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Neil McKenzie will join South Africa’s support staff as a batting consultant following his retirement from cricket nine days ago. McKenzie is currently playing in the Masters Champions League (MCL) and will discuss the details of his contract on his return from the UAE.”Yes I have accepted the position but will catch up with details when I get back,” McKenzie told ESPNcricinfo. It is understood his first assignment will be with the Twenty20 squad in preparation for the World T20 in India next month.Although Cricket South Africa is yet to confirm McKenzie’s appointment, at least one senior batsman is pleased the former international is involved. “I’d be happy with that, Neil was one of the’ names in the hat from what I hear. I played a lot with Neil, and I have very good memories of that,” Hashim Amla said ahead of the third ODI against England in Centurion. “He was an excellent batter, great cricketing brain. If he’s the guy who’s joining us, that would be fantastic. I’m sure he would be [pleased] as well, to be part of the South African team again.”McKenzie will become the fifth batting consultant in Russell Domingo’s tenure, which began in mid-2013 when the latter succeeded Gary Kirsten. At that time, Kirsten was signed on a 50-days-a-year deal with CSA, which ended in 2015. For the World Cup, South Africa employed the services of former Australia batsman Michael Hussey, who was also with them during the T20s in India late last year. Hussey could not stay on for the Tests, which is when South Africa’s batting problems began. They did not manage a single century in the four Tests and put on a top score of 214, which they matched when they returned home for the Boxing Day Test against England.In preparation for that match in Durban, Lance Klusener was roped in to work specifically with the lower order, even though the batting woes began at the top. Klusener, who is head coach at the South African franchise, Dolphins, was only involved for a couple of days and if he had any impact, it was negligible. Following the Durban defeat, and in the aftermath of harsh criticism, South Africa brought in former captain Graeme Smith, whom Amla believed would assist them throughout the rest of the series. Smith was also commentating for Test Match Special and SuperSport, and the conflict meant he only spent one net session with the team.South Africa did not have any other batting coach through the England series but after the final match, which they won, Domingo divulged that they had been trying to sign someone for months. “We’ve been looking for somebody and we’ve got somebody in mind. We are waiting for him to commit to us. We’ve had a few people who said they were interested but they wouldn’t commit to it simply because traveling is not that fun when you are away from your family for a long time, and when there is a lot of pressure and a lot of criticism you are faced with when things don’t go well,” he said.Whether that person was McKenzie is not known. McKenzie had been playing for Lions in their List A competition, after retiring from first-class cricket at the end of last season and then retired from all domestic cricket last week when he traveled to the MCL. He played 58 Tests, 64 ODIs and 2 T20Is for South Africa. His overall career spanned two decades with 280 first-class games, 298 List A matches and 155 T20s.

Newcastle United journalist Luke Edwards has moved to quash any suggestion that Allan Saint-Maximin has become unsettled at St James’ Park.

The lowdown

The 25-year-old hasn’t started a game for the Magpies for around a month now. He missed the trips to West Ham United and Brentford with a minor injury before returning as a substitute for the win over Brighton and Hove Albion in early March.

Having been absent once again for the midweek visit to Southampton, he came off the bench for the final 20 minutes of the defeat against Chelsea on Sunday.

The latest

Edwards took to Twitter on Sunday morning to explain the reasons behind Saint-Maximin’s recent absences, strongly refuting any apparent claims that the Frenchman is unsettled on Tyneside.

The Telegraph journalist stated: “Allan Saint Maximin has been feeling unwell. So before the rumours of disenchantment and unrest start being spread by fake in-the-know types, there is nothing more to his absence from midweek game than that. His relationship with club, teammates and manager is very good.”

The verdict

What reason would £38,500-per-week forward have to be unhappy at Newcastle?

After facing the threat of relegation earlier in the season (even enduring a spell at the very bottom of the table), they are now a club on the up. In fact, since Matchweek 20, they are actually third in the Premier League form table, trailing only the title-chasing duo of Liverpool and Manchester City.

Also, given that Saint-Maximin leads the squad for goal contributions with eight, he could well be a player around whom the club’s mega-rich owners are looking to build their hugely ambitious project.

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Edwards’ strongly-worded tweet should allay any fears there may have been among the Toon Army that the French maestro would be ticked off with life on Tyneside.

In other news, read this insider’s claim on Harry Kane’s links with Newcastle

Sourav Ganguly is so far India’s leading Test run-scorer for 2007 © AFP

Sourav Ganguly has said that his forced exile from international cricket made him more determined to prove a point. He also said that he intends to play through 2008.”Not better, but probably more determined,” Ganguly told the Kolkata-based Telegraph. “I wish to add that the circumstances and the manner in which I got dropped just weren’t right. I don’t have an issue with being left out, that’s part of the game, but the manner wasn’t right.”Ganguly had differences with the then coach Greg Chappell and the issue snowballed after one of Chappell’s email to the board was leaked in September 2005. On November 22, the selectors ended his five-year reign as Test captain when they picked Rahul Dravid to lead the side for the series against Sri Lanka. Dravid had been handed the one-day captaincy a month before. Ganguly was dropped from the one-day side in October and the Test team in December and made his comeback in to both teams a year later in December last year.Ganguly, 35, is so far India’s leading Test run-scorer for 2007 with 932 runs following his double-hundred in Bangalore, and he has been growing from strength to strength. He squashed all speculations about his retirement, saying he intends to play next year. “Call it [his age] a driving force or whatever, but I want to continue being successful… The hunger hasn’t died… Form permitting, I intend playing through 2008.”

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Aiden Blizzard slams another boundary during his match-winning 89 off 38 balls © Getty Images

Aiden Blizzard marked his Twenty20 debut with a ferocious 38-ball 89 as Victoria began their campaign with a comprehensive 34-run win against South Australia. The Bushrangers’ imposing 7 for 203 was built on a second-wicket stand of 140 off 74 balls between Blizzard and Brad Hodge and despite Ken Skewes’ 78 the Redbacks’ chase fell away as four late wickets fell in four balls.Victoria raced out of the blocks thanks to the efforts of Blizzard and Hodge after the fifth-ball loss of Jon Moss. Blizzard’s fifty arrived off 23 balls and he finished with eight sixes and five fours when he was caught off Nathan Adcock with a memorable century in sight. Hodge, who has had plenty of Twenty20 experience in county cricket, and holds a strike rate of 146, played second fiddle although his 76 took just 51 deliveries.South Australia couldn’t maintain the same early momentum, but a third-wicket stand of 86 between Skewes and Darren Lehmann kept them in the hunt. However, when Lehmann was removed by Cameron White the innings went into a nosedive. In a frenzied four-ball period in the 19th over four batsmen came and went; Daniel Harris was run out off a wide, Adcock heaved into the deep, Graham Manou was caught short coming back for a second and finally Skewes’ 56-ball effort ended as he missed a straight one.

‘My first priority is Zimbabwe cricket’ © Getty Images

Tatenda Taibu arrived in Dhaka on December 8 to play in the premier division cricket league starting from December 12 for City Club, last year’s runners-up. It will be Taibu’s second visit to Bangladesh after leading Zimbabwe earlier this year in a three-match Test series and five-match one-day international series.”I was supposed to play in South Africa in collaboration with Zimbabwe Cricket but after my retirement they just shut the window. There was no way out for me after the decision. It was painful for me that for quite sometime I couldn’t think about cricket; rather I had to concentrate on other issues. Then I got the proposal from Mamun (Reazuddin Al Mamun). Without cricket, life was so difficult to me,” Taibu told Dhaka-based For the past few days Taibu has been brushing up on his knowledge regarding the local league and his new club. “I came to know the domestic league here is very competitive. I spoke with Streaky [Heath Streak] as well as Steve Tikolo. I was told that players like Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, and Akram played here. I thought that it would also be nice for me.”I have little idea about my team but now I know that my team finished runners-up in the last two seasons and the club boasts five national players including Rajin [Saleh] and [Alok] Kapali. I have also been informed about the other sides.”He, however, clarified that his main priority would still be Zimbabwe cricket and that he hopes to get back in action for his country soon.” I will return to my country after one month and come back to Bangladesh after three weeks. But you know my first priority is Zimbabwe cricket that’s why I am looking forward to play for my country in our next tour of West Indies in May and I believe things will be okay by then.”If Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute quit, the crisis will be resolved soon. I’m hopeful that everything will be back to normalcy. You know whenever Themba Mliswa [the man who made the threats against me] was involved in any sport he destroyed it. He destroyed rugby, soccer and a club and then came to cricket.”Replying to a query on whether the ICC should intervene, he said: “The crisis is so deep that there is no scope for them to do anything and it was already too late.”

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Sunny Singh and B Bist cracked contrasting hundreds as Haryana erased most of the deficit on the second day at Udaipur. Having restricted Rajasthan to 301, Haryana lost only two wickets in their response and were 36 runs adrift at the end of the day. Bist stroked 14 fours in his steady knock of 110 while Sunny was more aggressive in his 138-ball 108.
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Jammu & Kashmir collapsed for just 140 as Kerala took a commanding 288-run lead on the second day at Palghat. Prasanth Chandran, the medium-pacer, snapped up two early wickets but it was the two left-arm spinners – Sreekumar Nair and Suresh Kumar – who did most of the damage, with seven wickets between them. Nair, who had made a fighting 132 in the first innings, had dream figures of 3 for 5 in 4.1 overs as they mopped up the last six wickets for only 38. Dhruv Mahajan, the J&K captain, saved a more embarrassing scoreline with a patient 78. Kerala were 109 for 3 in their second innings with Nair unbeaten on a solid 29.
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Vikramjeet Singh helped Himachal Pradesh gain a 57-run lead on the second day against Jharkhand at Jamshedpur. Singh, the medium-pacer playing his 12th game, finished with five victims as Jharkhand were kept down to 218. Sumit Panda, the Jharkhand captain, rescued them from a precarious position at 96 for 7, and his counterattacking 83 took them past the 200 mark. Himachal were 33 for 1 at stumps.
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Amit Dani’s four-wicket haul put Goa in control at the end of the second day’s play against Tripura at Agartala. Goa were still 120 runs behind, with five wickets standing, with Dani, the medium-pacer, ending the day with 4 for 49. Ramaswamy Prasanna held the innings together with an unbeaten 64. Earlier, Goa had extended their total to 278, with Shami Asnodkar falling one short of a gritty hundred. Sujit Roy, the offspinner, was the pick of the Tripura attack and claimed 6 for 60.
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After restricting Vidarbha to 184, Services began in confident fashion at the Palam A Ground in Delhi. Narender Singh and MP Reddy, the openers, got through 29 overs as Services ended the day with 68 for no loss, trailing by 116. Earlier, Yashpal Singh and Arun Sharma has snapped up four wickets apiece and kept Vidarbha below 200.

Shaun Pollock has regained the top spot in the PricewaterhouseCoopers ratings for bowlers, after returning figures of 8 for 104 in the third Test against England at Trent Bridge. Pollock swapped places with Muttiah Muralitharan, who is in second place, 25 points behind Pollock.Michael Vaughan may have registered his first Test win as captain, but scores of 1 and 5 in the match meant that he slipped five places to No. 8 in the batting list. The two centurions for England, Nasser Hussain and Mark Butcher, both improved their rankings. Hussain advanced eight places to No. 20, while Butcher moved up three places to a career-best No. 17.

Top 10 batsmen
Rank	Batsman	Points
1	Brian Lara (WI)	887
2	Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)	843
3	Matthew Hayden (Aus)	821
4	Ricky Ponting (Aus)	816
5	Adam Gilchrist (Aus)	799
6	Inzamam-ul-Haq (SA)	793
7	Rahul Dravid (Ind)	789
8	Michael Vaughan (Eng)	788
9	Jacques Kallis (SA)	775
10	Mark Richardson (NZ)	767

Top 10 bowlers
Rank	Bowler	Points
1	Shaun Pollock (SA)	886
2	Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)	861
3	Glenn McGrath (Aus)	848
4	Harbhajan Singh (Ind)	746
5	Jason Gillespie (Aus)	740
6	Makhaya Ntini (SA)	695
7=	Stuart MacGill (Aus)	691
	Shoaib Akhtar (Pak)	691
9	Anil Kumble (Ind)	688
10	Andrew Caddick (Eng)	684

Click here for full PwC ratings

Canadian cricket faces huge challenges. Not only is Canada going to the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand in January 2002 but we are currently establishing a programme of fitness and activities to allow our Senior Team to participate credibly in the World Cup in 2003 in South Africa. Of critical importance is competition and competition against top class opposition.Bob Woolmer, ICC High Performance Consultant concludes his inaugural visit with a media scrum at 11:30 am in Room 6A at the National Sports Alliance building in Toronto. Located at 1185 Eglinton Ave E (Don Mills and Eglinton). ICC Americas Development Manager, Robert Weekes will be in attendance. Further information can be obtained by calling 416 426 7312 or by fax on 416 426 7172.Bob has had several days of meetings with local players, administrators, fundraisers, volunteers and fitness specialists. Player’s needs, equipment, tours and training in the build up to the WC 2003 have been addressed. Specialist training and coaching as well as camps and academy visits are planned.Facilities, management and coaching have been all discussed. Not only must Canada participate, we must ensure that we qualify for the much-delayed ODI status. On field play is only one aspect of that qualification.U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 building blocks must be in place. Of even greater importance is expanding the base of schools playing cricket with more trained coaches and officials.Without this base, Canada’s progress can be slowed.ODI status by 2003/2004 is a target. A second target is Full Member status following Bangladesh and Kenya. Can we meet these challenges? Yes we can. We must have turf wickets in major centres across Canada and trained local expertise in all areas of the game. Budgetary requirements must be met and the CCA Executive has approved a Fundraising drive and Committee to lead that drive.We thank the ICC Full and Associate members for the past support. We shall need the continued support by Full Members like India and Pakistan playing games in Canada!Cricket Canada – let it grow. Get on board.

When Wally Edwards first joined the Australian Cricket Board 19 years ago, its 14 directors squabbled frequently as representatives of their states, and were Balkanised even in their seating positions around the board table.

Challenge is to drive more people to the game, says Peever

David Peever, the new Cricket Australia chairman, felt it was important to drive forward the slew of recent changes in order to take the game to more people within the country.
“This is a key time for Australian cricket. A lot of significant change has occurred for the better on and off the field,” he said. “But in an ever changing world, I believe we have to work harder than ever before to maintain cricket’s privileged place as the Australia’s traditional summer pastime.
“For me, top of that list is encouraging more people to play the game. That means engaging young people, females and Australians of all of our nation’s diverse cultural backgrounds. I am keen that South Asian and other overseas-born fans who packed Australia’s grounds during the recent World Cup are able to maintain their passion for cricket as part of their adopted Australian lifestyles.”

“It was completely compartmentalised,” Edwards said. “I can almost remember where everyone sat. And it was state versus state basically, and a matter of how much you can take off the table. My job as a West Australian delegate was to get as much cash as I could back to WA.”It definitely wasn’t good for cricket when you look back on it. It was completely dysfunctional – it was hardly a board in that regard. You didn’t sit there and say ‘what’s best, let’s debate it and work out the best way forward’, it was more ‘we think they can operate on a $1 million less than that so we’ll all take a bit of money back’.”We kept the squeeze on management, and if they came up with a good idea that cost money that would definitely be voted out!”On Thursday at Cricket Australia’s AGM, Edwards signed off as chairman and left behind him a board of nine independent directors, chosen on basis of skills and compatibility to further the interests of Australian cricket in a unified manner. Edwards joined Sir Donald Bradman as the only chairmen to have played Test cricket, but no single figure in the history of the board has presided over more significant changes to the way the game is run.The chief executive, James Sutherland, knows this better than anyone. He reflected on the hoops management once had to go through. “Under the previous governance model it was frustrating and difficult,” he said.”The way I like to talk about it is when you had a proposal to put up it was always compromised by your thinking about how the voting would go, and who would like that and who would like this.”Instead of putting the optimal recommendation, you would put a compromise recommendation that kept everyone happy. Even when it came to debate it would get further compromise. But it was a progression over time.”In his farewell remarks, Edwards reserved a special tribute to the former Cricket Victoria chairman, Geoff Tamblyn, as a key figure in helping to usher through those reforms.He also observed that his predecessor Jack Clarke had been the man to commission the governance review that resulted in change. Asked to pay tribute to Edwards, fellow board director Tony Harrison said his chairmanship meant that in Australian cricket “parochialism is not quite dead, but it’s terminally ill”.Relations between board directors have improved notably, but so too has the link between the board and management. The independent director, Kevin Roberts, has stepped down to join CA’s management team, an unprecedented move that places him in line to succeed Sutherland whenever the CEO chooses to finish up.CA’s balance sheet was shown to be in rare good health, not least as a result of a season that featured a Test tour by India and also the wildly successful 2015 World Cup, which Edwards had no little pride in declaring “the best ever” and featured 20 sellouts among its 49 matches.Revenue for the year totalled Aus $380.9 million, resulting in a surplus of Aus $99 million for CA after its annual distribution to the six states. Of this, $60 million will be set aside for long-term, strategic investment. As the board’s CFO Kate Banozic put it, “there is a lot of money in the bank right now”.Of course the cycle of global tours means there needs to be – this summer’s tourists New Zealand and West Indies will not turn in anything like the same cash as visits by India – and Edwards is hopeful that his legacy will feature better cricket played by more nations around the world to ensure the financial reliance on Indian tours is lessened. He remains defiant about ICC reforms that have been heavily criticised by the documentary ‘Death of a Gentleman.’But as of Thursday night, such concerns are no longer those of Edwards, who noted the significance of the man replacing him. David Peever, the former managing director for Rio Tinto in Australia, will be the first CA chairman not to have risen through the ranks of state and national boards.Due in large part to the CA board reforms of the past five years, Edwards was able to say of Peever that “success is assured, it’s just a matter of how much”.

Wolves had a rather busy summer transfer window behind the scenes after Bruno Lage was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s replacement as the new manager at Molineux.

In addition to that, a significant number of players left the Midlands club on permanent and loan deals, while a number of new faces also came in on loan and permanent deals.

One big change over the summer saw goalkeeper Rui Patricio call time on his period with the Old Gold after racking up a total of 127 appearances in a Wolves shirt across all competitions before joining Italian club AS Roma.

As a replacement for the 34-year-old, Lage’s side secured the signature of another Portuguese shot-stopper in the shape of Jose Sa who joined from Greek club Olympiacos in a deal worth a reported fee of around £6.25m.

Despite not even completing his debut season in England, the 29-year-old has already looked to have been a clever piece of business from Fosun.

Having played in all 26 of Wolves’ league games so far this term, the £12.5m-rated goalkeeper has managed to keep nine clean sheets and conceded only 21 goals, making him a very useful asset for Lage in his first campaign in charge.

The summer recruit has also made a total of 88 saves so far throughout 2021/22, leaving only Leeds United’s Illan Meslier (95) and Manchester United’s David De Gea (94) having made more, showing how vital the Wolves shot-stopper has been to his side’s impressive defensive record.

As well as this, Sa, who has been praised by former Old Gold goalkeeper Matt Murray for being “dominant” in games, has the highest save percentage of any Premier League goalkeeper with 83.7%, arguably making him the best performing ‘keeper in the division.

This shows why Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville labelled him as the best signing of the previous summer transfer window earlier and said that he has had a “massive impact” on the team since his arrival.

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With all of this in mind, it’s safe to say that Fosun struck gold with their move to bring the 29-year-old to Molineux as Patricio’s replacement, especially for the fairly low price that they paid for him.

In other news: Shi masterclass: “Pathetic” £24k-p/w dud sees he value drop 55% after leaving Wolves – opinion