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Sachin Tendulkar will become the fourth non-Australian cricketer to receive an Order of Australia honour. The prime minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, made the announcement while visiting a cricket clinic in Delhi and she said Tendulkar, who is currently in South Africa for the Champions League Twenty20, would receive the honour from cabinet minister Simon Crean, who is due to visit India soon.”I’m very pleased we’re going to confer on Sachin Tendulkar membership of the Order of Australia, an AM,” Gillard told reporters in Delhi. “This is a very special honour, very rarely awarded to someone who is not an Australian citizen or an Australian national.”He is away playing cricket – surprise, surprise – but the award will be conferred on him by minister Crean when [he] visits India. So a very special honour and a very special recognition of such a great batsman.”No cricketer has played more matches against Australia than Tendulkar, who has played against them 106 times across Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 internationals. He has toured Australia five times for Test series, from 1991 to 2011, and only Jack Hobbs has scored more Test runs against the Australians.Tendulkar will be the first non-Australian cricketer to be made an honorary member of the Order of Australia since Brian Lara, who was given the award in 2009. Lara was given the title “for service to Australia-Caribbean relations by promoting goodwill, friendship and sportsmanship through the sport of cricket”.In 1985, the former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd was made an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, which ranks higher in the Australian honour system than the member of the Order of Australia, for his “outstanding and positive influence on the game in Australia”.Another West Indian, Sir Garfield Sobers, was also made a member of the Order of Australia in 2003, “for service to cricket as a player and supporter of young players, particularly from disadvantaged areas and groups, and to the community through support for charitable organisations”. However, Sobers holds Australian citizenship through marriage, so his award was not considered “honorary”.Approximately 20 Australian cricketers have been given Order of Australia honours, including Sir Donald Bradman, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Dennis Lillee, Max Walker, Bob Simpson, Keith Miller, Justin Langer, Bill Lawry, Ricky Ponting, Peter Burge, Ron Archer, Alan Davidson, Dean Jones and Belinda Clark.

Western Warriors warmed up for the final of the Champions Cup tomorrow with an easy 108-run win over Central Districts in Perth today.Going into the game CD had the chance of playing in the final themselves if they could beat their Australian hosts, but a disappointing batting effort, where the top order again failed the side, meant CD were never competitive.In the field, CD did a superb job in holding the Western Warriors to a total of 257/8, when it seemed that a score in excess of 280 was on the cards.But in the end it didn’t matter as CD couldn’t capitalise with the bat.Earlier, the New Zealand team’s bowlers kept the pressure on after the Warriors made a sound start with the bat.Marcus North especially, showed out with some solid batting and kept the top order moving before being bowled around his legs by off spinner Glen Sulzberger for 56 runs scored off 80 balls.New player Peter Worthington marked his debut for the Warriors with a half century scoring 54 off 63 balls.In the latter part of the innings the restriction of Justin Langer to an effort where he took largely singles and twos played a major part in Western Australia being held to only 257. Langer was out trying to hit out for 60 off 63 balls.In the last 10 overs the home side was only able to score 50 runs.CD captain Jacob Oram and Sulzberger, the two players with One-Day International experience this summer, bowled especially well. Oram bowled his 10 overs and finished with one for 39 while Sulzberger’s nine overs produced two wickets for 38.But the younger bowlers, the players who did so well in the New Zealand Shell Cup campaign, were all too expensive and lacked control at the vital stages.CD’s batting response started out at a good clip but the steady loss of wickets and a run rate requirement that hovered between 5.5 and six runs per over kept the pressure on the home side.Opener Jamie How impressed with another solid innings where he wasn’t afraid to loft the ball and he scored 39 runs.But the early loss of David Kelly dragging a ball from Brad Williams onto his wickets and the frustrating batting of Craig Spearman, most under-mined the CD hopes. Spearman, playing some outstanding shots got cleaned out by a full-pitched ball having scored 13 runs off 13 balls.Ben Smith could work no miracles and he departed for a duck while Oram just looked like he was getting into a good scoring groove when he was undone by a superb yorker from Matthew Nicholson. Out for 25 off 27 balls his departure signalled the beginning of the end.Sulzberger having lost Mark Douglas to a run out was soon gone also, to a superb close quarter catch taken by Simon Katich.The tail was wrapped up fairly quickly as the home bowlers feasted on the CD carcass.Williams, bowling with some fire and pace took two for 22 from five overs, North had two for 20 from four overs, Hogg two for 33 from 6.2 while Stuart Karppinen had two for 40 from 10 overs bowled on the trot.It was a comprehensive Western Warriors win and one that should see them favoured to complete the tournament with a victory tomorrow.

Yuvraj Singh, who is expected to mark his return to international cricket during the first Twenty20 in Visakhapatnam, has said he is treating his comeback as a new beginning. The match is expected to be attended by several of his friends and family members.Yuvraj overcame a rare germ cell cancer, diagnosed late last year, after undergoing chemotherapy in the USA and was named in the Twenty20 squad after being declared fit by doctors at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.”It is hard to believe that I will be playing for India again,” Yuvraj said. “A few months back I had trouble climbing four steps, now I can’t wait to take the field. It is like starting a new life.”Yuvraj has received a lot of media attention over recent months, with fans praying for his speedy recovery. It continued when he resumed training and not surprisingly, much of the attention in the lead-up to the first Twenty20 against New Zealand has centered on him. However, the captain MS Dhoni cautioned that the increased attention could be distracting to the player and the team, especially with the World Twenty20 coming up in Sri Lanka.”The whole world is talking about his comeback in a manner as if they are helping him out. In a way, it puts the burden on the individual,” Dhoni said. “It’s important to keep it as normal as possible, not to let him think what has really happened in his life.”He has fought through it as he is a strong character. As I said, he needs to turn up and just enjoy his cricket. That’s what he has done from age-group cricket till now. So he should not think about anything else.”Yuvraj’s return was welcomed by his fellow team-mates, some of whom last shared a dressing room with him back in November 2011, during the home Tests against West Indies.”Now this is what we call a comeback,” said Harbhajan Singh, who is also making a return after being dropped. “There can’t be a bigger inspiration in cricket than Yuvi. It is a privilege to be back in the dressing room with him.”Batsman Suresh Raina said his story was an inspiration. “Yuvi is such a great fighter. He has put in so much effort, and worked really hard at the NCA,” Raina said. “You will get to see this when he comes out on the field. He is a team man. We are pretty confident that he will do well.”

Australia’s hopes of regaining the Ashes at home this summer will improve if the players are subjected to a more disciplined set-up, rigorous training and minimal leniency, according to Ian Healy. Referring to his own early days in a team finding its way under Allan Border and Bob Simpson, Healy wants team management to return to the days of old-fashioned hard grind to give the current crop the sense of reality that he feels pampered, modern-day sportsmen lack.”We’re treating them the same way we treated legends in their last few years,” Healy said at the Mark Boucher tribute dinner in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening. “We’ve never gone back to the way things were 20 years ago. We used to work too hard and do too much training and we’re letting these younger guys train the way legends used to.”Less rigid coaches, notably Gary Kirsten who followed the accountability style of leadership with both India and South Africa, allow the players to choose how many net sessions they need to have and how long they should be. Kirsten said that by treating cricketers like adults and allowing them to make their own decisions would invariably result in them opting for what is best for their own performance.But Healy thinks that approach will only work once players are established enough on the international stage and not during a transition phase like one Australia are going through at the moment. Healy said he could see new coach Darren Lehmann starting to do away with some of those excessive freedoms but has advised him to become even more militant.”We’re treating our national side a bit like a club team too often,” he said. Healy was particularly critical of allowing players time off during series or the luxury of missing certain fixtures to prepare for others. Australia have been careful to use their quick bowlers in rotation, especially to manage injury concerns and on Thursday announced Mitchell Johnson would return home from the India ODI series to prepare for the first Ashes Test.If Healy had it his way, players would be available for the majority of games Australia play. “All this resting players and rotating players. In our day, if you wanted rest, you were told that was fine because there are heaps of people who want your job.”Those people are still out there and Healy believes despite the current challenges Australian cricket is healthy. “Our system is still good, we are not negligent in funding and we are producing enough cricketers,” he said.For that reason, he was bullish about Australia’s chances in the upcoming Ashes series, although he knows they go in as underdogs. “We are capable of winning the Ashes but England will give themselves a big kick in the pants if they don’t win,” he said. At the very least Healy expects Australia will “play better than we have in the last two years,” this summer.

Office-bearers for 2013-14

President – N Srinivasan
Secretary – Sanjay Patel
Joint secretary – Anurag Thakur
Treasurer – Anirudh Chaudhry
Vice-president, north zone – SP Bansal
Vice-president, central zone – Rajiv Shukla
Vice-president, south zone – Shivlal Yadav
Vice-president, west zone – Ravi Savant
Vice-president, east zone – Chitrak Mitra

The statutory committees

Selection committee
Sandeep Patil, west (chairman), Rajinder Singh Hans, central, Roger Binny, south, Vikram Rathour, north, Saba Karim, east, Sanjay Patel (convener)

Junior selection committee
Connor Williams, west (chairman), Pritam Gandhe, central, Aman Kumar, north, K Jayaraman, south, Arup Bhattacharya, east, Anurag Thakur (convener)

Women’s selection committee
Shanta Rangaswamy, south (chairperson), Gulshan Sharma, north, Gargi Banerjee, east, Amrita Shinde, west, Rita Dey, central, Sanjay Patel (convener)

Finance committee
G Ganga Raju (Chairman), Arun Thakur, north, Chetan Desai, south, Biswarup Dey, east, Niranjan Shah, west, Kishore Dewani, central, Anirudh Chaudhry (convener)

IPL governing council
Ranjib Biswal (chairman), TC Mathew, Amitabh Choudhary, Chetan Desai, Nilay Dutta, Subir Ganguly, Ravi Shastri, GR Viswanath, Arindam Ganguly (special invitee), CK Khanna (special invitee), plus all the office-bearers of the BCCI and the finance committee chairman (G Ganga Raju)

National Cricket Academy board
TC Mathew (chairman), Sunil Dev (vice-chairman), S Lotlikar, Rajiv Singh, Rakesh Parikh, Gyanendra Pandey, KS Viswanathan, Sujan Mukherjee

Umpires sub-committee
Ravi Savant (chairman), Sunil Dev, north, Sudhakar Rao, south, Rajesh Verma, east, Devendra Solanki, west, Bhagvandas Sutar, central, S Venkataraghavan (director), AV Jayaprakash (retired Test umpire), Anurag Thakur (convener)

Junior cricket committee
SP Bansal (chairman), Mehboob Iqbal, north, TN Ananthanarayana, south, Malay Chakraborthy, east, Raju Kane, west, Shoaib Ahmed, central, Anurag Thakur (convener)

Tour programme and fixtures committee
Rajiv Shukla (chairman), GS Walia, north, P Yadgiri, south, Satya Mohanty, east, Nitin Dalal, west, Mahendra Sharma, central, Sanjay Patel (convener)

Media committee
Vinod Phadke (chairman), Ravi Jain, north (vice-chairman), RN Baba, south, Anil Patel, west, Sharad Padhye, central, Siba Prasad Tripathi, east

Technical committee
To be chaired by Anil Kumble

Marketing committee
To be chaired by Amitabh Choudhary

Museum committee
To be chaired by CP Joshi

Anti-corruption and security committee
This newly-constituted committee will be chaired by Amitabh Choudhary, former additional director general of police, Jharkhand

David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s former minister of sport, said that cricket in the country is now in a critical state, following a financial crisis which almost resulted in a boycott from the players.In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Coltart said that Zimbabwe Cricket was nearly $15-18 million in the red and the financial condition was affecting the board’s ability to look after players. The lack of international tours was further affecting Zimbabwe’s chances of addressing its financial issues.”The association now is very much in the red. We estimate anything between $15-18 million in the red. That situation has been compounded by the fact that there have been very few international tours, very few profitable tours, which undermines the ability of Zimbabwe Cricket to address that massive debt,” Coltart said. “And that, in turn, has meant that players have not been paid on time.”Earlier this month, Zimbabwe’s players boycotted their training ahead of the series against Pakistan and decided to form a union to negotiate for better pay. They reached an agreement with the board, after an assurance that ZC would clear their outstanding salaries and also pay them match fees. Shortly after the issue was resolved, fast bowler Kyle Jarvis announced his retirement from international cricket. The pace bowler opted out of the series against Pakistan to take up a county offer from Lancashire.Coltart recounted an incident last year when he had met with a delegation of players and coaches, some of whom had not been paid for up to three years. Such treatment, Coltart said, was pushing players like Jarvis and Gary Ballance to leave the country for better opportunities and this exodus was dragging the game down further.”Last year, I received a delegation of players, including coaches who, having not received any joy from Zimbabwe Cricket came to me directly because they had not been paid match fees,” Coltart recalled.”Some were owed a vast amount of money, and had not been paid up to three years. I summoned Zimbabwe Cricket and the Sports Recreation Commission and arranged for players to be paid. But, it undermined the confidence of many players in the association and that resulted in people, critically important players like Tatenda Taibu, leaving the game.”And now we see Jarvis leaving the game, and there are others who we had hoped would be attracted to play for the country, players like Gary Ballance, started to look elsewhere. That erodes the confidence of the team and creates a very vicious cycle where we are not competitive against international teams. So those teams are reluctant to come, they don’t get the revenues that they would otherwise get from a close contest.”Coltart, who lobbied with Australia, England and India to get more tours to Zimbabwe, said the chances of Zimbabwe hosting more countries depended as much on the political situation in the country as it did on the state of the game. He was also critical of the way ZC had managed funds, saying the board had failed to protect players’ interests. He however expressed hope that future incomes from the game could be used efficiently to revive the game.”I had a meeting with (ICC CEO) Dave Richardson in Dubai in March and he told me that Zimbabwe Cricket, over the next couple of years, can expect revenues of up to $25 million. Zimbabwe cricket does not have the infrastructure that, for example, we see in New Zealand and $25 million, properly administered, should be enough to grow the game and pay players,” he said.One of the major benefits of the newly formed players’ association, according to Coltart, was that it would help many players negotiate for better pay. The association, he said, could get ZC to start treating players better, sparking better results and more series with international teams over the long term. He, however, urged the players to find a manager who could keep the association going, while the players are busy with their cricket commitments.”It has been a demand of players for over a decade. And what has happened in the absence of the players’ association is that the administration has managed to literally threaten players, especially young black players who had nothing else to turn to, and undermine their ability to negotiate reasonable terms and conditions.”I am very pleased that this is now being agreed to and the players must find someone to do that role. And I am very encouraged to see the unity among players in the last couple of weeks. If they are successful in that and if Zimbabwe Cricket starts treating their players better, then the players will play better, and we can attract these teams and ultimately, it’s going to address the financial problems.”

West Indies in New Zealand 2013-14

• December 3-7, 1st Test, Dunedin

• December 11-15, 2nd Test, Wellington

• December 19-23, 3rd Test, Hamilton

• December 26, 1st ODI, Auckland

• December 29, 2nd ODI, Napier

• January 1, 3rd ODI, Queenstown

• January 4, 4th ODI, Nelson

• January 8, 5th ODI, Hamilton

• January 11, 1st T20, Auckland

• January 15, 2nd T20, Wellington

Nelson will host its first ever men’s international match when West Indies tour New Zealand in December-January for three Tests, five ODIs and two T20s. The Saxton Oval, which had earlier hosted a women’s international T20 in 2010-11, will also host three group matches in the 2015 World Cup.West Indies’ tour begins with the Tests in Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton, followed by the ODIs and T20s. Though no warm-up games were scheduled, ESPNcricinfo understands that there is likely to be a three-day game in late November, before the Tests. Auckland’s Eden Park will host the first ODI on Boxing Day, while Queenstown and Nelson will host the third and fourth games on New Year’s day and January 4 respectively.Nelson Cricket Association general manager Ed Shuttleworth said the chance to host a major international will be a boost for cricket in the South Island town.”To bring international cricket to our region has been a goal for many years and achieving this is a moment of real pride for all those involved in developing cricket and the facilities in the region,” Shuttleworth said. “The legacy of international cricket will be significant with participation increasing and kids being inspired by seeing the Blackcaps in their home town.”New Zealand Cricket CEO David White said the intention was to build an annual series of matches at popular holiday destinations like Nelson and Queenstown.White said there had been no progress in the schedule for the proposed tour by India, in the second half of the New Zealand summer.”I have to admit discussions with the BCCI have taken longer than we hoped, but we should be able to announce the tour schedule in the next few weeks,” White said.West Indies last toured New Zealand in 2008-09, drawing the two Test series 0-0 but losing the ODIs and T20s 2-1 and 0-1 respectively.

ScorecardKevin O’Brien’s power helped taken advantage of a short boundary•Getty Images

It was over so quickly that people didn’t really know what to do with themselves. Some stayed in their seats, others meandered – all finishing off the food, drink and conversations that would have lasted them 20 minutes more. The rest sidled out into the streets of North-West London, muttering about one of the worst Middlesex performances in recent memory.For the first time in their Twenty20 history, Middlesex failed to reach three figures. It was rather uneasy to watch; Dawid Malan, Joe Denly, Adam Voges and Paul Stirling managing to face only 21 deliveries between them, amassing 25 runs. Eoin Morgan hit the hardest nine runs you’ll ever hear, before Jason Roy took a superb catch at backward point. He would drop one later, eliciting the second biggest sarcastic cheer of the night – first coming in the games’ aftermath when St John’s Wood station was deemed open, just minutes after the PA announced it was closed.But if Middlesex were bereft of ideas, it was because Surrey weren’t giving them any clues. Their in-fielding was top notch, backing up some impressive bowling, particularly from Chris Tremlett who looked as quick as he has done this season.Essentially, the game was settled on who utilised the boundary away to the Tavern and Mound Stand best. “Barely 45 yards,” according to Kevin O’Brien, who pillaged 54 in just 24 balls. However, it was his Irish counterpart Stirling on the opposition who made the most emphatic use of the abbreviated edge when he hooked Tremlett out of the ground. It was the only maximum Middlesex could muster.O’Brien will join Ricky Ponting – kept out of today with a groin complaint – in the Caribbean Twenty20, which he sets off for on Sunday. As such, he will be unavailable for the knockout stages of the FLt20, but he has helped Surrey get closer to them with this win seeing them leapfrog Middlesex into third via run rate, with two games left to play.It was a shame that Middlesex’s home campaign in the competition ended in such a disappointing manner in front of a bumper crowd of 28,000. Is it a London thing? Surrey have also boasted sell outs at The Oval this season, and it will again be the case tomorrow when Kent visit.The capital’s two grounds are 45 minutes and two trains apart, and there may indeed be a crossover of neutrals, but they are shining advertisements that Twenty20 cricket is a good thing. The vitality it brings to the domestic game cannot be understated, not least when it comes to carrying through a new generation of fans – one that was probably lost in the time before free hits. Just ask Roy who was mobbed like the boy band member he resembles when he stepped out of the Pavilion to head home, by a crowd of kids baying for his signature on programmes, mini bats and boundary signs.As the crowds settled in, Surrey were flustering to 17 for 2. But it was the promotion of O’Brien to No. 4 that proved to be the making of Surrey’s innings, as he made use of 11 of the remaining Powerplay deliveries available to him to score 29.At the other end, Vikram Solanki was proving a contrasting foil for O’Brien, as they put on 90 – Surrey’s highest partnership for any wicket in the competition this season. They batted with such polarising ways and means that you could imagine them flat sharing in the lower east side of Manhattan; Solanki, the city slicker, all class and convention, and O’Brien, the small town biffer, with larger than life personality and tree trunks for arms. Cue your conventional sitcom capers.The difference in their methods was perhaps most evident when it came to their approach to the short boundary. While Solanki danced and flicked Ravi Patel to midwicket for six, O’Brien clubbed and muscled. Both fell in Patel’s final over, as the left-arm spinner finished with the impressive figures of 3 for 28 in his four, the only Middlesex player to leave Lord’s with anything to celebrate, albeit sheepishly.Gareth Berg might have been another when he quelled a last over blitz with some fine yorkers to concede only four runs by taking two wickets. It turned out to be rather pointless in the end, as Middlesex flopped in London’s dusk and all but quashed their FLt20 dreams.

No result
ScorecardWeather played spoilsport as the Ramadan T20 Cup match between Pakistan International Airlines and Water and Power Development Authority in Karachi was called off due to rain.WAPDA scored 151 in their 20 overs after being put in to bat. However, PIA’s chase lasted only eight deliveries before rain interrupted play.PIA got an early breakthrough in the first innings, as medium-pacer Anwar Ali got the wicket of opener Shoaib Nasir in the first over. Sohaib Maqsood, batting at No.3, then shared a 77-run second-wicket partnership with Iftikhar Ahmed, to revive the innings. Maqsood hit 10 fours and three sixes during his 60-ball 86 as WAPDA reached a score of 151 for 8 in 20 overs. Ali was the pick of the bowlers for PIA, ending with figures of 4-0-22-2.Both teams were awarded a point each.

ScorecardWill Gidman made significant inroads into Hampshire•Getty Images

Pace bowlers Will Gidman and James Fuller ripped through some frail Hampshire batting to earn Gloucestershire their second LV= County Championship win of the season inside three days at the Ageas Bowl.In fact, with the first day washed out by rain, the match lasted only two days as Gloucestershire – after setting Hampshire 411 to win in 169 overs – won by 198 runs rather more easily than they could have anticipated following the surprise calculations between the captains.Gidman’s gentle medium pace earned him figures of 4 for 46 and Fuller, not much quicker, took 3 for 54 as Hampshire failed to rise to the challenge.With both sides having only won once in seven Division Two matches, there was an urgency about play when it resumed today with Gloucestershire 349 for 7 from 96 overs but with time and opportunities running out. The visitors added a further 61 runs in 21 overs for the loss of Fuller and Craig Miles, both victims of Dimitri Mascarenhas, in attempting to accelerate.Gloucestershire captain Michael Klinger called a halt at 410 for 9 with young wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick 45 not out and Mascarenhas, in his first Championship match of the season, taking 4 for 61.At that point Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams responded by forfeiting his side’s first innings and Klinger did the same to his team’s second, leaving Hampshire five sessions and 10 overs to reach their mammoth target on an increasingly benign wicket.But Hampshire were soon chasing a hopelessly lost cause, losing Adams in the second over to his fourth duck in five first-class innings and worse was to follow rapidly. Liam Dawson and Michael Carberry took the score to 63 before Fuller had Dawson caught at point and experienced South African Neil McKenzie departed without scoring at 66.Carberry was leg before to Fuller at 68 and James Vince was caught down the legside by Roderick off Gidman to make Hampshire 74 for in the 30th over. The rest was processional; Sean Ervine was caught at the wicket off Miles at 88 before newcomer Sohail Tanvir and Adam Wheater put together a stand of 48 for the seventh to delay the inevitable.Wheater hit eight boundaries in his 38 and Sohail produced a flurry of fours in his 37 while Mascarenhas hit Gidman for six on his way to his side’s top score of 41.Mascarenhas was last out at 212 attempting another big hit off Fuller, but by then Hampshire had been soundly beaten and Gloucestershire were left to savour an unlikely victory by such a big margin.