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Logistical reasons have forced a switch in the dates for the two Standard Bank Pro20 semi-finals.Taking into consideration a Super 14 rugby match at Newlands, involving the Stormers on Saturday, which is the reserve day for the clash between Cape Cobras and the Titans, the match has been switched to Sunday. However, there is no change in the venue for the game. The other semi-final between the Dolphins and the Eagles at Kingsmead, Durban will be staged on Friday.Friday’s match will be a day-night encounter and will commence at 1800, and if it is forced into the reserve day on Saturday, it will be replayed at 1430. Sunday’s match in Cape Town is a day match and will begin at 1430 and if it goes to Monday, it will start at 1800.

Eight overs into the day’s play, this match effectively ended as a contest when the first innings lead was decided; as the match meandered to a draw on a lifeless pitch, Delhi, who took two points, spent the rest of the day getting batting practice. It put into sharp focus what Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, said in Hyderabad today, that India needed more sporting domestic pitches.Pawar’s reference point was the Durban debacle, and how better pitches at home would help Indian batsmen when they played abroad, but he might also have addressed the other, possibly larger, concern: Domestic cricket needs better pitches for better contests, to simply improve as a spectacle.In any case, this match was dead when Rajat Bhatia picked off a single off D Tamil Kumaran to take the Delhi score past Tamil Nadu’s 347. With the first-innings lead secured, there was little to look forward to for either side, and Bhatia and Vijay Dahiya made the most of a cool, wintryday to post big hundreds.There was just the slightest chance that Tamil Nadu could put in aninspired spell on the final morning and hold Delhi back. Themorning session at the Kotla has always been tricky but Delhi had got theirplans dead right on the third day itself when Dahiya came out to bat andhit a succession of boundaries. “I had not planned to goafter the bowling. But I knew that it could be hard to bat in the morningso I played aggressively,” said Dahiya. “I wanted to ensure that we had aslittle to do as possible on the final morning.”Dahiya, who had reached 51 at the end of the third day, and is making acomeback to the Delhi team after sitting out the whole of the last season,continued to bat with a fluency and effectiveness no other batsmanhad shown in the game. “It just happens that sometimes one batsman scoreswhile others miss out. I didn’t do anything different,” said Dahiya, whose152 included 29 boundaries.Bhatia, who made a big hundred against Tamil Nadu last season aswell, looked well set to get to a double-century when he holed out to RSathish at long off against the now occasional left-arm spin of S Vidyut.He’d probably have got there had he decided to bed down instead oftake chances but, with 166 runs under his belt and close to 10 hours at the crease, he decided to have a go and failed to clear long off.Dahiya’s dismissal, hitting S Badrinath to midwicket, prompted Delhito declare at 491 for 7 and give their spinners anextended bowl. Ishant Sharma, the young medium-pacer, sent down just oneover in the second innings, while Ashish Nehra, who had toiled for 40overs in the first innings, did not even take the field. With Tamil Naduon 66 for 2 the match was called off at the start of the mandatory overs.”We have been training hard for the last 40 days, especially on thephysical fitness aspect, and this is the result,” said ChetanChauhan, the Delhi coach. He added that there was hope that the Delhi andDistrict Cricket Association would prepare better pitches for the gamesahead where “the balance between bat and ball is more even.”Woorkeri Raman, Tamil Nadu’s coach, told Cricinfo that he did havepositives to take from this match. “One has to realise that there’s a fairbit of inexperience in the bowling attack. Yomahesh bowled well and thisis only his third Ranji Trophy match, he’s just learning the ropes,”he said. “Considering that this was an away game and we played threedebutants, in a way it was good that we got the warning signs early on.This gives you a chance to take something out of the game and then try andrectify what you have to and get things in order for the rest of theseason.”Raman also listed the performance of M Vijay, the debutant openingbatsman, as a positive. “It’s a completely different thing for a youngsterto come into first-class cricket,” he said. “What was especially pleasingwas the fact that he showed the ability to graft, unlike the flamboyancewhich you normally associate with Tamil Nadu batsmen.”Raman is not known for mincing words, though, and you can be surehe would have had a few blunt things to say to his players in the privacyof the dressing-room. But made no excuses for his team’sperformance. “We didn’t take the chances that came our way. We did nottake off when we had a launching pad while batting. Badri and Vijay did agood job in stabilising the innings, but from there on we did notcapitalise,” he said. “On this wicket, which was a nightmare for bowlers,450-500 was definitely possible. We didn’t get that, and even then, whenwe bowled, having got the early breakthroughs and picking up a wicket withthe second new ball, we did not capitalise.”

With the ICC deadline requiring compliance with its stipulations for a representative election process fast approaching, unofficial reports on USACA’s progress towards a new and improved constitution surfaced at the Western Conference in LA, and none of the news was good.In an earlier interview with Cricinfo, committee chairman John Wainwright had said that good progress was being made on creating a better constitution by the ICC deadline. The reports tell a somewhat different story.It appears that four of the five-member Constitution Committee had agreed on a framework and were well on the way towards submitting a general report. But the fifth member, a lawyer appointed by Gladstone Dainty, the USACA president, to the committee, delivered a bombshell at a face-to-face meeting in New York, which threw those plans into a tailspin.She voted to junk the process of democratic elections for the USACA board and executive, and proposed instead that they should all be appointed by an expert panel to be named by USACA. This constitution would be submitted to the 35 presidents of the USACA member leagues for approval. There would be no vote of the USACA membership, and no elections for any USACA positions.All this was too much for a Dainty-appointed member of the Constitution Committee, Kahlid Nabi, who had been one of his loyal supporters. Declaring the process to be a total travesty, he wrote a blistering report to USACA and ICC and refused to participate any further in the committee’s deliberations. He informed Cricinfo that he was willing to be quoted on his expressed opinions, and was prepared to answer any further questions put to him on the topic.The problem this presented to the Constitution Committee was immediate and obvious. Even if they were to propose a reasonable and democratic constitution, the chances that the same USACA officers who would stand to lose their jobs and privileges would approve such a report range from slim to zero. Dainty has been expressing support for Wainwright and the committee, but admits he does not have control of the USACA board and will not be able to deliver on his promises.Bobby Refaie, the former USACA secretary who was present at the tournament, said that this was precisely what he had expected. He explained that his view was that once the ICC had released the $58,000 to USACA due under the terms of its Associate Membership, there was no hope that the situation could be salvaged. There was no need for the board to pay any further attention to what ICC wanted them to do. Refaie pointed out that USACA had never acknowledged that ICC had placed any stipulations on it, let alone suggest that it was making any effort to meeting them. They have pocketed ICC’s cash, and that, he said, is all they ever wanted.It remains to be seen if Matthew Kennedy and Martin Vierra, the ICC officials charged by Malcolm Speed with making sure USACA delivers on ICC’s stipulations, will have the courage of the convictions expressed in an open letter to Cricinfo and US cricketers in May 2006. Without decisive action on their part, USACA will continue on the same dysfunctional path that was first enunciated by Speed and Mani three years ago, and US cricket will continue to exist in its self-created doldrums.

Day two

A century from skipper Hasan Raza accompanied by some fine seam bowling from Rajesh Ramesh and Imran Javed enabled Karachi Urban to take full control of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Gold League final against defending champions Sialkot at Multan Cricket Stadium. Raza’s hundred, the 28th of his first-class career, saw Karachi to 403, before Sialkot were reduced to 93 for five by day’s end.Honours began almost even on the second day, Karachi six wickets down with 249 on the board. But Raza, on a painstaking 56 not out overnight, switched gears early on. Though Karachi lost two early wickets, with less than 300 scored, Raza found a useful partner in Tanvir Ahmed. The two put on 97 for the ninth wicket, Ahmed’s share a not insubstantial 36.By the end, Raza had moved to an unbeaten 161, with as many as seven sixes and thirteen fours, a stark contrast to his go-slow yesterday. Sarfraz Ahmed took two of the four remaining wickets to finish with an admirable six-wicket haul.The momentum though had shifted by then and Sialkot, once hoping to face a total of under 300, were now left with a mini-mountain to overcome. They got off to the worst possible start, Ramesh dismissing Majid Jahangir and highly-rated Shahid Yousuf in successive balls when Sialkot were only on 14.Thereafter, it didn’t get much better; Tariq Mahmood, former Pakistan U-19 World Cup winner and offspinner with the Murali action, was promoted up the order and crawled to a 44-ball, 76-minute two. Javed eventually sent him back, as well as Atiq-ur-Rehman who provided solitary, futile resistance. When Ayub Dogar also fell, Sialkot were tottering at 71 for five. Ijaz Ahmed, captain and former Pakistan one-down legend, came out firing and was unbeaten on 19 as the day drew to a close.He will need to roll back the years if Sialkot are to have any chance of preventing Karachi from adding to their record Quaid haul of 17 wins.

Dale Steyn, South Africa’s pace spearhead, has said that he will continue to represent his domestic team, the Titans, after he was linked to a move to the Cape Cobras.There was speculation that Steyn was planning on leaving the Titans, since he had decided to move out of Centurion, where the franchise is based. His national coach, Mickey Arthur, had also said that he was “definitely moving.””I think some messages got a bit mixed up,” Steyn told the , a Gauteng-based daily.”I am moving down to Cape Town, which is where my girlfriend lives.”I couldn’t really do anything while I was in the subcontinent, but when I got back from Bangladesh and India, I was able to sit down with the Titans management, and we agreed that I would continue to play for them.”The Titans’ chief executive, Elise Lombard, expressed satisfaction over retaining the services of Steyn. “We are very happy our boy from Phalaborwa is going to continue to play for us when he is not on national duty. He came through the system, and we don’t like to bring the players through only to lose them to another franchise.”We don’t mind where Dale lives, as long as he plays for the Titans when he is available.”Steyn also said that travelling to join his team-mates would not be an issue. “It might have been more convenient to play for the Cobras, but it is also easy to get back to Pretoria to join the rest of the team.”Incidentally, Steyn had played against the Cobras in the semi-finals of the Pro20 tournament in South Africa, before taking 1 for 16 in the Titans’ title triumph against the Dolphins on April 25.

The Sri Lankan board (SLC) has filed a claim in court for almost US$ 12 million against an insurance company following the cancellation of the one-day tri-series between Sri Lanka, South Africa and India in August.On August 14, less than two hours prior to the start of the first match of the tournament, there was a bomb blast in Colombo which killed four Army personnel and four civilians. Shortly afterwards, the South Africans decided to return home, citing security issues as the reason for their decision.SLC had an insurance policy with Ceylinco Insurance Company Limited which covered it for “loss of revenue that may result from the cancellation and abandonment of the limited-over tournament due to riot and strike, civil commotion and terrorism”. The amount of the claim equates to the income lost from the sale of TV rights to Taj Television Limited.However, although the South Africans withdrew, India and Sri Lanka did try to continue with a one-day tournament but two matches were washed out and the whole event was shelved soon after.The matter has now reached the Western Province Court as the insurance company has declined the claim. “We have filed action as the company refused to pay the claim giving various excuses,” a Sri Lanka Cricket official said.

Former Zimbabwe cricket stakeholders have broken their recent silence by urging the ICC to take decisive measures if auditors find the current Zimbabwe Cricket administration responsible for the misappropriation of funds.In June the ICC appointed a top South African audit company, KPMG, to look into Zimbabwe Cricket’s accounts after Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, said in a leaked document that he believed board funds had been squandered.The auditor’s findings were expected to be presented to the ICC’s board meeting in Dubai this week, but that was postponed and the ICC accepted an undertaking that the exercise will now be finalised “as soon as possible.”A former influential board member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said if the audit named culprits then they must be booted out of sports administration for good. “Once the audit results are known, [if anyone is named they] must never be allowed to administer cricket and sports again, they must be must be brought to book because they have enriched themselves while the game suffers.”Cricinfo sources have also said an audit arm of the Sports and Recreation Commission, led by experienced Zimbabwean sports administrator, Mark Manolios, was also doing its own investigations into ZC’s financial handlings in order to lead by example as the country’s supreme sports regulatory body.Another former Zimbabwe provincial administrator, who spoke to Cricinfo from South Africa, urged the ICC to use the audit results to take a firmer stand on the Zimbabwe issue. “This is a brilliant opportunity for the ICC to redeem itself on Zimbabwe,” he said. “Us, as the legitimate stakeholders of Zimbabwe cricket, feel the ICC has neglected our cricket in Zimbabwe and let it die. We await too see what sort of action they will take this time. It’s not late for them to save the situation.”

Fourteen players named in Kenya’s side for the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy match against Namibia have refused to allow their names to be included in the squad.The 14, which includes Steve Tikolo, the former captain, have been on strike after falling out with the Kenyan Cricket Association over backpay and contractual issues. It had been hoped that the recent decision by the government to suspend the KCA had cleared the way to end the dispute, but today’s news indicates otherwise.However, the continuing stand-off could be a temporary obstacle. The KCA executive, with which the players are at loggerheads, have retained control for a short period after going to court to ask for a review of the minister’s decision. If, as many predict, the application to have the government’s move overturned is dismissed, then the new Normalisation Committee is more likely to be able to reach agreement with the strikers.Yesterday, the KCA named a 31-man squad for the match, but this has now been trimmed to 17 following today’s news. “As it stands, the KCA still has things it has to sort out like the allowances which they were supposed to have cleared by January 20 which they have not done,” said Tikolo. “And they haven’t even explained why.” The explanation might be straightforward. The KCA is reported to be almost bankrupt.Tikolo also revealed that he will be playing in England from April, “For the time being I will play for Swamibapa in the league but come April I will be going to England for a stint with a club in the northern Lancashire league,” he said. Cricinfo can confirm that Tikolo will join Haverigg, a small club on the west coast of Cumbria, on a one-year contract. Haverigg play in the Daniel Thwaites North Lancashire & Cumbria League Premier Division.

Nimbus, the Indian production company, has secured the rights for India’s offshore series against South Africa in Ireland in June. The series was under threat yesterday when the BCCI’s deal with Zee Sports fell through, but Nimbus have stepped in to alleviate Ireland’s fear of the whole tournament being cancelled.Nimbus agreed to pay US$24.20 million for the series and, according to Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, bagged the rights after Zee failed to pay the stipulated amount by the deadline of May 28.”Nimbus have agreed to pay US$6.05 million per match for the four matches in Ireland [against South Africa on June 26, 29 and July 1] and Scotland [against Pakistan on July 3],” said Modi. “We have terminated the contract through a letter sent to Zee today.”According to Ashish Kaul, Zee’s senior vice-president, his company had pulled out of the deal because they were not given the same discount offered to Nimbus for telecasting the matches held in India, after the broadcasters were forced to share the feed with public broadcaster Doordarshan. But Modi denied this claim.”Zee were offered the same discount as Nimbus but it was not agreeable to them,” said Modi. If Doordarshan, with whom all broadcasters have to share their feeds, does not encrypt its signals, Nimbus will be given a discount of Rs 257 crore from their overall deal of US$612 million with the BCCI to telecast all cricket played in India till March 2010.”We recognise the problems faced by broadcasters over the non-encryption of Direct to Home (DTH) signals by Doordarshan and have come to an amicable settlement with Nimbus,” added Modi. “We have held many meetings with both Nimbus and Zee over the issue.” After Zee’s pull-out the BCCI held talks with ESPN Star Sports, Ten Sports and Nimbus who were the only ones who accepted the board’s offer.Modi also disagreed with Zee’s views that the BCCI kept the broadcasters in the dark about offshore ventures and said, as per the agreement, the telecasters were told about future offshore ties six months in advance.Harish Thawani, Nimbus’s chief, expressed satisfaction with the four-match deal and said they would be interested in televising further offshore matches organised by the BCCI. “We have come to an amicable amount and we are happy that the BCCI have quantified our losses and compensated us,” said Thawani. “Cricket has to go on. One or two technical matters have also been dealt with.”Thawani added that the matches would not necessarily be shown on Nimbus’s Neo Sports channel but there was a possibility of it being syndicated to six other channels, including regional ones, as was done with the Bangladesh series.These developments come 24 hours after Nimbus pulled out of broadcasting the Afro-Asian Cup beginning in India on June 5. They cited the absence of several big stars in the Asian XI as the reason for pulling the plug. However, the series will take place as planned after the Asian Cricket Council struck a last-minute deal with ESPN-Star.

Bhargav Bhatt’s four-for dismantled Tamil Nadu•Sivaraman Kitta

Baba Aparajith’s half-century was the sole innings of prominence for Tamil Nadu as they were dismantled for 176 by Andhra’s bowlers in Chennai. Bhargav Bhatt and Y Prithvi Raj shared seven wickets between them to run through TN’s batting line-up, while Bandaru Ayyappa and Shoaib Md Khan picked the rest.TN’s India players, M Vijay and R Ashwin, were both dismissed for single-digit scores, making 4 and 9 respectively. Vijay was the first wicket to fall, in the seventh over, and in the next over, Prithvi Raj dismissed Abhinav Mukund to leave the score at 15 for 2. Kaushik Gandhi and B Indrajith attempted to steady the innings with a 26-run partnership for the third wicket, but Bhatt thwarted them by dismissing Indrajith. Aparajith, meanwhile, anchored one end to take TN to 140, after which the tenth-wicket pair of Rahil Shah and Krishnamoorthy Vignesh helped lift them to 176.Andhra ended the day at 8 for no loss, with Prasanth Kumar (1*) and Srikar Bharat (7*) at the crease.A 199-run fifth-wicket partnership between Devendra Bundela and Shubham Sharma propelled Madhya Pradesh from 69 for 4 to a solid 268 for 5 against Baroda in Indore. Bundela was dismissed on 99 by seamer Atit Sheth off the last ball of the day.Madhya Pradesh were in the midst of a wobble after losing openers Waseem Ahmed (4) and Rajat Patidar (4) within the first ten overs, and slipped further when Naman Ojha (24) and Harpreet Singh (32) were dismissed before lunch. A middle-order charge from Bundela and Shubham made Baroda’s bowlers toil without reward until the end of the day, when 40-year old Bundela was caught by wicketkeeper Pinal Shah, thus missing out on his 27th first-class hundred.The first day’s play between Odisha and Tripura was washed out without a ball being bowled in Cuttack