Jenny Thompson looks back at the week in county cricket
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Sussex 373 for 9 (Naved-ul-Hasan 69, Hopkinson 62, Wright 59, Goodwin 55 ) v Middlesex
Scorecard

Last summer at Lord’s, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan destroyed Middlesex almost single-handedly, smashing a hundred with the bat and then taking seven wickets.On that occasion, he rescued Sussex from a parlous 199 for 6 to set up a rousing innings victory. He arrived at the crease at Horsham with Sussex again wobbling on 231 for 7 and launched a stinging counter attack which helped propel the Championship leaders to 373 for 9 at the close. His 64 off 51 balls, largely off the innocuous offspin of Jamie Dalrymple, turned a match in which Sussex had largely been the architects of their own problems.On a slow and soft pitch with the ball not really coming on to the bat, Sussex nevertheless struggled against some ordinary seam bowling, and until Naved-ul-Hasan’s arrival the run-rate had hovered under three-an-over all day.Five of the top six got starts. Carl Hopkinson looked assured for his 62 until he cut straight to backward cover shortly after lunch, while Chris Adams’ breezy 31 was ended by a ball from Ben Hutton which kept low. All the time Murray Goodwin was playing a solid anchor innings, but he had just begun to show signs of opening up when he was well caught by a diving Chad Keegan at wide mid-on.

When Robin Martin-Jenkins, whose 37 had included some delightful drives, perished to a juggled return catch by Mohammad Ali, Sussex’s batting, not their strongest feature this season, was again threatening to let them down. But Naved-ul-Hasan and Luke Wright laid into Dalrymple, smashing him for 38 off three overs before Middlesex’s seamers at least stemmed the avalanche of runs, even if they failed to break through. Although Chris Silverwood removed them both shortly before the close, the damage had been done, and with runs hard to come by there is a feeling that Middlesex are already in trouble.At the weekend, John Emburey, Middlesex’s coach, talked of Keegan as being a potential England player. On the evidence today he looked anything but, and this has to be as weak an attack as Middlesex have fielded since the dark days of the 1960s. While Silverwood has some pep, it looks very unlikely that the likes of Johann Louw and Ali will get enough wickets to heave the county off the bottom of the table. It is going to be a long summer for the Londoners.

Kruger van Wyk, the Titans wicketkeeper-batsman, has decided to pursue his career in New Zealand with Canterbury following advice from Dave Nosworthy, his former coach in South Africa, who is now coach of Canterbury.Van Wyk said: “I am most grateful to the Titans for everything that they have done for me during the past 6 seasons. I also appreciate the amicable way in which the Titans released me from my contractual obligations to them and wish them everything of the best in the future.”I am most appreciative to Canterbury for allowing me the opportunity to make this important change in my career and look forward to making a substantial contribution to their cause”.Andy O’Connor, the chairman of the Titans thanked Van Wyk for his loyalty and commitment to the cause of the Titans. “Kruger has been a passionate Titans player for many seasons and we thank him for his selfless attitude. We are obviously sad to see him go, but wish him well in his new endeavours.”Richard Reid, the CEO of the Canterbury Cricket Association added: “It is wonderful to have gained a player with the pedigree of Kruger van Wyk, and now look forward to a long and successful future with him.”van Wyk, 26, has notched up 156 dismissals and has a batting average of 29.18 in 48 first class matches. In one-day cricket he has been more impressive, collecting 71 dismissals and holds a batting average of 38.45. In the 20-over version of the game, van Wyk averages an impressive 45 with the bat at a strike rate of a 132.35.

Dubbing Sourav Ganguly a “baccha” (kid), Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), today said he was committed to helping all players including Ganguly.”He is a . It’s not right to talk about ,” Dalmiya said responding to persistent questions from journalists on whether he would still back Ganguly who had sent an email days before the CAB elections accusing the ruling faction of ‘playing’ with his career.As CAB president, Dalmiya said he was committed to help the players of Bengal. “I’ll definitely help him. [But] why only Sourav? As president and secretary of BCCI I stood by [Virender] Sehwag during the ball tampering controversy. I also supported Sachin [Tendulkar], Harbhajan [Singh] when the going got tough for them. I have always looked after players. It is a religion for me. And, I cannot compromise on this,” he told a media conference in the small hours after defeating Prasun Mukherjee, the Kolkata Police Commissioner .Asked whether he would fight for Ganguly’s return to the Indian team, Dalmiya said “Why not? I’ve always been optimistic about his return. I’ve always said that there is a lot of cricket left in him.”Dalmiya said, however, that if the CAB members wanted, there could be a discussion on Ganguly’s allegation that his [Dalmiya’s] faction had leaked Greg Chappell’s email to the Board last September. Chappell’s email, containing damning observations about Ganguly as a player and captain, had created a huge controversy.

Australia’s bush adventure started as a mission impossible, but after five days of John Buchanan’s squad scrambling around south-east Queensland like young army recruits he felt it was “mission accomplished”. An unnecessary injury was the chief concern so Cricket Australia provided increased insurance for their players, and there was relief from all sides as the group wound down in the luxury of the Hyatt Coolum resort today with satisfied smiles and hard-earned anecdotes.”The experience was sensational,” Ricky Ponting, who will leave the camp for a day due to a death in his family, said. “John has to take a lot of credit for it because he went out on a limb to do it. There was some apprehension from the players at the beginning but once we started getting involved it was great.”On opening night the men slept under the stars in the Beerwah State Forest, north of Brisbane, and the remaining three sleeps were spent snuggled beneath a couple of tarpaulins close to the McPherson Range, south-west of the Queensland capital. Rations were limited to test the players – the first evening’s menu was half a tin of soup and a piece of bread and the final-night offering was a steak and a potato – and there were endurance exercises on flat roads, in the hills of the Lamington National Park and during the middle of some nights.”The purpose was personal development and team development, working together and understanding the other blokes,” Buchanan said. “I think we achieved that.”Each morning a van drove into the fireless campsites playing a western song to wake up the group, and tasks during the adventure included abseiling and rappelling, navigating by the stars and gruelling runs and walks. Old-style army packs were deliberately supplied to add to the discomfort and were filled with a couple of pairs of khaki pants, socks and shirts, a waterproof jacket and a comfortable sleeping bag. The six-man outfits also shared the load of a roll of toilet paper, a shovel and tarpaulins.”Walking away from it, I’ve had a great time and learnt lots of things about myself and a lot about guys in the team in different situations,” Ponting said. “We were taken to the edge a lot of times, and to see how people reacted under pressure and under stress was really good for us.” The camp concludes over the next two days with team meetings, educational lectures on behavioural codes of conduct and drug regulations, media duties and some rest.

Ireland will now play South Africa and not Pakistan as part of their World Cup warm-ups, the ICC has confirmed.An ICC spokeperson said: “This is to rectify an anomaly that was indentified in the original practice match schedule. The changes have been made with the agreement of all the teams involved.”Ireland were due to play Pakistan in Trinidad on Tuesday March 6, and then again in Group D in Kingston on March 17. To resolve the issue, it has been agreed that South Africa will now warm up against Ireland on Monday March 5.Ireland’s other warm-up game is against Canada on Thursday March 8.Anyone who has purchased tickets for the two affected matches will be contacted by the ICC shortly.

“Dem goin’ have tuh make greater use of de technology, y’hear?”He wasn’t seething with rage, but the customs officer at Grantley Adams International Airport (yes, Barbados, not Malaysia, but that’s another story) felt it was necessary to highlight the common train of thought running through the Caribbean cricketing fraternity in the aftermath of yet another contentious Brian Lara dismissal yesterday.It may be stretching it to suggest that Lara was definitely on course to keep West Indies in the hunt for a target of 241 against Australia in the DLF Cup final in Kuala Lumpur, especially as things were already looking pretty grim when he came in at 20 for 3 in the 10th over. Australia were back to full strength and were fully charged up to show they were still very much numero uno after failing to defend a total of 272 six days earlier.But then again, who knows? The West Indies captain had belted 87 off them in that victory last Monday, and his unbeaten 40 coming in at number nine against India two days later was a cameo that touched the levels of the sublime in the way he made such a mockery of all that had preceded him. Ramnaresh Sarwan was obviously in the mood to hang around, and, as we’ve seen many times before, Lara’s mastery at one end tends to inspire the lesser mortals partnering him from 22 yards away.All of that is, of course, speculation. But one thing is an indisputable fact. It takes a tremendous level of self-control to avoid making a very obvious display of disgust at yet another umpiring decision against the one man who has so often made the difference between victory and defeat for a West Indies side struggling desperately for over a decade.There is always a danger of making too much of one incident, for nothing is ever certain in the unpredictable world of sport. Who would have ever thought that Ian Bradshaw, a self-confessed part-time cricketer, would be ranked at number five in the latest list of the world’s best bowlers in the one-day international rankings? However it is surely not being too parochial to attempt to analyse just why Lara seems to be victim of so many dubious or flagrantly poor decisions. Are the umpires out to get him? No, never mind what anyone says.Are the opponents out to get him? Absolutely, and the more high profile the opposition, the more celebrated the bowler, the greater the pressure on the official to raise that index finger. And being human, umpires, despite the very best training and the toughest character, are more likely to waver under a constant bombardment from teams accustomed to dominating the competition.So it is, so it has been and so it always will be until every controversial decision is verified or reversed by technology. Even then, there will be a suspicion of conspiracy by the aggrieved party, however unjustified, especially as the manipulation and interpretation of the technology remains a human task.Check it out yourself. The pages of sporting history are replete with instances where critical decisions went in favour of the team or the individual with the more impressive pedigree. It doesn’t make it right, but it might make it a little more bearable to appreciate that Lara is not alone in paying the price for being the superstar in a struggling side.Nor should his unfortunate demise yesterday divert attention from other issues surrounding a 127-run cut-tail. Like why Wavell Hinds, in such woeful form throughout the tournament, was persisted with for every match? It defied all logic. Now everyone has seen just why there is still a debate over Runako Morton’s role in the team, even if he has fought hard to make the most of almost every opportunity that has come his way in the past 15 months.

While we sympathise with the national hero for being given out caught behind to a delivery he never touched, he should still be asked to explain why he persists with Dwayne Bravo as the “death” bowler, especially when it was killing the team’s chances of keeping totals down to manageable proportions. Add to that the allrounder’s impetuosity at the crease (yesterday’s demise was just the latest example of poor shot selection) and it should be clear that West Indies have more to look at in the aftermath of a heavy defeat than constant replays of an erroneous decision.Even if it all fell apart in the final, this is just the first leg of an Asian campaign that has another 13 weeks to run. By the time the last of five one-dayers against Pakistan is played in Karachi on December 16, the heavy loss at the Kinrara Cricket Academy Oval will seem a distant memory. Not that the lessons of each segment of the tour should be forgotten by the time the players settle into their business class seats for the next leg of the journey. But it serves no useful purpose to hanker over the captain’s latest contentious dismissal.In fact, if all goes according to form, there will be more dubious decisions against him before the squad returns home, giving the customs officer more ammunition to launch at the ICC. Amid the agonising of others, Lara will, quite sensibly, just shrug his shoulders and get on with the game.

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Malinda Warnapura led Sri Lanka A’s resistance on a day on which North Zone struggled to maintain their control over the Duleep Trophy final at the Eden Gardens. North declared as soon as Mahesh Rawat got to his hundred in the morning, and the bowlers grabbed a few early wickets, but Warnapura’s unbeaten 82 ensured the home side worked hard for their wickets before bad light forced an early close with Sri Lanka A 81 runs behind.Warnapura, who hit his second half-century of the match, shared in stands of 68 and 90 for the third and fourth wickets with Thilan Samaraweera and Jehan Mubarak, and was by far the most fluent scorer for the Sri Lankans. Slow of the blocks, he opened up with fours off Rajesh Sharma and Ashish Nehra and retracted after the loss of a partner. Compared to his first-innings 81-ball 65, this was a far more measured effort, but crucial given the lead conceded to North.No other batsman dominated the bowling – though Chamara Silva did begin with boundaries peppered across the field in the final session – but Sri Lanka A did well to keep North Zone in the hunt.Sharma, the offspinner from Punjab, removed Michael Vandort, Samaraweera and Mubarak over the course of his 31 overs on the day, but the rest of the bowling lacked bite. Gagandeep Singh, so effective in the Sri Lankan first innings, finished with none for 35 while Nehra, who went wicketless for 87 in the first innings, was luckless again with none for 89 from 25 overs.

Former England captains reacted with dismay at England’s spectacular defeat to Australia in the second Test at Adelaide on Tuesday. Duncan Fletcher’s team selections came under the microscope, especially his decision to play Ashley Giles ahead of Monty Panesar, who Fletcher hailed as the best finger spinner in the world earlier this year.A downcast Geoff Boycott, commentating for BBC Radio, feared the upbeat Aussies could “bury” England. “I personally don’t think they can pick themselves up,” Boycott said. “Australia are cock-a-hoop, they are in good form and are confident.”The batsmen are making too many mistakes. You can’t keep depending on Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell. Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones are not making enough runs. And I don’t see how England are going to get 20 wickets.”Alec Stewart also said England’s bowling attack was under-performing. “Flintoff and Hoggard have caused Australia problems but Steve Harmison has taken one wicket in two Tests while both Giles and Anderson have struggled,” Stewart said. “And we are not looking like taking 20 wickets. That is my biggest issue. Harmison has improved slightly but he has only taken one wicket in the series.Nasser Hussain said Fletcher’s men now faced the “biggest test” of his reign. “He will come under the immense pressure in the next week or so,” Hussain said, according to London’s newspaper. “His selections have let him down and let England down in Giles and Jones. There have been no runs and no wickets and Giles dropped a crucial catch.Ian Botham insisted Fletcher had to wield the axe ahead of the third Test in Perth, and wondered whether Panesar would finally be deployed. “I am asking questions,” Botham said. “A lot of people are asking questions. Is Monty Panesar here or has he gone home? I am totally confused. I was confused at the start of the series and I am even more confused now.”I am not taking anything away from Australia, they have been magnificent, but we have two players who have hardly played any cricket in a year – Jimmy Anderson and Ashley Giles, two key bowlers.”

Matthew Hayden has bid farewell to his Test opening partner Justin Langer and nowwants to join Adam Gilchrist in the Australian team all the way to this year’s World Cup final.Hayden’s one-day career appeared over when he lost his spot after the 2005 tour of England, but he is now intent on staying put throughout 2007. Shane Watson opened with Gilchrist during last year’s Champions Trophy win in India, but his hamstring injury has given Hayden passage into Tuesday’s Twenty20 clash against England at Sydney and Friday’s opening tri-series clash against England at Melbourne.Hayden wants to take that chance all the way to the World Cup in the Caribbean,having opened with Gilchrist through the 2003 triumph in South Africa. “Safe to say I’m pretty happy,” he told reporters on Saturday. “It’s a great opportunity for me and I just feel really lucky to be a part of the next six months of cricket.”The Hayden-Gilchrist combination averaged 52 throughout the 2003 World Cup, and put on 105 in the win over India in the final. The pair is the third-most prolific opening stand in the shortened game, having put on over 3,800 runs in 80 matches together.”Our partnership has got an opportunity to blossom over the next few months,” Hayden said. “Adam is a big player in tournaments and our partnership was very strong rightthrough the last World Cup. It’s great to get that opportunity again and deep down we’ve got a lot of hunger to play for Australia and play well, and if that takes us to the World Cup – hopefully it will do – it will be a tremendous honour and achievement.”Hayden lost his one-day spot to Simon Katich after the 2005 England tour, who in turnlost it to Watson in India. Hayden’s last one-day internationals were the two matches he played in Malaysia last September.