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Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, has broken his silence on Andrew Hall’s retirement from international cricket, saying that he plans to speak to Hall soon.”I haven’t spoken to him [Hall], but I will do so in the next day or two,” Smith told . “He has his reasons, and it’s for him to explain them.”He’s been a wonderful performer whenever South Africa have needed him, maybe he felt that he didn’t consistently get a good run in the team. Even when he was in the squad but not in the team, he was a great guy to have around. It’s sad to lose him.”Smith also spoke about the absence of senior players, specifically Jacques Kallis, from the Twenty20 squad. “When you lose players who’ve been around for a while your team dynamic does shift.”Jacques has always been a reliable performer for South Africa. You know that he puts in his preparation and that he’s going to be up for the performance on the day. It is weird not to have him around.”South Africa take on West Indies in the opening match of the Twenty20 World Championship in Johannesburg on September 11.

Scorecard

Former Queensland allrounder Brendan Nash turned in a fine performance with both bat and ball to help Jamaica coast to a six-wicket victory over Barbados in their final Zone A league match of the KFC Cup. Both teams had already qualified for the semi-finals but Jamaica topped the table as a result of this victory.Nash bowled a miserly spell of 10-2-11-1 and Jerome Taylor took three wickets as Barbados were restricted to 170. Even that modest total was reached because of a 34-run stand for the tenth wicket. After a brisk start, the scoring-rate fell as the batsmen struggled on a pitch which was not conducive to strokeplay with Kirk Edwards facing 70 balls to make 17.In reply, Jamaica lost Brenton Parchment early but the rest of the batsmen played handy knocks to help overhaul the target with seven overs to spare. Chris Gayle, the captain, top scored with 49. Shawn Findlay chipped in with 39 while Nash remained not out on 36 as Jamaica maintained it’s unbeaten streak in this year’s tournament.Barbados coach Henry Springer blamed the batting for the loss. “It was a lack of situation awareness. Our batsmen need to understand what situation they find themselves in and to be able to deal with it,” he told the
ScorecardIn a match between two teams who had no chance of progressing further in the tournament, Leewards Islands rode on a solid all-round performance from Omari Banks to beat West Indies Under-19s by five wickets.Despite some wayward bowling from Leewards Islands, who gave away 28 extras including 19 wides, the Under-19s could only manage 159. Banks bowled a tight spell of 2 for 18 in his ten overs while offspinner Chaka Hodge took three lower-order wickets to keep the Under-19s in check. Opener Chesney Hughes top scored with 31 while no other batsman passed the 25-run mark.In reply, Leewards Islands started shakily as fast bowler Jason Dawes took three wickets to reduce them to 40 for 3. Spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Steven Jacobs bowled economically giving away just 35 runs in their 20 overs to make the Leewards Islands’ batsmen work hard for their victory. Banks, who batted with a runner because of a hamstring injury, remained unbeaten on 55 while Steve Liburd and Tonito Willett played useful knocks to ensure the target was reached with two overs to spare.The result was a consolatory win for the Leewards Islands and means that the Under-19s are the only team to have not picked up a point during the tournament.

On a pitch tailor made for their quartet of spin bowlers, Tamil Union look set to spring a surprise in the first semi final of the Premier Limited Overs tournament at Premadasa International Stadium tonight. They have bowled out the tournament favorites, Colts Cricket Club, for a meager 174 in 48.4 overs.Tamil Union have one of the strongest spin attacks in the land. Led by the irrepressible Mutiah Muralitharan, who picked up five wickets for 15 runs in 9.4 overs, the spin bowlers took nine of the wickets to fall. The Colts batsmen struggled to play them on a slow paced pitch that spun extravagantly.Colts CC had won the toss and begun confidently, despite the loss of Romesh Kaluwitharan for just six runs in the sixth over of the innings. Chaminda Mendis and Kulatunga compiled 67 runs for the second wicket and Colts CC looked set for another impressive total.However, Upul Chandana turned to Mutiah Muralitharan in the 16th over of the innings and in partnership with left arm spinner, Niroshan Bandaratilake, he turned the course the course of the match. Colts CC lost four wickets for just six runs and slumped to 92 for five.Kulatunga had played some sparkling shots including a brace of boundaries in Ranga Dias’s first and last over. However, he was less assured against the spinners, and started the slide when he charged down the wicket to Muralitharan and was caught at cover. He had scored 35 from 52 deliveries.Sajith Fernando walked to the crease in confident fashion but was caught in the very next over as he top edged a sweep. Then, Chaminda Mendis, who had scored a solid 35 from 69 balls, was clean bowled by Muralitharan four balls later. In the same over Sujith Janaka looked unlucky to have been adjudged caught behind.Were it not for Chaminda Vaas (18) and Eric Upashantha (34), who added 45 runs for the seventh wicket, Colts would not have even surpassed 150. The pair batted patiently and sensibly. Aware of the responsibility that now lay on their shoulders, they eschewed risks and concentrated on picking up singles.Just when they looked like they were on the verge of grasping the initiative back, Chaminda Vaas tried to pull sweep Upul Chandana and was brilliantly caught by a tumbling Brijesh Jeganathanan on the mid wicket boundary.The skipper wasted no time in recalling his premier bowler and Muralitharan just proved too good for the Colts lower order. They lunged and prodded as best they could but were eventually bowled out for a total that looks too small.

Cricinfo has learned that the new USA Cricket Association constitution has been approved by 74% of clubs which voted, although the turnout was disappointingly small.Only 180 of the 677 clubs who could have voted did so, despite the deadline being extended. Of the votes received, more than a quarter, surprisingly high number, were rejected for a variety of technicalities. Of the ballots accepted, 97 voted yes and 34 no.This now means that fresh elections have to be held within 30 days, although critics of the board are certain to be unhappy with way that the USACA has handled the process, especially the inordinate delay in announcing the results of a poll of less than 200 votes. Oddly, although Dehring released the results to the USACA, they were not immediately announced, as he requested, because Paul DaSilva, the secretary, wanted approval from his executive before he released them.The news means that Chris Dehring, appointed by the ICC as an independent third party, has been able to hand over a democratically-approved constitution which will provide the basis of a new platform for the USACA to operate under. No more could have been asked of him.It is, however, unlikely to be the end of the bitter rows which have blighted US cricket for several years. The low turnout will be used by critics of the current board to show the level of apathy among stakeholders and that, in effect, the approval came from less than 14% of the total clubs.

Post Tour Rehab Advice and Protocols
-L ACL deficient knee, subluxation episode Perth Test vs Australia Jan ’08
-MRI and investigation with sports physician at that time. Mx plan instigated
-Full reassessment with Dr David Young (orthopaedic surgeon) in Melbourne Feb ’08. Confirmed his availability to return to cricket (see full report in clinical notes).
-Plan post Australia tour will be on emphasis of strengthening and stability without high impact activity.
-Must have min 2 weeks (ideally 3) break from cricket and excessive loaded activities.
-Emphasis on x-training (swimming, cycling, water running)
-Maintenance of stability program, balance exercises and gluteal retraining
Things to Watch-pain posterior knee
-obvious swelling and persistence of swelling
-morning stiffness+
-fielding positions (straighter approach and attack to the ball, care on turning etc)
-Instability. Another episode of subluxation and giving way = Surgical Intervention required
– L great toe
-stress # through distal phalanx great toe (left), secondary to shape of phalanx
-significant healing/callous formation already evident (Dr. David Young, Dr. Michael Johnson, Dr. Soni). See full reports and scans in clinical notes
-min 2 – 3 weeks rest from bowling and running post tour. No compromise on this instruction
-allow pain to subside and full healing of # to complete.
-Strength and focus on core stability, gluteal strength, quadriceps strength and hamstring/hip flexor flexibility
R forefinger acute tendon sheath inflammation
– continue with anti-inflammatory techniques (NSAIDS, Ice, Co-Bahn, gel STM etc) until resolved
-L hamstring tendon enthesopathy (Dx. Dr David Young)
-Will require min 2 weeks rest from bowling and running post tour
-To avoid long distance running, running on inclines etc,br>-Continue with deep Tr Friction Rx to area, hamstring release STM, neural stretches etc
-To continue to monitor condition.
-Once this condition starts to impede his ability to bowl then surgical intervention will need to be considered (see full report, Dr David Young in clinical notes)
-R adductor tendonosis (? enthesopathy) with deep hip flexor involvement
-Requires min 2 weeks rest post tour from aggravating (pain inducing) activities
-Must not allow this condition to settle into ‘chronic phase’ otherwise may take further 2 weeks to control
-Once pain settles then commencement of deep release massage therapy to region, flexibility for R hip region incl adductors and flexors
-Once pain free then recommence basic strength training to adductors initially in water then with band resistance
-requires min 2 weeks break from competitive cricket to concentrate on conditioning
-main focus areas are to be low back, sides and shoulder strength/stability
-L ankle instability
-Emphasis on continual strength/stability and proprioceptive rehab of L ankle as well as ongoing glut med strengthening
-R shoulder and scapular stability maintenance program ++
-? requires cortisone injection into R DIP forefinger. # 2004, now sensitive+ and requires some form of intervention to alleviate sensitivity from recent knocks
-R hand 4th finger DIP severe sprain ? # 2nd final vs Australia 5th March
-Will need to be x-rayed on return to India and treatment avenue pursued

Scorecard

Baroda wiped out Hyderabad with the new ball, restricting them to 261, before reaching a comfortable 191 for 2 at the end of the second day’s play in Hyderabad. Irfan Pathan and Sumit Singh grabbed three wickets apiece with the new ball in nine overs to terminate Hyderabad’s first innings, while Connor Williams pressed home the advantage with a gritty unbeaten 91.There were no devils in the wicket but Hyderabad’s inexperienced lower middle order collapsed against the seamers. While Irfan used the angle from round the stumps to bend the ball into the right-handers, Sunit Singh kept it straight and on the stumps.Irfan was the first to strike, just four deliveries after the new ball was taken. He landed it on a length just outside off stump and shaped it in. Amol Shinde stabbed at it, bat away from the body, and the ball moved in through the gate. Encouraged by the wicket, Irfan repeated that line of attack and collected two more wickets – Habeeb Ahmed, the wicketkeeper, was cleaned up and Ashwin Yadav was trapped in front.Sumit induced Anoop Pai, who had made a dogged 62, to chase a full delivery, while SM Shoaib scooped a catch to mid-on and Lalith Mohan was bowled, giving Sumit figures of 3 for 39. By folding up in 66 minutes for the addition of just 41 runs this morning, Hyderabad’s middle and lower order undid all the good work of the top three, and handed over the initiative to Baroda.Williams then led the reply with a composed knock. The highlight of the day was an absorbing post-lunch session when Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, asked a few uncomfortable questions of the batsmen. While the left-handed Williams countered him by stretching well forward and playing with the turn, the right-hand batsmen had more trouble.Satyajit Parab had problems in reading the delivery from the bowler’s hand and was a touch uncertain. Ojha kept teasing him with variations in flight and pace and it was just a matter of time before Parab drove one to short cover, where Shinde dived to his right to take a fine catch.Azharuddin Bilakhia, the stocky No.3 batsman, had fewer problems than Parab but had his own share of play and misses. He was beaten by the turn while lunging forward but took care never to push away from the body. Williams, meanwhile, top-edged Ojha short of fine leg on a couple of occasions and slowly but surely the duo survived that period.Soon Bilakhia got into his stride, got his feet moving and struck a few confident boundaries. He brought up the team’s hundred with a sweep off Mohan, the other left-arm spinner in the Hyderabad team, before drilling another drive through cover. He then produced the shot of the day when he skipped down the track and caressed Ojha inside-out through covers before Ojha got his man, caught at silly point.Ashwin, the nippy mediumpacer who had impressed Irfan earlier, cut the old ball well to produce two nicks late in the day from Williams, but both went through the slip cordon. Soon Williams deposited Ojha over long-on and the game had begun to slip away from Hyderabad. Barring a stunning collapse, Baroda are on track to earn a healthy first-innings lead and press on for an outright win.

A fresh hearing will take place to decide Shoaib Akhtar’s fate after the two-member appellate tribunal looking into two charges of indiscipline against the fast bowler set one charge aside while handing the other back to Talat Ali, the team manager.”The charge of not appearing before a disciplinary hearing has been set aside,” Ahsan Malik, PCB’s director of communications, told Cricinfo. “The other charge, of leaving the camp without permission, has been remanded back to the manager Talat Ali. He will now issue a fresh notice and there will be another hearing.”The appellate tribunal, comprising of Mueen Afzal, a member of the board’s ad-hoc committee and Imtiaz Ahmed, the former Test wicketkeeper, was set up by the PCB after Shoaib appealed against his Rs 300,000 (approximately US$5000) fine for leaving the training camp without informing the management as well as failing to turn up for the disciplinary hearing.The date for the next hearing has not yet been specified.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

VRV Singh got his second five-for of the match as West Zone batsmen played one injudicious shot after the other, and despite a middle-order resistance they were bowled out in two sessions to set North Zone an easy 166 to get, with two days and a session to go. North Zone ended the third day with 92 more to get and seven wickets in hand.The first over of the day set the tone, when Sahil Kukreja played a loose drive to the first delivery that was not pitched on legs, and edged it through to Uday Kaul, the wicketkeeper. North did not look to capitalise on the early breakthrough as VRV continued to spray the ball around, and Vikramjeet Malik – although getting the inswing going – had problems with no-balls.Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane got a partnership going, and scored at a fairly good pace. But after overs of innocuous bowling, Ashok Thakur got one to land on a length and dip in towards Jaffer, who looked to play without any feet movement, and presented a gap between bat and pad. Parthiv Patel soon got his second awkward lifter of the match, which he jabbed to first slip. Cheteshwar Pujara completed his pair by going for an expansive drive to an inswinger, leaving his stumps vulnerable. In 5.4 overs, 56 for 1 became 70 for 4, with a lead of just fours runs.A brief partnership between Rahane, who was impressive once again in his innings of 43, and Yusuf Pathan was ended by a harsh call from AV Jayaprakash. Rahane was hit on the thigh pad by one from VRV that cut in but was going over the top of the stumps. With half the side out for a lead of just 42, two Baroda players – Rakesh Solanki and Pathan – counterattacked, exposing the North bowlers. Pathan, who had already got off to a quick start by the time Rahane got out (21 off 17 balls), took the attack to the next level and turned the attention away from Solanki. Soon the field spread out, Amit Mishra was brought on, and defensive bowling became the call of the hour.Pathan still managed to find gaps, whipping through mid-on, thrashing through covers, edging over slips, late-cutting through third man, sweeping through square leg, and lofting over the infield. Mishra, who had been swept for two fours by Pathan, finally got the breakthrough: bowling from round the stumps, he tossed one up, and Pathan backed his sweep, only to top-edge to short fine leg. Pathan ended up scoring 61 out of the 97 runs scored by West since his arrival at the crease. His 59-run partnership with Solanki in 10.4 overs made sure the game would not end on the third day itself.The North bowlers became lackadaisical once again and Solanki and Rakesh Dhurv took advantage. For more than 19 overs, they could only create one half-chance – a caught-and-bowled for Mishra – and a regulation chance for Kaul in Rajat Bhatia’s first over, which he duly dropped. Dhurv had scored 31 by then, but North got a breakthrough when Solanki uppercut VRV straight to third man. The tail folded easily, the last four wickets falling for nine runs. Three cheap dismissals gave VRV his second first-class ten-wicket haul. He now has 18 wickets from two Duleep Trophy matches.Chasing 166, North got off to a solid start just like in the first innings, and it seemed they would come close to rattling off the required runs today itself. But as had happened in the first innings, the fall of Aakash Chopra led to more wickets. Chopra got a dodgy lbw verdict, and Karan Goel followed after, ending what has been a horrible match for him, with a poke to an away-going delivery, just like he had in the first innings. He managed to get a run this time, though. When Mithun Manhas edged Trivedi to second slip, North had lost three wickets for 12 runs, and at that moment West Zone had a chance to sneak back.Shikhar Dhawan, meanwhile, had got off to a brisk start, having scored 25 off 27 balls out of the team score of 40. With his captain back in the pavilion, Dhawan adjusted to the situation, taking on the responsibility even as Yashpal Singh looked extremely edgy. Dhawan cut down on his shots without slowing down much, but there was a clear change in his attitude, suggesting he wanted to be there till the end. His scoring before the collapse had been attractive and imperious, but following it, he became more solid. He was also offered a reprieve when Sandeep Jobanputra, who bowled a testing spell of inswing bowling, dropped Dhawan off his own bowling: Dhawan was 27 then, and North had only got to 47.By the end of the day, Dhawan had added 17 more, ensured there were no more setbacks, and North were about one session of sensible batting short of a second successive Duleep Trophy triumph.

Brad Hogg relishes the challenge of bowling to Sourav Ganguly, India’sbest batsman over the last 12 months. Ganguly was Hogg’s first Test victim, back in1996 in Delhi, and he was thrilled to have dismissed him in both innings inMelbourne.”Ganguly was my first Test and international wicket and it was good to get him outin his 100th Test match,” Hogg said. “And to get him out twice was pleasing but atthe end of the day we have another Test match, so I have to be on my game to do thesame thing.”Hogg nailed Ganguly with a flipper in the first innings, skidding on to the stumps,and induced a close-in catch in the second. Not only did Hogg ably support thefast bowlers, with four wickets in the big win, but also silenced doubters about hisability to bowl to India’s much-vaunted batting line-up.Hogg’s googly has troubled batsmen in the one-day format but he pulled out theflipper to surprise India in Melbourne. “I really have not bowled it for the pastcouple of years,” Hogg said of his flipper. “A couple of the boys have told me toput it in my locker. It is just one of those things I thought if there is a momentthat I might just try it in a game and it just happened that it worked, so yeah ifyou have got it you might as well use it as the saying goes.”Hogg said he viewed the MCG opportunity as a chance to fill Stuart MacGill’s shoesbut went on to suggest that he was ready to take his spot. “But you never know whatis going to happen down the track,” he said. “I could not play tomorrow and play ayear later. I have just come in here and want to lap up every moment as much aspossible and you never know what is around the corner.”Was there any area of his game that he was keen to work on for Sydney? “Patience, Ithink. I’m an impatient bloke myself. It’s important I bowl with the same patiencethat the faster bowlers did. The pitch at Sydney has changed quite a bit. I guessspinners may have to work a lot harder. It was a bit nerve-wracking in the earlystages in Melbourne. But my batting in the second innings calmed it down a bit.Nerves are about wanting to do well.”

ScorecardDay 2
Bulletin – Australia ahead on difficult track
Verdict – About mood and confidence
Australian View – Born to ride
Quotes – ‘The key is to bang it into the track’- Gillespie
Roving Reporter – Dancing the day away
Day 1
Bulletin – Damp start to the Mumbai Test
Verdict – The not-so-great cover-up
Quotes – ‘Right decision about offering the light’ – Buchanan
Roving Reporter – The ABC of cricket
Preview package
Preview – Playing for pride
News – Warne out of Mumbai Test
Quotes – ‘We’re not going to rest any players’ – Ponting
News – Ponting fit for Mumbai Test
Roving Reporter – The day before
News – Ganguly out of Mumbai Test
News – Four new players in Indian squad
Selection analysis – The need for nurture