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Stephen Fleming has been named as New Zealand’s cricketer of the year, after a successful run of form with the bat that has produced 732 runs in nine matches at an average of 56.31.Fleming’s season began with his highest Test score, 274 not out against Sri Lanka in Colombo, and he followed that up with an unbeaten 69 in the second innings. Then, at home to Pakistan, he cracked 192 in the first Test at Hamilton, before leading New Zealand to a maiden Test victory over South Africa.”He is widely regarded as the premier captain in international cricket,” said New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive Martin Snedden, as Fleming also picked up the Walter Hadlee Trophy for the best one-day batting, with 728 runs in 21 internationals.At the awards ceremony, Chris Cairns dropped a broad hint that he might not be retiring from Test cricket just yet, as had been suggested in the media. Cairns said he was thoroughly enjoying playing under New Zealand’s new coach John Bracewell, and although he wouldn’t actually confirm that he would be continuing for the tour of England, he did say enigmatically: “Maybe I want to carry on.”Graham Dowling, New Zealand’s former captain turned match referee, received the Sutcliffe Medal for outstanding service to cricket.Other awards
Redpath Cup (first-class cricketer) – Scott Styris
Winsor Cup (first-class bowler) – Chris Martin
Walter Hadlee Trophy (ODI bowler) – Daryl Tuffey
State Medal (domestic cricketer) – Chris Harris
Phyl Blackler Cup (women’s bowler) – Rebecca Steele
Ruth Martin Cup (women’s batter) – Haidee Tiffen
State Plate (women’s domestic cricket) – Aimee Mason

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has opened the door to rescheduling New Zealand’s World Cup game in Nairobi outside Kenya.The ICC says New Zealand can seek a review of the ICC’s decision to reject its application for the game to be moved because of security concerns.The ICC made the announcement after New Zealand Cricket (NZC) today said it was considering taking its dispute with the ICC to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.It was revealed last night the Black Caps would forfeit their points by refusing to play Kenya in Nairobi on February 21, the tournament’s chief organiser Ali Bacher confirmed.NZC decided yesterday the safety of its players was at risk by playing and said the team would not play.NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said last night NZC believed the decision made by the ICC executive board hours earlier was unreasonable and that it would seek to have the dispute resolved and the match rescheduled outside Kenya.”We will be getting some legal advice over the next few days about what procedures can be used to have this issue resolved,” Mr Snedden told The Press newspaper.”Going to the CAS (based in Lusanne) is one avenue we might be able to go down.”Then this morning (Australian time), ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said he recognised New Zealand’s concerns and that he would be working to “see if there was any prospect of the match proceeding or being rescheduled”.”The issue of safety and security is clearly the main concern of both the ICC and New Zealand Cricket and, at present, NZC is not satisfied that it is safe to play in Kenya,” said Speed.”We will make available our intelligence and security advisers to provide a detailed briefing on the advice that we have received in relation to this game.”There are also independent processes available to the NZC through which it can seek a review of the ICC’s judgement and decision. NZC is entitled to seek this review.”The United States embassy in Nairobi said yesterday it gave a routine security briefing to New Zealand cricket officials before their decision not to play their Kenyan World Cup match but did not warn them to stay away.”At the request of the British High Commission in Nairobi an (US) embassy security officer gave New Zealand (officials) a standard security briefing,” embassy spokesman Peter Clausen said.Nairobi British High Commission spokesman Mark Norton said his mission had not advised the Kiwis to stay away.”Our position (on security in Kenya) is encapsulated in our travel advisory … We advise British nationals to exercise vigilance in public places. We do not advise, I repeat, we do not advise people not to come to Kenya,” Norton added.Kenya was urging the New Zealand cricket team to reconsider its decision.But Al-Qaeda stands accused of engineering two deadly terrorist attacks in Kenya, last year and in 1998.Meanwhile, it’s been revealed Zimbabwe was home to an active Al-Qaeda cell planning attacks on Westerners.Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph today said a US Government report detailed a plan by Tablik Ja’maat, an Al-Qaeda-linked group of militant extremists, to attack US targets in Zimbabwe if war is declared on Iraq.Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill announced today 450 members of the Royal Australian Air Force would be deployed to the Middle East within weeks to prepare for the potential war on Iraq.Earlier this month, HMAS Kanimbla, with about 350 personnel aboard, left Sydney for the Persian Gulf.Australia is set to play in Bulawayo against Zimbabwe on February 24.

ARUNDEL, England – First Test certainties Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist,Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath have been omitted from theAustralian cricket team to play an MCC XI in a three-day match startingat Arundel, England, tomorrow.Michael Slater, Justin Langer, Simon Katich and Colin Miller will maketheir first appearances of the English summer after missing selectionfor the limited overs tri-series.Reserve wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe has also been given a run.Waugh, Gilchrist, Ponting, Lee and McGrath are certain to play againstEssex at Chelmsford in another three-day fixture, starting Friday.The first Test between Australia and England for the Ashes starts onJuly 5 at Edgbaston.The team is: Steve Waugh (c), Michael Slater, Matthew Hayden, JustinLanger, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Wade Seccombe, Shane Warne, ColinMiller, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie.

Kris Britt, Emma Sampson and Clea Smith have been included in the Australian women’s team for their Twenty20 match against New Zealand at Darwin. All three will be making the Twenty20 debuts. This will be Australia’s first game at Darwin, and is a prelude to the five-match Rose Bowl ODI series at the same venue.Britt and Sampson represent South Australia in domestic cricket. Britt, 24, bowls legspin and has played in one Test and nine ODIs. The 21-year-old Sampson is an allrounder who has been described by the recently retired Cathryn Fitzpatrick as “exciting”. Sampson broke into the Australian national side at the age of 18 and has played three ODIs. Smith, the 28-year-old the right-arm medium-fast bowler, has played 39 ODIs and a solitary Test match.The will be Australia’s third Twenty20 match.Team
Karen Rolton (capt), Lisa Sthalekar, Sarah Andrews, Kate Blackwell, Kris Britt, Melissa Bulow, Sarah Edwards, Shelley Nitschke, Jodie Purves (wk), Emma Sampson, Clea Smith, Alex Blackwell (12th man)

On a rain-interrupted first day at Trent Bridge, Middlesex raced to 210 for 3 from 52 overs against Nottinghamshire with fifties from Owais Shah and Nick Compton. After reaching 31, having oozed five boundaries, Ed Smith was caught behind off the bowling of Mark Ealham. Ben Hutton didn’t last much longer, either, when Paul Franks trapped him for 22. Shah (66) and Compton (54*) were defiant, however, putting on 103 for the third wicket before Shah became Franks’ second wicket of the day. The heavens opened, though, calling an end to the day’s proceedings.At Stockton, Durham bowled Kent out for 179 and then reached 76 for 2 at the close. A full report is available by clicking here.

Twelve people, including the former Queensland allrounder Brett Henschell, will face a District Court trial in Brisbane over an alleged $8 million superannuation fraud.The alleged fraud against the Commonwealth Bank’s key superannuation funds was discovered following a two-year investigation by the bank and Queensland police. Henschell, 43, and some of the bank’s former employees and customers were involved in a two-week committal hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court that ended today.The Magistrate Noel Nunan found enough evidence to commit the group to trial. They are accused of back-dating super fund switch forms to cash in on gains made by the funds on the stock market. None of the accused has entered a plea.Henschell, 43, made his debut for Queensland as an offspinner in 1981-82 and was picked for the Prime Minister’s XI against England in 1986, dismissing Allan Lamb and Ian Botham. He ended his first-class career with 2720 runs at 29.56 and 87 wickets at 43.96.

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.

If Australia are to achieve their coveted five-nil Ashes whitewash by winning the fifth Test in Sydney, they need to score 363 runs on the final day with seven wickets in hand. England declared on 452 for nine in their second innings after Michael Vaughan had taken his score on to 183 and Nasser Hussain reached another valuable seventy to set the home side what would be a record total to win. Before the close, England took the wickets of Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting to give themselves every chance of pulling off a win.The need to break the record for the highest number of runs in the fourth innings to win a Test would not have daunted the Australians as they set out seeking 452 to win. However, the loss of both openers inside the first three overs put a new slant on the equation.First to go was Langer. He was on the receiving end of a shocking decision from umpire Russell Tiffin as he was adjudged lbw to a ball from Andrew Caddick that pitched clearly outside leg stump. Two balls later, Hayden fell lbw to Matthew Hoggard – a decision that did not please Hayden who reached the sanctity of the dressing room before expressing his feelings. Or perhaps the shattering of a window shortly after his arrival there was a pure coincidence. The ICC match referee, Wasim Raja, thought not and fined Hayden 20% of his match fee and gave him a reprimand. Adam Gilchrist was later given a warning about swearing when an appeal was turned down.Hoggard might have felt like swearing when he dropped a relatively simple caught and bowled chance offered by Ponting next ball. That error did not prove too costly, however, as Ponting became the third batsman in the innings to be given out leg before. He had scored 11 when he went to Caddick who leapfrogged his old new ball partner Darren Gough to seventh place in England’s list of Test wicket-takers.Australia were 25 for three from six overs at this point, but Damien Martyn joined night watchman Andy Bichel to hold firm until the close. Indeed, Bichel did a bit more than just stay there, going to 49 from 54 balls with eight boundaries to set up what is sure to be a fascinating final day’s play in the series.Earlier in the day, Vaughan and Hussain picked up the momentum of England’s innings from the off. Having come together with the total on 124, they advanced it to 313 before they were parted. They had put on 95 runs in the morning session when Hussain edged the penultimate ball before lunch from Brett Lee to Adam Gilchrist to fall for 73.It appeared as if this wicket might have signalled the start of a terminal collapse, for Lee struck again soon after lunch to have Robert Key caught by Hayden at mid-wicket before, in the next over, Australia got the wicket they wanted when Vaughan was adjudged lbw.The Yorkshireman appeared destined to turn his third century of the series into a double but, when he was just 17 runs short of that landmark, the combination of a ball from Bichel and umpire Tiffin’s ever-alert finger saw Vaughan making his way back to the pavilion. Replays suggested the ball that ended Vaughan’s six and a half hour innings containing 27 fours and a six would have passed some way over the stumps.John Crawley was also lbw, this time to Jason Gillespie, who later left the field in mid-over when he fell awkwardly in his follow through and landed on his left elbow. Richard Dawson was caught and bowled by Bichel while Caddick and Hoggard succumbed to leg-spinner Stuart MacGill to leave England on 409 for nine. It was already a substantial lead, but Hussain wanted more and got them from an unlikely source.Steve Harmison has never been in danger of being labelled an all-rounder, but he joined Alec Stewart in the middle to flay 20 from 23 balls and Stewart was 38 not out when the captain had the unexpected pleasure of declaring.The three wickets in the 20 overs before the close have certainly put England in a very strong position, but it would be folly to write off this Australian side yet. It is highly unlikely that Australia will reach their target and almost as unlikely that they can survive with only seven wickets intact on a pitch that will probably deteriorate on the final day. However, this is a remarkable bunch of cricketers and nothing is beyond them. England should be chilling the champagne but would be advised not to open it until the job is done.

The draw for the fourth round of the C&G Trophy, with matches to be played on Wednesday 11 July, is as follows.Worcestershire v Herefordshire at Worcester; Somerset v Glamorgan at Taunton; Yorkshire v Surrey at Leeds; Kent v Northamptonshire at Canterbury; Lancashire v Sussex at Manchester; Gloucestershire v Durham at Bristol; Warwickshire v Essex at Birmingham; Nottinghamshire v Leicestershire at Nottingham.

Twelve months ago Ryan Sidebottom was a one-cap wonder putting in the hard yards for Nottinghamshire on the county circuit. On Monday night at Lord’s he was named England’s Player of the Year and will start the first Test against New Zealand as the team’s premier strike bowler.Since his surprise recall against West Indies, at Headingley, he has taken 53 wickets in 12 Tests, including 24 against New Zealand in March. He claimed a 10-wicket haul and a hat-trick in Hamilton and his 7 for 47 in Napier, the best figures by an England bowler for four years, helped to set-up their come-from-behind series win. He had already been named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.His chance came due to an injury to Matthew Hoggard, who is now, partly because of Sidebottom’s excellence, battling to get is own place back in the team. Hoggard used to be the first bowler on the team-sheet, but that honour now goes to Sidebottom and he has confounded predictions by developing into an all-round wicket-taker regardless of conditions.”This time last year I was training with Nottinghamshire and just playing regular county cricket so it’s been a massive turnaround,” he said. “But I don’t want to get carried away with it and I’m relishing the chance to play at Lord’s again. The other 10 guys in the team have made me feel very welcome, which has allowed me to get on with my job. I suppose it goes out to all the players because one player doesn’t make a team.”Maybe one player doesn’t make a team, but much of the limited success England have had over the past year wouldn’t have happened without Sidebottom. New Zealand would have ended in defeat and even toppling West Indies last summer would have proved a harder task. Then there is his role in the one-day side, 20 wickets from 12 matches, including a Man-of-the-Series performance in Sri Lanka.Sidebottom is a laidback character off the field (bowling is different matter, just ask anyone who drops a catch) and insists the last year hasn’t changed him. After waiting so long for a second chance he isn’t taking anything for granted. “I don’t want to get too carried away because things can change quickly. It’s just a case of keeping doing the basics,” he said.”All the talk [when called up against West Indies] was that it would be one game, the horses for courses thing, but I sat down with my dad [Arnie, who also won one cap for England] and he said just go out and do your best, don’t look too far ahead. At Headingley I played as though it would be my last game and I’m not going to change. Each game I’ll enjoy it and give it my best.”Sidebottom has broken into the top 10 of the bowling rankings and received praise from Richard Hadlee, who said he was the main threat in the series ahead. “It’s a massive compliment coming from a great bowler,” said Sidebottom. “On the other hand I’m not taking much notice because they are a difficult team to beat.”We aren’t taking it lightly, especially myself because I’ve only played a few games. Of course I would like to carry on in the same form but it’s not going to be easy. As long as I’m consistent and getting wickets for my team-mates then that’s great.”The other major award handed out at Lord’s on Monday evening was the Women’s Player of the Year which went to Claire Taylor, while Outstanding Achievement awards were given to the men who scored a 100, claimed a five-wicket haul or held five catches in an innings.Two one-off presentations were also given to Ashley Giles and Marcus Trescothick in recognition of their England success over the years. Trescothick announced his retirement from international cricket in March and Giles is now on the England selection panel as well as Warwickshire’s coach.