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Jason Gillespie has lashed out at the South Australian Cricket Association for speaking to the media about in-house problems with the team. The on Thursday reported that the Redbacks’ performance – they are last on both the Pura Cup and Ford Ranger Cup tables – had prompted the SACA to have stern words with the captain Darren Lehmann and the coach Wayne Phillips.The paper said the SACA chief executive Mike Deare and the high-performance director Rod Marsh were concerned with off-field behaviour, lack of team leadership, technical flaws in top-order batsmen, potential salary cap constraints and Mark Cosgrove’s ongoing weight problems.But Gillespie, who spearheaded the team’s return to form with five wickets against Queensland today, said airing their dirty laundry in public was no way to handle the situation. “As a playing group, reading the things said in the press from people within the organisation, it’s disappointing because you want support from your employers,” Gillespie told .”You don’t want people coming out and caning you, having a go at you. We’re all moving in the one direction and I’d like to think they’re supporting us. To come out publicly and have a go at us I think is the wrong way to go about it.”Maybe their idea is let’s put a rocket up them, but it doesn’t work that way. If you’ve got an issue, come and talk to us privately, don’t bring it out in the media, come out and give us support, say ‘we’re behind you 100 per cent guys’. Yesterday’s press didn’t show that.”We can’t win now because they’ll say that’s exactly what we want them to do, put a rocket up the guys and see if you perform, but guaranteed we weren’t doing it for them, we want to do it for ourselves, our support staff and supporters.”

Greg ChappellOn experimenting with new players and the squad for the game
We intend to play all the players over the next three games. We haven’t taken a final decision on the squad yet and haven’t even decided on the 13. We will take a call depending on the conditions tomorrow. We need to give everyone a chance. You need more than 11 or 12 players in your side. It’s also good to keep freshness going and managing your assets well. It keeps everyone going and guards against injury and bad form.On the dew factor tomorrow
Yes, it’s a factor to consider and we will think about it. But I think we’ve done well either way. It should not be too much of a concern.On Harbhajan Singh’s improvement in this series
He has worked very hard. He did well in the Challenger Trophy in Mohali. He’s made technical changes with his flight and bounce and he’s such a good bowler when he’s getting bounce.On Yuvraj Singh’s poor run in the last four games
He’s done well in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and saves us a lot of runs on the field. You need everyone to contribute in at least two out of the three aspects of the game and I think we’ve got quite a few allrounders in the side – Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj, Sachin Tendulkar. It would be great for him if he scores runs, but he’s contributing well to the side.On Mahendra Singh Dhoni
He’s a confident individual without any cockiness. He has a good mind as he showed with a power innings one day and a finesse innings on another day. His great form with the bat is rubbing off on his wicketkeeping as well. It’s also rubbing off on the others in the side.On the players talking much more about cricket in the dressing-room
It’s good for all the players. I think we’re talking much more about cricket, discussing scenarios, debriefing after the matches. It’s important to know what different players think of each other’s games. It’s been great with the seniors getting involved. Sometimes, only when someone asks you a question do you become aware that you know something. The best way to learn is to teach someone.Tom MoodyOn the pitch and conditions for tomorrow’s game
It’s another good cricket wicket. Obviously, being a day-night fixture, we’re going to be faced with difference in conditions from afternoon to evening. But both teams have to face it and we need to rise for the challenge.On nothing working for the team during the series
I don’t think it’s quite that blunt. I think India came out in the earlier part of the series punching and their chances came off. They shuffled their batting order and that came off. We performed a lot better in the last two games but have fallen short in a couple of areas.On the lessons from this series
We need to be realistic. We didn’t perform upto our usual level. Playing here is different and playing in Sri Lanka is different. We’re enjoying the challenge. What we have to realise is that one-day cricket is played all over the world in different conditions and we need to adapt to it.Mahela Jayawardene
On the team’s performance
In the last two games, I thought the guys performed really well. We almost won the last game before Raina and Dhoni took it away. We’re lacking that final blow, the killer instinct. But as a team everything is coming together and we hope to win in the last three games.On what Sri Lanka learnt in the last four games
There are a lot of positives to be taken from this series. We came back even after the Indians attacked. We will look at this as a three-match series from now on and push ourselves to the limit. That will help us get some momentum for the Tests.

Muttiah Muralitharan will miss the first leg of Sri Lanka’s tour of New Zealand after the selectors decided that he needed to prove his fitness first. Marvan Atapattu had urged the selectors to let Muralitharan accompany the team right from the start, but they have chosen instead to ask him to step up his rehabilitation at home.The selectors are also keen for him to bowl in a domestic match, and he will try to play in a board-organised internal practice game on Dec 27 to prove his fitness. This means that he will not be able to be monitored closely by CJ Clarke, the team physiotherapist, although he will have access to Sri Lanka Cricket masseurs. It will also reduce the risk of him being rushed back too early, as has happened in the past, particularly during the last tour of England in 2002.Nevertheless, Murali remains confident that his right shoulder will have recovered sufficiently for him to participate in the Test series, which starts at Hamilton on January 15. At the moment, he is working furiously hard in the team gymnasium at Sri Lanka Cricket’s headquarters, and is regularly treating the shoulder with ice-packs.He has also resumed bowling in the nets after Dr David Young, his Melbourne-based surgeon, pronounced himself satisfied with the speed of his recovery. Muralitharan currently bowls 24 balls every other day, and that workload will be gradually increased during the course of the month.The shoulder is still painful, but that was always expected to be the case until it had healed completely.

Hampshire’s bid to find an immediate replacement for Wasim Akram suffered a setback yesterday after they failed to sign Heath Streak as their second overseas player.Streak played for Hampshire in 1995 and scored 378 runs at an average of 15 and took 53 wickets at just under 31, but made a good impression with his positive attitude.Tim Tremlett, Hampshire’s director of cricket, said: “We have just talked to Heath but he can’t help. He has just completed a hard tour and has holiday plans before taking on Australia.”Streak’s refusal follows a succession of unlucky breaks concerning Hampshire and overseas players. Before Wasim’s departure, Shoaib Akhtar – now playing for Durham – turned them down for international commitments, and Shane Warne was unable to fulfil his captaincy role due to a one-year ban.And just to make matters worse, they have got problems with their English players. Ed Giddins, out of form and favour, has only played only three Championship matches and will today have talks with county officials to discuss his future. Add to that an injury list including Alan Mullally, Robin Smith, Shuan Udal and Alex Morris and all’s not rosy in Hampshire’s garden.

Sussex CCC are pleased to announce that Murray Goodwin has agreed a newtwo-year contract which will keep him at the Club until the end of the 2003season.This obviously means that Michael Bevan will not be coming back next year and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all he has done for the Club both on and off the field.

Scorecard

Afghanistan and Oman tied the final of the ACC Twenty20 Cup in Kuwait.Afghanistan scored 151 for 3 off their 20 overs, and when Oman slumped to 0 for 2 in the first over, their chances seemed slim. But a hundred stand between Nilesh Parmar (66) and Adnan Ilyas (52) took them to the brink of victory and five were needed at the start of the last over.In a dramatic finale, two were needed off the last ball. The batsman swung and missed and as Afghanistan celebrated, believing in error that the wicketkeeper had stumped him, the Omani batsmen scrambled a single to tie the game.The competition rules dictated there should have been a bowl-out but the officials decided that the pitch had been damaged by spectators charging onto it at the conclusion of the match.”I don’t know whether to be happy or sad,” Afghanistan’s coach Taj Malik said. “We could have won, we could have lost. We should have won.”In the third-place play-off, Kuwait beat UAE by three runs.

Bet you didn’t pick the seat
Seven months is a long time out of the game for Trevor Hohns, the former chairman of selectors. Hohns retired from his long-term post in April and has dropped dramatically on the ticket-priority list. Instead of dressing room and all-stadium access, Hohns was a row from the top of the Northern Stand, which almost requires complimentary oxygen masks.Keeping abreast of research
Only the brave or stupid have ever referred to Matthew Hayden as a boob. But by using a pink grip on his bat in the series he’s bringing attention to breast cancer research. Gray-Nicolls, Hayden’s bat sponsor, will donate $20 to the fund for every run he scores over the five Tests. Today he raised $420 before lunch with his 21.Eyes on the skies
War metaphors have been a constant part of the lead-up, so it was fitting that there was a military opening to the series. Two Blackhawk helicopters swooped over the Gabba to signal the engagement was about to begin and a couple of army officers raised the flags during the national anthems. Up in the Nine commentary box they were unveiling infra-red camera technology that is normally issued to track jet-fighters. But the “Hot Spot” isn’t there to alert the masses to any prospective terror threats. It is being shown off in another technological attempt to provide definitive answers on contentious edges.The last post
The Barmy Army trumpeter has been silenced by the Gabba’s anti-instrument policy. Despite entertaining crowds at grounds throughout the world, Bill Cooper was evicted along with the drunk, disorderly and badly behaved. “He tried to bring his trumpet in and was told to stop,” a police spokesman said. “However, the trumpet got in somehow and he was asked to leave.” Queensland Cricket has no plans to relax its regulations. Bring back the music!

Australia have summoned an American baseball coach to help rid them of the fielding fumbles and missed catches which blighted their tour of England this summer. Mike Young, a senior American baseball coach who once attended spring training with the San Francisco Giants, has worked with Australia’s one-day team for five years, but this appointment is on a more full-time basis.He conducted fielding drills during a training session on Monday, ahead of the first of three one-dayers against the World XI on Wednesday. As well as coaching Australia’s fielders, Young spent four weeks with the England team in 2004, before their tour to South Africa. Young told AFP he was excited to be given the opportunity of working full-time with Australia:”I’ve made no bones about wanting to work more on a full-time basis with cricket. I gave up my baseball career to do this because I believe in it.”Australia’s fielding during their Ashes campaign in the summer surprised many. They had, until recently, been faultless in the field, and Young doesn’t see his coaching role restricted to just the national team:”I want to do it with coaches around the country, too, not just with the Australian team. If they speak to me and say ‘are you interested?’ Absolutely, I’m interested. For the last three years, I’ve said I want to do this full-time – it’s my goal, my passion and I want to finish my career with it.”These are the best players in the world and I enjoy working with these athletes. It’s just a matter of working at them on a day-in, day-out basis. There is no doubt in my mind, these guys are the best athletes in the world that I’ve seen as far as cricketers, it’s just a matter of repetition and getting back and doing some of the things that we’ve worked on for three years.”

Mark Richardson’s decision to retire from all forms of cricket after one more first-class game for Auckland is a direct result of the nature of the itineraries around the world. Richardson’s style of batting meant that he was branded a Test specialist, and with tours increasingly consisting of more one-day internationals and fewer first-class games, he got fewer opportunities – and it finally took its toll on the mental side of his game. Richardson admitted that the constant demand to turn up for international matches with very little matchplay contributed to 99% of the burnout factor that forced him to retire.Richardson has been an inspiration to less-fashionable cricketers in New Zealand. Driven by the desire to represent his country from the age of ten, he started off as a left-arm spinner, then completely redefined his game and developed his batting after suffering from a case of the bowling yips. His was a classic example of what could be achieved by sheer determination and hard work.A player with immense powers of concentration, he was undisturbed by the pace of events around him. However, he revealed that he started contemplating retirement as long ago as last season, during the home series against South Africa. He was taking a long time to recover from his disappointments, and not getting so much joy from his successes. One of his best Tests was against England at Lord’s earlier this year, when he scored 93 and 101. However, after that game he felt he had left some desire out in the middle. After the series in England, he was further convinced that his time in cricket was limited: “When I came back from England I was absolutely exhausted and although I trained and worked hard, when it came to leave for the next series I just didn’t feel I wanted to be playing cricket.”A player who enjoyed a laugh, something that not many of today’s cricketers can claim, he also spoke his mind, and it was no surprise that having made the decision to retire he did it so promptly, without looking back. There is time for one more game, a match against Canterbury at Hagley Oval which will allow him the chance to score the 41 runs he needs to pass the 10,000-run mark.”I do not want people to think I’m quitting in the face of adversity. If this was the case I would have walked away a long time ago. I’m leaving in advance of the home series [against Sri Lanka] because I feel it would be doing my team-mates, the country and the Black Cap a disservice to carry on half-heartedly. I believe it is best for all parties that I retire now and give someone else the opportunity to bring some new talent and positive energy into the team.”I believe I am not leaving the game on a downer. I am leaving having achieved enough goals to be personally proud. I have a Test bowling average that is better than Sir Richard Hadlee’s, and a 50-50 record in the end-of-series running race.”Richardson said he had never been able to switch off from cricket and that was probably why his international career was shorter than it could have been. He thought it was a fault of his character that he tended to get too down after his failures and too up after his successes.He ends his career having played 38 successive Tests and scored 2776 runs at 44.77, including four centuries and 19 half-centuries. Richardson rated the Australian Test attack New Zealand had just faced as the most ruthless he had ever faced, and certainly a tougher opposition than New Zealand had experienced in the summer of 2001-02.His challenge to opposing sides for their slowest man to race him at the end of a Test series has become synonymous with Richardson’s approach to cricket. He retired with a 50-50 record in the races, his most recent success having been at Darren Lehmann’s expense.New Zealand have had problems with their top-order batting, and now have to find a replacement for Richardson as well. As a player who captured the attention of the nation for his distinctive approach from the game, he will be missed on the field, but there is every chance that his desire to get involved in sports journalism will see him still attached to the game.