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England’s one-day captain, Paul Collingwood, admitted he was surprised by the size of the fine imposed on his team-mate, James Anderson, following a shoulder-barging incident with Runako Morton during the second one-day international at Edgbaston on Wednesday.In a match that England went on to lose by 61 runs, Anderson was fined 50% of his match fee by the ICC referee, Mike Procter, who said in a statement: “Cricket is, after all, a non-contact sport. When players fail to recognise that fact and engage in needless nudges … then that is where we have to draw the line.”Collingwood, however, was taken aback by the severity of Anderson’s punishment. “I probably didn’t expect him to get fined as much he did. As players, we all know the boundaries we can go up to. Generally, a lot of that stuff happens out in the middle and it is cricket but on this occasion it just went over the mark.”That was one incident,” said Collingwood. “We’ve had great relations with the West Indies during the Test series and so far in the one-day series. But I’m not sure [Jimmy] will be doing it again. Whether that’s because he’ll get fined again or because he’s heard about Morton’s past, I’m not too sure. You’ll have to ask him.”Despite Collingwood’s protestations, West Indies’ coach, David Moore, said physical contact had no place in cricket and nor did the practice of dismissed batsmen being given a send-off by members of the fielding side. “Physical contact is not part of cricket. It’s a big enough field where you can get past each other without thumping into each other.””I like to see a contest,” added Moore. “I don’t condone our players mouthing off when people are leaving the field because the contest is over then.”

Darren Lehmann and Daniel Harris led a strong South Australian reply to a commanding Western Australian total at the WACA, as the batsmen continued to dominate. The pair added 133 for the second wicket to give the Redbacks a fair chance of matching WA, who had been boosted by Marcus North’s century and Brett Dorey’s 53.Lehmann scored at nearly a run-a-ball, striking 14 boundaries, but Harris didn’t loose much in comparison, hitting 13 fours during his 139-ball innings. However, Harris couldn’t quite play out the day, falling two overs before the close to North’s off spin. He had earlier played second fiddle in an opening stand of 79 with Shane Deitz, who scored 48 of his 55 in boundaries.WA consolidated their innings during the first half of the day, despite the best efforts of the South Australian attack to chip away. Jason Gillespie, Paul Rofe and Dan Cullen took a wicket apiece, and at 7 for 323 the home team were in danger of not building on their solid work from the opening day.However, North remained firm and reached his second hundred of the season. The total was then given a somewhat unexpected boost as Dorey clubbed a maiden first-class fifty, carrying WA towards their declaration.

Zimbabwe’s self-imposed suspension from Test cricket will continue for the foreseeable future after the ICC said that Peter Chingoka, the board chairman, had reported that it was not yet ready to return.Although the decision is put forward as being Zimbabwe’s, the leaked comments by Malcolm Speed earlier in the week made it clear that there was no chance of them being allowed back.Officially, the timing of when they come back remains with Zimbabwe Cricket.The serious allegations of financial mismanagement – and again these were detailed in Speed’s report – were all but ignored, with a comment that “it was agreed there would be an independent audit of ZC’s accounts by an internationally recognized firm”.Speed was less subtle in his private report. In that, he said: “It is clear that the accounts of ZC have been deliberately falsified to mask various illegal transactions from the auditors and the government of Zimbabwe. The accounts were incorrect and at no stage did ZC draw the attention of the users of these accounts to the unusual transactions. It may not be possible to rely on the authenticity of its balance sheet.”The results of that audit will be presented to the next meeting of the ICC board in October 2007 in Dubai. The short timeline is slightly surprising given that it took the auditors appointed by Zimbabwe Cricket a year to come up with their findings.

The County Ground at Taunton was today unveiled as the new home of women’s cricket in England.This initiative, the first ever of its kind for women’s cricket, gives the sport a permanent base. One of the key reasons behind the scheme is to assist with the fixtures in the women’s game, for both domestic and international matches. The ECB will endeavour to have domestic finals and key matches at Taunton every season with a view to bringing major domestic tournaments, such as the Challenge Cup and Junior Super 4s to Taunton in the future.At least one women’s international match is guaranteed at the ground every year. Crowds at Taunton have been the best away from Lord’s for women’s internationals ever since it first hosted a match in 1997. Promotion of women’s cricket will be an integral part of Somerset’s advertising and promotional campaign for cricket.Regional events, such as training camps and in particular the South Region winter training sessions, will be held at the cricket school on site at the ground. The regional women’s forums, which take place in October, will also now be hosted there.The new ground development which is planned by Somerset will incorporate suitable facilities for female athletes and the players will have access to all the services on a regular basis. Additionally, the South Women’s Regional Cricket Manager (WRCM) will have an office on site as part of the redevelopment.”Once again England is leading the way with new developments for women’s cricket,” explained Gill McConway, ECB executive director for women’s cricket. “We organised the first cricket World Cup for women and the first ever international Twenty20. We also instigated Super 4s, a competition which other nations are really keen to integrate into their domestic game.”For me this is a huge step for the women’s game – to have a first-class county ground wanting women’s cricket to be an integral part of their future is a definite boost. It’s an especially exciting time as there are stunning new development plans for the ground and to be associated with one of England’s most progressive county schemes can only benefit the game.”It will be the first time the women’s game will have continuity in the grounds where they play as Somerset have guaranteed us an international every year.”Charlotte Edwards, England’s captain, was equally excited. “I’m delighted with the choice of venue,” she told the BBC. “Taunton has always been a favourite ground, both personally and for the team: historically we have always done very well there, so hopefully we can continue that tradition!”I’m really excited about the development of the ground and what that also means for women’s cricket. It’s destined to become a great venue with brilliant facilities and it’s exciting that we’ll be a part of that vision and long-term development.”

The Indian board has decided to telecast some domestic cricket matches live from the 2006-07 season. “At least 70 days of domestic cricket will be shown live on television,” Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said. “We will choose the important matches which would be broadcast.”The matches, involving Ranji, Deodhar, Duleep and the Challenger Trophy — comprising 93 first-class games, 83 one-day games and a number of Twenty20 games — would be marketed to provide fillip to domestic cricket.”It will encourage the domestic teams because when the matches will be telecast live on television they will get sponsorships also,” Shah said. Asked which channel would telecast the matches, Shah said the rights were with Nimbus and they would decide about it. “I don’t know because the right are with Nimbus and they will decide about it. We will be able to give a detailed information only after 10-15 days.”There has also been speculation that Nimbus would soon launch a channel of its own and the matches would be shown on it.

Scorecard
Hong Kong were skittled out for 91 by Nepal on the second day of the latest Intercontinental Cup match in Kathmandu. Following the first day wash-out Nepal set about making up for lost time, led by Binod Das who took 6 for 29.Das ripped through the Hong Kong top-order as none of the top six reached double figures and they slumped to 40 for 8, after Nepal had won the toss and put them into bat. There was some late resistance from Nasir Hameed, who made 32 from 94 balls in over two hours of steady accumulation, but he was the last wicket to fall with Hong Kong still short of the hundred mark.However, before Nepal could begin their reply the rain returned and is set to be the deciding factor in this match.