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Ottis Gibson, the former West Indies bowler who has enjoyed such a prolific season for Durham, has won the Professional Cricketers’ Association inaugural Most Valuable Player award.Gibson picked up 80 Championship wickets and became only the 79th bowler in history to take 10 wickets in an innings when he grabbed 10 for 47 against Hampshire. He also won the Man-of-the-Match award for his 3 for 24 – also against Hampshire – in the Friends Provident Trophy final.”Certainly for me, the last couple of years spent coaching has made a difference to my approach to the way I play now,” Gibson told the BBC. “Sometimes you may search a lifetime for what you might consider is perfection. If I look back, this year has certainly been that way. It has probably been a perfect season for me.”I’ve bowled well without any pressure, and when I go on the field I always try to make a massive contribution to the team. It’s a team effort and I’ve led the bowling attack this year, which is what was required.”Gibson finished top of the PCA rankings on 735.97 points, comfortably ahead of second-placed Mushtaq Ahmed (600.18) and Danish Kaneria who was third on 557.48. Mark Ramprakash, the highest-scoring batsman on the list, was fourth with 525.04.The Most-Valuable-Player award was launched by the PCA this year to provide a more reliable and accurate means of assessing a player’s performance, rewarding each run, wicket and catch.Yorkshire legspinner Adil Rashid, 19, was named Young Player of the Year at the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. An ECB special award was given to Peter Baxter, who retired as producer of the BBC’s Test Match Special this summer.Player of the Year
Ottis Gibson (Durham)
Runners up
Mushtaq Ahmed (Sussex)
Andy Caddick (Somerset)
Mark Ramprakash (Surrey)Young Player of the Year
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
Runners up
Ravi Bopara (Essex)
Stuart Broad (Leicestershire)
Luke Wright (Sussex)MCC Spirit of Cricket Award
YorkshireSpecial Merit Award
Sir Ian BothamUmpire of the Year
Ian Gould

Vinod Kambli, the former Indian middle-order batsman whose 664-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar in school cricket was recently bettered by a Hyderabad duo, has hailed the “incredible” feat, adding that he was “shocked” at the run-rate achieved by the two batsmen.Manoj Kumar and Mohammed Shaibaz, opening for St Peter’s School in Hyderabad, rattled off 721 runs in just 40 overs, thereby putting several records in the shade. “It’s good to see that the boys were hungry to score big,” Kambli told Cricinfo. “They seem to have been told about the record and how to get there, but they deserve all the credit. We created our record in the late ’80s and it stood for so long. Sri Lanka’s two batsmen [Jayawardene and Sangakkara] came close but couldn’t get it.”Refusing to buy the argument that schools cricket makes for easy records, Kambli stressed on the physical and mental toughness that such a feat demanded. “It’s extremely difficult unless you have some talent,” he said. “Our coach used to constantly tell us that 30s and 40s are just not good enough. It was tougher for us because schools cricket was more competitive that time – cricketers we played against went on to play for Mumbai and Sairaj Bahutule played for India also. It was largely because of our coach [Ramakant Achrekar] who kept telling us to always try for a big score. Even if we got a double-hundred or a triple-hundred he never used to congratulate us. He used to ask, ‘Why didn’t you stay not out?'”Kambli, who’s currently getting back to full fitness ahead of the Ranji Trophy season, was happy that, unlike in his time, exceptionally talented school cricketers had a monitoring process in place. “Really good school cricketers, especially those with exceptional records, need to be part of a monitoring system,” he said. “In our time, there were many cricketers more talented than me who didn’t make it to the Ranji or U-19 side and quit the game. There was no scope for them beyond a point and they ended up as businessmen or took up other professions. My only advice to young cricketers is, ‘Don’t give up hope. Cricket and studies can go together.'”What saddened Kambli, though, was the step-motherly treatment given to schools cricket these days, once a training ground for several promising careers. “Almost all the Test legends have excelled in cricket at the school level. Sunil Gavaskar, one of my cricketing idols, always used to stress the importance of schools cricket. That’s where you start to learn and build your basics. When I was playing for my school, I started gaining so much confidence. Your level improves every day and it makes your more competitive.”On a more personal note, Kambli, who wasn’t named in the initial Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad, spoke of his immediate targets. “I’m just getting back into peak fitness as I want to be fully fit before playing for Mumbai. I don’t want to let my team down when not totally fit. I’m trying to get fit as soon as possible. My hands are itching to get out there and perform.”He reiterated the role played by his wife in keeping his interest alive. “Even during the hard times, thoughts of giving up the game never came into my mind,” he said. “My wife always stood by me. She used to always tell me, ‘Vinod I want to see you playing’. Her instinct and desire kept it alive. I’m itching to get into the Wankhade Stadium and start playing.”

Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden, Australia’s Test openers, have slammed the World XI’s attitude ahead of the Super Test that begins at the Sydney Cricket Ground on October 14.”We don’t want to hear any excuses about it [World XI] not being a team, they have less to play for, that sort of stuff. It is a Test match. They are playing the best team in the world over four years, and we [Australia] are playing against the best players in the world,” Langer was quoted as saying by sportinglife.com. “There are no excuses and hopefully the best team will win this Test match, and I think the best team won the three one-day games. I hope the World XI are not making excuses about not being galvanized.”Langer’s salvo came in response to Andrew Flintoff’s comments that the World XI struggled in the one-day series because the players had to play different roles from the ones they were used to in their national teams.Matthew Hayden too believed that Australia were still far ahead of any other team. “This side [World XI] is as good a side as we have ever seen, perhaps, in cricket for me. If we [Australia] play well then I think we will beat anyone. And I think the last few days have really proven that. I think from our point of view it is important that we just play our game. We have come off a big series, but we have had good strategies against all of these players over a number of years, and I think in a lot of ways if we do put that together, we are unbeatable.”

Jagdish Sodha, whose name featured prominently during the Maurice Odumbe hearing, has said he will take legal action against the ICC for defamation. According to the East African Standard, he accused the cricket body of continually referring to him as a bookmaker, and admitted that though he knew Odumbe, he wouldn’t bet any money on Kenya.Sodha, a film producer based in Mumbai, was alarmed by the developments. “I intend to sue the ICC for defamation of my character and saying that I am a bookmaker. I do not know why they have been referring to me as a bookmaker. It is rubbish,” said Sodha, going on to say that nothing he had done earlier ever raised suspicion. “No one in the world has charged me, let alone convicting me, for bookmaking. I have never been arrested as well. I do not know where the ICC picked up this rubbish.””Even if I were a bookmaker,” Sodha said, “why would I approach Kenya, a team that wins once in a blue moon? What kind of money would I make? I’d rather approach someone else.” Sodha said that he attempted to do business with Odumbe as a partner, but the solar lamps and pharmaceuticals business was not successful.

Hemang Badani will lead India A in all one-day games on their tour of England. The team left Mumbai for England on the early hours of Sunday. Shiv Sunder Das, who was earlier named captain of the team, will now lead the side in all the other matches. Brijesh Patel, chairman of selectors, told The Hindu, “Badani is a one-day prospect and also is an experienced player. We (the selectors) thought he is the better candidate to lead the side while Das has only a limited role in one-dayers.”India A will play four one-dayers, one four-day match and six three-day games in their 45-day tour of England. After kicking off their tour against a young British Universities side, India A face off against increasingly tougher opponents.Interestingly, they come up against Yuvraj Singh (versus Yorkshire) and Mohammad Kaif (versus Leicestershire) before playing against the touring South Africans at Arundel from July 19 to 21.India A squad
SS Das (capt), Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Satyajit Parab, Hemang Badani (ODI capt), Sridharan Sriram, Ambati Rayudu, Rohan Gavaskar, Vijay Bharadwaj, Parthiv Patel (wk), L Balaji, Aavishkar Salvi, Amit Bhandari, Irfan Pathan Jr, Murali Kartik, Amit Mishra.

International off-spinner Paul Wiseman will play his cricket in Canterbury this summer.Wiseman, 31, will play his club cricket for High School Old Boys and be available for the State Canterbury Wizards.Wiseman has been living in Christchurch since April last year and his partner also lives here. If he continued to play for Otago he would have faced spending another five or six months away from home.”I’m studying up here and there are more business opportunities here if that is what I decide to do,” he said.Wiseman, whose 90 first-class matches have seen him take 258 wickets at a cost of 31.59, has also previously played for Auckland. In his 14-Test career he has 34 wickets, including two five-wicket bags, at a cost of 43.82.He told CricInfo the decision to play in Canterbury was one of the hardest in his life.”The Otago team has been more like a family. We are a great bunch of friends, we all lived close together in Dunedin and have been close mates,” he said.Wiseman told the Otago side on Monday night before Otago started its four-day programme at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University.”Their support was fantastic. I have really enjoyed my time with Otago.”But there is a great opportunity here in Canterbury under Sharpey [coach Michael Sharpe]. There is competition for places even without the New Zealand players here,” he said.Reaction to his decision to play in Canterbury had been “pretty positive” in Christchurch he said and he was looking forward to playing again when turning out in the first round of club cricket on Saturday. Former Canterbury player Geoff Allott is the Old Boys coach while Shane Bond and Warren Wisneski will be playing for the side.”It’s great to be on grass wickets so early in the season. It is a new, good and refreshing challenge,” he said.Wiseman admits that he didn’t do his international aspirations too much good after the ankle injury he suffered in South Africa last year.”I came back when I was not quite ready and it affected my performance. It was not the right thing to do,” he said.Wiseman has spent the winter trying to toughen things up around his ankle and feels it is getting stronger and stronger.He enjoyed the chance to travel to India for the annual Buchi Babu tournament with the New Zealand A side and said it had been a great experience.”We played as a team and the attitude was great. Everyone stood up when they had to and there was no doubt we were the best team there, and we should have been because of the number of internationals we had compared to the other teams,” he said.Wiseman will strengthen the spin bowling options open to the Canterbury selectors who have leg-spinners Aaron Redmond and Marcel McKenzie and left-arm spinner Carl Anderson available locally.

ScorecardFidel Edwards impressed on his return from the Caribbean Premier League•PA Photos

International bowlers Jackson Bird and Fidel Edwards sliced through Middlesex as Hampshire cruised to a ten-wicket win in the Royal London Cup.Bird and Edwards made sure the Middlesex top order came and went in a constant flurry – leaving them 34 for 5 after 10 overs – as the visitors could only muster 117. Legspin talent Mason Crane continued the annihilation with a mature four-for to blast out the tail before Jimmy Adams and Michael Carberry knocked off the target without a fuss.After Middlesex captain Eoin Morgan elected to bat at the Ageas Bowl, it did not take long for the hosts to strike. Edwards flew back on Wednesday after stint in Caribbean Premier League but overcame his jet-lag in just three deliveries – former England Test opener Sam Robson edging behind.Australian Bird – on his Hampshire List A debut – struck in the next over, having another former England star Nick Compton leg before, and Morgan was out in the same way three balls later as Hampshire left the visitors floundering on 5 for 3 by the end of the second over.Dawid Malan gave Middlesex a 25-ball respite, the batsman scoring two boundaries, before he loosely drove to Chris Wood at mid-off off Edwards. And the Barbadian had Nick Gubbins caught at first slip by James Vince the very next ball to leave the score on 22 for 5 before John Simpson left the hat-trick ball alone.Both Edwards and Bird – with first-spell figures of 3 for 15 and 2 for 19 respectively – came out of the attack but there was no respite for the timid Middlesex batsman.Wicketkeeper Simpson was the next to fall, driving a simple catch to Adams in the covers to give Wood a wicket with his fifth delivery. And spin, in the shape of 18-year-old Crane, worked as well as pace when James Franklin – who patiently scored 18 amongst the onslaught – was pinned lbw.James Harris and Ollie Rayner added some semblance of respectability to the innings with a 55-run stand for the eighth wicket. The pair took the score to 100 before Harris swiped to Will Smith close in on the off side for 32 to give Crane his second. And he bagged a third two overs later as Rayner’s resolve ended on 24 when was lbw sweeping.Last-wicket duo Toby Roland-Jones and Junaid Khan had some fun slogging three quick boundaries but Crane ended with a four-for as the Pakistan international picked out Smith – Middlesex reaching a well below-par 117.Adams and Carberry got stuck into the chase with vigour, the openers making the pitch look less of a minefield with some crisp boundaries. Carberry in particular played the short ball with his trademark power – middling a pull to launch a six over square leg before a sumptuous cut for four.Carberry reached a carefree fifty from 42 balls, including eight fours, brought up with a single down the ground. Adams also scored a half-century – his first since making 61 against Middlesex in the Championship in May – to boost his confidence as Hampshire successfully chased down their target with over 27 overs to spare.

Liton Das’ 73-ball 85 led a strong batting performance by Abahani Limited, who brushed aside Prime Bank Cricket Club by 60 runs in the 2017 DPL’s first Super League game – a rain-affected affair at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.Das’ effort was complemented well by Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Mohammad Mithun, the Abahani captain, who both struck quick half-centuries of their own to lift Abahani to 321 for 6 in an innings curtailed to 47 overs. In reply, Prime Bank were snuffed out in 43.3 overs for 273.Das laid out a solid platform for Abahani with a century stand for the second wicket in the company of Saif Hassan who struck a more sedate 46. After Das fell, having struck eight fours and four sixes, Shanto and Mithun added 107 more for the fourth wicket. Atif Hossain and Manan Sharma then raced away to unbeaten cameos to shore up Abahani.Prime Bank’s innings was strewn with batsmen perishing after getting off to starts. Five of their top six made a score in excess of 20, but Zakir Hasan’s 55 was the highest score. Prime Bank captain Asif Ahmed mounted a late fightback, but ran out of partners. He struck 32 of the 44 runs his team scored after his arrival at 229 for 7, before becoming the last man to be dismissed. Manan led Abahani’s bowling efforts with 3 for 54, while Afif, Shuvagata Hom and Mohammad Saifuddin took two each.A 641-run slugfest at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium ended with Mohammedan Sporting Club prevailing by seven runs, consigning Gazi Group Cricketers to their third consecutive defeat.Mohammedan ran up 324 for 8 after half-centuries from Rony Talukdar (92) and Shamsur Rahman (74) at the top. Chasing a stiff target, Gazi Group were off to a flying a start, but ended up on 317 for 8.Anamul Haque and Munim Shahriar kicked off the chase with a 61-run opening stand in 6.4 overs. Kamrul Islam Rabbi struck in the seventh over to end Anamul’s burst on 36 off 22 balls. He had struck three fours and two sixes. Mominul Haque fell soon after, but Shahriar repaired the damage with identical stands of 64 for the third and fourth wickets, with Jahurul Islam and Parvez Rasool respectively.Shahriar fell for 88 in the 39th over, after which Suhrawadi Shuvo kept Gazi afloat with a 51-run seventh-wicket stand with Mahedi Hasan. Though Shuvo and Mahedi struck a combined 84 runs, they only managed three fours between them, and the lack of boundaries hurt Gazi in the end. Kamrul, Bipul Sharma and Sajedul Islam took two wickets each.When Mohammedan batted, they were lifted by a 148-run second-wicket stand between Shamsur and Talukdar. The stand ended with Shamsur’s dismissal for 74 that had one four and five sixes. Talukdar fell in the 35th over, after the score had crossed 200. Thereafter, Bipul (28 off 31) and Nazmul Hossain Milon (47 off 33) made handy contributions to propel them to a big total. Mahedi (1 for 49) and Rasool (1 for 51) impressed in their respective quotas.In another curtailed game, at the BKSP-3 Ground in Savar, Imtiaz Hossain’s career-best 128 vaulted Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club to a 40-run win over Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club.Imtiaz, who struck 17 fours and four sixes, made nearly half his team’s runs as Prime Doleshwar put up 274 for 7 in an innings shortened to 46 overs. In reply, Dhanmondi Club were bowled out for 251 after their batsmen failed to convert their starts.Imtiaz’s second-wicket stand of 176 with Shahriar Nafees (67) formed the bulwark of Prime Doleshwar’s total. Sharifullah later made a valuable late contribution through a 27-ball 35.Three of Dhanmondi Club’s batsmen made 40s, including Tanbir Hayder, who top-scored with 46, while Ziaur Rahman made 37. But none hung on to make a big score.Five of the six bowlers used by Prime Doleshwar were among the wickets. Chathuranga de Silva and Arafat Sunny were the most impressive of the lot with figures of 2 for 38 and 2 for 41 in their respective nine overs.

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.”

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.