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Despite the on-going dispute between the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Umpires and Scorers Council (T&TCUSC) and the Association of Cricket Umpires of Trinidad and Tobago (ACUTT), the Carib Sunday and Super leagues are scheduled to get off this weekend, with the TTCUSC promising to field enough umpires to officiate the entire season.However, the ACUTT, who say they have the support of 70% of the umpires in the country and are lobbying to replace the TTCUSC as the representative body for umpires to the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), are claiming that the percentage is incorrect and that the TTCUSC do not have sufficient qualified personnel to carry out the job.Last week, as part of a process to arrive at a resolution to the impasse, representatives of both entities met with Ronald Ramcharan, the Chamber of Commerce mediator.The TTCB are reportedly awaiting the report of that mediation effort. But Parasram Ramsubar, a TTCUSC representative, said yesterday that no matter what the outcome of the mediation, there will be officials to ensure the smooth sailing of the 2006 Carib sponsored competitions. “We have already appointed the umpires that have said they will be available,” Ramsubar stated. “We have more than 20 qualified umpires and that will be sufficient to run the (Carib Sunday) League.” Ramsubar added that those figures were based on the responses to a request from the TTCUSC seeking the availability of umpires from the five zones last December.And while there were no replies from the North and North East Zones, acceptances were forthcoming from umpires in the Central, South and South East Zones. Ramsubar indicated that they would need a minimum of 16 umpires to officiate the league competently.However, Harry Mahabal, the ACUTT chairman, suggested that cannot be the case. “Let’s put it this way,” he emphasised, “when the season starts you will see what will happen with the clubs. But according to our record, I don’t think they can have as many as 20 qualified [umpires]. We also understand they have recalled several umpires who have stopped umpiring for the last 15 years back to the fold. Most of these people have not even seen the cover of a new rule book.”Regarding the mediation, Mahabal stated that Ramcharan was now seeking a legal opinion after the ACUTT presented two legal opinions of their own. Forbes Persaud, TTCB general secretary, said the local governing body would recognise the TTCUSC as the official body of the umpires as they had done so for the last 49 years. But Mahabal stated that the TTCB would determine the representative body at a meeting later this month.

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.

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.

Ricky Ponting doesn’t like playing Twenty20 matches and believes Australia should contest only one game of the popular format each season. Ponting will captain Australia against England on Tuesday in a warm-up for the tri-series and the SCG is expected to be sold-out.Ponting, who has 131 runs in four Twenty20 affairs, said his problem with the concept was treating a game between two countries as “just being fun”. “I don’t really like playing Twenty20 international cricket,” he said in the . “I know it is cracking entertainment for the fans. I can see it would be good fun, and how it might attract new spectators.”He said if the games were limited to one fixture a season and a four-yearly tournament it “might be all right”. “Maybe with the odd international game and by having state teams playing a short competition in the way Twenty20 cricket is played in England, I think it has value,” he said. “My problem is that I can’t play a game in which I’m wearing my national team’s colours, and my opponents are wearing theirs, and treat it as just being fun.”However, Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said the format should be played seriously ahead of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September. “The reality is there’s not going to be much difference from one-day cricket, and that Twenty20 is likely to grow and grow,” he told .Australia Twenty20 squad Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Cameron White, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus.

Alastair Cook has warned that England’s 104-run thrashing of India in their one-day opener will count for little unless they back it up during the remaining six games of the series. England’s best limited-overs display since before the World Cup saw Cook and Ian Bell both score maiden centuries before James Anderson’s career-best return finished the deal.Cook, who laid the platform with a patient 102, said: “The ability to tough out a result when you’re up against it is a skill that good teams have, it is what Australia have done for so long and it really only comes with the experience of winning matches. That is the next challenge for us.”We’re really excited about what we did on Tuesday but it will mean very little if it stands out on its own for the rest of the summer.”Cook, 22, said consistency was the key to England improving their low standing in one-day cricket. “There is no point putting in one performance like that with two hundreds and then forgetting about it.”Cook’s place in the one-day line-up was under scrutiny after five previous appearances had not even yielded a half-century. Bell too was under pressure before scoring a hundred in what was his 48th ODI. “I’d played a few games and got a couple of forties but I hadn’t really made a score so to get to three figures, especially at the start of your career, is always nice,” said Cook. “It shows you and everyone else that you can do it. Now it’s up to me to repeat it as I have done in Test-match cricket.”England will again be without left-arm pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom for Friday’s match and Monday’s third fixture at Edgbaston after he failed to overcome a side strain he sustained during the third and final Test against India at The Oval nearly two weeks ago.

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)

Scorecard

Nepal eased into the final with a nine-wicket victory against China at the Johor Cricket Academy.China’s one chance of victory was to hope to put up a score big enough to force Nepal to go for their strokes for the first time in the tournament and thus create wicket-taking chances. Nepal however, were never remotely in danger and – but for two dropped chances – played a close to faultless game in the field.Only one four was struck by China after they batted, that a heave over midwicket by Sun Meng Yao, who made 18 of their 40. China’s batsmen were not allowed to play any strokes as delivery after delivery pinned them to the crease in defence.China were all out in the 29th over and Nepal’s batsmen, not overly capable of attack themselves, took their own sweet time in chasing down the target. Extras did the work; 21 of them, surpassing by one the runs off the bat.Nepal now play Bangladesh in the final for which Bangladesh – in spite of all the application shown by Nepal – are the overwhelming favourites.

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.

ScorecardSussex followed up their C&G Trophy success with an impressive seven-wicket victory against Durham in the Pro40 to keep their hopes of a treble alive. Richard Montgomerie carried them most of the way towards their target after James Kirtley, riding high after his match-winning effort on Saturday, bagged three wickets.Kirtley and Yasir Arafat knocked the stuffing out of Durham’s innings as they slumped to 10 for 3. That became 40 for 4 when Ben Harmison fell to Luke Wright and, although Gareth Breese’s 50 led a recovery, Durham could only muster a modest total. Robin Martin-Jenkins produced a miserly spell with the ball, as his eight overs cost just 10 runs with four maidens.Matt Prior fell early in the chase, but Chris Nash added 66 for the second wicket with Montgomerie. Chris Adams was at the crease to complete the formalities and Sussex had a massive 82 balls to spare.