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Namibia 337 and 94 for 3 (A Burger 46) beat Netherlands 107 and 323 (ten Doeschate 116, K Burger 5-27) by 7 wickets
ScorecardRyan ten Doeschate struck a fine 116 for Netherlands but it was too little, too late, as Namibia wrapped up a convincing seven-wicket win on the third day of their Intercontinental Cup clash in Windhoek.ten Doeschate resumed on 47 and found encouraging support from Eric Szwarczynski, with whom he put on 58 for the fourth wicket. However, he became Kola Burger’s first wicket in an inspired spell as Netherlands’ lower-middle order began to fizzle away. Peter Borren managed to put on 65 with ten Doeschate, the pair giving Netherlands a slender lead, before Borren was bowled by Burger for an enterprising 36.After bringing up his hundred, in which he cracked eight fours and three sixes, ten Doeschate chipped one back to Burger who then bowled Jeroen Smits for his fifth wicket. It was Burger’s third five-wicket haul, and his best figures in first-class cricket.Set 94 to win, Namibia were never in any serious trouble with Jan-Berrie Burger at the crease, who launched five fours and a six in a quickfire 46. The win puts Namibia top of the table on 68 points, two ahead of Kenya.

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	Aban	Pts	Quotient	For	Against
Namibia	4	4	0	0	0	0	68	1.311	2038/64	1895/78
Kenya	4	3	1	0	0	0	66	1.263	1822/63	1832/80
Ireland	3	2	0	0	1	0	49	2.408	1535/26	1226/50
Netherlands	4	2	2	0	0	0	34	0.926	1840/68	1811/62
Scotland	3	1	0	0	2	0	26	1.142	766/20	1040/31
Canada	4	1	3	0	0	0	26	0.981	2085/69	1909/62
U.A.E.	6	1	4	0	1	0	23	0.766	2458/104	2499/81
Bermuda	4	0	4	0	0	0	6	0.521	1657/80	1989/50

Kyle Koetzer: spoke of ‘lots of pressure from both sides’ © Getty Images

Kyle Coetzer has withdrawn from the Scotland squad for the ODI against Pakistan, opting to stay with Durham. With Dougie Brown already missing because of an Achilles injury, Scotland are struggling.Durham are not playing on Sunday, the day of the match, but they do have Twenty20 Cup matches on Saturday and Tuesday. According to a report in The Scotsman he admitted to coming under “lots of pressure from both sides” before deciding to put county before country.”My aim is to have up to 15 years as a first-class cricketer so this is the right decision for the moment,” he said.”It’s not an easy situation to resolve,” Brown told the paper.” Kyle has made a career down south and that’s unfortunate for Scotland, but until the game is fully professional up here this will always be something we have to contend with. I can sympathise with Kyle because all he wants to do is play cricket at the highest level.”If he feels that he can’t play for Scotland because he might lose his place at Durham, then it’s a ridiculous situation to be in. Scotland are not a fully-fledged ICC nation as yet and there is still a reservation within the counties that ‘it’s only Scotland’.”Coetzer has been replaced by Qasim Sheikh.

A little over two months after being appointed as the Canadian Cricket Association’s Marketing and Communications Manager, Eddie Norfolk appears to have been dismissed after falling foul of Ben Sennik, the board’s somewhat eccentric president.Norfolk, who moved to Canada from Essex in 1989, came to the job with a glowing management background and in the short time he was in office, he made big strides in publicising the CCA’s work and of bringing Canadian cricket to a bigger audience. Until his appointment, the CCA had rarely issued any media releases or appeared to do much to promote itself.Insiders say that it was his instant success that contributed to his demise, with Sennik reportedly far from happy that his role as the main man was being overshadowed.Sennik’s credibility was not helped by some ill-advised remarks in may when he claimed that Canada were aiming to become a Test-playing nation within a decade. A few days later, they were defeated by Bermuda and Zimbabwe on ODIs. Those losses were put into context with the revelation that no practice matches had been arranged prior to the Trinidad trip. Insiders claim this was for financial reasons.Just before Christmas, Sennik told a crowd attending ‘Cricket and the Meaning of Life’ that cricket would be the dominant sport in Canada in ‘about the next ten years’. He has also been talking about a massively ambitious cricket stadium and hotel development at King City. A figure of $300 million was tossed in the air during one discussion and funding appears to be dependent on a mysterious backer. The Maple Leaf CC grounds at King City are held under a trust and are not the CCA’s. At the CCA AGM last November, the architectural drawings were unveilled. At the time capacity was around 18,000 – a much higher figure was heard recently. There continued to be mentioned of sharing the ground with soccer but a new stadium is being built at the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds, near the Toronto lakeshore.As recently as last weekend, Norfolk was to be seen working tirelessly at a domestic event – the CIMA Mayor’s Cup – and insiders say that there was growing envy at his high profile.Sennik’s action would seem to ensure that Canadian cricket slips back to the twilight zone it inhabited before Norfolk’s appointment. To outsiders, it appears that personal standing and profile inside the country is more important that the overall good of the game.

Dinanath Ramnarine: unhappy with the content of the unseen Digicel contract © Cricinfo

The row between players and board which has threatened the West Indies tour of Sri Lanka appeared to be close to a resolution last night after the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) came within touching distance of a settlement. It is in no way an armistice, but it is at least a ceasefire which should ensure that the strongest team leaves the Caribbean on Friday.Dinanath Ramnarine, WIPA’s president, said that there was substantial agreement, and it appears that the board has backed down over its seeming reluctance to have the controversial Clause Five included in binding arbitration. Once the exact wording of that arbitration is hammered out, WIPA is expected to advise its members to sign the match/tour contracts, and that will allow the originally-chosen squad to reassemble.While the row over player contracts rumbles on, WIPA has again questioned the true value of the deal between the WICB and Digicel. That contract is at the heart of all the disputes which have blighted cricket in the Caribbean over the last year.On Wednesday, Ramnarine openly challenged the board to reveal the details of the contract. Although the board has claimed that WIPA has a copy, Ramnarine said that he had only seen an unsigned version, adding that he believed the final document differed from the one in his possession. “The figures quoted in your letter of the June 25 are very different from the unsigned copy of the contract that was given to us by you,” he wrote in a letter to the board. “It is also different from the figures used by the WICB’s president [Teddy Griffith] in his address to the Caribbean people and it is also different from what is reported by the sponsor in the media. In other words, the figures so far have changed from US$ 23 million to US$20 million to US$18.75 million to now US$16.75.”We are grateful for the unsigned copy which you have provided,” he concluded, “but we must still insist on sight of a signed copy.” The suspicion Ramnarine appears to hold is that the board has deliberately reduced the value of the deal as part of its strategy for negotiating with the players over their sponsorship remuneration.

<SuperSport Series ShieldEasterns beat Gauteng to win the 2003/04 SuperSport Series Shield.Day 4 Easterns 405 for 4 dec and 338 for 9 dec beat Gauteng 286 and 229 (Snijman 64, Gain 68*, Morkel 3-67) by 228 runs
ScorecardRain and bad light had the players on and off the field, but enough play was possible for Easterns to beat Gauteng by 228 runs. In so doing, they secured the 2003-04 SuperSport Series Shield by a whopping margin of 27 points. Gauteng resisted through Blake Snijman, who scored his maiden first-class fifty, and Douglas Gain, who finished undefeated on 68, and with some help from the inclement weather, they nearly put a damper on the Easterns party. But Morne Morkel picked up 3 for 67 to make sure that they came out on top.Eastern Province 432 drew with Boland 324
ScorecardNo play was possible on either of the final two days because of rain

Under a cloudless blue sky, Australia continued their victorious World Cupprogress with a seven-wicket victory against Zimbabwe. It was a harderfight than many expected, as they had only 15 balls in hand at the end.It was fortunate for Australia that the match was played at Queens SportsClub in Bulawayo rather than at Harare, where prolonged rain would probablyhave resulted in the match being abandoned.Zimbabwe won the toss and decided to bat. The pitch in Bulawayo isinvariably rather slow and lifeless for pace bowlers, even in the earlymorning. They made one change, replacing opener Mark Vermeulen with DougMarillier, the man whom Australia will well remember for almost snatching amatch from their grasp in Perth two years ago with his famous `shovel’ shot.Australia reverted to their strongest team, taking no chances.Zimbabwe made a rather nervous start to their innings, with Guy Whittallpromoted again to open with Craig Wishart. No doubt there were unvoiced regrets about the absence from the squad of the experienced Alistair Campbell.There were a couple of nervy singles before Wishart hit Glenn McGrath through the covers for the first boundary. Immediately, though, Whittall tried topull Gillespie and skied a catch to square leg.This brought in Andy Flower, whose presence seemed to give Wishartconfidence, and runs came more freely. Flower looked much more himself thanhe had done against India, and hit Gillespie for two classical off-side foursoff successive deliveries. Perhaps the altitude prevented the Australiansfrom bowling with their usual consistent pinpoint accuracy, although itcould never be said that they bowled poorly.The pull shot again proved fatal for Zimbabwe when Wishart attemptedthe shot against Gillespie and dragged the ball on to his stumps via thebottom edge; Zimbabwe were 28 for two.Australia’s bowlers tightened up and the Flower brothers were forced tostruggle for runs, which came at scarcely three an over; their fiftypartnership came up off 94 balls. On 41 Andy survived an edge off Brett Lee to a vacant first slip position, but ‘keeper Adam Gilchrist was unable to reach thechance.Andy finally reached his fifty off 77 balls, and then the team 100 came upoff 26.5 overs. Grant appeared almost anonymous in partnership with hisbrother, but he did play a magnificent straight drive for four past Lee. Hehad reached 37 and was just beginning to look more fluent when he was runout. It was Andy’s call for a quick but safe two, but Grant at firstrefused the second run and then came too late. Zimbabwe were 112 for threein the 30th over.Andy went on to 62 off 94 balls before he lay back to drive a ball from BradHogg that hurried through and hit his off stump. The innings then lookedin danger of grinding to a complete halt. Dion Ebrahim on 4 should havebeen run out and had given up, stranded in mid-pitch, but bowler DamianMartyn unaccountably flicked the ball at the stumps from two yards andmissed.The reprieve seemed to persuade Ebrahim temporarily to be more aggressive,but he only scored 15 before he swept at Hogg and was bowled behind hislegs. Marillier fell first ball, sweeping Hogg straight to midwicket,and Zimbabwe had subsided at 142 for five after 37 overs.Andy Blignaut was Zimbabwe’s last hope of a reasonable total, and he obligedwith some powerful pulls and drives, including 18 (one to Tatenda Taibu) offan over from Gillespie. Hogg went for six, four and six off successiveballs, and he reached 50 off just 25 balls, second only for Zimbabwe toMarillier’s match-winning fifty off 21 balls against India last season.Blignaut fell for 54, scored off 28 balls, hammering back a full tossstraight to Lee. He hit 2 sixes and 8 fours, and in the 45th over theZimbabwe score had shot up to 208 for six. Taibu and Heath Streak took upthe assault with a little less power, although Streak hit Lee for a big sixover long-off. McGrath bowled Taibu (23) and Murphy (1) in the final over,while Streak finished unbeaten with 28.Zimbabwe’s 246 for nine was the highest total against Australia so far thistournament. Hogg with three for 46 was the most successful bowler.Suicide pilot Adam Gilchrist launched Australia’s reply in typical fashion,hammering Streak straight for a mistimed but effective boundary. In thesecond over, by which time he had 13, he sliced a difficult chance tothirdman off Blignaut, but it went down.Gilchrist took most of the strike and had 23 before Matthew Hayden too got off the mark in typical fashion, driving Blignaut straight for four. The fiftypartnership took 49 balls, with Gilchrist scoring 39 of them. Taibu,standing up to Douglas Hondo, believed he had caught Gilchrist at the samescore, but umpire Bowden rejected the confident appeal.At this stage Gilchrist seemed to run out of adrenaline and went through aquiet period before reaching his fifty off 45 balls. He was immediatelydropped by Marillier, a hard return catch, but Hayden was lessfortunate: flicking Hondo down the leg side, he was superbly caught low doneat fine leg by Grant Flower. Australia were 89 for one.Gilchrist finally hit Marillier straight to deep midwicket to make Australia 113for two in the 22nd over. It was strange how becalmed he became afterracing to 39, but he had put the Australian innings well on course.Ricky Ponting and Martyn put on 53 together by unspectacular methodsbefore Ponting drove a straight-forward return catch to Brian Murphy.Darren Lehmann came in, but Zimbabwe were now able to put Australia under acertain degree of pressure as the runs still did not flow.Marillier, taking over the role of Grant Flower who hurt his spinning fingeragainst India, did the job to perfection, bowling his ten overs for just 32runs and the wicket of Gilchrist.Streak rang his bowling changes to try to break the partnership of Martynand Lehmann, who elected to follow the cool, calm and assured route home.Lehmann hardly seemed to break sweat as he cruised to his fifty before theclose off just 43 balls, quickly followed by Martyn off 69 balls. A pull byLehmann that almost carried for six over long leg finished the match.Lehmann finished on 56 and Martyn on 50.

After having conceded the first innings lead to Assam, Bihar came backstrongly to score a three wicket win in the East Zone Under-22 tournamentmatch at the Mangaldoi Sports Association Ground in Mangaldoi on Thursday.Set to score 259 for a win on the final day and moreover with just undertwo sessions of play left, Bihar were put on the right course, after theearly loss of opener A Vidhyarti (9), by a 132-run second wicket standbetween S Hussain (76) and skipper Neeraj Kumar (64). Thereafter, themiddle order chipped in with some useful contributions to take Bihar homein 47 overs.On the opening day, opting to bat, Assam came up against some good seambowling by Rajesh Thakur and Chakraborthy. Claiming eight of the Assamwickets, the duo skittled out the opponents for just 188. Bihar in responseconceded a 30-run first innings lead. The fact that only four of theirbatsmen crossed the double digits did not help their cause. Assam withtheir tails up on taking the slender lead, scored 228 for nine declared thesecond time around. The openers RM Gohain (64) and PJ Das (88) who shared a110-run stand were the mainstays in the innings.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe addressed one of the team’s biggest issues in January by bolstering the defence with the signings of Matt Targett, Dan Burn and Kieran Tripper – leading them to conceding just five goals in their last eight Premier League games.

However, with them having Champions League ambitions under Saudi PIF, Trippier might be the sole long-term survivor of that trio in Howe’s strongest XI, and Lille centre-back Sven Botman could be a long-term replacement for left-footer Burn.

What’s the news?

While AC Milan are believed to have moved ahead of the Tyneside club, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, they are not giving up hope on attracting Botman to the Premier League.

The report also suggests the Dutchman is looking to play for a club with Champions League football next season, but money talks – and Newcastle have the most money out of any club in the world.

This news comes after journalist Fabrizio Romano ruled out a deal in January, saying: “Lille position on Sven Botman’s still the same: he’s untouchable and his future will be discussed in the summer. Deal off with Newcastle. Magpies already working on two other candidates in order to sign a new centre back this week.”

St James’ would be bouncing

Averaging a 7.14 match rating for Lille in the French Ligue 1 this season, he has also scored three goals in 21 games – and with an excellent set-piece taker in the shape of Trippier, he could potentially contribute even more with the Magpies too.

Standing at 6 foot 4, the 22-year-old has demonstrated his ability in the air regularly on the defensive side of his game too, ranking among centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues and continental competitions over the last year in the top 7% for percentage of aerials won per 90 (74.6%) and top 12% for least aerials lost per 90 (1.01).

With a valuation of just £27m by Transfermarkt, it’s unlikely that Lille will price Newcastle out of a move, as the French club themselves have only just found their way out of financial troubles – and despite no longer needing to sell, they likely won’t turn away a figure of around £45m.

In the words of Rio Ferdinand, Newcastle should get the contract out, put it on the table, let him sign it, let him write whatever numbers he wants to put on there, because Botman is the real deal – and will continue to get better and better in the years to come, while the owners have the money to tempt him.

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Based on his incredible potential and the January saga that revolved around him, St James’ Park would surely be bouncing if the club finally got their man.

In other news: Sold at £10.9m, now worth £40m: Ashley had NUFC disaster on “nasty” 22 y/o “scorpion”

	Kyle Mills: “We got on top of them early and took the game right away from them” © Getty Images

Daniel Vettori was a proud and content captain after leading from the front with bat, ball and in the field, as New Zealand routed England by 189 runs on the final day in Hamilton to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.After an early declaration, England were left needing a nominal target of 300 in 81 overs, but they never came close thanks to a sensational new-ball burst from Kyle Mills, who claimed four prime wickets in his first six overs, as England collapsed to 110 all out.”This is probably my most satisfying Test win over the long time that I have played,” said Vettori, who made his debut against England during the 1996-97 series. “This was a very flat wicket and it didn’t offer a lot, but what we did was bowl well and set up a good total in the first innings. That’s the way you go about winning Test cricket. It’s something we haven’t done that well and to step up and do it against a very good England team and win …”I would like to reflect on how well we bowled,” said Vettori. “It was a tough wicket to score on and the five of us got together and put in a pretty consistent performance. In 170 overs of Test cricket you don’t see that often, you normally have a little spell where it gets away from you, but I thought we produced 170 overs of continually good bowling.”It was Mills and his new-ball partner, Chris Martin (3 for 33), who were the stars of the final day. “It’s a pretty fantastic atmosphere in the changing-room,” said Mills, who finished with career-best figures of 4 for 16 from 13 overs. “To go one-up on the Poms is just fantastic. We’ll definitely enjoy the moment.”At the start of the fifth day, the general assumption was that New Zealand’s chief threat would come from their spinners, Vettori and Jeetan Patel, but thanks to Mills’ early onslaught and a mid-innings burst from Chris Martin, they ended up taking only two wickets between them”Our plan for the day was maybe to get one or, at the most, two wickets with the new ball, then bowl the spinners in the middle session before having another spell with the older ball,” said Mills. “But this exceeded all expectations. We got on top of them early and took the game right away from them.””The performances of Chris and Kyle probably set up the victory,” said Vettori. “They bowled superbly, especially Kyle with the new ball – any time you get a team four for 30 and take probably the best four batsmen out of play it makes a huge difference. That set up a real belief in the side, and then there was the second spell from Chris coming back with the ball starting to reverse. The ball that bowled [Tim] Ambrose is one of those balls that you only get once every four or five years.””Kyle felt confident,” said Vettori. “He didn’t bowl too much yesterday, he only bowled the one ball. He just wanted to take a chance with it. The whole way, we have stressed that we just have to put the ball in the right spot. It’s easy to say but to get a group of bowlers to do it is nice. At the end of his spell, I think Kyle was beginning to reverse it. He knew what wanted to do with it, and he did it consistently.”Nevertheless, New Zealand’s stand-out performer was Vettori himself, who produced crucial innings of 88 and 35 from the pivotal No. 8 position, and bowled with skill, stamina and control in both innings to prevent England’s nervous batsmen from taking control at any stage of the match.

	“A lot of them don’t need leadership, they know what they need to do every time they step on the park, but it does set a nice tone when your captain is out there performing”

“I think the best way you can captain a team is with your performance,” said Vettori. “I was surprised to get Man of the Match, but when you put some runs on the board and do a job it helps the side. At least you’ve got one person going in the right direction and the rest will follow from there. A lot of them don’t need leadership, they know what they need to do every time they step on the park, but it does set a nice tone when your captain is out there performing.”Vettori’s biggest task of the fifth day was in the timing of his declaration, which came at 177 for 9 – a target of exactly 300 – after the addition of 30 runs in the first half-hour’s play.”It felt right,” said Vettori. “It was the situation we wanted to be in last night. While we were still confident with a lead of 270-280, the declaration gave us a little bit of momentum and we took that into the field.”Confidence was something that New Zealand displayed throughout the game, even while Ryan Sidebottom was ripping through their middle-order during their dramatic collapse on the fourth afternoon. Sidebottom finished with career-best figures of 6 for 49, including a hat-trick, as New Zealand lost six wickets for 20 to slip from 99 for 1 to 119 for 7, but Vettori refused to panic.”We were a bit shellshocked at the time,” he admitted. “We went out there aggressively and I think the way Stephen [Fleming] batted was outstanding. He took a lot of the initiative away from England but then we lost that clump of wickets. Once again, the way Sidebottom bowled was fantastic but we came back into the shed last night knowing that 270-280 would be enough. There were only going to be two results – a win or a draw.”After Mills’ final-morning onslaught and Martin’s mid-innings efforts, New Zealand were made to wait for victory as Ian Bell and Monty Panesar dug in defiantly during a 33-run stand for the tenth wicket. But Vettori already knew that the match was in the bag.”We probably knew after [Paul] Collingwood’s wicket,” he said. “I think we were pretty comfortable. Their top six are proven and we wanted to get into Ambrose and their longish tail so once we got Collingwood there was a good feel in the camp.”

Graham Ford comes with a stacked with positives © Getty Images

Unless something goes very wrong, Graham Ford is likely to be appointed India’s next coach when the committee that is charged with making the decision meets with the prospective candidates at the Taj Coromandel hotel in Chennai tomorrow evening. All indications on the ground suggest that John Emburey’s 11th-hour entry into the fray could simply be a case of clutching at straws for those who do not want the players to get their way unchallenged.Ford and Emburey are both scheduled to arrive in Chennai from London on Saturday morning and may have the chance to spend some time with each other on the way should they so choose. From all indications, Emburey was very much a last-minute choice of the seven-man committee that met in Bangalore. Sources have revealed to that the committee felt it would be perceived to have not transacted any business if it did not come up with a candidate to challenge the one the players wanted.It is an open secret that the players have wanted Ford, perhaps less well-known that Dav Whatmore’s candidature was shot down primarily because there were a number of cricketers in the team who believed he would not be the best man for the job. Whatmore’s eagerness to impose himself on the process, coupled with interaction the Indian players had with their Bangladeshi counterparts during the recently completed tour, put paid to any chances that Whatmore might have had.But now the attention has swung in a different direction altogether. While the prime candidate for the job is Ford, who comes with a stacked with positives, there could still be a hitch. Unlike Whatmore, who had already terminated his contract with Bangladesh and expressed his keenness and enthusiasm to take up the India job, Ford has done nothing to canvass for the position. If anything, Ford is already comfortably employed by Kent, and has the security of a contract that runs till 2008 to fall back on.For Ford not to get the job now, one of two things must happen. The first is that he makes such an unimpressive presentation that he rules himself out of contention. That seems unlikely given that he is a professional in the modern coaching arena and has a working knowledge of how to put his case forward.The second scenario where Ford could not get the job is where the Board of Control for Cricket in India makes him an offer so poor that it does not tempt him to leave Kent. While monetary concerns form one part, the major issue deals with the constant travel, the high-pressure, the expectations of Indian fans fuelled by a powerful and ever-present media. Ford will want to be adequately compensated for this. If the Indian board fails to realise this, and makes him an offer that is less than generous, he may not consider the job worth the trouble.

“Embers? Are you sure you have the right John? It’s probably Invers you want,” one Middlesex player asked in disbelief when asked about Emburey © Getty Images

What makes Ford’s position so strong is that his competitor has done little of note in his second innings in cricket. With no disrespect to Emburey, who was a restrictive and canny offspinner and a lower-order batsman that opposition teams worried about, his coaching record is something Ford will lose no sleep over. Emburey’s stints with Northamptonshire and Middlesex have been such unqualified disasters that no one in the know believes he could land the India job off his own bat. “Embers? Are you sure you have the right John? It’s probably Invers you want,” said one Middlesex player in disbelief, referring to John Inverarity, who is consultant with the county, when asked about Emburey.It seems like an unfair thing to say to a man who has played 64 Tests, taking 147 wickets and scoring more than 1700 runs at over 20, but when it comes to coaching credentials, Emburey has nothing on the man who never played Tests and only averaged 13.5 from 7 first-class games. Till recently, when you Googled for “Graham Ford”, the first thing you got was “Columbus Ford Dealer of Ohio State with a great selection of new and used cars, trucks, hybrid escape, mustang and SUV vehicles,” and nothing relevant to cricket on the first page. All that is set to change, unless of course, Ford puts a higher price on his anonymity than on the most challenging, and potentially rewarding, job in cricket coaching.