Tony Cozier, the veteran broadcaster, has launched a stinging broadside at West Indies in the aftermath of their back-to-back defeats in the first two Tests. Cozier blamed a lack of planning, commitment, enthusiasm, and leadership.In South Africa and Zimbabwe, the side was beset by a series of injuries which left the squad severely weakened. Cozier, writing in The Independent, claimed that several players “turned up for the preparatory training camp as much as two stones overweight. It was not long before such a lack of fitness had its effects. Three players broke down even before the team arrived in South Africa and had to return home. At no time in the six Tests could West Indies field their strongest team, with key players eliminated by injury.”The pre-match preparations in southern Africa also left much to be desired – he refers to “lacklustre, intermittent practice sessions” and adds that in the Tests 124 no-balls and 28 wides were bowled and more than a dozen catches spilled.And so to the current series. “The West Indies squad assembled in Jamaica five days prior to the first Test,” Cozier wrote. “In that time, they had only one practice session. Much of the time was spent in psychological sessions, ironically some watching motivational videos of the American basketball legend Michael Jordan stressing the importance of practice, which is precisely what they were not doing.”The first Test ended with four players joining in the well-reported party in the stands. The day after the debacle of being bowled out for 47, West Indies held a net session – but it was voluntary and several players decided they didn’t need the practice anyway.When the sides moved on to Trinidad, England made full use of the excellent indoor facilities at Port-of-Spain while, as Cozier noted, “West Indies were not seen once in the indoor nets and were seldom in the gym”.In sport, you reap what you sow. It doesn’t bode well for Barbados and Antigua where the mass of traveling support will mean that Bridgetown and St John’s will be homes from home for England.

The heavy rain throughout the Caribbean which has decimated the one-day series with England has left the West Indies board facing considerable losses. Three of the four matches to date have been abandoned, and the forecast for this weekend’s double-header in St Lucia is grim.The losses to date – full refunds are already owed to everyone who bought tickets for the last three games – total over US$ 1m, and these grow with every subsequent abandonment. The board are partially covered by insurance, but its real concern is that as a result premiums for the 2007 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place at the same time of year, will be increased massively.Unlike other regions where the gate receipts are dwarfed by income from television, in the Caribbean it’s the paying punters who still account for the bulk of the board’s income. “We can never compete for money with the likes of England who negotiated a television deal of £147m last time, Darren Millien, the board’s chief commercial officer,” told The Independent. “We don’t know what is to happen yet but this is a huge missed opportunity because England is easily our biggest tour.”Calls have already started for the World Cup to be rescheduled – the ICC is expected to discuss the idea of bringing the tournament forward by a few weeks this weekend when it assembles in St Lucia – but locals stress that this weather is unseasonal. For the bulk of the region, the rains do not usually start until late May or early June, and April-May should be dry and hot.But try telling that to those with little else to do but sit and watch the rain fall.

While his former New Zealand team-mates played for pride against England at Trent Bridge, Craig Spearman today broke the record for the highest first-class score by a Gloucestershire player.Spearman flayed the Middlesex attack, smashing his way to 341 off 390 balls. He hit 40 fours and six sixes in his innings, moving past 318, and the record – previously held by none other than WG Grace – with a leg-side clip for two off Ben Hutton, whose grandfather Len was no stranger to triple-centuries himself. Grace scored his 318 not out against Yorkshire at Cheltenham back in 1876. Spearman’s innings was only the fourth triple-century scored by a Gloucestershire player, and the first since Wally Hammond’s 302 against Newport in 1939. Hammond also made another 302, his time not out, against Glamorgan at Bristol five years earlier.Spearman was eventually out, caught by David Nash off Hutton, but his 341 will go down as the highest first-class score in England since Brian Lara’s 501 not out in 1994, and is the joint eighth-highest in all County Championship cricket. It is also the third-highest score by a New Zealander, behind Bert Sutcliffe’s two knocks of 385 and 355.Chris Taylor’s first century since becoming captain was almost overlooked in the circumstances. He was dismissed for exactly 100 just before lunch, but Spearman went on and on, and eventually Gloucestershire declared at 695 for 9. Spearman, whose previous-highest score was 180, made the Middlesex bowlers look tame. His innings included a repertoire of reverse sweeps and massive sixes, as well as his trademark flowing cover-drives.Spearman, who has a business-studies degree, decided to give up his New Zealand career in 2001, after 19 Tests and 51 one-dayers, for a career in banking, which brought him to London. It was there that John Bracewell, a fellow New Zealander and the Gloucestershire coach at the time, asked if he fancied a few games at Bristol. He has not looked back since, and after a fairly ordinary international career has become one of the county’s most consistent batsmen. He does not play as an overseas player as he holds a British passport – his mother is Welsh.

While Michael Vaughan and the England team practised at the Chester-le-Street ground for Tuesday’s match against New Zealand, a burglar walked into the English dressing room and, after a quick look around, strolled away with Vaughan’s watch and wallet, as well as £300 and 17 credit cards that belonged to Darren Gough.According to The Daily Telegraph, security cameras caught the thief on tape, and established that he was careful not to leave behind fingerprints. He spent three minutes inside the dressing room and took the long way out to avoid detection. His job was made easier by the absence of a security guard outside the dressing room.Vaughan, who lost more than £1000 and the valuable watch, believed that the thief was familiar with the layout of the ground. “It’s a maze finding your way to the dressing room,” he said. “We’re always getting lost.”If the thief knows his cricket, the contents of Vaughan’s wallet could well surprise him. Besides the money, it contained a match ticket from the recent Antigua Test, autographed by Brian Lara, who broke the 400-run barrier in that game. Incidentally, though other valuables were lying around the room, they were left untouched.

Ashley Ross, one of the technical directors of New Zealand Cricket, has been chastised for making sexual innuendoes in a presentation. Ross, who briefly coached New Zealand, is alleged to have delivered a coaching presentation titled “Phone sex, masturbation and the real deal: Cricket training as it has always been”.Ross is said to have compared phone sex with throw-downs, masturbation with net practice and the “real deal” with simulated game situations. The presentation apparently tried to bring out the the parallels between three different levels of cricket practice, and the three different levels of sexual practice. It is believed to have been delivered to at least two groups of qualified coaches over the past year.New Zealand chief executive, Martin Snedden, condemned this approach and said that he wasn’t comfortable with these methods. The quoted him as saying, “It’s certainly not the angle we would usually take on coaching, and it’s fair to say I’m not comfortable with it. That sort of thing does not fit easily with the NZC culture – it’s not the way we go about things.”Snedden also cautioned against over-reaction and felt that the issue shouldn’t be blown out of proportion “The bottom line,” he continued, “is that Ashley was delivering a presentation to a closed group of coaches who he knew very well.”Emily Drumm, the former captain of the New Zealand women’s team, said that this latest strategy stretched the boundaries of common decency and termed it as “an absolutely disgusting analogy”.Drumm, who had earlier decided to skip the tour of England and Ireland, added, “It’s a ridiculous way to discuss the issue. He’s obviously become bored, has tried to come up with a fresh approach, and has overshot the mark by quite some distance. The shame is that Ash is a sound technical coach and has often offered fantastic advice. He’s been a great help for the top women cricketers, and is an excellent source of information.”

Although facing some of the greatest challenges in its history, the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) has been strangely evasive in its public dealings. It took no public position on ProCricket although repeatedly asked to do so, refused to even explain (let alone justify) its team selection procedures of recent months, and turned a deaf ear to all questions about what it was doing and why.The only reliable source of information about USACA is the proverbial grapevine. Typically, some member of USACA’s "inner circle" will anonymously post a sensitive letter, e-mail or memo on a bulletin board, a web site or on the internet. This will be picked up by other equally anonymous folk, and the flurry of e-mails will bring a lot of hitherto unknown facts to light. Then, as the correspondence subsides, all is silence again–until the next leak, or unexpected revelation.This is just what happened over the last two weeks. A series of internal memos between members of the USACA executive and board of directors has surfaced on the internet, and is busily doing the rounds. Taken as a whole, they do not present a pretty picture of the USACA’s inner workings.The current squabble revolves around the selection procedures for the USA team for the 2004 Under-15 tournament in Cayman Islands. The New York region, which has had a running feud with USACA ever since it felt cheated out of USACA’s top offices in 2003 by an alleged conspiracy between the other regions, was the first to protest, claiming that its youngsters had been totally ignored by the selectors. Then, a more serious protest, "quoting chapter and verse", was lodged by the Northwest region–its director posted documentary evidence for five nominations it had made to the USACA selection committee and pointedly asked what criteria, if any, had been used to reject his nominees.This challenge was altogether too much for an ex-president of the USACA, who is widely rumoured to be the "invisible hand" behind US team selections. After congratulating the USA Under-15 team for their performance in the Cayman Islands, he took direct aim at the Northwest director in what amounted to a character assassination–and he made sure that all other USACA directors, and all USACA executives, got the message. This ex-president is widely credited with engineering the coup that knocked the New York region out of all positions of control in the USACA, and putting in place a president, Gladstone Dainty, who had served as his USACA treasurer. His incendiary attack on the Northwest region director set off all kinds of reactions across the US cricket community, and before long the rumor mills–and the web sites– were churning furiously.This exchange of e-mails exposed the ruthlessness that underlies USACA’s docile public face. Any perceived threat to its ways of doing things, and its chiefs go for the jugular, trying to silence its critics by any means necessary. USACA has been especially successful in this activity because of tactit support from the ICC, which refuses to deal with any other entity in US cricket. Whether those days will come to an end now that ICC has established a presence in this country via its Project USA remains to be seen — but few bets are currently being placed on either side.The internet correspondence also provided some juicy tidbits about what has been going on behind the scenes at USACA. It appears that the energetic P. K. Guha, first vice-president of USACA who had openly challenged the president and the USACA board of directors over their lethargy and inaction, resigned rather than wait to be fired by the Board. Guha was the one member of the USACA executive who had been elected as in "independent", i.e. owing nothing to any of the factions that have dominated the USACA for the past five years. His sudden departure can only cast further doubt on USACA’s ability to manage the affairs of US Cricket.The divisions within the USACA board on what to do about ProCricket were also highlighted in the e-mails. Apparently, on the basis of his unedited comments, the ex-USACA president has been leading the charge against ProCricket. The current USACA secretary has argued in favour of leaving ProCricket alone, the current president has refused to take a firm position, and the treasurer has adroitly avoided being put on the spot. With the USACA executive being so hopelessly at odds over as important a challenge as ProCricket, it is easy to see why nothing has been accomplished by USACA in the past few months.Which brings us to the real question. Apart from its politics–what is the USACA doing for US Cricket?The answer would have to be, nothing much; or more accurately, nothing that one knows of. USACA’s five-year plan, written in 2000 at the urging of the ICC, is gathering dust on the shelves with most of its domestic objectives unmet. Its promises to develop junior cricket across the USA, to develop a national umpiring program, to secure better facilities and resources, and to implement a series of initiatives to make cricket more accessible to the US community, have been largely unfulfilled – any successes in these areas have been local or at best regional, with little participation or input from USACA.A perfect example of this do-nothing attitude is provided by some of the incidental e-mails. The next big event on the USACA’s domestic calendar is supposed to be the national Under-19 Championships, which are supposed to take place around mid-August. Someone asked, disarmingly enough, what the USACA was doing about it, since it was only three weeks away. The final answer – from a member of the USACA executive who would undoubtedly wish to remain anonymous – was that he had heard nothing about it, no one had even discussed the event with him, so it was (for all practical purposes) a non-event! Yet there it is, prominently displayed on the USACA web site.It is not clear that the USACA even knows how to proceed on a national basis with such goals. There are no professional marketers or sports managers at the board or executive level in the USACA, and no indication that there will be any in the near future. This is where Project USA, and its new CEO might help–but only if USACA’s leadership is prepared to listen–become more transparent and open in their dealings, and give up on backroom politics as their reason for continuing to exist.

Michael Clarke’s performances over the last year or so have suggested that he is a huge star in the making, and he hopes to reinforce that belief if picked for the Australian Test squad that will tour India in October. Clarke had a fantastic time in India during the TVS Cup triangular series last year, picking up seven wickets and making 118 runs as Australia romped to victory.”I love playing in India,” he said, speaking to reporters in Amsterdam. “I don’t mind the ball spinning. Hopefully I will be selected and show my ability there, both against pace and spin.”Interestingly, Clarke’s coach-cum-manager, Neil de Costa, is of Indian origin, and was involved in his initiation into the game. In fact, it was de Costa who made the nine-year-old Clarke pick up a bat for the first time.Clarke acknowledged de Costa’s influence and said, “His parents are Indians and we did a lot of work playing spin bowling. I have also been brought up playing a lot of spin. My wickets at home are a little slower than the other wickets you commonly find in Australia.”There was also a mention of Shane Warne, who had helped him out with his spin bowling. “Warney has been fantastic, a brilliant bowler and a great person. I think he has helped me a lot with my cricket and definitely with my bowling.”Clarke’s one-day batting average is an impressive 43.47 after 29 games, often while batting as low as No. 6 or 7. But though he made a scintillating hundred in a tour match against India at Hobart last December, a modest first-class average (37.83) might count against him when the selectors pick a side to win in India for the first time since 1969-70. Given his talent, though, an Indian tour is probably just the challenge he needs to take his game up a notch.

Shane Warne has claimed the world record for the most Test wickets as he overtook Muttiah Muralitharan’s tally of 532 earlier today. Warne’s crowning moment came when he had Irfan Pathan caught at slip by Matthew Hayden with a peach of a delivery that drifted away from the left-hander and turned in.It was by no means a walk in the park for Warne – he toiled hard to pick up 3 for 95 in addition to his rather meagre returns of 4 for 193 in the first Test. But the moment was a special one, and the knowledgable Chennai crowd gave Warne a rousing response. David Shepherd, the umpire standing at the end where the wicket fell, was quick to congratulate Warne, as was Rahul Dravid, the batsman who replaced Pathan.But it did not always seem like Warne would make this record his. Muralitharan has been on a hot streak in recent times, and only an injury to his shoulder gave Warne the breathing space to catch up. Murali has taken only 91 Tests to get to 532 wickets, each of his wickets costs 22.86 runs (Warne 25.64).Murali first claimed the record when he beat Courtney Walsh’s tally of 519 wickets, against Zimbabwe in Harare. He then raced on to 527 wickets, with a 6-wicket haul in Bulawayo. Warne then matched the feat, picking up seven wickets against Sri Lanka in Darwin. Murali has not played a Test since August and Warne has two Tests after this one in which to stretch the lead.

A possible dispute is looming between Cricket Australia and the country’s top players, with the players demanding to retain a percentage of the game’s revenue, rather than a flat rate.As things stand, the players receive 25% of the board’s total revenue from gate takings, television rights and other promotional activities – it is estimated that will be worth A$28 million this season, of which about $15 million will go to the international players. But Cricket Australia reportedly wants to end the deal and the players are growing uneasy.Ricky Ponting was questioned about the situation ahead of Tuesday’s second one-dayer against New Zealand, and said he was happy to leave the negotiations to the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA). “We have Tim May [the ACA president] and the cricketers’ association in place to deal with those things,” Ponting explained. “He hears the player’s voice and I’m sure he’ll do his best to make sure it doesn’t go back that way [to a flat rate]. Having spoken to him already he’s pretty keen for us to have the 25%.”May described the existing revenue-share arrangement as crucial to the relationship between administrators and players. “We haven’t received a proposal from Cricket Australia in regards to the player payment pool,” May added. “It’s inappropriate to comment about any proposal we haven’t received.”The agreement stems from the days of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket when it was part of the settlement between the rebels and the establishment. If there is a standoff, then it could be as bitter as the 1997 dispute concerning the drive for better conditions for players, which led to threats of strike action.”Current players have been criticised for the finances they’re receiving,” said Matthew Hayden, a member of the ACA executive. “But that’s a near-sighted view because the money attracts people to the game.”The existing deal ends on June 30 next year, and it is understood that preliminary discussions have already started. “We won’t be detailing our discussions through the media,” said a spokesman for the board. “We’ll be holding our discussions face-to-face with May and his team.”

Two Christmases ago, Simon Jones was contemplating the prospect of never setting foot on a cricket pitch again, after that fearful knee injury at Brisbane which kept him out of all forms of cricket for 16 months. Today, however, his thrilling diving catch at fine leg, and his subsequent dismissals of Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock from consecutive deliveries, gave England the momentum they needed to push for an eighth Test win in a row.Jones was rather more subdued in front of the microphones than he had been on the pitch, however, where he greeted the wicket of Kallis by charging down to third man and leaping into the arms of Matthew Hoggard. “The boys have been giving me a good ribbing about that,” he admitted, after a bizarre celebration, which resulted – puzzingly enough – in Hoggard grabbing his ears and squeezing them as hard as he could.It was that earlier catch, however, that really set England on the road towards victory. “It gave us a bit of a buzz,” said Jones, who understandably enough has not been England’s most mobile fielder since his comeback. “It was one of those where you get into position and it just sticks. Fred [Flintoff] thought it was going to come straight to me, but in the end it was awkward and I had to stretch for it.”

Pollock himself came close to trumping Jones’s starring role, when – having just removed Marcus Trescothick with the first ball of the innings – he followed up with a perilously close shout for lbw against Mark Butcher. “I haven’t seen it yet, but it must have been close,” agreed Pollock. “But when you’re defending small totals you need those 50/50s to go your way.”He admitted: “It was a disappointing day for us. We’d talked about 270 being a tough target here, with the wicket going up and down, and we were conscious we needed a big partnership. The luck didn’t go our way, but cricket’s a strange game. We’ll be fighting to the end, and there’ll be some serious headlines if we pull off a win.”Pollock was at least pleased that his side had been wrapped up in a close duel for four days of the Test, and predicted an even contest for the rest of the series as well. “It’s been good Test cricket,” he said. “England were in the pound seats after Day Three, we showed some good character to fight back, and the people have enjoyed watching it. It’s been entertaining stuff.”One of the most entertaining moments was an explosive delivery from the young speedster Dale Steyn, which nipped away to detonate Michael Vaughan’s off stump. “I certainly enjoyed it!” enthused Pollock. “Dale’s an exciting talent – he’s got good gas, and a good wrist on him as well. It comes out nicely with a good seam. He’s a huge find, and I hope he kicks on and plays a big part in the series.”And Pollock warned: “We’ll come out fighting tomorrow,” before taking a sneak peak towards the heavens. “It would only be human to wake up and look out of the curtains to check the weather. England are favourites, but if we can put a run together, like Makhaya [Ntini] did in the first innings, then anything can happen.”