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A meeting of the ICC’s advisory panel of biomechanists last month could ensure a more difficult path for Johan Botha to clear his name from chucking allegations. Bruce Elliott, the University of Western Australia professor who last examined Botha’s action in 2006, said a bowler’s elbow flexion would no longer be assessed by taking an average reading over several overs, but rather on a one-strike-and-you’re-out basis.”In the early days we would take a mean reading from a number of deliveries and determine whether it was over or under the legal limit, but now the situation is that a bowler is not allowed to bowl any balls that extend beyond the 15 degrees during testing,” Elliott told Cricinfo. “It wasn’t clearly written but we had a meeting with the ICC three weeks ago and it was all sorted out.”The transition from average readings to a one-strike policy officially took place in July, 2006, although evidenly there had been confusion as to its application among testers prior to last month’s meeting. Under the ICC’s illegal action protocol, Botha would have been assessed with an average reading during his first test in January, 2006, but not in subsequent examinations carried out in August and November.The protocol reads: “Should the Independent Assessment conclude that the Player’s action exhibits a degree of elbow extension of the bowling arm higher than the said acceptable level, the action of the Player shall be deemed to be an Illegal Bowling Action. It should be noted that in order for the action to be classified as a legal action, the degree of elbow extension recorded for each and every delivery shall be within the level of acceptable elbow extension.”Cricket South Africa has yet to announce where it will send Botha for testing, but it is likely he will again work with Elliott at the UWA. Botha was twice tested at the facility in 2006 – the first resulting in his suspension from cricket, the second paving the way for a return – and must now be reassessed after umpires cited him for a suspect action after the fourth one-day international against Australia in Port Elizabeth on Monday.Elliott said Botha, like Muttiah Muralitharan, could not entirely straighten his bowling arm, resulting in an “abduction angle” that made for an unusual action. He also noted that Botha had encountered difficulty in bowling his doosra legally during testing in early 2006, but after remedial work in South Africa, was able to bowl “the other one” with less elbow flexion than his stock off-break.”It was clear cut illegal the first time, but he was able to bring it down by four or five degrees,” Elliott said. “Because of the abduction angle, or carry angle, he is always going to have an action that catches the eye of umpires and spectators. He has some similar characteristics as Murali, but not quite so severe.”I have not watched him bowl lately, so I don’t know if there has been a quickening up or a regression. But the guys who do bowl the doosra tend to live on the edge. Most who bowl it cannot do so under about 10 degrees, so it obviously doesn’t take much more for it to go over.”The South Africans yesterday continued to voice support for Botha, who is available for selection in the fifth and final one-day international against Australia in Johannesburg on Friday. Coach Mickey Arthur on Wednesday reiterated the comments of Vinnie Barnes, the South African bowling coach, in predicting that Botha would be cleared to continue his career.”Johan has been through this process before and was cleared to continue his career and I am confident that this will happen again,” Arthur said in a statement. “I don’t believe anything major has changed in his action since then but we will obviously respect the process and the outcome.”Johan is a man of tremendous self belief and character. He has shown that both in the way he dealt with the original setback in 2006 and again by the manner in which he led the ODI squad when Graeme Smith was injured. And, with the support of his team-mates and management, I am sure he will put this latest setback behind him as well.”

Jenny Gunn, the England fast bowler, and Rose Fernando, the Sri Lankan offspinner, have been reported for suspect bowling actions. Gerard Abood and Kathy Cross, the umpires for the World Cup match between England and Sri Lanka at the Manuka Oval on Saturday, said they had concerns over Gunn’s short-pitched deliveries and Fernando’s faster balls and hence requested the ICC to review their action.Abood and Cross submitted a report to the ICC. Pending the result of the ICC’s assessment, the two bowlers can continue to play and bowl in international cricket.Gunn, who plays for Western Australia, was suspended from Australian domestic cricket for an “illegal bowling action” just days before the start of the World Cup but Cricket Australia’s findings did not stop her from participating in the tournament. Gunn has challenged the findings and CA’s bowling review group will conduct a hearing into the matter by March 12. She has also appealed against the ban.

Mark Lane, the England women’s coach, is aware that his team will need to be on top of their game during the World Cup in Australia, starting on March 7, even though they are one of the tournament favourites following a splendid run in 2008. Lane will fly to Sydney with six of the players on Thursday night to join the other nine who are already in Australia.”We have spent a lot of time talking about executing our skills at the right time,” Lane told the ECB website. “In tournament cricket, five overs might change the course of the game – for good or bad – and it is about making sure we are on the top of our game and that we are ready at any given time to perform.”Lane has been extremely successful during his stint as coach. He started in caretaker capacity on the tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2007-08. England drew the ODI series 2-2 in Australia and won the one-off Test to retain the Ashes. Following his appointment as coach in April 2008, the team had an unbeaten 16-ODI run during the home series against West Indies, South and India, with 12 wins and four abandoned games.Lane, however, warned that things could be different in a big tournament. “In series cricket you can go 1-0 down and win 4-1, but in tournament cricket you can’t do that. I am very excited and I am looking forward to this event,” he said. “I would say that our preparations have been excellent. We spent some time out in Bangalore and we already have nine players out in Australia.”The one big disadvantage for this event is that we are in our off-season and it is on the other side of the world. We have set up a mini camp with the girls who are already out there and [captain] Charlotte [Edwards] is leading the way. We are looking forward to meeting up together and having some training time before we get stuck into the main event.”England begin their campaign against Sri Lanka on March 7, before facing India, the 2005 finalists, three days later. England had trounced India 4-0 at home last year. “India can be a very dangerous side and they do have some very good individuals, such as Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj and Anjum Chopra, who has come back into the squad,” he said. “Last summer we didn’t let them perform but playing them in a tournament, it could be very different. Goswami could take three early wickets and change the course of the game, but we are aware of how we are going to play her.”The focus will be on Edwards, who was awarded the ICC Women’s Player of the Year last year, Claire Taylor and Isa Guha, who lead the ICC rankings for batsmen and bowlers respectively.”We have some very exciting cricketers and lots of match-winners, the likes of Sarah Taylor and Katherine Brunt, down to Anya Shrubshole, who has just turned 17,” Lane said. “The whole squad will play their part throughout the tournament.”England have been drawn in the same group as India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, with the top three progressing to the Super Six stage.

Nuwan Kulasekara, the Sri Lanka medium-pacer, has climbed to No.2 in the ICC rankings for ODI bowlers after an impressive run of performances since his return to the team in April 2008. In that period, he has taken 40 wickets at an average of 18, including five wickets in the last two ODIs of the series against Pakistan, where he wrecked the top order to help his team win both the games by sizeable margins.Kulasekara moves ahead of team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan – who is now in fourth place – while Australian left-armer Nathan Bracken has fallen to the No. 3 spot. Daniel Vettori continues to top the rankings.Two Bangladesh players – Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza – have made it to the top ten after a series of notable displays against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at home. Shakib – who has climbed 15 places to reach No. 6 – has taken 11 wickets in his last six ODIs at 10.81, while Mortaza, now ranked ninth, has fared just as well, with 14 wickets at 10.92 in as many games. Shakib had also reached the top of the ranking for ODI allrounders in the past week, going ahead of Jacob Oram and Andrew Flintoff.For Pakistan, Sohail Tanvir’s failure in the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka – he conceded 85 runs in 12 overs for a wicket and was promptly dropped – has cost him a place in the top ten. He slips ten places to No.17.

The chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke, has given a strong indication that England could take on Scotland for a 20-over match a few weeks before the ICC World Twenty20 this summer.England’s first match of the tournament gets underway on June 5 against the Netherlands, but Clarke intimated that teams will need sufficient practice ahead of the event, with England tackling Scotland possibly on June 2 or 3.”Almost certainly Scotland will have a warm-up game with England, probably at Trent Bridge,” Clarke told the . “If I were allowed to bet – which I’m not – I’d expect a big travelling support for the Scots.”England have only faced Scotland once in an ODI – last August in Edinburgh, a match blighted by the summer’s gloomy mizzle – and Clarke, whose mother was born in Glasgow, spoke of the need for Scottish cricket to gain a greater foothold. A permanent ground with adequate seating is one such area in which they could improve.”Telling extremely able people who know Scottish cricket better than me what to do is the last thing on my mind. However, as someone who likes to consider themselves a friend of Scottish cricket, there are benefits to be gained if the right steps are put in place,” he said. “I realise it is not the economic environment in which to develop a stadium but it is the right climate in which to have a building contract. Establishing a strong ground would help take the Saltires deeper into the [English] county structure which is necessary to move them forward and they have already come a long way in the short time they’ve been playing regular fixtures.”The shorter the format the greater chance of a more level playing field and Twenty20 fixtures, perhaps against Durham, would help demonstrate crowd appeal. That would mean a [Scottish] economic base to get the sponsorship that drives youth athletes down the road to becoming professionals.”It will require a quantum leap of faith and although I’m not a political person I do know [first minister] Alex Salmond is a cricket fanatic whose father has told me how he travelled by train to Lord’s in 1938 to watch Wally Hammond make a double century against the touring Australians.”I have spent a day with Alex Salmond and my hope is he is in a position to get an argument across for more [government] support of clubs provided they cater for all ages and genders.”Scotland have shown definite improvement as an Associate nation and, along with Ireland, are beginning to show that British Associate cricket is in a healthy state.”They compete particularly well at Twenty20 and one day international level because they are fit, give little away in the field and are very, very tough,” Clarke said. “There’s no reason why similar goals should not be achievable by Scotland and with the ethnic groups preferring cricket to football there is an opportunity to go forward with them on board which should also be appealing in terms of integrating communities.”

Lancashire will begin assessing the applications for their new first-team coach this week and are hopeful of having the position filled in time for the successful candidate to play a significant role in pre-season training.The club have received a number of applications, believed to include former Lancashire players Phil DeFreitas, John Abrahams, Warren Hegg, John Stanworth and second-team coach Gary Yates. Also in the running is the former Surrey boss Alan Butcher and David Houghton who has previously coached Derbyshire.The former Lancashire stars have an advantage of having played or worked alongside Mike Watkinson, who is now director of cricket, and also have a strong knowledge of the club. The job application stated: “Candidates need to have excellent knowledge and understanding of county cricket, and ideally an understanding of the structure and requirements of cricket in Lancashire.”DeFreitas played for Lancashire between 1989 and 1993 before moving to Derbyshire and finally back to Leicestershire were he began his career. Hegg has been working at Old Trafford since retiring after a 19-year career, while Stanworth has been in charge of the Academy which has produced a number of promising players who are now in the first-team.Lancashire are not putting a time-frame on selecting the new coach, who will fill the role vacated by Watkinson’s move upstairs. However, with a pre-season tour of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah for in March the club will want the coach to be settled before the team depart.It has been a winter of transition for Lancashire, who along with searching for a new coach have also appointed Glen Chapple as captain after Stuart Law was released. Whoever joins Chapple in charge of the first team will be expected to bring some silverware back to Old Trafford after a barren decade where Lancashire have struggled to live up to their billing as a premier county.

The PCB still hopes India’s tour to Pakistan in January 2009 will go ahead but acknowledges the situation has now changed considerably, following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday night. Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, said the tour going ahead would send out a message to terrorists that life will not be disrupted, but said the fate of the already troubled series is now out of the board’s hands and in those of both governments.Butt was speaking to reporters in Karachi, where he went to meet the governor of the province to talk about arrangements for India’s visit, if it went ahead. “The situation has changed following the horrific attacks in Mumbai,” Butt said.”I think it is now up to our government. If India comes to Pakistan, this gives a clear message to terrorists that they cannot disrupt life and that it will go on. But after the attacks it depends on both governments.”The tour has been in doubt in recent weeks following ongoing militant violence in parts of Pakistan. A suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad a few months ago set alarm bells ringing and the BCCI has said it will await clearance from the Indian government before making a final decision.India played in Pakistan in June-July this year, in the Asia Cup and has been one of the few established countries to tour Pakistan in recent years. The PCB has said the option of playing the series at a neutral venue, possibly in the Middle East, remains open, though only as a last resort.Butt described the meeting with the governor as a “useful one” and reiterated the board’s stance on the tour. “Prior to the Mumbai attacks our priority was to convince India to come and tour. Until this incident I was confident. Only as a last resort will we consider playing at a neutral venue.”Butt has met on two occasions with the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad with regard to the tour and was scheduled to travel to India to meet Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, next month. That meeting is now likely to take place at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Sri Lanka, on December 5, where Butt will formally take over as head of the ACC.”It is vitally important for the Pakistan team that they play some Tests right now,” Butt said, implying the venue may not be as important as the contest itself, after a year in which Pakistan has not played a single Test. “Playing the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will not help us improve competitively. My wish is that we play and compete, here preferably, but somewhere [else] if that isn’t possible.”

Pakistan have already won the one-day series against West Indies in Abu Dhabi by taking a 2-0 lead but their captain Shoaib Malik wants to secure a 3-0 margin which will take them to fourth in the ODI rankings. Pakistan clinched the first ODI after prevailing in a thrilling last-over finish on Wednesday and followed up with a 24-run victory on Friday.”We will do our best because my aim has always been to improve and be among the world’s top two teams. Here is an opportunity for us to do that,” Malik said. “At the moment we have a task on our hands and that is to win the last match, which will give us more confidence for India.” Pakistan’s next major assignment is the home series against India in January.Pakistan were without Shoaib Akhtar in the first two games because he was suffering from a calf injury. His condition had not improved. Shoaib last played a one-day international for Pakistan against India in November 2007.”He [Shoaib] is still struggling,” Malik said. “Anyone can get injured here because the ground is very soft, so we will look at his fitness before the match.”The West Indies coach John Dyson said that Pakistan were the “stronger team overall” and his team would have to raise their game significantly to avoid a clean sweep.”We are giving too many free hits while bowling and, in the batting, our batsmen have the style of play that the crowds in the Caribbean love, which is to see the ball crushed. But in between you have got to pick up singles, like Pakistan are doing.”The final ODI of the series will be played on Sunday.

The ICC is conducting an investigation into an incident whereby a Fiji cricketer was found in a pool of blood during the recent World Cricket League Division 4 in Tanzania.No details have yet emerged about the welfare of the player or further information about the incident, but the ICC are aware of the situation. “We are aware of an alleged incident that took place at the recent ICC World Cricket League Division 4 tournament in Tanzania,” the regional manager for ICC East Asia Pacific, Matt Weisheit, told the . “However until the full details are ascertained it would not be appropriate to comment further.”This is not the first time Fiji’s cricketers have been involved in incidents while on tour. During an Under-19 tournament in Vanuatu last year, there were allegations of damage to the hotel in which they were staying, and in 2007, some players were involved in a brawl in Samoa.”We are aware that an incident took place at the farewell function and have received a verbal report from the ICC,” Martin Shaw, the Cricket Fiji’s general manager, said. “Once we have had an opportunity to read the reports from the ICC then the board will decide whether the actions of any players have brought Cricket Fiji into disrepute.”Where players have acted inappropriately when representing Fiji we will ensure that disciplinary action is taken against them. This is so that future teams are aware of what level of behaviour is expected of them when they represent Fiji.”Fiji finished bottom of the World Cricket League Division 4 which was won by Afghanistan.

Ashley Noffke, the Queensland fast bowler, has signed with Worcestershire as their overseas player for the 2009 season. Noffke, 31, will take up the role that was held this year by his fellow Australian seamer Steve Magoffin and then by the Sri Lanka fast man Dilhara Fernando.A Cricket Australia-contracted player, Noffke toured the West Indies with Australia’s Test squad this year but was overlooked for the current trip to India. If his outstanding form holds up he will be in consideration for the 2009 Ashes squad and, if not selected, basing himself in England could make him the perfect candidate for any late call ups.Over the past two years Noffke has developed from a strong fast bowler into a dangerous allrounder. Last season he was not only Queensland’s leading Pura Cup wicket taker by a huge margin with 43 at 21.25, he was also their leading run scorer with 686 runs at 45.73 including one century and five fifties, and he was named Australia’s State Player of the Year.He also picked up eight wickets in a tour match against Sri Lanka, which tipped his tally to the point where he became only the third Australian to complete the first-class double of 50 wickets and 500 runs in a home season. Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, said Noffke was a vital part of the side’s 2009 plans.”I am delighted that we have secured a player of Ashley’s quality,” Rhodes said. “His all-round game is proven in both Australia and England. He has a wealth of experience which will be a huge benefit to our younger players. He still has a desire to play for Australia again and Worcestershire can only benefit from this.”Noffke made his ODI and Twenty20 international debuts during 2007-08. He has had previous county stints with Durham, Gloucestershire and Middlesex and he said he was pleased to be part of a squad that could challenge for silverware having been promoted to Division One.”From my conversations with Steve Rhodes, I am certain I can play a big role in what I expect to be a successful season,” Noffke said. “I can’t wait to join up with Steve and the rest of the squad in April.”