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Close India 362 for 6 (Ganguly 144, Laxman 75) lead Australia 323 by 39 runs
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India had a day they could be proud of at the Gabba. Sterling performances from Sourav Ganguly (144) and VVS Laxman (75) went a long way in assuaging the pain of seeing Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar dismissed for only a run between them. There was a passage in play between lunch and tea when India were well and truly on top. Australia’s bowlers were under pressure, the field was spread and India’s traditional strength, their batting, came to the fore. India reached 362 for 6, a lead of 39, with one day left in the game.When the day began, with India on 11 for no loss, there was still plenty of work to be done. Steve Waugh unleashed Australia’s bowling firepower on a bright, sunny day, but India had answers to most of the questions asked of them. Akash Chopra and Virender Sehwag looked the part at the top of the order.Sehwag made the most of Andy Bichel’s ordinary spell earlier on, driving and flicking with confidence. It was only the full, swinging deliveries outside the off stump that created trouble. He was dropped by Damien Martyn off Nathan Bracken in just the fourth over of the day. But, Bracken had his revenge, and first Test wicket, later on, when Sehwag’s flashing drive resulted in an edge to Matthew Hayden in the slip cordon (61 for 1). Hayden wrapped his hands gratefully around the ball, and ended Sehwag’s breezy 45.Soon after, Gillespie imposed himself on the game. He tricked Rahul Dravid (1) into poking at a delivery that swung, seamed away and kissed the edge on the way to Hayden at slip (62 for 2). In the same over came the moment that Steve Bucknor will be reminded about by every Indian supporter he comes across in the rest of his life.

Gillespie let rip a quick one on the stumps. Tendulkar picked up the length of the ball early and shouldered arms in the firm knowledge that the ball would clear the stumps. As the ball thudded into pad, Gillespie, wild mullet flapping in the wind and fire in the eyes, went up in appeal. Bucknor looked back blankly till Gillespie gave up hope, and then raised his finger. Tendulkar gone for a duck, 63 for 3, and suddenly talk about the follow-on target of 124 seemed valid.But Ganguly did not entertain any such negative thoughts. He hit the crease running, and drove through the off side with the panache that once prompted Dravid to say, “in the off side there is God, and then there is Ganguly.” He leaned into the line of ball, not necessarily moving his feet in exaggerated fashion, and stroked, nay caressed, the ball to the fence. The timing was spot on, and soon the placement matched it.Even the fall of Chopra, in the first over after lunch, for a well-made 36, once again to the firm of Hayden and Gillespie (127 for 4) did not slow down Ganguly. For that, much credit must go to Laxman. When Laxman played a characteristic swivel-pull, that left square leg dead in his place, for four, it seemed as though he was batting on a hundred. There were several more gorgeous shots, fit for a king. There was the flick off the hips, the on-drive and the backfoot punch through covers.When Ganguly brought up his century with a sweep off Stuart MacGill, a well of emotion poured forth. Under pressure, against the best side in the world in their backyard, the captain of India had come good. It sent out a strong signal and did much to set up the series.Laxman, another man who has been under needless pressure in recent times, was out in the middle to share the moment with his captain. Sadly, even though he himself looked good enough for a hundred, Laxman gave his wicket away, completely against the grain of play. He sliced a short, slightly wide delivery from MacGill straight to Simon Katich at point (273 for 5). Laxman had made an elegant 75, laced with 11 delectable boundaries.Unfazed, Ganguly carried on in the company of Parthiv Patel (37 not out) and racked up 144, with 18 boundaries, before he holed out to Gillespie off MacGill (329 for 6). By this stage, India had taken the lead, and stretched it to 39 when play was called off due to bad light.Anand Vasu is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

Tony Frost has been brought out of retirement by Warwickshire to cover for the potential absence of Tim Ambrose on England duty next season. Frost ended his first-class career after the 2006 summer and took up a position on the Edgbaston ground staff and continued playing club cricket with Knowle and Dorridge.The offer was put to him by Ashley Giles, the director of cricket, following Ambrose’s call-up for the tour of New Zealand which starts next month. If Ambrose cements a place as England’s wicketkeeper it will leave Warwickshire short of options behind the stumps.”Tony ticks all the boxes and can provide good cover should Tim be away for prolonged spells with England,” said Giles. “He is an experienced, capped player who is an accomplished batter and like-for-like replacement.”As a club we want to be positive and support our younger players and we feel that Richard Johnson [the reserve keeper] would benefit from more matches with the second XI before being thrust into first team cricket. Tim’s position in the England set-up is not guaranteed but until we know more about his long-term commitments we now have an experienced and committed replacement for what is such a crucial position in the side.”Frost was thrilled to be given the opportunity to relaunch his professional career. “It was a surprise to be having the conversation but it didn’t take me long to accept the offer,” he said. “I have enjoyed working with the ground staff and learning the other side of the game but I loved my time with [Warwickshire] and I can’t wait to get back with the team and playing.”In his last season before retiring Frost topped Warwickshire’s batting averages and was highly rated around the circuit as one of the safest wicketkeepers. Early in his career he was forced to bide his time while Keith Piper had the No. 1 slot, but enjoyed a consistent run when Piper vacated the role.

Tasmania 1 for 266 (Dighton 146*, Ponting 111*) beat New South Wales 264 (Haddin 74, Katich 56, Geeves 3-47) by 9 wickets
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Twin tons for Michael Dighton and Ricky Ponting drove Tasmania to an emphatic nine-wicket victory against New South Wales, as they chased down their target of 265 with 25 balls to spare. The pair added an unbroken 263 following Travis Birt’s dismissal for 1, edging Nathan Bracken’s first ball, to continue a miserable FR Cup campaign for the Blues.Dighton and Ponting rained down fours and sixes against a sorry Blues attack which had no answers to their venom. It was a polished display of batting, with boundaries to all places, but particularly square of the wicket.Doug Bollinger may have been their midweek destroyer in the first-class game, but today he got a taste of his own medicine, as he went wicketless from eight overs. Dighton, in particular, punished him, with two fours from one over, a six in another and then a whopper of a four and three sixes. The Tasmanian pair were in control from the off, never offering a false stroke, and they took their side home with ease.Simon Katich and Brad Haddin gave them a target to think about, each making fifties after choosing to bat at the North Sydney Oval. But having been well set at 5 for 204, the tail-end of their innings subsided. Brett Geeves was the most successful of a polished bowling unit, with 3 for 47, and there were two each for Ben Hilfenhaus and Brendan Drew.Their job done, they could then put their feet up and enjoy a masterclass of powerful hitting from their team-mates who truly delivered. With the Chappell-Hadlee one-dayers looming, Ponting will be particularly pleased with his workout.

Australia’s growing sick list now includes Matthew Hayden after he succumbed to a knee injury. Hayden’s tendonitis means both of the country’s Test openers are out – Phil Jaques has the mumps – of the Pura Cup games starting on Friday while Andrew Symonds has an ankle problem, Michael Clarke is fighting hamstring tightness and Stuart MacGill’s struggles continue.It is a relief for Australia that there is no serious cricket due until the Twenty20 international in Perth on December 11. Hayden will not play for Queensland against South Australia after Cricket Australia’s medical staff said he needed on-going treatment. The injury does not threaten his prospects for the Boxing Day Test.The future of MacGill is still unclear after a specialist analysed his hand and wrist on Wednesday and a Cricket Australia spokesman told the Australian he would return for more scans. MacGill is having trouble with a bone-on-bone knee problem, but he also experienced numbness in his hand during the Test against Sri Lanka in Hobart.”I have had nothing confirmed at this stage by anyone qualified to do so, but can guarantee you that I will not be taking the field again until I am at the top of my game,” MacGill told the paper. “I will do anything necessary to achieve that, including surgery.”MacGill’s manager, Leo Karis, said the legspinner did not know what to do. “He’s assessing his options,” Karis told AAP. “Whether that option is A, B, C or D, his main focus is playing cricket pain-free and that’s up to him to see how he does that.”

The ICC has delivered a damning criticism of the USA administration, rather against its own insistence that it does not get involved in the domestic affairs of its members. The ultimatum issued by Ehsan Mani and Malcom Speed, its president and chief executive, to the USA Cricket Association told it to get its house in order or face the consequences.The letter, sent to Gladstone Dainty, the USACA president, reads as follows:-“Dear GladstoneWe refer to our letter of 1st November 2004. We note that we have not received a reply to that letter.We note further that we have not received your response to the comments we made concerning the proposed Memorandum of Understanding dealing with Project USA.We note further that we have not received the brief initial report concerning the USACA’s governance review that was requested by 11th October 2004.We note that in the meantime, we have been copied with numerous letters to and from you that indicate that USACA has plunged into further disarray.Further, we have witnessed the abysmal performance of the USA cricket team at the ICC Champions Trophy.Our overriding response is one of amazement. USACA has been trying for many years to arrange for Full Member countries to come to the USA to play international cricket. ICC has put in place a mechanism to enable this to happen. The initial feasibility study carried out by Gary Hopkins indicates that this project has the potential to generate large amounts of money over the next 2-3 years. This money will be applied by ICC for the furtherment of the game in the USA.We have now been approached by other countries that would like to replace USA as the preferred partner of ICC to deliver international cricket matches.Please be advised as to the following: In the event that ICC does not receive USACA’s agreement to sign the Memorandum of Understanding for Project USA, by 1st February 2005, one of the following two responses will follow:
a) ICC will cancel the project; or
b) ICC will work with another Associate Member country to stage the proposed matches in that country.Gladstone, as a final comment, we have seen numerous sporting organisations in various states of disarray throughout our period of involvement as sports administrators. We have never seen a sporting organisation that combines such great potential and such poor administration as USACA. From our observations, much of the blame for this lies with the current office bearers of USACA including yourself. We question whether the current administration of USACA can play any constructive role in taking the game forward in the United States.Yours sincerelyEhsan Mani, Malcolm Speed”The ICC letter blew the lid off one of the most closely guarded secrets in the history of US cricket. For nearly a decade, it has been assumed that the ICC had no interest in US cricket, and was turning a deaf year to all entreaties to step in and clean out the mess. The first complaints were either ignored or routinely referred back to the USACA as “the only ICC-authorised organisation in the United States of America”.Emboldened by this ICC “mantra”, the USACA turned away several attempts to reform US cricket over the years, citing its ICC-derived authority as the “imprimatur” for its actions. As the USACA structure atrophied in the absence of any real reform, the USACA board of control grew increasingly ineffective, and its executive ceased to communicate to US cricket and even among themselves.What has emerged in recent years is suspicion of a growing feeling within ICC circles that US cricket is far too important and valuable to be left to its own sordid devices. For one thing, the number of regular US cricketers, which has been growing exponentially over the past decade, is now larger (at 16,000-plus) than anywhere outside the Test-playing countries. Then there are the estimated 5 to 8 million US immigrants from cricket-playing countries who have the financial wherewithal to pay premium prices for pay-per-view international cricket on broadband internet or satellite TV and would be happy to subscribe if appropriately marketed to.And finally, there is US ProCricket, a modified Twenty20 semi-professional league that launched providing opportunities for first-class overseas players to play alongside US cricketers. Whether US ProCricket will continue to flourish given the opposition of many Test-playing countries to having their players participate is an open question for 2005. But its point has been made–first-class cricketers from all over the world can now play in the USA, if they are willing and able to do so.The letter from Mani and Speed does not directly address these matters. But it is clear that they are concerned with a systemic failure on the part of USACA to address the fundamental problems of US cricket. To say, as they have done, that they ” question whether the current administration of USACA can play any constructive role in taking the game forward in the United States” is about the harshest indictment of any ICC-member country’s management that has ever been seen in writing. Now it needs to be seen whether USACA will emerge from its self-imposed silence, and find a way to reply (by word and deed) to ICC’s clear ultimatum.

Vikram Solanki held up Warwickshire for a further 85 minutes today as Worcestershire topped 300 in a first innings at New Road for the first time this season.Solanki is a batsman who cashes in on his big innings. Resuming on 113 – thed ninth first-class century of his career – he went on to pass 150 for the seventh time.Three fours off Graeme Welch in the sixth over put him back in the groove but overnight partner Steve Rhodes was content to plod along with only five in the first hour.Solanki eventually collected 25 boundaries to reach 160 in 311 minues before a loose drive off Dougie Brown flew straight to substitute Stuart Eustace at mid-off.Rhodes contributed 28 to a partnership of 112 in 34 overs and added only 25 in 135 minutes this morning to reach 45 in a lunch total of 311 for six.

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A solid 91 from Mark Wallace in Glamorgan’s 451 helped to set up an intriguing final days’ play tomorrow at Swansea, with Sri Lanka A needing another 225 runs to win with nine wickets left.Nuwan Kulasekara, who ended with figures of 6 for 109, made the early breakthrough for Sri Lanka A with the wicket Dean Cosker early on, but David Hemp and Ian Thomas put on a handy stand until Thomas was caught off Suraj Mohamed for 68. Mike Powell completed a dismal match with the bat when he was bowled by Kulasekara for 2, but Jonathan Hughes then added a round 50 before he was trapped lbw by Jehan Mubarak.Hemp then fell for 73, bowled by Kulasekara, and Wallace made his mark on the match, hitting 12 fours and a six and putting on stands with Robert Croft (37) and David Harrison (22*). Wallace was finally out, stumped by Charith Sylvester Fernando off Suraj as Glamorgan set Sri Lanka A 254 to win.However, Ian Daniel was out in the first over, bowled by Harrison for 1, leaving Shantha Kalavitigoda and Malintha Gajanayake holding the fort as Sri Lanka A press for victory tomorrow.

New South Wales all-rounder Shane Lee has been ruled out of Australia A’s two matches against the New Zealanders and South Africans next week, due to on-going soreness in his right knee.He will be replaced in the squad by young Tasmanian all-rounder Shane Watson.Lee’s injury, which prevents him from bowling, forced him to withdraw from the Blues’ four-day match against South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground in December 2001.He will receive on-going treatment and his progress will be closely monitored by Cricket New South Wales physiotherapist Patrick Farhart.Despite the injury, Lee may still be selected as a batsman in the Blues’ ING Cup clash with the Victorian Bushrangers this Sunday 6 January in Melbourne.20 year-old Watson has made 548 runs and taken 18 wickets in 10 matches for the Tasmanian Tigers since making his first-class debut midway through the 2000-01 season.Upon learning of his selection Watson said: “I really am thrilled.”David Johnston (Tasmanian Cricket Association Chief Executive Officer) told me the news while I was coaching at a junior clinic.”I didn’t expect this opportunity to arise for at least another couple of seasons, but I am looking forward to being part of a team that has so many top players in it.”Tuesday’s day-night match at The Gabba won’t be the first time Watson has faced the Black Caps this summer. The former Queenslander was part of the Prime Minister’s XI that was defeated by the New Zealanders at Canberra’s Mauka Oval in December.Watson will face new Australia A team-mates Darren Lehmann and Greg Blewett in the Tasmanian Tigers’ ING Cup match against the Southern Redbacks this Sunday 6 January at the NTCA Ground in Launceston.

There’s a guy works down the betting shop swears he’s Hansie. Well, not yet there isn’t, but one might well turn up if the Cronje cult gathers much more momentum. The increasingly sorry saga of Wessel Johannes Cronje took one of its more bizarre twists on Sunday with the publication in Britain of suspicions that his death, in a plane crash last June, was no accident. According to The Observer‘s monthly sports magazine Cronje, the corrupt former South African captain, may have been silenced.Dark forces that stood to lose too much should Cronje ever come entirely clean on his involvement in and knowledge of match-fixing would be the most obvious suspects in this crime, if that’s what it was. The Observer didn’t lay it on quite that thick – it didn’t have to.Accordingly, for a few hours in South Africa today Cronje again ruled the media roost. "Was Hansie murdered?" asked the lead headline on a newspaper held aloft by a vendor in mid-morning traffic. "Who cares?" the nation replied as it drove by.By lunchtime Cronje was once more a memory, and the cricket news concerned itself with more lively matters. "We’ll bring you updates from the Lord’s Test," announced someone brightly on the radio. "Oh, no we won’t, because we stuffed them yesterday!"The simple, wonderful truth is that Graeme Smith, a man whose passion is incandescent, not hidden in some offshore bank vault, has proved to all cricket-minded South Africans that there is life after Cronje. Smith has taken on the job of restoring South African cricket to the status it enjoyed before the triple disaster of Cronje, the thrashing by Australia in 2001-02 and the 2003 World Cup, with irresistible enthusiasm and confidence.Shaun Pollock, who manfully stepped into the breach created by the first of those calamities, couldn’t avoid the last two, both of which were haunted by Cronje’s ghost. Smith has no connection, cricketing or otherwise, with Cronje. He was never part of the group that were somehow all smeared by their former captain’s greedy folly, and who reacted to that slight by embalming his memory to the extent of stencilling his initials onto the collars of their playing shirts.Those players could well find themselves among the sad souls to whom the embellished legacy of a dead Cronje means more than a captain, a team and a nation that has moved on to better things. Better? Yes, Smith is already a better player than Cronje ever was, and while he is a novice Test captain there can be few better foundations on which to build a career in leadership than insatiable hunger. A hunger for runs, records and success, that is – not for brown paper bags stuffed with illicit cash.For most South Africans the legend of Hansie Cronje is recent history. For an unfortunate few it is right up there with those of Jim Morrison, Marilyn Monroe and JFK. Perfect material, in fact, for a dodgy country song.Telford Vice is a cricket writer with MWP Sport in South Africa.

Robert Key was in a philosophical mood as he faced the press after his matchwinning performance in England’s warm-up fixture against a Nicky Oppenheimer XI at Randjesfontein. For all the purity of his strokeplay, as he cracked five sixes and seven fours in an 85-ball 87, he knows he might yet lose his place to Mark Butcher come the start of the Test series.Butcher was England’s ever-present No. 3 in 42 Tests from 2001, until he lost his place to Key last summer, following a freak car accident near The Oval. He then aggravated a thigh strain while picking up a cardboard box at his home in London. It was, as Key admitted, an unfortunate catalogue of misfortune.”I’ve said all along that I only got picked because Butch got hit by a car,” admitted Key. “He hasn’t had much luck in recent times, so if he gets in ahead of me that evens it up a bit. He’s got a bit of credit in the bank – he didn’t get dropped or anything, he just got injured in a freak way. He’s been one of England’s best players for several years now, so I’m philosophical about the situation.”Butcher’s case for a recall was further dented today, as he fell to Charl Willoughby for just 6 in the closing stages of England’s run-chase, but by then he was on a hiding to nothing, with just ten runs needed for victory and the Test-class bowlers, Willoughby and Heath Streak, back in the attack.Asked whether it would have helped the team cause if he and Marcus Trescothick had got out after reaching their fifties, Key responded: “That was pretty much what we were trying to do. But the boundaries were short and we were just having a slog. It’s amazing how well you can connect with the ball when you play without fear.””It was a bit like a pre-season game,” he added. “I don’t enjoy them all that much, because I don’t like using up all my luck in games that don’t matter. But we’re all feeling the pressure for our places at the moment, with the likes of [Ian] Bell and [Kevin] Pietersen coming up on our heels. We can’t afford to hold back for a minute.”