Controversy appears to have been averted with the match referee Farooq Zaman saying that he is not taking any action against Andy Caddick for his altercation with umpire Sajjad Asghar, after his appeal for a catch behind had been turned down.Caddick was convinced he had Akhtar Sarfraz caught by Stewart. After umpire Sajjad Asghar had turned down the appeal Caddick gestured to his ear suggesting the nick was clearly audible. In a hostile spell Caddick made his feelings clear to the batsmen too.The referee told CricInfo: “Nasser Hussain asked me if an official complaint had been made and I confirmed that the umpire has not done so. I cannot take any action unless a complaint is made to me. I shall be speaking to Nasser Hussain again in the morning.”Asghar confirmed: “Caddick apologised to me at the end of the over and I accepted it so I am not going to report it officially.”England, having taken a stranglehold on this match at the start of the second session, had loosened their grip a little by the end of it.A century partnership for the fourth wicket took the Governor’s XI to 115 for four at stumps on the third day in Peshawar, with injured opener Wajahatullah Wasti unable to bat. They have an overall lead of 24.The two batsmen who did the repair work, Naumanullah and Akhtar Sarfraz battled for two and a half hours, taking every opportunity to score.Sarfraz, who had been dropped on 16 by Graham Thorpe at second slip, went on to play his strokes freely, hitting six boundaries before surviving, on 47, the confident appeal for a catch behind.By close of play Sarfraz was 53 not out from 125 balls. Meanwhile his partner, Naumanullah, was more aggressive, hitting a six over long-on off Ashley Giles and reaching his half-century from 99 balls. He fell on that score, caught at short mid-wicket, giving Darren Gough his third wicket. Two balls later bad light brought an end to the day’s play.Earlier in the innings a brilliant opening burst by England’s fast bowlers had reduced the Governor’s X1 to 13 for three.With a first innings deficit of 91, the Governor’s X1 lost Taufeeq Umer for one when Gough induced him to play-on to his stumps in his second over. Six balls later, Imran Farhat edged behind off Caddick with still just the one run on the scoreboard.Yasir Hameed, a high contributor in the first innings with 57, then fell leg before wicket to Gough for five. Within half an hour after lunch England had removed the first three batsmen. But by tea they had progressed to 65 without further loss.England were earlier all out for 315. The Governor’s X1 claimed two quick wickets when they dismissed Thorpe with the total on 282, after 41 had been added to the overnight score, and seven runs later Craig White fell to a catch on the long leg boundary for 21.Thorpe, who had hit 88 in the previous match in Rawalpindi, was again in fine form but batted more steadily, for two hours, before falling just two short of a half-century. He had hit three boundaries and in going for a fourth, from an attempted pull, he top edged to gully.Pace bowler, Kashif Raza struck twice shortly before lunch. He first had Ian Salisbury leg before wicket on 297, and eight runs later Caddick, slashing, was caught at point. Finally, Giles, on 24, was caught when he skied his shot behind the bowler.

David Townsend and Greg Smith took seven wickets between them as Northerns’overcame the loss of experienced Steve Elworthy to beat Boland by 53 runs.The visitors had been in search of 423 to win after Northerns declared theirsecond innings closed on 343 for four. Boland were dismissed for 132 intheir first innings, to which Northerns replied with 211.The win puts Northerns on top in Group A on 56 points, followed on 51 points by Free State and Boland, on 38.Elworthy was ruled out with flu, but Townsend and Smith stepped into thebreach to take four for 116 and three for 99 respectively.Twenty-year-old Boland opener Henry Davids batted with impressive confidenceand raced to his century off 114 deliveries, an astonishing feat consideringhe was on his Supersport Series debut.Davids lost his opening partner, James Henderson, early on. But a resoluteLouis Koen joined him and the second wicket-pair wrested the initiative fromthe Northerns bowlers in steering their team to 190 for one at lunch.After the break the left-arm spinner, Nigel Brouwers, tied Boland down andeventually had Davids stumped by Kruger van Wyk for 124. He was at thecrease for four hours, faced 190 balls and hit 20 fours.As was the case on Saturday, Boland lost two more wickets in quicksuccession and suddenly looked in trouble on 207 for four.Left-arm paceman Smith, who until that stage had nothing go his way, removedPiet Barnard for nought and Justin Ontong for one.Nineten-year-old Jonathan Trott joined Koen at the wicket and his patiencehelped him steady the ship. But in the absence of Elworthy someone else hadto something special and that player turned out to be swing bowler Townsend.His first victim was Trott, who was caught behind. Next to go was thecourageous Koen.He fell three runs short of a well-deserved century after steering a Townsend away-swinger to Martin van Jaarsveld at second slip. His departure left Boland perilously placed on 292 for six with precious little batting to come.Brad Player didn’t last long before he also got a faint touch to a Townsenddelivery and was caught behind. Charl Langeveldt only managed four runsbefore Townsend brought his effort to an abrupt end.Steven Palframan hung on valiantly and scored 46 valuable runs until Smithcastled him.With Boland on 347 for nine, tailender Andrew Pringle eked out 27 runs. Yethis departure was inevitable and it was perhaps fitting that the homecaptain, Gerald Dros, claimed the final scalp.

Much of the business left unfinished at the clubs Annual General Meeting in April, will be tidied up at an Extraordinary General meeting at the Novotel Hotel, Southampton on Tuesday 31st May 4:40pm.Chairman Rod Bransgrove received the approval of the members to go ahead with the new structure that will turn the club into a limited company.After the formal business of the meeting, an open forum will be held, whereby members can quiz the committee on subjects relating to any matter on the club.

Pakistan have won the toss and chosen to bat in the first match of theNatWest Series at Edgbaston amid cacophonous support for both sides.Alec Stewart admitted that England started this series as “third favourites”after the two finalists of the last World Cup; Australia and Pakistan. Thenews that Graham Thorpe has had to pull out of this match injured with acalf problem will do nothing to shorten their odds.For England Hoggard comes in for the injured Caddick and there is a debutfor Paul Collingwood on the ground where he hit his career best score just afew weeks ago. The omens are good for the Durham all-rounder: on hisfirst-class debut he took a wicket with his first ball and then struck 91.England would be grateful for a similar start today.In the absence of White and Flintoff, Ben Hollioake has a fresh chance tofulfil the promise of his international debut four years ago. Ealham andMullally also return for the hosts, while Cork is retained in preference tothe spinner, Croft.Pakistan have planning of their own to do for the 2003 World Cup in SouthAfrica. Sami and Shoaib show immense promise, but are still some way fromamply replacing the ageing Waqar and Wasim. The only change in their teamtoday from the Old Trafford Test is the return of Shahid Afridi at the topof the order for Faisal Iqbal.Hail and heavy rainfall in the morning have done nothing to dampen thespirits of a capacity crowd. A strong wind may keep the rain away, but withdew expected later it was probably a good toss for Waqar to win. The pitchis dry though and thought likely to take spin.

Hampshire retain the same eleven that drew with Middlesex at Southgate, for their Second Division clash against Durham at The Hampshire Rose Bowl, starting on Wednesday (20th June).The eleven: Derek Kenway, Giles White, Will Kendall, Robin Smith (captain), Neil Johnson, Lawrence Prittipaul, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Adi Aymes (wicket-keeper), Shaun Udal, Alex Morris, Chris Tremlett.Durham chose from 12 for the long journey South, hoping to turn the tables on the Southern County to whom they lost two championship matches, two Norwich Union League matches and the NatWest Trophy in the 2000 season.The twelve: Jonathan Lewis (captain), Michael Gough, Martin Love, Martin Speight, Nicky Peng, Danny Law, Andrew Pratt (wicket-keeper), Ian Hunter, Nikky Phillips, Stephen Harmison, Simon Brown and Nicholas Hatch

The England Women lost the Second CricInfo Ashes Test by nine wickets at Headingley this afternoon.In a weekend when Australians crushed the Lions and the England men’s cricket team, Clare Connor’s players fought for most of the day to save the match against the efficient and talented tourists.It was enough to make Australia bat again, a minor triumph for an exuberant, but inexperienced England side.However, once Connor herself went, bowled second ball without offering a shot, England were doomed.But then, a thrilling fight back, led by centurion Claire Taylor, onEngland’s best day of the series, gave the home country great hope for the future.Australia equalled the record for Test wins at 5.21pm on the Third Day of this match, joining England with 16 victories. Two other women’s Test records were broken in this game. The highest individual score in Tests, a record that had lasted just a week since Australia’s Michelle Goszko equalled Kirsty Flavell’s 1996 innings of 204, was beaten by left-hander Karen Rolton, who made 209 not out. She helped set a new fourth wicket Test best stand of 253 with Louise Broadfoot.Appropriately, it was Rolton, who was the CricInfo Player of the Match, who hit the winning boundary.Australian captain Belinda Clark, Rolton’s partner at the finish, toldCricInfo, “We’re just thrilled with our performance. We came here to win both Tests and we’ve done that inside three days.”Taylor, a 25-year-old Oxford Mathematics graduate, with a previous Test best of 18, and an average of five, made a marvellous 137 to frustrate the Australian attack for 256 minutes today. Her century came up in 190 balls with a fifteenth four, this one driven sweetly through mid-on off Charmaine Mason.When she was last out, bowled by Mason, who took 4/66, Australia knocked off the seven required in 19 balls, for the loss of Lisa Keightley, bowled by Clare Taylor for a duck.Laura Harper, the youngest member of the England team, supported Taylor before she was caught at cover for 30, off 127 balls, after promising innings of 19, 20 and 31 in her first three Test knocks. From shortly after lunch until the third over after tea the pair were immovable, adding 81 for the sixth wicket.However, when Harper holed out to Julie Hayes at cover, Cathryn Fitzpatrick put an extra bit in for the next delivery and had Nicky Shaw caught behind by wicketkeeper Julia Price.With the score at 161/7, and a minimum of 22 overs remaining, the end was near for a valiant England team. But Dawn Holden (five) helped the now rampant Taylor put on 51 for the eighth wicket before lobbing to cover-point Hayes off Mason.While the Australian bowling star was again Fitzpatrick, who took 4/81 to end the series with 17 wickets, England wicketkeeper ‘Tails’ Taylor resisted for 232 balls to add a Test ton to her match-winning 137 not out, achieved at the 2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup against Sri Lanka.The systems analyst and former England age-group hockey player had Test scores of 11, nought, 18, six and 0 before going in today at 37/2.The Oxford cricket and hockey blue told CricInfo, “We valued our wickets much more today. It just goes to show what we can do in the future.”But it will be Australia who will be celebrating tonight, before completing their highly successful tour with a visit to Ireland later this week.

John Morris, the former England batsman, is to retire from first-class cricket at the end of this season.Morris, 37, made the announcement today before the start of Nottinghamshire’s Championship match at Derby where his career began in 1982.”My business interests are beginning to take over and I feel the time isright,” he said.Morris played three Tests against India in 1990 and was selected for the tour of Australia the following winter. He has scored more than 20,000 runs, including 50 first-class centuries.

After a ninth-month lay-off from cricket, Indian spin ace Anil Kumblebowled for the first time at the full-fledged competitive level onThursday and said he did not feel any discomfort, indicating that hewoul be totally fit in about two months.Kumble, who is leading the Karnataka State Cricket Association team,sent down ten overs at a stretch against Andhra in a three-day matchof the KSCA Diamond Jubilee All India tournament in Bangalore. “I didnot feel discomfort at all. I got my line and length alright.Hopefully, I will get a wicket tomorrow, ” Kumble, who had figures of10-1-26-0, said.Kumble had already said he was hoping to return to the Indian side forthe tour to South Africa in October. Having already taken 276 wicketsin 61 Tests, the leg-spinner is also looking forward to cross the 300mark.Kumble has returned to competitive cricket after withdrawing midwaythrough a one-day series in Sharjah in October last year and thenundergoing shoulder surgery in Johannesburg in January.

Somerset skipper Jamie Cox looks set to return to Taunton for the 2002 season.Earlier on today Chief Executive Peter Anderson said: “We’ve had informal talks with Jamie, and we have offered him a further two year contract which in principle he has agreed to. We will probably wait until after the game at Lord’s in early September before everything is finalised.”

The Indian team may go to Bangladesh to participate in a triangular tournament with Pakistan as the third team from December 23, 2001 to January 12, 2002 ."The Bangladesh Cricket Board has invited us and we have agreed in principle and if we get clearance from the Indian government, then we will participate," BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele said after the BCCI Working Committe meeting in Mumbai on Saturday.Meanwhile, a major change in the itinerary for England’s tour of India was also announced. England will now play the second Test at Ahmedabad and not at Kanpur as earlier announced. The first and third Test will as of now go ahead at Mohali and Bangalore respectively.The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) president, Dr A C Muthiah, told reporters that the England team will go back for Christmas after the Test series on December 23, 2001 and will be back on January 12, 2002 to play five one-dayers against India at Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kanpur from January 18, 2002 to February 3 next.The English team will also play three three-day games at Mumbai or Pune, Hyderabad and Jaipur or Jodhpur before the Test series.Delhi and Nagpur will host the two Tests against Zimbabwe for which the dates are yet to be finalised. The Zimbabweans will play a three-day match at Rajkot and five one-dayers at Faridabad, Mohali, Guwahati, Cochin and Hyderabad, Lele said.