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Changes to next summer’s Friends Provident Trophy and the Twenty20 Cup have been announced by the ECB.In the Friends Provident Trophy the initial stage will be contain four groups of five teams comprising the 18 first-class counties as well as Ireland and Scotland. Each team will play the other four teams in the group twice throughout the competition – home and away. The top two teams from each group will then qualify for the quarter-finals, with the winners of each group earning a home draw.In terms of the Twenty20 Cup, the group stages will change to a symmetrical format of five home and five away games. This means each county will now play ten, rather than eight, group matches. The groups will remain regional-based with three groups of six first-class counties.”The changes to the format of these two competitions will be implemented for a number of reasons,” explained David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive. “We were keen to reduce the number of so-called “dead games” in the Friends Provident Trophy and add a competitive edge to all of the games in the competition without increasing the volume of cricket.”The Twenty20 Cup continues to attract new spectators to the sport and the introduction of extra fixtures will give even more people a chance to sample the Twenty20 experience at their local county ground. And the prospect of more local derbies will add further spice to the competition at the group stages.”Counties may play fewer teams under the new structure but there will be more local derbies thus reducing travel and making the logistics of the programme more acceptable. There will also be more opportunities for the supporters of each county to see an increased number of home matches.”An ECB spokesperson also told Cricinfo: “The fact that there is a small reduction in the Friends Provident Trophy is a balance meaning that counties play one less match in the FPT zonal rounds (100 overs) versus two additional Twenty20 matches (80 overs).”In addition the fact that the FPT has been zonalised provides more local derbies and less travel for players which is a benefit to both spectators and players. There is an additional cricketing benefit in that for the Twenty20 the counties now play all the opposition in their group at home and away and in the FPT there is the same number of home andaway matches in the zonal stage.”Both 50-over and Twenty20 cricket are formats of the game played in ICC global events and the balancing of the reduction in FPT cricket and the rounding of the group in the Twenty20 zonal rounds is consistent with the England Report [Schofield Report] and further enhances the opportunity to identify England players in these formats of the game.”

Andrew Flintoff, the face of Sky Sports cricket as they embark on their first full summer of home international coverage, has extended his sporting experience in a host of different directions as part of a new mini-series to help promote the game.Entitled “Ready Steady Freddie,” the slot will feature on Sky Sports’ new Saturday morning entertainment show, Cricket AM, which is modelled precisely on the established Soccer AM programme that has proved to be popular, enduring and award-winning.”I’m a bit of a one-trick pony,” claimed Flintoff, although the range of challenges he has so far taken on suggests otherwise. He has practiced his rugby goal-kicking with England’s fly-half Charlie Hodgson, taken boxing lessons from the world welterweight champion, Ricky Hatton, and picked up darts-playing tips from the multiple world champion, Phil “The Power” Taylor.”I’ve enjoyed it to be honest,” said Flintoff. “It has been great to meet different sports people and see how they go about doing their business.” Some of the tips have proved more useful than others, given that Flintoff’s closest friend in the England team, Steve Harmison, actually took a dartboard on tour to India with him.”The manager wasn’t too happy with the excess baggage,” laughed Flintoff. “He had a pole, an oche and everything. We had interconnecting rooms on the trip, and just played darts for six hours a day.” For all of Taylor’s coaching, however, Flintoff struggled to keep up with his team-mate. “Harmy was far better than anyone else,” he joked, “but then he’s been going to social clubs since he was eight!”The Cricket AM show will be hosted by the former BBC children’s TV presenter, Simon Thomas, and Anita Rani, the former presenter of an Asian magazine programme, “Desi DNA.” Other innovations include a cartoon pairing, “Willow and Stumpy”, who will attempt to demystify the game in the manner that Simon Hughes, Channel 4’s analyst, did so effectively in recent seasons, and a Sunday morning chat show in the style of “What The Papers Say”.”The shows are designed to appeal to devoted cricket fans and newcomers to the sport alike,” said a Sky Sports spokesman. “Each sets out to entertain as well as educate and together they will cover all levels of the game from grass-roots to Test match cricket.””2006 is a huge year for cricket on Sky Sports,” added Barney Francis, executive producer for cricket. “This range of programming boasts something for everyone this summer.” In addition to all Test, one-day and Twenty20 international cricket, the coverage will include more than 60 matches at domestic level from the County Championship to the Pro40 tournament, as well as women’s and Under-19 internationals.

The Pakistan board has decided to carry out dope tests on the 30 players in the provisional Twenty20 World Championship squad before the final 15-man side is announced next month.Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, has instructed the board officials to get the tests carried out as soon as possible so that the results are received from a laboratory in Malaysia before the final squad is picked on August 10. The tournament takes place in September.”We will begin dope testing on the players as soon as possible,” said Ahsan Malik, PCB’s Communications Director. “It will take up to ten days to get the results of the tests, which is why the players’ urine samples will be obtained over the next few days.”Malik said that the board may take samples from some players in Lahore and the others in Karachi. Most of the players on Pakistan’s provisional squad are currently in Lahore but will move to Karachi later this week for the final phase of training before leaving for South Africa.Malik said he was confident all players would pass the tests but the board wants to be certain before announcing the final squad. He said it was the board’s policy to carry out internal dope tests ahead of major ICC events, a practice that would be continued.

Martin Snedden, the CEO of New Zealand Cricket, has admitted that the desultory attendances at the Christchurch Test have left him baffled. On all three days of the match the players and officials almost outnumbered the spectators.Snedden said he was fairly sure that the cost of tickets was not the issue. No-one showed up despite adult tickets costing just $15 and children having free entry over the weekend, as long as they wore cricketing clothes. He added that attendances were up overall, but that included ODIs and Twenty20 matches.One theory put forward for the poor attendances was the limit of a one litre bottle of water per person, but that hardly accounts for the missing thousands.

The Barmy Army have rubbished suggestions that hoards of thugs will travel with them to Australia for the Ashes.”To suggest that football hooligans will travel halfway round the world at great expense in the middle of the football season, just months after spending fortunes following England at the World Cup is quite extraordinary,” said Barmy Army co-founder Dave Peacock.He was reacting to news that Morris Iemma, the New South Wales premier, had sought intelligence from British police on known troublemakers to assist in their policing of the Sydney Test. He wrote: “I am sure you would agree that the ugly stain of poor crowd behaviour can adversely impact [on] the enjoyment of thousands of families who love cricket and reflect poorly on national reputations.”And the state’s police minister, Carl Scully, had a warning of his own. “If any didn’t [behave] then we’ll have the sort of response that we had to some of the rugby league games – very strong, very stern, very quick.”Paul Burnham, one of the founders of the Barmy Army, warned that any problems would be exacerbated by Cricket Australia’s handling of ticket allocations. “We’re not saying that there is never any trouble at cricket grounds – there are always a few idiots on both sides – but Cricket Australia’s arrangements haven’t helped the situation.”Victoria Police superintendent Mick Williams, who is in charge of security during Melbourne’s Boxing Day Test, said he was more concerned about the behaviour of Australian supporters.”[The Barmy Army] are very well-organised and actually control a lot of their own people. In fact, we tend to have more problems with our own local spectators than visiting spectators,” he told The Age.

The inexperience of an Eastern Province bowling attack missing Mornantau Hayward, Meyrick Pringle and Garnett Kruger was ruthlessly exposed on Monday as Easterns cantered to a five-wicket victory in their Supersport Series match at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, their second in as many weekends.The win virtually ensures that Easterns will campaign in the Super Eight phase of the competition next year, while EP must be fearful of being the side to miss out from Pool B, which also includes KwaZulu-Natal, Western Province and Border.Easterns’ target of 276 had seemed like a tall order on Monday morning, when they resumed on 40 for one, having lost Brad White for 15 overnight, and it looked beyond them by the time Mike Rindel was caught behind for 14, to leave them reeling on 93 for four. Considering the home side’s brittle display with the bat in their first knock, the men from Port Elizabeth had a strong sniff of victory in their nostrils.It would have been even stronger had Dave Callaghan caught Pierre de Bruyn at second slip when he had 12, but the veteran allrounder grassed the chance. As it turned out, sadly for Callaghan, De Bruyn and Derek Crookes went on to add all but six of the 183 runs still required for victory when they had come together.Crookes was the chief aggressor, going to lunch on 40 to De Bruyn’s 14. But the sharing out of the runs mattered far less than the fact that they proved an ideal pairing, with good communication and speed between the stumps ensuring that numerous tight singles were safely negotiated.The Willowmoore Park pitch had been expected to hold a few terrors for the batsmen and it certainly contributed to captain Deon Jordaan’s dismissal, when he played back to a delivery from slow left-armer Robin Peterson which stayed low and shot through under his bat to bowl him.However, Crookes showed the value of a positive approach when the pitch is not entirely trustworthy as he raced towards his century. The introduction of the new ball after 80 overs, when Easterns had 197 for four, was the visitors’ last throw of the dice, but far from halting the home side’s run spree it contributed to its acceleration as youngsters like the highly ratedMfuneko Ngam and strapping debutant Dewald Senekal failed to get the basics right, bowling far too many balls wide outside the off stump.In the second over with the new ball, Ngam saw himself cut square for six by Crookes and in his next over, after a fielding error had gifted Easterns three overthrows to give Crookes an all-run four, the right-hander cut him to the boundary backward of square to go to his ton.Without three of their pace kingpins, EP’s attack was proving desperately short of penetration and it was no surprise that the only other scalp they managed to secure came from a run out. Crookes and De Bruyn eventually attempted one sharp single too many at a time when it had become unnecessary and Graham Grace dispatched an irritated Crookes for 117 with a direct hitfrom cover point.Just six more were needed and De Bruyn got the lot off the first two balls of the next over, from Peterson, to take his team to exactly 276 for five and his own score to an unbeaten 71, ensuring Easterns picked up 15 points for the victory.

AC Muthiah, the former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has been appointed chairman of the six-member ICC Nomination Committee which will choose the next president of the ICC in 2007.The committee includes Bob Merriman, Mueen Afzal, John Blair, Stephen Camacho and Imran Khwaja. The deadline for filing the nominations for Percy Sonn’s successor as president has been fixed for January 1, 2007.Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, confirmed Muttiah’s appointment and added that he was the unanimous choice for the post, once Blair proposed Muthiah’s name at the committee’s first meeting on August 31.”Muthiah has a stature,” Shah told reporters, “and is known to all permanent and other members of the ICC since he had been maintaining good rapport with them during his presidentship of BCCI.”Commenting on his appointment, Muttiah – who served two terms as the BCCI president between 1999 and 2001 – maintained that it was an honour.”I deem it a great honour done to Indian cricket as I have been known to administrators of the game in the world as president of the BCCI,” he said. “The other committee members and myself will surely adhere to the code of ethics in selecting the right candidate for the post of ICC president.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

It was the Brian Lara show all the way at the Adelaide Oval, as he uncorked an innings of stunning class and vintage majesty on the opening day of the Adelaide Oval. His eighth double-century – an unbeaten 202 – lifted West Indies to 7 for 352 at close of play on the opening day, and left him just 12 runs away from breaking Allan Border’s record for the highest aggregate in Test cricket.Dogged by poor form and bad luck throughout this series, Lara fought back in style at a venue which has always been a lucky one for him – he now averages 94.83 here. As has happened so often in the past, though, none of the other West Indian batsmen offered him substantial support – the second-highest score was a measly 34 – which ensured that despite Lara’s monumental effort, West Indies still only had a par score on the board on a pitch which is an excellent one for batting.Coming in to bat at 2 for 19, Lara had to battle hard for his runs – and for survival – early in the piece. The ball was swinging, conditions were slightly overcast, and both Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath had their tails up. Lara negotiated both, not entirely comfortably, but his biggest test of the day came from an unlikely source. The first ball that Andrew Symonds bowled to him nearly had him trapped in front – though replays showed that Aleem Dar made an excellent judgment as the ball pitched just marginally outside leg – and then, throughout that eight-over spell, Symonds probed ceaselessly with his swing and control.

Lara survived that, battling his way to a 67-ball 27 at lunch. After that, none of the Australian bowlers had much of a chance. The twinkle-toed footwork gradually returned, the uncertain shuffling around the crease stopped, and those supple wrists soon began to work their magic: when the legspinners tossed it high and wide, Lara took the bait, crashing the drives either side of cover; when they drifted towards leg, the sweep shot – including a single-handed one – did the trick. As the confidence returned, so did the ability to pick the gaps and make use of the short boundaries square of the wicket. When Lee returned for his second spell, he was greeted with a scorching square-drive – little footwork but all flourish – and then a pull shot which brought him his hundred.By the final session, Lara’s mastery over the Australian bowlers was complete. Though this was a first-day pitch, both Warne and MacGill got reasonable turn from it, but Lara’s presence meant they were far less effective than they might have been otherwise – off 107 balls, they leaked 88 runs to him. Ponting took the second new ball as soon as it was due, but that only increased the flow of runs for Lara. On 190 with just three overs to go, Lara turned it on in style, pulling Lee in front of square for four, flicking him for a couple, and then unleashing another pull which crashed into the square-leg fence – his 20th four – and brought up his double-hundred. The Adelaide crowd, which had given him a rousing welcome in the morning sensing that it was probably be his last Test in Australia, rose to a man to applaud an outstanding effort.At the end, the score was a damning indictment on the rest of the batsmen. Wavell Hinds, back in the team in place of Chris Gayle, and Devon Smith were consumed by the pace and swing of Lee, who bowled an inspired opening spell, and while Shivnarine Chanderpaul fell to a fine delivery, some of the others were guilty of throwing it away – Ramnaresh Sarwan fell to the pull for the umpteenth time, while Dwayne Smith tried to smash the cover off the ball when what was needed was sensible support for Lara.The best support acts came from the batting heroes at Hobart, Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin. Bravo batted with all the assurance he had shown at the Bellerive Oval, scoring a fine 34, while Ramdin handled both the spinners and the new ball with aplomb till he was trapped on the shuffle late in the day. With only the bowlers for company, expect Lara to turn it on from the start on the second day. And expect another standing ovation when – and if – he gets those 12 runs.

Wavell Hinds c Hayden b Lee 10 (1 for 16)
Devon Smith c Hayden b Lee 7 (2 for 19)
Ramnaresh Sarwan c Symonds b Lee 16 (3 for 53)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul c Gilchrist b Symonds 25 (4 for 121)
Dwayne Bravo c Ponting b MacGill 34 (5 for 237)
Dwayne Smith c Symonds b MacGill 14 (6 for 263)
Denesh Ramdin lbw b McGrath 27 (7 for 333)

.Ganguly belongs to the hall of fame which includes the likes of Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Bedi, Vishwanath, Vengsarkar, Amarnath, Prasanna et al. But it is time that Ganguly, if he wishes to continue in the present team, proves himself and what better way to do that than to go back to Ranji Trophy cricket. One century on a placid wicket against a weak bowling attack doesn’t prove anything. The Indian team is more important than a person, no matter what the record books say about that person. Lakshmi Challa FloridaLet Ganguly be India’s vice-captain. Keith Massay UKI guess everyone will agree that a team of 10 good players is better than 11 individual performers. Ganguly has been the only Indian captain in history to mould a team out of individual players. If not for anything else, Ganguly deserves a place in the team for that. When people say that Ganguly should step down for the likes of Yuvraj and Kaif, I must remind them that the same Yuvraj and Kaif have had long bad patches and they are today in the team because of Ganguly’s backing. He backed them because he believed that they had potential. Does Ganguly himself not deserve the same backing from the public and the media? And lastly, even if people believe that he should be replaced, do we have better players to replace him with. When Venugopal Rao and J P Yadav can play in the Indian side, is a place for Ganguly so unimaginable? Shobhit Aggarwal IndiaChappell has been appointed coach for the Indian cricket team and he should focus on that. He seems to be crossing his jurisdiction getting involved in matters like the selection of captain and the team — there is no harm in an informal consultation by a captain for selection of the final eleven with the coach, but nothing beyond that. The BCCI needs to intervene immediately and deal with the conflict between the captain and the coach. If this conflict persists, it would hurt the very soul of our team. Ram Chopra TorontoGanguly should go. Chappell knows what he is doing. Eshwar IndiaIt is sad to see that even the media is taking sides. Cricinfo is probably the only media outlet which has reported fairly on the issue. Observation is something very different from judgment. And I don’t really understand as to why the media is taking potshots at Chappell. Chappell is an honest guy, and he should be given the best team if he wants to make any meaningful contribution to Indian cricket. Partha IndiaGanguly has done enough damage to the Indian team over the last couple of years due to his egoism and continuous failure as a batsman. It’s time he should be shown his place. If Kaif has to sit out of the playing eleven, let’s not talk about building the team for the next World Cup. Instead let’s call it an employment exchange to keep non-performing bozos in business. Anand Chitre IndiaHe needs to speak out and get some support. Maybe it’ll help his form. Ann Singh IndiaIt pains my heart that a person of Ganguly’s stature can stoop to such a low level and unnecessarily stir a hornet’s nest. It was Ganguly who originally backed Chappell as the coach of Team India. Ganguly’s obsession with the captaincy, which is of course a much-prized possession, is like a small baby refusing to part with a toy. Mukul Maheshwari IndiaClick here to send us your feedback on the issue

Sachin Tendulkar hogged the limelight after getting to 10,000 Test runs on the first day at Kolkata, but the classy performance of the day came from Rahul Dravid, who made 110 exquisite runs before falling in the last over of the day.Most of Pakistan’s bowlers had mentioned before the series that Dravid would be their main threat, and he showed why: throughout his 222-ball knock, he hardly gave Pakistan a sniff – his in-control percentage was an excellent 85.59. He scored at a fair clip against most bowlers, but was most circumspect against Abdul Razzaq, who bowled an excellent spell late in the day, getting appreciable reverse swing. However, while Dravid was careful against Razzaq, his technique was good enough to withstand that test – his in-control percentage against Razzaq was 90.24.The feature of Dravid’s innings was his cover-driving – he scored 33 of his 110 runs in that region, including six superb fours. His second-most prolific region was between mid-on and midwicket, through which he got three fours, including the one which got him his hundred.Learning lessons from Sehwag
Did Pakistan learn their lesson after being hammered by Virender Sehwag in the first Test? The stats suggest that they did, at least to an extent. Unlike at Mohali, when the seamers offered him width and bowled a fair number of good-length deliveries, here they kept the length much shorter, and gave him less width. It worked to an extent too – off the 37 short balls, Sehwag onlyscored 19. At the end of the day, though, he still had the runs against his name.