Sunil Gavaskar will host a conclave being held by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in June, in which the captains of domestic sides that play in the Ranji Trophy will meet and discuss cricketing matters. A similar conclave held last year received enthusiastic participation, and the BCCI clearly hopes to institutionalise the event.The Press Trust of India reported that as a preliminary preparation for the conclave, the BCCI has solicited reports and observations about the last domestic season from the captains, umpires and match referees involved.Mumbai, which had hosted last year’s conclave, is a likely venue for next month’s meet. The last time, it had been a grand success, with Gavaskar stating that he was delighted with the levels of interactivity that were displayed by the stakeholders of the domestic game.

Easan Sinnathamby, St John’s captain, has been called up to the Canadian national squad, in place of Austin Codrington, Canada’s hero in their World Cup victory over Bangladesh.In a surprising phone-call from selector Austin Ward, Sinnathamby was asked for his jacket size: Ward’s trademark line when telling players of their selection to the national team. This will be Sinnathamby’s third representative match for Canada. He will be joining United CC batsman Manzoor Chaudhary on the squad, marking the first time Calgary has had two players in the Canadian senior team on the same tour.Canada plays the USA this weekend in a three-day game on the first leg of the ICC Intercontinental Cup. The match, to be played at Brian Piccolo Park, Lauderhill, Florida, has been granted first-class status by the ICC.

The hearings into the allegations of match-fixing against former Kenya captain Maurice Odumbe got off to a lively start when several dozen protestors outside Nairobi’s Stanley Hotel jeered the ICC’s legal team as they arrived.The hearing, headed by Zimbabwe’s Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, heard from two witnesses before journalists were ushered out as a third, who had been granted anonymity, gave evidence. The ICC had originally wanted the hearing held in private, but was persuaded by Ebrahim that it should be public.Caitlan Patterson, who had a two-year affair with Odumbe, told the hearing that Jagdish Sodha, an Indian with alleged bookmaking contacts, had visited Odumbe at his house in Kenya in 1999.Odumbe, who denies all the allegations of receiving payments from an Indian bookmaker, faces a possible life ban if found guilty. The hearing is expected to last five days.

England were dealt a double injury blow today with the news that Graham Thorpe will miss the final Test after breaking a finger at Old Trafford, while Mark Butcher has collected yet another muscle injury and will miss the game too.Thorpe broke the little finger on his right hand when he was hit by a screamer from Fidel Edwards while making his way to his 15th Test century. He will bat if needed in the second innings at Old Trafford, but will sit out the fourth and final Test, which starts at The Oval on Thursday (August 19).Meanwhile Butcher’s catalogue of woe, which started when he received whiplash in a car accident in London while on the way to see his physiotherapist, has continued. He has just recovered from a thigh-muscle pull, but strained his calf while jogging on Friday, and this latest injury will also keep him out of the fourth Test. It means that after playing 42 successive Tests up to the third one against New Zealand this summer, Butcher will have missed all four matches of the West Indies series with various niggles.All this means that there will be no Surrey player in the team at The Oval – unless the selectors decide to go for experience and call up the in-form Mark Ramprakash as a replacement. Ramprakash is 35 on September 5, and played the last of his 52 Tests in New Zealand in 2001-02, but he has scored five centuries in his last seven innings in the County Championship.A more likely replacement is Ian Bell, the uncapped 22-year-old Warwickshire batsman, who was averaging 80.83 this season before the latest round of matches.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

The West Indies batsmen overcame a sluggish pitch and some strangulating bowling to sneak a thrilling five-wicket win over South Africa at The Oval, and enter the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan helped them stabilise the wobble and get within striking range. But it was Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s tremendous 51, off just 52 balls, that pulled the carpet from beneath the South Africans’ feet.On a pitch with spongy bounce, Herschelle Gibbs’s hundred yesterday had taken South Africa to a competitive total, and Shaun Pollock grabbed two quick wickets this morning to put West Indies in some trouble. Lara and Sarwan shared a period of consolidation, but it was Chanderpaul who injected the much-needed vim. And just as South Africa threatened to pull off a heist right at the end, Ricardo Powell carted two mighty sixes, and West Indies scraped through with seven balls to spare.Lara nearly ran himself out first ball after Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds had fallen to Pollock. Gayle came out like a sleep-walking bull and under-edged onto his stumps, while Hinds was unlucky to be given out lbw when the ball appeared to have pitched marginally outside leg (33 for 2). But after he survived that run-out chance, Lara dazzled in the next hour and a half, as he kept flicking the bowlers in the arc between midwicket and fine leg.Throughout that period Sarwan was almost invisible at the other end, and had cobbled together just 12 runs from 42 balls. Lance Klusener and Jacques Kallis kept it very tight, and both batsmen found their offcutters and slower balls tough to get away. Lara was finally frustrated out as he charged down the track to Nicky Boje in the 33rd over, played all over the ball and was bowled (131 for 3).Sarwan, who had made 34 off 66 at that stage, had just switched modes a few balls earlier. Both he and Chanderpaul put the fielders under pressure, and their calculated risks paid off. Sarwan’s last 41 runs came in 33 balls and contained some clean sixes straight over the bowler’s head. Sarwan fell trying to turn one to the on side, inside-edging Makhaya Ntini onto the stumps when West Indies still needed just 33 more (214 for 4).

Just like West Indies, South Africa had also struggled in the middle overs yesterday after Gibbs and Graeme Smith gave them a solid start. Gibbs showed glimpses of his usual intimidating self with some crashing drives and pulls. He brought up his fifty, from 59 balls, with a classical straight-drive through long-off, and the horrors of the last few weeks were all but forgotten. He also maintained his perfect conversion-rate against West Indies. On the four occasions that Gibbs has passed fifty against them, he has gone on to score a century.But a period of inertia followed after Smith’s wicket, at 102 for 1. Jacques Kallis’s strike rate was less than a run every two balls, and Gibbs kept hitting straight to the men in the infield. Gibbs, whose first fifty had come in quick time, took 76 balls for his second and West Indies clawed back into the contest. Ryan Hinds, with his wobbly left-arm spin, conceded just 35 in his ten overs and South Africa needed a special finish.The last ten overs produced 75, thanks mainly to Rudolph’s 46 off 39 balls, as South Africa managed to reach a competitive total of 246. That nearly proved enough, because even when Sarwan had fallen, West Indies needed 29 off 22 balls. But Powell blasted those sixes off Pollock, both full-tosses that landed way over midwicket, and Chanderpaul sealed it with two more fours.West Indies will take on Pakistan in their semi-final at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday. Will this be their golden swallow after a woeful summer?

It was one of cricket’s iconic images of the 1990s. When Jonty Rhodes dived headlong into the stumps to run out Inzamam-ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup, a star was born, and that previously unglamorous discipline of fielding had suddenly been granted its very own cheerleader.For the next decade and more, Rhodes was a constant spring-loaded menace at cover point, forever on hand to pull off a stunning catch or a lightning-quick pick-up-and-throw, and his influence spawned a whole generation of imitators, from Herschelle Gibbs to Ricky Ponting to Paul Collingwood.And yet, Rhodes was more than just a champion fielder. To reach the top of his game, he had had to overcome epilepsy, and in doing so he became a role model and inspiration for all who suffer from the condition. Here was the most hyperactive proof imaginable that epileptics the world over could live full and happy lives, free of the prejudice and misunderstandings that often come with the territory.But it is not just epileptics who benefit from Rhodes’s high profile. As a committed Christian, his charity activities in South Africa are far-reaching and almost as renowned as his exploits in the field, while his clean and wholesome lifestyle make him a natural ambassador and spokesman for a wide range of charities, many of which are concerned with the well-being of children.Sadly for Rhodes, he suffered a broken finger during his swansong at the 2003 World Cup, which denied him one last chance to say goodbye to his adoring fans. But since leaving the field of play behind, he has if anything stepped up his charity work, and remains an iconic figure to an entire generation.

Ajit Wadekar, the former Indian captain and coach, feels that too much is being made of the quality of pitches used for Test matches. He said that India’s recent dip in form was partly down to Sourav Ganguly being uncertain about his best game-plan.”Sourav is getting confused whether to rely on pace or spin,” Wadekar told Wisden Cricinfo at the launch of the Hat-Trick Cricket Academy in Mumbai, of which he has been appointed the director. “We have a very good set of medium-pacers, and it is important that we strike the right balance. During my time as the Indian coach, between 1992 and 1996, Kapil Dev was on his way out and we only had [Javagal] Srinath to rely on in the fast-bowling department. Now it is a different story. I think we need to sort out our strengths and play accordingly.”Having coached India through the glorious ’90s, when they didn’t lose a single series at home, Wadekar also felt that too much was being made of the quality of the Test pitches. “I think international teams should be willing to adapt to any sort of wicket,” he said. “The Mumbai pitch was surely not a good one, but the ones at Nagpur and Kanpur were OK.”When asked about the current Test at Kanpur, which has been largely reduced to a snore-fest, Wadekar defended the curator, saying he was getting too much flak. “We played on Kanpur-type pitches even when I was the coach. The bowlers need to work out the batsmen. No point in blaming the pitch.”Wadekar added that John Wright, the current coach, needed to be more assertive, and called for a more interactive approach when matches were on. “I don’t see messages being sent out to the captain. You have to do that, because you are getting another view of the game.”He also doffed his hat to Anil Kumble, who is on the verge of becoming India’s highest wicket-taker, and said he was the ideal example of a bowler adapting to different conditions. “He is one of the greatest fighters I have ever seen. He will never complain about the track, and just go out there and slug it out.”Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Wisden Cricinfo in India.

Just two days into the match, and it’s a depressingly familiar story for Bangladesh: India have already built a sizeable lead, to which they’ll add a few more runs tomorrow, and then unleash Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Co. on Bangladesh’s hapless batsmen. One more innings defeat – their 19th in 33 matches – looms, and the scorecard will reveal another hugely unequal contest. What it won’t show, though, is what could have been had Bangladesh’s fielders supported the bowlers the way they deserved to be. With player of the class of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, often one chance is all it takes to swing the momentum of the game; Bangladesh generously offered three, and now can only pray that the defeat which will inevitably come their way is an honourable one.Bangladesh have clearly struggled as a batting side, and the bowling have often lacked bite. While their lack of skill in these two areas can be forgiven, there is little excuse for sloppiness in the field – the first two are largely skill-driven, the third is all about hard work and diligence. A week ago, Jonty Rhodes was in India, and during a chat on television, he made a telling comment on South Africa’s attitude towards fielding when they were readmitted into the international arena. Since the players had no international exposure at the time, none of them if they would measure up as batsmen or bowlers, he said. What they did know, though, was that they were excellent fielders, and Kepler Wessels, the captain at the time, urged that regardless of what happened with bat or ball, the team should stand tall as a fielding unit.Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, needs to instil that mindset into Habibul Bashar and his men. Before this Test Bangladesh had dropped 53 catches in their last 29 Tests, and worryingly, they are no signs of improvement – in the last 15 matches, 37 chances have gone abegging, that’s two-and-a-half per match. They exceeded that quota in less than a couple of hours today, though, and instead of having India on the mat at 128 for 5, had them dominate large parts of the last two sessions.It was especially disheartening for Mashrafe Mortaza, who later showed his team-mates a thing or two about fielding with a sharp effort to dismiss Dinesh Karthik. Mortaza made his debut against Zimbabwe in 2001-02, which was also the first time Bangladesh drew a Test, but injuries have meant that he has played only 12 matches in three years, and never more than four Tests in a row. Today, it took him only one over to show what Bangladesh were missing out on – he had Virender Sehwag edge twice, and then beat Gautam Gambhir with a beauty that pitched on off and seamed away.The pace – around 135 kmph – was impressive, but what was outstanding was his control and the swing and seam movement he obtained. From just outside off, he made the ball move both ways consistently in an effort that was McGrath-esque in sustained accuracy. Rahul Dravid was completely clueless, while Tendulkar was forced to play out 20 dot balls against him. Unfortunately, there was no Mark Taylor or Mark Waugh to support him in the slips, and Mortaza ended the day with hugely undeserving figures of 1 for 80.While the fielding had a large hand to play in the way the game shaped up today, India still needed a batsman to stand up and wrest the initiative away from Bangladesh’s bowlers, and Tendulkar did that en route to his 34th Test hundred. Despite the two chances he offered, this was one of his more fluent efforts in recent times – the footwork was decisive and the mindset aggressive from the moment he came out to bat. It showed early in the piece too, when he launched into a pull off Mortaza when his score was still in single digits.Too often in the recent past, Tendulkar has come out to bat in an inexplicably defensive frame of mind, allowing bowlers to shackle him up and dictate terms. Today, he drove confidently through the off side whenever offered the width, and punched the ball down the ground off either foot with exquisite timing and fluency. What should have been a fluent cameo, though, will probably end up being a matchwinning hundred, thanks to Bangladesh’s largesse in the field.S Rajesh is assistant editor of Cricinfo.

ScorecardQueensland raced to the top of the table with a 168-run victory over Tasmania at Bellerive Oval. Tasmania required 340 for victory but could manage only 171. James Hopes starred with the ball, claiming 4 for 39 to supplement his first-innings 97 off 81 balls.David Dawson stood out with his 38, the highest score of Queensland’s innings. The bowlers struck regularly, allowing no batsman to build on his start. But the building blocks of Queensland’s success had been constructed a day earlier, when Jimmy Maher struck 170 out of 271, setting Tasmania a target of 340.

The chances of this year’s Ashes series in England being seen live on Australian terrestrial television have receded with the news that the ABC is not considering a bid for the rights.The Brisbane Courier-Mail quoted Ian Knight, ABC’s head of television, as saying: “The ABC has to consider the needs of the whole ABC audience. We have to consider regular viewers would be deprived of some shows they have been watching for long periods. Also, we are not a rich organisation and it has been some time since we made a bid for commercial rights on a major sporting event.”Channel 9, who devote a lot of air-time to Australia’s home series, say that the timing of this year’s series is awkward for them: “We have Wimbledon, the AFL and the rugby league to fit in as well, so it is very hard to do justice to it all.”That leaves Channel 7, who broadcast the 2001 Ashes series from England, as the only realistic free-to-air contender – and with pay-TV channel Fox Sports having already purchased the rights and planning to broadcast every ball of the Tests and one-day internationals, it seems unlikely that 7 will make a bid.