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Andre Nel and Danish Kaneria are both returning to Essex for the 2008 season. Nel, the South Africa fast bowler, will play from April 16 to May 18 while Kaneria, Pakistan’s legspinner, will take over from May 21.”Although we had already contracted Danish Kaneria for the 2008 season he asked us if he could delay his arrival in the UK so that he could be with his wife for the birth of their second child,” David East, the Essex chief executive, said. “Naturally we agreed to this request and are delighted that Andre has agreed to play for us for the important opening month of the season. Andre is well known to us and has a fantastic rapport with our players.”Subject to his domestic cricket commitments he ensures that we have a world-class overseas bowler for the whole of our 2008 campaign.”Nel’s signing is subject to obtaining a work permit and permission from Cricket South Africa, but he was nevertheless bristling with enthusiasm at the prospect of returning to the club for the third time.”I am delighted to be returning to Essex for the beginning of the season,” he said. “I enjoyed my time at the club in 2007 immensely and can’t wait to rejoin the boys for the first game. I look forward to giving my all in an early season burst for the club.”

A typically elegant, clipped on-drive for four off Corey Collymore took Mohammad Yousuf from 44 to 48 on the fourth day of the final Test between Pakistan and the West Indies at Karachi. A modest raise of the bat acknowledged that the drive also took him past one of the longest-standing records in cricket, of most runs in a calendar year.Sir Viv Richards scored 1710 runs in 1976, a memorable run during which he hit two double hundreds against England in England and the closest anyone had come to it since was Ricky Ponting in 2005, with 1544 runs.By day’s end, Yousuf added another century to the eight he had made already this year. He told reporters at the end of the day, “God has helped me break this record and I am extremely happy and proud for my country because whenever the record is discussed now, it will be with the name of a Pakistani batsman.”The day began with Yousuf needing a further 47 runs to break the record and knowing it too. “I was under a little pressure in the morning,” he admitted. “I knew what had to be done and luckily I was able to do it in the end.”Yousuf’s final tally for the year is 1788 runs from 11 Tests, and 665 of them have come from the series against West Indies, the highest tally recorded by a Pakistani batsman in a three-Test series. He began his run with two hundreds in the home series against India. He only played a solitary Test in Sri Lanka, personally an unmemorable one, but a doublecentury at Lord’s sparked off a stunning second half of the year.Two more hundreds came from the remaining three Tests in England, including 192 at Headingley. He ended the year with three hundreds in three Tests against the West Indies at home.During the course of this magnificent run, a few more records fell. His first-innings hundred at Karachi meant that he had scored eight Test hundreds this year alone, going past the previous best of seven, held jointly by Richards and Aravinda de Silva. By scoring five hundreds in five consecutive Tests, he also became only the third man, along with Jacques Kallis and Sir Don Bradman (six hundreds in six Tests) to do so.Yousuf also had praise for Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, and Mushtaq Ahmed for the part they have played in his game over the last year. “I changed the way I practiced. Mushy really helped during the England tour and in India,” he said. “He made me practice with slabs to be able to play rising deliveries better and that has really helped.”Since Bob has been with us, he has really sorted out my balance. I used to have some problems with it before but he has really helped me set it properly now and it was a big change.”Comparisons with greats were avoided as deftly as bouncers have been over the last year. When asked to compare himself with Javed Miandad, Yousuf said only, “It is difficult to compare. You are either better or worse and anyway, it is for the media to decide. I can’t say anything about it. But he is my ideal.” And when the question of Sir Don Bradman’s record of six hundreds in six consecutive Tests reared its head, Yousuf replied, withsome cheek, “I have six in five Tests, so you decide.”Reactions to the record

Bob Woolmer
It is a marvellous achievement. I have had the honour of playing againstViv Richards and coaching Yousuf. Both are very different in their styles,Viv was a lot more aggressive and Yousuf more sedate but to break Viv’srecord is really an outstanding achievement.Brian Lara
It’s excellent and slightly unbelievable what he has achieved. Ninehundreds in a year and that many runs is just magnificent. He is a verycommitted player and an excellent role model, not just for Pakistan butfor young cricketers everywhere. He’s had an amazing year, though the last600 runs that he has scored I haven’t really enjoyed.Sanjay Manjrekar
The most striking thing about Yousuf at the moment is that it is as if heis batting in a trance. He is so calm at the crease and that mental changeis the most striking change from last year. You know people will say thathe played on flat tracks, against weak attacks at times but that isneither here nor there. He still had to break a big record and he has doneit. What’s good to see, apart from the calm demeanour, is that he is, like all goodbatsmen, cashing in on good form and making the most of that period.”Nasim Ashraf
Pakistan is very proud of his achievements and he will be honoured by thePCB after the match.Hanif Mohammad
We are proud of what he has done and I hope this is the start of ofsomething great for him.Rameez Raja
He’s been absolutely brilliant this year and has done it against goodteams in India, England and the West Indies and has done it home and away.I don’t think he has made any technical adjustments as such, but he is so sound mentally now. Religion has played an integral part in his growth not just as a cricketer but as a person. I used to doubt his ability to see Pakistan through in situations before but he has rescuedPakistan from precarious positions through the year. A superb achievement.

Haafiz Majid Jahangir compiled a career-best 156 as Sialkot came from behind to attain a three-wicket win over Karachi Harbour on the final day of their third-round Pentangular Cup match at the Gaddafi Stadium.Chasing a stiff target of 369, Sialkot finally got there for the loss of seven wickets. Starting from their overnight score of 160 for 2, still needing another 209 runs to win their first match in three appearances, Sialkot were put on the right path by a third-wicket partnership of 145 between Jahangir and Ayub Dogar.Dogar followed his first-innings 77 with another invaluable knock of 61 that came off 150 balls with nine fours. The 25-year-old Majid, playing in only his third first-class match of the season, scored his 156 runs off 351 deliveries in almost seven and a half hours and hit 25 fours.Tahir Mughal (42 off just 43 balls with nine fours), the captain, promoted himself up the order and helped add 74 runs for the fourth wicket with Majid. At 351 for 3, only 18 more runs were required for victory.Sialkot then lost four quick wickets in the space of 14 runs but the issue had already been settled. The win was finally achieved with three wickets still standing. As they had earlier surrendered a first innings lead of 99, they collected only six points instead of the full nine.Sialkot, who are the current national champions, have managed to lift themselves up from the bottom of the five-team table after having started the tournament with two straight defeats. They now have only one match in hand and absolutely no chance of winning the Pentangular.In the fourth-round that starts from Monday (April 17), Faisalabad will play against Karachi Harbour at the Gaddafi Stadium while table leaders National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will face Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

New Zealand have announced that they will not be playing their two premier bowlers in the final match of the Chappell-Hadlee series against Australia at Hamilton on Tuesday. Having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series in emphatic fashion, New Zealand decided not to take any risks with Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond, who are both carrying slight niggles.Vettori is suffering from a sore back while Bond has some hamstring stiffness. New Zealand followed up the first ten-wicket win against Australia with an exciting chase of 337 at Auckland on Sunday.The final match gives Jeetan Patel, the lone spinner in the mix with Vettori missing, a chance to showcases his wares. It’s also another opportunity for Peter Fulton, who returned to the New Zealand team with a calm and composed unbeaten 76, to get another innings under his belt.New Zealand team 1 Lou Vincent, 2 Stephen Fleming (capt), 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Peter Fulton, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 James Franklin, 9 Mark Gillespie, 10 Jeetan Patel, 11 Daryl Tuffey.

There was a real buzz before the first ball was bowled in the Challenge final between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago yesterday.Fortunately, the Caribbean Media Corporation technicians were able to sort out the problem on the line just in time and “live” television commentary was transmitted from the peace, quiet and desolation of Sabina Park . The same can’t be said for the radio broadcast, but it was in keeping with the anonymity of the alleged showpiece of the regional first-class cricket season that no-one was able to hear what was going on for the first 90 minutes because of a simple matter related to organisational efficiency.When there aren’t enough people around for the Carib girls to wine in front of, even with the additional benefit of regional exposure, you begin to understand what it must be like covering a one-day International in Sharjah between New Zealand and Zimbabwe. A funeral would have had greater atmosphere, while most of the noise floating across the refurbished venue during the first hour actually emanated from the Alpha Girls’ Primary School just across South Camp Road as the students there were making the most of what seemed an exceptionally long morning recess.However the match unfolds, whether or not it produces an absorbing contest and a nail-biting finish on the final day Monday, let us hope this is the last time we see the final as it is presently structured, because it really makes no sense.Should Daren Ganga’s team rally from being routed for 121 and prevail by the most comprehensive of margins to complete a hat-trick of Challenge triumphs, it will not change the fact that Jamaica are officially the first-class champions of the West Indies by virtue of finishing at the top of the standings in the round-robin stage of the season. It was the same situation last year, when Barbados were crowned kings of the Caribbean for a record 21st time and lost handily to Trinidad and Tobago at Guaracara Park .So what is the point of the fixture? If the sponsors are insistent on a final for the purpose of greater brand exposure, surely that objective remains largely unfulfilled when there is almost no local interest in the match, unless of course the television and radio audience around the region is so massive as to justify its regurgitation next year.Let us remember that this idea of a Challenge final following the main league format only became a reality with the introduction of an invited team ( England “A” were the first) and a West Indies “B” side in 2001. To circumnavigate the potentially awkward situation of an outsider being crowed champions of the Caribbean, the amended rules mandated that only the top team among the six traditional territories were eligible for the first-class title, although the other two squads could have advanced to the Challenge phase of the season, which incorporated semi-finals and a final.With the West Indies Cricket Board incurring significant financial losses year after year, the burden of two additional teams in an already draining first-class season eventually proved too much, the elimination of that concept being followed closely by the removal of the semi-finals and leaving just the final to follow after the regional champs had already been determined.In other words, for what is assumed to be the finale of the campaign, only bragging rights are at stake, except that those rights don’t seem to carry too much value given the general disinterest in the fixture.If the argument is that it gives our players more cricket, whether or not the public is attracted to it, surely one more match–involving two of the six regional sides–doesn’t get anywhere near to satisfying the requirement.Now, with the advent of the Indian Premier League, Indian Cricket League, Sir Allen Stanford’s widening ambitions and whoever else wants to cash-in on the marketability of the Twenty20 version of the game, it is quite likely that more of the cream of West Indian talent will be skimmed off to these lucrative competitions.For this encounter in Kingston, West Indies captain Chris Gayle is not around to lead the home side, while mercurial all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is unavailable for the visitors. Had Guyana advanced to the final, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan would not have been playing because, like Gayle and Bravo, they are involved in the inaugural season of the multi-million-dollar IPL.If the intention is to stubbornly continue with this fixture, as is, for the foreseeable future, it will be rendered embarrassingly obsolete by the other developments in the cricketing world. Australia have a final in their domestic first-class competition, but there the real title is very much at stake, not just something as superfluous as bragging rights.Should the people who are putting their money into supporting the competition maintain that there must be a showpiece showdown, then they have to come up with something different to make it worthwhile, and therefore interesting, for an audience that has so much to choose from via television.How about the English county champions of the previous season squaring off against the new West Indies champions? It could also serve as a competitive warm-up fixture for the visitors ahead of the defence of their title.Maybe it’s impractical, maybe it’s too costly, but what we’re doing now doesn’t make much sense and hardly anyone seems to care, as the emptiness of Sabina Park attests.

Division One

Points tableA thrilling game ended off the last ball at Southgate as Glamorgan edged past Middlesex to win by three wickets. Robert Croft got the Glamorgan innings off to a brisk start, clobbering 36, while Michael Powell continued his good form with a solid 81. Middlesex fought back in the middle of the innings, however, with Scott Styris picking up three wickets as Glamorgan stuttered to 201 for 7 in need of a further nine runs. James Franklin and Michael O’Shea held their heads and a four off the final ball of Chad Keegan’s sixth over took them home by three wickets. Earlier, Jamie Dalrymple anchored Middlesex with a cultured 82 – on the day he was called up to the England Test squad – while Ben Scott thumped 25 from 14 balls.

Division Two

Points tableA slick bowling display from Leicestershire dismissed Yorkshire for a paltry 96, in chase of 264, as the visitors romped to a comprehensive 167-run win at Scarborough. After Nick Walker and Ryan Cummins had reduced the home side to 19 for 3, Yorkshire were never in the hunt. With the introduction of Darren Maddy, who took 3 for 24 in a tight seven-over spell, Yorkshire collapsed from 70 for 5 to 96 all out in just the 27th over. Earlier, Paul Harrison and Paul Nixon gave Leicestershire a solid foundation in the middle of their innings with a pair of brisk 60s before Jeremy Snape smashed an unbeaten 45 from just 35 balls.James Benning’s crisp 71 from only 51 runs took Surrey to an emphatic six-wicket win over Kent at Guildford after a stuttering innings from the visitors in which they only managed 229 for 9. Though Darren Stevens played confidently for his 81, top-scoring, the rest of Kent’s batsmen started promisingly before throwing away their wickets. Geraint Jones, in a rare outing for his club, creamed seven pleasing boundaries in his 41 and Robert Key (33), the Kent captain, also looked in fine form before Nayan Doshi crept one through his defence. In the field Benning appeared to twist his knee in the latter stages of Kent’s innings, but he showed no signs of any long-term damage in his explosive 71, 15 of which came in boundaries. Mark Butcher eased his way into form with a crisp 52, hitting the winning runs through the covers, and received good supported from Mark Ramprakash (39), Rikki Clarke (23) and Azhar Mahmood (26*).

Toby Radford has left his position as head coach of Glamorgan after two seasons in the role. He has departed with a year remaining on his contract as Glamorgan seek to restructure their coaching operation.There have already been calls for Robert Croft, a former England offspinner and a long-time Glamorgan servant, to be given a more central role – with the former England fast bowler Simon Jones among those naming him as a strong favourite.Both Croft and his former team-mate Steve Watkin, who is also on Glamorgan’s coaching staff, applied for the head coach role when Radford was chosen to replace the Australian Matthew Mott.Hugh Morris has been serving as both chief executive and director of cricket, an onerous task, but there are no indications he will step down from one of the roles.Radford will now return to specialist batting coaching, a role he performed both for the ECB at Loughborough and with the West Indies when they were crowned ICC World Twenty20 Champions in Sri Lanka in 2012.Glamorgan finished fourth in Division Two of the Championship last season, their second-highest position in the past decade, but a small squad faded badly in the second half of the season. They were also one of the few counties not to benefit from a general rise in T20 attendances, although they were not helped by a block of early-season matches in unfavourable weather.Radford admitted that he was disappointed with his departure, talking of “big strides” in developing a Welsh flavour in the side that Glamorgan again crave.”I am obviously pleased that the team showed major improvement in the past two seasons and it has been highly competitive across all formats and in all competitions,” he said.”It is disappointing for me not to be able to see the work through to its conclusion but I am confident that the wealth of home-grown young talents like David Lloyd, Aneurin Donald and Andrew Salter, all of whom are now first team regulars, gives the club huge optimism for both the immediate and long-term future. I would like to thank all of those who supported me in taking this club forward. Together we made big strides.”Morris said: “Toby’s hard work and commitment to the role has been evident for all to see and under his leadership we have made an important step forward in championship cricket. The coaching Toby has done with our young batsmen has been particularly important and I believe the players and the club will reap the benefits of this work in years to come. He leaves the club with our best wishes for the next stage of his coaching career.”

A domestic Twenty20 tournament will be held before India’s tour of England, Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of the selection committee, said in Dhaka.The domestic series would offer the selectors a chance to see which players are best suited for the shortened format and thus help them choose the team for the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa starting on September 11.The competition begins just three days after India’s seven-match one-day series against England – the final game is slated to be held on September 8 – and the players of the one-day side who are retained for Twenty20 will fly to South Africa directly from England.The domestic series is set to be similar to the Challenger Series, India’s premier one-day competition. However, the composition of the sides will not be as skewed as it normally is for the Challengers, where India Seniors is normally the strongest side with India A and India B relatively weaker. Here the teams of 13 each will be more evenly matched.India’s cricketers haven’t had too much exposure to Twenty20 cricket. The national team has been involved in just one Twenty20 International, against South Africa at Johannesburg in December 2006. India was also the last country to adopt Twenty20 cricket at the domestic level, with the inaugural series this year, but going by the lukewarm response, it didn’t appear to have too many takers.

The ground stage of the MTN Domestic Championship has been completed with the Eagles, Titans, Cape Cobras and Dolphins securing their place in the semi-finalsThe Cape Cobras made heavy weather of what should have been a comfortable run chase against the Warriors at Newlands, but Henry Davids held his nerve with an unbeaten 85 to steer them home with three balls to spare. He added an opening stand of 129 in 32 overs with Andrew Puttick before the Cobras lost their way and slipped to 163 for 5. However, Vernon Philander hit two important boundaries before Davids hit the second ball of the final over for another. The Warriors’ batting had also stumbled from 119 for 1 as they struggled to force the pace against Charl Langeveldt, Rory Kleinveldt and Claude Henderson.Two days later the Cobras had a more comfortable 53-run success against the Lions at Paarl to confirm their progress. Davids was again to the fore with 116 off 140 balls, including nine fours and three sixes to lift the Cobras to 214 for 6. The Lions promoted Andre Nel to No. 3 in the run chase, and with impressive results as he clubbed 58 off 45 balls to push them to 104 for 1 in the 21st over. However, the pursuit fell apart from that point as Philander made two vital breakthroughs and Francois Plaatjies went through the middle order.The Dolphins moved into the semis when their match against the Titans failed to produce a result in Durban. Rain hinder proceedings throughout, cutting the Titans innings to 33 overs where Faf du Plessis’s 47 off 45 balls boosted them to a competitive 153. The Lions were tottering on 97 for 4 in pursuit of an adjusted 172 despite a blazing display from Sanath Jayasuriya. He clattered 58 off 36 balls before three wickets fell for eight runs to even the contest. In the end, though, the rain returned with the chase 3.4 overs short of mandatory 20 for a match.The final group match between the Dolphins and the Warriors at Port Elizabeth had no bearing on the knockout stages, but it still produced a tight encounter. Jon Kent’s 86 marshalled the chase, but the Dolphins had a few nervous moments in the final over. Kent fell to the first ball with scores level, and Morne van Vuuren couldn’t score off three deliveries before being run out meaning one was still needed off the last ball. Daryn Smit, though, managed to steal the winning run.Player of the week – Henry DavidsThe Cape Cobras had gone three matches without a win, and were skittled for 39 last week, to make themselves sweat over a semi-final berth, but Henry Davids ensured they remained in with a chance of silverware with a fine double in the final two games. Davids, 28, has been a hard-working performer for the Cobras without ever quite being able to kick-on with his career. But he has found a happy home opening in the one-day game and scores of 85 and 116 mean his confidence will be high heading in the semi-finals.

Marvan Atapattu, the former captain, has not to been included in Sri Lanka’s 16-member Test squad to tour Australia after stating his unavailability; while Tillakaratne Dilshan, the right-hand middle-order batsman, has been replaced by Jehan Mubarak.Atapattu probably closed the door on his international career when he snubbed the selection committee for a second time by turning down an invitation to meet them. Earlier he had pulled out of the home Test series against Bangladesh stating ‘personal reasons’, and later went on to play league cricket in England.Atapattu has been out of the national team since the 2007 World Cup, where he did not play any of Sri Lanka’s 11 matches despite being a member of the squad. Sri Lanka reached the final of the tournament, where they lost to Australia.The selectors, who were to leave out Sanath Jayasuriya to accommodate Atapattu, were forced to fall back on Jayasuriya, who is expected to make the Australian series his final one in Test cricket.Thilan Samaraweera, 31, has earned his recall after playing the last of his 39 Tests in England in 2006.Chanaka Welegedera, the left-arm fast-medium bowler from Matale, is the only new face in the side. He forced himself into contention with some outstanding bowling performances in the past six months, notably his first ten-wicket haul to bowl the Sri Lanka Invitation XI to victory over Tamil Nadu in the four-day MJ Gopalan trophy tie in Colombo last week. Highly-placed sources said Welegedera is looked upon as a likely successor to the experienced Chaminda Vaas.Muttiah Muralitharan, who is recovering from an injury to his right bicep, also gets the nod. He is expected to play in the last two ODIs of the on-going series against England, but selection committee sources said that they would not rush him into playing. Murali is chasing Shane Warne’s world Test record of 708 wickets and will travel to Australia needing nine wickets from the two Tests to become the highest wicket-taker.The first Test will be played in Brisbane from November 8-12 and the second Test in Hobart from November 16-20.Sri Lanka Test squad [subject to Sports Ministry ratification]:
Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Michael Vandort, Chamara Silva, Thilan Samaraweera, Jehan Mubarak, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof, Chanaka Welagedera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara.