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Sussex have been given an injury scare during their crucial Championship match against Lancashire at Hove with Mushtaq Ahmed picking up a groin strain. Mushtaq left the field on the second evening with one ball remaining in his 19th over and didn’t bowl on the third morning.Mushtaq entered the match with pain in his neck and shoulders, but with the current encounter being of such importance in the Championship race – Lancashire started one point ahead at the top of the table – he was battling through the pain.If Mushtaq is forced to miss any Championship action it would be a huge blow to Sussex who are already having to do without Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. Mushtaq has 62 wickets this season and with the pitches becoming more spin-friendly he is Sussex’s trump card in the Championship race.The match at Hove has claimed two high-profile casualties, with Dominic Cork injuring a finger while taking a catch at slip and needing hospital treatment for a dislocation.

Mumbai 4 for 150 (Muzumdar 50*) trail Australians 7 for 302 dec (Martyn 71 retired, Hayden 67) by 152 runs
Scorecard

Damien Martyn’s 71 shone bright on a scorching second day of the Australians’ tour opener in Mumbai. Adam Gilchrist also gained some valuable batting practice, although in a sedate manner, before declaring the innings at 7 for 302. Mumbai had reached 4 for 150 by the close, mainly due to the impetus provided by Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar.Martyn’s innings brought a more relaxed air to the day’s play, unlike the shock-factor that Matthew Hayden induced yesterday. Relying on assured footwork and lithe wrists, Martyn nudged it around and, along with Brad Hodge, took the score past 200. Hodge, broad-shouldered and punching forcefully, didn’t face too many problems either and even creamed Ramesh Powar for two successive fours in the 14th over of the day – one off either foot and both through the extra-cover region. However, he was undone by the final ball of the same over. Some extra bounce forced him to prod towards the on side and Vinit Indulkar completed a simple catch at short leg (4 for 206).Michael Clarke was bubbling from the moment he walked out, until the silly mid-off fielder made him look … silly. Clarke got right to the pitch of the ball to block Nilesh Kulkarni, but his back foot was just out of the crease and Indulkar’s quick flick hit the stumps (5 for 227). Martyn then retired so that the lower order could get a hit, but Shane Watson muffed his chance with a golden duck. Expecting the ball to turn away, he shouldered arms to Kulkarni and was given out lbw (6 for 248).Gilchrist chose not to bat in top gear and knocked it around the infield. There were two straight sixes and a few bludgeoning sweeps in his 76-ball 42, and he was assured in his footwork against the spinners. The same couldn’t be said of Brett Lee, who had his fair share of problems against the three-pronged spin attack. He finally fell poking at an offbreak from Powar, handing Indulkar another easy catch at short leg to prompt the declaration.Mumbai’s reply was sluggish to begin with – the first four came in the 17th over – as Glenn McGrath bowled his usual metronomic line and length. Vinayak Mane fell to the first forceful shot that he attempted, to a short one from McGrath, as his mistimed pull resulted in a simple catch to Cameron White at square leg (1 for 6). Indulkar survived a couple of confident appeals for lbw against McGrath before his scratchy knock ended when he was trapped in front by Nathan Hauritz, the offspinner.Jaffer was much more composed, and bided his time against the fast bowlers. Though the boundaries were tough to find, he managed to pierce the field repeatedly and gradually grew in confidence against Lee and McGrath. The shackles were broken once the spinners came on, as Hauritz was greeted with two successive fours from his first two balls of the game as one’s mind went back to so many spinners who have been welcomed in a similar fashion in the past by Indian batsmen. Jaffer fell just two short of his fifty, inevitably to McGrath’s accuracy, as an incutter thudded into his pads and trapped him in front.Muzumdar also cashed in on the number of spinners that Gilchrist experimented with – Clarke, Simon Katich and Hodge – and chalked up his 50 in 92 balls. His partnership with Vinod Kambli at the end of the day contained some entertaining strokeplay as the Australians juggled their bowlers around, shifting the ends from which they were bowling while also interchanging between over and round the wicket.Lee tested out both batsmen with a few short ones and nearly had Muzumdar lbw with a swinging yorker late in the day. Watson had his moment of celebration on the point of stumps, as he trapped Kambli lbw. Kambli, though, was less impressed by the decision, and walked off steaming with rage, as if taking a cue from the weather all day.

Matthew Maynard, the former England batsman, has been awarded a testimonial season for Glamorgan next summer. Maynard, 38, became the county’s leading century maker by scoring his 53rd hundred against Leicestershire at Cardiff yesterday.Maynard made his debut for Glamorgan back in 1985, and captained the club from 1996 to 2000, leading them to the Championship title in 1997. He played four Tests for England between 1988 and 1994, two each against Australia and West Indies. He was also picked for 14 one-dayers, his last match being in the 2000 NatWest Series.”I’m honoured to be awarded a testimonial year and extremely grateful to the club for granting it to me,” Maynard said. “It’s been a great privilege to serve Glamorgan for the past 20 years, one of its most successful eras, and there is still, in my view, no better county on the circuit to play for.”He added, “I have been fortunate to play alongside some great players, none better than the current squad, and also to have represented a club which has some fantastic supporters. Hopefully I can play my part over the next year or two in trying to deliver some more success for them.”Maynard’s record-breaking century took him past Alan Jones and Hugh Morris in Glamorgan’s hall of fame, and he celebrated with a drop of whisky during the match. “Darren Thomas spilt it the first time around, so it was kind of lost in the moment,” said Maynard. “It was a little tipple of whisky – but I didn’t play the next over so well as it was still burning in my throat.”

Saturday, March 1, 2003:::
“I don’t want to look at the political side. Just like playing Australia or South Africa it’s just another game and we’re approaching it in the same frame of mind.” Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, ahead of the game against Pakistan
Source: The BBC, UK
“Let’s hope there are a few scars there and let’s hope we can open them up again.” Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, on the match against England
Source: The Courier Mail, Australia”He has a lion heart, walks like a lion and has the strength of a lion.” Kenyan skipper Steve Tikolo, on Collins Obuya, the leg-spinner who spun Kenya to a shock win over Sri Lanka
Source: The Hindu, India”It has become obvious that, in the matches played under lights in this World Cup, teams winning the toss are getting an unfair advantage. I would say any team which wins the toss has won the match 75 percent (of the time) and that is grossly unfair.” Pakistan skipper Waqar Younis, after the loss against England
Source: CricmaniaWednesday, February 26, 2003:::
“We didn’t bowl well at the end. Brett Lee wasn’t at his best at the end – his yorkers weren’t quite there – there were full tosses and ‘hit me’ balls. So we have got to go away and work on that and make sure that it’s a bit sharper the next time we play.” Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, after the game against Zimbabwe
Source: The BBC, UK”I wouldn’t call him a mentor as such, that’s probably more Martin Crowe for me. But it’s the lessons I have learned out of cricket from him, from the way he plays the game.” New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, on Steve Waugh’s influence on his career
Source: Stuff, New Zealand”Henry’s (Olonga) omission has nothing to do with his protest or politics. We needed to have more depth in our batting, hence the inclusion of Andy Blignaut ahead of Olonga. It was as simple as that – nothing else.” Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak, after the match against Australia
Source: The Age, Australia”We’re grown men, we’re enjoying the country and we’re friends who’ve been together for a long time. We’re going to have fun – we’re not going to stop that – but we’re still here to play cricket very seriously.” Canadian skipper Joe Harris
Source: Gulf Times, UAE

Somerset County Cricket Club has been overwhelmed by the number of members wanting tickets for the Cheltenham and Gloucester Final at Lord’s on September 1st.The original allocation of 4,500 had all but sold out by late afternoon yesterday, and despite the office closing early, staff were at the County Ground until late into the evening to process all the applications that they had received from members during the day.The club has applied to Lord’s for a further 1,000 tickets, and if any of these still remain unsold early next week they will go on sale to the general public.Members of the public can also apply direct to Lord’s for their tickets by telephoning 0207 432 1066.According to a source at the Lord’s ticket office large numbers of Somerset fans have already obtained their tickets direct, which is likely to mean that when the ‘Cidermen’ walk out onto the pitch on September 1st they will be cheered on by as many as 9,000 of their fans.

Andhra completely dominated the opening day’s play in the South ZoneCooch Behar Trophy (under-19) tournament match against Kerala at theUkku stadium in Vishakapatnam on Monday. After skittling out Keralafor 56 runs, Andhra replied with 164 for one wicket at stumps.Opting to bat after winning the toss, Kerala struggled for 37 overs tocompile their meagre total. Only NJ John (18) reached double digits.Three batsmen failed to score. Md Faiq was quite unplayable andfinished with the excellent figures of 13-5-15-5. He was wellsupported by Appala Raju (two for 10) and Gnaneswara Rao (two for 9).Kerala had the comfort of an early wicket when D Vinod was out fornine when the total was 27. But for the rest of the day, the otheropener Tahir Hussain (79) and Gnaneswara Rao (61) batted confidentlyto register 137 runs for the unbroken second wicket partnership off38.1 overs. While Hussain faced 175 balls and hit eight of them to theropes, Rao faced 94 balls and hit six fours and a six. Andhraoverhauled the Kerala total in 26.2 overs.

Durham have signed Shaun Pollock for the Twenty20 Cup in June. He will play alongside his former South African team-mate Albie Morkel and has joined the county as a Kolpak.Pollock retired from international cricket in February following the series against West Indies and is currently involved in the Indian Premier League for the Mumbai Indians.”When I got the offer from Durham I really jumped at the chance to get on board, they are determined to do well in the Twenty20 Cup and I want to contribute to that success,” said Pollock. “They proved themselves to be a force in the four-day and one-day game last year and I’m keen to help them replicate that success in the Twenty20 Cup.”David Harker, Durham’s chief executive, added: “Shaun is one of the biggest talents in world cricket and we’re delighted that he’s decided to join us. He’s got great experience in all formats of the game and we think he’ll bring a great presence to the team, both on and off the field. We’ve got big aspirations for success in the Twenty20 Cup this season and along with Albie [Morkel] I’m sure that we have recruited players with enough Twenty20 experience to help us progress in the competition.”Pollock has previously played for Warwickshire, where he made a stunning debut back in 1996 by claiming four wickets in four balls against Leicestershire in the Benson and Hedges Cup.

Sharad Ghai, the ousted chairman of the Kenyan Cricket Association, continued to protest his board’s innocence in the light of comments from Ochilo Ayacko, the sports minister, that senior members of the KCA could be charged in relation to their running of the association.Opposition to the board claim to have unearthed evidence of misappropriated funds, but Ghai denied any wrongdoing, accusing the minister of accepting the word of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association, a bitter opponent of the KCA, as the “gospel truth”. He asked for an opportunity “to meet the minister so that if there are unclear issues, we answer them to the satisfaction of all Kenyans.”Ghai also denied that the KCA had been blocking elections – none have been held by the board since 1997. “The KCA have always called for elections only to be blocked by court orders issued either to Coast Cricket Association (CCA) or NPCA,” he insisted. This is true, but opponents point out that the elections were blocked as the KCA were trying to use a new and unauthorised constitution which weighted the votes in their favour.”As the public is aware,” Ghai concluded, “we have no option under the rules of civilised society to defy judicial authority.”Meanwhile, the government-appointed Normalisation Committee will not take charge of Kenyan cricket until the court order suspending its powers for 21 days has been heard of overturned. The KCA obtained a stay last Tuesday following Ayacko’s decision to oust the existing KCA executive and replace it with a committee embracing many of Kenyan cricket’s stakeholders.

Percy Sonn, who has today taken over as ICC president from Ehsan Mani, has accepted an invitation from Zimbabwe Cricket to visit the country and see for himself the state the game is in there.”What I want is some degree of understanding of the issues that surround the administration of cricket within Zimbabwe,” Sonn told the ICC’s Business Forum at Lord’s on Friday. “I am delighted to say I will get that [understanding] following an invitation to visit the country from Zimbabwe Cricket.”I will hear first hand of the challenges that confront the sport there, how those challenges will be dealt with and, at the same time, we will discuss how the ICC can assist the game in Zimbabwe. Once I have done that I will then report back to the ICC’s Executive Board so that we, as an organisation, are better informed about what is happening there.”Sonn will make the trip with Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive.”Zimbabwe has seen many of its leading players walk away from representing the national side over the past few years and that has led to an inevitable weakening of cricket there,” Sonn added. “We are now at a stage where Zimbabwe has voluntarily stepped back from its Test commitments and, moving forward, they will only return to that arena when they are ready to do so.”By travelling there, talking and listening, I believe we will be in a better position to support cricket in Zimbabwe at a time when such support is clearly needed.”

Nottinghamshire will be without the services of Stephen Fleming during August as he will be captaining New Zealand in Zimbabwe. However, he will be back towards the end of the summer for the conclusion of the Championship and National League.Fleming said: “It’s unfortunate that I will be away from Nottingham at a crucial stage but I have my commitments with New Zealand. The Notts players have shown their qualities in the first half of the season and I have every confidence they will maintain and improve on those standards while I am away. We are in a group of five or six teams who have a chance of the title and I sincerely hope that I can help us finish top of the pile come September.”Fleming is currently sixth in the first-class averages with 727 runs at 72.7, including four hundreds, with a top score of 238.Mick Newell, the director of cricket, said: “We expect Stephen will be missing for five weeks, through August and early September, but he will still have an important part to play in our end of season run-in. We are looking to sign a replacement for the period he is missing and ideally he will be a high calibre batsman who can slot straight into Stephen’s place in the batting order.””We will need to give a lot of thought to the captaincy, but hopefully his influence over the side will still be felt as we aim for the Championship and fight tooth and nail to steer clear of relegation from the National League.”