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Ireland have earned a place on the ICC ODI championship table after beating a Test-playing nation for the second time at the World Cup. Ireland’s 74-run win over Bangladesh at Barbados means they will be on the official rankings list that will be updated after their final Super Eights game, against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.Ireland graduates from the ICC Associate rankings and joins Kenya as the only non-Test countries in the full ODI championship. An Associate can be promoted when it has played at least ten one-day internationals and has beaten two Full Members, or has defeated one Full Member and won more than 60% of its games against other Associates.Having upset Pakistan in their group match, Ireland needed only one more win to take the next step. In accordance with a previous ICC decision, Ireland has ODI status until 2009, along with the other top Associate Members – Kenya, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada and Bermuda.

Ever since Keith Miller, Alan Davidson and Richie Benaud moved on, Australia’s search for a quality allrounder has been almost as futile as trying to discover what happened to aircraft that vanished over the Bermuda Triangle. Steve Waugh was almost the real deal. Simon O’Donnell never lived up to his potential for various reasons, and Shane Watson spends more time on the treatment table than on the field.The Australian women have no such problems. Ellyse Perry came out to bat this afternoon with the innings listing at 5 for 71. A 56-run partnership with Kate Blackwell took Australia to a competitive total, with Perry contributing a bustling 29 from just 25 balls. It was the 17-year-old’s first Twenty20 game, but there was no hint of nervousness whatsoever as she got going with a nonchalant one-bounce four over square leg.A magnificent six over long-on off Isa Guha helped finish the innings with a flourish, and we then had to wait until midway through the England innings to see what she could do with the ball. Quite a bit, as it turned out. Blonde ponytail swaying from side to side, she bowled full, straight and at lively pace with a lovely, rhythmic action. Figures of 4 for 20 didn’t flatter her, and she also played a part in the key dismissal, ending Claire Taylor’s defiant knock of 34 with a casual flicked throw on her follow through.The cricket fraternity must do its utmost to hold on to her, because Perry also happens to be a Matilda, a member of Australia’s soccer team. The side that once made global headlines for its nude calendar is probably a more glamourous proposition than the Southern Stars, and Cricket Australia must do what it can to make sure that she becomes a 21st-century Denis Compton, known more for her cricket than the football.You realise how young she is only when you talk to her. With braces and a shy smile, she looks like a teenager, and I ask her what it was like to bowl at the MCG in front of a crowd that was rapidly filling up for the men’s game. “Sensational,” she says with a grin. “I’ve never played in front of a crowd like this, and to do so in your home country is just great.”So, will she have to choose between her two loves? “I guess I might eventually,” she says. “But I’m pretty lucky in that the seasons are different for cricket and soccer. For the moment, I’d like to keep playing both.”Perry has the X-factor, but she wasn’t the only one to catch the eye. Twenty20 is supposed to be a game for youngsters, but the tone for this engrossing contest was set by one of the old stagers. Taylor is 32, and an excellent diving stop on the boundary line was emblematic of an exceptional fielding display. She also took a stunning leaping catch at slip, but unfortunately, Nicky Shaw had overstepped.The choice of music was unfortunate. With more cops and volunteers than fans in the opening stages of the game, there was hardly anyone to cheer, and when Shelley Nitschke smacked a Jenny Gunn full toss for four, they chose to play Garbage’s . Er, what?Rosalie Birch bowled a tidy spell to rein Australia in, but there was still time to be entranced by a little cameo from Lisa Sthalekar. Like every great batsman, she has so much time to play her strokes. There was a gorgeous cover-drive before she went for one shot too many, and the first strains of the Cyndi Lauper anthem, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, suggested that even the music was picking up.It would be easy to resort to cliché and label players like Sthalekar and Karen Rolton the Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden of their sport, but they’re tremendous players in their own right, with a refined style that’s quite far removed from the biff and bang of men’s limited-overs cricket. Perry though is the future, a golden one at that.This was the first time I’ve watched the women play. It certainly won’t be the last.

Stuart Clark, the Australian fast bowler, will not figure in Australia’s campaign for the Champions Trophy. Cricket Australia announced that Clark had sustained a thigh injury while playing club cricket at home.Clark suffered a tear in his left quadriceps and will take at least four to six weeks to recover, according to Alex Kountouris, the Australian team physio. “The decision was made for him to stay in Australia and undergo treatment to maximise his chances of a full recovery before the Ashes series,” said Kountouris. The selection panel is yet to decide on a replacement.Clark was obviously disappointed to miss out on a major one-day tournament involving all the Test-playing countries and said that all he could do was look forward to a full rehabilitation. “I am confident that I will be back playing as soon as is possible and will be doing everything in my power to ensure that I’m fully fit ahead of the Ashes series,” he said.Meanwhile Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, felt that the team had all the bases covered for the Champions Trophy. “We have been knocked out in the semi-final in the last two Champions Trophies, but we definitely have the squad and the players to challenge seriously this year,” Ponting told AFP. “We’ve played some good cricket in Indian conditions before so we can go there now with confidence.”Australia will have the services of young talent like Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson for the tournament. In the DLF Cup in Malaysia, Australia’s last one-day tournament, Watson opened the batting in two matches, scoring a 79-ball 74 against India in a match that eventually got washed out. Apart from that he bagged seven wickets from four games at an average of 16.42.Ponting said that the experimentation with the batting-order had been successful. “It’s been a really good exercise. Having had a look at a few extra players in different roles, we have lots of different bases covered.”We’ve got a pretty good structure in place and if each guy looks after themselves and keeps trying to make themselves better day in and day out, then we will go a long way in the Champions Trophy.”Glen McGrath, Australia’s key bowler for many years, coming back from a long lay-off to be with his recuperating wife, had a poor outing in Malaysia, getting one wicket from four games. Yet he felt that he was heading in the right direction. “India is probably the toughest conditions for a fast bowler,” he said. “The wickets are pretty flat over there and the conditions are reasonably pleasant to bowl in.”Australia play their first game of the Champions Trophy on October 18 in Mumbai against one of the two qualifiers from the preliminary round

Tawanda Mupariwa, who twisted his ankle as he and Brendan Taylor guided Zimbabwe to dramatic victory in the third ODI on Wednesday, will now miss the remaining matches on Friday and Sunday.Mupariwa fell and was run-out as he turned after being sent back by Brendan Taylor while going for a run in the thrilling last over of the match. He was yaken to hospital and it is reported that he fractured his foot.Waddington Mwayenga, who trained with the squad in the Harare Sports Club nets on Thursday afternoon, may now be given a chance even though he was not expected to play any part in the series.Zimbabwe did receive a boost with news that Ed Rainsford, who with Mupariwa began the five-match series as Zimbabwe’s opening attack, was passed fit to play in the remaining matches after missing Wednesday’s game.

Uncertainty over the future of the Sheffield Shield final has been underlined by the announcement that only three of six states will have access to their prime venue for the competition decider in late March.Top-of-the-table Victoria have nominated Traeger Park in Alice Springs as their choice for the final rather than the unavailable MCG, while second-placed South Australia have plumped for Gilderol Stadium at Glenelg in place of Adelaide Oval.New South Wales are yet to confirm their choice of ground but are understood to have suggested Coffs Harbour, with Cricket Australia to review its appropriateness as a ground during the Blues’ forthcoming Shield fixture on the north coast.”Three of our six states are in positions where their regular season venues are unavailable, meaning they needed to nominate an alternative ground for Cricket Australia approval,” CA operations manager Sean Cary said.”A venue for New South Wales will be confirmed closer to the Final should they look likely to finish in top position. This Sheffield Shield season has been one of the most notable in its 123-year history, including hosting two games under day-night conditions as well as playing the first ever match overseas in Lincoln, New Zealand last week,” Cary added.Last October, the outgoing CA chairman Wally Edwards and the chief executive James Sutherland both expressed doubts about the future of the final, which is being squeezed by various fixture pressures such as the Big Bash League. Football’s insistence on taking possession of the MCG, Adelaide Oval and the SCG before the end of the Shield season is also affecting the issue – Victoria hosted Western Australia in Hobart last year.”The Shield final, over many years, has proved itself to be a bit of a non-event, to be honest,” Edwards said following CA’s AGM. “There probably have only been three or four good Shield finals.”The rest of them have been shockers, a bad advertisement for the game. I think it confuses the back end of our season. I think the best team should win in Shield cricket. If you play eight or ten games, that should sort it out.”Sutherland echoed Edwards’ views, noting how the expansion of the BBL was leaving fewer and fewer spare days in each season. “I think Wally is right. If you do look through history, the Shield finals have been absolutely dominated by the home team or a long draw,” Sutherland said.”I don’t think we should change it unless there was good reason to change that. But, at the same time, we are in a good position at the moment of having a burgeoning Twenty20 domestic competition that is in big demand.”At some stage in the future, we will be looking at ways in which we can expand that, whether that is expansion through number of matches or number of teams, of what have you. That might put pressure on other parts of our program.”

New Zealand and Sri Lanka have each won a Test and Twenty20 match and the five-match one-day series beginning on December 28 at Napier will decide who takes the winner’s position.Nathan Astle has been cleared to play the first match after it was confirmed that he had only bruised his hand, and not broken it, during the second Twenty20 match on Boxing Day.Astle was relieved that the injury, which occurred when Marvan Atapattu tried to run him out, wasn’t serious. “It would have been a funny way to break a bone. I didn’t know he was going to throw it – I was two metres past the stumps,” he told AFP.Due to a rotational policy to keep the top players fit for the World Cup in March, Stephen Fleming will miss the first two games and Daniel Vettori, who was himself rested for the Twenty20 matches, has been appointed the stand-in captain. Shane Bond will also miss the first two games while Kyle Mills, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram are out of contention due to injuries.Back-up bowlers Michael Mason and Mark Gillespie are doubtful to play and though Vettori remains hopeful Iain O’Brien, a medium-pace bowler, has been recalled into the squad. “We’ll leave it as long as we can,” Vettori said adding that the two bowlers, along with James Franklin, had troubled the Sri Lankan batsmen with pace and bounce in the Twenty20 game at Auckland. “It’s always been a criticism of subcontinent batsmen when they come to this part of the world – if you get up to them it unsettles them,” he said.New Zealand hosted Sri Lanka for four ODIs last December-January and won the series 3-1. Vettori wants to better the result this time round in preparation for the World Cup. “We’ve talked about the fact that if we want to consider ourselves as one of the favourites for the World Cup, we’ve got to start winning consistently — and if we’re not winning in our own backyard we can’t be put up as favourites.” But Vettori has been criticised for picking an inexperienced side that includes Ross Taylor, who has played only two ODIs, and James Marshall, who has played five.Tom Moody, the Sri Lanka coach, also looked at the five matches as part of Sri Lanka’s build-up to the World Cup. “This is part of the process, another hurdle. We want to look at a couple of combinations,” he said. Having tied the Test series, the Sri Lankan team will be confident about their chances in the ODIs. Sri Lanka play four ODIs in India in February before heading to West Indies in March.New Zealand squad: Daniel Vettori (captain), Andre Adams, Nathan Astle, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Hamish Marshall, James Marshall, Michael Mason, Brendon McCullum, Iain O’Brien, Jeetan Patel, Ross Taylor.Sri Lanka squad: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Malinga Bandara, Tillekaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara Kapugedera, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ruchira Perera, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga, Chaminda Vaas

Glamorgan 56 for 2 v Gloucestershire
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Only 24.3 overs were possible at Bristol where there was a delayed start and then a complete washout soon after lunch. Jon Lewis and Steve Kirby both took 1 for 13 in niggardly opening spells when the ball moved around off the seam. Lewis accounted for Gareth Rees, who was caught behind for 2, while Kirby removed Matthew Wood, well held low down at third slip by Grant Hodnett for 4. Glamorgan were then 15 for 2 but David Hemp and Mike Powell guided them through to the interval, and the rain returned for good three overs after the resumption.Warwickshire 128 for 4 (Bell 42) v Leicestershire
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There was a little more play at Edgbaston where Warwickshire made 128 for 4 in 50 overs against Leicestershire. Conditions were far from friendly for the batsmen, and they found the going hard under leaden skies and between three interruptions for showers. Dillon du Preez, signed as a Kolpak yesterday, got his Leicestershire career off to a flier, removing Darren Maddy’s off stump with his second ball as the batsman shouldered arms, and then having Ian Bell dropped at third slip off his seventh. Bell and Ian Westwood added 70 for the second wicket before Bell was trapped leg before half forward, and then Westwood became du Preez’s second victim – he finished with tight figures of 13-5-21-2 – care of a good catch at third slip soon after he had been struck on the jaw by a lifter. Michael Powell quickly followed, caught behind off James Allenby’s third ball, and Warwickshire were wobbling on 102 for 4. But Jonathan Trott and Tim Ambrose held firm until bad light ended play. Geoff Miller, England’s head selector, watched the day but with no fewer than ten South Africans on show, he cannot have learned too much.

On a day when the Nagpur surface for the third Test between India and South Africa was rated ‘poor’ by the ICC, and less than a week after Rahul Dravid delivered a stinging critique of pitches used in the Ranji Trophy, the first day of Tamil Nadu-Punjab game saw 21 wickets fall. Seventeen of them went to spinners, but TN coach M Sanjay blamed his side’s batting, and not the Dindigul pitch.Punjab were dismissed for 206 in 57 overs and Tamil Nadu were shot out for 68 in the 24th, their second-lowest total in Ranji Trophy history. While Sanjay admitted to the TNCA rolling out a turning track to strengthen Tamil Nadu’s chances of a knockout berth in a must-win game, he denied it was an underprepared pitch. “Basically we played too many shots too early thinking that the wicket is going to do [something],” Sanjay told ESPNcricinfo.”There is turn and bounce, it is a spinner-friendly wicket, but they have got 200 [206], so it’s not like it’s a bad wicket. I think it’s more in the mind than in the wicket.”The odd ball kept low, but it was prepared to be a turning track just like India are preparing wickets for home games. We had to because we need to have to six points.”So did the ploy backfire after Punjab took the chance to bat first? “The toss doesn’t matter at all on a wicket like this actually,” Sanjay insisted. “In fact, it might be better bowling first on a wicket like this because the bounce is there. We didn’t bowl too well also and we didn’t field well, missing three-four chances.”Sanjay said the concept of an ‘ideal’ surface – one that assists the seamers initially before flattening out and eventually crumbling on the last day to bring the spinners into play – however noble was largely impractical. “We have seen pitches all over India in the last few years; it doesn’t happen like that in reality.””I don’t think the curators really know to do that. Earlier they might have done it when the pitches were uncovered. But then they have standardised the preparation of pitches after experts were brought in from abroad and lot of scientific things went into it,” Sanjay said. “Anyway India is preparing turners. You have to know how to counter that with certain skills that are different from playing seam bowling but they are skills anyway.”Dravid had recently come down heavily on poor pitches in this season’s Ranji Trophy after several two- and three-day finishes. Sanjay felt it wasn’t fair to generalise like that, and stressed on the need for tighter technique to succeed on such tracks, something Ravi Shastri had advocated recently as well.”People are not understanding the differentiation. Because it’s getting over in two or three days they are clubbing underprepared wickets with prepared ones [where matches finish because of other factors],” he said. “The Nottingham pitch [in the Ashes], which got over in three days, wasn’t underprepared, for instance.”[For an] underprepared wicket, you don’t water it, roll it, you just leave it like that, and it takes its course. The ball rolls, one kicks up, that becomes dangerous. These wickets are not dangerous; the bounce is consistent but for the odd ball.”This generation, not just cricketers, doesn’t have patience and perseverance. In today’s game as well there were four or five soft dismissals. Other than R Sathish – he got a ball which literally rolled – and R Prasanna, who Harbhajan got out with a beauty, there were many soft dismissals: Dinesh Karthik out lbw deliberately padding; Abhinav [Mukund] top-edging a pull off a rank short ball; [B] Aparajith trying to sweep top-edged one; and Vijay Shankar being caught brilliantly on the line.”Dravid had spoken of the importance of looking beyond wins and develop cricketers for the international stage. While Sanjay agreed with this philosophy, he said the ground realities of the competition’s structure couldn’t be glossed over. “An outright [win] gets you double the points [as a first-innings lead]. The administration or the coach, team captain, especially when it comes to the last league game, are desperate for a win. You wouldn’t have seen so many such matches in the beginning.”It’s true that if you keep getting wickets like this, you won’t get runs and you will lose confidence. That’s true. But out of eight games, you will play two or three games maximum. Otherwise five games are on phenomenal pitches,” Sanjay said.

Howzit Hersch,Trust you’re bearing up – this too shall pass, at least, that’s what they tell me. Anyway. It was wonderful to see you in decent batting nick at Centurion. Good grafting stuff, and bad luck about missing the century.As for the other issue, if the offending fans were white would you still have said what you said? That’s what the racism argument boils down to, you see.I’m asking this question because when the South African team suffered racist abuse from spectators – most of them white – in Australia last season, there was no shouting about or at the fans from the field. At least, none seems to have been recorded.I’m not calling you racist, I’m trying to explain why some people might do so.And what about the Pakistani batsmen who were out there on the field with you? Didn’t you think that what you said broke the admittedly unwritten rules of sledging? Also, how does it change anything if you were talking to your teammates? The comments you made are still out there, regardless.I have to tell you that when I heard for myself what you said, I was disgusted. It’s not the swearing. Bloody hell, I’m a reporter – we were born effing and blinding, and I’ll continue to do so until I b****r off this mortal coil at the age of 112. So swearing doesn’t scare me. Instead, it was your harsh tone that struck me most.There was something close to hate in your voice, Hersch, and that’s not a pretty sound. I have this mental pen pic of you as an easy-going bloke who enjoys his talent and realises how lucky he is to make his living in the sunshine. That wasn’t what I heard on that tape.I do not doubt that the Pakistan supporters were becoming increasingly unruly. They were loud and irritating from the distance of the press box, never mind from over your shoulder. In fact, the reporting of this story has been unfair to you because all we have to go on is what you said. This saga will remain unfairly skewed against you unless we are somehow able to reveal what the fans were saying. Let no one suggest that they are blameless in all this.Be that as it may, if the security staff did their jobs properly when they removed the supporters who swore at Paul Harris, why didn’t you call the big boys in when things went too far where you were fielding?I should tell you that I do have some idea of how you felt. Three hours after the close of play on Sunday, I was still working in the press box. The plan was to send the BBC a few clips of what Mickey Arthur had said at the press conference that evening. The plan was not working, because of a man and his leafblower.Now, a leafblower is an inspired choice for removing the debris left behind in the stands by the crowd after a day’s play, and this bloke had been doing his job infuriatingly well for two hours. Do you know what a leafblower sounds like, Hersch? It’s a bit like an elephant shoving its trunk into your ear and trumpeting for all its worth. Try editing audio clips with that racket going on.After two hours of this little lot, the end of my tether was at hand. The chairs in the Centurion press box are sturdy, and made of metal … Yup, I hurled a chair into the stand the man was cleaning. Not at him, of course – I was simply trying to attract his attention to ask him when a semblance of silence might return. But that doesn’t change anything. I should have contacted the stadium manager, I should have followed the procedures. I should have kept my cool. I didn’t.I enjoyed an instant of satisfaction as the chair clattered into the plastic stadium seating. Then I realised just what an unprofessional, reckless idiot I had been. I tried to find the man to apologise, but he was long gone.The next morning, I asked for a few moments of the stadium chief executive’s time. I explained myself, and I was relieved when she decided to let the matter rest there.I think I reacted as most people would have done. I realised I had done something that required an apology and that I might have my accreditation withdrawn as a consequence. That realisation doesn’t make me anything special, it was entirely normal.Which makes me wonder why, after admitting your guilt, you’re now pursuing an appeal. It looks like you think you needn’t have to face the consequences of your actions.I can’t tell you how disappointing that is. But, hey, I’ll get over it, and pretty soon you’ll be one of my favourite players again.I’ll stop bending your ear now. Before I do, I need to ask you to keep this between us. I know it’s going to be on the worldwide web, and that many millions of people will have access to it. But there’s stuff in here that I’d rather not have broadcast out there. So, off the record? Know what I mean?Cheers,Telford Vice

Mohammad Ashraful has been named Bangladesh’s new Test and ODI captain. He replaces Habibul Bashar who stood down as one-day captain following the series against India, but had indicated his wish to remain in charge of the Test side. However, the board decided on a clean break, ending Bashar’s three-year stint. At 22, Ashraful becomes the second youngest current international captain behind Prosper Utseya.Ashraful has been appointed initially till the end of the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa during September and his first assignment will be a three-Test and three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka later this month. Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s leading pace bowler, has been named as his deputy.”With his [Ashraful’s] captaincy, Bangladesh cricket enters a new era,” said a BCB spokesman. “The board is confident Ashraful will lead by example and take the country’s cricket to a new height. He is a talented batsman and has all the abilities to be a very good leader.”AshrafuI, who found out of his elevation first through a text message from Reazuddin Al Mamun, the board joint secretary, paid tribute to Bashar and former coach Dav Whatmore. “I must say Sumon bhai (Bashar) was the most successful captain of the country,” he told . “His ability to lead the team both on and off the field with calmness along with coach Dav Whatmore has set a standard for the team, so I have to continue it. It’s a big challenge but I am ready for it.”I know if I failed to deliver as a batsman then the captaincy wouldn’t mean anything. So I have to lead the team from the front. The most important thing is that the demand in our cricket has increased day by day,” he added.And Ashraful, who has played 35 Tests and 101 ODIs, added that he may take a leaf out of the captaincy manuals of idols Steve Waugh and Stephen Fleming. “I like their captaincy because of their aggressiveness. I think there are a lot of things I have to learn as a skipper and I believe I will get support from my teammates and the former cricketers. I proved myself as a captain slightly in the domestic circuit but I am aware that it is a different task for me at the international level.”Ashraful’s coach on the tour of Sri Lanka will be Shaun Williams, the Australian who has been in charge of the successful Under-19 side, following Whatmore’s departure after the India series. The board plan to name Whatmore’s long-term successor following the series in Sri Lanka.Despite Test and ODI averages of 24 and 21 respectively Ashraful is one of Bangladesh’s key players. He hit the headlines in 2001 by becoming the youngest Test century-maker and was Bangladesh’s leading run-scorer during the World Cup in West Indies. Against South Africa he hit an 83-ball 87, which was central to the team’s memorable Super Eight victory.However, his finest moment came at Cardiff, in 2005, when he hit 100 to guide Bangladesh towards a famous victory over Australia in the Natwest Series. But each time his game has appeared ready to move to the next level his inconsistency, and impetuosity, has reared its head. Now he has the added responsibility of having to lead by example.