Ricky Ponting has spoken out strongly against the looming day-night Test match to be played in Adelaide between Australia and New Zealand, reckoning that the experimental format and pink ball will have to stand up to the scrutiny of the players involved if it is ever to have the credibility of the existing five-day game.On the night he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in Melbourne, Ponting said the Cricket Australia-driven concept was something he had always opposed. This was largely due to his belief that Test match cricket should be kept as the purest possible contest between bat and ball, while the game’s two other formats served as greater vehicles for entertainment and night-time events.”I’ve actually been against it the whole time,” Ponting said. “I mean I understand the reasons behind wanting to innovate and wanting to be different, but at the same time I think Test cricket is all about history and tradition as far as I’m concerned.”But I guess the game has to go on and move forward. It will be interesting to see what the players make of it all and how much they enjoy the occasion. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day, the players have to want to enjoy it and have to want to be a part of it and want to make it something extra special and let’s hope it works out that way.”‘I think Test cricket is all about history and tradition as far as I’m concerned’ – Ricky Ponting•Getty Images

Earlier this week, Ponting gave evidence via video link in the perjury trial of Chris Cairns. While unwilling to comment any further on the trial, he said Australia had been a leader in educating players about the murky world of spot-fixing and that he was eager to ensure the game continued to be closely monitored for any evidence of impropriety.”The way the game is it maybe does open itself up to more of that kind of thing because there is so much spot betting and so many things that you can bet on,” Ponting said. “Don’t worry, everyone is doing their absolute utmost to keep on top of that stuff, but as we know at the end of the day it’s the players, it comes down to the players.”I know that everything that’s been done within Cricket Australia has been absolutely first class, we’d be leading the world in so far as that sort of education is concerned so all we can do is make sure that we keep doing the right thing and make sure we keep our players out of it all.”As for the summer ahead, Ponting predicted that the captain Steven Smith would drop down to No. 4 in the batting order, with Usman Khawaja at No. 3 and the young West Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft slotting in alongside David Warner at the top of the order.He spoke with some pride at his induction into the hall of fame, which also features the likes of fellow Tasmanian David Boon, Richie Benaud and Dennis Lillee. “Something like this once you are retired it gives you a chance to sit back and think about all the things you were able to do and wins you were able to have and things like that,” he said.”Even just coming here and sitting at the stands now and thinking about some of the great things that happened out there is nice. And I’ve done a little, I wouldn’t say research, but I’ve read up on the Sports Australia Hall of Fame and the history behind it and it’s a pretty select group of people or members that I’ve been inducted into.”

ScorecardFile photo – James Faulkner took three wickets before stepping up with the bat•PA Photos

Twenty-year old Sam Heazlett struck a century on first-class debut after which Queensland declared their first innings despite a deficit of 104.Batting at No. 3, Heazlett made 129 came off 248 balls, with 17 fours, and was assisted by Jason Floros in a 76-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Although they could not push ahead despite batting 122 overs, the momentum from their lower-order resistance seeped into their bowling. Tasmania, in their second innings, slumped to 4 for 38 before unbeaten 30s from Jake Doran and James Faulkner redressed the damage and stretched their overall lead to 204 by stumps on the third day in Hobart.Earlier in the day, resuming from an overnight score of 2 for 117, Queensland lost Marnus Labuschagne for 8, by Xavier Doherty. Nathan Reardon was also undone by the left-arm spinner before Heazlett and Floros mounted resistance. Contributions from wicketkeeper Chris Hartley (46) and No. 8 Jack Wildermuth (19) took Queensland past 300. Doherty and Faulkner collected three wickets each while Andrew Fekete claimed a couple.

Winning the toss at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Sri Lankan captain Kanchana Gunawardana put India in to bat. Having won the first three matches they have played in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Under-15 tournament, India must have been confident. A thumping 90 run victory saw India continue its winning streak and make sure of a place in the final.This confidence came through clearly in the batting of Palash Jothi Das. The middle order bat made an unbeaten 108 off 101 balls that took India to an imposing total of 237 for five in 40 overs. His century included six boundaries and five hits that cleared the ropes.Das was well supported by Sushil Kumar who made a useful 53. Sharing a 148-run partnership for the third wicket, Sushil Kumar and Das pushed the score past the 200 mark before the former was dismissed by Mohammed Maharoof.Ambati Tirupati Rayadu who has had a good run so far, continued to chip in, scoring 37 off 41 balls on this occasion.For the Lankans, only Ganganath Asanga Ratnayake with 1/26 off eight overs returned reasonable figures. The rest of the bowlers came in for varying degrees of punishment.The medium pace of all rounder Mrigen Talukdar saw the two Sri Lankan openers back in the pavilion with just 15 runs on the board. Captain Gunawardana was trapped leg before wicket by off spinner Panav Raju before he could open his account and Lanka were in trouble at 16/3. In quick succession Talukdar struck once more and leg spinner Nikhil Rathod sent back Sandun Dias. Sri Lanka were all but defeated with half the team back in the pavilion and just 32 runs on the board.Having lost early wickets, the Lankans could not seriously chase the total set by the Indians. However, they dragged through their entire allotted 40 overs and managed 147/9.The Indians had reason to celebrate once more, having packed off the Sri Lankans by a convincing margin.Although India had won their first three matches with consummate ease, Sri Lanka were unlikely to be a pushover. Before leaving for Malaysia, the coach of the Indian team, Roger Binny said “I think Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be the toughest opposition. Sri Lanka have a very strong junior programme. Schools cricket is very strong there, and they have some very good development programmes as well.”Binny’s assessment proved to be an exercise in abundant caution. Although the Lankans did not capitulate in quite the manner of the teams that had lost to India before (Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh), they too could not seriously challenge the Indians.India now play Pakistan in their final inconsequential pool encounter on Wednesday.

Northamptonshire duly secured the County Championship’s Division Two title, despite being held to a draw by Essex at Wantage Road.Matthew Hayden’s men needed only to avoid defeat to claim the trophy, but were hoping to record a sixth successive victory to round off their home programme on a high note.They looked on course as the visitors, trailing by 177 on first innings, slipped to 110 for four against Essex old boy Darren Cousins, who snapped up 4-50 to give him 62 wickets this summer.But Stuart Law came to the rescue with his fifth century of the season, and his solid unbeaten 119 guided Essex to safety at 225-4 and kept alive their own hopes of achieving promotion into Division One for 2001.Northants batted on to reach 410 all out in the morning session, notching the fifth batting point, and Cousins then tore into his former county with a superb opening burst which saw him trap Paul Prichard leg-before for a duck and have Paul Grayson caught behind.Law and Darren Robinson (42) steadied the innings by adding 83, only for Cousins to make his presence felt again by removing Robinson and skipper Ronnie Irani in successive overs.Stephen Peters then settled in with Law, who completed his hundred off 161 balls, and the captains called it a day with their fifth-wicket stand worth 115.Hayden received the second division silverware at the end of the match, and Northants’s delighted Director of Cricket Bob Carter commented: “We set out at the start of the season to get promotion in the Championship and hold our place in Division One of the National League.”We thought they were realistic goals, and so it’s proved.”

The Indians may not be consistent, but the Zimbabweans sure arepredictable. When it comes to bowling on Indian wickets, Heath Streakand his motley crew have no idea how to approach the task. Theirspeedster Henry Olonga is a case in point. After roaring in for a fewovers attempting to send down the fastest delivery in the history ofthe game, he settles down to being more sedate, if not more sensible.When it comes to spinners Brian Murphy, Grant Flower and Dirk Viljoen,the less said the better. Uniformly, the Zimbabwean bowlers, barringthe captain himself, bowled on every spot in the pitch. Short, full,wide of off stump, down leg side… Everything was tried but thesimple short of a length outside the off stump delivery. The result,India amassed 609 before declaring with four wickets still in hand.Sachin Tendulkar made a masterly 201 not out and Rahul Dravid helpedhimself to 162. The two put on 249 runs together. For the first timesince Mark Taylor’s Australians conceded 633/5 declared to India inCalcutta in early 1998, India crossed the six hundred run mark. Thatwas two and a half years ago. One would certainly have to go back muchlonger to find an instance where India made six hundred runs abroad.The day began positively for India. After a few quick singles Dravidstruck a boundary to reach ninety-nine. On reaching that score, heslowed down, ever so briefly. Carefully playing out almost two overs,Dravid finally brought up his century. Having done so, it was back tobusiness as usual. Dravid quickly got busy cracking the bowlers away.He began by welcoming Grant Flower to the wicket by hitting him out ofthe ground over long on. Playing several such shots against the leftarm spinners, Dravid was unafraid to take the aerial route. Meanwhile,Tendulkar threatened to catch up with his counterpart. Reaching hiscentury off 155 balls, Tendulkar opened his shoulders and began totake a serious liking to the Zimbabwe bowlers. The pair went in to thepavilion to enjoy a sumptuous lunch, till then untroubled andunconquered.While the crowd eagerly awaited a surfeit of runs and no wickets lostin the session between lunch and tea, they were in for adisappointment. Instead, the Indians added just 83 runs for the lossof two wickets.After reaching 162 without stuttering, Dravid inexplicably went aftera bouncer that was well down the leg side from Streak and gloved theball through to the wicketkeeper. The nature of the pitch and thebowling attack made it look like Dravid had missed out on a goodopportunity. However, one must remember that he spent more than sixand a half hours at the wicket and struck twenty fours.Coming in to bat with 473 runs already on the board must be quiteawkward. Sourav Ganguly certainly found it so. In a two paced inningswhere he was either blocking the ball or going for huge hits, Gangulymanaged 30 before miscuing one such big hit, only to be caught at midoff.Ajit Agarkar (12), as he has done many times in the past, promisedmuch and delivered little. Fortunately Sunil Joshi came in and smackedthe ball around for a sprightly 27 in the company of Tendulkar. Thisbrought stumper Dahiya out to the middle. He was given just fourminutes at the crease by Tendulkar. Reaching the second double centuryof his Test career in 392 minutes, Tendulkar exulted. In a repeat ofthe last Test, India declared their innings closed as soon as abatsman reached his double hundred. In Delhi it was Dravid and today,Tendulkar. The Mumbai batting star’s 201 included 27 hits to thefence, but not once did he attempt to hit the ball all the way overthe ropes. At a massive 609/6 India declared their innings closed.In response, Zimbabwe sent Guy Whittall to open the innings in placeof Grant Flower who bagged a pair in the Delhi Test. In the eighteenovers that were bowled, Zimbabwe managed to reach 59/1. The wicketthat fell was of Gavin Rennie, being needlessly run out. Whittall (34not out) and Stuart Carlisle (4 not out) saw Zimbabwe through tostumps without further damage.

Daniel Marsh hit a century and Trevor Ward 93 as Leicestershire piled up their biggest total of the season on the first day of the CricInfo Championship clash with Somerset at Grace Road.They were dismissed for 387 right on the close, and there was nobody happier than Ward. The 33-year-old former Kent opener turned back the clock with a gem of an innings – his best score in the Championship for three years.He was the first to admit: “It’s been long overdue,” after his first season at Leicestershire brought him only 110 runs in seven matches.But given his chance for the first time this summer he grabbed it with both hands to set the tone and tempo for the day.And Australian Marsh is already looking an inspired signing as the overseas player. This was the fourth time in seven innings that he has gone past 50 and he is the first Leicestershire player to make a Championship century this season.It all added up to a tough day in the field for understrength Somerset who were minus Test men Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick. The one consolation for them was the return to action of young left-arm seamer Matthew Bulbeck after a year’s absence with a stress fracture of the back.He bowled tidily to claim the wickets of Iain Sutcliffe and Vince Wells. There was little else to cheer up the visitors however, on a day dominated by the batsmen after Leicestershire had won the toss.Ward and Sutcliffe shared an opening stand of 79 – Leicestershire’s best for a year – and then Marsh and Darren Stevens put on 147 for the sixth wicket.Ward, who raced to his 50 off 56 balls with nine fours and a six, was out seven runs short of what would have been his first Championship century for four years. He chipped a catch to mid-on having hit another six fours in his 137-ball innings.Marsh then took over, reaching his century off 165 balls with 19 fours. But once Stevens had gone for 63 Marsh had little support from the tail and Michael Burns nipped in to take three for 26 in nine overs. The Australian was undefeated though on 138, boosting his average to 87.

WORCESTER, England – The legend of Sir Donald Bradman hovers aboveAustralia’s opening match of the Ashes tour against Worcestershire atpicturesque New Road.Under the steady gaze and ringing bells of Worcester Cathedral, theAustralian one-day team takes the field tonight (AEST) at the traditionalfirst port of call for Ashes sides in England.If the forecast rain stays away, Australia’s batsmen will attempt to emulateBradman’s habit of re-introducing himself to English crowds each summer witha double-hundred against the Midlands club.The quaint white clubhouse perched just above New Road’s lush outfield ishome to a wonderful black and white photograph of Bradman playing a coverdrive on April 30, 1938.There’s a capacity crowd of 14,000, the imperial old cathedral dominates thebackground, and Bradman is on his way to 258 – his third score of more than200 against Worcester.Five of Australia’s Test batsmen – Matthew Hayden, Mark Waugh, captain SteveWaugh, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist – are in the limited overs squad andlike in Bradman’s day, the match is sold out.It’s the perfect setting for them to start the tour on a run-filled note.”This is a great place for us to come and play cricket, it’s still the No.1tour to be on for an Australian player,” said Steve Waugh.”Coming back to England we feel comfortable here, a lot of us have played alot of cricket here and we just love playing in England.”The crowds are the best to play in front of, the tradition of places likeLord’s and some of the other grounds have just got a good feeling aboutthem.”Even being here for only a few days, it just feels like this is the rightplace to play cricket.”Waugh will not reveal the Australian starting XI until just before playbegins.Meanwhile, Worcestershire’s Queensland import Andy Bichel has withdrawn fromthe match, preferring to rest himself for the club’s bid to move out of thesecond division of the county championship.”The decision was up to him really and he just basically felt – and I agreewith him – that he’s better resting up and saving himself for a game thatmeans points for the county,” said Worcestershire coach and formerAustralian player Tom Moody.Bichel is a strong chance of being rushed into Australia’s Test squad duringthe Ashes if one of the chosen fast bowlers is injured.That is every chance of happening given the recent problems of JasonGillespie (foot) and Brett Lee (elbow).

Kington:
Herefordshire 154 (N Davies 55no; A Shimmons 5-26)
Shropshire 155-4 (B Jones 50no)
Shropshire won by four wickets.Manor Park:
Cambridgeshire 124
Norfolk 125-2 (C Amos 75no)
Norfolk won by eight wickets.Swindon:Somerset Cricket Board 161 (M Bulbeck 41, R Sedgebeer 41; PM Marsh 3-28)
Wiltshire 165-1 (PM Marsh 95no, DA Winter 66)
Wiltshire won by nine wickets.Torquay:
Cornwall 234-6 (NC Curnow 87no; T Wright 5-52)
Devon 235-3 (KA O’Barrett 80no, DF Lye 51)
Devon won by seven wickets.Chelmsford:
Middlesex Cricket Board 190 (P Wellings 68, A Churchill 4-31
Essex County Cricket Board 191-3 (A. Hibbert 86)
Essex County Cricket Board won by seven wickets.Marlow:
Oxfordshire 251-5 (R Williams 95, B Thompson 64)
Buckinghamshire 202 (P Atkins 50)
Oxfordshire won by 49 runs.Ashford:
Surrey Cricket Board 238-8 (T Carter 83)
Kent Cricket Board 194-9 (LJT Jenkins 50)
Surrey Cricket Board won by 44 runs.West Herts, Watford:
Huntingdonshire 281-8 (J Woodward 56)
Hertfordshire 252-9 (D Lowe 87; J Coleman 5-45)
Huntingdonshire won by 29 runs.Longhirst:
Durham Cricket Board 297-7 (G Pratt 65, A Worthy 52, G Scott 42no, C Mann 30no)
Northumberland 207 (W Ritzama 53, B Parker 31, G Hallam 30; S Humble 3-34, CMann 3-30)
Durham Cricket Board won by 90 runs.Thatcham:
Berkshire 213-9 (JR Wood 54)
Hampshire Cricket Board 187 (C Yates 51, T Lambert 4-37)
Berkshire won by 26 runs.

England captain Nasser Hussain can expect a torrid time when his county side Essex take on the Australians at Chelmsford tomorrow.The three-day game is the tourists’ last warm-up match before the First Test at Edgbaston next Thursday – and they intend to make things particularly hot for Hussain who has played just two first-class matches this summer.He is desperate for time in the middle after fracturing his thumb in the First Test against Pakistan; since then he has played just a single one-day game.But any thoughts of a gentle practice tomorrow will be dispelled when he sees that Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee are lining up against him.Adam Gilchrist, who will be captaining the Australians in the absence of Steve Waugh, said: “Obviously the big interest will be Hussain and I can’t see any reason why we would want to try and take it easy on him.”It’s fair to say that we will be fine tuning for a Test Match. We areplaying a strong bowling line-up.”With regards to our quick bowlers playing, they are obviously primecandidates for the Test Match so they are going to want to make sure they aresecuring their spots.”I think that alone is going to provide a fairly torrid time to the Essexbatsmen.”Gilchrist went on: “I don’t know if it would have a psychological effect on Nasser or not, I don’t know him well enough.”But if you go out and bat against a bowler or a group of bowlers and theywork you over and get you out – which is the main thing we will want to dorather than him get time in the middle, I suppose – that will be to our interestin the Test match.”He has obviously had a tremendous effect on their cricket, on their team asa leader and that is probably why they want him back most. He’s obviously done agood job and is inspirational.”Justin Langer will have a fitness test in the morning to see if he has recovered from a painful blow to the wrist while fielding against the MCC at Arundel yesterday.With scores of four and nought against the MCC, the pressure will be on theleft-hander and the same is true of openers Michael Slater and Matthew Hayden,who struggled in the same match.”They haven’t scored the runs and Matty missed out in the one-dayers but wehave confidence that they will come through,” said Gilchrist.”They have all got great records and they have established themselves inthose positions.”In contrast, Simon Katich and Damien Martyn looked impressive in innings of168 not out and 80 respectively at the Castle Ground.”I don’t think there is any need for looking around in panic situations atwho is going to replace who. We have had a consistent line-up for a number ofconsecutive matches now and it would be nice to keep that momentum going.”Teams:Essex (from): N Hussain, A P Grayson, D D J Robinson, S G Law, R C Irani (capt), S D Peters, J S Foster (wkt), M C Ilott, A P Cowan, P M Such, J E Bishop, R S Clinton, M K Davies.Australians: Slater, Hayden, Langer, M Waugh, Ponting, Martyn, Gilchrist (capt, wkt), Miller, Lee, Gillespie, McGrath.

An unbeaten 101 put paid to Herefordshire’s chances of causing another upset but could not snaffle the man of the match award from the Minor Counties team’s hero, Ravi Nagra.The 22-year-old pharmacy student, who plays for Old Hill in the Birmingham League, hit 12 fours and two sixes in a brilliant 105 from 107 balls out of a total of 210.Nagra put on 55 in 11 overs with Old Hill clubmate Nathan Round (41) and dominated another rapid partnership of 54 in only nine overs with Andy Edwards (16).What threatened to be a day of embarrassment for Worcestershire eventually turned into a tidal wave in their favour as Herefordshire collapsed when Nagra was caught low down at short extra cover by David Leatherdale.Stuart Lampitt, Kabir Ali and Andy Bichel mopped up the tail and the county side were barely stretched in strolling to 214 for 3 to win by seven wickets with 12.5 overs to spare.There was just one glimmer of hope for Herefordshire when Round ran out Philip Weston from cover in the fifth over, but Hick collected 16 fours in a 92-ball cruise to a century on an easy-paced pitch.Anurag Singh (42) helped put on 90 until bowled by former Notts veteran Kevin Cooper and Vikram Solanki chipped Aamir Farooque to mid-wicket after a 33-ball dash to 41 out of 89 in 12 overs.