In a battle between two teams occupying the cellar in the South Zoneleague, Goa had made steady progress in reply to Kerala’s firstinnings score of 370. At stumps on the second day at Cochin, thevisitors were 86/2 with opener YC Barde and Satyajit Medappa manningthe fort.Resuming at 266/6, the overnight pair of S Nair and KNAnanthapadmanabhan were in no mood to relinquish their occupation ofthe crease in the morning. They extended their seventh wicketassociation to 120 before the latter was bowled by SA Khalid for 63(131 balls, 6 fours). The bowler struck again in his next overremoving wicket keeper Kamaruddin.Nair soldiered on to 88 (249 balls, 9 fours) – his highest score infirst class cricket – before becoming the persistent Khalid’s thirdsuccessive victim and Tinu Yohanan fell just after lunch as Keralasettled at 370. Khalid who had taken two wickets on Wednesday,finished with 5/63.The Goa reply began on the wrong foot as skipper Kolambkar fell to thedebutant medumpacer Prasanth Chandran in the fourth over. Barde andDinesh Rao added exactly 50 for the second wicket before off spinnerRamprakash sent back the latter. Medappa and Barde then played out thefinal twenty overs watchfully as Goa closed at 86/2 in 51 overs.

Karnataka scored a comfortable 87 run win overminnows Goa in their Ranji One-Day encounter atChennai. On winning the toss, the Karnatakacaptain and opening batsman J Arun Kumar electedto bat first. A string of good scores from the topand middle order helped Karnataka make a solid260. Arun Kumar (58), GK Anil Kumar (59) andstumper Tilak Naidu’s unbeaten quick 54 made surethat there was little hope for the Goa side.When chasing the total that was large given thestrength of the Goa batting, they lost wickets atregular intervals. Skipper Praveen Amre made agood 50 in the middle of the innings but there wasno one to bat around him. Tamil Nadu importTanveer Jabbar lent a helping hand with 32, but itwas in vain. Karnataka seamer Dodda Ganesh scalped4/41 from his ten overs and Goa were all out for173. Karnataka gained two points from this match.

A sterling innings from Robin Weston which spanned six hours and brought him an unbeaten maiden century for Middlesex, enabled his side to finish just 24 runs behind Hampshire’s impressive first innings of 404.Playing in only his second Championship match this season for Middlesex, whom he joined last year, he was in commanding form and guided even the lower order batsmen in adding valuable runs. His ninth-wicket stand with Angus Fraser yielded 56 runs after 34 had been added for the seventh with Simon Cook.Weston, who had three previous first-class centuries, with Derbyshire in 1999 – one of which happened to be against Middlesex – faced 300 balls, 14 of which he hit to the boundary during his superb knock of 135.His record-breaking partnership for the sixth wicket with David Nash greatly consolidated the innings, comfortably removing the threat of follow-on which still hung over Middlesex, with 86 required, when play began on this third morming.In the process, they went past the Middlesex record against Hampshire which had stood since 1926 when Patsy Hendren and F.T. Mann had an unbroken 115-run stand at Lord’s.Earlier, resuming on 169 for five, Weston and Nash added 112 this morning, taking their stand to 157, before Hampshire were able to get the breakthrough. It eventually came only four overs before lunch which was taken on 300 for six, 104 runs behind Hampshire.Weston and Nash had batted with confidence throughout the morning, playing their shots freely and Nash reached his third half-century of the season three overs before the second new ball was taken in the 101st. over.He was finally dismissed in the fourth new-ball over, leg before wicket to Alex Morris for a spirited 77 which included ten boundaries.Weston was on 97 at the end of the morning session having played a more cautious innings, although he did play several attractive strokes. A beautiful square-cut for four off Giles White took him into the seventies and later, with three boundaries, two to extra cover and one to long off, in one over from Chris Tremlett, he went into the nineties.Late in the day, Hampshire, in their second innings, had a little over an hour’s batting, with heavy rain causing a loss of 96 minutes play in mid-afternoon. The visitors, on 61 without loss, have an overall lead of 85.

Veterans Devon Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas turned back the clock as they took seven wickets between them to wreck the Northants innings on the first day of the CricInfo Championship clash at Grace Road.But Leicestershire’s batsmen then found life just as difficult against the swinging ball and were bowled out for 185 for a lead of just 26 runs.It meant that 20 wickets had fallen on the day for 344 runs but any visit from a pitch inspector would really be a wasted journey. There was very little wrong with the pitch. It was a case of the batsmen on both sides being unable to cope with the conditions which helped the seamers.Yet Northants had no hesitation in batting after winning the toss. They clearly fancied their chances of a good score on a straw-coloured pitch of easy pace.But once the ball began to swing, wickets fell at regular intervals. DeFreitas, in his first Championship game of the season after a shoulder injury, claimed three for 43 while 38-year-old Malcolm took four for 64 against his former county.He wrapped things up with an impressive spell after lunch, picking up the last three wickets at a cost of 22 runs and Northants were all out for 159 in 48.4 overs.Leicestershire made a poor start, losing opener Iain Sutcliffe with the total at three before a stand of 89 between Trevor Ward and Ben Smith looked to have them in the driving seat.Ward reached his 50 off 81 balls with seven fours and a six and was then brilliantly caught by Russell Warren off Lesroy Weekes, making his Championship debut for the visitors.That triggered a collapse which saw nine wickets fall for 93 runs in 26 overs with Weekes, Darren Cousins and Kevin Innes taking three apiece. So it was just about honours even at the end of the day between the two bottom sides in the First Division.

* CR Pattabhiraman passes awayCR Pattabhiraman, former president of the Tamil Nadu CricketAssociation, passed away in Chennai on Tuesday after a brief illness.He was 94.A great patron of the sport, Pattabhiraman was president of the TamilNadu (then Madras) Cricket Association from 1948 to 1956. Earlier heserved as MCA vice president from 1936 to 1948. A good cricketer,Pattabhiraman represented the state in inter-association matches. Awell known politician, Pattabhiraman was a Union Minister in thefifties and sixties.The Board of Control for Cricket in India and the TNCA expressedsorrow and grief over the passing away of Pattabhiraman. In a jointstatement, BCCI president AC Muthiah and TNCA secretary Ashok Kumbhatdescribed Pattabhiraman as a keen lover of sports and said thecricketing fraternity had lost ‘a good friend, philosopher and a doyenwho has left an indelible mark on the sands of time.’ His loss wasirreplaceable, they said.* Gavaskar re appointed chairman of ICC Cricket CommitteeThe International Cricket Council has re appointed former Indiancaptain Sunil Gavaskar as Chairman of its Cricket Committee – Playingfor another term, ICC president Malcolm Gray said on Tuesday.The Executive Board of the ICC, at its three-day meeting whichconcluded in London on Tuesday, also decided to give the nextpresidency of the world body to Pakistan. Pakistan is likely to putforward the nomination of Ehsan Mani, Chairman of the ICC’s financecommittee since 1997, as its candidate.The Cricket Committee – Playing, headed by Gavaskar, considered thegrowing use of technology in the game and opined against utilisingtelevision replays to aid umpires in deciding no-balls and catches atleast for another year.* Ashish Nehra retained for tri-seriesThe National selectors, on a request from the Indian team managementin Zimbabwe, have retained Delhi medium pacer Ashish Nehra in theIndian cricket team for the triangular one-day series starting on June23.”Nehra was asked to stay back in Zimbabwe as Indian team managerChetan Chauhan had requested for him to stay back,” selectioncommittee chairman Chandu Borde told PTI over phone from Pune. “TheBCCI secretary Jaywant Lele contacted me last night from London andtold me about Chauhan’s request,” Borde said and added that Lele, inturn contacted BCCI president AC Muthiah who gave his consent.”Meanwhile, I contacted my colleagues and took their consent as well,”Borde said.Nehra will be the 15th member of the team which will play a triangularseries with hosts Zimbabwe and West Indies being the other two teams.The Indians, who squared the Test series 1-1, will play their firstmatch against Zimbabwe on June 24 at Harare.* Indian cricketers are now clean, says PrabhakarFormer Indian all rounder Manoj Prabhakar on Monday said he had been”successful” in his mission to cleanse the game. “The Indiancricketers are now clean,” claimed Prabhakar who was one of the firstto blow the lid on match-fixing, accusing former Indian captain KapilDev of offering him money to under-perform. Ironically, he became oneof those to be suspended for five years for alleged nexus with illegalbookmakers.The cricketer, however, said he had no ill-will against any one andthat he had great respect for Kapil Dev. “I have only tried to cleanseIndian cricket,” he said.Prabhakar, who was untraceable after non-bailable arrest warrants wereissued in connection with siphoning off crores of rupees of investorsthrough a chit-fund company, was in Lucknow to address a pressconference to claim his innocence in the scandal. He did not rule outjoining politics once again in the near future but refused toelaborate. Prabhakar had earlier contested unsuccessfully in 1998 froma South Delhi constituency.

Those who stayed at The County Ground after the heavy morning showershad prevented any play until 1.45pm, were bathed in sunshine and treated to some entertaining cricket.After slipping to 33 for 3 the Cidermen were rescued by a fourth-wicket stand of 77 between Pakistan Test batsman Aamir Sohail and Matthew Wood. The 20-year-old played a cameo innings of 39 before he was unlucky enough to fall to a reflex catch at short leg.Aamir Sohail spoke very highly of the youngster and told me: “Matthew Wood showed a lot of character out there. He played positive cricket, and hit the bad balls.”Of his own innings of 50 Sohail said: “It was OK, I haven’t played cricket at this level for 14 months; I was quite happy with it.”Chief Executive Peter Anderson was also pleased with the crowd, given the weather. “It rained at the wrong time for us,” he said, but went on: “We’re expecting another good gate on Sunday, and there should be some more exciting cricket to watch.”Somerset Cricket Museum has also had a lot of visitors during the last couple of days. “On Friday 275 people came through the doors, and today there have been over 200,” Museum Secretary Tony Stedall told me.

Indian spin ace Anil Kumble, who is returning to full-fledgedcompetitive cricket after a nine-month injury layoff, will be the starattraction in the Karnataka State Cricket Association Diamond JubileeAll India Invitation Tournament for the Coromandel Trophy to be heldin Bangalore and Mysore from tomorrow.Kumble, who is hoping to return for India’s tour of South Africa inOctober, is leading the KSCA XI in the tournament, which would go ontill August 15 with 14 teams taking part.Besides KSCA XI, which also has in its ranks Test discards VenkateshPrasad and Sunil Joshi, the other teams to be seen in action are:India Pistons, MRF, Hyderabad, Roofit (Mumbai), India Cements, Kerala,KSCA Colts, Andhra, Indian Airlines, ONGC, NCA, BPL and Chemplast.KSCA officials told reporters last night the winner would take home Rsone lakh and the runner-up Rs 50,000.The tournament is expected to give Kumble a clear idea on the currentstatus of his fitness. He had appeared for his alma mater club, YoungCricketers, earlier this month in a third division league tie inBangalore, taking three for 49. It was his first game afterwithdrawing midway through a one-day series in Sharjah in October lastand after undergoing shoulder surgery in Johannesburg in January.The 30-year-old leg-spinner has taken 276 wickets from 61 Tests.

Ben Smith and Aftab Habib produced a triple century stand for the thirdwicket as Leicestershire comfortably batted out for a draw at Taunton.After the visitors had begun the final day on 19-1 in their second innings,still two runs behind, Trevor Ward fell early to boost Somerset hopes.But Smith, who hit an unbeaten 180, and Habib (149) then added exactly 300on a superb batting pitch and Leicestershire put aside any notion of adeclaration to reach 404-4 at the close.It was a disappointing finish to a match that had looked perfectly poisedafter the first two days. But the third-day wash-out doused any hopes eitherside had of a positive result.Somerset skipper Jamie Cox used his opening bowlers Richard Johnson andSteffan Jones for the first hour in an effort to make something happen, butthen preferred to rest them for the C&G Trophy semi-final againstWarwickshire tomorrow.Smith was first to his hundred, off 135 balls, with 16 fours. In the processhe became the first Leicestershire player to pass 1,000 first-class runs forthe season.It was his sixth century of the season and a fine effort, even if thebowling was less than demanding at times.Habib soon followed to three figures. By the time he gave a slip catch toMike Burns off Keith Dutch after tea, he had faced 206 balls and struck 20fours in a stylish innings.It was too good a pitch on which to set a run chase. Darren Maddy missed outwhen he skied Dutch to Jones at mid off, having made only six, but Smithmoved relentlessly on.By the close he had hit 22 boundaries in his 274-ball innings without givinga hint of a chance. Both teams took nine points.

All-rounder Robin Singh on Sunday rejected reports that he wasplanning to retire from international cricket and said he wasperfectly fit and raring to make a comeback.”I have no immediate plans for retirement. I am fit enough and hopingfor a comeback,” Robin Singh told PTI in Jaipur.The selectors, of late, have refuted his claims for a place in thenational side on grounds that he is well past his prime and youngstersmust be given a chance.Robin Singh said though many youngsters had been tried recently, theyhad failed to perform consistently.”Youngsters have been tried recently but they have not beenconsistent. There have only been a few good scores by them,” saidRobin Singh, who turns 38 next month.”May be the youngsters got their places in Indian team easily and didnot have to work hard for it and that is why they look complacent,” headded.The left handed all rounder said India’s dismal performance againstZimbabwe and Sri Lanka showed that the players were “lacking inapplication”.”Against the much stronger Australians, the Indians had shown muchbetter application but recently their approach has not been positive.May be when our players go abroad, the failures of the past haunt themand they come under pressure and commit mistakes. There should be amore positive approach,” he said.The unassuming player regretted his omission from the national squadand said: “Sometimes I feel opinions are made before hand. Players arelabelled and treated accordingly. Why bother about the age if a playeris performing. Merit alone should be the criteria for selection”.Brushing aside his disappointment, Robin Singh said he failed tounderstand how the team could lack in motivation. “Playing for yourcountry is the biggest motivation. Earlier, cricketers were gettingpeanuts but now they get so much money and fame and playing for thecountry is an honour in itself”.Robin Singh, who has to his credit many a match-winning performance,said the players should be made to earn their places in the side inorder to make themselves mentally tough. “The players should be madeto earn their places in the Indian side. Let them compete for a placein the team and if they go through the hard way then strength andtoughness will come automatically. But they also need to applythemselves. It is a long process and it comes through struggle,” hesaid.On the spate of injuries to players, Robin Singh said, “You shouldknow your own body. I am fit because I worked hard and knew therequirements of my body. You have to work hard for fitness and harderto maintain it”.He refused to put the blame for failures of the team on skipper SouravGanguly and said “he may be in bad form but it is a collective gameand every body has a responsibility”.He admitted that the team was over-dependent on star batsman SachinTendulkar. “Sachin’s absence should not be an excuse because all teamshave to go without their star players at some time or the other. Thosewho are playing should show commitment”.

Paula Flannery, CLEAR White Fern, could be excused for taking a little time to come back to Earth.She’s just returned from a winter coaching position 1700m up in the Swiss mountains at an exclusive Swiss boarding and finishing school, Lyceum Alpinum, near St Moritz in the Engandine Valley, for children from afar afield as Brazil and Russia.It’s three weeks since she returned to her Christchurch base and only now is she starting to unwind from an opportunity she never expected to get.A member of the CricInfo Women’s World Cup-winning White Ferns, Flannery, 27, was asked in February if she would be available to go to the school by White Ferns coach Mike Shrimpton.The job came about because the head of sport at the exclusive co-educational school is former Central Districts player Greg Hart, who used to be coached by Shrimpton.But cricket in a Swiss school catering for the children of Europe’s wealthy?Apparently, cricket has been a tradition at the school for 50 years and Flannery was one of three coaches. With a background in teaching children with disabilities, she found her previous experiences were a great help in getting children who had never been exposed to cricket to handle the intricacies of batting and bowling.The accent was on studies at the school and the only time available for sport was from 4.30-6pm so the only children involved in her coaching were the boarders.Flannery played the odd game with a boys’ team, including a tournament in Italy. But the big event on her programme was a Cricketfest organised by her school which involved several teams in 32-over matches.The school’s top team also has an annual match against the Old Boys’ side which is traditionally very competitive. And this year the school side won the match.”It was a very enjoyable experience and I got to met a few people I would never have met otherwise,” Flannery said of her northern hemisphere summer.”Some of the kids I was coaching have their own companies. It was a lot different to anything I have experienced before.”Forty-five different countries were represented on the school roll.As for her own cricket, Flannery did a lot of work on her physical training.”I also had a lot of time to sit down and think about everything, and I’ve never really had that time before.”It also gave me a chance to charge my batteries for the next season,” she said.Her first date to watch out for is October 1 when the New Zealand team to tour India in November will be named.But the ultimate measure of how she enjoyed her Swiss experience came when asked if she would do it again, and the affirmative answer said it all.