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A maiden century from 21-year-old Chetan Sachdev helped Tripura draw their four-day plate group match against Goa at Margao. Goa, though, had the satisfaction of earning one point for having secured a 170-run first-innings lead on the third day.On Saturday, Sachdev and Ritesh Jaiswal (90) put on 157 runs for the fourth wicket as the visitors comfortably reached 246-5 in their second essay before play was called off. For Goa, medium-pacer Sanjay Dahad was yet again the most successful bowler, claiming three wickets.At the end of two matches, then, Goa are yet to open their account while Tripura have one point to show for their efforts.

Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, has urged the BBC to reconsider its decision not to cover the first-ever ODI between Scotland and England at the Grange in August.Salmond is a cricket fan and believes that the BBC does not do enough to cover sport outside major events such as rugby’s Six Nations Championships, football’s European Championships and Wimbledon. He said it was “hugely disappointing” that the BBC had chosen to snub the historic cricketing contest in Scotland on August 18, which is likely to feature stars such as Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and possibly Andrew Flintoff.It is, according to the Cricket Scotland chief executive, Roddy Smith “the biggest match we have ever staged” and is expected to draw a capacity crowd of 6000.Salmond will be there in person, but intends to raise the matter at Holyrood this week and has the support of Margo MacDonald, the chairperson of the parliament’s Cross-Party Sports group.”This is an important sporting event in Scotland and television and radio should be rising to the occasion,” said Salmond. “It would be hugely disappointing if it came and went without being broadcast and it should certainly be shown, given the widespread and growing interest in the game throughout Scotland.”MacDonald, who is the honorary patron of Edinburgh CC has already written to the BBC to express her dismay at the decision. Cricinfo has a copy of her letter, which spells out her belief that BBC Scotland should stop obsessing over football and provide a better service to licence payers.”Whilst appreciating the massive commitment to the Olympic Games, I still think that BBC Scotland has a duty to cover important sporting events in their own country,” said MacDonald. “This cricket match, I believe, could act as an effective catalyst in persuading youngsters in particular to engage in a sport in which Scotland is growing its own heroes and role models.”It seems strange, to say the least, that the BBC should not deem this one-day event worthy of coverage. This is a historic, ground-breaking occasion, and I intend to fight this decision.”The BBC has been widely criticised for its failure to cover the recent Scotland rugby tour of Argentina, where they beat the Pumas for the first time since 1990. Salmond and MacDonald have no intention of allowing the Corporation to show a similar lack of interest in the cricket.

Hawke’s Bay batsman Jesse Ryder gave another demonstration of his batting worth when scoring 181 for the New Zealand Academy on day two of their three-day match with the Australian Academy at Townsville yesterday.Academies from the two countries and South Africa are taking part in a special series of games over the next fortnight.Ryder, a key member of the New Zealand Under-19 team at the ICC Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, played a much more sedate role than the hard-hitting demonstrations he gave then.He faced 299 balls during his innings and hit 27 fours and one six.Australia batted first and lost three wickets quickly. Kyle Mills had an especially welcome return when taking a wicket with his first ball, courtesy of a leg before wicket decision. Australia were 56/4.Australia’s response was led by Liam Buchanan, who took 16 from off-spinner Jeetan Patel’s first three deliveries and by lunch they were 70/4 off 23 overs.Buchanan and Mark Cosgrove increased the momentum of the innings with Buchanan’s half century coming off 43 balls. He added 102 runs with Cosgrove and went on to score his century off only 92 balls with some fine shots in front of the wicket and some severe pull shots.However, when on 109 he chased a wider ball from Joseph Yovich and edged it to Ryder in the slips.Patel came back into his own once Buchanan was out and had the wicket of Beau Casson for 12. Australia eventually declared at 325/8.James McMillan took three for 74, and Mills two for 58. New Zealand’s over rate was very slow and there were problems with no-balling.New Zealand suffered a setback when Shanan Stewart was dismissed off the first ball of the innings and when play was abandoned early due to shadows on the pitch, New Zealand were 15/1.Due to the slow over rate of the first day, play started 30 minutes early on the second day. Jordan Sheed was the first wicket to fall when the score was 57. However, opener Ryder contained his usual aggression and produced an outstanding display of his potential. His 50 came up in 129 minutes off 105 balls. As he and Rob Nicol combined in a fine second wicket stand of 190, they took full toll of the tiring Australian attack.Ryder’s century was scored in 246 minutes off 199 balls while Nicol’s half-century took 114 minutes off 101 balls. Nicol was first out for 78 just before the tea break.However, while Ryder continued to build his innings, the incoming batsmen were too keen to get on with the job and when play finished on the day New Zealand were 348/7. Brett Geeves took three for 55 and Aaron Bird three for 29 for Australia.

England’s hopes of getting the winning result out of the first National Bank Test against New Zealand in Christchurch largely depend on how they do tomorrow.Dismissed for 228 by New Zealand on the first day, but with the pitch still offering some encouragement to the bowlers, England have to make the most of it to put the pressure back on New Zealand.

And already the home team is without opener Mark Richardson who was out leg before wicket for two, as New Zealand ended the day on nine for one.That England scored so many was attributable to the innings played by captain Nasser Hussain. His 106 gave the innings substance.The top order had been ripped out by Chris Cairns when he took Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher in his first over and then picked up Michael Vaughan later.Hussain came to the wicket before a run had been scored and departed, the last man out for his 10th Test century. It could best be described as a functional innings scored in testing circumstances as the New Zealanders made good use of the sporting conditions.He took 307 minutes to reach the mark and his total innings time was 323 minutes. His 50 was scored off 113 balls, although he waited 19 balls on 49 to reach that mark.He did have a life when on 52, when a straightforward chance was put down by New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming at first slip. But for the main part he showed a degree of resourcefulness aptly suited to the match situation.It was a classic example of a captain leading the way and showing the sort of application that the less experienced batsmen in the side needed.”There were a large percentage of unplayable balls,” he said.The ball was still leaving little green marks in the pitch and that offered hope there would still be life tomorrow when play resumes. There is also the prospect of rain overnight.”I knew it might zip around a little but the ball does go off for four very quickly. It is by no means impossible but it was a bowler-friendly wicket,” he said.”You were never fully in on it, but you had to have positive intent. It was nice getting a hundred and to carry your team as captain but we were 20-30 runs short.”It was important that I got a hundred. I have had a lot of scores between 30 and 80 but today I was determined. I saw Ricky Ponting on television this morning score his 10th century and I said to myself it was about time I scored a century,” he said.”At the moment we are in the game,” he said.Ten Test centuries was a goal he had set himself some years ago and he had wanted to do it in Mohali, in India, for different reasons last year but he was happy to get one in New Zealand.”I can’t emphasise just how important tomorrow is,” he said.Two bad umpiring decisions did nothing to aid the England cause.The first was suffered by Mark Ramprakash when umpire Asoka de Silva, named yesterday on the elite ICC panel of eight umpires, gave Ramprakash out to a ball that was never near his bat and, in fact, came off the top of his pad to be taken by wicket-keeper Adam Parore.He was out for 31 having helped Hussain add 56 runs for the fifth wicket at a vital stage of the innings.Later, Andy Caddick was given out, leg before wicket, by Brent Bowden from an inswinging yorker bowled by fast man Ian Butler, when the ball looked to be heading down the leg side. He was out for a duck.Hussain was last man out, leg before wicket for 106 off Chris Drum’s bowling. He clearly wasn’t happy with de Silva’s decision but on the replay he wasn’t as harshly done by as Caddick.Cairns’ opening burst was a triumph of experience over enthusiasm as affected Drum and Butler during the first stages of their spells. He had three for 32 after his first seven overs, eight of them from deliberate slashes over the gully area for boundaries.By the end of the innings he had three for 58.Drum, who gained the valuable wicket of Graham Thorpe for 17, courtesy of a slip catch by Fleming, maintained the remarkably low bowling average he has enjoyed in domestic cricket this summer by taking three for 36 from his 20.2 overs.Matthew Hoggard did give England something to cheer about however, when removing the dangerous New Zealand opener Richardson for two with a fine ball that left no doubt about his fate.

Sri Lanka’s bowlers made limited progress in a rain-interrupted first day of their tour match against Durham at Chester-le-Street. Although Chaminda Vaas claimed two early victims to reduce Durham to 17 for two, the tourists then found wickets hard to come by as the hosts closed on 219 for four.England one-day international Paul Collingwood hit an impressive, unbeaten 103 to show the selectors that he can build an innings in the longer format of the game. Collingwood, 25, was in command from the start, and his first hundred of the season came off 119 balls with 14 fours and two sixes.Gordon Muchall, 19, compiled his maiden first-class 50 as he and Collingwood added 129 for the third wicket. Sri Lanka looked ill at ease in the cold, overcast conditions. In the 52 overs that were possible only Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa looked dangerous with the ball.Vaas, who is sure to be in the tourists’ side for the first Test againstEngland at Lord’s beginning on May 16, bowled Jon Lewis for nine as he played no stroke to a delivery that moved back off the seam to clip his off stump.Vaas then accounted for Pratt for four in the same over, with wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara taking a comfortable catch to leave the hosts in trouble.But after Muchall settled, Ishara Amerasinghe and Ruchira Perera struggled to bowl with the venom and accuracy of the opening pair. Spin was introduced in the 25th over in the form of Thilan Samaraweera, but Muchall immediately flicked the ball through midwicket for another boundary.Rain then halted proceedings for just over three hours. On the resumption, Muchall square-cut the first ball to the boundary and another cracking shot through extra cover brought up his half-century, 75 balls with seven fours.Collingwood soon followed to 50 off the same number of deliverieswith nine boundaries, but Muchall then went for 69, caught by Russel Arnold at second slip off Zoysa with the score on 146.Nicky Peng was also caught by Arnold off the same bowler for 17 but Collingwood continued to dominate with a rich array of strokes including two huge sixes off Samaraweera. Ashley Thorpe, making his first-class debut, joined Collingwood and the duo added 24 before bad light brought an early close.

Current Lancashire al-rounder and former Sheffield Shield player Joe Scuderi has been named in Italy’s final 14-man squad for the ICC Trophy in June/July.He is joined by Hobart based Peter Di Venuto, the brother of former Australian One-Day International representative, Michael Di Venuto.Italy is the first of the 24 Associate members of the International Cricket Council to name its final squad ahead of the ICC imposed May 15 deadline.The ICC Trophy finalists and winner of the play-off for third place earn berths at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.The squad is: Kamal Karyiyawasam (Captain), Valerio Zuppirioli (Vice-captain), Alessandro Bonora, Andrea Corbellari, Samantha De Mel, Peter Di Venuto, Benito Giordano, Hemanta Jayasena, Riccardo Maggio, Warren Mazzoncini, Andrea Parisi, Akhlaq Qureshi, Joe Scuderi, Aamir Shah. Coach – Doug Ferguson.

Lou Vincent got into the New Zealand side and held his place at Mathew Sinclair’s expense, and now that Vincent is injured, Sinclair has been recalled for the one-day tour to Sharjah.The side leaves for Sharjah on Saturday.Vincent is expected to have recovered from the ruptured airway he suffered in his left lung after being hit by a ball from England’s Andy Caddick in the first innings of the third Test which was won by New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland yesterday.The selection panel have also announced that Craig McMillan is to be the vice-captain of the side.

The Bangladesh government has named Nazmul Hassan, a member of parliament, as the new president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). The appointment came a week after Mustafa Kamal was confirmed as the vice-president of the ICC, effectively ending his three-year tenure as the BCB president.Hassan is the son of Zillur Rahman, the president of Bangladesh. He is also the managing director of one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical companies and has been connected to cricket through Abahani, a Dhaka-based sports club, as the chairman of its cricket committee.The new president was selected according to the existing constitution, which states that the board president will be a government nominee. The board has submitted its amended constitution to the National Sports Council for approval and one of the major amendments is that the president will be elected and not picked by the government. The sports regulatory body in the country is yet to pass the amendment.Hassan will have his hands full when he begins his tenure, with a number of major issues remaining unresolved. He will have to handle the umpires’ corruption investigation and ensure the franchises who have already signed with the BCB to run first-class teams are given a separate tournament. He would also need to finalise a long-term broadcasting rights contract, as only a single-series deal has been put in place.

It entered the concluding match of the summer needing to win and, therefore, needing a good start. Alas, some brilliant pace bowling from Ashley Noffke and AndyBichel ensured that Victoria’s performance didn’t fit the specifications at all. Accordingly, the Bushrangers are now in dire need of a strong and sustained recoveryfollowing a disastrous start to the Pura Cup Final against Queensland here at the ‘Gabba ground in Brisbane today.The appearance of these two sides in the deciding match of the Australian first-class season represented a return to events of last summer. But, on the opening day,there were few similarities to be detected between the two games. Where Queensland won the toss and batted with consistent application – across town at the AllanBorder Field – last time around, Victoria called the fall of the coin correctly today but then foundered in the face of accurate, intelligent fast bowling.While still young and raw, Noffke (5/41) already exhibits a wonderful sense of occasion. The strapping twenty-three year old was the star of a stunning Queenslandwin in the very first match of this Australian domestic season; today, he made a major impact in its very last.Having been frustrated to that point by what ultimately proved to be the only resolute stand of the innings – one of seventy-three runs for the third wicket betweenJason Arnberger (63) and Brad Hodge (47) – the Queenslanders required inspiration when Noffke took up the attack after lunch from the Stanley Street End. In theright arm fast bowler from the Sunshine Coast, they more than found it. He produced a spell high on quality and high on pace, the batsmen reduced to a plight ofevading well-aimed lifting deliveries and of stabbing and driving in discomforted style outside the line of off stump at those of fuller length.The combination of a debilitating injury to his heel and the ever-intense battle for pace bowling spots in the Queensland eleven have robbed Noffke of manyopportunities this summer. Even the decision to include him in this side, ahead of off spinner Scott O’Leary, was only made shortly before the game. But here was achance upon which he gleefully seized.”I was pretty ecstatic (just) to be picked,” conceded Noffke after play.”It means a hell of a lot,” he added of his achievement in capturing his first ever five-wicket haul at first-class level in a Final. “You don’t even dream about days likethis; it has just been a great day.””The selectors and ‘Stu’ (captain Stuart Law) have put a lot of faith in me and I’m happy to reward them with something. Halfway through the season – with the heelinjury – I’d obviously been set back a long way. But I’ve reassessed my goals and I’ve gone from there.”In the midst of an unerring spell of eleven overs upon the resumption after the lunch break, Noffke decimated the Victorian middle order by snaring 3/0 in the space ofseventeen deliveries. The crucial scalp among these was the first; Hodge making one of the few mistakes of an otherwise excellent innings when he unleashed a pull ata delivery which cramped him marginally for room, stayed a touch lower than he expected, and induced a catch from the bottom edge of his bat for wicketkeeperWade Seccombe.Earlier, Matthew Elliott (3) and Matthew Mott (4) had fallen to Bichel (3/42) in a disastrous opening forty minutes to the match for the visitors; now Noffke’sbreakthrough exposed an even more brittle middle and lower order.Michael Klinger (0) unfurled a loose drive without much movement of the feet; Jonathan Moss (0) deflected a delivery of searing pace back into his stumps; and thenDarren Berry (2) edged a catch to second slip. The Bushrangers were six wickets down by tea and looking a shadow of the side that has often responded well underpressure this summer. Their imitation was much more of the string of Victorian teams that, between them, have produced just one first-class victory in Brisbane in thepast thirty-six years. Against the seaming ball, it was all coming apart at the seams for them.Arnberger conceived an heroic show of application at the other end. He defended stoutly, ran smartly between the wickets, and punished – across an outfield slowedsignificantly by recent rain – the few bad balls that came along. But, in sunny conditions and on a pitch that offered no more than modest assistance to the bowlers, hereceived very little in the way of support.Some ground was recovered late in the piece when Elliott took a brilliant low catch to his right at second slip to remove Jerry Cassell (9). And Jimmy Maher (22*)didn’t have it all his own way either, surviving one periously close lbw appeal when his score was on just two. But this unmistakably remained Queensland’s day.At a score of 1/37 in its reply to the visitors’ meagre 176, the reigning titleholders palpably hold the whip hand after the match’s opening six hours. As urgentrecoveries go, there is no need so great as Victoria’s.

Steve Rixon, Australia’s fielding mentor, will take over as head coach for the one-day internationals against Afghanistan and Pakistan in the UAE to allow Mickey Arthur to focus on preparations for the World ICC Twenty20. Arthur will return to head coaching duties for the T20 leg of the UAE trip, which is followed closely by the world tournament in Sri Lanka.It won’t be the first time in recent years that Australia have left their head coach at home – Tim Nielsen took a break during the ODIs in England that followed the 2009 Ashes loss and his assistant Troy Cooley was placed in charge. However, this year’s move has more to do with the wider role of the head coach following the Argus review than allowing Arthur time off.”Part of the broader scope of the new Australian team head coach role since the Australian team performance review was conducted was to have a wider view over the team’s plans and how we prepare and we have a very important T20 tournament coming up,” Arthur said. “I’ll spend the time away from the team to really hone our T20 plans and study the opposition ahead of the ICC World Twenty20.”We have great experience and harmony within our support staff group now and I know that Steve will do a terrific job in partnership with Justin Langer and Ali de Winter while I’m away.”Rixon is no stranger to handling an international side, having been head coach of New Zealand from 1996 to 1999. He will be in charge for four matches and will act as a selector during the ODIs, as Arthur does when he is in command.”Of course you look forward to opportunities like this; it’s not every day you get to coach the Australian cricket team and I’m looking forward to that extra responsibility and working with Michael Clarke,” Rixon said. “In saying that, my job will be to simply carry on with all the good work and planning that has been done in recent times and hopefully hand back over to Mickey after four good wins.”The Australians fly out for the UAE on Tuesday and their tour begins with a one-off ODI against Afghanistan on Saturday. That is followed by three one-dayers and three T20s against Pakistan.