ScorecardNottinghamshire swept to a comprehensive 24-run win over Middlesex at Lord’s despite a fine 56 from Eoin Morgan, to leave the home side in danger of relegation. Nottinghamshire’s 228 for 7 was led by Will Smith whose 53 contained six fours. David Hussey played with characteristic bullishness, smashing 44 from 36 balls. Middlesex started well with Paul Weekes and Ed Smith putting on 49 for the first wicket but they collapsed to 98 for 5. Morgan and Ben Smith, the wicketkeeper, kept Middlesex in the hunt. Morgan crunched six fours and cleared the boundary twice in his fifty before needlessly running himself out. Despite an enterprising 29 from Johann Louw, the tail folded in predictable fashion and they were bowled out in the final over for 204.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) plans to send Shabbir Ahmed, the fast bowler who is undergoing a one-year ban for a suspect bowling action, to Australia for lab tests on his bowling action before the ICC reviews his ban again.”Shabbir is at present playing league cricket in England and we are in touch with him. We have already worked on his action which has shown improvement,” Saleem Altaf, PCB’s director of cricket operations, told Reuters.”We are hopeful that by the time the ICC reviews his ban that his stint in Australia under bio-mechanic experts would strengthen his case for a return to international cricket.”The board had appealed to the ICC this January to review Shabbir’s case, but the ban was upheld by an independent bowling review group in Dubai. The group’s decision meant that Shabbir became the first bowler in international cricket to be banned for a period of 12 months on account of a dodgy action.The PCB must appeal to the ICC once the term of the ban is over. As per the ICC’s directives the bowler must submit evidence from experts that his bowling action has been corrected, only then would the ICC inform umpires that the ban had been lifted.Altaf also revealed that the ICC had rejected Pakistan’s proposal to organise six-day Tests for the home series against West Indies in November and December this year. “We had made a suggestion to have six-day Tests to save lost playing hours due to weather conditions in winter. But it didn’t come through,” he said.But he was hopeful that not too much time would be lost during the Tests. “They are being held in November and we also have the option of extending play under lights,” he added.West Indies will play three Tests in Pakistan beginning November 7 – one each at Lahore, Multan and Karachi.

After a few months of relative calm, infighting inside Zimbabwe Cricket appears to have broken out again with news that Crispen Tsvarai has quit the interim executive and also stepped down as chairman of Bulawayo Metropolotan Cricket Association.Tsvarai’s decision is reported to have come after what sources inside ZC described as “a serious fallout” with Peter Chingoka, the board’s chairman, and Ozias Bvute, the managing director, at a meeting last week.It was also reported that Bruce Makovah, the chief selector, has stepped down from his post although the reasons are not clear. He is not believed to have travelled with the side to India for the Champions Trophy, leaving Kevin Curran, the coach, in sole charge of picking the team.

Two key South Australia players, the wicketkeeper-batsman Graham Manou and the opener Matthew Elliott, have come in to the Pura Cup squad for the match against Victoria at Adelaide on Friday. Manou, the vice-captain, played in the Redbacks’ opening Ford Ranger Cup game but sat out the first four-day fixture to allow him extra time to recover from a stress fracture in his right foot.Elliott also appeared in last week’s limited-overs victory against New South Wales, when his 111 helped the Redbacks in their chase, but he missed the Pura Cup draw with the Blues with a rib injury. The opening batsman Nathan Adcock has made way for Elliott, while the left-arm fast-medium bowler Gary Putland has also been omitted.Shaun Tait, who claimed five wickets at the SCG, believes he can turn things up a notch against the Bushrangers. “I reckon I was bowling a lot of balls in the 150kph against New South Wales,” Tait told the . “I believe I have a fair bit left in the tank. I think I will get around the 150s against Victoria this weekend and hopefully around 160 this year.” The points from the match will count towards the David Hookes Memorial Trophy, which South Australia won last year.Pura Cup squad Matthew Elliott, Daniel Harris, Cameron Borgas, Mark Cosgrove, Callum Ferguson, Darren Lehmann (capt), Shane Deitz, Graham Manou (wk), Cullen Bailey, Jason Gillespie, Paul Rofe, Shaun Tait.

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!

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.”

Dean Jones has warned the Australia team not to concern themselves with the state of the country’s Test pitches. The chorus of cricketers complaining about the uniformity of playing surfaces has continued to gain momentum, with Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and a variety of commentators all lamenting the trend.But Jones said there was little difference in the strips used for this year’s Ashes series compared to past decades and Australia’s bowlers could talk themselves into failure with negative attitudes. “I don’t think they have changed much,” Jones told the . “They are not flatter than they used to be.”The great bowlers still got wickets on them. Great players adapt. They may back off in pace like Dennis Lillee did at the end of his career. Malcolm Marshall was the same. People have to realise when it is in your favour you go hammer and tongs, and when it is flat you make sure if you can’t get a wicket you don’t give them runs. Lillee and Marshall would bowl wide of the crease. They worked on the ball and bowled cutters. They bowled slower balls. They parked their egos at the gate.”They said they didn’t care whether they were the fastest bowlers in the world. They just worked out the best way they could take four or five wickets. If you go into it with a negative thought that it is going to be flat, it will be flat. It is like a batsman thinking, ‘I bet I get the best ball of the day’, and getting out for 20.”Michael Kasprowicz is the latest fast bowler to air his concerns about pitches. “If you go and drop in a generic wicket into every ground, you are going to produce a generic cricketer who can play only on that surface,” Kasprowicz said. “That’s been the beauty and the strength of cricket in Australia, the different conditions. Travelling the world, even in the UK, all of their grounds have subtle differences. There’s an attraction to test yourself in the best conditions. If it becomes too sterile and too much of the same, then I don’t think it’s going to work.”The MCG curator Tony Ware said there was no conspiracy to standardise playing surfaces. “There’s a concern that they’re losing their character but it’s nothing deliberate,” Ware told . “I think it’s happened because this year to date has been a little bit drier, so they will play a bit the same.”

Bermuda lost a practice match against a local club W Connection Wanderers by 47 runs at Port of Spain on Tuesday. Set at target of 244, they were dismissed for 196 at the Gilbert Park Ground. Bermuda, who are pitted against Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh in the group stage of the World Cup, are on a warm-up tour of the Caribbean.After winning the toss, Wanderers reached 243 for 9 off 50 overs. Jason Samuel top-scored with 68 while Clifton Hall and Kenroy Williams, the Barbados youth captain, chipped in with 43 and 41. Dwayne Leverock was Bermuda’s best bowler with 3 for 46.Clay Smith, Bermuda’s opening batsman, led the chase with 37 and he received support from David Hemp, who made 35. But after they were dismissed the innings fell apart with several batsmen failing to convert their starts. Janeiro Tucker scored 28 and OJ Pitcher and Lionel Cann contributed 30 each but Bermuda’s last three batsmen were dismissed for ducks.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has denied rumours that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have tested positive yet again in a dope test conducted secretly by the board ahead of the World Cup in the Caribbean beginning in March.”These reports are incorrect and rubbish. We have not conducted any secret tests on the players. We have already announced that we are conducting a screening for all the players announced for the World Cup, plus five reserves on the 16th of February when the team returns from South Africa,” Salim Altaf, the PCB’s director of cricket, told Cricinfo.Both Shoaib and Asif had tested positive for nandrolone after dope tests conducted internally by the PCB at the end of last September. They were pulled out of Pakistan’s squad for the Champions Trophy on October 16, the day before their opening game. A three-man tribunal appointed by the PCB then found them guilty and Shoaib was banned from cricket for two years and Asif for one.They were, however, acquitted by another tribunal which reviewed their appeals. The tribunal ruled that both players were able to prove ‘exceptional circumstances’, in that neither was fully aware of the substances they were taking. The World Anti-Doping Body has challenged the appeals committee’s decision to let off the players and the case is now at the Court of Arbitration for Sports.On Tuesday afternoon the PCB, after prolonged deliberations, had announced the 15-man squad for the World Cup and both Shoaib and Asif were included.

Scorecard

Queensland were fighting hard to avoid the follow-on at the SCG after Simon Katich continued New South Wales’ heavy run-scoring with an unbeaten 205. Led by Ryan Broad’s 73 not out, the Bulls were 2 for 168 at stumps and needed another 295 to make the home side bat again.Katich’s performance was his best for the state and he was boosted by a late flurry from Daniel Smith, who pounded three sixes in a 33-ball 51 that created further damage to a sorry bowling attack. Katich resumed on 102 with Dominic Thornely, who edged Grant Sullivan on 119, and he controlled the innings before closing it at an intimidating 4 for 613.His partnership of 106 with the debutant Peter Forrest (40) was quickly overshadowed by the 90-run stand with Smith. Katich, the captain, finished with 24 fours and two sixes from his 290 deliveries and gave his team a strong chance of staying in touch with Tasmania, the competition leaders. Matthew Nicholson struck twice with the wickets of Jimmy Maher (3) and Greg Moller (44), but Broad and Clinton Perren ensured there were no further mishaps before stumps.