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Glenn McGrath wants to ease Australia’s fast-bowling problems by taking the new ball and returning to his best for his farewell at the World Cup. McGrath spent most of the CB Series at first change as Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken opened but was given the chance to lead when Lee was ruled out of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy with an ankle injury.Australia are still considering the use of a four-man pace attack and Shaun Tait would shape as a likely replacement for Lee. “With Brett not being here, it will be interesting to see what we do with our bowling line-up and whether I take the new ball again, or whether we think about Mitch [Mitchell Johnson] or Taity taking the new ball,” McGrath told the .”I love taking the new ball, obviously that’s the way I would prefer to go. But I’ll sit down and I’ll have a think about the game and which is best suited to the team as well as talk to Buck [John Buchanan] and Ricky [Ponting] and the other guys.”McGrath, who has 45 World Cup wickets from his previous three tournaments, will be a key if Australia are to regain their ability to strangle the opposition in the final overs and during powerplays. Besides Bracken and Stuart Clark, Australia’s attack is relatively inexperienced and Johnson, Tait and Shane Watson will rely on McGrath to lead by example.”The advice I have been giving to the other guys is as long as you are bowling where you want to bowl the ball, at least you can change if the plans are wrong,” he said. “If the ball is not going where you want it, then you have got no hope.”We will just focus on that, hopefully hit our yorkers a bit better than we have done and mix it up with a slower ball or a short ball. You don’t want to get too predictable on these grounds. These days 80 to 100 runs is pretty much standard [in the last ten overs]. Obviously it’s up to the bowlers to execute things a little bit better.”McGrath said it was sad to be embarking on his last tour with his Australian team-mates after a 14-year international career. “But the other side of it is come the end of this tour I get to spend more time at home and get on with the rest of my life,” he said. “I am really looking forward to that.”

ScorecardNick Browne made a second-innings hundred•Getty Images

Glamorgan go into the final day at Chelmsford facing a massive task to avoid their first defeat of the season. After being set a victory target of 462, they reached the close on 110 for 1 but with the pitch starting to offer more encouragement to the spinners, it will need something special to deny their opponents success.Essex’s position of strength owed much to the efforts of Nick Browne and Liam Dawson. They shared in a stand of 237, setting a new record opening partnership for Essex against Glamorgan and they seldom experienced moment of anxiety. Left-hander Browne excelled with some fine driving, a straight six at the expense of offspinner Andrew Salter carrying him to his third century of the summer. He went on to make 129 that also included 20 fours before he was caught behind off legspinner Colin Ingram.Dawson, on-loan from Hampshire, and thrust into the opener’s role because Jaik Mickleburgh was suffering from back spasms, looked set to mark his home debut with a hundred. He had moved to 99 when he pushed a simple return catch to Ingram that brought to an end an innings that was noted for its placement rather than power. His effort contained eight fours and a six and his dismissal arrived soon after Ingram had trapped Tom Westley leg before on his way to final figures of 3 for 90 in 17 overs.Ravi Bopara was the fourth batsman to depart in the space of 33 runs but Jesse Ryder and Ryan ten Doeschate composed and unbroken stand of 74 in 11 overs before the 344 for 4 declaration left Glamorgan with their daunting mission. Both went aggressively about their business, Ryder’s 41 came from 43 balls while ten Doeschate struck 40 from 36 deliveries with the aid of four fours and a six.Jacques Rudolph and Will Bragg looked comfortable enough against the Essex pace attack when they began Glamorgan’s second innings but the introduction of left-arm spinner Dawson proved more of a problem. He soon beat the bat and found the edge before he tempted Bragg into a pull that finished in the hands of ten Doeschate at midwicket to bring to an end an encouraging partnership of 42.But 18 year-old Aneurin Donald and the experienced Rudolph further success. The teenager was particularly impressive as he seized every opportunity the loose ball as he ended the day with 42 from 68 balls. The more cautious Rudolph will resume in 45 which has so far spanned 95 balls.

Jhulan Goswami has become the first player from India to take the ICC Women’s Player of the Year award. She was presented with the trophy at the ICC Awards ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.Goswami was also India’s only representative in the individual player awards, with no representation from the men in the shortlist. She edged out Australia’s Lisa Sthalekar and England’s Claire Taylor.”It’s a dream come true for me,” she said on accepting the award from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, fresh from the Lord’s ODI on Saturday. “I am very excited to win this award. It is very unexpected because the other candidates are great players. It is very special for me”.The title was just reward for her bowling average of 12.40 in Tests and 21.80 in ODIs and, since Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick retired earlier this year, Goswami has also become the fastest female bowler in the world. She may have pace, but she has the accuracy to match, with an economy rate of 2.10 in Tests and 3.17 in ODIs.England certainly know a thing or two about her pace, after they succumbed to her in the second Test last year; she took ten wickets to take India to their first Test series win on English soil. She also put on her highest score of 69 in the first Test.It’s been a good year for India women’s cricket in terms of recognition. Last month Anjum Chopra won the coveted Arjuna award – a rare honour for a female player. Now Goswami joins her in being feted.”This award does a lot for women’s cricket,” said Goswami. “I think women’s cricket is growing, slowly. We are getting more and more coverage now in the media and that can only be a good thing for game as it encourages more girls to take up the game and improves the overall levels of performance.”Goswami is the second winner of the award after Karen Rolton won the prize last year.

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, has stood by the selectors’ decision to leave out legspinner Malinga Bandara from Sri Lanka’s 15-man squad for the CB Series in Australia while selecting six fast bowlers.The omission of Bandara, who took 14 wickets from nine matches in Sri Lanka’s campaign in the 2005-06 tri-series in Australia, has become a talking point in Sri Lanka, but Jayawardene said it was difficult to accommodate him as the second spinner since the team management had decided to go in for a solitary specialist spinner in Muttiah Muralitharan.”When you’ve got Murali and if he is playing in the side, with the conditions we get in Australia, there won’t be any room for a second spinner. It will not give us the adequate balance in our set-up. Our combination could be three quicks and a spinner plus seven batsman or we might go with six batsmen, four quicks, including an allrounder, and a spinner. Banda will only come into play if Murali gets injured. That’s why he is a standby.”While Dilhara Fernando has been ruled out of the series due to injury, Jayawardene has six other fast bowlers at his disposal, including the inexperienced right-arm seamer Ishara Amerasinghe, who has played one ODI, and the uncapped left-armer, Chanaka Welegedara. “We have three fairly experienced bowlers Vaasy [Chaminda Vaas], Lasith [Malinga] and Maha [Farveez Maharoof] in the line-up.”The other three are fairly new. Even though Kulasekera has been around he hasn’t played consistently, Welagedera is a young guy finding his way in international cricket and Ishara – we picked him for his pace and accuracy. He’s bowled pretty well in the last 6-12 months in A team cricket. This probably would be a place for us to see what he can do.”Jayawardene said a positive brand of cricket would help his team in the tournament. “A lot of our batsmen do enjoy the ball coming onto the bat which is a good thing. If our bowlers can pick up wickets on a consistent basis it will give us a very good opportunity. But I feel the area we could definitely dominate would be on the field, where we can create opportunities and with our energy, a lot of pressure.”Australia and India are much stronger in their batting than in their bowling. The important thing is we concentrate really hard, bowl in good areas and pick up wickets. If we create a lot of pressure on the field and create opportunities, then we can control the game. Foremost we have to believe in ourselves that we will get to the finals,” he said.In 2005-06, Sri Lanka qualified with Australia for the best-of-three finals and lost with a 2-1 margin.

Ricky Ponting is confident Australia can retain their ranking as the top Test side in the future after winning the ICC Test Championship for the fourth year in a row. However, despite last year’s World Cup win, Ponting’s men could not secure the double as South Africa prevailed in the ICC ODI Championship, finishing a fraction of a point ahead of Australia.India, who were 30 points behind Australia, were the runners up in the Test list and Ponting believes they will be one of the sides that can threaten his team in the next year. He said Australia’s future prospects depended largely on the younger members of the team continuing to improve after making excellent progress during 2007 and 2008.”If they can do that and the older guys like me, Matty Hayden and the other guys keep pulling our weight we can hopefully remain No. 1,” Ponting told after collecting the trophy, the ICC Mace, in Mumbai. “There were a lot of question marks around the team at the start of the last Australian summer, losing the … great players that we lost. But I thought some of the younger guys who came into the side like Phil Jaques and Mitchell Johnson handled themselves really well at the international level.”India certainly have a great team together at the moment and South Africa have played excellent cricket for a number of years in both forms of the game. So we just have to wait and see.”The winning teams of the Test and ODI championships each collected US$175,000, while the runners up pocketed $75,000 – small change for some of the men who are about to play in the Indian Premier League. South Africa’s former captain Shaun Pollock picked up the ODI trophy, the ICC Shield, on behalf of his team-mates, and he said it was especially pleasing to finish ahead of the World Cup winners.”Australia is the benchmark in all forms of the game and especially one-day cricket,” Pollock said. “So for South Africa to take over the top spot in the one-day table is a huge achievement for the playing group as well as a great honour for everyone connected with South Africa cricket.”Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, said: “It has been a tough 12 months for us as a Test team but the fact we have risen to many of the challenges put before us is reflected in our second position. We now have to press on and try and close the gap to Australia as well as stay ahead of the sides below us.”

Inspirational captain Jamie Cox made a fluent half-century and held three catches as Somerset cruised home by 53 runs to replace Worcestershire at the top of the National League First Division.Now the West Country team are on course for a first double in the new era of two-division cricket. With four matches to play, they can add the overall title to last year’s promotion success.Cox scored 57 and shared in a partnership of 74 with Michael Burns (51) to put Somerset on the way to a more-than-adequate total of 227 for nine on a slow pitch.Equally important was the catch taken by Cox at cover point to complete a bad day for Graeme Hick on his unexpected re-appearance from England duty at Headingley.Hick faced only eight balls before his dismissal by Steffan Jones, and though Vikram Solanki and David Leatherdale rallied the home side, slow left-armer Ian Blackwell rubber-stamped Somerset’s win with a League-best return of four for 36.The batting slump only compounded the problems that Hick had faced in the field. Young new-ball bowlers Chris Liptrot and Kabir Ali were persisently called for wides while conceding 36 runs in the first four overs.Marcus Trescothick and Mark Lathwell made the most of the gifts to put on 68 before Lathwell and Peter Bowler appeared on a list of four batsmen who were run out during the innings.Leatherdale was responsible for three of these mishaps and also bowled his medium-pace to remove Cox and Burns in successive overs as Somerset lost six wickets for 40 at the end.

The ECB has offered a solution to Derbyshire’s ongoing problem with the sun – or more exactly the fact that it sets behind the bowlers’ arm at the County Ground.At least two matches in the past two years have been shortened because play has been suspended while the sun sets. But the ECB has agreed to an amendment to playing regulations in the Twenty20 Cup and the Pro40.The change means that provision will be made for a maximum of one hour of extra time to make up for time lost in respect of low, bright sunlight. This means that no overs will be lost if play has to be suspended because of the sun unless more than one hour of time is lost.”Due to the problems we have experienced with the low sunlight we have looked at a number of possible solutions to the problem and after lengthy consultation with the ECB we have come up with what we believe is the best immediate solution,” Tom Sears, Derbyshire’s chief executive, said. “The new regulation ensures that the thousands of spectators who enjoy Twenty20 and Pro40 cricket at the County Ground will be able to watch a full match in the event of the sun affecting play.”This provision is made in respect of low, bright sunlight only. The provision does not apply in respect of time lost for any other reason.

Andy Kirsten has arrived in Nairobi to take up his role as Kenya’s national coach and said his main job is to ensure that the side qualify for the 2011 World Cup.”I have been contracted for a year and my duty is to ensure Kenya qualifies,” Kirsten told the Standard. “I first want to settle for the next six weeks, during which I will be drafting my strategy for the team before we bounce to serious business.”Kirsten has less than a year before the World Cup Qualifiers in the UAE to make his mark, but one of the problems he faces is a lack of high-profile matches. Kenya are not scheduled to play any Full Member countries between now and then, although they have a lengthy European tour that takes in Denmark, England and then Associate Twenty20, Intercontinental Cup and ODIs in Ireland.Kirsten, 44, who has been coaching in his native South Africa, is no stranger to the Kenyan set-up as he assisted Sandeep Patil during the 2003 World Cup. “Kenya players are very talented and I have been following the team’s prowess keenly since I left because I have an interest with the team and a close relationships with most of the players. I believe they deserve Test status and that is where we are heading, I’m sure I will enjoy working with the boys.”

Ashish Nehra, former India and Delhi left-arm seamer, has been ruled out for the next two months of the Indian domestic season after being advised to rest his ankle, which was operated upon recently. He missed Delhi’s first two matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League and is likely to return only by the end of January.”I had gotten my ankle operated during the domestic off-season and have been advised by the doctors to rest it for the next two months till I am fully fit,” Nehra was quoted in the . “I am sure to play the Duleep and Deodhar Trophies and one-dayers, and the Ranji Trophy knockout matches as well, if Delhi qualify.”Nehra will travel with the team for their fourth- and fifth-round matches against Himachal Pradesh (in Dharamsala) and Maharashtra (in Pune) respectively, and train with the team physio. John Gloster, the Indian team physio, will also work with Nehra during the first Test between India and Pakistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.Nehra, among the most injury-prone Indian players in recent times, said he was intent on taking things cautiously to avoid breaking down again.”I do not want to make the mistake again of playing until I am fully fit,” Nehra said. “Not only will that hamper my performance but also aggravate my injury. So I am going to take it light this season and come back the moment I know I am ready.”Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya admitted that Nehra’s absence would be felt, yet backed his decision to play it safe. “From a team’s point of view even an 80% Nehra is essential for the team, but from an individual perspective I think this is a good decision that Ashish has taken,” Dahiya said. “He aggravated his injury last season and this season he has chosen wisely to rest it and recover fully.”Nehra last played for India during the tour of Zimbabwe in 2005. Last season, he took 15 wickets in the Ranji Trophy at 41 runs apiece, and 13 wickets in nine one-day games.

The ECB wants to sort out the umpiring mess in the UK by presenting its vision of the future, but it has much ground to make up today when it meets with the general council of the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers.The Association, known as ACUS, will hear a proposal from Lord’s to form the ‘Association of Cricket Officials’. The ECB would like to merge ACUS and its own Officials Association – which has attracted only about 1200 members since formation last year – under the umbrella of the county boards.The ECB presentation document makes no mention of the Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers, known as ICUS, which was set up this year to offer top to tail training, including Edexcel-accredited BTEC courses to fit into the educational system.The bottom line for the ECB is whether they can persuade ACUS to give up their independence – a status umpires and scorers have cherished since the association was formed in 1953. Even though attitudes within the ECB administration have changed along with the first class power structure, many people within the recreational game view Lord’s with immense suspicion after so many years of under-funding.ACUS are vulnerable through their unwieldy, outdated governance structure and thin finances – not helped by the ECB cutting off the £25,000 annual grant – but the rank-and-file have a fantastic spirit with, one suspects, a low opinion of bureaucracy.For too long the First Class Forum, with power over revenue distribution, ensured there was a ‘them and us’ climate, reflected by the shortage of money filtering through to cricket development in the shires. Nowhere was this attitude better reflected than in umpiring. First-class umpires were appointed from the ranks of former professional players without the formal training and examination that ACUS required for the vast majority of umpires outside the county circuit.One would have thought that county experience and proper qualifications would create the ideal international umpire, but the ECB did not subscribe to that until relatively recently when the ICC took control of officials. It is very surprising – indeed suspicious — that only two officials have squeezed on to the English first class list without having played at pro level — Neil Bainton and Jeff Evans – though it is true there are an encouraging number in the reserves, including Martin Bodenham, Keith Coburn, Stephen Garratt and Terry Urben.With David Collier as chief executive, the ECB is changing its spots as quickly as it can, but recreational cricket is an area with ‘history’. And umpires have long memories. The ECB have to prove that ACUS would be better off losing their independence. Their presentation document to these experienced, dedicated men does not seem to do so.This is quite apart from the politics of independence. The danger of merging with governing bodies was thrown luridly under the spotlight by the Darrell Hair business last year and the forfeit by Pakistan of the Test at the Oval. ICC proved incapable of making sensible decisions under the stress of international politics, and Hair – rated as their second-best umpire – was effectively sacked for making correct umpiring decisions.The ECB propose that the proposed Association of Cricket Officials is formed on a structure based on 39 county associations, with regional forums based on five ECB regions and the European Cricket Council.Each county elects a representative to the board, with a say in the distribution of finances, and to the forum for the wider picture. There will be a national board operating under the umbrella of the ECB. The 13 members, with an independent chairman, with be a representatives from six regions, a representative of the MCC, scorers and women’s cricket, an education director, an ECB finance director, an independent director and an ECB executive director.Convincing the ACUS membership and winning a two-thirds majority on a ballot will take some doing.