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Michael Davidson, Canterbury’s seam bowler, has been given the team’s 12th and last contract for the 2008-09 domestic season. Canterbury was the only side to leave one spot vacant when all the New Zealand domestic teams announced their contract lists in July.”Michael fully deserves this contract and it shows that a player can progress through club cricket to become a fully contracted Canterbury Cricket player,” Canterbury chief executive Lee Germon told NZPA.Davidson was promoted from his club side St Albans in 2006-07 and made his first-class debut against Otago in the State Championship in February 2007. He played a crucial role in Canterbury winning the 2007-08 State Championship final against Wellington by taking four wickets in 11 balls.Davidson has played six first-class matches and taken 21 wickets at an average of 24.61 and strike-rate of 58.Canterbury contracted list: Corey Anderson, Todd Astle, Hamish Bennett, Leighton Burtt, Michael Davidson, Andrew Ellis, Brandon Hiini, Johann Myburgh, Michael Papps, Iain Robertson, Shanan Stewart, Kruger Van Wyk

ScorecardIt rained 723 runs at the Albury Oval as the Australian Institute of Sports prevailed by 19 runs against India Emerging Players and moved to the top of the table. Theo Doropoulos and Moises Henriques made merry with centuries to pilot Australia to what seemed an unassailable 371 for 5, but Suresh Raina’s 115 gave them a scare before India were bowled out for 352. However, the result could’ve been different had they managed to bat till the end of the 50th over.The run-fest began when Doropoulos and David Warner tore into the attack with an opening stand of 133, before Henriques joined Doropoulos to stitch the biggest stand of the match – 156. Doropoulos fell for 107 off 115 balls but the more dominant of the pair was Henriques who blazed to his ton in just 67 deliveries before eventually falling for 124 off 83. S Badrinath was left to rue his decision at the toss and at the interval, the Indians were up against it.India’s charge was led by Raina, who after a rich haul of runs in the Asia Cup, ripped into the academy attack and matched Henriques’ effort, reaching his ton in 65 balls. Badrinath, following a dip in returns in the two previous games, found his touch and played the supporting role to Raina. They added 131 for the third wicket before Raina fell. It was a crucial breakthrough as the Indians failed to build more partnerships. Badrinath missed his ton by five runs and his dismissal at 6 for 276 put Australia firmly in command. The tail gave the home side a few anxious moments before the chase folded up with 3.4 overs to spare. Doropoulos capped his hundred by taking 3 for 68 while Grant Sullivan took 3 for 62.
ScorecardAnother close contest unfolded at the WEP Harris Oval as New Zealand Emerging Players sneaked home by 10 runs against South Africa Emerging Players. Opener Martin Guptill’s half-century set up the victory but Imraan Khan’s 98 went in vain as his side could only muster 266 for 9 in 50 overs.Ahmed Amla sent New Zealand in and the openers, Guptill and Jesse Ryder, set the platform with a stand of 64. Greg Hay chipped in with 43 as New Zealand posted a competitive 276. South Africa were strengthened by a stand of 70 between Khan and Dean Elgar but two wickets – first by Brandon Hiini and then by Robbie Schaw – turned the match in New Zealand’s favour at 6 for 195. Khan fell two short of his ton, caught and bowled by Ryder, leaving his side at 7 for 212. Hiini and Schaw took three wickets apiece to seal the win. South Africa’s third defeat in four games left them at the bottom of the table, jeopardising the chances of defending their title.

Allen Stanford, the Antigua-based billionaire who bankrolls the West Indies domestic Twenty20 competition, has said he would like his investment to be paid back each year by money earned through television rights. But he added that any profits he made in terms of the programme in the Caribbean would go to the West Indies board.Stanford said his agenda for investing in Twenty20 was different from that of those backing the Indian Premier League and the Indian Cricket League. “Their [IPL and ICL] agenda is totally commercial: to do something to make money for themselves and their investors and so on,” Stanford told the Barbados-based .”My agenda is to, hopefully, recoup the investment, which is very substantial, that I have made and generate a profit down the road, where that road is hopefully shorter than longer for the West Indies cricket programme. I don’t need to have this as a reason for me to make my stake in future finances for life. I’ve already done that.”Stanford said while he would get marketing and branding from such a venture, the huge satisfaction he got from supporting West Indies cricket was paramount.”It is a lot of fun and I am doing something for a place that I love to be in. Charity is part of it, business is a smaller part of it, but ultimately, business is going to have to make sense here. We are going to have to make some money out of this and that will happen in due course.”

Last time Australia visited the Caribbean they went home undefeated and with a World Cup in their possession. The stakes were considerably lower on this trip but it was an important step in the development of a side that has lost several key members of the World Cup-winning squad.Of the team that triumphed in the dark in Barbados last April, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Brad Hogg have retired, Matthew Hayden missed this entire tour with an injury, Ricky Ponting flew home with a wrist problem and Shaun Tait is slowly coming back to cricket after a self-imposed break.It meant opportunities galore for a bunch of state players who over the past few seasons have been green with envy as the Australia team remained as impenetrable as Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s defences. A 5-0 series whitewash was proof that the fringe men have learned from watching their predecessors.A 169-run thrashing of West Indies in the final game ensured Australia will leave the Caribbean on a high, and none of the players will be as ecstatic as the Man of the Match Luke Ronchi. He destroyed West Indies with 64 from 28 deliveries when the acting captain Michael Clarke promoted him to No. 3 and he slammed six sixes over the tiny boundaries at Warner Park.”It’s a lot like the WACA – short straight,” Ronchi said after the game. “It’s the easiest way to go. It’s the way I play cricket at home and that was the job I was given today, to go out and make the most of the Powerplays and luckily enough it came off.”Ronchi was largely responsible for West Indies’ third Powerplay costing 63 runs – even more amazing considering Dwayne Bravo kept one of the five overs to one run. If Australia thought Ronchi’s 22-ball half-century was impressive, the 19-ball effort from David Hussey in the dying overs was the icing on the cake and Clarke was full of praise for both men.”We took a little bit of a gamble [promoting Ronchi to No. 3] but Luke’s a fantastic cricketer, he’s scored a lot of runs back home and we were very confident he would do the job today,” Clarke said. “It’s great for Australian cricket, we have a lot of depth back at home and as you’ve seen on this tour our one-day team is still very strong.”There were also promising performances from the new opener Shaun Marsh and his partner Shane Watson, who was not in the original squad but finished as Player of the Series after scoring 206 runs at 41.20 and collecting six wickets. Apart from a half-century from Shawn Findlay and some tight bowling from Nikita Miller, the signs were not as encouraging for West Indies.After a series in which their only strong effort resulted in a one-run loss, the captain Chris Gayle knows they have a long way to go to threaten the world’s top sides. “We still need to work on our cricket and take a leaf from [Australia’s] book as well,” Gayle said. “We need to work on the mental aspect to our game as well and physically in the field and so on.”

Easterns secured the Faithwear Cup title after a convincing 92-run victory against Northerns at Harare Sports Club. Stuart Matsikenyeri, standing in as captain for the injured Hamilton Masakadza, set the platform with a controlled 68-ball 55. Forster Mutizwa and Shingirai Masakadza both made 49 to ensure a tough total in a competition where the scores have been consistently low. It proved well out reach for Northerns, who slumped to 64 for 6 as Steady Musoso took three early wickets. Masakadza completed an impressive all-round performance, also bagging three wickets, as he was named Man of the Match.In the other game, Centrals won a low-scoring encounter by four wickets against Westerns at Harare County Club. Solomon Mire ripped through the middle order as Westerns fell from 54 for 2 to 77 for 9. They edged to three figures, and didn’t make it easy for Centrals to reach their target. Friday Kasteni guided the chase with 42 off 88 balls, but they made hard work of win after slipping to 89 for 6. Keegan Meth produced a miserly spell of 3 for 12.

A blistering century from Tejinder Pal Singh saw Railways notch up a comfortable 107-run win over Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji one-day tie at the Daly College Ground, Indore, on Tuesday.Asked to bat by Uttar Pradesh, Railways did not squander the advantage of first-strike. Openers Jai P Yadav (46) and Singh added 159 runs in only 21.2 overs for the first wicket, and a 52 from Jacob Martin in the middle order further consolidated their position. Singh’s knock of 106 came off only 84 balls and included 16 fours and a six.Railways reached 297 for eight in their 50 overs and then did a remarkable job of restricting Uttar Pradesh to only 190 for six. Tight bowling – especially from Yadav, who took three for 43 – meant that none of the UP batsmen could get away to a flying start, and they were not helped by Prashant Malviya taking 82 balls to make 33.Manish Majithia takes 5-26 against RajasthanAt the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground in Indore, Manish Majithia scalped five for 26 in 8.2 overs to break the lower middle-order of Rajasthan’s batting line-up and spur Madhya Pradesh to a six-wicket win.Rajasthan chose to bat after winning the toss, but none of the batsmen could really get going. Nikhil Doru top-scored with 32 off 58 balls, and once left-arm spinner Majithia started to operate, the Rajasthan batting crumbled to 181 all out in 43.2 overs.Madhya Pradesh did not make heavy weather of the target, cruising home in just 36 overs after openers M Pasha and CP Sahu added 71 for the first wicket in only 10.5 overs.Haryana squeeze home by 13 runsHaryana registered a narrow 13-run win over Himachal Pradesh in their North Zone Ranji one-day encounter at Rohtak on Tuesday. Winning the toss, Haryana batted first, and looked to be doing reasonably well at 164 for four. But wickets tumbled thereafter, and number three bat Parender Sharma found himself stranded on an unbeaten 66 off 108 balls (3×4, 2×6).Set a target of 227, Himachal Pradesh were bowled out in 49.2 overs for 213, with opener Sandeep Sharma making 63 (99b, 5×4, 1×6) and Sangram Singh hitting 66 (76b, 3×4, 2×6). But neither got any support from the rest of the line-up; for Haryana, Joginder Sharma and Sonu Sharma took three wickets each.Punjab’s solid batting triumphs over DelhiWith four of their top five batsmen making fifties, Punjab was able to register a 61-run win over Delhi at Gurgaon in their North Zone Ranji one-day match, getting a bonus point along the way.Invited to bat, Punjab openers Dinesh Mongia (65, 57b, 11×4) and Manish Sharma (57, 76b, 6×4) added 99 runs for the first wicket. Ravneet Ricky fell early, but Pankaj Dharmani hit 68 (71b, 5×4) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi top-scored with an unbeaten 73 (76b, 6×4, 1×6), seeing Punjab to a total of 288 for six.Sodhi then struck with the ball as well, scalping three crucial batsmen in Delhi’s innings of 227 all out in 46.5 overs. Rajiv Rathore, at number eight, was the top-scorer for Delhi, making 57 not out off 47 balls.PMS Reddy strikes unbeaten 90 in Services winServices won their North Zone Ranji one-day match against Jammu & Kashmir with seven wickets and almost three overs to spare, thanks to a sedate, unbeaten 90 from opener PMS Reddy.Jammu & Kashmir, choosing to bat first, stumbled to only 211 for six in 50 overs; Kavaljit Singh top-scored with 91 off 122 balls (5×4, 1×6) before he was tragically run out. SS Salaria hit an unbeaten 58 (80b, 3×4, 1×6), and it was that effort that helped Jammu & Kashmir past the 200-run mark.But Services made light work of the target. Aside from Reddy’s 90 (136b, 9×4), Yashpal Singh struck 45 (44b, 5×4), and only three wickets fell before Services hit 212 in 47.1 overs.Karnataka storms to win over Andhra PradeshFayaz Ahmed and Barrington Rowland both fell short of a well-deserved century in the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka Ranji one-day tie at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday.Invited to bat, Andhra Pradesh managed only 219 for six in their 50 overs. Opener LNP Reddy made a sedate 58 off 105 balls, but the defining knock was that of Fayaz, who remained on 98 not out (119b, 7×4, 1×6). In return, Karnataka opener Rowland remained not out on 97 (120b, 10×4) as he guided his side home in 38.3 overs. AR Uthappa and Deepak Chougule made 61 (42b, 10×4, 1×6) and 51 (68b, 5×4) respectively and were the wickets to fall.Hemant Kumar century in vainA sparkling 128 from C Hemant Kumar spurred Kerala to 286 for nine in their 50 overs, but it proved insufficient as Tamil Nadu overhauled it in 49.3 overs for the loss of seven wickets.Asked to bat first at the Central College Ground, Bangalore, Kerala reached its score largely due to Hemant Kumar’s innings and that of skipper Sunil Oasis, who made 88 (89b, 9×4). L Balaji and D Dhandapani took three wickets each for Tamil Nadu.Although no batsman made a century for Tamil Nadu, a string of consistent knocks in the middle order saw the side home. Opener and skipper S Suresh hit 40 off 38 balls, S Sriram made 53 (49b, 5×4) and Hemang Badani stroked 43 off 52 balls.Hyderabad defeat Goa by three wicketsIn a match shortened to 47 overs a side, Hyderabad reached their target of 268 with three wickets and two balls to spare, steered home by two tailenders after opener TS Suman top-scored with 89 (101b, 9×4, 1×6).For Goa – asked to bat by Hyderabad skipper Venkatapathy Raju – SM Asnodkar played a good hand of 89 (133b, 7×4, 1×6), anchoring the innings. He fell with the score on 251, barely an over before the innings ended.Aside from Suman’s sterling innings, it was D Vinay Kumar’s 64 (45b, 3×4, 3×6) that steered Hyderabad to the win, despite the best efforts of Goa’s spinners.

Veteran left-hander Hashan Tillakaratne has been drafted into Sri Lanka’s one-day squad after his unbeaten hundred in the firth innings of the second Test at SuperSport Park.Tillakaratne has not played one-day cricket since the 1999 World Cup, after which he was axed from international cricket for two years before being recalled to the Test side in August 2001.Since then he has scored four centuries and with the World Cup to be played in Southern Africa early next year, the selectors have decided to give the 35-year-old another chance.Tillakaratne was omitted from the original 16-man squad but his 104 not out persuaded the selectors to make a last-minute change.Full squad:Sanath Jayasuriya (Capt), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Russel Arnold,Mahela Jayawardene, Aravinda de Silva, Jehan Mubarak, Avishka Gunawardene,Hasantha Fernando, Upul Chandana, Thilan Samaraweera, Pulasthi Gunaratne,Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Chamila Gamage Lakshitha, Prabath Nissanka,Hashan Tillakaratne.

MELBOURNE – Victoria will go into this first-class cricket season with abowling attack short on experience but big on ambition.The new-look Bushrangers will start their season in Adelaide tomorrowagainst the similarly revamped Redbacks.Paul Reiffel’s retirement, Damien Fleming’s move to South Australia andthe extended absence of Shane Warne means left-armer Mathew Inness andsecond-season paceman Will Carr will be the main strike bowlers forVictoria.After fellow pacemen Mick Lewis and Shane Harwood, Ian Harvey willoperate at first change with his tricky medium pace and highly-ratedyoungster Cameron White will provide the spin option.Inness, 24, said the young fast bowlers showed towards the end of lastseason they could damage opposition lineups.”When ‘Pistol’ (Reiffel) retired and Fleming was injured, we had apretty inexperienced side for the last three or four games as well,” hesaid.”But we bowled out Queensland for a hundred (107), New South Wales for ahundred (109) and Western Australia for a low score (175).”We’re all of similar ages and it’s a big opportunity for us.”Inness led the Victorian bowling last season with 31 wickets in sevenPura Cup games at 19.26.He had an off-season stint at English county side Northamptonshire and showedthe potential benefits of that trip with a five-wicket haul against WAearlier this month in a pre-season game.”I usually start the year off pretty slow, it’s the first time I’veplayed in England,” he said.Harwood will make his Victorian debut tomorrow, as will former New SouthWales batsman Graeme Rummans.Mark Higgs (New South Wales) and former Victorian off-spinner JohnDavison were new players named in the South Australian squad of 14.Fleming is not yet available for SA because of a neck muscle injury.But the biggest name debuting tomorrow will not be on the field -Victorian coach David Hookes.The former Australian batsman and SA captain has put his squad through athorough pre-season and is impressed with its attitude after lastseason’s disappointments.The Bushrangers finished second-bottom in the Pura and ING Cups.Squads (12th men to be named):SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Greg Blewett (capt), Nathan Adcock, Chris Davies, JohnDavison, Shane Deitz, David Fitzgerald, Ryan Harris, Mark Harrity, MarkHiggs, Ben Johnson, Graham Manou, Michael Miller, Paul Rofe, MichaelSmith.VICTORIA: Matthew Elliott (capt), Jason Arnberger, Darren Berry, WillCarr, Ian Harvey, Shane Harwood, Brad Hodge, Mathew Inness, Nick Jewell,Mick Lewis, Graeme Rummans, Cameron White.

Kent have won the LV= Insurance County Championship Division Three title after a morning of high drama at Canterbury, where they beat Middlesex by two wickets.Kent finished on 375 for 8, but they were in trouble early after Toby Roland-Jones brilliantly ran out Tawanda Muyeye for 89.They also lost Darren Stevens for 14, before Marcus O’Riordan and Grant Stewart revived them with a stand of 48 and Matt Milnes hit the winning runs.Kent began the fourth day on 275 for 5, needing another 98 to win and as the batsmen walked out a member in the Knott-Underwood stand yelled: “You were seeing it like a football yesterday TS, good luck,” at Muyeye.Middlesex had dragged themselves back into a game that had been drifting away from them when Tim Murtagh had dismissed centurion Ollie Robinson with the final ball on day three. But Kent made steady progress at the start and added 20 runs before Muyeye chased a single and was halfway down the pitch when he was sent back by Stevens and run out by a direct hit from Roland-Jones, who had barely a stump to aim at.A visibly distraught Muyeye trudged back to the pavilion and Stevens was then caught by a diving Sam Robson at second slip, after edging Roland-Jones.At that point Kent were 310 for 7 but O’Riordan and Stewart took them to within 16 of victory when the former edged Martin Andersson for 26 and was caught at second slip by Robson.As the tension mounted, Kent scrambled a single and a shy at the stumps went for four overthrows. Stewart survived a loud appeal for caught behind off Andersson and hit the next ball for four to reduce the target to two.Kent secured the title when Milnes steered Roland-Jones to third man, giving them 19 points and Middlesex three, leaving the visitors as runners-up.

Rajesh Sawant, the 45-year-old India Under-19 trainer, has been found dead in his hotel room in Mumbai on Sunday. He is survived by his wife and daughter.A BCCI press release said Sawant “passed away in his sleep.” He was in Mumbai helping the team prepare for the series against England Under-19, which begins tomorrow.”What I have gathered so far,” acting BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary was quoted as saying by , “is he did not report for team activities in the morning, so people started looking for him and eventually he was found to have passed away in his room.”Sawant had been part of the Afghanistan coaching staff in the past and worked with the India A teams that played the England XI in the two List A matches earlier this month. Sawant had also trained the Rest of India side ahead of the 2016-17 Irani Cup match against Gujarat.