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Julian Hunte wasted no time in seeking to mend fences after being elected as the new president of the West Indies Cricket Board on Sunday. One of his first announcements was that Dinanath Ramnarine, the chief executive of the West Indies Players’ Association, would be made one of four non-member directors.The move is an indication that Hunte is keen to involve the players in the decision-making process after several years during which the relationship between the board and the region’s cricketers has hit an all-time low.The other three non-member directors are Professor Hillary Beckles, the principal of the Cave Hill campus of the University of West Indies; Ken Hewitt, the accountant and head of the finance committee of the recent World Cup; and former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd.”I believe that we cannot improve our cricket without the direct involvement and commitment of our players through their representative organisation,” Hunte said. “WIPA has now been given the opportunity to be part of the solution instead of continuing to be perceived as part of the problem. It is both a challenge and an opportunity for that organisation.”

Queensland will be looking out for potential new leaders this season after Jimmy Maher announced he would quit the captaincy at the end of 2007-08. However, Maher has no immediate plans to retire from first-class cricket and wants to play for the Bulls for at least another three seasons.Maher, 33, wants to help the new captain ease into the role in the same way he was assisted by his predecessor Stuart Law, and Law was helped by Allan Border. “AB played on for two more years after Law took over and was a great help to him and then Stu did the same for me when I took over, so hopefully I can help out whoever does the job and we get things on the right track,” Maher said.He said by making the decision public he hoped to avoid speculation about his future and allow the side to focus on the 2007-08 season. Maher took over the captaincy at the end of 2001-02, guiding the Bulls to a Pura Cup title in 2005-06 and a Ford Ranger Cup triumph last season. In each of those victories he led from the front with Man-of-the-Match performances.Only Stuart Law (63) and Greg Chappell (45) have led Queensland in more Pura Cup matches than Maher’s 43, which have brought 21 wins. He has also captained the Bulls 48 times in one-day games – more than any other Queensland leader – for 28 victories.

Darren Cousins roared in with a sensational three-wicket burst at Wantage Road to earn in-form Northamptonshire a victory that virtually assures them of promotion into the Championship’s Division One for next season.The former Essex paceman snapped up Gloucestershire’s last three wickets – Martyn Ball, Jon Lewis and Tom Cotterell – in the space of nine deliveries with the second new ball, seeing Northants home by an innings and 74 runs with ten balls to spare.The visitors looked to be heading for safety at 202-7 with eleven overs of the final hour gone, but Cousins then induced a fatal error from Ball who miscued an attempted pull, and the two tail-enders were dispatched swiftly.It was a fifth straight Championship win for Matthew Hayden’s men, who have extended their lead at the top of the second division table with two rounds of matches remaining.Off-spinners Jason Brown and Alec Swann made important early inroads, Brown dismissing opener Tim Hancock with his first ball of the morning as Gloucestershire crumbled to 110-5 either side of lunch, despite a battling 39 from Dominic Hewson.Skipper Mark Alleyne (18) and Jack Russell (41) held the fort for an hour-and-three-quarters until Hayden produced a master stroke by calling up veteran seamer Paul Taylor to bowl his occasional left-arm spin. The move paid off handsomely as Alleyne edged to Hayden himself at slip, and Russell was bowled looking to cut.Jeremy Snape (23 not out) looked set to deny his former county, but Cousins swept away Gloucestershire’s remaining batsmen to clinch a magnificent win.

The BCCI’s objection to the ICC’s assessment of the Nagpur pitch is that there are “inconsistencies” in the match referee’s report, and the board unanimously stands behind the surface.According to a top BCCI official, the assessment that the Nagpur pitch was “poor” was not right, and that the BCCI was going to contest it strongly. “The report says the ball ‘spun’ on day one,” he said on the sidelines of the IPL Governing Council meeting in Delhi. “It says ‘excessive turn’ only for day three.” However, it is worth noting that the ICC’s guidelines on what qualifies as a poor pitch is “excessive assistance to spin bowlers, “, and not just early in the match.The officials present at the meeting were vehement in their support of the pitch, whose excessive turn, variable bounce and pace had come in for criticism from various quarters. “Excessive turn is subjective,” the official said. “It depends on how the bowler uses it. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the surface.”The ICC informed the BCCI on December 1 that Jeff Crowe, the match referee, in consultation with the umpires, had rated the pitch poor. The BCCI had 14 days to respond after which Geoff Allardice, ICC”s general manager of cricket, and Ranjan Madugalle, its chief match referee, will consider all evidence, including video footage of the match, before deciding if the pitch was indeed poor.If found to be poor, the penalties range from a warning and/or a fine of $15,000 with a directive to institute corrective measures.Another official said the worst-case scenario will be a warning from the ICC, but insisted there was nothing wrong with the pitch. “Early turn is a new concept to them [the batsmen],” he said. “Maybe they are not used to it, but it would have been a problem only if the pitch had been dangerous.”

Adeel Raja, the Netherlands’ offspinner, has been banned for two years after failing a random drugs test during a domestic match in September.Raja, who has played six ODIs and nine first-class games for Netherlands and was in their World Cup squad earlier this year, tested positive for finasteride, a substance banned as it can be used as a masking agent.Although it is unclear why the player used the substance, finasteride can be used innocently to combat hair loss.The Dutch board decided to suspend the second year of the ban for a further two years, meaning that he will miss the entire 2008 season. Cricket Europe reported that Raja had previously successfully applied for dispensation to use the drug but that he had not renewed the application.Raja, 27, is believed to be lodging an appeal against the ban.

Steve Harmison, the England fast bowler, is in the process of signing to play domestic cricket in South Africa with the Lions in an attempt to find match fitness ahead of England’s tour of Sri Lanka next month. Team-mate Liam Plunkett, currently out of the national set-up, has also agreed to join the Dolphins on a four-month deal.Harmison hasn’t played for England since the final Test against West Indies, at Chester-le-Street, in June. During the series he picked up a hernia and despite trying to play through the injury it required surgery which ruled him out of the India Test series. Three matches into his domestic comeback for Durham he was struck down with a back injury which ruled him out of the final month of the season.Despite patchy form for England he was handed a central contract, but it would be a gamble for the selectors to choose him for a demanding tour of Sri Lanka with such little competitive action behind him.”The ECB are in the process of finalising the details for Steve,” an ECB spokesman told Cricinfo. “The idea is for him to play two first-class matches for Highveld Lions in November as a part of his rehabilitation process.”The ECB added that Harmison, who has been working on his fitness with Kevin Shine at the National Academy in Loughborough, would be accompanied on the trip by England’s new bowling coach, Ottis Gibson, who is also a county colleague at Durham. A formal announcement is expected within the next 48 hours.Durham have strong South African connections through their captain Dale Benkenstein, who plays for the Dolphins. He recommended Plunkett to the franchise and Cassim Docrat, the chief executive, said: “We have signed Plunkett for four months.”Cricket South Africa cleared both overseas signings on Tuesday. Although not as prevalent as overseas players in county cricket, the South African first-class game has included English cricketers in the past, notably Matthew Hoggard who developed his game while playing for Free State.

The not so merry-go-round of West Indies cricket continues later this month when the leadership of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) changes yet again at the annual general meeting. The president, Ken Gordon, resigns after two years of “moderate success and devastating failure”, to exactly quote the words seven years ago of another leader of West Indies cricket, if in a slightly different context.Val Banks, the Anguillan banker who has been a virtually anonymous vice-president for the past decade, is also stepping down.Gordon, the 77-year-old Trinidadian media executive and one-time cabinet minister, was a complete outsider with no previous experience in cricket administration when he replaced Teddy Griffith in 2005. He followed others who did have the seeming benefit of such a background-Pat Rousseau, Wes Hall, Griffith – but who were all overwhelmed by the peculiar problems of the most prominent position in the small cricket-playing territories of the Caribbean.As the only nomination, his successor as the fifth president in ten years will be Julian Hunte whose vice-president will be Wycliffe “Dave” Cameron, also the only candidate.Given that the interim report from the committee, created by Gordon and headed by retired Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson to recommend structural changes to the WICB, is to be presented this weekend, the new president and his deputy are likely to head a very different organisation to the one to which they are accustomed. Yet the essentials will remain the same.Hunte and Cameron are from different backgrounds, different generations. Hunte, 67, brings with him a long and impressive c.v as head of his own company, politician, trade unionist and diplomat in his native St Lucia. Cameron, a Jamaican several years his junior, is a self-made businessman.Both have served as executives on the WICB. Hunte was a fixture for more than a quarter-century, rising to vice-president and representative at the International Cricket Council (ICC) before he left in 1998 to take up a post as St Lucia’s representative at the United Nations where he had a term as president of the General Assembly.As one of Jamaica’s two directors, Cameron is head of the marketing committee. Since Hunte has been out of the loop for the past decade, his return is very much a case of back to the future, especially at a time when the talk is of a “new beginning” for the board. Yet, on the back of his varied career, he brings a reputation as a pragmatist and a problem-solver, significant qualifications in two of the most pressing issues, straightening out the WICB’s relations with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and those with the Stanford organisation.Hunte is astute enough to know from Gordon’s tenure that he needs to leave cricketing decisions to the eminent cricketers who are placed on the cricket committee and the selection panel for just such a purpose.

Gordon’s most positive legacy was his immediate curb on the spending spree within the organisation that bumped up the WICB’s already sizeable debt. Under his guidance, the board’s finances are in far better shape than they were.But he ran himself into trouble when he delved into cricket matters, specifically over the appointment of Brian Lara for his third stint as captain and the initial rejection of the selectors’ choice of Chris Gayle as limited-overs skipper that was followed by the embarrassment of having to reinstate him.One of Hunte’s immediate tasks, and that of the new chief executive Bruce Aanensen, is to sort out the mess that, based on reports from those in the know, the secretariat in St John’s has become. There has been such a turnover of staff in all departments that some key files and documents cannot be located and proper procedures do not appear to have been followed. It is no wonder even basic tasks end up as blunders.The public attitude towards the WICB has hardened with every gaffe, every intervention into issues of cricket by one of its unqualified operatives and, ultimately, every defeat. It has been correctly captured in the advice in Dave Martin’s new calypso for it to “take a rest”.Hunte and, to a lesser extent, Cameron will be carefully watched and harshly judged. Cameron is less well known in cricket circles than Hunte and he does carry some unwelcome baggage. The Lucky Report into the contentious switch of sponsorship from Cable & Wireless to Digicel, commissioned by the WICB two years ago, found that the Kensington Club, of which Cameron was president, had benefited from Digicel’s financial help in renovations to its facilities.Cameron explained that he had approached both Cable & Wireless and Digicel for sponsorship and only the latter agreed. Such action appeared to compromise his position on the marketing committee and the Lucky Report concluded that there were “legitimate concerns which required examination”.It is not known whether the required examination took place but Cameron remained head of the marketing committee. As such, he secured a significant contract just over a year ago with the Centrex Group, based in Scotland, to form a joint venture company with the WICB to develop its licensing, merchandise and memorabilia ranges.A media release from Centrex at the time stated that the initial phase of the project would see “branding and development of three different merchandise collections”. It revealed that these would be the main WICB range, a Windies sports and leisure range, and a Select Legends range that would include a Sir Garfield Sobers series of merchandise.None of the specified merchandise ranges are yet evident in circulation and it is impossible to know how the untimely death in a car crash last month of Centrex’s head, 40-year-old Jim Whannel, while on a business trip to Manchester, will impact on the agreement. The issue is likely to occupy some time at the meeting but the Patterson report, even if only partially complete, will be one of the main items.After all, it deals with the composition and structure of the WICB and makes recommendations to “improve its overall operations, governance effectiveness, team performance and strengthen its credibility and public support”.

In a setback to India’s chances in the final Test in Adelaide, RP Singh, the left-arm seamer, has been rendered out of action for at least two weeks. RP picked up a hamstring injury but the good news is that it is a grade 1 injury, which is the lowest possible hamstring tear. RP suffered the problem on the second evening, bowling the seventh over of the innings.RP Singh, India’s second-highest wicket-taker in this series with 13 victims in seven innings, had walked off the field on the second evening. He underwent a scan later in the evening and it was confirmed on the third morning that he wouldn’t take part in the day’s play, leaving India with four specialist bowlers. It left India relying on Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly bowling 12 overs between them.MV Sridhar, India’s assistant manager, later revealed the extent of the injury. “He will undergo a rehabilitation program, which will be monitored by John Gloster, the physio. He is under constant supervision. We will reassess his situation after two weeks.”Sehwag admitted that the side would miss RP Singh’s incisive bowling, given that they were pushing for a victory to square the series. “It helps to have five bowlers because the fast bowlers were tiring,” he said on India’s decision to play five bowlers for the first time since the Mirpur Test against Bangladesh in May 2007. “When the match started we went with five bowlers and it’s unlucky that RP is injured now. But we still have four bowlers and myself, Sachin and Sourav can contribute a bit.”India’s most-improved bowler in the last year, RP Singh played a big part in Sydney and Perth. He rattled Australia’s top order on the first day in Sydney before claiming six wickets in the memorable win in Perth. He has led the attack manfully, combining well with Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma, and managed to swing the ball in both directions.It’s also a blow for India’s chances in the forthcoming CB Series one-day tournament. He is surely out of the Twenty20 international against Australia and will mostly be out of the first three matches of the tri-series, starting on February 3. The earliest he will be expected to return is on February 14, when India take on Sri Lanka in Canberra.

Ray Jennings, the coach of the South Africa Under-19 team, acknowledges the need to develop the underprivileged segments in South Africa but feels the issue requires flexibility because “you are also looking to win”. However he was clear that any player picked for South Africa, regardless of race, is good enough to play international cricket.”I’m sad that coloured players in the team could have the stigma attached, where they feel they are underprivileged when that’s not the case,” Jennings told Cricinfo while preparing his side for the U-19 World Cup. “It’s not about having a 50-50 or 60-40 split between white and coloured players. In our country, the sides are picked on their cricketing ability because the players of colour are good enough to play.”Jennings’ comments come in the wake of the spat between the senior team coach, Mickey Arthur, and board president Norman Arendse over the selection of South Africa’s squad to Bangladesh. “Before people criticise any player representing the country, especially at the Under-19 level, they should come to the ground, take a look, and judge for themselves,” said Jennings, a former coach of the national side.The 15-member squad chosen for the World Cup contains a mix of both white and coloured players, including Jonathan Vandiar who is of Indian origin. “The players of colour are good enough to represent the country,” Jennings said. “I haven’t been given a transformation policy as coach of the U-19s. To me, the policy is if the player is good enough to play. And there are enough players of colour who are good enough to play.”Moving on to the tournament itself Jennings said the South African squad was stronger than the one that took part in the previous edition in Sri Lanka in 2006, a side selected without the players being properly assessed. “While picking the 2006 side, we had a four-day tournament before we arrived for the World Cup,” he said of the side led by Dan Elgar, which reached only as far as the semi-finals of the League. “From a cricketing point of view, the top players in the world can have four noughts in a row.”This year I’ve tried to have five or six camps, and we’ve had a tour and a three-day competition. The guys have played enough cricket for me to know their mental toughness, their skills and how they perform in each position. I would anticipate probably a 50% better result in this World Cup compared to the last.”South Africa’s preparations began on a positive note with a seven-wicket win against Namibia in a warm-up match on Tuesday. Wayne Parnell, their captain, said that even though they chased the target of 106 in 19 overs, they continued batting (as if the game was still on) and set themselves goals of 185 in 30 overs and 300 plus after 50. They achieved both.Their competition will get tougher, though. They play Sri Lanka in the next warm-up and are pooled with Papua New Guinea, West Indies and India in what is arguably the tightest group. South Africa played India recently at home but lost the youth Test series 0-1 and didn’t make the final of a limited-overs tri-series which involved Bangladesh too. Their first match is against West Indies on February 18 at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur.

The Titans moved into the MTN Domestic Championship final after their semi-final against the Cape Cobras was washed out for the second day running at Centurion Park.Heavy rain fell on the reserve day and there was no chance of getting the match started. The Titans go through because they finished top of the table during the group stage and they now face the Warriors in Wednesday’s final.However, there are already doubts as to whether the day/night match will go ahead due to the inclement weather.