Wage negotiations between Cricket Australia and the players’ union are at a stalemate after the Board rejected a proposal endorsed by Tim May, the Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive. May said the decision came despite making significant progress during dealings with James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive."The ACA has at all times approached these negotiations with the intention of balancing the interests of the game with those of the players," May said. "We believe that our rejected proposal properly reflects such balance.”May said the negotiations had reached a critical stage as Cricket Australia continued to work to dilute the players’ share of the game’s revenue from 25% under the current Memorandum of Understanding to 23%. The agreement expires on June 30 and May demanded the Board revisit their position."The present players have taken team performances and the value of cricket’s major revenue streams to unsurpassed levels in this country," he said. "It is disappointing that CA seek to reward the players’ contribution by reducing the players’ share of the game’s revenues."

Wiltshire came closest to causing an upset, pushing Kent all the way at Salisbury. The minor county dismissed Kent for 160 inside their 50 overs but the Kent bowlers showed their experience as they squeezed home by nine runs. Simon Cook took four wickets, including the top-scorer, Michael Coles, for 32. A fighting 24 from Richard Bedbrook got Wiltshire close, but he could not quite do enough. Michael Carberry (41) lifted Kent after they slumped to 72 for 5. But they had the bowlers to thank for not joining that unenviable list of first-class counties who have fallen to their less illustrious colleagues.Northamptonshire thrashed Denmark by eight wickets at Brondby – click here for match report.Gloucestershire are still favourites to overcome Berkshire despite a fighting performance from the minor county. Gloucestershire failed to completely capitalise on a second-wicket stand of 118 between Phil Weston (80) and Chris Taylor (57) that took them to 164 for 2. Nick Denning, the former Essex player, took three wickets to limit the damage in the final overs. After an early strike from James Averis, Berkshire progressed steadily but Gloucestershire have plenty of one-day experience in their attack.

Holland face a stiff task on their reserve day against Warwickshire, requiring 137 more runs in 23 overs. They do, at least, still have Daan van Bunge, their talented young batsman, at the crease with 37. Warwickshire’s innings was built around Nick Knight’s 108 from 145 balls and was boosted by Trevor Penney who cracked 51 from 50 deliveries.Ireland were struggling on 33 for 3 when the rain ended play against Yorkshire in Belfast. Matthew Hoggard claimed two wickets in an incisive opening burst with Tim Bresnan claiming the other wicket.Andrew Crook led the Lancashire run-scoring spree against Buckinghamshire at Sir Paul Getty’s ground in Wormsley, with an unbeaten 162 from 155 balls on his C&G Trophy debut. But it was Glen Chapple who produced the real fireworks, blasting 55 from just 16 balls as Lancashire amassed 370 for 4. James Anderson then struck twice before bad light and rain, which had also delayed the start, forced the match into a second day.

Zimbabwe A 232 for 7 (Coventry 102*) beat Pakistan A 181 (Mahwire 3-44) by 51 runs
ScorecardCharles Coventry produced an extraordinary unbeaten 102 from 108 balls to rescue Zimbabwe A from a shaky start, as they recovered to beat their Pakistani counterparts by 51 runs at Harare. Coventry came to the crease at 54 for 4, after a middle-order collapse of 4 for 24 had left Zimbabwe reeling.But, with Stuart Matsikenyeri hanging in for a gritty 55 from 89 balls, Coventry began to turn the innings around. The pair added 68 for the fifth wicket, and then – after another flurry of wickets – Blessing Mahwire dug in for an impressive 41, before falling to the final ball of innings, having added 102 for the seventh wicket.Pakistan’s reply never got off the ground. They were 50 for 5 and then 88 for 6, and though the lower order attempted to regroup, Mahwire was on target with the ball as well, ripping out three wickets for 44. Mohammad Khalil gave Zimbabwe a late alarm by clubbing four sixes in his 39, but that was the highest score of the Pakistani innings.

Marcus Trescothick is confident England can bounce back from their 57-run defeat against Australia at Durham. Trescothick was standing in for Michael Vaughan, who missed the match with a groin injury, but watched as the England top-order was reduced to 6 for 3 by Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.Trescothick struggled for 15 balls until he was caught behind off McGrath for a duck, as England struggled to 209 for 9 in reply to Australia’s 266 for 5, while the extra pace of Lee brought a renewed vigour to the Australian attack.”I hope there’s no long-term damage from this defeat,” Trescothick told the Press Association. “I don’t think so, judging by the guys who were sat around the balcony talking about it when we were watching the game. I think the confidence and the spirit goes a lot deeper than losing one game and I don’t think it will hurt us too much.”We’re getting more and more experience all the time and that’s the key to bouncing back from defeats, and it was good to see we didn’t get bowled out at the end, that was really important for us. We were struggling for quite a long time and we could quite easily have folded in 40 overs, but we didn’t and held out and that shows the character of the team.”England’s next match is on Sunday at Headingley, while Australia now move onto Old Trafford for Saturday’s clash against Bangladesh with their confidence and form clearly on an upward curve.Ricky Ponting said he was delighted with Australia’s performance: “The pressure we created with the ball and in the field was as good as it’s been for a long time. What we’ve done is set a standard for ourselves again. That standard had been lowered in the last couple of games we’d played and we’ve got that standard right back up there. It’s important for us all to understand what it is that’s made us play at this level and we take it on for the rest of the series.”It’s our first win and we’re not getting carried away with anything, but it’s important we focus on the finer detail of our preparation and our play out in the middle. There’s still some way to go yet, but we’re just at the tip of the iceberg of what there might be to come from this team in the next few weeks.”England are expected to give Vaughan further treatment over the next couple of days before deciding whether he is fit enough to return against Bangladesh at Headingley. Australia have an injury concern over Michael Clarke after he was ruled out of the win at Durham with back trouble.

Thilanga Sumathipala, the former president of Sri Lanka Cricket, will take up a new formal role as the board’s official representative to International Cricket Council this weekend. Sumathipala is scheduled to attend the ICC’s executive meeting in Lahore on October 16 and 17.”The executive committee unanimously decided to request Mr. Sumathipala to attend the ICC executive meeting in Lahore on October 16 and 17,” a media release said. “Sumathipala is the longest serving ICC executive board member, who has been handling the most important affairs in the international arena for Sri Lankan Cricket.”Sumathipala decided not to run for a fourth term as board president earlier this year, after an immigration scandal led to him being held in police custody for nearly five months. But he remains a powerful and influential figure in the current administration.The position as an international envoy had been offered earlier in the year, but Sumathipala, at the time under police guard in a private hospital, turned down the post. He was released on bail in June and has now been handed back his passport.The immigration case, however, still continues with the next hearing set for later this month. The case revolves around Sumathipala’s alleged assistance of Dhammika Amarasinghe, a man implicated in more than 28 murder cases, to obtain a forged passport and travel to London as a cricket board guest in 1999.

After West Indies’ remarkable victory in Champions Trophy final at The Oval – their first in the finals of an international tournament for 25 years – the English and West Indian press was full of praise for Brian Lara’s underdogs. Apart from the heroics of Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw, there was also mention of Lara’s role – as a motivator, and in the field – and of how this performance may well have cemented, for the time being at least, his role as captain after a disappointing summer’s Test cricket.”How did England lose it?” asked Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph. He blamed their “unintelligent batting” – bar Marcus Trescothick – for a start. “Then while England’s fielding never wilted,” Berry continued, “Their bowling was too dependent on Stephen Harmison and Andrew Flintoff.”Browne and Bradshaw “were buoyed by their avowed determination to do something for the people of the Caribbean, especially Grenada, who have suffered in hurricanes. In any event they batted calmly and, with the help of too many extras, whittled the target down to 26 from the last six overs, and 17 off three.” And Berry concluded: “Whatever the quality of this tournament overall, it could not have had a more exciting finish.”In The Observer, Vic Marks also lamented England’s defeat: “They will never have a better chance of winning a one-day trophy of international significance”.He went on: “Bradshaw, the Man of the Match, and Browne were the heroes, but this result may well help to transform West Indian cricket. It certainly strengthens Lara’s hold on the captaincy. They could hardly ditch him now. Indeed Lara was inspirational. Maybe the chance to restore West Indies’ pride and to reassert his right to the captaincy spurred him on; maybe it was the decision of the team to dedicate this game to the victims of the Caribbean hurricanes. Maybe it was the bang on the head from Shoaib. For whatever reason, Lara was a man transformed.”Marks’s colleague, Will Buckley, carried on the theme of transformation: “A wonderful summer of sport finally came to an end in the gloaming in front of the gasometers at The Oval in south London last night. Despite the backdrop, though, there was no need to be gloomy. Only a churl would begrudge Brian Lara a rare taste of team success. Only a dullard would not take pleasure from an ending, at 6.36pm, so surprising as to defy all odds. If the heroics of tailenders Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw can inspire a resurgence in West Indian cricket it will be good for the game. And what a game it proved to be for a full house yesterday.”Lara has struggled so long and so hard that it was impossible not to delight in his belated and unlikely success. A match-winning century would have been a final feather in a remarkable cap. But winning a trophy meant so much more.”The Independent on Sunday‘s Stephen Fay described the “profound implications” the victory would have on Lara’s career, “never mind West Indies cricket. After the fourth Test, also at The Oval, four weeks ago, Lara was widely assumed to be captaining the Test team for the last time. Not any more. By leading a promising young team to the final of this Trophy by Twilight, Lara had probably delayed his own demise. Although he declined to discuss his own future after the game, he is now assured of the continued leadership of the West Indies team.”He said afterwards that, if this proves to be his last appearance in England, it was a phenomenal way to end his career here. So it was, and so it is likely to be. But no longer definitely. He will be in his late thirties when West Indies visit England again, and it must be improbable that he will still be around. But he said the win augurs well for the future. Perhaps it augurs well for his future too.”Elsewhere in the IoS Stephen Brenkley agreed: “The triumph – and in such circumstances – was precisely what Caribbean cricket needed, can hardly have dared hope for and never have expected. For long enough their players have been pushed from pillar to post in most parts of the world. But there has always been more than a suspicion that Brian Lara’s side possess richly talented cricketers. West Indies were worthy victors.”Praise for Lara and his boys was widespread in the West Indian media too, although in the Trinidad Guardian, Everard Gordon warned that it was too soon to be heralding a new era just yet. “The team was under pressure for underperformance and is suffering a string of defeats unmatched at any period in the history of West Indies cricket,” he said. “Believing that the sterling performance in this tournament heralds the return to the glorious days of West Indies domination is a danger to be avoided. However, there should be unstinting praise for the effort.”But Gordon admitted that while a full West Indian revival is still a long way off, the signs are at least pointing in the right direction. “It was the reply of a group of beleaguered young men to the doubters and to the many who have criticised them mercilessly, and sometimes unjustly, for their real and supposed shortcomings. They batted with intelligent determination to take the West Indies back to winning eventually with style. This is just the platform. On it the team must build the discipline, commitment and determination, the unity that must take them on the long journey to the top.”

Scorecard

Michael Vaughan gave England a timely boost by returning to form with an unbeaten 116 for Yorkshire in the National League. In his only innings before the second Test, Vaughan reached his hundred from 120 balls to show that his one-on-one sessions with Duncan Fletcher may well have been the answer to his poor form.However, with no disrespect to the Kent attack, Simon Cook, Martin Saggers and James Tredwell are not quite Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Shane Warne – but then not many are. The important factor is that Vaughan has spent time in the middle and has got used to the ball hitting the middle of the bat. Net sessions have their benefits but there is no substitute to actually getting time in the middle and runs in the bank.Vaughan wasn’t finished with his century, he proceeded to take 2 for 42 from eight overs – to again suggest that his bowling is worthy of more consideration on the international stage. However, despite Vaughan’s allround performance, Yorkshire still finished on the losing side as Matthew Walker guided Kent home, making 56 from 51 balls, with four balls to spare. Vaughan will be hoping that isn’t an omen for Edgbaston.

Martin Whitely, a former accountant with the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA), pleaded guilty to 53 counts of stealing and was sentenced to a 20-month jail term.The district court in Perth heard that Whitely, 32, stole almost $160,000 (£65,000) from the WACA over a three-year period and gambled it through TAB Ltd, Australia’s second biggest gaming group. In a similar case last month, Susan Woodward, 54, admitted stealing more than £82,000 from Northamptonshire.Judge Robert Mazza made Whitely eligible for parole and instructed him to repay the money to the WACA.

Dennis Lillee, the former Australian fast-bowling great, called for Shane Warne to replace Ricky Ponting as captain of the Australian team. Lillee weighed into the national debate over the immediate future of the team with players returning home Wednesday after losing the series 2-1 to England on Monday. Lillee, one the giants of Australian cricket with 355 wickets in 70 Tests from 1971-84, also called for coach John Buchanan to go.”If Australia want to regain the Ashes they would dramatically improve their chances by appointing Shane Warne as captain,” Lillee wrote in newspaper.Lillee, 56, believed Warne, the world’s leading wicket-taker, acted as a “pseudo captain” during the drawn fifth Test and felt Ponting should be left to concentrate on his batting.”I got the distinct impression Warne was the pseudo captain during the fifth Test at The Oval,” wrote Lillee. “Warne was heavily involved in helping set the field and whenever I turned on the television, he was speaking on behalf of the Australian team.”There is no doubt Warne has an amazing cricketing brain – but not only that, any cricket he plays is at 120 percent and full of passion, guts and determination. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but Warne led from the front throughout the tour and I wouldn’t be worried about his previous indiscretions off the field,” he said, adding that captaincy could extend the legspinner’s career.Warne, 36, was Australia’s stand-out player of the series capturing 40 wickets in the five-Test series and scoring 249 runs – more than batsmen Simon Katich, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.Lillee was wide-ranging in his criticism of the Australian team performance, railing on Cricket Australia officials and coach Buchanan. “If we are to get this team back on the rails, the plan has to go way deeper than making a few cosmetic changes to the team,” he said.”Make no mistake, Australia were ambushed by England because way too many people right across the board were living in a comfort zone. Cricket Australia executives, the coach, the manager, the captain and support staff must all be held accountable for this disaster.”Lillee said Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn and Simon Katich were the most vulnerable batsmen with selection for next month’s Test and one-day series with a World XI and this southern summer’s tours by West Indies and South Africa.A former fast bowling coach for the national side before falling out with Cricket Australia over a pay dispute last November, Lillee said the entire coaching structure needed to be reviewed.”Do we really need a coach in John Buchanan and a manager in Steve Bernard?” he asked. “Would it be better with one person in charge with the title of manager – someone who could then call in batting, bowling and fielding experts to assist the team as England did with spectacular results.”The coffers of Cricket Australia have never been so flush, so why isn’t the money being ploughed back into helping the Test team instead of being allocated to CA executives and their wives so they can follow the team around in great luxury.”

Scorecard

The opening match of the International 20:20, between Chilaw Marians, the Sri Lanka champions, and a PCA Masters XI, was reduced to a bowl-out of stumps in the indoor school at Leicester. The PCA won 6-2 after only 2.1 overs were possible at Grace Road before the heavens opened for a second time.The PCA Masters XI – including a mixture of county players, fringe and former international cricketers – had won the toss and opted to bowl first. An experiment of giving the first over to Chris Gayle was an expensive decision as he went for 16 runs. But Jon Lewis, the Gloucestershire and England seamer, conceded just a single before the players were forced off the field.After their bowl-out win the PCA take two points and with the weather still poor the remaining two matches on the opening day of the tournament are heading the same way.
The second match of the opening day in the International 20:20 was also decided by a bowl-out as rain continued to fall at Grace Road. Leicestershire won 5-3 in the indoor school to take two points.Darren Maddy, Hylton Ackerman, John Sadler, Jim Allenby and Jeremy Snape were on target as the batsmen showed the bowlers how it should be done. Although Abdul Manan and Mohammad Hafeez scored hits with their first bowls for the Wolves, they struggled after that with only Imran Khalid being successful.
The third match of the day was, again, decided by a bowl-out. PCA were trailing 5-4 in a thrilling nail-biter, and were indebted to Jon Lewis, who saved the day by rattling the stumps with the final attempt.