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The future of Mark Greatbatch as Warwickshire’s coach appears to be in increasing doubt. Not only are the county fighting relegation in the County Championship, but he is also under fire from supporters.At a heated forum last week, Greatbatch, who was appointed at the beginning of last season, faced calls from members for his resignation after two summers where the county has underperformed. His relationship with the media has also been tense, and he was hardly diplomatic when asked for his views on the forum. “I thought there were some good questions and I thought there were some idiots there,” he said.There were murmurings of discontent as early as last season, but with two years of his three-year contract remaining, Greatbatch won the backing of the committee. Things have not improved, however, and they are already relegated from Division One of the Pro40 and a double relegation would almost certainly seal his fate.After the latest Championship defeat – to fellow-strugglers Surrey at the weekend – Greatbatch admitted he was under pressure. “I’ve had a near the end of the season appraisal and I’ll have an end of season appraisal,” he told The Times. “There’s pressure there; time will tell. If you’d spoken to me a month or three weeks ago I would have been quite upset, but now I’m actually calm. Whether that’s a good or bad thing I don’t know.”I’m calm in the sense that what be will be. You can’t plan it.”Speculation as to who might replace him is already doing the round at Edgbaston, with two names emerging as favourites, Ashley Giles, who was forced to retire last month, is one, although he has no coaching credentials; the other is Dermot Reeve, who has been living in New Zealand since revelations about his drug-taking emerged in the national newspapers.Reeve is a more realistic possibility as he led the county to domestic success in the 1990s and also spent time as Somerset’s coach. But his recent misdemeanors might count against him at a county where there have been several instances of players falling foul of drugs.

‘We are more united now and each player knows his responsibility in the team’ – Chaminda Vaas is all praise for Mahela Jayawardene’s captaincy © Getty Images

Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka’s strike bowler, said the difference between the team that lost the one-day and Test series to India last season and the current one was that the present squad was more united under Mahela Jayawardene.”Mahela has shown good leadership qualities. We are more united now and each player knows his responsibility in the team while in the past things were left to the other one [(to complete],” said Vaas. ahead of Sri Lanka’s match against the West Indies.Both Sri Lanka and West Indies have already qualified for the second stage of the ten-team event. The other two teams in the preliminary stage, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, have already been eliminated.Vaas felt the qualifying stage of the tournament had provided good match practice for the teams. “They have been good practice games for the task ahead. The game against the West Indies would be a good match. We have played well [so far].”.

The players’ statement in fullZimbabwe’s professional cricketers have issued a statement which slams the conduct of the board, accusing it of being “at best incompetent, and at worst, a bully”. Coming on the eve of Zimbabwe Cricket’s AGM in Bulawayo tomorrow and the first Test against India on Tuesday, it represents a embarrassing slap in the face for Zimbabwe Cricket. It also rubbishes the official line that there is no disharmony between players and board.While the players made it clear that they were not prepared to go on strike, explaining that doing so would not be in the interests of the game inside Zimbabwe, the tone and length of the statement left no doubt that they have no faith in the senior administrators.At the heart of their anger are the unilaterally-imposed performance-related contracts announced by the board last week and a resulting newspaper article purporting to reveal the seemingly high remuneration packages on offer. The players clearly feel that the article was planted by the board and that the figures were deliberately misleading. Clive Field, the players’ representative said: “ZC appear content to use the media to sensationalize the sensitive issue of remuneration.”They are also livid that despite having several months to negotiate and come up with a mutually-agreed deal, the board has implemented something which was not discussed at very short notice.Only three players – Heath Streak, Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut – were offered long-term deals, while the others were put on performance-related short-term contracts which made no allowance for seniority. The 12-month packages on offer made no allowance for the hyperinflation prevalent inside Zimbabwe, and ZC refused to link the payments to the reserve bank rate.Already upset at the way this was handled, ZC then announced on the eve of an ODI against India that the offer to three players – Stuart Carlisle, Barney Rogers and Neil Ferreira – had been withdrawn and no reasons were given. The players continued with the match but a request for more information remains unanswered.”Our position is that this directly and adversely impacts player confidence,” Field said.”It reveals an administration which is at best incompetent, and at worst, a bully. In the continued absence of sound reasons from ZC, such action amounts to intimidation of the player body.”As things stand, the contracts remain unaccepted by the players, who said they are “playing on trust”. ZC has said that new contracts will be supplied by September 14, but the impression is that the players have little faith that this promise will be answered.The sums on offer also differ wildly from those claimed by ZC – according to Field, match fees are now 25% of what was on offer six months ago in South Africa. Furthermore, Zimbabwe’s draconian tax rates seriously erode the sums, and the lack of international cricket played by Zimbabwe means that the potential amounts quoted are almost certainly not likely to be achieved. ZC, they claimed, had also removed perks such as vehicles, DSTV and BUPA, all of which were in place on the 2004-05 contracts.Damningly, the players concluded by asking whether the administration of ZC had also been cut. “If we as players are being told to tighten our belts, what is ZC itself as an administration doing in the same vein?” Field asked.”What salaries are being paid by ZC to themselves? If it is deemed by ZC to be in the public interest to splash players salaries around the press, then presumably they have no objection announcing their own? We look forward to receiving details.”We are concerned that ZC should be held accountable for a set of performance criteria which measure its revenues and management of its finances in a transparent and responsible manner for the betterment of the game.”

A new start: Sean Ervine chats with his partner Melissa Marsh in Perth © AFP

On the day that Australia begins one of the least appetising Test tours everundertaken, Sean Ervine begins the rest of his cricketing life. Ervine, aflamboyant 21-year-old who in an apolitical world would be one of the firstZimbabweans picked, will instead meet with West Australian cricket officialstoday to discuss his prospects for the next year – and maybe beyond.Ervine flew out of Harare on the same night the Australians flew in. Now inPerth, he has declared his Zimbabwean career over and is entertaining vagueambitions of one day wearing the baggy green.”It has crossed my mind,” he admitted, “but that is quite a long way away.You have to get through the four years of becoming a citizen and proveyourself as a cricketer. If it comes one day, I’ll be happy.”Ervine looks every inch a strapping, fair-dinkum Aussie on the front page of The Australian newspaper today. Blond and beaming, wearing a T-shirtand jeans, he is pictured cuddling his comparably fair-haired, toothy andstriking girlfriend Melissa Marsh, daughter of the soon-to-be former Zimbabwe coach Geoff Marsh.”With Melissa here,” he told the paper, “it made my decision much easier.”Ervine agreed with the Australian team’s decision to go ahead with the tour,saying it would raise awareness of Zimbabwe cricket’s ills, but warned “I wouldn’t say it would be any better any time quickly … The ICC should have come into it and done a bit more.”A combative right-arm swing bowler and lower-order bat, Ervine would be an obvious asset to a WA side short on spark which last won the domestic competition in 1998-99 when it was still called the Sheffield Shield – anexcruciating drought by modern western standards. He averages 32 with thebat and 43 with the ball in his five Tests. He was one of the less traumatised witnesses to Matthew Hayden’s record runfest at the WACA last October, emerging with four wickets, a half-century and his reputation enhanced.There are new reports, meanwhile, that Australia’s planned two-Test tour ofZimbabwe might yet become a one-Test tour. In the face of growing farce,officials from both countries have reportedly discussed scrapping the secondTest scheduled for Bulawayo and replacing it with two one-dayers; a mild relief for some Australian fans and perhaps players, hopelessly irrelevant for Sean Ervine.

It was if time was standing still as the past, present and future of New South Wales andAustralian cricket were fused at the crease in the recent NSW vs QueenslandPura Cup match.It was the final match of the season and NSW with an 80-rundeficit on the first innings needed to win to make it to the final.Always the man for the occasion, Steve Waugh played a vintage knock,reminiscent of his more famous one only two months earlier at the same venueagainst England.Waugh wound back the clock as he bludgeoned the Queensland attack intosubmission and turned the first innings deficit into a handy lead. It wasthe first time he had made a century on the Sydney Cricket Ground against Queensland.It was 18 years earlier in a game against Queensland that Waugh made hisname. Waugh actually made his first-class debut in a game against Queenslandat the Gabba but it was the 1984/85 Shield final where he came of age.After Queensland scored 374 in the first innings, Waugh batting at No 8 came to the crease with NSW at a perilous six for 223 which shortly becameseven-down when Imran Khan went. The 19-year-old Waugh, batting with a maturityway beyond his years, led the tail to take NSW to 318. He made 21 in thesecond innings as NSW went on to win the final by one wicket, the only timethe Shield has been won in the last session of the season.That game metamorphised Waugh from an unknown into a player who could leadAustralia out of their doldrums. He had performed on the national stageagainst the national captain and it would be less then a year before hewould be representing his country.Notwithstanding brief times when he has been dropped or when he has beeninjured, this has been the first time in nearly a score of years that Waugh has beena regular for NSW. For him it would have been a case of ‘Back to the Future’as he got another taste of what it’s like to be a first-class cricketer inAustralia. It’s a unique situation which Waugh finds himself in. Playerslike Border and Boon devoted themselves to winning the Shield only afterthey had retired from international cricket.Waugh finds himself in a position to win the Shield late in his career, notas a bit player but rather a key cog in the machine. Most internationalplayers try to return to first-class cricket after their Test career isover. Now because Waugh has been dropped from the one day team and has spentthe better part of the season with the Blues, when he finally does decide tohang up the boots, whether or not he decides to play first-class cricket forNSW won’t be an issue.Playing Pura Cup cricket for the last two months has honed Waugh’s skillsand he should be the first player selected for the tour of West Indies.Based on what he saw from the vantage point of 22 yards away, Waugh wouldn’tmind if Michael Clarke was selected.Waugh had the best seat in the house whilst Clarke was putting on a battingclinic. Right from the start, he displayed shots of the highest quality andwas equally merciless on all the Queensland bowlers. This was no popgunattack, rather the leading one in Australia. Granted they were weakened bythe absence of Adam Dale and Joe Dawes and an injured Lee Carseldine but inMichael Kasprowicz and Ashley Noffke they possessed two of the leadingwicket-takers for the year.Michael Clarke is the type of cricketer that Steve Waugh loves and loves tohave in his team as he is the full package. An aggressive batsman, a shrewdpart-time bowler, a magnificent fielder with a cannon-like arm, silky handsand an intelligent cricket brain.Clarke could slot right into the Australian side now and is the type ofcricketer who has the rest of the world bemused as to how this countrykeeps producing players of the highest calibre.The Pura Cup final is a five-day game and has a Test match feel to it. Theintensity and passion displayed in finals past is testament to how much isat stake.In Australian sport, there is no rivalry like the one which exists betweenNSW and Queensland. Cricket has done its fair share in fuelling this rivalryand will do so again as the two lock horns to decide who is the bestprovincial cricket team in Australia, if not the world.The game will be contested fiercely as one. NSW will go into the game asunderdogs. Queensland are playing on their beloved Gabba and gunning fortheir fourth straight championship whilst NSW will be looking to break theirnine-year drought.Only two sides have ever won a Shield away from home. NSW won the firstfinal at the WACA in 1982/83 and Queensland also won at the WACA in 1996/97.Which statistic will give – that NSW has never lost a final to Queensland orthat Queensland has never lost a final at home?The Bulls have not lost a game to their southern rivals since a fullstrength NSW defeated Queensland by eight wickets in November 1993.NSW have the big name players in the two Waughs, Slater, MacGill and Katich.The Blues have been fortunate in that the players have been spreading theload. In Sydney, it was Steve Waugh, Clarke, Nash, Katich and MacGill whocontributed. At the WACA, it was Mail, Slater, Mark Waugh and Clark who roseto the occasion.Queensland used to benefit greatly from the fact that their players werejust on the fringe of Australian selection. Now Andrew Bichel, AndrewSymonds, Matthew Hayden, Nathan Hauritz and Jimmy Maher are all in SouthAfrica which depletes the Queensland side.It was the experiences of that 84/85 final which helped transform Steve Waughinto a hardened cricketer. But for a win over India in the sub-continent, hehas achieved everything there is to do in the game and leading NSW to statesupremacy after such a long drought will be another jewel he can add to atruly glittering career.

Karnataka will take on Mumbai in the opening match of the SponsorsTrophy (previously known as the Wills Trophy) at Mumbai on April 18,next year.The other two first round matches pit Railways Sports Control Board(RSCB) against Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) at Rajkot on April 18and Sponsors XI against Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) at Pune onthe same day, a Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) release said onThursday.Reigning champions Board President’s XI, who have got a bye directlyto the semi-finals will play either Karnataka or Mumbai in Mumbai onApril 21 while the second semi-final between the winners of RSCB vsPCA and Sponsors Eleven vs OCA would be held at Ahmedabad on the samedate, the release said. The final would be played at Baroda on April24.

Former England midfielder Danny Murphy has claimed that West Ham United need to overhaul their squad this summer if they manage to say in the Premier League.

Indeed, in his column for the London Evening Standard, Murphy wrote that Marko Arnautovic, Mark Noble, Declan Rice, Josh Cullen and Manuel Lanzini are the only five players that should be sure of their future at the club next season.

It is quite a statement from the former Liverpool midfielder, and unless West Ham are preparing to downsize to a five-a-side team then they might have some problems next term.

The West Ham fans, who have also recently reacted to reports of a possible takeover, have been discussing Murphy’s comments, and have indeed been offering their own opinions when it comes to which players should stay at the club this summer.

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There is expected to be a turnaround in terms of personnel, but whether David Moyes has the chance to change the squad remains to be seen.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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Some of the Twitter reaction from the West Ham fans to Murphy’s column can be seen below:

ScorecardIt was a startling change of narrative in Ranchi – the first day produced over 300 runs and the second, which turned out to be the final day of the match, resulted in 26 wickets and Shahbaz Nadeem took 11 for 90 to lead Jharkhand to an innings-and-71-run victory over Himachal Pradesh.It was deadly symmetry for the HP. They were bowled out for 133 in the first innings and were bundled out for the same total when they were asked to follow on. More fun with numbers: Nadeem, who was the wrecker-in-chief, gave away 45 runs in both innings.Jharkhand were not immune from the wrath of the bowlers either. They crumbled from an overnight 306 for 4 to 337 all out with left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma claiming 6 for 59. But HP’s response with the bat was woeful. Ankit Kalsi made a half-century, but he was the only man to score more than 22. Nadeem bowled only 14.2 overs and yet came away with seven wickets.With a lead of 204 runs, Jharkhand enforced the follow-on and hurtled to victory in 32.1 overs. This time there were no fifties. Prashant Chopra and Nikhil Gangta made 32 and 38. There were six single-digit scores around them. This time Jharkhand rallied around Nadeem. He took four wickets, Kaushal Singh took three Sonu Singh, on first-class debut, took two.
ScorecardFrom conceding a first-innings lead to sitting on the cusp of an outright victory, Saurashtra had a see-saw day to savor thanks to a Jadeja. Dharmendrasinh is a No. 11. He couldn’t have prevented his team being bowled out for 157, but he did ensure Kerala suffered a massive collapse in their second innings. His 6 for 59 was the major reason the hosts fell from 51 for 2 to 105 all out. That left Saurashtra with a target of only 115.Saurashtra resumed on 55 for 6 and received a much needed boost from 19-year old Samarth Vyas making a fine show of himself on first-class debut. He came in at No. 8 and struck 54 off 90 balls with two fours and three sixes. Thanks to him the final three wickets were able to add 87 runs and Saurashtra ended up with 157 runs – an agonizing nine runs away from Kerala’s 166.Spin had been the way to go in the first innings and Jadeja was given the new ball. After all, he had taken five wickets the first time around. The move worked as VA Jagadeesh, who had struck a half-century on the first day, was bowled in the fifth over. But he needed help to make the match-turning impact and that came from 24-year old Vandit Jivrajani (4 for 31), the offspinner who was making his first-class debut. They sank their teeth into the Kerala middle order – Sachin Baby out for 6 and Sanju Samson bagged a duck as the score slipped from 51 for 2 to 57 for 7. Saurashtra gained a firm hold over the match and are now 99 runs away from a win with nine wickets in hand.
ScorecardHanuma Vihari, who began the second day in Hyderabad on 94, kicked on to make his third first-class double-century, propelling his team to 548 for 5. He occupied the crease for 555 minutes, striking 22 fours and two sixes to punish the Tripura attack.B Anirudh added only three runs to his overnight score of 75 before he was pinned lbw by seamer Manisankar Murasingh. Bavanaka Sandeep was more adhesive and kept Vihari good company in a 213-run partnership, the second 150-plus stand of the innings. Vihari was finally dismissed, by offspinner Swapan Das, for 219, but 26 runs each from Himalay Agarwal and Kolla Sumanth took Hyderabad to 548 before the declaration arrived.The hosts amplified their advantage further with former Under-19 pacer Chama Milind removing Tripura opener Virag Awate for 3. The day ended with Tripura facing a deficit of 535 runs.
ScorecardGoa piled on the runs against Jammu and Kashmir, declaring on 552 for 5, before pacers Rituraj Singh and Prasanth Parameshwaran dismissed the J&K openers inside four overs. Pranav Gupta and Ian Dev Singh survived till stumps but stare at a deficit of 509 runs.The day though belonged to Swapnil Asnodkar, who resumed from an overnight 74, stroked 28 fours and three sixes during his marathon innings of 232. The other overnight batsman – Sagun Kamat – scored a century of his own before he became Parvez Rasool’s second victim. Rasool claimed two more wickets but ended up conceding 169 runs.

Malik bowling in 2001 © Cricinfo Ltd

Nadeem Malik has returned to his former county Nottinghamshire on a one-month loan from Worcestershire to help them out in their injury crisis.Malik, the 24-year-old seamer, will play in Wednesday’s Championship match against Somerset to replace Kyle Hogg – another loan player – who has an ankle problem.Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket Mick Newell said: “With five seamers already out injured, we simply didn’t have any other fast bowling options from within the club to turn to.”As soon as Kyle failed a fitness test this morning we were on the phone to a few contacts and when we knew that Nadeem was available, it was an easy decision to make. He is familiar with the set-up here and should be able to settle in immediately.”Malik signed for Worcestershire in 2004 after coming up through the youth system at Nottinghamshire and playing for England Under-19s. He has played 45 first-class matches, taking 126 wickets at an average of 33.84.Nottinghamshire’s injury list is currently creaking with Mark Ealham, Charlie Shreck, Paul Franks, Mark Footitt and Simon Francis, while Ryan Sidebottom is on England duty.

Ricky Ponting will have to tread carefully following another breach of the ICC code of conduct © Getty Images

Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s acting chief executive, has described Ricky Ponting’s latest breach of the ICC code of conduct during his side’s DLF cup win against the West Indies as “unacceptable”. Brown did concede, however, that he was heartened by Ponting’s apology to Asad Rauf, the umpire, his team and the public.Ponting appraoched Rauf after the umpire called a wide in the innings’ 33rd over and questioned his decision. The incident led to Ponting being fined his entire match fee. “Let’s be clear, Cricket Australia doesn’t condone any actions that go outside the Spirit of Cricket. We’ve worked very hard with Ricky and our players to ensure it is observed at all times,” Brown told the Melbourne-based .”It’s a concern for Ricky and it’s a concern for us,” he added. “But the fact he’s taken the initiative to publicly and privately address these issues will ensure he and his team go forward from here. We’ve got to be positive in that regard.”Ponting spoke to Brown after his side’s remarkable and ultimately comfortable win over West Indies in the tri-series opener on Tuesday. “As the game finished late last night I was very keen to understand what had happened and obviously very keen to reaffirm our position, and to make clear to him that it was unacceptable,” Brown said.”I’m very heartened to see that Ricky has taken it upon himself to acknowledge his actions and publicly apologise. In the end what matters is that the Australian cricket team will continue to play this series hard and fair … We look forward to him learning from the experience.”He might have to do that quickly for there are fears now that any further outbursts now or in the Ashes later this year could lead to a possible suspension for a Test. This was Ponting’s second such offence in the past year – the other took place during the second Test in Bangladesh in April – and it is why the charge was upgraded to a level-two offence. Ponting was also fined during the fourth Ashes Test in 2005 for an outburst directed at the England dressing room after he was run out by the substitute fielder Gary Pratt.The level-two offence – serious dissent – can carry a suspension of two ODIs or one Test, and the match referee is entitled to consider the player’s previous history. The newspaper said than an ICC source had indicated Ponting had been warned after his latest breach that he was on dangerous ground and could face a ban were he to slip up again in similar fashion.