Phil Simmons, the former Zimbabwe coach, has attacked Zimbabwe Cricket’s (ZC) administrators, saying that they have “no understanding of cricket”. Simmons is angry at the handling of his dismissal by the board and believes that he was forced out by politics 13 months into a three-year contract.”It is nasty and reeks of personal politics from a few individuals,” said Simmons. “We all know the team is not doing well, but according to the constitution, the board must meet and decide these matters. But the decision was taken by a few people.”Simmons refuses to name those responsible because he is waiting to negotiate a deal over the remainder of his contract, but sources close to the team’s management say that Ozias Bvute, the Zimbabwe board’s managing director who is alleged to have close links with Robert Mugabe’s government, was responsible.Simmons was replaced by Kevin Curran, the former Zimbabwe fast bowler, before the recent 2-0 series defeat against India, after a sequence of communication blunders that reached farcical proportions. After Curran leaked his appointment to the press, it took ZC officials 36 hours to tell Simmons that he had been replaced. “It was a mess,” said Simmons. “But that is how it is when you deal with people who have no understanding of cricket, of being a coach or even being in the dressing-room.” After taking over from Geoff Marsh in July 2004, Simmons’s team failed to win a Test match and became the first side to lose a Test series to Bangladesh.Henry Olonga, the former Zimbabwe fast bowler, believes that he [Simmons] was a scapegoat. “Mr Bvute is the one running the show and he is a very ruthless man,” said Olonga. “Things haven’t gone well for a number of years, so it isn’t that Phil has messed up. They (ZC) demand very high standards from a team that can’t give them that.”

North West completed a hard-earned 70-run win over Gauteng despite a fine 138 from Warren Dugmore. Early in the day it seemed as though North West would have much easier task wrapping up the match as Gauteng slipped to 86 for 5 before lunch. Dumisa Makalima took the long-handled approach and sped to 51 off 39 balls then the lower order gave Dugmore more conventional support. However, the North West attack stuck to their task and shared the wickets around. Vusumuzi Mazibuko finished off the innings and his three wickets included Dugmore for a career-best effort which was, ultimately, futile.Western Province won by 56 runs against Border but that only tells half the story. The win came with the final ball of the match when Siraaj Conrad trapped last-man Rowan Richards lbw to complete a 10-wicket haul. The result was harsh on Bevan Bennett who struck 150, carrying Border to the brink of a draw. But he fell to Conrad with nine overs remaining and Western Province snuck home at the last possible moment. Warren Wyngaard earlier reached his second century of the match to set up the declaration although the real drama was still to follow.Zimbabwe Under-23 failed offer much resistance before slumping to a 10-wicket defeat against Boland as their miserable season in the South African domestic competition continued. Wallace Albertyn took two of the remaining wickets to finish with 4 for 33 while Tinashe Hove was unable to bat. It took five balls for Boland to score the run they need courtesy of four byes.

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

Sri Lanka’s first Test match in India in eight years finally got underway, after three-and-a-half damp, funereal days, but it was a largely pointless exercise with absolutely no chance of a result. Barring Virender Sehwag, who triggered a fiery start, India’s batsmen spent most of their time negotiating the lack of bounce on the sluggish surface and ground their way to 90 for 2 at the end of the 32.3 overs that were possible today.A familiar sight during the first three-and-a-half days were of groundstaff using a press-iron to remove the moisture on the pitch, but they probably ended up removing whatever bounce there was as well. Chaminda Vaas’s very first ball hardly rose above knee height – it didn’t take too long for Kumar Sangakkara to stand upto the stumps – and a number of deliveries brushed the toe of the bat, or squirted below the blade completely. Gautam Gambhir, who hadn’t yet got off the mark, played the wrong line against a canny incutter from Vaas but he had no chance when the ball hardly rose above pad height and crashed into leg stump. Thankfully for the batsmen, not all the shooters were well directed and India lost just two wickets when bad light stopped play 5.3 overs before the scheduled close.No pitch in the world, though, is likely to fluster Sehwag, and he began as if India were chasing 300 in a one-dayer. The first ball he faced – short and wide from Dilhara Fernando – was flayed to the square fence and the bowlers were made to pay for any errors in length. Sehwag carted Fernando’s third over for 16, as two savage cuts were interspersed with a mighty pull, and suddenly the MA Chidambaram Stadium, draped in dampness for most of the last week, was the place to be. The celebrations, though, came to an abrupt end as Marvan Atapattu, at short cover, timed his jump and pulled off a fine reflex catch.In Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, though, India had two of the best to handle the low bounce and they averted any further damage. Muttiah Muralitharan, coming on as early as the eighth over, posed some searching questions – turning it both ways and varying his flight beautifully – but both batsmen were content to bide their time and wait for the loose ones. Tendulkar will resume tomorrow with a record to target, Sourav Ganguly, picked ahead of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, will have a few points to prove, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni might get a chance to blaze away on his Test debut. For the rest, though, it will be a good day’s practice as they loosen their limbs and dust off the inertia. Some quick squatting skills, though, may be vital.

Gautam Gambhir b Vaas 0 (13 for 1)
Virender Sehwag c Atapattu b Vaas 36 (45 for 2)

Steve Waugh says Phil Jaques, the debutant opener, is the prototype for future Australian batsmen. Waugh, who captained Jaques at New South Wales, has told his former team-mate to play the same way that has earned him comparisons with Adam Gilchrist.”He can take attacks apart,” Waugh said in . “He is so powerful he can go over the top or through the field. He gets on a roll and keeps going. He’s unorthodox. He can catch bowlers by surprise and I think people will be surprised how powerfully he hits the ball.”Jaques, who will replace the injured Justin Langer, met his captain Ricky Ponting and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist for the first time this week and the team is excited. “He’s got his game in order and everyone I’ve spoken to or heard from says he’s a very, very good player,” Ponting said in . “I’m told that he has a slightly different technique and hits the ball in different areas to what most blokes do and seems to be a fairly attacking, aggressive player. It will be good to see him bat.”During Waugh’s last year of first-class cricket he felt Jaques was batting like Gilchrist. “In the long term, Australia is lucky to have a player like him coming through,” Waugh said. “He has the ability to win a match. He wants to have a career out of cricket but he also wants to enjoy it. He is the prototype for young players who want to play for Australia.”After knocking back offers to qualify for England, Jaques has no intention of changing his approach for Monday’s second Test. “It’s got me to where I am,” he said in . “I’m going to be playing my game on Boxing Day and have plenty of fun with it. I’m not by the textbook and I’m going to play that way.”

Forget Vision 2020. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are going for 2007.Roger Brathwaite, WICB chief executive officer, outlined the plans to take regional cricket back to the top rung of international competition during his address at the WICB’s Strategic Planning Workshop held at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva.He named several key objectives for the West Indies over the next few years. According to Brathwaite, top on the list of priorities for the WICB is improvement in their Test and one-day performances, getting back into the top three in the international rankings in both forms of the game, and of course, winning the 2007 World Cup at home.This, Brathwaite explained, would be virtually impossible unless the West Indies have at least four players in the top ten batting and bowling rankings, as well as eight players in the top 30. To achieve this, he suggested that consistent match-winning performances at the regional level was a must. He also expressed concern about a lack of top-level coaches to contribute to further regional development.Brathwaite advised, though, that the biggest stumbling block is the difficult financial situation the WICB now face. “If it weren’t for the grace of our creditors,” Brathwaite pronounced, “if they were to call in the debts today, we (the WICB) would have to close our doors.”He expressed optimism, though, that new initiatives that are being put in place to attract non-traditional revenue– including the upcoming lottery, as well as the WI credit card system soon to be introduced, and a proposed North American Series featuring Pakistan and India– along with the financial windfall expected from the impending World Cup next year would all contribute to erasing the deficit.Brathwaite attributed their mountainous debt, in part, to a lack of incoming revenue and sponsorship, along with television and other costs, as well as the fact that teams no longer profit directly from away tours, expressing concern about the revenue that would be lost if the free-to-air mandate by the government of India is allowed to stand, when they tour the West Indies this year.Accompanying Brathwaite on his trip to Trinidad for the last of this series of workshops with the regional territorial boards, facilitated by Jeff Sealy of Business Solutions Network, was West Indies manager Tony Howard, along with coach Bennett King. Also attending the session was Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board president Deryck Murray, first vice president Dudnath Ramkeesoon, general secretary Forbes Persaud and treasurer Richard De Souza, as well as various zonal representatives.Howard, in his address, analysed the decades of West Indies Test cricket from the 1940s to present in terms of wins and losses, the worst so far being this current decade. He said that only a viable long-term plan would be able to take the region’s cricket, from “Fish and Chips” cricket back to the successes of the 1970s and 80s.Giving a progress report on the improvements of the West Indies team since he joined them in November, 2004, Bennett King,the coach, said he has seen great progress on the recent tour to Australia, despite a 3-0 whitewash.He listed the improvements: fitness, mental toughness and tactical awareness. Giving an example, he said star batsman Brian Lara was the fittest runner on the team at the end of 2004, but that most of the team have now caught up.And although accepting that “we (WICB) will never have the kind of cash Australia and England and South Africa have,” Brathwaite expressed the belief that if they could tap into the resources that are available to them, the regional team can be a much more competitive unit in the near future.

Dan Marsh, the Tasmania captain who led them to last summer’s ING Cup, will play his first game of the season after recovering from a shoulder injury to face Western Australia in the Pura Cup match at Bellerive Oval on Wednesday. Marsh will take over the leadership from Michael Di Ventuo, who scored 105 in the 13-run loss to the Warriors on Sunday, and the Tigers have also been helped by the return of the fast bowler Brett Geeves.Geeves came back from an ankle problem in the limited-overs match at Devonport, taking an expensive 1 for 57 in 6.2 overs, and he has been included in the squad instead of Darren McNees. The spinner Shannon Tubb has been dropped to accommodate Marsh.South Australia have been boosted by the recoveries of Paul Rofe and Greg Blewett from fitness problems for the game against Victoria at Adelaide Oval starting on Thursday. Rofe will face a fitness test on his knee, which was operated on earlier this month to repair cartilage, but Blewett has been cleared after straining his thigh two weeks ago. Ben Cameron missed out on a place in the squad while Matthew Elliott, who hurt his knee last week, was not considered.Tasmania squad David Dawson, Travis Birt, Michael Bevan, Michael Di Venuto, George Bailey, Dan Marsh (capt), Adam Griffith, Sean Clingeleffer (wk), Xavier Doherty, Brett Geeves, Brendan Drew, Ben Hilfenhaus.South Australia squad Shane Deitz, Greg Blewett, Mark Cosgrove, Cameron Borgas, Darren Lehmann (capt), Callum Ferguson, Graham Manou (wk), Mark Cleary, Jason Gillespie, Paul Rofe, Cullen Bailey, Shaun Tait.

Scorecard
Pura Cup table

Shane Deitz collected his fourth first-class century and Cameron Borgas his second as South Australia dominated the first day of the crucial encounter against New South Wales at Adelaide. The prospect of the Blues defending their title in the final appeared bleak as Deitz controlled the innings and shared a record second-wicket partnership of 271 with Borgas to reached 2 for 356 at the close.New South Wales’ bowlers struggled for impact without their band of international performers on an excellent batting surface, and the only bright moment before tea came when Doug Bollinger forced an edge from Daniel Harris with the score on 64. From there Deitz, the opener, and Borgas grabbed control for South Australia, including moving from 150 to 200 in ten overs.Deitz’s century came first, while Borgas brought up his milestone in style with three fours in an over from the offspinner Jason Krejza.Deitz fell in the final hour for 154. Their stand surpassed the 234 runs made by George Giffen and John Lyons at the SCG in 1891-92 – the summer before the Sheffield Shield was struck – as the highest second wicket stand for SA versus NSW.But Borgas, who was dropped on 37 and 131, remained unbeaten on 140 at stumps, and South Australia ended in a strong position to drive for the outright win that could earn them a place in the final if the Victoria-Western Australia match ends in a draw.

The start of the first day of the Intercontinental Cup play-off tie between Namibia and Nepal at Windhoek was washed out, and the prospects are that the whole match will be a stop-start affair.Namibia, like much of southern Africa, has had the wettest rainy season in 30 years, and over 500mm has fallen in Windhoek in the last six weeks alone, almost double the usual annual rainfall. On Tuesday night a massive storm dumped 70mm of rain in a little over an hour.Although the outfield at The Wanderers was very wet, the pitch itself remained dry. The forecast for the next few days is bleak and it is increasingly likely that the game might not even start. If so, then Namibia will qualify for the group stage of the tournament. If the teams do take to the field, then the side gaining the most bonus points will go through.

Peter Chingoka, Zimbabwe Cricket’s embattled chairman, has launched a stinging attack on those who have criticised the way that the game is being run in Zimbabwe.Replying to a letter sent to the ICC by Charlie Robertson and Ethan Dube, two senior administrators, Chingoka questioned their credentials and claimed that they wanted “democracy is only when it suits your interests”.He continued: “It seems that you two reverend gentlemen would like to keep the sport in your perceived enclave and maintain the status quo to the disadvantage of those previously left out. It is sad to note your views on this subject yet some of the people who have benefited from the deliberate ZC policy of widening the base of talent are now being roped in by yourselves to think that such a policy is bad. We have irrefutable evidence of interference with the players by your lot. The true picture you are hiding from them is that you want continuous control at the helm of the game.”Chingoka went on to dismiss suggestions that the board was racist. “Allegations peddled from your corner on some such allegations are spurious and go on to show the die-hard nature of your past agendas” he wrote. “That is doomed to fail.”Turning to the current state of affairs, Chingoka claimed that the situation was not as dire as Robertson and Dube stated, but was getting better. “Our team is a young one being nurtured for bigger things to come. It is being developed for a better future and Test cricket status. Suspending Test matches was a deliberate policy by the board to ensure that the team grows and develops in the interim.”The current team is doing fine,” Chingoka explained. “We wish good luck to those who do not want to play for Zimbabwe because of enticements given to them. Zimbabwe Cricket has not denied any person from playing cricket for the national team. If you were genuine in your efforts to encourage team work, we would have seen the results from efforts to resolve perceived differences and talking to players to play for the country.”Turning to the involvement of the government’s Sports & Recreation Committee, which took control of the board in January and immediately reappointed Chingoka as chairman, he stated: “The SRC has done nothing wrong. Its actions have brought tranquility into sport. Its undue criticism by yourselves is not a surprise because you do not want the game to be spread in order for talent to be tapped nationwide. You are against the SRC because of their stance on this issue. It is sad to note that 26 years after independence you still hold on to archaic ideas.”He also brushed aside allegations that money was missing from the board’s accounts, pointing out that an independent auditor was now at work. “The police have finished their investigations. Our lawyers told us that the former board was guilty of contravening sections of the Exchange Control Act. Consequently no individual is to be charged but the board.He signed off: “Please be advised that it is always good to remove the log in one’s eye before pointing at the speck in another’s.”But the letter also made a number of extremely serious allegations against Ahmed Ebrahim, the former vice-president of the board and a former Supreme Court judge, who led the opposition to Chingoka last year. It also made allegations against Macsood Ebrahim, Ahmed’s son and a former leading administrator and national selector. Those are likely to ensure that this matter is far from finished.

Brian Lara, the West Indies captain, felt that Sachin Tendulkar’s absence from the Indian team for the one-day series in the West Indies would deprive the youngsters in his side and the spectators the opportunity of watching a superior player in action.Tendulkar is recuperating from shoulder surgery and his availability for the four Tests against West Indies starting June 2 is still uncertain. The Test team will be announced on May 24.”I think it is unfortunate because we are all entertainers. The public would have loved to see Sachin,” Lara told after a practice session at the Queen’s Park Oval before his team’s sixth ODI against Zimbabwe. “He’s going to be here for the World Cup hopefully, but any opportunity to see him would have been great for the public.”Lara was upbeat about his own team’s chances and how Tendulkar’s presence would have lifted the opposition’s game. “It doesn’t mean that India, with a player like Sachin Tendulkar in the team, is actually going to beat the West Indies”, he said. “Yes, they would have a player of high class but we would have loved to have him here playing against us. As team members, we can only learn from a player like that.”