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The manhandling of Greg Chappell at Bhubaneshwar airport and reports of a threat to the security of the Indian players could jeopardise the future of Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium as an international venue, the Indian board (BCCI) has said.Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, feared that the stadium could be blacklisted as the ICC has strict guidelines on venues as far as security is concerned and has a zero-tolerance policy when such incidents take place.”This kind of incident should not have happened. I fear that such an incident at a venue may lead to that venue being banned under the ICC law,” Pawar told PTI. “Therefore this incident is unfortunate for Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Fortunately the Chief Minister of the state and Sports Minister, whom I spoke to, have started taking corrective action.”Chappell, the India coach, was slapped on the back by an angry fan on Monday when the team arrived in Bhubaneshwar for the second one-day international in Cuttack. The attacker, a member of a fringe political outfit in Orissa known as the Kalinga Kamgar Sena, was protesting against the non-inclusion of any Orissa player in the Indian team and was immediately arrested, while 50 others were detained. The security at the airport seemed inadequate as police struggled to control the hundreds of fans who had gathered for the team’s arrival. The BCCI requested that the security for the teams be beefed up and the police announced that the players would be given Z-Category security.This is the second time in less than a year that the future of a staging venue has been questioned. Last April, crowd trouble erupted during a one-day international between India and England at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati after the umpires abandoned the game without a ball being bowled. The police had to fire tear gas shells to break up the mob and the ICC demanded an inquiry into the incidents.

To judge by the way the pundits have been talking, England’s series against New Zealand is already in the bag. The Kiwis, allegedly, are the weakest touring side ever to have touched down in the country, with the ropiest top-order imaginable and a bowling attack that’s hanging by a shoestrong. But they’ve heard it all before, and according to Chris Martin, the man who’ll lead their attack at Lord’s on Thursday, such barbs are only going to spur them on.”Maybe the England team read the papers a bit more,” said Martin. “I know there’s a lot of media hype to bring the English team up, saying that they should really stamp on us and destroy us. It’s probably something they feel if they aren’t doing that, because then that hype gets over-extended and they start to feel the pressure. I suppose you guys are doing us a favour in some ways.”There’s no question that England are confident ahead of the start of their summer campaign. Kevin Pietersen has already started looking forward to resuming hostilities with his former countrymen, South Africa, while the coach, Peter Moores, gave a brusque affirmative when asked if he expected victory in the three-match series. But Martin has seen enough of England over the past four months to know that nothing is set in stone just yet.Four years ago, during Martin’s maiden series in England, the traffic was largely one-way, as England hurtled to a 3-0 whitewash – a performance that set the standard for their Ashes-winning exploits the following summer. But times have changed and Martin believes that the 2008 vintage is some way below that standard just now. “They are just a steady side and on their day they can be a very good side,” he said. “For us, we are in a similar vein. I know over the years New Zealand and England have had some pretty good battles, especially over here, so I’m quite looking forward to it.”As a bowling outfit, we were very poor in 2004,” said Martin, who took six wickets in the first two Tests before pulling a hamstring in his second over at Trent Bridge. “We let ourselves down. There’s normally a bowler who can carry a group like that but I don’t think we had that last time. So hopefully, throughout this series, we all help each other out and get a little bit more of a pack mentality.When New Zealand get it right, they can be an impressive outfit, as they demonstrated at Hamilton in March where they derailed England in the first Test. The next two matches, however, got away from them, and two months on, Martin was still rueing the missed opportunity. “We started with an emotionally charged win, and to let it slip in that second game switched the momentum back to England. We regret the way we bowled to a couple of guys on that first day, [Paul] Collingwood and [Tim] Ambrose. We let them get a bit more confidence.”New Zealand’s own batting could do with a bit more confidence. They’ve lost their leading runscorer of all time, Stephen Fleming, and face making two more changes to the top order after axing the underperforming Matthew Bell and Mathew Sinclair. But in Aaron Redmond, who made an impressive if doughty 146 in the England Lions match, they have identified an opener who could provide them with some much-needed ballast.Redmond’s six-and-a-half hour innings reminded Martin of their former opener, Mark Richardson, who famously made 93 and 101 in the last Lord’s Test in 2004. “Mark would bat for 130 balls and blunt the attack for a while and be out there being a menace,” said Martin. “I think Aaron’s pretty much going down that line as well. He just wants to bat time and stay out there. That helps our middle-order, and the runs we’ve been getting in the warm-up games have been extremely positive.”There is still, however, a question-mark about New Zealand’s attitude to Test cricket. Until the England tour in March, they had played four matches in 15 months, and two of those had come against Bangladesh. Furthermore, five of their key players, including the captain, arrived late for this tour after taking part in the Indian Premier League. Though they were only gone a week, the big bucks that their adventure brought them can only have turned heads in the dressing-room.”It inspires me to get myself over there,” said Martin, who was arguably the highest-profile member of the squad not to have been signed up. “As far as a New Zealand player goes, it’s an important financial incentive to get yourself over to India. For a young guy coming up and playing cricket in New Zealand, it’s a passage you should be following.”The preference and priority for anyone is playing for their country, but it’s a supplement, a superannuation plan,” he said. “If you can get your name up in lights and somebody with a wad of rupees is willing to spend money on you to play cricket, it’s nothing to turn down really.”Such sentiments are hardly encouraging for those who view Test cricket as the ultimate form of the game, but if the promise of a passage to India is sufficient incentive for New Zealand to raise their game, then maybe Martin is right. This series is not one to be written off just yet.

The ICC has said that there are no plans to extend the number of Associate members who will gain ODI status.On a visit to Uganda, Cassim Suliman, the CEO of the African Cricket Association, was reported as saying that he would push for more countries to be added to the six Associates that currently have one-day status.”I will try to see that within 180 days, three more countries get one day international status,” Suliman said. “You [Uganda] have good facilities, development programmes and administration. I see no reason why we do not have more countries out there.””I’m currently working on ensuring that Uganda, Namibia and Kenya gain full ODI status in the next 18 months.”But an ICC spokesman told Cricinfo: “There is no intention at this stage to increase the number of teams playing ODIs. However, the six Associates currently enjoying ODI status may not be the same ones doing so after the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier [formerly the ICC Trophy] in 18 months’ time. Conceivably, Uganda could be playing ODIs after that, provided they qualify for the next ICC World Cup.”Uganda – along with Namibia, Argentina and Denmark – have been added to the ICC High Performance Program, making a total of ten teams. However, only six of those teams play ODIs and that is not about to change.”

Brenton Parchment, West Indies’ debutant opener, has been charged with a Level 2 breach of the ICC’s Code of Conduct regulations for running into Dale Steyn while batting during the second day of the third Test in DurbanParchment, if found guilty, could face a 50% fine on his match fee and/or a one Test or two ODI ban for his offence, which falls under article 2.4 of the ICC’s Code of Conduct regulations which refers to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play.”The on-field umpires, Simon Taufel and Aleem Dar, third umpire Brian Jerling and reserve umpire Zed Ndamane, reported to match referee Roshan Mahanama that Parchment had run into Steyn in the eighth over of West Indies’ second innings.Mahanama has scheduled a hearing on the matter, which will take place at the end of the third day’s play.

Had Stephen Fleming’s final Test innings been scripted for a film about his life, it would have been deemed too boringly realistic to make the final cut. He entered with the stage set for heroism and sparkled briefly as New Zealand began their long and unlikely trek towards salvation. By tea he had achieved his first aim, the 54 runs required to nudge his career average past 40, but within minutes of the resumption, he was gone – not to a sublime piece of skill from the bowler, Monty Panesar, but to yet another wafty, half-conceived flash outside off stump.That’s been the story of his career for 14 eventful, eye-pleasing, but ultimately under-fulfilling years. “It was short and wide, and I was trying to run it down to point,” said Fleming, as he reflected on the delivery that ended his 189-innings, 111-Test career. “But it was the quicker one, and it seemed to skid through, out of the rough, and hit the bottom edge of the bat. Once again, it wasn’t flamboyant, it was just another mistake that I’d have liked to get away with. But not this time.”And so he trooped off the field, applauded all the way to the boundary’s edge by the England team who had broken off their celebrations to join his ovation. At Michael Vaughan’s instigation, the players had also got together a guard of honour to welcome him to the crease, a tribute that Fleming described as “humbling”, even if – as a fellow tactician – he recognised the underlying ploy in Vaughan’s actions.”I took three or four, maybe half-a-dozen, balls to get into my innings, which was probably very smart from Michael,” said Fleming. “I regard him as a very good captain and a nice guy, and the same goes for the English side, so it was humbling. I tried to think about everything that would go on, but it’s hard to keep a lid on the emotions when you walk through a thing like that.”Ever the professional, Fleming kept his feelings in check for 103 deliveries, right up until the moment a puff of the cheeks and a guilty glance at the umpire betrayed the error that sent him on his way. “I walked off frustrated, which has happened about 50 or 60 times in my career,” he said. “I did have a wry smile at myself, thinking that was a fitting way to go. If I’d scored a hundred it would have been an anomaly. Instead it was another fifty, and there we go.”Fleming’s pregnant wife, Kelly, was among those who stood to applaud him, as Fleming at first appeared lost in his own thoughts, then belatedly lifted his head, removed his helmet and saluted all corners of the ground. “I had a lot of things to cram into 55 metres, and it seemed to happen pretty fast,” he said. “Those first 30 paces, I was just annoyed to be walking off with another start to my name. Then it was about savouring who was here, and what it was about, and enjoying the ovation. It was all just mixed emotions, which is what I’ll have for the next two or three weeks, maybe longer.”Fleming’s international retirement has been a long drawn-out process, which began when he stepped down from one-day cricket in Jamaica last April, following New Zealand’s defeat in the World Cup semi-final. It continued through to Auckland earlier on this tour, when he announced that the current Test series against England would be his last, and finally culminated in today’s anticlimactic departure.It’s a fairly open secret that this is not how he would have envisaged his final days in the game – he had designs on a final tour of England before handing the Test captaincy over to Daniel Vettori, but events overtook him and now, at the age of 35, he’s walking away for good. “The selectors seem to have their ideas of what they want,” he said darkly, when asked who he believed could fill his shoes as a No. 3 batsman. “My ideas are a lot different to the selectors.

“I loved the captaincy and everything that went along with it,” he said. “The pressure, the emotions, the ability to control a game and a group of men. That’s something I do miss and have missed, so if the opportunity with other sides, I’ll look forward to it.” His next stop is the Indian Premier League, while Nottinghamshire and Wellington also beckon. His tactical nous, not his runs, are what he will be remembered for, and in that regard, he might not be quite finished yet.Regardless of the unspoken grievances, Fleming was asked if he would leave the game satisfied with his contribution. “Only just,” was his disarmingly honest answer. “I am satisfied with 40 on the chest. It sets you apart, in terms of New Zealand batters anyway, but as a batsman I’ll always feel I underachieved because I couldn’t convert my starts, and I’ll never know why. Sometimes I was the master of my own failings, other times it just wasn’t meant to be.”Even if I’d converted a quarter or a half [of my fifties] I’m up into the 20-25 centuries category which, as we know, is pretty good going,” he said. “I’ll always rue that fact and wonder why, but I guess there are bigger things out there so it won’t last too long. When I take time to reflect, I’ll be satisfied to have 4 in front of my average, but it would have been nice to chalk up ten hundreds, and have a crack at saving this game.”At 222 for 5 overnight, New Zealand are not completely beaten yet, but Fleming’s role in the match is finished, and he’s seen too much in his 14-year career to start believing in miracles at this late stage. “We’ve got some batting to come but we’ve got our backs against the wall,” he said. “But that’s the way it goes. In the first innings we were going pretty comfortably … and look at my career, things go comfortably until the mistake, and then we’re in trouble.”Unfortunately four wickets in a session is trouble,” he said. “If we’d lost one or two, we’d be going into a tight final day, but as it is, it’s going to take some pretty strong resistance in the morning, and then we’ll see how we go in the afternoon. The belief would be stronger if we hadn’t lost those wickets but unfortunately the tendency of this side is to lose five or six wickets, not one or two. We’ll make England work damn hard, but we only did that in patches today.” The same, to his eternal chagrin, will also be said of his batsmanship.

Easterns allowed what should have been a comfortable victory over Border intheir first Standard Bank Cup match of the campaign to turn into somethingof a sweat before eventually triumphing by 15 runs.The Border last-wicket pair of Dumisa Makalima and Geoff Love managed to add42 before paceman Andre Nel wrapped up proceedings by bowling Makalima, whohad made 21 off just 29 balls, with the first ball of the 44th over.That gave Nel an analysis of three for 35 and made him, along with AlbieMorkel, who took three for 27 after coming on first change, the mainarchitect of his team’s success from a bowling point of view.Ironically, though, the Easterns attack, including Nel and Morkel, werepartly responsible themselves for Border getting so close to their victorytarget of 190, as they managed to send down 14 wides and five no-balls, oneof the latter for what umpire Mike Gajjar, standing at square leg, ruled a”chuck” by medium-pacer Pierre de Bruyn.Easterns also gave away eight byes in an extras tally of 32, which was 25more than Border had allowed them as they compiled their total of 189 forsix.Border lost too many early wickets to be in with a serious chance ofvictory, with the first six batsmen falling for just 72 to the pace trio ofMorkel, Nel and Kenny Benjamin, before offspinner Derek Crookes, who wouldlater be named man of the match, chipped in with two wickets later on.When Makalima and Love came together at 132 for nine, 58 runs were stillrequired and their task seemed impossible, but with three overs left, therequired number of runs had been reduced to just 21. Five were scored in the43rd over, bowled by left-armer Mike Rindel, leaving them 16 to make off thelast two overs. But the fiery Nel, who had thrown the ball down infrustration at the end of his previous over after a driving Makalima was putdown by substitute fielder Anthony Pollock, steamed in and spreadeagled hisstumps with the next delivery to dismiss Border for 174.Easterns, whose skipper, Deon Jordaan, had won the toss and elected to bat,found themselves in trouble at 65 for four in the 16th over, withwicketkeeper Ian Mitchell having claimed two catches, off opening bowlersVasbert Drakes and Piet Botha, and two stumpings off the bowling ofoffspinner Love.But Jordaan helped redeem his own decision as he and allrounder Crookes setabout fashioning a partnership of 112 for the fifth wicket. Itwas slow but steady as both batsmen reached half-centuries to give the homeside a defendable total. Jordaan eventually perished for 72, bowledby Tyron Henderson, but Crookes stuck around until the end for an unbeaten58.Love was the pick of the visiting bowlers, claiming two for 29 in his nineovers, while Drakes, Botha and Henderson each managed to collect one scalp.

In the aftermath of Ireland’s World Cup farewell, Trent Johnston, their captain, dropped a broad hint that he would soon be announcing his retirement.”This might be my last game” he said. “Maybe Phil [Simmons, the new coach] wants to get rid of the dead wood and get the young boys in? I don’t know. I’ll sit down with my family and see where we are going. It’ll be pretty hard to go on after a World Cup and the seven weeks we’ve just had like this. But if I turn around I’d love to be a part of what Phil wants to achieve. It’s a fantastic cricket calendar coming up and exciting times.”Reflecting on his team’s experiences, Johnston said that the moment he jumped off the team bus after the group-stage victory over Pakistan was the one that would leave with him the longest. “That was the highlight for me,” he said. “The reception we got there, when we went to visit our families and friends. I probably walked about two metres in 50 minutes. People wanted to talk to you and sign things, and that’s never been seen before in Irish cricket. There were other moments, but spending that time with our families was great, because they have sacrificed a lot for us.”As Ireland prepare to embark on a new chapter in its cricket, Johnston was keen to stress the strength in depth in the country’s grassroots cricket, and paid tribute to the programmes that Birrell had set in place – programmes that had turned Ireland into European champions at every level from Under-13s to seniors. “We’ve got to hang onto those kids and not let them go off to county cricket,” he warned. “That’s something down the track we’ve got to look to do.”The majority of this squad will be around for the next World Cup. It’s been a massive experience for them and a learning curve. Hopefully we will qualify and make the Super Eights again, because that’s another goal and a realistic goal. The way we’ve performed here means we’re going to get a lot more games against the high-profile teams. That’s got to be good for Irish cricket. But we’ve got to keep those kids coming through.”

West Indies board officials will meet with officials from the West Indies Cricket Umpires Association (WICUA) president today in an effort to settle the issues that led to the WICUA’s boycott of Carib Beer Cup matches last month.”We’ve sought this meeting for some time but had to put it off once at our request,” Hartley Reid, the WICUA president said. “It’s a welcome opportunity to have this specific matter resolved and to discuss the general relationship between the WICB and the WICUA”. Reid will meet Donald Peters, the WICB chief executive, and Tony Howard, its chief cricket operations officer.The WICB was caught in the middle of a stand-off triggered by differences between two umpiring bodies in Trinidad and Tobago, only one of which is recognised by the Trinidad and Tobago board.WICUA decided on the boycott when two of its members, Hayden Bruce and Kaso Dowlath, were replaced after being originally assigned matches during the regional season by the WICB. Bruce and Dowlath belong to the Association of Cricket Umpires of Trinidad and Tobago (ACUTT). But the T&T board recognises the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Umpires and Scorers Council (TTCUSC) which did not put forward Bruce and Dowlath on its recommended list. “This was noticed by the T&T board, which informed the WICB, pointing out the perceived error, and the WICB then removed those two names,” Lalman Kowlessar, a T&T board executive said. Umpires from the TTCUSC filled in for those who adhered to the WICUA call and the matches all went ahead.Kowlessar described the boycott as a “total failure” but WICUA secretary Vivian Johnson of Jamaica pointed out that it was not a situation that could be allowed to continue “in perpetuity”. In a television interview in Guyana last week, Peters said he hoped “to come to some amicable agreement” at today’s meeting.”The larger issue is all these factions in the umpires’ fraternity,” he said. “What I would like to see is one group and the WICB would contract an elite panel and three levels of umpires. That’s the way I’d like to go.”We’re not involved in the struggle but we have a responsibility to ensure that umpires work closely together so that, in the final analysis, we can get the best umpires to stand in our matches,” he added.The impasse led to an e-mailed threat from WICB corporate secretary Tony Deyal to WICUA area vice-president Billy Doctrove, one of two West Indians on the ICC Elite Panel of umpires, informing him that if he did not umpire the match between the Leeward Islands and Guyana as directed that the WICB would “refer the matter to the ICC”.Deyal warned that it would point out that “your actions have sought to bring the WICB and the game of cricket in the Caribbean into disrepute and that you, and any other persons from the region who have behaved in a similar fashion, should not be considered for further employment by the ICC now or at any future time”.ICC Communications Officer James Fitzgerald said that although the ICC was aware of the issue “it is really a domestic matter and so we have no direct part to play.”However, if there is a way that we can assist all sides coming to a satisfactory agreement on this, then we will be happy to help,” he added.The ICC has subsequently assigned Doctrove to the last two Tests of the current series between India and South Africa in India.

Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has spoken out against the idea of playing Test cricket under lights to cater to a bigger television audience, fearing that Tests would lose their appeal and character. Fleming felt it wasn’t time for the game to undergo another makeover, with one-dayers and Twenty20 games drawing enough crowds.”For me Test cricket has created its own niche,” Fleming told New Zealand’s Radio Sport. “Its popularity comes and goes but I don’t think we need to tamper with it too much. I understand TV rights, the audiences, and what they may be but I think Test cricket should be left as it is.”Twenty20 is popular, one-day cricket still draws crowds. I don’t know what more you have to do to put cricket at the forefront of people’s minds. If we put Tests in the same category as Twenty20 or one-dayers we risk diminishing it further.”Fleming is the latest – after Daniel Vettori, Ricky Ponting and Ian Chappell – to join the chorus against Cricket Australia’s proposal to experiment with the traditional format of the game. All three stated that the biggest issue would be the colour of the balls used, given that batsmen have found it difficult to pick the red ball under lights. The innovation was trialled during Australia’s domestic season from 1994-95 to 1998-99 but had to be scrapped after the batsmen struggled for runs.Fleming also questioned how practical, in terms of timing, the idea would be for players and fans. James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, proposed that matches could be played from 3pm-10pm instead of the current schedule of 11am-6pm. “It’s cold, there’s a dew factor. We’re unsure about what ball can be used. It is a little bit hard to pick up under lights.”

Glenn McGrath, the recently-retired fast bowling legend, has been targeted by his old state side New South Wales to return as a specialist bowling coach. McGrath, who walked away from all forms of the game after helping Australia win the World Cup, is wanted by Matthew Mott, the new head coach, to mentor New South Wales’ younger pacemen.”We are trying to identify someone to coach the fast bowlers,” Mott told . “Last season Brad McNamara would help whenever we needed it and Glenn McGrath is someone who is definitely on our radar. We’ll cast a wide net to find the person. Whether it’ll be a full-time position or a consultant who comes in from time to time is still to be decided.”McGrath, who finished with 563 Test wickets and 381 in the one-day arena, has plenty of work options as a motivational speaker to consider in retirement. During the World Cup he said he would like a complete break from the game for six months.Nathan Bracken, the former national and state team-mate of McGrath, was sure he would be perfect for the role. “Glenn made a difficult job look very easy,” he said. “The fact he knows how to express himself and can explain things thoroughly means he’d be able to pass on some great tips.”New South Wales have a solid and experienced first-choice pace attack in Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Bracken, but Mott is aware of the need to develop the younger bowlers for when the internationals are away. Mott is determined players such as Scott Coyte, Mark Cameron and Aaron Bird fulfil their potential.