The ICC has appointed Darrell Hair to stand as an official umpire in the triangular one-day series in Mombasa involving Kenya, Scotland and Canada which starts next week. He will also officiate in the World Cricket League which follows in Nairobi.In November, Percy Sonn, the ICC president, announced that Hair would “not be appointed to international matches involving ICC Full Members”. He added: “The board has discussed this matter with great sincerity and gave lots of attention to it and they’ve come to the conclusion that they’ve lost confidence in Mr Hair.”The announcement came from Cricket Kenya and a spokesman from the ICC told Cricinfo that there would be no formal media release until Sunday. The ICC added that this news did not represent an about-turn in policy from the board, insisting that Hair is still banned from officiating in any matches involving Full Member sides.The Kenyan authorities said the other on-field umpires were Ian Gould (Eng) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nepal) while the match referee would be Javagal Srinath.Send us your thoughts

Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, has admitted that they were below par in all aspects of their game in the Commonwealth Bank Series. In a tournament in which Australia were far and away the best team, New Zealand were at least expected to sneak into the finals, but a resurgent England bounced them out of the tournament with a 14-run victory in the last league match, at Brisbane on Tuesday.”If you look at all our games in the tournament we’ve been just a few percent off the money at crucial times,” Fleming was quoted as saying by . “No one particular area, I think it was across the board.”New Zealand lost a couple of close matches to England and Australia early in the tournament, but seemed to be on course for a berth in the finals after beating England in their next two encounters. England, though, recovered with two wins in their last two matches, while New Zealand lost both the games in their last leg.”We should have won this game in a canter, two or three down,” Fleming said, looking back at their last defeat. “It’s maybe mental to start with but physically as well, with the ball we’re not quite nailing it and bowling one four ball an over; with the batting getting close to having a winning partnership then a run-out of a mis-hit, and England are back in the game. It’s not much to turn but we’ve got to get it turned pretty quick.”New Zealand’s batsmen, bowlers and fielders all had their moments in the tournament, but rarely did they all perform in the same match: in their first four games, the team totaled 184, 205, 218 and 210, and were occasionally bailed out by the bowlers. Then the batsmen found form – the totals rose to 335, 318, 290 and 256 in the last four matches – but the bowlers found it far more difficult to contain the opposition. “The wickets got a bit better and we had to ask a little bit more of our bowlers,” Fleming conceded. “We’re not quite there, just as the batting wasn’t quite up to scratch at the start.”The batting revival was mainly due to the performances of Jacob Oram and Lou Vincent – Oram comfortably topped the averages for New Zealand and struck a hundred and two half-centuries from five innings, while Vincent averaged more than 65 – but the rest of the cast was disappointing. Despite his century in the last match, Fleming only managed an aggregate of 231, while Nathan Astle scored 46 in four ODIs before announcing his retirement. The bowling was patchy as well, in spite of some inspired spells by Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori.Even more shocking, though, was New Zealand’s display in the field. Normally known for their outstanding fielding and catching, they were a shambles through most of the tournament, with plenty of dropped catches in the outfield. Three chances were spilled in the crucial last match against England, but Fleming chose to defend the fielding coach, Travis Wilson. “Travis hasn’t had a lot to do with our fielding patterns, more one-on-one stuff. It’s more attention to detail from our players.”New Zealand only have three more matches, against Australia in the Chappell-Hadlee Series, to find some form and confidence before the World Cup. Given their recent track record against that opposition – 19 defeats in the last 21 ODIs – it’s unlikely they’ll be going into these matches with too many expectations.

Adam Gilchrist is unlikely to curb his aggression at the World Cup despite suggestions he should be more cautious at the top of the order. Ricky Ponting said Gilchrist’s break from the game – he has not played for nearly a month – was just what was required to restore his energy for the Caribbean.Gilchrist arrived in the West Indies on Monday to join his team-mates having stayed at home after the birth of his third child. Ponting said Australia needed a refreshed Gilchrist for their World Cup defence. “To keep right through the summer then open the batting, especially in the one-dayers, is hard work but he keeps himself physically fit,” Ponting told the .Gilchrist is expected to play in Australia’s second warm-up match, against England in St Vincent on Friday. It will be his first hit since the CB Series, when he averaged a disappointing 22.20. Mark Waugh, Gilchrist’s former opening partner, said last week Gilchrist needed to think about the way he played in the first few overs and ensure he was not too impatient.Ponting said he understood Waugh’s comments that Gilchrist should slow down but in reality it was impossible to control Gilchrist’s dashing nature. “I know what Mark’s probably talking about,” Ponting said. “He probably thinks that [Gilchrist] is going a bit too hard for too long, but that’s the beauty of someone like Gilly.”You can probably say the same thing about him in Test cricket. When he gets going, he just keeps going. I really think he just gets on a bit of a roll and really can’t tell himself to stop. You can tell him to pull the reins in a little bit and he does the opposite.”Ponting said Australia would post some huge scores on the small Caribbean grounds if Gilchrist could bat until late in an innings and there was no intention of resting him or dropping him down the order. “As far as I am concerned, Gilly is always our No.1 opener,” he said.

At exactly 4.30am, about 45 minutes after British Airways flight BA 119 touched down on the tarmac, the large, forbidding blue gates that cordon off the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited/V.I.P section from the rest of the Bangalore airport burst open, and a Ford Endeavour SUV bearing Anil Kumble, led by a police jeep, dispersed the gathered mob of television cameramen and photographers, and sped away into the inky darkness. Soon after, Robin Uthappa’s maroon vehicle emerged, and finally the stampede of those gathered reached its peak as Rahul Dravid, who had been received by Vijeta, his wife, made his exit. The long vigil for pressmen was over; the slightly tense wait for the cops finished, and in the twinkling of an eye, normalcy returned.In different circumstances, the welcoming party would have been different. Not weeks ago it was hoped that India would return from the Caribbean, no earlier than April 29, a bit of silverware adding to the excess baggage, and then there would have been bedlam. Officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India would have been present, the media would have been welcome onlookers, and the public euphoric.After India’s campaign in the World Cup panned out as it did, and with the team arriving in bits and pieces – some might say that’s exactly how they turned out on the field – the arrival of Dravid, Kumble, Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik and S Ramakrishnan, the video analyst, at Bangalore, was as low-key as expected. While the local trio would head off in a flurry, with no more than 50 fans jostling with members of the Rapid Action Force clad in their blue fatigues, toting rather intimidating guns, Karthik and Ramki stayed back in the airport, sorting out the earliest connection to Chennai.Fortunately, there were no untoward incidents, no sloganeering or effigy burning. And yes, there certainly weren’t any press conferences. “This is still the biggest crowd I’ve seen in Bangalore,” one of the cricketers who arrived, let on. “Whether we win or lose, it’s usually peaceful coming in to Bangalore, especially in the night.”But, till they actually left the airport for the safety and comfort of their homes, there was just that edge, a bit of concern, that some idiot might try and pull a stunt, more out of disappointment and frustration than intent to cause harm. “There are bound to be reactions and bound to be over-reactions,” a member of the team said. “Which other country has the support of a billion? If you don’t want this kind of reaction then you shouldn’t play for India, boss, you should play for Bermuda.”

If there was one moment of concern, it was at the airport in London, where there weren’t any porters about to handle the massive volume of luggage, consisting mostly of cricket kitbags and equipment, and Russell Radhakrishnan, the person in charge of the team’s logistics, was trying to sort things out. An Indian fan approached a few members of the team, and before they could react, said, “” [We’ll support you in the good and bad times]. A collective sigh of relief, luggage dealt with, and the team was on its way.From London, they headed in different directions, with different groups arriving in different cities. In Bangalore, the majority of pressmen were really gathered to ask just one question. From the horse’s mouth, they wanted to know if Kumble was calling it quits from one-day cricket. In an interview to , the television news channel, before the team embarked on its World Cup campaign, Kumble had said that this would be his last World Cup, and “probably” his last one-day tournament. Now that is widely being interpreted as an announcement of retirement, although the BCCI is yet to receive any such communication from Kumble.With that question unanswered, and India’s cricketers making a quiet, quick arrival and exit, there was little left to do for the media and the bleary eyed policemen, but to pack up and head home.

Bangladesh’s batsmen have the potential to seriously challenge South Africa on Saturday, according to Ashwell Prince. However, the unpredictable weather in Guyana could yet prove to be one of the biggest factors in the penultimate match at Providence Stadium.South Africa have two wins from their only two Super Eights games so far, but carried a loss through from the first round courtesy of Australia. “Two points, that’s the most important thing,” Prince told . “There’s a lot of rain, but we are hoping to get enough overs to complete a match.”Prince said South Africa would not be taking Bangladesh lightly, despite their heavy losses to Australia and New Zealand in the past week. “The Bangladeshi basmen looked very positive in the matches I have watched and I am sure they will try and put our bowlers under pressure,” he said.”I don’t think it is going to be an easy game at all. They have beaten India, so they obviously have got something there. We are expecting a tough match and are expecting their batsmen to come at us.”However, restricting the in-form South Africa top order might be a challenge for Bangladesh. The success of the openers and Jacques Kallis has meant limited opportunities for Prince, who was pleased to spend 15 overs at the crease as South Africa eased past Ireland on Tuesday.”The fact that our top order is batting so well that the guys in the middle order haven’t had much time to bat,” Prince said. “Myself, Justin Kemp and Mark Boucher have had very little time in the middle.””Every time we had batted first, they [the top order) batted most of the overs up. So, that’s one of the reasons why I am glad I got the opportunity in the last match. Even though it was getting a little bit dark, I didn’t want to go off the field as I wanted some batting practice.”After the Bangladesh match, South Africa travel to Grenada to face West Indies and New Zealand. Their Super Eights campaign closes with a match against England in Barbados.

Scotland will join West Indies, Netherlands and Ireland for a quadrangular tournament in Stormont during July, a spokesman from the Ireland Cricket Union confirmed to Cricinfo today.Cricket Scotland have been in talks with Ireland, the hosts, to join what was originally a triangular series between the other three countries, and although an official announcement has yet to be made, Cricinfo has learnt a deal has been struck.The tournament, expected to take place between July 9-15, rules out Scotland’s two other previously planned engagements: a European Twenty20 tournament scheduled for the following weekend, and a triangular also involving Ireland and the Netherlands. As ever, the players’ full-time jobs inevitably restrict the number of fixtures they can play.However Scotland, like all Associates, are keen to expose themselves to Full Member nations as much as possible. In addition to the prospect of facing West Indies, Scotland also host India in Glasgow on August 16 – and the board is also in negotiations this week to lure Pakistan in July, a Cricket Scotland spokesman confirmed to Cricinfo, though a date has yet to be named.And with both India and Pakistan in the country around the same time, the opportunity to host a match between two of cricket’s biggest draws is a financial goldmine just waiting to be exploited. The board are in talks with an Indian television station, and details are expected in the next week.Scotland are participating in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September, gaining qualification to the tournament after reaching the final of February’s World Cricket League in Nairobi.

“I was not expecting this,” said Ishant Sharma on the call he received from Professor Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, at noon on Friday. Shetty had called to inform Sharma that he should get ready to leave for Bangladesh to join the Indian team for the remainder two-Test series as a replacement for Munaf Patel.”Even if I wasn’t thinking of getting a call now I know anything is possible”, says Sharma, who came into the national reckoning late last year when he was a strong contender to replace the injured Munaf Patel for the Test series in South Africa. The fact that call never materialised doesn’t bother Sharma, whose stock has been rising like his height especially over the last two seasons.Tall – he stands 6’4″ in socks – and lanky, Sharma found his way into the Delhi side in 2005-06 through with his prolific performances in the Under-19 matches, where his disconcerting bounce had batsmen running for cover. The art of pitching it short has always been his USP. Twenty-nine wickets at 20.10 made him the state’s best bowler, and ninth nationally in terms of most wickets.Sharma believes he is steadily understanding the nuances of becoming a better fast bowler by focusing more on “line and length, and trying to be more patient.”Chetan Chauhan, Delhi’s coach, says his attacking instincts form the strongest facet of Sharma’s repertoire. “He is an attacking bowler and is not shy of letting go of the short one irrespective of the batsman,” says Chauhan, no stranger who himself had copped quite a few from the best fast men of his time. Chauhan’s confidence in Sharma comes from his hard work and his readiness to bend his back. “He is young and a very hardworking boy who has worked himself into the side. He loves to train, practice and gives his heart and soul when he is bowling, which is a great thing for a fast bowler.”In June 2006 had carried a feature story on the probable ‘Third XI’ for India which contained names that could be doing rounds in the years to come. Talent Research Development Officers (TRDOs) across the country were asked to nominate their choices and Sharma’s name was a popular one among the pundits, who predicted an India cap sooner or later.Aakash Chopra, Delhi captain last year and one-time India opener, feels Sharma has the ability to handle pressure. “He has been a revelation, has handled pressure well and has hunted profitably along with Ashish Nehra.” Chopra feels being in the Indian dressing room is a learning experience for anybody and it will help Sharma understand himself much better.Sharma agress completely. “In the end cricket is all about experience, so being involved in the Indian dressing room would definitely be a learning experience and I want to enjoy that.”

Cricket Australia has confirmed that Sri Lanka and India will each have only one warm-up match in Australia before being thrust into the Test series on their 2007-08 tours. The unusual summer scheduling has also meant the traditional Prime Minister’s XI fixture has been pushed back to late January in the lead-up to the one-day tri-series.Sri Lanka take on Queensland at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field in a three-day clash starting on November 2. They meet Australia at the Gabba for the first Test of the season beginning on November 8, followed by the second Test at Hobart from November 16.India’s only chance to acclimitise to the Australian conditions before the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne will be in a three-day game against Victoria, starting on December 20 at Melbourne’s St Kilda Cricket Ground. The second Test at Sydney begins on January 2, before India’s next tour match against an Australian Capital Territory XI – comprising ACT cricketers and players invited from other states – at Canberra from January 10-12. The third Test at Perth starts on January 16 and is followed eight days later by the fourth at Adelaide Oval.Sri Lanka then return for the tri-series with India and Australia, and they will take on the Prime Minister’s XI at Canberra on January 30. Their warm-up continues with a one-day match against Tasmania at Bellerive Oval on February 2, before the limited-overs series begins the following day.

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”.

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.”