Matthew Harris, the wicketkeeper for the Lions, will miss the opening match of the 2007 SuperSport Series after being found guilty of breaching the United Cricket Board code of conduct.Harris appeared before a disciplinary committee, chaired by Advocate Michael Kuper SC, at the UCB and Cricket South Africa head office in Johannesburg on Tuesday.The charges arose from incidents during the SuperSport match between the Warriors and Lions played at East London from February 23-26. Harris was charged and found guilty of contravening two clauses, one relating to showing dissent at an umpiring decision and the other of using crude or abrasive language.

Ian Botham has unveiled plans for his 11th charity walk to raise funds for Leukaemia Research and the Teenage Cancer Trust.Botham, who has walked 6,500 miles to raise more than £8m on previous treks, and even led a herd of elephants across the Alps on one occasion, will walk for nine days from October 8 to 17, stopping off at Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Cardiff.Botham’s last walk took place in October 2003, when he walked 210 miles across Wales to raise more than £300,000 for a new children’s hospital. He said at the time that would be his last such walk but, having turned 50 last November, he is in no mood for retirement just yet.Andrew Flintoff is expected to join Botham for at least part of the way, although with England’s Champions Trophy campaign getting underway on October 15, there may be a conflict of interests.Botham himself had no doubt where the team’s priorities would lie, however. “Freddie and the England boys will all be coming along,” he said. “Freddie will be doing more than one town and we hope to involve a number of the other players in their home cities.”A lot of guys from the rugby world, the cricketing world and a few friends from showbiz will also be taking part.”

It’s hardly surprising to learn that Curtly Ambrose didn’t like opposing batsmen, but more so that the game of cricket itself was not exactly close to his heart.”I didn’t like to be friendly with rivals,” he told PTI on the eve of the West Indies-India series. “I wanted them to feel the heat. And I didn’t like reporters because you people think you know everything.”He was equally dismissive of batsmen. When asked to name those he admired, his response was terse. “I didn’t like them anyway. A few of them were worthy but I wouldn’t take their names now and make them feel happy. I hated conceding runs.”Ambrose has maintained a low-key presence since his retirement, rarely talking to the press. “Cricket gave me an identity but it wasn’t my first love,” he explained. “I did it as a job, for me basketball and music were my true passions. I started the game very late, at around 21 years, and didn’t enjoy the day-to-day discipline. I packed up when my body told me to do so. I felt happy to be out of it.”He added that he did not miss cricket at all. “Now I don’t even watch the game. I have hardly watched a full game since I retired. I sometimes see a few snatches of play on television and that’s about it. I might not even come to watch the first Test on Friday.”He is heavily into promoting his music band by the name of Dread and Bald Head and strums guitars in the company of his former captain Richie Richardson.

Pakistan now has two players in the top five of the Test batting rankings following the drawn first Test against England at Lord’s. Inzamam-ul-Haq has climbed one place to third in the list after twin half-centuries and he has been joined in the top five by Mohammad Yousuf, who made 202, his second successive Test double hundred against England.Yousuf is up two spots to fifth place and now has his best-ever ranking and his highest tally of points. Completing a trio of Pakistan batsmen in the top 10 is Younis Khan, who missed the Lord’s Test through injury. He lies seventh in the table.The only players Inzamam now trails in the rankings are his opposite numbers Ricky Ponting of Australia and India’s Rahul Dravid. England, by contrast, has just one batsman in that top 10, Kevin Pietersen in 10th position, but below him, several of his team mates are making positive moves.Andrew Strauss’s ninth Test hundred has seen him rise two places to 12th (overtaking team-mate Marcus Trescothick in the process) while Paul Collingwood’s Test-best 186 has boosted him up to joint 34th position, a climb of 16 places.Ian Bell and Alastair Cook, two more century-makers from the Lord’s Test are up to joint 42nd and 51st place respectively, and the duo – along with Collingwood – have career-best ratings.The bowling ranks have seen no changes in the top 20 with England’s Matthew Hoggard still the highest-placed player from either side. He remains in fifth spot, ahead of injured team-mate Andrew Flintoff in sixth and another injured player, Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, in seventh position.Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan remains top rankings, clear of South African fast bowler Makhaya Ntini.

Division One

Day three
Kent face a final-day battle for survival after Hampshire ground them down at Canterbury. John Crawley extended his overnight 113 into 189 then Dimitri Mascarenhas struck a career-best 131 off 151 balls. He added 174 – and took five fours off one over from Dwayne Bravo – with Nic Pothas while Shane Warne flung the bat with impressive effect before calling his team in – 269 ahead – so they could have a dart at Kent’s top order. David Fulton and Robert survived 12 overs but the real fight starts tomorrow where Warne and Shaun Udal will be a major threat.Sussex hold a commanding advantage of 391 going into the final day against Lancashire at Hove. Murray Goodwin and Richard Montgomerie stuck centuries and added 166 for the third wicket, scoring at a pace that means Sussex are set for an early declaration in the morning. However, that will probably depending on fitness of Mushtaq Ahmed who is struggling with a groin injury and didn’t bowl as Lancashire were dismissed before lunch. Stuart Law and Gareth Cross were parted early in the day and Jason Lewry finished with 6 for 68 as Sussex gained a vital lead of 97.Day four
Stephen Fleming guided Nottinghamshire to a vital six-wicket win against Durham at Chester-le-Street which eased their relegation worries and pulled the home side into the bottom two. The match had been dominated by the seamers, with 25 wickets falling yesterday, and Nottinghamshire’s target of 214 was looking steep as they slipped to 86 for 4. But Fleming was joined by Samit Patel and the pair formed the highest stand of the match – worth an unbeaten 128 – to carry their side comfortably across the line.

Division Two

Day two
Essex’s lower-order clobbered vital runs in the morning session before Ronnie Irani declared on 399 for 8 on the third day against Somerset at Garon’s Park. Irani (61) was only one of two who passed fifty, but James Foster (39), James Middlebrook (24) and Tim Phillips (29) played confidently to set Somerset a near-impossible 519 to win. And they began well, too, with Neil Edwards (20) and Matthew Wood (50) putting on 57 for the opening wicket. Essex struck back late in the day, though, to leave Somerset in the precarious position of 203 for 4 with one day to go.A quartet of fifties from Worcestershire’s batsmen put them in a powerful position on the third day against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay. Phil Jaques and Stephen Moore got the visitors off to a great start with an opening stand of 168, before Jaques fell for a brisk 92. Soon after, Moore departed for 82 but Ben Smith (70) and Stephen Davies (77) played excellently to leave Glamorgan eyeing only a draw, or the most unlikely of victories (503 runs) on the final day.Leicestershire lost their last five wickets for 76, but Gloucestershire hold a slender lead of just 76 going into the final day at Cheltenham. Resuming on 406 for 5, only Claude Henderson (41) defied the Gloucester bowlers as Leicestershire’s tail folded rather meekly. Nevertheless they still held a useful first-innings lead of 200 and quickly had Gloucestershire in trouble at 17 for 1 when Phil Weston fell to Stuart Broad. However, the home side fought back superbly – largely thanks to Hamish Marshall whose unbeaten 143 came from just 168 balls. Kadir Ali and Craig Spearman fell in quick succession but, with Marshall at the crease tomorrow morning, the match will almost certainly peter out into a draw.Having fallen eight runs short against Gloucestershire in May, Mark Ramprakash finally joined the 300 club as Surrey continued to dominate against Northamptonshire at The Oval. The landmark came off 445 balls after nearly nine hours batting as he became only the third Surrey batsmen to reach 300 for the county. He added 353 with Mark Butcher who hit 147, his highest score of the season. But of Surrey harboured any hopes of a day off they were ended by Usman Afzaal who resisted their attack with an unbeaten 101 after Stephen Peters went early. So far, Afzaal and Chris Rogers have added 155 but they still have a long way to go.

Andrew Flintoff has ruled out playing grade cricket in Australia before the start of the Ashes series in November. Speculation Flintoff would arrive before the tour to test his recovery from ankle surgery was started last month by David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, when he suggested ways of returning his group of injured players to action.But a spokesperson for Flintoff’s management company said in The Sydney Morning Herald the situation had “got completely blown out”. “There hasn’t been any plan to play in Australia,” an International Sports Management spokesperson said. “There is nothing on the cards.” Flintoff faces a 12-week recovery period from the surgery and last week said he hoped to be able to play a month before the first Test in Brisbane on November 23.If Flintoff is fit he will arrive to defend the Ashes with the England team, which has its first warm-up match scheduled for Canberra on November 10. A host of Australian states offered invitations to Flintoff and his injured squad mates to prepare for the series in their local competitions.

Essex, Sussex, Derbyshire and Glamorgan contest the inaugural Twenty20 Floodlit Cup, starting this week with the semi-final stage.The competition was set up towards the end of last season among the four counties to have permanent floodlights at their headquarters (at that time).Sussex and Essex meet over two legs at Hove and Chelmsford on Tuesday and Thursday respectively while Glamorgan and Derbyshire meet over corresponding days in the other semi-final.Should either tie end with one victory apiece then a period of extra-time will be played after the second semi-final. This will consist of an additional period of four-overs-per-side – or Four4 if you like – to decide the winners.In a week of historical firsts in cricket, it is understand that should either (or both) game be decided in this manner then it would be the first such occasion when ‘extra-time’ has been used to finish a game.The semi-final winners will then meet in a two-legged final on September 13 and 15 and the losers will meet in a third-place play-off on the same dates (with extra-time again coming into operation if required).

Scorecard
A fine hundred from Matthew Elliott and the final-over heroics of Cameron Borgas sealed a five-wicket win for New South Wales in the rematch of last season’s one-day final. Set a revised target of 267 from 43 overs, the Redbacks owed much of their chase to Elliott, who hit 111 from 112 balls with ten fours and three sixes, but it was Borgas who stole the win from the Blues.South Australia needed 18 from the final over off Matthew Nicholson and Borgas blasted three sixes to end the game with two balls remaining. Borgas finished with an amazing 31 from nine balls.New South Wales were put into bat by Darren Lehmann and did well to post 291. There were useful runs from Aaron O’Brien (58*), Dominic Thornely (45) and Moises Henriques (43*), but every batsman chipped in. Fifty-run partnerships for the first, third and fifth wickets highlighted a stable batting order and a team to watch out for this season.In what was a repeat of last year’s decider, South Australia started their reply in enthusiastic fashion thanks to Elliott and a top order that all made starts. Barring Nathan Hauritz, a last-minute replacement for the injured Stuart MacGill, no bowler managed to restrict their economy rates to below five an over. When Elliott was caught by Hauritz off Henriques in the 40th over, the Redbacks needed 41 from 18 balls. Borgas made sure they made it.

Simon Taufel was named as Umpire of the Year for the third successive time at the ICC Awards in Mumbai. Taufel, was picked by the ten Test captains as well as the eight-man Elite Panel of ICC Referees.”On behalf of the ICC I would like to congratulate Simon on this award,” said Percy Sonn, the ICC president. “He is a brilliant umpire and it is good to see that he is being recognised as such. It is clear that the players and the referees have enormous confidence in him and rightly so. He has once again had an outstanding year making decisions in pressure situations all over the world and this award reflects the fact he has got the vast majority of those decisions right.”Mind you, it should be pointed out that the competition for this award was very tough because all the members of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires are excellent decision-makers in both ODIs and in the longer form of the game.”Taufel, 35, made his first-class debut as an umpire in 1994-95 and joined the Elite Panel in 2003.”It is good to win an individual award but really it should be remembered that umpiring is a team sport,” Taufel told the audience. “There are two guys out there in the middle, one in the box and a fourth umpire too so although it’s great to win this, it’s not an individual effort.”Winning this for the third time is possibly even more special for me because it tells me that what I am doing is along the right lines and it inspires me to keep improving in what I am doing. It is also a tribute to my coaches and family who have been supporting to me for so long.”It can be a tough existence at times and it’s not easy to keep at the top of your game but it is events like this that make a difference to us. Perhaps the ICC Awards will inspire other people to choose umpiring as a possible career path and that can only be good for the game.”

England’s preparations for the first Test were given a lift as Steve Harmison underwent a workout in the nets at the Adelaide Oval. However, there are still no guarantees that he will be fit for Brisbane and England will wait until Sunday morning to assess his fitness to see how he responds.Harmison began gingerly off two or three steps but he stepped up the pace before bowling off a longer run. Andrew Flintoff, the England captain, said Harmison would be re-assessed early on Sunday on the team’s return to the ground for the final day against South Australia.”Harmy’s bowled somewhere between 12 and 15 overs. He’s run in, he’s bowled and injuries for fast bowlers are part-and-parcel of the job, so we just have to see what happens tomorrow morning, how he pulls up. He’s a key player for England, has been for a numerous time now in the Test side. We still want Harmy fit, but we’ll know more in the morning.”After Harmison woke up on Friday morning with pain in his side, the England management took the decision not to risk him against South Australia, calling in Sajid Mahmood. The problem was a recurrence of the one that caused him to miss the one-day series against Pakistan in September. He went for a scan which proved inconclusive before being given a cortisone injection.A spokesman said that the team management was “pleased with the way he came through”. However, Duncan Fletcher has voiced his concerns about Harmison’s lack of bowling ahead of the Ashes with him having sent down just 25 overs in competitive action on the tour.”He’s been an effective bowler for us and the other bowlers feed off him,” Fletcher said on Friday. “We’ve just got to monitor the amount of balls he bowls because we’ve got to get some mileage in his legs.”Meanwhile, Flintoff was satisfied with his steady build-up to next Thursday’s Ashes opener in Brisbane after returning to full bowling duties following his ankle injury. “In the first innings I bowled a little bit quicker than what I have done and I’m pleased with the way I’m progressing,” he said. “I’ve had no ill-effects from the ankle, everything’s been fine, I’ll bowl a few more overs tomorrow just to top up a little bit.”