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Cricket Australia Code of Behaviour Commissioner Mr Alan Sullivan QC today reprimanded West Australian batsman Murray Goodwin for breaching Cricket Australia’s Code of Behaviour.Goodwin was charged by the Western Australian Cricket Association under Rule 9 of Section 1 of the Code for making detrimental public comment regarding the selection of the Zimbabwe Test team.The case against Goodwin, due to be held before a full hearing in Sydney tomorrow (Saturday 1 November) was brought forward after Goodwin advised of his intention to plead guilty.Mr Sullivan was asked to determine the question of penalty, if regarded as appropriate.Mr Sullivan found Goodwin’s comments were inappropriately timed and were potentially harmful to the interests of cricket.In handing down the verdict Mr Sullivan took into account Goodwin’s prior record and his genuine regret in making the comments.He considered that Goodwin intended no malice in the comments he made.WACA CEO Mrs Kath White, who brought the charge against Goodwin, said it was now time to move forward."It is regretful that this had to happen," Mrs White said."In my view Murray’s comments, inadvertent though they may have been, called other players’ abilities into question."We look forward to moving on and putting this matter behind us. I hope Murray can have a successful season for the Retravision Warriors."The reprimand means Goodwin is available to represent the Warriors in Sunday’s ING Cup clash against New South Wales at North Sydney Oval and the corresponding Pura Cup fixture beginning at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday 4 November.

Darren Gough has spoken out ahead of the first Test against South Africa at Edgbaston, urging the England selectors to pick him on merit after his successful recovery from a succession of knee operations.Gough, 32, was named Man of the Match in Saturday’s NatWest series final, after picking up 2 for 9 in seven overs. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be," he told the News of The World newspaper, "and getting back into the Test team has always been the ultimate aim. I want to be picked on merit as one of the best fast bowlers in the country – and I think I’ve proved that in this NatWest Series.”"It’s up to the selectors now," added Gough, who has taken 228 wickets in 56 Tests, and would dearly love to overhaul Fred Trueman’s tally of 307, to become the most successful Yorkshire bowler in Test history. "I want no favours, no sentiment, but I’m convinced I won’t let them down."Michael Vaughan, Gough’s captain in the one-day series, added his support for a recall. "The five weeks I’ve had Gough, he has been fantastic," said Vaughan. "Whether his knee can hold up to the longer format of the game is not for me to say. It will be down to the medical people and Gough to decide that. But he is a world class player.”David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, sounded a note of caution, but could not deny the impact a fully fit Gough would have on the Test team. "Darren is a major influence. When he marks out his run you can feel the response from the crowd – he is a hero."Graveney insisted he had been misquoted in saying that Gough was not in consideration for the five-day format. “We just have to be sure that he can go the distance," he said. "To be fair, 10 overs one day and a break and then 10 overs the next day in one-day matches is different to bowling 25 overs in a Test match and then have to do it all again the following day.”The selectors name their squad on Friday, and in the meantime Gough will play in the County Championship for Yorkshire against Durham on Tuesday. Of the centrally contracted England players, Ashley Giles will be able to play for Warwickshire against Middlesex and Stephen Harmison will be available for Durham against Yorkshire. Both men, however, will be rested from their limited-overs matches.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is planning to include Wasim Akram in their one-day side to face South Africa later this year as a formal farewell to his remarkable international career – despite Wasim announcing his retirement last month.”He [Wasim] had given nothing to us [the PCB] in writing and we want to give him grand send-off from international cricket,” explained Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, chairman of the PCB. Zia said the plan is for Wasim to be included in either the match at Lahore or Karachi: “It would be great to bid him farewell in front of his home crowd,”And Zia added that they wanted to utilise Wasim’s experience. “We want him to train Pakistani youngsters,” he told reporters. “It would not be in our interest that he coach and train in England.”

New Zealand’s prospective players for next summer’s World Cup have been put on notice by selection convener Sir Richard Hadlee.With the National Bank Series tied up at 2-2 going into Tuesday’s series decider at Carisbrook in Dunedin, Hadlee told CricInfo today that the side’s performances had been disappointing.”If we had made the progress we thought we had then we would have nailed England at Napier and made it 3-0,” he said.”But at least we are finding out some things about players,” he said.The selectors had not made any changes to the team as they felt with another round of domestic games starting tomorrow there was little point in taking a player from those games to effectively be 12th man in Dunedin.New Zealand’s failure to develop some consistency had been of concern to the selectors, especially after winning four out of five games in Australia, then losing five in a row, winning two against England, and then losing two.”Realistically, we’ve won two out of our last nine games,” he said.Hadlee was not concerned that New Zealand was running short of time before the World Cup to sort out the final side.”We’ve got plenty of time,” he said.There was the Sharjah tournament, the Pakistan series, the West Indies series, the ICC Knockout tournament and New Zealand’s home series against India next summer.”There are lots of competitions available to us.”But some players are not helping themselves,” he said.England had improved during the one-day series but Hadlee backed England captain Nasser Hussain’s comment that two bad matches don’t mean you are a bad team.”New Zealand are still good enough to turn it around,” he said.Hadlee also said that he expected all members of the one-day side to play the next round of State Championship matches, “unless they have a very good reason not to.”Some of the players needed to take part in those games to work on their form to be ready for what was shaping as a pretty tough series, he said.He said the first Test team to play England would be named four or five days before the Test which starts in Christchurch on Wednesday, March 13.

The Zimbabwe Cricket team will be playing in the Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup, in the United Arab Emirate, from the third to the 10th of next month.The Sport and Recreation Commission cleared the team today, after its concerns about security in Sharjah were addressed by a letter of guarantee from the organisers, the commitment of the team to travel and reports of other sporting activities underway or scheduled for that country and the neighbouring emirate of Dubai where there will be several meetings of the International Cricket Council.One of the highlights of the international horse-racing calendar, the Dubai Classic, will be run there on Saturday.The Zimbabwe squad for the tournament comprises captain Heath Streak, Grant Flower, Craig Wishart, Gavin Rennie, Travis Friend, Mluleki Nkala, Dion Ebrahim, Raymond Price, Douglas Hondo, Douglas Marillier, Stewart Matsikenyeri, Sean Ervine, Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut.The manager is Mohammed Meman, physiotherapist Bradley Robinson, coach Geoff Marsh and selector-on-tour Jon Brent.Kevin Barbour has been appointed as one of the umpires for the tournament, and Justice Ahmed Ebrahim match referee.

The dateline might have changed but there wasn’t too much difference in the look of the scoreline as openers Justin Langer and Matthew Haydencombined to hand Australia early command of the Third Test against South Africa in Sydney today.Exactly as they had been through the final five months of 2001, Langer (126) and Hayden (105) were emphatically on song at the start of 2002,hoisting Australia toward a mark of 5/308 by stumps on the match’s opening day.In adding 219 for the opening wicket after captain Steve Waugh had won the toss on another warm morning in hazy, bushfire-charred Sydney, thepair remarkably raised a fourth double century stand for the summer. It now means that no opening pairing in the annals of Test cricket hasregistered more partnerships in excess of the 200 mark. And there certainly hasn’t been any in history that has scored as many within the space ofjust nine appearances as a combination.The home team’s position was weakened nonetheless when a hard-working attack hit back to claim all five of the day’s wickets in the final session.It was in that period that Hayden edged a Shaun Pollock (2/64) delivery to slip and Langer played off bat and pad to silly point fieldsman NeilMcKenzie from the bowling of the sparingly used Nicky Boje (1/25). In between those dismissals, Ricky Ponting (14) – not the first time in thisseries – was run out after Langer had pushed a ball to cover and set off the stroke. Later, Steve Waugh (30) also succumbed, beaten as he playedoutside the line of a Pollock off cutter with the second new ball. And Mark Waugh (19) then complicated matters in the very last over, perishing ashe cut errantly at Allan Donald (1/64) and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher.Yet Langer and Hayden’s efforts ensured that this was again a day largely owned by Australia.There was a nervous period for the twin left handers through the opening half-hour as both Pollock and Donald extracted notable seam movementwith the new ball. Langer’s outside edge, in particular, was beaten more than once and he later played two shots over the slips cordon and onethrough it in the air.Accordingly, it wasn’t an opening partnership based on the sort of total domination of the attack that has characterised some of their previousefforts. But it was pretty darn impressive all the same.Langer’s 12th Test century – and an astonishing fourth for the 2001-02 summer alone – was typically full of well-crafted strokes, many of themreleased from off the back foot.For its part, Hayden’s seventh Test century – also a fourth for the season – was raised more slowly and its arrival was not accompanied by quite thesame degree of exuberance. But it was similarly punctuated by a series of powerful strokes, with one crunching cover driven boundary off Donaldbefore tea even staking claim to be classed as the shot of the entire Test summer.Through a wretched middle session, the South Africans’ woes were further compounded as Boeta Dippenaar’s penchant in this series for ending onthe wrong side of catches continued. With the total at 168, Dippenaar dropped a comfortable waist-high offering at square leg as Hayden (on 68)miscued a sweep at Claude Henderson (0/28). Therein it extended a run of misfortune that has seen the young South African spill three chances inthe series and fall to three barely conceivable catches when it has come his own turn to hit balls in the air.Worse was to come just before tea when Boucher failed to grasp an outside edge as Langer – on 102 – pressed half-forward at Boje.Confirmation from national selector Graeme Pollock on ABC Radio that the team originally chosen to play in the match was vetoed overnight by the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) failed to ease the sense of calamity either.The UCBSA adopts a policy that at least one coloured player should always be part of its eleven, and accordingly chose to supplement Herschelle Gibbs’ presence with the inclusion of young all-rounder Justin Ontong in the side ahead of batsman Jacques Rudolph.But it still represented something of a shock move, albeit that Ontong was by no means the Proteas’ worst player on a day when he bowled two tidy overs and orchestrated the departure of Ponting.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has described the practice facilities currently provided for the tourists in Kolkata as unacceptable.The England coach, Duncan Fletcher, has complained about the state of the nets provided at the Kolkata Sports and Cricket Club, but Indian officials claimed they would not be treated any differently if they were touring England.Fletcher is unhappy about the standard of the wickets, lights and the time allotted for practice at the nearby ground.”It’s not the right way to treat an international side who have come out herefor an important one-day series because you have to prepare properly for anyseries,” Fletcher said.”It’s dangerous in the nets because if you hit a leg-side shot in the firstnet, it shoots through to the other net and could take someone out. How can you concentrate when that’s going on?”When you pitch up somewhere you expect decent practice facilities, where they are we don’t really care. The wickets have not been conducive to good one-day practice. At the moment you can’t play shots you would play in one-day international cricket.”You’re basically playing defensive cricket because the ball’s doing too muchand the nets were wet yesterday and dangerous. You would expect nice flatwickets so you can practice your cricket and bowlers can learn to bowl on flatwickets.”The ECB’s Chief Executive Tim Lamb and Director of Cricket Operations John Carr have been engaged in a lengthy dialogue with their counterparts at the BCCI, secretary Niranjan Shah and president Jagmohan Dalmiya.They had requested a switch to Eden Gardens, the venue for Saturday’s opening one-day international, but a spokesman for the cricket association of Bengal, who maintain Eden Gardens, insisted England would only be allowed a single practice session there as previously scheduled on Tuesday.”It isn’t possible for England to practice there because we’re busy preparing Eden Gardens for the one-day international,” claimed the spokesman.”We can only make it available for training as decided earlier. I’m sure ifthe Indian team had landed for a match at Lord’s or some other top Test centrein England, they would not be allowed access to the main arena.”The England camp say they have been given several other reasons why Eden Gardens is unavailable. Fletcher was told it was because of security concerns, but the police claim it would be easier to patrol the team there.The current problems follow lengthy discussions about the forthcoming one-day series, during which India threatened to withdraw from next summer’s final Test at the Oval if England did not agree to play a five-Test series in 2003-4.England eventually added a further one-day international to the five already scheduled, and switched their warm-up sessions from Mumbai to Kolkata, where the first match was to be played.It has left England with just one warm-up game and five more days practice before they play the first one-day international in front of an estimated 100,000 crowd on Saturday.”The home Board has a responsibility for providing good net facilities tovisiting teams and there is no excuse for failing to do that,” Lamb said.”It is totally unacceptable to be provided with facilities like this and wehave protested strongly to the BCCI and will continue to do so.”Once we had made the decision to warm-up in Kolkata and then only had eightdays to practice, it was obviously very important to be provided with goodfacilities, and that hasn’t happened.”

After the decision comes the comment. The general consensus in the British press was that the selectors had chosen a batsman-heavy Test squad with the surprise inclusion of Rikki Clarke, and to a lesser extent Geraint Jones, while Darren Gough’s omission from the ODI squad kicked up the biggest fuss.

Mike Walters, in , was the most outspoken about Gough’s absence. Under the headline “Dazzler snub fury”, Walters claimed that Gough’s exclusion was “easily the most contentious call as England declared their hand for the coming tour of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Lord’s yesterday.” And he explained why: “In less than nine weeks … he has gone from new-ball partner Jimmy Anderson’s indispensable minder to excess baggage. The selectors must have taken leave of their senses.”And the selectors’ suggestion that Gough may get a look-in for the ODIs in the Caribbean, and that they wanted to look at other options in the build-up to the 2007 World Cup, cut no ice with the splenetic Walters either: “What a load of poppycock,” he spluttered. “They are leaving their best exponent of the white ball twiddling his thumbs when Gough’s reverse swing on abrasive pitches would have been a real asset.”Most agreed with Walters. “Gough with their heads” screamed . John Etheridge said it will be “amazing if Gough plays for his country again”, a view backed up by Mike Selvey in . “Darren Gough’s dream of playing in the 2007 World Cup looked in tatters yesterday … and it now looks as if Gough will follow Alec Stewart into the history books.” He added: “Perhaps there has been some reticence in this aspect, for few people anywhere in the game have such a depth of knowledge of how to bowl on the subcontinent as Gough, after he played a major part in recent England successes in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Instead the bowling in the one-day squad will be in the inexperienced hands of Richard Johnson and James Kirtley, neither of whom has a fitness record to be proud of.”Derek Pringle, in , wrote: “Bangladesh is one of the wettest places on earth, but that was probably not a consideration when the selectors decided to force England’s Test and one-day bowling attack to sink or swim after preferring the likes of Rikki Clarke to old sweats such as Darren Gough and Martin Bicknell.” On the hot topic of Gough, Pringle put a more positive slant on the issue. He wrote: “To drop Gough from the one-day party, after winning Man of the Match award in the NatWest Series final against South Africa, suggests a determination to force the other bowlers to grow up.” He continued: “Although a calculated risk, Gough’s absence will provide a good litmus test for those assigned his speciality – bowling at the death. His omission was a unanimous decision, at least according to Graveney, and it is probably not as dicey as taking just three front-line pace bowlers to a part of the world where E.coli can be as potent as Murali.”But hauling your eyes away from Gough and the ODI squad for just a moment, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, in , cast his thoughts – and doubts – on the Test squad. On Clarke and Paul Collingwood, CMJ decreed that neither are “likely to be much of a force as a Test bowler”. His main gripe, however, was the shortage of bowlers: “The choice of Gareth Batty and Geraint Jones means there are four players uncapped at Test level in a team that will be heavily dependent on a group of experienced batsmen.” He added: “The shortage of quality bowling is bound to be felt at times on the second leg of the tour in Sri Lanka. It is all Lombard Street to a China orange that replacements will be needed sooner or later.” And “having stated that Read is the chosen man as Alec Stewart’s successor, the selectors might have been wiser to include an extra bowler rather than a second wicketkeeper.”Too few bowlers, a wicketkeeper too many, and the snubbing of their best one-day bowler – all in a day’s work for an England selector.Gough unhappy with omission

Future use of technology will be placed on the agenda for the International Cricket Council meeting to be held in Christchurch on February 10-11.New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive Martin Snedden commented after yesterday’s controversial moment in the New Zealand-South Africa VB Series match in Hobart when umpire Daryl Harper made a wrong call on a Chris Cairns appeal for a caught and bowled dismissal in the vital last overs against South African batsman Mark Boucher.Harper indicated he thought the dismissal was a bump ball but the television replay, which Harper was not entitled to check with the third umpire, clearly showed Boucher was out.Following an incident in the first New Zealand-Australia Test in Brisbane when Justin Langer was given not out from a bump ball after a third umpire opinion, the ICC ruled that such matters could not be referred to the third umpire.Snedden was aware of the changed ruling and for this reason would like to see more discussion from the ICC’s Cricket Committee Management, or all the chief executive officers of the ICC, in Christchurch.”My view still is that if the technology is 100 per cent accurate and quick then we should use it.”New Zealand is more inclined to say, ‘Let’s use the technology’ but other countries are not quite so concerned and have conflicting views,” he said.

Playing some top flight cricket that included aggressive batting sustained over a period of time and quick bowling that put the batsmen on the back foot, New Zealand ‘A’ enjoyed the sweet taste of success in their semi-final match of the MRF Buchi Babu Tournament, when they, to use a cliché, derailed Indian Railways, beating them by 23 runs.The Kiwi’s now face the Cricket Association of Bengal XI in the final of the MRF Buchi Babu Tournament.The wicket at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is one that cricket experts over the years have found to read. Typically it is a track that has a bit in it for the fast bowlers early on, but slows down quickly and takes turn fairly early. New Zealand ‘A’ showed today that the role a wicket plays can be overcome with positive cricket. Lou Vincent creamed the Railways bowling to all parts in his run a ball 102, and gave his bowlers something to play with. One must remember that Vincent made a century in the last match he played too. Playing the spinners and pacemen with ease, Vincent spread the field in a hurry.Beginning the day on 216/6, with an overall lead of just 66, New Zealand ‘A’ had but a small chance of forcing a result in the match. Vincent, overnight on 57 struck nine boundaries in his century and in the company of Kyle Mills (37) took New Zealand ‘A’ to 318/8 declared off just 62 overs. This left Indian Railways with a target of 169.For New Zealand ‘A’ to win, they needed at least one stunning performance. In the event there were two! If Vincent’s ton won praise, then Shane Bond’s sensational bowling analysis of 14.3-2-45-7 deserves a lot more. Bowling in temperatures over thirty five degrees centigrade, Bond produced a spell of genuinely hostile bowling. More than anything, it was the sheer pace of Bond that knocked the wind out of Indian Railways. Constantly pitching the ball just short of a length and outside the off, the Canterbury mediumpacer scythed through the Railways batting line-up.After removing the Railway openers with just 9 on the board, Bond cooled off for a while, as the Railways middle order batsmen offered some resistance. When Brooke Walker ran out Murli Kartik (30) with the score on 49, the beginning of the end was signaled. Soon after, Bond ran thorough the innings, picking the last five wickets to fall. Bond’s 7/45 skittled Railways out for 145, handing the visiting side victory by 23 runs.