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Ian Harvey’s career at Derbyshire appears to be over after the home office refused his application for British citizenship.Harvey was informed that his initial application would have been approved but for a drink-driving conviction earlier this year. He had made the county aware of the incident immediately when it occurred earlier this year and the matter was dealt with internally. He pleased guilty in court in April and was banned from driving for nine months.The ECB ruled that Harvey could continue playing as a non-overseas cricketer until he received a decision. Despite pressure from the county and other players, the home office have now declined his application.”This is obviously a very bitter blow to myself and my family,” Harvey said. “I feel I have been punished many times over for one offence. I fully accepted I had made a mistake, pleaded guilty and was dealt with by the court. In addition to that I have been punished by the home office in refusing my citizenship and the ECB for not exercising their discretion when they have the power to do so.”This could effectively mean the premature end of my playing career which is a bitter pill to swallow.””This is devastating news for Ian and his family and seems a punishment completely disproportionate to the offence,” Tom Sears, Derbyshire’s chief executive, said. “Throughout this matter Ian has conducted himself with honesty and integrity and there seems little justice in this verdict.”This is not just about Derbyshire wanting to field an outstanding cricketer who has given so much to the game for many years. This is about a man with a young family being denied a right to earn his living despite having full residential and employment rights in this country. He is allowed to perform almost any other job in this country but not play first class cricket … that doesn’t seem right.”As it is Ian will remain with us for the rest of this season then we will sit down and discuss potential options for the future.”

Australia will fulfill their commitment to tour Pakistan by going there twice in two years, a joint statement from both boards said. The two legs will straddle the return series hosted by Australia in late 2009.As expected, the five one-dayers and a Twenty20 will be played on the first trip starting next April, which will follow Australia’s visit to South Africa. Australia will then return to Pakistan in August 2010 to play three Tests, with the final dates and venues to be agreed depending on each nation’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) obligations.The schedule means those currently involved in the IPL may be forced to miss the competition. “Playing [in Pakistan] probably inhibits players playing in the IPL [next year],” Cricket Australia’s operations manager Michael Brown told the . “Under their contracts players have to make themselves available to play for Australia and so far we have not had any problems.”Australia, who haven’t toured Pakistan since 1998-99, were due to go in March, but postponed the trip due to security concerns. “Although disappointed that the tour couldn’t be completed as originally scheduled, the PCB is very pleased that the Australian team will come to play in Pakistan twice,” the Pakistan Cricket Board’s chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf said. “Our discussions with Cricket Australia showed both countries’ strong desire to ensure the postponed matches were played in Pakistan.” The PCB has also confirmed its tour to Australia at the end of 2009 for three Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20.

Andre Adams, the New Zealand allrounder, has signed a two-year contract with the Indian Cricket League (ICL). His move comes after his recent criticism of the New Zealand coach John Bracewell and the rest of the selectors for continuing to exclude him from the national squad.”It’s an opportunity I simply can’t turn down,” Adams told the . It also offers me the chance to play in India for the first time with and against some high profile players. I’m excited about the challenge.”Adams had lashed out after failing to make the Test squad for the home series against Bangladesh despite leading the State Championship bowling averages with 29 wickets at 8.27.”I’m pretty disappointed with the treatment I’ve received over the past year, especially not being picked for the World Cup,” Adams had said. “I don’t have any loyalty to New Zealand Cricket. I have done my bit for them and if it means I had to knock my aspirations of playing Test cricket again on the head, so be it.”The last time Adams turned out for New Zealand was in January 2007, and after missing out on the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, he said: “I’ve watched some players who were picked ahead of me have a pretty average time of it, and they just keep playing.”When I was also left out of the Twenty20 world champs, I thought `well, if I can’t get in ahead of Bradley Scott I must be a fair bit off the pace.”Adams’ decision means he becomes ineligible for national selection, thereby bringing his international career to a halt. He played 42 ODIs and scored 417 runs at 17.45 and claimed 53 wickets with career-best figures of 5 for 22 against India. He also played a solitary Test, against England in 2002, when he claimed six wickets.

Ricky Ponting says Cricket Australia should not attempt to make itssponsorship deals globally recognised if such a move would stop currentAustralian players joining the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Australianboard is concerned that its players might endorse products that clash withits own deals, as part of their IPL agreements.However, the IPL chairman Lalit Modi said the league would press onwithout Ponting and his men if Cricket Australia pursued worldwidesponsorship protection, and Ponting was not keen on that possibility.”There are already some globally-protected sponsors of Cricket Australia,there are a couple of them,” Ponting said.”I don’t think Cricket Australia would be able to make any of their othersponsors global sponsors … If they tried to do that I’m sure theplayers’ association would have something to say about it. It would be alittle bit unfair if that was the case.”Ponting and his team-mates stand to earn significant pay cheques forjoining the IPL and they would be understandably frustrated if theiragreements fell through. He saw no reason for Cricket Australia not toclear players to take part in the league.”It’s a domestic competition, as county cricket is,” Ponting said.”There’s never been any worry about Cricket Australia releasing guys to goand play county cricket. That’s the reason Cricket Australia backed it allin the first place, because it was a domestic tournament and it wouldn’tbe actually taking Australian players away from their domesticcompetitions or the Australian team.”However, the chances of seeing Ponting and his men representing IPLfranchises this year depend largely on whether Australia’s scheduled tourof Pakistan goes ahead, as the trip would clash with the Indiantournament. Ponting said with the exception of the retiring AdamGilchrist, who looks set to play, the Australians hadshelved all thoughts about the league for the time being.”I haven’t even thought about the IPL,” Ponting said. “We’ve had a lot onour plate over the last few weeks. The likelihood of us Australian playersbeing able to play this year anyway was pretty minimal. We’ll worry aboutall those other outside distractions, if you like, once this summer isover and done with.”

At the start of the season Australia were intent on retaining their world-beating status and by the end were just trying to limit damage. With much hindrance from a committed opponent, they failed with both aims. The No. 1 one-day ranking will be lost to South Africa if they beat Bangladesh 3-0 this month and the drop would be another dent for a team that has struggled with its identity since the fractious Sydney Test.In the first week of the New Year Ricky Ponting won a world-record equalling 16th Test in a row and was preparing to head to Perth for what should have been the easiest contest of the series with India. Instead it became the most difficult due to a mix of public reaction to Sydney, a flat surface and a touring team that had been galvanised during their threats to take all bats, balls and briefcases home. Australia lost at the WACA and over the next two months were mostly unrecognisable from the all-conquering outfit of 2007.How much Australians turned against their national team is hard to gauge exactly, but the players were shocked when large sections criticised their overall performance at the SCG. The Test ended in the most remarkable result but was instantly over-shadowed by a rash of controversies. Following team discussions covering behaviour and attitude, the side retained its spirit-of-cricket pledge and vowed to be “hard but fair” – the same way they believed they had always performed.Australian players in the Perth contest said it was the quietest Test they had ever been part of due to the fear of offending. Australia lost in four days, the streak was over and the aura slowly diminished. Having shed a quartet of outstanding competitors the previous summer, Australia had actually done well to keep things together for so long. Adam Gilchrist’s departure, which he revealed during the draw in Adelaide, will make things much harder as they try to recover ground and mojo.While the Test series was a success despite the swing in the final two games, Australia’s CB Series stumbled towards disaster even when they were winning. Four bonus points were collected by the home team, but the fringe benefits flattered an outfit that was struggling with fatigue, a range of issues that never seemed to disappear, a wobbling batting order and an underperforming captain and key allrounder. A more vibrant Indian side was not brought down by the various controversies, which seemed to act as spurs instead of weights.If Ponting and Andrew Symonds had completed merely average returns things could have been different. Instead the pair, which was heavily involved in the Indian Premier League developments, combined for only 365 runs in ten matches and the bowlers could not sustain their miracle escapes in the two matches that mattered most. Nathan Bracken, who is now a one-day specialist, was incredible in capturing 21 wickets and the Man-of-the-Series award, while Brett Lee was inspirational until the finals, when he looked as tired as a new parent.In a three-team tournament Australia needed more from than their batsmen than finishing fifth (Gilchrist), sixth (Michael Clarke), seventh (Matthew Hayden) and eighth (Michael Hussey) on the run list. It was the lack of output that resulted in the absence of the series trophy for the second year in a row. A 2-0 defeat was an appropriate outcome and something the players accepted.India irritate Australia’s senior men in a way no other team can manage and the uneasy relationship adds to the home side’s confusion. Australia knew they should have been better than their eclectic opponents, but they were unable to remember the valid reasons why.The age-old talk became nasty by modern standards and India’s new breed had not been kicked around in previous series. Big-name reputations didn’t matter and Australia’s substance went missing. The future will be fascinating as the players wrestle with their outlooks while battling opposition sides that will now give themselves a serious chance of winning.

Four days before the first of their three Tests against South Africa, the West Indies should have been engaged in their last chance for meaningful match practice against South Africa A in East London.Instead, chastened by their ten-wicket defeat in three days on Friday, they took an early coach ride to Port Elizabeth, arriving in time for a couple of hours of practice on a warm, cloudless afternoon at St George’s Park, the venue for the Test that starts on Boxing Day – and, as any scrap of encouragement is welcome, also their victory over South Africa in the 13-overs-an-innings Twenty20 international a week ago.The sight of captain Chris Gayle participating in every discipline raised hope that his right hamstring, torn in the second ODI in Zimbabwe, would be deemed sufficiently healed by physiotherapists Jacqui Mowat-King and CJ Smith for him to lead the team in a Test for the first time and, just as critically, to take his place at the top of the order.His movements are, without overstating the case, measured at the best of times so it is impossible to make out the extent of his progress. But he is so vital to the fragile batting that he will almost certainly turn out if at all possible.The attention of new coach John Dyson and his associates, Hendy Springer and David Williams, needs to be directed rather on the mental than on the technical and physical.The failure of the batting in both innings against South Africa’s reserve fast bowlers presented an immediate challenge for Dyson, the Australian who has been with the team only since its arrival from Zimbabwe two weeks ago.Monde Zondeki, tall, slim and sharp, has regained the form and fitness that gained him Test selection in 2003, aged 21, and a tour to the West Indies in 2005 when he numbered among his victims Brian Lara for 4 in the Antigua Test that featured four hundreds for either side.Even though he was the first to 50 first-class wickets for the current [South African domestic] season in the West Indies match [earlier than any previous South African] and as well as the experienced Charl Langeveldt might have bowled, they are not in the class of the Test quartet of Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel, Shaun Pollock and, the fastest and most threatening, Dale Steyn.Steyn, with a little help from the others, so destroyed New Zealand with 20 wickets in the two Tests in Johannesburg and Centurion last month that they were routed for totals of 118, 172, 188 and 136 and were beaten in four days by 358 runs in the first and in three days by an innings in the second.Events in East London have reinforced general opinion here that the coming Tests will follow the same pattern.South Africa have moved up to No. 2 behind Australia on the ICC Test rankings but are keen to pull clear of India and Sri Lanka with whom they are level.They can be expected to be as ruthless as they were in their two previous home series against West Indies that yielded eight wins in nine Tests with the other drawn. Yet their former captain, Kepler Wessels, has held out some hope for the West Indies to at least make a fight of it.”The best opportunity for the West Indies will be in the first Test,” he wrote in his newspaper column on Saturday.With Graeme Smith rested on medical advice after the ODIs against New Zealand and Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, Hashim Amla, Nel and Ntini all excused from duty for their provincial sides since the New Zealand series ended three weeks ago, Wessels warned South Africa “might be a bit rusty”.”They may also regard beating West Indies as a formality so it is important from the touring team’s point of view that they start well and make an impression,” he said. “Once South Africa hits its straps, it will need a special effort for the West Indies to compete.”The problem is that the “special effort” demands attributes palpably lacking in West Indies teams for more than a decade. “The key for the West Indian players will be mental strength and physical toughness, as well as good discipline and a high work ethic,” Wessels wrote. Such a sudden transformation would be nothing short of a miracle needed to make the match, and the series, a real contest.

Ricky Ponting is worried by the “danger” of private Twenty20 tournaments taking away players from international cricket. The Indian Cricket League’s (ICL) deals with four Pakistanis changed Ponting’s attitude towards the lucrative series and he has called for cricket boards to develop official competitions.”I am a bit more concerned this week with the new signings,” he said in the Australian. “It looks as though the Pakistanis and a few of the New Zealanders have signed as well. The danger is that it attracts the guys who are playing international cricket at the moment. If it is only attracting guys who are retired then it won’t affect us whatsoever.”The ICL is due to start next month and Ponting fears events in the future could run in competition to the World Cup. “We have seen that there is more money in these Twenty20 comps than there is in the whole World Cup,” Ponting said. “What will the players do: play in the World Cup or in the Twenty20 tournaments? They are going to have to make a decision and pretty quickly.” However, Adam Gilchrist believes the competition is healthy.There are rumours a group of New Zealanders may sign up to the ICL with permission from New Zealand Cricket, which is due to make a decision next week. Reports suggest the players’ earnings could be double what they are paid on their national contracts.”The concern I have is how lenient the boards are with the players,” Ponting said. “I heard a whisper the other day that the New Zealanders might be going with the board’s blessing because they have no cricket at that time of the year.”Ponting said the boards needed to be proactive and look at an official Twenty20 competition. “If they don’t they run the risk of not having any players,” Ponting said. “The amount of money I heard being thrown around for the ICL is big money for a month’s cricket.”The boards have to get very proactive and make sure they are getting something in place, otherwise they will run the risk of losing a lot of international players, particularly those who are coming towards the end of their careers and maybe some of the ones on the fringe.”

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