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West Indies’ opener, Andre Fletcher, has spoken of his lasting gratitude to Allen Stanford, the disgraced former bankroller of West Indian cricket – even though the collapse of Stanford’s financial empire has caused Fletcher to lose a significant portion of the US$1million prizemoney that he picked up for his matchwinning role in November’s Super Series in Antigua.Speaking to Cricinfo in the build-up to West Indies’ Twenty20 international against England in Trinidad, Fletcher admitted that approximately US$100,000 of his winnings have disappeared after he accepted investment advice from Stanford’s people in the wake of the tournament. But nevertheless, he still spoke fondly of the man who changed his life.”He did a lot for me, and I’m very grateful,” said Fletcher. “After all that has happened to him he is still a very good person, because if it wasn’t for him, maybe I would not have been as well known as I am now. He did a lot for West Indies cricket, but life still goes on from here. I wish him all the best for whatever is to come, and maybe one day, after all this, he can continue with his tournament.”Never mind the million-dollar match, it was Stanford’s regional 20/20 tournament, first contested in 2006, that catapulted Fletcher from virtual obscurity after a string of big-hitting performances for his native Grenada. To date he has played just four ODIs and a solitary Twenty20 international, all against Australia in 2008, but having helped seal the Stanford Superstars’ ten-wicket victory over England with an unbeaten 32 from 31 balls, he is sure to start in Sunday’s match at Port-of-Spain.”I am very happy to get back to the West Indies team, and once I get out there and play, I will do my best,” he said. “My form is still there from that game, I’ve been playing some regional games and scoring heavily. That’s not to say there won’t be any form of nervousness, but I just have to play my natural game.”England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, certainly knows what that natural game involves. He was playing for Middlesex prior to his recall to the ODI squad when Fletcher flogged a brilliant 90 not out from 66 balls in the Superstars’ final warm-up fixture. That innings left him in the perfect frame of mind for when, two days later, he and his captain Chris Gayle strode out needing a meagre 100 for victory, and wrapped up the match with a stunning 44 balls to spare.”It was a very great feeling, knowing that whoever won would get a million, and whoever lost would get nothing,” he recalled. “We knew the total was not a lot, so Chris and I said we would play our natural game, and that’s what we did. We went out there to do our best, and if we did our best the money would come. We were not focusing much on the money, just on cricket how it should be played. Looking at the crowd, there was a little form of anxiety, but we got over it and delivered.”Gayle, unfortunately, will play no part in Sunday’s Twenty20 after tearing his hamstring during his century in last week’s fifth Test, but Fletcher insists he will feel no added pressure in his captain’s absence. “I helped in the team victory, and Chris and Darren Sammy played a big part also, but just knowing that I helped bring the team home brings a lot of confidence in me,” he said. “It’s hard to have Chris out of the team, but that’ll be no form of setback. We still have a fairly strong team, Dwayne Bravo is back, and we’re just waiting for the day to arrive.”Fletcher believes he will actively thrive on the atmosphere at Port-of-Spain on Sunday. “From the start of the Stanford tournament in 2006 there were big crowds, and I’m the type of player who actually performs better with big crowds, not little crowds,” he said. “There won’t be any added pressure on me to go and bat when a game like this is on show, I’m just looking forward to delivering my goods. There may not be a million dollars at stake this time, but once we win it will feel like a million dollars!”Despite his stratospheric rise in Twenty20 cricket, Fletcher does not see his future exclusively in the shortest form of the game. He has been a regular fixture in the Windwards Islands’ regional four-day campaign this season, scoring three fifties in six matches, and he has his sights set on becoming Grenada’s fourth Test cricketer, after Junior Murray, Rawl Lewis and his current team-mate, Devon Smith.”I am very happy knowing that our guys won the Wisden Trophy, and coming into the squad I can see those guys are really happy, and so I just have to come in and gel with them, and show my confidence,” he said. “Just to be in the Twenty20 team now is a great feeling, but I have what it takes to be on the Test team also. I am doing well in the longer version, and the people back home are behind me, so hopefully they’ll one day give me a call so I can prove myself.”

Auckland have appointed former Zimbabwe spinner Paul Strang as their head coach for the remainder of the New Zealand domestic season. Strang will fill in for Mark O’Donnell who was recently appointed assistant coach of the national side for the ongoing series against India.Strang has been part of the coaching staff at Auckland for eight months and has also worked with their A team. He will be assisted by former New Zealand opening batsman Matt Horne.”Having worked with a lot of these guys already there won’t be too many new faces for me to get to know but it will be a different environment and with a different end goal,” Strang said. “Matt and I have already worked together a good deal and have a great understanding so the partnership should work well.”Auckland Cricket will review the position of long-term coach at the end of the season.

England received a boost ahead of Wednesday’s opening Test against West Indies after Andrew Flintoff came through a long session in the nets at Sabina Park and indicated that he should be fit to play.Flintoff, who injured his side in the tour opener last week, was considered doubtful but he has made a quicker than expected recovery. “All things are pointing to being all right, so barring a mishap tomorrow I should be fine,” he told the BBC. “It’s all right when you’re fresh. Having bowled today I’ll see how I cope tomorrow, send a couple more overs down and hopefully take it from there.””We’re cautiously optimistic at the moment,” Andrew Strauss, the captain, said. “Fred is ahead of where the medical staff wanted him, so that is really encouraging but you can never be 100% sure on these things until the day before the game. Once the scan came back with no tear, we were always keen to play him in the first Test but you never know how these things will react and how stiff and sore he is going to be. So far he looks as though as he has come through it well and we will see how he goes in the two practice days before the Test.”If Flintoff does play then it will allow Strauss to go into the game with five front-line bowlers, something that will make his life easier after England struggled against a West Indies A side last weekend.”Certainly the bowlers were forced to bowl a lot of overs and they responded very well,” said Strauss. “The way they kept bowling spell after spell after spell was encouraging and showed they are in pretty good physical condition. “It’s a little bit hard to say how incisive they were because this wicket was ridiculously flat.”The other question mark surrounds Steve Harmison, who was dropped for England last Test in Mohali and who blew hot and cold in the drawn warm-up match in St Kitts. However, memories of his career-best 7 for 12 when England last played a Test at Sabina Park will be at the back of everyone’s minds. With the pitch likely to be fast, Harmison’s chances of a recall seem good.”From Harmy’s point of view it was great for him to play two matches and get a lot of overs under his belt,” Strauss said. “We all know that the more Harmy bowls, the more rhythm he gets into and the quicker he gets it through as well. I think he got better and better each spell he bowled and he has definitely got his name in the hat. It was difficult to tell much from this last pitch but his areas were good and his pace increased throughout.”Harmison himself, inevitably faced with a barrage of questions about his 2004 performance, was revealing little. “I don’t remember much about that day, it is a bit of a blur. I’m not really one for watching old tapes, so I can’t recall it specifically.”I’m looking forward to going back, especially if they produce a wicket like that, but I don’t want to count any chickens.”

Scorecard

An inspired performance from Delhi’s bowlers against Saurashtra had revived their chances of a quarter-final place, but they struggled to pick wickets after deciding to field against the already-relegated Rajasthan at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Parvinder Awana, the key performer in the win over Saurashtra, struck an early blow, removing Vinod Chanawaria in the eighth over. However, Rajasthan’s batting did not cave in as in their previous games, with Vineet Saxena and Kuldeep Singh adding 138 for the second wicket.Saxena, Rajasthan’s leading run-getter in the tournament, got support from Kuldeep, playing his first game this season. It was not until the 62nd over that the partnership was broken, when Saxena was run out for 71. Kuldeep stayed till stumps to finish on the same score, adding an unbroken 40 in 22 overs with Venugopal Rao, the Rajasthan captain.Hyderabad 112 for 6 (Teja 35, B Jadeja 6-27) trail Saurashtra 133 (Jogiyani 38, Ashwin Yadav 3-19, Shanker 3-28) by 21 runs
ScorecardDelhi will be keeping a keen eye on the progress of Saurashtra, who lead them by one point in Group A, in their match against Hyderabad. It was a torrid start for the hosts and last season’s semi-finalists in Rajkot, but a six-wicket haul from left-armer Balkrishna Jadeja kept them in the reckoning to take the first-innings lead.Saurashtra’s decision to bat seemed to backfire instantly, with opener Bhushan Chauhan dismissed off the fourth ball of the game. The second wicket added 32, but Hyderabad struck back with quick strikes to leave Saurashtra reeling at 61 for 7. Sagar Jogiyani, the Saurashtra wicketkeeper, ensured his team went past 100. He added 35 with No. 9 Kamlesh Makvana, 20 for the ninth wicket with Sandeep Jobanputra, and was the last man out with the score on 133. Jogiyani top scored with 38, with three fours and a six.Ravi Teja started confidently for Hyderabad, but wickets fell in a heap at the other end. Jadeja struck regularly to reduce the visitors to 57 for 5; the last of those dismissals was Teja, who made 35. None of the other Saurashtra bowlers, though, was able to break through, and Jadeja got his sixth when he trapped Abhinav Kumar lbw. However, an unbroken 34-run stand between Syed Quadri and MP Arjun took Hyderabad to 112 for 6 at stumps. Saurashtra would hope to dismiss the remaining batsmen as quickly as possible.Baroda 201 for 1 (Parab 108*, Bilakhia 65*) v Andhra
ScorecardBaroda need a win to have any chance of qualifying from Group B, and their top-order batsmen set a solid platform for the team to build on. Surprisingly, they adopted a rather slow approach in their push for victory at the Moti Bagh Stadium, putting on 201 in 90 overs. Opting to bat, Baroda’s openers, captain Connor Williams and Satyajit Parab, put on 65 in 36.5 overs. Williams scored 20 off 114 balls before he became the first wicket for debutant TA Rao. There were no further breakthroughs in the day for Andhra, who need a win to give themselves a chance of avoiding relegation. Parab hit 12 fours in his 271-ball 108, adding an unbroken 136 with Azharuddin Bilakhia, who made 65 off 159 deliveries.Tamil Nadu 295 for 4 (Mukund 129*, Karthik 113) v Railways
ScorecardRailways, too, need a win to boost the chances of a quarter-final spot, but they had a tough first day against Group B leaders Tamil Nadu in Chennai. An impressive start saw them reduce the hosts, who chose to bat, to 9 for 2, but centuries from Abhinav Mukund and Dinesh Karthik, the captain, eased Tamil Nadu to a comfortable position at the end of the first day.Mukund and Karthik shared a 210-run partnership. Karthik scored 113, with 15 fours, before he was lbw to offspinner Kulamani Parida. S Vidyut was dismissed cheaply by Parida, but Mukund and Suresh Kumar took Tamil Nadu to 295 for 4 in 90 overs. Mukund was unbeaten on 129, with 14 fours and a six in his 242-ball innings.Gujarat 5 for 0 trail Orissa 162 (Niranjan Behera 49, Parmar 6-53) by 157 runs
Scorecard
A six-wicket haul from offspinner Mohnish Parmar gave Gujarat the advantage on the first day of the Group A encounter against Orissa in Bhubaneswar. Despite the absence of two key batsmen Shiv Sunder Das and Bikas Pati, Orissa began steadily after choosing to bat. Paresh Patel and debutant Natraj Behera shared a 32-run opening stand before Behera was dismissed by medium-pacer Amit Singh, who came into this game with a 11-wicket haul in his previous match.Patel and Niranjan Behera then consolidated with a 44-run stand in 24.3 overs. After Patel fell for 31, Orissa lost stand-in captain Pinninti Jayachandra to Parmar. Behera and Pravanjan Mullick slowly ticked to score past 100, but Behera’s dismissal for 49 triggered a collapse. Mullick, who faced 79 balls for his 17, was trapped in front by Parmar asOrissa’s last seven wickets fell in the space of 31 runs, with none of their final six batsmen going past 9. Siddharth Trivedi took 2 for 31 off his 19 overs, while Parmar had 6 for 53 off 29.
ScorecardCM Gautam hit a fine maiden hundred but a late collapse saw Karnataka bowled out for 252 in their first innings at the RSI Ground in Bangalore. The last five wickets fell for eight runs as Maharashtra stormed back to prevent the game from running away from them.They now have a fight on their hands against the Karnataka spinners, on a turning track and lost one wicket in the 41 minutes they played before stumps, Rohan Bhosale cleaned up by part-time offspinner C Raghu in the last over of the day. (Read the full report.)
ScorecardAjinkya Rahane’s quickfire half-century destroyed any hopes of a fightback Punjab might have entertained after Wasim Jaffer’s early exit, as Mumbai ended the first day in control at the Brabourne Stadium. Rahane’s unbeaten 53 and his unbroken second-wicket stand of 86 with Vinayak Samant, batting on 35, consolidated Mumbai’s position after Rahil Shaikh’s best innings figures restricted Punjab to 202. (Read the full report.)

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, the commentator and former cricket correspondent, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s honours list.Known throughout the game as CMJ, he stood down as the correspondent in May to be replaced by Michael Atherton, having previously held the same position with the , but still writes occasional columns for the newspaper and remains part of the TMS team which he first joined 35 years ago. He was also the BBC’s cricket correspondent in two spells from 1973 to 1980 and 1985 to 1991″It has been a great privilege to go round the world writing about cricket,” he told the . “The older one gets, the requirement for England to win becomes less important than the needs of the game as a whole, but nonetheless England’s rare successes in Australia have been the most exciting.”One concern for me is the contraction of cricket coverage towards the England team alone,” he added. “We should not forget the county game and the grass roots, without which you couldn’t have an England team. Nor should we overlook the fascination of the world game generally.”He provides the only representation for cricket in this year’s list, which on a sporting front is dominated by the British Olympic medallists from the Beijing Games.

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif will not be travelling to Mumbai after his IPL drugs hearing was put off due to the terror attacks in Mumbai. A tribunal, comprising former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, the former vice-chancellor of India’s Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Dr Ravi Bapat, and lawyer Shirish Gupte, had set November 29 as the date for hearing Asif’s appeal in Mumbai, after he had appeared before them on October 11.Asif, who was due to leave on Thursday morning with his lawyer Shahid Karim for the two-day hearing, said he had been told to remain in Pakistan. “After the Mumbai attacks, I called them [IPL officials] up to find out the status quo of the drugs tribunal hearing and they told me they will convey fresh dates later to me,” Asif told . “I don’t think the hearing is that important now. Whenever it is held I am confident of being cleared as we have prepared well for it.”Sunder Raman, the IPL chief executive confirmed to that the hearing had been postponed and fresh dates “will be finalised later next month”.The IPL had announced in July that Asif had tested positive for nandrolone during its first season. His B sample also showed traces of the drug but the levels varied between both samples. Karim had said the discrepancy could work to Asif’s advantage.Asif was suspended by the PCB from all forms of the game pending the result of the IPL inquiry. He previously tested positive for nandrolone just before the 2006 Champions Trophy in India. Though he was banned for one year by a PCB tribunal, the punishment was overturned a month later on appeal.

Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, has been nominated to the BCCI’s technical committee, a release from N Srinivasan, the Indian board secretary, said.Ganguly recently bowed out of international cricket: he had announced his retirement before the start of the recent home series against Australia. The BCCI has not indicated the nature of Ganguly’s role, but he will be part of the committee along with former captains Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth.Ganguly said Srinivasan had called him regarding the appointment and he agreed to it after ensuring the only travelling involved was to attend meetings. “Of course, I’m looking forward to working with Sunny [Gavaskar],” Ganguly told the Kolkata-based . “At this moment, though, I’m not absolutely clear about what I’m expected to do. That should be known during the first meeting.”Gavaskar is the chairman of the committee, which generally makes recommendations to the BCCI on the playing conditions and the structure of the domestic game. At a recent meeting in August, the committee had allowed state associations to pick four “guest players” [ those from areas outside their jurisdiction] in their squad, including one from overseas, from the 2008-09 season onwards. Earlier only three such players were allowed.Ganguly is likely to continue playing for his IPL franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, with whom he has a three-year contract. He is also slated to play Bengal’s final league game in the Ranji Trophy Plate League, against Vidarbha in Nagpur – the same city where he played his final Test against Australia.The BCCI had appointed a nine-member committee at the recent annual general meeting. Following are the other members of the panel:
Sunil Gavaskar (chairman), Chetan Chauhan, MV Sridhar, Biman Bhattacharjee, Milind Rege, Gyanendra Pandey, K Srikkanth, VK Ramaswamy, N Srinivasan (convenor).

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

It was a contrast from a gripping fourth day, as the last passage of play in the second Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand proved to be the least exciting of all. Predictably, the match drifted to a draw, though New Zealand earned themselves a deserved 1-0 series-win.New Zealand lost Jamie How before lunch for 8, but his was the only wicket to fall as Jesse Ryder (39) and Aaron Redmond (30) guided their team to a predictable, if rather dull, draw. It was the first time Bangladesh have managed to avoid defeat in eight Tests against New Zealand.However, when play began this morning, New Zealand were in a commanding position. Bangladesh, who resumed on the perilous position of 13 for 3, soon found themselves reduced to 44 for 6 as New Zealand’s spinners continued to threaten. Jeetan Patel got the first breakthrough, trapping Mehrab Hossain jnr lbw with a straight delivery.Bangladesh focussed on defence throughout the first hour with the run rate hovering at two runs-an-over. Vettori then picked up his fourth victim, as Tamim Iqbal push meekly at one just outside his off stump, induce an edge to Ross Taylor. Not for the first time in the series, Tamim fell soon after establishing himself at the crease, for 24.The situation worsened when Mushfiqur Rahim departed without any addition to the score. He fended a short ball from Iain O’Brien off his glove, offering a simple chance to Brendon McCullum down the leg side.At that stage, the game swung heavily in favour of New Zealand as the follow-on target of 163 was still 119 away. But Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza set about resurrecting the innings. They showed that the pitch was still good for batting. Defence was still a priority, but both managed to punish the bad balls without difficulty. They put on 78 for the seventh wicket – a partnership that looked to have saved the team.However, as has been so common in this series, the loss of a few quick wickets once again gave New Zealand another chance of an unlikely victory. Shakib was adjudged lbw trying to sweep a straight delivery from Vettori with the score at 122, still 41 short of the follow-on.But Mortaza continued punishing the wayward deliveries to give Bangladesh hope, and together with Abdur Razzak the pair took the score to 155, before he was caught at silly mid-off while fending off a short ball from Iain O’Brien. Mortaza finished on 48, hitting seven fours and two sixes.This gave the New Zealanders one last chance, but Razzak and Shahadat Hossain took their team to safety. And after Shahadat became O’Brien’s third victim of the innings, Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashrufal declared at 169 for 9, still trailing by 93 runs – only the third declaration by a Bangladesh captain in Test cricket.The pick of the bowlers were Vettori and O’Brien. The former maintained a perfect line and length, finishing with 5 for 66 off 19 overs while O’Brien troubled the batsmen with his short rising deliveries, ending with 3 for 31.Vettori picked up the Man-of-the-Match award for his five-wicket haul and was also adjudged the Man of the Series.

The bat used by Sir Donald Bradman in his first Test match will stay in Australia after being bought by an Australian bidder for A$145,000 at an auction in Melbourne, almost A$25,000 higher than the pre-sale estimate.”This is a record price for a cricket bat and there were several bidders, all of them within Australia, hoping to win the auction,” a spokeswoman for Melbourne’s Leski Auctions said.Bradman made 18 and 1 in the Test at Brisbane in 1928-29, and was dropped for the next game for the only time in his career, being relegated to 12th man.He donated the bat to a competition run by the Sun newspaper in Sydney to help raise money to endow a Don Bradman Cot for the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children.There had been concerns that the bat would be bought by an overseas bidder. On the eve of the sale, Charles Leski, the auctioneers’ managing director, said there had been five serious inquiries from India.”From our point of view as auctioneers we should not mind where it goes, but as an Australian this strikes me as an important Australian icon in danger of leaving the country,” he said. “I don’t mind if a fanatic or museum in India eventually gets it, but I wonder how some of our cricket personalities would explain that.”

Nathan Bracken, the Australian fast bowler, says he does not know what else he must do to make Australia’s Test side. Despite remaining one of Australia’s top one-day international bowlers, Bracken has played only five Tests and has been overtaken by several less experienced men in the Test queue.”I have done everything – and more – that has been asked of me by Cricket Australia,” Bracken told the . “They pointed out a few areas I needed to work on. I have ticked off each and every box on that list.”I have worked hard on and off the field. I go to the gym in my own time, I even did early-morning boxing classes with the former world-title contender Troy Waters before I needed to rest my knee after surgery. I do plenty of net bowling sessions, I work on my batting where possible and think a lot about my bowling and how to improve. As soon I received the summer schedule I was thinking about where I wanted to be at certain stages of the summer season.”Despite taking 203 first-class wickets, Bracken – who has 148 wickets from 92 ODIs – is primarily seen as a limited-overs bowler. In August, Bracken made it to the top of the ICC rankings for ODI bowlers. In his view, that should have counted in his favour when it came time to pick Australia’s Test squad.”It’s funny but I have people come up to me on the street – and they’re cricket supporters, not former Test players or critics – who say they can’t understand why I don’t make the Test team because they see me take wickets in the one-dayers,” he said. “Their view is if I can take wickets in the one-dayers then I should be able to get them in the longer form. It’s my view, too. Maybe they should send letters and emails to the selectors.”Bracken, 31, said no one from Cricket Australia spoke to him about his non-selection. He did, however, admit that a decision to bowl against India at the SCG in 2004, despite having a groin injury, affected his Test chances. Bracken went wicketless for 133 runs, but said he decided to bowl, even on three paces, “for all the right reasons”.”I have no doubt about that. I was asked by someone I respected to keep bowling despite the injury,” he said. “It wasn’t my best bowling performance but because it was my captain’s last game and I wanted to do what I could for Steve [Waugh].”I did it for all the right reasons and that was important. I’d also been told there was a perception that I struggled to play with injury or through pain. I thought that view might change after that Test. It actually helped me mentally, taught me to push through things. Last season I played with a knee injury up until it reached the stage where I needed an operation.”Asked if he would consider leaving Australia to play exclusively in lucrative Twenty20 leagues, such as the IPL or Stanford competitions, Bracken said it had crossed his mind. “Twenty20 is already very popular and it is only getting bigger. It is something a lot of players will probably consider because it is played in a relatively short amount of time, the money is good and you’re able to play cricket. And we all love playing cricket.”