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As West Indies gear up to take on England in the four-Test series, their captain Brian Lara said his side had already put their NatWest Series final defeat behind them, and would take some positives into the Tests. West Indies did manage to reach the final of the three-way NatWest Series – eliminating England along the way – but were soundly beaten at Lord’s on Saturday.But Lara is convinced that the way forward is to forget the immediate past – which, in West Indies’ case, does not make for good reading anyway. In seven matches in the series, they were beaten three times, won two games against England, and had two washed out.An AFP report quoted Lara as saying, “We have got to separate this from the rest of the tour. Now the one-day series is over, and there are a lot of positives we can take into the next couple of months, like the fact we were in the final and England, the host country, were not.” However, the last time England and West Indies played a Test series, England won three Tests and drew the fourth earlier this year.”Also, we have had a few weeks of playing cricket in English conditions, whereas normally you arrive two weeks ahead of the first Test,” said Lara. “The guys have become accustomed to the weather, and we are in a better position for an upcoming Test series than if we had just arrived. Hopefully in the warm-up games batters can start thinking of long innings and bowlers getting the ball in the right areas and being more hostile.”West Indies have two three-day games – against MCC at Arundel and Sri Lanka A at Shenley – before the first Test starts at Lord’s on July 22.

Jimmy Maher blasted a century in his maiden first-class innings for Australia as the tourists took control of the three-day tour match against the University of West Indies XI in Barbados.Maher, also playing as a makeshift wicketkeeper, hit 142 from 187 deliveries in a double-century stand with Justin Langer (96) which ensured Australia was the only team with a realistic chance of winning at the seaside ground at Cave Hill.At stumps on the second day, the University XI was 2-32 in its second innings – trailing Australia by 36 runs after captain Steve Waugh declared at 6-358 in the first innings.Maher continued his impressive match after taking two catches and making one stumping on Saturday while top ‘keeper Adam Gilchrist rested ahead of Thursday’s third Test against the West Indies at nearby Kensington Oval.The 29-year-old Queenslander belted 21 fours and one six, hitting out on the lush surface before he was caught off the bowling of invited Kenyan spinner Collins Obuya.Langer’s knock was encouraging ahead of the third Test, although the West Australian has been dogged by controversial LBW decisions this tour.He was within sight of his second century of the month before given out LBW to Ricardo Powell (2-66) after batting for almost four hours.Waugh received valuable time in the middle after not batting during the second Test victory in Trinidad last week.The 37-year-old made a solid 46 in 95 minutes while Martin Love (10) and Michael Clarke (eight) failed against the enthusiastic University attack led by former Test quick Corey Collymore (2-54).The University XI made a disastrous start to its second innings later in the day when recalled Test batsman Chris Gayle was run out without scoring.Brad Williams (1-7) then bowled Jason Haynes (two) to complete a satisfying day for the Australians.The Australians would hope to race through the University batting line-up to restrict their time in the sticky conditions ahead of the Test.

Rain allowed only 55 minutes’ play on the second day of the Division One contest between Northamptonshire and Kent at Wantage Road.The hosts progressed from 228-4 overnight to 277-5, losing the wicket of Tony Penberthy (77) in adding 49 runs.An overnight deluge ruled out any cricket until 12.30pm, and in the third over of the day Ben Trott had Penberthy caught behind without adding to his Wednesday night score. The Cornishman had struck 15 fours in his three-hour stay.Graeme Swann and Toby Bailey – unbeaten on 28 and 20 respectively – secured a second batting bonus point for Northants, and guided their side to 269-5 at lunch.Only three more overs were bowled after the break when more rain drove the players from the field and prompted an early tea.Umpires Peter Willey and George Sharp planned to inspect the conditions at 4pm, but by that stage the skies were darkening again and they decided that nothing more could be done.

First Division

Jacques Rudolph’s century propelled Yorkshire to a handy 339 for 6 against leaders Somerset at Taunton, although he was nipped out just before the close for 155, one of a trio for Ian Blackwell. Rudolph and Gerard Brophy shared a fourth-wicket stand worth 130 before falling within 15 runs of each other. Somerset welcomed back Andy Caddick after his shoulder injury but he finished with 0 for 70 off 16 overs.Callum Thorp’s 5 for 64 was the highlight of a bowler’s day for Durham at Chester-le-Street, his third first-class five-for in 27 matches. The Harmison brothers cleaned up the other five between them, Stephen with two and Ben with 3 for 25. Michael Carberry and Sean Ervine both made fifties to push Hampshire‘s total to 239 but they should have done much better as their last eight wickets contributed only 80. Durham lost Mark Stoneman in reaching 59 for 2 and could have been in even more trouble had Michael Di Venuto not survived a claim for a catch at slip when he had made 6.The opening day of Kent‘s tussle with Sussex was lost to the rain at Canterbury. Having had to shift the FP Trophy quarter-final away from the ground on Wednesday, it was still not fit for play on Friday after steady drizzle throughout the morning. Play was abandoned at 3pm.To find out how Lancashire fared against Nottinghamshire, read John Ward’s report from Old Trafford.

Second Division

Charl Langeveldt and Graham Wagg took four wickets each as Derbyshire bowled out Worcestershire for a lowly 151 at Chesterfield. The visitors, who won the toss, were indebted to No. 10 Steve Magoffin’s 33 for lifting them from 101 for 9 to something slightly less paltry. Langeveldt claimed the key wicket of Vikram Solanki, superbly caught at second slip, then Graeme Hick dragged Jonathan Clare into his stumps. Clare could have had another, but spilled a tough return catch off Ben Smith, although wickets were never far away.Stand-in captain Ian Westwood batted all day to make an unbeaten 139 as Warwickshire reached 278 for 4 against Glamorgan at Cardiff. He and Navdeep Poonia (37) put on 119 for the first wicket and though Michael Powell fell on the same score, Westwood, drop by Robert Croft at first slip off Alex Wharf when on 70, remained resolute.Fifties from Marcus North and Alex Gidman lifted Gloucestershire from a stumbling 77 for 2 to a sturdier 258 for 4 against Northamptonshire at Northampton, with North still unbeaten on 84, after reaching his fifty off 88 balls following an indifferent run of form. The Kolpak pair of Johan wan der Wath and Andrew Hall did the damage alongside Johann Louw. It needed a team effort to remove Hamish Marshall, who edged to second slip only for David Sales to fumble the chance. However, Hall was alert at first slip to take the rebound.To read Martin Williamson’s report on how Middlesex‘s Tim Murtagh took six wickets to knock Essex over for 161 – all ten wickets being catches – click here.

Ravi Shastri, India’s team director, has thrown his weight behind his batsmen and has asked the bowlers to learn their lessons. India have scored 309, 308 and 295 in the first three ODIs of the series against Australia, but have failed to defend any of those totals. In particular, Shastri has defended the batsmen against charges of selfishness.India have so far scored 67, 67 and 60 from overs 31 to 40. These have been the overs when their set batsmen have approached their hundreds. In Perth, Rohit Sharma took 24 balls from 83 at the start of the 31st over to reach his hundred. Similarly in Brisbane, between the 30th and the 40th overs, Rohit took 21 balls to move from 86 to 100. Virat Kohli took 15 balls to score the last 16 runs of his century between the 38th and 43rd overs in Melbourne.This has reignited a belief held by some Australians that Indian batsmen slow down near a milestone, costing their team crucial runs. Matthew Hayden said so 10 years ago, and it has begun resonating in the Australian media again.MS Dhoni calmly said “no” when asked if he thought Indian batsmen were milestone-driven, but Shastri had a more colourful answer. “If they were focusing on milestones, Virat Kohli wouldn’t have been the fastest to 7000 runs; he would have taken another 100 games. If that was the case, Rohit Sharma would not be having two double hundreds, and a score of 264.”Shastri also said there wasn’t much more the batsmen could have done even though they were playing probably a third-choice Australian bowling attack. “I don’t think so,” Shastri said. “If you look at the skills of those bowlers, there is skill there. You might say inexperience. They have played a lot of cricket, a lot of domestic T20s, a lot of one-days. So the skill factor is very good.”The Indian attack is far more experienced, but a mix of conditions and poor bowling has let them down. Shastri said the bowlers needed to learn fast. “Finishing touch is better bowling, and being more consistent as a bowling unit. As MS mentioned, there were too many easy boundaries. It is not like the batsmen had to earn it, they were given. That should be eliminated. Even if you cut that by 60%, we will have tighter games. Those are the areas. Attention to basics. If we do that right, who knows…”With the series lost and expectation reduced, Shastri said he wanted the bowlers to show him they had learned their lesson. “What you want to see is the bowlers learning from what has happened in the first three games,” he said. “If that happens, that will be the biggest plus irrespective of the result. That is what I said last year when we played cricket in Australia. We might have lost the series 2-0, but deep inside I knew the way the boys played there was only going to be improvement.”Shastri did mention the tough schedule and injuries (one, to Mohammed Shami) as a mitigating factor. “It is a young side, there have been three debutants, we have been plagued by injuries,” Shastri said. “No excuses, I am not giving any excuses here, but it is an opportunity for the youngsters to learn. In Australia nothing comes easy. It’s one of the hardest places to play. You are playing against the world champions. The fact that you are competing, and they have competed right through this one-day series, is very good.”We need bench strength, this is one of the toughest tours. And I have been to Australia many many times. I tell you why. Because if you look at the last six days we have been in three time zones. It is not often you go through that. You play in Perth, get on a flight to Brisbane where the time is different, then to Melbourne where the time is different. All in a matter of six days. When you consider all that, I think the boys have done extremely well.”Shastri said he will ask the BCCI to send a 16-member squad for such tours.

Monty Panesar defended England’s behaviour in the second Test defeat to India at Trent Bridge last week, saying the tense game was still played in the right spirit.Panesar was speaking ahead of the final Test of a series that has been distinctly rougher round the edges than previous encounters between the two sides.India’s convincing seven-wicket win was overshadowed to some extent by various incidents on the field, from Sreesanth shoulder-barging Michael Vaughan and hurling down a dangerous beamer to Kevin Pietersen to the now infamous jelly bean incident. Incessant sledging formed a constant backdrop.Panesar said, “We all want to see cricket played in the right spirit and that is what happened. You want to be competitive but you need to play the game in the right spirit, which is important.”Peter Moores is the new coach with new enthusiasm and we are trying to emulate that enthusiasm in the game. We haven’t had any instructions about how to conduct ourselves. We all knew the game was played in the right spirit and as long as we keep doing that I am sure everything will be fine.”I think [the jelly bean incident] probably something that happened accidentally,” said Panesar. “It was unintentional, it was just that during the drinks break accidentally a jelly bean went on the wicket. What is more important – what we all want to see – is cricket played in the right spirit.”England need to win the last Test to maintain their record of not having lost a Test series at home since 2001, while India are looking for only their second series win in England in the last 21 years.”India are a strong team and it will be tough but if we can play good cricket like we have been doing there is a chance we will do well,” said Panesar. “If we try and put too much importance on this Test and put pressure on ourselves it may not get the best out of us. All we can do is shift the momentum from the first Test and second innings of the second into the third.”Panesar also expressed his disappointment at his exclusion from England’s Twenty20 World Championship squad. “My character is that I like to be involved in all forms of the game – you want to be part of things like the Twenty20 squad,” he said. “But missing out does give you an opportunity to prepare for the winter [tour to Sri Lanka], so you can take it is a positive as well.”Panesar is, however, a member of England’s ODI squad to take on India in a series of seven one-dayers.

Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, has been named among the 30 probables for the Champions Trophy to be held in India in October. Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman have also been included.”Every year we discuss various issues before picking a team. Here we just picked the best 30 that we have,” said Kiran More, the chairman of selectors. “He [Ganguly] is in the list of Grade A players. So when we select 30 probables, he definitely walks in.”Ganguly had a poor stint with Northamptonshire where he had a first-class average of 4.80 in six innings. However, More said that his selection was not just based on his county season but was a combination of the previous domestic season and past performances. Zaheer’s selection was based on a phenomenal performance for Worcestershire where he took 63 wickets in 11 first-class matches at 25.74 apiece.The list includes all 15 players who have been chosen for the tri-series in Sri Lanka later this month, and also has players who performed well in the Top End Series in Australia in July, which featured A teams from Australia, New Zealand and India. S Badrinath, the Tamil Nadu batsman, Tejinder Pal Singh, an allrounder from Railways, and Piyush Chawla, the young legspinner, have all been rewarded for their strong performances in Australia. Parthiv Patel, who kept wicket on that tour, is one of three wicketkeepers in the list – apart from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik. The final 15-member squad will be announced on September 7.More said that Murali Kartik, the left-arm spinner, and Lakshmipathy Balaji, the fast bowler, were not selected because they needed more time to recover from their respective shoulder and back injuries.”Murali will be fine before the Champions Trophy but the problem is the September 7 deadline. It is not a small injury, we don’t want to rush him back,” said More. “Balaji would be fit by October. It will take time for him. He has to play seven to eight matches.”Meanwhile Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, also said that the details for the tri-series in Singapore and Malaysia in September – also featuring Australia and West Indies – would be revealed soon. “The tri-series in Singapore and Malaysia has been confirmed. In one or two days we will give the full schedule of the tour,” he said. “The first three games will be in Singapore and the next four in Malaysia.”Probables list
Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Dinesh Mongia, Ajit Agarkar, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Venugopal Rao, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Piyush Chawla, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, TP Singh, Shib Paul, VRV Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk).

Muttiah Muralitharan is now hopeful that his controversial doosra, a delivery that he has been forced to stop bowling by the ICC, will be given the all-clear shortly.Muralitharan’s arm bends by an average of 10 degrees when bowling the delivery, which is double the permitted level of bend for spinners, but an ICC-convened sub-committee has just completed the first stage of a review of the laws during a two-day meeting in Dubai.The sub-committee is expected to recommend changes to the current laws after the latest biomechanical research on fast bowlers by Marc Portus in Australia and by the UK-based Paul Hurrion on spinners, a project that culminated during the ICC Champions Trophy.The meeting was chaired by Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager, and attended by five other former players – Aravinda de Silva, Angus Fraser, Michael Holding, Tony Lewis and Tim May – and three leading mechanists: Bruce Elliott, Portus and Hurrion.Muralitharan, currently focusing on charity work after shoulder surgery, is waiting anxiously to see if the doorsa is finally given the greenlight. The next stage of the review is an ICC Cricket Committee meeting on November 9 and 10.Muralitharan has studied the scientific debate closely during the difficult months since his action was reported in March and he is now very optimistic that the case for change is too strong to be ignored.”I sincerely believe I will be allowed to bowl the doosra again,” he told the Island newspaper recently.Muralitharan feels his bowling is handicapped without the doosra: “If I had bowled that particular delivery, I would have got more wickets and the team would have enjoyed more victories. But unfortunately that wasn’t so and I am keeping my fingers crossed.”The ICC has not divulged the conclusions of the sub-committee, but claimed that the two-day meeting had been instructive they tried to gain a better understanding of one of the most controversial topics in the game.”It has been a big help to have this matter discussed by such a well-qualified group of former international cricketers,” said Mr Richardson. “This is only the first step in the review process and as the matter is still to be discussed by the full Cricket Committee it would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this stage.”

Sean Ervine is among 17 players who have earned a central contract with Western Australia for the 2004-05 season. Ervine, who played for Zimbabwe before retiring from international cricket earlier this season, joins another Zimbabwean, Murray Goodwin, on the list of contracted players.The initial list of 17 names includes two rookies, Justin Coetzee and Aaron Heal. A 20-year-old left-arm swing bowler, Coetzee earned his reward after putting in some superb performances for Scarborough in the WACA’s Vodafone Cup competition. Coetzee’s 42 wickets in grade cricket last season came at just 17.02 apiece and included a hat-trick against South Perth.Commenting on Coetzee’s selection, Wayne Hill, the chairman of the Western Australian selection panel, said: “We’re excited about Justin’s long term prospects and pleased to offer him a Rookie Contract after some consistent efforts playing for Scarborough in recent seasons. We hope to see him develop over the next few seasons and from this encouragement transfer his club performances to the next level.”The contracted players Ryan Campbell, Beau Casson, Michael Clark, Ben Edmondson, Sean Ervine, Murray Goodwin, Kade Harvey, Steve Maggofin, Shaun Marsh, Scott Meuleman, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi, Adam Voges, Peter Worthington.Rookie contracts Justin Coetzee, Aaron Heal.

With the staff covering the ground to protect it from the driving wind and rain the County Ground in Taunton was a sorry place to be on Tuesday morning.After some of the best ever weather for this time of year, the day before the Cidermen play their first pre-season three day friendly against Glamorgan, the heavens opened and the players were sadly confined to indoor nets in the Centre of Excellence.As he sat looking out across the windswept ground former Somerset favourite Peter Robinson explained that April 1st was a bit of a special occasion for him. "This is my first day as a part timer here since I joined the club all those years ago, and it’s just about typical that it’s pouring down with rain. Still I suppose one good thing is that it will help to germinate my parsnip seeds!" he told me.The former Worcestershire player who made the journey down the A38 in 1965 has held almost every job that there is at the club since then, including being first team coach during the `Glory Years’ when Somerset tasted the first success of their long and colourful history.Since 1999 one of `Robbo’s’ major responsibilities has been that of Ground Safety Officer at the club, a job that has increased considerably since he took it on.Earlier this year he celebrated his sixtieth birthday and decided that it was time to relinquish the post and give himself more time to concentrate on doing the job he enjoys most, cricket coaching.`Robbo’ told me: "The Ground Safety Officer’s job started in 1999 with the World Cup, and since then it has just got more and more to do, so I wasn’t sorry to hand it over yesterday to somebody else."However the former Somerset all rounder will not be lost to the club. When I spoke to him he had just finished working with a group of youngsters from Minehead Middle School who were working at the Playing for Success Centre at the County Ground as part of the Exmoor Extension Project.He told me: "I shall have more time to coach cricket now, and will spend time working on one on one and group sessions, as well as continuing my role as cricket secretary which involves sorting out the second eleven fixtures, dealing with the cricket balls and other jobs on match days."`Robbo’ is also the official coach to the Somerset Women’s Cricket team, which includes the Somerset Under 17 and Under 15 Girls teams, and on Wednesday evening he will be attending their pre season meeting in Taunton.The job of Ground Safety Officer at Somerset County Cricket Club has been taken over by Paul Bulbeck.The former police inspector who lives in Taunton is the father of left arm seamer Matt, and his son in law Guy Wolfenden works in the Centre of Excellence at the County Ground, so he is certainly no stranger to the Somerset cricket scene.