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Stung by reports that the country’s provincial chairmen had met to discuss the possibility of proposing a no-confidence motion against the Zimbabwe Cricket board, Cricinfo has learned that senior board officials have been travelling the country in a bid to quell the rebellion.The chairmen met at the Old Hararians Club on Friday, October 21 and the result was a lengthy letter to the board demanding answers to some serious questions over the way that it has been operating.Zimbabwe Cricket initially denied that there was disharmony, but behind the scenes officials are reported to have started mobilising local activists in a bid to undermine the authority of the chairmen.The main efforts of the pro-board lobby appear to have been aimed towards usurping Max Ebrahim as chairman of Masvingo province. Last week, Ebrahim, who has been increasingly critical of ZC in recent weeks, told sources that Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman, had visited the province to talk to clubs.In Manicaland, a meeting was interrupted by Supa Mandiwanzira – a former broadcaster with the state-run Zimbabwe Television who now owns his own company called Mighty Movies – who was accompanied by what one eyewitness described as “heavies from Harare”. He told the meeting that he wanted to be part of the province’s board. The gathering descended into chaos, and at one stage Allan Walsh, the Manicaland chairman, was assaulted. The state-controlled Herald newspaper later stated that Walsh had been replaced and a new provincial board had pledged its support to ZC.ZC has also begun the process of creating five new provinces, and so the board now appears to be able to muster enough votes to see off all challengers. But some serious issues have been raised, and with the players also at odds with the board, it is unlikely that the lid can be kept on for that much longer.Any suggestions that the move was designed to help the board retain control were inadvertently scuppered by a comment in the Herald. “Mliswa revealed yesterday that he was now leading the crusade to have other provincial set-ups running by the time the ZC holds its special meeting where they can be duly incorporated.” And where their votes will swing the balance.

Greg Hay is one of 14 first-class players who will represent New Zealand at the Emerging Players Tournament in Queensland in July. The side will be coached by Andy Moles, the former Warwickshire batsman who has coached Kenya, Scotland and England Under-19s.Hay, the Central Districts batsman, missed out on the England tour despite averaging 49.33 in 15 first-class matches and 49.91 in one-day matches so far but this announcement will prove some consolation, as will his winter contract awarded on Monday. Neil Broom, Michael Guptill and BJ Watling have also been selected for the tournament and for a deal.The wicketkeeper Bevan Griggs, 30, has been included ahead of Peter McGlashan, who played two Twenty20 internationals in 2006, and the rising star Derek de Boorder. New Zealand Under-19 players Corey Anderson and Trent Boult got the nod as well.Nathan McCullum and Bradley Scott were left out, despite appearing in the tournament last year and receiving winter contracts. McCullum is playing club cricket in Europe, while Elliott is currently on tour with New Zealand in England.The Emerging Players team will play against sides from South Africa and India alongside the Australia Institute of Sport. They will then have one three-day match, a 50-over match and a Twenty20 against a Queensland state XI.”This is the fourth year of the tournament and it has become a key part of NZC’s winter training programme,” selector Glenn Turner said. “We have seen a number of players progress through to the Blackcaps after showing potential on such tours. The event also gives players competition experience and our teams have always performed well there.”Emerging Players squad Corey Anderson, Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Trent Boult, Neil Broom, Leighton Burtt, Brendon Diamanti, Bevan Griggs (wk), Martin Guptill, Greg Hay, Brandon Hiini, Peter Ingram, Robbie Schaw, BJ Watling.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has offered central contracts to 33 players, with top-grade cricketers being offered a whopping Rs 60 lakhs. The retainership for various categories was hiked and the BCCI announced that it would offer contracts to a record number of players. All top players have received A-grade contracts, while an extra category, the D-grade, has been created to include promising cricketers.The A-grade contract, which comes with a retainer of Rs 60 lakh, was offered to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. Of this lot, Zaheer is the biggest gainer as he was on a C-grade contract last year.Grade B comes with a retainer of Rs 40 lakh, Grade C 25 lakh and finally grade D Rs 15 lakh. In the final category the BCCI has included people like Subramaniam Badrinath and Cheteshwar Pujara, who have done well for India A but not yet made it to higher honours.Any player from outside this list who played for India would automatically fall into the D grade, and when a player from the D grade notches up five Tests or 15 ODIs in the year he would automatically be upgraded to the C category.Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors was part of the gradation committee that decided on which player would get what contract, along with Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, and Niranjan Shah, the secretary. Soon after the contracts were announced Vengsarkar said, “This is very good for the players. They are being rewarded for their performances. This will create a wider pool of players.”Full listGrade A
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer KhanGrade B
VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, S Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik, RP Singh, Virender Sehwag.Grade C
Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Suresh Raina.Grade D
Rohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma, Manoj Tiwari, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Mohammad Kaif, Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Aakash Chopra, Yusuf Pathan.

Drop of the Day Mk 1
Ashwell Prince’s parry at square-leg had all the makings of a match-sealing moment. When you’re defending 193 and the batsman of the tournament, Scott Styris, gives a chance while still in single figures, there’s really no forgiving the culpable fielder. In mitigation, the ball was whipped through square leg with such power that it pulled up just yards inside the rope, but on the other hand, South Africa’s reputation in one-day cricket has long been based upon their superlative fielding. At 54 for 2 it was a vital opportunity squandered.Drop of the Day Mk 2
Ditto, with knobs on. Mark Boucher will need little reminding of the last time New Zealand and South Africa met in the World Cup. At Centurion in 2002-03, he dropped Stephen Fleming on 52 – a sitter of a chance off Jacques Kallis – and Fleming went on to make a fantastic match-winning 134 not out. Two weeks later, the hosts had been ejected from their own party. Today’s chance was tougher – a thin top-edge that a leaping Boucher could only parry onto his nose – but the impact on his team-mates was very much the same.Drop of the Day Mk 3
Ok, so it’s cruel to labour the point, but déjà vu is a powerful thing, especially when poor old Herschelle is involved. For eight painful years, he’s had to live with the memory of that aberration at Headingley in the 1999 World Cup, and like a particularly rubbish punchline, the joke gets wearier every time it is repeated. So, all together now, for (surely?) one last time: “You just dropped the World Cup, Hersch!” Of course, he could well cling onto a blinder to seal victory over England next week, and all will be forgiven. (At least, until the fourth-placed South Africans take on Australia in the St Lucia semi-final…)Call of the Day
Win the toss and bowl – it’s a tactic that’s been fraught with danger down the years. But today it worked a treat for Fleming, who unleashed his seamers in drizzly overcast conditions that were more Queenstown, Otago, than Queen’s Park, Grenada. Shane Bond was magnificent, James Franklin was rejuvenated, and at 66 for 2 at the end of the Powerplays, the pattern of the match had been established. Who knows what South Africa might have achieved if Graeme Smith had called correctly, but their decision to omit their leading wicket-taker and leading swing bowler, Charl Langeveldt, suggests they were not banking on bowling first.Bowling spell of the Day
If a cricketer could be designed to get under the skin of the rigidly orthodox South Africans, then he would doubtless look and sound something like Craig McMillan – a chippy, chirpy little irritant of a character who tempted three of South Africa’s finest into wicket-surrendering indiscretions. McMillan once got the better of Steve Waugh in a bouncer offensive, so his bowling is not to be underestimated. That, however, is just what Gibbs, Ashwell Prince and Boucher all did, as South Africa crashed from 128 for 3 to 149 for 6. Each wicket was celebrated with double clenched fists and a cheeky knowing grin, the sort of reaction that doubtless made the incoming batsman want to smack him even further …Duck of the Day
How good would AB de Villiers be if he could start every innings on 1? Unfortunately for him and for South Africa, that initial notch in the scorebook is proving infuriatingly hard to come by. Today was the fourth time in eight World Cup innings that he had been dismissed without scoring, and on none of those occasions has he survived for more than six balls. When he does get stuck in, however, woe betide the opposition. His other efforts have been 62 from 45 balls against Scotland; 92 from 70 against Australia; 15 from 39 against Bangladesh, and last week’s outrageous 146 from 130 against West Indies.Innings of the Day
Sporting a beard that makes him look like the celebrity chef, Anthony Worrall-Thompson, Styris is absolutely cooking in this World Cup. Today he produced his fifth half-century in eight innings. Three of those have been unbeaten scores of 80 or more, including the recent 111 not out against Sri Lanka. He is one of only three players to have made 400 runs for the competition (Jacques Kallis and Matthew Hayden are the other two), although his average of 108.75 is unsurpassed. And if that’s not useful enough, he’s also grabbed eight vital breakthroughs with his medium-pacers. It’s not a bad time to hit the form of your life.Number Crunching of the Day
The calculators were working overtime in the press-box today (at least, for those who have such things – one chap was too busy clacking away on his 1970s typewriter). But by the end of the New Zealand run-chase, the numbers were stark. South Africa’s net run-rate, that issue that Smith insisted was totally under control, is now drifting uneasily at a measly – 0.2097. That means that England (NRR +0.079) are as good as through if they win in Barbados on Tuesday. It’ll be a big “if” on the bouncier Bridgetown wicket but, should that happen, South Africa’s only salvation would then come if West Indies delivered a judgment of biblical proportions in England’s own final game next Saturday.

It happened 25 years ago, but the passing of a quarter of a century hasnot dulled Raghuram Bhat’s memory one bit. The former Karnataka and Indialeft-arm spinner, who is currently manager of the Karnataka team, brokeout in unrestrained laughter when asked if he remembered the time SunilGavaskar batted left handed against him to save a Ranji match.”That cannot be forgotten. The ball was turning right angles on the day. Iwas just pitching the ball in the good length spot, because I did not knowhow much the ball was going to spin; sometimes I tried to bowl an armerand it turned,” he said, in a freewheeling chat on the sidelines of theKarnataka-Saurashtra Ranji Trophy match. “The ball was beating the bat andthe only way to play on that day was to play left-hand and play forwardand offer pad. That’s how Gavaskar played and he really played well andsaved the game for Mumbai. It was a great thing to bowl to him and theguts he showed in batting left-handed, for some 12-13 overs, was amazing.”It’s often been suggested that Gavaskar was wrong to batleft-handed, and that in some ways it was a disrespect to the bowler, butBhat will have none of that. “I won’t consider it as negative batting, hewas trying to save the game and that was his duty than to get embarrassedby losing outright. His footwork on the day was something to be seen to bebelieved. If I had recorded that game on video I would have shown that toyoung cricketers as an example. Sunny was middling the ball, no edges, notension.”For Bhat, that was the red-letter day in his 82-match first class career.Although the match was drawn, Karnataka advanced to the final of the RanjiTrophy by virtue of a first-innings lead, and Bhat had 13 wickets in thegame, taking 8 for 123 in the first innings that included ahat-trick. Strong performances in domestic cricket won him a place in theIndian Test team, but that was to last only two matches, where he pickedup four wickets, including that of Javed Miandad and Clive Lloyd, but hewas dropped after that, never to be picked again.Since he retired from first-class cricket, just as a young Sunil Joshi wasmaking his mark for Karnataka, Bhatt has served in many capacities – asumpire, administrator and coach. Today, when he watches cricket, he, likeother quality spinners of his generation, is amazed at the lack of back upfor Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. “Basically, we have forgotten thespin bowling department unlike in the earlier days. There are left-armspinners but the quality is not there. The talent is missing somewhere. Wehave to put our spin department back on track.”Unlike some other veterans, though, Bhat does not simply bemoan the lackof talent. He is encouraged by the cricketers he sees coming through theyounger age groups, and is working with the Karnataka State CricketAssociation to put systems in place that will unearth fresh talent.Already people speak highly of KP Appanna, the 17-year-old left-armspinner who has picked up 21 wickets in his debut season. “What I feel isthe most important quality in a spinner is the consistency. They shouldnot get carried away by the success; it is important. They have to workcontinuously, they cannot say that I have taken 25-30 wickets this seasonand sit back,” he says.Bhat insists that it is quality spin that will win India matches.”Ultimately, spinners have to win the game for us. If you look at therecently concluded Cape Town Test, we would have won the game if Anilwould have been a little bit effective,” he said. “A left-arm spinner would havemade a difference. With a left-arm spinner your team is complete.”India have not had a left-arm spinner to play consistently since VenkatapathiRaju played the part. Murali Kartik has done the job when called upon, buthas not been able to go past either Kumble or Harbhajan in the race to bepicked. It’s too early to tell if there’s a young cricketer rising up theranks who can do the job, but people like Raghuram Bhat are certainlysearching hard.

ScorecardA battling unbeaten century by opener Khurram Manzoor kept Karachi Urban afloat against Mumbai as the hosts ended the third day of their Nissar Trophy tie still 284 behind the visitors’ mammoth first innings total of 623. Manzoor’s sixth-wicket partnership of 175 with Saeed Bin Nasir rescued the home team from a possible follow-on position after a shaky start.Resuming from an overnight total of 30 for 1, Karachi lost their second wicket in the fifth over of the day as Amin-ur-Rehman was trapped in front by Aavishkar Salvi for only 9. Asif Zakir did not last too long either as he edged an outswinger from Abhishek Nayar to be dismissed for 11. Hasan Raza, Karachi’s captain, and Asim Kamal, who has played 12 Tests for Pakistan, failed to provide any support to Manzoor and gave away their wickets cheaply as well. Raza was run out for 12 while Kamal could only manage 25.Nasir then joined Manzoor with half of Karachi’s side already back in the pavilion for only 163 runs. Their 175-run stand, off only 51 overs, brought some stability to the innings. Nasir, the more aggressive of the two, smashed 12 boundaries and looked all set for three figures before being run out on 92 three overs before stumps.Anwar Ali, more renowned for his bowling skills than batting, failed to protect his wicket and was the last man out on the third day. Manzoor, who faced 340 deliveries for his 167, will resume tomorrow with the tail, hoping to take as much strike as possible and ensure the match heads towards a draw.Nayar and Salvi picked up two wickets each while debutants Vikrant Yeligati and Iqbal Abdulla grabbed one each.

Sachin Tendulkar has returned to India following a successful operation on his right shoulder.He was assessed prior to leaving London by the surgeon, Dr Andrew Wallace, who was reported to be very happy with his progress to date. His stitches were removed prior to departure, and an initial management plan for recovery has been put in place.Following ten days of Phase 1 recovery, which is designed to allow the tissue to fully heal and bind, Tendulkar will begin to initiate more movement through light jogging and swimming, under the supervision of the team physio, John Gloster. It is expected that he should be able to pick up a bat by the beginning of May.

The MCC and the ECB will have urgent talks to discuss worries that Lord’s may lose one of its summer Tests in 2009, when the new staging agreements take hold.Lord’s has traditionally received two Tests each summer, owing to being the home of cricket and its grandeur, but with increasing competition from other grounds, there are worries that one of the two Tests may be in jeopardy.The MCC needs to make a good case to the ECB as to why they should continue to stage the amount of internationals that they do. Part of that will be capacity increases, which could be part of the redevelopment proposals.Iain Wilton, the head of communications and public affairs, confirmed to Cricinfo that imminent talks were planned, but said that the £100million rumoured to be the cost of the planned redevelopment was “entirely speculative” at this stage.He said: “The MCC Committee has yet to decide on how, for example, the ground’s capacity should be increased – or by how much. When it has developed its thinking further, the club’s first priority will be to consult its members.”Lord’s is not the only traditional ground to think about redevelopment amid worries of increasing competition. Earlier this week, Surrey unveiled plans to overhaul The Oval in a £35million revamp.

The Indian board (BCCI) has given its players the go-ahead to give a percentage of their prize money to the Federation of International Cricketers (FICA) after Rahul Dravid reportedly wrote to the board last week seeking its permission to do the same.”We have told the ICC that we will distribute the entire prize money among the players,” Prof Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s Chief Administrative Officer, told the . “After that, it is up to the players to do as they wish with that money. All we are concerned about is that we cannot transfer the money to FICA on players’ behalf.”Shetty said that the board would not act as an intermediary since it was not affiliated to the FICA. “The players will have to do it themselves,” he said. “We have our players’ association which tackles players’ issues. So I am not sure whether this initiative will really take the players’ movement forward.”

Despite Sourav Ganguly’s plea that his ongoing spat with coach Greg Chappell should remain between the two men involved, his team mate, Harbhajan Singh, has spoken out in support of his captain – and accused Chappell of instilling “fear and insecurity” among the players. Ganguly’s team mates have remained understandably quiet – until now: Harbhajan is the first player to voice his opinion.Speaking to PTI, he urged that the controversy would reach its conclusion as soon as possible. “Whenever any controversy surrounds the team, the performance of team is adversely affected,” he said.”It will be good for the team if the controversy is immediately resolved so that every player can concentrate on his game instead of getting mental tension.”And Harbhajan denied the accusation that Ganguly wasn’t fit to captain the side, adding “…it may be the coach’s [Chappell’s] own observation but, as far as I am concerned, Ganguly has been proved as an excellent captain, which is evident from his match winning record.”The spinner also dismissed the notion that Ganguly was only interested in captaincy and creating difficulty among team members. “I have played for almost five years under the captaincy of Ganguly and never felt like that,” he insisted. “In fact, he takes personal interest to boost each and every player during practice as well as during a match.”Ganguly has rebuilt this team and whatever the team has achieved so far, credit goes to the captain.”