The Essex fast bowler, Ashley Cowan, has retired from first-class cricket due to a persistent knee injury. Cowan, 31, toured the Caribbean with the England squad in 1997-98, but never played a Test.Born in Hitchin, Cowan appeared in 102 first-class matches following his debut against Derbyshire at Chelmsford in August 1995. After a decade as the spearhead of the Essex attack he made his last first-class appearance in May 2005 against Worcestershire.”I am retiring due to a chronic knee injury,” Cowan told the Essex CCC website. “I would love to continue my first-class playing career but sadly it is just not possible for me to perform anymore.”After a major operation in 2003, Cowan had a year out in rehabilitation and returned to action during the second half of the 2004 season. He struggled, however, in the 2005 season and spent the first half of 2006 attempting to see out his contract.”I have had a fantastic 12 years in the game but now is the time to give the youngsters a chance,” added Cowan. “Unfortunately every cricketer’s career comes to an end but for some it’s earlier than others. I’ve had some fun along the way but my body has told me enough is enough.””It is very disappointing that Ashley has had to announce his retirement,” added Essex’s chief executive, David East. “We all knew that the radical and experimental surgery that he undertook in 2003 was never guaranteed to be a success and despite giving himself every opportunity to make a full recovery it is evident this is not possible.”Cowan was awarded a benefit for this year, and his fundraising chairman, Mike Smith, said: “Ashley’s popularity on and off the pitch has been evident by the support we have seen in his benefit year. I thank all Essex supporters for showing their appreciation to date and encourage anyone still wishing to do so to check the benefit website at www.ashleycowan.org.”

The story of the collar-grabbing incident, when John Wright confronted Virender Sehwag during the NatWest Trophy in 2002, has been doing the rounds again, courtesy extracts from Wright’s recently-launched book, . It has raised quite a few eyebrows, some even accusing Wright of leaking dressing-room stories. But the incident was revealed by Rahul Dravid as far back as May 2005 in .Dravid talks about Wright’s mood before that Sehwag dismissal, how the coach felt frustrated by Sehwag’s “silly shots” and how he intended to “have a go” at Sehwag if he got out in the same manner again. “This happened at The Oval during the NatWest Trophy. John [Wright] had been talking to us about how Viru [Virender Sehwag] was batting really well, playing great shots, but also playing silly shots and getting out. That was getting to John. He said to me, ‘If that guy gets out to one more bad shot I’m going to really have a go at him.’ In the next match Viru went out and played a silly shot and got out. And when he walked back into the dressing-room, John actually grabbed him by the collar and shook him. It created a bit of stir in the dressing room. The thing was the incident was quickly forgotten and neither Viru nor anyone else took offense. We knew how badly he wanted Viru and the team to do well. We knew it frustrated him when people did not play up to their potential. It was an incident that showed us just how badly he wanted us to win. There were absolutely no hard feeling after the incident; and perhaps he and Viru got on much better after that, if anything.”In the same issue of WAC, Virender Sehwag also heaped praise on Wright, saying how “he was more of a friend”. “Our culture teaches us to respect our elders and with someone like a coach you need to be particular about your behaviour. But with John it was different: he was more of a friend. We could laugh at him, plays pranks. But he was also a thorough professional, very demanding, and very passionate about what he did. More than anything, he was very good at understanding the character of a player. When people doubted my abilities, John was aware of my mental strengths and never talked about altering my batting technique. In fact, on playing days our interaction was minimal. He has a back problem and he knows that my mom has a bad back too. On match days he would ask me, ‘How are you? How’s your mom’s back? How are we going to play today?’ I will never forget one thing he told us: the difference between a good player and a great player is performance. Great ones perform consistently and good ones do it off and on. And I will miss looking at John’s face when somebody plays a bad shot during a tight match. It was something.”

The Indian board which is funding the Malaysia tri-series categorises it as an “off-shore project”. “We have financed the tri-series 100 per cent,” Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, told reporters. “The floodlights are up [at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur], the pitch is fine, just a couple of things are remaining.”In addition to footing a floodlight bill of nearly US$ 500,000 the BCCI would also provide the West Indies and Australia, the other two teams participating, with financial incentives. “We will also be paying appearance fee for West Indies and Australian teams of $1 million per match,” Shah said.Shah added that the high revenues to be acquired through television rights could be used to pay the two countries.The tri-series has been sponsored by Delhi-based construction company DLF.

Graeme Smith, the South African captain, slammed the pitch at the Brabourne Stadium after his team folded for just 108 and lost to New Zealand by 87 runs, suggesting that the wicket was not up to the mark for an international tournament. “Batting second was very, very difficult,” he said. “It’s always tough to sit and moan about a wicket when you’ve lost, but in terms of an international tournament I don’t think the wicket was of a good standard today.”Interestingly it was Smith who won the toss and chose to put New Zealand in. He pointed to the much-talked-about dew factor when explaining this decision. “Last year we were here in November and there was a lot of dew,” he said. “Dew was a big factor. The wickets played quite well then. This wicket was going through the top, it was turning almost square.”Smith also suggested that his decision to put New Zealand in, one that backfired on him in the end, was based on what he saw of the early matches played in this tournament. “In the first two games the sides which batted first really struggled. In those games it seemed like the ball came on better in the second innings,” he said. “Today it was the total opposite. It just deteriorated from 10 overs onwards. The pitch broke up, the ball turned a hell of a lot.” He added that captains might need to assess things differently in the rest of the tournament. “We’re just going to have to read a pitch, go by the gut feeling on the day and stick by that. I don’t think the pitches are going to provide a 100 overs of good cricket.”When Smith was done criticising the pitch he trained his sights on the ICC for the scheduling of matches in this tournament. “It’s a bit tough to work that out. You have eight days to the next game and then two games in three days. It could have been spaced a lot better,” he said. “Who knows what the ICC’s thinking was when they scheduled the games this way. The gap gives us a chance to regroup but ideally we would have liked to be playing a lot sooner than we are.”When asked if his team’s shot selection could have been better, Smith said there was little wrong with the way his batsmen played. “I don’t think the shot selection was that bad. Some guys could have waited for the ball longer, others went after balls that were there to cut and ended up nicking.” he said. “When a wicket’s like this you end up changing your whole gameplan and end up missing out on something. I think our shot selection was fine, we just needed to grind a bit more.”In contrast, Stephen Fleming did not slam the pitch as Smith did. “Yes, the pitches are a bit different this time around, from what we usually experience in India. As the tournament progresses, it is going to be tough on the viewers and in this respect I can understand Graeme’s complaints. But our job is to play in whatever pitches given to us and play accordingly.” And he certainly adapted better than anyone else on the day.Fleming also conceded that he was not entirely sure that his team had enough runs on the board, but grew more comfortable after seeing how the pitch behaved as the second innings progressed. “I was afraid a bit as we lost nearly five overs in our innings,” he said. “We were aiming 220 to 230, which we thought was really competent in this pitch. It was a bit tough to concentrate as wickets were tumbling at regular intervals at the other end. Once we saw the ball stopping a bit off the wicket, we realised that we are in with a chance in this game.”

The MCC, the owners of Lord’s, have announced plans to spend up to £20 million to refurbish the Mound Stand and install state-of-the-art scoreboards and replay screens.More than £50m has been spent on refurbishing the venue since 1987, including the addition of a new media centre and indoor cricket school. The Grandstand, the Compton and Edrich Stands and the Mound Stand have all been knocked down and rebuilt in that time. The award-winning canopy roof on the Mound Stand was only replaced last winter.The club will finance the redevelopment by issuing debentures which will run from 2007 to 2014. These will cost between £8000 and 12,000.Although the scoreboards are relatively new, they have already been left behind by technological advances, and the new board installed at The Oval is superior in every regard. The MCC hopes to have the replacements, which will cost almost £3 million, in place in time for the 2008 summer, and work on the Mound Stand should be finished by the time Lord’s hosts the Olympic archery competition in 2012.An MCC spokesman admitted that the club was also looking for ways of increasing the ground’s capacity, which is currently around 30,000. While extra seating has been installed in the last decade, the venue used to be able to hold several thousand more seated on the grass. Crowd and safety concerns led to that practice being stopped in the 1980s.

The Barmy Army is considering cancelling its tour of Australia after members were “treated like schoolchildren” by security staff at the Gabba. The group’s founder Paul Burnham said if things continued in the same vein the tour could be abandoned.”Absolutely. We are waiting to see how it develops before giving advice to people coming over [from England] for the Sydney and Melbourne Tests,” Burnham told . He said he was infuriated that the Barmy Army’s official trumpet player Billy Cooper was escorted from the ground on Thursday, given that Cooper had been given permission to play.”I flew over to Melbourne in May and talked to Cricket Australia about the trumpet,” Burnham said. “We were told he would be able to play at the ground and he was quite good for stopping the Mexican wave. We were getting some pretty positive vibes back and then all of a sudden he’s been ejected.”He played his trumpet in the morning and it was fine. We got our third wicket [in the second session] and suddenly he was asked to leave the ground. Everyone was having a really good time, there was a great atmosphere in the ground, we sat next to the Boony Army guys and there was some great banter. Now the whole thing is ruined.”

Burnham said it was also disappointing that seat allocations meant thousands of England supporters were scattered all around the Gabba, which made them feel “not very welcome at all”. He said “an awful lot” of Barmy Army members had not bothered to attend the second day, instead watching the match from their hotel.Burnham, who came up with the idea of the Barmy Army during the 1994-95 Ashes tour, said Cricket Australia were ruining the spirit of the game. “They believe the Barmy Army will help England win so it just seems everything is geared to try and make sure there is no fun in the game,” he said. “We just want to come over and have a good time … not to be treated like schoolchildren.”We’ve come back to the country where the Barmy Army started 12 years ago. We are a group that has supported the sport over the last three tours, spent millions of pounds and we are treated like this.”

Scorecard

Last-placed South Australia are on the verge of taking first-innings points against the competition leaders Tasmania despite a seven-wicket haul from Ben Hilfenhaus. The Tigers lost three batsmen in the last four overs of the day to finish at 7 for 196 in reply to South Australia’s 349.Tasmania’s chase started poorly when Shaun Tait (3 for 41) and Jason Gillespie made two breakthroughs each to leave the home side at 4 for 79. A 112-run partnership between Travis Birt and Daniel Marsh (57 not out) gave the Tigers hope but Dan Cullen trapped Birt lbw for 71 late in the day, sparking a mini-collapse.Cullen had Sean Clingeleffer caught by Daniel Harris for 1 before Tait finished on a high, claiming Brett Geeves lbw for 1 with the last ball of the day.The Redbacks resumed at 5 for 288 and Darren Lehmann (57) quickly brought up his half-century before he became Hilfenhaus’s first victim of the day. Hilfenhaus, who had claimed three wickets on day one, finished with 7 for 79 – the best figures by any bowler in the Pura Cup this season. He and the in-form Andy Bichel now lead the competition with 19 dismissals each.

Mickey Arthur, who has asked for “fast and bouncy” pitches in the build-upto this Test series, admitted that South Africa had been comprehensivelyoutplayed so far at the Wanderers. While praising the Indian bowlers, heaccepted that his team hadn’t executed their gameplans well enough,leaving India 311 ahead on a difficult pitch with three days remaining.”They bowled very, very well, but there was no way that we should havebeen bowled out for under a hundred,” said Arthur, speaking to the mediaafter the second day. “India showed us the right lengths to bowl on thispitch. We have not got our lengths right throughout this Test. Over thelast two months, we have played a lot of one-day cricket, and yesterday inparticular, we largely bowled one-day lines and lengths.”That admission begs a question. While India warmed up for the Test with afour-day game at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom, the South Africans took iteasy. Of the top eight, only Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince had playedfour-day cricket this season, and complacent preparation could well comeback to haunt the hosts.Rather than focus too much on his own side’s shortcomings, Arthurpreferred to praise the resilience that the Indians have shown after beinghammered 4-0 in the one-day series. “We knew that they had been badlywounded after the one-day series, and we discussed every day the prospectof them fighting back,” he said. “Hats off to them for the way they haveplayed so far, and all credit to their bowlers in particular.”The pitch got a lot quicker today than it was yesterday. Yesterday, therewas a little time to adjust but today, things seemed to happen a lotfaster. At the same time, some of the shot selection and the applicationwasn’t perhaps where it should have been.”The bowling too was ordinary was vast stretches of India’s second innings,and Arthur agreed that the plans to target certain batsmen hadn’t quitecome off. Sourav Ganguly was expected to be set up with the short ball,but he showed oodles of courage and application to make 51 not out and 25over two innings. “We had our plans, but we couldn’t execute themproperly,” said Arthur. “But hats off to Sourav, he came in and did a verygood job.”The South African innings was doomed from the moment they slumped to 5 for3, and the frailty at the top of the order that saw them drubbed 3-0 byAustralia continued to trouble them. “It is a worry, but we have fullconfidence in the personnel we have,” said Arthur. “Today was a poor dayoverall, and everyone has owned up responsibility for what happened. Wehad a chat about it in the evening, and hopefully, there are big scores tocome soon.”Shaun Pollock’s 400th wicket was completely overshadowed on a day ofIndian dominance, but he remained confident that South Africa could pulloff an implausible victory. A session in the ice bath stopped him fromattending the press conference, but Pollock sent through a message thatsaid: “I’m chuffed to have got 400 Test wickets. I am hoping to get moretomorrow and help South Africa win this Test match.”It will need someone to play the innings of a lifetime for that to happen.

Ryan Watson struck a fine hundred on his comeback on the first day of Scotland’s warm-up match against a UAE Development XI at Sharjah.Watson fractured his cheekbone when he top-edged an attempted hook in Scotland’s one-dayer against Bangladesh last December, but he showed no signs of trouble in his brisk hundred. “He wasn’t at his fluent best at the start,” Peter Drinnen, the Scotland coach, told , “but then he hit a pull shot from a short ball, which was a good sign, and he just took it from there.”He was ably supported by Fraser Watts (38) and Gavin Hamilton (28) before Craig Wright, the Scotland captain, joined him in a valuable partnership in the middle of the innings. Wright, who has recovered quickly from a virus picked up on the flight over, batted neatly for his 43 as Scotland were dismissed for 308.The UAE Development XI closed on 13 for 1 going into the second and final day. Scotland face UAE in the decisive Intercontinental Cup match on January 11.