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Martin Bicknell took his 1000th first-class wicket when he had Matthew Dennington caught behind by wicketkeeper Jonathan Batty on the final day of Surrey’s Championship match against Kent at The Oval today. It was Batty’s ninth catch of the match.Bicknell was made to wait for the wicket, and the mounted-ball trophy which had been on standby in the Surrey dressing-room for much of yesterday afternoon was finally unveiled. He should have reached the landmark shortly before tea on Thursday, but Azhar Mahmood split a routine second-slip chance from Michael Carberry.Bicknell, 35, made his debut for Surrey in 1986 and has been their most reliable bowler for more than a decade. He played four Tests for England, two in 1993 and two last season after a decade on the sidelines."To reach 1000 first-class wickets is a hell of an achievement for any bowler and one I’ve targeted since I went past 700 about five years ago," Bicknell told the Surrey Advertiser. "My dream has always been to do it at The Oval, my home ground, but you can’t get too choosy really. I had a few problems with my hamstring at the start of this season but the ball is coming out well now."

The annual general meeting of the Matabeleland Cricket Association at the Queens Sports Club on Saturday ended in chaos when an official of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union tried to hijack proceedings.The problems arose when Vumindaba Moyo, who was challengingAhmet Esat for the post of Matabeleland chairman, declared that a newblack club – Emakhandeni – whose application for affiliation had only just been received, should be allowed to vote.At that point Mukuhlani, the Mashonaland chairman, who was at the meeting as an observer, stood up to support Esat. “I am here as the acting ZCU chairman,” Mukuhlani is reported to have shouted, banging his fist on the table. “Whatever I say is binding … when I am talking I demand respect.”Esat is seen locally as weak, as he was a member of the ZCU board which made the decision to fire the 15 senior players led by Matabeleland’s Heath Streak. The clubs also felt that Esat failed to speak for the province at ZCU board meetings and was overshadowed by Tavengwa Mukuhlani, Max Ebrahim and Ozais Bvute (Bvute attended the meeting but kept unusually silent). So the clubs supported Moyo as they felt he would speak for, and stand up for, the province.Mukuhlani had no right to speak at a meeting which he was attending as an observer. It is also unclear under what authority he was claiming to be acting chairman of the ZCU. He was accompanied by Givemore Makoni, the Matabeleland provincial general manager, who also had no right to be involved in procedings.But his intervention triggered ugly scenes as Moyo and his supporters began hurling insults at Esat and Mukuhlani before storming out of the meeting. “This is not a ZCU meeting, you cannot come here and tell us what to do,” yelled a clearly angry Moyo.Eventually, Dennis Streak, who was chairman of the AGM, restored some sort of order and the elections went ahead, but all the blacks who were nominated for the posts refused to stand. Esat was re-elected unopposed while Stanley Staddon was elected as vice-chairman. The results mean that none of the members of the board are black, and Matabeleland, the second most powerful province after Mashonaland, has still not had a black chairman.The result might not stand for too long as Moyo is understood to be gathering support from the Matabeleland clubs with a view to forcing a motion of no confidence in the Esat-led board at an Emergency General Meeting.

The appointment of El James as Bermuda’s coach appears to have ruffled more than a few feathers, according to a report in the island’s Royal Gazette.James’s management technique has upset several members of the national side, and some of them are intending to take the matter up with the Bermuda Cricket Board ahead of this summer’s ICC Trophy. They would prefer Wendell Smith, the interim coach, to travel with the side to Ireland.James, a former BCB president and a member of the side which competed in the 1982 ICC Trophy, said he was surprised to learn of the unease. "I have no time to deal with any ignorance. When are we going to get positive? I’m shocked, but I guess there will always be negativity. I’m not out to make friends. I’ve only been asked to do a job which I intend to do to the best of my ability. And my track record speaks for itself."The appointment comes amid rumours that Gus Logie, the former West Indies batsman, is on the verge of being named as Bermuda’s new coach. "There’s a strong possibility that he will be coming," a board spokesman said. "We can’t say yes yet because there’s a contractual agreement and other things that have to be looked into. All those things have to be decided first."

Sourav Ganguly was lying low ahead of his side’s attempt to win their first match at their fifth attempt in Harare when they face Zimbabwe in the second Test starting Tuesday.Ganguly declined to speak after practice at Harare Sports Club on Monday, with Greg Chappell, the coach, suggesting that the captain did not “want to be grilled by them (Indian press)”. His absence represented a break from tradition when captains talk pre-match about their team, state of the wicket, recent form plus expectations of play.Despite leading India to an innings and 90 run win over hapless Zimbabwe with a day to spare in the first Test at Bulawayo, Ganguly is facing the prospect of his working relationship with Chappell plummeting to crisis point. Ganguly, who hit a much-needed century in that game, caused a sensation by revealing that he had been asked to stand down as skipper before the match.It was reported that Chappell hinted that Ganguly’s form as a batsman might be better served if the captaincy was surrendered but Chappell vigorously denied that the suggestion was made by him.Meanwhile, the Indian team was working off steam on the field and in the nets, even under a hot sun, following their break at Victoria Falls. They are clearly determined to beat Zimbabwe in the final match of their tour and by as big a margin as possible.

Tahir Mughal, the fast-bowling allrounder, fell six short of a well deserved century as Sialkot Stallions advanced to the finals of the Twenty-20 cup, beating Karachi Dolphins by 29 runs at the National Stadium in Karachi. Batting first, Mughal carried the Stallions innings, and shared a productive stand of 96 with Shoaib Malik (33). Mughal’s knock came to an end when he was bowled by Khalid Latif for 94, off 55 balls with nine fours and six sixes. Meanwhile, Irfanuddin, the offbreak bowler from Karachi, bagged the best bowling figures in the competition’s history, taking 6 for 25 and cleaning up the lower order. Chasing 199, the Dolphins started off confidently, putting on 67 for the first wicket. However, with wickets in hand, they were unable to keep pace with the required rate, finishing at 169 for 7 off their 20 overs. Barring the top order, the others failed to contribute anything substantial. Qaiser Abbas, who had a good outing with the bat for the Stallions in the previous match, took three wickets with his left-arm spin.Faislabad Wolves, the defending champions, gave themselves another shot at the trophy, beating Lahore Lions by six wickets and booking a spot in the finals of the Twenty-20 Cup. The Wolves chased down the target of 150 with ease, led by Misbah-ul-Haq (44) and Asif Hussain (34). The Lions failed to post a challenging total, despite the presence of powerful hitters like Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal, both of whom failed. Samiullah Khan was the most successful bowler for the Wolves, picking up three wickets. They will meet Sialkot Stallions in the finals on Saturday.

The majority of county chiefs are in favour of making changes to the current promotion and relegation system, according to a poll in the latest edition of magazine. The survey confirmed that 13 of the 18 counties wanted to see two teams go up and down from each season rather than three.A change to this structure is expected to form part of the recommendations of the ECB’s Domestic Structure Review Group (DSRG), which is due to publish a report this July. However, any changes would be unlikely to come into effect until 2006.”Three sides going down is the equivalent of seven teams in football’s Premiership and that’s too many,” Jim Cumbes, Lancashire’s chief executive told the magazine. John Scopes, Northamptonshire’s chairman, agreed, saying, “It’s a bit of a lottery. It only takes a couple of injuries and a bit of bad luck with the weather to finish seventh.” Paul Sheldon at Surrey added: “Three-up, three-down is too many. More important is that we listen to current players rather than former players about playing too much – and a unified voice says we do.”Another who had his say was Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive, who said the two-up, two-down was the way ahead: “I don’t think we should be cautious about change, but we need to look at it in the round. Two divisions works. It adds to the focus, the competitive nature.” Gloucestershire were one of the three teams to have been promoted to Division One last season, meaning that every county has been in the top division at some stage.Restructuring the system has been high on English cricket’s agenda since the end of last season with numerous plans being put forward. The Cricket Reformation Group, headed by Bob Willis, a former England captain, believes 12 of the 18 counties should go part-time, with the national side being drawn from 120 professionals divided up between the six full-time clubs. While Matthew Engel, editor of the Wisden Cricketers’ Alamanack, proposed a merger of the Championship and the National League into a single competition.

Scotland have ODI fixtures against New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya in 2008 according to the Future Tours Program released by the International Cricket Council.Scotland are scheduled to visit South Africa in May 2008 for a tri-series which also involves Kenya, and in June the Kenyans will travel to Scotland for a return series in which New Zealand will replace South Africa.A spokesman for Cricket Scotland said that it was likely that matches would be played at several venues. At the moment, only Edinburgh has been approved by the ICC, but it was hoped that grounds in Aberdeen, Ayr and Glasgow could be brought into play.”We have a shed-load of cricket in 2008,” said outgoing chief executive Roddy Smith. “It all harks back to the fact that we and Kenya were promised twice as many games as the other World Cup qualifiers when we won the ICC Trophy.”Smith added that while no fixture had been inked in against England, “logic dictates that England should be coming to us in 2007. It’s not a scheduled event but we hope it will happen.”

Jarret Park might have been packed for the Indians’ warm-up game against a Jamaica XI but it’s pretty obvious that cricket’s popularity has taken quite a battering in these parts. The declining standards of the West Indian side appear to have triggered a sense of disillusionment, and it’s not too uncommon to find young boys veering towards other sports. One man, though, can change all that and, on the eve of the first game, he faced the press with an air of assurance.Brian Lara made it clear that the 5-0 verdict against Zimbabwe could hardly be used as an index to measure West Indies’ competitiveness. The real battle was just about to begin. “We’ve definitely improved over the last two or three weeks – ever since I took over as captain – but we can’t use Zimbabwe as an indicator. I’m 90% happy with our current form but we need to work on a few areas. Our allrounders did well with the ball and on the field, but they need to do more with the bat.”The mere fact that they won, though, and that too comprehensively, could be a vital factor. “Winning can be contagious,” he continued, “and it’s important to keep our momentum going.” Also, a number of new players capitalised on the rotation policy and grabbed their chances. “All good teams around the world have been resting players and we rotated some during the last series. Players like Carlton Baugh, who was picked for the last two games, took his chance and ended up replacing the earlier keeper [Ramdin].”But would he experiment against India? “You wouldn’t want to experiment too much while playing against a tough team. We have a pretty settled batting line-up and also have the option to change batting positions around.”Rahul Dravid pretty much made it clear that India would continue to be flexible. “It’s benefited us in the past, helped us to not rely on particular individuals.”Both captains agreed that India’s new crop of fast bowlers could make the difference. “We haven’t seen too much of them but are using videos of the England and Pakistan series to analyse their performance,” said Lara. “They appear to have a varied attack.” Dravid proffered another angle: “Most of them haven’t come to West Indies earlier and it’s good in a way because they won’t be carrying the scars of defeat. The history of experiencing toughtours won’t haunt them.”

ScorecardNorth Zone put in a good, strong bowling performance and then followed it up with a fluent batting performance to canter to victory by seven wickets against Central Zone. The stars of the day were Joginder Sharma, who bowled with intelligence and control, and then later Gautam Gambhir, who unleashed a volley of boundaries as North Zone chased down 196 with plenty of time to spare.When Dinesh Mongia, who won the toss, chose to bowl, it didn’t appear to be the brightest decision. Although there was a bit of live grass on the surface, the pitch was still very good for batting. But he made the decision keeping the dew factor in mind, and in the end it was one that paid off.VRV Singh and Ashish Nehra got North off to the perfect start, picking off the two openers cheaply. VRV blasted out Faiz Fazal while Nehra had Monish Mishra trapped plumb in front. Mohammad Kaif, the Central Zone skipper, teamed up with Shreyas Khanolkar, and the two began the repair operation from 15 for 2.Khanolkar was steady, and took no chances against either VRV or Nehra, but Kaif, clearly not at his best, struggled to get going. With the runs not coming through big shots, and the singles stifled as well, the pressure gradually built. And when Joginder came on to bowl first change, Kaif went after him, but failed to do more than get a thin edge to an attempted pull shot.From then on, while Khanolkar sealed his end up, the wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end. Abbas Ali played on to his stumps, Piyush Chawla shouldered arms to an inswinger and was lbw, Jai P Yadav flashed one to Shikhar Dhawan in the slips – all off the bowling of Joginder. At 81 for 6 Central Zone were staring at being skittled out for a humiliatingly low score, but were saved the blushes by some spirited lower-order batting.Rohit Jhalani (20), Murali Kartik (22) and Pankaj Singh (28) all contributed, but the only meaningful score of the innings was 57 from Khanolkar, and this meant that Central Zone could muster just 195.When North Zone began the pursuit of 196, they gave Central Zone hint of a chance as two wickets fell for 53. But Central Zone could not take the risks they needed to, or set attacking enough fields, given they did not have the runs on the board. With this being the case, Dhawan and Gambhir settled into an easy groove and began picking off the bowlers.Both Gambhir and Dhawan look to play their shots, and today was no exception. There were pleasing punches back down the ground, some flashy drives through the off side and occasionally the pick-up shot over the leg side. Their partnership stretched to 140 before Dhawan was acrobatically caught by RP Singh on the fine-leg fence after he had top-edged a pull shot. By then Dhawan had scored 51 and only three runs were needed for victory. Gambhir obliged, spanking his 13th boundary, to go with one six, and was unbeaten on a 98-ball 95 as North reached the target.

Sourav Ganguly has received a letter from Niranjan Shah, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, seeking an explanation for his absence from a crucial Ranji Trophy match involving Bengal and Gujarat at Surat.Only a day after Kiran More, the national selection committee chairman, showed his disapproval at Ganguly missing the match, sources from the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) have stated that a “two-line letter” addressed to Ganguly was received by the player himself.The reports that the letter was not addressed to Jagmohan Dalmiya, the CAB president, or Saradindu Pal, its joint secretary. Pal remained non-committal on the matter, stating that he had spoken to Ganguly. “I spoke to Sourav last Friday, the day before the Indian team for Pakistan was selected,” he said. “He told me he’d missed Bengal’s Delhi match, and would also not play the Gujarat match because of unavoidable personal reasons.”Pal also stated that he had been trying to contact Ganguly since December 24 – the day the Indian squad was selected – but had no luck in doing so. Dalmiya, having earlier stated that Ganguly had missed the match against Gujarat for “logistical, and not personal” reasons, refused to comment on the matter today.Ganguly’s absence from the match seems to have agitated the BCCI, given that More emphasized that it was important to members of the Indian team to “engage in domestic matches as much as possible” prior to their departure to Pakistan on January 5. Speculation remains as to whether the message was passed on to Ganguly.Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and VVS Laxman turned out for their respective state sides in the ongoing fifth round of the Ranji Trophy.