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New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond was among the wickets overnight as his Warwickshire side pummelled Kent in their county championship match at Edgbaston.Warwickshire had scored 565 when batting first, and with Bond picking up four for 68 from his 16 overs, Kent were reeling at 191/8 at stumps.Meanwhile, on Gloucestershire’s first day of their match with Northamptonshire, Craig Spearman scored 71 off 100 balls in Gloucestershire’s total of 422 at Bristol.Northants were 15/0 at stumps.Spearman has now scored 923 runs at 46.15 in the championship and has hit three centuries and four half-centuries.He is returning to New Zealand to play for Central Districts in the new summer.In cricket in the Netherlands, former New Zealand Test bowler Simon Doull is having a significant input for his HCC club, particularly in the last month.At the weekend his side had two games. On Saturday they played Jinnah and Doull took four for 25 off 8.3 overs as they were all out for 116 while Doull opened the batting and scored 55 as HCC reached 117/3 to win by seven wickets.On Sunday, against VCC, who scored 208, he took one for 24 off 9.5 overs and then hit 64 in HCC’s 212/6.Doull starred in another double-header a fortnight previous. Against Rood & Wit, for whom Canterbury’s Jarrod Englefield scored 59 of their 167 runs, Doull took one for 34 off eight overs and scored 40 in HCC’s 168/9.Earlier, HBS scored 108, in which Doull had the sensationally economical figures of 9.4 overs, one wicket for 10 runs. He then contributed 27 in his side’s 109/1.In a match between Quick Haag and VRA, Darren Reekers hit 67 for Quick in their 211/5 while in VRA’s reply former New Zealand opener Darrin Murray scored 90 in their 217/7.

For the second day running, West Indies dominated India at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Opener Wavell Hinds scored a ton while his partner Chris Gayle reached 80, as the pair put on a commanding opening partnership of 172 and took West Indies to 189/3 in response to India’s 358. The hosts only managed their eventual score thanks to some lusty late-in-the-order scoring from Parthiv Patel and Javagal Srinath. If that spell of cricket early in the day brought fans to their feet, the assault of the West Indian openers drove home the point of the day -­ the West Indies are in control.The day clearly belonged to the twenty-six-year-old Wavell Hinds. The young southpaw notched up the first West Indian century of this series and made the Indian bowlers toil hard. Put together with alacrity, the partnership for the first wicket easily went past the former record mark for the wicket at the ground which was set by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes. Sitting in the pavilion and watching the game, chairman of selectors Sir Vivian Richards would have allowed himself a smile at the way West Indies went from strength to strength.At one stage, with the scoreboard reading 172/0 it looked as though West Indies would go through the whole day without losing a wicket. It was, then, that Harbhajan Singh struck, completely against the grain of play. Pulling the offie, Hinds could only watch in dismay as the ball hurtled straight to Sourav Ganguly at square leg. Hinds’ even 100 (200 balls, 16 fours) put West Indies in a strong position.Ramnaresh Sarwan, coming in to bat in the fading light, did not last long, making just two, before a smart bit of wicket-keeping by Parthiv Patel saw the young middle-order batsman stumped off Harbhajan.Merv Dillon was sent in as nightwatchman, a move that backfired on theWest Indies. Clean bowled for a duck off the second ball he faced, Dillon was back in the hut as quickly as he had come out. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, then, saw off five deliveries before play was called off due to bad light.All the while, Gayle has batted responsibly and patiently. Never shy to put away the loose deliveries – 14 of these reached the ropes while onewent all the way -­ Gayle was cautious against good deliveries. He left afair share of deliveries alone and also used his pad effectively againstthe spinners.Earlier in the day, some shoddy bowling by West Indies let India off thehook. From the overnight score of 275/6 with the tail exposed, West Indies would have hoped to knock over the last four wickets giving away as few runs as possible. But Parthiv Patel (47) came close to scoring his maiden Test half-century and Javagal Srinath with 46 gave the batting depth as India went on to post a respectable first innings score.Seventeen-year old young wicketkeeper Patel was clearly overawed when he first graduated to the highest stage. Facing bowlers of a different level both in terms of speed and skill, Patel seemed out of his depth. None of that in this match. Batting sensibly, the youngster managed six boundaries in his 89-ball 47.Srinath too proved that he is no slouch, carting the ball to all parts in his 40-ball stay at the wicket. The veteran Karnataka medium-pacer went after the bowlers, striking seven boundaries and one six in his knock of 46. The partnership of 73 for the eighth wicket was instrumental in getting India to its eventual total of 358.Having put the runs on the board, though, India were stunned by the manner in which West Indies fought back. While the batting line-up had succumbed meekly in the recent past, the young pair of Jamaican openers showed that there is still hope for the men from the Caribbean.Uncomplicated batting, matched with an equal measure of caution, was all it took to keep the Indian bowlers at bay on a wicket that was good for batting. Suddenly, Srinath looked a tired medium-pacer past his prime, Ashish Nehra reminded one of how much Zaheer Khan is missed and the spinners looked for a spot of luck to get them a wicket.It is still not beyond West Indies to collapse on the third day and handIndia the initiative on a platter. Harbhajan has 3/43 to his name, andeveryone knows he’s a rhythm bowler. If he strikes early tomorrow, allthe visitors’ good work will come undone.

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, may have some way to go before hecan begin to emulate the astute leadership of his predecessor, StephenFleming. But after losing the third Test against England at TrentBridge, along with the series, he demonstrated the same despondencyabout New Zealand’s future at Test level that Fleming voiced for somany years.The end was quick and painless, like a plaster being removed, and asVettori licked his lesions, he admitted that England had dominatedthem ever since that fateful day at Old Trafford when New Zealand wereblitzed by Monty Panesar.”I don’t want to take anything away from England,” he said. “They’vedominated since the third day at Old Trafford, they’re deserved winnersand they’ve thoroughly outplayed us from that point on, so we’d liketo think the gap is smaller but we have to appreciate how well Englandplayed and they made the most of everything they did. Particularlytheir swing bowlers.”It probably sums up the state of affairs we are in,” he said. “We were able tocompete for some of the time but unable to compete for a whole fivedays. If you look back to the last six Test matches, the only time wewere able to do that was at Hamilton – which we won. Unfortunatelyevery other time we haven’t been able to keep up to the pace ofEngland.”I guess it’s a lack of ability on our part, maybe a lack of fortitudeas well. It’s something we’ve got to find a way to do. But havingsaid that we’ve still got a number of guys who have played under 10Tests so it’s hard to put any blame on them. It’s more the experiencedguys who need to stand up and take control of the situations.”England took just 63 minutes to take the final five New Zealandwickets – 5 for 35 in 40 clinical balls – with Ryan Sidebottomreturning to somewhere near his best in picking up his fifthfive-wicket haul. Only Jacob Oram resisted, clattering the unusuallywayward Stuart Broad over midwicket for one ofonly two sixes in the match, and showing the sort of aggression andintent so lacking from New Zealand’s top-order throughout this series.Indeed, Vettori laid the blame for their successive series defeatsfirmly at the feet of his more wizened charges.”The experienced members have to step up at the crucial moments,” hesaid. “We did at times, not at others. Brendon and mine’s performanceswere decent and I’m reasonably happy with them, but when you’ve got ayoung team…you’ve got to take them along with you. You’ve got pocketsof performances from some of the young guys like Ross [Taylor], withhis 150; Jamie How, who I think averaged over 40 for us. So littlethings like that you take with you, but experienced performers muststand up at all times.”The fact we performed for pockets of the Test match but not for thewhole five days is what’s letting us down, and the only way you canrectify that is by playing more and giving young guys like DanielFlynn, Jamie How, Ross Taylor the chance to play day after day of Testcricket. That’s not going to happen. We don’t have too much say in ourscheduling but we’ve got to make the most of these Test series whenthey do come along. If they’re going to be few and far between, we’vegot to perform when we do turn up.”

The most telling problem to blight New Zealand’s cricket over the pastdecade was observed by their coach, John Bracewell, before the firstTest at Lord’s. Speaking candidly at the press conference, headmitted: “We don’t play enough Test cricket. [Brendon] McCullum madehis Test debut three matches before Andrew Strauss did and withoutmissing a single match has played 32 Tests. In the same time Strauss,who missed a series, has played 46.” Strauss, the Man of the Series, can now expect to bring up his half-century of caps when South Africa come to Lord’s in July. Who knows how long McCullum will have to wait for his milestone.It is not a problem easily rectifiable in these changing times.One-day cricket – the format which most suits New Zealand – dominates.And Twenty20 has the potential to leapfrog 50-over cricket as thegame’s principle format, if it hasn’t done so already. Vettori – whostill looks far too young to have played 84 Test matches – insistswhere his allegiances lie, in spite of representing Delhi Daredevilsin the recently concluded Indian Premier League. And in spite of NewZealand’s continually poor Test record – the last time they won aseries was in 2006, beating West Indies 2-0.”From a personal point of view [Test matches] are my favourite part ofthe game,” he said. “It’s the hardest part of the game and themost rewarding. You never hurt this much from a one-day loss or aTwenty20 loss and you’re never as elated with the same. Test cricketis the most important thing for a lot of guys around the world, but westill have to back that these forms of the game are coming into it …and if we can find a window, then hopefully that will sort outeveryone’s problems.”The sporting phrase of choice these days appears to be “journey”, andVettori’s trip as captain – to a destination yet unknown – will belong and draining. As these six Tests against England havedemonstrated, their inability to string consistent performances overfive days has cost them dearly, and not even Vettori’s intellectualleadership can provided any viable solution.

Wasim Akram, superbly supported by Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi, had handed the second match of the Super Challenge, to Pakistan on a silver platter. Australia had been bowled out for 167 and Pakistan, had it chosen, could have got these runs in singles.Instead it made an unholy mess of its batting and the match went to the wire and Pakistan scraped through by the skin of its teeth.In the first match Pakistan had been blown away and we rationalized that the team had not adjusted to the extra bounce of the Australian wickets, the batsmen had no clue where their off stump was and hung out their bats, as one hangs out the laundry and the bowlers bowled too short and gave too much width. The bowlers had learnt from the first match. Not so the batsmen. Clearly much work needs to be done to bring some discipline in the batting.A gutsy innings from Younis Khan saw Pakistan home but he had his share of luck because the Australians were not so sharp in the field, off-season blues, as one commentator described it.Pakistan lost Saeed Anwar in the first over, run out when he backed up too far and was a little lazy in getting back. To our consternation, Azhar Mahmood was sent in next. It made no sense to change the batting order and if the order had to be changed Shahid Afridi who is an opening batsman, should have been sent.To no one’s surprise Azhar had only a walk-on role to play and with Imran Nazir, out of sorts and all at sea, Pakistan was soon on the back foot. Inzamam did not look fit and was limping and he was out to a wild shot.I was surprised that he had not asked for a runner unless he brought his injury to the match which should raise some eye-brows. I raise the question once more about Pakistan getting itself a fitness trainer. The trainer need not necessarily come from abroad.In the seventies when Geoff Hunt ruled the squash world, we discovered that what separated him from a bevy of Pakistani champions was his supreme fitness. If we had to dethrone him, we could have to match his fitness.Nur Khan arranged for a fitness trainer from the PAF. I still remember him as a very tall man, ramrod-straight and a no-nonsense man. I had nicknamed him ‘Commando’. He put the players through their paces and they howled in protest. He was too strict. But there was no let-up, no relaxation. Came the Irish Open in Dublin, Geoff Hunt was beaten and from then on, Pakistan reigned supreme in the squash world.I don’t ascribe all their success to the fitness-training. The Pakistanis were superb players but they had also become extremely fit.Mark Waugh who has turned commentator rated Australia and Pakistan as the two best teams in the world. According to him, Australia had the edge in fielding and running-between-wickets. It seems a fair evaluation.I think Pakistan was ‘unlucky’ with the umpiring in the second match. Damien Martyn was caught by Waqar Younis and Waqar claimed the catch. Darrel Hair who was standing only ten meters away and was in a position to judge himself whether it was a clean catch or not, chose to ask the third umpire. The moment this is done, some doubts are created in the minds of the third umpire and its almost a certainty that the benefit of doubt will go to the batsman.I don’t think umpires should abdicate their responsibilities merely because technology is available. In the good, old days, a fielder’s word was enough whether he had caught the ball cleanly or not.Martyn should have asked Waqar. But these are not the good, old days.Still, Pakistan go to Brisbane, one-all. This match will be played under open skies and Pakistan will have to brave the elements which includes the Australian winter. The ball seams a lot on the Brisbane (GABA) tracks.I have fond memories of Brisbane which is one of the most beautiful cities in Australia. The going will be tough for Pakistan but Pakistan has the bowling to make life difficult for Australia.It is the batting that is a matter of concern. Saeed Anwar has yet to face a ball in the Super Challenge. It would be great if he could get some big runs on his come-back and give Pakistan the start it hasn’t had so far.

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club today announced details of its Mid-Season Membership Offer.With lots of exciting cricket still to come including 4 Norwich Union League games, one of which is our evening floodlit fixture, 3 Frizzell County Championship games and a tourist game the new rates are extremely attractive.New members joining from today will pay the following reduced rates: