Andy Blignaut, the Zimbabwean bowling allrounder, has joined Durham on a short-term deal. He will replace Shoaib Akhtar in the fast-bowling department, but does not count as an overseas player because Zimbabwe has an associate agreement with the European Union.Blignaut, 25, had played 15 Tests and 47 one-dayers for Zimbabwe before he, along with 14 other players, were sacked by the national board after internal disputes. He has since agreed a three-year deal with Tasmania, the Australian state side.Shoaib was forced to return home early from his stint with Durham for the Asia Cup, and hence Martyn Moxon, Durham’s coach, was looking to bolster the bowling. Blignaut has taken 51 Test wickets with a best of 5 for 73 against Bangladesh at Bulawayo.

Kenny Benjamin, the former West Indian fast bowler, has joined the USA coaching staff ahead of next week’s ICC Champions Trophy in England. Benjamin, 36, is an accredited Level II Coach, and will serve as a technical consultant and bowling coach to help boost USA’s prospects in their maiden senior tournament.Benjamin appeared in 26 Tests for West Indies between 1992 and 1998, picking up 92 wickets at 30.27. In his entire first-class career, he grabbed 403 wickets in 108 matches. He was recently a part of the West Indies coaching set-up, on their tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa at the turn of the year.The USA team is benefiting from a considerable West Indian presence. Their head coach is the former opener, Faoud Bacchus, while their captain is Richard Staple, a 34-year-old immigrant from Jamaica. Their star batsman is Clayton Lambert, the scourge of England’s bowlers on their tour of the Caribbean in 1997-98.USA launch their campaign against New Zealand on September 10.

Thilanga Sumathipala, the former president of the Sri Lankan board, has reportedly acted as a mediator and brokered a truce between Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s captain, and Asantha de Mel, Sri Lanka’s controversial selection chief, after their angry public dispute during the Pakistan tour, according to the newspaper.De Mel, a former fast bowler, incensed Atapattu when he publicly criticised the team management and senior players for being "selfish" and undermining the selectors’ attempts to blood young players. The rift deepened when Tillakaratne Dilshan was surprisingly axed from the Test team despite averaging 36 since his return to Test cricket last year.The spat led to a complete breakdown in communication between the two, forcing Sumathipala – a key powerbroker in the Sri Lanka cricket scene, who has returned to the limelight having started to emerge from the humiliation of an immigration scandal – to intervene and organise a face-to-face meeting.Sumathipala met with de Mel on Wednesday at his private residence and arranged a meeting for Thursday. During that meeting, the Daily Mirror says Atapattu had explained how "certain [recent] selection decisions could undermine his status as captain" and made it difficult to win the full confidence of his players.A third meeting was arranged on Friday, to which Duleep Mendis, the board’s chief executive, also attended. The meeting apparently also touched on other issues, including the vice-captaincy, currently held by Mahela Jayawardene, which de Mel’s committee are in favour of handing to Chaminda Vaas. Atapattu, though, was given an opportunity to provide his input on the issue.Both Atapattu and de Mel agreed that the present bloated seven-man selection panel should be urgently trimmed back to the normal four-person committee. A special request is to be made to the Sports Minister, who appoints the selectors, to reduce the size of his panel.Atapattu is due to leave for a three-week break with his family at the weekend, but when he returns a major summit meeting of past captains, senior players and top officials is expected to put together a plan for the coming few years.

Scorecard

Tom Plant and Callum Ferguson were hanging on for South Australia as they faced the almost impossible assignment of batting for more than two days to force a draw against New South Wales at the SCG. Plant was unbeaten on 64 and Ferguson had 41 as they tried to restore some pride to a team that had fallen to 3 for 33 after being dismissed for 29 yesterday.Phil Jaques, who resumed on 154, cruised to his double century as New South Wales built the intimidating lead. Nathan Bracken, who took 7 for 4 on day one, was unbeaten on 34, five more than the Redbacks’ first-innings total.Shaun Tait collected four wickets for South Australia but was slightly expensive through 34 overs while Dan Cullen claimed two victims.

Click here for readers’ feedbackThe decision of the ECB to throw in its lot with satellite broadcaster BskyB, granting it exclusive coverage of live cricket for four years from 2006, has attracted considerable media comment, and little of it favourable.Most analysis was critical of the ECB for putting money before the good of the game. "For all the crowing of delight in St John’s Wood yesterday, by awarding all live cricket coverage to satellite television English cricket has opted for short-term financial survival ahead of enlightened promotion of the game," wrote David Hopps in The Guardian. "This was a day that English cricket will rue. It was the day when the game abandoned its claim to be part of the fabric of English society. It was the day when it became just another sport scrabbling for a fat pay cheque."In The Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle was not against the deal as such, but he nevertheless struck a note of caution. "Time will prove the better judge and it might be that in five years Andrew Flintoff’s heroics have persuaded most households to have Sky Sports," he explained. "Either that, or Wayne Rooney clones will have overrun the playground, leaving cricket to be the domain of public schoolboys and economic migrants from former Commonwealth countries. Let us hope it is the first one that comes to pass."In The Daily Mail, Peter Chayney described the deal as "desperately disappointing, remarkably short-sighted and totally unsurprising." He added: "Little more could be expected from the organisation (is it oxymoronic to call the ECB an organisation?) that presided over the recent, and completely precedented, debacle over England’s tour to Zimbabwe."A number of writers commented on the ECB’s insistence that awarding highlights to Five, terrestrial TV’s junior channel, circumvented objections to accessibility, pointing out that it is not available in one home in five, and that the timing of the package is misguided. "Better, certainly, for an impressionable young boy to have the chance to watch the day’s events at 7.15pm than to have no chance at all at about midnight," agreed Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times, "but what if, in a home where football is the staple sporting diet, a father or grandfather wants to watch EastEnders or Coronation Street?Martin-Jenkins also questioned Sky’s potential audience. "The live coverage will be exclusively in the expert hands of a satellite broadcaster that has done much to promote the game, especially in the winter, but which could boast an audience of only a million last March even when Stephen Harmison was producing the most sensational piece of fast bowling by an Englishman since Frank Tyson against against Australia 50 years previously. By contrast, Channel 4, losing money and, to judge from the time they put on the highlights, also losing faith, raised 5.2 million viewers during the Lord’s Test between England and West Indies in 2000 and three million on the Saturday of the Edgbaston Test last summer."In The Independent, Angus Fraser warned that the county chairmen, who forced this deal through, act responsibly. "It is to be hoped this money is not wasted by counties on expensive overseas signings and players who have little interest in the future of the game in England," he said. Time will tell.Let us know what you think

The revised itinerary for Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh has been revealed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).Zimbabwe will fly to Dhaka on December 28, two days earlier than planned, and they will then go on to Chittagong the same day for the start of a 33-day tour. This will be Zimbabwe’s first full tour since the International Cricket Council temporarily suspended them in April this year.Two Tests and five one-day internationals are scheduled against the hosts Bangladesh. Zimbabwe will open their tour with a three-day warm-up game against a BCB XI at the newly built Chittagong Divisional Stadiumon January 1 ahead of the first Test at the MA Aziz Stadium which starts on January 6.The first Test was originally scheduled to be held at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, but the venue was switched as there were insufficient broadcast and media facilities.Zimbabwe’s 16-man squad includes Hamilton Masakadza, who hasn’t played Test cricket for more than two years. The rest of the squad is fairly predictable, with only Terrence Duffin and Graeme Cremer new to a set-up which is beginning to look more settled after the shake-up earlier in the year.The Test series in Bangladesh is a real watershed for both sides. For Bangladesh, it represents a chance for them to prove that they have what it takes and end their dismal record of 29 defeats and no wins in 32 Tests. Zimbabwe need success to prove that the new-look side is not a threat to the integrity of Test cricket, as critics have claimed. Zimbabwe’s squad will be whittled down to 13, and will be announced on January 2.Zimbabwe squad Dion Ebrahim, Hamilton Masakadza, Brendan Taylor, Barney Rogers, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Mark Vermeulen, Tatenda Taibu (capt/wk), Elton Chigumbura, Tinashe Panyangara, Edward Rainsford, Douglas Hondo, Christopher Mpofu, Mluleki Nkala, Graeme Cremer, Prosper Utseya, Terrence Duffin.

England 411 for 8 dec (Strauss 147, Key 83, Vaughan 82*, Ntini 4-111) and 332 for 9 dec (Trescothick 180, Vaughan 54) beat South Africa 419 (Gibbs 161, Boucher 64, Hoggard 5-144) and 247 (Gibbs 98, Smith 67*, Hoggard 7-61) by 77 runs, and lead series 2-1
ScorecardDay 5
Bulletin – Hoggard’s super seven launches England to victory
Verdict – Swing, shape, and an appetite for labour
Quotes – Vaughan: ‘A very special win’
Quotes – Smith: ‘A tough defeat to accept’
The Big Picture – Rudolph bowled neck and crop
The Big Picture – Kallis’s first-ball duck
Day 4
Bulletin – Trescothick’s ton boosts England on a fluctuating day
Verdict – England face final-day headache
Roving Reporter – Wandering around the Wanderers
The Big Picture – Flintoff’s despairing dive
Quotes – Boje braced for final-day chase; Trescothick says ‘We can win’
News – England call up Jon Lewis as cover
Day 3
Bulletin – Gibbs frustrates weary England
Verdict – Exhaustion fights two-fingered resilience
News – Vaughan fined his whole match fee
Quotes – Gibbs recovers his balance
Quotes – Hoggard reflects on the wind of change
The Big Picture – Down and out
Day 2
Bulletin – England fight back in final session
Verdict – Vaughan batting from memory
Quotes – Vaughan blasts inconsistent umpires
Quotes – Pollock rues lost initiative
The Big Picture – Take that
Day 1
Bulletin – Another century for Strauss before a late flurry of wickets
Verdict – Cash in while you can
Quotes – Strauss rides the wave
Quotes – Jennings: ‘England will be disappointed’
The Big Picture – Driving carefully
Preview Package
Preview – A question of momentum
News – Flintoff passed fit to play
The Big Picture – England going around the bend

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Weather forecastSouth Africa go into the first of three one-dayers against Zimbabwe at the Wanderers without Shaun Pollock and with Andre Nel and Graeme Smith both sweating on last-minute fitness tests. Pollock ruled himself out on Thursday after an ankle injury failed to respond to treatment.Smith admitted that he was less than fully fit – he is also suffering from an injured ankle – but was confident of making the side. “We’re struggling to work out exactly what the problem is,” he shrugged, “but it’s pretty much certain that I’ll play in all three matches in the series.” Nel, meanwhile, reported back from domestic duty with a hamstring strain.South Africa have other problems to ponder, the main one being who will open with Smith now that Herschelle Gibbs appears to have settled into a position lower down the order. “We’ve got a few options, and it’s important that we stabilise that position,” Smith said. “I think once we decide on someone, we should let him have a bit of a run. Adam Bacher, AB de Villiers and Jacques Rudolph are all in the frame.”Zimbabwe’s headaches concern form more than fitness. Since the split which followed the sacking of Heath Streak last April, they have won just two out of 22 ODIs – and both those victories came against Bangladesh last month in a 2-3 series defeat.Friday’s day-nighter is followed on Sunday by the second match, at Durban, with the third one at Port Elizabeth next Wednesday. The one-day series is followed by two Test matches.

James Hopes, the Australia one-day allrounder, has been included in Queensland’s Pura Cup final side after being cleared of a hamstring injury suffered in yesterday’s draw with Western Australia. The Bulls named the same 12 that claimed first-innings points in the match and will attempt to beat New South Wales for the first time in a final at the Gabba from Friday.Hopes was examined by the Bulls medical staff this morning and was given a positive report on the complaint that caused him to leave the field late in the game yesterday. A Queensland Cricket spokesman said he was expected to train with the team as normal later this week.New South Wales have cut Jason Krejza , the offspinner, for the match on the usually seam-friendly Gabba and recalled the batsman Ed Cowan and the fast bowler Doug Bollinger in an extended 13-man squad. The Blues sealed their place in the final by finishing second after securing an outright victory against Victoria at the SCG yesterday.Queensland Jimmy Maher (capt), Clinton Perren, Martin Love, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds, Craig Philipson, James Hopes, Wade Seccombe (wk), Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Joe Dawes, Mitchell Johnson.New South Wales Phil Jaques, Greg Mail, Matthew Phelps, Dominic Thornely, James Packman, Ed Cowan, Brad Haddin (capt, wk), Doug Bollinger, Grant Lambert, Matthew Nicholson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill.

Daniel Vettori has been ruled out of the second Test against Sri Lanka, to be played at the Basin Reserve in Wellington starting on April 11. His bad back had not responded sufficiently to treatment, and New Zealand did not want to risk his long-term future by rushing him into a Test match when he was not fully fit.Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand manager, has said in a press release that Vettori "was the best indicator as to whether or not he was able to play, given the complaint is one he has had to varying levels throughout his international career."Further, Vettori had also been treated for a wear-and-tear injury to his right wrist, diagnosed as a sprain with minor joint irritation not long ago.