Zimbabwe Cricket has doubled the number players on central contracts following the financial boost resulting from the World Cup, while the board is set to receive another windfall for participation at this month’s inaugural ICC World Twenty20. ZC had 10 players on central contracts for the year ending on August 31, 2007.The issuing of contracts to the players has, however, not been painless and one senior player, Elton Chigumbura, who had been placed in the B category, angrily demanded a better deal on August 30, the day he was offered the contract document.Chigumbura, Zimbabwe’s best allrounder at the moment, has been promised a review of the terms of his contract amid fear that disgruntlement among the players could trigger yet another rebellion in the wake of recent disputes over pay.The central contracts, which determine the players’ salaries and perks, are split into four categories, with the top grade – which was only offered national team captain Prosper Utseya – being A+. The second highest, which has three players is Grade A, while Grade B has eight players, with six players in Grade C.Below is the full list of the contracted players and their classes.A+: Prosper UtseyaA: Tatenda Taibu, Gary Brent, Vusimuzi Sibanda.B: Edward Rainsford, Hamilton Masakadza, Terrence Duffin, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Sean Williams, Tawanda Mupariwa, Elton Chigumbura, Christopher Mpofu.C: Brendan Taylor, Chamu Chibhabha, Keith Dabengwa, Tino Mawoyo, Graeme Cremer, Timycen Maruma.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that it would not be entering into performance-based contracts with India’s cricketers for the time being. After a meeting with senior players in Delhi it was decided that the existing contract system would continue for another year.At the moment players receive a retainer and a flat fee per Test and ODI. The BCCI had earlier proposed a system in which players received smaller retainers but were rewarded heavily for winning matches and series. The players were not in favour of this system, and the BCCI, for the moment, has decided to stick with the old contracts system.This means that players can receive contracts in either A, B or C category. The A-category contract comes with an annual retainer of Rs 50 lakh (US$124,000), the B-category contract is worth Rs 35 lakh (US$87,000) and the C-grade works out to Rs 20 lakh (US$50,000).”Existing player contract system will continue. Four senior players met the Contract Committee today and they have agreed to continue with the prevailing system,” Niranjan Shah, the secretary of the BCCI said. The contracts committee, comprising Shah, N Srinivasan, the treasurer, Shashank Manohar, a vice-president of the board, and Inderjit Singh Bindra, the president of the Punjab Cricket Association, met Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble in Delhi.”The gradation committee will sit towards the end of this month or by October first week to finalise things,” said Shah. “It will also decide how many players will come under its purview but the players are happy with the existing system.” In the past the gradation committee has included the coach, the chairman of selectors and senior board officials. Given that India do not have one overall coach at the moment, it’s unclear who all will be on this committee.

India Blue 330 for 8 (Sehwag 75, Yadav 65, Karthik 65, Raina 64) beat India Green 239 (Parthiv 53, Powar 3-45, Mishra 3-50) by 91 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Virender Sehwag’s prediction after winning the toss was spot on: India Blue racked up a mountain of runs, sparked by Sehwag’s 57-ball 75, and the spinners turned it on under the Motera lights to storm into the final of the Challenger Trophy. Parthiv Patel dazzled briefly but a succession of wickets jolted the prospect of a thrilling run-chase, as the Greens, attempting to chase down a target of 331 in 40 overs to qualify for the final, fell short by 91 runs.For the second day in a row India Green’s scarce bowling options were exposed as Sehwag, Arjun Yadav, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik made merry on a flat Ahmedabad track. Sehwag backed his decision to bat with a blistering innings: no bowler was spared as Sehwag cashed in during the first and second Powerplays, hitting 14 boundaries and a six .With Sehwag in such an attacking mood, Parthiv didn’t a chance taking the third Powerplay, but as soon as Sehwag backed away a straighter one from Iqbal Abdullah and lost his leg stump, the Greens captain took it. The run-rate dipped just slightly during those five overs, but Yadav and Raina made sure to up the tempo again with an 85-run stand. Both used their feet to the spinners and relied on the width from the medium-pacers.In what was otherwise evidence of the Greens’ scarce bowling resources, Manoj Tiwary was brought on to bowl his legspinners in the 31st over and was successful in getting rid of Yadav, who miscued a short delivery pitched outside leg to midwicket. Raina, after a crucial 92 in the series opener, hardly batted an eyelid as he raced to his 64 from 51 balls before slapping a long hop from Piyush Chawla to Tiwary at midwicket.Dinesh Karthik, who recently told Cricinfo that he could bat at any number , slammed his first delivery for four and raced past his fifty – amid news of his axing from the Indian side – to get the Blues past 300.

A canny Joginder Sharma nipped out the Green openers in no time before Parthiv and Rohit Sharma cashed in on the second Powerplay, driving and cutting boundaries exceptionally. Anything even fractionally short and wide was pounced upon by Rohit, whose firm back-foot play was pleasing on the eye, while Parthiv whipped trademark boundaries with ease.As long as Parthiv was smashing the ball around the Greens appeared in with a slim shot, but his dismissal for 53, run out by a Joginder direct-hit from deep midwicket as he attempted a suicidal second, dented the side’s chances. Sharma kept up the momentum with a leant-in straight six off Saurabh Bandekar and seemed certain for more before he was smartly stumped by Karthik off a Ramesh Powar wide down the leg side.Tiwary was left to steer a sinking ship but after spanking a couple of boundaries even he couldn’t cope with the pressure, making room to hit Powar and losing his leg stump. The two experienced spinners, Powar and Amit Mishra, shared six wickets and with Abhishek Nayar and Cheteshwar Pujara falling cheaply, the Greens lower order flayed the bat around in desperation. Raina picked up the final wicket as Munaf Patel slogged into the deep, sparking wild celebrations among the Blues.With the highest total of this year’s competition, and their spinners turning in a second successful evening on a flat track, the Blues made the best of the occasion. They’ve already defeated the Reds, and are through to the final courtesy a bonus point from their 88-run win over the Greens. But the final will be minus the incentive of national selection.

New Zealand 41 for 2 trail South Africa 226 (Gibbs 63, Bond 4-73) by 185 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Graeme Smith was left a disappointed man as South Africa squandered the advantage of batting first on a pitch both captains expect to get worse sooner rather than later. They were bowled out for 226 in two-and-a-half sessions and New Zealand finished the opening day of the first Test at The Wanderers on 41 for 2.The stars of the day were Chris Martin and Shane Bond, New Zealand’s opening bowlers. They maintained a nagging line and length throughout, probing for weaknesses and finding them often. The pitch, which Smith expressed concerns about after winning the toss, stayed sound throughout, albeit after being slightly two-paced in the morning. Most of the problems were posed by the bowlers.Smith fell before most of the desultory crowd had found their places among the vast banks of empty seats, playing half-heartedly back and deflecting the ball into his leg stump. When Hashim Amla, who looked ill at ease throughout, gloved a snorter from Bond to the wicketkeeper, South Africa were 20 for 2 and in a right muddle.Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis then stemmed the slide in an attritional morning session, one that purists would describe with misty eyes as good old-fashioned Test cricket where every run was hard earned. So suspicious of ball and pitch did the batsmen appear that at one stage 30 minutes passed without a run. Gibbs was about as unGibbish as he could have been, taking half an hour to get off the mark; Kallis, after a nervous start, started to look ominously set.New Zealand’s advantage appeared to have been blown in the last three overs before lunch, the monolithic Kallis twice being dropped off routine chances by Michael Papps (slip) and Iain O’Brien (long leg). But uncharacteristically he didn’t make the New Zealanders pay, falling to the first ball of the afternoon when he nicked a strangely loose drive to Brendon McCullum.Gibbs, stirred from his slumber by the break, then opened up and found an ally in AB de Villiers after Ashwell Prince had hardly stayed long enough to register. As he grew in confidence he unleashed some sumptuous drives and cuts, but he then lost his concentration and top-edged the excellent Martin to Stephen Fleming at slip. His 63 was crucial but the timing of his lapse could not have been worse.

The innings again lost its direction. de Villiers was suddenly all at sea, surviving two chances, before a slashing drive was well held by Jacob Oram in the gully, and from then on its was a case of how long Mark Boucher could milk the strike and shepherd the tail. Andre Nel slashed an got lucky a few times before edging Bond to McCullum, Paul Harris was dropped three times off one ball by Fleming at third slip before perishing the next delivery, and in the end Boucher slogged out to Daniel Vettori. On his first day as a Test captain most things went right for Vettori, and he deserved his 2 for 26 from 18 miserly overs.New Zealand faced a tricky 45 minutes before the close, but the overcast conditions had given way to bright sunshine and it was about as good for batting as it had been all day. Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Nel roared in and gave the batsmen a good working over. The trio huffed and puffed and removed both openers to finally give Smith cause for the smallest of smiles. Papps steered Ntini to second slip and then in the penultimate over Craig Cumming was trapped on the crease by Nel.Fleming, freed from the burden of captaincy for the first time in nine years, came in as the shadows lengthened and played a breezy cameo. He twice cut Ntini over the slips, flicked Nel over backward square leg for six, and played and missed enough to leave even Nel speechless. The situation calls for something more substantial tomorrow, but, regardless, it was still New Zealand’s day.

Premier Limited Over Tournament

On a rain-hit day, SSC and Moors qualified to meet in the Tier A final, beating fancied Bloomfield and Colts in the semi-finals. Both matches never went the full distance and were affected by bad weather.At the R Premadasa Stadium, in a match reduced to 41 overs-a-side, SSC made the highest total of the day reaching 174 for 9 against Colts, whose target was revised to 117 from 21.5 overs under the D/L rule. But Colts could manage only 93 for 6 in the allotted overs and lost by 24 runs. Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekera picked up four wickets, but finished on the losing side. However another former fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa along with Shalika Karunanayake shared the six Colts wickets to fall between them.In the other semi-final at the Nondescripts Cricket Club, reduced to 45 overs-a-side, Moors put up a fighting display to defeat Bloomfield by four wickets. The match-winner for Moors was former Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for his all-round efforts. He captured three wickets – including that of top scorer in the match Saman Jayantha for 45 – and shared an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 26 with wicketkeeper Dasun Randuka to help steer the side to victory after they slipped to 105 for 6 chasing 131. Bloomfield used eight bowlers in a bid to prevent Moors from topping their total. The two sides meet in the final on December 23 at the SSC grounds.The semi-finals of Tier B, at Bloomfield were both washed out without a ball bowled. One of the finalists, at Bloomfield, was decided by a toss of a coin because the two semi-finalists Burgher Recreation Club and Army SC were equal on the number of wins and also on the number of bonus points in the preliminary round. Therefore the third option to decide the winner was the toss. Burgher called correctly and went through to the final. Deciding the other finalist, at Colts, was straightforward as Lankan CC had more wins than Panadura SC in the preliminary round and sailed through. Burgher and Lankan play their Tier B final on December 21 at the NCC grounds.

Gary Kirsten, the newly appointed India coach, landed in Bangalore today for his first interaction with the players. Unperturbed by the crowd of reporters awaiting his arrival, he said it was great to be back in India and an honour to be chosen as the coach of the national team.Asked about his agenda during the visit, he said: “I’m going to meet the players and see how they play their cricket. I will also be taking inputs from the team’s support staff.”Earlier the Indian board secretary Niranjan Shah confirmed Kirsten will join as coach from March 1. “He will be briefly involved with the Test team as a consultant during the tour to Australia,” Shah said. Kirsten confirmed that he will be spending around 3-4 weeks with the team in Australia.Kirsten stressed the importance of the mental side of sport and is keen to have Paddy Upton, South Africa’s fitness trainer during the mid to late nineties and currently working at Kirsten’s academy as a mental conditioning coach.”Kirsten wants to have Upton in the support staff. But we have to discuss the issue with him once he is here but we don’t think he is required at the moment,” a top BCCI source told Cricinfo. It is learnt that the matter will come up for discussion in the Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on December 16.Kirsten will get an opportunity to watch the players in action when they take on Pakistan in the third and final Test which starts on Saturday.

Durham have confirmed their overseas signings for 2008 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Neil McKenzie and Albie Morkel completing an attractive line-up. Michael Di Venuto also joins on a three-year deal as a Kolpak player as he holds an Italian passport.Chanderpaul returns to Chester-le-Street after a successful stint in 2007, where he helped Durham win the Friends Provident final with 78 at Lord’s. He will arrive for the second half of the summer after West Indies’ home series against Australia is completed in early July.The South African duo, McKenzie and Morkel, will share the overseas spot during the first part of the season. McKenzie, who returned to the South Africa Test side against West Indies before being injured, is set to arrive in time to start the season in April and will then give way to Morkel for the Twenty20 Cup.Morkel enjoyed an impressive ICC World Twenty20 where he showed his powerful striking against England and also produced some useful medium pace. “I really want to make an impact on Durham’s Twenty20 Cup campaign and I’m sure my experience in the World Cup will be really useful,” he said. “There will be some pretty tough opposition but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”Geoff Cook, the head coach, is delighted to have two high-class batsmen coming back. “Diva [Di Venuto] and Shiv have both made invaluable contributions to the team and we’re keen to start where we left off and their involvement will be a great asset,” he said. “They have both had a tremendous influence on the team, both on and off the field, and it will be a great honour to welcome them back to the Riverside.”To have players of Neil and Albie’s calibre committing to the Durham cause is a great achievement. We are determined to improve our performance in the Twenty20 Cup and I think Albie will be a great asset to our set up. I’m sure Neil’s involvement in the early stages of the season will get us off to the best possible start in 2008.”

Paul Collingwood believes Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, has missed the pointin labelling the current squad as “soft” ahead of the tour of New Zealand. Hussain has been worried by the dip in England’s Test form since they won the Ashesin 2005 and reckons the side needs to be mentally more resilient if they are to defeat Australia in next year’s edition.”We don’t believe we are soft,” said Collingwood ahead of England’s departure to New Zealand. “We were disappointed with how we played in Sri Lanka this winter but it wasn’t because we are soft. Hopefully we can go out to New Zealand and prove it.”England, after a lackluster World Cup where they failed to reach the semi-finals, have recently enjoyed series wins under Collingwood away to India and Sri Lanka in the shorter form of the game. The Test match picture, however, is less encouraging. England have won just two of their eight Test series since their Ashes triumph two years ago, a run that includes a 5-0 thrashing in Australia, a defeat at home to India last year and the 1-0 reverse in Sri Lanka.Collingwood took heart from England’s improved displays in limited-overs cricket. “We’ve been a dangerous side in the past but it comes down to consistency. That’s what we’re looking for now – to get a consistent side together and know our games, roles and go out and perform with the right approach. Hopefully we’re starting to get the right formula.”England’s new chief selector Geoff Miller, the former international offspinner, has made it clear he would prefer one captain to lead the country in all forms of the game rather than have duties shared between Collingwood and Test captain Michael Vaughan. “He said in an ‘ideal world’ and it’s not an ideal world at the moment,” said Collingwood. “From the start I’ve always said that ‘Vaughany’ and I have a good relationship. We realise that this can work well and as long as we are trying to take both teams and English cricket in the right direction, it can work. It’s as simple as that.”Of course I’ve developed, it comes down to experience. Obviously I didn’t have much experience coming into the captaincy and the more you play and captain, you get better ideas of how to go about things. The last two [one-day] series have been a nice feeling but we realise we have sofar to go – our real aim is to win a trophy which we haven’t done before.”

Scorecard

A power-packed performance from Punjab, propelled by Salman Butt’s 290, put them in control of their match against Federal Areas at stumps on the third day. Punjab declared after amassing 599 for 7, and then reduced Federal Areas to 37 for 3.Punjab carried their momentum from the previous day, when Butt and Mohammad Hafeez added a 191-run opening stand. Butt, who resumed on 135, combined well with No. 3 Nasir Jamshed to pile the misery for the Federal Areas bowlers, led by Shoaib Akhtar. The two added 290 runs for the second wicket – 262 of which came today – before Shehzad Azam dismissed them both. Jamshed, who scored fifties in his first two ODIs for Pakistan during the Zimbabwe series, made 108.However, the star of the day was Butt, whose knock needed only 318 deliveries, and included an astounding 50 fours and and one six, perhaps a timely reminder to the selectors who dropped him during the Zimbabwe series. Mohammad Yousuf also helped himself to a fifty before Punjab declared on 599. Azam claimed three wickets, but he was carted for more than a run-a-ball in his 20 overs. The rest of the bowlers didn’t impress either, with the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat conceding more than four an over.Aizaz Cheema then removed both the Federal Areas openers cheaply, before left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman struck to leave the opposition struggling, still trailing by 179 runs.
Scorecard
Having conceding the first-innings lead to North West Frontier Province on the second day, Sind fought back strongly on the third day to still be in with a chance of victory.Leading by 200 runs with seven wickets in hand in their second innings and captain Younis Khan still at the crease, NWFP were done in by Danish Kaneria’s 5 for 62. Kaneria, who recently expressed his disappointment at being demoted in the central contracts handed by the Pakistan board, dismissed Nos 6 -10 as NWFP crumbled to 254 all out from 150 for 3 at the end of the second day.Younis’ 111 was the only substantial contribution, the next best was only 26. Shahid Afridi, the Sind captain, chipped in with the wicket of his opposition counterpart, while Anwar Ali ended with 3 for 66.Needing the highest total of the match to win the game, Sind were off to a buoyant start. Khalid Latif and Khurram Manzoor, two others jostling for the opening slot in the Pakistan line-up, scored patient fifties as their team finished at 130 for no loss. Sind need another 179 with ten wickets left, but given the propensity of batting collapses in this match, it is still anybody’s game.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out