, eschewing histrionics but identified by dependability. They rarely feel compelled to match more belligerent teammates stroke-for-stroke, but, as they proved here, it is not because they are entirely incapable of doing so.Harinath has enjoyed a career-transforming season. First given an opportunity when Rory Burns was knocked unconscious during a horrific collision with Moises Henriques at Arundel, Harinath responded with a pair of centuries against Glamorgan.His progress – adhesiveness married with newfound assertiveness – has delighted many, Kumar Sangakkara included. In , Sangakkara recently praised Harinath’s aggression as befitting “a good, old-fashioned Sri Lankan brand of cricket”, lamenting “what an opportunity it would be for Sri Lanka if he was over there and playing.”Building his innings diligently after Surrey lost Burns and Davies in consecutive overs, Harinath’s 87 provided ample evidence of his shot-making ability. When he crunched Jamie Porter to the point boundary he did not even deign to move. The nimbleness of his footwork as he lofted the ball down the ground against spin was also delightful.Together with Gary Wilson, Harinath forged the decisive partnership of the match: 92 in 16.5 overs. Wilson oozed intent from his arrival, his cries of “push, push” booming around Castle Park whenever a gap was located. He was particularly adroit against Monty Panesar, heaving him for an emphatic six over long off and then deftly reverse-sweeping for four in the same over.”I just knew that when it got down to a one-day scenario that we could probably put on the gas with him, because he does tend to bowl at that one pace and when we got a few shots away off it he might not be able to have the change-ups that perhaps the others guys might,” Wilson reflected.After 750 runs at 46.87 apiece last year Wilson would not have been the first to take umbrage after not being retained as captain (partly due to his Ireland commitments), but he is not the sort to do so: his fourth half-century of the season lifted his average above 45 once more.As Surrey built their chase upon another innings from Burns that oozed assurance, it had seemed as if their chase was set up for Jason Roy, who promptly slog-swept Tom Westley for a four and six in consecutive balls. With Surrey needing 150 from the final session with seven wickets in hand, Roy gave note of his intensions by thumping a straight boundary in the first over after tea. “He’s going for it,” Essex’s Jamie Porter could be heard muttering.So Roy was, and, as he followed a pristine offdrive off Panesar with a late cut of finesse for another boundary three balls later, Essex has good reason to fear. He smeared another slogsweep off Westley to the square leg boundary, but this time Matt Salisbury parried the ball, tumbled over the boundary edge and then returned to pluck the ball out of the air.It was the sort of moment that deserved to be match turning, but Surrey hurtled over their target with the force of a runaway train, even promoting Sam Curran from No 10 to No 7 to speed up the time before they could bring out their team song.Division One is coming, and Surrey think they are ready. “Division One cricket is a step up but it’s still Championship cricket and we’ll be confident that we can step up,” Wilson reflected. “The good thing about this team is it’s a really young squad. There’s going to be years of learning but we’ve got so many players that have got to be on the England radar.”That the game finished with 17 scheduled deliveries remaining was testament to the outstanding work done by the ground staff at Castle Park. While the pitch did not deteriorate in the way some envisaged – after day two Burns said that he would not like to chase more than 250 – it produced four days of engrossing cricket.Ultimately the superiority of Surrey’s spinners proved decisive. While Panesar had bowled encouragingly in the first innings, he was too predictable, too fast and too flat on the final day, until a rank longhop to Gareth Batty was dispatched to secure Surrey’s win.It did not speak well of Panesar’s performance that he was out-bowled by not only Aron Nijjar, a 20-year-old left-arm spinner, but also Westley, who had not taken a Championship wicket all season until this game. Panesdar finished with 1 for 88 and went at nearly five an over. Nijjar and Westley took 6 for 158 and conceded 3.5.”We never really got control of the game,” admitted Essex coach Paul Grayson. “We were leaking runs a bit too easily and couldn’t really sustain pressure for any period of time.”In many ways Essex’s day was defined in the first over of the day. Westley, who had the capacity to dominate Surrey’s attack, was dismissed to his second ball of the day, a flick to the legside freakishly ballooned off Roy at short leg, who caught the ball on the rebound.”Above all, he believes in getting things done,” wrote the journalist Simon Heffer of ‘Essex Man’ when he christened the term 25 years ago. For much of Essex’s second innings Heffer might have thought that his opinion needed revising.Essex failed to even score at three an over which, even allowing for the nous of Surrey’s spin twins, seemed to betray a curious lack of urgency considering the side began the match 56 points behind Surrey. and a win was essential. Besides Westley, who failed to add to his overnight 90, Essex’s top order gave the impression their feet were chained to he ground.At several occasions on the final morning all 13 players on the pitch were united in looking up towards the pavilion to see if James Foster was calling his team in. But Essex batted on and then batted some more – and rather lethargically in the circumstances – even as their lead cleared 300.Still, Gareth Batty was not complaining, his perseverance and skill rewarded with a five-wicket haul to match Ansari’s in the first innings: Surrey’s two spinners shared 15 wickets in the match, the last coming from a superb Jade Dernbach catch at fine leg, catching a ferocious sweep from Kishen Velani on the rebound.
Newcastle United are in Premier League action once again this afternoon following the latest international break.
This time, the Toon are on the road again with a trip to the capital to take on Tottenham Hotspur after losing their two previous league games before the break.
On the chalkboard
In terms of which players Eddie Howe could select in his starting XI to take on Antonio Conte’s top-four chasers, one man who hasn’t started for the Magpies since mid-February but we feel should be unleashed from the beginning on this occasion is Allan Saint-Maximin.
Despite scoring five goals and providing three assists in 25 league appearances this season, the Frenchman has only made three substitute appearances for the Magpies in their past four league games.
In addition to his goal contributions, Saint-Maximin’s overall performances have highlighted what a crucial figure he is for the Toon, with WhoScored giving him a season rating of 7.14/10, making him the highest-rated Newcastle player to start more than four games.
From an attacking point of view, the 25-year-old has racked up 92 shot-creating actions in the Premier League this season, putting him in the top 10 for that statistic for the entire league ahead of players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Harry Kane.
The winger, who is currently valued at £28.8m by Transfermarkt, also leads the way for dribbles attempted in the Premier League with 175 to his name at a success rate of 60%.
This shows just how much of a nuisance the attacker could be for Newcastle in today’s clash against a Tottenham side which has kept three clean sheets in their past five league games.
Having been praised for his “breathtaking” speed and movement on the pitch by Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, Saint-Maximin certainly has what it takes to cause Spurs and their defence a lot of problems.
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With that in mind, if Newcastle want to pick up all three points and move further away from the relegation zone, then starting their £93k-p/w French star should definitely be in Howe’s mind when coming up with his starting XI today.
In other news: Sold for £10m, now worth £45m: Newcastle had a howler on “immense” £53k-p/w dynamo
A surprisingly elated Shoaib Malik credited his senior players after Pakistan completed a comfortable clean sweep of the Mobilink Cup against Zimbabwe. Pakistan, led by Malik, went on a lap of honour around Sheikhupura Stadium after their win, an unusually exuberant celebration as they were expected to win 5-0. But Malik had personal reasons for smiling, having been adjudged the Man of the Series after scoring 158 runs with two half-centuries and topping the bowling charts with 11 wickets.Pakistan tried nine new players during the series, but Malik insisted the support they received from the senior players was a major factor behind their success. “We tried a lot of new faces in the series and it is not easy for young players to perform right from the start,” Malik said. “However, I’m thankful to the senior players who helped these debutants make their entry into international cricket that much easier. It is due to that the changes worked so effectively.”Ever since their bowlers received a mauling in the first ODI in Karachi, Zimbabwe have opted to bat after winning the toss. Hamilton Masakadza, Zimbabwe’s stand-in captain, carried on the trend here, but he was left ruing it from the start as Sohail Tanvir and Abdur Rauf, one of four debutants, utilised overcast conditions to good effect. Malik was surprised by Masakadza’s decision and confirmed he would have bowled first in order to give his bowlers the chance to make an impression.”With overcast conditions and a relatively unknown pitch, I would’ve bowled had I won the toss,” he said. “Even though we had helpful conditions, credit must also go out to our young fast bowlers, of which two were making their debut, for bowling in the right areas.”Masakadza, disappointed with his team’s batting, blamed Zimbabwe’s lack of all-round skills for the convincing loss. “We failed to capitalise on good, match-winning positions,” Masakadza said. “We could’ve won at least three matches on this tour but let good positions slip too easily.”We weren’t thrashed or outplayed by the opposition in any of the matches so it all comes down to taking half-chances and crossing the finish line. We need to learn how to finish things off.”
Our motto is to keep fighting as a unit and with the series win, the team is confident of facing AustraliaShoaib Malik
Malik, despite the win, said the team had a lot to learn and implement before the tough series against Australia. “There’s a lot of difference between ODIs and Test matches,” Malik said. “Just because we have performed well in ODIs does not mean we can be complacent for the [Test] series against Australia. We need to improve our fielding and running between the wickets because those two departments of the game can be vital against a strong team like Australia.”Having been unable to bowl out Zimbabwe in three of the five games, Malik pointed to his side’s “lack of killer instinct” as one of the areas they needed to work on. “We were in positions to get Zimbabwe dismissed cheaply, like today, but we let our guard down and let opportunities slip. Luckily, we went on to win the matches so it did not come back to haunt us but we still need to improve on that.”Our motto is to keep fighting as a unit and with the series win, the team is confident of facing Australia.”
Edgar Schiferli, the Netherlands medium-pacer, could miss the World Cup after he injured his left hamstring during a warm-up session ahead of the practice match against India at the Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica.Schiferli missed the practice match that Netherlands lost by 182 runs. “He is our experienced opening bowler and it doesn’t look good,” Hans Mulder, the Netherlands manager, told Reuters. Mulder was of the opinion that the injury was serious enough for Schiferli to be replaced in the squad.Schiferli’s injury is a big blow to Netherlands as he was the joint highest wicket-taker in the 2005 ICC Trophy held in Ireland. He took 17 wickets in seven matches at an average of 14.64 in the tournament. Netherlands are in Group A along with Australia, South Africa and Scotland.
Mathew Sinclair followed his first-innings century with 53 in the second, as Central Districts finished on 130 for 3 on the second day against Auckland at Palmerston North. Earlier, Michael Mason and Lance Hamilton starred with the ball, taking nine wickets between them as Auckland were bundled out for 180. Mason had exceptional figures of 5 for 26 from 18.5 overs, while Hamilton took 4 for 39. Their combined effort ensured Central Districts ended with a 65-run first-innings lead. By close of play, they had stretched that lead to 195.Alun Evans was in sight of only his second first-class century as Northern Districts recovered from a poor start to a respectable 158 for 3 at Hamilton, still 208 behind Wellington’s first-innings total. Evans was unbeaten on 90 and helped his team bounce back after losing two wickets with only 12 on the board. Wellington’s total was largely built around Michael Parlane’s 154, an innings which included 26 fours and two sixes. None of the other Wellington batsmen managed even a half-century, with Jeetan Patel’s 45 at No.10 being the second-highest.Otago took charge of their State Championship match against Canterbury at Queenstown. After scoring 384, Otago put in a superb display in the field on the second day, bundling Canterbury out for 114, and then reducing them to 46 for 3 as they followed on. The stars for Otago were James McMillan, a right-arm fast bowler, and Nathan McCullum, an offbreak bowler and the brother of Brendon, New Zealand’s wicketkeeper. McMillan got rid of the top order and finished with 4 for 32, while McCullum polished off the tail and ended with 5 for 28, his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
Sri Lanka Cricket has announced that it will appeal against the government decision last week to take over control of the game’s management. After several days of speculation, the government appointed a six-man interim committee after claims of financial mismanagement.Despite the government’s decision, announced by the sports minister Jeevan Kumaratunga on Thursday afternoon, the cricket board proceeded as scheduled with its AGM on Sunday, and elected Thilanga Sumathipala unopposed as the president for a fifth term.Other officials appointed included Ravin Wickramaratne as secretary, Nuski Mohammad as treasurer, Aravinda de Silva and Trevor Rajaratnam as the two vice-presidents, Bandula Dissanayake as assistant secretary, Lucian Merinnage as assistant treasurer, and Mohan de Silva as immediate past president.After the AGM, Aravinda de Silva criticised the government’s decision to strip the board’s elected executive committee of their powers, arguing that it will create uncertainty and hamper the development of the game in Sri Lanka.”This unfortunate incident will have a bad impact on our cricket internationally and on the morale of our team,” said de Silva. “This is the only country where the sports minister has suspended the activities of the cricket board on four occasions in the past five years. There has been so much uncertainty created as a result of this.”Meanwhile, Nuski Mohammad justified the $3.25million loss recorded in the accounts for the past year, claiming that occasional deficits were part and parcel of an international cricket association because of the variations in the revenue-generating capacity of different touring countries.”It is evident that during the years 2000 and 2002 we had deficits of $800,000 and $2.9million before tax, whereas in 2001 and 2003 Sri Lanka Cricket had a surplus of $4.4million and $2million,” he revealed. “This is normal because the administration and cricket expenses are dependent on the level of activity for each year in operation.”Sri Lanka Cricket is largely dependent on a multitude of factors, such as rotation and the number of international tours during a particular year, the TV income derived from such tours which could vary from country to country, the four-year World Cup cycle which brings in a large amount of revenue, and the income derived from other tournaments held periodically such as the Asia Cup.”He concluded: “Unlike other countries, we are servicing all the centres, districts and provinces and maintaining the infrastructure of stadiums where international matches are played. To get results in cricket you’ve got to spend.”He added that junior, under-23 and A-team tours cost a substantial amount of money without any financial returns. “One could justify the expenditure in terms of our current standing in international cricket, where we occupy second position in the one-day table and fourth position in Tests. Even Australia, which occupies top berth in both forms of the game, has reported losses to the tune of A$14 million [nearly Rs. one billion].”However, despite Sri Lanka Cricket’s AGM, the government’s new committee, headed by Jayantha Dharmadasa, will takeover control of the board on Monday, when they are expected to reveal their management mandate, which could include fundamental constitutional change of the board.Sri Lanka Cricket office-bearers: Roshan Abeysinghe (Chairman, Tournament Committee), Romesh Kaluwitharana(Chairman, Umpires Committee), Cricket Associations: Anura Weerasinghe, Tyronne de Silva; District Cricket Associations: M Manoharan, Lorence Amarasena, Controlling Clubs: Michael de Zoysa, Pradeep Peiris, Mizra Fajudeen; Affiliated Clubs: Gihan Weerasinghe, Manju Fernando.