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Confusion surrounds the sudden resignation of Clive Howard, the chairman of the Hong Kong Cricket Association (HKCA).Howard quit with immediate effect in the middle of the week, but the brief statement from the board cited “family and work commitments”. However, a report in the South China Morning Press stated that he owed the HKCA around HK$210,000 (US$27,000)”During his time as chairman, cricket developed significantly, with the introduction of the “Challenge League” for players not able to find places in teams competing in the regular Saturday and Sunday League competitions run by the HKCA and the setting up of a women’s league competition,” Terry Smith, the board president, said. “He also played a significant part in developing the International Cricket Sixes into an event of true international stature.”Given the scale of the activities now being undertaken by the Association, we are now considering the appointment of a CEO to support the chairman and executive committee and implement all aspects of association policy.”

Lancashire have confirmed that Mark Chilton will continue as captain in 2007. Chilton, 30, is going into his 11th season at the county and has captained them for the last two years.”It is a great honour,” he said. “I have enjoyed the job thoroughly and I continue to learn and to improve. We were close to winning things last season and the objective now is clear, to go that one step further.”Lancashire’s manager Mike Watkinson added: “Mark works tirelessly on and off the field, and is respected throughout the game for his leadership qualities. He is a deep-thinking and courteous person, but he also has a steely inner nature and is never fazed by tough situations or bullish characters in the game and he never shies away from difficult decisions.”Out in the middle, Mark is determined to lead from the front. He remains hugely ambitious, for the club and for himself.”Lancashire were runners-up in both the County Championship and the Natwest Trophy last season, and have recently secured the signature of Muttiah Muralitharan for 2007.

South Africa 427 for 5 (Amla 149, Prince 70*, Boucher 26*) trail New Zealand 593 for 8 dec by 166 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Hashim Amla pushed his maiden Test century up to 149 as South Africa worked their way past the follow-on at Cape Town, virtually assuring them of safety. Jacques Kallis aided him during the morning session and Ashwell Prince ensured that two quick wickets before tea were nothing other than a blip on another bat-dominated day. The New Zealand attack plugged away manfully, but it was hard work for little reward.The match only threatened to come alive when Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel struck in quick succession, leaving South Africa 33 short of the follow-on with five wickets in hand, just about keeping New Zealand’s interest in squaring the series alive. Vettori trapped Amla with an arm ball – although there was the thinnest of inside edges – and Patel’s strike to remove AB de Villiers on the stroke of tea had opened a small window for the Kiwis. But it was slammed, or rather eased shut, by Prince and Mark Boucher. At no stage did the conditions hint at a clatter of wickets and that was the only way New Zealand were going to be able to force a result.For the majority of the morning it was one-way traffic as Amla and Kallis bedded in on a surface that offered precious little encouragement to the bowlers. There was a hint of turn, but the pitch has not broken up as had been expected.Vettori was disappointing, dropping too short and allowing the batsmen to pick him off for ones and twos. Kallis creamed a series of delightful drives which left the fielders motionless, and led to a change of tact from Stephen Fleming. As soon as the new ball was available it was taken and James Franklin found a hint of movement and maintained a probing line.

But there was nothing to frighten the batsmen and Kallis clicked over to another fifty – off 142 balls – and also nudged his way beyond 8000 Test runs. Amla was quick onto any wayward deliveries and the nineties did not cause him any undue nerves. A sweet drive carried him to 99 before he forced a brace through the covers off Vettori to reach three figures, off 242 balls, a fine return to the team especially in the tough No. 3 slot.By this point Kallis had departed in a somewhat tame manner, scooping an attempted pull to mid-on after the ball held up off the surface. However, Amla pressed on with the knowledge that it was not about how quickly South Africa scored – it was all about occupation of the crease. He continued to knock away the loose deliveries with Patel showing the first signs of tiring as he approached 40 overs on his debut. But when Vettori got the benefit of Amla’s decision, and Patel was rewarded for preservence, South Africa would have had a twitchy tea interval.However, as with Kallis, it was a situation made for Prince and he went about making the most of chance of a sizeable score. New Zealand needed a quick strike in the final session, but Boucher was quickly into his effective counterattacking style, sweeping and nudging the spinners to distraction. Once the pair took the deficit below 200 a collective weight was removed from South African shoulders.The zip clearly vanished from the Kiwis allowing Prince and Boucher to ease along in what has become a quest for personal milestones. The daily dose of bad light arrived on cue to allow some aching bodies to head for the dressing room. Prince will know a fourth century is there for the taking tomorrow and, after a season of battling away on tough pitches, the South Africans will want to eke every last run from this surface. It will be one for the purists.

How they were outSouth AfricaGraeme Smith c and b Patel 25 (36 for 1)
Boeta Dippenaar b Patel 47 (108 for 2)
Jacques Kallis c Martin b Oram 71 (252 for 3)
Hashim Amla lbw b Vettori 149 (344 for 4)
AB de Villiers c Papps b Patel 13 (361 for 5)

Sharad Pawar, the president of the Indian board (BCCI), has filed his nomination for the post of ICC president as the ‘common representative of the Asian bloc’ after the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) met in Singapore and agreed on his nomination.”All the Test playing nations in Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – have decided on the nomination of Mr. Pawar and it has been sent to the ICC,” Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the BCCI, told PTI. Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said that the BCCI also hoped to rope in the West Indies board to back Pawar.Earlier Syed Ashraful Huq, the ACC chief executive officer, said that the ACC wanted Pawar to be the ICC president. “The ACC cannot nominate”, Huq told . “So it is likely that India will nominate and we will support it.”Mahmud-ur-Rehman, the Bangladesh board chief executive, also confirmed his board’s support to Pawar. “We are for it and have informed the BCCI too,” said Rehman.The last date for filing of nominations is January 1. The ICC will vote in its new president in its annual meeting in London in July next year for a term of two years beginning 2008 . The nominations committee is headed by AC Muttiah, the former president of the BCCI.

Ricky Ponting says Australia will chase a target if life is breathed into the remainder of the second Test. Despite trailing by 239 runs entering the fourth day, Ponting indicated the team would not be afraid to attack on a batsman’s pitch, but he felt the main hope of setting up an outside chance of victory would rely on their progress in the opening session.Option one for Ponting is to create a lead and then pray for a quick kill, but early losses would increase the likelihood of a declaration, leaving Andrew Flintoff to set a target. “If there’s something there to chase we’ll have a go,” Ponting said. The pitch has shown few signs of variable bounce and even though Ponting believes Shane Warne can take advantage in the final innings, the prospects of either team falling in a heap are remote.”The first hour will be crucial and if we get a good partnership then from there we could get back in the game,” he said. Michael Clarke (30) and Adam Gilchrist (13) are the unbeaten batsmen after Ponting and Michael Hussey re-floated Australia when they fell to 3 for 65.Ponting steered Australia with 142, bringing up a national record of 33 centuries, but he benefited from a couple of tight calls, including a dropped catch from Ashley Giles (“I thought I hit it well enough to get over him” at deep square-leg) and a missed run-out from Paul Collingwood (“I would have been gone by a good couple of yards”). As Ponting continues to remind everyone, he is not a man who carries statistics in his kitbag. It might change when he stops playing, but until then he is “out there to play the situation”.Getting him to talk about his innings of 12 fours and 245 deliveries was also difficult. He had a piece of grass in his eye for a ball during the first session and for periods of the day he batted a yard out of his crease, a tactic he blamed partly on his caught-behind dismissal to Matthew Hoggard. “I probably shouldn’t have been that far out for the second new ball,” he said. “It went away a bit, but if I was in my crease I probably wouldn’t have edged it.”I wasn’t really satisfied with my innings. Getting through the second new ball was important and we had a really good partnership going and were clawing our way back.” Ponting’s stand with Hussey totalled 192 and his partner joined him in the dressing room seven overs later when playing-on to Hoggard. It was the second time in consecutive innings Hussey had slipped in close range of a century, adding 91 to his 86 in Brisbane.

Both Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath lavished praise on Sachin Tendulkar,but were confident that Australia would prevail when they meet India onSaturday in the third game of the DLF Cup. McGrath is representingAustralia for the first time since the VB Series last January, andrelished the opportunity to pit himself against both Tendulkar and BrianLara in the same tournament.”My whole career, I have enjoyed bowling to guys who are the best in theworld,” he said. “Sachin and Lara are two of those guys. I didn’t get achance to bowl at Lara the other night, now I’ll see how I go againstSachin. I am looking forward to it. Sachin is a class player, I havealways enjoyed bowling to him in the park. The way I started the othernight was a perfect length to a right-hander. So, we have a right-handerwho has got a 140 under his belt. He is due to fail in this game!”Ponting too was awestruck by the manner in which Tendulkar had announcedhis return to the fray, saying: “I have always said that Sachin is thebest player I have played against and seen. He is absolutely world-class.Having him at the top of the order makes the team look much moreformidable. He gets in there early, he has technique to play the new-ball,and he can be as damaging as anyone in the middle and end overs. He makesfor a pretty good package when he is at his best.”That said, he insisted that the game would not be about individuals.”India has always been the team that we respect, and they have lots ofmatch-winners in their team,” said Ponting. “On their day, they are asgood as anybody going around. We have got one win under our belt and thatshould help. As for India, this is a short series, so they will, I amsure, look at tomorrow as a game that they must win.”Rahul Dravid suggested that a positive mindset would be India’s biggestally. “We need to be at the top of the game to beat the Aussies,” he said.”They have maintained their status as the best side in the world, and wehave played some good one-day cricket in the last year. It should make fora good contest.”Like everyone saw, the West Indies were in control for three-fourths ofthe game, but then the Aussies fought back and won convincingly in theend. You must be in the game right till the end against Australia, youcan’t relax at any stage. We will look to be aggressive and positive.”India’s preparations weren’t helped, however, by rain that resulted intheir practice session at the Turf Club being called off, after onlyVirender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had got an opportunity to knockaround in the nets. “We have had just about enough of this bad weather,”said a visibly irked Dravid. “I think we have got our quota of rain for acouple of years in the last month or so! It is a bit frustrating, but itis something we can’t control. Yesterday was shaping up into a good game,and we were beginning to have good training session here today. Thefacilities were great and we had excellent practice pitches, but only twoplayers got to bat.”Dravid accepted that India’s bowling had been well below par against WestIndies, who were 141 for 2 from just 20 overs when the rain came down. “Wedidn’t bowl as well as we would have liked, and there is a lesson to learnthere,” he said. “We have worked out the areas that, if we bowl in, willbring us success. We have got plans in place, now it’s a question ofexecuting them.”Australia also struggled with the ball when Shivnarine Chanderpaul wassmashing it all over the place, but McGrath was coy when asked if he wouldbecome something of a mentor for the younger bowlers. “I don’t know if Iam good at it,” he said truthfully. “But I get along well with the youngquicks and they sort of keep me on my toes. I haven’t spent a great dealof time with them just chatting to them, so I am working their game outand seeing actually how much they know about their game.”Despite the fact that he’s now one of the game’s senior statesmen, McGrathhinted that the snarl, that has been just as much part of his game as hisaccuracy, wouldn’t go into premature retirement. “Being a fast bowler, oneneeds to be aggressive,” he said. “Even so, there is a line I have madethat I don’t cross too often. But Ricky wouldn’t want me skipping aroundafter bowling half-volleys and smiling when I get hit for four.”Both camps played down the significance of a Greg Chappell-coached Indiataking on Australia for the first time. “We don’t look at it that way,”said Dravid. “It doesn’t make a difference that Greg is an Aussie and weare playing Australia tomorrow. He is our coach, and Australia is justanother team. I don’t know if the fact that Greg has coached people likePonting in the past will make that much of a difference.”Ponting, who was part of the Australia A squad coached by Chappell in1994-95, agreed. “You might be right there,” he said with a laugh, whenasked to recall those long-ago days when he was trying to make his mark.”I have only heard good things about Greg as a coach. He has been with usat the Academy at different times, he knows a lot of our game reasonablywell. So he will have a fair deal of knowledge to pass on to the Indianteam about us.”When he [Chappell] was coach of South Australia, Tim Neilsen was with himthere as the assistant coach. Everything he has said about Greg ispositive, Tim said Greg is the best batting coach he has worked with. Hewould have brought a fair bit to the Indian team, and a fair bit ofknowledge about us too.”How that knowledge helps the Indians on Saturday remains to be seen.

Joe Burns might be glad that in Adelaide he is not playing for his place in the team. Nobody knows quite what to expect from the inaugural day-night Test with a pink ball, but few players involved in the match have played more pink-ball games than Burns. And while he is entering the Test with an open mind, his record in the format does not make for happy reading.In four day-night pink-ball games over the past two years, at the Gabba, the WACA, the MCG and Manuka Oval, Burns has scored 15, 1, 0, 7, 25, 6 and 5. These encounters for both Queensland and the Prime Minister’s XI have given Burns a good grounding in what to expect from the pink ball, and he knows that batsmen should not expect it to behave exactly like the red Kookaburra.”I’ve played a few games now and it’s different to a red ball,” Burns told reporters in Adelaide upon the team’s arrival on Sunday. “I think you have to accept it’s not going to play the same way as your red ball. So you can’t kid yourself and go into it thinking that you can play the same way or prepare the same way.”There are differences in the way the ball reacts, and at times visibility of the ball, but you have to have an open mind as a player and just accept there will be challenges along the way you have to make sure you can stand up to. When you’re out in the middle you can’t look for excuses with the ball, you get on and play the game and whatever is coming down at you, you have to make sure you’re playing it as best you can.”One thing Burns has not experienced is a day-night match with the pink ball at Adelaide Oval, and he knows from his previous matches that not all venues handle the day-night format in quite the same way. The pink ball scuffed up significantly during New Zealand’s match against the PM’s XI in Canberra last month, but it is expected to hold its colour better at Adelaide Oval.”For me it was different on where you played,” Burns said. “I’ve never played [with the pink ball] in Adelaide. I know under lights in Brisbane and Perth it was very difficult. It seemed to swing a lot more and a lot harder to see. But it could be the stands at the Gabba maybe, and at the MCG it seemed like it was fairly consistent all the way through.”In Canberra, it seemed like visibility-wise it was better at night but just swung a little bit more. I guess you have to wait and see what the wicket plays like in Adelaide as well. I’m sure we’ll discuss it this week. Luckily, the New South Wales boys played here a few weeks ago in a pink-ball game.”Australia’s players have Monday off from training before they begin to tackle the pink ball in the Adelaide Oval nets on Tuesday, and they will train later in the afternoon and towards night time to prepare for the new challenges. Burns, who scored his maiden Test century while opening in the first Test at the Gabba, has been training with the pink ball himself to get used to it ahead of this week’s Test.”For me personally I’ve been training by myself with the pink ball just to feel a little bit more comfortable,” he said. “You start to realise that it’s just a cricket ball and you kind of play the same way.”It’s more so just understanding when the ball may react differently and having that mind-frame that in the space of half an hour might go from not swinging to swinging or vice-versa. I think the key is to just have that open mind and be ready for whatever challenge comes along.”

ScorecardKenya opened their Intercontinental Cup campaign with a commanding nine-wicket win against Canada to take maximum points with a day to spare in Nairobi. Steve Tikolo claimed four wickets to leave Kenya chasing 100 for victory and they cruised home as Maurice Ouma helped himself to an unbeaten 68-ball 71.Canada began the day facing a first-innings deficit of 130, following Thomas Odoyo’s maiden first-class century on Saturday, and were in immediate trouble as Peter Ongondo removed both openers in the first over. Their main resistance came from a third-wicket stand of 113 between Trevin Bastiampillai (63) and 36-year-old debutant Arvind Kandappah (87). As they pushed Canada into a narrow lead there was a chance Kenya could be set a challenging target, but the home side stuck to their task.Bastiampillai became Tikolo’s first wicket when he was beaten by the turn and Asif Mulla soon followed as he edged an outswinger from Nehemiah Odhiambo. Kandappah, who clubbed three sixes in his 111-ball innings, miscued a sweep to square leg as Kenya tightened their grip leaving Odoyo to help his captain clean up the tail.Kenya began their chase with a flurry of boundaries and Ouma recovered from his first innings duck with a string of powerful blows. David Obuya fell with the target in sight, leaving Ouma to finish the match in emphatic style by launching Qaiser Ali over long-on for his second six.

The Indian board’s (BCCI’s) bid to rope in Greg Chappell as a consultant may come to naught with his name doing the rounds for the new head coach’s role at the Australian Cricket Academy. According to media reports, Chappell is a clear favourite to succeed Tim Nielsen, who leaves the job to take over the Australian team from John Buchanan after the World Cup.Chappell, on his part, kept the cards close to his chest and said he would reveal his future plans within three weeks. “I am not making decisions yet but after a while I will look at the options,” he was quoted as saying in the .Chappell said over the next few days, he would be visiting friends and family in Canberra and Adelaide before deciding his future. “I just want some time away from it all. We are just going to spend some time catching up with family all around the country and then we will work out what happens.”Chappell’s 22-month association with the Indian team snapped after the side’s disastrous World Cup campaign. After the exit, Chappell decided not to seek an extension of his contract with the Indian team but the BCCI reportedly offered him a consultant’s job at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.Chappell, meanwhile, asserted that his troubled tenure with the Indian team has not turned him off coaching. “I don’t feel [cheesed of]), not at all,” he said. Chappell also admitted that he feared for his security after India’s flop show and Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer’s murder in the World Cup.He also criticised the Indian media for exaggerating his medical check-up in Mumbai. “It was just a minor thing that they obviously made into something bigger. The health is fine, there is no drama other than what the media made of it. I just had some tests done to make sure I was in good health to fly and come back to Australia.”

There is reason for concern but not alarm, not till we experience the pitch anyway. There is uncertainty in the air on a number of fronts, and rightly so, but National Stadium in Guyana is far from the construction site that some reports have made it out to be. Weather permitting, and in Guyana all you ever need for rain is a bit of cricket, the Super Eights will commence on Wednesday.Indeed the outfield has responded superbly to the rain of the past three days, a point noted by the Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody. The much lovelier Bourda, the former Test ground, would have become a lake by now. Built higher than the surrounding land, engineers claim that drainage at the new stadium here can empty two inches of water in half an hour.That is one of the bright spots at the moment. Virtually nothing is known about the virgin pitch, on which only a club 20/20 match has been played in the last few months. Presumably it will behave better that the practice pitches, which recently earned the censure of Andy Roberts, the pitch consultant for the tournament, some months ago, and frustrated the South Africans with their unreliability when they netted this morning. It’s been a familiar case of too little too late.The Local Organising Committee has been terribly tardy with all its commitments, and finally handed over the facility to the ICC last week almost a month after deadline. Three days ago, Rushmans, the British agency handling the media facilities for the tournament, had advised journalists “the LOC has been unable to provide fully operational facilities for us and despite out best efforts, there may be continuing challenges during matches at the stadium.” It added that a number of additional personnel, including power experts, IT technicians, had to be flown in to get things ready.On match eve the media centre appeared to be in reasonable order, and Rushmans staff anticipated no further trouble. Project managers from the Indian building firm, Shapoorji Pallonji, too, are confident that all aspects of the stadium proper are in perfect order. The same cannot be said for the approach and the parking lot, work on which was not just late but never completed.