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The Bellerive Oval pitch will be well-suited to Stuart MacGill’s legspin in the second Test against West Indies starting on Thursday, according to the groundsman. MacGill, who was passed over for the left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken in the first Test at Brisbane, is pushing for selection and the Hobart pitch is expected to be a turner.Cameron Hodgkins, the Bellerive Oval curator, believes the surface will assist the spinners over the last days of the match. “I expect it to be slowish day one, day two and three,” he said. “When it hardens up a bit the ball should come onto the bat a bit. And if it does go to four and five then you would expect, with the natural deterioration of the wicket, some variation and turn out of footholes.”MacGill has 169 wickets in 34 Tests at 27.78, averaging five wickets a match, and claimed nine victims in his last Test outing against the World XI last month in Sydney. MacGill, 34, has been deemed surplus to requirements to the national team over the years because of the availability of world record holder Shane Warne.But even Warne has been championing MacGill’s cause, saying he believes he and his spin partner can inflict more pain on the tourists. “If conditions suit down there, I’m sure we can do well like we have in the Super Test,” Warne said last week. “Both of us are bowling better now than we have before.”The statistics show West Indies have a history of weakness facing legspin bowlers. Warne has captured 54 wickets in 17 Tests against West Indies at 30.18, while MacGill has 48 in 12 matches. If MacGill is included in the second Test team Bracken is the obvious choice for 12th man duties despite his impressive four-wicket haul in the second innings at the Gabba.

Talks between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players Association revealed a “fundamental difference” over the issue of sponsorships and endorsements, according to a statement issued by the Board.A 14-hour meeting in Port-of-Spain ended in stalemate with the stumbling block appearing to be how sponsorship relates to the board and its major sponsors on the one hand and players’ endorsements on the other. This deadlock means that contracts for the forthcoming one-day VB Series in Australia remain unsigned.The main disagreement involves as many as ten senior players, including Brian Lara. The players are not paid a retainer and a fair proportion of their income comes from advertising. If they sign the contract, they risk losing their image rights to the West Indies Cricket Board, which recently signed an exclusive sponsor’s contract with Digicel, a regional mobile-phone provider.”Some of the conditions stipulated by the board have nothing to do with cricket but represent an attempt to exploit the players for commercial purposes,” said Dinanath Ramnarine, the players’ association president and chief executive. The meeting was not unproductive, as agreement was reached on six clauses, but Ramnarine ended up by advising his players not to sign the contract.Some have already signed and returned the contract, and the board remains confident that the issue will be settled before the squad is scheduled to assemble in Barbados on November 29.

The reasons for pitting a team of talented young Hampshire prospects against the best club cricketers in Hampshire were fully vindicated as the youngest Academy side yet put paid to BAT’s four-season-long unbeaten “time” game run, and winning the “Time Pennant” in the process. Only nine weeks before, the young Hawks had suffered a humiliating eight wicket defeat against the same opponents, showing just how much they have learned as a team under the guidance of Tony Middleton and Giles White; neither of whom played in this match – the sole professional being Charlie van der Gucht.BAT won the toss and elected to bowl first, Chris Thomason removing both openers Richardson and debutant Ed Bruce -younger brother of Jamesto have the Academy in some trouble at 32-2. But then Kevin Latouf (48 in 94 balls, 9 fours) joined Tom Burrows (77 in 142 balls, 10 fours) and the two 17-year-olds played with a growing maturity, both playing as well as this correspondent has seen them, especially before lunch, which was taken at a respectable 123-2.Despite the early loss of the Pretorian-born Latouf (perhaps wanting to watch the carnage at Lord’s!) the young Hawks made relentless progress against a toiling BAT attack. Ian Hilsum (41 in 42 balls, 8 fours) played an excellent cameo captain’s innings before he too was run out and Burrows soon followed, but further 11-ball cameo innings from Luke Merry (18, 1 six, 1 four) and David Griffiths (21, 2 sixes, 1 four) gave enough further impetus to enable Hilsum to declare and set BAT a very fair target of 246 to win in what turned out to be a minimum of 60 overs.Overseas pro Neal Parlane threatened to win the game for BAT on his own. Opening bowlers Griffiths and Matthew Metcalfe could only stand and watch in “admiration” as good length balls disappeared to all parts. One six, hit off the unfortunate Griffiths over extra cover was still on the rise as it hit the pavilion. However, it lokked a different game when the kiwi wasn’t facing and Metcalfe (2-29) kept his head to claim 2 wickets before tea, which the home side took at 92-2. Luke Merry bowled a tidy spell on his return from injury.Parlane (69 in 64 balls, 2 sixes, 10 fours) was a little more circumspect after tea, coinciding with the advent of off spinner Mitchell Stokes (14-3-31-1) into the Academy attack. Then, just as the New Zealander began to get back into his stride, Charlie van der Gucht’s (2-41) first ball – a dipping full toss – found Parlane guiding it precisely into the safe hands of James Manning at deep mid wicket. With the young Hawks’ tails now firmly up, and with BAT intent on going for their shots, the game changed in its complexion. Ex Academy and Hampshire bowler James Schofield chipped in with 32, but wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. 153-4 became 186-8 as the game entered its last hour. Nobody could stay with captain Richard Dibden (13*) and the Academy went on to earn a thoroughly deserved 56 run win with over 50 minutes and almost 15 overs to spare. David Griffiths (3-35) came back well to clean up Schofield and the BAT tail.Manager Tony Middleton was a pleased man after the game, describing the Academy performance as “exceptional”; it usurping the display against Havant two weeks previously as the best in the Academy’s short life because it was played on a better surface.Hampshire Academy now move into second place in the table behind runaway leaders BAT.

James Foster has received the full support of the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, after his difficult Test debut in Mohali.Foster missed a catch and a straightforward stumping, and was out cheaply in each innings trying to sweep Harbhajan Singh as the tourists lost by 10 wickets.Foster also made a poor start to the recent one-day series in Zimbabwe, dropping a straightforward catch, but he recovered later in the series.”Obviously when some chances go down you are concerned but I have seen ithappen to other young guys,” said Fletcher.”People forget what Mark Boucher was like in his first few games. How welldid Rod Marsh keep early on?”Every time a young player comes in he gets compared to the old, experiencedguy going out. People don’t realise what the great players were like when they started out.”Did he (Foster) keep badly before this game? I thought he kept very well inthe warm-up games. In Zimbabwe, those last couple of games and those catches he took were great, he didn’t drop anything.”Fletcher added: “Our fielding overall was the one area I found strange inMohali. We dropped some simple catches. But it’s about confidence and the concentration levels have got to be up all the time.”At the end of the day you want to be saying `please Mr Batsman nick me acatch’.”There is no doubt that England also missed Alec Stewart, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Robert Croft, all of whom were unavailable for the tour.”I would like to have a full Test side all the time, Fletcher conceded.”That is why we tried to get these guys to play so we can put the strongestside out that England can put on the field. When you turn around and say `if you miss out on one set of Tests you may miss out on another series’ is that not enough pressure?”I wouldn’t say I feel let down (by their decisions), I am just disappointed. You are always going to be at a disadvantage if you are missing four or five players and the opposition are at full strength.”We know how difficult it is to play in India; Australia came with a fullside as the number ones in the world and they struggled. But for every negative there is a positive. These young guys have come out here and have the potential to grow in the game.”Meanwhile Ashley Giles, who took 17 wickets in Pakistan this time last year, isunlikely to be fit for the second Test at Ahmedabad next Tuesday. Despite cortisone injections his bruised heel, which has developed after his recent Achilles operation, is still not fully recovered.”We want him to play, he was and is a key figure and that’s why we brought him out here,” Fletcher said.”Hopefully he can be fit for the second Test, if not the third Test. But we won’t leave it too late before making a decision, he will have to bowl some balls in the nets first.”If Giles is unfit England will probably go into the second Test with two off-spinners, with Martyn Ball joining Richard Dawson in the XI.

Well before Mitchell Johnson chose to tell team-mates of his decision to retire, Australia’s fast bowling mentor Craig McDermott felt the changing of the guard had already taken place.Mitchell Starc’s terrifying and sustained spell with the second new ball on the third afternoon, challenging a well entrenched New Zealand batting line-up and defying the exceedingly docile nature of the WACA Ground pitch, told McDermott that he was ready to take over as the new spearhead of the Australian attack.Combined with Johnson’s fading force, the maturing of Starc as a Test bowler has left Australia more at ease about Johnson’s decision to retire than they might otherwise have been. With the likes of James Pattinson waiting in the wings, Australia are well stocked for speed.”If anything we saw the changing of the guard here two days ago, with Mitchell Starc bowling consistently 150-odd kilometres an hour,” McDermott said. “And for me sitting back and watching that it was like the changing of the guard for me and hopefully Mitchell Starc can have as an illustrious a career as Mitchell Johnson has.”I think he [Starc] has been building towards that. It has taken some time. He has brought that control and that speed through the shorter format of the game. He has now proven he can do that on a very docile wicket which is more than heartening for us as a team and certainly probably for Mitchell to give him some really good confidence going forward as well. I look forward to watching him over the next 10 years.”The way Starc made New Zealand’s batsmen hop about on a pitch offering him only the scantest of assistance is something else McDermott was happy to see, for it seems increasingly likely that such beige surfaces are the lot of fast bowlers, even in Australia. McDermott was careful with his words, but agreed the pitches in Brisbane and Perth were nothing like the swift strips they had once been.”I am just trying not to lose my job … the wickets been reasonably friendly,” McDermott said. “The balls haven’t been the best, I think we’ve only changed 11. That’s not too bad is it, hopefully they have got the design right for the pink one come next week. Different series bring different wickets. We go back to 1994-95 when we had Warnie, our wickets were pretty dry and spin friendly, it is one of those things.”We have got the best pace attack in the world and we come to our first two wickets and they are not really what they should be. It’s one of those things you’ve got to deal with as a player, we won in Brisbane on a wicket that wasn’t as good as it has been in the past and this wicket has been more like a one day wicket than a Test wicket, I think there’s been 184 fours I saw on the TV, that’s astronomical as far as any bowler’s concerned.”As Australia wrestled with New Zealand on the final day, Pattinson was producing a spell of pace and wickets for Victoria in the concurrent Sheffield Shield match at the MCG. McDermott has worked closely with Pattinson down the years, and said he felt the 25-year-old was ready to return, while also mentioning Peter Siddle and Nathan Coulter-Nile.”Obviously Sidds is still in the 12 for these Tests so he comes back into contention, and he’s been bowling beautifully with good pace and swing in the ball,” McDermott said. “You’ve got other younger guys, there’s James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile who’s back bowling again and I was involved with him here the other day and he bowled quite quick and with good swing with the ball.”Patto’s one of the best bowlers in the country. We just have to make sure certainly from a workload point of view, if you are going to go the technical side, he has got enough numbers up there to play Test cricket, from that side of it. We just have to make sure he is bowling well, first and foremost, which I think he has in this last Shield game by all reports.”

Nasim Ashraf has been given a three-year extension as the chairman of the Pakistan board (PCB) by the country’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, who is also the PCB’s patron-in-chief. Musharraf also named eight members of the new governing board.”I hope to continue the voyage of good governance and transparency in this new set-up for the betterment of our cricket,” Ashraf told the , a Karachi-based daily. “I’m honoured that the president has kept faith in me and I will try my best to serve the game during my tenure.”Intikhab Alam and Ijaz Butt are the only former Test cricketers on the 15-member governing board, which will be headed by Ashraf. The board will announce the remaining six representatives – five from the various regions and one official from the departments. “I would want to have the inaugural meeting as soon as possible and am hoping that all of the Governing Board’s members will attend it,” Ashraf said.Ashraf’s primary focus as chairman would be on promoting cricket at the grassroots level, as well as preparing a squad for the 2011 World Cup.”We have to have a solid base at the schools and Under-19 levels if we are to excel at the international level in the coming years,” he said. “We are investing in grassroots cricket at the moment and will intensify our efforts in the coming years so that we can produce world-class players for the future. The 2011 World Cup is the most important assignment for us and we will take all possible steps to raise a squad capable of winning the title.”Ashraf had succeeded Shaharyar Khan as PCB chairman in October 2006.

Billy bruised but ego unhurt
Billy Bowden is usually happy to make a spectacle of himself, but even in his wildest publicity dreams he wouldn’t have contrived for Geraint Jones to sweep a ball into his lower back at square leg. Billy went down faster than a beach ball snatched by a security guard and when he got up looked as dazed as he must have been when he gave Kevin Pietersen lbw. As the crowd chanted “Billy, Billy” – Craig McDermott must have felt a pang of nostalgia in his corporate box – England supporters wished Jones had struck it harder.Fans get shirty
Much of the time between Ashes series has obviously been spent coming up with slogans and arty t-shirts for the rematch. A Barmy Army version has Captain Cook (it depends on your world view whether he was an invader or discoverer of the Queensland east coast in 1770) making an early deposit on Australian soil while reading a newspaper headlined “England invent cricket”. The sanitised version of the accompanying text says “Captain Cook only stopped here for the toilet”.Where’s the Barmy Army?
Queensland upset some sections of the world when they used the line “Where the bloody hell are you?” in a worldwide tourism campaign. The description became so popular locally it was used in an advertisement in the lead-up to the series and was taken a step further by cheeky Australian supporters this morning. “Barmy Army! Where the bloody hell are you?”Fans for female fans
England’s supporters are sprinkled throughout the stadium and are sure to find their true voices on the hills at Adelaide and Perth in the next two Tests. At least their female contingent was cool today. As part of Ladies Day all the girls in the stadium got traditional hand fans from Cricket Australia to provide some fresh air.

Griqualand West won a remarkable – and brief – game at Benoni against Easterns by 258 runs. After 23 wickets fell on the first day, Griqualand resumed their second innings on 163 for 3, a lead of 310. They stretched this 402 by the time they declared on 255 for 8. Easterns, bowled out for 70 in 19 overs yesterday, were never in the hunt and none of their batsmen reached 30 as they fell to 144 all out, medium-pacer Alan Kruger taking 6 for 46.Free State moved into a first-innings lead against North West on a truncated day at Bloemfontein, finishing the day on 250 for 6, a lead of 14 runs. The top six all made good starts, but Petrus Koortzen was the only one to reach his fifty, leading the way with an unbeaten 81 from 134 balls.Zimbabwe Under-23s staged a spirited fightback on the second day against Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth. First, they took nine wickets for just 105 runs to dismiss Eastern Province – who had started the day on a commanding 115 for 1 – for 222. Then, trailing in the first innings by 60 runs, they reached 147 for 4 by close of play, with Colin de Grandhomme and Stuart Matsikenyeri adding an undefeated 79 for the fourth wicket.

Ricky Ponting and Stephen Fleming have both requested the International Cricket Council to explain the 15-degree rule for bowlers, saying that the players themselves are in the dark about the procedures and methods employed to decide whether a delivery is legal or not.Tim May, chief executive of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, was on the nine-member panel that recommended the change in the laws, and he talked to both Ponting and Fleming regarding the proposed amendment.Ponting was quoted in as saying: “It was good to hear it come from Tim yesterday and his views on it all. But we still need to know a bit more about it, we need to see it in action and see it in place.”According to tests done by biomechanics experts, 99% of bowlers extended their arms to some extent, and even those with actions considered to be in the classical mould were found to straighten their arm more than 10 degrees.”It shouldn’t be secretive,” said Fleming, expressing his views about the study. “What we have to be careful of is the knee-jerk reactions when a statement comes out, and we get this emotive type of reporting that starts throwing players’ names up without basis.”Fleming told the paper that he would welcome more information on the subject, with the current picture being pretty vague. “The one thing we are happy about is there is some movement,” he added. “For too long [chucking] was the ugly sister that wasn’t being talked about but now it’s out in the open and there’s some positive steps being put in place.”

The second part of Neil Manthorp’s exclusive interview with South Africa’s captain Graeme SmithWhat are the biggest changes to your life since you became captain?
On the material side I’ve bought a house – that’s a pretty significant change. But I’ve still got housemates. You need someone to look after the place, I’m never there. And personally the requests on my time can be daunting. My management group, Fordzone, field invites and requests for three functions a day, on average. I struggle to say no to anything so they do it for me, it would be crazy otherwise. I’m now able to focus on my cricket responsibilities because my diary is managed by professionals. I’m also aware that I have 14 other sets of emotions to be concerned about – I can’t just think about myself, there is a squad that deserves my concern. But that is something I’ve always had and I welcome it.Can a captain still have friends within his team, go out for a beer with them?
Yes – certainly. It’s a question of balance. You can’t just be an onfield captain, you learn so much about your team-mates by having a beer with them in the pub. The same goes for the opposition, too. And the players enjoy seeing the captain having a beer with them, so I definitely won’t be changing any of that. Besides, I enjoy a beer!Must a captain always be in the team, especially on tour?
The best interests of the team come first. If I wasn’t pulling my weight then it would be better to step aside. I wouldn’t avoid the issue if I was out of form, and I wouldn’t pass the buck as far as the responsibility was concerned. I wouldn’t force someone else to make the decision – I’d do it. But I’d also want to be in the front line, in the thick of it. I’d hate to duck the pressure. I wouldn’t ever do that.What’s it been like captaining Shaun Pollock?
He’s been absolutely brilliant. From what I know of Shaun he’s been a different man since we changed over. He’s far more relaxed and outgoing now, always down at dinner in the team hotel and smiling. We had a couple of long chats on tour in Bangladesh and I learned a lot from him. Before he seemed weighed down by everything.Doesn’t that concern you?
I know it can get to you, I really do. I can’t pretend I know what it’s like as national captain but I can imagine. I’m a different person to Shaun and we’ll handle things differently. Our personalities are different – we deal with stressful situations in our own ways.Are you prepared to compromise your privacy for the next ten years?
You have to – how can you not? You can’t expect to have a private life – your private life is what happens in your own home.Your phone has rung 14 times in the 35 minutes we’ve been talking. Is it always like that?
Yes [smiles]. You get used to it. You know, anyone who has ever dreamed of being a professional sportsman has also dreamed of being recognised in a restaurant and of being asked for an autograph in a nightclub. Anyone who tells you different is lying. Learning how to deal with those situations is part of the job, and the responsibility of playing for your country. Obviously you become more and more sceptical as the years go by, and I’m only 22, but I hope I still feel it’s important to recognise people in ten years’ time. I hope I never, ever ignore genuine supporters.Have you ever been made really, really cross? Really angry?
No, no. Not that I’d ever show on the outside. Oh, well, er … I’m a liar. Just once, and it happened last week. Some guy phoned me at 3.30am – I don’t know where he got my number – and gave me huge flak about the team. He attacked me, personal and abusive. Underworked and overpaid, with lots of swear words. And I responded.What did you say?
I said, "You’re probably sitting in some sweaty nightclub with a tenth beer in your left hand, a smoke in your right hand and your stomach hanging all over your belt. And you’re calling me at 3.30am to abuse me about a group of professional sportsmen?"Does the Aussie sledging ever border on the childish/unnecessary/personal?
At times, yes. But they are also very clinical with it and it can be very effective. They are very practised at it and they all know what they’re doing. They put a bit of thought into it, it’s not just verbal bombing. They are a very professional side and that is part of their game plan. But at times it pushes the limits of what’s acceptable.Is there a danger of you, or your team, becoming obsessed with the ‘dangers’ of the tabloid media in England?
Yes, that’s a possibility. Mark Boucher told me how they got stitched up the very first night they arrived in England for the ’98 tour. Apparently they got photographed with some semi-naked girl – Jacques and Lance were there, too, but only Bouch appeared in the papers the next day which caused some embarrassment … but it gave the rest of the boys something to laugh about. We must be aware of the dangers without allowing them to affect our day-to-day lives. But we definitely must not try and hide away and avoid the difficult questions.Isn’t Alec Stewart a bit old for international cricket?
Oh very funny, very funny.No seriously, he’s 40 years old.
If I say a word about him he’ll score five centuries against us in the Test series! Hmm. If he’s playing well enough then he’s young enough. I’m sure some of the young keepers in England have felt a bit frustrated over the years, but the selectors have given Foster and Read a chance and they keep going back to Alec. So maybe he really is the best. He seems very fit and strong. I don’t know him but he’s certainly not a favourite of many of our team. Maybe that’s why they’re keeping him going. The only time I’d ever bring age into a selection equation is when you have two players of equal ability and there is a large gap in their ages. You’d want to think of the future. But if you’re the best you must play.Who is under more pressure, you or Nasser Hussain?
I’m a young captain – frequently accused of being too young – with very little international experience and very little experience of England, so of course I’m under pressure. But so is Nasser, and he’s right at the other end of the experience scale. He’s under just as much pressure, retiring from one-day cricket, questions about his commitment. Captains are under pressure, full stop.Any previous experience of England?
I spent two months with Hampshire when Jimmy Cook was there, playing for the 2nd XI and seeing the country. I played at The Oval and otherwise spent lots of time driving around, sitting in traffic actually. I was 18 years old, driving a car about the same age with brakes even older. Happy days. But no, I wouldn’t say I had too much experience of England that might stand me in good stead during a series of five Test matches. But we’ll have good people around us.Why is it so difficult to win in England?
From South Africa’s point of view I think it has a lot to do with the length of the tour. Looking at the stats from 1994 and ’98 we’ve won early on and then faded as the weeks went by. There’s a lot of cricket, a lot of time spent in each others’ pockets. People become physically and mentally tired – perhaps motivation became affected. I do think mental preparation is very important for an England tour.How do you feel when people talk about South Africa’s legacy of match-fixing since 2000?
Really, really pissed off. Really angry. I can’t stand it. It irritates me. We’ll turn it around – I know we’ll turn it around. I’m so frustrated that people can call us cheats in the middle of a Test match, that people have that image of us. It doesn’t just hurt me, it hurts every single member of the current squad and they are determined to change that image, not for themselves but for every member of the public who felt embarrassed, angry or ashamed when it happened. I promise you, we want to make all South Africans proud of their cricket team. I promise you that.