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Cricket South Africa (CSA), the South African Cricketers Association (SACA), and the country’s six professional franchises have agreed on a business model expected to make professional players “genuine stakeholders in the game.” The agreement includes standardised contracts and benefits for players and regulations on the number of playing contracts.”The Memorandum of Understanding provides for salary minimums and salary caps and for optimal use of South Africa’s player resources through regulations relating to player transfers, player loan-outs and playing overseas in the off-season,” Norman Arendse, the president of CSA, announced at a press conference in Johannesburg.Arendse said that the primary objectives included dealing with annual revenue fluctuations and stating how fundamental player issues would be dealt with. “The model enables longer term financial forecasting and planning for the provision of funds to amateur cricket for the development of the game,” he said.Tony Irish, the chief executive of the SACA, added that the initiative for the MoU came from the SACA and the players themselves. “We had a good look at what we believed was best practice relating to professional cricketers around the world [and] presented this to CSA and since then we have shared a common vision, which has resulted in the MoU.”According to Irish, the MoU projects and averages South African cricket’s revenues over a four-year period and links what the players will earn to the financial position of the game. “For players this really means stake-holding in the game, like being a shareholder in a company,” said Irish. “What players will receive in the future will depend on how successful the game actually is, and as players we will obviously work with the other stakeholders to make it as healthy as possible into the future.”Ashwell Prince, the South African batsman and president of the SACA, said that cricket’s number one stakeholder was the paying public and that the players were aware that more would be expected of them in the future. “They [the public] are our supporters and are the ones who will ultimately determine the game’s success,” said Prince. “The way we play our cricket and how we contribute to the game both on and off the field in the eyes of the public will be the key.”

Michael Kasprowicz will today make his comeback from a back injury that has kept him out of the game for eight months. Kasprowicz will line up for University in Brisbane club cricket as he works his way towards full fitness.He has not played a first-class match since early April, when he and Brett Lee carried Australia to victory in the third Test against South Africa at Johannesburg. But a disc problem that he picked up in that game, combined with a groin strain he sustained during Australia’s boot camp in August, has hampered his chances of playing a role in the Ashes series.Kasprowicz said he would strictly limit himself to ten overs in his comeback match. “Even if I’m on a hat-trick on the first ball of my 11th over I’ll say ‘no’. I want to get it right,” he told . “It’s the biggest setback of my career, for 18 years of first-class cricket.”But he will increase his workload next weekend with two days of grade cricket and he hopes to be available for Queensland’s Pura Cup game against South Australia in two weeks. Kasprowicz said he had not given up hope of again playing for Australia. “Nothing will change,” he said. “I’ve always concentrated on doing well for Queensland and when I enjoy doing that other things happen.”

South Africa 266 for 5 (Jack 109, Kirsten 103) beat Bermuda 169 for 9 by 97 runs

Gary Kirsten’s second hundred in successive matches guided South Africa to a 97-run win over hosts Bermuda in the final of the inaugural 20-20 World Cricket Classic in Nassau.South Africa’s batting has been the key to their success, and Kirsten and former Transvaal fast bowler Steven Jack finished the tournament with 461 runs between them. Kirsten followed his 134 in the semi-final with 103 this time, while Jack smashed 109. Both reached their hundreds in under 50 balls. Jack, who played his two Tests for South Africa as a bowler, raced to his century in 40 balls, including four fours and ten sixes.The Bermuda bowlers all came in for some stick, with Kevin Hurdle being slammed for 71 from his four overs.Bermuda never seemed interested in chasing a daunting ask of more than 13 an over, but they batted well and the spirits of a lively capacity crowd were not dampened.”I think the bowlers have learned a hard lesson tonight,” Gus Logie, Bermuda’s coach, admitted. “We talked a lot beforehand about how we were going to have to bowl against them but we just did not put those plans into practice and we got punished for it.”

Thilan Samaraweera, whose century rescued Sri Lanka from a dicey 99 for 6, said the key to securing a win in the second Test at the Queen’s Park Oval would be how the visitors utilise the new ball.”The pitch is still allowing the bowlers to seam the ball around, and the bounce is up and down,” he said. “If we can get two or three wickets with the new ball, we can put some pressure on them, since we have a world-class spin bowler (in Muttiah Muralitharan). Chris Gayle was getting the ball to turn a little bit, but the new ball will be the key.”Samaraweera’s 138-run partnership with Chaminda Vaas for the seventh wicket left West Indies chasing a challenging 253 for victory. “My approach when I went in to bat was to play as straight as possible,” he said. “I played a bad shot in the first innings – a ‘nothing shot’ – and found playing straight and playing off the front foot was the key.”My strategy was to bat through the innings, but I think Chaminda (45) helped a lot since he was batting so well at the other end. When I came to the crease, we were 32 for 3 and I felt that we could still get a good score since Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, and Vaas were still to come.”Besides shoring up Sri Lanka’s fortunes, his sixth Test century is also likely to guarantee him an extended run in the side. “This innings is important for me, since there is a lot of Test cricket coming for us this year – we have about six Tests remaining – and I feel strongly that I can establish myself in the side again,” he said. “I have a key role to play in the side. I have to play among a host of stroke-players, and I can play the long, patient innings which I did a few years ago when we were in a similar situation and I scored a hundred against Pakistan.”I also thought this innings was crucial because I had set myself the goal in this series to take the pressure off Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, since they have been tremendous for Sri Lanka over the last three or four years.”Looking ahead to the fourth day’s play, and a possible series win, he said: “We want to create history by becoming the first Sri Lanka team to win a Test series in the Caribbean, and whitewash West Indies in a series at home for the first time in their history.”

It appears that other Zimbabwe cricketers might be about to follow Tatenda Taibu’s lead and quit the national team and are due to meet on Monday to discuss following his lead.A fortnight ago 74 players signed a petition demanding the resignation of Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman, and Ozias Bvute, the MD. The board has done little since then, and when Taibu met with Chingoka earlier this week, it became clear to him that the board was not planning to address those demands in the near future.Some of the national side met with Clive Field, the players’ representative, yesterday. “We discussed at some length the Taibu development and where it left them all personally,” he said. “We decided they should go away for the weekend, consider their own feelings and talk to their families. We won’t be making a collective decision on Monday. That wouldn’t be relevant. Each man must make his own stay-or-go decision. There is a lot of concern about their own careers and also the team situation.”Taibu was a quality batsman and wicketkeeper and undoubtedly inspirational as captain. His departure is a big setback for the others. He will leave a considerable void. In addition, many of the other national players have no other job and they are worried.”Zimbabwe has lost a stream of their best players since the 2003 World Cup. Andy Flower and Henry Olonga both quit after the tournament, Sean Ervine, Grant Flower and Ray Price are all now playing in England, and in the last three months Craig Wishart, Stuart Carlisle and Heath Streak have turned their backs on the side.It is thought that some of those, particularly Streak and Taibu, would be prepared to return to the national colours, other commitments permitting, were the domestic mess to be sorted.A dossier compiled by the provincial chairmen detailing a large number of allegations against the board is understood to have been delivered to the ICC, although Cricinfo is still waiting for a response to a query as to whether this will alter the ICC’s approach to the growing crisis.Some board officials have been questioned by representatives of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe over allegations that the country’s foreign exchange rules have been broken. Those investigations are said to be ongoing.

Australia suffered a double injury blow today with Shaun Tait and Brad Hogg ruled out of the Super Series. Tait is expected to miss at least three months with a right-shoulder problem while Hogg suffered torn left-knee cartilage at training yesterday.Stuart Clark, the New South Wales bowler who was twice on standby during the Ashes series, will step in for Tait during the one-day series and Cameron White, the Victoria legspinner, replaces Hogg. Tait experienced pain while bowling for his Adelaide club side Sturt on Saturday and again during training this morning.A Cricket Australia spokesman said diagnostic scans and a review by the specialist Greg Hoy showed Tait had torn cartilage and he was expected to undergo surgery later in the week. “Cricket Australia’s medical staff anticipate that he will be sidelined for a minimum of three months,” the spokesman said.The injury is a severe blow for Tait after he performed solidly in two Tests during the Ashes series and was in line for a limited-overs debut at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne this week. He will have to recover ahead of schedule to play a Test this summer and will probably look to the South Africa tour in March for an international recall.Hogg, who is expected to miss between three and six weeks, was also disappointed to pull out of the three ODIs and will have surgery tomorrow. “I will get back to Perth tonight and get straight on the operating table tomorrow lunch-time,” Hogg told at the official tournament launch today. “It’s disappointing, but that’s the way it goes. I may never have an opportunity like this again, to be a part of such a prestigious event.”Errol Alcott, the Australia physiotherapist, said Hogg was in pain after a training session on Sunday. “MRI scans taken earlier today have revealed the cartilage tear,” he said, “but we are confident that with the correct surgery he will make a full recovery.”Ricky Ponting said White was likely to come into the team for the first of the three matches on Wednesday. “There’s a good opportunity for an up-and-coming legspinner to get a chance to play some cricket for Australia,” he said. “With a negative there always comes a positive, so that’s the positive side to it.”White, 22, knows the Australian set-up after touring India in 2004, and he picked up the wickets of Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle in the World XI’s warm-up against Victoria on Sunday. He has played 39 first-class games for Victoria, who he has captained since 2003-04, and 38 domestic limited-overs matches.

Dinanath Ramnarine, the head of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), maintained yesterday that money was not an issue in senior players rejecting contracts from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and opting out of the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.However, Roger Brathwaite, the WICB chief executive, insisted that it was.The two spoke on the ongoing impasse between the two bodies on BBC’s Test Match Special broadcast during the NatWest Series final between England and Australia at Lord’s. Ramnarine noted that the WIPA presented “a verbal figure” of US$200,000 as the sponsorship fee that covers players’ commitments such as appearing at the official sponsor’s functions, wearing the appropriate gear and signing bats and team sheets.”We moved to US$150,000 and moved again to US$125,000 but we never agreed that was what our final figure would be,” he said. “We were in negotiating mood and that is how you negotiate.”I want to make it absolutely clear that money for going on this tour was not the issue,” Ramnarine told interviewer Jonathan Agnew. “We were prepared to negotiate but we got a response in respect of the money value (for the sponsorship fee) from the board at 7.40 pm Thursday after we had already been informed at 2 p.m. that a new team would be picked, “he continued. “I want to make it absolutely clear that money for going on this tour was not the issue because there are far more important issues.”He charged that while the WIPA wanted all issues, including the WICB’s sponsorship agreement to go to arbitration before Justice Adrian Saunders, the WICB was seeking “very narrow terms of reference”. Brathwaite said he was “surprised” to hear Ramnarine say that money was not “at the heart of the issue.””Certainly if money was not an issue, the original team would have been in Sri Lanka,” he said. He repeated the WICB’s earlier position that, with a deficit of US$6 million budgeted for the year leading to an overall end of year deficit of US$17 to $18 million, it was “just not able to afford” what WIPA was seeking. Its offer was US$50,000. Asked whether, even at this late stage, the matter could be resolved so that the original, full strength team would make the tour, Brathwaite replied: “I never rule out anything. I’m the eternal optimist and I will keep on trying, based on the guidelines given by my board.”But, he acknowledged, the board had made a decision that the team on its way to Sri Lanka would be the one to play the two Tests and in the triangular one-day series also involving India.

An expectedly upbeat Tom Moody, the Sri Lankan coach, hailed his bowlers for cleaning up South Africa for a paltry 169, adding that the pitch was likely to get slower as the match went on. Mickey Arthur, his South African counterpart, admitted to some opening-day nerves but blamed his batsmen for an “ordinary” display.”If we won the toss we would have batted first,” asserted Moody when asked about South Africa’s decision to bat. “Runs in the first innings are crucial. If we had the opportunity to bat first we would have made a good feast of it. This wicket looks a little bit different than the one against Pakistan. That wicket had more grass coverage and more root. There was a lot of seam movement in the first two days of that Test match. This wicket is a lot more placid and slow in pace. It might even turn slowly as the game progresses. Murali likes to bowl first here because it does bounce more. He was not unhappy for us to lose the toss. He bowled superbly today.”Moody reckoned that the middle session had proved to be the most crucial part of the day. “We bowled particularly well in the middle session,” he continued. “We got the early break straight after lunch and that broke the backbone of their top order. That was significant from our point of view particularly since South Africa went in with the option of losing one of their top order batsmen for an all rounder in Hall. Making that double break straight after lunch was significant. The way that Murali was bowling and Dilhara bowled we made inroads throughout their innings.”Dilhara Fernando’s fine burst complemented Murali’s magic and Moody hailed the hard work he’d put into his fast bowling. “He’s made vast improvements. It’s not a new thing. Dilly’s been working very hard in the last 12 months. Since I’ve been here he’s worked hard on a number of aspects on his bowling. He’s had no-ball problems in the past but most fast bowlers in world cricket have that problem. He’s overcome that through hard work, working on a number of different drills that helped. It’s not an instant fix. The decision to leave him out of the England tour for the Test matches was maybe the wake up call. He really may have needed to say ‘now, this is the time to really get it right and work extremely hard’. His confidence is very high. He is going to go from strength to strength. He showed how effective it is to have someone who can bowl 90 mph coming as first change.”Arthur, while mentioning how disappointing a day it was, preferred to dwell on the positives. “There was a fair amount of soft dismissals,” he added. “We never got going and we were slightly tentative. There were a lot of nerves in the dressing room this morning obviously coming into a series like this from guys who haven’t played under conditions like this before. The guys were feeling nervous and tentative and it came out in our batting unfortunately. We never seemed to get the momentum going. We were caught between being positive and being mindful of Muralitharan. It certainly wasn’t the way we planned to play.”A performance like today helps a lot. It actually shows the approach that we don’t want to play. I want us to play with freedom. We had one bad day in office but we got four days to come back. I am not looking for excuses but we lost two senior batters. It was quite difficult for the younger guys coming into a Test match looking to secure places. We discussed playing Murali from the crease but it didn’t work out that way. It’s all part of our learning process.”The only batsmen who countered Murali with any degree of confidence was AB de Villiers. “I enjoyed every second of my innings,” he said at the end of the day. “I was under a bit of pressure when I came in but that’s what I like. Murali is one of the best bowlers in the world, if not the best. I still like to keep my thoughts positive and go at him. All bowlers must be put under pressure and that’s where the bad balls come in. That’s the way I am going to play and hope it will come off. If you let him bowl at you and are not willing to score, you are in trouble.”

No play was possible in the fourth T20I between India and South Africa because of poor visibility in foggy Lucknow. Leading the series 2-1, India are now assured of taking their unbeaten streak in T20I series to 15. The decider of the series is scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad on Friday.While the AQI in Lucknow hovered around the early-to-mid 400s, which is hazardous, the concern for the umpires remained visibility. During their inspections, one of the umpires would go to a square boundary to see if he could spot the white ball held up by the side of the pitch. Six inspections took place before play was finally called off at 9.26pm.Cricket in north Indian winters has long been a contentious issue, and not just for visibility. The BCCI had scheduled a Test for South Africa in Delhi before better sense prevailed and Delhi was given a Test before Diwali, which is when the air quality in north India starts to fall to poor and dangerous levels.South Africa’s tour comes to an end on Friday in Ahmedabad. In what has been a hugely successful tour, they blanked India 2-0 in the Tests and forced a decider in the ODI series, which India won 2-1. India have registered two comprehensive wins in what remains their strongest format to go 2-1 up in the T20Is, but they didn’t get a chance to seal the series before the finale because of the bad light in Lucknow.Jasprit Bumrah, who missed the last match for personal reasons, was with the team in Lucknow, which should be a boost for India ahead of the last match, which will be played in Bumrah’s hometown.

The County Championship could be trimmed to make way for far more Twenty20 matches, according to proposals unearthed by The Times.Jack Simmons, the former Lancashire chairman who now heads the ECB’s cricket committee, has initiated plans to create space in the domestic calendar for an IPL-style competition. It would mean the existing 16 four-day matches being reduced to 16 three-day games, with earlier start and later finish times to allow a minimum of 120 overs a day to be bowled.At present, there is a minimum of 96 over per day, so Simmons’ plan would only see a reduction in playing time of 24 overs. However, players are likely to oppose being asked to bowl more overs in a day. When a minimum number of overs was first introduced in the late 1980s it was set at 120 per day, but finishes after 8pm were not uncommon and the number has gradually been reduced. However, overtime is still a regular occurrence.The ECB seem determined to create a larger gap in the Championship season than is now the case. One proposal, believed to have been backed by the Professional Cricketers’ Association, was to cut the number of games from 16 to 12, but that would have caused alarm among those who see the Championship as the nursery for creating Test cricketers.”I think the county chairmen would agree to a reduction in matches if they are going to make more money from Twenty20 cricket.” Simmons told the newspaper. “The England players should not have any say in this because they do not play in Championship matches. Yes, we do play too much international cricket and players become tired, but as soon as a sum of £100,000 is offered to them to take part in a competition in India they don’t appear to be exhausted any longer.”It is not possible to breed any players in Twenty20 cricket and my concern would be that standards don’t drop. The way to learn the game is in the middle in Championship matches.”