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Somerset fast bowler Richard Johnson took his 50th wicket of the season as the Championship match at Taunton against Surrey ended in a draw.Minutes after the game ended Somerset coach Kevin Shine: "It was always hard work out there on a flat pitch, but the boys stuck well to their task. We now have another bowler who has taken fifty wickets, and many congratulations to, hopefully both ‘Johnno’ and Steffan will now get the recognition that they deserve."He went on: "We are now four points clear in second place, with two championship matches to play, away at Essex and our last match of the season at home to Northants.We are excited at the prospect of Andy Caddick being available for either or both of those games. If he doesn’t play then we’ll just have to get on without him."

Adam Gilchrist has indicated he might be interested in joining the Indian Cricket League when he eventually retires from international cricket. Gilchrist is still planning to play for Australia “for a while yet”, but this week he was forthright in his support for the ICL concept.”It’s quite a good thing for guys like me who are at the back end of their careers,” he said at the Captains’ Breakfast on the eve of the ICC World Twenty20. “I’m ten years older than guys like Graeme [Smith], and about eight years older than Daniel [Vettori], so it’s a great opportunity.”He also felt there was nothing wrong with giving players more options outside the traditional ICC-sanctioned events. “I think the ICC does have a monopoly on the game, and it’s nice for the players to have more opportunities and to have more control of their futures,” he told the South Africa-based .Brian Lara, who has already signed up for the ICL, echoed Gilchrist’s views on the league. “I think there’s room for a lot of players in the market and I’ll be there to support them,” he said at the ICC Awards function in Johannesburg. “The most important thing is that their [ICL] motives are very clean and clear – they want to improve cricket and the standards of professional cricket in India, and that’s good enough for me.”

Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, has praised Michael Clarke for the restraint he showed throughout the incident with Chris Gayle during Wednesday’s match between Australia and West Indies in Mumbai. Gayle was later fined 30% of his match fee for a code one breach for failing to “conduct play within the spirit of the game”, a decision which Ponting welcomed.”I think it was handled in the right way,” Ponting was quoted as saying by . “If you look at the incidents, Pup [Clarke] nearly needs to be congratulated on the way he handled the whole thing. There’s no doubt he had a few words to say but Gayle was the one who was in his personal space and dragging the whole thing out the way he did. Pup handled it brilliantly, and I think it was a pretty fair result to come out of it.”The incident happened during Australia’s run-chase when Clarke and Adam Gilchrist were involved in a significant partnership. Gayle continually made comments directed at Clarke, and at one stage even conceded four overthrows off his own bowling when a throw at the batsman’s end went over the wicketkeeper’s head. It was later suggested that Clarke had sparked off the incident when he called Gayle a “second-class citizen”, a claim which Clarke denied. “If anyone is second-class it’s me, I’m from Liverpool,” Clarke, who grew up in the working-class Sydney suburb, said. “I didn’t say that – I wouldn’t say that – and neither did any of my team-mates.” While Gayle was fined, Clarke was found not guilty of any code violation.The ICC clarified that the decision to report the incident had only been made the morning after the game, and not immediately after the match finished. The delay led to speculation that Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, may have intervened to order charges be laid, but an ICC spokesman said in this case the three umpires had “slept on it” before deciding to charge both players with contravening the spirit of cricket.

The annual Prime Minister’s XI tour match has been switched from January to December 2 and will be played against West Indies at Manuka Oval in Canberra. Cricket Australia said scheduling changes forced the rearrangement of the fixture, which is a tradition dating back to Sir Robert Menzies and was re-introduced by Bob Hawke in the 1980s.West Indies will play their first game of the three-Test tour against Queensland in Brisbane, starting on October 27, before the first Test at the Gabba on November 3. The second Test begins at Hobart on November 17 before the series finishes at Adelaide.Tickets for the tour match at Canberra will be available through ACT Cricket from October 4. Mark Vergano, the ACT Cricket chief executive, said the game would give local residents an opportunity to see international stars in action.

Scotland ended their second season of National League cricket with an emphatic victory over Derbyshire at the Grange. Buoyed by their victory over Bangladesh earlier in the week, Scotland skittled Derbyshire for just 179, with Paul Hoffman taking 3 for 25. In reply, they were given the perfect start by Gregor Maiden and Douglas Lockhart, who added 65 for the first wicket, before the captain Ryan Watson wrapped up the win with an unbeaten 42.It was a good day for Scotsmen all round. At Scarborough, Gavin Hamilton reminded his former Yorkshire team-mates what they are missing with a hard-earned 76, after Matthew Hoggard had ripped through the top order with three quick wickets. It was not enough to secure victory, but after the trials and tribulations that Hamilton has suffered in recent seasons, it was an important statement nonetheless.At Worcester, Leicestershire were routed by five wickets, after being bundled out for just 107. The win secured Worcester the runner-up spot in Division Two, as Steve Rhodes bowed out of one-day cricket.

National League Division Two

Scotland 182 for 2 (Lockhart 58, Watson 42*) beat Derbyshire 179 (Hoffman 3-25) by eight wickets at Edinburgh
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Worcestershire 111 for 5 (Smith 33*) beat Leicestershire 107 (Wigley 4-37) by five wickets at Worcester
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Yorkshire 181 for 7 (Wood 46) beat Durham 178 for 9 (Hamilton 76) by three wickets at Scarborough
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Mark Wallace, Glamorgan`s 21 year old wicket-keeper, was awarded hiscounty cap before the start of play last night in Glamorgan`s inaugural Twenty20 match at Sophia Gardens.The young wicket-keeper was handed his cap by Steve James shortly afterthe toss for the game with Northants had been made.”Mark has become an integral part of the Glamorgan side”, saidJames, “and he`s thoroughly deserved this award afterkeeping to a very high standard.”Wallace becomes the youngest ever wicket-keeper in the club`shistory to become capped under a performance-based system. The previous youngest was Colin Metson who wonhis Glamorgan cap during the 1987 season at the age of 23.This formal cappingprocedure, based on performances, has been in place since 1945. Before then a Glamorgan player couldconsider himself as being capped once he had played in four consecutivefirst-class matches – under this system wicket-keeper Trevor Every won hiscounty cap during the 1929 season at the age of 19.

Russell Warren hit 194 to allow his Northamptonshire captain David Ripley tomake a challenging declaration on the third day at Old Trafford.Warren’s innings ensured that Northants cruised past a target of 451 toavoid the follow-on with five wickets to spare, although he missed out onthe second double century of the match – and his career – when a defensivepush at Chris Schofield trickled back on to his stumps.Ripley, who had supported Warren in a sixth-wicket stand of 116 until hewas bowled by Gary Yates for 43, then declared 105 runs behind on 495 foreight, to throw the ball back into Lancashire’s court.They reached 64 without loss at the close, leaving them 169 ahead, but areunlikely to take any chances today on such a good batting pitch, especiallyagainst one of their relegation rivals.Andy Flintoff had given Lancashire the early breakthrough they were lookingfor, having Tobin Bailey caught at slip to leave Northants 248 for four -still 203 short of that follow-on target.But Graeme Swann joined Warren to add 104 for the fifth wicket, reaching anentertaining half-century from 69 balls with his second six.Even when Swann went caught behind off John Wood for 54, Northants were notout of the woods but Ripley and Warren steered them sensibly to safety.Warren reached his second century of the season from 166 balls and wasclosing in on his career best of 201 not out against Glamorgan in 1996 untilhe was bowled by Schofield. His 194 came from 316 balls with 26 fours and asix.Schofield ended with two for 72 from 21 overs and there were also twowickets each for Lancashire’s other spinners, Gary Keedy and Yates,although none of them was particularly impressive.Crawley then added an unbeaten 41 to the 280 he had scored in the firstinnings, surviving 23 overs with Mark Chilton with no serious alarms.

Robin Morris stroked his way to his second unbeaten half century ofthe season for Mumbai in the Ranji One-Day West Zone League againstGujarat at the GSFC ground, Baroda. Robin (67 not out) hit twoboundaries and five massive sixes in his unbeaten innings leadingMumbai to a 9 wicket victory. Mumbai openers Robin and Wasim Jaffer(61) put on a 118 run partnership for the first wicket. Mumbai lookedset for their second consecutive 10 wicket victory before Wasimcharged Tejas Varsani and was caught short of his ground by stumperPallav Vora. Mumbai raced away to 150 for one in the 24th over toregister their third win and earned two points.Earlier in the day, Gujurat batting first, succumbed to the Mumbaiattack of Paras Mhambrey (3/17) and Sairaj Bahutule (3/34) and crawledtheir way to 149 all out in 48 overs. Bhavin Mehta (28) was the topscorer.

Sourav Ganguly’s association with one of the new IPL franchise owners has been questioned as a possible case of conflict of interest. Ganguly is a member of the IPL governing council and is also a co-owner of the football franchise Atletico de Kolkata; a fellow co-owner is Sanjiv Goenka, who heads the New Rising consortium that today won the Pune IPL franchise.The matter was raised at the press conference that followed the auction procedure and BCCI officials present denied it was a case of conflict but said it would be for the newly appointed ombudsman to decide. Ganguly, when contacted by ESPNcricinfo, laughed off the suggestion of conflict, saying football and cricket are two different sports.

The Kumble Question

The recent resignation of Anil Kumble, another former India captain, from the Mumbai Indians support staff had raised similar doubts over conflict of interest. Manohar was asked on Tuesday whether he thought Kumble’s case was similar to Ganguly’s, as he was not directly related to the Mumbai Indians franchise, and he replied: “No, he was on the technical committee, and the technical committee makes all rules and regulations with regards to playing of the game.”

Shashank Manohar, BCCI president and a lawyer himself, offered a more nuanced defence. “According to me there is not [a conflict of interest] because this is a transparent bidding concept,” Manohar said. “Basically I get questions everyday [about conflict of interest]. People have not understood the meaning of the word conflict. Conflict means where there could be an obvious bias with regards to the decision-making process. When a person can influence the decision-making, then only there is conflict. You can’t extend it to absurdity levels. I am a lawyer, if there is a client of mine, unless it can be shown I have influence, there is no conflict if he bids for a team.”Manohar, though, said his assessment of the Ganguly situation was his own personal view. “Everybody has a right to disagree with me. I am not going to be the judge. The board has appointed an independent agency.”Manohar’s point was that nobody knew the bid amounts while walking into the meeting. They didn’t even know who all were going to bid. The bidders made walk-in offers, which ruled out any knowledge to anyone as to who was going to bid how much. “It was a closed bid submitted at the bidding time,” Manohar said. “Sourav Ganguly has nothing to do with that. Even if somebody has an objection now, we have appointed an ombudsman to look into these cases.”New Rising made two bids in this reverse-bidding process, both in minus. Both were lower than any other bid, but they could get only one franchise according to IPL rules. Every other bidder made at least one positive bid.Manohar did not, however, address the issue of a situation that could arise going forward, where the IPL’s governing council – of which Ganguly is a member as a “cricketer” – might have to decide on matters directly related to the Pune franchise. Though his role is seen as largely ceremonial, it could be argued that he would have influence over decisions taken.It could also be argued that Ganguly is partner with Goenka in a separate entity, and might not have anything to gain financially from New Rising as a co-owner of Atletico. Such a defence has not been put forward by any of the parties involved, although Ganguly’s cryptic reply to ESPNcricinfo might have hinted at that.

Kent chairman Carl Openshaw has written to the four counties who rejected the ECB’s proposal to award Kent an extra five points for their abandoned match at New Road, asking them to reconsider their decision in light of the exceptional circumstances.Durham, Lancashire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire refused to support the proposal to award Kent five additional points. But Openshaw picks out a series of arguments in Kent’s favour and highlights that they have been the innocent party after Worcestershire’s decision to stage the match at New Road so soon after the flooding.Worcestershire have since admitted it was a misguided decision and originally the ECB said the game would be replayed. However, after further matches were badly hit by the weather that decision was overturned, although Openshaw asks the county chairman to consider the different circumstances.”It is important to recognise that the failure to start and the subsequent abandonment of the match [at New Road] had nothing to do with prevailing weather conditions,” he wrote. “In contrast with the Roses match played over the same period, the weather had been relatively fine in Worcester in the days leading up to the match.”Whereas almost all league matches in the Manchester area that weekend were cancelled because of bad weather, local league games in the Worcester area proceeded uninterrupted.”There is surely no comparison between matches which, as happens in most seasons, are affected by heavy rain shortly before and during the game and the unprecedented situation of a ground under 12 feet of water 10 days before the scheduled start of a Championship match.”