The career paths of cricketers do not always run along predictable lines and it is fair to say that Peter Trego’s is unique.

Jon Culley at Old Trafford06-May-2010

ScorecardPeter Trego rode his luck to record the quickest first-class century of the season so far•Getty Images

The career paths of cricketers do not always run along predictable lines and it is fair to say that Peter Trego’s is unique.Born in Weston-super-Mare, he made his first-class debut for Somerset at 18 and went to Sri Lanka with England’s under-19s the following winter but from there things rather petered out. Somerset let him go and a move to Kent came to nothing and for a while he was out of the game, supplementing his income from a variety of jobs by playing non-League football. He was a goalkeeper, at which his claims to fame were an appearance on Match of the Day playing for Chippenham and scoring a goal in the Conference for Margate, from a free-kick in his own half.Maybe this is why he plays cricket with the air of a man who knows he has been lucky to have a second chance, as Somerset gave him when they engaged him again in 2006. When he hits a cricket ball – and he gives it a hefty thump – you imagine he is doing so out of the joy of being on the field.Not that his ambitions are modest. He still wants to play for a senior England side and in that respect he advertised his credentials impressively enough on the third day here, hitting the fastest century of the season so far in a manner that was typical – bold, risky, fortunate and, so far as Lancashire were concerned, painfully effective.Reaching three figures in just 83 balls – his second 50 coming off a mere 26 – he set the pace in a scorching partnership with James Hildreth that has given Somerset the upper hand, even though, thanks to the gloomy weather here, time is working against a positive result.The experience was all the more difficult to stomach for Lancashire in that they dropped Trego not once but twice before he had completed his first 50. He should have gone at 22, when an ugly pull went straight to Glen Chapple, the captain, at mid on only to end up on the floor. Daren Powell was the bowler and it was not his best delivery but he did produce a much better one to find the edge when Trego was on 40. This time Paul Horton, at first slip, seemed to have the ball in his hands but again it spilled out.With those escapes behind him, Trego really let loose, doubling his boundary count to 16 as he rushed to his hundred, his first away from Somerset, all of the others having come at Taunton or Bath, including that astonishing effort of just 54 deliveries against Yorkshire last season as Somerset chased down an improbable 476 to win.Powell got him in the end, picking up his first first-class wicket for Lancashire as Trego attempted another pull through mid-wicket but miscued the ball to mid-off instead. Chapple held it safely this time, to the relief and amusement of his teammates.The partnership with Hildreth added 186 in just 32 overs. “I’ve still got ambitions to play for England in some format this summer,” Trego said afterwards.Up on the balcony, Peter Moores, the Lancashire coach, may have been less inclined to chuckle, not least because by then Hildreth had also been dropped twice, if somewhat more forgivably. Second slip got his fingertips to a chance when the batsman was on 62 and there was another half-chance on 78 to square leg, where the substitute fielder, Luke Procter, flung out a hand but could not manage to hold on.The cost was not quite so heavy this time but Hildreth nonetheless moved to 99 before missing out on a hundred to enormous frustration, when he seemed to think about running the ball down to third man off Chapple’s bowling, then appeared to change his mind not quite decisively enough, consequently getting a nick that Luke Sutton pouched behind the stumps.The last three wickets did not add significantly to the total but the damage was largely done as Somerset advanced to a lead of 97 on first innings and Lancashire reflected on bowling figures that had taken a hefty hit, the price for offering too much width on a pitch that offered the batsmen a chance when the bowler strayed off line. Kyle Hogg, who had looked sharp and mean the day before and was 3 for 44 from 20 overs overnight, finished with 4 for 96 from 30.2. Chapple’s three wickets cost 146. Saj Mahmood, still off the field with a sore calf, would have got good bounce, you fancy, and been a handful if he had his direction right.Sutton, after his first-innings hundred, kept his place at the top of the Lancashire order despite 102 overs in the field but bad light hindered the home side as they set about trimming the arrears and a draw looks the likeliest outcome.

Ravi Bopara boosted his chances of a Test recall with a seven-wicket haul as England Lions crushed Bangladesh in three days in the tour match at Derby

21-May-2010
ScorecardRavi Bopara followed up his seven wickets in the game with 28 in the second innings as Lions hurried to victory•Getty Images

Ravi Bopara boosted his chances of a Test recall with a seven-wicket haul as England Lions crushed Bangladesh in three days in the tour match at Derby.Bopara ended a stubborn last-wicket stand to finish with four for 14 in the innings and seven for 23 in the match and then took the Lions to the brink of a nine-wicket victory before he was bowled in the final over before lunch for 28.Lions skipper and England opener Alastair Cook spent time in the middle before next week’s Lord’s Test with an unbeaten 42 from 55 balls as his team easily chased down a target of 86. Bopara has not played Test cricket since last summer but the Essex allrounder could now come into England”s plans for Lord’s if the selectors decide to rest players.Bangladesh will be hoping captain Shakib Al Hasan makes a speedy recovery from the chickenpox which kept him out of this game after their batsmen wasted the chance to spend time in the middle before Lord’s.Only Jahural Islam showed the necessary application required on a pitch that helped the seamers to score an unbeaten 58 off 153 balls and was the only Bangladeshi batsman to pass 50 in the game.At least Rubel Hossain dug in to see him to his half-century and made the Lions bowlers work for the last wicket on a hot, humid morning. The contest had been decided on the previous afternoon when the tourists lost wickets to a rash of ill-judged shots to collapse to 139 for 9 a lead of just 63.Jahural and Rubel continued the stand which had rescued their side from a two-day defeat and batted for another 11 overs before Bopara struck. Jahural brought up his 50, which came off 129 balls, by driving Liam Plunkett through the covers for his fifth four and he hit two more to at least give the Bangladeshi bowlers a modest target to defend.The last-wicket pair had been together for 18 overs and had added 40 runs when Bopara found the outside edge of Rubel’s bat to give wicketkeeper Steven Davies his sixth victim. The best Bangladesh could hope for was to make the Lions work for the runs and they should have removed Bopara on five in the fourth over when he cut Robiul Islam hard to gully where Mahmudullah spilled the chance.Shafiul Islam beat Cook several times but the opening pair had taken the Lions to within 10 runs of victory when Bopara, who had faced 47 balls and hit four fours, pushed forward at Abdur Razzak’s left-arm spin and was bowled.The Lions needed just three balls after the interval to wrap up victory with Moeen Ali easing the memory of his first-ball dismissal in the first innings by dispatching Razzak for six and four.

Paul Condon, the outgoing chief of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), has said there is uncertainty over whether or not there was any match-fixing involved in the first and second editions of the IPL

Cricinfo staff20-May-2010Paul Condon, the outgoing chief of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), has said it worried about the first two IPL seasons not because it suspected match-fixing but because of the lack of infrastructure to prevent it. He said the third edition held this year was a clean event largely due to the heavy involvement of the ACSU.”IPL 1 and 2 we were worried about, not because we think there were huge fixes, but because there was no infrastructure to prevent it,” Condon said at Lord’s on Thursday. “That doesn’t mean to say that matches were fixed in IPL 1 and 2, but nor can I, hand on heart, give it a clean bill of health. I just don’t know .”Our advice was, and remains, that if you are going to have world-class players, international players, who are playing in IPLs and Twenty20s, and if they do anything daft there, sadly they will take that back into the international game. You can’t be a part-time fixer, once the bad guys get into them, and a lot of them are organised criminals, then you are on the hook.”While Condon acknowledged he had heard rumours of spot-fixing in the third IPL season, he said there was no concrete evidence to suggest that was the case. “In IPL 3, the ACSU was heavily involved, there was an education programme, and we’ve got no current intelligence, or information, or ongoing enquiries, which suggest anything other than IPL3 was a clean event in terms of spot-fixing.”IPL 3 from a clean cricket point of view seems to have been a very good event, but you are never more than a phonecall away from someone saying otherwise. There were rumours and vague allegations about IPL3, but no one has come forward either from the Indian board, or IPL, or franchises, or journalists, or players, or team managers, or anyone with specific allegations about match-fixing in IPL. All it’s been is very generic rumour, and we’re still waiting.”Condon said it was essential to prevent any possibility of match-fixing in leagues like the IPL to ensure the problem didn’t spread to the international arena. “To keep the game clean, we’ve got to make sure that events like the IPL and other events like it, don’t contaminate international cricket. So the same regime works for IPL: education, security managers in place.”

Ben Hilfenhaus is set for an immediate return to Test cricket after Ryan Harris became the latest Australian fast bowler to be struck down with injury

Brydon Coverdale in Birmingham04-Jul-2010Ben Hilfenhaus is set for an immediate return to Test cricket after Ryan Harris became the latest Australian fast bowler to be struck down with injury. Harris has flown home from England after hurting his right knee during the one-day series against England, leaving the way clear for Hilfenhaus to play the first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s next week.Australia’s pace group has experienced a revolving-door period over the past year; Harris only won his Test opportunity in New Zealand because Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle were both sidelined. Hilfenhaus has now recovered from his knee tendonitis and with Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger both in the Test side, it looked like being a battle between Harris and Hilfenhaus for the third spot.Although one decision has been made for the selectors, they must still work out who to call up to bolster the squad’s bowling depth. Clint McKay and Josh Hazlewood are both still in England after the one-day series and could be added to the Test outfit, while Peter George should be firmly in the mix after strong first-class performances for Australia A over the past couple of weeks.Any temptation to rush Shaun Tait into the Test squad following his excellent one-day series would be premature and potentially damaging to his future prospects, given that he hasn’t played a first-class game since 2008. Siddle remains in the early stages of his comeback from back stress fractures and is not in contention.Regardless of who gets the call-up, Australia’s attack in the first Test is likely to be Johnson, Bollinger, Hilfenhaus and Steven Smith, with Shane Watson as backup. Johnson feels fit and ready to fire after a short lay-off due to an elbow infection and he said while the latest injury was disappointing for Harris, Australia had displayed impressive depth in their bowling stocks recently.”Losing a player, another player can come back in like Ben Hilfenhaus,” Johnson said in Birmingham, where the team is preparing for Monday’s Twenty20 against Pakistan. “Josh Hazlewood had a crack this one-day series and it just shows the depth we have in Australian cricket.”We’ve got a good bunch that have been able to rotate in and out of the side, whether it’s an injury or not, they’ve been able to rotate very well. Maybe it’s taken one game to gel back as a group again, but looking for the future we have a pretty good squad at the moment.”There’s always been talk about the McGrath-Warne era. I think we’ve really started to make a stamp on how we perform as a group. We’re not trying to go out there and be those guys, we’re just trying to do the best we can and play good cricket for Australia and win games. We don’t look to be intimidated by those big names before us. We’ve just got to go out there and make a name for ourselves and I think we’re doing a really good job at the moment.”Harris has been one of the most impressive performers in the attack since his call-up during the one-day series against Pakistan in January, having taken 40 wickets in 16 ODIs since then. He was Australia’s leading wicket taker during the ODI series against England, when he claimed ten victims at 17.10 despite missing the second game with a groin strain, and it is now unclear how long he will be sidelined.”Ryan Harris injured his right knee during the fifth one-day international against England,” Australia’s team physio Alex Kountouris said. “He will take no further part in the Twenty20 or Test matches against Pakistan in England and will return to Australia for further assessment.”The selectors will discuss his replacement in the squad in the coming days. Australia play two Twenty20s in Birmingham on Monday and Tuesday before heading to Derby for a two-day game to help them prepare for the first Test.

Essex, who secured a spot in the final four of the Friends Provident t20 by beating Lancashire on Tuesday, have strengthened their squad by signing West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo

Cricinfo staff28-Jul-2010Essex, who secured a spot in the final four of the Friends Provident t20 by beating Lancashire at Chelmsford on Tuesday, have strengthened their squad by signing West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo. Bravo is currently representing Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, but will be available for selection for Finals day on August 14, pending his visa approval.”Obviously Dwayne is a world class allrounder, and we have lost the services of other big hitters such as Graham Napier and Ryan ten Doeschate,” said Paul Grayson, Essex first XI Head Coach.”We see Dwayne as a like for like replacement for Scott Styris. He is a high quality cricketer, we feel we are short of another allrounder with injuries to Napier and Tendo [ten Doeschate], he is a top class player and we hope he can make a major impact on Finals Day”.Essex were struck by two major injury blows earlier this season, as Napier suffered a stress fracture of the back, and ten Doeschate tore a calf muscle during Essex’s win over Somerset on June 16.”Ryan has been doing all he can with the support of the back-room staff, if Ryan continues to progress well over the next couple of weeks we can only hope that he has a chance to play his part in Finals Day,” explained Grayson. “We will give him every chance of playing at the Rose Bowl for Finals Day.”

Kent have replaced the famous lime tree that grew within the playing area of the St Lawrence ground at Canterbury, after the original blew down in strong winds back in January

Cricinfo staff14-Aug-2010

Kent have replaced the famous lime tree that grew within the playing area of the St Lawrence ground at Canterbury, after the original blew down in strong winds back in January. A short ceremony took place at 11am on Tuesday, March 8, one that was made all the more poignant by the recent death of the club president, Brian Luckhurst, who succumbed to cancer last week.Luckhurst had been due to conduct the ceremony, but instead the duties were carried out by his precedessor, Robert Neame, who oversaw the repositioning of a sapling that had been planted on the boundary’s edge in 1999, when the club first became aware of the poor state of the old tree.Chris Cowdrey, the former Kent and England captain, read a poem entitled “Farewell the St Lawrence Lime”, which was written by a Kent fan shortly after the January storm. The show must go on,” Cowdrey said, in reference to Luckhurst’s untimely death. “We’ll try and make it a celebration rather than a sad occasion.””There has been a lime tree on the boundary’s edge for as long as cricket has been played on the St Lawrence Ground,” said Carl Openshaw, the club chairman. Under special rules that were adapted for Kent’s – and the tree’s – benefit, it was deemed that any shot that struck the tree, no matter how high or low on its branches, would count as four runs.Kent are hoping to make a range of mementos from the wood of the original tree, which was over 200 years old.

The hastily-arranged match between the Australians and an England XI captained by Lord Harris, now deemed to be the first Test staged in England, was won by the home side but produced a thrilling contest which ebbed and flowed to the end

Martin Williamson06-Sep-2010The hastily-arranged match between the Australians and an England XI captained by Lord Harris, now deemed to be the first Test staged in England, was won by the home side but produced a thrilling contest which ebbed and flowed to the end.The Australians came into the match without their trump card, the fast bowler Fred Spofforth who had injured a hand in a meaningless game a week earlier. His absence almost certainly proved the difference between the sides. Harris had failed to persuade two or three top names to play for him, but despite that the England team was strong.Despite the authorities dismissive approach to the whole tour, the appeal of a match between strong England and Australia sides proved a massive attraction. On the first day 20,814 spectators paid admission, with another 19,863 on the second. Thousands more found vantage points on trees outside the ground and on the gasometers.In glorious late-summer sun, Lord Harris won the toss and batted, reaching 404 for 8 by the close of the first day of three. WG Grace made 152 in three hours 55 minutes out of 281 scored while he was at the wicket, while Bunny Lucas and Lord Harris added fifties. Only three late wickets gave the Australians any hope.England’s tail was soon polished off on day two – the last six wickets fell for 16 runs – and then bowled out the Australians for 149. Fred Morley, the Nottinghamshire left-arm seamer, took 5 for 56 and the follow-on was enforced. When they reached the close on 170 for 6, still 101 from making England bat again, few doubted the game would extend to lunch on the final day.A small crowd of 3751 gathered for the last rites, and two quick wickets seemed to signal the end. But Billy Murdoch, Australia’s captain and a top-order batsman, remained and set about the bowling, and he found good support from the Nos 10 and 11, George Alexander and William Moule, who both chipped in with thirties. Built around Murdoch’s 153, they did enough to give their side a lead, but it was only 57.WG Grace, weary from bowling, chose to bat down the order but the decision backfired as England crashed to 31 for 5, both EM and FR Grace making ducks, FR bagging a pair in his only Test. WG Grace strode out at No. 7, steadied the innings, and England won by five wickets, sparking wild celebrations. The significance of Spofforth’s absence was underlined two years later at The Oval when England were set 85 and lost, Spofforth taking 14 wickets in the match.The was a sad footnote as Fred Grace, the youngest of the three brothers playing in the game, was dead within a fortnight. From The Oval he traveled to a match in the rain at Stroud, got soaked and then slept the night on a damp mattress. He contracted a chill and died days later from pneumonia. Despite failing with the bat at The Oval, his catch to dismiss George Bonner went into cricket folklore. The mighty Bonner skied one towards the gasometer side of the ground, the ball going so igh that the batsmen had completed two runs and were on they for a third when Grace held the catch. Where Grace took it was measured the same day as being 115 yards from the bat.

Sussex have won promotion back to Division One of the County Championship at the first time of asking after securing four batting points on the second day of their clash against Northamptonshire at Hove

08-Sep-2010
ScorecardSussex have won promotion back to Division One of the County Championship at the first time of asking after securing four batting points on the second day of their clash against Northamptonshire at Hove.Replying to their visitors’ 125 all out, Sussex made 381 with opener Chris Nash top-scoring with 164. They then reduced Northants to 48 for 2 in their second innings before bad light and rain ended play early. Northants still need to score a further 209 runs just to make Sussex bat again.Earlier the hosts had sealed promotion when Ollie Rayner’s single took them to 350, although Gloucestershire’s subsequent failure to take any batting points at Grace Road against Leicestershire meant they were already assured of a top-two finish.After the start was delayed for an hour because of rain Nash and Ben Brown took advantage of some wayward bowling as they put on 92 in 20 overs for the third wicket before lunch, with Nash setting the tone by pulling the fourth ball of the day for six off Lee Daggett. Nash completed 1,000 first-class runs for the second successive year when he reached 140 and then passed 150 for the third time in the last five games.But Sussex collapsed dramatically after lunch, losing eight wickets for 58 runs in 24 overs, three of them in four balls from seamer David Lucas. Nash’s 164 included 20 fours and six sixes from 193 balls, but his innings ended tamely when he gave an easy catch to backward point. Murray Goodwin fell in identical fashion to the next ball and although Matt Prior averted the hat-trick he steered the next ball tamely to second slip.Sussex lost their fourth wicket of the session when Brown picked out mid-on to give James Middlebrook the first of two wickets and when Andrew Hodd edged the offspinner to slip his side had lost five for 11 in 7.4 overs.Yasir Arafat was dropped at long leg by Daggett but he and Rayner safely secured the fourth batting point before Jack Brooks returned with the new ball to take three of the last four wickets to fall to finish with four for 88. In a lop-sided innings eight batsman had contributed just 55 runs between them but Sussex still took a first-innings lead of 256.They soon made inroads when Northants batted again. Arafat bowled opener Stephen Peters for the second time in the match via an inside edge and then trapped Alex Wakely leg before, although Wakely was well forward.Rain returned shortly afterwards but Sussex are well placed to wrap up victory tomorrow, which would almost certainly clinch the Division Two title.

A domineering all-round performance from Shakib Al Hasan helped Bangladesh secure a historic series win in Mirpur, their first against a top-flight opposition

The Bulletin by Andrew Fernando14-Oct-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Shakib Al Hasan’s fifth ODI century lifted Bangladesh to 241 in the fourth ODI against New Zealand•Associated Press

A dominant all-round performance from Shakib Al Hasan helped Bangladesh secure a historic series win in Mirpur, their first against a top-flight opposition. Shakib’s fifth ODI century rescued the home team from the depths of 44 for 3 and lifted them to a formidable 241, a target that proved nine runs too many for New Zealand, who now trail 0-3 in the series, with one game to go. Shakib then struck with the ball and, despite a valiant maiden hundred from Kane Williamson who battled through injury during the latter part of his innings, slammed the door on the visitors with three wickets to lead Bangladesh to a famous victory.New Zealand’s top order had not fired as a unit so far in the tour, and their performance in today’s must-win encounter was no different. BJ Watling was trapped in front for 6 by Abdur Razzak and Brendon McCullum soon followed him to the dressing room, despite having looked good for a characteristically frenetic knock with a couple of early boundaries down the ground. Ross Taylor, who had been the pick of New Zealand’s batsmen in the series, then compounded matters for his team by picking out the deep square-leg fielder in a style of dismissal that has become an all too familiar sight for his fans back home.Shakib was quick to have spinners operating at both ends and the ploy paid dividends once more. Aaron Redmond succumbed to a straighter one from Shakib in the 17th over, before Daniel Vettori perished while attempting to increase the run rate, leaving the visitors reeling at 80 for 5.Williamson and Grant Elliott, however, were on hand to provide some much needed stability to the New Zealand run-chase, and accumulated intelligently through the middle period to give the visitors some hope of reaching their target. Williamson was especially impressive in his approach, as he confidently negotiated the spinners who had wreaked so much havoc on his teammates throughout the series, picking up the singles and twos with relative ease and even hoisting Shakib over midwicket for consecutive sixes. Elliott, too, played his part in the recovery, feeding the strike to the well-set youngster at the other end, but fell during the batting Powerplay in the 37th over. Attempting to sweep Shakib, he managed only to top-edge it to Razzak who took an excellent catch, running backwards from square leg.Kyle Mills came and went, trying to hit out, further denting New Zealand’s hopes of a successful chase, and a hamstring injury that crippled Williamson soon after didn’t help matters either. Nathan McCullum arrived at the crease with 70 to get from 10 overs but despite some lusty blows, was not able to get his side close to the asking rate. Williamson reached his hundred in the 48th over, having batted through immense discomfort for a substantial part of his innings, but when Nathan McCullum and Daryl Tuffey fell off successive deliveries chasing an unlikely 20 runs in the last 11 deliveries, New Zealand’s hopes fell squarely on Williamson’s shoulders. Unfortunately for the visitors, the task proved too much for the young man.The challenge was before New Zealand when Shakib’s expertly crafted 106 off 113 deliveries had set up a competitive total for Bangladesh on a slow, turning pitch. He came to the crease with his team struggling, but combined well with Imrul Kayes to take the hosts out of immediate danger. He then posted half-century stands with Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah as Bangladesh recovered well. Shakib scored at around a run a ball throughout his innings, piercing the off-side field with surgical precision early on, but relying more on deft dabs and sweeps as the innings wore on in the energy-sapping Mirpur heat. The New Zealand slow bowlers were unable to cause him any trouble.Shakib’s departure with the score on 216 sparked a lower-order collapse, however, as the New Zealand seamers came back in the batting Powerplay to restrict the hosts, who at one stage threatened a total in excess of 260. Hamish Bennett, the debutant fast bowler, was especially impressive in the late overs, varying his pace and length to pick up a couple of wickets to go with his top order scalp and finish with figures of 3 for 44. Bangladesh were all out in the 49th over, but thanks to an excellent captain’s knock they had scored enough to secure a famous win and spark scenes of euphoric celebration from the Mirpur crowd.

Gerald Majola, is expected to be “cleared of all charges” of financial impropriety at the associations board meeting on Friday

Firdose Moonda18-Nov-2010Gerald Majola, chief executive of Cricket South Africa (CSA), is expected to be “cleared of all charges” of financial impropriety at the associations board meeting on Friday, a CSA insider told ESPNcricinfo. The body’s internal commission of inquiry, headed by CSA vice president AK Khan, that was looking into the bonus payments Majola received after last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa, found “no evidence of fraud against Majola,” according to the source.However, the methods of awarding bonuses to CSA staff members could face an overhaul after the committee presents its findings. “The questions of procedure and governance are totally different matters and what will probably happen now is that the board will put in rules in place over how bonuses should be paid out, so that everything is accounted for.”Majola and 39 other staff members were paid bonuses after the successful second season of the T20 tournament, but they did not go through CSA’s remunerations committee. This was picked up by CSA’s auditors Deloitte who reported irregularities in the body’s financial statements in August. CSA insiders said that nothing suspicious could be read into the payments because they were made according to a precedent for paying bonuses after major tournaments that was set at the 2003 World Cup.Also under the spotlight will be a report leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper, allegedly written by CSA president Doctor Mtutuzeli Nyoka, which accused Majola of other wrongdoings. The report alleged that besides questioning the bonus payments, Nyoka also claimed that Majola had used R318 238 (approximately US$ 45,462) in travel costs for his wife. The source expects Majola to be cleared on that charge as well. “I’ve heard as part his [Majola’s] contract that he is given a travel allowance for his family and I’ve also heard that the numbers involves in the costs have been greatly inflated.”The leaked report also brought to the fore what the insider claims is a “very strained relationship” between Majola and Nyoka. The two have been at loggerheads since Nyoka was Chairman of the Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB) at the turn of the millennium. In 2002, Nyoka resigned from his post at the GCB after unsuccessfully challenging then United Cricket Board (UCB) president Percy Sonn for his position.Nyoka was also one of the loudest critics of the UCB’s pace of transformation and questioned the body’s commitment to developing players of colour. At the time, Nyoka was quoted as saying, “Gerald Majola must understand that his appointment was an affirmative action and others should be getting the same opportunities as him if transformation is going to work.”Nyoka returned to cricket in 2005, as chair of a 22-man steering committee that was set up to run the GCB. His role to assist in mediating between warring clubs who were up in arms over the lack of transformation in the province He was elected President of CSA in October 2008. The two have not had any public spats since then.CSA initially appointed an external commission, under Judge Pius Langa, to investigate the bonus payments but u-turned on their decision a few weeks later, opting to conduct the probe internally. At the time, ESPNcricinfo was told that the decision to make use of the Langa commission was made “unilaterally by a member of the CSA executive, who did not consult with the board”. When the board met on the August 21, they voted to shift the probe internally because they had “not exhausted all their own procedures.”The move resulted in CSA being criticised for a lack of transparency but the source said they took it upon themselves to ensure independence. “What will come out is that even though the commission was internal, CSA got an external person to run it. I can’t say who that person is but those details will emerge on Friday.”The board meeting will take place at 10am South African time at the OR Tambo International Airport.