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West Indies’ tour of Australia has suffered another jolt, with the players demanding US$500,000 as appearance fees and the board subsequently rejecting that demand. The West Indies Players’ Association wanted the money for the 14-member team in addition to match fees, tour fees and incentives, according to Chetram Singh, a board official.According to an Associated Press report, Singh, who is also the president of the Guyana Cricket Board, said that the demand “puts the tour in jeopardy”. Singh also termed it as “absolute madness”, hours after the players’ representative, Dinanath Ramnarine, lay it in front of the board. The players were paid a total of US$390,000 in appearance fees for 2004, which included four Tests and seven one-dayers against England before two Tests and five one-dayers against Bangladesh.West Indies’ tour of Australia was almost called off last month after most of the senior players, including Brian Lara, stayed away from a training camp because of a conflict over personal endorsements. The players felt that they risked losing their image rights because of their contracts with Cable & Wireless, the rival company of Digicel, the board’s new sponsor.The board barred the players from the camp but both parties soon agreed, after mediation, to resume the camp on November 29 and allow an arbitrator to sort out the issue.

New Zealander Neal Parlane and Damian Shirazi set a new record opening partnership as BAT Sports posted the highest-ever ECB Southern Electric Premier League total of 330-4 against South Wilts at Bemerton.But the Division 1 leaders were unable to eke out a victory as South Wilts, who had won the toss and fielded in scorching heat for almost four hours, clung on for a draw at 217-9, with their last pair at the crease for the final seven overs.The 17 points BAT took from their match domination kept them comfortably ahead of defending champions Havant, who thrashed neighbours Portsmouth by nine wickets, and Bournemouth, who climbed into third spot with an eight-wicket win at Liphook."We were a bit disappointed not to have won, having backed ourselves to bowl South Wilts out in 60 overs. But we were dam close to doing it," said skipper Richard Dibden."We batted positively and played South Wilts out of the game, and made it into a `two result’ outcome."It didn’t quite work out, but all credit to South Wilts for battling it out."The 249-run first wicket stand between Parlane and Shirazi shattered the previous highest opening partnership set by Brian White and Ted Cosway, ironically for South Wilts, in the old Southern League at Alton 20 years ago.And White was among the sun-drenched spectators at Bemerton to see his record disappear, modestly acknowledging his surprise that it had taken two openers so long to break it !The pair gave only one chance – Russell Rowe, in an unfamiliar (and rather uncomfortable) wicketkeeping role, fluffing a regulation catch behind before Sharazi had barely got into double figures.That one ball apart, the partnership oozed quality with Parlane, in particular, in awesome touch.The Kiwi, who plays First Class cricket alongside Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming for Wellington, missed out on a century when he was dismissed for 92 by Liphook last week.But one straight six back over Alex Senneck’s head in the third over and an awesome pull over the deep mid-wicket boundary in the fifth signalled his intention not to miss out again.He had his century in the bag by lunch – his chanceless ton taking 95 balls and containing three sixes and 14 fours.At the break, BAT were 181 without loss, with Parlane 103 not out and Shirazi undefeated on 73."I came in at lunch thinking I’d been a policeman on traffic point duty, just watching the ball being routed all around the ground," reflected Paul Draper, standing in for broken collar bone victim Rob Wade."Parlane was in such good nick he was almost able to nominate where he was going to place the ball for runs."His innings was superb – as good as I’ve seen in club cricket," he praised.There was little respite for the South Wilts fielders after lunch as Parlane and Shirazi (98) set a new 249-run opening partnership that eventually ended when the run-happy MCC YC’s left-hander appeared to lose his balance and offered up a catch to a grateful Jamie Glasson at mid-wicket.Parlane got to his 150, which included 20 fours, before being caught in the deep at 268-2.But Richard Kenway, who learned of younger brother Derek’s century for Hampshire (115 against Gloucestershire at the Rose Bowl) as he waited a patient three hours for a knock, made up for lost time with a breezy 59 not out as BAT raced on to a Premier 1 record total of 330-4.South Wilts got off to the worst possible start, losing Jamie Glasson minutes after coming in from a near four-hour baking in the hot sun.By tea, they were 17-3, with the left-arm swing of Dan Goldstraw accounting for Tom Caines (12) and Dan Webb in consecutive deliveries.At one stage, Goldstraw, who was to finish with 5-69, employed eight outfielders behind the bat, with only James Schofield (at short-leg) in front !Former Hampshire player Jason Laney, 31 not out at tea, found a reliable partner in the slightly unorthodox Colin Perry (30), but they lifted the total to 81 before Goldstraw stuck a fourth blow.Draper and Rowe too perished before Laney (57), at 154-7, made too much room and was bowled by Terry Rawlins. It appeared South Wilts might sink with all hands.But the lower-order made BAT work hard for their successes on a batsman-friendly surface, none more so than Simon Woodhouse, who remained entrenched until the end.Dibden (2-35) teased out Senneck (18) and when Goldstraw had teenage debutant Lysander Wolfe caught behind, South Wilts still had seven overs to last out.But with Woodhouse comfortably pushing his score to 49 and Australian medium-paceman Jim Seeary holding his end up, South Wilts survived for a creditable draw at 217-9."Overall, it was an extremely competitive game, played in the right spirit," Draper concluded.

Australia demonstrated what everyone knew when turning back New Zealand’s first day-last session challenge in the first Test on a rain interrupted second day at the Gabba in Brisbane.Only 134 minutes of play were possible as drizzle drifted across the grounds several times. But that was sufficient for Adam Gilchrist (88 not out) and Brett Lee (60 not out) to put Australia firmly in control of this match at 7/435.The depth of batting talent in the side serves it on occasions such as New Zealand managed to achieve on the first evening when claiming six wickets.And while they picked up a seventh, Shane Warne, early on the second morning, caught at gully by Mathew Sinclair from Chris Cairns’ bowling, that was to be their only success on a frustrating day.Instead, they had to take a back seat and watch as the world champion home team demonstrated why they are such a quality side, when able to extricate themselves from the trickiest positions.Gilchrist was outstanding and ended the day in sight of his fourth Test century.The bald facts of his innings were that he had faced 123 balls but since passing his 50 in 86 balls, he has been scoring at a run a ball as he led the New Zealand bowlers a merry dance. He’s hit 13 fours and one six.Already gone in the record-breaking department is his previous highest score against New Zealand of 75 while he and Lee have achieved a record eighth wicket partnership for Australia against New Zealand of 133 runs. They rubbed Kerry O’Keefe and Gary Gilmour’s 1976/77 stand of 93 at Eden Park out of the books.What was especially frustrating for the New Zealanders was the run rate of 5.05 the pair achieved.Lee, in his 13th Test, looked like he had realised the rare chance available to do something about moving into the all-rounder category. He’s three runs short of achieving his highest score and made light of the attack in reaching his half century off 69 balls, with seven fours and a six.While the ineffectual bowling made life easier for the batsmen, they still had to contend with the frustration caused by the breaks for the rain. But rather than let it get on top of their concentration, they decided to put the pressure back on the bowlers, who were already having to cope with a ball dampened by the wet outfield.Despite that, however, there was much to admire in the sheer nature of Gilchrist’s attack.He battled during the early part of the day, but once finding his equilibrium there was no stopping him. While he warmed up with some traditionally hefty pull shots, seemingly fed up to him as part of a regular diet, especially by Dion Nash, he soon flowed into a series of drives and sweetly-timed late cut shots.The New Zealanders were to find fielding positions to halt the onslaught. The innovative field placings of last night were not reproduced and the plans in force against the middle-order did not seem to have been worked out for Gilchrist and Lee.It may have been that the bowlers were unable to bowl with the required control, and certainly their efforts did not have the same thought about them.It is little wonder that Lee enjoyed a batting average of 21.75 going into the Test.Cairns came in for some punishment, especially from Lee, who at one stage rocked onto his back foot and cut a ball over the third man boundary for a superbly-timed six. In the same over he unleashed a fierce pull shot to the mid-wicket boundary to bring up his half century.It is tough for Cairns, straight back from injury and already being used as the team’s work horse, moreso after left-armer Shayne O’Connor was taken to hospital for a precautionary x-ray on his knee after lunch. Off 31 overs Cairns has three for 123.The moisture on the ball always meant it was going to be difficult for Daniel Vettori to bowl effectively and his figures of none for 65 from 13.4 overs tell their own story.Craig McMillan was also brought back to reality after climbing the heady heights on the first evening and he ended with three for 47 from his 12 overs.Nash has been too inconsistent. He bowled some tremendous deliveries, akin to those when at the peak of his career, but they were too often interspersed with balls short and wide of the required mark.The pain is not over for the Kiwis and they could still find themselves up against it for an hour or two on the third day with its extended hours. Play will start at 9.30am tomorrow.

ScorecardBismah Maroof goes on the attack during her 92•AFP

Pakistan women won the opening ODI against Bangladesh Women in Karachi by 20 runs to take the lead in the two-match series. Bismah Maroof scored 92 off 128 balls to propel Pakistan to 214 before the left-arm spinner Anam Amin collected 3 for 25 to restrict Bangladesh to 194 for 9.Pakistan, after winning the toss, got off to a sluggish and found themselves struggling at 38 for 2. However, they recovered through a 61-run partnership for the third wicket between Nain Abidi (27 off 45) and Maroof. Two more quick wickets reduced Pakistan to 99 for 4, but Maroof kept the score ticking by anchoring the lower order and helped her team past the 200-run mark. Salma Khatun, Bangladesh’s captain, was the pick of the bowlers, ending with 3 for 31 from her 10 overs.The visitors began the chase cautiously, and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Rumana Ahmed was the only batsman to put up a resistance, scoring 70. She was involved in two crucial stands worth 44, for the fourth and eighth wickets, but they were in vain, as none of the other senior players stood up with a substantial knock. Besides Amin’s scalps, Asmavia Iqbal, Sana Mir, Nida Dar, Aliya Riaz and Maroof claimed a wicket each.

ScorecardNishit Shetty almost masterminded an incredible run-chase, but the latter half of the Tripura innings came apart in the last 10 overs as they lost to Vidarbha by 13 runs with 10 balls to spare. Shetty scored a century at almost a run a ball to bring Tripura to within 60 runs of the required 301, with five wickets and more than 10 overs to spare.At that point, a 75-run sixth-wicket stand between Shetty and Subal Chowdhury was ended with Chowdhury’s run-out. After that, the batting collapsed, with Shetty being the last batsman to fall for a 137-ball 130. Sandeep Singh took five wickets for Vidarbha, including two at the death.Earlier, Tripura had done well to take the last four wickets in 6.3 overs. Shetty ended with fine figures of 3 for 31.
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Bichitra Baruah, the Assam left-arm spinner, came up with a match-winning spell as Kerala, needing 66 more on the final day with four wickets in hand, added only 33 to their overnight total. P Prasanth, whose overnight 80 had helped Kerala get close to the 267-run target, added only three to his score on the fourth morning and was the first man out. Baruah then stifled the scoring as Kerala managed only 9 runs in the ensuing 22.3 overs and lost three wickets. Baruah ended with figures of 18-8-13-4.
ScorecardRequiring another 291 runs at the start of the day, Jammu & Kashmir lost six wickets for 40 runs to lose to Jharkhand by 250 runs. It took Jharkhand 20.1 overs to finish the game, as Shankar Rao and Santosh Lal shared four wickets apiece. None of the last five in the J&K batting line-up could make it to a double-digit score.
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Set 400 to get in 84 overs, Goa held on to a creditable draw against Madhya Pradesh, with their opener Swapnil Asnodkar scoring his second half-century of the match. Goa never really looked like going for the target, as they lost two quick wickets for 51. Asnodkar dug in and found good support from captain J Arunkumar and former India wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra. Asnodkar missed his century by 10 runs, while Arunkumar and Ratra put up thirties. Earlier, MP had added 31 to their overnight 186 for 4 before declaring.

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Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 269 on day one of their Ranji Trophy clash against Baroda with Rajesh Pawar, a left-arm spinner, hijacking the much-hyped return of Irfan Pathan and claiming five wickets on the flat Baroda wicket.Just like Andre Agassi, whose return to tennis after a dip in form and the rankings resulted in a forgettable loss to a rank outsider, Pathan’s rehabilitation began the hard way. Yethe’d only have been deceiving himself had he expected a return to form on the first day back in the domestic grind and his figures of 22-2-108-2 shouldn’t be seen as bad news because Pathan has done what he came back to do: get the overs in.The way Pathan bowled today, though, explained to an extent why he is back in India. The day started for him with one of the few balls that actually swung, though too much for the accompanying appeal to be taken seriously. Off the third ball, Praveen Kumar exposed the lack of edge in his bowling with a flick over mid-wicket, something other Uttar Pradesh batsmen would do through the day with a wide array of other strokes. His ten overs before lunch yielded a full-toss almost every over with three high ones which didn’t qualify as beamers only because they weren’t fast enough.When he looked for swing, he ended up bowling looping dippers on and outside the leg-stump. When he looked for quicker balls in the good length area, he bowled too wide to bother the batsmen. The short ones sat up nicely for easy pull shots. And the 14 no-balls he bowled meant he kept grunting in frustration all day long.As Arun Lal noted on TV, Pathan failed to find any sort of rhythm. His action lacked the usual smoothness and his run-up lacked momentum. As a result he kept hovering around the 120-kmph mark with his quicker deliveries.He picked up two wickets, one off a bad shot from Shivakant Shukla, the UP opener. The other one, though, came with a somewhat satisfying yorker to Piyush Chawla after the latter had hit him for two humbling boundaries – a flick through mid-wicket and a square cut off the front foot.That didn’t, however, mark a turnaround for he bowled two more no-balls, tried round-the-wicket stuff, got square-cut for four by Mohammad Amir Khan, and was taken off in favour of Rakesh Patel, a right-arm medium-pace bowler, who finished off the UP innings.The other two men under the spotlight – Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina – had mixed days at the office. Kaif looked solid in scoring 25 before playing back to an arm ball from Pawar and edging it to Pinal Shah, the wicketkeeper. The pitch held no terrors and he should be disappointed at letting the opportunity go.Early on in his innings Raina struggled against Patel, who kept bringing the ball in to him. Raina, who sustained a knee injury while batting, survived till lunch playing and missing a few, tied down by Irfan Pathan senior. But after lunch he looked a different man, playing some delightful cover-drives, and hitting two mighty sixes – one over mid-wicket and the other a hit from down the wicket to Pathan senior.But if it was disappointing for Kaif, it would be all the more frustrating for Raina who fell, after settling down, to a left-armer’s special from Pawar. After being hit for two boundaries in his previous over, Pawar bowled one that drew Raina out. Beaten in the flight, Raina played for the spin, but the arm-ball only bounced. In one motion Shah collected the ball, adjusted to the bounce, and took the bails off to find Raina short. Pawar also got Tanmay with a full-length diving return catch.Pawar would later describe this as his favourite wicket of the five he took today to reduce UP to 269 on a flat wicket. He was taken off after his first over, in which he removed Kaif, possibly to give Pathan a go at the new batsmen. And the wickets of Raina and Tanmay were bought at a heavy price, the two batsmen having settled down. Rohit Srivastava also looked solid, hitting Pawar for a six over mid-on, but in the same over failed to read a quicker one and cut it straight to Martin at slip. Pawar thought it was his discipline that earned him the five-for; he had indeed kept coming at the batsmen even after they hit him out of the ground and the attack.UP, already facing relegation, have a long day tomorrow, as their bowlers failed to derive any help from the wicket. They will be looking at the early morning freshness to get some wickets.