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Steve Massiah, the USA captain, is confident his side can get back to the top of the Associates after spending most of the past three years in the wilderness. And that road to redemption begins with the World Cricket League Division 5 which gets underway in Jersey on May 23.Massiah, 28, captains the USA in Group A of the tournament, where they will face the hotchpotch collection of Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway and Vanuatu. Meanwhile Group B features Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Japan, Jersey and Singapore.”I believe we have a very, very good chance of going all the way and getting back to the top,” Massiah said. “But we are not taking any of the other teams lightly. We’re going to go there and take it very seriously, play positive cricket and hopefully get through to the next level.”At the time we were excluded from international cricket (in 2005 and again in 2007) we were playing with the top Associates and now we are down near the bottom. But as I told the guys, I think it could be a blessing in disguise as it gives us a chance to generate a bit of team spirit and will hopefully allow us to assess the players and figure out what our best combinations are.”In April, the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) was re-recognised as an Associate Member of the ICC. USACA had been suspended for a second time by the ICC in March 2007 after failing to meet a number of conditions, including constructing a new constitution, and to hold elections for a board of directors. All these goals have now been achieved following a process overseen by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and, following a report presented to the ICC, the suspension was lifted. Now, however, they face their first major test on the field and Massiah is chomping at the bit to get back into it.”I am happy with the preparations so far. It has been easier for the guys in the warmer parts of the country,” he said. “We had a really productive training camp down in Florida and I think we have put together a well-balanced side with some experienced players and some exciting young talent. I really don’t know anything about the other teams in the tournament but I am looking forward to getting over there and back into international cricket. It has been a long wait and everybody is really excited waiting for the first game.”The tournament will match some unlikely pairings, however, with Massiah’s men set to face teams from as diverse places as the heartland of central Europe to the foothills of the Himalayas and the remote Pacific islands. Germany, coached by Keith Thompson, have their first opportunity to pit their skills against opposition from outside Europe since the ICC Trophy in 2001.The team secured its spot after being ranked third in the European Championships Division 2 event last year. Mozambique qualified for this event at the ICC World Cricket League Africa Region Division 2 tournament and will be captained by the middle-order batsman Muhammed Shoaib Younus.Nepal are an up-and-coming side in world cricket and, having done well in the past two Under-19 World Cups the future looks bright. Of the side that got to the Plate Championship final in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, Paras Khadka, Gyanendra Malla, Mahesh Chhetri and Amrit Bhattarai have all graduated to the senior squad for the WCL Div. 5.The 12-team event will be staged across six venues and will take the format of two groups of six with the top two from each section progressing to the knock-out stage. The finalists from this tournament will be promoted to the World Cricket League Division 4, joining Hong Kong, Fiji, Tanzania and Italy in a six-team event that will take place in Dar es Salaam from October 4.From there, the top two teams from that tournament will progress to the third division of the World Cricket League in Argentina next January, followed by the World Cup Qualifier next year. And, finally, at the end of that tournament, the top four Associate or Affiliate teams will be booking their places at the 2011 World Cup.Group A
Germany
Mozambique
Nepal
Norway
USA
VanuatuGroup B
Afghanistan
Bahamas
Botswana
Japan
Jersey
Singapore

Otago joined the list of financial achievers over the past season by recording a small surplus of $3400, which represented a vast improvement and a turnaround of $186,948 within 12 months.That co-incided with a $186,395 increase in New Zealand Cricket (NZC) grants, and distributions, of $862,049, up from the previous year’s $675,654.Chief executive Graeme Elliott noted total expenses had been reduced from the previous year while income had increased by $170,000. The association had also benefited from a capital advance of $300,000 in funds from NZC.Otago have also made some strategic moves to capitalise on their turnaround.Steve Davie has been appointed as fundraiser and event manager which opened new areas from which to obtain regular annual income.”The real benefit from this appointment will be seen in the next financial accounts,” Elliott said.The staging of a One-Day International at Queenstown in the New Year also offered significant funding opportunities while the redevelopment of the University Oval would assist in reducing costs for the hosting of home matches in Dunedin while also providing membership opportunities for Otago Cricket.Elliott said the new strategic plan will be presented to the annual meeting on Thursday.”I am confident that we are moving in the right direction as we assemble the staff and resources to ensure that we are able to play a full part as a Major Cricket Association and develop the game in our region,” he said.A significant part of that is the appointment of Glenn Turner as the first full-time State Otago Volts coach.”With the appointment of Glenn for a two-year period, he has had the opportunity to plan for the coming season. A fit Shayne O’Connor and an enthusiastic Jeff Wilson will add real depth and experience to our team this season,” he said.Otago’s age-group teams continue to perform well and a huge investment was being made.”We have the structures in place to provide for the orderly development of players. Our High Performance Centre offers our teams and coaches excellent facilities for our winter programmes and we now have top class grass practice pitches constructed for the Under-19 World Cup. These will be of real value to all our teams as they prepare for tournaments,” he said.Elliott said coaching director Mike Hesson’s contribution had been outstanding.And on the playing side selection convener and Otago coach Turner said: “There was a strong emphasis on the three R’s this season, respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for all your actions.”In general a stronger approach to higher ethical standards. Otago Cricket made a concerted effort to follow and action ‘The Spirit of Cricket’ as outlined in the laws of cricket. If there had been a fair play award, the State Otago Volts would have won it this year.”Curiously, values have altered to the point whereby such an award is seen as a loser’s award. Unfortunately, this summer the Otago Volts added fuel to this myth in the four-day Championship.”It will be very interesting to follow the Volts fortunes in the 2002/03 season. Will last season’s approach of encouraging players to look deeper into their own game, taking responsibility for their own actions and being asked to come up with some of their own answers, be performance-enhancing in the long term?”

Man of the Match Keith Parsons was once more the hero for Somerset as they beat Worcestershire on Wednesday to progress to a lucrative home tie with Kent in the semi finals of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.In front of a crowd well in excess of 5500, Taunton born Parsons scored 121, his highest in one day cricket, took two wickets, held onto two catches and threw down the stumps to secure a run out.Already deprived of the services of Andrew Caddick and Richard Johnson, there was further injury misery for the Cidermen when Marcus Trescothick left the field in the 13th over of the morning with a broken left thumb, after fielding a fierce drive from Graeme Hick.The England man joins a long Somerset injury list and will be missing from the cricket scene for at least six weeks.At the start of the day Worcestershire had been put into bat, and after getting off to a flying start had been dismissed for 271.With the score on 118 for I after 18 overs and Graeme Hick scoring quickly 350 seemed to be possible. However Parsons had other ideas and in his third over he tempted the former England man to play inside a ball that went on to knock over his off stump.Hick and Vickram Solanki(53) had added 81 for the second wicket in 12 overs, but from that point on Worcestershire were reined back by some tight bowling and some excellent fielding.Despite an unbeaten 85 from number four batsman Ben Smith, with the exception of Steven Rhodes(15) the rest of the Worcestershire batsmen failed to make double figures and they were dismissed for 271 in 49 overs.The pick of the Somerset bowlers were Steffan Jones who ended with 3 for 47, Parsons who took 2 for 37 and Mike Burns 2 for 53.In reply Somerset had slipped to 36 for 2 before Parsons walked to the wicket. Sharing in fifty plus stands with Burns (24) Blackwell(30) and then the match winning fifth wicket partnership of 106 with Rob Turner (47) Parsons took the Cidermen to within sight of the victory that had seemed highly unlikely earlier in the day.In the end it was left to Keith Dutch to hit the winning runs to see Somerset home by 4 wickets with 15 balls to spare.After the match Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This was the greatest performance that I’ve seen from the boys since I took over as coach. Everything seemed to have gone against us, but we still ended up winning."

Have New Zealand flattered to deceive with their first-up victory over Sri Lanka at Sharjah?By taking their victory by 11 runs, this despite losing five wickets for nine runs to the one-man Sri Lankan demolition squad that is Muttiah Muralitharan, the New Zealanders have extended their run of successes at Sharjah over the Sri Lankans to 6-1, with one tied.This suggests a degree of dominance over the highly-ranked Sri Lankans, but in effect most of the results were achieved a good time ago.The real scorecard at all venues in their most recent contests has Sri Lanka leading New Zealand 8-3.And that is what makes last night’s success all the more important for New Zealand.The side is now in World Cup countdown mode and every step along the way is another step toward ensuring strategies are in place to counter whatever situations arrive during the World Cup.Clearly the Muralitharan factor needs some tweaking. In 23 ODIs against New Zealand, he has taken 39 of his 275 ODI wickets at an economy rate of 3.64.But on last night’s performance his economy rate was down to 0.9!With one more game, and hopefully two, against Sri Lanka in the tournament, there is a need to go some way down the road towards uncovering the mischievousness of his bowling. For a team that managed to unmask Shane Warne during the last summer, there is surely some method whereby Muralitharan’s effect can be negated.New Zealand are not alone in their inability to get on top of him, but having the confidence to cope with him goes a long way towards ensuring he doesn’t hold the whip hand in the World Cup final, and that is how every opponent must be viewed now.Considering that New Zealand went into the match under-strength, without Chris Cairns, and latterly without Andre Adams, the effort to win the game had to be admired. Adams was hit in the jaw in pre-match training and is not expected to be able to play tomorrow night’s game against Pakistan either.This is a good Sri Lankan unit which has had the wood over New Zealand in recent years so the ability to fight back is encouraging. No one bowler dominated the Sri Lankan innings which suggested some outstanding teamwork to achieve the win.From New Zealand’s point of view, there had to be huge encouragement from Jacob Oram’s return to international matchplay. Batting at No 8, his 46 off 33 balls again proved crucial in ensuring Sri Lanka would have a sizeable total to chase. And with the ball he took one for 31 from 7.1 overs.This is significant for New Zealand. Oram’s all-round abilities, including his fielding, coupled with Adams’ qualities, blended in with what Cairns has to offer, along with Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan, gives New Zealand some outstanding options. To have all these players firing is exciting, and would make the side very competitive in any World Cup scenario.It was interesting that Chris Nevin was the victim of the law which does not allow a television umpire to intercede if a player has clearly not hit the ball. When a catch was claimed off Nevin the enquiry from the umpire on the ground only asked if the ‘catch’ had been held. The replay showed his bat was well away from the ball, but the third umpire could only comment on the query.With that in mind it is not surprising that Mathew Sinclair stood his ground in the face of umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan’s decision he had been caught. Sinclair claimed the ball was off his arm, and Venkat discussed the matter with Sanath Jayasuriya and changed his decision.New Zealand has started to up its consistency rate in ODIs, and in the calendar year 2002, it has won eight of 16 ODIs which is a success ratio of 50% – not insignificant considering Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka must all be genuine contenders for the World Cup. When compared to New Zealand’s all-time success rate of only 43%, that is a start.Lifting both statistics even higher by year’s end will be a significant factor for confidence when embarking for South Africa next January.

HOBART, Nov 17 AAP – Robert Key saved England from embarrassing defeat today, but his unbeaten 174 is unlikely to win him a Test place.Key has little chance of playing in the second Test which starts in Adelaide on Thursday unless his partner in frustrating Australia A, John Crawley, is unfit.Key and Crawley, who retired hurt at tea on 55 after being cracked on the right hip, restored English batting pride by battling through two sessions and ensuring the tourists go to Adelaide without further damage to their morale.England finished the drawn three-day match at 5-310 in its second innings after being forced to follow on. Australia A made 3-353 declared and dismissed England for 183.Key, a 23-year-old Kent batsman, only came on tour when Graham Thorpe pulled out. He played two Tests against India last northern summer in his usual opening position as a replacement for the injured Marcus Trescothick.In his only other first class match on tour, he made 33 and 59 not out against Western Australia.Key, who has learnt about Australian conditions through time at the Cricket Academy in Adelaide and training sessions in Perth, was easily the most impressive English batsman against Australia A as he compiled his highest first class score.But with captain Nasser Hussain to come back and Crawley — provided he recovers from heavy bruising — in sound form, there’s no place for him in Adelaide.The English management said Crawley, who was hit by Brad Williams trying to pull, was receiving treatment and was expected to be fit for the Test.In any event, England’s greater problem is the bowlers, who were humiliated in Hobart.Australia A captain Jimmy Maher emphasised this.Maher said England could take satisfaction from the way they fought back today to save a match he’d expected to win last night.But their bowling on the first day in helpful conditions lacked penetration and consistency.Key was philosophical about his Test situation.”You never know how a chance to play might come up and all I can do is go on scoring runs,” he said.Key said England had not been playing as well as they would have liked and it was important for some big scores to be posted.”It wasn’t a Test, but it was important to get your pride up,” he said.Key and Crawley resumed this morning with England a precarious 3-96.But apart from a fine opening spell by Ashley Noffke, the batsmen were rarely troubled on a flat, though occasionally low, Bellerive Oval wicket.Key gave difficult chances at 87 and 155 — both to Matthew Elliott, who had an unhappy game. He retired hurt from the first ball of the match and in all dropped four catches.While Key looked occasionally vulnerable, he also produced handsome drives and cuts, Crawley was a limpet, absolutely immovable, but also for long periods immobile.His 55 took 276 minutes and included only three fours.Key, on the other hand, made his 174 in 415 minutes and hit 18 boundaries.The Australia A bowlers, who’d been in action continuously since late on the first day, were unable to maintain the immaculate line and length that undid the English batsmen in the first innings.Off spinner Nathan Hauritz bowled for long periods and while he was economical, he had little variation and didn’t look threatening.The Australians didn’t get a wicket until after tea when it no longer mattered.

Zee Network are set to get the Indian television rights for the next four years. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, announced in Chennai that the BCCI intended to award the contract to Zee subject to certain conditions. If Zee Network met the conditions laid out by the marketing committee of the board, ESPN-Star Sports, would lose out.”The president [Dalmiya] has announced that the BCCI intend to award the contract to Zee subject to them fulfilling certain criteria,” Professor Ratnakar Shetty, Joint Secretary of the board, told Wisden Cricinfo from Chennai. “They have to pay the board US$20million by Wednesay, September 8 and also furnish a bank gurantee for a further US$75million by September 15. The president has said the BCCI intended to award the rights to Zee Network if they can fulfil these, and certain other criteria.”The marketing committee of the BCCI was in negotiations with senior officials of both television companies in Chennai, and in the end decided to go with Zee, who had bid US$260million for the rights. Zee had also pledged a further US$20million towards coverage of domestic matches. ESPN-Star Sports, the other contender, had bid US$230million.It is also learnt that Zee, who upped their bid to US$308million in the last round of negotiations, are set to launch their own sports channel on October 2. Rediff quoted a Zee official who said: “We will invest Rs100 to 150 crores [US$22million approx] for the sports channel to be launched on October 2 and the cricket matches will be shown on it.” The uplinking will be done from Delhi and the official also added that the launch will coincide with the 12th anniversary of the group.One of the points of contention was that Zee Networks did not havein-house production facilities. Industry sources indicate that TENSports, who are an existing player in the cricket broadcastingbusiness, are frontrunners to produce the live cricket programming forZee Networks.When the tender opened for bids in the middle of August, Zee emerged as a surprise front-runner in the tussle to win telecast rights. Zee tabled a bid worth approximately US$262million, about $14million more than the ESPN-Star Sports offer. Prasar Bharati, the national broadcaster, were willing to cough up $153million. Sony Entertainment Television ($148million) and the Dubai-based Ten Sports ($141million) were the rank outsiders.

The England and India cricket teams will join together tomorrow (Saturday) in observing a minute’s silence in honour of the tragic deaths of the 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.The minute’s silence will take place at 1.38pm at Headingley, just prior tothe beginning of the afternoon’s play in the third Test match.John Read, Director of Corporate Affairs at the ECB, said: “The whole country has been shocked by the horrific events that have unfolded in the village of Soham over the past three weeks. In our own very small way, this minute’s silence is cricket’s way of showing profound sympathy for the parents of Holly and Jessica. We cannot fully appreciate the depths of despair and sheer sorrow that they are feeling, but we can show that we care.”

The former president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, is believed to have been arrested in a campaign by the government that has been strongly criticised by Amnesty International.Chowdhury and others are reportedly held under the government’s “Operation Clean Heart” initiative, which is billed as a crackdown on crime by the army and police. But Amnesty is urging an immediate investigation into allegations of deaths in custody and torture.”The government must bring to justice any army or police personnel involved in the torture of detainees, and clarify the legal status of the army’s involvement in arrests of civilians,” said Amnesty.Chowdhury is political secretary to the leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina,and is thought to have been arrested earlier this week. Amnesty claims over 2000 people have been arrested and at least five people have died in custody in the operation.Amnesty believes that Chowdhury, along with Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, a member of parliament and former health minister, are possible prisoners of conscience. No details have been made public about the possible charges against them, and Amnesty fears they may be detained solely for their peaceful opposition to the government.”It is every government’s duty to ensure law and order for the benefit of all citizens, but this cannot be imposed at the expense of the basic rights of the people”, Amnesty International said.As president of the Cricket Board, Chowdhury was a key figure behind Bangladesh’s elevation to Test status two years ago.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has announced that Gareth Breese, as well as Ryan Hinds and Chris Gayle will join the West Indies ‘A’ Team tour party for their visit to Britain and Canada.Breese, whose 44 wickets for champions Jamaica was the second highest in this year’s Busta Cricket Series, will leave for Britain on Monday after the fifth and final 2002 Cable & Wireless Trophy limited-overs international against New Zealand at Kingstown’s Arnos Vale Playing Field.Gayle, a left-handed opening batsman, has earned a secure place in the senior West Indies side. He has played in all of West Indies’ senior international matches since the start of the South Africa series lastyear.Hinds, a left-arm spin bowling all-rounder, made his first appearance in international cricket during the ill-starred series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. He has played two Tests and 10 limited-overs internationals.Gayle and Hinds will head to Britain after the second and final 2002 Cable & Wireless Test against New Zealand at St. George’s Queen’s Park, and will bring the squad led by Daren Ganga to 16.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 113 took India to their highest score in the NatWest Series so far. It was his 33rd one-day century which helped India to a 63-run win over Sri Lanka at Bristol. He reckons that the fact India had already qualified for the final helped him to relax and play as he did.”Since we have qualified for the final I just wanted to go out there and enjoy myself,” he said. “It was a fantastic batting wicket too.”Meanwhile, the Sri Lankans will be pleased their tour is at an end after a run of disappointing results. Their captain Sanath Jayasuriya admitted things have not always gone as he would have liked over the past three months. He would certainly liked to have had his main bowler, off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, available throughout.”If Murali had been there this would have been a different game,” he said. “In this one-day series we would have won one or two games more at least.”Looking back on tonight’s defeat, Jayasuriya felt Sri Lanka could have done muchbetter after Kumar Sangakkara had given them a good start with his rapid innings of 66. But the turning point proved to be the departure of Mahela Jayawardene.”We started very well, and Sangakkara played very well. But to win chasing 300 you need someone to go on to a hundred,” Jayasuriya said. “A few got started, but nobody went on very far past 50. You cannot afford to do that if you are going to have a chance of a successful chase when the opposition has got such a big total.”