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New Zealand teams could compete in Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition as soon as 2008-09. The boards of Australia and New Zealand are discussing the potential for a Trans-Tasman tournament, with the top sides going on to compete against teams from India, England and South Africa in the newly-announced Champions Twenty20 League.Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming were in New Delhi on Thursday for the launch of the ICC-sanctioned competition, which is seen as an official alternative to the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Although no players were named as definite participants Fleming and McGrath, both of whom had been courted by the ICL, would appear likely to play. Shane Warne’s decision not to sign with the ICL has also fuelled speculation he might join the Champions Twenty20 League, which will start in October 2008.The details are still being fine-tuned but the initial plan is for domestic teams that progress to the international tournament to be allowed to top up their squads with guest players. That could mean Warne or McGrath might sign with an Indian or England domestic team, for example, while an Australian state side could try to lure top players from other countries.”That is certainly a possibility in the Champions League and, in some respects, that is part of the attraction,” Cricket Australia’s CEO James Sutherland told the . “It’s a concept where we have the best of the best at domestic level playing against each other. Previously, apart from really isolated instances, this just hasn’t happened before.”In the first season, the two Australian states that reach the KFC Twenty20 final will earn a place in the Champions League. However, after 2007-08 the states will probably have extra competition for a spot in the worldwide tournament.”We have had preliminary talks with Cricket Australia about establishing a trans-Tasman league which will feed into subsequent global championships,” New Zealand Cricket’s CEO Justin Vaughan said. “Both New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Australia are interested in exploring this potential further with the possibility of a trans-Tasman league starting as early as the 2008-09 cricket season. The two top teams from this league would then progress to the Champions Twenty20 tournament to play teams from Indian, African and European leagues.”

Shane Bond has surged into the top ten of the ICC Player Rankings after continuing his comeback from injury with a successful ODI series against Sri Lanka.Bond, who is returning to action after a long-term back problem, missed the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy matches against Australia because of a groin strain. But now fit and firing once again, his nine wickets in four matches against Marvan Atapattu’s side have lifted him four places to 10th in the bowling list, an ICC statement said.Bond, the quickest New Zealand bowler to reach 50 ODI wickets (and the eighth quickest of all-time), has only once had a higher tally of rating points than his current mark of 692. That was after taking 2-7 against Pakistan in Dambulla in May 2003, the match where he broke down with the back injury that took two years out of his international career. At that stage he had 711 rating points.Bond’s form with the ball underlined one reason why New Zealand won three of the four matches they played against Sri Lanka over the New Year period — their bowling. They have five bowlers in the top 30 places of the LG ICC Player Rankings. In addition to Bond, Daniel Vettori is in seventh spot, Kyle Mills is at 15, Jacob Oram appears at 17 and Scott Styris is in 30th position.That contrasts in a very stark way with Sri Lanka’s representation in that same list.

Australia have completed preparations ahead of Thursday’s Twenty20 match against New Zealand at the Gardens Oval, Darwin, a prelude to the five-match Rose Bowl ODI series at the same venue. This will be Australia’s first game in Darwin.Since their arrival on Sunday, the team has spent time acclimatising to the Darwin winter. The day’s main practice session provides the last chance for new coach Lisa Keightley to make final adjustments before the Twenty20 clash.”Tomorrow will be our third Twenty20 international so we are still finding our way in this format of the game. The match will enable us to set a platform leading into the 50-over games,” Keightley said in a Cricket Australia press release.”We’ll approach the match with the intention of having some time in the middle, enjoying the game and seeing what skills we can produce at this time of the year. Overall, I’m really keen to walk away from this series knowing where all the girls are at.”We’ve lost Cathryn Fitzpatrick, so we’re looking for a new opening bowler who will spearhead our innings. With the bat, we’ll be trying to get some new combinations and establish some players in different positions.”New Zealand will be without the services of Louise Milliken, the fast bowler, who was ruled out of the series after injuring her knee yesterday in a practice match against the Northern Territory junior team. She will leave for New Zealand tonight and have an MRI scan to assess the extent of damage.Sarah Burke has been named as Milliken’s replacement and will join the team tomorrow afternoon.Australia enters the series as clear favourites after winning the previous five-match series against New Zealand 5-0. But last year’s corresponding Twenty20 international resulted in a close ‘bowl-off’ victory for Australia.Australia will be bolstered by the return from injury of Karen Rolton; the reigning ICC Women’s Player of the Year will lead Australia in Darwin.Australia’s team for the Twenty20 match will be announced tomorrow morning.

It’s hard enough for top-quality bowlers to come up against a rampagingChris Gayle, just spare a thought for the lesser teams. Unfortunately forthem, Gayle’s made a habit of pulverising minnows – he averages 59 againstZimbabwe and close to 49 against Bangladesh – and today it was apremeditated assault. Start steady, motor along and go ballistic towardsthe end.”Things weren’t that easy,” he said at the end of the day, beaming acheeky smile. “The wicket was keeping low and one needed to concentrate. Ineeded to capitalise on the start. Hopefully I can better my performanceagainst Sri Lanka.” But was the wicket really that difficult? WasBangladesh’s surrender understandable? “It was a good wicket and we sawthat when they batted early on. But they didn’t really capitalise on thestart. It wasn’t the easiest of wickets to start but it’s something thatneeded you to dig deep. Once you got in you can pace yourself and go onfrom there.”The manner in which he went after them as the finish line approached madethe bowling look quite pedestrian. “It’s definitely not the weakest attackin ODI cricket,” Gayle retorted when asked his thoughts. “They bowledwell, especially the two left-arm spinners. They put the ball in the rightareas. My game-plan was to go out there and not take it for granted. I’m agood reader of the game and it’s a situation – when I’ve played 100 andodd one-day games – that one learns.”His constant chatter with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, towards the end of thegame, didn’t go unnoticed. “Chanderpaul and myself wanted to work well inpartnership, we wanted to communicate and plan it well and stay till thethe end,” he continued. “I wanted a hundred and he wanted a fifty, so hesaid, ‘Chris, whatever you do make sure I get my fifty as well.'”Gayle and Chanderpaul have taken care of the bulk of West Indies battingin the opening two games of the tournament but Brian Lara wasn’t tooconcerned. “The game on Saturday [against Sri Lanka] is very, veryimportant for us we’s love to qualify No.1 and move on. If Chris andChanderpaul are the only two to bat on Saturday, this is great for us.There is no room for experimentation at this present time. You just haveto win, win, win.”No team wants to pick themselves up from a loss going into the moreimportant stage of the tournament,” he continued looking ahead to the SriLanka game, “so I think both teams going to be very competitive. WestIndies is going out to put out their best XI and we are going to go reallystrongly for a win. I think three wins on a trot, going into the secondstage of the tournament, is definitely going to be positive.”West Indies’ fortunes, though, will hinge on the fitness of their players,three of whom were ill-disposed. Lara admitted that it was a seriousconcern. “Starting with Sarwan, Smith and Morton, and now Fidel it’s hardto quarantine the guys specially if you travel. Hopefully Fidel will beback in the field soon.”

Ragheb Aga and Jimmy Kamande, the two medium-pacers, have been recalled to bolster the Kenyan team that will face Namibia in a rescheduled Africa zone ICC Intercontinental Cup qualifier in Windhoek next month.Kamande has not played for Kenya for nearly a year but Tom Tikolo, the chief selector, said that he had shown improvement in his form and had big potential as a genuine spinner and batsman. “Kamande would prove useful with his spin and in getting the runs in Windhoek,” Tikolo said, adding that Kenya needed to win to qualify for the semi-finals.The two countries, which meet on June 3-5, share top spot after both beat Uganda intheir opening matches of the three-nation series. Aga was left out of the match in Kampala after leading Kenya as stand-in captain for the inaugural cup semi-finals and finals in the United Arab Emirates last November.The selectors also left out Tanmy Mishra, the 17-year-old batsman, who made hisdebut against Uganda, and the opener David Obuya, the youngest of the three brothers in the national team. Another surprise omission is Brijal Patel who is performing well domestically at the moment.Squad Steve Tikolo, Thomas Odoyo, Kennedy Obuya, Maurice Ouma, Hitesh Modi, Collins Obuya, Martin Suji, Peter Ong’ondo, Lameck Onyango, Kalpesh Patel,Jimmy Kamande and Ragheb Aga.

Tim May, the former offspinner who set up the Australian Cricketers’ Association, has resigned as the union’s chief executive and will move his family to the United States. After eights years in the role, May will depart in June, unless the current Memorandum of Understanding with Cricket Australia is not completed, and will continue as the chief executive of FICA, the international players’ association.May, 43, has been behind obtaining greater pay for national, state and rookie players, negotiating the first Collective Agreement with the Australian Cricket Board in 1998 and implementing events such as the Allan Border Medal. “I have been in the fortunate position of representing a collection of men whose performances both as cricketers and role models have continued to grow and set benchmarks for others to emulate,” May, who took 75 wickets in 25 Tests, said.Ian Healy, the ACA president, said players since 1996 owed much to May for his creativity, commitment and dedication. “As a former top-class player and with a financial background Tim’s skill set was perfect for the role,” he said.Ricky Ponting said May had always placed the welfare of Australia’s players at the top of his priority list. “Tim’s contribution has been first class,” he said.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board is faced with a quandary ahead of picking their 14-member squad for the Champions Trophy with Habibul Bashar’s fitness status not yet confirmed. Bashar, their captain, has said he can confirm his fitness status only a week after the ICC deadline of September 7 for submitting the squads.It is possible that Bashar will be included in the squad and later replaced if he fails his fitness test. “As far as I know, one can only replace an injured player from the 30-member probables but we are still not clear about the rules,” Mahbubul Anam, the board general secretary told the , a Dhaka-based daily. “That’s why we have to go through the ICC laws first about the matter then we will discuss with the selectors,”Bashar fractured his left thumb during the second one-day match against Zimbabwe in July. He missed the last Champions Trophy in England in 2004 because of a fracture to his right thumb. Mahbub said that the Bangladesh board might ask the ICC to look at Bashar’s case as a special consideration.But Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector, was confident that Bashar would recover in time for the tournament. “Yes, you can say it is a little bit of a dilemma for the board as well as the selectors because we have to pick the final team by September 7 while we can know the exact position of Bashar only a week later. But I am not too bothered with the situation as Bashar is recovering well and his injury is also not a serious one.”Though Faruque himself supported Bashar’s inclusion in the squad, he said that the final decision would be taken only after the selection panel had discussed it. “I don’t know the details of the ICC rules about the matter but I don’t think there is any rigid law,” he added. Bangladesh are scheduled to play West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the qualifying round of the Champions Trophy beginning October 7. If they finish in the top two, they will advance to the next round of the tournament to play the six top-seeded teams.

A low scoring affair between Pentasoft and Combined Districts XI sawthe Chennai software company notch up an easy victory in the Moin udDowlah Cup at Hyderabad. Combined Districts’ skipper Vishnuvardhan wonthe toss and decided to have a bat. Although he won the toss there waslittle joy for Vishnuvardhan. His openers got off to a dreadful start,with Venu losing his wicket to Tamil Nadu all rounder Sadagopan Maheshin just the 4th over of the day.One drop batsman Mohamood Ali got to 5 before he was cleaned up byPavan Kumar. Another Kumar, this time Sathish, got rid of openerNaveen Reddy and Combined Districts XI were in a spot of bother at30/3. The spot of bother got progressively worse as 30/3 became 39/5.Wickets were shared around as Combined Districts slumped to 110 allout.Chasing 111 from 50 overs was never going to pose any problem for abatting line up that boasted the likes of Sadagopan Ramesh, ShivSunder Das and Hrishikesh Kanitkar. With just one wicket down,Pentasoft cruised to a nine wicket victory. Ramesh (67) and Das (25)were unbeaten at the crease as the target was overhauled with 29 oversto spare. Ramesh’s knock of 67 came off just 71 balls and included 10sweetly timed hits to the fence.Not one to be left behind, Das helped himself to an easy 25 (33b,2×4). Pentasoft have a number of stars in their side, and are bound tobe stretched further by opposition stronger than Combined DistrictsXI.

Division One

Hampshire crushed Nottinghamshire by 299 runs to take top spot in Division One. John Crawley completed his second hundred of the match as Hampshire extended their lead to a mammoth 505 before Shane Warne declared. Notts made a steady start as Darren Bicknell and Jason Gallian added 70, but Warne had mBicknell taken at slip and held onto Gallian off his own bowling to put Hampshire on course. Notts were only two down at tea, but the final session brought a clatter as James Bruce, nipping the ball around at decent pace, claimed his first career five-wicket haul. As is so often the case, Warne had the final say when he trapped Charlie Shreck lbw to bring the curtain down on a dominant Hampshire display.Middlesex charged to an impressive eight-wicket win against Yorkshire to take the honours in the Division One basement battle. The match sped to a finish as 17 wickets tumbled in the day, on a pitch that had previously been full of runs. Ed Joyce added just one to his overnight score, but Middlesex were handed a vital lead through a feisty lower-order partnership of 78 between Johann Louw and Chris Peploe – pushing the advantage to 60. It took Yorkshire five wickets to move ahead as Chris Silverwood again struck with the new ball. Peploe and James Dalrymple then shared seven wickets as the batting put up little resistance.Durham are being made to work harder than expected to nail Warwickshire after Tony Frost struck 96, setting Durham a tricky 160 to win. When Warwickshire subsided to 177 for 8 it appeared a formality for Durham, but Frost and Heath Streak added 113 for the ninth wicket. Ottis Gibson eventually broke through, and finished with three wickets, while Gareth Breese claimed four with his offspin. Durham suffered two early blows but Breese and Gary Pratt eased them to the close and whittled the runs required to fewer than 100.

Division Two

4th dayGlamorgan sealed their first Championship win of the season, downing Derbyshire by six wickets. Robert Croft and Dean Cosker wrapped up the Derbyshire resistance for the addition of 76 runs during the morning session, leaving them to chase 140. They made a rocky start, losing four top-order scalps for 78, as Derbyshire put in a spirited effort. However, Michael Powell and Mark Wallace steadied the nerves and combined in a sensible stand of 62 as Glamorgan enjoyed that winning feeling – at long last.3rd dayGareth Batty claimed his first five-wicket haul of the season as Worcestershire ended just two wickets short of a crushing victory against Somerset. Cameron White slammed a defiant first-innings century but Roger Sillence grabbed a career-best 7 for 96 as Somerset followed-on. Second time around they fared no better, as Batty went through the top order. Peter Trego biffed 67 off 72 balls but it shouldn’t take long for Worcestershire on the fourth morningFor a full report of Surrey against Leicestershire at The Oval click here.

The battle for control of the US cricket administration was always likely to turn really ugly following the cancellation of Project USA, and it seems that the gloves are now well and truly off.In one corner, Gladstone Dainty and his existing USA Cricket Association elite; in the other, the swelling ranks of the clubs and regional bodies who have had enough.What triggered an escalation in the hostilities was the announcement earlier this week by Polam Reddy, president of the Southern California Cricket Association, of a meeting caled by the Council of League Presidents (which is made up of the 25-odd cricket leagues that constitute the bulk of USACA membership) next month in Dallas to discuss the future of cricket in the USA.That struck a nerve with Dainty.Cricinfo has been given details of a remarkable telephone conversation yesterday between Dainty and Reddy in which there was little attempt to disguise the level of animosity between the pair. Dainty was livid that the meeting had been called, claimed that Reddy had no authority and also tried to maintain that Reddy’s recent election had been blocked by the USACA. In an email circulated to the USACA, Reddy said the conversation ended with Dainty threatening to "destroy me for not respecting his position."The president of the North Texas Cricket Association and the USACA regional director of the Central East Region have informed Dainty that they are the co-sponsors of the Dallas meeting on April 16. Furthermore, they have stated that any action on Dainty’s part to interfere with the proceedings would be viewed with the greatest concern and would immediately lead to criminal proceedings against him. They are also telling him that the authorities in Dallas had been informed about Dainty’s threat, and would be prepared to take any needed action to allow the proceedings to go on undisturbed."If Dainty is there we will ask him one question," Reddy said in an email. "Only one. We will ask him to tell us, in one sentence, what positive thing he has ever done for US cricket. After the long period of silence which will follow our question, we then, as courteously as possible, ask him for his resignation then and there."The Dallas meeting has been given the blessing of Bobby Refaie, who himself is at the centre of the storm after being suspended as USACA secretary by Dainty.In a letter to CLP members, Refaie said that it was time for everyone to unite to take cricket in the US forward. “It is your clubs that are the real members of this organization, not the USACA executives or board of directors,” he said. “You and your member clubs are the ones that stand to gain or lose by what is done in your name.”The continuing lack of any action from the USACA to what was an entirely avoidable situation appears to be hastening the enforced departure of Dainty and his associates. It is bewildering that they appear to want to remain after all the highly personal criticism that has been hurled in their direction and their apparent unwillingness to face the crisis.Although Project USA is dead, there are still large ICC development grants up for grabs but they will not even be considered while the present regime remains in place. Nothing can change until there is change within the USA. And surely, now that’s just a matter of time?