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Ray Mali, the Cricket South Africa president, has been appointed acting president of the International Cricket Council following the death of Percy Sonn in May. Mali will assume the role of acting president with immediate effect and in so doing he steps down as president of CSA, also with immediate effect.Mali, who has been president of CSA since 2003, will remain in office until the ICC’s annual conference in 2008. CSA was asked to make a nomination in line with a recommendation made by the ICC’s Governance Review Committee (GRC) after its meeting in Cape Town on June 1.”I take this assignment as an honour and a big challenge,” said Mali. “I feel lucky to be taking over at a time when the game is in such good shape. With the inaugural World Twenty20 event just round the corner, I want all South Africans to come out and show their support for it. I strongly believe that the use of this shortened format of cricket is one of the ways to take this game forward.”Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, supported Mali’s appointment. “Ray is an experienced and skilled administrator, a man of calm assurance and someone who combines a deep love of the game with an understanding of how best to secure its well-being.”

The ICC has received a copy of the match referee’s report on the Kanpur pitch and is now waiting for a response from the Indian board on the same. But the BCCI played down the issue of what Mickey Arthur, the South African coach, called a “poor cricket wicket”.”It’s a normal process where the match referee submits a pitch report to the ICC at the end of the match, a copy of which is also given to the board,” said Ratnakar Shetty, the board’s chief administrative officer.South Africa beat India by an innings and 90 runs in Ahmedabad on a bouncy track but lost the Kanpur Test by eight wickets after their batting line-up crumbled on an under-prepared surface. Both matches ended in three days.”This is not the first time that a match ended in three days,” Shetty said. “Definitely there were suggestions for some corrective measures but I don’t think it was a notice to the BCCI.”Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said a letter had been sent to the BCCI seeking an explanation on the pitch.

Three overseas players are targeting a future in New Zealand after pledging their future to the country. Grant Elliott and Kruger van Wyk, from South Africa, and Alun Evans formally of Glamorgan, have committed to undertake the residency qualification so they are no longer overseas players.Under new terms in New Zealand domestic cricket none of the player pool money set aside for major associations can be spent on overseas cricketers. The players must either gain residency or be paid from outside the pool.Under ICC rules a player must have spent at least 183 days in the country for three years before they qualify. However Richard Reid, the Canterbury chief executive, told the that players were not trying to work around the payment rules.”This is a guy [van Wyk], and Grant Elliott at Wellington is another, who are like a lot of South Africans looking to move their lives here.”The agreement we have with the CPA [New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association] is that we will look favourably at these guys who have committed to New Zealand.””From Canterbury’s point of view, we needed a wicketkeeper. Michael Papps wants to open the batting for New Zealand and asking him to keep wickets for 120 overs a game wasn’t going to help him achieve that.”Evans, 31, has never been able to nail down a regular spot in the Glamorgan side and would now have to play as an overseas player if he returned to county cricket.Roger Twose is the most notable player to switch his allegiance to New Zealand after he left Warwickshire and made his international debut in 1995. He formed a useful career, playing 16 Test and 87 one-day internationals.New Zealand domestic cricket has attracted a number of overseas players including Matthew Maynard, who is now an England coach, and in more recent years Ben Smith, Jonathan Trott and Min Patel.

Andrew Flintoff has insisted his recovery from an ankle injury is progressing well as he backed himself to return to England’s starting line-up in the first Ashes Test.Flintoff, whom the England selectors want to captain the team in Australia, said he was confident he would take the field at Brisbane’s Gabba ground on November 23. “I’m about three weeks in to a 12-week rehab which will finish probably mid-October,” he told BBC television on Tuesday. “We don’t leave for the Ashes until the first week in November, the first Test isn’t until the back end of November, so I’m confident I’ll be fine.”He believed England needed to beat Pakistan in the fourth and final Test at The Oval, which starts Thursday, to give them a confidence boost going into the their Ashes defence. “You want to take momentum going into a big series like this. Hopefully we can do that at The Oval this weekend and win the series 3-0. If we play anything like we have done over these past two Test matches we’ll have a great shout.”Flintoff was the outstanding performer in England’s 2-1 Ashes series triumph last year with 402 runs and 24 wickets. The next big date in his calendar is a benefit event on August 24 at Old Trafford in Manchester when his county, Lancashire, take on Flintoff’s England XI. “It’s going to be two good sides playing against each other,” Flintoff said. “For England a side with the likes of Steve Harmison, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Monty Panesar to name a few. For Lancashire, the likes of Darren Lehmann and Chris Cairns are going to guest for them.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:38

Farrell: Test was decided on the first two days

Emphatic doesn’t quite do it justice. Unrelenting throughout, Australia put on another exhibition of high quality bowling to seal a vast victory over New Zealand and place one hand on the ICC Mace awarded to the world’s No. 1 Test team. A deflating result for the visitors in Brendon McCullum’s 100th Test was only a tail-end flurry short of New Zealand’s heaviest ever loss at home to Australia.Having set up the match with expert use of seaming early conditions on the first morning, Australia’s bowlers asked quite different questions on the fourth morning. Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird all used reverse swing to good effect, while Nathan Lyon homed in on a footmark outside the right-handers’ off stump to gain sharp spin. The absence of Peter Siddle, resting a back complaint, was well compensated for.Steven Smith will be a most contented captain, having overseen a performance in which many questions about this team have been answered. They chose the right XI for the conditions, they bowled impressively, and most importantly batted with command even after Joe Burns and David Warner were out cheaply with the ball still new on day one. New Zealand will be left to wonder over the significance of the “no-ball” that reprieved Adam Voges early.Henry Nicholls endured longest for the hosts, on the way to making the highest score by a New Zealand debutant batting at No. 4. But his dismissal on 59 by Bird left the tail exposed to the bounce and conventional swing of the second new ball. Southee and Trent Boult entertained another strong Basin Reserve crowd with a late flurry against Lyon, but it was merely a parting shot.Having lost McCullum from the last ball of day three, New Zealand’s chances of survival were slim, and they narrowed further when the 63-over old ball began bending in both directions. Corey Anderson struggled with the ball moving away from him around the wicket, but after a few play and misses Smith directed Marsh to go over the wicket and try to straighten one down the line.Two balls into the tactic, Marsh pitched one in line and swung it back to pin Anderson in front. Like McCullum he reviewed, but it was a futile gesture for a delivery crashing into middle and leg.BJ Watling arrived and his first ball from Lyon hit the aforementioned footmark and narrowly missed spinning back to strike the off stump with the batsman offering no shot. Lyon took note of this, and it was not long before he delivered a slightly flatter delivery on the same line that had Watling playing back, fatally. The turning ball was through him in an instant.Nicholls had absorbed all this pressure, but Bird’s decision to send one down at a full length made the difference, coaxing the batsman into a flick across the line. Again there was some swing, and the ball flicked off the pads into the stumps. At this, the Australians took the second new ball, and a Hazlewood lbw review against Doug Bracewell was declined due to a lack of conclusive evidence before the interval.Hazlewood had his due reward soon after resumption, when Bracewell was struck in front: this time there was no bat to confuse the issue. Southee’s blows dented Lyon’s figures somewhat, but the bowler was content to keep tossing it up in expectation of a miscue, which was exactly what happened.Mark Craig and Boult entertained for a time also, but in playing so freely they did nothing so much as underline how well the Australians had bowled to the batsmen. A match over in fewer than four days had taken place on a pitch that would still be good for batting on day five. In pursuit of Test cricket’s top perch, Smith’s men had played to a very high standard indeed.

Scorecard

Cathryn Fitzpatrick starred with a six-wicket haul including a hat-trick as Victoria Spirit levelled the best-of-three finals series with a comfortable win over New South Wales Breakers at Melbourne. Rachael Haynes dominated the Victoria chase with an unbeaten 83 as the Spirit easily overhauled the Breakers’ 144 in 43.2 overs.Fitzpatrick, who finished with the stunning figures of 6 for 22 from ten overs, ended the New South Wales innings with four wickets from five balls in the 49th over. She began by having Michelle Goszko caught in the deep for 24 and two deliveries later began the hat-trick when Sarah Aley was trapped lbw. Fitzpatrick bowled Julie Hayes and Rene Farrell each for a first-ball 0 to complete the late demolition.The visitors had been unable to build big partnerships after winning the toss and despite Leah Poulton’s 39 and 36 from Sarah Andrews, their 144 was always going to be tough to defend. Haynes, the opener, showed her class with her second half-century of the season to carry the Spirit home.The Breakers clinched a tight one-wicket victory in the first final on Friday and the series will go to the deciding third match at Melbourne’s Central Reserve on Sunday.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has said the “romance” of signing off at home played a major role in his decision to quit all international formats at the end of the forthcoming Test series against Australia, in February. McCullum’s Test retirement has been talked about for some time, but he was expected to travel to the World T20 in India, in March and April.A Dunedin native originally, McCullum’s last international game will be the second Test against Australia in Christchurch – the city in which he and his family now live.”I think there’s something pretty romantic about finishing playing cricket in front of New Zealand crowds and in New Zealand grounds,” McCullum said. “Also we’ll be playing in Christchurch and Wellington – two of the most amazing grounds.”The Basin Reserve has the history and means a lot to New Zealanders. And Christchurch is now my established home. There’s a little bit of romance there. That was certainly the focus for me. I can steel myself for another couple of battles – ones which I look forward to.”McCullum has played through back problems for some time, but suggested the prospect of spending more time with family was a more significant factor in his decision. “My body has been sore for a while, but that’s just international sport. That’s not it. In the end the time has come and you’ve got to move on.”There’s a few things I’ve got on the go – a matter of three kids to deal with. Maybe I’ll put some time and effort back into them after selfishly chasing my dreams for the last decade or so.”New Zealand experienced a substantial resurgence in the years of McCullum’s captaincy, most recently matching their record streak for undefeated home Tests – 13. The team also had its most successful Test year in 2014, when they won five Tests, and reached the final of the World Cup in March.”This is definitely the best team that I’ve been involved in,” McCullum said. “We’ve got some outstanding players. We’ve got some freakish players as well. We’ve had a great home record. If you can be bloody tough to beat at home and you seek success away from home – then you start climbing up the rankings. That’s what we’ve done in the last couple of years.”I guess it’s up to other people to decide what sort of state you’ve left the team in. Hopefully I’ve left it in a better position than when I took it over.”New Zealand have also been known to espouse a team culture of sportsmanship and magnanimity during his years at the helm. McCullum credited the support his team enjoyed during this year’s World Cup partly to their improved public image.”The last 12 months or so, I’ve felt cricket is in a lot stronger place in people’s minds now than what it was a while ago. There’s a real feel-good factor from the fans and a real care about our team in how we go about our work. I think they look throughout the line up and the see not just good cricketers, but good kiwi blokes as well. That’s always nice to see from a fans’ perspective.”The World Cup just captivated New Zealand. The playing numbers and the support we’ve been able to build up because of the way we played in the World Cup should see some great crowds for us this summer. That’s exciting.”McCullum stopped short of endorsing Kane Williamson for the Test captaincy, but spoke effusively about Williamson’s virtues as a batsman. Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, said Williamson’s appointment as captain for the World T20 campaign was the “only [captaincy] decision we need to make” at present, but Williamson appears the frontrunner to take the reins in the longer format also, assuming he wants the role.Williamson was occasionally seen setting fields during the recent Test series against Sri Lanka, and had also taken on greater responsibility in facing media, in that series.”Kane’s taken over in the past and he’s done a great job,” McCullum said. “I know he’s looking forward to the challenge of the T20 world cup.”He’s a genius. He’s going to hate me saying that. He’s no. 1 in the world – and there’s a lot of people in the world that pick up a bat and a pair of gloves. He’s right at the top. He’s a consummate professional, a champion feller, and he’s only 25. He’s going to be one of the best players the game’s ever seen in my opinion.”

Dale Steyn and Brett Lee, who won the Man-of-the-Series awards in the recent clean sweeps for South Africa and Australia, have broken into the top five in the ICC player rankings for Test bowlers.Steyn dismantled the New Zealand batsmen with 20 wickets in two Tests, and has skyrocketed to third place in the list – he was ranked 28th before the start of the series. Lee is two places behind him in fifth, having finished with 16 wickets in the two Tests Australia played against Sri Lanka.Steyn’s team-mate Jacques Kallis is now one point away from Lee’s compatriot Ricky Ponting at the top of the list for Test batsmen. Kallis followed up his three hundreds in four innings against Pakistan with two more in three innings against New Zealand.The other mover in the top ten Test batsmen is Kumar Sangakkara, who jumped to third place – ahead of Mohammad Yousuf – on the back of his 57 and 192 in the second Test against Australia.

Australia’s bowling coach Troy Cooley hopes the attack has received the “wake-up call we needed” before the team defends the World Cup. The fast men have fallen from dominators during the first half of the CB Series to a group that could not get a wicket in the opening match of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy and failed to defend 336 in the second.Cooley will be part of the squad for the World Cup and he told the Sydney Morning Herald he would be addressing the series of problems before they left for the Caribbean. “We’ve got some work to do,” Cooley said. “Maybe it’s the wake-up call we needed.”This group of bowlers did a great job of hitting the right lines and building pressure in the first half of the one-day series. You don’t just lose that skill. We have to get back to what we do right, and find that right balance.”Australia have suffered from the ankle injury to Brett Lee on the eve of the series and Cooley said Shane Watson’s return and the battle for World Cup places were factors in their performances. “There was so much talk about the six fast bowlers battling for five spots to go to the World Cup,” Cooley told the paper. “These kind of issues can play on a player’s mind.”The sudden injury to Brett hasn’t helped things, and there’s also been the re-entry of Shane Watson and trying to get him some match practice before the World Cup. There are a lot of factors. It’s a combination of things we need to look at.”He agreed with John Buchanan that the bowlers were not “hitting their areas” like they did in the early stages of the CB Series. “There’s a danger sometimes that you can go in search of things that aren’t there, and I think we have to be mindful of that,” Cooley said. “You don’t go from being a good side one day to a bad side the next. It’s a matter of getting their minds right before the games.”

While celebrating the Lord’s Test as a spirited contest between bat and ball nobody should forget the services rendered by Matt Prior, Sreesanth, Ryan Sidebottom, Sourav Ganguly, Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan. Their contribution with bat and ball was crucial; their contribution with the lip more so.Contests work well with a bit of needle and watching cricketers react to provocation is a stirring spectacle in any sport. West Indies created history by chasing 418 at Antigua in 2003 but what stuck in the memory was Ramnaresh Sarwan’s squabble with Glenn McGrath.India v England has historically been a battle of the milk-sops. Pakistan v England matches regularly touch boiling point, West Indies v England has had blackwashes and batteries of raw pace, India v Pakistan an air of sibling rivalry. India v England has seen some tiffs, like the famous Vaseline controversy surrounding John Lever in 1976-77, but the overwhelming atmosphere is one of genteelness. Gundappa Viswanath even called back Bob Taylor in the Jubilee Test of 1980, after the umpire had given Taylor out. Now that’s just not cricket.After a largely bland first two days at Lord’s, Sreesanth added spice on the third evening when he fielded a straight-drive from Andrew Strauss and flung it right back at the batsman. Smack, flush on Strauss’ backside. The response from Strauss, backing away to the next ball when Sreesanth was halfway through his run-up, produced giggles. On such skirmishes does the character of a match hinge.Sidebottom chipped in with his share of aggro, shaking his head and the mop of hair above it, but it was really Prior who raised the bar. On the fourth evening, with Dinesh Karthik moving towards his fifty, Prior decided to step in, chirping “Come on Dhoni” every time he was within earshot. When Karthik blocked, Prior didn’t approve: “Let’s get the entertainer in.” Karthik, as if he were at prep school, thought of complaining to the umpire but he was lucky that Sourav Ganguly, that notorious streetfighter, was at the non-striker’s end. Ganguly pulled him back and took on Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen on his own, a verbal joust that carried on even after stumps.”It wasn’t a great deal,” Vaughan said today, downplaying the chit-chat, “just a bit of talking after play seeing how he was going to play in the morning, that was all. I didn’t hear Karthik say anything. It was just a bit of playful banter. You’re always trying to put the batsman off, but it was nothing really.”What of Prior’s superlative effort behind the stumps? “Most keepers are of a pretty similar character. He’s doing well at the moment and I guess it’s part of his armoury to try and get one up on the batsman. I don’t think many batsmen listen but it’s certainly part of his armoury.”The seeds of the current generation’s rivalry were sown by Ganguly, Andrew Flintoff and Nasser Hussain; two of them bared their chest, all wore their heart on their sleeve. Ganguly’s stint at Lancashire, when he appears to have rubbed up many the wrong way, was when a largely peaceful bilateral relationship turned interesting. Hussain’s stubbornness helped. At Headingley in 2002, when India were 500 for 3 with Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar slaughtering the bowling in the dark, Hussain decided to turn on the sledging. The retort: “We want to hear you talk the same way when you go to the Ashes in December, don’t keep quiet there.”Vaughan, it is said, built on the cricketing platform laid by Hussain. He seems to be following suit in the bantering as well. “We are trying to play our cricket with a real intensity about it,” he said, “and that involves being a little bit aggressive. It’s nothing that we haven’t done in the past, it’s just something we’re doing well at the minute.”Even Rahul Dravid, that ultimate diplomat, didn’t seem to have a problem. “There has got to be a bit of that [chit-chat] in international cricket, especially in close games like Lord’s,” he said with a smile. “The team knows they’ve got to give everything to win or save a match on the last day. Tempers can get frayed, but the relations between the two teams have been good, off the field as well. I was happy with the spirit in which the first match was played. I don’t think it went across the line, a bit of that is good for the game.” In an era of clichés and plastic PR, it probably is.