Roger Mosey, the BBC’s director of sport, has revealed that their World Cup highlights programme attracted more than 17m people, compared to 6.6m who tuned into BSkyB’s live coverage.In a wide-ranging speech at the Professional Cricketers’ Association Business Summit on Thursday, Mosey spoke of the BBC’s flagship Test Match Special, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer, and the importance of balancing traditional programming with modern techniques in what is increasingly an advertisers’ market.Yet, while the BBC have continued to dominate cricket broadcasting over the radio waves – for half a century – the world of television is more fickle. The BBC’s rights to cover live cricket ended in 1999 when it was sold to Channel 4. Subsequently, in 2005, the ECB’s decision to sell the rights to BSkyB was met with admonishment by many, including several MPs, and Mosey is insistent that pay-per-view television has cut off a large section of the British population”The issue isn’t about Sky: it’s about pay television compared with free-to-air,” he said. “It’s exactly the reason why audiences for English Test cricket have fallen significantly since it moved to pay TV.”Being on terrestrial TV and being free-to-air is vital if you want to attract large audiences to sport. Don’t believe the line that after analogue switch-off and when we’re all digital it will be a level playing field among all broadcasters,” he said. “Forking out an extra £35 a month or whatever for pay TV with sports channels is a rather key differentiator between channels.”Sky won the rights in 2005, ending Channel 4’s coverage which, in their brief but successful six-year span, had attracted many new supporters to the game. Innovations such as Hawk Eye, their weekly cricket road-shows and high-profile commentators such as Richie Benaud and Tony Greig all helped rejuvenate a product which, in the hands of the BBC, had become stale.”Personally, I would never argue that cricket shouldn’t take some of its money from pay TV: it should be absolutely at liberty to do that,” Mosey said. “But, I have a problem with the notion of the whole of the live content of a particular sport being on one platform – especially when it’s a sport with as many hours as cricket.”We do not believe it’s essential or healthy that 100% of any live sport is with one operator. We do believe it’s possible to arrange future contracts so that they give mass audiences the opportunity to see some matches live.”The BBC will have to wait, though, as the current contracts are not up for renewal until 2009.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies captain, has said that his team will look to play positively against England left-arm spinner Monty Panesar, who took 6 for 129 in the first innings of the first Test as West Indies were bowled out for 437. Panesar had a record five lbw decisions given in his favour.”We hadn’t played him before Lord’s so he was quite new to most of us. He didn’t get many wickets with the turning ball but get got a lot of wickets with his arm ball and that is something that we’ll be looking at”, Sarwan said, speaking on the eve of the second Test. “One of the things we’re trying to do is to stay on top of their main bowlers. We saw when Australia played them they were positive against [Steve] Harmison and we have the similar type of approach. We’ll have a better feel of Monty [Panesar] in this game so it’s important that we try and stay on top”.Sarwan said that he was looking for the lower-order to contribute in the batting effort. The West Indies were 187 for 5 in the first innings of the Lord’s Test before vital contributions from the middle- and lower-order helped them finish with 437.Sarwan felt that the Headingley pitch looked to be slower and swing would be an important factor. “A few years ago when we played here and the Test match was finished in two days it was much better [for bowling] than what we see now. The pitches we’ve practiced on seem to be much slower and when you look at the Test pitch it seems to have a similar look on it. There would be a bit if turn on it I would think,” said Sarwan. “I think the conditions have a lot to do with the swing bowling so it’s important that we bowl consistent line and length and hold our chances when they come.””Generally in England you have to bowl a full length because the ball tends to do a lot more than the Caribbean. In the second innings at Lord’s we bowled quite a few short balls, in the first innings we were very hesitant about it and a couple of their players looked very shy so that’s probably a tactic we might be using in this game”Sarwan said that his team would look to build on their performances in the drawn first Test at Lord’s. He brushed aside the fact that West Indies did not have enough practice before the series saying that the time spent on field during the first Test had prepared them for this encounter.

The heady days of the World Cup are suddenly feeling a long time ago for Trent Johnston and the Ireland team. Their first one-day international since they ended the Super Eights adventure finished in a nine-wicket defeat against India at Stormont.Ireland’s cause wasn’t helped by a long list of key players missing for various reasons. Of their World Cup stars, Eoin Morgan, Jeremy Bray, Boyd Rankin, David Langford-Smith and Andre Botha weren’t available against India along with the Mooney brothers. Rankin, Langford-Smith and Botha are injured but Morgan has opted to secure a first-team place with Middlesex and Bray asked not to be considered for the matches.Since returning from the Caribbean there has been plenty of positive talk about turning Irish cricket at least semi-professional but, as Craig Wright warned about Scottish cricket, already that dream is looking a long way off. However, Johnston says it’s a route the game must take if the World Cup isn’t going to be a one-off.”It’s difficult,” admitted Johnston. “We don’t even have a first-class structure here. We basically come from club cricket to playing the best cricketers in the world.”We’ve got to have professional contracts put in place so players can get back to the standard we set in the West Indies. Four months we were away playing cricket and you could see in our performance over there we were a much better team.”We are amateur cricketers. We get together for two or three hours a week as a squad and train. I think you can see from our performances in the World Cup when we were 24/7 cricket, we were a different side. There’s a lot more pressures when you are back here, you’ve got kids, you’ve got families.”Except for their Intercontinental Cup victory against a weak Canadian side, Ireland’s form since the World Cup has been poor and they didn’t manage a single victory in the Friends Provident Trophy.”We’ve struggled this year against county teams so when you come and play against a team like India, with the quality they have, we are always going to struggle because we’re not together, we’re not a professional outfit.”We are in a rebuilding process. Our two opening bowlers [Whelan and Fourie], have probably played three or four games in total between them for Ireland. To open the bowling against [Sourav] Ganguly and [Sachin] Tendulkar is a huge step up.”But, at the end of the day, they knew how to bowl at the top of off stump to get here so why can’t they do it in the middle? That’s the disappointing thing, because I know they can do it. But I don’t want to be critical of our bowlers because they are young and inexperienced.”However, Johnston refused to be too disheartened and preferred to look towards the future. “We get together for three hours for a week and it’s impossible to compete against these guys. We’ve just got to learn to be more consistent.”We’ve got good young cricketers coming through and we’ve got to come back tomorrow [Sunday] and put in a good performance against South Africa.”

The West Indies Players’ Association has accused the West Indies Cricket Board of attempting to widen the gulf between players and the board by censuring Chris Gayle for his comments made on his Cricinfo blog.Gayle wrote that the”WICB says they want the best out of players but we also need the best out of the board … the board is always talking about players needing to change but we, the players, need changes from the board as well. We can’t be out in the wilderness all the time because we are the ones who are getting all the blame.”On Monday, Gayle and Ken Gordon, the president of the WICB, met and it is believed Gordon told Gayle that his statement was “ill-advised and has caused unnecessary embarrassment to the WICB”. But Gayle refused to apologise and was handed “a very strongly-worded letter of reprimand”.But Dinanath Ramnarine, WIPA’s chief executive, said it was “one more instance of WICB using an opportunity to widen the relationship gap between the players and the administration, when the matter could have been dealt with in a more constructive manner”.Ramnarine spoke to Gayle on Tuesday, and then explained that any action against the player was unacceptable as he had, as required, submitted the article to Mike Findlay, the team’s manager, and it had been edited and approved by him. Gayle had then received clearance from Findlay both verbally and in writing.”It seems difficult to understand why Gordon and Findlay would … demand an apology for comments approved by Findlay,” Ramnarine said. “It is also interesting to note that it was the president and not Bruce Aanensen (the WICB’s CEO) who is also in England who met with Gayle. Is it because Aanensen publicly referred to the players as ‘incompetent’ on Saturday and felt he may have lost the respect of Gayle and the team and in fact owed them an apology?”We all say things we may regret later on, but a president and a CEO have to be especially sensitive to their public utterances like labeling the players ‘incompetent’ and encouraging them to be economical with the truth.”The recent action of the WICB president and its CEO does very little to reflect the recommendations of the arbitration panel that agreements must be honoured; procedures must be followed; and an attitude of mutual respect and sincerity must pervade”.

Marcus Trescothick has declared himself unavailable for September’s Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa as well as England’s winter tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand.Trescothick hasn’t played for England since pulling out of the Ashes tour of Australia last November with a recurrence of the stress-related illness which dogged him throughout last year. And although he said two weeks ago was “delighted to be named in the [Twenty20] squad”, he insists he has not yet sufficiently recovered to give England his all – in South Africa for the Twenty20 World Championship, or for England’s other two tours.”Whilst I have been enjoying my cricket for Somerset this summer and feel that I am making good progress, I need to ensure that I am completely ready for a return to international cricket before making myself available for selection,” Trescothick said. “I recently informed the selectors that I was happy to be included in the 30-man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup to leave all options open but I am now clear that I should take more time to complete my recovery. I still have ambitions to play for England.”The Twenty20 World Championship had appeared to be the perfect halfway house for Trescothick’s comeback. Such a short tournament it would, as Trescothick himself admitted two weeks ago, have acted “as a way of testing myself in an international environment abroad”. And though disappointed, the England chairman of selectors, David Graveney, insists that Trescothick has made the right decision.”The selectors have been acutely conscious that it would be counter-productive to try to rush Marcus back into international action before he was ready,” Graveney said. “We appreciate the fact that Marcus has alerted us at the earliest opportunity of his decision which will avoid there being any disruption to the team’s one-day planning processes.”Marcus has proved himself to be a very special talent on the international stage and we look forward to his making himself available again for England when the time is right and to his pushing his case for selection through his performances for Somerset.”

ScorecardSri Lanka A ended their tour with a 154-run win against Durham after bowling them out for 217 on the final day. Chanaka Welegedara claimed four wickets as Durham collapsed following a fourth-wicket stand of 93 between Gordon Muchall and Gary Park.After batting on for a further 50 runs, Sri Lanka set the home side 372 for victory but they never threatened to get close. However, their bid to save the game started solidly with an opening stand of 71 between Will Smith and Mark Stoneman before Smith was trapped lbw by Dilruwan Perera.Park made 51, but he was caught behind off Welegedara shortly after Muchall had been run out. The lower-order didn’t offer much resistance as the last six wickets fell for 50 runs, the third run-out of the innings completing the victory for Sri Lanka and a highly satisfactory tour where a number of fringe players have shown pleasing form.

Daniel Vettori has been handed the New Zealand Test captaincy but Stephen Fleming will continue as a Test player, ending speculation that he would join the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Fleming announced he is retiring from one-day cricket and hinted that the approaching New Zealand summer would be his last as a Test player.Vettori will take over the captaincy immediately, meaning he will be in charge for New Zealand’s two-Test tour of South Africa in November. Fleming quit the ODI leadership after New Zealand’s World Cup semi-final exit and Vettori was placed in control for the ICC World Twenty20. Fleming said he remained fully committed to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) but realised the time had come to depart from the ODI scene.”While I would have wished to remain captain of the Test team, I can also understand why the selectors prefer to have a single captain for the Test, one-day and Twenty20 teams,” Fleming said. “I hold Daniel Vettori in high regard and will support him fully in his transition as Test captain.”The tour to South Africa will be a real challenge. No New Zealand team has ever won a Test series there and I am looking forward to the tour. I shall continue playing Tests as long as I have the desire and skills required to contribute. However, it is likely that the coming New Zealand summer will be my last home series.”Justin Vaughan, NZC’s chief executive, said Fleming’s decision to graciously hand the reins to Vettori after a decade in charge was a measure of his character. “True leadership is more than just the title of captain,” Vaughan said.”Stephen is a true professional. He cares about the team and I am sure he will be a big help to Daniel and remain a leader within the Black Caps. It is likely that this will be Stephen’s last home season [in the Test team] and we will ensure that it is memorable and befits our greatest ever captain.”

Fleming, 34, has spent the New Zealand off-season playing county cricket for Nottinghamshire, where he had kept his silence amid rumours he would quit international cricket to captain a team in the ICL. His refusal to rule out such a move added to the speculation, but NZC said it would not release him or any other players from their central contracts to join the Indian group. His suggestion that 2007-08 could be his last season as a Test player leaves the door open for Fleming to join the ICL next year, if the league’s first tournament is a success.Fleming captained New Zealand in a record 80 Tests, which was streets ahead of their second longest-serving leader John Reid (34 Tests). Only Allan Border, with 93 matches in charge, led his country in more Tests than Fleming. His winning ratio of 35% put him marginally behind only Geoff Howarth at 36.66% as New Zealand’s most successful Test captain.He is also the only man to play 100 Tests for New Zealand and should add to his tally of 104 in South Africa later this year, at home against Bangladesh and England from January to March, and then on what could be a farewell tour of England next May and June. Fleming has not played a Test without the leadership since taking over from Lee Germon in February 1997.Initially Germon was out injured, allowing Fleming to become the youngest New Zealand Test captain, at 23 years and 319 days, but the incumbent never played another Test and Fleming’s ten-year reign had begun. At first he was criticised for being too laid-back in his decision-making, but eventually Fleming became respected as one of the best tacticians in the game.He led New Zealand on their memorable 1999 tour of England when they upset the hosts to win the Test series 2-1, and he also guided his side to a series win in the West Indies and respectable draws on tours of Australia and India.

Mahela Jayawardene is already looking forward to Sri Lanka’s next challenge, a Test series in Australia, after their 107-run victory in the final one-day international against England in Colombo offered a timely boost. Despite going down 3-2 in a contest they had been expected to win, Jayawardene said the way his side bounced back in the final match bodes well for the future.”We knew we had this in ourselves and we know we are a very good side so it’s good that we’re off to Australia in 10 days’ time and it was a very good boost for us to go with a win,” he said. “It was a good start [to the series] and we finished well but we played some really ordinary cricket in between – it was well below par, especially for our standards at home.”That’s something we really want to work at, but I was quite happy with a lot of individual performances. Batsmen should have taken more responsibility in this tournament with the way we played.”Sri Lanka have a poor record in Australia having struggled with the extra pace and bounce in the wickets on previous tours. But the home side will take the field in a Test for the first time since the retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, while Jayawardene feels there is time to adjust to conditions before the opening encounter at Brisbane on November 8.”What we’re going to get in Australia will be totally different,” he said. “We’ve got two warm-up games before the first Test and that’s something for us to work on. We’ve got two or three weeks before the first Test match so we’ve got ample time to get back into things.”This is what cricket is all about. If you’ve had a bad period you have to make sure you learn from your mistakes – that’s what being a professional cricketer is all about these days. You don’t have that much time to think about what went wrong, we have to get back into things straight away.”

Daryl Tuffey, the New Zealand fast bowler, has been linked to the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and is ready to sign on the dotted line for an “attractive offer”. The ICL is expected to start next month and Tuffey hoped it would not stop him from playing first-class cricket for Auckland later this season.”I’m leaning towards [signing]. It’s the money and a bit of security,” Tuffey told the . “Nothing’s guaranteed with New Zealand Cricket, even the money you get playing domestic cricket back home. You’ve got to start looking after No. 1 at some point.”Tuffey, 29, isn’t contracted by NZC and last week turned down a provincial deal with Auckland. Tuffey said he spoke to Auckland coach Mark O’Donnell, who indicated there would be a place for him when his ICL commitments finish at the end of November. “Not signing with Auckland has just made me a free agent. I’m can play for match fees if Auckland choose to do that. It’s a bit more relaxed for me now,” Tuffey said. “I’m pretty keen to come back and play for Auckland and see what happens from there, if I’m bowling well.”If he does join the ICL Tuffey will join former New Zealand team-mates Chris Cairns, Nathan Astle, Chris Harris and Hamish Marshall. It is believed Craig McMillan will hold talks with Justin Vaughan, the NZC chief executive, over his potential involvement.Tuffey has played 22 Test and 80 ODIs and has taken eight wickets at 15.25 in the opening three rounds for Sutherland in Sydney grade cricket, where he is playing for six weeks. Tuffey said the side, which plays under the former New Zealand coach Steve Rixon, was keen for him to return later in the season if he wasn’t required by Auckland.Tuffey, who played one match in this year’s World Cup before returning home, believed he had “four or five” good cricketing years left. “Who knows what happens if I go to India, but if the chance arose again that would be great,” he said. “But I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket and hoping to play for New Zealand any more. I’ve had a great time playing international cricket but there’s other opportunities outside of cricket that I’m putting first at the moment.”

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was relieved to be fronting a press conference after India had won, and the smiles and jokes appeared more natural and less forced.”Well of course it was a tight match. They [Australia] got 200 [193] runs [batting first]. Personally I thought it was a good wicket though it does a bit under lights,” said Dhoni. “There was plenty of bounce and seam movement. So I knew it would be a tough match but I thought we would win comfortably, but I would take it [the two-wicket win] with an open heart.”When asked if it was a tough decision to leave Rahul Dravid out of the XI, Dhoni flashed his widest smile. “Well he was rested,” was all Dhoni would say before getting quite animated when speaking about Murali Kartik, a player he backed and who has delivered for him.”I think he was really excited specially if you look at the stage when he was called back into the side. He needed to perform, he was quite determined to perform,” said Dhoni. “He even had an injury on his right thumb, but still he was quite eager to play. The way he bowled I think it was brilliant. If a bowler keeps bowling in one place, you can set up an aggressive field. I think that was not the case in the previous matches. I think we bowled well, apart from the initial start when we were a bit erratic and gave too many runs with the new ball.”Kartik’s ten-over spell of 6 for 27 also came in for praise from Ricky Ponting. “Kartik bowled well today. He bowled well even in his first game [in Chandigarh],” Ponting said. “The wicket here was different because the top was a bit soft. Still you have to execute the skills and he did extremely well and deserved every wicket he got.”Like in Chandigarh, Australia had a firm grasp on the game before India made a winning fightback, something Ponting wasn’t pleased about. “Whenever we lose, it’s disappointing and more so when we lose from winning position.”I thought 193 was defendable because of the conditions as the ball was swinging and seaming. We wanted early wickets which we got but we could not get wickets in the middle and that’s why we lost.”Dhoni said it was not merely about backing Kartik. All players needed the backing of their captain. “Well of course I believe in each and every player. If you look at RP [Singh], the way he started [the series] he would have been sidelined and he would have never got to play,” said Dhoni. “You have to keep the confidence in the players and that’s how you gain their confidence. I want 14 players in my team whom I want to stand in front of a truck and they are willing to do it.”

Even with the series gone, well before this game began, Dhoni stressed that this match was a big one for his side. If anything, he said India were in a strong position in the Nagpur game, and should have won that one.”Well of course even if you see the last match, I think we were into the match and we could have won. But unfortunately we couldn’t, in between we made a few mistakes,” said Dhoni. “But we knew this was a very crucial match for us, we didn’t start the series well, but at least we wanted to end it on a positive note. We know we didn’t bat well, but as a team we played really well to win this match. With the new ball we got initial breakthroughs, but more accidentally. I thought the Australians bowled brilliantly. They made the batsmen play each and every delivery and that was very crucial.”Despite the defeat, Ponting agreed it had been an exciting contest. “It was a very entertaining game though it was low-scoring. The ball was swinging all day, which made it a pretty-even contest,” Ponting said. “It showed that even low-scoring matches can be entertaining because of the intensity right through the match.”Dhoni also counted quite a few positives from this series despite losing 2-4. “If you see Robin [Uthappa] he has matured a lot as a player. Although he is an opener he is the kind of batsman you can shuffle around to play at any place,” said Dhoni. “He is a big asset for the team. He plays positively and fielded well through the series. It was a good series for him.”At the end of his first ODI series as captain, Dhoni conceded there were differences in handling a young Twenty20 unit and a side like this one. “Well it’s a lot different. If look at Twenty20, we had a very young side so keeping the intensity going through out the 20 overs was never a problem,” he said. “But over here you have to keep the guys on their toes. At times you have to take help from people like Yuvraj and Robin Uthappa who are on the field and tell them ‘No boss, you have to pick things up, your intensity is going down.’ And that was one of things that we did really well today.”