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Cricket Kenya has denied that agreement has been reached with the Zimbabwe board to play four ODIs in Nairobi in October.Agencies yesterday reported that the series had been announced by the Kenyan board, but a spokesman told Cricinfo that while it was hoped to host Zimbabwe later this year, there had been no response from Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) to proposals.Two options were put forward. One, which is believed to be backed by the ICC which wants to see Zimbabwe play more cricket against the leading Associates, would be for them to visit Kenya in October while Ireland are also there and for the three sides to play in a triangular series. The other proposal would be for Zimbabwe to play a bilateral series in December.The last series between the two countries was almost two-and-a-half years ago when they drew 2-2 in Zimbabwe. Kenya has been trying to get a return series arranged ever since but the Zimbabwe board has failed to agree to tour.A Cricket Kenya source admitted even if ZC agreed to visit, there was no guarantee that the Kenyan government, which has been vociferously critical of the excesses of the Mugabe regime following March’s presidential elections, would allow the team to enter the country. The the recent summit of African leaders, Kenya’s prime minister Raila Odinga called for Mugabe to be suspended from the African Union until he allows free and fair elections.During a recent World Cup-African Nations Cup football qualifier in Nairobi, Kenyan fans taunted Zimbabwean players by shouting “Mugabe must go, Mugabe must go” as they entered the Nairobi’s Nyayo National stadium.

Steve Harmison’s spirits have lifted considerably after a vastly improved performance against Western Australia on day one of the Perth warm-up. His tour had got off to a wretched start in the opening game at Lilac Hill last week.”It wasn’t brilliant today, but it was a lot better than at Lilac Hill andthere’s been a little bit of an improvement since then,” he said. “I was possibly trying too hard during that first match, but it was a one-day game andI’ve never really played much one-day cricket.”My confidence was dented a touch and I struggled early on, but I started to get some rhythm today and it felt a lot better. I’m gradually getting my confidence to where I want it to be and I want to get better and better.”Hopefully I can get some more overs under my belt in the next couple of weeks and get my rhythm fully back from that.”

The baby boom at the County Ground goes on, with the announcement that Peter Bowler and his wife Joanne are celebrating the birth of their third child, Matthew William who commenced his innings yesterday.Matthew will be a new brother for Robert who is nine and Rebekah who is seven.Both mother and baby are doing so congratulations to Peter and Joanne on producing another potential opening batsman for the county. Well done!Following hot on the heels of Keith and Sharon Parsons baby son last month, Matthew’s birth brings the number of recent or expected arrivals amongst the playing staff to fourteen.There are now seven new arrivals, two babies expected in the next few months and five toddlers.Is this a new Somerset County Cricket Club record?

The BCCI has rejected an offer from the ECB to join England’s version of the Champions League to be held in Sharjah this October, Cricinfo has learnt.It’s understood that David Collier, the chief executive of the ECB, invited the Indian board to join the ECB’s tournament. However, the BCCI replied on Monday saying that, though it “wished the ECB all the best” with its tournament, “unfortunately, we cannot accept” the invitation.An ECB spokesperson contacted by Cricinfo said he was not aware of the development.The BCCI’s reply, sent on its behalf by Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, suggests its position is final. It wants “to avoid playing ping-pong over email” on this issue, reliable sources told Cricinfo. Modi is also understood to have “clearly informed” the eight IPL franchises that they can participate only in tournaments run and approved by the BCCI.It would have been “very unusual” for the BCCI to accept the ECB’s proposal to join another Champions League, the sources said, considering the Indian board had already announced the dates and venues of its own tournament. Significantly, the ECB’s offer says the tournament will be held in Sharjah, which was blacklisted by the Indian government following the allegations of match-fixing. “No Indian team will be going there, at least not with the BCCI’s permission”, the sources said.As far as the BCCI is concerned, it will now focus on its Champions League along with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, who are said to be on board. “Already, more teams are lined up for next year, including West Indies, which has confirmed its participation,” the sources said.On Sunday, Collier was quoted by BBC as saying, “I would be bitterly disappointed if all four nations aren’t represented by their two top teams. We will be discussing with our counterparts in Australia, South Africa and India to try to iron out the last few items within the rules and regulations.”The BCCI-backed Champions League will be played this year in India from September 29 to October 8 at three venues – Jaipur, New Delhi and Mohali. The final details of tournament will be finalised in Mumbai on Wednesday at a meeting to be attended by officials from the BCCI, Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA).Modi had told Cricinfo on Sunday that the ECB would not be represented at the meeting and the tournament was also unlikely to include England, which “has been unreasonable” in continuing to object to various rules and regulations.The BCCI’s Champions League originally planned to include the top two Twenty20 domestic teams from India, Australia, South Africa and England. With the ECB’s participation in doubt, Modi said a team from Pakistan was confirmed while the last slot may be filled by a team from New Zealand or even Sri Lanka.

B.A.T.Sports Cricket Club have installed a new club secretary since the beginning of the season.South coast newcomer Stephen Jones, who advertised his services as scorer and statistician on the Southern Premier League web-site during the winter after moving from Norwich, has taken over from Stephen Buss with immediate effect.He can be contacted at:
Stephen G. Jones,
18 Collett Close,
Hedge End,
Southampton,
Hampshire, SO30 2RR.Contacts: 01489 789581 (home),
07815 458949 (mobile),
e-mail: [email protected]

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England and Wales Cricket Board(ECB) have reached agreement for the staging of One-Day Internationals andTest Matches at Trent Bridge from 2003 to 2011.In 2003, Trent Bridge will host the opening match of the NatWest Seriesbetween England and Zimbabwe on Thursday 26 June. This will be followed later in the summer when England return for the third npower Test Match versus South Africa from 14-18 August.In 2002, Trent Bridge had capacity crowds for the NatWest Series match between England and Sri Lanka, and for three days of the second npower Test Match versus India. This clearly demonstrates the demand for cricket in the East Midlands.Nottinghamshire CCC Chief Executive David Collier commented:”Since 1998, Nottinghamshire CCC has invested more than £10m in developingTrent Bridge. This long term Staging Agreement provides the security ofregular international cricket at Trent Bridge which is required to fund theexisting and possible new developments at the ground. We are delightedTrent Bridge is the first Test Match Ground to sign a long term agreementwith the ECB and that cricket fans in the East Midlands can look forward toannual international cricket through to 2011.”Following today’s announcement Nottinghamshire CCC will be selling ticketsto its members from 23 September, and to the general public from 7 Octoberfor next year’s international matches at Trent Bridge.ECB Chief Executive Tim Lamb said, “I’m very pleased that the ECB hasreached agreement with Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club about the stagingof future international matches at Trent Bridge. This longer term agreementwill give Notts the certainty of international cricket until 2011 and enablethe club to continue developing the already-impressive facilities at theground.”For further information contact:
John Read, ECB Director of Corporate Affairs on 07774 476 391
David Collier, Notts CCC Chief Executive on 07768 558 130

India A were battling to save their second four-dayer against South Africa A at the end of the third day’s play at Bloemfontein. They will begin the final day 91 runs in the arrears with seven second innings wickets in hand.South Africa A, who began the day on 313 for four, were well-served by overnight not out batsmen Hashim Amla and Robin Peterson. The duo added a further 80 runs before Amla fell to left-arm spinner Murali Kartik. The 19-year-old KwaZulu-Natal batsman, who has had an impressive season, made a sedate 82 off 191 balls with seven fours.Peterson, however, ploughed on to raise his maiden first-class hundred. The southpaw, who hit as many as 16 boundaries in a 251-minute stay, made 108 before becoming Kartik’s second victim of the day.The Indian left-arm spinner, who had earlier top-scored in the Indian first-innings, bowled a teasing line and length to snare two more wickets before the end of the hosts’ innings. Medium-pacer Debasis Mohanty was the other successful bowler on the day for India, claiming the last two South Africa A wickets.The hosts, then, made 469 in their first innings, gaining a healthy lead of 178. For India, Kartik claimed six wickets for 101 runs while Mohanty, for his part, claimed three wickets.India A, who were batting to save the match, saw their second innings get off to a terrible start. Gautam Gambhir, the India A opener, who had scored a double-hundred in Zimbabwe’s tour-opener in India, was trapped lbw by Andre Nel for 9 with the score on 18 in the ninth over.Fortunately, the other opener Amit Pagnis, made a handy 27, putting on 47 runs for the second wicket with his vice-captain Mohammad Kaif to save the tourists from falling into dire straits.However, the almost immediate loss of India A captain Jacob Martin, who has been having a dreadful run with the bat, meant that Kaif, batting on 39, and Yuvraj Singh, batting on seven, were saddled with the onerous responsibility of bailing the Indians out when play resumes on Monday.The two men, who have both turned out for India, will know that they have to bat out at least two sessions on the final day to save the match and would be hoping to put their best foot forward as early blows could devastate their team’s chances of saving the match.

It’s one of the more amazing feats in New Zealand’s cricket history, and by the beauty of modern technology it has been enshrined for all time.The feat is the scoring of triple centuries for New Zealand.It has been done only five times, and all five players were from Dunedin, four of them members of the Albion Cricket Club in Dunedin. The fifth was from the neighbouring Carisbrook Cricket Club.In honour of the fact Dunedin computer expert Richard Dingwall produced a computer generated photograph of all five participants.The odd man out, if he could be called that, was Carisbrook player Roger Blunt, the first of the triple century club.He scored his 338 not out for Otago against Canterbury at Lancaster Park on December 26-27 in 1931.Next was the recently deceased champion left-hander Bert Sutcliffe, who scored two triples centuries. The first of 355 was against Auckland at Carisbrook on December 31, 1949 and January 2, 1950. The second, the world record for a left-hander was 385 for Otago against Canterbury at Lancaster Park on December 26 and 27, 1952.Glenn Turner, New Zealand’s leading run scorer achieved his triple, as his 100th century for Worcestershire against Warwickshire at New Road, Worcester on May 29 1982. He finished on 311 not out.Ken Rutherford was playing for New Zealand against D B Close’s XI at Scarborough on the 1986 tour of England when he scored his 317 on September 1.And last year on September 9 and 10, Mark Richardson completed the quintet when scoring 306 for New Zealand against Zimbabwe A at Kwekwe.The five are pictured in front of the Albion Pavilion at Culling Park on April 28, 2001.They are: back, from left, Ken Rutherford and Roger Blunt; front, Mark Richardson, Bert Sutcliffe and Glenn Turner.

Army physical training instructors at Colchester Garrison will today put the Essex County Cricket Club squad through its paces on a training day designed especially for the squad.Head Coach, Former England and Essex Captain Graham Gooch said: “We obviously train continuously throughout the year and we need to make our activities as varied and interesting as possible. We wanted to do something different and exciting to stimulate the players. And they’re really looking forward to spending the day with the Army.”Sports and physical fitness play an important part in Army life and I wanted to see what we as professional sportsmen, can learn from them. The Army has put together a great programme, which gives us a taste of how they do things, but will also help the players in developing the particular skills unique to the cricket pitch.”The 18 squad members will take part in a typical Army physical training lesson, as well as a specially designed cricket-orientated team building session. They will also find out about how the Army helps soldiers who have injured themselves get back to full physical fitness.The cricketers will also try their hand at the Army assault course, competing against soldiers from the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment (3 PARA).Physical and adventurous training instructor Sergeant Major Martin Staines, who will be running the day, said:”We hope that the County Cricket Squad enjoy the day. We’ve had fun putting the programme together and I’m sure the lads will relish the challenge of having professional athletes to race against. It should be competitive and we’ll give it our best shot, as I’m sure the Essex County Cricket Squad will do too. It will be interesting to see what happens.”

At the end of a season of ups and downs, it was a blend of the old and the new which won the honours for Tasmania on the first day of this Pura Cup match againstSouth Australia at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. Continuing a spectacular late season rally, the Tigers were in command from close to the outset of the day’s play,opener Jamie Cox (102) and Shane Watson (87*) sealing that dominance on the way to a score of 4/268 by stumps.Now 31, Cox has been the heart and soul of Tasmania’s batting line-up for years. At 19, former Queenslander Watson – reportedly just days away from signing a newcontract with his adopted state – represents a great hope for its long-term future. The pair played different types of innings but equally effective ones.Against a bowling attack that struggled to vindicate the wisdom of captain Greg Blewett’s decision to invite the Tasmanians to bat first, there were just the four badmoments for the locals today. And two of them came in the one over as Dene Hills (50) unwisely padded up and then Michael DiVenuto (0) played across the line atdeliveries moved back into them by medium pacer Mike Smith (3/62).Save for the efforts of Smith – who upstaged his teammates by revealing that the maintenance of consistent line and length from the attack as a whole might havebrought with it a substantially better outcome – it was a lacklustre display from South Australia. Young paceman Paul Rofe (0/63) also strove valiantly but the task ofdisrupting the Tasmanians’ progress proved more difficult for the likes of Mark Harrity (1/57) and Peter McIntyre (0/41). There was significant assistance in the pitch for the Redbacks for much of the day but they struggled to exploit it.In contrast to Cox, who took as many as ninety-seven minutes and used up as many as eighty deliveries to push his score into double figures, Watson was not socontent to afford the bowlers respect. From early on, he was confident, a trait underlined by assertive footwork and decisive strokeplay. Predictions about anynineteen year old’s future in the game can become odious but it already seems fair to say that this one has the stamp of something special about him.There was glorious cutting, superb straight driving, and skilled placement. He even joined in on the increasingly familiar Tasmanian practice of landing a ball in thescorers’ box by crashing a pull stroke through a window beyond the square leg boundary. At 62 (a score which had already given him his third half century in thespace of four first-class innings) came his only real moment of anxiety as he survived an imploring caught behind appeal from Harrity.Cox was significantly more scratchy. But, in mitigation, he had to endure a particularly difficult period through the early part of the day as the ball swung, seamed andcame through to wicketkeeper Graham Manou at variable heights. He played and missed several times and was given a life with his score at two when he drove aRofe delivery straight into and out of the hands of silly mid off.Hills (on 20) was also offered an early reprieve when second slip fieldsman Shane Deitz grassed a catch at ankle height after a delivery from Harrity had been outside edged. It proved a costly miss, the Tasmanian openers proceeding to add 106 runs for the first wicket before Smith finally struck.Faced with bowling that was often too short or wayward in direction, the Tasmanians started the day by refusing to be drawn into playing at wide deliveries and byshowing themselves to be content merely to defend anything on line. It was only once Watson established himself at the wicket that the rate of scoring took the rightsort of incline to truly please the smattering of spectators.Given that both sides are missing their international players; that others are injured; and that the loser of this match is likely to end with the wooden spoon, theprecursors for excitement were hardly in place as the day’s play began. Even under glorious blue skies, the first two hours did little to shake that belief. But those whostayed away ultimately missed the chance to witness some excellent cricket. They also surrendered the opportunity to feast their eyes on one man who continues to beone of the most skilled modern-day practitioners in Australian domestic cricket and a teenager who is likely to become another of its elite.