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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?”

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.

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."

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.”

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.

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.

Glamorgan County Cricket Club confirmed today that the One-Day International between Australia and Pakistan in Cardiff on Saturday 9 June has now sold out.Chief Executive Mike Fatkin said: “We’re naturally delighted to have sold all of the tickets for the game next month.”This is, apart from the World Cup game we hosted in 1999, our first experience of formal international cricket and the response from the public has been tremendous.”Things are taking shape on the ground already and we’re all looking forward to the game itself.”

Western Province had the worst of the opening day of the UCB Bowl 4-day final at Newlands.They were dismissed for a paltry 165 after being sent in to bat on a pitch with a distinct green tinge, and by close of play Northerns had closed to within 86 of this total with nine wickets in hand.Even this total represented a recovery of sorts for the home batsmen, who had been reeling on 8 for 3 within the first half-hour of play. Friedel de Wet dismissed recent senior players Rashaad Magiet and Jonathan McLean for ducks, while JP Duminy threw his wicket away with the silliest of run out’s, a bemused Finlay Brooker hardly breaking into a trot as he sauntered in from mid off to whip off the bails.Ryan Maron played a gritty innings of 34 before being bowled, and Wesley Euley picked off 8 fours in his innings of 51, the only half century of the day. Mark de Stadler batted aggressively for his unbeaten 26, mustering enough support from the tail to take the total to an almost respectable score. Friedel de Wet was the best of the bowlers, taking 4 for 35.Coming in to bat after a delayed tea interval, Aldin Smith and Maurice Aronstam made slow but steady progress, putting on 58 for the opening wicket in 20 overs before Smith perished cutting at Paul Harris. Aronstam and Allahudien Paleker played safely until close of play, which came when the umpires took the players off for bad light with just over four overs to be bowled . All of the home bowlers, except Ryan ten Doeschate, were economical, going for less than two runs per over. Harris was particularly impressive with figures of 10-6-9-1. The score at stumps was 79 for 1, with Aronstam on 41.

The NSWIS (New South Wales Institute of Sport) Blues have defeated the Queensland Fire by 33 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three final series of the 2000-01 Women’s National Cricket League at Bankstown Oval, Sydney, today.A powerful 80 by former Australian batsman Michelle Goszko, playing on her home ground in grade competition, carried the Blues to an impressive fifty-over total of 5/234 after NSW captain Belinda Clark won the toss and elected to bat.Goszko shared a third-wicket partnership of 116 with Lisa Sthalekar (43) to lift the Blues’ scoring rate in excess of 4.5 per over.Pace bowlers Tricia Brown (2/57) and Kelly Klibbe (2/58) had the most success for the Fire, while Cindy Kross bowled her ten overs unchanged for the figures of 0/16. But the NSW bats always looked comfortably on target for a 200-plus score.Vanessa Pickering (35) and Melissa Bulow (37) made an impressive start to Queensland’s pursuit of 235 in the early overs, however the introduction of slow bowlers Hayes and Sthalekar to the NSW attack but the brakes on the scoring.When both openers were removed, Queensland were 2/80 in the 30th over and well behind the required run-rate. Sally Cooper (78 not out from 60 balls) played a superb knock, hitting two big sixes, but had little support. The last five wickets fell for 12 runs with the chase beyond Queensland’s reach, the Fire all out for 201 in 48.3 overs.Left-arm pace bowler Emma Liddell (4/33) was the most successful of the NSW bowlers, while Lisa Sthalekar bowled ten overs of tidy off-spin to concede 0/20. Bronwyn Calver claimed 3/48, but suffered an injury to her left thumb late in the game when taking a return catch to dismiss Cindy Kross.New South Wales have won the Women’s National League in each of the last four seasons and will be looking to another win over Queensland tomorrow in the second final to make it five in a row. Queensland, the only side to beat the Blues in the round-robin series this season, need a victory tomorrow to take the finals series into a third day on Sunday.

Australian left-handers Mike Hussey and Jeff Cook laid the foundations for a solid Northamptonshire score against the reigning champions Surrey at Wantage Road.Coming together following the demise of Mal Loye with only eight on the board, Hussey (75) and Cook (80) added 172 in 40 overs as the home side reached 320-4 at the close, fully justifying acting-captain Tony Penberthy’s decision to bat first.Their stand set a new county record against Surrey, eclipsing the 154 posted by Cook’s namesake, former skipper Geoff, and David Steele at The Oval in 1977.Northants might still have struggled after collapsing in mid-afternoon from 180-1 to 186-4 in the space of five overs, but another substantial partnership was forthcoming from Penberthy (62 not out) and Alec Swann (64 not out).They batted right through the final session of the day, putting on 134 to make certain of three batting bonus points – with power to add.Surrey had made the ideal start when Loye edged Alex Tudor to Graham Thorpe at third slip in the fourth over of the morning, but Hussey and Cook made the most of another good batting pitch at Northampton to tilt the balance back in Northants’ favour.Cook hit 12 fours in his 121-ball knock while Hussey, who eventually became a second victim for leg-spinner Ian Salisbury, stroked eight boundaries in a stay of three-and-a-quarter hours.Swann and Penberthy completed their half-centuries in successive overs just before the close, making it a largely frustrating day for last year’s Division One winners.