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Cricket Scotland has won three of the nine European regional awards in the ICC Development Programme Awards for 2004.The high profile multi-media campaign “It’s Going to be a Big Hit” – mounted by Lloyds TSB Scotland and created by Edinburgh agencies Elaine Howie PR and Family – won the award for the best cricket promotional campaign. The campaign, which was launched with a special-build 48-sheet poster featuring a cricket ball bursting through it, is credited with having significantly raised the profile of the game north of the border.The award for the best overall cricket development programme went to the Stanley Morrison Trust ‘Adopt a Primary School Scheme’, which has been running in Scotland for the past 15 years, and has introduced the game to over 75,000 youngsters all over the country.The inaugural Lloyds TSB Scotland Women’s International Cricket Festival, held in Scotland last summer – involving teams from Holland, Warwickshire and Durham – won the award for the best women’s cricket initiative.Roddy Smith, chief executive of Cricket Scotland, said: “Last year was a memorable one for the national team, which won the ICC Intercontinental Cup, and these awards make it even more so. The work undertaken by our sponsors, particularly Lloyds TSB Scotland, to enhance their relationship with Scottish cricket has taken our profile to a new level.”

England A will tour West Indies next February, playing two unofficial Tests and five one-day matches during their month-long trip.Making the announcement, Zorol Barthley, the COO of the West Indies cricket Board, said that this was the first of three A-team tours planned in 2006. In May, Sri Lanka A will visit the Caribbean, and in July West Indies A will travel to England. “These tours will be of tremendous benefit to our young players,” he said. “They will give promising West Indies players more international exposure and encourage them to push for places in the senior team.”The West Indies A team will be named after the upcoming Carib Beer tournament, which is scheduled for next month. The England A team is expected to be announced following the conclusion of England’s tour to Pakistan, at the same time the squads for the England tour to India are announced.England A in West Indies tour itinerary

ScorecardBeginning the day at 114 for 2, North Zone were placed well to overhaul West Zone’s total of 201, but a steady stream of falling wickets – triggered by Zaheer Khan and capitalised on by Ramesh Powar and Rajesh Pawar – saw them fall short by only five runs at Lucknow. However, the bowlers then reduced West to 146 for 5; with two days to go, bonus points will not matter much because a drawn game is highly unlikely.Zaheer dismissed Aakash Chopra with his fourth ball of the morning, having him caught behind by Parthiv Patel. A 36-run partnership between Ravneet Ricky and Yuvraj Singh followed, but once Yuvraj stepped out to Powar, and was stumped, wickets tumbled.Then Dinesh Mongia struck back for North, removing Satyajit Parab cheaply. Then Wasim Jaffer and Dheeraj Jadhav put on 56 before Gagandeep Singh dismissed Jaffer for 47. West made their way to 146 for 5 by the day’s end.
ScorecardCentral Zone fell short of East Zone’s total of 194 by only five runs at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior. However, by bowling East out for 131, they put themselves in a position to end the match in their favour tomorrow. By stumps, Central were 7 for 1, and required 130 for victory. Naman Ojha top-scored in their first innings with 40 – a score surpassed by Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s unbeaten 53 for East – and was involved in valuable stands with Jai P Yadav and Murali Kartik, who scored 29 each. But Shib Sankar Paul struck repeatedly to hamper Central’s progress, and ended with 6 for 50.East then began in a blaze, with Mahendra Dhoni smashing 15 off 10, but blacked out immediately. After the openers, everyone, barring Shukla, scored in single digits. Yadav claimed his second five-wicket haul (5 for 34) to end with 10 for 64 and removed the heart of the batting in the process. Central then lost a wicket in the third over, but Mohammad Kaif and Sanjay Bangar negotiated the rest of the day, until bad light stopped play.

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Robert Key’s second hundred of the match guided Kent to an easy nine-wicket win over the New Zealanders at Canterbury, and handed England’s selectors a reminder than he remains a genuine contender for a place in the Test side.Key accelerated after a cautious start, racing from fifty to his hundred in only 43 balls, bring up his 126-ball hundred with a cracking pull for four to midwicket off part-time spinner Mark Richardson.Kent could have swept to a ten-wicket win, but they lost David Fulton within sight of the finishing line when, shortly after lunch, he tried to hit Richardson over the top and was well stumped by Brendon McCullum for 67 (174 for 1).None of New Zealand’s main bowlers looked at all threatening, although they approached the match more as a limb-loosener than any fully-fledged workout.”I sensed that they had one eye on next week during our run-chase,” explained John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach. “It must be tough when your big game is around the corner to lift yourself in a county game.”Shane Bond wasn’t brought into the firing line at all in Kent’s second innings, and shortly after the game Bracewell confirmed that he would not be fit to play at Lord’s.Bracewell was keen not to attach too much importance to the defeat at Canterbury. “We haven’t had a lot of practice outdoors so while we came into the match trying to win it, we have been beaten by a side which put it together on the day. We came to win in Test cricket and no-one is going to remember if we win the Test series that we lost to Kent.”

The annual one-day international tri-series in Australia, traditionally following the summer’s Test series, is set to get a new sponsor.The Commonwealth Bank is expected to take over from Foster’s Australia, which sponsored the series for five seasons through its brand VB, for this summer’s series, also featuring England and New Zealand. In the past, Benson & Hedges and Carlton & United have also been successful sponsors.According to a report in , Commonwealth Bank – one of the largest financial institutions in Australia – is likely to sign a deal with Cricket Australia (CA) worth upto Aus$7 million a year. The bank has been one of the long-time sponsors of Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and junior men’s and women’s national teams. The report added that Mastercard will also be a minor sponsor of the tri-series.The domestic one-day tournament is also set to get a new sponsor starting this season, with ING, the main sponsor for 14 years, reportedly pulling out. Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s public affairs manager, confirmed that the deals would be finalised sometime in October. Foster’s Australia will remain a major financial partner with Cricket Australia.

South Australia 129 (Flower 44,Nicholson 5-36) and 3 for 339 (Lehmann 149*, Manou 130) trail New South Wales 9 for 350 decl. and 4 for 299 dec. (Mail 152*, Phelps 62) by 182 runs
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Darren Lehmann returned to his cavalier best at the expense of Stuart MacGill as South Australia launched an audacious bid for a history-defying outright win over New South Wales in the Pura Cup match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.Lehmann, anxiously awaiting the naming of the squad to tour Sri Lanka tomorrow, belted 28 runs from eight MacGill deliveries – and kept dishing out the punishment thereafter – to help himself to a timely 149 not out.Set a seemingly impossible 521 runs for victory after New South Wales declared their second innings on 4 for 299 – and falling to 1 for 7 almost immediately – South Australia somehow conjured up a serious challenge to be 3 for 339 at stumps – just 182 runs shy of snatching an incredible result. No Australian domestic side has ever chased so many runs and won a Sheffield Shield or Pura Cup match, the existing record being South Australia’s 6 for 506 to beat Queensland in 1991-92.Lehmann’s 210-run partnership from 223 balls with Graham Manou (130), including 174 runs in a frantic middle session, turned the game on its head and ruined MacGill’s figures, leaving him with an unflattering 0 for 118 from 18 overs. It got worse for him, when Shane Warne, his rival for a Test spot, took 4 for 51 in Victoria’s outright defeat of Tasmania.MacGill dismissed Lehmann twice in three balls earlier in the week with long hops, but had no such luck today as Lehmann and Manou caned him all over the park. Lehmann hit MacGill for two sixes and four fours in eight balls to virtually seal his selection for Sri Lanka. MacGill and Warne too should be in the squad, setting up an intriguing battle to make the Test XI.New South Wales paid dearly for MacGill dropping Manou on 4, and Mark Waugh spilling a chance from Lehmann on 90. Andy Flower (21 not out) was also given a life just before stumps.Earlier, Greg Mail finished 152 not out – following up his 128 in the first innings – to become only the third NSW player to score a hundred and a 150 in the same Shield or Pura Cup game. Monty Noble did it in 1907/08, and Mark Taylor in 1988-89.Matthew Nicholson also continued to impress, picking up a quick wicket in the SA second innings, having Ben Cameron caught by Mark Waugh at second slip. An outright win for NSW appeared at that stage to be a fait accompli. But by stumps, the tables were turned.

Day 1 Close England Women 189 for 3 (Claire Taylor 78*) lead South Africa Women 130 (Pearson 4-25) by 69 runs
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South Africa’s women performed a vanishing act that their Indian counterparts would have been proud of, as England took control on the opening day of the second and final Test at Taunton. South Africa were bowled out inside two sessions for 130, and by the close England built a lead of 69 with seven wickets in hand.South Africa won the toss and took first use of a good batting track, but never got going, losing four wickets before lunch as England’s seamers took control. It was after the break that the collapse really took hold, four wickets tumbling for two runs in 28 balls. Lucy Pearson plugged away in an immaculate 16-over spell, finishing with the fine figures of 4 for 25, and Helen Wardlaw’s offspinners wrapped up the tail, as South Africa were bowled out for 130.England lost the wickets of Charlotte Edwards, Laura Newton and Clare Connor before wiping out the deficit, but all three dismissals owed more to mistakes than penetrative bowling. The in-form Claire Taylor reached 78 not out at the close, 22 runs shy of becoming only the third Englishwoman to score back-to-back Test hundreds. With Lydia Greenway, she compiled an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 82. South Africa face another hard day in the field tomorrow.

Queensland Cricket has made a change to the main public entrance to the Gabba for the 2003-04 domestic cricket season.The new main public entry will now be Gate 2 on Stanley Street and will replace Gate 4 on Vulture Street.The members’ entry at Gate 5 on Vulture Street will remain unchanged.The change will apply to tomorrow’s opening ING Cup match between Queensland and Tasmania at the Gabba.Queensland Cricket Chief Executive Officer Graham Dixon said research had shown that an increasing number of patrons used public transport to attend matches and the proximity of Gate 2 to the Woolloongabba Bus Station was one of the reasons for the change."Gate 2 is also better suited for queuing than Gate 4 and there are more meeting spots with the Woolloongabba Place park close by," he said."After consulting with the ground authorities, we felt the benefits for patrons were significant enough to make the change," he said.The switch to Gate 2 will not affect the International matches at the Gabba this season, with all gates opening as usual for the First Test against India from December 4-8 and the One Day Internationals on January 18 and 20.Gate 2 will be the main entry point for ING Cup and Pura Cup games at the ground.There will be increased security for matches at the Gabba this season with bag checks being conducted inside the ground when patrons enter.Police will also be issuing on-the-spot fines of $225 for anyone caught bringing alcohol into the ground as part of an on-going enforcement of licensing laws.Tomorrow’s ING Cup match starts at 10am with Gate 2 opening at 9am.

With just over a month-and-a-half left before the Indian team’s tour to Pakistan, the itinerary for the series still hasn’t been finalised, with both boards unable to reach an agreement over whether to start off with the Tests or the one-day internationals. A Press Trust of India report quoted a source in the Pakistan board as saying: “Since both the cricket boards have not been able to reach an understanding, the tour itinerary has not been announced as yet, nor has the Pakistan Cricket Board started making preparations for the important series.”The Indian board is apparently keen to begin with the five one-day internationals before moving on to the three Tests, but the PCB has insisted on starting with the Tests.Explaining the logic of playing the Tests first, the PCB source said: "The argument is that by having the Tests first they will attract crowds to the stadiums. But if they have the traditionally crowd-pulling ODIs first it will take the gloss off the Test series.” The BCCI, however, believes that since both teams would be going into that series after playing ODIs – the Indians are playing the VB Series in Australia while Pakistan are playing a five-match one-day series in New Zealand – it would make sense to begin with the one-dayers.The delay in finalising the itinerary means that the PCB has been left with very little time to make arrangements for a series which is expected to be a huge moneyspinner for the board. To add to the problems, the PCB has decided to organise the matches directly at all venues instead of delegating the responsibilities to the provincial or regional cricket associations.

Hampshire Hawks retain the same 12 that lost at Beckenham on Monday evening when they meet the Essex Eagles at The Rose Bowl on Wednesday (5.30pm).”We are in a very strong group” said Paul Terry, “we need to win these next three matches to reach the Semi Final, so tonights game is vital”.Hawks team: James Hamblin, Derek Kenway, Simon Katich, Dimitri Mascarenhas, John Crawley, Will Kendall, Wasim Akram, Shaun Udal, Nic Pothas, Alan Mullally, Ed Giddins, Lawrence Prittipaul