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Former New Zealand opener, captain and coach Glenn Turner will be the guiding hand for Otago this summer following his appointment today as Otago coach.Turner takes over from Denis Aberhart who served for one year as Otago coach before being appointed the New Zealand coach.Turner has a long involvement in coaching following his own illustrious playing career with Worcestershire in English county cricket and for two stints with the New Zealand team, the most notable of which saw New Zealand achieve its first series victory over Australia, in Australia in 1985/86.Otago has been able to make the two-year appointment with Turner due to a New Zealand Cricket initiative to part-fund major associations for the employment of full-time coaches.His role will include assisting with the development and talent identification of players throughout the Otago region and also the Otago cricket coach development programme.Turner is very familiar with the Otago scene having been the convener of selectors for the past three seasons.Otago Cricket chief executive Graeme Elliott said: “We are delighted to have secured Glenn as our coach for the next two years. His extensive playing and coaching record will be fully utilised by Otago Cricket.”We have already developed a very good working relationship and I am confident that with his knowledge of the game, Glenn will give our players a significant advantage next season.”Turner commented on his appointment when saying: “We are in a process of building a solid base of players in the region and we now have an excellent high performance centre. It will be good to be back, being fully involved in cricket.”The appointment takes place immediately.

Mohammad Amir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Hafeez are among 52 Pakistan players in the BPL foreigners list. Forty-eight England players have also made it to the list, such as Samit Patel, Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara. The list includes 25 players from Sri Lanka, 33 from West Indies, five from Zimbabwe, four from Australia, four from South Africa, two from New Zealand, and 13 from Associate Nations.This season, a franchise will be able to recruit a player, local and foreign, in two ways. As per the first method, a player who is enlisted in the roster provided by the BPL will be a draft pick on October 31, to subsequently be chosen in turn by the six franchises. Such players will be paid by the BCB.As per the second method, players can be directly contracted by the franchises, in which case the payment will not be guaranteed by the BCB, and the player has to take his fees from the franchise. If a player chooses to be directly in contract with a franchise, he will be taken out of the BPL-provided list.The BPL organisers are confident that this two-way player recruitment system will make this year’s competition more robust than the previous two editions. Ismail Haider Mallick, the tournament secretary, said that franchises were signing big-name players directly, while more than 180 players were included in the foreign list.”The response is better than the last two tournaments,” Mallick told ESPNcricinfo. “I have heard that many big players have signed up with the franchises while we also have a pretty strong list of players which we will make available to the franchises. We have appointed a company to help us out. Except for those players who are busy at the time, we have a lot of players available for this season’s BPL.”Each franchise can register seven foreigners in total, and use a maximum of four such players in a match. The highest price bracket for the foreign cricketers is USD $70,000 while the lowest is USD $30,000. Player payment issues dogged the first two editions of Bangladesh’s domestic T20 competition, with the 2014 season being completely scrapped.

This was a day of Test cricket neither New Zealand nor India will want to remember, but tomorrow, around lunchtime, it is a match one team will struggle to forget.After 22 wickets fell in the 105 overs bowled, and a part of all four innings featured, New Zealand were left needing 136 runs with 10 wickets in hand to secure a victory while India know there is still a chance for them to draw the National Bank Series if they can create the mayhem they did today when bowling New Zealand out for 94.New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said yesterday it would be the team that wanted to win the match most that would take it – and that is the challenge ahead of both teams tomorrow.The remarkable first innings which saw India out for 99 and New Zealand for five runs less is the lowest innings total from which the team batting first has secured a first innings lead.Whatever else the record books may say, and the 94 was New Zealand’s lowest score in a Test against India, surpassing the 100 scored at Wellington in 1980/81, a match they went on to win, the day itself is unprecedented in New Zealand cricket history.As disappointing as New Zealand’s failure to build a significant first innings advantage, so too, was India’s inability to score more than 154 in their second innings.Traditionalists might wonder whatever happened to good, old-fashioned technique? It was nowhere in evidence on either side, no matter what the reputations of the players concerned.Conditions were difficult, just as they were for India on the second day, but the New Zealanders knew that.However, that didn’t stop the New Zealanders playing some shots that defied the logic of the situation facing them. India in their second innings capitulated as badly as they have in each of their Test innings in the series.Was New Zealand’s batting in the first innings the result of being 1-0 up in a two-Test series? Or was it a hint that Mark Richardson was more of New Zealand’s saviour in the first Test than was earlier appreciated?The batting is not in good shape, and given a seven-match one-day series is next on the menu, there is plenty of cause for concern.Lou Vincent sent a regulation catch for first slip Rahul Dravid off Zaheer Khan.Richardson was leg before wicket to Khan, although it had to be wondered why, if Richardson was out why Fleming who was even more in line when he was struck an over earlier wasn’t out?Craig McMillan spent 28 minutes over an unconvincing four before going in similar fashion to Vincent.Nathan Astle launched into a cut in the direction of backward point off the second ball he faced but found Harbhajan Singh waiting to accept a not-too-difficult chance.Fleming was upset by movement around the sightscreen for a long period and then once it was sorted offered a straightforward return catch to Khan.Jacob Oram had a rush of blood and failed to apply full power to his attempted drive after going down the wicket to Harbhajan, generally fatal and no different in this case.Styris then fell leg before wicket to Harbhajan, to be followed by Robbie Hart who went leg before wicket to Khan, both of them being reasonable shouts.Daryl Tuffey played some of the best strokes of the innings but wasn’t able to turn quickly enough after being sent back by Daniel Vettori and was run out on the third umpire’s call and he was followed by Vettori who edged Khan to V V S Laxman at second slip.India’s second innings was fortified largely by an innings of hope from Sachin Tendulkar worth 32 and another innings in miniature from Dravid who was out for 39. Tendulkar played on a ball from Tuffey while Dravid opened up to a wider ball from Oram and cut it to substitute fieldsman Michael Mason at point.Virender Sehwag, dropped down the order to allow the opportunity to play more of his shots, confirmed the worth of that theory by lashing 25 runs off 18 balls, being especially severe on fast man Shane Bond. However, Bond had him out in an over in which he had taken 14 runs from Bond, when an off drive was well taken by Tuffey at mid-off diving forward to snare a rocket-like shot.And at the end Harbhajan contained his natural bent long enough to accumulate 18 runs before edging a ball to Hart.But it was controlled spells of bowling from Oram and Tuffey, who each took four for 41 that got New Zealand back in the match, and the opportunity to take a 2-0 scoreline from the series, something few anticipated before the series started.Khan and Harbhajan appeal as the biggest hurdles New Zealand will have to overcome.

Chasing a target of 380 in the fourth innings, Goa were 26/1 at stumpson the third day of their Ranji Trophy South Zone clash againstHyderabad at the Nuclear Fuel Complex ground in Hyderabad. Earlier thehosts declared their second knock at 239/8 thanks to half centuriesfrom Daniel Manohar and Vanka Pratap.In the morning Goa added just a solitary run to their overnight scoreof 174/9 before succumbing in the third over of the day and concedinga 140 run first innings deficit. Venkatapathy Raju took his inningstally to 5/16 with the last scalp.Hyderabad openers Daniel Manohar and Nanda Kishore gave a solidfoundation at the top of the order with a 65 run stand inside 15overs. The Goan attack intervened by capturing two quick wicketsbefore Manohar found another able ally in Vanka Pratap with whom hebuilt a 60 run fourth wicket stand.Manohar finally fell for 82 (131 balls, 6 fours) and although SayyadKhalid effected a middle order slump by taking four of the next fivewickets, Pratap guided Hyderabad safely through to the declarationfive minutes after tea. He remained undefeated on 77 (118 balls, 7fours).

Middlesex have announced that chief executive Vinny Codrington has resigned from the position with immediate effect. Codrington has been the club’s chief executive since 1997, making him one of the longest-serving administrators in the game.Recent weeks have seen Middlesex caught up in a scheme to sell on Ashes tickets for Lord’s set up by former players Chris Rogers and Tom Scollay. Rogers, the Australia opener, had planned to use tickets granted to him by Middlesex as part of hospitality packages for the second Ashes Test, contrary to the regulations.Codrington denied that the episode was a motivation in him stepping down halfway through the season, however. The MCC, with whom Middlesex have a tenancy agreement at Lord’s, are understood to still be investigating the matter.”Over the past few years, I have become increasingly aware of my desire to seek a new challenge and now is a good time for me to make that move,” Codrington said. “Once I had made that decision, I felt it was in the best interests of both parties for me to move on immediately, so I requested a release from my contract. I am grateful to Middlesex for agreeing to that request.””Being the chief executive of a sporting organisation is emotionally draining in every sense. After 18 years, this does catch up with you and that is why I have been considering my position. People may assume that the Chris Rogers ticket affair was a factor in this. I cannot deny that we, as a club, made mistakes on the issue. However, it is not a factor in my resignation, nor was I asked to resign by the club.”Codrington leaves Middlesex with them re-established in Division One of the Championship. They won the Twenty20 Cup in 2008, as well as the Division Two title in 2011, but silverware was otherwise in short supply.”It is with regret that we have accepted Vinny’s resignation,” Middlesex’s chairman, Ian Lovett, said. “In the modern era, it is almost unheard of for a chief executive to spend 18 years at the same sports club. That achievement is testament itself of Vinny’s great talents and his endless commitment to the club; he has made a quite remarkable contribution to the development of Middlesex cricket, both the professional game and, in many ways more importantly, at recreational level.”

With an injured Ishant Sharma already out of the World Cup, there have been concerns around the fitness of India’s pace attack heading into the last quarter of their four-month Australia tour. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has probably been the biggest worry, with Dhawal Kulkarni travelling with the squad as its back-up 16th member. Bhuvneshwar missed the first three Tests with an ankle injury and was limited to two matches in the one-day triangular series. He bowled only five overs against the co-hosts in India’s first warm-up match, and did not bat or bowl against Afghanistan in the second practice game.Given all that, he did send down a handful of deliveries during India’s practice sessions at St. Peter’s College in Adelaide on Thursday and Friday, ahead of their World Cup opener against Pakistan on Sunday. He did not go full tilt, and the run-up was a touch shorter than is usual. But he was his usual accurate self, hitting the lone stump in one of the side nets on occasion.MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli batted aggressively against the spinners in centre-pitch practice•AFP

The side nets were put to better use by the batsmen, who faced throwdowns from the support staff standing on stools. This involved a man standing with the ball in his sidearm device on one stool, taking a step forward onto the shorter second stool as if in delivery stride, and letting rip. It was probably a practice strategy to simulate the steep bounce generated by Mohammad Irfan, the extraordinarily tall Pakistan fast bowler. Most of the time, the balls were dug in short on the greenish side pitches, especially to Suresh Raina, and were tackled reasonably well by the Indian batsmen. There weren’t too many pulls on display, although Stuart Binny signed off with a swiftly executed lofted front-foot drive over the covers.Back from his trip to Melbourne for the opening ceremony, MS Dhoni, batting on the centre strip, was severe on the spinners. A standout was a semi-helicopter stroke played to a full delivery without much effort and follow-through that nearly cleared the square boundary. Virat Kohli was aggressive against the slow bowlers too, and looked equally comfortable facing the short throwdowns from the stools.Shikhar Dhawan was one of the sharpest in fielding practice, taking some well-judged high catches under overcast, dull skies and spearing in a few sharp, flat throws.

Paul Downton has left his job as managing director of England cricket after 15 months in the job and leaves after a disastrous World Cup campaign where England failed to make the knockout stage.As revealed by ESPNcricinfo, Downton’s position was under scrutiny with meetings taking place last month to discuss the fallout from the World Cup. But his role has now been made redundant by the ECB with a new Director of England Cricket set to be appointed, a more cricket-focussed role with the remit to “deliver a world class performance environment for all formats”.”The England cricket department needs to deliver performance at the highest level and our structure needs to be accountable for reaching the standards we aspire to,” ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said. “The new role we are putting in place will deliver an environment where world class performance is at the heart of everything we do. The process for appointing the new role, with sole responsibility for the England set-up, will begin immediately.”Harrison, who took up his role in January, has previously spoken of streamlining the ECB with incoming chairman Colin Graves also voicing his desire for change. Downton’s departure could be the first move in a restructuring process that is aimed at “putting a plan in place for 2019 and beyond”.Downton took over from Hugh Morris in October 2013 and endured a turbulent reign, beginning with the Ashes whitewash and replacing Andy Flower as head coach with Peter Moores, who he described as the “outstanding coach of his generation”. But defeat to Sri Lanka in a home Test series followed.More damning for Downton was his personal backing of Alastair Cook as one-day captain shortly before Cook was sacked before Christmas. England then beat only Scotland and Afghanistan at the World Cup as they crashed out at the group stage.Downton was also responsible for the sacking of Kevin Pietersen and the public-relations battle that followed and caused some embarrassment for the ECB. He was then undermined by Graves who appeared to open the door for Pietersen to return for England.But Harrison denied this decision had any bearing on the Pietersen situation, telling : “Today is about the future and where this organisation is going over four to five years. We have a fantastic opportunity to take English cricket to a different level moving forward, we’ve got some outstanding lines in the sand to build out strategy around with the Champions Trophy in 2017 and World Cup in 2019. Delivering high performance over the next five years is absolutely paramount to our planning.”Harrison also said the decision has no bearing on the immediate futures of both head coach Peter Moores and Test captain Alastair Cook: “This decision is not on the field it’s about the management structure. This is not a short term fix.”

Mike Hesson has called Martin Guptill’s unbeaten 237 a “surreal” performance but New Zealand do not have much time to sit back and soak up the acclaim with just a 48-hour turnaround to their semi-final against South Africa at Eden Park.It is a marked difference to recent build-ups for New Zealand who have had a week between fixtures since playing England in Wellington last month, but that is a change that pleases Hesson who said he would much rather “not have a week to think about it” before the next crunch match.There was, however, the morning after to reflect on Guptill’s innings which finished as the second highest ODI score. In all, his runs came off 163 balls with 24 fours and 11 sixes. But while the shots which peppered the crowd – and even hit the roof – were what got the 30,000 sell-out in raptures, for Hesson it was how Guptill set up his innings which stood out.”The way the innings was paced to start with, he set the tone early on in terms of playing nice and straight, adapted to conditions and timed every ball from about 30 overs on,” Hesson said. “It’s pretty surreal really, everyone in the changing room has seen some pretty special things at this World Cup but that was another one to add to the list.”Martin works hard at his game, he’s pretty hard on himself. He tries to get as much advice as he can and puts that into practice. He deserves everything he gets, he goes down to the ground early and hits a lot of balls. He’s that sort of player, likes to hit the ball and feel good about himself and obviously he’s feeling pretty good right now.”When pushed about whether it was the best innings he had seen, Hesson did not argue against it. “I think that’s fair. The occasion, the fact it was turned into a match-winning hundred certainly puts it up there.”Guptill reached his hundred in the 35th over which coincided with taking the Powerplay. The final 15 overs of the innings produced 206 runs in the latest example of the carnage that is now possible. “The message had been it was a tough enough wicket to get in on, so once you were in had to make the most of it,” Hesson said. “He just went whoosh after that.”A travel day will now be followed by one practice session before they face South Africa, the team they beat in a feisty quarter-final at the 2011 World Cup, on the ground where they held on to overcome Australia by one wicket. “Someone said it was like a jungle last time,” Grant Elliott said of last month’s match.Mike Hesson on South Africa: “That we were able to face their bowlers and were able to line them up which is always helpful.•Getty Images

South Africa’s previous match at Eden Park was a defeat against Pakistan which shook AB de Villiers and his team. New Zealand have overturned them recently, too, albeit in a warm-up match in Christchurch. On that occasion, South Africa insisted on not reading much into the result and it was certainly the home side appeared more eager for on the day.”We faced them at the start of the campaign so we’ve had a bit of a look,” Hesson said. “We’ll take something from that, also that we were able to face their bowlers and were able to line them up which is always helpful.”South Africa will rather look back a few months, to October, when they secured a 2-0 series victory in early-season New Zealand conditions. Their pace attack twice made short work of the top order, but with an unbeaten World Cup campaign behind them Hesson believes much has changed.”That was the start of a six-month campaign and it’s probably fair to say South Africa were better prepared than us,” he said. “A lot has changed, it was on different pitches. They hit us hard early and we didn’t respond very well.”Since those reversals, New Zealand have not put a foot wrong with two series victories against Pakistan and one against Sri Lanka leading into the World Cup. The victory against West Indies made it 16 wins in the last 21 matches. “We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves but yesterday was a huge game for us, a potential banana-skin game against a side that blow hot and cold. So to put in a performance like that was extremely pleasing,” Hesson said.He added there were a “few niggles” in the camp due to the soft outfield in Wellington and players will be assessed in Auckland on Monday. However, there were no immediate concerns over anyone being unavailable for the semi-final.

Warwickshire secured promotion, and now need just four points to grab the Division Two title off Worcestershire, after a dramatic final-day, six-wicket victory charge against Essex at Chelmsford. The match appeared to be heading for a draw as John Maunders (107) and Ravi Bopara (133) added 241 for the second wicket. But Ian Salisbury sparked a rapid collapse as Essex lost nine for 69, leaving Warwickshire to knock off 144 in 45 overs. They cruised home with plenty of time to spare, Darren Maddy hitting 63 off 99 balls. However, their real final-day matchwinner was Salisbury, who turned the game on its head, with a spell of 6 for 27 in 11.4 overs. Maunders hit his first Championship hundred and Bopara continued the form he has shown most of the summer with his fourth century. Then Bopara was caught behind and Maunders soon followed, sweeping to Jim Troughton. Salisbury broke a 30-run stand between James Foster and Mark Pettini by having Foster caught and bowled, while Essex didn’t help themselves as Pettini and Chris Wright were run out. Salisbury snapped up the final two wickets to complete his best figures for Warwickshire and his fifth five-wicket haul of the season. Tony Frost, who scored 242 in the first innings, added 71 with Maddy and the victory came with more than six overs to spare.Graham Wagg completed match figures of 10 for 133 as he helped bowl Derbyshire to a 117-run victory against Gloucestershire at Derby. It was a tough ask for Gloucestershire heading into the final day, needing 280 more with eight wickets in hand, and it became even tougher when Hamish Marshall fell early to the swing of Charl Langeveldt. Alex Gidman, driving to point, also fell to Langeveldt and the major early resistance came from nightwatchman Steve Kirby. He took 111 balls over his 28 until being trapped in front by Langeveldt. Seam and spin then chipped through the lower order before Wagg rounded off his impressive game by bowling Anthony Ireland. Wagg became just the third Derbyshire player to take 10 wickets in a match and score 100 runs and the first since 1934.Glamorgan claimed their third Championship win of the season with a 10-wicket success against Leicestershire despite a defiant century from Paul Nixon at Sophia Gardens. The visitors began the final day already four wickets down in the follow-on and soon lost Josh Cobb. Jim Allenby helped Nixon add 51 for the sixth wicket before being stumped off Robert Croft, but the tail didn’t fold. Nixon reached his hundred off 196 balls with No. 11, Garnet Kruger, for company and shortly after Dean Cosker claimed his first wicket to leave Glamorgan needing 63. They completed the chase with ease, as Gareth Rees and David Hemp took 12.5 overs to knock off the runs.

Durham will enter the final week of the season in third place while Sussex face a potential relegation decider against Yorkshire after their match at Chester-le-Street drifted to a draw. Durham will have to rely on results elsewhere if they are to secure their first Championship title and start the last round 10 points behind leaders Nottinghamshire. “We’re still in with a chance, with just the last five days to go, of winning the championship. That’s where you want to be,” captain Dale Benkenstein told the . “We’re happy with a good draw from this game, because it still gives us a chance of winning in the last round.” The two sides appeared content to take what bonus points they could after the first day of this match was washed out and the home side wrapped up Sussex’s first innings for 302 as they missed out a vital batting bonuses. Durham cautiously played out time with Michael Di Venuto reaching 61, passing 1000 runs for the season, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul further helped his average with an unbeaten 25 to go alongside his superb first-innings century.Somerset and Yorkshire settled for a draw at Scarborough, leaving both with plenty to do in the final week of the season. John Ward watched the action.

Graeme Smith, the South African captain, says his players have expressed major reservations about playing the Champions Trophy in Pakistan this September. His comments are the latest voicing player concern over security in Pakistan after the ICC confirmed on Thursday that the tournament would remain in that country.South Africa toured Pakistan last October for a Test and ODI series and Smith said the security situation had worsened considerably since then, when a state of emergency was declared just days after their departure.”From the players’ point of view, we do have major concerns with security in Pakistan,” Smith told . “A lot has happened in Pakistan, from a security point of view, since we were there and those are things that are worrying us. Generally, that’s a full-player view. I don’t know any players who don’t have issues with regards to security in Pakistan.”There were bombings taking place in Karachi and bombings are taking place in Lahore now. Within three days (of us returning home), there was a state of emergency so we have seen how quickly things can develop.”Smith echoed the views of Tony Irish, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, who said yesterday the players were disappointed with the ICC’s decision and also hoped Cricket South Africa (CSA) would seriously consider whether to send a team to the Champions Trophy or not. Smith said he would leave the players association and Gerald Majola, CSA’s chief executive, to take the final decision.”We have people working on that whom we trust, Tony Irish from the players’ association and Gerald,” Smith said. “We are in constant communication with them on how we feel as players. We trust them to make the right decisions.”David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive, said senior players in the England squad will be consulted and shown the security reports ahead of an ECB meeting on August 4.”We will want to have a very robust review of that (security) plan,” Collier said. “We’re in very close touch, not only with the Professional Cricketers Association, but directly with all the players. It’s very important that we are in very, very close contact over this period and clearly other boards around the world are in the same position.”Heath Mills, the chief of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association, did not even approve of sending a second-string team for the tournament and said that the decision should not be left to the players. “”This is an international security issue,” Mills told . “It shouldn’t be something left in the hands of the younger, less experienced and more vulnerable players. Of course they’ll feel under pressure to take the chance. It’s totally irresponsible to put them in that position.”