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Presentation Photo Vic Isaacs

Hampshire received two modern BOLA bowling machines today, thanks to the generosity of the members of HCCC Bournemouth and New Forest area committee.The machines costing £1,800 each were delivered to the Hampshire County Cricket Club’s indoor school, where Nicky Batt, Vice-Chairman of the B&NF Area committee (see picture) presented to Tim Tremlett, Hampshire’s Director of Cricket the cheque.Supporters of Hampshire cricket from the Bournemouth and New Forest area have funded the purchase by the club of two state-of-the-art BOLA machines for the Cricket Academy.The money was raised by a number of social events organised by the area committee this year that included a cocktail party and a dinner, both at Ringwood, a Summer garden party (courtesy of Bill and Kate Slade) with musical entertainment provided by the Solent Brass Quintet who also played at the Australian match and a golf championship organised in conjunction with the County Golf Club.A memorable evening of Dixieland Jazz brought the 2001 programme to a rousing finale on Friday, September 28, at Fordingbridge. The Alan James Band with guest star Digby Fairweather entertained in style, and 80 supporters also enjoyed a buffet supper.Derek Grant, chairman of the Bournemouth and New Forest area committee, said: “Throughout the year our events have been well supported.”My thanks are due to the area committee members without whose assistance and support it would not have been possible to organise such a comprehensive programme of events. I should also like to thank the many supporters and friends who have attended our functions during the year.”The first event in 2002 is the annual cocktail party at Greyfriars, Ringwood, on Sunday, January 27.Tim Tremlett thanking the committee for their efforts and generosity on behalf of Hampshire, stated that these modern style bowling machines will have contant use, not only in helping the techniques of the club’s professionals, but the School of Excellence and Academy. Club cricketers in the area will also benefit.

Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been named in the New South Wales squad for next month’s Matador Cup one-day competition after being rested from the Test tour of Bangladesh. Hazlewood and Mitchell Johnson were both left out of the Test squad to manage their workloads, but Hazlewood will still turn out for the Blues as he prepares for a busy home summer.Allrounder Shane Watson is another notable inclusion in the 14-man squad, having announced his retirement from Test cricket following the recent Ashes tour. Both men were part of Australia’s World Cup-winning squad earlier this year and will aim to help New South Wales secure their first one-day title for a decade, having last won in 2005-06.Moises Henriques will captain New South Wales, who will be without spinners Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon due to their commitments with the Test squad in Bangladesh. Offspinner Chris Green has been called in from outside the New South Wales contract list and uncapped rookie-contracted batsman Ryan Gibson has also been included.The tournament will also mark the return to New South Wales of Ed Cowan, who began his career with the Blues but has been part of Tasmania’s side for the past six seasons. The Matador Cup features seven sides this year, with a Cricket Australia XI set to be made up of fringe players who do not make the 14-man squads of the six states.New South Wales squad Moises Henriques (capt), Sean Abbott, Doug Bollinger, Ryan Carters, Ed Cowan, Ryan Gibson, Chris Green, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Lalor, Nic Maddinson, Kurtis Patterson, Ben Rohrer, Gurinder Sandhu, Shane Watson.

An update has emerged regarding Newcastle United and their interest in FC Koln defender Timo Hubers…

What’s the talk?

According to the Daily Mail, the Magpies are one of the teams eyeing up a swoop for the centre-back, who is valued at £6m by his club. His contract expires in the summer of 2023 and he is now available for a cut-price fee in the Bundesliga outfit’s last chance to cash in on him.

The report claimed that Crystal Palace, Southampton, West Ham and Leeds are among the other Premier League clubs interested in a deal for the defender.

Time to axe Clark

Eddie Howe must push to complete this deal and use Hubers’ arrival as another reason to brutally axe Ciaran Clark from the club.

The Magpies must cash in on the Irishman and replace him with the German defender, as it would be a significant upgrade to the squad.

Clark was omitted from the club’s Premier League squad for the second half of the season at the end of January and is currently wasting away without being able to play for the first team. He was left out of the 25-man list after a dreadful 18 months on the pitch, averaging a dismal WhoScored rating of 6.64 in the 2020/21 campaign.

This term, he averaged a rating of 6.24 in the first half of the campaign. Clark also let the team down in a friendly in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, with journalist Josh Bunting claiming that the 32-year-old “embarrassed himself” after he was sent off for making contact with an opposition player’s face.

He was nowhere near good enough to compete in the Premier League and this resulted in Howe leaving him out of his squad heading into the rest of the campaign.

Hubers, who Hannover’s sporting director Gerhard Zuber once dubbed “exemplary”, has averaged a superb WhoScored rating of 7.13 in the Bundesliga this season. He has made a whopping 4.8 tackles and interceptions per game in the German top flight, showing that he can perform to a high level on a consistent basis for Koln.

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At the age of 25, the defender also has the potential to improve and develop his game further. This means that he can be a signing for the here-and-now and also for the future, which is why he could be an excellent addition to Howe’s squad.

His statistics suggest that he would be a major upgrade on Clark, and the Toon must do all they can to bring him in to replace the Irishman ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

AND in other news, Newcastle now plotting huge £120k-p/w bid for £50m “destroyer”, he’d be Howe’s “rock”…

Lou Vincent is in good one-day form but needs to lift his output in the longer version of the game © Getty Images

Lou Vincent is determined to make the most of his late call-up into New Zealand’s Test squad but he knows breaking into the middle order will be difficult. Vincent understood the selectors’ decision to initially leave him out of the 15-man group to visit South Africa before adding him as a replacement for Peter Fulton, who requires knee surgery.”I sat down with the selectors to say ‘Hey, what are the reasons?'” Vincent told the . “What came out of it was the answers, where for the last 12 months I hadn’t really done well for Auckland in the four-day stuff and that’s pretty obvious. I hadn’t actually deserved my spot in the Test team.”Vincent’s four first-class outings for Auckland last summer brought him 142 runs at 23.66. However, the CB Series in Australia began a string of excellent one-day performances from Vincent, who has averaged 52.66 in his past ten ODIs.He has two opportunities to regain his form in the longer version of the game with warm-up matches before the first Test starts at Johannesburg on November 8. “I’m looking forward to the practice games and if I get an opportunity to score runs then it’s up to the selectors on where they want to bat me,” he said.Vincent’s last exposure to Test cricket was as an opener in 2005 and since then he has been working on re-establishing his place in the middle order. However, he knows the competition for spots in the batting line-up will be intense.”It’s quite strong and I look at the depth of what we have with [Stephen] Fleming and [Scott] Styris, who have done well for so many years, and Fulton, who’s shown he’s consistent and quite a good player, and Ross Taylor, who’s coming through as a pretty exciting future for New Zealand,” Vincent said. “If I get an opportunity, I will do everything I can to try to take it.”

Shoaib Akhtar: his career is in ruins © Getty Images

Shoaib Akhtar has been banned from cricket for two years and Mohammad Asif for one, after both were found guilty of using the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone, by a three-man drugs tribunal formed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).Both men tested positive after dope tests conducted internally by the PCB at the end of September. They were pulled out of Pakistan’s squad for the Champions Trophy on October 16, the day before their opening game.”We gave a full chance to both the pacemen to fight their cases and after a thorough inquiry we feel they failed to prove their innocence,” said Shahid Hamid, the chairman of the panel that also included former captain Intikhab Alam and Waqar Ahmed, a medical expert. “The process of doping was investigated carefully. We made sure the tests were conducted properly, samples reached the laboratory in Malaysia safely and there was no error in testing in the laboratory.”Both the players were satisfied and accepted the tests and gave their point of view but after a thorough inquiry and bound by the Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) we reached the decision.” Bob Woolmer, Pakistan coach, told AFP the ban “was not good news for Pakistan.”Hamid elaborated why the two had received different sentences: “Akhtar contested the case saying that he has been on a high-protein diet which contained beef, chicken meat and other dietary supplements and he also said he took some herbal medicines from a Hakim (herbal expert) but he couldn’t prove them.”Asif’s case was different…. Pakistan physician Darryn Lifson confirmed he stopped him from taking a banned substance a few months back.”Under the ICC’s doping rules, a two-year ban is the minimum penalty for a first offence. However, the PCB had insisted all along it will take its own decisions, since the tests were conducted internally. As a younger member of the squad, Asif, 24 next month, has been let off comparatively lightly, and can be expected to fight again for his place next year. For Shoaib, however, the final curtain could be falling on an eventful and controversial career. Both players do, however, have the right to appeal and, if they do, a separate tribunal will be conducted.Both had been recovering from injuries in the weeks and months building up to their positive tests, with Shoaib suffering from knee and ankle problems and Asif fighting back from an elbow problem that forced him to miss much of Pakistan’s tour of England last summer.Shoaib initially denied any misconduct, saying: “I have not knowingly taken any performance enhancing drugs and would never cheat my team-mates or opponents in this way.” But earlier this week, both men declined the offer of a retest on their B samples, which implied that they did not question the results. Both men are, however, entitled to appeal against their ban.For Pakistan cricket as a whole, the verdict marks the end of an unpalatable three-month period, which began with the ball-tampering controversy at The Oval, leading to the first forfeiture in Test history and a four-ODI suspension for their captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq.Younis Khan, Inzamam’s stand-in, then resigned on the eve of the Champions Trophy, claiming he did not wish to be a “dummy” captain, only to be reinstated following the resignation of the PCB’s exasperated chairman, Shaharyar Khan.

Steve Tikolo will captain Kenya against Bermuda © Getty Images

Bermuda, Ireland, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced their squads for the ICC Intercontinental Cup semi-finals and finals beginning on October 23 in Namibia.Bermuda will play Kenya and the UAE will square off against Ireland in the semi-finals from October 23 to 25. The finals will be held at the Wanderer’s Club in Windhoek from October 27 to 29.The purpose of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, a first-class tournament for non Test-playing nations, is to give these countries greater exposure to the longer form of the game and hopefully improve their playing standards.Teams
Bermuda
Clay Smith (capt), Janeiro Tucker, Saleem Mukuddem, Dwayne Leverock, Dean Minors, Ryan Steede, Irving Romaine, Kwame Tucker, Kevin Hurdle, Curtis Jackson, Lionel Cann, Hasan Durham, Kevin TuckerIreland
Trent Johnston (capt), Conor Armstrong, Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Peter Gillespie, Dominick Joyce, Kyle McCallan, Adrian McCoubrey, Paul Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Niall O’Brien, Greg Thompson, Andrew WhiteKenya
Steve Tikolo (capt), Thomas Odoyo, Kennedy Otieno, Maurice Ouma, Kalpesh Patel, Ragheb Aga, Lameck Onyango, Collins Obuya, Mohammed Sheikh, Peter Ongondo, Martin Suji, Hitesh Modi, Tony SujiUAE
Arshad Ali (capt), Muhammad Taskeen, Imran Ali, Rameez Shahzad, Kashif Ahmed, Vairamoorthy Sockalingam, Sameer Zia, Ali Asad Abbas, Rizwan Ahmed, Fahad Alhashmi, Usman Saleem, Marlon Fernando, Fahad Usman

© Getty Images

When Steve Waugh broke into the Australian Test team at the age of 20, he was dubbed "The Iceman" for his immeasurable coolness under pressure. And yet, even Waugh had a soft spot deep beneath his rhinoceros-hide skin, and in 1998, that spot was located on Australia’s tour of India.During that series, Waugh was taken by an aid group to Udayan, a town outside Kolkata, where a home for the children of leprosy victims had been established. Waugh was instantly touched by what he saw, and in the following months and years, he made regular repeat visits, and through his own donations and fund-raising efforts, he helped to build an 80-bed girls’ wing at the centre, which is also home to 220 boys.The children, most of whom are aged between 5 and 19, can spend several years of their lives at the centre, where they receive food, clothing and medical treatment, as well as education, exercise and vocational training, whereby they can prepare to live a normal live when the time comes to leave Udayan.With most of the parents work far away from the home, as beggars, peasants or labourers, Waugh’s regular appearances are eagerly awaited by the children, many of whom refer to him as "Big Brother". He has even adopted a girl, Laxmi, as his own daughter – like his own grandmother, she suffers from post-polio paralysis. As Reverend John Gregory Stevens, the founder of the centre, put it: “Steve is not only a great cricketer but also a great human being.”

Resumption of normal cricketing relations between all members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has to be the governing body’s aim, according to Malcolm Gray, the retiring ICC president.There was no simple answer to the issue of safety and security, a factor which had been a major problem over the past 12 months, Gray said in the ICC annual report.”Our members are drawn from a diverse range of cultures and we have seen that increased political tensions around the world create real and perceived security risks in some of the places where cricket is played.”Pakistan have been especially hard hit, with New Zealand’s tour last year cancelled midway due to a bomb blast outside the team’s hotel, while a tour by Australia was moved to Sri Lanka and Sharjah and a visit by India was cancelled.”These concerns also affected the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 with Kenya and Zimbabwe suffering following decisions by New Zealand and England respectively not to fulfil the fixtures scheduled in these countries.”As a result of the impact of these problems, the ICC would play an increasingly central role in addressing concerns by looking to work with the boards affected.”The ICC role – in conjunction with the boards – is to explore every possible option to ensure the continuation of scheduled matches while ensuring that any risk to players and officials is properly identified and addressed. Despite international tensions I am confident the ICC will be able to lead cricket through this difficult time.”Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the ICC, said that the security problems had tested the ICC’s authority and while the times were challenging the ICC would seek pragmatic solutions to the issues by working with the boards.”The debate about the role of politics in sport will always be heated, divisive and impossible to resolve but the ICC’s view is clear and has the force of logic.”If the ICC took into account political consideration in deciding where matches should be played, few member countries would be immune from the risk that one or other country would refuse to play against it.”The ICC has been required to make many hard decisions in order to implement the board’s decisions. At times these have proved unpopular in some quarters but they have always been made without fear or favour.”

The abandonment of Glamorgan`s match at Worcester on Sunday, plus Durham`s nail-biting defeat by Essex, means that Glamorgan are on the verge of winning Division Two of the Norwich Union National League.As the table below shows, Glamorgan have a six point lead at the top of the table, still with two games to play, including Tuesday`s floodlit match against Sussex at Hove.Durham`s defeat put an end to their hopes of winning the division, and Worcestershire are now the only other county who could win the Division Two title. But for this to happen they would have to win their last two games by a very substantial margin and significantly improve their run rate, and at the same time hope that Glamorgan dramatically lose their games with Sussex and Middlesex by a very wide margin, so that their run rate drops.A win, tie or washout under the floodlights at Hove would settle the matter and clinch the Division Two title for Glamorgan.

P W Pts Net Run Rate1st Glamorgan 14 10 44 +17.662nd Durham 15 8 38 + 1.573rd Worcs 14 8 36 + 8.044th Hampshire 14 8 34 + 3.38

New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan has said the players were “annoyed” that the first T20 international against South Africa in Durban was not broadcast on television in New Zealand.A Sky TV spokesperson said they would continue negotiations for the rights and New Zealand Cricket said it would discuss the situation with Cricket South Africa, in the hope that the rest of the series – another T20I and three ODIs – would be televised. At the moment, however, the matches are not scheduled for broadcast.”The players are annoyed,” McMillan said on , a New Zealand radio show. “They want to be seen back home. We have some young guys playing for New Zealand for the first time, like George Worker … these are guys who are just starting out on their international careers. Let’s hope some resolution can be found in the next 24 hours and hope the next game will be on the box.”I know there are some issues with time difference but it’s very unusual for us to be touring around the world and be playing one of the world’s best teams and not have that on TV back home.”Sky TV spokesperson Kirsty Way said their bid for the rights hadn’t been accepted. “We are really disappointed, too,” she told . “We have put in a really good bid – a big bid – and it hasn’t been accepted. No one in New Zealand has offered more for it. We are not going to stop trying.”NZC said in a statement that it would try and reach a resolution with CSA. “The broadcasting rights for overseas tours are not owned by NZC: they are the property of Cricket South Africa. However, NZC will be discussing the situation with Cricket South Africa, in an attempt to ensure Black Caps fans will be able to watch the remainder of the series live in New Zealand.”New Zealand lost the first T20 international in Durban by six wickets, and the second game is scheduled for Sunday, followed by three ODIs from Wednesday. The Zimbabwe leg of New Zealand’s tour of Africa was available on television in New Zealand.