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The Victoria coach, Greg Shipperd, and assistant coach, David Saker, have been charged with dissent by Cricket Australia following a breach of the code of conduct. The charges relate to the ING match between Victoria and Tasmania at Launceston on December 18.However, after originally being reported for severe dissent the charges were downgraded to level one for both coaches. Shipperd has received a severe reprimand while Saker was fined $1000.The Cricket Victoria chief executive, Ken Jacobs, said everyone was pleased the charges had been reduced and that both coaches had received a fair hearing. “We were heartened by the downgrading of the charges for both Greg and David, but are naturally disappointed with the result.”

Scorecard

The third, soporific day at Hove inched the match inexorably closer to a batsman’s draw, with Sussex’s last five batsman adding 157 in 45 overs, only occasionally breaking into a trot. Scott Newman and Mark Ramprakash made the most of perfect May conditions for Surrey, but the only people breaking into a sweat were those in the bars searching for another Pimms.For periods of the day’s play, it almost felt as though the clock had been wound back to the 1980s. As Robin Marlar, the Sussex president, grumpily pointed out once Surrey had eased past 100 for the loss of just one wicket, “rain doesn’t suit this game”. The slips lounged with hands in their pockets; the fast bowlers ambled casually back to their marks, and not even Matt Prior could be stirred into verbal jousting behind the stumps.Prior had a more important role earlier in the day, however directionless the match had become. He played beautifully for his fifty – his fourth in succession in the Championship – and was particularly strong driving through the off-side but equally aware of the tuck to leg. Two spanking drives – one zipped through extra cover, the other down the ground – could not have been timed any more sweetly, so it was a disappointment for him and his home crowd that he gifted his wicket on 51.Chris Jordan, from the Cromwell Road End, slipped in a bouncer and Prior couldn’t resist a pull, chipping a skier straight to gully. Only when he reached the boundary edge did his anger become apparent to the rest of us, angrily bashing the boards with his bat and it soon became obvious why: Geoff Miller, the England selector, had been spotted.Nevertheless, he had urged Sussex past 350, and they had at least 400 in their sights. James Kirtley, the nightwatchman, had a spread-out field into which to nudge singles, but on 19 he swept Saqlain Mushtaq – for the second unsuccessful time in succession – and was trapped lbw. Luke Wright rarely looked comfortable at the crease, unlike Robin Martin-Jenkins who used his height to good effect in a slick 75-ball fifty. Martin-Jenkins dominated the pair’s eighth-wicket stand of 55 – 32 to Wright’s 20 at the landmark – and he was particularly adept against Mushtaq, punching him commandingly off the back foot. A deft back-cut down to third man brought up the 400.Martin-Jenkins was at it with the ball, too, but not before Jason Lewry produced a fine opening spell from the Sea End, testing Newman with several near-misses outside his off stump. Jonathan Batty cracked four fours and looked in fine touch before Martin-Jenkins finally won an lbw appeal, but thereafter Newman and Ramprakash took control. Newman was strong off his pads, sharing the same nuggety compact technique of Mark Butcher, and was quick to pounce on anything short.Ramprakash spent 20 balls on nought, but once settled he quickly dominated with trademark deflections down to third man and authoritative cover drives. He and Newman’s hundred stand came from 176 balls, and – as was the case for Surrey’s bowlers – there was little to encourage Sussex’s seamers. However, Martin-Jenkins returned for a second spell from the Cromwell Road End and immediately trapped Newman leg-before to complete his own fine day’s work.Ramprakash completed his second fifty of the season and his 99th hundred appears tantalisingly on the horizon. With perfect batting conditions set for tomorrow, Surrey members can begin to plan their pilgrimage to Southampton for their next Championship match against Hampshire on May 14.

Points table
Scorecard
Debutant offspinner Mohnish Parmar took five second-innings wickets to help Gujarat to a thumping 248-run victory over Assam. Resuming on 15 for 2, Nishanta Bordoloi and wicketkeeper Rajdeep Das defied the Gujarat bowling for nearly 20 over but once Das was caught behind off Timil Patel, Assam’s resistance was broken. There were not too many meaningful contributions and Assam could manage only two more double-digit partnerships. Sridharan Sharath, the captain, hung around for his 27 and was last man out, falling to medium-pacer Siddharth Trivedi. Gujarat got five points for their efforts while Assam took home none.
ScorecardHaving skittled out Jharkhand for 139 on day three, Madhya Pradesh went one up on day four, bowling them out for 117 to win by 170 runs at Jamshedpur. Rahul Bakshi followed his first-innings 56 with an unbeaten 66 in MP’s 203 for 5 declared before the bowlers turned it on. Jatin Saxena, who scored 125 in MP’s first innings, and Asif Ali spun out 4 for 54 and 4 for 35 respectively, with their brand of legbreaks. No batsman got going and MP needed just 49.4 overs to bowl Jharkhand out. MP took a full five points from their outright win, placing them equal with Goa in the Group P table.
ScorecardHaving conceded a first-innings lead to Goa, Haryana failed in their bid to chase down 241 with nine wickets on day four at Margao. Instead, the hosts dismissed Haryana for 220, 26 runs short of their target, and took five points from an outright win. Slow left-arm spinner Shabab Jakati backed his first-innings 6 for 52 with 4 for 94 and Robin D’Souza fetched 4 for 59 with his medium-pace. Goa began the day 30 for 3 but made it to 221 courtesy opener Sagun Kamat’s 92-ball 60 and wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra’s 86 from 117 balls. Only Sachin Rana (67) crossed fifty in Haryana’s attempted chase.
ScorecardTripura escaped with a battling last-wicket draw against Services at Agartala, finishing on 202 for 9 in their attempt to chase down 226. Hari Prasad, Services’ opening bowler, took 4 for 50 and the other bowlers chipped in with wickets but Services failed to take that last wicket. Vineet Jain, with an unbeaten 3 from 36 balls, and Jayanta Debnath, with 13 from 37, added 25 valuable runs in 11.2 overs for the final wicket to stave off defeat. From an overnight 308 for 7, Services managed 321 with Yashpal Singh getting to his tenth first-class hundred. Tushar Saha picked finished with 4 for 89 with his slow left-arm spin. Tripura got with three points and Services one.

In the euphoria of Australia’s magnificent victory Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne agreed the performance was the best they had seen. It is high and justified praise as the match was unbelievable and the pair has been involved in some spectacular wins over the past 15 years.”To turn a Test around like that, it doesn’t happen,” Ponting, the Man of the Match, said. “You have to do something exceptionally well to turn a game around like that and our cricket over the last three days has been as good as you’ll ever see from any team.”Early on day three Australia were 3 for 65 chasing England’s first innings of 551 and staring at a defeat that would have levelled the series. Rather than falling in a heap, Ponting recorded 142 and Michael Clarke produced an outstanding 124 before Warne toppled England with 4 for 49. The chase of 168 was dusted off without too much discomfort and the Australians celebrated like a team that has the Ashes within their grasp.”England would have turned up today and wouldn’t have even thought they could lose,” Ponting said. “They probably wanted to get into a position to chuck us in late today and put us under a bit of pressure. We started so well and had them under pressure, then the game was there for the taking.”Warne’s previous best Test was in Sri Lanka in 1992, when he picked up 3 for 11 in only his third game, bowling Australia to victory after they gave up a 291-run advantage on the first innings. “In 140 Tests this was the greatest I have played in,” Warne said. “[In the first innings] if we got rissoled the game was over. Everyone played their part through the Test. Today we wanted to win and to go 2-0 up with three to play is a big advantage for us.”Neither player would call the Ashes for Australia but England face an almost impossible task. “I said to Shane after the game,” Ponting said, “that he’s changed the course of the Test and it could be the series.”

Speculation over the possibility that Bob Woolmer, the late Pakistan coach, was poisoned has increased following a report in a Jamaican paper, apparently quoting the toxicology report, to that effect. says samples taken from Woolmer’s blood, stomach and urine have shown the presence of a foreign substance and has quoted an unnamed government official as saying that the substance could have been poison.This seems to tie in with the theory that Woolmer may have been poisoned before being strangled.The also says that Scotland Yard has been called on to analyse the results of the report.Mark Shields, the Jamaican Deputy Commissioner of Police, has decided not to comment on the report till all investigations are over. “We have some results from toxicology now, but they will require further investigation and analysis, and therefore it would be totally inappropriate for me to elaborate any further on that,” Shields was quoted as saying in the newspaper.Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room in Jamaica on March 18, just a day after Pakistan’s sudden exit from the World Cup, and was pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital. The post mortem, conducted by a government pathologist, stated that the death occurred due to asphyxia from manual strangulation. The histology tests will establish the time of death, while the toxicology tests are expected to reveal whether Woolmer was poisoned before being attacked.There is speculation that he may have been poisoned with aconite, a poison that causes the body’s organs to stop functioning and leads to death through asphyxiation within 30 minutes.

South Africa have released Jacques Rudolph and Paul Adams to play for their franchises as they whittled the squad down to 12 for the opening Test which starts at the Wanderers on Friday. Ahead of an afternoon training session on Wednesday, Mickey Arthur, the coach, spoke of how his team would attack India with pace, on pitches that would aid a five-man fast-bowling line-up.None of the first team played in the last round of domestic games, and Arthur said that they had been rested ahead of what will be an arduous season, with three Tests against India and three Tests and five ODIs against Pakistan ahead of their departure for the World Cup. “We’ve had astiff training programme,” he said. “The players needed some time away from the game. But they did work on some batting and bowling.”The South Africans warmed up with a game of Frisbee, and then some catching practice before heading across to the nets. As for the Indians, it was an off day, with only Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir opting for a net session outdoors.South Africa were emphatic winners of the one-day series, and Arthur was confident that they could carry their dominant form into the Tests. “We want to continue the pattern that developed in the ODIs into the Tests,” he said. “We didn’t allow them to settle. We played well. It wasn’t justthat they played badly.”Nicky Boje’s retirement, announced on Tuesday morning, was a slight setback, though it was unlikely that he would have played any part at the Wanderers, or at Kingsmead in Durban. “He’s been a great servant of South African cricket,” said Arthur by way of tribute. “We’re likely to play aspinner in Cape Town.”Arthur admitted that the team management had already been in touch with the groundsmen, and intimated what sort of surfaces they were looking for in the Test series. “We want pitches with pace and bounce, and not too much grass,” he said.The recall of Paul Adams, barely a factor in domestic cricket over the past couple of seasons, was also addressed. “It’s a long-term selection,” said Arthur. “We need to know what he can offer. He has been very successful in Test cricket, and he offers something different. We need tosee if there’s any chance of reviving what has been a successful career.”Boje once won helped win a Test match against India at Bangalore (2000), while Adams, barring his six-wicket haul at Kanpur, hasn’t enjoyed a great time against them. There’s little doubt which man the Indians would rather face.

Citing a desire to be with his family more, Heath Streak, the former Zimbabwe captain, has announced that he will not be returning for another season with Warwickshire.’It has been a difficult decision to call time on my career here in England, ” said Streak. “Edgbaston is a special place to play and I am proud to have been able to call myself a [Warwickshire] Bear. I still intend to maintain an involvement in cricket in some capacity whilst travelling less and spending more time with my family. I am determined to finish the season strongly myself and I hope that the team can put together some good performances to see me off in style.”Streak joined the county in 2004 and took over the captaincy in 2006 after signing a two-year contract. He last played for Zimbabwe in September 2005 but was non-committal about his future with Zimbabwe.He has struggled this season, losing pace, and has taken 11 wickets at 62 in the County Championship. After beginning the season as captain he stood down after the opening weeks and was replaced by Darren Maddy.Commenting on Streak’s decision, Colin Povey, the chief executive of the county, said. “Streaky has been a magnificent ambassador for the game of cricket and he has always given his all for the club.”

The Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) has named a strong 15-man squad, including eight Test players, for next Tuesday’s match between the touring Indian team and Jamaica at Jarrett Park. Wavell Hinds, the West Indian batsman, has been named as captain for the one-day match.Brian Breese, the JCA’s cricket operations manager, said that there was a possibility that all eight Test players may not take part, however. “The West Indies team will be playing the Indians two days after the Montego Bay game so the West Indies Cricket Board could well ask one or two of the players named to sit out the game,” he has been quoted as saying by the . “Nonetheless, it should be a very strong Jamaican team going up against the Indians.”Breese added that Xavier Marshall, the Jamaican opener, was not included owing to a suspension from his parish team while Dwight Washington, the fast bowler, was away in the United States. “Young Washington would most certainly be under consideration for this game but he is away in the United States at this time,” said Breese. “We are in touch with him and he is still very much a part of the national programme.”Jamaica Cricket Association squad : Wavell Hinds (capt), Chris Gayle, Donovan Pagon, Marlon Samuels, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Nikita Miller, Carlton Baugh (wk), Jermaine Lawson, Tamar Lambert, Bevon Brown, Danza Hyatt, Andrew Richardson, Damion Ebanks and Donovan Sinclair.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene heaped praise on his bowlers, especially Dilhara Fernando, after his team had completed a comprehensive 70-runs victory over Bangladesh in the first ODI at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium on Friday.Sri Lanka defended their moderate total of 234 for 6 exceptionally well by bowling Bangladesh out for 164 in the 41st over. Fernando rocked the Bangladesh top order after openers Tamim Iqbal and Shahriar Nafees had put on 45 for the first wicket by taking four wickets for 24 runs off nine overs to take the Man-of-the-Match award.”There wasn’t much juice left on it when Bangladesh batted, but there was a bit of bounce in it. Dilhara, Lasith (Malinga) and (Farveez) Maharoof bowled their hearts out. They bowled in really good areas and kept asking questions. All credit should go to Dilhara and the bowlers. They kept it tight and put pressure on the Bangladeshis. Hats off to them, they single-handedly won the game for us,” said Jayawardene.Heaping further praise on Fernando, Jayawardene said: “Dilhara’s been doing well for the last 2 ½ to 3 years. It is just that he has on and off days. There was a lot of criticism thrown at him that he is not consistent. As a captain and as a team we always knew the potential this guy has. We gave him a lot of confidence and he is thriving on that now. It’s good to see the way he is bowling. He’s giving everything he’s got and looking good.”Jayewardene also praised the batting of Upul Tharanga and Chamara Silva who each made half-centuries and figured in an 83-run stand.”The wicket had a bit in the morning. We would have bowled as well if we won the toss. It is just that it was tough. They bowled pretty well. We lost three key wickets and it was very tough for Upul and Chamara to consolidate which they did brilliantly and helped us get a competitive score. I thought we planned it nicely afterwards. 235 was a very competitive score, but it was not a winning score,” Jayewardene said.Fernando lamented the chance of missing out on getting his first five-for in an ODI. After taking 4 for 23 in his first spell of seven overs, he came back to bowl a further two overs without success.”I was a bit unlucky not to get five wickets although I tried hard. Anyway I am happy I bowled my team to victory. It was a good hard wicket, very flat so I tried hitting the deck hard,” he said.Bangladesh’s captain Mohammad Ashraful blamed his middle order batting for letting his side down after his bowlers had done an excellent job in restricting the strong Lankan batting. “We didn’t bat well in the second Powerplay. By the time we went to 50 we had lost too many wickets. The foundation was laid for us by the openers but the middle order disappointed. Fernando bowled well to put us in a spot. It was a good enough score for us to chase on a wicket which had eased up. It was a gettable score on that pitch,” Ashraful said.”The series is still open. We will remain positive and go out for a win in the second one-dayer,” he added.

Fearing protests against Kiran More, the Indian selection committee chairman, and Greg Chappell, India’s coach, following Sourav Ganguly’s exclusion from the Indian team for the one-day match against South Africa in Kolkata on November 25, the authorities are taking no chances with the security situation.”All police stations have been asked to be on alert,” said NR Babu, deputy commissioner (south) of Kolkata police. Both More and Chappell are now in the city. In 1996, India’s World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka could not be completed due to crowd disturbances and Sri Lanka were declared winners.Crowd violence again erupted during the Asian Cricket Test championship outing between India and Pakistan in 1999 and the last few minutes of the game had to be played before empty stands after police used force to clear the galleries. Asked if special security would be provided to Chappell, who has been specially targetted during the protests, Prasun Mukherjee, Kolkata’s police commissioner, said his men would be fully alert to any eventuality.Meanwhile, a thick security blanket has been thrown around the two teams, both at the hotel and the match venue, with the deployment of a large number of commandos, armed policemen, detective department sleuths, plainclothes cops and women police personnel. Commandos are escorting and trailing the buses of the two teams on their journey from the hotel to the Eden Gardens, with around 2000 policemen lining the entire route.The police have virtually taken over the team’s hotel, where three to four commandos have been deployed on each floor. Eden Gardens has been put under a multi-layered security ring, with Mukherjee announcing that nearly 4,000 police personnel, including top police officers, would be deployed in and around the stadium.Mukherjee, who inspected Eden Gardens yesterday, said police would make arrests in the event of any demonstration inside the venue during the match.”Those wanting to hold any such demonstration should better keep off the stadium and also the match, otherwise such acts will prompt the police to make arrests,” he said.