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Mike Colle, Ontario’s minister for citizenship and immigration, resigned last week in the wake of a report which slammed him for his handling of a Can$1 million grant to the Ontario Cricket Association (OCA).Colle was accused of making a series of grants to local organisations without going through the correct procedures.”I am not very privy to what transpired between the minister and the previous board of OCA,” Mike Kendall, the president of the association, told rediff.com. “What I heard was that we asked for Can$150,000 for infrastructure improvement, like improving the pitch, and other facilities. But members of the previous board had also spoken with the minister about various needs that put together amounted to several million dollars to take cricket in Ontario to the next level.”Had someone put some figures on paper, it would have been different, but that, as far as I know, didn’t happen. But the fact is Colle understands cricket. He understands that without the government help we can’t go to the next level and so he released that money.”The OCA has already spent Can$250,000 of the grant with the rest invested in the bank for future programmes.The report into the grants confirmed that the OCA had only requested Can$150,000.

Run machine: Michael Hussey’s first season in Test cricket was phenomenal © AFP

If Michael Hussey was a mountain climber he would have spent years sprinting up lower-level peaks before getting a chance at Everest and reaching the summit without oxygen masks or sherpas. Hussey’s opening season in Test cricket was so dizzying that he enters an era-defining campaign with a sportsman’s form of vertigo.Second-season syndrome might be ranked next to the Discworld’s foaming sheep sickness among manufactured diseases, but if athletes don’t swear by the affliction they are definitely aware of its dangers. Hussey was the master of most situations in 2005-06, finishing with career averages in the 70s for both Tests and one-day internationals, and the threat of slipping towards mortal status pushed him to form a guidebook for success.”I have actually thought about it [the second-season blues] and I’m a little anxious about the summer,” he said. “Last year went so well, better than I could have ever dreamed of, so it’s natural that I think how can I back that up? How can I average 75 in Test cricket again?”The plan involves following the same routine to prepare for each innings, which is a regime he has perfected through the past five years of dominance in England, Australia and with the national team. “I know and I trust it,” he said during the squad’s camp at Coolum. “If I stick to my plan and stick to my processes, maybe I won’t go as well, maybe I’ll go better, but I know in my heart that hopefully I can be pretty consistent and have strong performances.”Hussey’s second full international campaign begins as vice-captain in place of Adam Gilchrist for the Champions Trophy warm-up in Malaysia in two weeks. The ascent to the team’s leadership ranks has been almost as swift as his batting rise. Hussey is comfortable in charge and holds leadership ambitions, but is not in a hurry to accept full-time authority.After his first off-season in five years Hussey’s priority is releasing the nervous energy of the winter by playing. A compulsive trainer, he has been running, netting and shadow batting and is “sick of all the preparation”. “I’m not used to having such a long break,” he said, “and I’m craving cricket and time in the middle.”Reading Steve Waugh’s autobiography has helped fill in some of his recent spare time, but most has been devoted to his wife and two young children. “The kids were a bit sick in the winter and I really wanted a cricket tour when I was getting two hours’ sleep a night,” he said as he chuckled. He is about to get his wish.The Champions Trophy starts in October, the Ashes in November and then there is a rash of one-day matches before the World Cup concludes in April. With plenty of spaces for pitfalls, Hussey is ready if he slips off the path. “The game does have a great way of bringing you back down to earth,” he said. “I am prepared if things don’t go according to plan.”He is also willing to trade his mountainous figures for those of a regular batsman if it means securing team success. “I would be happy if I averaged 45 and Australia won the Ashes, the Champions Trophy, the World Cup and every other tournament we set our minds to,” he said. “Actually, I’d be happy averaging 35 if we did that.”

Sourav Ganguly: will he play a further part in this series?© Getty Images

The injury-besieged Indian team received another piece of bad news today when Sourav Ganguly was diagnosed with “intra-articular pathology of the right hip joint” casting a doubt over his further participation in the series. Ganguly pulled out of the Nagpur Test on the morning the match complaining of groin pain.A media release issued by the team management said that medical investigations – bone-scan, MRI and diagnostic ultrasound – “revealed intra-articular pathology of the right hip joint noted by increased synovial fluid accumulation,” which translates in layman’s terms to an injury or inflammation of the hip joint leading to an increase in the lubricating fluid around it. And it can cause pain to radiate down to the thigh and even to the knee.”The scan report this morning has revealed that there is bit of an effusion, there is a bit of fluid in the hip joint,” Andrew Leipus, the team physiotherapist, explained when speaking to reporters after the third day’s play. “That is where he is getting those symptoms from. The pain stretches down from the hip joint to the leg. The bone scan did not reveal anything, which was good for us. We got to know about this through the MRI.”The injury means that Ganguly is a doubt for the fourth Test, which starts on November 3 in Mumbai, but Leipus was optimistic that Ganguly would recover in time for that match: “We are going to check it again tomorrow and the inflammation should have settled down, so if the results are positive then he should be fine for Mumbai. We’d like to give [him] a light workload in a couple of days. And he should be running around soon.”

Scorecard

Arundel Castle ground – a picture in green and white© Getty Images

Strange game, this cricket. In the morning session here at Arundel, Sussex’s opening batsman Ian Ward found the very meat of the bat in an assured half-century on a true pitch: it looked as if only a piece of wizardry or a thermonuclear strike would remove him. Then, shortly after lunch, and with no obvious explanation, he became part of a landslide of Sussex wickets, five in 17 balls.Robin Martin-Jenkins and Mushtaq Ahmed then put that collapse in embarrassing perspective, adding 88 for the eighth wicket. But they were revelling in the freedom of a lost cause: Gloucestershire had only 25 to dash off for victory. They breezed it in four overs after tea, thus ensuring a good match at a charming ground was ended before going into the one day when most members of the working population could actually come and watch it. A strange game indeed.Sussex’s collapse was astonishing. There was little to explain the huge swing other than the confidence of the batters: Ward’s surfeit, after averaging more than 80 in his last two games, and the run-less middle-order’s lack. Perhaps that is a disservice to Gloucestershire’s seamers, unspectacular but relentless, who bowled a good line and length and built pressure, restricting the batsmen to just above two an over in the morning, despite Ward’s assured cuts and cover-drives. Mark Alleyne also managed to winkle out two of Ward’s partners with his medium-pace all-sorts before lunch.Afterwards the dam-wall burst: Chris Adams was caught by a tumbling second slip; Ward padded up to a straight one; Tim Ambrose tried to cover up and edged to the keeper; and then two classic Mike Smith deliveries from left-arm over took wickets: first the inswinger had Matt Prior lbw, then the one that holds its line had Alex Gidman caught behind. From 113 for 2, Sussex were 115 for 7 inside 15 minutes. Gloucestershire’s worries about a nasty forecast for tomorrow had evaporated.The same could not be said of the worries of the Sussex accountants, who pay rent to Arundel to stage games here. An early finish deprived them of a valuable day’s gate money, though not of revenue from their corporate guests, who inexplicably disdain Saturdays and prefer to take their entertainment on weekdays.

Two bush clubs famed for producing two of Australia’s greatest cricketers are to go head-to-head next weekend in the final of the Highlands District Cricket Association 2002/03 first grade competition in rural New South Wales.Bowral United, the modern-day equivalent of the town club for which a young Don Bradman initially played his cricket, are to meet Wingello, the village Bill O’Reilly once played for.Bradman, the greatest Test batsman in history, was known during his playing days as the Boy from Bowral, having grown up in the Southern Highlands capital. And before Shane Warne’s rise to fame, many regarded “Tiger” O’Reilly as the best leg-spinner Australia had produced.Saturday and Sunday’s clash at picturesque Bradman Oval – a venue which in recent years has hosted numerous matches involving various international touring sides – will mark the first occasion that their old clubs have met in the Whyte Cup final since the Wingello Tigers reformed in the late 1990s.United was well beaten by Wingello in their semi-final encounter a fortnight ago, after making just 86 batting first – having also lost to the Tigers in the final of the HDCA’s separate one-day competition in December. However, the Bowral side won through to the season finale with a convincing seven-wicket first innings victory over arch rivals Moss Vale at the weekend.

Though India and Sri Lanka played their first Test match only in 1982,cricket relations between the two nations stretch back to fifty yearsbefore that. That was when Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then)visited India to play two unofficial Tests in Lahore and New Delhi.In succeeding years, the ties were maintained with frequent visits byboth countries. The teams also met in the 1979 World Cup where SriLanka scored a notable upset victory over India in the group match. Inmore ways than one then, India had reason to back Sri Lanka for fullTest status, which the island nation achieved in 1981, playing herfirst Test against England at Colombo the following year.Sri Lanka acquitted itself creditably in their drawn first Testagainst India at Chepauk in 1982-83. Over the next three years,however while Australia and New Zealand followed England to play Testmatches in Sri Lanka, India did not. It was felt then that Indiashould make a trip to the island nation to encourage the game thereand so a visit was hastily put together to be made in August -September 1985.Indeed, for some time even after there had been talk of the tourtaking place, it was not clear whether the Indians would make thetrip. The unsettled situation in Sri Lanka made many believe that thetour would be cancelled. Finally the visitors landed in Colombo on theeve of their opening first class game.All this was clearly a mistake from India’s viewpoint. A tour so earlyin the season meant that the Indians could not prepare themselvesadequately. Many in the team had not played for months and therewasn’t even a camp ahead of the tour for the squad since everythingwas arranged in a bit of a hurry. And then of course there was afeeling of complacency amongst the visitors who reckoned that SriLanka, still without a Test victory after 12 matches, would be a cakewalk. Another factor against India was Sunil Gavaskar’s decision tobat lower down in the order. This naturally upset the balance of thebatting for the new opening pair of K Srikkanth and Lalchand Rajputwere far from successful.The net result of all this uncertainty and lack of planning was thatIndia, against all expectations, went down to a shock defeat. Theylost the second Test of the three Test series and that was enough forSri Lanka to wrap up the series as well. No praise can be too high forthe Lankans who had trained assiduously for months and were fiercelydetermined to register their maiden triumph in Test cricket. Thismotivation was as much a factor in the Sri Lankans’ victory as thecomplacency displayed by the Indians.The Indians came to Sri Lanka riding a wave. They had notched up twonotable one-day triumphs in Australia and Sharjah earlier in the year.In the Test arena, they did not have an enviable record since 1982 butthen over the same period, novices Sri Lanka too had lost eight of the12 Tests it had played.Two three day games and a one day international was hardly the kind ofpreparation to find form before the three Tests which were played onthe trot. Indeed, the Indians came close to losing the first Test atthe SSC in Colombo. The visitors were all out for 218 to which SriLanka replied with 347. It took a gallant unbeaten 98 in six and threequarter hours by Dilip Vengsarkar to stretch the Indian second inningsscore to 251. Besides Vengsarkar’s efforts, rain which cut short asession’s play on the final day also saw Sri Lankan victory hopesbeing dented. Ultimately, the home team were set to get 123 runs ineleven overs. Changing their batting order, Sri Lanka showed awillingness to chase the difficult target but were 61 for four aftereight overs when bad light brought about an early finish.The warning signals had by now been posted loud and clear. But theIndians did not heed them and some more loose batting and bowling sawSri Lanka register their historic triumph at the Saravanamuthu stadiumin Colombo a week later. Wicketkeeper Amal Silva, with a stroke filled111, gave the necessary impetus at the top of the order and stylistRoy Dias followed with 95. A Sri Lankan total of 385 was always goingto test the Indians, who under pressure were all out for 244. Eventhis represented a recovery for they lost their first three batsmenwith just three runs on the board. Sri Lanka could now call the shotsand, declaring their second innings at 206 for three, set India avictory target of 348 in 333 minutes and 20 mandatory overs. At 98 forseven, the Indians were hurtling towards a big defeat before a gallant78 by the captain Kapil Dev took the final total to 198, reducing thevictory margin to 149 runs. Silva followed his century with ninevictims – an unprecedented feat for a wicketkeeper in a Test matchwhile Rumesh Ratnayake had a match haul of nine wickets. Scenes ofjubilation followed culminating in nationwide celebrations and apublic holiday the following day.The Indians could at best hope to salvage some pride by winning thefinal Test at Kandy and squaring the series. They did have anexcellent chance but squandered it. After scoring 249, enough for themto take a first innings lead of 51, the visitors, aided by an unbeaten116 by Mohinder Amarnath – the only hundred for the Indians ascompared to five for the Sri Lankans – declared their second inningsat 325 for five. A victory target of 377 in 420 minutes and 20mandatory overs was never really on and indeed the Sri Lankans faceddefeat when they lost three wickets for 34 on the fourth evening.However a 216-run partnership in 285 minutes between Sri Lanka’s twomost accomplished batsmen, captain Duleep Mendis and his deputy RoyDias steered the home team to safety. Both got hundreds and SriLanka’s closing score of 307 for seven was enough to ensure a seriestriumph.As if this was not enough, India’s image as world champions in one daycricket was dented with the three match series ending one all. Indiawon the first, lost the second and the third ended in no result. Onthe whole, it was a traumatic trip, marred also by unconvincingumpiring, about which the Indians stated their misgivings inunambiguous terms.

Mitchell Starc has been rested by Cricket Australia for Friday’s Matador Cup match between New South Wales and Queensland at Drummoyne Oval. Josh Hazlewood has been included in the New South Wales squad, having been unavailable for the start of the tournament as his workload was managed following a busy few months in the Australia team.Starc has dominated the Matador Cup this month and from four matches has 19 wickets at the remarkable average of 6.00, with a wicket coming every 11.1 deliveries. Starc began the tournament with 6 for 25 against the Cricket Australia XI and then claimed 4 for 27 against South Australia, 4 for 23 against Western Australia, and 5 for 39 against Tasmania.After the Ashes, Cricket Australia confirmed that Starc had bone spurs in his ankle that caused inflammation in the joint. He is being rested only for Friday’s match against Queensland and is expected to be available for the remainder of the tournament; New South Wales play Victoria on Sunday and are then likely to be part of the finals.Hazlewood has not played a match since the fourth Test of the Ashes series and was not selected for the Bangladesh Test tour, which was ultimately cancelled due to security concerns. New South Wales are so far unbeaten in the Matador Cup after four games.

Warwickshire’s failure to beat Worcestershire at Edgbaston has put them under stronger pressure in their bid for promotion.They now need to win their last two games to put themselves in contention, while Worcestershire need to win their last game of the season against Northants at New Road to move into the First Division.Poor weather prevented either team making a bid for victory at Edgbaston.Warwickshire moved to maximum batting points when they declared at 407-7 giving them a first innings lead of 144.Pace man Glenn McGrath demonstrated his skill with impressive figures of 6-90 after picking up three cheap wickets for ten runs on the Edgbaston wicket which was never very helpful to bowlers.The result was that Worcestershire were reduced to just surviving for the rest of the game.This was not difficult on a dead wicket and for the first time this season their openers, Philip Weston and Elliott Wilson, produced a second half century stand.Wilson was the more dominant player as Weston was quite happy to play the anchor role.Wilson was the first to be dismissed for 51, which included six fours, following a wild sweep at Neil Smith which enabled Allan Donald to mark his final championship appearance at Edgbaston with a catch at backward square leg.Vikram Solanki took full advantage of some gentle bowling and during his innings recorded 1000 runs in championship games this season.He raced to his 50 in 63 minutes after facing only 57 balls. At the close Worcestershire were 181-1 with the patient Weston 58 and Solanki 57.

Steven Gerrard came off the bench to inspire Liverpool to victory over Newcastle at Anfield to move level on points with Chelsea and keep their top four dream alive.

Gerrard entered the action on the hour with the scores level and secured the points 17 minutes scoring the crucial third after Craig Bellamy’s brace had put the hosts into the lead. A Daniel Agger own goal had given the Magpies a shock lead after 25 minutes only for the Welsh international to score from close range and equalise just before the half hour. Bellamy put home side into the lead on 67 minutes before Gerrard struck 13 minutes from time to move Kenny Dalglish’s side up to fifth as they caught up with Chelsea on points. For Alan Pardew he watched his players slide to seventh in the table following a fifth defeat in eight games.Newcastle hadn’t scored at Anfield since a Patrick Kluivert goal in 2004 and you’d have to go back a decade further for their last win on Merseyside which came in 1994 in the days of Kevin Keegan and Andy Cole.

Demba Ba is the new hero at St James’ Park is chasing his 15th goal of an impressive season following his free transfer from West Ham. The Senegal international hardly had a touch in the first half as Liverpool dominated penning the visitors back with Stewart Downing having a penalty appeal turned down after his header supposedly hit Ryan Taylor’s arm. Charlie Adam tried his luck from 30-yards before Downing forced Tim Krul into a low save with a strike from a similar distance. With both teams cancelling each other out in midfield it was going to take either something special or a massive stroke of luck for a goal to materialise. The latter certainly came into play as Newcastle broke the deadlock against the run of play with Taylor’s cross from the box being flicked on by Yohan Cabaye before hitting Ba and then Agger before nestling in the back of Pepe Reina’s net. The lead lasted barely four minutes with Downing’s in-swinging cross finishing off by Bellamy after a brief moment of pinball in the Magpies penalty area.

It was the home side who started the brighter after the break although the only notable effort on goal saw Downing whistle one wide of Krul’s goal from 25-yards. However they finally got their reward for an enterprising start to the half with Bellamy giving them the lead from a free kick after Cheick Tiote was hardly adjudged to have fouled Agger. The former Magpies striker did brilliantly to bend the ball over the wall although his cause was helped somehow by Danny Simpson blocking Krul’s path as he attempted to keep the ball out. It was back to the walls time for the away side now and the game was almost put to bed by one of their own with former Toon striker rising above Mike Williamson to meet right wing Gerrard’s cross only to see the ball cannon back off the cross bar. Newcastle almost levelled three minutes later after Ba latched onto Cabaye’s elegant through ball but was thwarted by Martin Skrtel who raced back to clear the strikers dink over Reina off the line. Their chances of a comeback were ended seven just minutes later though with Gerrard latching onto Jordan Henderson’s through ball and sliding the ball past Krul to put the Red’s right back into contention for a top four finish.

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	Geoff Boycott will not be working with England’s senior team © Getty Images

Geoff Boycott has not been approached to take up a coaching role with England’s leading batsmen, according to the ECB. Some English newspapers reported on Thursday that Boycott was being lined up for a part-time coaching position and would specifically be working with Andrew Flintoff, who has struggled with the bat for Lancashire.Although the ECB has had “informal conversations” with Boycott a spokesman said the intention was not for him to work with the senior players. He is more likely to be called on to offer batting advice to age-group teams like the England Under-19s.”We use people like Nasser Hussain already to go to the National Performance Centre in Loughborough to talk to the age-group teams and the England Lions,” the ECB spokesman told . “That is what we envisage other former players doing.”The ECB said any mentoring Boycott would undertake would be in an unofficial capacity and no extra coaches had been added to the current set-up under Peter Moores.