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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.

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Eagles	10	7	2	0	1	34	+0.842	2082/344.3	1897/364.4
Titans	10	6	2	0	2	29	+0.069	1688/318.1	1791/342.0
Cape Cobras	10	5	3	0	2	26	+0.247	1588/338.3	1488/334.5
Dolphins	10	4	4	0	2	21	-0.341	1713/359.2	1771/346.4
Warriors	10	2	7	0	1	11	-0.311	1763/373.1	1823/362.0
Lions	10	2	8	0	0	9	-0.362	2162/425.1	2226/408.4

John Bracewell’s current contract expires in July © Getty Images

New Zealand Cricket has formed a subcommittee to determine whether John Bracewell should be retained as the national coach. Bracewell’s contract expires next month and John Wright, the former India coach, has expressed interest in being involved in the country’s cricket.Wright withdrew his application for the head of Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and is likely to feature highly in discussions for the role in his home country. The subcommittee formed by Justin Vaughan, the new NZC chief executive, met on Tuesday to review the position and outline a process to appoint the coach.Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan have publicly supported a contract extension for Bracewell and Wright believes his former team-mate will keep the job. Bracewell guided New Zealand to the semi-finals of the World Cup but the team received a shake-up after the tournament when Stephen Fleming stepped down as one-day captain.Ric Charlesworth, an Olympic gold-medal winning hockey coach and NZC’s high performance manager, is on the subcommittee that includes Vaughan, Stephen Boock, Lindsay Crocker and the players’ association representative Heath Mills. No date has been set to make a decision on Bracewell’s future.

Michael Hussey is “itching” to play his first Ashes Test © Getty Images

Michael Hussey expects the reverse-swing that rocked Australia’s 2005 Ashes campaign will not be such a significant factor this summer. Injuries to Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff, who were lethal exponents of the movement last year, have given the hosts extra hope of regaining the urn and Hussey has provided another boost.”I don’t think it [reverse-swing] will be as big a factor,” Hussey, who is “itching” to make his debut against England, told . “The balls are different, the conditions are different.” Adelaide’s barren pitches help scuff the ball and the MCG offers some assistance, but the rest of Australia’s grounds seem unsuitable for the late movement that was a particular problem in England for the left-handers.Despite the prediction, Hussey, who was playing county cricket as Australia lost the series, said the batsmen were spending more time countering the often confusing tactic in the nets. “In the past, I don’t think too much notice was given to reverse-swing,” he said. “So the bowlers probably got the jump on the batsmen a little bit by really working on it and using it as a weapon. Now, hopefully, the batters can fight back by becoming better players of reverse-swing.”Steve Harmison took 11 wickets in the second Test against Pakistan last week and is likely to play a huge part in the Ashes, especially if Jones and Flintoff are missing. “His bowling’s definitely suited to the Australian conditions and having toured Australia before, he knows what to expect now,” Hussey said. “I think that will hold him in very good stead, so he will be one of their key bowlers for the tour.”

The South African board’s financial position is sound, asserted Gerald Majola © Getty Images

Responding to media reports of a financial crisis in South African cricket, Gerald Majola, the chief executive officer of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA), has issued a statement showing cricket’s firm footing in the country’s consciousness as well as its good financial health. There had been speculation that the board would find itself bankrupt within 18 months, and this spurred the UCBSA into clarifying that its sponsor base, an ingredient vital for the success of a sport, was as strong as ever, and that even its amateur league had found financial backing.Majola stressed that a strong rand had affected the board, as it had other companies in South Africa, but that measures were in place to increase revenues. These included cost-cutting as well as internal auditing. “We have the backing of major sponsors such as Standard Bank, SA Breweries, SABC, SuperSport, National Brands, SA Airways, Southern Sun, Mutual and Federal, Coca-Cola, PG Bison, Energade, Budget, and Hummel. “Even the vacancy left by MTN, a major sponsor, would be filled by other companies. “For instance,” Majola said, “SA Airways has signed as a sponsor of the new provincial amateur league which is a first for South African cricket … Another new sponsorship is the Standard Bank Pro20 Series. This has proved an out-and-out hit, attracting record crowds.” This had also helped increase the value of the sponsorship base by R25million.Majola added that for the fourth successive year cricket was the second-most popular sport in South Africa.

South Africa will play two Tests and five one-day interbnationals in Sri Lanka in late July, following the Asia Cup one-day tournament there. The South Africans are scheduled to arrive in Colombo on July 27: their only warm-up game begins on July 30.Following this they will play the first Test at Galle from August 4 to 8, and then travel to Colombo for the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club (August 11-15). The Tests are followed by the one-dayers, the first two of which will be played at Dambulla on August 20 and 22. The team then comes down from the hills to play two day-night matches at the Premadasa Stadium (August 25 and 28) in Colombo, while the final match will be a day game at the Sinhalese Sports Club on August 30.South Africa last toured Sri Lanka in 2000, when they drew the three-Test series 1-1.

Hampshire Hawks got their ECB National League season off to a winning start, defeating Sussex Sharks in a low scoring encounter at The Rose Bowl on Sunday.Damp conditions meant that the wicket would always be difficult to bat on, so John Crawley on winning the toss chose to make first use of the conditions, and was soon to rue his decision when they lost three quick wickets to the Sussex seamers for just 23 runs.John Crawley edged Robin Martin-Jankins to the wicket-keeper, out of form Derek Kenway and new boy Simon Katich both fell lbw to the pacy James Kirtley.Robin Smith however held his end for a sturdy 44, a more circumspect innings in the circumstance than his usual style, and he found a good foil in Nic Pothas, after James Hamblin edged Kevin Innes to slip. Smith and Pothas put on 39 valuable runs, before Smith who had previously driven Innes for six, drove too early and was caught at mid-wicket. Will Kendall also edged the perservering Innes to Montgomerie.With six wickets down for 97, Pothas was joined by Dimitri Mascarenhas as they edged towards a more respectable total. Mascarenhas was bowled going for an expansive drive, and Wasim Akram playing his first one-day match for his new county was dismissed without scoring.Pothas continuing the form that sees him as the leading run scorer this season in first-class cricket nationally, remained not out, but Hampshire’s score of 144-9 did not seem enough despite the vageries of the wicket.At 50 for 1, that seemed to be the case. Montgomerie was trapped lbw to Chris Tremlett, but when Innes fell the same way, Sussex continued to lose wickets. Tremlett bowled superbly for his three wickets, Wasim Akram was his accurate best, and James Hamblin despite one ball costing 10 runs (no ball four, followed by a free ball six), also contributed well.Shaun Udal then forced a frustrated Goodwin to lift the ball to give Hamblin a comfortable catch, then in the space of three balls removed Michael Yardy and Mushtaq. Wasim took the wicket of Kirtley, then Billy Taylor was run out following a direct hit from Mascarenhas. Sussex all out for 101 recorded their lowest Sunday/NUL league score against Hampshire since 1974.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has been suspended from Pakistan’s team for the first two One-Day Internationals against New Zealand.The suspension and a fine were imposed by ICC Match Referee Brian Hastings in June. Inzamam was said to have shown dissent after being dismissed against Australia at Lord’s in the NatWest Series.”We have been notified by the ICC about the match referee’s decision and he will only be available from the third match in Rawalpindi,” said Pakistan Cricket Board director Munawwar Rana.The news will come as a blow to the Pakistan team. Inzamam is in fine form at present, having hit a century against Bangladesh in the recent Test, and he is the second highest scorer of ODI runs in Pakistan’s history.

Liverpool have started the season fairly slowly, picking up just one point from their opening three league goals and hitting the back of the net just twice, but along with Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey has proven himself to be a young player capable of making the step up and he may have just usurped Jordan Henderson in the pecking order at the club already.

So far this season, Shelvey has featured twice in the league and four times in Europe, which when you compared it to the fact that all of Henderson’s appearances so far have come in the Europa League and it becomes clear which player Brendan Rodgers trusts more.

In both games, the new boss had a change forced upon him somewhat, with Lucas Leiva pulling up through injury against Manchester City, Shelvey came on in the fifth minute and adjusted brilliantly and settled into the match, helping Joe Allen control the midfield. He went on to complete 88% of his passes, with 44 of his 50 attempts finding a team-mate and it was by far his most accomplished display in a red shirt to date yet.

Shelvey sounded enthusiastic about Rodgers vision and his own part to play in that just the other day: “He’s given me a fair crack of the whip and I finally have a chance to prove my worth. The way the manager likes us to play football suits me down to the ground. I just want to keep going now. As well as myself he’s given Adam Morgan, Raheem Sterling and a few others a chance to get into the team.”

Ever since signing from Charlton back in 2010, as one of Rafa Benitez’s last moves at the club, he has been highly regarded by both Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish but was used sparingly until the end of last term, when during the midst of a league slump, he was handed a longer run in the side, with a goalscoring performance in the 4-1 win over Chelsea at home the most impressive.

Not only is he capable of keeping the ball for prolonged periods, he also offers a more direct threat, as he showed in England’s U-21 game against Azerbaijan last week where he set up one and scored the other in a crucial 2-0 victory, winning man of the match in the process.as well as myself he’s given Adam Morgan, Raheem Sterling and a few others a chance to get into the team.

Henderson, though, appears to be little more than a Europa League player at present, given a run out to rest the likes of Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva for league duty. There was a hope that under a new manager, one who had talked positively about his potential and ability in the past, that he may flourish this term with less pressure on him, but it just hasn’t happened so far.

If reports are to be believed, both Henderson and Stewart Downing were offered in part exchange to Fulham for Clint Dempsey as the clock ticked down on transfer deadline day, which in itself points to a limited future at Anfield for the 21-year-old, as the club continued to grapple with a lack of funds.

The new manager seems determined to make his own mark on the side and he hasn’t been shy in marginalising the big-money purchases of the previous regime, with Andy Carroll moved out on loan to West Ham and Stewart Downing now in the process of being converted into a left-back; there’s a worry that Henderson may fall into this trap too.

There’s no denying that he struggled for long spells last campaign and that he’s always going to struggled to justify the weighty £16m fee, but Henderson is a composed, disciplined and most importantly, still young player with plenty of potential. As much as Shelvey’s rise to prominence at the beginning of this season has been a welcoming sight to see, the continued reluctance to start Henderson in the league is a bugbear.

A new manager is supposed to solve problems that have carried over from the previous regime and with a strict budget this term, the emphasis on Rodgers getting every last drop out of his existing squad is equally as important.

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However, there’s a sense that instead of tackling how best to go about integrating the likes of Downing, Carroll and Henderson into his side, that he’s just taken the easy route and given up on them at the first sign of trouble and the arrival of Nuri Sahin will not help his chances of breaking into the side one little bit.

Shelvey clearly has a bright future at Anfield and he appears to have bought into Rodgers methods of retaining possession quickly, but there’s a concern that Henderson is being tarred with the same brush as other failures despite his age and he’s most definitely on the fringes of the first-team now, behind his England U-21 colleague.

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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.

Jersey became the 33rd country to be granted Associate membership at the ICC Annual Conference held last week at Lord’s.The decision comes after a successful 12 months for cricket on the island and makes Jersey the 11th European Associate Member joining the likes of Denmark, Ireland and Netherlands.For Jersey the promotion means that local cricket will receive a huge cash injection from ICC – which is already earmarked for investment back into the development of the sport – and the potential for the Island to qualify for major international tournaments, including the World Cup.”We’re absolutely delighted. It’s all happened very quickly and it’s a credit to the way in which Jersey cricket is set up,” said JCB director of cricket Chris Minty. “I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we would ever push to become a Full member, or that we are likely to see the likes of England or South Africa playing in the Island, but if you think about it, Bermuda qualified and played in the World Cup and they have a smaller population than ours. Technically, it could be possible that Jersey could one day be there, too.”Cameroon, The Falkland Islands, Peru and Swaziland were awarded Affiliate membership, taking the total number of ICC members up to 101. Jersey was the only country to be granted Associate Membership.The Falkland Islands were elected with only one dissenting voice. Argentina abstained in the week that marked the 25th anniversary of the end of the Falklands War.