Corey Richards, the New South Wales batsman, has announced his retirement from first-class cricket after the state didn’t offer him a new contract for the 2006-07 season. Richards, 31, made his debut in 1995-96 and played 55 first-class matches for the state, scoring 2,953 runs at 31.41.His finest performance came for an Australian XI – effectively Australia A – against England at Hobart during the 1998-99 Ashes tour. Michael Atherton had set a target of 376, which was knocked off in empthaic style as Richards and Greg Blewett added an unbeaten 345 for the second wicket. Richard’s contribution was an unbeaten 138.That season proved the pinnacle of his career and in 2001 he suffered a broken finger when representing the Scottish club Ayr. He then contracted a form of deep vein thrombosis as he embarked on an early journey home. In 2002-03, facing competition from the state’s young batsmen, he was released by New South Wales, although he did come back two years later without sealing a full-time spot.”I’ve enjoyed every minute of playing first-class cricket and have some fond memories, but it’s time to move on,” Richards said. “I’ve got a young family and there comes a time when you have to look for a career outside cricket, and it’s now time to retire.” Richards will continue to play for his Sydney grade club Bankstown.

Alexei Kervezee, the 17-year-old Netherlands batsman, has signed a two-year contract with Worcestershire. Highly regarded in Dutch cricket, he made his one-day debut as a 16-year-old in July this year against Sri Lanka in which he made a cultured 47.”Alexei came to our attention earlier this year and is a very accomplished and exciting young talent,” Mark Newton, Worcestershire’s chief executive said. “He came over to trial with the club and I went to Amsterdam recently to meet with him and his family. We have agreed that he will spend the next two seasons with us where he will benefit from being part of a professional squad.”Holland’s bowling coach Ian Pont told Cricinfo: “This guy is a serious player with shades of Graeme Hick. It’s a massive story for Holland.””I’m very happy and excited about signing with the club,” Kervezee said, “and am looking forward to learning from such great players and coaches. I have already received such warm and encouraging impressions from everyone – the players, the coaches and the management at Worcestershire.”Kervezee was also named in the Netherlands World Cup squad for the 2007 tournament in the Caribbean.

Dennis Lillee believes England’s fast bowlers will be licking their lips at the prospect of rattling an ageing Australian top order. Lillee, who enjoyed playing against England’s “Dad’s Army” team of 1974-75, said Australia’s senior batsmen could be the side’s undoing during the Ashes series.Justin Langer will be 36 when the first Test starts at the Gabba on November 23, while Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist will all be 35. Writing in his column in the , Lillee said he welcomed the chance to bowl against ageing England batsmen such as Colin Cowdrey, who played in 1974-75 at the age of 42.”Over a period of time, as a fast bowler, you get to learn that a batsman’s reflexes definitely get slower as he gets older,” Lillee wrote. “Mark my word, the England pace attack, mentally buoyed and on faster Australian wickets, will this summer be at their absolute peak age-wise.”Lillee said batsmen found it harder to hide problems as they got older. “I’m not having a go at individuals, it’s just that this is what happens,” he said. “Australia have some great players but even the greatest players get tapped on the shoulder by Father Time at some stage. We’ve got to wonder if that time has arrived for some of them.”Lillee said Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey were at the peak of their powers, but the possible absence of Michael Clarke and Phil Jaques would hurt Australia. Although he expects Gilchrist to perform better than in last year’s Ashes, he said if the visitors could contain his explosive batting it would greatly harm Australia’s cause.He said Langer was another to face a significant challenge, having not played a Test since being hit in the head by a Makhaya Ntini delivery in April. Lillee expressed grave doubts that the home side could live up to expectations. “It’s worrying how Australia, after being outplayed in England, are going to turn things around with a decidedly older team,” he wrote.

Daryl Tuffey’s first-class comeback has hit the buffers after he broke down during Northern District’s match against Canterbury in the State Championship.Tuffey, 28, has been out of the New Zealand side since February 2005 because of a long-standing bicep injury. He bowled 24 overs in the first innings against Canterbury, but could only manage five second time around before limping off with an Achilles tendon strain.Andy Moles, the Northern Districts coach, told the : “His body has got to get used to the workloads after his long layoff. We’ve got to manage him for the whole season so there’s no point risking it.”Tuffey has played 22 Tests and 76 one-day internationals but has struggled with a series of injuries over the past couple of years.

Less than a week after arriving in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe’s selectors have drafted two more players into the squad, calling up fast bowler Ed Rainsford and legspinner Graeme Cremer. The pair are expected to arrive in Dhaka on Friday.Rainsford was left out of the original squad that left last week after he cracked his thumb taking a catch during a practice match. Sources say the doctor’s note stated that he was going to be fit two hours before the team’s scheduled flight, prompting the selectors to leave him out.It appears Rainsford, the only genuine quick bowler among the current crop of Zimbabwe bowlers has high chances of playing in the five-match one-day series but will miss the series opener scheduled for Khulna on Thursday. His return puts pressure on Anthony Ireland and Christopher Mpofu who are likely to take the new ball for Zimbabwe. Ireland did duty with Rainsford during the Champions Trophy in India while Mpofu was recently handed an international recall after more than a year on the sidelines.Cremer, a legspinner with an ability to bowl long spells, has been called up for the additional two first-class matches that have been added to Zimbabwe’s tour.

Captain’s celebration
It’s Ricky Ponting’s birthday on Tuesday and he was planning to stay up till midnight while toasting his Ashes-winning present. “Actually, it’s 3 o’clock now so I might not make it,” he said. His on-field staying powers are obviously better than his off-field ones.Missing man
Damien Martyn has been in a mystery location since his retirement and the Australians were hoping to include him in the victory song. “We’ll give Damien a ring when we sing it, but I’m not sure he’ll answer,” Ponting said. Martyn has been a text-messaging recluse since making the decision.Crowd call of the day
The Barmy Army appealing to the first five balls of Shane Warne’s first over, a joke that continued until Monty Panesar’s dismissal gave Australia the Ashes.Courageous act of the day
The seagull who flew across the pitch just as Brett Lee was above to deliver. Fortunately Lee stopped and the bird survived.Dismissal of the day
Ricky Ponting’s run out of Geraint Jones from silly point. It was a stunningly fast underarm and Jones’ foot remained on the crease for an easy decision for the third umpire.Quote of the day
“Every time we got our foot in the door they closed it on us.” Andrew Flintoff sums up the series

ScorecardSri Lankan discards Upul Chandana and Russell Arnold steered NCC to the Premier limited-over title with a six-wicket win in the final against Moors SC at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Chandana, the NCC captain, took 5 for 34 with his legspin and Arnold used his experience to guide them to victory from a difficult position at 34 for 3 by scoring an undefeated 67 off 91 balls with seven fours and a six.However NCC’s matchwinner was 21-year-old allrounder Tharaka Kottehewa who won the Man-of-the-Match award. He scalped four of the top five Moors batsmen for 48 runs with his right-arm medium pace and then partnered Arnold in an unbroken 90-run stand off 113 balls. Kottehewa scored 35 off 54 balls with three fours.After being asked to bat, Moors never recovered from losing their first three wickets in three balls for no runs after an opening stand of 40. Their batting failed to gain any momentum and they were all out for 167 in the 42nd over. Hemantha Boteju was the top scorer with 43 off 52 balls.The NCC top order wobbled against Moors’ three-pronged pace attack before Arnold and Kottehewa saw them through.

Graeme Smith, the South African captain, heaped praise on his bowlers for decimating Pakistan and setting up a ten-wicket win at Cape Town. “It’s one of the best bowling performances I’ve seen from this team,” he told reporters. “The bowling unit took a bit of flak after Durban [where Pakistan scored 351 for 4 to win by 141 runs] but they’ve been superb for the past few years and today they were fantastic.”Put into bat, Pakistan were bundled out for 107 in the 46th over before Smith and AB de Villiers knocked off the target in just 14 overs. “Every bowler hit fantastic lengths,” added Smith. “I don’t think the wicket did that much after eight overs, but the pressure we built on them and the way we fielded was an incredible effort.”Shaun Pollock, who bowled brilliantly for his 2 for 13 off ten overs, said a responsive pitch helped South Africa, and singled out a classy fielding unit. “It definitely did a bit for us this morning, but once the heavy roller came on it flattened things out. Every bowler kept the pressure on and gave them nothing for free, and the fielders were also superb.”Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, said he hoped his team would prove more competitive in the final match on Wednesday: “Credit goes to the South African bowlers, but we definitely played poor cricket. I would have said 230 or 240 would have been a good total on this track, then we could have put some pressure on the South Africans.But we’re confident that we can play hard cricket in Johannesburg to level the series.”South Africa have an unassailable 2-1 lead in the series ahead of the final match.

Nathan Bracken is getting ready for the World Cup knowing his mother-in-law – the left-arm bowler’s strong supporter and critic – will be keeping a keen eye on his progress. Lenore Rich, who had noticed Bracken seemed more relaxed during domestic games than internationals, had been predicting for several months beforehand that he would be involved in a record to do with “four runs and bowling.”On the morning of New South Wales’ Pura Cup match against South Australia in 2004-05 she told Bracken’s wife Haley she ought to go to the ground. Bracken then took 7 for 4 as South Australia fell for 29.”I’m hoping she rings me up and goes ‘you are going to get this and that’. There’s nothing as yet,” Bracken told reporters during Australia’s final net session before Friday’s warm-up against England. “She tells me the same thing she always does, to back my ability. It’s the same thing [Australia bowling coach] Troy Cooley says to us every day: go out there, back yourself and back the decisions you make.”When you always hear it from coaches you start taking it for granted. When you hear it from somebody different it tends to sink in.”Bracken has become a regular in Australia’s one-day line-up since being recalled in 2005 and he has taken 96 wickets in 57 matches at 22.23. He said support from Ricky Ponting had helped him find his form since his international return.”Ricky backs me 100% in that and so does the team,” he said. “That’s the difference when we are on form, the guys are backing their ability and judgments.” The bowling outfit has struggled over the past month during a five-match losing streak, which included allowing New Zealand to score 340 and 350 to take the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.Australia are without Brett Lee, who has an ankle injury, but Bracken believes Shaun Tait, who has played only four ODIs, can fill the gap. “For South Australia he’s bowled tremendously well and taken plenty of wickets,” he said. “We are hoping he can slot in here and be a wicket-taker and can take that strike role when needed.”Sometimes I think ‘if that was me I’d break my back in half’. He’s unique in what he does and he can change a game. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen him or played him, the first few balls are hard to pick up because the action is slightly different and it does skid through at pace.”

Kenya, World Cup semi-finalists in 2003, believe they are ready to return to the world stage after their success in the World Cricket League tournament they hosted in January and February.Cricket standards in the country had fallen to the lowest level following three years of internal strife, forcing players to strike against the former cricket administration over dubious contracts and bonuses. The fallout resulted in Kenya being stripped of its official one-day status that granted the country automatic qualification to the World Cup.However, recent victory in the World Cricket League tournament featuring second-tier teams could provide the springboard to bounce back. Kenya’s coach Roger Harper, a member of the all-conquering West Indies team in the 70s and 80s, summarised his team’s achievements in claiming the associate members title.”Kenya is supposed to be the top associate country as far as cricket is concerned. But it doesn’t mean anything unless you show it on the field and we have demonstrated that,” said Harper after his team’s convincing eight-wicket win over fellow World Cup qualifiers Scotland. “I think it means a lot for the team, for Kenya as a whole.”This is a relatively younger team compared to the one that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2003 with only two of the players being over 30 years of age. The Kenyan team will be without three great performers who formed the backbone of the side since the country qualified for their first World Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1996.They include former captain Maurice Odumbe, who was suspended from all cricket activities for five years in 2004, for his dalliance with Indian bookmakers and opener Kennedy Otieno. Medium fast bowler Martin Suji is also not in the team after failing to recover from a knee operation. Their places have been taken by a group of promising young players.Twenty-year-old Tanmay Mishra is not only proving to be a resourceful batsman but also one of the team’s best fielders. Having made his cricket debut as a member of the national under-15 team in 2001, the India-born Mishra has been heavily involved in the recent revival of the Kenyan cricket, culminating in the World Cricket League win.His one-handed catch of Bangladeshi middle-order batsman Ferhad Reza during the one-day international series in Nairobi and a similar dismissal of the Scottish opener David Watts during the World Cricket League final, illustrated his fielding prowess.Two other youngsters, 22-year-old Hiren Varaiya, a slow left-arm bowler, and seamer Nehemiah Odhaimbo have proved themselves capable to taking wickets. Odhiambo, a younger brother to medium pacer Lameck Onyando, broke through into the bowling ranks when he took five Canadian wickets in the two nations ICC Intercontinental Cup clash in Toronto last August.Tikolo, once known as the best batsman outside Test cricket has seen his batting form take a dip. But luckily for him his off-spin might come in very handy in the West Indies where the conditions are expected to favour spinners.The Kenyans got a test of those conditions when they toured the West Indies in February 2004 to play in the Carib Beer series where they played local club sides and several national teams in the Caribbean. But Harper said Kenya will have to play extra harder to improve on their performance in the 2003 World Cup. “Lack of international fixtures also affected the national team players who were not able to gain the exposure,” he added.Participation in the World Cup has an added incentive for Kenya and the other five associate members as they will earn a special grant of 500,000 dollars.