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Jimmy Allan, one of the best allrounders Scotland has ever produced, has died at the age of 73.A left-arm spinner and right-hand batsman, Allan made 60 appearances for his country between 1954 and 1972, taking 171 wickets. He made his first-class debut for Oxford University in 1953, batting at No. 11, but by the following summer he was opening for them. He won a Blue every year from 1953 to 1956 without ever finishing on the winning side. While at university he also played for Kent, and in 1954 and 1955 he passed 1000 runs, and in 1955 he came with five wickets of recording the double. He played a few more games for Kent in 1957, and in 1966 made a surprise return with Warwickshire, where he enjoyed two seasons.”He was one of the shrewdest left-arm bowlers I have ever seen, with a superb command of flight and length,” Keith Graham, a former team-mate of Allan’s with Ayr, told The Scotsman. “Jimmy was a fantastic cricketer and a super guy. Off the field he was an inspiration to a generation of young cricketers at Ayr.”

South Africa A took the honours on the opening day of their three-day match against Sri Lanka A in Dambulla thanks to impressive bursts from their pacemen. Monde Zondeki, Tyron Henderson and Zander de Bruyn grabbed three wickets each as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 206.Jacques Rudolph, the South African captain, asked Sri Lanka to bat after the match had started two hours due a damp pitch and his seam attack utilised the conditions. Upul Tharanga, who has recently made his one-day international debut for Sri Lanka, gave further evidence of his adundant talent as he provided the majority of resistance with a stubborn 72.However, the rest of the Sri Lanka line-up could not handle the sustained pressure from an experienced South African seam attack. The South Africans made a positive start in reply and although Hashim Amla fell for 15, Rudolph will resume in 42.

Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan allrounder, has been advised against bowling until he undergoes remedial action on his offbreak and doosra deliveries. Professor Bruce Elliott, a biomechanics specialist, conducted tests on Malik, and in his report to the Pakistan board recommended the measures, stating that both his offbreak and doosra had elbow-extension levels above the ICC’s current and proposed levels of acceptability. Malik hasn’t bowled in the second Test against Australia which started on Sunday at Melbourne.Malik, 22, who has played eight Tests and 85 one-dayers, was reported for a suspect action by Aleem Dar and Simon Taufel during the Paktel Cup final against Sri Lanka at Lahore in October. It was second time in his career – the first was in 2002 – that he had been reported. Since then he has undergone extensive tests under the supervision of bowling and biomechanics experts at the University of Western Australia in Perth.According to , a Pakistan-based newspaper, Elliott’s report said: “It is recommended that Shoaib Malik undergoes a programme of remediation, prior to being subjected to a further series of tests to determine his eligibility to bowl.”Abbas Zaidi, the director of the Pakistan board, termed this as a “setback”, as the PCB hadn’t thought it was a major problem. Zaidi added that the PCB would quickly take steps to remove any problems in his action before sending him for further tests in Perth. “We have shown the University’s report to our group of bowling advisers, who have studied it, and the test pictures, thoroughly. They have also concluded Malik needs to undergo remedial work on his bowling action before he can bowl again.”The PCB now has two weeks before it sends a report on Malik’s action to the ICC. He can continue to play during this period, but if he is reported again, after undergoing remedial work on his action, he would face a suspension for up to a year.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has warned India of a possible backlash if the Indian team’s tour of Pakistan is cancelled at the eleventh hour. Samiul Hassan, the PCB media manager, suggested that it could demand compensation, or even take the extreme step of severing cricketing ties with India.”We may exercise these options only after receiving an official communication from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, verifying postponement of the series, which has not reached us yet,” he said. Shaharyar Khan, PCB chairman and a retired foreign secretary, warned that an Indian decision not to tour would have far-reaching consequences. “This decision (likely postponement) will affect the relations that have been improving in the recent past. This is a unilateral decision taken without consulting us,” he said.Certain sources from India’s home ministry have suggested that LK Advani, the deputy Prime Minister, has asked the BCCI to postpone the tour until after the national elections – tentatively scheduled for mid-April. Khan though was still hopeful that the impasse could be resolved.”We have not got any word, but we are prepared to wait,” he said. A BCCI delegation is currently in Pakistan, checking out the security arrangements, but Khan suggested that “other things have to be sorted out at the government level”.He added that while the PCB was willing to show flexibility on any concerns the Indian security delegation or board might have on match venues, there was no question of the series being relocated to a neutral venue.”All this talk about us offering to shift the series to Sri Lanka is not correct. Neutral venues are a complete no-no for us for various reasons.” Pakistan have signed several lucrative sponsorship deals for the series, and a cancellation would hit the financially fragile PCB very hard.”We have always had friendly relations with the Indian board and I am confident they would be able to stall any move to postpone or cancel the tour,” said Khan. “We want this crisis to be worked out in a friendly manner.” Many thousands of fans on both sides of the divide will be hoping for the same thing.

Scorecard

The sight of James Anderson bowling was overshadowed on the second day at The Rose Bowl by Dominic Cork’s four wickets and events at Trent Bridge. For all Lancashire’s incision with the ball and control of this match, their title hopes are fast slipping away with Sussex on the verge of a comprehensive win, which would crown them champions.All Lancashire could do, though, was collect all available points from this match and on that front the day was a complete success. Their first ambition was to notch as many batting points as they could muster and they fought hard to in reach 400.Tom Smith was particularly impressive at No. 9 and, together with Luke Sutton, put on 88 for the ninth wicket to keep Lancashire’s hopes alive. Their bowlers then took over during the afternoon, removing both openers cheaply; only John Crawley – a cut above his team-mates in this game, and playing against his former team – stood in their way with a fighting fifty at the end of a prolific season.The performance of Anderson was pleasing. Tall at the crease and straight in his delivery stride, and playing his first Championship match since the debilitating stress fracture of his back, he was limited to short three and four-over spells at the bequest of the ECB (a maximum of 12 were permitted).However, it was the evergreen Cork who proved more incisive, cutting through Hampshire’s brittle line-up before Smith finished things off with three quick wickets. Last week it was Cork with the bat who kept Lancashire in with a shout of the title through his 154 against Durham; now it was the ball that did the work.He produced a hostile spell after tea, having Sean Ervine caught at point and quickly bouncing out Nic Pothas. Greg Lamb was trapped in front but Cork had Nathan Astle’s reflexes at first slip to thank for Crawley’s wicket. The batsman tried to guide the ball over the slips, but Astle stuck up his right hand and plucked the ball out of the air. Inevitably Warne bullied his way to a rapid 30 but he was soon back out on the field when Chilton decided against the follow-on.His decision not to ask Hampshire to bat again may appear perplexing with Lancashire having to win, but with the prospect of batting last against Warne he opted to build a commanding lead. Chilton won’t be part of that plan after falling late in the day and, even though his team are well placed, events at Trent Bridge are set to make the result here incidental.

India may have had the better of the exchanges in the first Test, but Matthew Hayden showed just what might be in store for the Indians in the remaining Tests. His 99 was remarkable for the utter disdain with which he treated even the good balls. Of the 98 balls he faced, 51 of them pitched on a good length, which were dispatched for 52 runs. When the Indians pitched slightly short, though, Hayden was far less destructive: 30 balls just short of a length fetched just 12 runs.

Ajit Agarkar was the only bowler who managed to curb the Hayden charge. As the table below shows, against the rest of the bowlers, Hayden scored at more than a run a ball.

Meanwhile, two wickets in the Indian second innings might have saved Nathan Bracken from being dropped for the second Test. One of those wickets was, inevitably, Virender Sehwag’s, whom Bracken has now dismissed five times in the last five innings, stretching back to the first match of the TVS Cup tournament in India. Sehwag did manage 17 runs off Bracken in the first innings, but most of those were after he was dropped in the slips off Bracken early in the piece.

This time he is ready to hang on to the England gauntlets, writes Peter English in the July issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly

Chris Read’s hands look small and delicate. When he sits he rests them on the table, one protecting the other. He knows safe hands are mandatory and is aware of the dangers of waiting for a chance, whether it is a caught-behind or a call from David Graveney. “It’s possible you won’t get an [England] opportunity for three or four years, so when you get one you’ve got to take it,” he says.Read has a beaming smile and since the start of the season there has been a lot to be happy about. Alec Stewart challenged the selectors to choose a young keeper for England’s ODIs and Read was suddenly in a two-man tussle with James Foster. Then the ECB Academy director Rod Marsh, who rates Read as one of the best young players he has seen, was named as the fourth England selector. “It goes without saying that it was good news,” Read says. “But it’s up to me to prove I’m good enough to be given a chance and to prove I can play at that level.”At the end of May Read’s smile briefly disappeared when he broke a thumb playing for Nottinghamshire in a National League game against Sussex at Horsham. International wicketkeeping dreams begin and end with shattered bones. Ian Healy has Ian Botham to thank for launching his record-breaking 119-Test career. Botham broke the finger of the Queensland incumbent Peter Anderson in 1987-88 and four first-class games later Healy was playing for Australia.Standing up to the medium-pacer Gareth Clough, Read was struck on his right thumb and suffered a hairline fracture, potentially a three-week injury. The selectors stuck to their guns and picked him in the one-day squad, with Foster on standby.Read knows about big breaks. He was picked on an England A tour before playing a first-class game and when he moved from Gloucestershire, where he was stuck behind Jack Russell, to Nottinghamshire, Wayne Noon was injured early in the season. Read stepped up, was picked for a second England A tour and in 1999 made his Test debut at 20.It is difficult to talk to Read without looking back. He sits in the Horsham pavilion looking out at a portable practice net six days before suffering the injury. No one stops for autographs and only his county coach Mick Newell interrupts to leave a map to the hotel and a key to lock up the dressing room. He is not Alec Stewart.Read has been forgotten for a long time but is honest about the past and realistic about the future. “Looking at my record, three Tests and five innings, to score 38 runs is not really good enough,” he says.The three Tests were against New Zealand but his eight dismissals on debut at Edgbaston were swiftly overshadowed by the footage of his embarrassing misjudgement of a Chris Cairns slower ball that bowled him at Lord’s.He still went to South Africa as cover for Stewart and was pleased with his returns in nine ODIs. “But I probably had my worst season after that. Since then I’ve been making improvements and my game has been on the up.”A winter at the Academy under Marsh put more polish on his glovework and after a National League century in the opening match against Northamptonshire he was under most microscopes as ODI replacements were canvassed following World Cup retirements. “Second time round it’s a lot easier because I’m three or four years wiser,” he says of the pressure. “The first time it was a bit of a shock and I wasn’t quite prepared. Now I have experience and know what to expect.”Marsh and Read clicked in Adelaide. Read was impressed by Marsh’s positive attitude and his work ethic. The feeling was mutual. “Rod said in his last season he didn’t miss a chance and that’s my aspiration,” he says. “I remember missing two chances last season. There was a catch against Gloucestershire, diving low to my right and I couldn’t get my hand underneath it, and I missed a stumping off MacGill that spun a mile.”Read’s spin is that he does not want to be pigeon-holed as a limited-overs player and his wicketkeeping voice, slightly squeaky but very clear, would suit the longer game if only to annoy the batsmen with his constant chatter. He believes England’s transition towards the 2007 World Cup is natural and it will be up to the new players to “get on with it and make the best of it”. “Knight, Caddick, Stewart, Hussain, they are big names,” he says, as if suddenly realising that they are all missing. “It gives guys opportunities. There are young guys all over the country who are desperate for a chance to perform.” He now has a second one.Click here to subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly

The July 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.40.

Thirty of the country’s brightest young legspinners will next week train under the expert guidance of Terry Jenner, the former Australian legspinner, at King’s School, Taunton. Jenner played nine Tests for Australia between 1970 and 1975, and is the mentor of the most famous leggie of them all, Shane Warne.The training week forms part of the ECB’s programme, which aims to have a wrist-spinner in the England team by 2007, and for half of the 18 first-class counties to have one as well. This is the fifth year it has been in progress.The participants, aged between 12 and 21, will train and play against each other in matches during which legspin will be the only variety of bowling allowed. The programme runs from Monday August 11 to Friday August 15.Thanks to increased funding from the Brian Johnson Memorial Trust (BJMT), four of the most promising young players will be invited to go to Adelaide, Jenner’s home town, for two weeks in the autumn and have intensive legspin training.Graham Saville, ECB’s development of excellence manager, said, “Developing our wrist-spin bowlers is an on-going process. There’s no doubt that we have some highly talented young bowlers and they will benefit hugely from being taught by Terry, the world’s leading legspin coach.”For further information, contact ECB Corporate Affairs on And for further information about the BJMT, and membership of the Johnners Club, please contact Mark Williams, chief executive, BJMT at The Lord’s Taverners, 10 Buckingham Place, London SW1E 6HX. Tel: 020 7821 2828; Fax 2829; email [email protected]

Zimbabwe have named their A team for the three-day match against West Indies next week at Takashinga, Henry Olonga’s former club.Dion Ebrahim will lead the side in which seven players have international experience. This is the only warm-up match for West Indies ahead of two Tests, the first of which begins on November 4 at Harare.Zimbabwe A
Dion Ebrahim (capt), Travis Friend, Craig Evans, Stuart Matsikenyeri,Barney Rogers, Elton Chigumbura, Gavin Ewing, Alester Maregwede (wkt), Jordane Nicolle, Blessing Mahwire, Vusimuzi Sibanda, 12th man: Conan Brewer.

Everybody at Somerset County Cricket Club is reeling at the news of the sudden death of Captain Martin Nestor O.B.E. at the age of 63.Captain Nestor was the first secretary of the Tony Coles Trust for Young Cricketers and was responsible for the successful establishment of the fund.Chief Executive Peter Anderson said: "We are all saddened by the news of Martin’s death. He was much loved within the club, and was a very stylish, responsible and respected man who will be a great loss to us all. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time."Captain Nestor who died suddenly over the weekend in France where he had moved to recently with his wife after selling their house in North Curry, near Taunton. The funeral service will be held in Somerset.