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Ted Dexter has been elected as the next President of Sussex and will succeed Robin Marlar. He comes into the role as the club prepares to defend the Championship title and C&G Trophy.Dexter said he was honoured with the appointment: “I am aware that following Robin Marlar’s highly successful presidency, it is a hard act to follow. But if a lasting love affair with Sussex counts for anything I will at least have a sound platform to build on. Having the opportunity to play some small part in the exciting coming events is a privilege and a pleasure.”Gus Mackay, the chief executive, added: “Robin has been a great President of the club and we thank him for his contribution. We are thrilled that Ted has accepted the commission and that his appointment was ratified by Members at our AGM. He is a legend of Sussex cricket and we look forward to having him actively involved once again.”Dexter played 137 matches for Sussex and scored 8827 runs at 41 while also bagging 218 wickets at 26.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka will play three one-day internationals in Abu Dhabi from May 9, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced.”The series has now been confirmed and given clearance by the ICC,” Zakir Khan, director cricket operations, told Reuters.The series will be the first since Pakistan’s elimination from the World Cup and will be the first under their new captain, Shoaib Malik.

Teams will be allowed an additional fielder outside the 30-yard circle during the second or third Powerplay, the International Cricket Council’s Cricket Committee has recommended after their two-day meeting in Dubai.The committee, chaired by former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar, came up with a number of recommendations on issues related to ODI regulations, ball tampering, glue on pitches, volume of cricket, international umpiring and the role of the television umpire.While they felt that the use of Powerplays should continue they resolved that an additional fielder (making three in total instead of the current limit of two) should be allowed outside the outer ring during either of the last two Powerplays. Also it was decided to try out the idea of the captain of the batting side being able to choose when to take one of the Powerplays. It is set to be trialled in Australia; any other member country wanting try out the new rule was also permitted to do so.The committee came up with a number of recommendations with relation to ball tampering and stated that the following actions shall not be permitted: deliberately throwing the ball into the ground for purposes of roughing it up, applying any artificial substance to the ball and applying any non-artificial substance for any purpose other than to polish the ball, lifting or otherwise interfering with any of the seams of the ball, and scratching the surface of the ball with finger or thumb nails or any implement.The use of adhesives in the preparation of pitches for international matches should be discontinued, the committee ruled. Polyvinyl Acetate adhesives had been used during last year’s Champions Trophy in India for the purpose of holding the pitches together.

Greg Blewett, who was a semi-regular member of the Australia team during the late 1990s, has retired from first-class cricket. Blewett, 35, will stay at South Australia as a high-performance batting coach while also pursuing his commentating career.Blewett’s run-scoring gradually declined over the last few years and his axing from the South Australia one-day team in December signalled the end of his 16-year state career. He had already lost his place in the Pura Cup side in 2005-06 as the Redbacks decided to blood some younger batsmen. Late last year, he vented his anger at being dumped from the side, calling the state’s selectors “clowns”.Although he regrets that comment, Blewett said he would continue to “have issues” with certain individuals at the SACA. “I think ideally I could still play for a couple of years, physically,” Blewett told . “I don’t necessarily agree with a lot of things that have happened in the past 12 months but I accept them.”Despite playing 46 Tests and 32 ODIs from 1994-95 to 1999-2000, Blewett never quite cemented his spot in the national line-up. Nor could Australia decide exactly how to use him; he started his Test career at No. 6, had a moderately successful switch to No. 3, dropped back down to No. 6 and finished as an opener.He did, however, write his name into the record books as soon as he burst onto the international scene aged 23 in the 1994-95 Ashes series. Blewett made 102 not out on debut at his home ground at Adelaide and followed up in the next Test with 115 at Perth, making him only the third Australian – the others were Bill Ponsford and Doug Walters – to score a century in each of his first two Tests.Blewett established a reputation as a reliable member of the middle-order and entertained crowds with his fluent cuts and cover drives, and his dangerous hooks and pulls. There were a few too many unfulfilled starts from Blewett, but he certainly got it right at Johannesburg in 1996-97, when he and Steve Waugh together added 385.It was the second-highest fifth-wicket partnership ever in Tests, falling just short of Don Bradman and Sid Barnes’s 405-run effort. Blewett and Waugh batted right through the third day, which was the first time any pair had achieved the feat against South Africa. Blewett finished with 214, which was easily the high point of a Test career that yielded only four centuries.

There were times when Blewett struggled to keep out fast balls cutting in towards his stumps; that was evident when he was bowled for 99 twice in the 1997 calendar year. High-class spin bowling also caused him problems.A string of low scores in India in 1997-98 lost him his Test place but he returned a year later and reinvented himself as an opening partner for Michael Slater after Mark Taylor’s retirement. There were moments of success and a 269-run stand against Pakistan at Brisbane was the highlight. Although some commentators believed the pair would be Australia’s openers for many years, Blewett did not reach triple-figures in the role and was replaced by Matthew Hayden on the 1999-2000 tour of New Zealand.Blewett’s Test career ended at the age of 28, and his 46 Tests brought him 2552 runs at 34.02. Surprisingly for a batsman who was such an excellent fieldsman and a better-than-average part-time medium-pace bowler, Blewett could not hold down a place in the Australia limited-overs team and from his 32 ODIs he averaged only 20.4 with the bat.His failure to convert his starts at Test level frustrated Blewett. “I probably underachieved a bit for Australia,” he said. “I think I was good enough to average 40 but didn’t so that is a regret. It was something that frustrated me throughout my career. I got a lot of fifties.”Blewett, who spent time with Kent, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, made his first-class debut at the age of 20 in 1991-92, in a South Australia-Queensland clash that was also the first match for Hayden. He was part of the Redbacks’ 1995-96 Sheffield Shield-winning side, scoring 72 in the final, and was a consistent accumulator for his state.In 2000-01, he compiled 1162 Pura Cup runs at 68.35 as he tried in vain to work his way back into the Test side. He retained his national contract for one more season but his best years were behind him. Back, hand and thigh injuries limited his output in recent seasons and Blewett’s first-class career ended on 232 matches, with 17,352 runs at 44.49.

Cricinfo can reveal that Tatenda Taibu, the former Zimbabwe captain, is talking to the board about a possible return to the Zimbabwe team.Taibu walked out of Zimbabwe cricket in November 2005 after falling out with the Zimbabwe board – in particular chaiman Peter Chingoka and managing director Ozias Bvute – over player welfare and governance issues. He also claimed his family had been threatened.He had stints in the UK and Namibia, where he never really established himself, and has periodically returned home. However, in the last month, Taibu has been training with the Zimbabwe team in Harare and looking very much involved in the thick of things, although at first he was said to be practicising to stay in form.”There are talks going on between him and Zimbabwe Cricket in a bid to try and get him back,” Givemore Makoni, the team manager, told AFP. “I think he wants to play. I can’t disclose much, but at the moment he is with us to try and maintain form. He is also n camp and he is training. Negotiations are still in progress at the moment. If he makes himself available, obviously selectors will be looking at picking him.”It is said Taibu has received support from most of the players who want him to be reinstated as captain, but it is unlikely anything will be decided until Chingoka and Bvute return from an ICC meeting in London.Aside from the personal differences with the pair, Taibu is owed tens of thousands of dollars in back pay and is unlikely to do anything until that is handed over.

Division Two

Andy Bichel’s stunning batting form in England continued as he picked up a career-high 148 against Nottinghamshire as Essex dominated in Chelmsford. Before the break for the Twenty20 competition Bichel posted 102 against Middlesex in his opening first-class outing of the season, and in his second appearance he thumped 18 fours and three sixes from 152 balls to help Essex to an intimidating 700 for 9 declared.Bichel also picked up the first breakthrough as Nottinghamshire reached 191 for 2 in their reply. James Foster’s double-century and a 78-ball hundred from Graham Napier had also contributed heavily to Essex’s strong position as the team scored at more than six an over during the day. Foster and Bichel extended their seventh-wicket stand to 254 and Napier was the heavy hitter as he and Foster added 195 for the eighth wicket in 26 overs.Paul Nixon marked his first game as Leicestershire’s Championship captain with a vital century as he and HD Ackerman led an impressive fightback against Glamorgan at Grace Road. The pair added 213 for the sixth wicket after three early wickets for James Harris put Leicestershire on the back foot at 88 for 5. Ackerman’s second hundred of the summer took 166 balls while Nixon’s first came off 128. Mansoor Amjad continued to extend the advantage and by the close it was 111. Harris was the pick of the attack with four wickets, leading the way ahead of his more experienced colleagues.The Twenty20 fortnight has done nothing to slow Tom Lungley’s Championship form as his fine season continued with 5 for 33 to put Derbyshire on top against Middlesex at Southgate. Lungley broke the opening stand by trapping Billy Godleman lbw then wrapped up the innings with four quick wickets as Derbyshire gained a valuable lead of 82. Ed Joyce offered the main resistance with 81, but he was seventh out as Middlesex slipped from 166 for 3. Andrew Strauss, in need of some runs ahead of the Test series against India, reached 38 with some fluent shots before being caught at midwicket off a mistimed pull. An early finish prevented Derbyshire building on their advantage.Chris Taylor hit an unbeaten 112 to keep Gloucestershire afloat against Northamptonshire at Northampton. The visitors fell to 52 for 5 against the new ball with Johan van der Wath doing the damage before the recovery began. Steve Kirby batted three hours as nightwatchman, but it was a seventh-wicket stand of 102 between Taylor and Steven Adshead which brightened Gloucestershire’s day. Taylor took 148 balls over his hundred, but despite his efforts they still conceded a lead of 60 while Monty Panesar wrapped up the innings with three wickets. Northamptonshire steadily extended their lead to 152 during the final session.

Division One

Events at The Oval continued to move along rapidly as 17 wickets fell on the second day to follow 16 on the first. However, a result is still too close to call as Durham began defending 152 with three early Surrey wickets. Steve Harmison ripped into the top order and removed Jon Batty, Mark Ramprakash – victims of sharp lifters – and Scott Newman before bad light ended play. The vital factor could yet be the 52-run lead Surrey managed during the morning session before reducing Durham to 132 for 7 second time around. Four middle-order wickets went for six runs against Chris Schofield and Neil Saker before stubborn efforts from Will Smith (41) and Liam Plunkett (33) gave Durham’s attack something to bowl at.Thunder showers and hailstorms restricted play at The Rose Bowl to 28.4 overs as Warwickshire built a strong total against Hampshire. Darren Maddy could only add two to his overnight score before being caught off Chris Tremlett, but Alex Loudon and Tim Ambrose put on 60 for the fifth-wicket. Hampshire’s wicketkeeper Nic Pothas has been ruled out of action for up to three weeks after being hit in the eye when a delivery from Michael Carberry bounced off Jonathan Trott’s pad on the first day. His deputy, Tom Burrows, took the catch to remove Maddy.Two heavy showers put paid to any chance of Lancashire and Yorkshire getting their Roses clash started at Old Trafford. Puddles formed on the outfield and the umpires called play off in early afternoon. The lack of cricket made Darren Gough, Yorkshire’s captain, feel he would have Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard available for next week’s game against Warwickshire as they searched for match practice ahead of the first Test against India. “The decision was always dependent on how much part they could play in the game here,” Gough said, “so both of them will probably be available next week, as far as I’m concerned.”It didn’t take long for the inevitable abandonment at New Road as Kent continued to be frustrated by Worcestershire’s decision to play at their headquarters. Any hopes of a start vanished when a heavy shower made the outfield like a mud bath. Kent have lodged an official complaint with the ECB and it will look into it urgently.

While much of the attention was focussed on the Board of Control forCricket in India’s crackdown on players who have aligned with the IndianCricket League there was another significant development that took place.In order to ensure continuity the BCCI has announced a president-elect tosucceed Sharad Pawar. That office will most likely be held by Chirayu Amin, presidentof the Baroda cricket association, for three months, and then, probably, by ShashankManohar for three years through to 2011.Pawar will become vice-president of the International Cricket Council inJuly 2008, and will then have to relinquish office at his home board. An interim president will hold office for the three-month period from July tillSeptember 2008, when the elections are set to take place.Once the ICC announced that David Morgan of the ECB, and Pawar from theBCCI, would take up office as ICC president in 2008 and 2010 respectively,the BCCI decided to do something similar at home, whereinthe president elect will be chosen a year in advance. This suggestion camefrom Inderjit Singh Bindra, former president of the BCCI and currentpresident of the Punjab Cricket Association. It was suggested that such apractice would ensure that the president elect had a good workingknowledge of the board, and that elections would proceed in a smoothmanner.According to the procedural changes being suggested, the interim president forthat period will be someone from the same zone as the existing president -West Zone – which in this case is Amin. By rotation the next turn, whichwill be for a full three years, from September 2008 till 2011, goes toCentral Zone. The front-runner here is Shashank Manohar, who is thepresident of the Vidarbha Cricket Association and vice-president of theBCCI, apart from being a close aide of Pawar. What this will mean, ineffect, is that there will be no elections for the post of president in2008 and the current regime will continue, unchallenged, till 2011.It is understood that Lalit Modi, the man behind many of the financial andbusiness aspects of the board, suggested that a similar procedure beadopted for other office bearers of the board, apart from the president,in order to ensure some sort of continuity. However, this did not come upfor discussion in the course of the two special general meetings held inMumbai on Tuesday.

ScorecardSean Ervine produced a fine all-round performance as Hampshire continued their push for the Pro40 title with an eight-wicket win against Warwickshire. Ervine and Michael Lumb rushed the home side towards the target of 197 after Warwickshire collapsed from a promising position following Jonathan Trott’s 90.Lumb and Ervine batted to within six runs of the target, adding 147, as Hampshire cruised to the win with more than 10 overs to spare. Lumb faced 73 balls for his 82, striking 12 fours and a six, while Ervine also moved along at better than a run-a-ball.Ervine’s bowling had also been crucial in causing a Warwickshire collapse from 134 for 1 to 195 for 8. Kumar Sangakkara chipped a catch to midwicket to start the slide and Shaun Udal removed Trott and debutant Vaughn van Jaarsveld in an economical eight-over spell.Trott, who was recently dropped from the Warwickshire side, was never particularly fluent during his innings and struggled to increase the tempo before being bowled. Warwickshire managed the meagre total of 10 boundaries and a six in their 40 overs; Ervine and Lumb managed more on their own.

Australia are not expecting their Twenty20 group matches in Cape Town to be dominated by batsmen as the damp conditions could swing things back in favour of the bowlers. They are also still deciding on their starting line-up for the opening match against Zimbabwe, with concerns over Shane Watson and Michael Clarke.Tim Nielsen, the coach, said Australia’s warm-up games at Benoni and Centurion were useful but were not an accurate guide to how Cape Town would play in early-season conditions. The city had more than 100 millimetres of rain in August and showers were expected this week.”It’s going to be a heavy ground, heavy air and damp conditions,” Nielsen told . “You certainly notice how quick the ball comes off the bat up here [in Johannesburg] it just flies, so that will be different. And if it’s going to seam around and swing a bit it’s certainly going to put the balance in the favour of the bowlers so it will be a different game to what we’ve played over the last couple of days.”Australia beat New Zealand and lost to South Africa in their practice matches, although they were well below full strength with Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson only arriving on Monday, Clarke struggling with a lower abdominal strain and Matthew Hayden suffering back spasms. Although he is jetlagged Ponting is preparing to play against Zimbabwe early Thursday morning (Australian time) and Hayden is also expected to line up. Clarke remains in doubt and Watson’s hamstring injury might mean he is rested until the group stage is over.Nielsen said even in the shortest version of the game, all 11 players needed to be ready for action. “You’ve got to be ready for a couple of wickets to fall in succession,” he said. “Every now and again and you’ve got to be willing to hold your nerve and not panic at that time.”He said there might be advantages to batting second in Twenty20, although the key was keeping calm regardless of what stage the game was at. “It certainly gives you a clear idea of where you’re going when you’ve got a target to chase,” Nielsen said. “If you lose a few early wickets, you might overdo it a little bit when you’re batting first, thinking you need a bigger target.”

An injury to Morne Morkel during South Africa’s opening tour match might re-open the door for Shaun Pollock to play in the first Test against Pakistan, starting from Monday in Karachi.Morkel, who so impressed during the Twenty20 World Cup, only bowled two overs on the final day of the tour game, before going off with an injury to his left foot. Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach, said that though an official prognosis from the team physiotherapist is pending, Morkel is a worry.”Morne picked up a niggle on his landing foot today and it is a little worry because he is an integral part of our plans. He will have a fitness test tomorrow [Sunday] before we take any further decisions,” Arthur said, before adding “Polly [Pollock] might come back into it.”The decision to drop Pollock, South Africa’s leading Test wicket-taker and most experienced bowler in subcontinent conditions, was a surprising one, not least to the man himself. It was the first time in hiscareer that he was dropped for any reason other than injury, South Africadeciding it was time to move forward and assess fresher talent. But asArthur was keen to point out, the decision is not the end of the road forPollock.”It is a new era in a sense. We are blessed with a lot of depth in ourfast bowling and it’s time we had a look at the younger guys. We have atough season ahead of us next year [series against India, England andAustralia away] and we need to have a settled squad in place by then. Sowe need to see if the younger ones are good enough.”We’ve got six good seamers on the scene and any can play at any time. Wecan rest one guy without damaging the team as we have variety. But at thesame time, Pollock is an integral part of our squad and who knows, hemight come back into it on Monday.”Pakistan has named two specialist spinners in their Test squad and murmursfrom the National Stadium suggest a spinning surface may be prepared.Rizwan Ahmed, the legspinning allrounder, picked up seven wickets againstthe South Africans in the tour game, but at considerable cost, and wasn’t the threatthat a Danish Kaneria is expected to be. Arthur was confident, however,that his side would cope.”Our batsmen are used to playing spin now,” he said. “We played AnilKumble and Danish on spinning wickets in South Africa and handled themfairly well and I am confident that our batsmen have the equipment andtechnique to handle that threat.”