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Vernon Philander, the South African allrounder, has been named as Morne Morkel’s replacement in the Test squad on the tour to Pakistan. Morkel fractured his left foot while bowling on the third day of the tour match against Patron’s XI.Philander, a right-hand batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler, made his international debut in an ODI against Ireland earlier this year. He has done well in the five ODIs he has played so far – averaging 40 with the bat and 21.50 with the ball – and was also a regular member of the team in the recently concluded World Twenty20 Cup, but is yet to make his Test debut. He is likely to stay on in Pakistan for the five-match one-day series, the squad for which will be announced later.Morkel, meanwhile, has gone back home to recover from the injury, which could keep him away from cricket for about six to eight weeks.

A little over a decade ago, a one-day series between West Indies and Zimbabwe would have been an intriguing prospect. International cricket’s newcomers, boasting players such as the Flowers, Heath Streak and Dave Houghton, against the world champions, with Richie Richardson, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Brian Lara.In the intervening period both countries have fallen on hard times, and now the bloated seven-match one-day series has all the appeal of a late-season meeting between Torquay and Stockport. Both are in decline – West Indies a gradual long-term one, Zimbabwe’s politically-motivated – and this is a series few outside the Caribbean, and that includes in Zimbabwe, really care about. Since West Indies’ victory in the Champions Trophy in 2004, they have won three out of 23 ODIs they have played. In the same period, Zimbabwe have won four out of 21 (all against either Bangladesh or Kenya).Only one player survives from what we can now look back on as something of a golden era, and that is Lara. It is no coincidence that he is the only real class act on show this time round, with all due respect to Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.Not that the gulf between West Indies and the almost totally anonymous Zimbabwe side needs underlining, but consider this. Lara has played 259 ODIs and scored 9359 runs. The entire 16-man Zimbabwe squad boasts a combined total of 166 one-day caps and 2371 runs – and 831 of those come from the bat of Brendan Taylor, their most experienced player. And between them, they cannot even muster 100 ODI wickets,On paper, this series should be grotesquely one-sided. West Indies might have been disrupted by recent contractual upheavals, but they are now settled and Lara has returned for a third tilt at the captaincy. He is realistic enough to know that India in June and July will be a tough nut, so this is his and his team’s best chance to get some capital in the bank as the build-up to the World Cup begins.

West Indies might be a shadow of what they were but they still have more than enough in stock to rout Zimbabwe. The tourists’ batting is fragile, as they showed in the recent series against Kenya. Then, they faced little more than dobblers. Against genuine pace, as was the case in South Africa 13 months ago, almost none of them have the technique to survive. With only four ODIs (all against the Kenyans) in the last eight months, it is inconceivable that they have improved enough to cope with the West Indies attack. The man in form, opener Piet Rinke, is explosive but has yet to be tested against anything half decent.Zimbabwe’s bowling is barely above club standard. Edward Rainsford has the makings of being a decent opening bowler, but he struggled in the warm-ups and , remarkably, is being released halfway through the tour to go and play club cricket in England. Blessing Mahwire, his new-ball partner, looked ordinary against Kenya. The change bowlers hold few concerns and it should be a chance for West Indies’ batsmen to fill their boots.It is, therefore, slightly puzzling that throughout the West Indies the talk has been of not underestimating Zimbabwe, almost as if they are preparing for a setback or two. Perhaps the ghost of Kenya in 1996 still lingers, but a defeat in at least one match seems to be a real concern. It shouldn’t be. While West Indies have slid to a new low, there remains a massive gulf between them and Zimbabwe, and anything other than a comprehensive whitewash will be unsatisfactory.If only Zimbabwe had not driven so much talent abroad then this series could have been a cracker. Imagine a Zimbabwe side containing the likes of Streak, Andy Flower, Murray Goodwin and Tatenda Taibu. As it is, what amounts to a third-string Zimbabwe team are set for three weeks in which their real goal must be to show the world that they have enough potential to prevent the ICC calling time on their participation at cricket’s top table.

4th dayShane Warne could miss the rest of the English season after fracturing a rib while bowling in Hampshire‘s draw with Lancashire at Old Trafford . He will be out for at least three weeks, a major blow for Hampshire, who are seeking their first Championship title since 1973. The game had draw all over it from the start, but Paul Horton pushed on to a career-best 152 and Luke Sutton hit his second century of the season to guide Lancashire to full batting points.Rob Key and Martin van Jaarsveld made centuries as Kent and Worcestershire shared the points in an inevitable draw at Canterbury. There was no change for the bottom three, though, as Surrey didn’t manage to fit in a ball against Sussex who watched Yorkshire slide past them to the top. They have a game in hand, though.3rd dayFor John Ward’s report on the third day at Scarborough, where Yorkshire played gloriously to crush Warwickshire inside three days click here.

3rd dayDerbyshire held their nerve to bowl out Glamorgan at Cardiff just when the home side were looking good for their second win of the season. Heading into the final session, Glamorgan needed 60 with six wickets in hand, but added just 18 of those before being blown away by Ant Botha’s five-for and three wickets for Tom Lungley.Nottinghamshire will hope that their last six pairings can triumph where Glamorgan failed, in easing the last 104 runs they require to beat Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. A team effort took Northants to 229 in their second innings, leaving Nottinghamshire to chase 232. The visitors were boosted by removing Stephen Fleming for 50 shortly before stumps.Jerome Taylor blew through Essex‘s defences with five wickets, and he was well supported by David Masters (4 for 40) as the home side crumbled to Leicestershire at Colchester. Varun Chopra was caught at slip off the first ball of the day off Masters, who will be an Essex player next season, and resilient fifties for Ryan ten Doeschate and James Middlebrook were the only consolation for them. Leicestershire then reached 52 for 2 and a final-day run-chase may be negotiated between the two captains.A draw is likely at Lord’s where Middlesex reached 305 for 7 before declaring, although a late Gloucestershire collapse to 97 for 5 keeps the game interesting. Andrew Strauss made 75 and Ed Smith 69 before Middlesex lost 4 for 1 in the middle order. Chaminda Vaas and Murali Kartik added 64 to hasten the declaration, then Kartik impressive with the ball with two wickets leaving Gloucestershire 208 behind.

Bob Berry, who played twice for England in 1950 and was the first man to be capped by three counties, has died at the age of 80.Berry honed his craft in the Lancashire Leagues before making his debut for his native county in 1948, and although the county was packed with spinners, he forged his way into the side with his slow left-armers. Although he was not biggest turner of the ball, his variation in flight was exceptional, and in 1950 he earned himself a Test trial in which he took five wickets. As a result, he made his Test debut in the first Test against West Indies in 1950, taking 5 for 63 and 4 for 54 as England won their only match of the summer. Retained for Lord’s, he went wicketless as West Indies claimed their famous victory, but he bowled economically and was unfortunate to be dropped. He was included in the Ashes touring side that winter, but did not break into the Test side.In 1953 he took all ten Worcestershire wickets in an innings (his figures were 10 for 102) but places at Lancashire were increasingly hard to come by and in 1955 he joined Worcestershire and enjoyed three of his most successful seasons. Nevertheless, in 1958 he moved to Derbyshire, where he ended his first-class career.In retirement he became a publican and enjoyed local fame as a pigeon breeder, as well as maintaining strong links with the game. He was president of Farnsfield CC, where he lived, and also the Lancashire Players’ Association.Berry had always been close friends with Lancashire’s Malcolm Hilton, and when his wife and Hilton died, he married Vera Hilton.

Although his on-field misdemeanours are probably what Mark Vermeulen, one of Zimbabwe’s most talented young batsmen, will now be remembered for, my abiding memory of the man is of quite a different incident which occurred off the field.In early 2004 he was in the middle of a lay-off after sustaining his second severe head injury in a year – he had been struck a sickening blow above the right eyebrow by Irfan Pathan during Zimbabwe’s tour of Australia. Bangladesh were touring Zimbabwe, and after a weak performance during the Tests, were putting in a much more sterling effort in the one-dayers. A loss in the first game had dented Zimbabwe’s pride, but the team bounced back in the second and third one-dayers in Harare, much to the enjoyment of the large crowd of spectators who had come to support the home team.Anyone who has attended a one-day game in Harare will have noticed that the crowd is made up, largely, of black schoolchildren from some of the poorest suburbs in the city. As the popularity of cricket among Zimbabwe’s black population has grown, their numbers at games have swelled.Disappointingly, instead of integrating, most of what is left of the old white elite of supporters have moved away from the stands into the pavilion and sports club bars and seats reserved for those in the higher wage brackets.However, at the second one-day game there was at least one white face among the sea of enthusiastic black children, and it was Vermeulen’s. For most of the game, which Zimbabwe eventually won, he led a shouting, laughing band of at least 30 or 40 children around the stands. Wherever he went, they followed, and with his encouragement cheered their side to victory.In a country in which racial and political tensions are a fact of everyday life, it was heart-warming to witness the sight of a young, white male from an affluent Harare family in his element, and loving every minute of it, among black children who would be bussed back to one of the capital city’s sprawling, poverty-stricken townships after the game. It took only one thing to break down the racial, economic and age boundaries between Vermeulen and those children: cricket. This not only gives a flicker of hope for the future of Zimbabwe cricket, and the country at large; it also offers an insight into his open, care-free attitude off the field, and the supremely privileged place cricket holds in his life.

This is a man who is literally willing to risk his life in order to play for his country again. After a three-and-a-half hour operation to repair the skull fracture inflicted by Pathan, Vermeulen said that the doctors warned him a third such injury could put his life at risk. He told BBC Sport: “If it happens again it will make one hell of a mess… but cricket is my only love, my big love, and I decided to go on playing.”. In an interview with Cricinfo he stated: “Basically all I want to do is to play for my country. That has been my goal since I was 10 or 12 years old.”However, his cricketing ambitions have seemingly been thwarted. He has not been picked for Zimbabwe for almost two years, despite leading the batting averages in the country’s domestic competition – when it still had one to speak of. When he was not offered a national contract last year, Vermeulen said: “I personally went to Ozias Bvute [the ZC managing director]. He [Bvute] told me that it was not up to him, but that he would take the necessary measures. I still want to play. I was given no reason why I was not given a contract. I think I have done my best for Zimbabwe to make at least the performance-based list.”After the hearing of the Lancashire Cricket Board, in which his 10-year ban was cut down to three, with two years suspended, Andrew Fitch-Holland, his legal representative, stated that Mark had been diagnosed as “suffering from a depressive illness which of course has a significant impact upon his behaviour”. He continued: “For anyone, let alone a professional sportsman, to publicly admit to such a struggle is, I suggest, exceptional and worthy of a degree of respect. We offer no excuses for Mark’s unacceptable conduct but ask instead for some understanding. To his credit Mark has already taken positive steps to seek help, and is trying to remain upbeat about his future in cricket in these difficult days.”Having met and spoken to Vermeulen about his cricket several times in the past myself, it is quite comprehensible that the stall in his career should affect him to such a degree. He simply lives for cricket.In his private life Vermeulen is, in my experience, at all times friendly, approachable and supremely laid-back. He always had time for people, and had no affectations about talking to anyone, white or black, especially if the subject was cricket. He was fun-loving and did not take himself too seriously: I once saw him dancing, in full, skin-tight cycling gear, on the roof of a Harare nightclub. Off the field, one could even say he seemed humble and (whisper it) peace-loving.While there can be no excuses for Vermeulen’s recent, or past, objectionable actions on the field, there are reasons, and there are other sides to his character which should not be simply swept away. It was not thuggery or arrogance which drove him to such extreme lengths on that fateful late-summer day in Ashton, but rather the frustration of his sheer passion, his motivation and his all-encompassing desire to succeed as a cricketer.

Pakistan XI 260 for 8 (Misbah 77, Hameed 52) beat World XI 216 for 7 (Robin 58*) by 44 runs
Scorecard

Wasim Akram got a rousing send-off in his farewell match as a Pakistan XI team, of which he was the captain, beat a World XI line-up by 44 runs in a charity game at Lahore. In a 40-over day-night match, Pakistan XI made 260, and then restricted the World XI to just 216. Akram contributed a 11-ball 18, and then took one wicket in three overs, but the statistics were only of academic interest as 15,000 fans at the Gaddafi Stadium cheered his every move.The Pakistan XI innings was dominated by Misbah-ul-Haq (77) and Yasir Hameed (52), who continued the good form he has shown all season. Akram batted at No. 6 and blitzed four fours in his innings, before Steve Tikolo ended the fun, having him stumped by Romesh Kaluwitharana.Akram then derailed the World XI reply early, trapping Sanath Jayasuriya in front for a fourth-ball duck. Robin Singh (58 not out) and Tikolo (43) propped up the run-chase for a while, but the World team were never in the hunt.Akram was visibly moved by the opportunity to have a last fling on the cricket field. “When I retired I received a lot of telephone calls and e-mails from fans that I should have done so in a match on home soil and I have fulfilled their demands,” he said. “I owe it all to my fans, whether they live in Pakistan, England or anywhere in the world – no cricketer can become a great player until he is motivated by fans. It’s a great feeling, I led my country with distinction and this one last chance brought it all back.”

Pakistan have strongly denied that there was any tampering of the ball during the fourth Test at the Oval, accusations of which eventually led to the forfeiture of the game by Pakistan.Umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove changed the ball in the 56th over of England’s second innings on the fourth day and punished Pakistan with a five-run penalty as a result. Pakistan protested after the tea break by refusing to come out, a decision which eventually led the umpires to forfeit the match in England’s favour.But a Pakistan official told Cricinfo, having inspected the ball, that there was no evidence of tampering. “There was no evidence of any tampering on the ball I saw. It was a 55-overs old ball and one that had been hit into the stands on a couple of occasions by Kevin Pietersen. I can honestly say that it had not been scratched to gain any reverse swing.”The official also questioned the approach of the umpires to the entire incident. “Most umpires would give some sort of prior warning, just have a word with the captain and may be give a warning before taking action. They don’t have to but they do. Nothing was said to Inzamam by either umpire until the ball was changed.” The official also confirmed that no individual had been named by the umpires and no specific incident was highlighted either.Sky TV commentators repeatedly pointed out that none of the 26 cameras at the ground had picked up any images which suggested the ball might have been tampered with. On past occasions when players have been charged with ball tampering, ICC match referees have been able to take into account images captured on television cameras. In light of what Sky’s commentary team said, it seems unlikely such evidence can be provided.Ultimately, this is a moot point in any case as the decision on whether the ball has been tampered is down to the umpires. The ICC match referee for the Test, Mike Proctor, is now reviewing the case and his report will be considered by the ICC in the aftermath of this Test. According to an ICC press release, Pakistan has been charged under Level two of the Code of Conduct, 2.10, which relates to changing the condition of the match ball.

RP Singh, India’s latest fast bowling talent, is taking his initial days with the one-day side as a learning curve and maintains that he is enjoying every minute spent with the elite of Indian cricket.Despite having upstaged established pacers like Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra in making it to the final eleven of the national side, RP Singh, 20, does not feel weighed down by any pressure. “No, I don’t feel any pressure. On the contrary, it’s a great feeling. I am enjoying every minute. Everybody is friendly here,” he said.RP Singh, who first hogged the limelight in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh last year grabbing eight wickets, made his debut for the senior side against Zimbabwe in Harare in September. So far he has played seven ODIs, picking 11 wickets, but is now gearing up to prove that he is no flash-in-the-pan.RP Singh said the last three months with the senior team had improved several aspects of his bowling. “Greg [Chappell] and the senior players have taught me how to be patient. Tendulkar and Dravid also gave me valuable tips. My follow-through has improved. I have improved on several other aspects including my work ethics. My accuracy level has also gone up. I have learnt how to bowl at the same spot for long.”When a journalist reminded him of the adage that fast bowlers hunt in pairs and asked him whether he was looking for the right partner, prompt came the reply, “these are the early days of my career. I’m concentrating solely on my showing now”. RP Singh, who idolizes Wasim Akram and Glenn McGrath, felt that compared to Sri Lanka, South Africa had a stronger batting line up, but exuded confidence that India could overwhelm the visitors if the team played true to its potential.

Marvan Atapattu, the Sri Lankan captain, has no plans to experiment with his team against Bangladesh in their two-Test series starting at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Monday.Atapattu said, “I am not fond of throwing away Test caps. They are meant to be earned.””It’s true that you have got to groom younger players, but just because it’s Bangladesh you don’t throw away 15 Test caps,” added Atapattu, who hopes to use the series to improve his team’s game ahead of a packed calendar. “We respect the opponents. They are just coming up and we’ll try and improve our game in these matches.”Bangladesh are hoping to overcome their 3-0 drubbing in the preceding one-day series and a struggle in other side games.But their chances of putting up much resistance suffered a setback because of injuries to pace bowlers Mashrafe Mortaza and Tapash Baisya, who were sent home on Friday.Dav Whatmore, the Bangladesh coach, said, “The worrying factor for me is that we couldn’t fight a bit harder to get out of situations. Then there have been injuries and things like that about which you can’t do much.””We have got to do the basic things right and put up a reasonable total on the board and fight hard. We have studied the opposition and are well prepared.”The opening Test will be the first at the R. Premadasa Stadium in eight years and the home side have some happy memories of the venue. It was where Sri Lanka piled up a massive 952, a world record in Test cricket, against India in 1997.Sanath Jayasuriya hammered 340 in that match and added 576 for the second wicket with Roshan Mahanama (225), the highest partnership for any wicket in Tests.The second Test will be played at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, also in Colombo.

Stuart Law overshadowed another dismal batting display by Nasser Hussain as Essex took control of their County Championship Division One match at Kidderminster against Worcestershire.The Australian right-hander struck a superb 189 after the England captain, struggling for form this season, made just 10.Essex finished the day on 461 for 9 from 114 overs in reply to Worcestershire’s 302.Hussain, nine not out overnight, added just a single to fine leg before he pushed forward to a Kabir Ali delivery which he edged to wicketkeeper Steve Rhodes.With Hussain’s departure came the arrival of the rampant Law. He and Paul Prichard, who was 10 not out overnight, added a solid partnership of 166 in 37 overs.The partnership was ended when 19 year-old paceman Kabir tempted Prichard into playing a loose drive, the batsman being caught at backward point by David Leatherdale.Prichard, who dislocated his left thumb while fielding a shot from Worcestershire centurion Paul Pollard, made 74 from 171 balls (nine fours, two sixes).Despite the departure of Prichard and Ronnie Irani, who was removed by paceman Stuart Lampitt for 14, Law continued in to his fourth championship hundred of the season, the 100 coming from 136 deliveries with 17 fours.It was his 25th first-class hundred for Essex and the 47th of his career. It was also his second ton of the season against Worcestershire, having smashed 133 not out against them at Chelmsford last month.Law did inject a few scares into the Essex camp before reaching his ton. A couple of shots wentclose to Graeme Hick in the slips.Nevertheless, once into three figures he continued to hog centre stage.In tandem with Stephen Peters (67), Law added 185 in 41 overs – an Essex fifth-wicket record against Worcestershire. Peters eventually played on to left-armer seamer Alamgir Sheriyar after having made his best score of the season.Sheriyar made it two in the over by bringing Law’s magnificent innings to an end, with the assistance of an excellent one-handed catch by Vikram Solanki low down at cover. Law’s 189 included 30 fours off 243 deliveries in 338 minutes.After that Essex steadily began to subside, but 76 extras helped their account nicely.Kabir Ali, with 4/114, was Worcestershire’s best bowler.