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Daryl Tuffey was fined $1000 (US$740) this week for acting against the interests of New Zealand Cricket after he failed to destroy promptly a digital film. Despite doing little else wrong, Tuffey suffered unnecessarily after his case was made public.The facts are simple. Tuffey got caught on video with a woman, doing what adults who fancy one another do, got filmed doing it and, after he realised he had been recorded, didn’t act quickly enough to remove the evidence. NZC said Tuffey had acted against their interests and committed serious misconduct, which he admitted to.It would seem an open and shut case: set the penalty and get on with playing cricket. Yet the formal inquiry dragged on for a week and became the latest hot topic for talkback radio and office gossip. The media widely reported that the matter involved Tuffey and a woman, and a logical inference from the serious nature of the inquiry was that whatever went on was not consensual. But Hugh Rennie QC, who conducted the investigation, found the contact between Tuffey and the woman was consensual and discontinued by them voluntarily.Mr Rennie heard the matter on March 8 and interviewed further witnesses before releasing his report on Tuesday. The need for more questions was odd as Tuffey admitted the charge at the hearing. If it was a criminal matter, the charge would have been read and Tuffey would have been asked to plead. If he admitted the charge, as he did in this case, he would then have been sentenced.Mr Rennie said he received extensive information from people with direct knowledge of the events and that Tuffey had openly and frankly answered all matters raised. “The formal allegation made by NZ Cricket is admitted by Mr Tuffey,” Mr Rennie said in the report. “He took this action immediately and voluntarily.”The last sentence is significant. The implication from Mr Rennie’s report is that Tuffey admitted his guilt when the charge was laid before the hearing. If NZC wanted independent input from that situation Mr Rennie’s role could have been merely to sentence Tuffey rather than put him on trial.The strangest aspect of the report was that it didn’t spell out what the serious misconduct was. Instead of finding the information in the first paragraph, the best description is at the end of the findings where Mr Rennie said Tuffey “acknowledged to me that his conduct was serious misconduct in terms of his agreement with NZ Cricket” and that “from the inquiries I have made, he has acted correctly in making these admissions”. What the matter is really about – Tuffey acting contrary to the interests of NZC – is buried in Mr Rennie’s analysis of the gravity of the offence on page 3.Although Tuffey did little wrong, the $1000 fine is probably justified as he admitted the offence. If his actions were at the serious end of the scale then what penalty would await a player whose misconduct is of a minor nature? The real problem lies in the ambit of a crime. Just as the basic criminal charge of disorderly behaviour catches even the most harmless of activity, it is unavoidable that the expression “contrary to NZC’s interests” will pick up almost any incident.There are no winners here. Tuffey has suffered public humiliation far beyond what his actions justified. NZC may cop flak for bringing up an allegation that the public cannot be faulted for struggling to see what Tuffey did wrong.

The Indian board (BCCI) has told Cricinfo that it will be lodging a complaint with the ECB following confirmation that the PCB has issued No Objection Certificates to Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, allowing them to play county cricket in 2008.The two players are involved with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League and Niranjan Shah, the BCCI’s secretary, told Cricinfo that “we have an understanding with the other countries’ boards that they can’t allow players who are associated with the ICL to be allowed to play at any level, regardless of the reason the player has a contract with his board or not.”If the news is true that the two players have been given NOCs by the PCB then we will take up the issue with the ECB since the two counties – Sussex and Yorkshire – come under the jurisdiction of the England board.”The ECB, however, is legally powerless to take any action in the light of the NOCs being granted and is likely to pass the matter back to the Indian board to sort out directly with its Pakistan counterparts.The situation is further muddied by confusion within the PCB about the issuing of an NOC to Naved-ul-Hasan. On Thursday, Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Reuters that “the factual position is that some counties had asked the PCB to issue NOC’s for these players. But we’ve now informed them very clearly that since these players are not contracted to us nor eligible to play in Pakistan we don’t come anywhere into this issue at all.”But less than a day later, Naghmi gave Cricinfo an altogether different picture. “Our board’s policy on the ICL remains as it has always been and these players cannot play in Pakistan,” he said. “But the board also felt that there is no legal or moral reason in stopping someone from playing cricket in another country. That is subject to their laws. So, on this basis, we have sent an NOC, which maybe wasn’t as well-worded as planned, but the intention was made clear.”Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, told Cricinfo that the NOC had in fact been received last week and was dated March 17. “We have a signed letter that is very clear in confirming they [the PCB] have no objection,” he said. This was then sent to the ECB, along with the player’s registration form, and was accepted by the board.Today’s news follows the revelations last week that the ECB had refused registrations for five players because of their participation in the ICL. But with Pakistan approving Mushtaq and Naved-ul-Hasan, and in so doing leaving the England board with no room for manoeuvre, there are certain to be some terse exchanges between the PCB and the BCCI in the coming days.

Warwickshire’s Ian Bell has been preferred to Robert Key and Kevin Pietersen in the England squad for the series opener against Bangladesh at Lord’s on Thursday week.Bell’s early season form – he has scored 482 runs at over 80 so far in the Championship – meant that the much-hyped Pietersen missed out. And David Graveney, England’s head of selection, greeted the questions about Pietersen with an air of weary inevitability. “Kevin has received a lot of media attention and we had to make a choice between him and Graham Thorpe … Graham did well last time out and is our most experienced player and we hope he’ll recover from injury in time to win his 99th Test cap.”””I don’t think I could have done any more in terms of the amount of runs I have scored,” Bell explained. “It still came as a surprise. After all, Rob Key was the man in possession and he’s had a decent start to the season, while Kevin did fantastically well in the one-dayers in South Africa, so it was never straightforward.”Jon Lewis, Gloucestershire’s fast bowler, could make his debut after a good start to the season (he has taken 18 wickets at 22.55) and was preferred to the centrally-contracted James Anderson. Whether Lewis plays seems to depend on whether Simon Jones can recover from a back injury.England squad Michael Vaughan (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Graham Thorpe, Ian Bell, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wk), Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Jon Lewis.

Darren Lehmann will miss South Australia’s Pura Cup opener against Victoria next month after tearing a hamstring last week. Lehmann had only just started training following an off-season interrupted by surgery on his achilles tendon and a case of deep-vein thrombosis.He told the that at 37 it would be a challenge to make it through a 21st season of first-class cricket. “It is disappointing breaking down again but I guess it’s a case of finding the best way to manage my body,” Lehmann said.Nathan Adcock, the new captain of South Australia, will not be able to call on Lehmann for advice in their first Pura Cup game at Adelaide Oval starting on October 14. Lehmann has also confirmed he will be on the sidelines for the KFC Twenty20 competition in January, giving the Redbacks’ less experienced batsmen a chance to shine.”Twenty20 is probably a young man’s game now,” he said. “It will be good for some young guys to get some more opportunities.”

Scorecard

Moises Henriques produced an allround display of sheer class as Australiacrushed Sri Lanka at the SSC to progress to the semi-finals. Not contentwith knocking the stuffing out of the Sri Lankan batting, he then smashedan uncompromising 79 off 60 balls against a deflated attack. Tom Cooperwas no slouch either with 84 off 93 as the pair flayed a stand of 146 in21 overs.While the clean striking from Henriques was breathtaking, his massive hits were effortless, sailing miles into the stands. He cleared the ropes on six occasions, one of which landed on the roof of the press box – a monstrous blow – and never came down again. Cooper had begun the chase in emphatic style, piercing the field off front and back foot and displaying another example of the form he produced against South Africa inthe opening match, where he made 104.Australia’s intent to finish this match quickly, and not give the SriLanka spinners a chance to dominate, was evident when Henriques came in atNo. 3. The team management explained they didn’t see any point nudgingaround for the runs, something the top order clearly agreed with.Henriques was delighted with the crushing nature of the win: “Everythingwent our way. It is sometimes difficult chasing a low target and you canstart pushing around a little, but we just went out there and played asthough we were batting first.”He also added that the cut-throat approach was something that had beendiscussed by the team. “Being ruthless is one thing we have really workedon, when a team is down and are we are on top we need to nail them. It showed atthe end, where we could have easily lost a late wicket, but we fought hardto make sure we didn’t lose our intensity and make it all the moreconvincing.”Each Sri Lankan bowler was treated with equal disdain, the slow left-armerMalinga Pushpakumara being creamed for 52 in five overs. They werehampered by Angelo Mathews’ inability to bowl, owing to a groin strainwhich has troubled him throughout the tournament. His injury created amoment of controversy when he was allowed a runner, despite having comeinto the match carrying the injury.However, even if Mathews had been fully fit it would not have made muchdifference. Sri Lanka never looked like being able to replicate thetriumph of their senior side in Adelaide, yesterday, and were underpressure from the moment that Adam Ritchard removed Dimuth Karunaratne inthe second over. By the end of the ninth over Henriques had begun his tourde force with two wickets, and the innings was struggling at 23 for 3.Once again in this tournament, the Australia seamers managed to extractbounce from the pitch that no other team has managed. Twice the Sri Lankanbatsmen were struck on the body or helmet and the quicks were not shy of using the short ball – and to good effect. Ritchard ensured Sri Lanka could never find any momentum, bowling his ten overs off the reel for just 20 runs, and Henriques explained: “The ball was swinging around early so we decided to keep him on as long as we could and he ended up bowling all ten.”Only when Mathews and Dilhan Cooray were together did the innings threatento gain any semblance of control, their stand of 62 the only obstacle to Australia’s march. Henriques broke the stand – no surprise given the day he was having – with a great delivery that squared-up Mathews, shortly after the Sri Lankan captain had asked for the runner.This is not a bad Sri Lankan team but they had nothing to offer againsttheir rampant opponents, despite having home advantage. After a scareagainst West Indies in the qualifying matches, Australia are peaking whenit really matters. They are two wins away from burying the memories of2004 in Bangladesh, and in this form they will take some stopping.

Ricky Ponting does not believe the Test captaincy has affected his batting, but he intends to finish a "stop-start" year on a high against Pakistan, starting in the first Test at the WACA tomorrow. Entering the match with 505 runs at 36.07 for 2004, Ponting has fallen well short of his career average and his Australian-record haul of 1503 runs at 100.2 last year.Ponting said he understood that he hadn’t set the world on fire since taking over from Steve Waugh, and is still searching for his first century as captain. “I certainly haven’t felt any added pressure there,” he said. "I really don’t let things cloud me at all and I’m not one that thinks too much about cricket when I’m not at training or around the team."Disruptions with a broken thumb and the death of his aunt forced him to miss four Tests this year and he said it affected his form. “It’s been a frustrating sort of Test year for me just because it’s been so stop-start,” Ponting said. "I’ve missed a few games in a few series and obviously missed the first part of an unbelievably satisfying tour to India as well.”Ponting said he had no problem getting starts, but hadn’t gone on to make the big scores like he did in 2003, when he hit three double-centuries against India and West Indies. In the two-Test series against New Zealand he was in a hurry to three figures in the first-innings, settling for 51 and 68, and was an unbeaten 26 before his second Adelaide declaration.”Probably on a few occasions this year I’ve let what could’ve been a big score slip,” he said. “So hopefully that changes around here tomorrow and Boxing Day and I can finish off the year on a good note."

Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, has envisaged a bright future for his side, but in the meantime promises “to push it as far as we can”, as they prepare to take on the mighty Australians in a two-Test and three-one-day series, starting in Fatullah on April 9.The Australians landed at Dhaka Airport on Thursday morning, fresh from the 3-0 clean sweep in South Africa last week, and Whatmore was under no illusions about the task that lies ahead. “Nothing’s really changed in terms of the ICC rankings table,” he told Cricinfo on the eve of the series. “We’re still No. 10 and they’re still No. 1.”Even so, in the three years since Whatmore took charge of the team, Bangladesh cricket has come a long way. His first series as coach was the corresponding tour to Australia in 2003, when two schoolmasterish centuries from Steve Waugh helped put an overawed side firmly in their place.”There’ve been three years since we last played each other, and I feel the team’s improved a little bit,” said Whatmore. “We’re playing in our own conditions, and they are going to have to adjust a bit to their last six months in South Africa and Australia. We’re very keen to go out there and compete against the No.1 ranked team, knowing that we’ve played some good teams in the last three years.Bangladesh’s solitary Test series win came against Zimbabwe last year, but Whatmore was happy with the effort his players had been making in the intervening months. “We’ve put in some encouraging performances in terms of taking the games to the fifth day or late in the fourth day, having leads against the opposition, that sort of stuff,” he said. “We’ll be playing against a good side, but we’re going to try really really hard.”The sense of anticipation surrounding the Australians’ arrival has been heightened by memories of that extraordinary NatWest Series victory at Sophia Gardens last year, and Whatmore himself admitted that it was the one-day leg of this tour that was of greatest importance to him.”After this series against Australia we’ve got no Test matches for 12 months, so I’ve got to say, I’m a bit more excited about the one-day game. We’re getting a nice little group together, and I can only see it improving in next six to 12 months leading up to the World Cup. That’s very important and it keeps me going, knowing that we are heading in the right direction in that form of the game.”

Bangladesh took Sri Lanka to a decider in their recent three-match series, before routing Kenya 4-0, and Whatmore was mindful of the need to manage expectations among a public that has forever been hungry for success. “I’m pretty sure that the people here in Bangladesh will be very appreciative if the boys show a big fight,” he said. “If we really show that the opposition has to work hard to win, then the expectation of the public I think will be satisfied. But within the cricket board, the players and the management, we want to push it, push it, push it, as far as we can.”Off the pitch, Bangladesh’s development is continuing apace, with the inauguration of five new stadia and the establishment of a national academy. “The infrastructure is coming along,” admitted Whatmore. “In broad terms, the domestic competitions are pretty much okay, with a good four-day competition in place, one-day cricket in place, and a Twenty20 tournament in place. We’ll need some time to fertilise them and grow them and make them look nice, but I’m pretty sure there’ll be a bit more money available next year. The necessary ingredients are here. We just need more time.”That much could equally be said of the national squad, which is benefiting from the identification of a talented crop of youngsters who were among the favourites for the recent Under-19 World Cup. “They played a really bad game in the quarter-final against England, who they had beaten eight times in a row not so long ago,” explained Whatmore, “but at the end of the day, they still lost just one match. I’m sure that within six or 12 months, one or two of them will start to filter into the international team.”One of these players, the captain Mushfiqur Rahim, is already flitting around the fringes of the senior side. Having impressed on debut against England at Lord’s last summer, he returned for the second Test against Sri Lanka at Bogra last month, but struggling, making 2 and 0. “The Sri Lanka Test was a tough one for him but we won’t want to just play one or two games and get rid of him,” said Whatmore. “We think he can play the longer game pretty well. He’s only just starting off, but he’s got good potential.”With the aggressive Shahadat Hossain emerging as a pace spearhead, and the spin pairing of Enamul Haque jr and Mohammad Rafique continuing to impress, the future looks bright for Bangladesh, especially now that their most talented batsman, Mohammad Ashraful, is beginning to make runs when they really count. “He has got tremendous potential – anyone can see that,” said Whatmore. “But Ashraful himself will tell you he needs more consistency. He didn’t have the best of Kenya series, but hopefully this next one will be more to his liking than Kenya.”All things told, Bangladesh will enter their next challenge with the confidence of a side on the up, and the lessons of last summer lodged firmly in their memory banks. “That tour [of England] was definitely a huge learning experience,” stressed Whatmore. “To play in England at the early part of the summer is never an easy time, especially when playing against two good sides. But here we are in our own conditions, and all we can do is give it our best.”Of course, everyone cares about winning or losing,” he concluded, “but so long as you’re really putting in your best, nobody can really can get angry. In our case, what is important is that we give our best every time we walk out there, because we can’t afford not to.”

Champaka Ramanayake, the former Sri Lankan fast bowler, has been appointed the fast bowling coach of Bangladesh for the next two years. Bangladesh have also roped in the services of former Sri Lankan offspinner Ruwan Kalpage as their high performance head coach to run their National Cricket Academy, which will be set up shortly in Mirpur, Dhaka.Speaking about his switch in allegiance, Ramanayake, who also headed Sri Lanka’s Fast Bowling Academy for the past seven years said, “I would have loved to continue to help my country produce more fast bowlers, but at the same time I also had to look after myself financially. The offer from the Bangladesh Cricket Board was too attractive to turn down.”Ramanayake, 43, said he had no regrets in leaving his present job as he felt there were enough fast bowlers in the queue to serve Sri Lanka for the next two to three years. During his tenure at the academy, he had the privilege of working with many of the current crop of fast bowlers, the most notable being Lasith Malinga. He predicted that two young fast bowlers, Madura Lakmal Perera from Kalutara and Tamil Union’s Suranga Lakmal, could be playing in the national team shortly.”In the seventies and eighties the country depended to a large extent on spin,” Ramanayake said. “The scenario has completely changed now with the national side sometimes fielding as many as three to four fast bowlers in a match.”He hasn’t ruled out returning to his role in Sri Lanka once his contract with Bangladesh finishes. His assistant, Anusha Samaranayake, is expected to take over the role as head coach of the academy.A Level I (English) and Level II (Australian) qualified coach, Ramanayake played first-class cricket for 20 years for Tamil Union and Galle CC, taking 480 wickets. He played 18 Tests (44 wickets) and 62 ODIs (68 wickets) for Sri Lanka between 1988 and 1995.Kalpage’s wealth of experience in coaching, including his work with junior Sri Lankan teams, helped him clinch the job in Bangladesh. Another former spinner Piyal Wijetunga, who has been assisting Kalpage, is expected to take on the role of spin bowling coach.”It was too good an opportunity to miss,” Kalpage said. “I had to think of my future. I thought here was a good opportunity for me to extend my experience and one day come back and be national coach of Sri Lanka.”Kalpage stated it was a new challenge for him to be invited to head an academy of a Test-playing nation and hoped his appointment would spark more opportunities for coaches in Sri Lanka.”No Test playing country has made such an offer to Sri Lankans before and I consider it an honour. The experience I will gain is good for my future. It also opens the door for other Sri Lanka coaches as well. Several foreign coaches come to Sri Lanka with lucrative salaries and gain experience at different levels. This is an opportunity for us to show that we are also equally capable as the foreign coaches.”At present we are not recognised on par with the foreign coaches in our own country. We don’t have a proper salary structure in place and there is no proper grading of coaches. Thereby our coaches have no future here.”Kalpage’s role as high performance head coach also involves setting up a proper A squad for Bangladesh and assisting their national team in spin bowling and fielding whenever required.Kalpage played 11 Tests and 86 ODIs for Sri Lanka between 1992 and 1999, and is best remembered for his fielding. He assisted Trevor Chappell as Sri Lanka’s fielding coach in 1999 before taking over his role in 2001. He fulfilled the task till 2005, but in 2004 he played a dual role when he was also appointed as the computer analyst of the team. He became the head coach of the Spinners Clinic in April 2006 and also coached the A team, and Under-19 and U-15 teams.

The Pakistan team are to give hands-on help to areas devastated by last Saturday’s earthquake, by taking part in relief work.Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, told a private television channel of his side’s commitment in helping the area recover from the tragedy: “The entire cricket team will travel to quake-stricken areas and will take part in relief operations. Although we might not stay there during the entire operation, we’ll definitely make our presence felt in the areas that have been devastated by the earthquake,” he said.Inzamam, who is playing for the World XI in the ICC Super Test in Sydney, added: “My heart goes out for the people of Muzaffarabad and adjoining areas who lost everything in seconds. There are people in need and it’s our national and moral duty to help them and make them realise that at this time of difficulty, we are with them.”

The Kensington Oval will have a test run before the ground is handed over to the ICC in February.Chris deCaires, the chairman of World Cup Barbados Inc., made it clear there will be practice games on the playing area before the year-end.”Our schedule confirms that we will be ready and the ICC has given the green light that our schedule is satisfactory to being World Cup-ready for next year and that will include practice games on the ground,” he said.Gordon Greenidge, the former West Indies opening batsman, said he was concerned whether there would be any real assessment of the pitch before the World Cup. He did not think that the Oval would be completed in time for practice matches to be played there before Barbados hosts Super Eight matches next April.However, deCaires said that in addition to the test run for the pitch, there would be a rehearsal for the entire stadium.”It is very important to have practice games and that is on the agenda, as well as an event to test the entire stadium. We want to make sure the stadium works well.”deCaires said he was pleased with the progress of construction at the Oval and promised that when it was completed, the facility would be truly world-class.”We still have a lot of work to be done but I am happy with what we have achieved so far and the efforts from all sectors of the society.”I have never been involved with a project that has such an integration from so many levels of society. We will host the best World Cup ever and all of Barbados will be proud and pleased with the final product.”The players’ pavilion will be up there with the best in the world, as well as the Challenor and Kensington Stands and the media centre. We will have a world-class facility, no doubt about it.”