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Brad Hodge, the Australian-born batsman, has been named as the new captain of Leicestershire. He takes over from Phil DeFreitas, who stepped down on Monday after 20 months in the role. Leicestershire have also named Darren Maddy, who made his debut for Leics 10 years ago, as the new vice-captain. Hodge, 29, has been in terrific form this season, averaging 64 in the County Championship and just under 50 in the National League."We are delighted that Brad has agreed to take on the captaincy," said James Whitaker, Leicestershire director of cricket. "As vice captain he is the natural successor to Daffy, and I am confident his knowledge, experience and enthusiasm will help us in our quest to get to where we want to be. I am excited about working with Brad.""I am also pleased that Darren, who has excelled as captain of the side on a number of occasions already, will now become official vice captain," he added. "He has been at the club for a long time and been a dedicated professional."

Rod Marsh, chief coach at England’s academy and recently appointed as a selector, has dismissed arguments that English cricketers play too much cricket during the year.In an interview with BBC radio, Marsh dismissed claims by some young cricketers that they are being asked to play too many games. “Name me another professional sport where you basically get seven months off,” he said. “What do they do in the winter time? Go away and play if they can. What do they do pre-season? Go and get ready for the season.”The more you play the better you should become because playing is a lot more fun than practising. That’s the attitude I want these youngsters to take.”But Marsh warned people not to expect immediate miracles from those at the academy, insisting that the set-up was “miles away” from where he wanted it to be.”You have to be patient and we have a lot of work to do still and it’s mainly the players who have to realise what it takes and make the commitment,” he explained. “There is the talent there but they have to understand all the things that go to make a great Test player. They have to make personal sacrifices and be prepared to develop what talent they have.”And Marsh also cautioned the media about building up the newest crop of young players, singling out James Anderson as one who should be given time to develop. “It’s early doors for him,” Marsh said. “He’s only been in the game five minutes. He’s got very good ability and I’m sure if he continues to develop he will be an outstanding bowler for England.”

Glamorgan are now officially promoted in the Norwich Union League and all but champions of the Second Division with two points from an abandoned game at New Road.With two games to play, they are eight points clear of Worcestershire with a huge run-rate advantage to guard against an unexpected shift in recent form.Worcestershire have failed to win in four games – two lost and two rained off, whereas the Welshmen have amassed 28 points from eight matches.They were again in their best batting form when scoring 254 for 6 in a reduced innings of 43 overs. Robert Croft completed his fifth half-century of the season in the competition and Matthew Maynard took his aggregate to 241 from three innings in a week.Together they put on 111 – Glamorgan’s best in the League for the fourth wicket against Worcestershire – as the Second Division title favourites accelerated from a modest 77 for 3.Keith Newell, Ian Thomas and Jimmy Maher all reached double figures before Croft reached 50 from 59 balls. The England off-spinner was bowled for 61 by David Leatherdale and Maynard hoisted Stuart Lampitt to mid-on after making 71 from 85 deliveries.The first break for rain came during a late dash of 47 in five overs by Michael Powell and Darren Thomas, who was lbw to Andy Bichel’s final delivery after hitting 25 from 17 balls. Powell was unbeaten with 20 from 15.Worcestershire were given an imposing target of 264 under the Duckworth-Lewis method but were unable to start their reply before heavier rain ended the proceedings at 4.30pm.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:14

Manjrekar: Dean Elgar was SA’s wildcard

Some balls turned. Others didn’t. The batsmen were uncertain. And 12 wickets fell on the day, nine of them to spin, as the Test season in India began with a distinctly subcontinental flavor. Some like M Vijay felt untroubled at the crease. Others didn’t last long enough to figure things out. South Africa would feel aggrieved that Faf du Plessis and Stiaan van Zyl fell in the latter pile after they bowled India out for 201.At 28 for 2 after the first day’s play and having gone in a batsman short – JP Duminy has not recovered from his hand injury – South Africa will need a big first session tomorrow, and have two grand players of spin in Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers to pin their hopes on.But if part-time spinner Dean Elgar could swindle four wickets in eight overs, India’s frontliners should be chomping at the bit. R Ashwin already has a wicket. Ravindra Jadeja, on his Test return, played his second-longest innings and struck with his second ball and Amit Mishra ripped a couple of legbreaks that could easily have taken Amla’s edge or his off stump.”Never seen so many cracks in Chandigarh ever,” said Sunil Gavaskar. “If you’re a spinner, what more do you want,” said Anil Kumble. It was dry and consensus was it had been rolled less than usual. Safe to say that the pre-series demand for turning tracks has been met.The agenda was to bat first and bat big. Virat Kohli won the toss on his 27th birthday and his first Test as captain at home to give his team the opportunity to do so. Only the voodoo that part-time spinners do hit India hard as Elgar, better known to be an opening batsman, one-upped two key players. Cheteshwar Pujara, who could have built India’s innings around him, was trapped lbw with a straight ball and Ajinkya Rahane, who has shown he can resurrect top-order wobbles, nicked the one that turned sharply.That Elgar has the knack to shock opposition line-ups is not entirely a surprise. His first Test wicket was Misbah-ul-Haq, when he was cruising towards a century in Dubai in 2013. He bested Steven Smith as well, at a time when South Africa were at their wits end after a 184-run partnership in Cape Town in 2014.They weren’t facing as dire a situation today, but Amla trusted his experiment so much that the frontline spinner Imran Tahir had to wait till the 44th over to bowl and Elgar was celebrating like King Kong – banging on his chest with each India batsman he swatted away. At one point he was on a hat-trick when Wriddhiman Saha nicked a beautifully flighted delivery to first slip to reenact Rahane’s dismissal. The trick was simple – he bowled at an enticingly slow pace to pull errant drives and the batsmen either nicked off or the gap between bat and pad was exploited.India owed a good portion of their runs to a fifty from Vijay, who looked as in control as the rest looked flustered. The difference perhaps came as a result of the batting styles: Vijay played late and delicately, the others tended to jab and push to feel bat on ball. He was exquisite on the drive and the flick because he picked the line and length early and then committed to a stroke. The conviction behind them was apparent, the power never ever so. He breezed to 75 runs, with 12 fours, in only 136 balls. Then there was Jadeja, returning to the side after six back-to-back five-wicket hauls in the Ranji Trophy, and showing an improved tenacity to bat as well. But otherwise there wasn’t much.Shikhar Dhawan, backed by the team management to deliver, retained his place as opener but couldn’t muster any fight. He had knocked back three balls and flashed at the fourth wide outside off stump to bag a duck and give Vernon Philander and South Africa the early strike they needed.Topping up on that seemed unlikely when Pujara joined Vijay and put up a sturdy 63 runs for the second wicket. They left the ball watchfully, ran well between the wickets and ushered the bad balls to the boundary as good Test batsmen should.Good Test bowlers make that difficult and Steyn did persuade Vijay, who was yet to score, to feel outside his off stump. But the edge went too quickly for Harmer at gully. Then there are bowlers like Elgar, who rock up at the right time and deliver the right ball. It was the orthodox left-arm spinner’s delivery but it just did not turn as Pujara was clearly expecting and was trapped leg-before, another of those dismissals where he missed a straight ball.Kohli fell to his own intent. He plays with hard hands. He likes coming at the ball. He wants to force it onto his bat and one of those times coincided with a Kagiso Rabada delivery that came quite a bit slower off the track. The leading edge was taken and Elgar, again, pouched a catch diving forward at short cover. That South Africa have made all these inroads without Morne Morkel, who has not sufficiently recovered from his foot injury, indicates the depth of their resources and the disciplines they have maintained. But they, like India, went in with five bowlers and six batsmen and will need every one of them to step up tomorrow.

Luke Ronchi, the big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman, will join Mumbai for next month’s Indian Premier League after signing a three-year deal with the franchise. Ronchi owns a 56-ball century with Western Australia, a domestic one-day record, and his all-round skills are perfectly suited to the Twenty20 format.Mumbai have Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh and Shaun Pollock in their squad and Ronchi, who has a strike-rate of 176.97 in his 12 abbreviated matches, is looking forward to joining them. “I can’t wait to get over there and start training with the likes of Tendulkar and Jayasuriya and try to gain as much as I can from the wealth of experience they possess,” Ronchi said.”It will be a tremendous learning experience for me, not just in how to play Twenty20, but in all aspects of my game because I will be surrounded by so many champions. And there may be an opportunity to open the batting with Sachin in front of his home crowd in Mumbai – that would be the stuff dreams are made of.”While Ronchi has joined the IPL’s playing ranks, Matthew Mott, the New South Wales coach, has accepted an offer from John Buchanan to be an assistant with Kolkata. Mott guided New South Wales’ Pura Cup final victory last week and he will be in India for Kolkata’s first game against Bangalore on April 18.”It’s going to be a great experience for him,” Dave Gilbert, the New South Wales chief executive, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “They have a terrific side, and the opportunity to work with Buchanan will be beneficial for him.”To be honest, our limited-overs form has been pretty ordinary in the last couple of seasons, and this is a great chance for Matt to go there and observe first-hand some of the game’s innovations. There will obviously be some pretty interesting cricket being played, and he will be able to take note of it all and plan for our assault on the title next season.”

A report in the Royal Gazette claimed that Saleem Mukuddem had been found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute after criticising the Bermuda board (BCB) over the way he was dropped during the World Cup.But it seems that the BCB, who has reportedly dished out a year’s probabtion as punishment, decided to send notification to the player by ordinary mail rather than the more usual email, delaying the official announcement of the decision.”I haven’t had anything official from the board as yet … all I’ve seen is what was reported,” Mukuddem told the newspaper. “I don’t know whether it’s true or not but what I would say is that if it is true, then I’m disappointed it has leaked out before I have been officially informed. That’s not the way it is supposed to work.”Regardless of the decision I will not be making any more public comments on the matter. I had a chance to give my side of the story and the public are now aware of it. That’s all I set out to do. I have done nothing wrong. Anything else I have to say on the matter will be dealt with privately between the board and myself.”In a separate disciplinary hearing, assistant national coach Herbie Bascome was found not guilty on the same charge after he sent a letter criticising the BCB following its decision to cancel his son Oronde’s cricketing scholarship. The board was publicly slammed over the decision, not because it withdrew its financial backing but because it was openly critical of his attitude to the game.

Four Bangladesh players have been included in the Rest of Asia squad to take on Pakistan in two limited-overs exhibition matches to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on May 25 and 26.”Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Rafique, Aftab Ahmed and Shahadat Hossain will represent Rest of the Asia,” Faruque Ahmed, the Bangladesh chief selector, told .Faruque said that Nafees was included primarily because the organisers requested them to send a specialist opener for the matches. Nafees enjoyed a good series against Australia at home recently, scoring a century in the first Test at Fatullah.The other members of the squad include Anil Kumble, Ajay Jadeja, Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman from India, along with Romesh Kaluwitharana and Kumar Dharmasena from Sri Lanka. Sanath Jayasuriya was in the original list, but had to be withdrawn, as he is now with the national team on the tour of England. Jayasuriya recently reversed his decision to retire from Tests.A full-strength Pakistan team will be led by Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Australia 474 and 4 for 127 (Katich 39) lead India 246 (Patel 46, Ganguly 45, McGrath 4-55) by 355 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

India waged a grim battle in the face of a near-hopeless cause, first through their tailenders who hung on with gumption, and later through their bowlers, who prised out four Australian wickets on an absorbing third day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. However, despite that grit, Australia were still overwhelming favourites to go one up in the series as they led by 355 runs when stumps were drawn.It wasn’t a day of pretty cricket, but it was utterly compelling nevertheless. Only 223 runs came in the day, but India fought an admirable trench war, keeping Australia at bay in the first half and then holding them on the leash after they had got off to a rollicking start. Harbhajan Singh bowled beautifully, much better than his figures (1 for 43) suggest, varying his length, pitching the ball on the stumps, and keeping the batsmen tentative.Seen in isolation, it was India’s day, but Australia have taken far too much ground in the first two for India to feel any degree of comfort. They will have to bat out of their skins for around five sessions on a wearing pitch to save the Test.Unlike the top order, the Indian tailenders gritted it out against some testing bowling and used up valuable time in the process. Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan led the defiant batting display, putting on 60 invaluable runs for the seventh wicket, as India extended their innings midway into the second session. They played out the opening spell from Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie with assurance – singles were cheered like centuries, and every ball negotiated prompted rapturous applause. Patel nudged and glided behind square, while Pathan made sure he played as straight as possible.The short ones were left alone – Patel weaved and ducked, refusing to be lured into the hook trap – while most of the balls outside off stump were left untouched. Patel tackled Shane Warne with soft hands, and waited for the ball to come on after turning slowly off the pitch.At the other end, Pathan showed streaks of aggression against Warne, dancing down the track and hoisting him for two fours. He fell to Warne immediately after the second of those lofted drives, given out for 31 to a dubious caught-behind decision as the ball deflected off the pad and sneaked through to Adam Gilchrist (7 for 196).Patel continued his obdurate ways as Anil Kumble, promoted ahead of Harbhajan , kept him company. Kumble, who was the first to walk out for a net session after India’s miserable batting display last evening, battled bravely in the face of a menacing spell from Michael Kasprowicz after lunch. He was rapped on the pads on a number of occasions before missing one that came in late and squirted away for four byes.

However, the new ball put an end to the tailend resistance: Gillespie gated Patel for 46, with one that came in late and uprooted middle stump (8 for 227). Kumble fell soon afterwards, and India finished with 246, nursing a slim hope of saving the game.That hope was slightly enhanced with the fourth ball of the Australian innings, as Irfan Pathan trapped Justin Langer in front with one that cut back in late. Replays showed that the ball might have gone marginally over the stumps. Simon Katich began with a flurry of fours, including an almost-perfect back-foot straight-drive off Pathan, and, with Matthew Hayden driving powerfully at the other end, the runs came in a rush.Harbhajan helped India stem the flow with a splendid piece of fielding at point. He charged towards the ball once Katich had pushed it to his right, picked up and threw down the stumps to leave Hayden (30) inches short of the crease (2 for 65). That proved to be a crucial point in the day, as Australia managed just 62 more in the last 26 overs, while losing two more wickets to the slow bowlers.India’s game-plan tomorrow will be similar to the final hour today, as they will want to delay Gilchrist’s declaration as long as possible. It might well turn out to be another absorbing day.

Bangladesh have named two new caps in a 15-man squad for their maiden tour of the Caribbean in May and June.Faisal Hossain and Abdur Razzaq, both batsmen who bowl part-time offspin, have been called up in place of Al-Sahariar Rokon and Manjural Islam, who toured Zimbabwe in February but were unable to make an impression.The tour party leaves Dhaka on May 6, with the first of three one-day internationals beginning in St Vincent on May 15. The tour concludes with two Tests in St Lucia and Jamaica from May 28.Bangladesh squad
Habibul Bashar (capt), Rajin Saleh, Hannan Sarkar, Shahariar Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Alok Kapali, Mushfiqur Rahman, Khaled Mahmud, Khaled Mashud (wk), Mohammad Rafique, Manjural Islam, Faisal Hossain, Tapash Baisya, Tareq Aziz, Abdur Razzaq.

Greg Blewett is back in Australian colours, this time for the Double Wicket World Championship on the paradise island of St. Lucia. Speaking to Wisden CricInfo after the first day’s play, Blewett spoke about the tournament, his hopes for his forthcoming spell with Kent, and the potential of Aussie new kid on the block Michael Clarke. Along with many of the assembled stars, Blewett was still taking stock of the competition’s format.”It’s interesting to see the tactics needed for the Double Wicket,” he said. “I think they will become clearer as the tournament progresses. You can either go for the aggressive Pakistani approach, or the more careful approach like West Indies. But there’s a definite advantage to bowling first so you can then play accordingly.”Like most of the spectators at Beausejour yesterday, Blewett was impressed with the immediate impact of Shahid Afridi.”The crowd want to see more of the Pakistan-style approach. But given that they lose 10 runs if they lose a wicket, if they lose a couple of wickets early on against some of the better bowlers, it will be interesting to see what they do.”The Double Wicket players were not the only ones on planes to the Caribbean last week. Steve Waugh’s Australians flew in to Guyana to begin their defence of the Frank Worrell Trophy.”Even with a couple of players out, the depth is pretty good. Michael Clarke (who replaces Damien Martyn) is a quality player,” Blewett enthused. “Everyone agrees he is the next Ricky Ponting.”Blewett also rates West Indies an improving side, especially on their home pitches.”I can’t see too many sides beating Australia.” It doesn’t come across as arrogance or a brash statement – simply factual.While the all-conquering Australians are headed for Guyana and the Test and one-day international tour of the West Indies, Blewett will be flying to England after the tournament for seven weeks with Kent – his third county following spells with Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.Blewett is a like-for-like replacement for Andrew Symonds in the batting order, expected to bat at number four. But the path to a county contract for the forthcoming summer was unexpectedly difficult.”I thought that with counties being able to bring two players in, it would be easier. As it’s turned out, it’s been more difficult,” Blewett said. “Either they’re struggling financially, or they are being careful trying to balance their sides so need a certain type of player.”But Blewett is looking further than his seven-week stay.”Kent haven’t signed a second overseas player, so it’s a motivation that, if I do well, they might ask me to stay. Robert Key will probably be away with England for quite a bit of the summer. If I stayed on, I could move up the order and open the batting while he is away.”Whatever happens, it is a motivating factor for his initial spell with Kent, and the carrot of a longer contract could be just what is needed. Spectators in England this summer could see the best of a player who would walk into most Test or one-day sides.