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A gloomy and overcast day off the field was brightened up by a sparkling innings of 196 from Matthew Wood at the County Ground where Somerset ended the day 433 for 5 in their vital championship match against Kent.The twenty year old Devonian from Exmouth was in superb form as he cut and drove the Kent attack, who included Aussie star Steve Waugh, himself a former Somerset player, in their line up.Kent won the toss and put the Cidermen into bat, a decision they must have regretted as Jamie Cox and Wood put on 150 before the skipper was dismissed for 62.Mike Burns was out cheaply which brought the veteran Peter Bowler to the wicket. Together the oldest and youngest players in the side put on 98 until just before tea Bowler was out for 31.Keith Parsons and Wood pushed the score along quickly and both played some expansive shots. One classic cover drive by Parsons off Amjad Khan who was bowling with the second new ball pierced the field and left the Kent players as mere onlookers as it sped to the boundary.Wood brought up the hundred partnership in the ninety second over and seemed to be moving towards his first double century in the first class game until he tried to clip a ball over to the mid wicket boundary and was caught by David Masters, just four short of what would have been a thoroughly deserved milestone.With Parsons the young opener had added 121 for the fourth wicket to put his side in a strong position at 396 for 4.Parsons followed shortly afterwards, but before the end the good sized crowd were treated to some lusty blows from Ian Blackwell who particularly punished Min Patel on his way to an unbeaten 30 at the close of play.At the end of the day Kevin Shine told me: “This was an exceptional knock from Matt Wood, and how unlucky he was to be out just four runs short of his double hundred. We have had a good day and we are still in the ascendancy which is very pleasing. We scored good runs out there on a good paced wicket and we have still got some very attacking batsmen still to come.”He continued: “We have to be looking at getting 550 or even more depending on what happens tomorrow which will put us in a strong position. However we have got a tricky little first session in the morning.”The coach continued: “This has been a tough few weeks for us and it has been nice to see them bounce straight. This has been a thoroughly professional performance from the lads today.”A delighted Matt Wood told me: “I really am very happy with the way that I batted today, its just a bit of a shame I didn’t get to two hundred. Peter Bowler and Keith Parsons helped me to keep my concentration out there, and I had a bit of luck, which makes a change because we haven’t had too much of that this season.”

The unveiling of the Wilf Wooller Memorial Gates will take place on Friday, June 29th during the first day of Glamorgan`s County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Cardiff.The gates, at the entrance to the Sophia Gardens ground, will be formally unveiled during a short ceremony, attended by Glamorgan players of the past and present, club officials, and also Tom Graveney, the former England batsman.The ceremony will take place between 1.00pm and 1.20pm during the lunch interval on the first day of the Championship match, and the day of the Glamorgan Former Players` Association annual reunion.As a result of the official unveiling, the start of play on the first day of the County Championship match will therefore be brought forward by 15 minutes to 10.45am, with a slightly extended lunch interval, running from 1.00 until 1.55pm.

Last Friday in Durban, Steve Waugh and Mark Boucher went out at Kingsmead for the toss at the start of the third Test. Just a week later, as the Standard Bank One-Day International Series gets underway at the Wanderers, a different pair of faces will watch the spin of the coin. Ricky Ponting takes over from Waugh as Australia’s now one-day captain, while Shaun Pollock returns after missing the Test series through injury."They certainly are big shoes to fill," acknowledged Ponting on Thursday. "Not having Steven or Mark around the side’s going to be different, but I think we’ve covered those guys pretty well. We’ve got a couple of young guys who’d added a bit different to the squad. We’ve trained well and I’m looking forward to tomorrow."Pollock missed the Test matches with a strained muscle in his side. He says he can bowl freely now and, given the fact that he only has to get through 10 overs in each match, isn’t expecting any ill-effects. But, he says, it wasn’t easy sitting on the sidelines."It was very frustrating," he said after South African complete their preparations at the Wanderers. "A big series only comes along once in a while. It’s hard not playing. As a player who’s been part of the set-up you’d love to be out there helping the guys. It’s difficult to offer advice off the field. You can only contribute in a certain way. I tried my best in the games to help out, but it’s much easier to be out there yourself."Both captains were understandably wary of drawing too much from the recent contests between the two teams. Australia have beaten South Africa 5-1 in Test matches this summer, but failed to reach the final of the VB Series in Australia, despite holding a 3-1 edge over South Africa in their head-to-head meetings."We played badly against New Zealand (in Australia)," conceded Ponting. "We didn’t play that badly against South Africa. Overall we played OK over there without setting the world on fire, but by our standards we played a fair way below them. We’ve got a fiar bit of improvement to do."Pollock said he felt it might take Ponting a while to settle into his new role, "but he’s got a lot of experienced players around him. I think he’ll turn to those players and they’ll help him through. One-day cricket’s the easier form of the game to captain".Neither captain was giving too much away by way of strategy ahead of the first of seven meetings, but Ponting said that with Mark Waugh missing Matthew Hayden was likely to get an extended run as Adam Gilchrist’s opening partner, and that for the first few games, at least, Australia would probably be fielding their strongest combination.South Africa, meanwhile, are having to do without Allan Donald at the moment which is likely to mean only one change from the side that played in the VB Series finals with Roger Telemachus replacing Donald.And while Pollock admitted that it had taken some time to fathom out what was going wrong in the Test matches, the shortened form of the game was easier to read. "We know what to expect," he said. "In one-day games you’re always trying to adapt and lead from the front. We’ve got a few ideas, which I’ll keep to myself for the moment, but we’ll be trying to lead from the front."

North Zone leads the Duleep Trophy table with ten points from twomatches, thanks largely to the batting heroics of Virender Shewag onSunday in their match against West Zone at the Punjab CA Stadium,Mohali, Chandigarh.As the best part of the match was ruined by heavy fog, North werechasing the West score of 284 for the all important first inningslead. Resuming at 217/5 with Shewag and Pankaj Dharmani at the crease,the North innings got off a troubled start when Iqbal Siddiqui hadDharmani trapped in front on his overnight score of 28. North werereduced to 233/6 leaving the match even stevens. Shewag along withSharandeep Singh put on 48 runs for the seventh wicket as Singh wasdismissed for 17. At 281/7 came in Gagandeep Singh and before he wasdismissed for three at 285, North had gained the first innings lead.Both the batsmen were claimed by SR Saxena.Ashish Nehra was the next to go LBW to Bahatule for a duck at 292. Thelast batsman Surendra Singh hit three boundaries in his innings of 15before being dismissed by Siddiqui. The North innings came to an endat 331, leaving Shewag with an unbeaten 162 off 190 balls. One six andtwenty-four boundaries flowed from his bat in his four hours and fiftyminutes stay at the wicket. Siddiqui was the best of the bowlers with31-4-116-5.West were 50/1 at the close of the match in their second innings.Wasim Jaffer remained unbeaten on 29 with NK Patel on 11. West Zonecollected three points from the match and have an aggregate of sixpoints from two games.

A first class career which started way back in the early 80s is on theverge of ending. Saba Karim, the former Indian cricketer iscontemplating retirement. Talking to this correspondent at a functionto announce the launch of an Under-16 school tournament Saba said,”The moment has probably come to call it a day. The possibility ofplaying for the country has ceased to exist. I had made up my mind along time back that when such a situation arrived, I would call it aday. The motivation to play for the country had kept me going. Now thechances of a comeback have disappeared. There are plenty of otherthings to do in life. So it is time to bid adieu.”The wicket-keeper has taken to wearing glasses since that fateful dayin May when Anil Kumble’s delivery struck him at the BangabandhuStadium in Dhaka. He knows that with glasses it will be difficult forhim to don the wicket-keeping gloves any more. So he has been thefirst one to congratulate Deep Dasgupta. “I gave him a call on Sunday.I told him to go and enjoy himself at the camp in Bangalore. He willlearn a lot of things. He should really utilize the chance of beingwith so many senior pros.” Karim who works in the CorporateCommunications Division of TISCO also felt bad at the way the RanjiTrophy final between Baroda and Railways was hosted. “Did you see theground where the final was played,” he asked incredulously. He agreedto the view that the Ranji Trophy final should always be played atcovered grounds simply because it is one of the most prestigioustournaments in the country. “There should be some security for theplayers” he said.Saba Karim is planning to go to England sometime within the next fewmonths. “I want to pick up a degree in coaching” he said. “I wouldlike to be associated with the game in some form or the other.” Atpresent, he is associated with various school level tournaments,trying to attract more and more young cricketers to the game.

Rahul Dravid has been included in the MCC side to play County Champions Nottinghamshire in Abu Dhabi as the English domestic season again begins in the warmer climate of Abu Dhabi. Dravid will be joined by England wicketkeeper Steven Davies and the side will be led by former Australia opener Chris Rogers who has joined Middlesex.Other notable inclusions for the four-day game at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium which, as in 2010, will be played under floodlights using a pink ball, are the Afghanistan pair of Hamid Hassan and Mohammad Nabi who are former MCC Young Cricketers. The former England fast bowler Simon Jones was originally selected, but had to withdraw through injury.Sourav Ganguly will replace Dravid, who is also part of MCC’s world cricket committee, for a Twenty20 event which follows the four-day match and also features Nottinghamshire, Durham and a Fly Emirates XI.Nottinghamshire meanwhile have named a 15-man squad for the trip. New signing Ben Phillips and academy graduates Jake Ball and Scott Elstone are amongst the group although Andre Adams, Darren Pattinson and Adam Voges won’t travel as they complete their domestic duties in the southern hemisphere.Andy Carter is the other notable absentee following his call to join the England Lions tour but Chris Read, Samit Patel, Paul Franks and Mark Wagh will all travel.”It’s an honour to be involved and the facilities and opportunities that will be provided for us in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are exceptional,” said Nottinghamshire’s acting director of cricket, Wayne Noon. “There are places up for grabs although we have a firm idea of the core of our side and one or two players will probably find themselves in the team at the start of the season based on the form they show in the meantime.”The floodlit match will continue MCC’s role in developing a ball that can be used for day/night first-class cricket and ultimately Test matches and includes modifications from the 2010 version. Last year there was criticism about the green seam but that has now been replaced by white stitching which the developers, Kookaburra, believe will make the ball more successful.While Nottinghamshire and the county-based MCC players will get valuable pre-season practice during the game it is prospect of floodlit Test cricket that remains a priority. “The fixture also provides a perfect platform for us to conduct valuable research to aid the development of the world game,” John Stephenson, MCC’s head of cricket, said. “In 2010 while the Melbourne Ashes Test attracted near record crowds, the contest between the top two ranked sides – South Africa and India in Durban – recorded ticket sales of less than 15 percent of the total sold at the MCG.”We felt that we got some very positive results from the first day-night Champion County match last year, and hope that this evidence will soon translate into day-night Test cricket, which should help to re-invigorate the five-day game.”MCC squad Chris Rogers (capt), Stephen Moore, Rahul Dravid (four-day only), Stephen Peters, Dawid Malan, Mohammad Nabi, Steven Davies, Hamid Hassan, Gary Keedy, Paul Muchall, Steve Kirby, Toby Roland-Jones, Sourav Ganguly (T20 only), Omar Ali (12th man)Nottinghamshire squad Ali Brown, Jake Ball, Neil Edwards, Scott Elstone, Luke Fletcher, Paul Franks, Alex Hales, Steven Mullaney, Akhil Patel, Samit Patel, Ben Phillips, Chris Read (capt & wk), Charlie Shreck, Mark Wagh, Graeme White

Virender Sehwag has recovered from his ankle injury and will be fit to play in Delhi Daredevils’ opening Champions League 2012 match, against Kolkata Knight Riders, on Saturday. He had played in the franchise’s warm-up game on Thursday, against Sydney Sixers.Daredevils’ team mentor, TA Sekar, confirmed that Sehwag was fit, and said that he had obtained fitness clearance before flying to South Africa. A BCCI official said the board had nothing to do with the decision to play Sehwag: “The BCCI has nothing to do with it. It is a franchise tournament and it is for them to take a call.”Sehwag was initially doubtful for the Champions League, after straining a ligament in his left ankle during India’s Super Eights match in the World Twenty20 against South Africa in Colombo on October 2. He had gone off the field during South Africa’s innings and did not return, and it was reported that he could require two weeks of rest.His fitness has been suspect over the past year: after the 2011 World Cup he delayed a shoulder surgery, playing the IPL and subsequently missed India’s tour of the West Indies and half of the Test series in England. Earlier this year, towards the end of the Australia tour, he had back spasms that forced the selectors to rest him for the Asia Cup.Sehwag will not captain Delhi Daredevils at the Champions League, having asked the franchise to relieve him of the responsibility so he could concentrate on his batting.

The BCCI has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in India’s Supreme Court against the ruling of the Bombay High Court declaring illegal and unconstitutional the board’s appointment of the independent inquiry commission. The petition has claimed, among other issues, that the rules the board was deemed by the high court to have violated in setting up the commission were not mandatory or absolute.The original petitioners, the Cricket Association of Bihar, had already filed a caveat with the Supreme Court to enable it to be a part of any appeal filed by the BCCI.In the 13-page petition, the BCCI has sought to contest the High Court order on various grounds including its decision to entertain the PIL given the board’s status as a private body; it has sought to challenge the petitioner’s right to file a PIL and question the legality of the inquiry panel when it was not even part of the BCCI nor, therefore, subject to the findings of the inquiry commission. It has also sought to challenge whether the High Court could make a declaration when no relief of any kind was sought.In their 61-page order delivered last Friday, Justices SJ Vazifdar and MS Sonak had held that BCCI had violated its own constitution – specifically Rule 2.2 of the IPL Operational Rules, which mandated that at least one member of the league’s Code of Behaviour Committee needed to be on the inquiry panel. Although Sanjay Jagdale, the former BCCI secretary and part of the Code of Behaviour Committee, was on the original three-member commission, the BCCI did not name a replacement once he resigned. “In other words a commission cannot be constituted without at least one member of the IPL Code of Behavior Committee,” the order noted.However the BCCI’s contention in its petition is that while the High Court had declared that it was the board’s “prerogative” under the IPL Operational Rules 2013 to appoint an inquiry commission and not for the court to pass an order, “it has erred in commenting on and finding that the probe commission as constituted was against the internal rules of the Petitioner.”The BCCI is also contending that the IPL Operational Rules, which the High Court had said it (BCCI) had violated were not “mandatory” or “absolute” and the board had the authority to modify them. “It is submitted that rule 2 (1) of the said rules specifically states that ‘all complaints and/or breaches of the Regulations or charges of misconduct under the Regulations and any dispute between a player and franchise in respect of such player contract shall (unless BCCI in its absolute discretion decide otherwise) be decided by BCCI in the manner set out below’,” the SLP said. “It is submitted that the manner of setting up commission/panel as set out in the Operational Rules are not mandatory since they can by the express terms of the Rules themselves be altered by the BCCI.”It also stated that the High Court had failed to appreciate that the inquiry commission comprised two “independent” members. “It is submitted that the committee that was appointed comprised of two retired judges of the Madras High Court, who in fact are outsiders and no way can be said to be interested persons. While so, a Commission consisting of outsiders of the Petitioner (BCCI) with no office bearer or member of the Petitioner itself, being a member of such Committee would in fact be laudatory and give rise to greater transparency,” the SLP said.The Bombay High Court’s ruling, issued last week, was in response to the CAB’s Public Interest Litigation that the two-member panel set up to investigate allegations of corruption in the IPL was constituted illegally. The court had raised questions on the manner in which the panel was constituted, stating that the BCCI had violated its own constitution in the process.The court’s findings came two days after the BCCI’s probe panel comprising retired justices of Madras High Court – T Jayaram Chouta and R Balasubramanian had cleared Gurunath Meiyappan, one of the top officials at Chennai Super Kings, the franchise owner India Cements, Rajasthan Royals’ co-owner Raj Kundra and Royals’ parent company Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd of “wrongdoing”.

ScorecardAn unbeaten 51 by Lendl Simmons led West Indies A to a comprehensive win over Sri Lanka A in the second T20 at Kingstown. The one-sided game was set up by the West Indies bowlers who restricted the visitors to 81. The target was chased down with nearly eight overs to spare and the hosts took the series 1-0 after the opening game was washed out.Sri Lanka struggled from the time they were put in to bat, tottering at 17 for 4 at one stage. A combination of pace and spin kept them in check. Legspinner Samuel Badree finished with miserly figures of 5 for 1 off four overs and Ashley Nurse claimed three middle-order wickets to finish with 3 for 15. The majority of the top order fell to single-digit scores, four batsmen fell for 10 and the highest score of the innings was 11 by the No.10 Madura Lakmal.The chase was dominated by Simmons, who smashed five sixes and three fours. The Sri Lankan bowlers reduced the visitors to 48 for 4 at one stage, but didn’t have enough runs on the board to enforce more pressure. Simmons sealed the win with consecutive sixes off Niroshan Dickwella.

ScorecardGlamorgan’s hopes of victory over Leicestershire in their LV= County Championship Division Two game were wrecked by the weather, with only 55 minutes of play possible on the final day at Grace Road.Leicestershire, following on 300 runs behind, added another 49 runs for the loss of one wicket in 12.4 overs and were 182 for 2 when the game was abandoned as a draw with 28 overs remaining. Glamorgan collected 10 points from the match and Leicestershire five.Rain and strong winds throughout the morning meant the sides had to wait until 3.30pm before a start could be made, with Leicestershire on 133 for 1 and still 167 runs adrift.It took some sterling work from the groundstaff to make any play possible at all and when the game did start, it was so cold that 10 of the Glamorgan side wore woolly hats. Only Murray Goodwin had the traditional cricket cap on.Graham Wagg even kept his beanie on to bowl, but it was Michael Hogan who claimed the one wicket to fall. He had Greg Smith, 62 not out overnight, lbw for 70 to end a second wicket stand of 58.Australian Joe Burns hit three fours in his score of 18 while Ned Eckersley added 20 runs to his overnight 23, before heavy rain again swept in and the match was abandoned.