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The hearing for the disciplinary proceedings against Mark Vermeulen, who was banned from all first-class and league cricket in England for 10 years on Wednesday, will take place at Old Trafford on Monday September 18 at 19.30BST. Andrew Fitch-Holland, a barrister and principal with Line & Length Sports Consultants, confirmed Vermeulen will hold a press conference at the conclusion of the hearing.Following a chain of incidents at a Central Lancashire League match between Werneth and Ashton the league imposed the decade-long ban. Yesterday, Fitch-Holland claimed the league thought the batsman had left the country.”Mark Vermeulen learnt of the imposition of this ban from a news story appearing on Cricinfo’s website on September 14th,” the statement read. “Mr. Vermeulen had received no communication from any official of the Central Lancashire League that disciplinary proceedings were being taken against him and therefore was not present when this matter was considered.”We understand that this action was taken in circumstances where the League believed that Mark was no longer in the country, which is not the case. Mark is devastated to find himself in this position and understands that his behaviour at the match in question was far from acceptable. Naturally he wishes to offer his heartfelt apologies not just to those who witnessed the incident, but to the League and his team-mates.”We have been in contact with the League and have made it clear that Mark wishes to have the opportunity to have a personal hearing as a matter of urgency. At the present time we anticipate that such a hearing will now be held within the next few days.”At such a hearing mitigation will be offered in the hope that the League would then be fully aware of all the circumstances surrounding this incident,” the statement continued.”We would expect that any punishment that might be imposed would then be made with all the relevant factors having been properly considered. In that regard we are actively working with the CLL in a spirit of contrite co-operation to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”Click here to see the video of the incident at bbc.co.uk

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Gautam Gambhir shrugged off his recent indifferent start to Test cricket with his 17th first-class century, a 181-ball 151, and added 199 runs for the second wicket with Abhishek Sharma (73) at the Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad. Delhi ended the day on 347 for 4, 133 runs ahead of Gujarat. Gambhir smacked the bowling for 20 fours during his four-hour stay – more boundaries than the entire Gujarat team. After he and Sharma departed, Mithun Manhas and Vijay Dahiya took over the reins and frustrated the bowlers further with a stand worth 99 runs. Dahiya fell for 43 right before stumps, but Manhas remained unbeaten on 66. Parthiv Patel, playing his first Ranji game, took two catches.Murtaza Lodhgar destroyed Karnataka with a six-wicket haul, restricting them to 179 after Bengal had scored 315 in their first innings at Jadavpur University Campus in Kolkata. In the morning, Sourav Ganguly fell for 27 off 76 balls – not quite the big score he needed after a lean run at international level. Bengal folded up after he left, but Karnataka’s capitulation later, when seven wickets fell for 64 runs, was more damaging. Bengal had a ball left to play before the day ended. They were 0 for 0 at stumps.At the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, Mumbai could add only 100 runs to their overnight total as Harvinder Singh struck early, removing Vinod Kambli and Romesh Powar cheaply, and added two more to his tally to end with figures of 6 for 75. Due to a solid batting effort by the lower order, Mumbai rallied to 361, and then had Railways in immediate trouble. Ajit Agarkar removed both openers with 53 on the board, and Nilesh Kulkarni dismissed Siddharth Verma a little later. Railways ended the day at 111 for 3, still 250 runs behind.At the Chidambaram Stadium, Hyderabad recovered to 163 all out from their overnight precarious position of 83 for 5, only to see Tamil Nadu go to 183 by the end of the day at. Sadagoppan Ramesh, who had hoped for a Test recall, was dismissed for 29, But Sivaramakrishnan Vidyut (97 not out) and Subramaniam Badrinath, on 56, were still at the crease. It rounded up a good day for Tamil Nadu, after Ramakrishnan Ramkumar eked out three more batsmen with his left-arm spin to end with 6 for 57 in 31 overs.Venugopal Rao (140) added to his overnight hundred and, along with Khatib Sahabuddin (86), took Andhra Pradesh to 361 in Indore. Narendra Hirwani claimed 4 for 89 before his team responded with 155 for 4, built on the back of fifties from Naman Ojha (61) and Amay Khurasiya (50).At Mohali, Punjab fought back from a precarious position at 43 for 3, and recovered to score 221 for 7 when stumps were called on the second day. They trailed Uttar Pradesh by 48 runs, and had a good chance of taking the first-innings lead while Pankaj Dharmani (83 not out) was at the crease. Yuvraj Singh scored a quick 52, laced with eight fours, and fell when Punjab had 114 runs on the board. Earlier, Gagandeep Singh dismissed the last two Uttar Pradesh batsmen to claim 5 for 68, his ninth five-wicket haul.Assam, in Guwahati, scored 273 as Sukhvinder Singh scored 48 while his lower-order mates played out deliveries. He then took a wicket, Kiran Powar’s (43), as Baroda made their way to 162 for 4. Jacob Martin was unbeaten on 58.

In the latest round of County Championship matches, Kent beat Northants by 145 runs after Mohammad Sami ripped through the batsmen with 6 for 99. Sami finished with match figures of 10 for 138. Robert Key further reminded the England selectors of his ability with his third century of the week. Elsewhere, Surrey drew with Middlesex after Jamie Dalrymple’s 244, and Sussex drew with Warwickshire at Horsham. Ian Bell, the first-innings double-centurion finished on 64 not out at the close. At Chelmsford, James Foster smashed an aggressive 212 in Essex’s draw with Leicestershire. Derbyshire drew with Somerset at Derby, despite Andy Caddick’s 6 for 92. Yesterday, there were big wins for Worcestershire, Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire. Matthew Mason took five wickets as Gloucestershire went down at New Road, David Hussey helped set up Notts’ win with 125, and Alex Wharf grabbed five to sink Durham at the Riverside.

Frizzell County Championship Division One

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Day 1 Report – Wisden Cricinfo
Day 2 Report – Wisden Cricinfo
Day 3 Report – Wisden Cricinfo
Day 4 Report – Wisden Cricinfo
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Day 1 Report – Middlesex see red as Murtagh rides his luck The Guardian
Day 2 Report – Dalrymple cashes in on Strauss call-up The Daily Telegraph
Day 3 Report – Nash altercation sours Batty’s mood The Guardian
Day 4 Report – Brown guides Surrey home The Sunday Times
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Day 1 Report – Bell rings with old joy of young freedom The Guardian
Day 2 Report – Bell and Frost shine in day of records The Daily Telegraph
Day 3 Report – Ward in carefree mood The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 Report – Bell still learning the fame game The Sunday Times
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Day 1 Report – Wilting county watch the Hick master-class Gloucestershire Echo
Day 2 Report – Hick wallows in batting heaven The Daily Telegraph
Day 3 Report – Gidman digs in to delay inevitable The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 Report – Mason’s zip seals victoryThe Daily Telegraph

Frizzell County Championship Division Two

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Day 1 Report – Caddick hits a reach seam The Daily Telegraph
Day 2 Report – Belligerent Blackwell hits back The Daily Telegraph
Day 3 Report – Derbyshire look to end drought The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 Report – Derbyshire dilemma The Sunday Telegraph
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Day 1 Report – Hodge tears into Essex The Daily Telegraph
Day 2 Report – Promising Cook grabs maiden 100 The Daily Telegraph
Day 3 Report – Foster hits out as Essex boys shine The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 Report – Essex miss Napier power The Sunday Telegraph
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Day 1 Report – Pietersen tucks into depleted Yorkshire The Independent
Day 2 Report – Hussey closes on century to deflate Yorkshire attack The Independent
Day 3 Report – Hussey piles on Yorkshire woe The Guardian
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Day 1 Report – Quickfire Powell turns on power in glory bid IC Wales
Day 2 Report – Harrison’s best swings it towards Glamorgan IC Wales
Day 3 Report – Wharf leads the way IC Wales

The ICC’s Global Development Manager has announced that Martin Vieira has beenappointed as the new ICC Regional Development Manager for the Americaseffective March 31st, 2003.Martin was instrumental in the Bid preparation, lobbying, successfulpresentation and in the organization of the ICC Trophy 2001 with special regardto transportation.Martin will be based in Toronto, Ontario out of the Sports Alliance of Ontario offices. He has spent his first week in London with the ICC DevelopmentManager and the European Development offices for a thorough background briefingon the Development Program.Martin believes that “there is a lot of potential for development in theregion, and he “looks forward to working with all of the cricket-playingcountries in the Americas to help raise the profile of the game and improve thestandard of play.” Martin brings to the post over 30 years involvement incricket in Canada as a player, coach and administrator especially in the areaof youth or junior cricket.Further details will be shortly available. We in Canada and in the Americaslook forward to a long and productive tenure for Martin.

Urgent action over the state of the country’s spin bowling is being considered by New Zealand Cricket.The quality of spin bowling available in New Zealand has been of concern for some years but the situation now requires drastic action.New Zealand Cricket’s operations manager John Reid said the evidence from Under-17 and Under-19 tournaments offered no immediate hope of improvement.”We should be promoting a culture in our game where spin bowlers are appreciated,” he said.Reid said he was continually frustrated in age-group cricket when spin bowlers were taken off when things got tight in games only to be replaced by quicker bowlers. The spinners were not helped by quality, or even understanding, field placing.”The game itself is not providing support for spin bowlers at the 14-19 age level.”Spinners traditionally take longer to develop,” he said.The crisis facing spin bowling was under discussion by NZC at the moment and there was a good chance that a Spin New Zealand targeted programme would be introduced.While a bowler like Glen Sulzberger had done well on two A tours now, to England last year and India this year, he had not performed so well in New Zealand domestic cricket.And first-class cricket in New Zealand was desperately short of spin bowlers.”We need to see the development of a coaching and support network for spinners, a network of coaching that is better than we have now.”On the other side, batsmen would benefit from being exposed to more spin bowling as well because we traditionally do not play spin well,” he said.Reid was also concerned at the standard of wicket-keeping.While ‘keepers were competent at first-class level, the strength of numbers of wicket-keeper-batsmen was not strong.”We could do with greater depth in that area. We have been well served over the last two decades by world-class ‘keepers in Ian Smith and Adam Parore. We have been lucky.”But there are less to choose from than we would like,” he said.Reid said one of the reasons two teams were fielded by associations in regional age-group tournaments was to expose more young players in the wicket-keeping area, not just to give more batsmen a chance.

ScorecardWes Durston was named Man of the Match as Derbyshire beat Yorkshire•PA Photos

Yorkshire’s fading hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 Blast were dealt another blow when they lost by four wickets to bottom-of-the-table Derbyshire in the North Group match at Chesterfield.They never recovered from losing three wickets to the offspin of Derbyshire captain Wes Durston in the first five overs and although Glenn Maxwell scored 45 from 29 balls and Jack Leaning 37 from 22, the visitors could only manage 146 for 9.Hamish Rutherford smashed 40 from 24 balls in front of a sell-out Queen’s Park crowd of 4500 and Wayne Madsen scored 41 from 38 balls as Derbyshire reached their target in the 19th over to end a run of seven consecutive home defeats against Yorkshire in T20 cricket.Yorkshire promoted Adil Rashid to open in place of Aaron Finch, who was ruled out with a foot injury, but made only 7 before he was stumped trying to hit Durston through the offside. Durston struck again in the same over when Alex Lees was bowled and Yorkshire were in serious trouble when Andrew Gale had his leg stump knocked back aiming to lift Durston over midwicket.Yorkshire’s first boundary did not come until Maxwell drove the last ball of the fifth over past mid-off and the batsmen struggled to get the ball away until Jonny Bairstow lifted Alex Hughes over long-off for six.Maxwell took two fours off fellow Australian Nathan Rimmington as Yorkshire reached 60 for 3 at the halfway point and he drove Hughes over extra cover for six before Bairstow was caught sweeping Greg Cork for 22. When Maxwell was bowled by Thakor , Yorkshire were 88 for 5 and in danger of falling well short of a competitive total and Tim Bresnan’s attempt to clear the ropes only ended in the hands of deep midwicket.Leaning and Liam Plunkett plundered 17 off the 18th over from Cork but three wickets fell in the final over leaving Yorkshire with what looked a below-par total on a small ground.Durston launched his team’s chase by lofting Maxwell’s second ball over midwicket for six and although Matthew Fisher knocked out his leg stump in the second over, Hamish Rutherford drove Maxwell over the pavilion in the fifth over.Chesney Hughes was lbw sweeping at Maxwell but the over cost 16, including five wides, and Rutherford took four fours from Josh Shaw’s first over as Derbyshire accelerated towards their target.The New Zealander drove a return catch back to Plunkett and although Shiv Thakor was run out, Derbyshire appeared to be cruising until Madsen was caught behind and Billy Godleman was needlessly run out in the 17th over. But Alex Hughes eased the pressure by pulling Plunkett for six and Derbyshire recorded only their second T20 win in 10 games at Queen’s Park with seven balls to spare.”That gives us a lot of confidence, to beat a strong Yorkshire side” Durston said. “I don’t think I could have gone through another meeting where we were talking about how we should have won. We know we’ve got the players to do it, it’s about having the belief and although I got the Man of the Match, that was for the team.”Yorkshire’s director of cricket Martyn Moxon said: “I felt we had a chance if we bowled and fielded well but we didn’t bowl well enough as a group, there were too many easy four balls and it was a pretty disappointing performance all-round. The bottom line is we are not playing well enough in this form of the game.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChristian Leopard’s single-handed show of a 61-ball hundred went in vain as New Zealand Under-19s lost to Pakistan Under-19s by 31 runs in Dubai. New Zealand were 206 for 7 in their chase of 280 before Leopard fell for 116 and they eventually ran out of batsmen, to be bowled out for 248. Pakistan, with their second straight win, jumped from the bottom of the table to finish on top as all three teams – including Australia – have two wins each from four matches and Pakistan edged ahead on net run rate.New Zealand’s chase was rocked early by legspinner Hasan Mohsin who struck thrice in his first two overs to reduce the score to 11 for 3. No. 3 Finn Allen stalled a middle-order collapse with Josh Clarkson and Aniket Parikh but a double-blow from Saif Ali dented them further to 67 for 5 in the 14th over. It was a solo Leopard chase from there. He started with three sixes within seven balls in the beginning and brought up his fifty off 27 balls by smashing Arsal Sheikh for two sixes and two fours in the 22nd over.He brought the required run rate down from over six per over to under 4.50 per over when he got out in 34th over after clobbering 12 fours and seven sixes, and No. 10 Felix Murray gave a late surge with three fours and a six but Shadab Khan finished things off in the 46th over. Mohsin finished with 3 for 25.Earlier, Pakistan were asked to bat and were led until the 26th over by captain and opener Gauhar Hafeez’s 58. Two wickets from Murray brought them down to 110 for 4 before Shadab Khan (48) and Saif Badar (99*) took them towards 200 and Badar’s 73-ball knock with five fours and six sixes charged them to 279 for 9 with only one more double-digit scores from the last five batsmen. Pakistan scored 58 runs in the last five overs.

Ireland 210 for 8 (Morgan 51, Bukhari 3-45) beat Netherlands 209 for 6 (Bukhari 71) by one run
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Ireland revived memories of their nerve-jangling World Cup successes against Pakistan and Bangladesh, as Kevin O’Brien turned certain defeat into an incredible one-run win, keeping his cool in the final over of the match against Netherlands at Stormont.After winning the toss and batting first on a sluggish pitch, Ireland posted an adequate but unimposing total of 210 for 8, thanks to Eion Morgan’s determined 51 from 112 balls, and a late burst of violence from Dave Langford-Smith, who clubbed three sixes in his 13-ball 31 not out. But it never looked like being enough as Netherlands cruised to 192 for 3 with five overs remaining.Then, however, O’Brien began to turn the tide. Peter Borren and Eric Szwarczynski had added 33 for the fourth wicket before Szwarczynski was excellently caught at chest height in O’Brien’s followthrough. Borren then holed out to midwicket without addition, and Ireland’s juices began to flow.With 16 needed from three overs, Geert-Maarten Mol was run out by the ever-alert Ken Carroll at mid-off, and the small crowd of fifty-odd spectators roared in approval. Billy Stelling slashed Andre Botha down to third man for a tension-relieving boundary but seven runs were still needed from the final over.O’Brien began with two dot balls before Stelling hammered the third to extra cover for a single. Hendrik-Jan Mol then, incredibly, decided to shoulder arms with six still needed from three deliveries, and his folly was exacerbated when O’Brien fielded his next delivery superbly in his followthrough. Though Mol managed to finish with a four to reduce the deficit, the match had effectively been won and lost.Ireland coach Phil Simmons was delighted with the character hisside showed. “I think it’s one of those things,” he said, “where inKenya we probably would have lost. So it does show we’ve made a stepforward, and we are able to win games – and the brilliant last sixovers from Kevin O’Brien and Andre Botha saw us through.”And although Netherlands did appear to panic, Simmons was quick topraise his bowlers – particularly O’Brien whose control in thedying overs strangled Netherlands’ intent. “I think there was a lot ofskill involved,” he said. “If you watch the last six overs, as far as I’mconcerned it was top-class death bowling – particularly from Kevin; hewas always hard to hit over the top. But at the same time, there was abit of luck, – they were cruising, and then they panic. If you panicin this game, you lose.”The result was hard luck on Netherlands’ main man, the Pakistan-born Mudassar Bukhari, who chipped in with three wickets in Ireland’s innings before launching the run-chase with a classy 71 from 114 balls. He was eventually run out by Kyle McCallan’s accurate return from the deep and Baz Zuiderent followed six overs later for 36, but Netherlands still seemed to be firmly on course. O’Brien and his team-mates decided otherwise.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mashrafe Mortaza’s career-best figures of 6 for 26 led Bangladesh to a convincing six-wicket win over Kenya to take the series 3-0. Dismissing Kenya for a lowly 118, Bangladesh knocked off the required runs in just 27 overs with Farhad Reza finishing unbeaten on 41, to hand Bangladesh their maiden series victory on foreign soil.After holding their nerve in Sunday’s cliffhanger to secure an unassailable 2-0 lead, it was Mortaza who made the difference between the two sides with a superb spell of economical bowling. Not only was it his first five-wicket haul, but recorded the best figures by a Bangladeshi bowler in one-dayers. He did, though, benefit from the cloudy, overcast conditions and his captain, Khaled Mashud, correctly decided to field. Syed Rasel responded immediately with a full-length inswinger that beat Kennedy Otieno’s floundering attempt to play across the line. After one ball, Kenya were 0 for 1.Maurice Ouma hung around for nearly 45 minutes, clobbering a four in his 14 and putting on a stabilising 35 for the second wicket with Malhar Patel before Mohammad Rafique crept one through his defences. It was the introduction of Mortaza, however, which turned the match Bangladesh’s way as he cut a swathe through Kenya’s middle-order, also snaffling the prize wicket of their captain, Steve Tikolo, for just 14.Tikolo was threatening to break free, too, lofting Mortaza over the covers for a confident four. But his poise got the better of him as Mortaza’s next delivery, angling down the legside, was lazily mistimed to midwicket. It was perhaps a stroke of fortune for Mortaza and he received a further slice of luck when Collins Obuya was adjudged lbw by the umpire, Krishna Hariharan; replays suggested otherwise but, by now, Mortaza was on a roll.With his side capitulating, Thomas Odoyo rightly went on the attack, slog-sweeping Saqibul Hasan over midwicket for a huge six, one of just two in the innings. And while Odoyo cleverly picked up singles to rotate the strike, something his team-mates failed to do, Mortaza enticed him into an injudicious drive, edging it to the wicketkeeper Mashud to hand the bowler his sixth wicket. It was a brilliant spell from Mortaza, bowling his 10 overs and conceding just 26 runs.Bangladesh set off in pursuit of 119 in a hurry with Shahriar Nafees belting four fours in his 18, but Thomas Odoyo removed him to begin a mini-slide. From 38 without loss Bangladesh slipped to 55 for 4. Peter Ongondo took two quick wickets and produced a cracking delivery to remove Mohammad Ashraful, jagging away and rising awkwardly to take the outside edge and hand Steve Tikolo his second comfortable catch at second slip.However, it was too little, too late. Saqibul Hasan and, in particular Reza, batted aggressively for his unbeaten 41 from 48 balls, clobbering seven fours and a six as Bangladesh sailed home with 23 overs to spare.

Western Province 276 for 7 dec lead North West 98 (Coetsee 50, de Stadler 5-18, Friend 3-37) and 84 for 8 (de Stadler 3-13, Magiet 3-0) by 94 runs
ScorecardRain in the morning session on the second day at Cape Town prevented Western Province from winning within two days as North West crumbled in abject fashion, losing 18 wickets in 86 overs. Werner Coetsee saved them from total humiliation, scoring 50 out of a total of 98 in the first innings. The only other player who got into double-figures was Marc Rosenberg, who scored 20. The main destroyer was Mark de Stadler, who took a career best of 5 for 18 from 14 overs He was assisted by Quentin Friend who took 3 for 37.Following on, North West faired no better as they collapsed to 84for 8 when bad light made sure that they would have to come back the next day. de Stadler was again among the wickets taking 3 for 13, but it was Achmat Magiet, making his debut appearance, who did the star turn, bowling three overs towards the end of the day and taking three wickets without conceding a run.Gauteng 228 and 90 for 3 lead KwaZulu-Natal 274 for 5 dec (Sanders 96, Gobind 77) by 44 runs
ScorecardGauteng fought back strongly at Durban to take a lead of 44 overKwaZulu-Natal at the end of the second day of their UCB Provincial Cup encounter. Natal ended the first day in a strong position, and consolidated further on the second morning, reaching 183 without loss in the 58th over. However, they lost the impetus and ended on 274for 5 when the forced declaration came in after 93 overs. The loss of Mark Sanders for 96 and Rivash Gobind, their captain, seemed to have a huge impact on the rest of the batsmen. In 35 overs they could only manage 91 runs allowing Gauteng right back into the game. When play was called off, Gauteng had moved to 90 for 3 in their second innings, and a decisive result was very much in doubt.