The West Indies Cricket Board has backed down over its decision to remove Dwayne Bravo from its list of players offered retainer contracts after pressure from the ICC and FICA, the international players’ association.The website caribbeancricket.com quotes sources close to the board as saying that Bravo, Daren Ganga and Runako Morton had been added to the list published in July.Bravo was not offered a retainer contract because of his deal with bMobile, a direct competitor of Digicel, the board’s official sponsor. But representatives from the ICC and FICA informed the board that the existing contract could not be a factor as an agreement signed by the board stated that “a player may have and shall be entitled to fulfil obligations under pre-existing Player Endorsement Contracts”. Ganga also has a private endorsement deal with bMobile that will remain in effect while he is contracted to the WICB.WIPA, the West Indies players’ association, had been deeply unhappy that an agreement it had with the board stating that at least 10 retainer contracts would be issued was ignored when only seven – plus Bravo – were unveiled. As a result of pressure, the board had little choice but to add the three named today.The WICB has repeatedly tried to find a way round the agreement regarding pre-existing contracts and has been hauled back into line every time. It might well be that the board now has no choice but to go back and renegotiate its multi-million dollar deal with Digicel as it may have given undertakings it can now not adhere to. Given its financial predicament, the board is in no position to lose any more income, but there have been deep reservations about the terms of the contract from the off.Contracted players Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Brian Lara, Runako Morton, Denesh Ramdin, Ramnaresh Sarwan.

The Duke of Edinburgh greeted Sussex’s cricketers at Buckingham Palace this week, to present them with the ECB/Lord’s Taverners County Championship Trophy, after their narrow victory over Lancashire in this year’s tightly contested title race.Prince Philip, who is also patron and twelfth man of the Lord’s Taverners, has presented the trophy at Buckingham Palace to the winners of the County Championship each year since Hampshire won in 1973.This year’s victory by Sussex is the second time in four years that the county has won the Championship since it was inaugurated in 1890. Sussex won the trophy for the first time in their history in 2003.They also won this season’s C&G one-day final, and their captain, Chris Adams, who received the trophy from the Duke, said: “From 2003 it’s a different side but it’s a magnificent feeling and to do the double has meant 2006 is Sussex’s year.”Also present at Buckingham Palace was the England women’s captain, Charlotte Edwards, who received the women’s trophy on behalf of her county, Kent, who won the competition for the first time in their history.

Mark Williams, chief executive of The Lord’s Taverners said: “These two teams have performed extraordinarily well throughout the season and are deserving winners of the trophies.”We are particularly pleased for Sussex,” he added. “Not only have they played some compelling cricket but also Chris Adams and other Sussex cricketers gave up some of their rare days off during the season to turn out for The Lord’s Taverners cricket team, which raises much needed funds for the charity.”Both the men’s and the women’s County Championships are sponsored by the Liverpool Victoria Group, who generously donate £6 to The Lord’s Taverners for every six hit in the county championships, as well as £10 a run for the highest individual score in the championship. In 2006 the combined donation to the charity from Liverpool Victoria amounts to £9,444.

Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire who this month was banned from umpiring in internationals, has been retained on the ECB reserve umpires list for 2007.Hair was standing alongside Billy Doctrove, the West Indian umpire, when the final Test between England and Pakistan was abandoned on the fourth day following Pakistan’s refusal to take the field after they’d been penalised five runs for ball tampering.Reserve umpires are eligable to stand in any first-class match under the ECB and are granted these matches depending on their level of performance. A space had opened up on the full list following the retirement of David Constant and there was a thought that Hair would move up. However, that role went to Tim Robinson, the former England batsman.Chris Kelly, the ECB’s umpires and match operations manager, told Cricinfo Hair was part of their discussions. “All the reserve list umpires were considered as replacements for David Constant. At the time the decision was taken on who to appoint it still wasn’t clear what ICC’s decision would be regarding Darrell and what decisions he would take himself. It has been a reasonably recent development that Darrell has confirmed his availability with us.”As far as next season is concerned, Kelly is hopeful Hair will be about to go about his umpiring without problems. “If any situations arise we will deal with them at the time,” and added, “everyone on the list is available for future promotion.”Meanwhile, umpires in New South Wales have announced they will wear black ribbons in support of Hair during this weekend’s club matches. The NSW Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association (NSWCUSA), of which Hair is a life member and former president, asked all umpires at club matches to wear the ribbons on Saturday.Earlier this month, the NSWCUSA took out a full-page advertisement in newspapers containing an open letter criticising ICC for its decision to demote Hair from the elite panel following what was seen as pressure from the Asian bloc.A statement from the NSWCUSA said the decision to wear black ribbons was aimed at not just showing support, but also “to express concern at a total lack of respect for the role of the umpire by the ICC along with a demise in the idea of playing by the laws”.

Mark Ramprakash has proved that he can cut it on the big stage after all when he was crowned BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing champion on Saturday night. Both the judges and the public voted for Ramprakash ahead of the rugby player Matt Dawson in the final, with each competitor performing five dances with their professional partner.Ramprakash made some difficult lifts in the final dance, the free-style, and later confessed to some nerves at performing the manoeuvres with his partner Karen Hardy: “Being a cricketer,” he said, “I might have dropped her.” Instead his footwork was immaculate and the pressure told only one story: he can handle it.The title caps a staggering year for Ramprakash, helping Surrey to bounce back immediately to the top flight of the Championship with a phenomenal 2,278 runs at 103.54. At 38 he could not earn a recall to the England Test squad for the Ashes, although he had accepted way before this series that his days at international level were way over.But his victory has at last provided some cheer for cricket fans in England.”It’s been incredible,” he smiled as he became the second cricketer behind Darren Gough to pick up the silver, sparkly glitter-ball trophy with ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ emblazoned on it in pink writing. He had started the dancing series a 15 to 1 outsider, but soon became established as the favourite – and in the end victory was a waltz.

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Brad Hogg’s unbeaten 41 and a half-century to Luke Pomersbach steered Western Australia to a tight victory after they were rocked by Ben Hilfenhaus in their chase of 180. Hilfenhaus dropped the Warriors to 4 for 36 and went on to collect 5 for 84, but he could not push Tasmania to a home-ground win.The debutant Pomersbach completed a strong game by adding an important 63 to his first-innings 74 as he lifted Western Australia out of trouble. However, his departure to Hilfenhaus left the Warriors at 7 for 148 and it was left to Hogg to guide them home.Brett Geeves and Hilfenhaus added 34 in the first session before Hilfenhaus fell to a catch behind off David Bandy. Geeves was unbeaten on 80 as the Tigers posted 477, giving the Warriors an uncomfortable chase.

Cricket is a mind game above all others with the possible exception of golf, the ultimate masochists’ pursuit. It is something Michael Bevan, the most driven of Australian players, knows only too well. Bevan spent more than a decade trying to prove himself on the world stage while fighting a losing battle against certain perceptions of his batting, notably that he had a weakness against the short ball and was thus the dreaded “one-day specialist”.So when he lost his lucrative Cricket Australia contract at the end of 2003-04 and went back to negotiate the relative pittance of a salary with his beloved New South Wales, his cricketing life reached a genuine flashpoint. He knew his international career was probably finished at 34, unfair as that might have been given his one-day average of 53.58 and a reputation for owning three or four shots to every ball.Always a different card, Bevan chose to pack up and play in Tasmania, who also offered an assistant coaching job. He arrived in Hobart with a mindset that reflected the fact he was no longer required to prove anything to anyone beyond himself. Brian McFadyen, the coach, soon noticed the change. While it was different from before, there was also a familiarity about it. McFadyen, now ensconced as a senior coach at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, sensed Bevan wanted to play like he had all those years ago, when it was just another game. In essence, he had gone back to the swashbuckling kid from Canberra who lit up NSW upon his arrival at the end of the 1980s. The result was astonishing. Jamie Cox, the state’s veteran top-order batsman, called it “phenomenal”. McFadyen preferred “out of this world”.Bevan played nine Pura Cup matches for Tasmania in 2004-05 after missing the opening game with an Achilles injury. He made eight centuries, an Australian record for a single season. He accumulated 1,464 runs, breaking the all-time domestic mark of 1,381, which was set only the season before by Matthew Elliott, another left-hander. He averaged 97.60 and Phil Jaques, the next best player, was 273 runs behind. Tasmania’s poor season meant he was no chance of making the final, and combined with his first-game absence four potential hits were sacrificed. It is said that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, but there is no disguising this one. It is a big number, a significant number, and one for the ages.Beginning with a muffled 19 and a magnificent, unbeaten 167 against Victoria at Bellerive Oval, Bevan scarcely stopped to smell the roses. Tasmania’s season at four-day level was dreadful as they finished last in a competition won by NSW. At least they could watch Bevan from the sanctity of the dressing-room. During the second innings he and the feisty all-rounder Damien Wright met at 6 for 46 and put on 215 for the seventh wicket, a record for Tasmania, who defied Victoria for hour after hour. Bevan survived 439 minutes in the maelstrom and was still there when the Bushrangers secured their first win in Hobart for 25 years. Despite the loss, he was on a roll.

A match later he conjured 106 and 100, from only 137 balls, against South Australia as the Tigers won by 195 runs. Around this point McFadyen spotted the change in Bevan’s batting from previous years. “He actually backed himself more,” he says. “I suppose he played with the chains off. I’ve got no doubt he’d played before that with distractions, whether it was national selection, the short ball or a few other things around him.” It was clear that he wanted to bat naturally and fluently, like he had as a teenager. “When he first came on the scene he was aggressive,” McFadyen says. “Like a lot of young players he’s had to temper that to make himself consistent. I reckon the decision he made was instead of being conservative he would throw caution to the wind and see how good he could be.”Twin centuries against the Redbacks were followed by a lean period in the context of his summer: 11 and 93 against Queensland in Brisbane; 21 and 12 against NSW in Sydney; and 42 and 4 in the return match with the Bulls. However, the rest was special. After Tasmania slumped to 3 for 23 against Western Australia at Bellerive Oval in late January, he peeled off a first-innings 190. As they aimed to set the Warriors a target, Bevan hit the ball even better, gleaning an unbeaten 114 out of 5 for 226. Symptomatic of their season, they lost despite setting a monumental 396.The runaway train was still motoring when, confronted by a Victoria attack headed by Shane Warne, he toiled for 434 minutes over 144, then gathered 86 of Tasmania’s limp 198 as they were again defeated. When the Tigers met NSW in Hobart, Bevan smashed an unbeaten 170 against Stuart MacGill and his impressive company. As the Blues rolled to victory on the final day MacGill had his revenge, dismissing Bevan for 26, which was a rare failure on his new home deck.Bellerive Oval has a reputation as a batsman’s paradise, but Bevan was not getting it easy. McFadyen said the curator at the beautiful ground beside the Derwent estuary was urged to prepare “result wickets” and duly delivered. “There was juice left in and the first hour of each first innings was always difficult,” he says. “It was not a traditional batsman-friendly wicket. The scores don’t reflect that because it dried out on the third and fourth days. I can tell you it was bloody difficult.” In the tough conditions, against quality opposition, and on surfaces helping the pace bowlers, Bevan was unflappable. Even McFadyen was slightly surprised. “There’s been a question mark about him when it’s difficult and he’s been labelled a one-day player,” he says. “He did not look like missing a ball, didn’t look like playing and missing for the whole season.”Cox recognised an old look in Bevan’s eye. “I played under-age cricket with Michael and even then he had the aloofness, if you like, that a lot of special players have,” he says. “There’s this zone where they go and you wonder what they’re thinking. You look at them and you know they’re ready to go.” By the final game Bevan’s mind was still churning, and as they arrived in Adelaide he needed another 76 runs to overtake Elliott’s landmark. With 115 and 44 he succeeded in another loss, which won the wooden spoon, and completed a four-game streak of at least one hundred in the world’s toughest domestic competition.The Pura Cup had ended for Tasmania but their season wasn’t entirely over. In the ING Cup final Bevan hit a typically inventive 47 not out from 52 balls that helped them to a famous victory over Queensland, the state’s first one-day trophy since the low-key Gillette Cup in 1978-79. Enjoying a fine season on that stage, too, he captured 519 runs at 86.50. “In the end, it got ridiculous,” Cox says. “We were almost taking it for granted. He’d score a hundred late in the year, and you could see the blokes almost forgetting to pat him on the back.”

Bevan told the media he was still improving, and that he remained hopeful of a berth at the 2007 World Cup. He refused to make a retirement announcement, a fact that surprised no one who knew him well. “I’m a better player than when I was in the Australian side, no doubt about it,” he says. “The World Cup is a long way off but I don’t think it’s out of the question. I hope it isn’t. It’s nice to know that at this stage of my life I’m hitting the ball the best I’ve ever hit it.”All of which must make people wonder why Bevan, the artist and sometimes cantankerous player, completed his international career with only 18 Tests, an average of 29.07, and precisely zero centuries. The answer is in the timing. Bevan played in an era when Australian batting opportunities were limited, a fact the likes of Cox, Jamie Siddons, Stuart Law and even Dean Jones could attest. Then there was the short-ball perception and the associated mind games and battles. Devon Malcolm, the very quick English bowler, made him flinch a couple of times in the 1994-95 Ashes series. Bevan paid a massive price for those moments of discomfort, and the irony was that nearing the end of his career he was flaying the short ball.”It’s a myth, there’s no doubt about it,” Cox says of the weakness-against-the-short-ball theory. “It was exposed on one trip by one bowler. If you watched him last year he pulled and hooked beautifully. People tested him out because they thought he was weak, but he smacked them.”Everyone already knew that Bevan was a fine player and a highly-charged individual. In a sense he was ahead of his time because he did not fit the archetypal Australian cricket legend of the beer-swilling man’s man, the image cultivated by the Chappells, Lillee, Marsh and Walters. He was a gym rat and a fitness fanatic long before it became the norm of the modern professionals. What was not so widely known was that his hunger was undiminished by the vagaries of selection and the bodyblow of losing his contract.”His strength is his ability to remain focussed on the job at hand,” McFadyen says, “but he probably expects that of everyone.” While he has been labelled as difficult – not quite normal – last season he was a role model who would spend a couple of hours on the bowling machine the day before a game.Sitting back watching the show, McFadyen reasoned that if Bevan was picked for Australia again he would thrive. It probably won’t happen, but it’s a nice thought. “Most of us who witnessed it felt his batting was as good as anything we’d ever seen,” he says. “It wasn’t just one or two performances, it was every time he went out. It was out of this world.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has set up an independent panel to examine the jurisdiction of the court that is currently hearing the doping cases of Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar. Only if the panel finds that the court does have jurisdiction will the hearing continue.In an attempt to preempt any findings from the panel, the ICC has said that Pakistan will be able to replace any members of their squad who fail dope tests ahead of the World Cup. A precedent was set during the 2003 event in South Africa when Shane Warne was sent home at the start of the tournament for using a diuretic.The Shoaib and Asif cases were referred to the court, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) in December last year. WADA had expressed concern with the conclusions of an appellate committee, constituted by the PCB, which lifted bans imposed on both bowlers by an earlier tribunal after concluding that they hadn’t been educated properly about doping issues by the PCB.But a PCB official told Cricinfo that the board had received communication from the CAS that independent panel was examining whether the court had jurisdiction to arbitrate over such a matter. “They have set up a panel with three independent arbitrators, from the US, Britain and France, which will examine whether the court has jurisdiction to act on a matter such as this.”Only in the event that they find that ‘yes, they do have jurisdiction’, will the case continue to be heard,” the official added. The three panelists are David Rivkin (USA), Peter Leaver QC (UK) and Jan Paulsson (France), all established legal experts.The PCB has argued this very point since WADA took notice and filed an appeal on the lifting of the bans. The matter, they assert, was an internal one and was closed once the appellate committee made public its findings: the dope tests and the subsequent hearings were all carried out locally and punishments or otherwise were made according to the PCB’s anti-doping code. Thus WADA and the ICC were in no position to take any further action.But among others, Shahid Hamid, the head of the first committee which found the bowlers guilty of doping and banned them, has also argued that Pakistan are obliged to follow WADA’s code.He told AFP last December: “It is a fact that the Pakistan government signed the Copenhagen declaration in 2003, like other 186 governments, including 38 countries in Asia,” he said. “The Pakistan government has paid to WADA the annual and subscription fee for the years 2006 and 2007.”This declaration, through culture and sports ministries, binds us to follow the WADA codes and under clause 13 of their codes, WADA has the right of appeal against the decision of a national anti-doping commission whether it is done during the competition or out of competition.”The official said, though, that there was no timeline on when the panel is expected to decide.

Victoria’s push to reach the Pura Cup final has suffered two setbacks with Mick Lewis and Jon Moss missing the match against Western Australia starting at the MCG on Thursday. However, the return of Cameron White, who has been part of Australia’s one-day campaign, is timely with two rounds remaining.Lewis, who was playing for Australia a year ago, was dropped while Moss has a thigh strain as the Bushrangers, who are third, eye a finals berth. The fast bowler Peter Siddle is in line for his debut after replacing the out-of-favour Lewis. Siddle captured 5 for 38 in the 2nd XI game against South Australia last week to impress the selectors.”Obviously there’s little separating several teams on the table, so the points up for grabs in these remaining two games will be fought for extremely hard,” White said. “I’m sure Justin Langer will be going for the maximum as well, so I think we’ll see some declarations and exciting run chases.” The fourth-placed Warriors are two points behind Victoria and four behind the joint leaders New South Wales and Tasmania.Victoria squad Cameron White (capt), Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Shane Harwood, David Hussey, Nick Jewell, Michael Klinger, Andrew McDonald, Bryce McGain, Lloyd Mash, Darren Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Rob Quiney.Western Australia squad Justin Langer (capt), Chris Rogers, David Bandy, Shaun Marsh, Marcus North, Adam Voges, Clint Heron, Luke Ronchi (wk), Aaron Heal, Steve Magoffin, Ben Edmondson, Danny McLauchlan.

The coach Dav Whatmore is desperate for Bangladesh to avoid a bottom-placed finish in the Super Eights and is hoping for an improved performance against the No. 1-ranked South Africa in Guyana on Saturday. Bangladesh played above expectations in their group matches, but they have failed to keep up the momentum and are without a point after losses to Australia and New Zealand.”We don’t want to finish at the bottom,” Whatmore said. “We are not last in the whole tournament, but we are now at the bottom in the Super Eights. Our objective is always to go higher [than Ireland], but the reality is that we are ranked No. 9 and we will be playing to change the rankings.”Bangladesh lost to Australia by ten wickets and to New Zealand by nine wickets, but Whatmore said the side could do better. “Our objective is to push the opposition and this is what we want to do in the remaining matches,” Whatmore said. Bangladesh face England, West Indies and Ireland after South Africa.”We need to up our performance in the second round,” he said. “What we have done here is something we had not done in the past. We were once considered minnows, but we are no longer minnows now.”We achieved our objective in the first round as we played pretty well to qualify for the second round. We had just one bad game against Sri Lanka, but we played three matches and we deserved to be in the Super Eights.”Whatmore said he was looking forward to a better performance from his batsmen in the remaining matches after they scored 174 against New Zealand and 104 for 6 in 22 overs against Australia. “We need to make more runs,” he said. “We were not able to score upfront in the last two matches.”

After Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, Mushtaq Ahmed, the caretaker coachand Talat Ali, the manager, were questioned by police on Saturday over Bob Woolmer’s murder, it’s now the turn of Brian Lara, the West Indies captain. Lara was staying in the room opposite to Woolmer’s in the Pegasus Hotel and the questioning, which may be followed by DNA testing, is believed to be part of the routine process of eliminating suspects.After the questioning of Inzamam and the other two, the Pakistan team flew out of Jamaica to home as scheduled.Pervez Mir, the team’s spokesperson, told Cricinfo that the three Pakistan players werequestioned for about half an hour. “They were questioned over a coupleof things that were previously overlooked.” But he was keen to stressthere was “nothing out of the ordinary” about the questioning andreiterated that “no one from the team is involved – this is all justmedia hype.”The team is planning to leave as per our original plan and there isno change in that,” added Mir. The team is due to fly from Jamaica toHeathrow and onwards from there to Karachi.Later, addressing a press conference, Mark Shields, deputy commissioner of Jamaican police, said: “This really continued the process of cooperation that we have had with the Pakistani team throughout. We need to be absolutely thorough and clear and ensure if there is any ambiguity in anyone’s statements we should clear up that ambiguity as soon as we can.”The Pakistan team are free to go and are on their way to the airport. There is no reason at all why they shouldn’t leave the island.”All of this, Shields said, was “standard police procedure when you consider any serious crime investigation.” The important thing, he added, “is that we keep an open mind. What we need to do is look at all of the options, all of the suspicions people have.”Sources close to the team told Cricinfo that Mushtaq was questionedabout his nose injury (which is likely to be the one he picked up inpractice before Woolmer’s murder) and Inzamam and Ali about roomchanges.Inzamam told AFP that the questioning was routine and that they hadbeen told by police that they were free to leave for home as plannedlater Saturday. “It was nothing, just one question, nothing special,”Inzamam said. “There have been so many rumours but we are going hometonight and everything is clear. The police said we are free to gohome.””The police are doing their work and they ask lots of guys differentquestions,” Mushtaq told Sky News. “It is not a big issue, just amatter of timing. It was little things they wanted to know. We have to follow police policies and everything is calm and OK. Weare supporting the police. We are leaving and they wanted to cleareverything up.” reported that investigators were yet to hand over Woolmer’s room on the 12th floor to hotel authorities and that the police were examining the electronic key to Woolmer’s room to find out the number of times the room was opened in the few hours leading to his death.Sayed Hafiz, first secretary at the Pakistani embassy in Washington,attended the media briefing at the Pegasus Hotel. He said: “The team was never under detention. They are understandably traumatised. But this is a serious crime, and we wanted to cooperate. We’re very satisfied with the professionalism shown by theJamaican police.”He added that Murray Stevenson, the trainer, and Asad Mustafa, the chiefoperations officer, would be staying back in Jamaica – Stevenson to escortWoolmer’s body back to South Africa, and Mustafa to “tie up any looseends.”Neither he nor the diplomats would say for sure whether the players wouldbe asked back to Jamaica if required – “We’ll cross that bridge when wecome to it,” said Shields – and it’s still unclear when the coroner willallow for Woolmer’s body to leave the country.Shields said that DNA swabs and fingerprints had been taken from severalpeople, apart from the Pakistan players, and added that CCTV footage wasbeing analysed by his officers. He was also in touch with a representativeof the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit, saying: “We will look at all theoptions.””Everybody in some ways is a suspect,” said Shields, when asked if he andhis investigating team had made any headway in identifying the culprit.”There are no clear suspects at the moment.”