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Ashwell Prince has resigned as president of the South African Cricketers’ association (SACA) following a report in , an Afrikaans newspaper, that 30 cricketers had signed a memorandum calling for the eradication of the quota system in South African cricket.Prince, who was currently touring India with the South African A squad, alleged that details of the meeting between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the cricketers had been leaked to the media.”I trusted people and that confidentiality has been broken. I was betrayed and used”, Prince told . “I feel strongly that SACA had nothing to do with this. But the fact that it could have been a player, or players, made me realise that I cannot represent people whom I cannot trust””My standpoint about certain aspects of CSA’s policy has never been a secret. Those who conspired against me should have known it,” Prince said. “Someone who was at the meeting we held last week has leaked [details of] the discussions to the news media.”Prince’s resignation was the latest in a period of off-field turbulence in South African cricket: Jacques Kallis’ resignation as vice-captain of the national team following his omission from the ICC World Twenty20, disciplinary hearings involving Mark Boucher and Loots Bosman, and Andrew Hall’s retirement from international cricket.

ScorecardGujarat, struggling at 155 for 9, managed to reach 228 and then reduce Assam to 56 for 4 at stumps on day one in Ahmedabad, with two former Tamil Nadu batsmen – S Ramesh and S Sharath – in the middle.Put in, Gujarat made a cautious start, but didn’t get a partnership going until the very end. Parthiv Patel, who had scored five centuries in his last five first-class innings, upped the scoring, but fell one short of 50, after which the rest of the line-up folded easily. Digant Popat, the No. 6 batsman, found a good partner in No. 11 Siddharth Trivedi, and the two put on 73 runs in 12 overs. Popat top scored with a 72-ball 63. Trivedi carried the confidence from his batting through, and as if out of inertia got Assam opener Sauran Bhagawati to edge one in the first over.
ScorecardJammu & Kashmir denied Railways a wicket for the first 37.5 overs and 104 runs, but thereafter collapsed to 194 all out. Madan Yadav, the Railways left-arm spinner, bowled a miserly spell of 22.3-12-22-4. The wicket of Ian Dev Singh, who fell to Yadav for 62, triggered the collapse. Ian’s opening partner Sajjad Shaikh soon followed, caught by Amit Pagnis off Harvinder Singh, for 40.The second-highest partnership came for the seventh wicket: 34 runs between captain Vijay Sharma, who made and unbeaten 34 and Samiullah Beigh. Harvinder, who toiled for more overs than Yadav, had four wickets to show for his efforts.
ScorecardNine of Services’ batsmen failed to reach double figures as they were bowled out for 102 in Agartala. Timir Chanda, Tripura’s captain and right-arm opening bowler, started the slide, reducing Services to 8 for 2 by the sixth over.It could have been worse for Services but for the 32-run stand for the ninth wicket between No. 3 Devendra Israni and left-arm spinner Arun Sharma. Israni was caught and bowled by off-break bowler Jayanta Debnath, who finished with 4 for 13 in 11.4 overs. Sharma stayed unbeaten on 24 and extras, 13, were the third-largest contributor.Manoj Singh and Subal Chowdhury consolidated after Tripura lost a quick wicket, and finished with the lead all but erased and eight wickets still in hand.
ScorecardAfter a delayed start because of overnight rain, scoring was not high on the priority list as Madhya Pradesh crawled to a total of 100 for 4 in 50.3 overs at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur. More than half the runs came from Jatin Saxena’s bat: he was also the quickest batsman with a strike-rate of 46. Opener Mudassar Pasha took 47 deliveries for his 6, and Devendra Bundela, No. 4, took 35 balls to score 1 run. Shankar Rao, the right-arm medium pacer, took two wickets.
ScorecardAn unbeaten half-century down the order by Aditya Angle helped Goa to 258 for 8 against Haryana at Margao. After choosing to bat, the Goa got off to a steady start, with the openers adding 55, but Haryana took the initiative after bagging four wickets within ten overs. Captain J Arunkumar resisted with 55, before legspinner Amit Mishra picked up three middle-order wickets to peg the home side back again. Angle, who finished unbeaten on 54, added 57 for the ninth wicket with Ryan D’Souza as Haryana were unable to wrap up the innings, especially after Goa were struggling at one stage at 159 for 7.

Whoever thought that Bangladesh would run away with the match after a brave showing with the bat saw them score 232 for 8 in 50 overs had to eat his words as England proved their superiority in the match by achieving the target with 6.1overs and eight wickets still intact.The man of the match, Alec Stewart, and the England skipper, Nasser Hussain, shared a 175 run partnership for the second wicket to steer their side to the quarter-final of the of the ICC KnockOut. Both batsmen played shots to all parts of the ground to make a mockery of the target set by their opponents.Alec Stewart, who did the most of the scoring after the departure of Marcus Trescothick at the total of 33, was all patience after completing his half-century. He was content in watching most of the proceedings from the non-striking end, as Hussain hit all the Bangladeshi bowlers with strength and vigor. Hussain was particularly harsh on spinners, especially the off-break Muhammad Rafiq, as he hit 5 sixes and 8 fours for his 95 scored in 120 balls. However, he was unlucky not to get his first ODI century as trying to steer the ball to the leg side, he top edged an easy catch back to the bowler, Muhammad Rafiq.After the departure of Hussain at the total of 208, it was an easy going for EnglandGraeme Hick making a quick-fire 23 off 19 balls to take his side to victory. Stewart remained not out on 87 off 112 balls.Earlier, a confident looking Bangladesh side cashed in on some below par bowling and sloppy fielding by England to post a respectable total on the board. The opening batsmen, Javed Omar, scored 63* and the skipper, Naeemur Rehman, contributed with 46 studded with two sixes after Bangladesh had been reduced to 96 for 4 in the 29th over. Javed, returning to the crease after a rising delivery from Gough had earlier forced him to retire hurt, grafted his inning sensibly to enable his side to a total past 200, which looked a bit difficult at one stage. It was mainly because of his efforts that the Bangladesh team could collect 83 in the last 10 overs of their innings.For England, Mark Ealham was the most successful bowler taking 3 for 48 in his ten overs. Andrew Caddick and Craig White took two wickets each, whereas one batsman was run out.England now play South Africa in the quarter-final which would be played on Tuesday.

The prospect of a full-strength West Indies squad boycotting the World Twenty20 due to a contracts impasse appears less likely after the team captain, Darren Sammy, informed the West Indies Cricket Board that the team wants to play the tournament, which starts in India from March 8.

‘You cannot continue to be unfair, unreasonable’

Dear Sir,
As captain of the WT20 team, I wish that we can settle this matter and focus on preparations for the tournament. I want to state on behalf of the players that we want to play and will represent the West Indies to the best of our abilities. The embarrassment and fiasco of the Indian Tour which was called off by the Board must not be allowed to happen. However, it is the arrogance and high-handedness of the Board which cause these problems. You cannot continue [to] force players to be represented by a body that they are not members of and do not want to represent them. You cannot continue to be unfair and unreasonable. Issues like this will continue to plague West Indies cricket unless you have an MOU and arrangements for non-WIPA players are fair and just. ‎We are aware that, win or lose, this may well be the last tournament for most of us as reprisals will set in but we will speak out for what is fair. We are players and we know that unless radical changes take place, players will always have the grievance of which we complain.

In an email sent to the board over the last 24 hours, Sammy, however, reiterated his original demand asking the WICB to double the match fees, and share 50% of the sponsorship revenue and 100% prize money with the players. Sammy also asked the board if they would be ready for a mediation to settle the matter in case of a disagreement. Sammy’s latest communiqué comes after the WICB had set February 14 as the deadline for the players to agree to the terms of the contract, failing which it would be assumed they had refused selection for the World T20.”As captain of the WT20 team, I wish that we can settle this matter and focus on preparations for the tournament,” Sammy said in his third e-mail this week to WICB CEO Michael Muirhead. “I want to state on behalf of the players that we want to play and will represent the West Indies to the best of our abilities.”All through this week Sammy, who is playing for the Peshawar Zalmi franchise in the Pakistan Super League, has been involved in a dialogue with the WICB through a series of e-mail exchanges with Muirhead. In his previous two e-mails to Muirhead, Sammy said the WICB needed to double the players’ remuneration for the World T20 and stated they did not recognise the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) as their representative. Muirhead told Sammy that WIPA was the “exclusive collective bargaining agent for West Indian players.”Muirhead also let Sammy know that the WICB did not agree with the “old hierarchical system” of payment to players for ICC events under which senior players received “grossly disproportionate” amounts solely based on the number of international matches played.Sammy said that he would not be happy to repeat the “embarrassment and fiasco” of West Indies’ pull-out from the India tour in 2014 but pointed out that the WICB could not continue with its “high-handedness”, the main reason behind the frequent run-ins between both parties.”You cannot continue [to] force players to be represented by a body that they are not members of and do not want to represent them,” Sammy said referring to the WIPA. “You cannot continue to be unfair and unreasonable. Issues like this will continue to plague West Indies cricket unless you have an MOU and arrangements for non-WIPA players are fair and just.”Sammy said he was aware, yet unafraid, of the “reprisals”, and stated that “unless radical changes take place, players will always have the grievance of which we complain.”For the third time this week, he also asked the WICB to double the match fee of $6,900 on offer in addition to sharing 50% of sponsorship fees and 100% of the prize money with the players. “If you don’t agree to the above, would you consider that this matter goes to mediation for a settlement,” Sammy asked.

Ben Stokes said that his England team would take pride in ending their 15-year wait for an Ashes victory on Australian soil, but acknowledged that the circumstances were “not ideal” for his side, on a surface heavily favoured towards the bowlers, and with the series already surrendered after three straight losses across the opening 11 days of action.Stokes and his predecessor as captain, Joe Root, were both part of the 2013-14 squad that arrived in Australia off the back of three straight Ashes series wins, only to suffer a 5-0 whitewash that set in motion a run of 16 defeats and two draws down under that culminated in last week’s 82-run loss in Adelaide.Now, however, they have helped to oversee victory in just two days at the MCG, on a spicy surface in which no player on either side made a half-century. England were required to chase 175, the highest score of the match, after being bowled out for 110 in the first innings to concede a 42-run deficit, but did so at a familiarly brisk rate, requiring just 32.2 overs to end their long wait, thanks to key contributions from Jacob Bethell (40), Zak Crawley (37) and Ben Duckett (34).”Yeah, we’ve got the win, but honestly, it’s not what you want, really,” Stokes told TNT after the match. “The conditions were heavily sided to one skill of the game, which is not ideal, and the game lasts less than two days.”But when you take all that away, you are confronted with conditions, and what you’ve then got to do is decide on what’s the best mode of operation to be able to give you the most chance of success. Chasing 170 was always going to be difficult, but I thought the way that we took the game on from the outset was the exact way that we needed to do that.”Related

• Stokes promises 'complete support' to embattled Duckett

• 'That pitch has too much life for Test cricket' – MCG surface under scanner

• MCG pitch howls drown out roars of record crowd

• Wobbly England register first Test win in Australia in 15 years

• Brook transcends brain rot (briefly) to give England glimmer

Despite the fact that the series has already been lost, both senior players took pride in the resilience that the team had showed after a torrid build-up to the Test. In the fall-out from the Adelaide defeat, focus had fallen on the team’s mid-series trip to the beach resort of Noosa – in particular a viral video of Ben Duckett looking worse for wear after a night out. But the squad managed to put the furore to one side to deliver a long overdue win.”It’s disappointing that it’s not to affect the series,” Root admitted. “But I think it’s really important, after everything that’s been thrown at the group over the last little while, for us to respond in that fashion, and to find a way on that wicket. It showed good cricket smarts, and great bravery, to read that situation and play with that conviction. So I’m very proud of the boys, and hopefully we can build on it and use the momentum into the next game.”Speaking before the match, Stokes had vowed to rally round his embattled players, not least Duckett, and attempt to provide them with the support they needed to play with the freedom that their team ethos has long espoused. He was proud that his message had fallen on receptive ears.”In the few days building up to this, you front up to a few things,” he said. “The big thing for me, walking out on day one, was obviously understanding that there’s going to be 94,000 people here at the MCG, it’s going to be loud, so just it’s about making sure everyone was on top of the way in which they held themselves, in terms of body language and intensity in the field.”He also thanked the England fans who had made the long trip to Australia for the series.”We’re very lucky that we get to be involved in a sporting occasion like this on Boxing Day,” he said. “We obviously get it here, and every now and again in South Africa, but playing on Boxing Day in front of 95,000 at the MCG, is something pretty special.”But the noise difference was no different to the first couple of games, and that shows we’ve got an unbelievable fan base. They are with us through thick and thin. They’ve been absolutely awesome, and they’ve spent a lot of hours in the sun over there today, so I’m hoping [expecting] that few of them wake up with a sore head.”We’re over the moon. We’re excited that we’ve managed to get on the right side of the result. But, before this game started, we knew what the goal was. We’ve got two games left, and we want to leave here with two results. So, our focus isn’t going to change when we go to Sydney. We’re still going to go out there with the exact same mindset and intensity towards beating Australia. There’s no such thing as a dead rubber when you represent your country.”

The local knowledge of the Australia squad’s two Tasmanians will be tapped by Mitchell Johnson as he looks to build on his impressive debut. Johnson has risen swiftly to international honours – the Brisbane Test was his 23rd first-class game – and his experience at Bellerive Oval is limited to a handful of domestic contests for Queensland.Fortunately Ricky Ponting will be on hand to offer advice in the lead-up to Friday’s second Test and Ben Hilfenhaus, the swing bowler, is also in the squad. “He’s a good one to speak too, playing there all the time, so I’ll have a chat with him,” Johnson said as he prepared to leave Brisbane. “The bowling group will also probably get together and ask him a few questions.”The ball did not swing when Ponting played a Pura Cup match there two weeks ago, but there is hope from the fast men of obtaining some reverse late in the innings. Johnson remembers getting early movement in the air and off the surface, which will be analysed closely over the next couple of days.Bellerive Oval has regularly been referred to as a “road” over the past decade, but the production of the pitch has changed since the curator Cameron Hodgkins took over. Following discussions with the Tasmania team management, Hodgkins began cultivating surfaces that did not result in regular bowling mutilation and they helped the Tigers record enough outright victories to host – and win – the 2006-07 Pura Cup final.Hilfenhaus also benefited, picking up 60 wickets in last season’s competition, but he will need an injury to a fast-bowling team-mate to match Johnson’s debut. Australia have no plans to change the starting XI following the comprehensive innings-and-40-run victory over Sri Lanka at the Gabba on Monday.Johnson was pleased with his returns of 2 for 49 and 2 for 47 and rated his first-up dismissal of Thilan Samaraweera as his favourite. “It moved away and got the edge,” he said. “And I nearly got him in the second innings the same way.”At the end of the match the bowlers put their arms around each other and collected a stump to remember the strong team performance. “It was a pretty proud moment for us all,” he said. Now Johnson is aiming to improve his consistency for Hobart.”At times I was too short and a bit wide [in Brisbane],” he said. “But it was my first game and I’m pretty happy with the way things went.”Johnson opened the bowling on Friday but it looks as though he will share the new-ball duties with Stuart Clark. Ponting gave Clark, who also earned four wickets for the match, first use of the second one with Lee on Monday morning as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 300.”Whoever gets the new ball deserves it at that time,” Johnson said. “I probably wasn’t swinging the ball as much as Ricky would have liked and I would have liked. Stuart was the man for the job at that stage.”Stuart gets the ball to move around a little bit and he was even swinging the ball yesterday, which was a good sign. I’d love to get the new ball when I can, but it’s not a bad thing if we share it around.”Sri Lanka are desperate for Kumar Sangakkara to return in Hobart from a hamstring tear and Johnson expects the batsman’s inclusion to strengthen the side. However, the tourists will have to lift as a group if they are to have any chance of levelling the two-game series.”We want to try to beat them again convincingly and comprehensively, and drive it into them,” Johnson said. “We’re on a high at the moment so we’re going to keep going strong.”

Former Free State captain Joubert Strydom has been appointed as the convenor of selectors for one year by Cricket South Africa (CSA).Strydom will replace Haroon Lorgat, who was not nominated by any of the CSA affiliates at the annual general meeting last week. Mustapha Khan and national coach Mickey Arthur, remained selectors with Shafiek Abrahams, the former South African spinner, being the new appointment.”The board of directors of CSA has decided to appoint Joubert Strydom as convenor for one year after which the appointment will be reviewed,” CSA’s chief executive officer Gerald Majola said. “Joubert is very experienced and has been part of the provincial and national selection system for several years now. He will give continuity.”Strydom said it was an honour to be appointed as convenor of selectors at what was “a very exciting time for South African cricket”.”We have won the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia for the second successive year which means we are going to have a big pool of young talent to work with. The challenge is to find the right combination of promising and established players.”

The Indian Premier League’s governing council has accepted, pending final approval, requests from the Delhi and Hyderabad franchises to name Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman as icon players, which means the two will only turn out for their respective home cities in the BCCI-backed tournament.However, there is a stumbling block to the move. The decision taken by the IPL governing council needs to be approved by all eight franchises ahead of the players’ auction on Wednesday. The IPL’s original tender only had the names of Sachin Tendulkar [Mumbai], Sourav Ganguly [Kolkata], Rahul Dravid [Bangalore] and Yuvraj Singh [Mohali] in the ‘icon players’ category, and thus a move to add any more players to the list needs to be ratified by all the franchise owners.”All the franchises will have to approve this decision as the original IPL tender had only four icon players,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, told Cricinfo. “The IPL [governing council] will meet all the franchises just before the auction on Wednesday for a final decision.”At an earlier meeting, the owners of the Delhi (GMR) and Hyderabad (Deccan Chronicle) franchises had made the request for naming Sehwag and Laxman as icon players. If all the franchises agree, then Sehwag and Laxman will not be among the pool of players to be auctioned on Wednesday. As icon players, they stand to earn 15% more than the next-best paid player in their team.The Mohali franchise has already named Yuvraj as their team’s captain, with Australian Tom Moody as coach.Meanwhile, India Cements Limited, the owners of the Chennai franchise, announced that their team will be known as the “Chennai Super Kings” and unveiled their team logo as well.Kris Srikkanth, former India captain, was named the brand ambassador of the team while former Indian batsman VB Chandrasekhar, who used to be a part of the selection committee of the Indian team, will be responsible for picking the players.”Chandrasekar, having been an India player and also a national selector, has the requisite credentials to head our operations in so far as selecting the players for Chennai Super Kings is concerned,” N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, said. “We plan to have 23 players in Super Kings.”

Stuart MacGill’s dream first-class return from injury has ended a dark patch that threatened to close his international career. However, after taking 5 for 49 for New South Wales on the opening day of the Pura Cup match against South Australia he is back at the front of the queue and the country’s spin stocks are suddenly much healthier.During MacGill’s absence Brad Hogg was the leading slow man, but when he retired Bryce McGain and Dan Cullen were the main options if MacGill did not recover from the wrist surgery he had late last year. The operation was required after MacGill felt numbness in his bowling arm and he performed poorly in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Hobart. There was doubt about whether he could regain fitness – he was also struggling with a knee injury – but he has overcome the initial hurdle.MacGill started with a wicket first ball and was satisfied with his return during 17.4 overs. “The reason I’m happiest is that it didn’t go completely to plan,” he said in the Australian. “For a long period I wasn’t exactly as I wanted to be playing. Probably at the end when I was going for the most runs was when I thought I could put the most work on the ball.”On an SCG surface sympathetic to the spinners – Cullen picked up 3 for 9 on day one – MacGill captured Daniel Harris with his opening delivery. “There was definitely luck, there was no question of luck being with me,” he said. “You know, first ball, half-tracker, straight to point, that’s probably as lucky as you are going to get. Mind you, I’ve been lucky a number of times in my career if that’s the criteria, but maybe it was straight back into form first ball, I don’t know.”MacGill is 37 but Andrew Hilditch, the national chairman of selectors, is not bothered by age and wants a high-class spinner with the Test squad. “The reality is that we envisage, as we did at the start of the season, that we were really looking to get from Stuart, or perhaps Hoggy, a couple of years of cricket where we get a period of time for the younger spinners around the country to develop and take that next step,” Hilditch told the paper. “Obviously with Stuart’s injuries and now Brad Hogg’s retirement, that plan’s pretty much on hold at the moment.”We’re obviously interested in how Stuart goes in his comeback. I haven’t seen him for a little while. I’m told he’s looking extremely fit and has made a lot of progress over the last couple of months so it will be interesting to see how he goes.” He has started well and will have another opportunity as New South Wales chase hosting rights for the final.

Anil Kumble has been ruled out of the opening match of the Indian Premier League, Rahul Dravid, the captain of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, has confirmed. Kumble’s absence is the latest blow to a side still uncertain about the availability of some of its international stars.Kumble, who missed the third Test against South Africa in Kanpur, is yet to recover from a groin injury. “He will miss the first game definitely but we’ll see how it goes as we go along,” Dravid said in Bangalore. “Anil is keen to play and we hope in about 4-5 days he should be able to play. The physio at the National Cricket Academy – Paul Close – and the franchise physio are both in discussion and we’ll take a decision on that.”There has been some uncertainty over players’ availability for the Bangalore franchise. Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher were expected to leave for the South African domestic Twenty20 competition but will now stay back. Dale Steyn, though, won’t be available for the early stages and both Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan batsman, and Abdur Razzaq, the Bangladesh left-arm spinner, will miss the opening clash because of the ongoing series in Pakistan.”There’s been a lot of uncertainty over who is available,” said Dravid. “We were waiting to see whether the South African players will stay back, Anil and [Nathan] Bracken miss out because of injury – Anil hopefully only for a game, Bracken maybe till May. We have [Ashley] Noffke and Ross Taylor till end of the month. And now we have Kallis and Boucher for more. Steyn’s arrival will depend on how his franchise does in their Twenty20 competition back home. As for Misbah and Razzaq – a series is on. So they can join only after that.”The franchise wasted little time in getting a replacement for Bracken, the Australian left-arm seamer, who was ruled out for at least four weeks. “Bracken was unavailable till his injury situation, maybe the first week of May. Opportunity came up to sign up Noffke, only for the first four games, after which he goes back to Australia. We looked at him as a good allrounder potential. He’s had a good season with Queensland.”The good news, though, comes in the form of another left-arm seamer, Zaheer Khan, recovering from injury. “Zaheer is coming on really well,” Venkatesh Prasad, the coach said. “He was not really 100% before the start of the series which we played [against South Africa] but now he’s coming along quite well. He’s been bowling 90-95% in the net sessions. We’re playing a practice game and it will give us a good indication.”Bangalore kick off the tournament with a home game against Kolkata on April 18.