Matthew Hayden has completed a remarkable limited-overs comeback, winning the ODI Player of the Year award in Johannesburg. Hayden, 35, had been mostly overlooked for Australia’s one-day team since the 2005 tour of England but he won a reprieve when Australia’s new opener, Shane Watson, missed the CB Series through injury in January.Hayden grabbed his chances and played no small part in making sure his side took top honours at the World Cup in the West Indies. His dominance is shown in the statistics. He topped the averages with 62.18 in 26 matches, having scored 1368 runs, more than anyone else during the voting period (August 9, 2006 to August 8, 2007).In that time he scored more centuries than any other ODI batsman (five) including a top score of 181 not out, and all with a strike-rate of 87.69 runs per hundred balls. He has been a colossus at the top of the order for Australia and with Adam Gilchrist he has formed one of the most dynamic opening partnerships in the history of ODI cricket.Accepting his award, Hayden said: “It is a great honour for me to receive this award. It’s not so long ago that my place in the side was far from certain so this is very pleasing for me. Batting with Adam Gilchrist is always fun. I suppose the style we adopt could be regarded as risky and it’s definitely something we have talked about.”For us it’s not about fifties and hundreds. For teams like Australia scoring rates are more important, getting the team off to a good start so that the guys coming in can make the most of it. It has been a great year for me and for the team so I am delighted to pick up this award.”ICC president Ray Mali said: “On behalf of the ICC I would like to congratulate Matthew on winning this award. Matthew has been one of the best batsmen in all forms of the game for many, many years and there can be no doubt that he deserves this award. It is amazing to think that not so long ago he had been briefly left out of the Australia one-day side. His performances at the World Cup, in particular, were outstanding and his ability to perform when it matters most is crucial.”Hayden beat off the challenge of team-mates Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath to secure the award. Last year his team-mate Michael Hussey took home the prize, England’s Kevin Pietersen had the honour in 2005 and in 2004 it went to Pietersen’s England colleague Andrew Flintoff.

Two of the players who have turned their backs on Zimbabwe’s national side have agreed club contracts in New Zealand, in effect signaling their intention not to return to international cricket.Gavin Ewing has signed up for Inglewood Cricket Club in the Taranaki District Cricket League in New Zealand. He leaves Zimbabwe on Wednesday to join his new club. He recently returned from England where he led Paignton to a third-place finish in the Devon Premier League.Ewing will be joined in New Zealand by Dion Ebrahim, who finished as the leading run scorer for Stony Stratford Town Cricket Club in Northamptonshire.Ewing, 26, retired from international cricket last year citing neglect by Zimbabwe Cricket after he suffered a stress fracture and headed off to England while Ebrahim went to England after Zimbabwe Cricket did not offer him a contract.Ewing and Ebrahim are just some of the players still owed money from the New Zealand, India and Kenya series in 2005. The players are still holding onto cars that were issued to them when they were still contracted to ZC and have vowed not to return them until they get their money.

Paul Collingwood, the England one-day captain, is one of four players suffering from a stomach bug in Sri Lanka ahead of the one-day series next week, and is a doubt for their warm-up match in Colombo on Friday.Collingwood, Stuart Broad, Luke Wright and Alastair Cook are all struggling with what their coach, Peter Moores, described as a “stomach illness”, but he is hopeful of all four being available for selection for Monday’s first one-dayer at Dambulla.”If it’s like Stuart’s it was only a 24 to 36-hour thing so hopefully it will clear up pretty quickly,” Moores said. “Stuart trained for the first time and is still a bit weak and it looks like it’s going to be one or two days for the rest of the lads.”Alastair Cook’s version of it is that if you’re going to get it, let’s get it out of the way before the big games. There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “We have a 15-man squad for these things and if you’re going to get a bug, you get a bug.”England’s only warm-up game is against a Sri Lanka Board President’s XI on Friday, before the start of the five-match series.

One of Trevor Bayliss’ tasks as Sri Lanka’s coach is working out a way to ruin the international re-entry of a player he worked so hard with to earn an Australian spot. Phil Jaques, who will open with Matthew Hayden on Thursday, has been closely monitored by Bayliss since he was in the New South Wales Under-19 squad and the pair was operating together in the state’s senior team as recently as March.Sri Lanka enlisted Bayliss as Tom Moody’s replacement three months later and his jump into the international arena was made more interesting by his intimate knowledge of Australia’s Sydney-based contingent of Jaques, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Brett Lee and Stuart MacGill. Jaques has been a stop-gap measure in two Tests but he has a chance for an extended run after being promoted into Justin Langer’s old position. Bayliss is trying to make him fail.Jaques, 28, has been a strong performer at state and county level, where he has picked up more than 10,000 first-class runs, but his performances under Bayliss at New South Wales have been responsible for the elevation. Both men were cautious about what tactics would be employed during the two-match series.”It’s going to be interesting,” Jaques said. “I’ve had a lot to do with Trevor over the last few years. I’m sure he’ll have a few plans and I’m sure I’ll know those plans. I guess it’s just a matter of who is better on the day.”He smirked when he refused to divulge his weaknesses and Bayliss expected Jaques to smile when he sees Mahela Jayawardene’s fields. “But he faces those types of settings and bowling week in, week out,” Bayliss said. “He’s also played a lot of Sri Lankan guys in county cricket and they’re aware of how he plays.” Muttiah Muralitharan has bowled to Jaques twice in England and Chaminda Vaas, who should take the new ball, has been another opponent.Bayliss started his hands-on role with Sri Lanka three months ago, but he is struggling to move away from his allegiance to the state he played with in 58 first-class matches before progressing to coaching. “Hopefully the New South Wales boys do well,” he said, “and the Sri Lankan boys win the Test.”Jaques is being helped by his new team-mates against his old ally. He has received a lot of support in the lead-up to the game and on Monday a call came from Langer telling him to enjoy the experience. Hayden, Langer’s former partner, has assisted the settling-in process by staying close to Jaques and chatting with him about Sri Lanka’s bowlers. “I can’t wait to bat with him,” Jaques said, “and I hope we can develop into something special as a partnership.”Australia’s training over the past two days has had a new feel with Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Langer missing and the fresher faces of Jaques and Mitchell Johnson joining the regime. In his previous appearances in the squad Jaques has been the temp, but with the prospect of a long stay he is already looking to enhance the team’s reputation.”There’s definitely an added excitement in the camp and I’m looking forward to playing with the new guys,” he said. “Hopefully there’ll be a new-found energy and hopefully we can go even higher.” Bayliss has similar goals for his new outfit.

Steve Harmison looks set to be included in England’s Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka next month, after receiving the backing of the team coach, Peter Moores.Harmison, who underwent a hernia operation in July, is currently playing for the Highveld Lions in South Africa in a bid to recapture his form ahead of the three Tests in Kandy, Colombo and Galle.Though he returned an impressive nine-wicket haul against the Cape Cobras last week, Harmison confessed to a touch of rustiness after sending down a familiar spate of wides and no-balls. There had been some speculation in the British media that he would remain on the sidelines, but Moores – speaking to BBC radio – quashed that notion.”I’ve spoken to Steve this morning, and we hope he will be joining us for a good tour,” Moores told Radio 5 Live. “I don’t think it is a make-or-break tour at all. He has a lot of cricket left in him.”Earlier in the week, Moores explained the reasons for Harmison’s two-match spell with Highveld Lions. “He’s in South Africa to prove three things. Physically, can his body take bowling in competitive cricket? Secondly can he get that bowling fitness he needs and, finally, can he be in the form he’ll need to be in Sri Lanka?”He had a tough last season,” said Moores. “He struggled for form early on, then started to find some form, then got injured and missed the rest of the season, which was obviously disappointing for him.”This is the reason why he is in South Africa now – he hasn’t bowled competitively for quite a long time. Sri Lanka will be a tough, short tour, we need everybody to be ready to go at the start of that trip.”

Scorecard

Inzamam-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq made light work of a stiff target as the Hyderabad Heroes completed a comprehensive seven-wicket win over the Chennai Superstars.The two former Pakistan players were unbeaten on 44 and 40 as the Heroes hunted down the target of 163 with 13 balls to spare.For the Chennai Superstars, undefeated in the tournament before this match, Ian Harvey once again anchored the innings, remaining unbeaten on 63 as the Superstars scored 162. Stuart Law scored 44 while Hemang Badani’s 13-ball 31 provided the boost towards the end.Hyderabad Heroes needed to chase what would equal the highest total of the tournament and their top three – Anirudh Singh, Shashank Nag, and Ambati Rayudu – got them off to a solid start. When Rayudu fell for 28 with the score on 86 for 3, they needed 77 off 52 deliveries for the win.Razzaq joined Inzamam at the crease and the two didn’t take much time to get going, blasting 27 runs off the 12th over bowled by R Sathish. That brought the asking-rate down from over nine to around six and a half, making the remainder of the chase a cakewalk for the Heroes.

Cricket goes on, as perhaps it should. Pakistan, over the last year, and Zimbabwe, for some time, have probably realised the significance of that sentiment more than most nations. Both countries, bedeviled by any variety of issues, might even empathise over the turbulence of what is happening within their borders and the coverage of it from afar, which they might complain is often hyped, often poorly-informed, often misperceived.Which is why this tour is less low-key, and more important for both, than it may immediately appear. Pakistan won’t mind trialing some of their bench strength through the four-day game and the ODI series. Neither will they mind, with Australia nervously looking on, an incident-free visit.Zimbabwe, meanwhile, have all manner of incentives, not least clocking up further mileage on the road back to Test status. They take on a strong-ish Patron’s XI led by Shahid Afridi in a four-day game from Monday and Prosper Utseya, the touring captain, is confident his side can put on a good show.”We have played some good cricket in recent months and we have done it against big teams,” he told reporters in Karachi. “We have also played a few four-day games and that has helped prepare us. If we can beat Australia, we can beat anyone. We want to continue doing that in Pakistan.”Indeed, Zimbabwe have taken an upward turn in recent months, and without too much attention being roused. That Twenty20 World Championship win over Australia noted, but since then they have quietly beaten the West Indies in an ODI as well as won all three four-day games against a South African Composite XI in South Africa.Robin Brown, who was appointed coach last August and is a one-time international, knows just how those results have come: “A lot of hard work. We’ve improved enormously not only technically, but psychologically and we are not afraid coming here. We want to win a few games.”To that end, the return of several vital, experienced players such as Ray Price and Tatenda Taibu has helped. It might not immediately make up for the loss of the many who made Zimbabwe so competitive earlier this decade, but Brown points out that the current side are not quite the newbies Pakistan might expect.”We have lost a few over the years, but we are young in age, not experience,” he said. “Many of our players have now played between 50-60 ODIs, so we have experience. We played four-day games in South Africa with good results and the more cricket we play, the more experience we will gain. We’re not too far away fromgetting back to where we were.”Still, whatever the strength of the Pakistan sides, they will provide an altogether different and unique challenge. “Most sides are good at home, but good cricketers adapt to different conditions,” Brown said. “We have a few spinners so our bowling will be up to strength. Our batting will have to adapt but we’ve had lots ofpractice and preparation and we’re keen to play.”That eagerness to play will see them through some tough days for sure, but so will the attitude of Utseya, the only international captain younger than Shoaib Malik. Not yet 23, the captaincy, he admitted, had been hard at times and little wonder. He didn’t say too much else, but what he did was honest and fearless. When asked theinevitable question about handling the pace of Shoaib Akhtar, he said simply, “We don’t fear anyone.”

Cricket Kenya might delay shortlisting candidates for the vacant national coaching position in the aftermath of the unrest inside the country following December’s presidential elections.A six-man panel is due to meet this weekend to discuss applications but a source told Cricinfo that holding interviews now might not be a good idea.Kenya have two Intercontinental Cup matches in Sharjah in the next month but after that their calendar is bare until August, and it is unlikely that they will be able to attract any sides to travel to the country. There had been talk that Zimbabwe, who also have a free schedule, would visit but they seem reluctant after they were embarrassed in a 2-2 draw in a one-day series in 2006.Reports in the local media suggested that former India coach John Wright had applied for the position but this was dismissed by the source. It was also stated that Andy Kirsten had applied. He was one of the front-runners before Roger Harper’s appointment in 2005 but at that time he had existing commitments he was unable to get out of.

England 185 for 8 (Pietersen 43, Martin 2-34) beat New Zealand 152 (Oram 61, Sidebottom 3-16) by 32 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Dimitri Mascarenhas pummelled Jeetan Patel for four consecutive sixes in an over, to set England on their way to a comfortable 32-run victory in the first Twenty20 at Auckland. On an excellent batting track, Mascarenhas’s intervention in the 16th over transformed an attainable total into an imposing one, and when Ryan Sidebottom removed the dangermen Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor in his second over, New Zealand’s challenge fell away. Jacob Oram, with 61 from 40 balls, kept their hopes alive until the final over, but it was Sidebottom, fittingly, who sealed the win with figures of 3 for 16.New Zealand won the only previous Twenty20 encounter between these two sides, in the ICC tournament in Cape Town last September, but the boot today was very much on the other foot. Kevin Pietersen showed signs of his best form as he muscled his way to 43 from 23 balls, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah played attractive cameos, and aside from Luke Wright, who was dismissed before he got going, each of England’s top-order reached double figures at more than a run a ball.England’s dominance began from the moment the match got underway. England lost the toss and were inserted, but Phil Mustard started with real intent, slashing two fours in Kyle Mills’ first over, closely followed by a violent six over midwicket off Chris Martin. Mustard fell in the same manner one over later, as Jesse Ryder took a comfortable catch in the deep to calm his nerves to calm his nerves on debut, but Pietersen clipped his first ball through square leg for four to maintain England’s tempo.Pietersen, strangely, has managed just one half-century in 12 Twenty20s – and that came against Zimbabwe to boot. But today he seemed set to add to that tally. He clobbered six fours in his first 14 balls, then launched Martin for a vast six down the ground, but New Zealand’s fielders lived up to their reputations throughout the innings. With Pietersen on cruise control, Ross Taylor at short midwicket intercepted a screaming on-drive in Patel’s first over.Ian Bell by this stage had been and gone, bowled for 12 from 10 balls by Oram’s slower-ball yorker, but Collingwood and Shah kept the total ticking along. Collingwood played one expansive stroke, a mighty flick for six off Patel, and later clobbered a Mills full-toss for four, while Shah saved his most savage strokes for the 19-year-old debutant, Tim Southee, whom he clipped for two fours and a sweet six over midwicket.It was the other debutant, however, who did for Shah. Ryder entered the attack in the 14th over and with his second ball he beat an attempted sweep and claimed the plumbest of lbw decisions. That was his only over, however. Instead McCullum tossed the ball to his senior spinner, Patel, whom Mascarenhas bludgeoned four times in a row over deep midwicket. Patel did have his revenge when Mascarenhas picked him out with an uppercut to third man, but with 31 from 14 balls, he had made the difference to England’s total.New Zealand’s tough task was made all the tougher when Sidebottom got hold of the new ball. Finding prodigious swing, and good pace and accuracy, he cut McCullum off in his prime with a surprise short ball that was gloved to Shah at short cover, before trapping Taylor plumb lbw for a second-ball duck.Ryder responded with a series of brusque boundaries to keep New Zealand in touch with a spiralling run-rate, but wickets kept falling to peg their ambitions back. Jamie How picked out Pietersen at long-on with a slog down the ground, Ryder himself was run out two balls later as he backed up to a drive into the covers, and when Scott Styris and Peter Fulton were bowled in consecutive overs by Mascarenhas and Stuart Broad respectively, New Zealand had slumped to 70 for 6.New Zealand weren’t finished just yet. Mills smacked a massive six over the covers off Broad, only then to fall victim to the catch of the match, as James Anderson parried another exocet just inside the rope, and braced himself for the rebound before he toppled over.Oram took up the cudgels with a brace of fours off Graeme Swann and a six and a four off Collingwood, but he had also to farm the strike to protect his tail – and that’s not exactly easy in Twenty20 cricket. Patel and Martin helped New Zealand attain respectability, as the last two wickets added 50 runs in five overs, and the match was sealed with four balls to spare as Bell at long-off clung on to a sizzling drive.

Kyle Coetzer, the Scotland batsman, has extended his contract with Durham by one year as he looks to cement his place in the first team.Coetzer, 23, performed well in last year’s Friends Provident Trophy and struck 61 for Durham in their final against Hampshire at Lord’s. And, in the winter, he has spent time in Mumbai to work on his batting skills against spin.”I felt during last season I got out a couple of times when I should not have done against spin bowling.,” he told BBC Radio Newcastle. “I also felt I was lacking in ideas sometimes in the one-day format, so I went to the Academy in Mumbai where I spent 10 days batting against their spinners.”My target this year is not only to hold down a regular place in the first team, but to contribute more too,” said Coetzer. “I want to score more hundreds and contribute to the whole effort of the team, not just hope to hold down a place in it.”