Speaking at The County Ground at Taunton this evening, Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson said, “Following my article on the Somerset web site regarding County Cricket it is interesting to notice that Australian Coach John Buchanan has joined in the criticsm of the County Championship.”The Chief execvutive went on, “This is a bit rich coming from him, having failed at Middlesex, presumably because the job was too much for him.”

For the third home series in succession it’s 1-1 after the first two Tests,when it could so easily have been 2-0 to Sri Lanka. No time for regrets,though, as we have a chance to win the series once and for all in the finalTest in Colombo.The turning point in Kandy was undoubtedly the third morning. We had startedthe day well placed, on 55 for one with a lead of 94, but our grip on thegame was loosened, as we lost four wickets for 72 runs in the morningsession. Then, in the afternoon, Venkatesh Prasad finished off the jobstarted by Zaheer Khan in the morning.It’s hard to put the finger on what exactly went wrong. India did bowl well.They bowled a consistent line and length and extracted surprising movementfrom the wicket, which put our batsmen under considerable pressure. Thewickets were falling, but the runs weren’t flowing and that is always goingto lead to strife. Even so, individual batsman didn’t play with theresponsibility that was demanded. It was almost as if they expected theothers to do the job.There were other important moments earlier in the game too. On the firstday, when we lost two wickets just before lunch, to throw away an excellentmornings work. Then, on the second day, when we let Harbhajan Singh smack 42quick runs and significantly reduce their first innings deficit. Theselittle moments contributed, but it was the second innings batting that lostus the game.Muttiah Muralitharan did his best to save us with that fantastic innings,just when we needed it most. He has always had good hand-eye coordination,but he used his brains too, selecting which deliveries to hit and cleverlyfarming the strike, so that Ruchira (Perera) was not overly exposed. He wasalso paid the biggest compliment that anyone has ever been paid to him as abatsman by Sourav Ganguly, who opted to post all his fielders on theboundary. It’s a real shame that we weren’t unable to pull off a win for himafter his heroics.We always wanted to post a higher target than 264. The pitch had heldtogether well and was much easier to bat on the fourth day than when we hadplayed England and South Africa. Nevertheless, we felt that the game wouldbe close and we expected it to go right down to the wire.We were unlucky. Both on the third evening when Chaminda (Vaas) was swingingthe ball around and could so easily have nipped out one or two. Then, on thefourth morning, Muttiah Muralitharan was not properly rewarded for the skillhe displayed. You can only feel sorry for the poor guy. During his last fiveTests, played against England in March and India now, he can rightfullyclaimed to have taken 15 more wickets than have been recorded.Fortune aside, Dravid batted exceptionally. He held India together and wasboth confident and positive. He also ran well between the wickets. He is theone player that stands out from that team, as being really special. We haveto take his wicket early at the Sinhalese Sports Club.In the aftermath of defeat it is important to not make rash conclusions.Wait for the emotions to blow over and then analyse the situation coolly.The fast bowlers did not bowl at their best on the last day, but you cannotbe too harsh on them. Apart from Chaminda (Vaas), they have only played ahandful of Tests and need greater experience.The new look formation with a greater emphasis on fast bowlers isundoubtedly the way forward for Sri Lanka, but it is going to take time forthe philosophy to work consistently. Individual players, and the team ingeneral, need to become more accustomed to the system. We have to persevere.Yes, we did lose, but not because of the fast bowlers – the game turned inour second innings. We now have to make sure that we don’t make the samemistakes again.

Does the unbridled arrogance of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union know no bounds?Not satisfied with extending its rugby season into February, and even January if you take the publicity-absorbing Super 12 warm-up games into account at one end of the year, and dipping into November at the other end, it now determines when other sports can play some of the most important games of their own seasons.Earlier this week the news that all the planning that had gone into Otago’s three-day game with the touring England cricket team has been thrown into disarray because the all-conquering Super 12 organisers had decided to plonk a game on Carisbrook in the middle of the time allocated for the cricket match.This is no ordinary cricket match. It represents 125 years of Otago Cricket, a not insignificant milestone.It also represents about 112 years of co-operation between sports officials over the use of the main ground in Dunedin.But not only Otago is affected.Canterbury Cricket’s hopes of utilising Jade Stadium for their game with England for their own 125th celebrations have also been compromised by yet another allocation of a Super 12 match in the middle of a game.Any claims that cricket might have had for the matches have been walked all over like All Black forward packs would have done over opponents in the days they were fearless, a distant memory which probably tests the recall powers of some of those administering that code.The itinerary for the England cricket tour has been out for nearly two months now.Does anyone responsible for drawing up the rugby itinerary care to consult a calendar before putting their oh so important claims on a venue?Not satisfied with upsetting Otago and Canterbury cricket officials, the Super 12 organisers have struck again in Wellington.They have scheduled a Super 12 match on the same evening as New Zealand’s World Champion softballers, the Black Sox were to have a match in Wellington against the team they beat in last year’s World Series final in South Africa, Japan.Before even considering the affrontery of the jumped-up buffoons who are assaulting the very sporting fabric of the nation, spare a thought for the softball fraternity.This is a group of people without access to the money that is freely thrown around at everyone else’s expense in rugby circles.This is a team that lives on the poverty line in the money stakes.This is a team that actually wins a world event, unlike their rugby playing cousins who have everything laid on for them but still can’t make it.They have one chance in four years, in eight if you count their success in 1996, to capitalise on their success, in terms of money, interest and self-promotion.And what does big bully rugby do?It dumps on them hugely.The NZRFU displays an attitude towards its position in New Zealand sport that would not be out of place in Taleban repression manuals. In truth they probably didn’t even consult sports calendars to see if there was a clash.Would it have been too hard for rugby to have worked in with softball and perhaps made a gala occasion of the event? Softball one night, rugby the next?Not on your Nelly.That might have represented a weakening of rugby’s grip on public attention.It’s the same in Dunedin and Christchurch. Was it really that hard to make an adjustment to allow cricket to celebrate a significant occasion?Rugby has a responsibility in this country. It might be all powerful with access to money undreamed of by other sports.But it also needs to lighten up in its attitude to “competitors”.The latest three examples do nothing to endear the NZRFU to the rest of the sporting populace.It would be a generous gesture from the overbearing Godfathers of the New Zealand sports scene if they immediately announced they were going to have a look at the scheduling of the games concerned in the best interests of sport in this country to see if changes could be made.However, generosity and the NZRFU can’t be mentioned in the same breath at the moment.(DISCLAIMER) The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of New Zealand Cricket.

Central Districts run the risk of leaving Eden Park tomorrow without any State Championship points – and facing a $1000 bill for a slow over-rate.When the third day of their match against Auckland on the Eden Park Outer Oval finished 14 overs short because of bad light tonight Auckland, needing 210 to win from a minimum of 150 overs, were 109 for two wickets with 100 overs offered in a full day tomorrow.With Matt Horne leading the way with a solid unbeaten 50, Aaron Barnes 20 not out and the pitch losing much of its early life, Auckland must be favoured to score the remaining 101 runs for victory.At the same time, Central Districts must improve their bowling rate significantly. At the moment they are averaging 14.4 runs an over. The pass-rate is 15 overs an hour (Auckland are safely above that at 16.1) and a team scoring between 14 and 15 overs can be fined $1000. A mark between 13 and 14 would incur a further $1000 fine. In the past slow-over fines were worked out over a season. Now they are scored after every game, and appropriate penalties imposed.This will not be good news for Central Districts, especially as the game slipped steadily from their grip yesterday. They started at 142/3 wickets and David Kelly soon had his richly-deserved century, after 287 minutes of honest toil, and 17 boundaries marking his ability to drive the ball powerfully.But Kelly was gone for 114, the total 167/4, and the CD innings never really regained the momentum needed to reach a pass-mark of 300 which would have given Auckland a stiff winning target.The Central batsmen again fell for the Andre Adams trap, the bustling medium-fast bowler with the ability to get his sharper deliveries past the bat and into the pads.Adams had Kelly caught and then removed Jamie How, Campbell Furlong and Bevan Griggs, all lbw to balls whipping into the pads – and all decisions to umpire Tony Hill.Ewen Thompson batted bravely with his one good hand for 18 in a last-wicket stand with Michael Mason which was worth 26 runs, but it was too little and too late to get Central past a second innings of 267.This left Auckland 50 overs today and another 100 tomorrow to score 210 for victory. Horne and Tim McIntosh batted with reasonable comfort to 34 before McIntosh was out, and the youngster Nick Horsley scored eight as he helped Horne lift the total to 60.Thereafter, Horne gained new confidence as the new ball lost its shine, and he was cruising along nicely at 50 not out when the umpires surprisingly decided the light was too bad for further play – a decision which suited Auckland.Now Central face a difficult last day, knowing that seamers may well be their only chance of snatching eight Auckland wickets, yet realising that Furlong’s quick overs of off-spin might be needed to avoid a $1000 penalty.

Skipper Tushar Arothe hit a fine century to give Baroda the upper hand in their Ranji Trophy league match against Saurashtra at Rajkot on Thursday.Baroda started their first innings well, putting on 70 runs for the first wicket. Nayan Mongia, batting at number three, hit an unbeaten 74, made off 149 balls with seven fours. He held the fort as a mini-collapse occurred with him at the other end.Arothe’s presence stabilised the innings, and the pair took Baroda through to the close of play. At stumps, Baroda were 283/4, with Arothe not out on 105 off 202 balls. Mongia and Arothe had added 149 runs for the fifth wicket.

Amitabh Velaskar and Narayan Kambli combined to give Goa the upper hand during their Ranji Trophy league match against Hyderabad at Panaji on Wednesday.Batting overnight on 37, Velaskar went on to make 87 before falling as the ninth wicket. In the process, he took Goa past the 300-run mark. He was given little support from the tail, but managed to farm the strike enough to face 179 balls and hit 12 fours in his knock.Replying to Goa’s total of 306, Hyderabad received early setbacks when openers Daniel Manohar and A Nand Kishore were out with 32 runs on the board. When Anirudh Singh was dismissed, four wickets had fall for 41, and Kambli had taken three of them.It took resolute fifties from D Vinay Kumar and Arjun Yadav to see Hyderabad through to the close of play. Vinay Kumar was unbeaten on 52 off 130 balls, while Yadav had made 53 off 132 balls at stumps. Hyderabad ended the day on 154/4.

Runs in Sri Lanka? There weren’t many for Zimbabwe’s batsman recently, but it was a comparatively inexperienced batsman, Trevor Gripper, who scored the most (167 in six innings) and also recorded the team’s highest individual score of 83. This was after scoring his maiden Test century in Sri Lanka, so it was a great advance for him in his career. He talks to CricInfo about the tour.This was my first tour to the subcontinent. The wickets there are obviously a lot slower and lower than those in Zimbabwe, and they take a hell of a lot more turn! The Bangladesh pitches were pretty flat and plumb at the start of a match, but did take turn on the fourth and fifth days.The Sri Lanka pitches are a lot different; they take a lot more turn, even on the second and third days. Otherwise the conditions are very hot and humid. They suit Muralitharan very well, and as one of the umpires from England, David Shepherd, mentioned, he’s a magician.It was nice to get back into the Test team in Bangladesh, and obviously I want to consolidate a place in the opening spot. I think we’ve always had a problem with the opening position in Zimbabwe: guys are always in and out and it’s not an easy job. But hopefully I can get some consistent scores in and do some good.We needed at least one specialist spinner on tour, and I thought that was one area where we lacked. If we pick three seamers in the subcontinent and go into a match with only part-time spinners, including myself, Grant Flower and Douggie Marillier – although Douggie is a really good off-spinner – I think we’re going to struggle. I don’t know if Geoff Marsh tried to get them to send out any spinners for us, but I’m sure he would have done, being an experienced cricketer himself.In the First Test in Bangladesh we got off to a nervous start, but our middle and lower order consolidated and did some real good for us, which put us into a winning position. All credit goes to Heath Streak, Douggie Marillier, Craig Wishart and Travis Friend – especially Travis, who got 81. He batted brilliantly and showed us how to bat on those pitches. I think he’s got a great future in the game.Craig Wishart was one of our top scorers in Bangladesh, but in Sri Lanka, with the spinners and the way they turn the ball there, it’s not an easy thing. If you grow up with those kind of pitches, I think you’ll do a lot better playing spin. We haven’t grown up with that, but we learn – we’re always learning in this game. I think we can take a lot of positives out of that tour.Our bowlers bowled very well in that First Test, and Travis again got a five-fer. He bowled really well and so did Heath, who was unlucky, just taking two wickets. Henry Olonga also bowled very well to take three, but the match was rained off.Then in the Second Test my first Test century – I suppose it’s a dream everyone wants. When I started off the morning, it looked a very decent pitch. We weren’t sure how it would actually play, as we had heard it does a bit in the morning, so we were prepared to stick out the first hour.We actually lost the toss and were put in to bat. In the first hour it didn’t do a hell of a lot. They do have a good seam attack, with Mashrafe Mortaza quite a quick bowler who swings the ball late; he’s got a good future in the side. But the pitch proved really plumb and once you got through the new ball it was relatively easy to stay in, although it was harder to score because it was such a slow pitch. I thought we did really well to score over 500.I got to 50 before lunch – the first time in my career! – and was feeling quite confident playing the spinners. My attitude towards batting has changed a hell of a lot. I’ve put in a lot more work on my shot-making and, with the help of Geoff Marsh who I think is a really good coach, we can only go from strength to strength.After lunch I looked to consolidate and formed some good partnerships with Stuey Carlisle, Grant Flower and Andy Flower. I felt pretty determined to get that hundred. Craig Wishart also enjoyed his first Test century, after getting in the nineties a couple of times and then being unluckily run out.Then in the second innings I scored all 11 runs to win the Test match! I have to say that was almost as good as my century! That was the first Test match I’ve ever played in that we won, and it was another very good moment. After we lost Dion Ebrahim and Stu, that 11 runs seemed a long way away, but once we got them it was a great feeling.Dion batted really well in the one-dayers and got a hundred and an eighty. I got into that side; like I said, I’ve improved and I also want to consolidate my place in the one-day side. Obviously I’m still new to the one-day game, especially on the international arena, but I think I can play both forms of the game and I look forward to a future in it.We set a goal to win the one-day series three-nil, and we did. I think we batted generally well, and again Craig Wishart batted exceptionally well, getting most of our runs. Dion did really well, and got us a hundred in one match and eighty-odd in another. He looked in really good touch, but in Sri Lanka he struggled for runs. The seamers there are not easy to play, but they’re easier than the spinners on those pitches. Against the spin it’s not an easy task.Hamilton Masakadza came back into the team for the Tests in Sri Lanka and it was unlucky for Dion to lose his place. He showed good form in the one-dayers, but he played in a warm-up game and didn’t get any runs, and I think he got dropped for that.Hamilton coming back boosted our batting line-up a bit in terms of confidence, and Gavin Rennie as well. I think Muralitharan struggles a bit against left-handers and Gavin had a really good tour. Murali was the only one who did the real damage, getting 30 wickets in all three Tests. As I said, he’s like a magician and he’s going to win Sri Lanka a lot more games in the future.Hamilton handled the conditions pretty well; it was his first tour, like it was my first tour, and you have to have the right mind-set. You can’t think you’ll go out there and score a lot of runs quickly as you can do here in Zimbabwe on a flat pitch with a lot of bounce. Sri Lanka have a good seam attack in Zoysa and Vaas, before Muralitharan and the other spinners come on.I think Andy Flower, being the greatest batsman in Zimbabwe, has different pressures on him to other guys in the team, and I have no doubt that class is permanent and form is temporary. In his case, he’s the classiest player we’ve got and I have no doubt he will be back again scoring runs as soon as possible.We also had a few unlucky decisions go against us in all three Tests and we have to take that into account. When you have a limited resource of players such as we have, when you lose a couple of batsmen to unlucky decisions that can change a game. I think we all got some rough decisions there.I think Geoff Marsh is definitely going to take us places as a coach. He has good man-management and he knows a lot about the game.In the Second Test – well, I got a lot of twenties and thirties that I could have converted into fifties and hundreds, but again Muralitharan in the first two Tests got me out all four times. I would survive the first five overs against the seamers and then get out when Murali came on.He’s got it all as a bowler: he has his big turner, the off-spinner, and then the straight one and the one that goes the other way. I think all round the world batsmen battle to pick the one that goes the other way. When he’s bowling like that, pitching on a good length, if you nick it or get a `roughie’ you can only count yourself unlucky. But the fact remains that I have to turn those twenties and thirties into higher scores.Batting against Muralitharan, we looked to cover off stump and I personally looked to play the line of the ball instead of the turn, and if it was going to hit me outside the line obviously I can’t be given out. You just have to be patient with that one that goes the other way. I think in the last Test we showed patience against him, when the ball was turning a lot more than in the other Tests. I think that frustrated him, the fact that the ball was turning too much and he couldn’t control the turn.But I think he’s going to get 600 wickets fairly soon. In Sri Lanka especially he’s going to bowl almost half their overs in an innings, so I’d expect him to take that many five-fers and that many ten-fers in Test cricket.After losing the First Test, we had to try and devise a plan on how to win the Second Test, and I think in a sense we looked to score against Muralitharan instead of just biding our time. I personally looked to score off him and got out trying to do that. That’s the way cricket goes sometimes.It’s a tough tour to Sri Lanka, and I don’t think any side is going to go there and roll the Sri Lankans. They said it themselves: they are the best side in the world in their own conditions, and I don’t doubt that – with Muralitharan in the side! Without him, I think we’d at least have secured some draws, but without him in their side I think they would have prepared different tracks with perhaps a bit more grass to suit their seamers. They do have a world-class seam attack in Zoysa and Vaas, and I’m sure they’re going to do very well on overseas pitches, outside the subcontinent. Obviously with Muralitharan in your side you are going to prepare pitches for him! Pitches can win you Test matches.We had a great start at Galle. They won the toss and batted first, and got off to what they would have regarded as a shaky start. Then they consolidated with their lower order, Chandana getting 92, and got quite a decent first-innings score of over 400. In the first two days the bowling on that pitch went quite well, Douggie Marillier doing really well with four wickets.We got off to quite a solid start as well with our batting, and Stuey and I scored 153 for the first wicket. But again we have to turn them into hundreds, and big hundreds, especially on those pitches. Then we had a collapse and one of us had to bat through there. I’m not too sure how it came about that Stuey came to open with me, but that’s up to the management. He has opened before in Test matches, so it’s not a new thing for him.Again, the spinners did the damage. Like I said, Murali turned the ball a lot more in Galle than in other places, and in that Test he almost turned it too much; he wouldn’t get the lbw decisions and he was beating the bat two balls each over. So for him it was frustrating. And as the pitch grew worse and worse, they turned the ball even more and more. They got it right in our second innings and went right through us.For most of us, it was our first tour to the subcontinent and I think we can take a lot of positives in our batting. In our bowling, when we go to that part of the world I think reverse swing is a necessary weapon for our seamers. We need to master that; their seamers reverse-swing the ball more than we did and knew how to control it better.I think Sangakkara is one of their better batsmen; he’s got a good technique. Marvin Atapattu has a high average against us, another with a good technique, but he had a lean tour against us. Another guy who did really well against us is Samaraweera, a batsman who can also bowl off-spin. He got a lot of runs in the series.There’s always going to be a lot of verbal banter on the field – it happens in Test match cricket. Off the field we got on pretty well; I don’t think we have any problems with the Sri Lankans. But obviously with a few umpiring decisions that didn’t go our way we got a bit grumpy at times.I think our team gelled really well together. I think Geoff Marsh has brought in a lot of new ideas and as a team we are definitely getting it together.I can’t take anything for granted personally right now regarding my batting, but I can only take it tour by tour. About six months ago I thought I’d never play for Zimbabwe again, and when I came back from England I was in the side after four weeks. So you can never tell.

Hard work developing his bowling action worked for Durham county all-rounder Paul Collingwood last night when he skittled Lou Vincent, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris and Andre Adams to help England to a deserved 43-run win over New Zealand at Napier.The win kept the National Bank One-Day International Series alive and was a reminder to the New Zealanders that, despite all the work they have put into advancing their game this year, they can still be undone by neglect of the basics of the game, especially partnership building.Collingwood had a previous best of one for 31 in his 16 ODIs and he had only three wickets at a cost of 101 runs apiece before last night’s effort.He finished with four for 38, the result of his finding the McLean Park environment and the settling dew suitable for his swing bowling.England were defending a score of 244/5, another score in the 240s that has dominated much of New Zealand’s one-day summer.But there were no heroics to get the CLEAR Black Caps out of this muddle.England built their total around the batting of Nick Knight. His 80 was a classic foundation-type innings which could only be faulted for the fact that he got out in the 43rd over when the chance was there to bat all the way through and make an even bigger total. He did take a blow to the face when pinned by a ball from fast bowler Ian Butler to sustain a cut that needed three stitches.As it was, part of the slack was taken up by Graham Thorpe who plundered with some success and brought up a half century off 48 balls. He produced some hard hit shots in the latter part of his innings and was only out to a fine leaping catch on the boundary’s edge by Nathan Astle.England had built their innings cautiously after getting to 71/1 in 13 overs, the same score as at the 15-over mark due to two maidens bowled when the players returned from the first of two rain breaks.But tight bowling, especially from fast-medium merchant Daryl Tuffey, whose 10 overs cost only 39 runs, and Harris, who took one for 29, kept the lid on any scoring outbreaks from the tourists.They kept their wickets too, although Marcus Trescothick departed for 41, off 50 balls, when hitting a ball from Cairns straight to Harris, while Nasser Hussain, the England captain, got it all wrong when trying to sweep Harris and was bowled around his legs for 24.New Zealand’s chase was not helped by quite possibly the umpiring blunder of the series to date when Brent Bowden gave Astle out for a catch that even had Hussain smirking at the after-match press conference and mentioning that Astle might do his pants up tighter next time. Television replays showed that Astle’s bat was nowhere near the ball.Chris Nevin scored 21 off 19 but New Zealand were 31/2 in the sixth and while Craig McMillan attempted to help Stephen Fleming recover the situation he set the trend for the big hitters in the New Zealand innings when his first real effort to get onto a ball went straight to hand rather than to free country.Similar fates befell Cairns and Adams who both departed to catches deep in the outfield.Lou Vincent did help Fleming add 58 for the fourth wicket before he was Collingwood’s first victim, caught by Craig White in the gully when he had scored 29.The run rate requirement was mounting against the New Zealanders at this time and the pressure was on the batsmen coming in.Fleming stood firm in an innings of 76 not out scored off 112 balls. There were some moments of outstanding strokeplay but there were other moments when he struggled.The score was his second highest of the summer and his best since he scored 85 against South Africa in Hobart in the VB Series.But Fleming needed much more scoring assistance than was forthcoming from his side and it would not surprise if New Zealand decided to bolster their batting in Auckland by bringing Brendon McCullum back into the side.Whatever happens, Napier will be remembered as a happy hunting ground for England on this leg of their tour and perhaps the first step towards achieving a victory in the series.Fleming has said New Zealand know what they have to do, and Hussain has said he expects New Zealand to come charging back at them.Fighting talk from both camps, and that could yet be the requirement that produces the thriller this series could do with.

Tasmanian lower order batsmen Sean Clingeleffer and Damien Wright batted South Australia out of the game and put their side within striking distance of an outright win at stumps on day three of their Pura Cup match at Adelaide Oval today.SA was 2-66 in its second innings at the close of play, with opener Ben Johnson on 34 and Ben Higgins on seven, still needing another 208 runs to make Tasmaniabat again.It was the third straight day of dominance by the Tigers, after they started the day at 3-291 in their first innings, already leading by 91 runs after dismissing SA for 200 in its first innings on day one.Captain Jamie Cox started the day on 144, with Daniel Marsh with him at the crease on 63, but Marsh was trapped LBW by leg spinner Peter McIntyre withoutadding to his score today, giving the Redbacks some hope of crashing through the Tasmanian lower order.McIntyre also dismissed Cox in the opening session, caught sweeping at deep backward square leg for 174 after a marathon innings lasting more than eight hours.McIntyre bowled 24 consecutive overs from the southern end from the start of the play today for a spell of 2-61 which finished midway through the second session,after he bowled just seven of SA’s 97 overs yesterday.Left arm paceman Mark Harrity bowled Scott Kremerskothen (26) four balls after the Cox dismissal and the Tigers were 6-349, SA having taken 3-58 in the first24 overs of the day in its best period of the match.But a patient partnership of 123 between wicketkeeper Clingeleffer (66 not out) and all-rounder Wright (55) destroyed any chance SA had of working its way backinto a competitive situation and broke the Redbacks’ spirit.The pair batted for almost 40 overs in a stand that lasted more than two hours and took the Tigers to 6-472 nearing tea.It was the third century-plus partnership of the Tasmanian innings and five Tasmanians made half-centuries or better.All-rounder Mike Smith eventually trapped Wright LBW to break the partnership then had Shannon Tubb (one) caught at square leg in his next over, at which stage Cox declared the innings at 8-474, a first innings lead of 274.Tasmania then made quick inroads into the SA top order, David Fitzgerald caught behind for a duck off David Saker’s bowling in the second over.Saker bowled a superb spell of 1-6 in his six overs late today, including five maidens.Wright then captured the crucial wicket of SA captain Greg Blewett (21), when he edged a drive to Marsh at first slip.If Tasmania can snare the eight wickets needed to take outright victory tomorrow it will join Western Australia in equal second position on the Pura Cup table with one round of matches left before the final.

Officials of the England and Wales Cricket Board are expected to seek compensation from the government if they bow to pressure not to play their World Cup match in Zimbabwe.Several members of the government, including the Prime Minister, have called on the ECB to boycott their match against Zimbabwe, which is due to take place in Harare on February 13, as a protest against President Robert Mugabe’s regime and its record of alleged human rights violations.The ECB’s chief executive, Tim Lamb, has asked for an urgent meeting with the government to seek a solution to the matter. The Board faces huge financial penalties from the International Cricket Council if they refuse to take part in the match. It is also possible that Zimbabwe might pull out of their tour to England next summer.”If the ECB finds it is in danger of suffering a severe financial loss as a result of breaking its contract, or if there is any threat to our internationalprogramme next summer because of any retaliatory action on the part of theZimbabwe Cricket Union or the Zimbabwe Government, we want to make sure thatwe’ll be fully indemnified for going along with the Government’s wishes,” Lamb said today.”We haven’t had any direct discussions with the Government on this issue, butI’m quite sure during the discussions that we will be raising the potentialfinancial and contractual ramifications of us not playing the fixture.””What the politicians don’t seem to appreciate is that there are some quiteserious financial and contractual, as well as cricketing, ramifications of ournot fulfilling our commitment to play our World Cup fixture.”Quite apart from the obvious point that we would forfeit the two points if we don’t show up for any reason other than safety and security concerns, which from a cricketing point of view would be a huge disadvantage, I can’t rule outthe possibility that the ECB would have to pay substantial compensation to theICC or their commercial partners.”I’m certainly not an apologist for the regime in Zimbabwe, but we don’t believe it’s up to us as a sporting body to make political or moral judgements about regimes in different parts of the world. It’s quite clear no official economic or sporting sanctions have been applied to Zimbabwe either by the British Government or internationally.”If the regime is so repugnant, as many politicians are saying, then why hasn’t Britain cut off diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe, why haven’t sanctions been applied to Zimbabwe, and why is cricket regarded as an activity that has to make a gesture which will have potentially severe financial consequences on the game of cricket, internationally and domestically?”We believe it is unjustified and unfair for cricket to be singled out in this way and the people who will most be damaged by this is the Zimbabwe cricketcommunity.”The new chairman of the ECB, David Morgan, told the BBC this morning that he believes England’s match against Zimbabwe in Harare on on February 13 will go ahead.”I think it is probable that we will play the match,” said Morgan, who takes over in his new role tomorrow.Asked if he thought Government compensation was likely if England pulled out of the Zimbabwe match, and if Zimbabwe refused to tour England next summer, Morgan replied: “Probably not, but it isn’t just finance that is important. The World Cup has a schedule of matches that has been in place for a year, based on matches taking place in three countries – South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe.”