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Queensland Cricket (QC) has posted a record profit for the 2006-07 financial year due to last year’s Ashes Test at the Gabba.All five days of the Brisbane Test in November were sold out, with 117,603 people attending to create a record for the ground. On Tuesday Damien Mullins, QC’s chairman, outlined plans to distribute a large slice of the $2.5m profit back into grassroots cricket across the state.”It is appropriate that all members of the Queensland Cricket family share in the spoils of the Ashes series,” Mullins said, “and we believe this to be the most responsible and beneficial way to re-invest in the game’s future.” Each of the state’s seven regional cricket bodies will also receive a $20,000 grant.

A skin cancer scare will force Michael Clarke to ditch his baggy green cap for a wide-brimmed hat if he regains his Test place. Clarke, who was dropped from the Test side during the West Indies series in November, was diagnosed with a low-grade spot on his nose at a screening after a New South Wales training session.”It was certainly a bit of a shock when they told me what it was,” Clarke said in the . “After I got it checked they got back to me two weeks later with the photos and sent me some information and told me to see my doctor. I saw a doctor in Perth when I was back with the one-day squad; he took a sample of it and sent that away. He said it was some form of very low-grade skin cancer and he organised me to see a dermatologist.”Clarke told the paper he now covered up more of his body when he played and he wore a long-sleeve lycra suit under his one-day outfit during the VB Series. A wide-brimmed hat will also become an essential item during extended fielding stints. “It has reminded me how dangerous the sun is, and we’re obviously out in it a lot,” he said. “I will be double-checking the suncream and zinc.”It’s a bit of a wake-up call, because I’ve got the kind of skin that is susceptible to this. I was trying to get it treated before I came here to South Africa but I ran out of time. I’m told it won’t make any difference if I get it done after I get back from Bangladesh. It should take two laser treatments to get rid of the cells.”Clarke’s first-class chances have been limited due to his ODI duties, but he has spoken to Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, about whether it will upset his plans for a Test return. “He said it doesn’t matter what form of the game you play, just score runs,” Clarke said. “I’ve had a lot of support from the selectors and they’ve been very positive. They know it’s something I can’t help.”Clarke is hopeful he will win a spot in the Test squad for the South Africa series, which begins at Cape Town on March 16, as the reserve batsman. “The major goal for me is to continue scoring runs in the one-day game,” he said. “I feel like I’m batting and bowling pretty well in the one-dayers.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Bangladesh were left to rue five catches and three run-out opportunities as they allowed Sri Lanka to recover from 61 for 4 to 196 and then squandered a manageable run chase to go down 3-0 in Colombo.Put in to bat on a sluggish pitch, overnight rain and early morning showers in Colombo delayed the start and reduced the game to 40-overs a side with Sri Lanka’s top order collapsing to an inspired attack. However, a generous dose of dropped catches all around the ground allowed Jehan Mubarak and Tillakaratne Dilshan to build a vital 78-run partnership. Mubarak stuck around for a career-best 72 before an inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling attack used the short deliveries to secure a 39-run win.Bangladesh began horribly chasing 197. The first 11 runs came from wides, but Farveez Maharoof’s double-strike did the damage. Javed Omar got a game but didn’t contribute, pushing the fourth ball of the innings to Mahela Jayawardene at second slip. Mushfiqur Rahim was promoted to No. 3 but, like Omar, failed to inspire any confidence. Fifth ball he faced, Rahim chased a good length delivery and edged into Kumar Sangakkara’s gloves.After a brief 42-run fightback, Mohammad Ashraful (20) could consider himself unlucky to be given out leg before to one from Nuwan Kulasekara that was missing leg stump. Shakib Al Hasan could offer no such excuse, fishing at a short-pitched delivery from Fernando and getting the faintest of nicks to Sangakkara. Aftab Ahmed didn’t last long either as he got glove on an attempted pull shot against Kulasekara.Faced with the somewhat unfamiliar role of Bangladesh’s last glimmer of hope, Tamim Iqbal mixed caution with lunacy and aggression during his 74-ball 55. He danced down the track wildly and missed completely in between some sweet back-foot punches and one delicate flick for six. Dilhara Fernando gave him a work over with the short stuff, and as wickets fell at one end, Tamim held back on the big shots and worked the singles instead. A hamstring injury forced him to resort to a runner before he crossed fifty.Having added 60 for the sixth-wicket with debutant Mahmudullah (35 from 53) Tamim tried to hit Sanath Jayasuriya out of the park but instead rewarded Jayawardene’s decision to introduce the veteran in the 31st over. In a jiffy Jayasuriya then plucked out three the remaining four wickets and Fernando returned to york the No. 10 batsman.After winning the toss, the first of Bangladesh’s blips in the field came in the second over when Shakib, at cover, failed to clutch an airy drive off Jayasuriya when he was yet to get off the mark. Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga fell cheaply to the impressive Shahadat and Syed Rasel but Chamara Kapugedera was dropped on 0 and 5. Though the first was too thick an edge for Rahim to take while standing up to the stumps the second was deplorable, Reza grassing a waist-high chance at second slip. You didn’t need a lip reader to make out what Shahadat said after seeing that catch go down.Bangladesh removed Kapugedera and Sangakkara in relative succession, but their butterfingered fielders allowed Mubarak and Dilshan to stitch together a match-winning partnership. At the 20-over mark, Bangladesh appeared in command amid a tight bowling display, but two alarming lapses in Ferhad’s sixth over ultimately made the difference between victory and defeat. Dilshan was let off by Rahim when on 11, as the wicketkeeper failed to hold onto an outside edge off a cramped cut shot. A boundary later, Mubarak’s mis-timed slog down the ground was misjudged by Abdur Razzak at mid-on, and landed safely between two converging fielders.The two batsmen didn’t need another invitation to lead the revival. While Mubarak was more watchful, having to graft against the spinners initially, Dilshan walked out in a situation tailor-made for his fidgety, ‘I’m-going-to-get-under-your-skin style’. In no time Bangladesh were on the back foot as Dilshan spread the field with his cheeky dabs and cuts. Mubarak grew in confidence, using his feet to the spinners, swept hard, and constantly looked for singles. While he crease ticked along to his third ODI fifty, Dilshan threaded the ball into the gaps before he finally failed to carry off a cheeky reverse pull and gave Mahmudullah his first wicket. Razzak finished with 3 for 47 as Bangladesh bowled Sri Lanka out for the first time all tour, but Mubarak’s presence until the last over proved the defining innings, something Tamim would have done well to emulate.

Ricky Ponting has conceded he is struggling for form less than a fortnight from the start of the Ashes. Ponting was out for 10 in Tasmania’s Ford Ranger Cup loss to Victoria on Sunday, following on from his below-average performances in the Champions Trophy.Since September Ponting has played nine one-day internationals at the DLF Cup and the Champions Trophy, averaging only 22.33 with three half-centuries and five single-figure scores. After he was caught behind down the legside on Sunday, Ponting said he was keen to spend time at the crease in Tasmania’s Pura Cup match with Victoria starting on Tuesday.”I’m not great, I’m probably not setting the world alight at the moment,” he told . “It would have been nice to spend a bit longer out there today and get a few runs under my belt, have something to do with the result of the game. The last few months haven’t been my best batting. Hopefully some time in the middle will come for me and hopefully that’s in the next game.”Ponting said Australia’s Test players would need to adjust quickly to the conditions in Australia after spending nearly a month in India. “I worked really hard on my game through India and I felt I played a couple of decent innings over there,” he said. “But back in Australia, the conditions are slightly different to what we had over there, so I think it’s important for all of us looking forward to the Test match to make what we can from this next game. Probably we’re all looking forward to a good, solid hitout.”But we’ll worry about that when we need to – I’m looking forward now to be able to change things around for Tasmania. If that means me spending some time in the middle and getting some runs, getting some valuable time in the middle looking ahead, then that would be great. But we’ve got a state game to win now.”

Percy Sonn, the ICC’s ever-entertaining president, regaled the media fornearly 45 minutes after his arrival in Colombo, but the sense of humourwas conspicuously absent when it came to his views on South Africa’swithdrawal from the tri-nation series that also involved India and SriLanka. With the ensuing three-match series between Sri Lanka and Indiaalso on the verge of being cancelled, Sri Lanka Cricket is in disarray andlooking at a considerable sum in the red.Sonn, who broke the ice by speaking of his love of the country, trips upnorth to see the elephants and the efficacy of the local oils, invoked thespirit of cricket when he spoke of South Africa’s withdrawal from thetour. “It’s always disappointing when cricket is called off,” he said. “Thespirit of cricket is also about a commitment to play even under the worstcircumstances.”There was a chuckle or two when he spoke of his experiences managing ateam in the townships – “On a Friday night, I’d have to beat up people tokeep them sober for the next day. Some days, if we didn’t have enoughplayers, we’d fill in with school boys.”Sonn went on to state that it was now for Sri Lanka Cricket and CricketSouth Africa to sit together and decide when the matches could be played.He said that the issue would only be presented before the DisputeResolution Committee if both countries couldn’t come to an agreement onthe matter.While admitting that security was a touchy subject, Sonn stated thatcricket had to live with ground realities. ‘The world we live in is animperfect place,” he said. ‘Every country has some issues. The place whereI was born is often referred to as the crime capital of the world, but Ihave never felt that way. I feel as safe there as I do here.”We in the cricketing family have to make the most of the situation andlook to play at all times. We must go out of our way to ensure that thespirit of cricket overrides all the diversities in our cultures.”Sonn spoke of how the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa had helpedbring the country together, and also alluded to Pakistan’s tour of Indiain 1999, with the two countries on the verge of another war, as examplesof how sport could have a positive effect on life.With the ICC’s own tournament, the Champions Trophy, due to be held inIndia in October-November, Sonn said that every precaution had been takenon the security front. “It will be a feast of cricket,” he said. “We havean opportunity to create the best of cricket in India, a country whereeveryone watches the game.”He said that his reaction had been one of “deep disappointment” when helearnt of South Africa’s decision to leave Sri Lanka. “It’s not for theICC to judge the South African decision,” he said, before going on to addthat if all countries were amenable to the idea, the ICC might considermaking the security assessment themselves, rather than leaving theresponsibility to private agencies.He said that the decision to ask for an independent opinion, in the wakeof South Africa’s own security team declaring Colombo unsafe, was part ofICC protocol, put in place after South Africa had dithered prior to theirtour of Pakistan in late 2003. He said that Sri Lanka Cricket would haveto calculate their losses and then talk to South Africa about reschedulingthe matches within the framework of the Future Tours Programme.The man who was president of the United Cricket Board of South Africaduring the last World Cup, laughed when asked what security arrangementshad been made for his visit. “They’re so efficient that I don’t see them,”said Sonn with a chuckle. And when someone enquired whether he felt safewhere his countrymen had not, he smiled and said: “I’m from Cape Town. We aredifferent.”

Lions 134 for 4 (van Jaarsveld 64) beat Western ProvinceBoland 129 (Duminy 43, Terbrugge 4-20) by six wicketsLions eased to a six-wicket victory against Western Province Boland in a low-scoring PRO20 Series match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Western Province got off to a brisk start after choosing to bat, scoring 28 off the first three overs.But three wickets then tumbled before another run was added to put them on the back foot as David Terbrugge got the ball moving around. They recovered, though, JP Duminy (43) and Thami Tsolekile (35) bringing them back into the game with a stand of 62 – then the match swung again, as they lost their final seven wickets for 39 runs. Terbrugge finished off the innings with two furtherwickets to end with 4 for 20 in his four overs.With a moderate target, the Lions paced themselves well to record the win inthe 19th over. Man of the match, Vaughn van Jaarsveld 64 off 49 balls with five boundaries and a six. Neil McKenzie finished the game off, hitting a four and a six off the final two balls to give Lions the five points.The match between the Warriors and the Titans was declared a no-resultwithout a ball being bowled at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth.

In a surprising development, considering the intense competetion that has characterised previous bids involving the Indian board (BCCI), only one company has bid for three tenders issued on August 2.The last date for submission of tenders – for formal wear for the Indian team (2006-2010), for producing and executing ratings and award ceremony (2006-2011); and for ground rights for the tri-series in Singapore and Malaysia – was August 11 but only one company, Percept, met the deadline. The bids will be opened on Monday at Chennai during the BCCI’s marketing sub-committee meeting in Chennai.However, Lalit Modi, the chairman of BCCI’s marketing sub-committee, wasn’t alarmed. “The base price [for all three tenders] was around US$1million and whoever could afford have submitted,” he was quoted as saying in .Canali, the Italian-based company, had shown interest in the formal wear category but backed out once the bidding process began. “Canali’s proposal was an exchange offer and we had almost finalised things with them,” Modi continued. “But when others too came forward and offered to do the same we decided to go in for a bidding process.”And what of the ground rights of the Singapore-Malaysia tri-series? “Maybe they [bidders] felt the tournament comes in between Sri Lanka [Tri-series] and Champions Trophy,” Modi reasoned for the lukewarm response. “Anyone who fulfils the minimum criteria of $1m will get it. Those who can’t won’t put it.”

Greg Chappell returned from Zimbabwe on Sunday, and expressed the opinion that it was unfortunate that his differences with Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, were made public. After arriving a day later than the rest of the squad due to the unavailability of tickets, Chappell told reporters: “I think the media gets excited at such happenings. Differences are a fairly normal thing happening in cricket. But you can understand I am not in a position to speak about it to you at this stage.”The coach-captain rift surfaced in Zimbabwe when Chappell asked Ganguly to consider his position as captain before the first Test because of his poor batting form. The spat snowballed into a major controversy last week when a confidential e-mail from Chappell to officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was leaked to the media by unknown sources.Chappell, a former Australian captain who took over in June, reportedly said in the e-mail that Ganguly was not “physically or mentally” fit to lead the side and even threatened to quit if the captain was not changed.”I sent a private and confidential e-mail to the president of BCCI,” said Chappell. “It did not remain confidential though I would have preferred it to have remained so. What else can I say at this stage?”Chappell and Ganguly are due to appear before a high-powered BCCI panel that includes three former captains – Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Srinivas Venkataraghvan – in Mumbai on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

Saket Bhatia and Sanjeev Sharma, with a sixth wicket partnership of112 runs, were instrumental in Rajasthan gaining a first innings leadof 26 runs on the third day of their Central Zone Ranji Trophy leaguematch at the KL Saini stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday. Replying to UP’s270, Rajasthan were all out for 296. In their second innings, UP were81 for three at stumps.Resuming at 183 for five, Rajasthan lost their sixth wicket only at253 when Bhatia was leg before to Salabh Srivastava for 79. Bhatiafaced 184 balls and hit ten fours. Sanjeev Sharma kept going till hewas ninth out at 296. For his 85, he faced 180 balls and hit 11 fours.The bowling honours were cornered by opening bowlers AW Zaidi (5 for84) and Srivastava (4 for 98).Openers Rohit Prash (26) and Jyoti Yadav (28) gave UP a good start byputting on 46 runs. But in the last hour, UP lost three wickets to bein a position of some anxiety at close.

As I crossed the street to enter the little used Cheapside Market, I saw my old friend Rufus coming in the opposite direction. It was unusual to see him looking so tired and crestfallen as he did that afternoon.Naturally I had to find out if he was having more serious problems than when he realised that watching the World Cup next year was going to present him with real challenges.”Skipper,” he began, “I just come from down Pelican by the ticket office and I really can’t understand why if I want a ticket for the big final, I can’t arrange to buy one. This thing about a package don’t make sense.”It is like the old days when the hawkers in this market used to tell you that if you wanted to get potatoes, you had to buy yams. We should have freedom of choice. I tell you already that this World Cup like it for certain people from over in away. But let me tell you something, I won’t be surprised if come next year, they don’t be butting ’bout trying to get people to buy tickets at the last minute, and listen, the tickets ain’t cheap.”I could understand Rufus’ concerns. One would have expected a much more straightforward system that the old-time cricket fans could deal with. Why should one have to pay up front and still not be sure that one’s application will succeed?Rufus was unhappy about the delayed start of the local season. He felt it was about time we kept matters like these out of Coleridge Street. “Boss,” he went on, “the boys from Bristol got a good case and you know nowadays everybody demanding their pound of meat like the man in the Shakespeare play.””But, Rufus,” I interjected, “now that you mention meat, I remember a story about the two neighbours who had an altercation over the action of a cat. Apparently, Neighbour A had just bought two pounds of beef and placed it on the kitchen counter. The cat climbed through an open window and quickly disposed of the beef.Neighbour A was furious, so in an effort to keep the peace, Neighbour B called his cat and weighed it. The cat weighed exactly two pounds. Neighbour B then exclaimed, “All right, skipper, now that is your beef, now where is my cat?”We both laughed and concluded that relative to the promotion issue, it seems as if people are willing to look after the boys up the hill because from time to time something “honorary” blows in the wind. Things do get hilarious at times.Rufus was pleased that for a change, West Indies had won a series. “It’s a good thing that Mugabe boys did weak. But I feel that a good intermediate team in the 60s would run all over them. The real test is against India who got some men that ain’t scared to put bat to ball.”I asked Rufus what he felt about Lara’s reappointment as captain. He was not surprised since Trinidad now seemed to be the dominant power in the regional game.”Boss,” he added, “Trinidad got the president, the chairman of selectors, the captain, The WIPA president, everybody. And you know, they got money, fish and half of Barbados. You got to wait and see if the headquarters don’t get moved to Port-of-Spain just now.”I asked Rufus if he had seen the advertisement promoting the upcoming Twenty-20 tournament. Like the rest of us, he had heard much of the warranted criticism on the call-in programmes.”Boss,” uttered Rufus, “one of them ads nearly give me a heart attack.”You can imagine them take big men, some with Sir in front their name and make them look like elementary schoolboys. These is men with dignity, men who refused apartheid dollars and this is what they reducing them to? I hear they get good money but money ain’t everything. We got to let this money man know he can’t do this to we heroes.”The authorities better understand that they got to keep certain people far from West Indies cricket. We got to wake up and understand that we must look after we game without looking like beggars.”It was the first time I had seen Rufus so angry but I could understand the reasons. It won’t be long now before he loses all interest in the game that was very much a part of his life.