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Lou Vincent, who ended a run of noughts at the World Cup with 101 in New Zealand’s comfortable win over Canada, has thanked his wife for making the difference.Vincent rediscovered his touch with an entertaining century in New Zealand’s final league match at St Lucia. Asked what had changed on Thursday, Vincent replied: “My wife’s on tour.”Vincent, 28, had to survive a torrid first over from Anderson Cummins before getting off the mark in style, with a crisp six over cover. “It’s been an interesting start to the tour,” Vincent said. “I really haven’t enjoyed it too much. It’s been good to put my hand up today and get through a tough stage and then cash in with the boys scoring at the other end which made it easier to anchor an end.”Vincent’s innings was the centrepiece of a New Zealand score of 363 for 5 – their highest World Cup total. “Whenever you’ve missed out a few times, it’s natural to feel that you are not very good but the confidence from the boys around me and the season I’ve had so far, there’s a lot of confidence within my game at the moment so I just knew it would come right if I hung in there and batted some time. When I was about fifty or sixty I felt the pressure release a little bit.”Reflecting on a third convincing win, after a six-wicket victory over England was followed by a 148-run success against Kenya, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said: “I couldn’t really have asked for much more. There’s no area where we have been found out, no area ticked that hasn’t been ticked off. We move away from here pretty comfortable but also pretty confident.”One concern for New Zealand, who rested the regular new-ball duo of Shane Bond and James Franklin, was the way in which Canada, despite a daunting target to chase, attacked Daryl Tuffey and Michael Mason to the extent that 43 runs came off the first four overs. The charge was led by the Canada captain John Davison, who scored the fastest World Cup hundred (off 67 balls) in the previous edition of the tournament against the West Indies. This time around he made 52 off 31 balls.Fleming added Davison was a hard man to contain. “He’s a very good hitter, we’ve seen John’s talents before. We could have been better, but we weren’t as accurate as we could have been. The positive out of today is we learned a couple of things, especially about those first two bowlers.”Fleming added that Tuffey had sustained an arm injury which prevented him bowling a second spell. He joined batsman Ross Taylor (calf) and seam bowler Mark Gillespie (shoulder) as fitness concerns for New Zealand heading into the Super Eights.

Sacrificial lamb of the Day
Luuk van Troost, Holland’s amusingly outspoken captain, decided aftertwo barren outings that he hadn’t been putting his money where hismouth was, and dropped himself – Mike Denness-style – for this, thefinal World Cup outing of his career. It was an act of supremeselflessness that paved the way for one of the most memorable momentsin Dutch cricket history. Not that there’ve been a whole lot of those,of course.Unknown entity of the Day
At Graeme Smith’s press conference on Wednesday, and to much amusementfrom the assembled scribes, a question from the veteranIndependent correspondent, Stephen Brenkley, was interruptedwith an “excuse me, but who are you?” from the South African mediamanager, Gordon Templeton. Today, there very nearly wasn’t a pressconference. The “excuse me” question was this time addressed to RickyPonting, who was briefly refused admission to the briefing roombecause he wasn’t wearing the correct accreditation.Wrecker of the Day
The Netherlands’ opening bowler, Billy Stelling, missed their gameagainst Australia because of a back problem, but he looked none-the-worse for his lay-off today. He struck with the second ball of thematch, and then twice in two balls to dismiss two former Englandinternationals, Gavin Hamilton and Dougie Brown. By the start of hisseventh over he had conceded just four runs for three wickets, andScotland were down and out.Shot of the Day
Ryan ten Doeschate was described by his captain as “too important” torely on for runs, but he didn’t seem to be buckling under the burdenall the while he was giving Scotland’s bowlers the run-around. Hismatchwinning 70 not out included six fours in eight balls as the endcame swiftly, but the highlight was a wonderful straight slap offGlenn Rogers that landed on the roof of the pavilion and couldn’t beretrieved.Butterfingers of the Day
Daan van Bunge has had an eventful World Cup. There was thatover against Herschelle Gibbs, of course, followed by a bold 33against Australia on Friday, and he even picked up his first wicket ofthe day today, when Scotland’s No. 11, Paul Hoffmann, ballooned adrive to mid-off. But the one thing he couldn’t pick were his slipcatches. Two of them went down today – Majid Haq and Neil McCallum -which slightly undermined the claim made by his coach, Ian Pont, thatthe Netherlands’ fielding was in the top four for this tournament.

Steve Harmison completed an eight-wicket match haul as Durham made short work of Worcestershire on the final day at New Road. With just four wickets left, it was only a matter of time before the home side folded. When Gareth Batty fell to the brotherly combination of the Harmison’s – Steve’s fifth wicket – the tail didn’t hang around long. Callum Thorp wrapped up the innings with three wickets and Durham bagged 20 points.It took Sussex less than 19 overs to knock off the 56 runs they needed to comprehensively beat Kent at Hove and open their Championship defence with a 22-point win. Richard Montgomerie completed an outstanding match, finishing undefeated on 33.Yorkshire showed their winter problems are well behind them with a crushing 346-run win over Surrey at The Oval. Scott Newman offered the lone resistance, falling 11 short of his second century of the match, although he benefited from the attacking fields as plenty of his runs came down to third man. When Newman was seventh out the other batsmen had contributed just 36 runs. Darren Gough took another three wickets, including Rikki Clarke who shouldered arms, but the leading performer was Matthew Hoggard as he found movement to remove the middle order. A decent crowd had turned out, but the Surrey fans among them will have left disappointed. Life back in the top flight hasn’t started well. “We could surprise a few teams this year along the way if we play this sort of cricket,” Gough said. “The body language was excellent throughout. I’m not saying we’ll play like that every game. We’re going to lose games but hopefully we’ll win games also.”Mal Loye’s century ensured Lancashire left Edgbaston with draw despite Warwickshire‘s dominance of more than half the match. After not enforcing the follow on yesterday Gary Keedy had opened up the chance of a turnaround, but Warwickshire’s lower order extended the lead on the final morning before setting a target of 347 with Tim Ambrose’s half century. Alex Loudon struck early with his off spin, but a stand of 91 between Loye and Stuart Law guided Lancashire through the final session.

Nottinghamshire, the division two favourites, laid down an early marker with a nine-wicket win against Leicestershire at Trent Bridge. The visitors led by 67 with five wickets remaining at the start of the final day, but any hopes of building a significant lead vanished when Tom New fell to the fifth ball of the day. The wicketkeeper hadn’t added to his 57 when he edged Mark Ealham low to second slip where David Hussey took a fine catch. Ryan Sidebottom then wrapped up the tail with 3 for 18 in five overs, leaving a target of 111. Although Jason Gallian fell for 37, top-edging Claude Henderson, Bilal Shafayat and Mark Wagh completed the formalities.A match dominated by the bat ended with more records as Somerset and Middlesex completed a run-feast at Taunton. Justin Langer was finally yorked for 315, 27 short of the Somerset record that he holds, but the home side set a new record for the highest score on the ground. Their 850 beat Lancashire’s 810 set in 1895 and was also the highest total in any match involving Somerset. Peter Trego helped boost the total with a run-a-ball 130, his fifth first-class ton. Middlesex, 250 behind despite scoring 600, needed to bat out just over two sessions and Ed Smith’s 103 ended the match in fitting style.Essex comfortably survived two sessions to share the spoils with Derbyshire at Chelmsford. After the visitors batted on for 20 overs, Essex were set 376 but there was never any chance of them attempting the chase. Varun Chopra batted for two-and-half hours after both openers fell to leave Essex 36 for 2.

Trevor Bayliss will be interviewed by Sri Lanka next week as a potential replacement for Tom Moody as the country’s head coach. Bayliss is competing with at least one other Australian, Terry Oliver, who is in charge of the Queensland team and has already met with Sri Lankan officials.Bayliss, the coach of New South Wales since 2004-05, told The Sydney Morning Herald he was due to be interviewed in Colombo on June 14. The paper reported Bayliss was likely to take the role if it was offered, although he recently rejected overtures from Bangladesh and Australia’s Centre of Excellence.”It’s a job with an international team, and one of the better international teams, so you’d be nuts not to hear them out,” Bayliss said. “And if something was offered, you’d be silly to knock it back. I spoke to Tom [Moody] about a week ago just to find out what I can expect in the interview. So now it’s just a case of going over and seeing what they have to say.”Bayliss played 58 games as a middle-order batsman for New South Wales during the 1980s and ’90s. He was the state’s Second XI mentor before taking over from Steve Rixon in the senior job. He guided the Blues to the Pura Cup title in his first season at the helm.Dave Gilbert, the chief executive of Cricket New South Wales, said the state would have no problems with Bayliss leaving to take on an international position. “We won’t be standing in the way of Trevor,” Gilbert told the paper. “If he wants to prove himself on the international stage, we will stand aside.”We don’t want to lose him, but we realise he is very ambitious, and in the long term he wants to coach Australia. Coaching another international side would be a big step towards that goal. Just look at the way it catapulted Tom Moody to the upper echelons of world cricket.”

Australia’s new coach, Tim Nielsen, has outlined his plans for a pre-season bonding trip before next summer. Although the controversial military-style boot camp that Australia tried out last year has been put on the backburner, Nielsen hopes a four-day gathering in August will focus the team ahead of a hectic 18 months.Cricket Australia’s 25-man squad will meet on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in August, where the players will be put through physical fitness work and Nielsen will outline his goals. It will be his first chance to address the whole group since taking over from John Buchanan after the team’s World Cup triumph.”It will be a different set-up, a chance just to get everyone back together in that we have had a long break from play,” Nielsen told the . “We will try and get our thoughts focused on where we are going to go over the next little while.”Nielsen’s first competitive engagement as the coach will be the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September. That starts a frantic period for Australia, who host Sri Lanka and India this summer and are expected to play 20 Tests in 2008.

ScorecardIn a thrilling Pro40 match at Scarborough, Yorkshire finished as victors over Somerset by nine runs with one over to spare, the target adjusted by Duckworth-Lewis. The highlights were outstanding innings by Jacques Rudolph and Ian Blackwell, and a marvellous coup de grace administered by Darren Gough.Yorkshire batted on winning the toss. Rudolph frequently opens the batting, especially in one-day matches, in his native South Africa, but rarely has he provided a team with such a rollicking start. In the second over of the innings, bowled by Peter Trego, he drove two superb fours, and then scored 18 off Trego’s next over, including a six over midwicket. He raced to his first fifty off 28 balls, hitting nine fours and two sixes.The first wicket put on 72 runs in eight overs before Craig White departed for 15. Four were down for 108, including the double-century maker of the previous day, Younis Khan, who was adjudged lbw to a ball that looked a little high without scoring. Rudolph now consolidated, along with Andrew Gale (53 not out), in a partnership of 111.When he departed, lbw attempting a reverse sweep, he had made 127 off 114 balls with seven fours and two sixes. A final blaze from Tim Bresnan (29 not out off 11 balls), including three successive big sixes off Gareth Andrew, took Yorkshire to 261 for five.Yorkshire struck a quick blow when Marcus Trescothick, with just a boundary to his credit, played on to Jason Gillespie. But Justin Langer came out and batted as if he intended polishing off the target single-handedly, with a stream of impressive boundaries. It was quickly obvious that this was the crucial wicket, but it took a little good fortune: he had 36 to his credit when Gillespie bowled him with a ball that kept strangely low.Some rather loose bowling, especially by Bresnan, kept Somerset above five an over, but wickets fell steadily. Gillespie finished with three for 35, bowling his eight overs straight through. Then Blackwell decided to climb in. He had played himself in steadily, but now began to look for the boundary and beyond. The sixes began to fly, both straight and leg-side, his fifty came off 41 balls, and Yorkshire’s second-string bowlers struggled. The balance of the match was swinging.As the match headed towards a thrilling climax, the sky clouded over and some rain began to fall, with Somerset just behind the Duckworth-Lewis rate. The players went off in the 32nd over with Somerset 203 for 6, just one run behind. Two overs were lost, and the target revised to 252.The break interrupted Somerset’s momentum, and Blackwell was not into his stride again when he was brilliantly stumped down the leg side by Gerard Brophy for 97. But Somerset continued to fight. Craig Keiswetter hit gallantly for 38, and with two overs left, the last two wickets needed to score 12 runs to win. Then came Gough to bowl the last two batsmen in his own inimitable style.

The rift between the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) continues to widen, the latest being a reply from Bruce Aanensen, the chief executive of the WICB, to the letter issued by Dinanath Ramanarine, the president and chief executive of the WIPA.In the letter, Aanensen alleged that Ramnarine wrote the letter that was supposedly sent by the players to him, expressing displeasure over Aanensen’s criticism over their performance during the recent tour to England.”This kind of action is dangerous, malicious and dishonest,” Aanensen said, adding: “In all of these accusations Mr Ramnarine has deliberately not spoken the truth, quoted me out of context, or substantially misrepresented the facts.”I consider this attack on my reputation and character to be a malicious, premeditated act on the part of Mr Ramnarine to convey a negative message regarding my style of management and my respect of others.”Aanensen said Ramnarine deliberately left out some bits of information in his accusation. “Where he says that he has asked for meetings with me, what he does not say is that these requests are to negotiate the terms of the UK tour.”WIPA have rejected the standard tour contract offered by the WICB as is the norm in tours in the FTP [Future Tour Programme], and asked to have the tour negotiated,” Aanensen said.That is “in accordance with normal industrial relations practice, that WIPA submit to us their proposal to allow us to see what they are requesting, and create a basis for negotiations.”To date, Mr Ramnarine has refused to submit a proposal. The WICB cannot properly prepare for negotiations unless we have received a proposal from the WIPA.”Referring to the issue of the players being labelled incompetent, Aanensen said: “The statement, ‘a bunch of incompetent cricketers’, was made by an ex-West Indies captain from the commentary box after the Leeds Test match in which the West Indies suffered their heaviest loss in our Test history.”This statement was the subject of a discussion with a radio host who interviewed me about a series of matters and is not my statement,” Aanensen indicated.Aanensen concluded: “I came into this position hopeful that the rift between the WICB and WIPA could be resolved…I remain hopeful, that somehow, the two organisations can work together in the interest of West Indies cricket, but maturity, honesty and respect must prevail for this to be accomplished and, sadly, Mr Ramnarine has not demonstrated these qualities.”

Anjum Chopra, the former India captain, has said that the state of women’s cricket has improved in the country under the management of the Indian board.”Things have certainly improved, facilities have increased. Women cricketers are being paid better than before. But it is too early to comment on anything, it is an ongoing development,” she told . The women’s game was previously handled by a separate women’s board before a merger with the BCCI took place last year.Speaking on the sidelines of a book release, Chopra said: “I am happy that the game is being recognised. As a woman cricketer it is a great feeling to be among the country’s elite sports personalities.”Chopra is due to receive the Arjuna Award, an annual honour given by the federal government to sportspersons excelling in their field, on August 29.

The ICC has thrown its weight behind the Indian board in the latter’s stand-off with the Indian Cricket League (ICL), saying the BCCI was its “only recognised body” to administer the sport in India.”We have not got any application from the ICL [for recognition] yet, but we already have a five-step process to decide on such issues,” Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, said.The first four steps in the process of approving a tournament by a private body involved checks on: Whether it’s run for the development of the game or for charitable purposes; the players involved, and whether they were all contracted to their parent boards; the time and venue of the matches; and whether anti-corruption measures were put in place to run the event.The critical stage was the final one, where the applicants were asked whether the member board of the country had approved it. “If the answer is no we would not give it our recognition,” Speed said.He cited the example of a tournament planned last year in the USA, which was shot down by the ICC for not fulfilling the criteria he had mentioned.Speed also referred to what one of ICL’s talent scouts, Dean Jones, thought about the matches the ICL planned to organise. “From what I gather they are seeking to run what I can call within quotes unofficial cricket. Dean Jones was criticised in Australia for joining the ICL and his reply was that it was only glorified exhibition matches.”I have come to understand through media reports, and after talking to people in India, that what the ICL has planned is two to three weeks of Twenty20 cricket with six teams having three or four retired or retiring international cricketers and domestic cricketers.”We keep getting requests from private organisations for allowing them to organise events. ICC traditionally allows its members to run cricket. ICC does not interfere if a member board disciplines or does not discipline its players. At this stage all I can say is we have not been approached [by the ICL],” he said.Speed, however, said he would personally be extremely disappointed if Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf, who has joined the ICL, is not seen in action in the forthcoming India-Pakistan series. “Yousuf is at the peak of his career. My personal view is it will be extremely disappointing if he does not play in the series between India and Pakistan.” The Pakistan board has already decided not to consider those who join the ICL for international matches.

In a year when Mark Ramprakash sped past the 2,000 run mark for the second successive season, it would be easy to forget the achievements of club captain Mark Butcher.After an incredible second half of the season turnaround that saw Surrey finish fourth in the Championship however, there are plenty of positives that the former England batsman can take from his third year at the helm.Butcher played a pivotal role in this year’s campaign by scoring 752 runs at an average of 39.57, the highlights of which were 179 at Hove in May and 100 at the Rose Bowl in August. His achievement in turning the club’s season around following a difficult start to the summer has also been outstanding. Despite the lack of silverware at the Oval this year, Butcher has hailed the season a success.Speaking at an event to launch Surrey and Brit Insurance’s school playground marking scheme, Butcher said: “Considering the start we had, I think the season stands as one that we can be proud of. With a few weeks left, it was still touch and go as to whether we would be caught in a relegation fight. The fact that the guys were able to pull together and produce some superb results was a great achievement in itself.”The way we played against Hampshire and Lancashire towards the end of the summer really showed what we are capable of on our day. By finishing fourth in the Championship, we have every right to feel optimistic moving into 2008”.The next stage of the playground markings scheme was being showcased at Marden Lodge Primary School in Caterham. The project has been carried out throughout schools in Aldershot, Woking, Worplesdon, Dorking, Addlestone, Battersea, Putney, Merton, Croydon and Camberwell, with Brit contributing £3000 each year to each school.With the brightly coloured markings and wall targets, the scheme provides a cost-effective way of transforming an outdoor space into a fun and vibrant environment fit for playing cricket, and a variety of other games. The markings will also encourage boys and girls to play and develop their skill levels during their break times, as well as help teachers deliver the school curriculum.Butcher said: “People forget that this is where the love for cricket starts when you’re a child. Not to mention that it encourages everyone to get out and have some fun which is what it’s all about. I wish that I’d had facilities like this when I was growing up.”