Paul Marsh, the son of Rod Marsh, will take over from Tim May as chief executive of the Australian Cricketers’ Association. Ian Healy, the former Test wicketkeeper and president of the players’ union, announced the appointment today following May’s resignation in March.Healy said Marsh, who was the association’s manager of member services and operations for three years, would be an outstanding leader of the organisation. “We consider the role of ACA chief executive to be one of the most important and influential positions within the cricket community and it was essential that the role be filled by a person with a passion for the game and its players,” Healy said.The brother of Tasmania’s captain Daniel, Marsh said he was ready for the challenges of the role, which will include major dealings with Cricket Australia. “My vision for the ACA is to ensure we make a genuine difference in the lives of our members,” he said. Marsh holds a bachelor of commerce and is studying for an MBA. He will start in the position on July 1.
Nathan Hauritz fell six runs short of his maiden first-class century, as Queensland clambered to a first-innings lead against Western Australia at Perth. Hauritz, whose previous highest score was 41, batted for nearly four hours and added 134 for the eighth wicket with Ashley Noffke. But by the close, WA had marched onto 148 for 2, with Justin Langer reaching the close on 88 not out.Queensland had resumed the day in some strife at 280 for 7, and it took Hauritz 38 minutes and 35 balls to get off the mark. He enjoyed some luck as well, as Michael Hussey dropped a hot chance in slips when he was on 12. But the pair grew in confidence, and were closing in on the first-innings points when Beau Casson struck twice in quick succession to complete his five-wicket haul.But Hauritz kept his cool with Joe Dawes for company, and was looking set for a hundred when he was cruelly adjudged lbw to a delivery that appeared to be heading down the leg side. Hauritz’s previous best of 41 had come on his Pura Cup debut against Victoria in 2001-02. He had not scored more than 20 in any of his subsequent outings.Buoyed by their unexpected batting success, Queensland removed the dangerous Mike Hussey in the 15th over. Hauritz then got in on the act with the ball as well, as Chris Rogers was caught behind for 34, slashing wildly at a wide delivery. But Langer was unmoved, and by the close, he was grinding ever closer to his fourth first-class century of the season.
Released on behalf of the International Cricket Council’sEngland fast bowler Andrew Caddick has been charged with a Level 1 offence under the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Code of Conduct.The charge relates to point 1.4 which sites as a punishable offence: “Using language that is obscene, offensive or insulting and/or the making of an obscene gesture.”The incident under investigation took place during the 14th over of the second day’s play of the fourth Orange Test match against Australia when Caddick allegedly made a gesture.The hearing will take place on Saturday with a statement to follow.A Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct carries with it a minimum penalty of an official reprimand and a maximum penalty of a fine of 50 percent of a player or official’s match fee.
At the end of the second day’s play, Maharashtra were in a strong positionagainst Karnataka in their Cooch Behar Trophy pre quarterfinal encounter atthe Nehru Stadium at Pune on Saturday. Resuming on 301/7 the home team’sUnder-19 side managed a healthy 381 as the tail wagged merrily. KP Adhav,coming in at No 9, made a valiant 39 (94 minutes, 69 balls, five fours)while No 10 MS Palkhede made 28 with four boundaries.The home side then reduced Karnataka to 182 for eight at theend of the second of three days. The wickets were shared around equally,with Adhav, Kashinath Kadkikar and SM Kamathe scalping two wickets apiece.For the visitors, only opener DV Krishna (39) offered the only opposition.Wickets fell at regular intervals, the highest partnership being 64 for thethird wicket. When tailenders SV Lazarus (19 not out) and M Dharmichand (12not out) come out to bat tomorrow, they will have to perform a miracle ifthey want to avoid conceding the first innings lead.
Three Leeds United players could be forced to withdraw from international duty through injury, as per Leeds Live’s Beren Cross.
The lowdown
The Whites came back from two goals down to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday night, but the victory came at a cost.
A whopping four players – Illan Meslier, Diego Llorente, Mateusz Klich and Patrick Bamford – were forced off with injuries at Molineux, while Raphinha didn’t make the trip to the Midlands at all after testing positive for the virus.
The latest
Cross relayed an update on three of the casualties on Sunday morning in Leeds Live.
He shared a link to the article via Twitter, stating: “Jesse Marsch expects Raphinha will have to withdraw from Brazil duty. Diego Llorente likely too. Illan Meslier a candidate with his knock too. Could be a hugely useful fortnight for the head coach with most sticking around.”
All three nations are due to play twice during the upcoming international break, and Cross feels that the break could actually prove to be ‘hugely useful’ for Marsch, with most of his players set to remain in Yorkshire.
The verdict
Even before the Wolves game, Leeds were without left-back Junior Firpo (knee) and forward Tyler Roberts (thigh), so the returns of Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper to the substitutes’ bench were immediately offset.
Still, the Whites will hope that the three points have given them a safety net above the bottom three. They are now seven clear of the drop zone on 29 points, and it has been suggested that 35 (i.e. two more wins) should be enough to stay up.
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If they can get most of their key players back fit and healthy for the final stretch of games, Leeds should be fine.
In other news, Leeds are facing a ‘disaster’ after this off-field development
Victoria experienced a few nervous moments before capping a fine preparation for Saturday’s Pura Cup final with a six-wicket victory over Queensland, who will finish with the wooden spoon. Ryan Broad’s century made sure the Bushrangers had to bat again and the target of 75 was looking uncomfortable when Scott Brant and Grant Sullivan dropped them to 4 for 34.Cameron White found a willing partner in Andrew McDonald and there were no further stumbles. White added 28 while McDonald got 13 to seal the three-day success.Broad’s 107, which included a six to bring up his century and another next ball before he was bowled by Bryce McGain, went with his 75 in the first innings, but he did not receive much assistance from his team-mates. Queensland started the day 119 behind and the task to stay competitive became even tougher when they lost five wickets before lunch. Clint McKay started the problems when he removed Nick Kruger (11) and Aaron Nye in consecutive deliveries – the hat-trick effort to Shane Watson was a no-ball.Watson skipped to 32 before falling to a diving take from Adam Crosthwaite and McDonald added to the damage when he captured the lbws of Nathan Reardon (1) and the captain Chris Simpson (0). The Bulls were 5 for 71 and struggling to force a second Bushrangers’ innings.Broad achieved that with help from Chris Hartley’s 17 and Daniel Doran’s 23, but when the tail exited quickly Queensland did not have much to defend. McKay grabbed 3 for 69 while McDonald and McGain earned two wickets each in a strong warm-up for the final against New South Wales in Sydney.
Kevin Pietersen has handed England another injury scare ahead of the first Test against West Indies after being ruled out of Hampshire’s County Championship match against Lancashire with a calf strain.Pietersen picked up the injury while fielding during a match against Ireland in the Friends Provident Trophy on Monday. He batted with a limp but still went onto score an unbeaten 66 without the aid of a runner as Hampshire chased down their target. However, after an MRI scan he has been withdrawn from the four-day match. The ECB said a further assessment of his injury will be made later in the week.Pietersen wasn’t scheduled to play any more cricket before the first Test following the Lancashire match so even if the injury doesn’t prove serious he will be short of match time. The contest had been billed as a head-to-head with his England team-mates Andrew Flintoff, James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood who are all due to line-up for Lancashire.England are set to name their squad for the first Test at Lord’s on Sunday with Michael Vaughan expected to miss out with the broken finger picked up against Hampshire last week.
Fresh from a maiden Test century at Cape Town, Hashim Amla told reporters before the third and final Test against New Zealand at the Wanderers that his team will be doing everything it can to win the match and secure the series.South Africa already lead the series 1-0 but Amla said: “Our first objective is to win. If you go out just looking for a draw, you can very easily land yourself in hot water. So we will be playing positive cricket, which has been the team’s motto, and we are hoping to come away with a two-nil series win.”The Test will be Amla’s first at the magnificent Wanderers ground and he is excited by the prospect of playing there. “It’s a fantastic thought,” he said. “It’s known as the Bullring, and there’s a fantastic atmosphere. The outfield is always ‘blitz-vinnig’ and it’s great for batting if you can get in, and I’m really looking forward to it.”Concern has been expressed at the conditions at this time of the year in South Africa, well beyond when its regular cricket season generally ends. Time was lost in the second Test due to fog and Johannesburg has greeted both teams with chilly weather. Amla, though, thought the cold might suit the visitors more. “I think their guys might be a bit more used to it than we are. I went to New Zealand a couple of years ago, and it was exactly like this. But you play in whatever conditions you get.”Amla wasn’t the only one in a positive frame of mind; James Franklin, who also scored a maiden century last week, reiterated the obvious that New Zealand would also be playing to win the last Test. New Zealand’s situation, unlike South Africa’s, is borne of necessity as they need to win to level the series.”We’re very confident that we can win this one. Obviously the pitch in Cape Town didn’t do quite what we expected it to, but we believe the two teams are very close,” said Franklin. However, he dismissed talk that conditions would suit his side better. “It’s pretty cold here at the moment. There’ve been a few jibes that these are New Zealand conditions, but it does get warm there sometimes.”We’ll just have to see what the conditions are like and take it from there. Any international cricketer has to adjust to conditions and play the game from there. But we are hoping it will warm up a bit – it’s pretty nippy, and all cricketers like playing in warm weather.”How the conditions are likely to affect the pitch nobody is sure just yet though both sides will hope that a more even contest between bat and ball awaits them. Bowlers dominated the first Test and batsmen the second so halfway between the two will suit everyone. reported that Chris Scott, the local curator, has spent 10 days – twice as long as usual – to prepare a suitable wicket.Because of the chilly weather and lack of sunlight, Scott has been forced to use gas heaters to dry out the pitch, which is already enclosed in a tent, in a bid to artificially replicate a warmer climate. Scott, who has prepared the Wanderers for 32 years, said “In a nutshell, I’m trying to prepare a wicket in between Centurion and Newlands. I don’t want a flat pitch or one that does too much but the weather hasn’t made it easy. Pace and bounce is important at the Wanderers but the conditions at this time of year aren’t conducive to hard wickets. You can do as much rolling as you want but you still need the sun to bake down on the pitch (to make it firm).” The wicket, he said, was 90% ready.Though it is not the strip on which South Africa chased Australia’s 434 with their own record-breaking effort in March, it has a recent history of run-making. The strip was last used in January for two domestic one-day games that produced an aggregate of over a thousand runs. Chris Martin, after inspecting the pitch, told the newspaper there was some reason to be optimistic as a fast bowler. “There’s going to be a little bit of moisture so it should be good (bowling) for the first day or so.”
The Intercontinental Cup match between Kenya and Namibia has been rescheduled for June 3-5 in Windhoek. It was originally postponed by the ICC due to the controversies which engulfed the cricket administration in Kenya.The match was meant to take place from February 26-27 but was delayed because of the dispute between Cricket Kenya, KCA and other stakeholders. This was resolved on April 3 by a delegation from the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), led by Peter Chingoka the Zimbabwe Cricket Union boss.Kenya won their first match of the Intercontinental Cup, beating Uganda by 161 runs in Kampala after an impressive performance from Steve Tikolo, their captain, who scored 203 runs in the match. But he is one of three players who have now left to play club cricket in England. Tikolo has signed for Haverigg Cricket Club in Cumbria, Thomas Odoyo has joined Reads in Lancashire and Hitesh Modi is also in England.However, they will rejoin Kenya for the Namibia match. Sammy Obingo, a Kenya cricket official told : “There is no problem in the players going abroad. Once selected in the team to face Namibia, we will call them back.”
India 143 for 3 (Jain 55) trail New Zealand 201 for 9 dec (Tiffen 66*) by 58 runsScorecard India established their stranglehold over New Zealand on the second day of the one-off women’s Test at Vapi. New Zealand’s lower order were rallied by a determined 66 from Haidee Tiffin, made in more than five and a half hours. A ninth-wicket partnership of 33 with Louise Milliken saw New Zealand past the 200 mark.Neetu David and Nooshin Al Khadeer were the most successful Indian bowlers with three wickets each. Seventy-two overs were left on the second day when India began their chase. Anju Jain hit a fine half-century to give India the advantage.The Indian reply showed more application after a shaky start, and they finished the day at a comfortable position of 143 for 3. Sunetra Paranjpe, one of the openers, was forced to retire hurt very early on when she injured her shoulder having been forced to dive back into her crease to avoid being run out. Anjum Chopra hung around for 71 balls without too much of a contribution. But a 65-run partnership between Jain, the other opener, and Mithali Raj put India on a firm footing. Both struck four boundaries apiece and hustled the singles with a great deal of urgency.However, both fell as stumps approached and New Zealand made sure they were still in the contest. Raj was unlucky to get a leading edge to a wide, full ball down leg-side and was caught at mid-wicket. Hemlata Kala and Jhulan Goswami were at the crease when stumps were drawn. New Zealand had a good last session with the ball and would look to carry on in a similar vein tomorrow. As far as India are concerned, application will be the buzzword.Rebecca Steele, the left-arm spiner, was the pick of the New Zealanders, bowling Chopra, the former Indian captain, with a ball turning back into the left-hander from wide outside off stump. She also had Jain’s wicket, caught and bowled.