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Simon Katich ended a week in which he returned to the Australia squad by picking up the Steve Waugh Medal as New South Wales’ outstanding player. Katich’s dream season included a record 1506 runs at 94.13 and the Pura Cup trophy before his promotion to the Test outfit for next month’s West Indies tour.He dominated the judging for the medal, which included Pura and FR Cup matches, picking up 269 votes and easily beating Brad Haddin’s 129 at the ceremony in Sydney on Friday night. Katich also received back-to-back Pura Cup Player of the Year awards after posting five centuries, including a career-high 306 against Queensland. Doug Bollinger, the left-arm fast bowler, earned 111 nominations to finish 80 behind his captain.Haddin, who will join Katich in the West Indies, was the limited-overs star and was recognised for his FR Cup form after winning one more vote than Dominic Thornely’s 87. International commitments meant Haddin appeared in only six games, but his 314 runs and seven dismissals swayed the judges and ensured he matched last season’s victory.The Belinda Clark Medal was won for the third year in a row by Lisa Sthalekar, the Australia vice-captain. Sthalekar, a batting allrounder, collected 312 runs and 12 wickets as she steered the New South Wales Breakers to their third consecutive WNCL title. The campaign was a successful one for Sthalekar, who had already been named the WNCL Player of the Year and the Australian Women’s International Player of the Year.”Simon and Lisa have both had fantastic seasons in leading their respective sides to victory,” David Gilbert, the New South Wales chief executive, said. “Simon’s performances were phenomenal and winning the Steve Waugh Medal is a just reward for his outstanding, record-breaking summer. Lisa has also had an impressive summer and her form was a major factor in the Breakers winning the WNCL for an incredible 10th time in 12 seasons.”The Rising Star Awards went to Phillip Hughes, who at 19 became the youngest to score a century in a domestic final, and the 17-year-old Ellyse Perry, Australia’s record-setting Test debutant. Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Bob Simpson and Steve Waugh received medals and entry into the state’s Hall of Fame, which welcomed the 12 members of New South Wales’ team of the past 150 years.

Inclement weather in Colombo has forced the postponement of certain Premier league matches in Sri Lanka. Matches that were scheduled to begin on November 24 and December 1 have been pushed back to January 12 and 19.Basil Perera, Sri Lanka Cricket’s tournament committee chairman, said that in fairness to the 14 clubs represented the postponement was necessary because the current season was one of transformation for them. “Each of the clubs has only six matches in their respective groups to try and finish in the top ten to qualify for next season’s competition so it is only fair to give them the maximum opportunity of playing time,” he explained. “Last week four matches did not start at all due to bad weather and ground conditions. Of the remaining two only one club recorded victory while the other game was also affected by the weather.”It was the consensus of the captains that they were disappointed with the outcome. In consultation with the Met Department which predicted rain for the next two weeks we decided to postpone the matches for January,” he added. “Rescheduling of matches is not a difficult task but one has to look at the expenditure and revenue. Then there is also the question of venues being available. There are five clubs playing in the Premier league without a ground of their own.”Matches of the Premier limited-overs tournament scheduled for November 28 have also been postponed to December 3.The Premier league will recommence December 8 with the following matches: SSC v BRC at Maitland Place, Ragama CC v Saracens tbc, NCC v Bloomfield at Maitland Place, Tamil Union v Chilaw Marians at Sara Stadium, Colts v Sebastianites at Havelock Park and Moors SC v CCC at Braybrooke Place.

Ray Price, the former Zimbabwe left-arm spinner now playing for Worcestershire, has set his sights on playing international cricket again – for England.”My best years are still to come,” Price told the Press Association. “You learn so much with all those experiences you have gained from when you are younger. I just wish I could go back five or six years with the same mental approach I have now and apply it.”Joining the likes of Heath Streak in rebelling against Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), Price chose to resume his playing career in England where he was eligible to play for Worcestershire under the Kolpak scheme. Making his debut in 2004, he is nearly halfway through a four-year qualifying period to play for England.”You sit and watch the Test matches and one-day internationals, I really miss that, playing in the heat of battle, enjoying yourself in front of a large crowd and being under pressure the whole time,” he said.”You miss it. It’s a bit like eating cod and then having to go back and eat sardines. Once you have tasted it, there is nothing like it.”This is my second full year at Worcester. I have got two years after this and then I am qualified for England when I’ll still only be 32, 33 which is nothing for a spinner.”Look at Shaun Udal who is in his late 30s. I think it is really great that England gave Udal a go in India. He bowled so well on that India tour and it just showed that he has got so much experience under his belt.”

The Kent paceman Amjad Khan has been ruled out of the England tour of Bangladesh, leaving just 12 players available for selection ahead of the opening match.Khan arrived in Dhaka with a swollen knee after attending the MRF pace academy in Chennai and the management took the decision to send him back to England as a precaution ahead of the new season. The tour was going to be Khan’s first representative action for England – he was born in Denmark – having completed his qualification period.His withdrawal, along with Ravi Bopara’s selection for the World Cup squad, means Peter Moores, the coach, is down to the bare bones of a party. Two replacements will be named shortly, with Glen Chapple touted as one possibility. Ryan Sidebottom, the Nottinghamshire left-armer, might also come into the equation.With the options reduced, England are likely to name all their specialist batsmen for the first Test against Bangladesh A which starts on Thursday. That will hand an opportunity to the likes of Will Jefferson, Michael Carberry and Nick Compton who were preferred on the tour to the Test-capped pair of Robert Key and Owais Shah.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the former ICC and BCCI president, got a further reprieve after the Mumbai Metropolitan court adjourned the hearing for the case filed against him by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police for alleged embezzlement of funds from the 1996 World Cup jointly hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The court set June 16 as the next date of hearing after Dalimya’s lawyers asked for more time to study the case.Last month the court had granted Dalmiya bail after the EOW had filed a chargesheet accusing him of misappropriating funds to the tune of Rs 2.9 crore (approx US$725,000). It alleged that Dalmiya diverted funds from a bank account in Kolkata that was originally set up for paying legal fees towards various other expenses. There was a “technical arrest” but Dalmiya received a swift bail after he said he would produce surety of Rs 25,000 ($625).Dalmiya was absent from the hearing on Friday but his lawyer Satish Maneshinde said his client had been granted exemption from personal apperance. “The surety bonds were furnished in front of the court and since he [Dalimiya] had to attend to some [religious ceremonies], we requested the court that there was no impediment in granting him exemption.”

The turbulent times at Yorkshire show no signs of abating with Anthony McGrath, one of the club’s senior players, set to try to leave Headingley despite being offered the captaincy for next season.This news comes in the wake of Chris Adams’s last minute decision to turn down a move to Yorkshire in favour of staying at Sussex. McGrath had been lined up as the new captain, alongside a new three-year contract, but is instead focusing his interest elsewhere. However, Yorkshire have made it clear to McGrath that he is still under contract and they are not willing to release him, which leaves the situation heading for a legal battle.Stewart Regan, the chief executive, told the club’s website: “We are bitterly disappointed that Anthony has turned down this opportunity. He has been a Yorkshire player since his teens, and it is sad that he no longer wants to be part of this club.”I have personally spent several hours with him over the past few weeks, offered him the captaincy and a very attractive contract, but he still wishes to go elsewhere. I have therefore reminded him that he is under contract with this club, and we are not prepared to release him from his obligation.”Unfortunately, it is my understanding that he intends to try and break his contract. If he does not want to play for the club it will ultimately end up in solicitors’ hands. It is a very sad state of affairs.However, Regan tried to remain positive about the direction of the club after it managed to escape Championship relegation in 2006. “This club has taken some knocks in recent weeks, but it’s been around for 143 years, and I’m sure it’ll be here for many more. It’s at times like this that we need to be united, and I hope members and staff will now get behind the players, in particular the younger lads who will certainly get their chances next season.”McGrath, 31, made his Yorkshire debut in 1995 and has scored 9816 runs in first-class cricket. He played four Tests for England in 2003 alongside 14 one-day internationals.

Dav Whatmore, the former Bangladesh coach, is set to become the first director of operations of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.”I’ve agreed, but the announcement should come from the board … I don’t wish to break protocol,” Whatmore was quoted as saying by the , a Kolkata-based daily. “The contract is for three years and I’ll be in Bangalore by the end of this month.” Whatmore had been made the offer by Ravi Shastri, the NCA chairman.Looking ahead to the job at hand, Whatmore indicated that there were several plans for the NCA. “I’m excited and Ravi wants it to become a real finishing school. In fact, I’d like players from overseas too to graduate from there.”The specifics have to be worked out, but I expect the NCA to be operational for 8-10 months [in a year]. Eventually, one would like Indian coaches to impart all the training but, if needed, one may call specialists from overseas. However, one doesn’t have to cross that bridge right now.”Whatmore had been one of the leading contenders to replace Greg Chappell as India coach, but he wasn’t even called for the interview by a panel which included Shastri. Whatmore, though, said that didn’t affect his decision to take up the NCA offer.”I’d rather talk of the NCA,” he said. “It didn’t take me long to realise there’s value in being associated with it. Plus, I can give something. I know Ravi’s on the coach-appointing committee, but I didn’t bring up what happened in June. I’ve known Ravi for a number of years. We understand each other well and I’m looking forward to a formal association with him.”

Michael Vaughan has accused the England management of freezing him out of the Ashes dressing-room last winter, and that his offers to share his experience with the team were rebuffed.In an interview with The Guardian, Vaughan, who was in Australia with the England Academy side for the early stages of the tour, said: “I was never involved at all in the Ashes and I think we could have used me more. I’m an Ashes-winning captain with a huge amount of knowledge on a lot of things and I wasn’t used at all. It was made clear that I was to be kept away from the team, and I understood the reason, but there were times when I think I could have helped.”Although Vaughan did not mention Duncan Fletcher by name, the implication that he was at the heart of the decision to sideline him was evident. Vaughan, who misses the first Test at Lord’s with a broken finger, also made clear that he was looking forward to working with Peter Moores, Fletcher’s successor. “Obviously this is the start of a new regime and I think it’s crucial that I’m around just to get a feel for the new regime and the way it works.”And he explained that the 0-5 drubbing in Australia and the poor World Cup campaign may have dulled the appetite of some players. “When you get beat so heavily, losing every session, every day – losing, losing, losing – then it’s got to have an effect. I don’t know any team that stays together when you are getting battered.

“Then we went to the World Cup … didn’t start well, incidents happened, we really struggled and the coach went. The formula of the team started to get a little bit disgruntled. You talk about the wheels coming off … they’d fallen off at one point. It’s down to us to make sure we get those wheels back on and the only way we’ll do that is by getting together as a team, working hard and enjoying the game.”As for his own future, he said he was keen to carry on leading both Test and one-day sides. “It would be easy for me to sit here and say, ‘Right, you lot have got to me’, but I’m going to actually try and fight, take a few people on and see if I can prove a few people wrong. If I can I’ll be happy, if I can’t I’ll say, ‘You lot were right’, but at the minute I’m quite happy to have a fight. I really have a passion to try and play and my body feels fine. As long as I continue to go in the gym and get my leg stretch right, do the stretching, get in the pool, do the ice, I’ll be fine.”At the minute I’m desperate to do the work and play as much cricket as I can. I’d love to play for England for a few more years because I feel I’ve got a lot to offer.”

Ricky Ponting is hoping for a quick wicket in Wednesday’s semi-final because he believes Jacques Kallis will score more slowly than the openers. While admitting Kallis is one of the world’s best batsmen, Ponting wrote in his column in The Australian they have plans to restrict him in St Lucia.Kallis was criticised after scoring 48 from 63 balls in the group-stage loss to Australia in St Kitts after Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers swept South Africa to 160 in 21 overs. “We feel [the openers] are the key to their chances,” Ponting said. “But if we can get Kallis in there early, I don’t think they can get off to the same sort of start.”He is a very good player and has a great overall record, averaging 45.68 in one-day cricket, but against us it’s not so great. I feel we have also had the better of him in Tests. If we get our plans right to him, we can restrict him. We all know that if we bowl a certain way and put him under pressure, we can keep him reasonably quiet.”Ponting has noticed Kallis, who has 480 runs at 96 in the tournament, has been playing more shots since the Australia game, “which may have been the result of a rev-up from their coaching staff”. “Those runs, though, have come against bowling attacks that haven’t had the pace of a Shaun Tait reverse-swinging the ball,” he said. “The new ball is going to be key in this game.”Ponting also said Matthew Hayden might try a “repeat act” on Shaun Pollock, who went for 83 runs in ten overs in the previous encounter. “If we can take down the opposition’s experienced players, especially in their bowling line-up, like Matty took to Pollock, then that puts extra pressure on other guys around them,” he said.South Africa are deciding how they will use Pollock after he went for the worst figures of his career. “We have a plan with [Pollock],” the coach Mickey Arthur said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “I suspect he will take the new ball, but if there’s nothing happening, we will probably whip him off early and go for the pace of [Andre] Nel. It’s something we learnt from the last game.”Arthur hinted that Makhaya Ntini could sit out, owing to his ordinary form, with South Africa going in with an unchanged bowling line-up. “With Makhaya one knows what you are going to get because he bowls inswingers,” Arthur was quoted in Supercricket. “Therefore, there is no surprise element for the batsman. We have André Nel and his aggression, Shaun Pollock’s ability to limit the scoring and our two top wicket-takers, Charl [Langeveldt] and Andrew Hall.”Arthur said South Africa were “owed a bit of luck” after their previous near-misses in the World Cup, including the tied semi-final in 1999. He said there had been no discussion in the dressing room about the match, which included the key men Kallis, Pollock, Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher.”When you get to the back end of these tournaments, you need your top players to have big games,” Arthur said. “The teams are going to be quite close so it’s going to be a bit of stability and a match-winning performance from one of them that could be the difference.”

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy will be eligible for selection for upcoming tournaments, including the World Twenty20, despite not being given annual retainer contracts by the West Indies Cricket Board. The only condition the WICB has placed is that the players will need to meet criteria set in place by the selection panel, led by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. The six players are not part of the group of 15 who were given retainer contracts for the period between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016.According to Michael Muirhead, the WICB’s chief executive, the selectors had shortlisted 15 players for the contracts based on certain criteria that were drawn keeping in mind the future of West Indies cricket. Muirhead pointed out that the aforementioned six players – including Sammy who captains the West Indies T20 side – did not fit into the selection panel’s vision and hence were not given a contract.”The selectors did the retainers based on where they saw West Indies cricket going and the philosophy which they wanted to encourage and adopt, principally being loyal to commitment and really build for the longer form of the game,” Muirhead told ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday. “Lloyd had previously said how and where he was projecting our cricket to go, and how he wanted to build it.”According to Muirhead, the 15 players were shortlisted by the panel and endorsed by the WICB based on the “combination of their performances in the regional tournaments as well as their attitude”.Still, Muirhead insisted the six players should not misread the situation as they would be eligible for forthcoming series, if the selectors deemed fit.Some of the six players have failed to feature in the list of contracted players in the past, for reasons ranging from disputes with the WICB to voluntarily declining the retainer. In January 2015, Gayle and Narine had refused the retainer contracts as they wanted to focus on playing domestic Twenty20 leagues around the world, where they are marquee players.”When Chris Gayle and Narine refused our retainer contracts some years ago it was so that they had the freedom to do what they wanted,” Muirhead said. “But they are eligible to play all our games if they meet our criteria. This not a penalty.”Muirhead said most of the players had made the decision to make themselves unavailable because they wanted to be free to play in T20 leagues to earn more. “And they took that business decision to do so,” Muirhead said.Muirhead also stressed that most of the six players had already made public their intentions of not playing Test cricket. “Many of those players have withdrawn from the long form of the game officially and are not interested in playing for the West Indies in all formats,” he said.In the last two years, Bravo and Sammy announced their retirement from Test cricket. Pollard has never played Test cricket and is seen by selectors as a limited-overs specialist. Although Lloyd has always been keen for Russell to play Test cricket, the allrounder told the chairman of selectors he would like to play only limited-overs cricket due to a bad knee. Narine, who has played six Tests, is busy remodelling his bowling action after he was suspended by the ICC in November last year. Only Gayle, a 103-Test veteran, has openly stated he is still keen to return to Test cricket in 2016.