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One of the last bastions of male supremacy crumbled this morning with the news that Rachael Heyhoe-Flint has become the first female MCC committee member.”It is a tremendous honour, and I am indebted to everyone who voted for me,” said Heyhoe-Flint, who was one of the first women admitted to the club when the all-male rule was abolished in 1999. “It’s a particular pleasure to know that I’ll be joining the committee at one of the most exciting times in the distinguished history of the club.”As well as Heyhoe-Flint, Mike Griffith, John Fingleton and Andrew Beeson were elected to the new committee which takes over on October 1.

Dwayne Bravo, West Indies’ stand-in captain, has blamed injuries to key players for the team’s disappointing showing on the tour of South Africa recently. West Indies conceded the three-Test series 2-1 after winning the first in Port Elizabeth, squared the Twenty20 internationals 1-1 and lost all five one-dayers.West Indies missed the services of regular captain Chris Gayle after he suffered a broken thumb during the second Test in Cape Town and was sent home after the first one-dayer. Bravo himself had injury worries after picking up a side strain during the Test series while Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor also suffered setbacks.”We were unfortunate in that there were injuries to many of our key players and this really hampered us down there,” Bravo told . “We have no control of this, so we just had to do what we could have in the situation. I think the players who competed there did well and one must recognise this.”Bravo, who was the given the vice-captaincy despite his inexperience as a captain with his native Trinidad, appreciated the constant support and advice from his team-mates.”I thought that I did well with the captaincy,” he said. “What was really pleasing to me was the fact that the senior players all supported me during the tour. Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin came to me over and over with advice and this was really good.”West Indies’ next assignment is a short home series against Sri Lanka in March-April, which includes three one-dayers and two Tests, followed by Australia’s visit. The Australians play three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 international, and Bravo was confident the players would be well-prepared for those challenges.”Currently there is a lot of cricket being played in the West Indies and the players have no excuses, as far as not having ideal preparations is concerned. Sri Lanka and Australia are obviously up there at the top of the rankings but once we play to our potential, we can give them a real fight.”

Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, has expressed interest in signing Shaun Pollock, the South Africa allrounder who retired from international cricket on Friday.”We were a bit surprised at the timing of Shaun’s announcement,” Giles said, “but, of course, we would be interested in signing Shaun. I would hope that he would give us the first bite of the cherry. He has played for Warwickshire before and knows the club well.”He’s a world-class cricketer and would bring experience to our side. As a player, he is the complete package.”Warwickshire are close to signing Monde Zondeki, another South African fast bowler, and Giles admitted they would consider employing Pollock – who first played for Warwickshire in 1996 – as a Kolpak player.”We are quite a long way down the road with Monde, and it’s still possible he might play for us during the first half of the season and then be involved in South Africa’s tour of England,” Giles said. “If that was the case, we might consider signing Shaun as a Kolpak player but then not sign an overseas replacement.”Pollock left the Test arena with 421 victims, and bowed out on his home ground in Durban after South Africa’s 2-1 series win over West Indies. The forthcoming one-day series will be his last appearance for South Africa.

Floppy luck
A face allergy forced Sachin Tendulkar into the indoor nets on Tuesday and prompted him to wear a floppy hat, probably for the first time in internationals, while fielding at the SCG. It brought him some luck with the Australian left-handers edging three balls towards him at first slip off RP Singh. He moved quickly to his left to get rid of Matthew Hayden before diving low to the right to end Michael Hussey’s innings. The best catch was reserved for Adam Gilchrist when Tendulkar dropped forward for a cool take.Benson and edges
The umpire Mark Benson didn’t spot two edges off Ricky Ponting, who should have been out on 17 and not out on 55. Sourav Ganguly slid one down the leg side, which Ponting glanced to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, before the batsman inside-edged on to his pad off Harbhajan Singh. Adding to the shocker list was Steve Bucknor, who missed Andrew Symonds’ nick to the wicketkeeper in the second session. Anyone for hearing aids?Strangest decision
Benson’s and Bucknor’s calls were pretty weird, but none was more confusing than Michael Clarke’s option to pad up to Harbhajan. The ball pitched outside off stump and Clarke must have thought it would go straight or the other way. Instead it turned, thudded into his pad and he was lbw in his most embarrassing dismissal since shouldering arms and being bowled by James Franklin at the World Cup.Grounds for improvement
It was a magic day for Brad Hogg, who has posted career-high scores in each of his three innings since returning to the Test team. His 17 in the first innings at Melbourne equalled his previous best before he collected 35 not out in the second. The 79 here almost doubled his aggregate of 90 in his first five Tests.Slippery Yuvraj
Yuvraj Singh, India’s best fielder, has had some sloppy days during this series and they continued in Sydney. He slid into the extra-cover ropes in the first session, allowing a four when there should have been only three, and conceded overthrows a little later. There were also a couple of lazy dives and late in the day he misfielded two balls on the boundary that went for four.Dhoni misses one, the umpire misses another
Dhoni had two stumping chances, fluffing the first, a tough one down the leg side when Ponting was 31, but displaying rapid reflexes when Symonds was 48. Unfortunately for India, Bruce Oxenford, the third umpire, flashed “Not Out” after taking a look at five different angles. However, one of those shots, from the square camera, indicated through the positioning of Symonds’ shadow that his foot was in the air when the bails came off.

Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors, has dismissed claims that his seven-man selection committee has faced pressure from top-level cricket administrators to include Hashan Tillakaratne in the squad for their tour of New Zealand next month. However, other sources close to the selectors have privately claimed that there have been attempts to force Tillakaratne back into international cricket.It had been assumed that Tillakaratne’s high-salaried appointment as an executive director of Cricket-Aid, the cricket board’s tsunami-relief programme, signalled an acceptance that his international days were behind him. But Tillakaratne, who was dropped after his resignation as captain in March 2004, still harbours strong ambitions of breaking back into the team, even though he will be 38 later this year.The selection process in Sri Lanka is frequently politicised, with much behind-the-scenes lobbying. But, in this case, de Mel insists that his panel is not being pressurised. He told the : “We are an independent committee and we take decisions in the best interest of Sri Lanka cricket. If we are going to be influenced by outside forces we should not be sitting in the committee.”de Mel pointed out that the selectors would consider recalling Tillakaratne only if he scored sufficient runs. His decent but unexceptional performances during the Provincial Tournament, in which he scored 210 runs in three matches with a top score of 85, failed to convince the selectors. “We have not shut the door completely on Hashan,” said de Mel. “We know that he still has some cricket left in him. However, his current performances don’t make a strong case for inclusion.”If Hashan wants to get in he will have to get the big numbers on the board,” de Mel added. “Getting 40s and 50s will not help his cause. We are not worried about the age of a player. If someone is fit and scores runs heavily we will certainly consider him for selection. We know that Hashan has delivered in the past. He needs to convert his fifties into hundreds.”Tillakaratne was left out of an initial unreleased 18-man training pool selected on Monday, which included several A-team batsmen who have been scoring heavily recently. Avishka Gunawardene, Ian Daniel and Thilina Kandamby appear to be competing for the final batting slot in New Zealand if Sri Lanka go into the two Tests with seven batsmen. Russel Arnold has slipped out of contention after a low-scoring Provincial Tournament.But it is the bowling that is causing the selectors a headache. Nuwan Zoysa was originally included in the 18-man pool, and the news of his unavailability prompted the selectors to reconsider their options. They are due to meet again on Wednesday and will make a decision on whether to finalise the squad or stage a two-day practice game to have a closer look at some of the contenders.

Somerset coach Kevin Shine was in a buoyant mood when I spoke to him at the County Ground in Taunton earlier today.”There is something special happening at the club at the moment, and there is a really exciting feel about the place.”The coach continued, “The whole club is linking together which is fantastic. Take a look at what is happening here this afternoon,Steffan Jones is working alongside the Somerset Academy boys, along with Mark Garaway and myself, which is how it should be, with the youngsters learning from the first team players.”The coach talked about some the new equipment which has been brought into use over the last few months. “Somerset are at the cutting edge of things with all of their new technology, there aren’t many other counties, if any, who are better equipped than we are.”Kevin Shine paid tribute to “backroom” staff, the trainers and the physios at the club, who have worked hard in the background over the winter months to ensure that the players are fitter and stronger than they ever have been.He also paid tribute to all of the players at Somerset for their attitude towards the new fitness and dietary regimes, “Everybody has taken it on board, from the first team right the way through to the Academy boys, and even down to the Under 12’s. Peter Bowler who is the oldest player on the staff has been a wonderful example for the youngsters to follow.”Meanwhile Steffan Jones who was working in one of the nets with a youngster from the Somerset Academy told me, “There’s only just over two months until the new season. I just can’t wait to get out there and bowling again.”

The ECB National Academy ended the second day of the four-day match againstVictoria 2nd XI in Melbourne today in a strong position.The ECB NA were dismissed for 247 with Mark Wagh finishing on 74 not out, Ian Bell scoring 48 and Chris Schofield 49. Australian fast bowler, Damien Fleming ended with figures of five for 36 off his 20.2 overs.In reply the Victorians ended the day on 83 for 4. Yorkshire’s Steve Kirbytook two wickets with Steve Harmison and Chris Tremlett taking one each.

Essex’s Will Jefferson and the Worcestershire batsman Kadeer Ali are among 15 players, named today by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who will be considered for the 2003-04 National Academy intake.”As with last year, we wanted to concentrate our minds on the kind of players who might be invited to the National Academy this winter," said Rod Marsh, the ECB National Academy Director. "Creating such a list allows us to concentrate our resources and to film, study and analyse these players in-depth, which will enable us to create individual programmes for them in advance.”This is by no means an exclusive list and if other players perform well in the remainder of the season then they will also be considered for selection. Injured England players or other cricketers with international experience, not selected for next winter’s England overseas tours, will also be considered.”As this year’s National Academy programme and tour coincides with the Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh, no U19 players are being considered, however we are planning a series of joint training sessions with the squad prior to their departure.”David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, will announce the final Academy squad, along with the England winter touring parties, at the end of the season. They will start their programme on Sunday, October 12, and will be based for the first time at the new facility at Loughborough University. The squad will tour Malaysia and India in the New Year.Provisional list of Academy players Kadeer Ali (Worcestershire), Simon Francis (Somerset), Alex Gidman (Gloucestershire), Will Jefferson (Essex), Shaftab Khalid (Worcestershire), Michael Lumb (Yorkshire), Tom Lungley (Derbyshire), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Philip Mustard (Durham), Graham Napier (Essex), Kevin Pietersen (Nottinghamshire), Matthew Prior (Sussex), Bilal Shafayat (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Graham Wagg (Warwickshire).

Gautam Gambhir will lead the Indian squad in the Emerging Team Trophy, to be played between September 27-October 5 in Sri Lanka.The tournament was delayed by a week so that the organisers could rustle up more venues to host the three teams – India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – in a double round-robin.The tournament is essentially intended to provide international exposure to up-and-coming players without necessarily imposing any age restrictions.Indian squad Gautam Gambhir (capt), Vinayak Mane, Manvinder Bisla, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chougule, Aavishkar Salvi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Lakshmipathy Balaji, Irfan Pathan Jr, Laxmi Rattan Shukla, Sourashish Lahiri, Stuart Binny, Arjun Yadav, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan

“South Africa looked like they didn’t want to win the match,” saidHarbhajan Singh. “They seemed like they would be happy with a draw. Theynever scored at much more than two runs an over. Now our batsmen have todo their part of the job, and make a big score – about 500. That will giveus enough of a lead to put South Africa under pressure in the secondinnings.”South African coach Ray Jennings later contested Harbhajan’s remarks.”People are misunderstanding us,” he said. “We played as well as we could.You have to remember the guy coming in after Kallis was making his debut.And Ontong was playing his first game for four years. It’s a differentthing when you’re batting with Tendulkar waiting to bat after you.”Jacques Kallis expressed satisfaction with his hundred, saying that thepitch was not an easy one to score on. “It’s always more rewarding whenyou have to work to get your runs. It’s probably one of my best hundreds,though I’d say my first hundred against Australia was better.”Kallis conceded that South Africa had not made enough runs. “305 is anaverage score – we would have liked 400. But the Indians bowled very welland we didn’t stand up. We’ll have to bowl well tomorrow to come back inthe game. But we didn’t set out to play for a draw. The day a South Africateam comes out to play for a draw we’ll walk right off the field.”