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The bat used by Don Bradman in his first Test against England at Brisbane’s Exhibition Ground in 1928-29 has been sold at auction in Sydney to an undisclosed buyer for $58,000 (US$44,000).Bradman had a quiet match, scoring 18 and 1 as England romped to an innings victory in the series opener. For the only time in his career, Bradman was dropped, returning for the third Test at Melbourne where he scored his maiden hundred.Sir Donald donated the bat to a children’s hospital, who in turn awarded it to a schoolboy for winning in a fundraising competition.Other items to go under the hammer included a bat, glove and Ashes handkerchief of Victor Trumper, items belonging to Warwick Armstrong and WG Grace, and a signed team photo of the 1909 Australian cricket team.

John Buchanan has revealed that he had written to Shane Warne in the aftermath of his drug suspension just before the 2003 World Cup, asking him to “take responsibility and wear the consequences of his actions”. Warne had been handed a one-year ban for taking a banned diuretic which he claimed had been given by his mother in “totally innocent” circumstances.The Herald Sun reported that in his soon-to-be-released book If Better Is Possible, Buchanan had expressed disappointment over Warne’s stance and wrote, “How could he be so vain, so stupid, so self-centred to forget about the team? Why did he think he was bullet-proof?”I sent him a long email, the essence of which was that through his dismissal from the team he had been given a second chance that not all of us are fortunate enough to get. If he wanted to take it, he had the opportunity to take responsibility and wear the consequences of his actions.”Their relationship was perhaps at its frostiest after Buchanan criticised Warne’s fitness levels during the 2001 tour of India. Warne, on his part, has been a vocal critic of Buchanan and has been scornful of several of his training techniques such as the pre-Ashes boot camp in 2006.Buchanan also said that though the relationship between the two has never had “best buddy status”, he had huge respect for Warne’s achievements.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMohammad Hafeez struck a rapid fifty to take Peshawar Zalmi to 182•PCB

West Indies’ Twenty20 captain Darren Sammy held his nerve with the ball, conceding just nine runs off the final over to guide his team Peshawar Zalmi to a thrilling three-run victory against Karachi Kings in Sharjah.After 39 overs of a contest that swung one way and then another, the equation was that Karachi needed 13 runs off six balls; Peshawar needed three wickets to secure the win and go top of the table. Sammy bowled full and wide first ball, and Ravi Bopara, who had almost single-handedly brought Karachi back into the game, whacked a six over the cover-point boundary. Bopara then helped himself to a two next ball. Five needed off four balls, with Karachi holding the edge.Bopara could have sealed a famous win off the next ball, but sent Sammy’s full toss straight down the throat of long on. Peshawar were lifted, and Usama Mir could only manage a single off the fourth delivery. Karachi knew they had to run for anything, and their sneaky attempt at stealing a bye off the fifth ball was unsuccessful, as Mir was run out. That left Mohammad Amir, the new man in, with the unenviable task of hitting four off the last ball. After a huge discussion between Sammy and his captain Shahid Afridi, Sammy ran in to bowl the final ball from around the wicket. His wide yorker was not accurate, but Amir failed to get any bat on it, and the Peshawar players broke into wild celebrations.A close finish was the last thing on everyone’s mind, especially Peshawar’s, when they reduced Karachi to 48 for 5 in a tough chase of 183. However, Bopara inspired a turnaround, blasting five fours and four sixes during a 33-ball 67 which threatened to take the game away from Peshawar. Bopara put up fifty-plus stands with James Vince and Sohail Tanvir, but unfortunately for Karachi, fell right when his team needed him the most.Earlier, Mohammad Hafeez blasted his first fifty of the season to power Peshawar to 182 for 4. Peshawar, opting to bat, began on the front foot, as Hafeez and Tamim Iqbal put up an opening stand of 93, before late blitzes from Sammy and Afridi lifted the team past the 180-run mark. Hafeez slammed seven fours and three sixes during his 59.

Gloucestershire opener Craig Spearman has been ruled out for six weeks with a broken foot as the club’s injury problems deepen. He picked up the injury during warm-ups ahead of the Friends Provident match against Ireland last Thursday.Scans revealed a broken bone and Spearman is now in doubt for the start of the Twenty20 on June 22. Steve Griffin, the club physio, said: “Craig has had an MRI scan, is currently in plaster and we will know more after seeing the consultant on Monday.”Spearman started the season with 249 runs in two Championship matches although his one-day campaign hadn’t got off the ground with 67 runs in three innings. His injury will leave Gloucestershire even more reliant on Marcus North’s contributions.This is the second serious blow in a week for Gloucestershire after captain Jon Lewis was ruled out for two months following surgery to remove floating bone fragments from his ankle.

As selectors and medical staff fret over his workload, Josh Hazlewood thinks he is getting better with each successive spell this summer. Even so, he realises that a quick demolition job on West Indies in Hobart is likely to be his best chance of turning out in both the showpiece Melbourne and Sydney Test over the Christmas/New Year holidays.Much extra responsibility fell upon Hazlewood’s broad shoulders when Mitchell Johnson retired after the Perth Test and then Mitchell Starc suffered a foot fracture early in the Adelaide day/night match that followed it. His response was a commanding nine-wicket performance that suggested he thrived on being thrown the ball more expectantly by his captain Steven Smith.However the selection chairman Rod Marsh has stated that it is unlikely Hazlewood will be risked in all six Tests this summer, meaning it will be largely up to the bowler himself to earn the right to play by taking wickets in a swift enough manner to give him the required rest between matches – as was the case two summers ago when Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle were retained throughout the 5-0 Ashes sweep due to matches ending quickly.”I definitely wouldn’t want to be rested for either of those last two games and especially not this one, the first against the West Indies,” Hazlewood said. “I hope I can play all of them, depending on how much workload we have. If we can take these 20 wickets as quickly as possible I don’t see why I can’t play all three Tests.”The quicker you get the 20 wickets obviously the easier it is on the body. We had a tough initiation in Brisbane and in Perth on those wickets but we will be patient, it’s something I think we need to work on against the West Indies, build pressure that way and then the wickets will come hopefully.”Marsh has previously been part of a selection panel that angered fast bowlers by withdrawing them from the Test team for preventative reasons. In 2012 both Harris and Starc were left nonplussed to be asked to cool their heels after strong performances in the previous match, the former missing a Trinidad Test after excelling in Barbados and Starc scratched from Boxing Day despite bowling Australia to victory over Sri Lanka in Hobart.”I guess with my history of injuries people are entitled to their opinion but I feel as good as I have through my career,” Hazlewood said. “I think I showed last summer I bowled quite a few overs in the Tests I played and got through the majority of the winter tours as well. I’m feeling better the further I get in my career.”You have got to be honest with the selectors and coach and Smithy. They value the fast bowlers’ opinions on how you feel, as long as you are honest it’s good communication to and fro. They take a lot from how the bowler feels and how the physio sees things.”There is another decent break after this game and then the hardest ones are probably the last two back to back. But I am feeling pretty good at the moment, and hopefully it stays that way.”Australia are in very much a transitional phase due to the aforementioned retirement of Johnson and Harris, plus those of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Chris Rogers. But in Hazlewood they appear to have a bowler who can thrive on the extra responsibility on home turf, while also knowing from the experiences of the Caribbean earlier this year how to bowl to a brittle West Indian line-up, who had their own preparation affected by rain on their afternoon training session at Bellerive Oval.”We are obviously going to miss both Mitches, they both bring different things to the bowling attack but I guess it is good that I am the one who Smithy turns to,” Hazlewood said. “Especially in that second innings in Adelaide, that added pressure I enjoy, hopefully it brings the best out of me, if I continue to bowl like that that would be good.”I thought we bowled quite well in the West Indies as a group, Nathan Lyon included. If we can do something like that in these three Tests and build pressure on them, keeping building those dots up, the wickets will come.”

Scorecard andball-by-ball details
How theywere out

South Africa duly converted their domination of Pakistan from the first day of this Test into a resounding 160-run win, a rare feat for them on the subcontinent. Dale Steyn’s third five-wicket haul in Tests was enough for South Africa as Pakistan failed to capitalise on a scintillating century by Younis Khan and lost their last five wickets for 33 runs.South Africa head into the second and final Test at Lahore, beginning on Monday, knowing they cannot now lose this series.Needing to score another 278 runs with seven wickets remaining, Pakistan were off to a good start as Younis Khan, unbeaten on 93 overnight, flicked Andre Nel over midwicket to bring up his first century against South Africa. Mohammad Asif’s dismissal soon after – gloving a sharp bouncer from Nel to short leg – prompted Younis, who was all agression yesterday, to cut down on rash strokes and concentrate more on placement. Sweeping Paul Harris and guiding Nel past the slips, he kept a decent scoring-rate while Misbah-ul-Haq struggled to score.When Jacques Kallis bowled three consecutive maidens, it looked like the match was heading for a draw. But Younis broke the shackles, and kept the game alive, by fiercely driving Kallis past mid-on.Dale Steyn’s introduction to the attack, however, caused Pakistan a major setback once again – he’d accounted for both openers on the previous day – as a delivery on the off stump shaped in slightly and barely rose above Younis’ ankles to hit the stumps as the batsman went down late. With Younis, out for 126, went Pakistan’s best hopes of winning the match. Steyn, who lacked accuracy in the first innings and managed only two wickets, bowled a much better line in the second, generating a lot of pace and movement.As Misbah and Shoaib Malik played defensively, the South African bowlers started piling on the pressure. However when Graeme Smith came into the attack to unsettle the partnership just before lunch he was hit for three boundaries in the over – Pakistan’s firstboundary for 80 balls – as both batsmen started using their feet.It was probably Pakistan’s defensive mind-frame that accounted for Misbah straight after lunch; He played a forward-defensive shot to Nel and got hit on the back leg as he missed.Kamran Akmal, after a quickfire 42 as an opener in the first innings, did not last long and became Harris’ only victim of the day. The new ball was taken straight away and as Steyn returned to dismiss Abdur Rehman prodding forward and Umar Gul driving loosely tomid-on.As Malik went after the bowling with only Danish Kaneria to partner him, it was always going to be an all-out attack and a top edge off his bat provided Makhaya Ntini his only wicket of the match as the visitors handed Pakistan only their second defeat in the 40 Tests in Karachi. A rare off game for Ntini but an excellent performance by Harris – seven wickets – and Nel – four wickets and 33 runs in the second innings – proved enough on a pitch where Pakistan bowlers, bar Rehman, failed to impress at all.

Trevor Hohns, Australia’s selection chairman through the team’s most successful period, has resigned to pursue increasing business interests. Hohns was appointed to the panel of Lawrie Sawle in 1993 and three years later was promoted to its leader as the Test and one-day teams embarked on a trip to No. 1 in the world.The retirement of Hohns’s business partner sparked the move and he said he could not combine the job with the almost-full-time selection duties. “Despite its obvious challenges, I have certainly enjoyed the role and can only hope that my contribution has in some small way assisted Australian cricket,” Hohns said. “I have been fortunate to play a part in the panel for so long and am very grateful for the opportunity.”A former legspinner who appeared in seven Tests in the late 1980s, Hohns was prepared to make – and carry out – the tough decisions and was often a target from dumped players and disappointed supporters. Responsible for ending the careers of Ian Healy and Mark Waugh before the long-term representatives felt they were ready, Hohns also delivered Steve Waugh the news his one-day captaincy was over in 2001-02. Waugh beat the selectors by setting his own Test retirement date, but most of his team-mates suffered either in consultation with Hohns or by his axe.Criticisms of Queensland bias in the selection panel, which until last year also included Allan Border, were also regular and Mark Waugh called for Hohns to walk out after the current squad to South Africa was selected. Hohns was in charge when Australia won 16 Tests in a row from 1999 to 2001 and picked the outfits that won the 1999 and 2003 World Cups. During his time on the panel Australia’s record was 35 series wins, six losses and five draws.Andrew Hilditch, David Boon and Merv Hughes are the other members on the selection panel and a Cricket Australia spokesman said a replacement was expected to be named “shortly”. Creagh O’Connor, the Cricket Australia chairman, said Hohns fulfilled one of Australian cricket’s most important roles.”The chairman draws a lot of public and media scrutiny and seldom receives the recognition it deserves,” he said. “In Trevor’s case, he has made an outstanding contribution to the role and has played a pivotal part in helping Australia remain the No. 1 Test and one-day international team in world cricket over a sustained period.”

Bermuda’s national coach Gus Logie has a threadbare squad of just 12 players at his disposal as Bermuda prepares to begin the post World Cup era against Denmark.Practically everyone that travelled to Europe this week is guaranteed a game over the next few weeks with Bermuda’s thin resources stretched to the limit. Just four of the World Cup squad – skipper Irving Romaine, new vice-captain Stephen Outerbridge, big hitter Lionel Cann and spinner Dwayne Leverock – boarded the plane on Monday night with a host of new faces being asked to fill the enormous void left by the likes of Janeiro Tucker, Clay Smith, OJ Pitcher and Kevin Hurdle.The middle order – Bermuda’s strength over the past few years – has been completely decimated. As well as Tucker, Smith and Pitcher there will be no David Hemp, no Dean Minors and no Kwame Tucker. A squad of up and coming youngsters and international novices will take their place.Ironically most of the youngsters – the likes of Edness, Robinson and Arthur Pitcher – have played for Bermuda before. It is club veterans like Roderick Masters, Dwight Basden and James Celestine who will be making their international debuts on this tour.Coach Logie admitted the team was in a rebuilding stage and said the tour would be a test of how quickly the new boys could adapt to the enormous jump in class from domestic cricket.”Any time you go out to play you play to win, but we also have to be realistic and realize that this is a rebuilding stage. We are looking at development of our younger players and exposure for certain players to a higher level of cricket. It’s about understanding what it takes to play at that level.”The opening games against Denmark are not full one-day-internationals because the Danes did not qualify for the World Cup and ODI status. But Logie expects them, along with Holland and Ireland who Bermuda face later in the tour, to be among their biggest rivals for re-qualification at the ICC Trophy 2009 in Malaysia.”We played them a few years ago and narrowly beat them, but they have grown in stature and the game has taken off a bit in Denmark. Many of their players have exposure to the English county cricket set up. They, Holland and Ireland are going to be three of our arch rivals in 2009 and we need to learn as much from this tour as we possibly can.”There will be new roles for some of the players on this tour with Lionel Cann, traditionally used as a late-order finisher, likely to be asked to become the mainstay of the batting line-up along with Romaine. “We don’t have the same depth in the middle order anymore and the chances are Lionel will be asked to bat higher up and play a more integral role. Players like Lionel and the captain Irving Romaine will need to play a central role.”The return of seamer George O’Brien gives the bowling attack an injection of pace and aggression while Jacobi Robinson, Arthur Pitcher and Ryan Steede will play a supporting role. Dwayne Leverock will again be the centre-piece of Bermuda’s bowling attack with his economical left-arm spin.Logie said the new boys had shown commitment in practice. Now it was time to see what they could do on the big stage. “This is an opportunity to assess certain players and see how they gel as a team. We can practice as much as we want but you have to think that those things we did in training can be done in game situations.”Preparation for the tour has been far from ideal with Azeem Pticher, Kevin Hurdle and Maurice Lowe all pulling out for work and personal reasons and Greg Maybury being called-up to the Under-19 qualifiers. The search for available replacements saw Robinson and Basden called up. But further back-up was not available.”We have a lot of players playing the game but for whatever reason not everybody is in line for selection for the national team.”He added that the passion for the game shown at Cup Match was not so evident when it came to the national team. “Players can want to train, want to play with passion at the local level. If that can be transferred to the national team they can reap just as good rewards.”One fillip for Logie will be the arrival of three stars from Bermuda’s Under-19 team ahead of the game against Ireland. Seamers Stefan Kelly and Malachi Jones and spinner Rodney Trott will jet in from Canada after representing the U-19s in the World Cup qualifiers. “These are the guys we are looking at to carry the flag in the near future. We want to wish them all the best in Canada where we trust they will qualify for the World Cup.”Reproduced with permission of the Bermuda Sun

Finally, some much-needed PR for Karachi and the National Stadium: including thisTest, ten of the last eleven matches here have produced results. Whatevertalk there always is of the pitch, it manages to be overshadowedeventually by producing a winner. And provided you have thebowlers, it has always been a ground given to reverse swing, an art thatalways makes for an entertaining spectacle.Old balls have regularly been made to do remarkable things amidst theconcrete surrounds of the National Stadium. India were safe at 108 for twoin 1982-83 here, before Imran Khan skittled them for 197 after tea; onlyone of his eight victims wasn’t bowled or leg-before and if Wasim Bari,’keeper that day, is to be believed, were there corners to be navigated onthe pitch, Imran would have done so.Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis didn’t much mind Karachi either, especiallyduring the 1990-91 season. New Zealand would have felt secure at 167 forthree on the first day, though by its end and the next morning, the Ws hadmade sure their total didn’t go past 196. West Indies too disintegratedtwice suddenly in their Test here later that season, both bowlers sharing15 of the 20 wickets to fall.And Karachiites still recall Waqar’s five-wicket haul in the ODI againstthe West Indies from the same tour: chasing 212 from 40 overs, DesmondHaynes and Richie Richardson had a handle on the situation with a 138-runpartnership for the second wicket. The return of Waqar, after a spankingin his first spell, brought a swift, spectacular end, 139 for one ending205 for seven.There have been more, but why does battered leather take to Karachi somuch? For such a little-understood phenomenon, answers are understandablyvague. But ex-cricketers, Wasim and Waqar among them, point first to thesea breeze that filters in from the coast roughly15km south. Drierconditions and traditionally rough outfields have always helped, ensuringthat reverse swing is always a factor at the ground.Waqar, now bowling coach, worked especially with Umar Gul and Shahid Nazirbefore the match, with a scuffed up ball, knowing it would play a part. Inhindsight, it was a handy session, for at various junctures through theTest, the old ball told. Not as extravagantly as it has been known to, butenough. On the second day, Gul winked out three top-order batsmen in 11balls, Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan castled by deliveries that swungbig and late. In essence, if the Test wasn’t decided during that period,it was set up.And for stretches of the last day, it appeared as if only some old ballmagic would sweep aside what periodically threatened to be stoutresistance, especially as clouds gathered and the light faded. It didn’twork out that way entirely thanks to Danish Kaneria – leg-spin beinganother of the ground’s old, enjoyable weaknesses – but Gul fracturing awell-set Sarwan’s foot in the morning was a moment as important as it wasunfortunate. In tandem with Nazir and Abdul Razzaq, all others weretroubled if not dismissed.It wasn’t hurled at the pace it has been known to be delivered at andneither was the parabola it cut as much a banana as it can be. Andultimately the old ball really had only Razzaq’s time-honoured tail-endremoval to show at the death. But swing it always did and the atmospherewas forever pregnant with its threat. Lara acknowledged later that this particularability was especially handy. “Gul, Nazir and even Razzaq all swung theball late. On such dry pitches and in such conditions, it is an addedadvantage to be able to do it.”Reverse swing, leg-spin, a cool sea breeze, permanently bright weather andnow 21 Pakistan wins out of 38: as advertising goes, selling points forvenues don’t get much better than that.

Adam Griffith, Leicestershire’s Australian fast bowler, has been forced to return home due to a persistent ankle injury, the club has confirmed.Griffith, 28, was signed in June when Mohammad Asif joined up with the Pakistan squad for the tour to England.The injury to his left ankle ruled him out of the Twenty20 final earlier this month and last Thursday a specialist administered a cortisone injection and advised him to rest for two weeks.”It has compromised his whole delivery because he hasn’t been able to slam that foot down in the way he would have liked,” Leicestershire coach Tim Boon told the club’s website.He is now heading home in attempt to gain full fitness with Tasmania before the Australian season starts in October.It means that Leicestershire will finish the summer without an overseas player after the Pakistani leg-spinner Mansoor Amjad was ruled out of the rest of the season with a finger injury.It will, however, create opportunities for some of the county’s younger bowlers.”We have an opportunity to take a good look at some of the younger seam bowlers over the remaining few weeks of the season, which is not such a bad thing”, explained Boon.”With Stuart Broad away on England duty, there is an excellent chance for the likes of Ryan Cummins and Chris Liddle.””It is disappointing in some respects that Adam’s spell with us has ended this way, but a decision has been reached that he should return home and both parties are happy with that”