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The West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) planned expansion for this year’s Red Stripe Bowl competition will not go ahead due mainly to financial constraints. The WICB is on record as wanting to expand the competition to include 20 teams, up from the 10 teams which have participated over the years.The WICB’s Chief Cricket Operations Officer, Michael Hall, said: “Neither Canada nor the United States are able to participate for financial reasons. They are both suffering financial constraints after their participation in the ICC tournament in Canada earlier this year.”Eight teams will compete in this year’s Red Stripe Bowl competition which begins on 2 October, and will be contested in two zones – one in Jamaica and the other in Guyana.WICB’s CEO, Gregory Shillingford, said in an interview: “We had decided after last year’s Red Stripe Bowl that we would have embarked upon a 20-team competition. When reviewing the concept paper for the competition, we realised it was quite ambitious given the circumstances of the WICB. At our last annual general meeting, we reported a loss of about five million US dollars for 2000 and the results of this year did not reveal a profit.”Shillingford explained that the WICB still hope to have a 20-team competition next year that will include all 14 islands that fall under the umbrella of the WICB, the Americas, not only Canada, United States, Bermuda and Cayman Islands but also Argentina, along with one or two English county sides and an international team.Zone “A” which includes Jamaica, Northern Windwards, Trinidad and Tobago and Leewards XI will be contested in Jamaica, while Zone “B” which includes Antigua, Barbados, Guyana and Southern Windwards will be contested in Guyana.The Red Stripe Bowl competition begins on 2 October, with the semi finals on 11 and 12 October, and the finals scheduled for 14 October at the Kaiser Sports Club.The Windward Islands are the 2000 Red Stripe Bowl champions.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:54

The India A batsmen registered 10 scores of 50 plus, the most by any team involved in the series

India A had called Australia A as the hurdle they haven’t been able to cross. Much of that had been down to a lack of control with the ball. On the day of the final, they managed to address that. The four spinners bowled 39 overs between them, took eight wickets between them and went at well under five-an-over. Australia A could not find acceleration – there were only two fours in the last 20 overs. Then Gurkeerat Singh produced a fine, unbeaten 85-ball 87, and India A found the trophy in their hands.

Khawaja accuses Samson of spitting

Usman Khawaja has said the stand-off between his team and Sanju Samson got worse when Samson allegedly spat close to one of the Australian players’ feet.
“The guys were a bit disappointed that he claimed a catch in the first game that wasn’t a catch. Bounced a foot short, it was off me, and so we recognised that. Today it would have died down quicker but he proceeded to spit in front of our player’s foot three times,” Khawaja said.
“As soon as you do that, the boys are going to get revved up. And we were trying to explain it to the umpires, but they weren’t really understanding. But we tried to take control of the situation and calm the boys down a little bit. But that’s just not on. I’m happy if the batsman wants to talk back. That’s fine. But spitting is not on.” Khawaja, however, said he did not want to pursue the matter further.
When Gurkeerat, Samson’s batting partner at the time, was asked about the incident, he said. “I didn’t even know. They were just talking and I didn’t hear it. I have no idea about that”.

It hadn’t been a comprehensive victory though. Mayank Agarwal had reached the safety of his crease, but was hung in mid-air when Chris Lynn’s throw found its mark. That ugly mistake caused a collapse – five wickets for 49 runs which included Unmukt Chand popping a catch to short cover and Kedar Jadhav taking a full toss and sweping it straight to deep square leg. Shot selection had been an aspect they had talked about, said coach Rahul Dravid, but there appeared some lessons were still left to be learned. But the required rate always hovering at four or under at the time helped India A stay afloat.Gurkeerat, batting for the first time in the series, was the game-changer. He made a measured half-century and blunted Australia A at the time when they had been their most aggressive. He had come in at 82 for 4, held back until 137 for 5 and then unfurled classy on-drives to keep his dressing room and the Chennai crowd on the edge. Late cuts, little nudges, cover drives and importantly the resolute forward defensive as India A slowly reclaimed the upper hand. With only 14 runs to win, he went four, six and six to seal the game.Besides his innings, there were other factors adding to the typical drama of a low-scorer. Sanju Samson was pushed down to No. 8 and the moment he stepped out, Australia A targeted him. There was more than a bit of chirping. Travis Head and Chris Lynn got in his ear even before he’d faced his first ball. Joe Burns got into the act at drinks, and even the umpire intervening didn’t quite make a difference. The crowd added to the rancour as well, to the extent that the police had to go into the stands and calm them down.Australia A needed four wickets, and they knew removing one of these two would bring the bowlers out. This was the crunch. This was where the game needed to be closed out and Indian sides in the past have been lacking in that department. This side, as recently as Monday, couldn’t do it with the ball in hand. But today Samson and Gurkeerat managed to weather the hostility and ensured the spinners’ good work earlier in the innings meant something.Simple plans had been laid. India A bowled at the stumps, refused to give batsmen the pace they might have preferred. With a hint of uncertain bounce, getting the spinners away wasn’t easy. Karn Sharma and Axar Patel bowled 20 overs that cost a mere 62 and yielded five wickets. The part-timers, Gurkeerat and Karun Nair, chipped in as well – 19 overs for 75 runs and three wickets. There was enough emphasis on getting turn out of the pitch, but a greater one was placed on not offering bad balls. The plan worked to such an extent that India A were able to pull back a quick but scratchy start from Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns. The Australia A captain had as many as three chances – he could have been run out in the second over, Samson spilled a catch in the third and Khawaja only just cleared mid-off the next ball. He capitalised on his luck for a total of 76 runs – his fifth fifty-plus score in six innings. But then the spinners started wheeling away and rest of the line-up could not muster much.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSt George’s Park, the oldest of South Africa’s international venues, stayed true to its nature by overseeing a one-day international with an old-fashioned flavour on an inhibiting surface. A keenly-fought affair, in which both innings seemed locked together throughout, had the makings of a last-over nail-biter. Instead, thanks to Jos Buttler’s sudden lift of tempo, it fell England’s way by five wickets with 20 balls to spare.Inhibitions? Not when you have just won your first IPL contract and are nearly £400,000 richer. Buttler gave the impression he would have played just as freely on the cobbled streets of his native Somerset as he logged an unbeaten 48 from 28 balls.Three successive fours off Kyle Abbott, the first of them streaky (where was South Africa’s slip?) then three sixes in a row off Imran Tahir in the following over sent England scooting to victory. South Africa’s pace bowling had gone up a notch since their defeat in Bloemfontein but they now trail 2-0 in the five-match series.It was Alex Hales’ 99 from 124 balls that placed England for victory, although there was work to be done when he was fifth out with 59 needed from 52 balls – caught down the leg side pulling at Abbott with visions of a hundred. Front-foot pushes and crafted singles had supplanted what has become the common avalanche of sixes but the incoming Buttler recognised only a day of dreamy blue skies.Hales has played more exciting innings, he has played fine innings in more draining conditions, but this was one of his most judicious ODI affairs. The Test series did not advertise the emergence of a rounder game, but his selectivity did here. With the exception of AB de Villiers, whose 73 from 91 balls was a notable return to form, he managed the conditions better than anybody.Abbott, fit again after hamstring trouble, put in a combative shift, a bowler of great physicality, nipping one through to gate to bowl Jason Roy for 14 – Norton anti-virus would insist on a patch to stem that weakness. Root was at his most conservative, labouring 64 balls over 38 before he tried to advance to Abbott and deflected a rising ball into his stumps.Eoin Morgan came in at No 4 – shrewdly, no promotion for Buttler on this occasion with grafting to be done – and kept England in touch with the rate with judicious sixes against Imran Tahir and Farhaan Behardien before Morkel defeated his blow-down-the-ground shot with a wide cutter.Stokes’ fate was an eventful duck. Tahir nearly had him twice in an over, sweep and reverse sweep both failing in turn with a review needed to spare him on the second occasion. In the next over he deflected Morkel into his stumps. The pressure was on England, but not, it became evident, on Buttler.Financially, Chris Morris was even better served than Buttler by the IPL auction – he was sitting on a cool million dollars after a bidding frenzy that eventually saw him move to Delhi Daredevils. No matter: he had to watch from the outer. South Africa, seemingly of different persuasion, dropped both him and his Bloemfontein new-ball partner Marchant de Lange.The match did not turn solely on Buttler’s late merrymaking – Chris Jordan also played a crucial part in South Africa’s innings. De Villiers came into the match with three successive ducks to end the Test series and 8 in the opening ODI, but he did the hard yards, his form flooded back and he signalled his intentions as South Africa reached the last 10 overs by lashing Jordan over midwicket for six.But Jordan is a multi-faceted cricketer, dangerous with the bat, outperformed by few at slip and in the deep, and when de Villiers failed to middle another mighty hit over the leg side off Ben Stokes in the following over, Jordan was equal to the challenge.It was a hugely difficult catch, a white ball falling out of a blue sky, a swirling breeze strong enough to fleck the sea and shake the branches of the trees outside the ground holding the ball just within range: Jordan’s range anyway as he dashed back full tilt to take the ball over his shoulder at mid-on with remarkable poise.De Villiers had built his own stage in the early part of South Africa’s innings but the final onslaught which could have carried the game away from England never materialised. Only 64 came from the last 10 – respectable but not a game changer.By the 20th over, South Africa had been three down for 98, Hashim Amla bowled when Reece Topley’s semblance of inswing developed into something straighter, Quinton de Kock’s bountiful run of form ended when Stokes had him lbw with a fullish delivery, and du Plessis’ confident innings fell just short of a half-century when Adil Rashid found drift and turn to have him caught at slip.Rashid and Moeen Ali throttled the mid-innings, both stints completed by the 37th over. That left a lot of onus on Jordan, and he could have done without Buttler spilling a very acceptable catch, one-handed to his left, when JP Duminy tried to run him to third man on 37. Five overs for 33 did not flatter him, but the catch released him from his troubles and Topley, maintaining a full length, squeezed South Africa to a chaseable total.A slow pitch was to get slower still. The breeze was lifting. The match was in the balance. Hales got a break on 17 when he scrunched a full toss from Tahir into no-man’s land and played with great responsibility. Then came Buttler, the liveliest breeze of all.

The Irani Trophy match between Mumbai and Rest of India in Rajkot has been postponed by five days and will now begin on October 6. The change in schedule was necessitated to avoid it clashing with South Africa A’s tour of India which concludes at the end of September.”The postponement by a few days was necessary as the South Africa A series ends only at the end of September,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, told PTI.South Africa A’s tour includes two four-day matches, followed by three one-dayers. The final one-dayer, also in Rajkot, is scheduled for September 30.The five-day Irani Trophy match is traditionally a curtain raiser for the Indian domestic season.

Herschelle Gibbs will meet with Indian police to be questioned over his involvement in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal when he arrives ahead of the Champions Trophy.It will be Gibbs’s first tour of India since the 2000 trip which led to match-fixing hitting the headlines a few weeks later. The rest of the South African squad left Johanneburg on Wednesday, but Gibbs is not flying until October 10. He will then have a brief meeting with Indian police when he arrives in Delhi.”Herschelle will fly on the night of October 10 straight to Delhi and will be accompanied by his lawyer,” said Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach. “He has an appointment with KK Paul [the Indian policeman leading the match-fixing investigation], which we are led to believe will take an hour-and-a-half.”He will then join the rest of the team in Mumbai ahead of the practice game on the 13th. His legal team has it all under control, Herschelle just has to get through it all, but I fully expect him to be fine. He’s really determined to have a big season.”Following the meeting Gibbs will join up with his team-mates and prepare for South Africa’s opening match of the tournament, against New Zealand, on October 16.The police prosecution department in Delhi also confirmed that the case remains on file against Gibbs. “We will re-open the case and if some kind of interrogation is required then it will be done,” Y.S. Yadav, Director of Prosecution, told AFP.

Division One

Points TableMiddlesex produced an efficient all round display to leave Lancashire clinging to their first division status. Ed Smith and Owais Shah laid the foundation for Middlesex’s 263 and Jamie Dalrymple then caught the eye with a brutal 63 from 33 balls – with 10 fours and two sixes – as more than 100 runs came in the last 10 overs. Lancashire began the chase confidently but lost wickets at regular intervals and only Glen Chapple’s 71 gave them any real hope.Essex picked up the National League trophy – after winning the title last month – and crowned the day with a four-wicket win against struggling Worcestershire. Vikram Solanki’s 79 was the major contribution for Worcestershire but the tail fell away against Andre Adams. Alistair Cook and Grant Flower then did the bulk of the scoring for Essex as they reached the target in the final over. Worcestershire face Lancashire next week in a likely relegation decider.

Division Two

Points TableDurham claimed their second promotion in two days with a convincing win against Somerset. The seam attack ran through Somerset’s batting reducing them to 53 for 7. Wesley Durston’s 46 at least pushed the total past three figures as Neil Killeen and Paul Collingwood grabbed three wickets each. Durham eased home with nearly 14 overs to spare and will now be of the top division in both leagues next season.Sussex maintained their lead at the top of the table with a 61-run with over Kent. Richard Montgomerie laid the foundations for a decent total with 73 and Carl Hopkinson gave the closing stages a flourish with 26 off 14 balls. Kent then continued the batting slump which handed Notts the Championship title yesterday, as James Kirtley and Robin Martin-Jenkins took three wickets each. From 48 for 5 there was no way back despite 51 from Michael CarberryNick Knight ensured Warwickshire avoided a second defeat against Scotland with a controlled century. He and Jonathon Trott added 109 to break the back of chasing 221. Fraser Watts and Ian Stanger made determined half-centuries for Scotland as they posted an useful total

Romesh Kaluwitharana, Sri Lanka’s pinch-hitting wicketkeeping batsman, has retired from international cricket in the aftermath of his ommission from a 20-man training pool for Sri Lanka’s tour to New Zealand in December.”I have decided to call it a day,” Kaluwitharana told reporters. “I started my Test career on a high note with a century against Australia and I’m happy to end it with a half-century against Pakistan.””Prior to the Pakistan tour I was thinking about retiring at the end of the year, but I’m still struggling with the wrist injury I picked up in Pakistan and having not been picked for New Zealand the time is right.””There is a right time for everything in life and, although this is very emotional time and that I know I have more cricket left in me, I’m happy that this time has come,” he added.Kaluwitharana had made several previous comebacks to the national team,including a return to Test cricket last year when the selectors asked Kumar Sangakkara to concentrate on his batting, but with his 35th birthday approaching, he felt the time had come to bid farewell.”I would like to thank everyone – family, team-mates, fans and friends – for all the support over the years and I wish Sri Lankan cricket all the best for the future.”Kaluwitharana was an extremely popular cricketer in Sri Lanka, loved for his perma-smile behind the stumps and his electric batting, especially his pinch-hitting exploits during the triumphant 1996 World Cup campaign, when he teamed up with Sanath Jayasuriya to help change the face of the one-day game.But Kaluwitharana’s high-risk approach contributed to a reputation forinconsistency and his final Test average of 26.12 in 49 matches, including three hundreds, does not do his obvious natural talent justice. In 189 one-dayers, he finished with 3711 runs, which included 23 half-centuries and 24 ducks.Kaluwitharana is unsure about his future, but he hopes to continue hisinvolvement with Sri Lankan cricket, although in what capacity he iscurrently unclear. For the time being though he will be concentrating on his job with the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.Kaluwitharana, who captains his current club side, Colts Cricket Club, will retire from first-class cricket as well at the end of the season.

Viv Richards, chairman of the West Indian selectors, has defended the inclusion of inexperienced Bajan fast bowler Fidel Edwards in the squad for the second Test against Sri Lanka in Jamaica.”I was very very impressed when I first saw him at the Academy in Grenada, and there are a few people who did say a few things about him,” Richards told reporters at the Beausejour Cricket Ground after the first Test. “There are a few scouts around who did say their little bits about that individual. This is what selection is all about if we are looking to rebuild and maybe to move forward in future.””That, I think gives you the sort of inspiration for us to do what we are doing at present. This is what it is all about,” said Richards. “We had made some enquiries about him this season, not having played for Barbados with his injury or whatever. Certainly, I saw him as being a product that we could work with in the future.”Richards added that he appreciated Edwards’s attacking approach and round-arm action. “It is an unusual action, and I felt that we need people like him at this stage if we are looking to improve further in the future. We felt that he does attack the crease with pace.”

Roland Perry on Saturday asserted that his chronicle of the Dream Teamwas an authentic version of Sir Donald Bradman while seeking to put atrest doubts raised by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar.”I can vouch for its authenticity. The Bradman Museum Director and SirDonald’s son, John Bradman, have also fully supported the book. Thisshould lay the controversy to rest,” Perry told PTI in Sydney.In a recently published book ‘Bradman’s Best’, Perry has chronicled 12all-time great players who he claimed had been selected by Bradman forhis ‘Dream Team’. Sachin Tendulkar is the only current cricketer inthe team while two other Indians, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, whowere in the initial short-list of 69 players, failed to make it to thefinal team.Gavaskar had questioned Perry’s claim saying Bradman would not haveliked to get into such a controversy.Perry differed with Gavaskar on the latter’s opinion that Bradmanwould never criticise a player. “It is not true. There are manyinstances of constructive criticism of players and analysis ofcricketers in his autobiography ‘Farewell to Cricket’ published in1950,” he said.On Gavaskar’s own credentials in the eyes of Bradman, Perry said, “SirDonald regarded Gavaskar’s batting style as technically perfect inevery way. He bracketed him with Sir Leonard Hutton, the openingbatsman and captain of England.”The choice of the (Dream) team is from his (Bradman’s) own mould andhe thought that Gavaskar’s chief fault was a lack of aggression,”Perry said.

ScorecardDriven by an unbeaten half-century by Kycia Knight, West Indies Women chased down 99 by a relatively comfortable margin against Pakistan Women, to take the one-off Twenty20 in Loughborough. West Indies won with only one ball to spare, but had eight wickets in hand.Pakistan chose to bat, but none of their batsmen bar Bismah Maroof and Javeria Khan could make any contribution of note. Mahroof and Javeria were the only two to get into double digits, making 36 and 37 out of Pakistan’s 98. Medium-pacer Shemaine Campbelle produced the best figures for West Indies, her 3 for 20 including the wickets of Mahroof and Javeria and preventing Pakistan from getting a final surge.The West Indies top order batted around Knight in the chase. She made 50 off 67 with five boundaries, while Deandra Dottin knocked off a four and a six in a 12-ball cameo at the end to help push West Indies across the line in the nick of time.