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The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has accepted the invitation from the Indian board (BCCI) to participate in the tri-nation series in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in September and selected a squad of 14 players. However, the WICB bypassed the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and issued match/tour contracts directly to selected players.According to a WICB release yesterday, the decision was taken to directly invite players to the tour, after talks on Wednesday between board representative Deryck Murray and Dinanath Ramnarine, the WIPA president, and subsequent discussions between Ramnarine and Ken Gordon, the WICB president, “broke down in spite of our best efforts.”The release continued: “It has now become imperative that we act if we are to participate in this series because of the tight timelines between now and the September tournament”.The release also disclosed that offers to the players for the series ranged from a minimum of US$25,000 to a maximum of US $59,000 per player, with the “prospect of each player earning an additional 50 per cent on these fees if West Indies qualifies for the final”.The WICB also stated that these fees were “unprecedented” at 488% of the normal match fees, and “25 % of the net revenue to be paid to the WICB for the series.” They said this was only made possible due to the “one-off nature of the series” and the board’s commitment to “enhance earnings of players whenever practicable”.The WICB also claimed the WIPA’s demands – ranging from US$40,000 to $US95,000 per player represented 40 per cent of the net revenue the WICB were due to receive, and almost double the premium on normal match fees. They said this was considered “unacceptable”. The disagreements over match fees and contractual conditions stem back to November 2004.The selected players have also been given until August 10 to accept the invitation, after which the WICB said that another team will be chosen to replace West Indies in the series, which also features India and Australia.A noteworthy inclusion in the squad is Carlton Baugh, the wicketkeeper, who replaces Denesh Ramdin, despite an impressive performance in the recent Jamaica Test against India. Brian Lara, who apologised to Gordon for his comments on team selection, will continue to lead the squad. Fast bowler Fidel Edwards returns to the squad after missing the last three Tests against India due to a hamstring injury.Squad Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Carlton Baugh (wk), Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Ian Bradshaw, Jerome Taylor, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds.

The coroner’s inquest into the death of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has been extended by another week, with coroner Patrick Murphy to continue his summation of the evidence on Monday.The inquest in Kingston, Jamaica, heard evidence from 57 witnesses and statements from seven other persons. The 11-member jury is expected to deliver its verdict within a week.Woolmer died hours after he was found unconscious in his Jamaica hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat to Ireland at the World Cup. Dr Ere Seshaiah, the government pathologist who conducted the post mortem, declared that Woolmer was murdered but three independent pathologists all concluded later that Woolmer died due to natural causes.

In a season where New Zealand’s bowlers kept dropping like flies, Jacob Duffy emerged as the leader of the pace pack. During the T20I series against West Indies, Mitchell Santner, the white-ball captain, called Duffy the leader of the attack along with Matt Henry in the shortest format. In the absence of Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Will O’Rourke, Duffy stepped up as the spearhead once again, this time in the longest format to lead New Zealand to a 2-0 series win against West Indies in Mount Maunganui.Duffy is usually known for his swing and accuracy, but on a day-five Bay Oval pitch he showed that he could also hit the deck and hit it hard, like Neil Wagner used to do back in the day. He generated vicious bounce off a length and made West Indies’ batters, who had pulled off an epic draw in Christchurch not too long ago, look like amateurs.”I’m just enjoying my career, I don’t know. I don’t look at things too holistically I guess,” Duffy said after bowling New Zealand to victory in Mount Maunganui. “It has been an awesome ride; it’s been testing with all the bowlers going down and obviously the workload is pretty high “But I guess the fact that Tommy [Tom Latham] keeps asking me to bowl the ball, I’d like to view that as a bit of a privilege. You just get to trust you to keep bowling and doing the good stuff, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”Duffy finished the three-match Test series against West Indies with 23 strikes at an average of 15.43, snatching the New Zealand record from Trent Boult for the most wickets over a single home series. It extended his tally to 81, surpassing Sir Richard Hadlee’s record for the most wickets in a calendar year for the Black Caps.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Duffy has had a long and winding journey to this summit. Hailing from Southland, a region that isn’t necessarily known for producing sporting icons, Duffy made his T20 debut for Otago when he was 17. But he had to wait until he was 26 to make his international debut for New Zealand. On his T20I debut, he bagged 4 for 33 against Pakistan, but had to wait until he was 31 to play Test cricket for New Zealand. In four Tests, he has displayed the traits to lead this attack in the post-Southee-and-Boult era.”I guess that’s probably the Southland kid in me,” Duffy said. “I think you grow up down there and even playing for Otago seems ridiculous when you’re growing up. To come on to the international stage and I guess start to feel like you belong, that’s really cool.”I guess it was probably out here last year, this time of year against Sri Lanka, I guess I started putting in some match-winning, match-changing spells and stuff in 2020 and you start to feel like you belong internationally. It’s a really cool feeling, it gives you that trust and belief in yourself and you know you’re worth it.”Related

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• 'Series by series' – Williamson on his international future

Duffy’s international success has now landed him an IPL deal as well. In the recent IPL mini-auction last week, he was picked by defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for INR 2 crore as a potential replacement for Josh Hazlewood, who is currently injured.”I think it’s always going to be a surprise isn’t it, you see your name on that weird auction screen, that was an interesting experience but yeah, like I said it was a very weird experience,” Duffy said. “It was quite cool, still a surprise, you just never know what’s going to happen.”It’s such an odd experience but pretty cool and we’ve got a big series in India before that and then into the [T20] World Cup and then there’s a lot of time in India coming up, it’s an amazing place so I’m looking forward to all of it.”Before that, Duffy will enjoy Christmas with his wife’s family in Te Anau and with his mother in Cromwell in Central Otago.The emergence of Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes and Matthew Fisher has provided more depth to New Zealand•Zimbabwe Cricket

The New Year then brings new opportunities for Duffy. Apart from the India tour and IPL gig, he could be among the frontrunners to be picked in the attack for marquee Test tours of England and Australia.”It’s amazing, there’s Test cricket [against] India at home as well, that’s a huge series,” Duffy said. “It’s exciting for the group and definitely I’ve done two-and-a-half England tours now where I’ve not played, so to go over there and potentially maybe do that and Aussie away too – those are the pinnacles I think. Those are the highlights of your career potentially, especially in the red-ball scene.”Duffy is also particularly enthused about the growth of Zak Foulkes. Though Foulkes went wicketkless in Mount Maunganui, he showed how good he can become with his ability to swing the ball both ways. He also earned an IPL deal, with Stephen Fleming’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) picking him for INR 75 lakh. Duffy sees Foulkes as a player with a high ceiling.”He’s awesome,” Duffy said of Foulkes. “I think we’ve all forgotten, what is he 22-23? I think we’ve all forgotten that. I certainly couldn’t be doing what he’s doing at 23 so just the load on itself is pretty crazy and his skills obviously through the roof. He’ll be better for it, to know what your body can go through.”I guess I’ve been lucky, I’ve had those experiences at domestic level for Otago for a lot of years but I’ve relied on him a lot so I guess it can only be good for him going forward but he’s a special talent and he’s got another 15 years of it, so he’s got a lot of time to learn about him.”While Kane Williamson’s future remains uncertain, Duffy and Foulkes promise a bright future for the Black Caps attack.

Shaun Tait is confident he will be available for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September, despite having elbow surgery last week. Tait said he should be fit by August “at the latest”.”I have a decent range of movement already,” Tait told . “The physio is pretty impressed so I might be back quicker than expected.” Tait had arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow for a soft-tissue niggle that had troubled him for most of the summer and Australia’s initial expectation was that he would be a 50-50 chance of making the trip to South AfricaTait, who has also had shoulder problems in the past, said there was no possibility he would alter his slinging action in an effort to keep him off the sidelines. “Every time I get injured it comes up but I will just keep snubbing it,” he said. “I won’t be changing the action.”Tait suffered a hamstring injury before Christmas, which hurt his chances of playing in Australia’s early CB Series matches in January. However, he was called up for his ODI debut late in the tournament and also went to the World Cup, where he impressed with 23 wickets at 20.3.

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MS Dhoni waged a lone struggle for Jharkhand•PTI

MS Dhoni showed glimpses of his best during his 70 not out on the burning deck, but opening bursts from Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma helped Delhi comfortably defend what looked like a modest score of 225 in the second quarter-final of Vijay Hazare Trophy, played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. It wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on, but Delhi would have been disappointed with the score, especially after an opening stand of 53. Saini and Ishant, though, made full use of variable bounce and pace in the pitch by running through the Jharkhand top order. Dhoni waged a lone struggle from 9 for 4, looking to bat deep into the innings, but ran out of partners.Varun Aaron had won the toss and asked Delhi to bat in a bid to exploit the 9am start, but the batting seemed the easiest in the morning. Debutant wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who will be India’s vice-captain in the Under-19 World Cup, set a foundation with Shikhar Dhawan as both the Jharkhand new bowlers erred in line often to allow the openers easy boundaries. In contrast to Dhawan, Pant showed favour for the on side, and struggled to play forcefully on the off. The two, however, struggled to rotate the strike, as a result of which they went at only four an over, despite all the big shots.With the introduction of spin the variable pace began to show, and although Aaron went out for the toss, Dhoni took charge of the team. Five wickets fell for 47 runs including that of Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir who was caught sleeping while taking a single, and was left stunned by a throw at his end. Nitish Rana then repaired the innings in the company of Manan Sharma. The pair added 74 in 18 overs, but more importantly provided Pawan Negi the license to hit in the end. The three spinners used by Jharkhand gave away only 85 runs in 23 overs, but Rana, who scored 44 off 76, made sure Delhi could go after the quicks.Negi did that with aplomb as the wides and the extras mounted. Negi hit three fours and three sixes in his 16-ball 38 as Delhi struck 51 in the last five overs. The total, though, would have begun to look paltry if Jharkhand had put together one decent partnership at the top. However, their top order couldn’t handle the pace of Delhi’s opening bowlers and trickery of the pitch. Ishank Jaggi fell in the first over, playing all around a full ball from Saini. In the second over, Ishan Kishan, who will lead India in the Under-19 World Cup, did the same to one short-of-a- length ball from Ishant Sharma.It wasn’t the wicket-taking deliveries that represented the true nature of the pitch. Instead, it was the ones in between that would either fly through to the keeper or bounce well short. Even in the first innings Dhoni had to repeatedly pull out his famous legs-together stops. However, the exits of Saurabh Tiwary and Kumar Deobrat were meek. Tiwary drove to extra cover, giving a head-high catch, and Deobrat fended awkwardly at Ishant to get caught at short leg.Then it seemed clear that Dhoni wanted to take the game as deep as possible. He found some support from Kaushal Singh and Ankit Dabas through 23-run partnerships, but their resistance didn’t last long enough. At 55 for 6 Dhoni began to farm the strike a bit, but wickets kept falling. He brought out the big hits in the end, sending left-arm spinner Manan twice into the stands, reaching the highest individual score of the match.Dhoni’s blows brought some entertainment to the sparse Chinnaswamy faithfuls in the P4 Stand. In isolation, the cat-and-mouse game between Dhoni’s advances and Manan’s darts made for good fun. Despite just the last man for company, Dhoni kept clearing the field, hitting Ishant for two sixes and a four in one over.A shrewd Gambhir then reacted by bringing on Negi to bowl darts into the pads from over the wicket. The 25-year-old Suboth Bhati, who took three lower-order wickets, went on to impress by not letting Dhoni get under his slowish yorkers. He ended the match with an lbw verdict against Vikash Singh, although the batsman had hit the ball. Dhoni was left stranded, with a teasing thought in the mind: what if there had been some more support from the other end.

The Australians clearly haven’t been enamoured by the Twenty20 format but Tim Nielsen, their coach, believes they are getting their act together after a dismal start to the tournament. Australia were shocked by Zimbabwe in the opener, and then lost to Pakistan as well, but have still made it to the semi-final after a thumping ten-wicket win against Sri Lanka on Thursday.”I think coming off the break we were a little unsure about how the tournament was going to work,” Nielsen said on the eve of their semi-final clash against India in Durban. “Guys in our international team hadn’t had a lot of exposure to the Twenty20, and every time they played it was a lot of fun; it was a break between the Tests and ODIs. So probably losing to Zimbabwe was as good a tonic as we can hope for. We’re lucky in a way it happened. It is made us focus, and realise that if we did not get it right, we would be under real pressure. Most importantly, after that loss, we had time to practice and train, and to get the confidence back among the boys.”We now feel that we can meet the challenges a lot better. The more work we’ve done, the more comfortable the boys are with where they’re at. It’s been great that we’ve been able to find our way through to this stage of the tournament and ideally we’re getting better every time; we’ll hit the semi-final in as good a shape as we can be.”The Australians will be up against an in-form Indian team which is riding the momentum of two excellent wins against England and South Africa, and Nielsen admitted that his team would have to be focused from the start.”I think we’re getting to the stage in the tournament where we’ll have to play at our best to be competitive. If you’re not quite ready you can get caught out so quickly. That was shown over the last couple of days when teams got on a roll and it was for the opposition to stop the momentum. So we have to make sure tomorrow that we’re switched on right from ball one.”Was he surprised that India, one of the less fancied teams in the competition, had progressed to the semi-finals?”Certainly not. They’ve got a lot of young players who are relishing the opportunity to play for the country. We’ve seen two or three players in our cricket academy – RP Singh and Dinesh Karthik were there, while some of our guys played against Rohit Sharma a couple of years ago. We know these guys a little and we know they’re fine players so we’re not surprised at all.”When someone reminded him about Graeme Smith’s comment about South Africa being unlucky to go out of the tournament after just one defeat, Nielsen was quick with his retort: “That’s what this tournament is all about. It’s not about how many games you win, it’s about winning at the right times. If you’re in a crunch game, you’ve got to make sure you perform. That’s what this team [Australia] has done for so long. And they showed it again yesterday.”And as another crunch match comes up on Saturday, Nielsen will expect another similar performance from his team.

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A five-wicket haul by West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor followed by a merciless assault by Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels helped Jamaica decimate Bermuda by nine wickets in their Stanford 20/20 match in Antigua. The West Indies trio proved too hot to handle for the World Cup qualifiers as Jamaica eased to their target of 75, getting there in only the sixth over.Taylor finished with fantastic figures of 5 for 10, which included a three-wicket burst in the space of four balls in his third over. Jermaine Lawson too kept the batsmen under check at the other end with some incisive seam bowling as Bermuda were tottering at 26 for 4. Oliver Pitcher and Delyone Borden made a recovery of sorts, adding 30 before another burst of wickets let them down. Pitcher top-scored with 19 as his side were bowled out for 74.Bermuda caused some early jitters, as George O’Brien bowled Xavier Marshall for a duck. Samuels earned a reprieve, skying his first delivery to extra cover, only to be dropped by Pitcher. From then on, it was Jamaica all the way with Gayle smashing four sixes in his unbeaten 40 off 22 balls. Samuels smacked five boundaries in his unbeaten 25, as Jamaica booked their place in the quarter finals.
ScorecardTravis Dowlin, the Guyana opener, hit an unbeaten half-century to guide his side to an easy eight-wicket win over Montserrat in their Stanford 20/20 match in Antigua. Dowlin and Narsingh Deonarine (31 not out) reached the target of 116 with 21 balls to spare in front of a capacity crowd which had a large Guyanese contingent.Choosing to bat first, Montserrat struggled to force the pace against the slow bowlers, led by former West Indies spinners Mahendra Nagamootoo and Neil McGarrell. Montserrat had an encouraging start, with their openers Nesta Piper and McPhearson Meade adding 46, picking runs of the seamers. The spinners then came into play, sharing five wickets between them to restrict Montserrat to 115 for 8. Guyana made a steady reply, with Dowlin opting to graft it out instead of going for the big shots.Guyana will now meet Jamaica in the quarter-finals next Friday.

Lancashire‘s hopes of their first outright Championship title since 1934 are fading with every passing day at The Oval. Surrey declined to enforce the follow-on after dismissing them for 234 before extending their lead to 214.Surrey bowled tidily as a collective, with Matt Nicholson and Chris Jordan particularly impressing. Nicholson exploited the early swinging conditions, and a lifting pitch, to remove Steven Croft for a duck and to trap Mark Chilton for 4. Stuart Law and Paul Horton rallied with 45 and 48 respectively, and it was left to VVS Laxman (53) and latterly Dominic Cork (46 not out) to limit the first-innings deficit.Laxman batted with his customary authority until he fell, pulling hard to long leg off the rapidly emerging talent Jordan, who has slotted right into first-team cricket. Those in the know are already tipping him as Young Cricketer of the Year for 2008.Like Nicholson, Jordan used the conditions to bowl with pace and hostility; his last two victims – Oliver Newby (0) and Gary Keedy (2) – were both beaten for pace and fended through to the keeper, although replays showed the ball had brushed Newby’s arm. Cork was the lone battler and he enjoyed the challenge, even smacking an audacious six for good measure. But not for fun: Lancashire badly want this title.It’s not of their reach yet, however, although if they do prosper it will be in spite of Mark Ramprakash’s gleaming best efforts. He fell short of his double-hundred, making 196. Still, it could prove ultimately costly, given he could have been run out on nought, and was also dropped on 4.Sussex had another excellent day against Worcestershire at Hove as they continued to press their own title claims. They gained maximum batting points thanks to Robin Martin-Jenkins, who will at once rue, and be delighted with, his 99 and Chris Liddle, who demonstrated an eye for the big occasion with his maiden first-class half-century.Following Mushtaq Ahmed’s dismissal (382 for 8), Sussex needed a further 118 for five points; Martin-Jenkins and Liddle duly delivered, with a ninth-wicket partnership of 120. Worcestershire showed heart with an opening stand of 79 and they had reached 93 for 2 by stumps; Moeen Ali (1) soon following Stephen Moore (48) to the hutch.Michael Carberry’s unbeaten century for Hampshire was the highlight against Yorkshire on day two at Headingley. After finishing off Yorkshire’s first innings for 195, Hampshire drew level with four wickets down. John Crawley also contributed a fifty.Dale Benkenstein struck a century to hand Durham the lead following another tidy day against Kent at Canterbury. By the close, Kent had come close to erasing the deficit in their second innings; they now trail by ten with seven wickets left.

The Ashes have gone and the Melbourne Test went in three days, but the England coach Duncan Fletcher does not believe it was the worst performance of his coaching reign. Fletcher rated Michael Vaughan’s first Test in charge as a lower point than the innings-and-99-run defeat at the MCG on Thursday, which gave Australia a 4-0 advantage.England won the toss and batted but could cobble together only 159 and managed another 161 in the second innings. “I wouldn’t say that’s the worst we’ve played,” Fletcher said as his team should have been starting the fourth day. “We haven’t played as well as in previous Tests and series, but from our point of view we just didn’t make enough runs on that first day. It was crucial to put in a better performance.”England have been speaking about improving since the first Test and they have only one more opportunity to avoid being the second side to lose an Ashes series 5-0. Despite the predicament Fletcher had no problems saying he was happy with the team. “They are trying their hardest,” he said. “I’ve seen how disappointed they are.”Fletcher said England’s innings-and-92-run loss to South Africa when Vaughan replaced Nasser Hussain in 2003 was his worst result as coach. “We really felt down after that,” he said. “I can remember that very clearly.”

Anil Kumble, India’s leading Test wicket-taker, will soon face a rare milestone – his 100th Test. He is set to don the Indian cap for the 99th time when the second Test against Sri Lanka begins at Delhi on Saturday.A smile, a rare expression of happiness, broke through the usually stony facade of Kumble at the mention of the milestone. “It is a great feeling. To think back, I started in 1990 and to have got this far,” he said. “It definitely helps your confidence. It shows your sustained kind of performance at international level. It acts as a motivational factor.”Of current Indian cricketers, only Sachin Tendulkar with 124 Tests has played more matches than Kumble. Tendulkar himself will be equalling Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 125 matches. Kapil Dev, the former allrounder, has the most matches for an Indian, 131.When he steps on to the Feroze Shah Kotla ground this weekend, Kumble will be on par with Mohammad Azharuddin, his former captain, who played in 99 Tests. “The team knows what I am capable of,” he added during a team practice at the Palam ground on Thursday. “I have the respect of the team and the opponents as well, and the adulation I have received has been tremendous. So I have no qualms.”Kumble typically played down any suggestion of disappointment at having remained backstage throughout his long career. “I think it has got to do with the media. As a cricketer I have to perform, I have a job to do,” said Kumble, 35. “I look at it as a profession and try to do best what I can. People writing and speaking about it is not in my control.”Kumble will have happy memories of this ground. The Kotla is the venue where he became only the second bowler in the history of the game to claim all 10 wickets in an innings, against Pakistan in 1999. However, Kumble politely dismissed any talk about attempting a repeat of the feat over the next five days. “It is the people who have been talking about the 10 wickets. Not myself or the team. As a cricketer we know it happens once in a lifetime,” he said. “I don’t think I have gone with that in my mind into any match. It is a good feeling, I don’t deny that. And I know that the expectations are high and hopefully I will live upto that.”Kumble also said that a combination of factors have made things difficult for the slow bowler in modern cricket. “No matter what you do, there is lot of pressure at the international level. Even before you bowl the first ball, a debutant knows what you are going to do. He has studied your leg spinner, top spinner, what angle you are going to bowl. There is so much one gets to know from the media. The challenge is to adapt.”He added that it was not correct to say the present lot were better than those of the past merely because they have pushed the benchmark higher. “I don’t think you can judge different eras. There have been better performers before. What you have to look at is the standards in that scenario, we have to judge them on the standards of that era.” Kumble felt that whatever change that Indian cricket has gone through in recent times was for the good.”You need different ideas and different people if you need to change. Change has been good. Having been there for 15 years, whatever happens, I have learnt to take it positively and focus on improving my game and better my performance.”Commenting on the rain-marred first Test at Chennai that lasted less than a day and a half, Kumble said Sri Lanka deserved credit for the way they played on the last day. He did add, however, that it was not a true indicator of the strengths of the two teams. “You should not read too much into what happened in Chennai. The groundsmen did a great job to get the match started. The whole city was under water, and to have a match in that situation takes a lot of hard work.”