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.”
It ought to have been Dutch cricket’s proudest moment on the worldstage. Their victory over Namibia in the 2003 World Cup wascomprehensive but hardly unexpected; today’s trouncing of Scotland, onthe other hand – a side that had beaten them in their last threeencounters – came as a mild shock to the pundits and players who hadtried to read the remnants of their thumping defeats earlier in thiscompetition.Unfortunately the moment was somewhat overshadowed by the magnanimousgesture of their captain, Luuk van Troost, who stepped down on themorning of the game after a tournament in which he had made scores of5 and 0, and whose final three deliveries against South Africa had allbeen carted for six. A natural leader and a likeable man, it was agesture that left his deputy, Jeroem Smits, downcast in his moment ofglory.”He thought it was best for the team not to play,” said Smits. “He wasvery depressed, he’s still depressed and I’m a bit depressed as well. He’s a good friend of mine. The decision has been in the air, but he was planning to make this his last tournament, and it’s sad he can’t finish off in the right way.”Luuk is very straightforward and honest,” added Smits. “He is a verydangerous player, and one of the best Dutch players around. He candestroy any side in the world, but he decided himself it was best forthe team not to play today. That shows how much character he has got.He deserves all the credit for this win today, and I’m sure it wouldhave been the same if he had played.”It was a real important toss to win,” said Smits, who hit back atGraeme Smith’s suggestion that his team would be underdogs for thismatch. “I saw some comments yesterday,” he added. “I don’t think they[South Africa] know what goes on at Associate level. I think we arequite even and on our day we are a good unit. Today we were the betterside by far.”Scotland’s captain, Craig Wright, couldn’t disagree with thatsentiment, and admitted he was “embarrassed” by how the day had pannedout. “We came into this part of our winter having played a month ofreally good cricket,” he said. “Most of the guys had been looking atthis match as a real opportunity to make statements about themselvesas players. And unfortunately, nobody has.”Had his team perhaps taken their minds off the job, having playedtheir biggest two games of the tournament against South Africa andAustralia? Wright bridled at the suggestion: “It’s a World Cupfixture, it’s a one-day international, which is something we’ve onlyrecently got the privilege of playing,” he said. “If any of the guysswitched off after the last game I’d be very, very surprised. Everygame we play for Scotland, every time we pull on the saltire andthistle, it means as much as the other game.”There were too many soft dismissals,” he continued. “We just got out.The guys have proved before against this type of opposition that theyare big players, and I can’t explain why it’s gone so wrong today. Wepride ourselves on being a squad, so everyone will be taking a look atthemselves and asking some questions. We’ve shown we’re far betterthan that in the past.”The day was a particular disappointment for the vocal legions ofScottish fans who had made the trip to St Kitts, and continued singing”Flower of Scotland” long after the result was a foregone conclusion.”If I was a rich man I’d be going round the ground handing back theentrance fee,” said Wright, “because they deserve far more than we’vebeen able to give them.”
Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Shoaib Malik of Pakistan, the two century-makers in the drawn first Test in Colombo, have both made significant moves up the ICC Test batting rankings.Malik’s unbeaten 148, his maiden Test hundred spread over eight hours, not only helped save the match for his side but also propelled him up 24 places in those rankings and he now sits in 43rd place with a career-best tally.Sangakkara, meanwhile, moved up six spots to 11th after his 185, to become Sri Lanka’s highest-ranked batsman. He has overtaken the acting captain, Mahela Jayawardene, who has slipped two places to 13th in the list.Pakistan still have three players among the top 10 batsmen. Inzamam-ul-Haq is unchanged in fourth place; Mohammad Yousuf, who missed the Test through injury, is seventh, and Younis Khan is eighth, down two spots after scores of 0 and 8 at the Sinhalese Sports Club.Muttiah Muralitharan, who took six wickets in the Test, remains top of the bowling charts, clear of Australia’s Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.With Pakistan’s pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar (seventh) and Muralitharan’s team-mate Chaminda Vaas (eighth) both absent through injury, the visitor’s legspinner Danish Kaneria was the only other bowler on show in Colombo who features in the top 20. He is down one place to 15th position.Further down the bowling table, Sri Lanka’s young pace bowlers Farveez Maharoof and Lasith Malinga have both made positive strides. Maharoof is up 20 places to 68th and Malinga has risen four places to joint 29th (alongside Australia’s Michael Kasprowicz). Both have career-best tallies.Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting heads the batting rankings ahead of team-mate Matthew Hayden and Jacques Kallis of South Africa. Kallis tops the allrounder table ahead of England’s Andrew Flintoff.The second and final Test of the series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan starts in Kandy on Monday.For the full rankings click here
Former Australian Test cricketer Dean Jones is set to embark on yet another charity walk, this time from Cairns to Sydney in 37 days. He will join 10 former rugby league greats, to be announced next week, for the inaugural Legends of Origin relay, with all proceeds donated to the children’s charity, the Make-A-Wish Foundation.in 2003 Jones walked from Sydney to Melbourne as part of a lingering bet with former England allrounder Ian Botham. Botham challenged Jones and Allan Border to walk for charity because he had “never seen an Australian walk during his career”. The pair, along with David Boon, have raised over Aus$2 million from their walks. The 3,500km Legends of Origin walk begins in Cairns on May 10 with the finish coinciding with State Of Origin 2 in Sydney on June 15.Jones said the idea came about over “several beers” with Laurie Daley. But they won’t be walking the entire way. They are planning to enlist the help of yachts, hot rods, Harley Davidson motorbikes, road trains, bicycles and jet skis for the relay team. “I don’t think they could walk all the way because they’d need a bit of preparation for that, but having 80-odd events in 37 days is bloody hard work,” Jones said.He added that he hoped the experience would help bring the fierce former foes closer. “There’s still that rivalry, you can feel it, which is great. But at the same time, while the older blokes have got to pump the game up, they need to relax a little, enjoy what they did, how good they were and create more friendships between the two teams.”
Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the BCCI, has announced that the ICC will release the withheld World Cup guarantee money, which amounts to US$6.5 million, in six weeks. The amount was withheld by the ICC after claims by the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), the body representing the World Cup sponsors, that all the promises made to them had not been fulfilled. As the BCCI was at the center of the controversy, due to the ruckus over player contracts, the ICC kept back the guarantee money pending a settlement with the GCC.Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Dalmiya said: “It was decided at the executive board meeting of ICC Development International Limited (IDI, the commercial arm of ICC) that the money is to be released, and the time-frame fixed for that is four to six weeks.”He also clarified that there had been contradictory reports after the meeting at Barbados which stated that the ICC’s decision was conditional and that BCCI had to furnish a bank guarantee for the release of the money. “I had checked up with the ICC President Ehsan Mani and he clearly stated that he had been grossly misquoted by the media on the bank guarantee issue”, he said.Dalmiya said the ICC had only set two conditions for release of the withheld money. Firstly, each of the 10 full-member boards would have to furnish a personal indemnity in case the GCC succeeds in any of its claims with IDI. Also, if a GCC claim has to be settled, a panel of experts would determine the liability of individual boards and its decision would be binding.
Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan, players who have grown to be stalwarts of the Pakistani middle-order in recent times, struck sparkling centuries to propel their side to a 281-run lead over a baffled Bangladesh at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong.The hosts, no doubt hoping for once to avoid defeat inside three days, picked only six wickets from three sessions of ruthless Pakistani batting. Sending back Taufeeq Umar early, caught at slip off Mohammad Sharif, and removing Inzamam-ul-Haq earlier than expected, Bangladesh’s bowlers may have rejoiced briefly and walked back to their marks with a spring in their step. For the rest of the day, however, they could do little but helplessly witness the absolute mastery of Younis and Youhana.After Inzamam was caught at slip to give Fahim Muntasir his first Test scalp,the Pakistani duo batted with class and control that Chittagong is unlikely to host again in the near future. As if following an unwritten manual, both took singles off the good deliveries and flayed the bad balls for boundaries. The scoreboard whirred along steadily, and Bangladesh looked unlikely to break through except by immense good fortune.Muntasir’s debut grew less inauspicious when, with the score on 236, he induced a false shot from Younis to have him caught by Mehrab Hossain at mid-wicket. Striking 20 fours in his knock, Younis made 119 and put on 70 scintillating runs with Youhana for the fourth wicket.Dhaka hero Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif and Waqar Younis all fell relatively cheaply, chancing their arms once too often after taking hot-blooded boundaries off the Bangladesh attack. It fell to Saqlain Mushtaq, often the second fiddle in a glorious concerto, to provide Youhana with the stable support he needed.Youhana reached his ninth Test hundred off 144 balls, his knock an amalgamation of his status as a top-flight player and proof of his ability to be cruelly punitive on loose bowling, as Muntasir and Manjural Islam would only be too glad to testify.With the aggression of a maddened bull, Youhana came down even more heavily upon the Bangladesh bowling after reaching his century. Putting on an unbeaten 90 runs for the eighth wicket with Saqlain, Youhana played with supreme confidence, haughtily leaving the best deliveries alone and pouncing on the not-so-rare bad ones to gleefully show them the fence.At stumps, Pakistan were 429 for 7, with Youhana batting on 174 and looking good to complete his second Test double hundred tomorrow. Saqlain, especially in comparison to the run-machine at the other end, looked positively sluggish, managing only 7 off his 58 deliveries.An impartial observer would find it difficult to select the best bowler of an errant attack, but Mohammad Sharif proved the most consistent, sticking to a reasonably tight length in all his spells and being rewarded with three wickets. Debutant Muntasir may have picked three wickets as well, but his lavishness in conceding 131 runs from 27 overs will, 20 years down the line, mar his rose-rimmed memories of his first Test.
If New Zealand’s tedious draw with Boland in Paarl was a midweek trudge, then the tourists’ three-day match against North West in Potchefstroom has been, by contrast, a weekend romp.By the end of the second day on Sunday, New Zealand needed to take another eight wickets to give themselves an important boost ahead of the next Friday’s first Test match. North West, on the other hand, have to score another 386 to win. If New Zealand don’t win this one, the ICC anti-corruption squad might want to know why.The difference in the New Zealand teams that played last week and over this weekend has been remarkable. It is as if the touring management suddenly realised the importance of winning something after a five-match losing streak against South Africa in the one-day internationals.From the word go New Zealand have been more purposeful, more aggressive and played better cricket. North West were none for two overnight and bowled out for 100 just after lunch to give the Black Caps a 180-run first innings lead.Then Craig Spearman scored his second century of the game – 115 – before retiring to give someone else a chance. Mark Richardson had made 39, Stephen Fleming scored 52 before declaring at 242 for two and then New Zealand grabbed two wickets before the close to have North West 37 for two.The significance in all this is that all of New Zealand’s probable Test top six have made at least a half-century in one of the two warm-up matches and their bowlers might be starting to find the right length on South African pitches.Daryl Tuffey, for instance, looked very ordinary in Paarl, but started to lift perceptibly after taking his first wicket on Sunday morning. He started to run in and bend his back to finish with three for 23. He has taken another wicket in the Boland second innings, as has Shayne O’Connor who claimed three for 14 in the first innings.The third New Zealand seamer, Chris Martin, also took three wickets in the first innings without looking as sharp as either Tuffey or O’Connor. He may be the one to sit out the Test match.North West, admittedly, have been weak opposition and their cause was not helped when they had to make do without two of their frontline bowlers in the New Zealand second innings. Francois van der Merwe went down with diarrhoea while Alfonso Thomas, who made 16 as nightwatchman on Sunday morning, was hit three times on the hand while batting and after two overs found he couldn’t grip the ball properly.For all that, New Zealand have lifted their game for this match. If nothing else, they seem to have got their timing right.
Rangers transfer chief Ross Wilson was a busy man throughout January as he completed a number of deals at Ibrox throughout the transfer window.
He brought a plethora of players in to bolster Gio van Bronckhorst’s squad, including Amad Diallo, Aaron Ramsey, James Sands and Mateusz Zukowksi.
The sporting director also managed to negotiate a club-record sale as Nathan Patterson left to join Premier League side Everton for an undisclosed fee.
That particular record had been held by fellow right-back Alan Hutton – who joined Tottenham for a reported fee of £9m in 2008.
Blinder
The Gers ended up playing a blinder with Hutton as his career after leaving Glasgow suggests that they did incredibly well to receive such a significant fee for his services.
He burst up through the academy set-up and played 99 times for the first team, scoring two goals and providing nine assists.
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This led to Spurs picking him up in 2008. However, it was a strange move in the sense that the player was not over the moon to be making such a major transfer away from Ibrox. Speaking last year, Hutton explained:
“I turned down Tottenham multiple times, I didn’t want to go, I told the manager I didn’t want to go and I didn’t.“At the end of the day, if Rangers agree on a fee, they’ve agreed on a fee and they’re willing to let you go so it’s kind of out of your hands a little bit. I remember it like it was yesterday. I turned them down multiple times, I was Rangers through and through and I never wanted to leave but when Rangers come and say: ‘Look, we’ve accepted this bid,’ it is what it is.”He went on to play 66 times for Spurs in all competitions during a three-year spell at White Hart Lane, spending some of that time on loan at Sunderland.They eventually sold him to Aston Villa in 2011 and he endured a difficult debut campaign for the Villans which led to him being loaned out to the Championship in England in 2012. That loan ended in January 2012 and he spent the second half of the campaign with RCD Mallorca in Spain.By the time he returned to Villa in the summer of 2013, Transfermarkt valued him at a measly £1.8m. This meant that his value had plummeted £7.2m within five years of his £9m move to Tottenham from Rangers, despite him being 28 and in what should have been the prime years of his career.Therefore, the Gers played a blinder with Hutton as they managed to cash in on him at the peak of his value before he failed to make the most of his potential.Who knows what could have happened had he stayed with the Gers for another year or two, but we can only work with the evidence of what did happen and it shows that Rangers came out on top with this particular transfer.AND in other news, Left for £0: Allen had Rangers howler on “outstanding” 6ft4 gem whose value rose 700%…
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.
Ben Hilfenhaus and Damien Wright bowled Tasmania into a strong position to launch a bid for their first Pura Cup title, despite a solid 82 from Phil Jaques. Grant Lambert loomed as a key for New South Wales and remained unbeaten on 43 with Doug Bollinger on 3 as the Blues battled to 8 for 207.New South Wales lost 6 for 70 in the final session, handing the momentum to Tasmania, who should secure a first-innings lead. Early strikes to Hilfenhaus followed by late ones to Wright meant the only substantial partnership the Blues could develop was the 89 between Jaques and Dominic Thornely.Jaques drove and pulled his way to a half-century from 68 balls but eventually played on to a wide delivery from Wright. His was the fourth dismissal in a lively post-tea period that began with Thornely (41) hooking to deep square-leg in the first over after the break.Luke Butterworth returned tremendous figures – 2 for 20 from 14 overs – and gave good support to Wright and Hilfenhaus. Wright, who earlier made 67, drew edges to slip from Nathan Hauritz and Matthew Nicholson late in the day to complete a promising Tasmania effort.Hilfenhaus, the competition’s leading wicket-taker, started the slide for the Blues when he removed Ed Cowan and Simon Katich in his first spell. Adam Griffith was the only Tasmania bowler who struggled and Lambert – a dominant batsman at club level – cut and drove Griffith for four fours in one over.New South Wales need Lambert to instigate the sort of tail-end partnership that saved Tasmania. Wright and Butterworth completed their 111-run stand before lunch and were instrumental in the Tigers creeping up to 340. Butterworth’s 66 was the first time he had passed fifty in first-class cricket and the Blues’ inability to halt the late resistance could prove costly.