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Mark Wallace’s 14-year run of consecutive County Championship appearances for Glamorgan will come to an end on Wednesday because of a torn calf suffered in the previous Championship match against Northamptonshire.”A bit of an old man’s injury,” he said ruefully as he contemplated the end of a run of 230 successive Championship matches.Wallace sustained the injury while batting against Northamptonshire’s fast bowler Olly Stone, pulling up abruptly after taking a couple of steps out of his crease as he attempted a quick single. He was standing in as captain at the time for Jacques Rudolph.After treatment from Glamorgan’s physiotherapist Mark Rausa, he was helped off the field, together with the assistance of the 12th man Jeremy Lawlor.

Derbyshire sign Milnes

Derbyshire have completed the signing of all-rounder Tom Milnes, 22, from Warwickshire. The 22-year-old has been on loan at Derbyshire since July and made his first-class debut against Surrey at the Kia Oval at the start of September.
“The club already looks strong going into 2016,” said Graeme Welch, Derbyshire’s elite performance director, who has also strengthened with New Zealanders Hamish Rutherford and Oli Broom. 2015, though, was a disappointment with talk of promotion being replaced by the reality of a second-from-bottom position in Division Two of the LV= Championship.

Wallace was playing his 249th first-class match and 230th successive championship match for the Welsh county in a sequence which runs back to June 13, 2001 when he was a late call-up to replace the unwell Adrian Shaw behind the stumps in Glamorgan’s match against Kent at Maidstone.”I’m probably due an injury to be fair,” Wallace said. “I would have taken 230 games in a row when I got called up to go to Maidstone in 2001, so I can’t really grumble.”Glamorgan will play their final game of the season against Gloucestershire, winners of the Roayl London Cup on Saturday, in a four-day match at Bristol.

Five unnamed Australian cricketers did not meet the original Sunday deadline to register for the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction, however they were given a one-day extension as they sought clarification on contract details. The reported the players were all likely to register after receiving approval from Cricket Australia.Neil Maxwell, the agent who has been liaising between the IPL and Australia’s players, said there was no reason to expect any surprise absences at Wednesday’s bidding war. “There is always a chance [of a player not signing] but at this point we have alleviated any issues they have had,” Maxwell told the paper.The Australians only received a revised version of the IPL’s long-form contract on Thursday, which Maxwell conceded gave them little time to digest the details. But apart from the five expected to register on Monday, the remaining players returned their signed contracts by the Sunday deadline.The agreements came after Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, said the issues regarding Cricket Australia’s sponsorship concerns had been resolved. Cricket Australia had been intent on receiving global protection for its major supporters – it did not want to risk its players promoting rival companies – but Modi said the Australian board had acquiesced.The rush of Australian signatures coincided with reports that another former Test player, Michael Kasprowicz, was poised to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The said the newly-retired Kasprowicz, who played his last game for Queensland on Saturday, was ready to agree to a three-year ICL deal.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has reacted angrily to reports that Mohammad Yousuf’s – formerly Yousuf Youhana – conversion to Islam was influenced by religious elements within the team.In a statement the PCB said: “[We] categorically state that Yousuf’s decision was entirely personal and that no religious oriented pressure or influence was brought to bear on him by current or former players. The press report…is baseless and should be ignored.”Yousuf, 31, who has played 59 Tests and 202 ODIs for Pakistan, converted to Islam from Christianity earlier this week and it has caused tensions in his family. He is expected to play a crucial role in the Test series against England, starting in November.

ScorecardRachel Priest scored her maiden ODI ton•Getty Images

Opener Rachel Priest’s maiden century set up New Zealand’s 96-run win over Sri Lanka in the first Women’s ODI in Lincoln. Besides going 1-0 up in the five-match series, New Zealand have moved up to fourth on the ICC women’s championship points table.Asked to bat, New Zealand ran up a big score thanks to their top-three batsmen. After captain Suzie Bates (38) and Priest added 84 runs for the first wicket, Priest raised 131 runs in the company of Amy Satterthwaite, who made 69 off 72 balls.While there weren’t any major contributions after Priest and Satterthwaite departed in the space of three overs, the hosts made enough to stifle their opponents. Left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera cleaned up the lower order and finished with four wickets.Sri Lanka’s reply had a good beginning, as Chamari Atapattu put on 54 runs with Prasadini Weerakkody, but once Weerakkody was run out, wickets began to fall at regular intervals. Only Atapattu resisted for the visitors, but with little support from the other batsmen, the chase was never on. Offspinner Leigh Kasperek accounted for four wickets, including those of Atapattu and captain Shashikala Siriwardene.

Paul Grayson, Essex’s beleaguered coach, has been confirmed in the role until the end of the season as the club’s general committee has overwhelmingly resisted a recommendation from the new cricket chairman Ronnie Irani to remove him immediately from the post.The debate about Grayson’s future could hardly have been more disruptively timed, coming only a few days before Essex’s NatWest quarter-final against Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston which was duly lost in one of their most disappointing displays of the season.The committee, clearly wary of a repeat, voted in Chelmsford on Monday to delay their decision on Grayson’s future, even as Essex travelled to their final Royal London Cup group match against Sussex at Hove, another season-defining match in which victory would ensure them of a home quarter-final.Grayson has supervised consistently excellent displays in limited-overs cricket since taking charge in 2008 with Essex second only to Hampshire in the number of victories in one-day cricket in that time. But while Hampshire have gone on to win trophies, Essex have repeatedly faltered in the final stages, encouraging Irani to press for change soon after being elected to the role last month.It is the timing of the recommendation that has brought most unease, although in some ways that was unavoidable. Grayson was anxious to determine his future before the end of the season after the decision of the former cricket committee chairman, Graham Saville, to step down after 27 years in the role naturally introduced a period of reassessment within the county.Grayson, it is interesting to note, is one year into an official three-year plan in which it was made clear that the priority was to secure a one-day trophy and reshape a young Championship side based on home grown players. That commitment has been followed to the letter with a whole host of debutants given an opportunity to prove their worth for a county that lacks the pace bowling depth to sustain a serious challenge.Irani sounded more ambitious, stating upon taking office: ” We need to try to get into division one of the County Championship. We’ve fallen short of that for quite a few years now. We have to change and we have to improve massively.”We have an immensely talented group of individuals and it is fair to say that at this moment in time we have underachieved in the last seven or eight years.”We are still talented and it is great to see young players coming through like Nick Browne, Tom Westley and Jamie Porter. We have to make sure we keep doing that, while getting Essex back to the level that we were in years gone by, knocking on doors and trying to win trophies.”At this moment in time Paul is the head coach and we have to respect that position until the cricket committee decide on anything different.”Quite how much Grayson can be blamed for a prolonged failure to reach Division One of the Championship is a question worth asking. As a coach, as opposed to a director of cricket, his powers have remained limited, much against the trend in the county game and Essex’s budget is considerably lower.Essex still have one of the most traditional structures in county cricket with the outgong cricket chairman Saville, a former England U19 coach, and captain, James Foster, having had most influence on the big cricketing decisions. That way of doing things is unlikely to change.

Zimbabwe Cricket’s player contracts debate took a surprise turn after the board withdrew the contract offers to three players – Stuart Carlisle, Neil Ferreira and Barney Rogers.On Thursday, ZC announced that only three players – Heath Streak, Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut – would get long-term contracts, but four other senior players, Trevor Gripper, DougMarillier, Mark Vermuelen and Mluleki Nkala, did not even make the initial list of 27 players to get the level-one performance-based contracts.The board said that the decision to give short-term performance-related contracts had resulted from recent poor displays. “It’s a strange decision,” one of the players made the offer said. “It’s completely taken everyone by surprise. It’s a body blow. We are not sure of the reasons why ZC had to resort to such a move. It hasn’t helped morale at all ahead of the next game (on Sunday against India).”The players feel strongly about the issue. The guys have discussed it and felt that they should just go on and play tomorrow to keep cricket going, but they are completely devastated by the decision.”Carlisle has been struggling with form since returning to the side following the rebel strike. But Ferreira and Rogers are two of the most talented and promising young players in Zimbabwe. Insiders suggest that the two might have had clashes with certain ZC board members. Rogers was a surprise omission from the Test series with New Zealand, and the Videocon one-day tri-series, raising rumours of a clash with the selectors. Ferreira was rather harshly discarded after his debut Test against New Zealand, and that followed a long period of him being inexplicably overlooked.Gripper, Marillier and Vermuelen, the other players cast into the wilderness, have previously fallen out with ZC, and Gripper’s father was identified by ZC officials as being one of the main figures in last year’s player strike. Nkala, one of the more experienced young players in the team, is the chairman of the Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers’ Association.

Umpires Rudi Koertzen and Darrell Hair from the ICC Elite Panel have been appointed to officiate the first Test between India and Pakistan at Lahore starting January 13. Koertzen will be joined by Simon Taufel for the second Test at Faisalabad starting January 21 while Taufel will be joined by Daryl Harper for the third and final Test, at Karachi starting January 29. Ranjan Madugalle will be the match referee for the Tests and will be replaced by Chris Broad for the five-match ODI series.Taufel will stay on for the first three matches of the ODI series (at Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore) before Steve Bucknor takes over for the last two games, at Multan and Karachi.Apart from the India-Pakistan series, the ICC has also announced the Elite Panel and International Panel match referee and umpire appointments for all Tests and ODIs up to late March 2006.Jeff Crowe will be the match referee for the VB Series between Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka. If the finals go to a third and deciding match (which would be played at Brisbane) that encounter would be Crowe’s 50th as a referee. The umpires for the VB Series are Aleem Dar and Mark Benson. Dar will stand in eight matches (if the third final is required) and Benson will officiate in seven matches.For the West Indies tour of New Zealand starting February, match referee Mike Procter will officiate in all matches. Rudi Koertzen and Daryl Harper will officiate the ODI series. Harper will then stand in the first two matches of the Test series alongside Koertzen at Auckland and Mark Benson at Wellington. Benson will stand alongside Ian Howell, in the final match at Napier.For Sri Lanka’s tour of Bangladesh, the match referee for the tour will be Clive Lloyd. Umpire K Hariharan will officiate in the ODIs. Asad Rauf will be joined by Steve Bucknor in the first Test at Chittagong and Hariharan in the second Test at Dhaka.Chris Broad will be the match referee for Australia’s five-ODI and three-Test tour of South Africa. Jeremy Lloyds will stand in the first four ODIs before Aleem Dar takes charge of the final match. Lloyds will stand in the first two Tests of the series, at Cape Town and Port Elizabeth respectively, alongside Dar and Steve Bucknor. Bucknor will stay on for the final match at Centurion where he will be joined by Tony Hill.Ranjan Madugalle will be the match referee for the Test series between India and England.The umpires for the first Test will be Aleem Dar and Ian Howell. Simon Taufel and Darrell Hair will then stand in the second and third Tests of the series at Mohali and Mumbai respectively. The appointments for the ODI series between India and England, together with other future series, will be made in due course.Full details of the umpires and refereeing appointments can be viewed at the umpires and referees section of the ICC website.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has again accepted a request by Inzamam-ul-Haq to appoint Mushtaq Ahmed, the veteran legspinner, as the bowling consultant of the senior team for the home series against India.A senior Board official confirmed that Mushtaq would continue in the role on the request of the team management. “We didn’t have time to call an ad-hoc committee meeting to discuss future appointments due to the Eid holidays and other problems. But because the team management made a request we decided to retain Mushtaq as consultant after speaking to the committee members.”Mushtaq, 35, was originally recalled to the Test squad for the series against England in November but didn’t play in any of the matches. He was dropped for the one-day series against England but retained as a bowling consultant by the Board. But he was released after the series.Mushtaq was seen working with the players at the nets and was confident he would be getting the nod once again. It is no secret that Inzamam and coach Bob Woolmer are both comfortable with him working with the other players and remaining attached with the team. “Mushtaq is a very experienced cricketer and knows all these players well,” Inzamam said. “He is a good communicator and they can discuss things with him without any problems. He is a big help which is why we wanted him as a bowling consultant.”Mushtaq, who has a contract with English county Sussex for this year, has taken 185 wickets in 52 Tests and 161 in 144 one-dayers. The official said this contract was a big hindrance in the Board appointing him as an assistant coach on a long-term basis. The official also said that a decision on the assistant coach would be taken after the Indian series now.In a statement to the press, the PCB revealed that it has also called upon three other former Pakistani bowlers to assist the current crop. “Shahryar Khan [PCB Chairman] has invited Pakistan legends Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis to help out the national team with their bowling whenever they are available to do so,” a PCB official said.

Kevin Pietersen is likely to return from injury to face Sri Lanka in the Twenty20 game at The Rose Bowl on Thursday, and Paul Collingwood is also set to play despite sustaining a thigh injury during Tuesday’s ODI win over Ireland. Glen Chapple, who has an abdominal strain, will undergo a late fitness test.”It’s pretty much all right now,” Andrew Strauss said of Pietersen’s hamstring strain. “There was no point in risking him [against Ireland] but he should be OK for the Twenty20.”Collingwood too was optimistic, despite leaving the field for treatment during Ireland’s innings. “It’s a bit tender at the moment but hopefully I should be OK,” he told BBC Sport. “I could have stayed on and bowled a few more overs but it was tightening up and we thought it would be best to get it iced up. Hopefully it’s not too bad. We’ll see more when I get into running and sprinting then make a decision but I can’t see it being a problem.”While England have some international Twenty20 experience – the victory over Australia on the same ground a year ago kick-started a remarkable summer – this will be Sri Lanka’s first outing. However, they showed that they are likely to adapt quickly when they took on a PCA Masters XI at Arundel on Tuesday, thrashing the ball to all parts in making 180 for 3 off 16 overs before rain set in.A full house is expected at Southampton, with many fans arriving at 4pm to watch England’s World Cup match against Trinidad & Tobago on the giant replay screens. The Twenty20 game starts at 7.15pm.

There will be a tendency to dismiss as inconsequential India’s2-0 Test series victory over Zimbabwe. After all, it was a winachieved against the ninth-ranked Test nation – out of 10, it maybe added. Also, as I stated in an earlier column, it does notmatter that India is rated number seven or eight in the currentTest rankings. In home conditions, the Indian team makes forrather formidable opposition, borne out by the fact that only oneteam has won a Test series here in the last 15 years. Even topranked Australia came a cropper in their bid to cross the “finalfrontier” a year ago.That said, it must not be forgotten that India won both thematches in the series, something they were unable to achieveagainst the same team in their last series played here some 15months ago. Andy Flower thwarted India from registering a secondvictory on that occasion, and the left-hander’s failure this timewas certainly one reason why India made a sweep of the seriesfairly comfortably, the rather unconvincing achievement of theNew Delhi win notwithstanding. With all the huffing and puffingat the Feroz Shah Kotla, one must remember that the victorymargin in the first Test was an innings and 101 runs.

In the ultimate analysis, the series victory, besides underliningthe fact that India continues to be awe-inspiring opposition athome, also served to confirm the strengths and weaknesses of thehosts. Touching upon the former, one must first mention theHarbhajan Singh – Anil Kumble duo. The two look well on coursefor taking their place in the honoured list of the great Indianspinning pairs of the past ­ Subhash Gupte and Vinoo Mankad, BSChandrasekhar and Bishan Singh Bedi, and Erapalli Prasanna andBedi. The two complement each other perfectly, and notunexpectedly, they have showered praise on one another.In his 32nd year, Kumble, with over 300 wickets in the bag, is atthe peak of his powers, while his partner, 10 years younger,obviously has his better days ahead of him. Indian cricket’sstrongest point, for some years now, has been its middle-orderbatting, but the time is not far off, I venture to guess, whenthis accolade passes on to the spin duo, who shared 28 wickets inthe two Tests.Speaking of the middle-order batting, the series against Zimbabwesaw this mighty aspect lose nothing of the aura surrounding itfor some time now. Sachin Tendulkar made his customary hundred,while Rahul Dravid used the opportunity to get into his groovefollowing treatment to a shoulder injury. If there is a suddenquestion mark over VVS Laxman, who only a year ago had scaled newpeaks and was hailed as a Messiah, it is heartening to know thatVirender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar are around to fill that vitalnumber six slot in the middle order.But what was most encouraging was Sourav Ganguly finally strikingform. The Indian captain has always been a classy player, but hisextended bad run saw some critics baying for his blood. I, forone, did not join the growing list of detractors. To me,Ganguly’s case will always be paralleled with that of GundappaViswanath who too, more than once during his 91-Test career, wentthrough a bad patch that led to the “experts” calling for hisremoval. The selectors, however, displayed more wisdom than thedetractors, and the Karnataka stylist repaid this confidencehandsomely. Similarly, I can only see Ganguly getting better andbetter from here on.Shiv Sunder Das, I have always believed, is on course toovertaking Navjot Singh Sidhu as the finest Indian openingbatsman in the post-Gavaskar period. The just-concluded seriesconfirmed this view. It can also be taken as confirmed that DeepDasgupta has played his last Test match. The doors are now wideopen for Ajay Ratra, who can grab this opportunity to cement hisplace in the side as a specialist wicket-keeper whose batting isa bonus. Bangar, who opens the batting for Railways, could be asuitable contender to become Das’ partner at the top of theorder.

There was little wrong with the new ball attack, with JavagalSrinath and Zaheer Khan capable of making the earlybreakthroughs. The latter was particularly impressive, his speed,swing, line and length all having the Zimbabwe batsmen hopping.As far as home conditions go, I emphasise, there seems to be noproblem with the Indian attack, and it is to be hoped that Bangarwill work on his bowling skills to become the kind of all-rounderthat Indian cricket has needed for so long.A word about the visitors. In a nutshell, they proved to begallant losers. They were badly outplayed at Nagpur, but within afew days, they were able to raise the level of their game severalnotches to run India pretty close at the Kotla. Overall, however,their batsmen found Kumble and Harbhajan too hot to handle, whilethe bowlers were no match for the run-hungry Indian batsmen.But a bright future surely awaits Ray Price. The 25-year-oldleft-arm spinner displayed tenacity of purpose, a tantalisinglength and line, besides biting turn on a pitch that was onlyslightly helpful. Even the reputation of being the best playersof spin did not aid the Indian batsmen in overcoming the guilesof Price, and however long he plays the game, the fact that hedismissed Tendulkar three times running ­ twice for scores lessthan 50 ­ could remain his proudest achievement.