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.

Few players in the world currently undertake the variety of roles handed to Moeen Ali. In the recent Ashes he was bolstering England’s lower order at No. 8 then in the T20 against Australia he strode in at No. 3 to stroke a career-best unbeaten 72 from 46 balls to help set-up victory.Meanwhile, there is debate about whether he will open in the forthcoming one-day series then in the Tests against Pakistan in the UAE. Versatile is an understatement.As with most of his international career, which is still only 18 months old, he has taken it all in his stride, whether his job is to marshal the tail – something he did with significant success in the Ashes – chip out useful wickets with his offspin, go for broke in a T20 or to face the new ball at the top of a one-day innings which was his job at the World Cup earlier this year.Naturally, Moeen has said whatever task is handed to him he is happy to take – “I can bat from one to 11, really,” he said after the T20 – but there is no doubt his preference remains for being as high in the batting line-up as possible.Worcestershire have indicated they would accommodate him as an opener if England requested it ahead of the UAE tour. But it is still to be confirmed where he will slot back into the one-day side having missed the series against New Zealand when he was given red-ball cricket with Worcestershire ahead of the Ashes.”I love opening the batting but wherever the team wants me to bat, I will bat, and if that’s three then so be it,” Moeen said. “I have done it before so it is not a problem. Opening the batting is obviously a little bit different.””I think with the fielding restrictions it doesn’t really matter now but most of the time I enjoy the newer, harder ball because I don’t have to hit it as hard. I find it better if I open the batting but I am happy at three, four, five or wherever.”There are a couple of ways Moeen can return to the 50-over side. He could, as was the case in the T20, be a straight swap for the rested Joe Root at No. 3 or he could partner Alex Hales as an opener at the expense of Jason Roy who did not deliver a major innings against New Zealand.Moeen has opened in 20 of his 22 ODIs and scored two hundreds: 119 against Sri Lanka in Colombo – with his hundred coming off 72 balls, at the time England’s third fastest in ODIs – and 128 against Scotland in Christchurch during the World Cup. Moeen, though, remained modest about his capabilities.”The guys who are opening at the moment are very exciting players and hopefully if they both get in I am sure you will see more runs than if I was batting there,” he said.Moeen’s impressive performance in the T20, and the fact he provides another bowling option for Eoin Morgan, means that James Taylor could again be struggling to make the line-up against Australia at least at the start of the series.Taylor lost his place for the New Zealand series, having captained the side in the one-off match against Ireland in Dublin, having had a run at No. 3 during the triangular series in Australia and the World Cup where he made three half-centuries, including 98 against Australia at the MCG when he was controversially left stranded two runs short of his hundred.Taylor has enjoyed a strong Royal London Cup campaign with 401 runs at 66.83. His way back into the starting XI could be if Moeen opens and he returns at No. 3.

Almost two years ago, when Maharashtra were facing Goa at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s stadium at Gahunje, on the outskirts of Pune, the home team’s coach Surendra Bhave was throwing instructions to his wards, while David Andrews, then Maharashtra U-19 coach, watched the proceedings from the stands.Cut to Tuesday, and both Bhave and Andrews were in charge of opposing teams at the MCA Stadium, on the eve of the 82nd edition of the Ranji Trophy. While Andrews was overlooking Maharashtra’s preparations, Bhave kept a close eye on the Haryana nets on the other side of the pitch.After his prolonged association with Maharashtra cricket ended on a bitter note last year, Bhave took up the role of Haryana’s coach. Bhave’s return to the home ground of his former team, however, is not the main talking point ahead of tomorrow’s match. Neither is the history between these two teams, who squared off against each other in a low-scoring match in Lahli last year.Instead it was the presence of Virender Sehwag in the Haryana camp that created a buzz. Sehwag switched allegiance to Haryana after playing for Delhi all through his career and was at the centre of attention all through the teams’ four-hour training session.After batting for well over half an hour, Sehwag, who will also lead the side, did a few stretching exercises with his personal yoga trainer. He then had a long chat with Bhave before joining the rest of his team-mates for a long slip-catching session and then headed to the mandatory meeting of match officials and captains.Sehwag has barely spent a fortnight with his adopted team but has brought hope to an otherwise inconsistent Haryana unit. While Haryana’s bowling attack, led by Mohit Sharma and Amit Mishra [both players will miss this season’s opening game], was impressive last year, their batsmen let them down. Sehwag’s addition has given them much-needed hope that they can sort out their batting woes this season.”He is a huge impact man. I don’t have to say what sort of an impact he has on any cricket team but he has been wonderful so far,” Bhave said. “He has been thoroughly involved. Every player he has spoken to personally and from what it seems, he is a very good mentor. Coming from him makes a huge difference [for players].”Maharashtra’s training was just as thorough. While Andrews was confident of Maharashtra’s goal to “go one step further” than last year’s semi-final appearance with “Karnataka having set the benchmark of consistency”, his only concern was the lack of ideal preparations.With the Ranji Trophy starting as early as October 1, all teams have seen their preparations marred by the monsoons at some stage over the last two months. Naturally, the first half of the tournament’s league stage will see teams struggling to cope as much with rustiness as with the October heat.With showers predicted for Thursday in Pune, Maharashtra and Haryana will hope to shed their rustiness and find their groove right away.

Like his German composer namesake, Neil Wagner does not mind a hint of the dramatic. Where New Zealand have gained a reputation for even temper and a lack of on field histrionics, Wagner’s Afrikaner blood gets up at times, as shown by an on-field posture that can look more Dale Steyn than Tim Southee.

‘Olden days’ WACA pitch in prospect

With as few as two Test matches left for the WACA Ground to host before major international cricket moves to the drop-in pitches of the nascent Burswood Stadium, the curator Matthew Page is as intent on keeping things as retro as possible.
“With us being the WACA, it’s all about trying to replicate the olden days and provide a traditional WACA wicket,” Page said. “It goes back to the 70s, that sort of thing, so for us every wicket we do we’re trying to replicate those conditions.”
Page replaced Cameron Sutherland only a matter of weeks before the Ashes Test two years ago, and his knowledge of the surface has grown since, including the constant historical comparisons.
“They changed the clay back to what it originally was about six or seven years ago, and I guess the pace and the bounce has returned since then,” he said. “We’re always compared with the olden days. For us, it’s about trying to get it as close as we can.”

Given New Zealand’s poorly display in Brisbane, where they were bullied by an Australia side as aggressive in deed as they are infamous for being in word, Wagner’s occasionally fiery countenance may be a useful tonic for Brendon McCullum’s side as they seek to fight their way out of the hole they find themselves in.Wagner certainly likes the look of the WACA, a place at which he has never bowled but can vividly recall the exploits of many a fast bowler at the ground. Plans to shift major international matches to the Burswood Stadium and a drop-in pitch mean all pacemen are running out of chances.”I’d love to play Australia, I’d love to get that chance,” Wagner said. “I had a training session yesterday at the Melville club and they told me it was the last two Tests at the WACA or something like that because they’re talking about a different ground. That’s a bit of a shame because it’s quite a nice ground, I loved watching it growing up, a lot of history over there and I’d love to play there. It’s pretty awesome, a very special place for fast bowlers.”Just watching cricket here over the years, I think overseas teams have come here and bowled a bit too short. They get carried away with the bounce and the pace sometimes. Sometimes you’ve got to bowl a touch fuller length, sort of top of the stumps. For us I think the thing is to not get carried away with it. Hit consistent areas and ask good questions for longer periods of time and things will happen.”Even though Southee bowled soundly in the morning at nets to prove his fitness after suffering from an irritated disc in his back at the Gabba, Wagner is still a chance to play. The New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has forecast a five-man bowling attack for the WACA Ground with the spinner Mark Craig batting at No. 7, meaning the pace options for McCullum will be many and varied. New Zealand are also sustained by the knowledge they are chronically slow starters to Test series, but invariably improve as they go on.”As a bowling unit we’ve always complemented each other quite well over past times and our success over the past two years or so is we’ve bowled in partnerships and other guys have stepped up too,” Wagner said. “I think that has made Tim and Trent bowl really well in the past. It was just a little bit inconsistency and a bit of a tough start.”We have had that in the past as well, our first Test we haven’t always started that well and we’ve picked it up as the series has gone on. Lucky for us it’s a three-match series, there’s a lot more cricket left to be played and hopefully we can set it back from ball one in this next Test.”Overall the team will be better for that hit [in Brisbane], being out in the heat and humidity and bouncy wickets, just adapting to everything, it’s now for us to go out and set it right in the second Test from day one.”One man Wagner may be asked to confront should he get the nod to play, is David Warner, the dominant batting force of the Gabba Test and now one of only three batsman ever to have thrice scored a hundred in each innings of a Test match. That sort of scoring can force opposition teams to re-think their strategies, but Wagner said it was simply a matter of being tighter for longer.”I think we still stick to our guns and our plans. If we execute it better for longer periods of time, I’m sure we’ll get more rewards,” he said. “I think our attack is up there with the best in the world. When Tim, Trent and Dougy and the rest of them all get it right – they’re pretty good bowlers. If we can be more consistent for long periods of time, we’ll definitely show that. The boys are up for the task and the challenge in this Test.”Richard Wagner’s operatic Ring Cycle is a 15-hour affair. Success for Wagner and New Zealand this week will require a similarly sustained effort.

Sachin Tendulkar admitted that he hadn’t looked at the scoreboard when he was in the nineties, not wanting to think of missing out on a hundred yet again. Tendulkar endured seven scores in the nineties in the last year and said he would savour this hundred as a special one.”It was a little different this time because in 2007 I missed a lot of hundreds and I didn’t want that to continue,” he said referring to his string of dismissals in the nineties, including three on 99. “I wanted to move on and the beginning of the new year is extremely important. It came at the right time so I am happy about that.”I didn’t look at the scoreboard, to be honest. I was just sharing my opinion with Harbhajan about how to go on with the innings and build our partnership and continue and that was the prime focus. That kept my mind pre-occupied with a lot of things.”Harbhajan joined Tendulkar after a mini-collapse, when India lost four wickets for 52 runs in 14.5 overs. “I had to re-think the strategy as we lost four wickets in that period. We had to plan little different. One big partnership was important.”The striking feature of this innings was Tendulkar’s decision to trust the tailenders, even if it was No. 11 Ishant Sharma, who’s previous 13 first-class innings had produced just 15 runs. “It was our strategy,” he said. “For me there was just one fielder at gully saving one otherwise all were virtually on the boundary line or half-way down. To try something stupid and get out would have been unwise.”I thought if runs had come earlier with Harbhajan and RP Singh, the same strategy should be applied. Ishant scored some important 23-24 runs. What eventually matters is the partnership and not who takes the initiative. We had these calculations going our way.”Tendulkar’s innings was greeted with such a tremendous response that it often appeared he was the home batsman. “I am very happy with the way the crowd have supported us. Australians are known for that, they enjoy good cricket, they enjoy competitive cricket and it makes the players feel it’s worthwhile to have the spectators to enjoy the game in the right spirit. They know and understand the game very well. It was truly a pleasure to be out there in the middle and get runs in front of the Australian crowd.”Was the SCG, where he now averages 326, his favourite ground? “It is one of my favourite grounds,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed batting here and it has truly been a memorable one. Sometimes you walk on the field and it gives you good feelings. It is one of those grounds.”

A fresh row erupted at SuperSport Park on Sunday, overshadowing a thunderous century from Shaun Pollock as South Africa carried their first innings to 566 for eight on the third day of the five-day match against India.Pollock hammered out 113 not out off 109 balls in an innings played in much the same vein as his 111 off 106 balls against Sri Lanka in a real Test at the same venue in January. The pity of it all was that for much of his innings almost the entire contingent of journalists and commentators was quizzing United Cricket Board president Percy Sonn about an interview given by UCB chief executive Gerald Majola to the Press Trust of India on Saturday.The controversy had to do with the wording of an answer given by Majola in which he seems to say that had the ICC come up with the R40-million which the UCB would have lost had no match been played at Centurion, South Africa might well have said tough luck to India.Speaking in the context of the financial reasons for South Africa’s decision to appoint their own match referee to ensure that some kind of game took place, Majola says: "If the ICC could have said to us, listen, we’ll give you the R40-million you’d lose, or whatever you’d lose, I’d have said to the Indians we can’t (play the match)."The wildest interpretation of what is basically a restatement of the UCB position since Thursday (whether you agree with it or not) is that Majola was demanding a bribe to toe the ICC line, whether for himself or the UCB the accusers have not made clear.Sonn, meanwhile, held an impromptu press conference at which misunderstanding heaped upon incomprehension and which served very little purpose except, perhaps, to emphasise that South Africa’s position on the argument which is still to come about the status of this game is by no means clear.Pollock has made it clear that neither he nor his team regards as an official Test match nor should it be designated one in hindsight. The UCB may well take their cue from the players’ view in which case South African support for India’s case that the match is an official Test cannot be taken for granted.All the while, Pollock was thumping the Indian bowling around the ground, clubbing nine fours and seven sixes as the touring team wilted on a humid day. The pitch, slow and with uneven bounce on the first day, has flattened out into a fine batting strip, a point underlined as Makhaya Ntini scored an unbeaten 34 in helping Pollock add 121 for the ninth wicket.In normal circumstances this would have been Pollock’s third Test century (by the same token Jacques Kallis’s 110 would have been his 10th Test hundred) and it would have been an excellent day for South Africa. The lead, when rain brought play to a halt 36 minutes before the scheduled close, was 334, but the home side are bound to bat on on Monday.Pollock and Ntini, for instance, would probably like to have a tilt at the 195 scored by Pat Symcox and Mark Boucher against Pakistan in 1997/98 (the Test record for the ninth wicket) if for no other reason than to have something to hold over Boucher in dressing room.Kallis seemed impregnable until he got out, yorked by Anil Kumble, and his form as South Africa turn their attention to Australia is assuming heroic proportions. The South Africans will have their fingers crossed hoping that it travels well.The whole affair, though, has done very little credit to anyone involved as principles have been jettisoned and common sense thrown out of the window. Whether it will all lead to the much-feared split in international cricket remains to be seen, but it would be nice to believe that something positive could emerge from it all – a just, fair and workable disciplinary process, for instance.

Mahela Jayawardene has urged his side to adopt a smarter approach following Sri Lanka’s 63-run loss to Australia in the sixth CB Series match in Perth.Sri Lanka were in with a great chance to notch up their first win over Australia but a meek batting performance put paid to their chances. “We need to go hard, but the shot selection has to be a bit better,” he said after the loss. “In world cricket a lot of guys do go hard up front, with the power plays and all that, but the guys have got to be a bit smarter.Kumar Sangakkara played a lone hand in the Sri Lankan run-chase but the rest gave it away with some poor strokeplay. “The way we lost wickets was not good,” he said. “At crucial times, we keep losing wickets and you can’t do that in a run chase.”The tailenders once again failed to make an impression – the last five wickets put together only 14 – and Jayawardene wanted to see Chamara Silva, Farveez Maharoof, Chamara Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekera take up more responsibility with the bat. “These guys can bat and they have scored runs and we need to get their confidence back,” he said.Sri Lanka, who were off to a poor start in the series, revived their chances with a thumping eight-wicket win against India on Tuesday. However, Sri Lanka’s batsmen are yet to fire against Australia – having collapsed against them on both occasions. Sanath Jayasuriya has shown only glimpses of form, with 46 runs at 15.33, while Jayawardene, Silva and Tillakaratne Dilshan all fell cheaply when up against Australia.Sri Lanka take on India in their next match in Adelaide on Tuesday.

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.

Pakistan have delayed announcing their squad for the Under-15 World Cup, which begins in April in the West Indies, because several players were found to be overage after wrist tests were conducted on the 37 probables.The Pakistan board’s junior selection committee had selected a 15-member squad with five stand-bys to be handed over to the National Cricket Academy for the confirmation of their ages.”Yes, there is a problem as some selected players have been declared overage and we are in the process of having some remaining non-selected players tested,” Col. Naushad Ali, the head of the junior selection committee, told . “We will announce the team in the next couple of days after completing the tests.”The squad was selected after holding a national U-16 tournament in which 180 players took part, 80% of whom were U-15 according to their birth certificates.”We decided to hold the U-16 tournament to pick players both for an U-15 team as well as the academy,” Ali said. “The national selection committee has also given us a list of 18 players not to be included in the academy team due to their availability for the senior team’s home series against Bangladesh.”We will form a strong academy team for the tour of Bangladesh, despite not having the 18 players [mainly Test and international cricketers].”The academy side will play a triangular tournament against academies from South Africa and Bangladesh followed by four-day matches.

A day after premier news agencies voiced their concern about the IPL’s media guidelines, the Editors Guild of India – an influential lobby group – has criticised what it calls “prohibitive conditions” that are “unprecedented and unacceptable to the Indian media.” The criticism, in a letter from the Guild to Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, and Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, comes on a day the league confirmed that websites would not be given accreditation for the tournament.The Sports Journalists’ Federation of India also issued a statement expressing “alarm and concern” over the IPL’s conditions and asked that the “unfair and unethical restrictions being placed on the media be withdrawn unconditionally”.The contentious conditions include the IPL’s right to use all pictures taken at its grounds for free and without restrictions; the commitment by news organisations to upload on the IPL site, within 24 hours, all images taken at the ground; and the restriction of web portals’ access to images without prior permission from the IPL.”The conditions described in the form stipulate, among other things, that the media cannot use any image or photograph in any other publication, even if it belongs to the same organisation. Indirectly, it is making a claim on the images taken by the media organisations as a property of the IPL,” the Guild’s letter said.”To say the least, this is a ridiculous claim, unheard of in the annals of free India’s media tradition. The IPL is even making a claim on the said property for future use. The rules also stipulate that still images, taken by accredited photographers cannot be used for online editions of the newspapers for which the photographers may be working. In an age when most newspapers are also available to online readers, this stipulation is extremelyuntenable.”On Thursday, the IPL had indicated it was open to negotiations on the contentious conditions. However, it came out with another condition on Friday: those working for websites will not be granted accreditation for the event. “We will not be granting accreditation to websites as we will be having a site of our own for IPL,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer and an ex-officio member of the IPL board, said.It is believed that a decision to this effect was taken during a meeting involving media accreditation officials on Thursday night. IS Bindra, a member of the IPL’s governing council, told Cricinfo on Thursday that the portal rights for the event had been sold to a US company for US$50 million.