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Kevin Pietersen launches into the Middlesex attack during his 80 from 50 balls at Lord’s © Getty Images

Division One

Hampshire amassed their highest ever National League score against Middlesex as Kevin Pietersen put the disappointment of missing out on a place in the Test squad behind him with 80 off 50 balls. Pietersen cleared the ropes six times but wasn’t the only Hampshire batsman to race along. Simon Katich sped to 85 from 63 and Dimitri Mascarenhas smashed 50 from 26 balls to round off the innings. Middlesex were never in the hunt, despite flaying the bat, and finished 105 runs short.Lancashire cruised past Northants by seven wickets thanks to a powerful display from their top order. Stuart Law hit 54 from 37 balls to launch Lancashire’s pursuit of 216. Mal Loye anchored the innings with 94 from 108 balls with three sixes while Andrew Flintoff chipped in with a rapid 40. Northants had started positively but only David Sales (57) reached a half-century.Worcestershire sealed a hard fought 16-run win over Nottinghamshire at New Road. Ray Price took 4 for 21 to strangle the Notts batting, while Chaminda Vaas chipped in with three wickets, as the required rate climbed. Zander de Bruyn (62) boosted Worcestershire’s total to 190 with help from Gareth Batty (44). Andy Harris cleaned up the tail to finish with 4 for 41 despite suffering a hand injury in the field.A career-best 96 from Ravinder Bopara guided Essex to a five-wicket win over defending champions Glamorgan. A stand of 122 with James Middlebrook (46) rescued Essex from 31 for 4. Glamorgan were given a good start by Robert Croft and Ian Thomas, who added 72 for the first wicket, but the middle-order struggled and it was left to David Hemp (62 not out) to boost the total to 216.

Division Two

A brilliant allround performance from Dinesh Mongia propelled Leicestershire to a 60-run win against Surrey. Mongia marshalled the Leicestershire innings with 67 from 86 balls then snapped up 4 for 15, with his left-arm spin, including Mark Ramprakash who top-scored with 34.Durham completed a comfortable 51-run win against Yorkshire after a consistent effort from their top-order. Mike Hussey (66) and Nicky Peng (60) provided the base and Phil Mustard rounded off the innings by striking 53 from 26 balls – his first limited overs half-century. Yorkshire struggled from the start of their innings and when Michael Vaughan fell for 31, Paul Collingwood and Gareth Breese mopped up the tail.

From the early days of the Internet, Hampshire have had a presence as part of the Global front of CricInfo. Webmaster Vic Isaacs (scorer and statistician) inaugurated the site as an unofficial engine way back in those early days, and has continued to keep Hampshire supporters world wide informed of what was happening at the club.The move to the Rose Bowl did not stop the progress, but as the cricket became part of the greater Rose Bowl plc., it was felt that a change had to be made, and this is happening soon.www.rosebowlplc.com is already up and running, a proactive site with much information not just on Hampshire Cricket, but Membership, hospitality, concerts and many of the other aspects of the plc. such as fitness and golf.The Hampshire site will be moving soon to a new address www.hampshirecricket.com, but none of the features that has made this site one of the most popular club sites in the world will be lost. The Hampshire Cricket web site will be concentrating it efforts on purely cricket matters, scores, reports from the matches, news etc from the cricket office. It will all be there, in a cleaner looking interface.Watch out for this very soon, in the meantime this site will carry on giving you the news as it happens.Happy surfing

Otago Cricket’s events and fund-raising manager Steve Davie will end his contract at the end of next week.Davie took up the position in September 2001 and introduced a number of successful concepts to Otago Cricket’s calendar: the annual dinner, sponsors’ golf day and a range of hospitality options being the highest profile.Otago Cricket’s financial position enjoyed a healthy turnaround last season, the fund-raising efforts of Davie complementing New Zealand Cricket’s continued support of the game at provincial level.While he leaves to pursue other business interests, Davie’s services will not be entirely lost to Otago Cricket. He will continue to promote and host the dinner and golf and will maintain a liaison with the region’s major sponsors.

Notts easily defeated Suffolk by nine wickets to advance to the fourth Round of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy. After dismissing the Minor County for just 87 inside 33 overs earlier in the day Notts coasted to victory for the loss of just one wicket.The first meeting between the two counties for 14 years followed a similar pattern to the 1987 clash at Trent Bridge. On that occasion Notts bowled out the opposition for just 94, with Notts’ current Cricket Manager Clive Rice picking up 4–19.Mildenhall 2001 saw the home side lose a wicket in the first over to Greg Smith and then collapse alarmingly once former England bat Bill Athey had been dismissed for 22.The last nine wickets fell for just 45 runs in only 19 overs. Smith picked up four of the wickets to fall but conceded the bowling honours to man of the match Richard Logan, who on his first appearance for six weeks after a shoulder injury, took 5–24 from his 10 overs.Apart from Athey’s contribution the only Suffolk batsmen to reach double figures were opener Russell Catley, who batted 20 overs for his 17, South African international David Callaghan and bowler Richard Pineo, who each scored 11.Kevin Pietersen, on his 21st birthday, took two catches at slip for Notts and ‘keeper Chris Read added another two.The disappointingly small home crowd had only the afternoon sunshine to enjoy as Notts cruised to victory, helped by the addition of 13 wides and no–balls inside the first eight overs.Darren Bicknell had a slice of good fortune on 14 when he edged Callaghan but ‘keeper Chris Warn flung himself across in front of the slips and spoiled the opportunity for everyone as he parried it to safety.Guy Walton, desperately short of runs in recent weeks, again looked uncomfortable and had only made 13 in 18 overs when he pushed at Andy Poole and was easily claimed by Warn.Bicknell and Greg Blewett, together with the ever–steepling extras count, took Notts to victory in just 22 overs. Bicknell’s flowing cover drive off Poole clinching the win and lifting his personal score to 48.

Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson has experienced the highs and lows of the transfer market since arriving at Ibrox in 2019.

He has been able to seal impressive deals for the likes of Ianis Hagi and Joe Aribo, but he has also been culpable of a clanger or two – Cedric Itten being one example of a failed move.

However, the Gers chief has also dropped the ball at times with transfers that he has wanted to complete but has been unable to get over the line.

One player that he reportedly wanted to bring to Ibrox was left-back Aaron Hickey. The ex-Southampton chief was keen on a swoop for the youngster in 2019 and Hearts reportedly wanted £1.5m for him in 2020, but they were unable to strike an agreement as Italian side Bologna swooped in for that price.

It is now being reported by Fabrizio Romano that Newcastle United are eyeing up a deal worth up to £20m to sign the full-back this summer. This means that the Gers had a howler as they have missed out on a whopping £20m payday – and an £18.5m profit – because of Wilson’s inability to bring Hickey in during the 2020 transfer window.

Kamara 2.0

It was also a shocker from Rangers, as Hickey could have been Glen Kamara 2.0 at Ibrox.

Kamara 2.0? You may be asking yourself how that makes sense given their positions at left-back and defensive midfield respectively, but the Scot has been tipped to transition into playing centrally in the future.

Scottish coach Austin MacPhee previously claimed that the defender may develop into being like one Spain and Barcelona’s greats, saying: “He’s so young he could play a lot of positions. He could end up being like (Sergio) Busquets. Right now he reminds me of Jonny Evans, who I’ve seen in training with Northern Ireland. It’s the way he defends, moves and always wants the ball as a defender.”

Daniel Stendl labelled the 19-year-old an “extraordinary talent” and added further weight to a potential positional change, claiming: “Aaron as a player is like Philipp Lahm. For me at Hearts, he played as a full-back. He not only runs up and down the line, but looks for attacking moves like Lahm once did. And Aaron can also play in the central midfield.”

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Hickey has averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.89 in Serie A for Bologna this term, producing four goals and one assist from left-back. The 19-year-old has won five duels per game, at a success rate of 60%, and is showing that he can perform to a high standard on a regular basis despite his age – suggesting that he has the potential to improve further and develop into a midfield general, like Kamara, in the future.

One that got away…

AND in other news, Rangers had a major disaster on “complete” 243 G/A ace who’s “like Harry Potter”…

McLaren Smith, the Bermuda allrounder, has been drafted in as Lamar Richardson’s replacement for next month’s Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia.Smith’s late call-up means he will represent Bermuda at both theUnder-19 World Cup as well as the Stanford 20/20 tournament in Antiguawith the senior squad.”McLaren will be coming from the Twenty20 tournament, where he will be onnational team duty, so he won’t be going to India with us,” Andre Manders, the Bermuda Under-19 coach, said. “He’s a tall medium-fast bowler and batsman. He was already in the [Stanford 20/20] squad and we didn’t want to take him out. I guess he’s quite lucky as he will be going on both trips, but we know he’s up to the task.”Richardson was ruled out of the World Cup last week after breaking his wrist in training, joining Stefan Kelly on the sidelines, though Kelly’s omission is due to his school commitments.

Matthew Hayden: “We’ve worked very hard to be clean athletes” © Getty Images

The selections of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, who have both had drugs suspensions overturned, in the Pakistan World Cup squad are “ludicrous”, according to Matthew Hayden. And as the Australian squad left for the Caribbean Andrew Symonds told the Sydney Morning Herald “everyone knows what our opinion on it is”.”It’s a laughable point amongst our players because we’ve worked very hard to be clean athletes,” Hayden told the paper. “It’s ludicrous and it’s not fair.”Akhtar was banned for two years and Asif suspended for 12 months after nandrolone was found in their samples last year, but the punishments were erased on appeal and they were picked in the 15-man World Cup squad. The bowlers have been in London this week and are required to undergo Pakistan board drug tests before the start of the tournament. If they return a second positive result they could be banned for life.Symonds said the squad had been told to be tight-lipped about the issue. “But put it this way: imagine if it was one of us,” he said. “Imagine if it was Matty Hayden or someone else. Imagine what the world would say.”Hayden said the ICC should take a greater role in penalising drug offenders. “We’re all tested equally,” he said. “So if someone’s tested positive for a steroid, then they have to have the penalties of the game. Anything short of that is a failure from our governing body, simple as that.”No one country should be negligent in its duties to make our sport clean. That’s not to single out this particular case, because Australia has also had cases of this, but they’ve served their full ban … and that’s the way it should be.”

Brian Lara: ‘Shivnarine Chanderpaul has had a rough period so far as captain and we want to rally round him and bring a smile to his face’ © Getty Images

After a decade of “modest success and devastating failure”- to use his own, much-quoted phrase of seven years ago – Brian Lara believes the Test series against New Zealand that starts on March 9 could be the long-awaited turning point for West Indies cricket.”I can sense that there is a hunger in the team,” Test cricket’s leading run-scorer told a wide-ranging media conference yesterday. “I can sense that the guys are embarrassed after their performance in the one-day series [won 4-1 by New Zealand]. I sense that this three-Test series could be the turning point and I sense, even in myself, a desire to win,” he added.Similar sentiments were expressed by Bennett King, West Indies’ coach, a day earlier. “We’re looking forward to Test match cricket,” King said. “We believe we can make an impact. The belief within the group that they can perform against the Black Caps has been very firm.”Irked by the New Zealand media’s denigration of the West Indies’ showing in the preceding National Bank Series of ODIs, Lara charged on his arrival last Friday that it showed a lack of respect for a team with a greater cricketing legacy than New Zealand. He regarded it as significant that the team pulled off its only victory the following day, an encouraging augury for the Tests.The match holds special meaning as it is, to the day, the 50th anniversary of New Zealand’s inaugural Test victory, over the West Indies at the same Eden Park in 1956. When informed that the surviving members of New Zealand’s team on that occasion would be special guests and asked whether he would prefer not to “rain on their parade”, Lara quipped: “I’d love to.”Lara’s optimism, like King’s, is based on hypothesis rather than on the team’s record of eight defeats against one victory in the last 11 Tests and their eighth position in the ICC Test rankings, against New Zealand’s fifth. But, like King, he is encouraged by the attitude of the young players. “We’ve got quite a few young guys in their early 20s – Fidel Edwards, [Denesh] Ramdin, [Jerome] Taylor – who are eager to get out there and represent West Indies,” he said. “They’re full of talent,” he noted. “It’s just a matter of getting together as a team, winning situations at different times in the match and seizing the opportunity when it presents itself and going with it.”Lara has been proclaimed here as West Indies’ main hope of competing in the Tests but, he noted, that doesn’t produce a winning formula. While he said he felt “ready”, in spite of the month-long break from the game after the end of the Carib Beer Cup, he was conscious of the contrast between his personal success and the team’s overall failure.”You go on Cricinfo and you see there’s somebody who has the most double-centuries in defeats and that’s myself,” he said. “It’s all about a team situation, getting everybody to perform, the bowlers geared up to take 20 wickets, the batsmen to get 400-500 runs in the first innings, 600-700 over the match.”Stressing that his motivation was always team success over individual records, Lara said it was no different this time. “When I go on tour, I’m not going to score 300-400 runs or two Test centuries,” he explained. “I’m going to try to win as a team and to drink champagne with the team. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a regular occurrence but all along it’s been my motivation to turn the corner and start winning again,” he added. “To leave Napier [after the last Test] as the winners of this series would be the greatest thing.”It would also be a boost for beleaguered captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul who replaced Lara last March after Lara’s withdrawal from the team for the first Test against South Africa over the sponsorship dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board. “Chanderpaul has had a rough period so far as captain and we want to rally round him and bring a smile to his face,” Lara said. “We’re looking forward to that.”But, as Lara observed, it is easier said than done against opponents who “want to show that they can dominate the series and who are talking that way.” New Zealand’s selectors have been roundly criticised here for the choice of an inexperienced top three in the order and the omission of Lou Vincent, one of their two century-makers in the ODIs. One opener, Jamie How, and the No.3 Peter Fulton are yet to play a Test. Hamish Marshall, who will open with How, has had nine in which he has scored two hundreds and averaged 48.58, but he has never gone in first. King’s response was that the West Indies bowling is equally inexperienced in Test cricket. Although he is a seasoned one-day cricketer, with 35 matches to his name, Ian Bradshaw, the left-arm swing bowler, is yet to play a Test. Edwards, the 24-year-old spearhead of the attack, has 20, and the other fast bowlers, Daren Powell 15 and Jerome Taylor three.Lara called the enforced absence of Dwayne Bravo’s wicket-taking medium-pace bowling, because of a strained left side sustained during the Twenty20 International here February 16, “a big negative to our strength”, even if the all-rounder is chosen only as No.6 batsman. He was unconcerned with the make-up of the New Zealand team. “We’ve got to focus on the 11 guys who play on Thursday and see what we can do,” he said. “If they feel they’ve got the right team, that’s the one we’ve got to match up to and the one we’ve got to defeat.”The first significant rainfall of the tour forced West Indies to practice indoors yesterday and kept the covers on the special prefabricated, drop-in pitch all day. When inspected on Monday, it carried a substantial covering of grass and King said the head groundsman informed him it would be fast and bouncy. Given the sluggish pitch of variable bounce in Saturday’s ODI, that appears unlikely.

Dear Mr Braithwaite,I refer to your letter of invitation dated March 19, 2005, and would like to express my gratitude for your kind invitation which permits me the opportunity, again, to join the West Indies team.As you are aware, I have devoted my whole life to all aspects of West Indies cricket. It is in these circumstances that I am bound to say that I have found extreme difficulty in formulating an appropriate response to your invitation.On the one hand, if I were to accept the invitation, then I would feel that I have abandoned part of the core of players who have represented the West Indies with me over recent years and all of whom are teammates.On the other hand, if I were to decline, then I feel I would be repudiating my deep feelings for the West Indian supporters and the furtherance of the game.What I would like to see is the best team selected to compete in the forthcoming series.I would also like to see an amicable resolution to the outstanding issues in an atmosphere of mutual compromise and respect, which would all redound to uplifting the morale and pride of the West Indian people who are so passionate about the sport.I do not wish to be put in a position where I consider that my response to your invitation would be indicative of a selection of one option and the rejection of another.In circumstances where neither my loyalty to the players nor my loyalty to West Indies cricket can be denied, I confirm that I am ready, willing and able to continue participating in West Indies cricket, provided that, even at this late stage, the best team will be selected with an assurance from all of the parties that the outstanding issues would be brought to the table and discussed.I wish to state unequivocally that it is my intention to ensure the survival of West Indies cricket. That is my primary consideration.Sincerely,Brian Charles Lara

Veteran broadcaster Tony Cozier has delivered a stinging broadside at what he called the “lack of decorum” in the West Indies squad during the recently-completed tour to Zimbabwe and South Africa.Writing in the Barbados-based Nation, Cozier, who reported on both series, said that the management of the tour party left a lot to be desired. It was, he said, clear that it was “divided and deficient, not only in relation to such cricketing issues as fitness and practice but, just as importantly, to standards of dress and demeanour.”He went on to bemoan the slovenly appearance of some members of the squad – officials as well as players – who were seen “in caps and armhole-shirts in the lobbies and bars of their five-star hotels and in elegant restaurants.” He singled out Kenny Benjamin, the side’s assistant coach, and Ronald Rogers’ the trainer, as being seen during national anthems before matches as being the only ones in shorts. And Corey Collymore (“with his unkempt hair and beard”) was the worst of the players. “A man is a man and I am my own man,” was Collymore’s response.”Anyone chosen for the West Indies, in whatever capacity, should appreciate, or be made to appreciate, that he is no longer his own man but rather a representative of an institution with a long and proud tradition, “Cozier fumed, “and millions of people whose very psyche revolves around it.”Cozier’s criticism will hardly come as news to seasoned followers of West Indies cricket. As long ago as 1995 Wes Hall reported at the end of the England tour that a meeting had to be held to address “unacceptable behaviour of some members of the team”. That was the series when Winston Benjamin was sent home for disciplinary reasons.Several subsequent tours have ended with thinly-disguised complaints from managers and officials about the poor approach of some players. Last year’s Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack described the West Indies A tour of England as “a bad-tempered, unproductive meander around the backwaters of English cricket rather than an exhilarating fast stream to the top”.