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Ed Smith has ended months of speculation by announcing his retirement from first-class cricket.Smith, 31, who was appointed as Middlesex’s captain in 2007, missed most of last season with an ankle injury and as the summer progressed there were increasing rumours that all was not well within the dressing-room. In September, the county announced that Shaun Udal would lead the side in 2009, and thereafter it was accepted that Smith had played his last game for the county.”It’s been a real honour to captain Middlesex,” Smith said. “I’ve been very lucky to play first-class cricket for eight years at Kent and four years at Middlesex. I’d like to thank all the players, coaches and supporters who have helped me enjoy the game I love. I wish Shaun Udal and the team every success in the future.”A tall right-hander with a penchant for the drive, Smith won his three Test caps in 2003 on the strength of excellent form for Kent, hammering six hundreds and becoming the first player to pass 1000 runs. But despite a fifty in his maiden innings against South Africa, he managed only 23 in the next four innings and was dropped.In 2004 there were rumours that he had become alienated from the Kent dressing-room, and it was no surprise when he moved to Middlesex at the end of the summer. After two consistent seasons he made the natural progression to leadership when he was named captain for the 2007 season.A voracious reader and writer, he picked up a double-first in history despite devoting much of his time at Cambridge University to cricket, and opened for England Under-19s in three Tests against New Zealand in 1996.In 191 first-class matches he made 12,789 runs at 41.79, including 34 hundreds. He also made 3789 runs in one-day games at 31.31 and 573 at 22.92 in Twenty20.

The ICC has asked the 2011 World Cup organising committee to begin preparations for the tournament for which they are already ten months behind schedule.India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be jointly hosting the World Cup expected to be held in February-March 2011. Saleem Altaf, the Pakistan board’s director-general, said normally the committee started the work three years before the tournament. “The ICC reminded us that we are behind schedule on the organisation of the World Cup,” Altaf said after attending a two-day meeting of the World Cup organising committee held under the chairmanship of ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat earlier this week.”The ICC has issued clear-cut directives that the World Cup secretariat should start functioning soon, and Lahore has been chosen as the city for this purpose,” Altaf said.Apart from Altaf and Lorgat, N Srinivasan, BCCI secretary, Nizamuddin Chowdhury, Bangladesh chief executive, and Duleep Mendis, Sri Lanka Cricket’s chief executive, Campbell Jamieson, ICC’s general manager-commercial, and IS Bindra, principal advisor to Lorgat, attended the meeting.

Waqar Younis, the former Pakistan former captain, has accepted an offer from the ECB to tour India with the Academy team as a bowling consultant. “They asked me if I could accompany their Academy team on the tour and work with the young bowlers in the squad,” Waqar said. “They felt that with my experience of subcontinent pitches and having played in India I would be able to play a part in developing their bowlers.”Waqar said he harboured ambitions of working as a coach with the Pakistan team if the right offer was made to him. “I have a lot of respect for the new chairman, Ejaz Butt. He is a good man and I will speak to him,” he said. “If he has something in mind I will definitely consider a coaching position with the team.”This will not be Waqar’s first stint as coach since his retirement in April 2004. He had declined an offer to be Pakistan’s bowling coach in 2005, he finally took over the job in March 2006. Waqar stepped down in January 2007 after falling out with former PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf.

While the giants do their worst, the minnows are scrapping for attention. India and Australia are about to reopen some old wounds, and probably create a few new ones, but elsewhere in the world – in the dusty outpost of Dar Es Salaam – the lesser-known cricketing colonies are facing off in Division Four of the World Cricket League, and the stakes are increasingly high.Ponting v Harbhajan this is not. Yet for all the stereotypes – yes, Jersey is more famous for its prized potatoes; Afghanistan is war-torn, and surely Hong Kong are populated entirely by double-barrelled-named expats? – the WCL is an increasingly important development phrase for Associates and Affiliates. The top two teams from Division Four proceed to the third division, whose competition is to be held in Argentina in January. And the finalists from , if you’re still following, are given the chance to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, hosted in Asia. They may only be semi-professional at best, but that only adds to the Boy’s Own feel of it all.Afghanistan, Fiji, Italy, Jersey and Tanzania join Hong Kong in the seven-day tournament, and their coach, the former Leicestershire and England batsman Aftab Habib, is itching to get going. His side are the current Asian Cricket Council Trophy holders, and though the experience of playing in the Asia Cup was chastening, it was a vital wake-up call.”I am quietly confident,” Habib, who is 12 months into a three-year contract, told Cricinfo. “A lot of the teams here, Jersey and Afghanistan, are pretty strong teams. If Afghanistan can wake up on the right side of the bed, they will be very dangerous and with Jersey they’re just well organised.”Having played a lot of cricket in the UK and occasionally playing in Jersey, I imagine they’ll be very well disciplined, and some of them have played county cricket. They’ll be tough. The majority will be hard to beat, but a lot depends on the quality of the wickets here and how they perform. They look flat and slow and may not last a day. It’s who performs on the day who will win.”Clichés are no less prominent in Associate cricket, but Habib has a point. This is Dar-es-Salaam, not Durban. Its curators cannot call on gleaming new mowers and their outfields are more likely to have sown root vegetables than years of meticulously prepared clay soil.”You have to look at the facilities of Hong Kong. We don’t have a lot of grass wickets to play on, and being an Associate team you have to bear in mind you have to be very patient with what goes on. It’s not like a major international team; you have to be patient and you do hit your head against the wall a few times.”Habib is appealingly optimistic about Hong Kong’s chances in the immediate future, yet for all their ability – he is adamant two of his younger members have the chance to play county cricket – they lack the uninhibited flare of Afghanistan. Notoriously confident – their former coach, Taj Malik, threatened to throw himself into the Atlantic if they didn’t win Division Five – their ambition apparently knows no bounds. It is hard not to be charmed by a collection of cricketers, many of whom are refugees, whose country has been savaged and ravaged by war; whose belief is unwavering almost to the point of naivety. Yet they continue to win, and win well.

“If we go through this phase safely, I genuinely believe we can get to the next World Cup,” said Kabir Khan, who was appointed coach last month. “If you give the players good quality coaching, in two or three years time they [could] compete with teams like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Ireland and Scotland. They could go up that high, although I’m not saying they could challenge the big teams in 50-over cricket yet.”I think they are in a much better frame of mind now. In 10-15 days you can’t do a lot of technical stuff but we’ve concentrated on mind cricket. It has been about tactical not technical cricket. We are working on getting them together and unified. We are trying to make the team united and teach them how to act as a team.”In the past there were a lot of individual performances, but not a lot of team performances. Now we are concentrating on being a team. In both warm-up matches [this week] we have been down but have come back. Against Italy, we were 30 for 4, but the batsmen at five and six came and scored 90 runs.”The players have said that in the past they would never have come back from situations like that.”So far, so promising, and as Khan alludes to, there are signs of growing maturity among the squad. Even of growing ambition. But for all their optimism and hope for the future, what good is it when the facilities they make do with are so mediocre? It is a chicken-and-egg situation: they need to perform well in order to attract sponsorship; they need sponsorship to help improve the pitches and facilities that can harbour the talent they have.”We need support from other Test-playing nations, facilities wise,” Khan says. “There are not a lot of facilities over there in Afghanistan. We need Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka to help us with facilities, groom our players and provide them with higher quality coaches.”We need to play against their teams – not at a higher level, but at a lower level – and they will get a taste of good cricket. They don’t play more than 35-over cricket back home, so we need to give them 50-overs or even longer. If we get a chance to play in something like the Intercontinental Cup that will be a big morale boost for them and you will be able to see all the talent they have got if they are introduced to four-day cricket.”The ICC have pledged a further 6% of their broadcasting revenue to Associate and Affiliate from next January, which will hopefully seep through to those who most need it. Despite the ICC’s gaffes in recent years, their commitment to developing cricket beyond the Test world – while often considered a hopeless cause – is admirable and necessary. It’s now up to the likes of Afghanistan and Hong Kong to make good ICC’s investment, and cling on to the 2011 dream.

Ashwell Prince will join Nottinghamshire as their overseas player at the conclusion of the Test series against England. He will replace Adam Voges, who has had an extended spell at the club after David Hussey was unable to fulfil his contract due to Australia commitments.Prince has enjoyed a successful series with centuries at Lord’s and Headingley, but isn’t part of South Africa’s one-day squad. He will make his Nottinghamshire debut on August 19, against Durham in the Pro40.”Ashwell has shown in this series that he’s a match-winner and the fact that he’s already in England with his family added to the attraction of signing him,” said Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s cricket manager. “He’s in form and it’s always good to sign a player who is playing with confidence. He’ll join us at a vital stage of the season and add quality to our middle order.””Nottinghamshire are in contention for silverware and I’m confident that I can add some experience to the team at an important stage of the season,” said Prince. “I know that I am joining a competitive team and I have kept my eye on the results ever since the interest was expressed.”I spoke to Stuart Broad at Headingley long before the deal was concluded and he told me that the set-up was good and that Trent Bridge is a great place to play cricket,” he added. “I’m not in the South Africa one-day squad, which frees up my time and hopefully there will be an opportunity for me to play more county cricket in the future.”

Next week the ICC executive will sit down and discuss the future of Zimbabwe. As their choices narrow, Martin Williamson looks at the three options on the table.

Suspend Zimbabwe’s Full Membership

They have already been out of Test cricket for three years and to suspend them from one-day cricket as well would hardly make much impact given how often they play. At least removing them from the FTP would banish the numerous rows dotted on the calendar whenever they are due to play, as well as relieving pressure on countries to tour there. In return, the ICC could ensure Zimbabwe gets invited to Associate one-day tournaments and other domestic events, probably in Asia, to allow the squad to progress.They would still receive full funding and their place on the ICC executive and the domestic structure, as it is, would survive. The ICC could then review their position at each quarterly meeting.Likelihood A compromise that would suit all parties. Zimbabwe would keep the cash and the clout but not have to worry about finding opposition. The ICC would also be seen to be doing something while actually doing very little of consequence.

Until a few weeks ago, this would have been an almost guaranteed response, but the ICC has been outflanked by events. There are undoubtedly some, until very recently led by outgoing president Ray Mali, who would still want to take this option but they risk more general opprobrium for doing so. Given that David Morgan, Mali’s successor, doesn’t want his two years at the helm to be dogged by the issue that stalked him while he was at the helm of the ECB, he is likely to use his political skills to ensure that something … anything … does happen. But insiders believe that India could well block any major action against Zimbabwe.Likelihood Given the factions within the ICC and Peter Chingoka’s experience, he might be able to drive a big enough wedge between various parties to ensure Zimbabwe limps on. There may, however, be trade-offs regarding their playing side.

Downgrade Zimbabwe to Associate status

This would achieve all the above but also result in a massive reduction in revenues for the board, with a consequential slashing of jobs within Zimbabwe Cricket. To offset this, Zimbabwe could receive what amounts to a parachute payment to allow them to readjust but this would need to come with strings attached in the form of much tighter financial controls.As a further sweetener, Zimbabwe could be guaranteed World Cup entry in 2011. In all other respects, they would then be free to be treated the same as, say, Kenya, in that they would be invited to Associate and ICC tournaments (such as the ICC Intercontinental Cup) but, for the time being, there may have to be an agreement they do not play any games at home.Zimbabwe would also lose Full Member voting rights within the ICC, but it can be argued that a country which does not play Test cricket and barely manages to fulfil its one-day commitments should not have such a powerful voice anyway.Likelihood Remote. There are too many factions who rely on Zimbabwe’s support within the ICC and would be reluctant to see a guaranteed vote removed. Given their playing strength and generally shambolic board, this might be what some believe they deserve but not what they will get.

Zimbabwe’s decision to pull out of the ICC World Twenty20 in England next year is just a one-off decision, the ICC has said. The decision cleared the roadblock for the competition to be staged in England, but Zimbabwe retained its Full Member status in the ICC, a compromise outgoing ICC president Ray Mali termed as a “win-win solution”.The ICC statement read: “The Zimbabwe delegation have agreed to take this decision in the greater interest of world cricket and the ICC. This recommendation should be viewed as a one-off and will not be taken as a precedent.”The boards of England and South Africa had raised the issue of Zimbabwe’s Full Member status going into the ICC board meeting in Dubai, but India is believed to have played a major role in brokering the compromise. Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, said Norman Arendse, the Cricket South Africa president, highlighted Nelson Mandela’s recent comments, in which he mentioned “the tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe”.”This statement was quoted during the board meeting by Norman Arendse, the chairman of Cricket South Africa and had a significant impact,” Clarke told the . “Nelson Mandela is a legendary figure and, as Mr Arendse said, he is a modern-day saint. His pronouncements carry weight.” But it was Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, who managed to persuade the Zimbabwe delegation, led by Peter Chingoka, to pull out.”We have reached a conclusion that is undoubtedly the right one for cricket,” Clarke told the . “Norman [Arendse] was very strong and when Sharad [Pawar] determined what he thought was the right course of action, there was no doubt what would happen. He made a very, very significant decision.”I am very pleased with the agreement. We made our position absolutely clear all along, that Zimbabwe would not be coming, and that was the right position,” Clarke said. “I was determined that it would be settled by us in the boardroom and that our players would never again be put in the situation where they had to make decisions.” David Morgan, the new ICC president, had said the issue of Zimbabwe’s membership was never discussed at the board meeting.Meanwhile, Haroon Lorgat, the new ICC chief executive, praised Chingoka’s role in effecting a resolution, and said politics must be kept out of cricket. “We cannot as a sports governing body be mixing the issues of politics with sport,” Lorgat told the . “I was very encouraged by the robustness of the debate around the executive board table but at the end of the day the issues of politics and sport should be kept separate.”The Zimbabwe Cricket Board president Peter Chingoka helped broker the solution. It would have been extremely difficult if Chingoka was not in favour of the recommendation,” he said. “I’m now confident that with the goodwill that has come through in the process of our deliberations, everybody will look at the big picture.”Zimbabwe Cricket will have to ratify the decision made by their delegation. An ICC sub-committee will oversee Zimbabwe’s reintegration into mainstream cricket, and possibly the Future Tours Programme. The committee will be headed by Julian Hunte, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board, and will include Arjuna Ranatunga, the president of Sri Lanka Cricket, and an ICC official yet to be confirmed.

ScorecardIt was far from Roses tradition, but Yorkshire’s 8749 spectators went home very happy after a thrilling match that swung from one side to the other with almost every over, and ended with the result that most of them wanted. With two balls and two wickets to spare, Yorkshire were triumphant as Darren Gough showed he still has that match-winning quality.With powerful hitting Gough slammed three fours off his first four balls, 13 coming off an over from Dominic Cork, and six were needed off the final over, bowled by Tom Smith. Adil Rashid took a single and then, crucially, came four byes, the keeper perhaps handicapped by the now enveloping gloom. Gough slashed the next ball to the point boundary, and Yorkshire had won a thriller in the darkness.Yorkshire avoided the usual practice of batting on winning the toss and put Lancashire in; they may well have preferred to lose the toss, because the light was poor and the conditions damp. As they had the previous evening, Lancashire enjoyed a good second-wicket partnership between Mal Loye and Stuart Law, the former as unpredictable and the latter as forceful as ever. They showed little respect for Matthew Hoggard, whose three overs cost 25 runs for the wicket of opener Lou Vincent, caught at backward point for 3.Yorkshire’s key bowler was Richard Pyrah. Before he came on, Lancashire were going well, but he immediately yorked Law for 23. By the end of his four overs he had also accounted for Faf du Plessis (10) and Steven Croft (2), caught at long-on and bowled respectively. He did not remove Loye, but the dangerous opener again fell a little short of a major innings, scoring 43 off 33 balls before lofting a ball from Anthony McGrath to Pyrah at long-on.With Lancashire 91 for 5 in the 15th over, Yorkshire had recovered the initiative, but then Gareth Cross and Kyle Hogg swung the balance again with a dashing stand of 45 at ten an over. Cross finished with an invaluable unbeaten 42 off 24 balls, including three successive boundaries off the last three balls of the innings, bowled by Darren Gough. Lancashire were glad to close on 150 for 6, thanks to his fine work.Despite the loss of Andrew Gale in the first over, Yorkshire set off at a cracking pace. The instigator was Michael Vaughan, who played a masterly little cameo at number three of 21 off 12 balls. Eschewing the exotic strokes of so many batsmen in this competition, he stuck to skill and orthodoxy, hitting three fours and an effortless driven six over long-on from a slower ball from Hogg. He galvanized Gerard Brophy (28) into action and Yorkshire raced to 45 off the first four overs. So commanding did he look that it came as a surprise when he played over Smith’s first delivery and was bowled.After this, and with Yorkshire ahead on Duckworth-Lewis – an important factor with rain always threatening – the innings began to stagnate. Jacques Rudolph tried to take command before being stumped for 16; Anthony McGrath was still there, but biding his time. Again the balance swung as McGrath started to open out, and with four overs left Yorkshire needed 32.But there were still more twists to come. Saj Mahmood, economical earlier, was lethal now, dismissing Pyrah and then the key man McGrath, yorked for 46 off 39 balls. At 121 for eight in the 17th over it was all but Lancashire’s match now. But then Gough stood up to be counted.

BRISBANE – Steve Waugh’s one-day international career is over after theTest captain was left out of the provisional 30-man squad forAustralia’s World Cup defence in Africa from February.The 37-year-old Waugh had held slim hopes of fighting his way back intothe team after he was dropped last February but the message was cleartoday when he was not included not among the top 30 Australian limitedovers players.Waugh’s 10 teammates from yesterday’s Ashes series triumph over Englandwere named in the provisional World Cup squad along with some outsidersin young Victorian legspinner Cameron White, Tasmanian paceman DamienWright, versatile South Australian Mark Higgs and former Test spinnerBrad Hogg.Selectors named three conventional allrounders in Shane Watson, AndrewSymonds and Ian Harvey while West Australian wicketkeeper-batsman RyanCampbell was also included.The squad will be trimmed to 15 players by December 31 according to theguidelines arranged between the World Cup’s 14 participating nations.Players can be brought in from outside the 30-man squad but that wouldbe unlikely in Australia’s case.”This is really the first phase in selecting the squad to attend SouthAfrica for the 2003 World Cup,” chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said.”There are a number of players we need to continue looking at over thecoming month as we move to cut the squad by half.”That will be a challenging task because there are several players thatcould fill a variety of positions for us at the World Cup.”So far we have selected a healthy mix of players – batsmen, bowlers,all-rounders and three wicket-keepers, which gives us a broad range tochoose from when finalising our list.”The Australian side is scheduled to depart for the World Cup on January29 next year following the Allan Border Medal presentation on January28.Australia’s provisional World Cup squad: Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist,Michael Bevan, Andrew Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, BrettLee, Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, ShaneWatson, Justin Langer, Jimmy Maher, Greg Blewett, Nathan Bracken, StuartClark, Michael Clarke, Ryan Campbell, Nathan Hauritz, Brad Hogg, MichaelHussey, Ashley Noffke, Andrew Symonds, Brad Williams, Brad Haddin, IanHarvey, Cameron White, Mark Higgs, Damien Wright.

BRISBANE – Australian captain Steve Waugh will tell Brett Lee to senddown his quickest deliveries against England at the Gabba on Thursday ifthe fast bowler retains his place in the bowling attack.Lee and Queenslander Andrew Bichel will fight for the last bowling spotif paceman Jason Gillespie proves his fitness with a searching workoutin the Gabba nets today.Gillespie expects his injured calf muscle to be ready for the Ashesseries opener after bowling 10 overs for South Australia against NSW ina one-day match on Saturday.Selectors will have the final say on 12th man duties, weighing up Lee’smodest record in the last two seasons against Bichel’s hometownexperience and his impressive recent statistics.But Lee, who has averaged 38.55 in his 17 Tests since elbow surgery,should not foresake his pace as he tries to improve his controlaccording to Waugh.”Brett is a quick bowler and that’s what he does best and what he shoulddo,” Waugh said.”He’s naturally quick and when he bowls quick, bowls well, he bowls agood line. I’ve always encouraged him to be himself and that’s be aquick bowler.””It’s a tough decision for selectors and you have to get the best fromwhichever combination you go with.”Brett is an explosive bowler so he’s going to be bowling short spellswhile Bich has been used in longer spells.”But I’m not going to get into who is a better bowler or who is bestsuited.”The Australians will train for the first time at the Gabba today, withGillespie expected to complete only a light session before tomorrow’sdemanding workout.The South Australian has been dogged by bad luck in previous seasons andhe has played only one Test at the Gabba, taking three wickets againstNew Zealand last summer.He was a last-minute withdrawal against the West Indies two years ago,enabling Bichel to play in front of his home crowd for the first time.Waugh said Bichel was now a more complete bowler, picking up “a yard ofpace” since last season.England continues its preparations with the final day of its three-daytour match against Queensland at Allan Border Field.The tourists will resume at 1-106 in their first innings in reply toQueensland’s total of 582.