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Shane Bond, the former New Zealand fast bowler, has been appointed assistant coach of Central Districts for the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. He will be deputising for coach Alan Hunt and will be in charge of the team’s pace attack.”I love cricket and I love being involved in the game. I think I’ve got a bit to offer,” Bond told the . “I’ve set some targets that I’d like to coach at a higher level. This is a nice opportunity to cut my teeth and then see what happens. I’m hoping to make a good impression.”Bond played 18 Tests, taking 87 wickets at an impressive average of 22.09. He also represented New Zealand in 82 ODIs and played for Canterbury in the domestic circuit. He announced his retirement from international cricket in May this year after having stepped out of the Test format in December 2009.Central Districts, led by batsman Jamie How, will be without the services of some of their senior players for the tournament. Ross Taylor will be representing Royal Challengers Bangalore, allrounder Jacob Oram has been ruled out due to an injured knee and Graham Napier has a stress facture of the back. However, they boast a strong pace attack including Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne and Ben Wheeler. A fourth seamer, Bevan Small, will miss the tournament due to an injury.”CD are lucky to have four of the best young bowlers in the country. They’re all very talented and it’s quite exciting to be working alongside those guys. Milne and McClenaghan get it through at around 140kmh.”Central Districts qualified for the Champions League by beating Auckland in the final of New Zealand’s domestic Twenty20 tournament in January this year. Despite their depleted line-up, Bond was optimistic. “We’ve got some inexperience but that’s one thing that you fly under the radar.”

Andrew Strauss is very comfortable with England’s decision to change their opening batsman and wicketkeeper with the World Cup less than six months away, after Steve Davies, the latest man to take the gloves and slot in alongside the captain, hit 87 off 67 balls in the first one-day international against Pakistan at Chester-le-Street.It had looked as though the selectors had committed themselves to Craig Kieswetter after rushing him into the one-day side in Bangladesh earlier this year, then rewarding his World Twenty20 form with the gloves against Australia and Bangladesh this season. However, despite hitting a hundred in his third game in Chittagong, Kieswetter failed to take the chances offered to him, and his form faded alarmingly during the one-dayers in mid-summer.Struggling against Shaun Tait’s 95mph outswingers is one thing, but the alarm bells began ringing when he also struggled against the friendlier offerings of Mashrafe Mortaza and Rubel Hossain. Although he was retained for the two Twenty20s against Pakistan, a pair of skittish innings suggested he was still a long way from top form despite returning to Somerset and hitting 80 against Lancashire.”We felt it needed to be done,” Strauss said of the change. “Steve has been in outstanding form for Surrey, and Craig Kieswetter will tell you himself he did not bat as well as he would have liked in the one-day series against Australia and Bangladesh. We made a change, and at the moment we’re quite happy with that decision.”Davies also fell cheaply in the Twenty20s, twice picking out fielders on the leg side, but in Durham he took his chance to make an impression with a confident innings which set England on their way to 274 for 6 in 41 overs. With just 11 more ODIs between now and the World Cup England don’t have much time to make up their minds over such a key position, but Strauss isn’t concerned.”There are a lot of things that give me headaches. But one of our guys getting 80 off 60 balls is not one of them,” he said. “It was an outstanding innings. He’s been chomping at the bit to get a chance to play, and has had to wait very patiently.”He took his chance with both hands today. He’s got shots all round the ground – which is important in one-day cricket – and he seems to equally play seam and spin pretty well. It was a great start. He’s obviously got a lot to learn at this level, but he’s taken a big step forward today.”Davies knows that his latest England selection will allow him a run of matches at least until the end of the season to prove himself compared to the one-off appearances in a Twenty20 against West Indies in Trinidad, and the Champions Trophy semi-final against Australia last year when Matt Prior was ill.”The two games I played previously, one was when Matty was out and the other was just a one-off Twenty20,” he said. “But I feel this is now my time. It’s a great chance for me, and I’m really happy with the way things went today.”It highlights the depths to which this tour as sunk, and the gulf between the two sides during the Twenty20 matches in Cardiff, that everyone was relishing the ‘contest’ on offer in Durham even though England were always well placed for victory as they defended their total. However, it was an improved display from Pakistan as Shoaib Akhtar bowled quickly and without luck, Kamran Akmal hit a half-century and there was some lusty hitting from Umar Akmal and Asad Shafiq.”It was a definite improvement from the Twenty20 and we looked a much better unit,” said Waqar Younis, the Pakistan coach. “The boys really batted well which is what we’ve been struggling with. Asad Shafiq has just flown in from Sri Lanka and looked pretty good so there are definite positives out of this game. We could probably have managed to keep 275 down to 250 but that’s the way the game is. It was superb cricket from England, they batted superbly up the order and 270 was maybe a touch too many.”And Waqar admitted it will be a challenge for his team to overcome a confident home side. “England, no doubt, are playing superb cricket in Twenty20 as well as one-day cricket,” he said. “They’re a much better unit. It will take a special performance to beat them, but we looked pretty good and close to beating them. We just need a bit of momentum to go our way and hopefully in the next couple of ODIs if things fall right we can manage to beat them.”

There’s a popular line in Australian cricket that goes “it’s harder to get into the Test team than out of it”. Usually it has applied to the batsmen and the current top six, which falters almost as often as it purrs, is benefitting from almost untouchable status.Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, is not plotting any changes to the line-up for the two Tests in India in October, and would be happiest if the order didn’t alter until after the Ashes. That’s despite a couple of batsmen – Ricky Ponting and Marcus North – losing power since being defeated by England last year, Michael Hussey edging closer to the end, and Shane Watson being employed as an out-of-position opener.In the early 1990s, the Waughs were sometimes called the koala brothers (not to their faces!) because they were seen as protected species. Back then Mark and Steve were in their 20s and their best was in front of them. Instead of being on the endangered list over the past year, Marcus North, a 31-year-old, remains in the top tree. Admittedly he is clinging on, but every time he is on the verge of tumbling his powerful admirers prop him up.Hilditch wants North to be a long-term player and he will be given a chance in India to secure an Ashes role. “He’s a very experienced cricketer and we’re going to lose some experience in the next six months to two years, so if he was playing really well and gave us some experience, that would be our ideal outcome,” Hilditch said. “But Marcus would be aware, as any cricketer is, that he needs to perform well and obviously his consistency is something that we’d be looking for him to improve.”For a professional batsman who has impressed for more than a decade, North has a rare ability to hit or miss. But it’s not just his tendency for small scores – he has 21 or fewer in 19 of his 28 Test innings – that is a concern. It’s also the times when he makes runs. After a fabulous Ashes series, North has registered only four half-centuries against the weaker opponents of West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand.Most tellingly, those successes came when Australia’s innings were already set up. He entered at 4 for 253 to score 79 against West Indies and his 68 in the same series came after starting at 3 for 277. In New Zealand, where he excelled under immense scrutiny, he walked out at 4 for 176 to post an unbeaten 112, while his 90 in the next game began at 4 for 247. Apart from the century in Wellington, the runs were at the easier end of the Test scale.With Australia’s batting line-up showing regular brittleness – 160 at The Oval, 150 against West Indies in Perth, 127 in Sydney and 88 at Headingley – they need the No.6 to be capable of stability. In those four innings North scratched 8, 1, 20 and 16.Against Pakistan in England he displayed the flail and fail method, appearing more like a nervy rookie than a senior pro with four hundreds in 17 Tests. “He’s proved he can play international cricket,” Hilditch said. “We’ve been preparing for this Ashes since we lost them last time, that’s why Marcus has been in the side, he has been part of our longer-term planning for this Ashes series coming up.”Watson’s aggressive approach is made for the middle order and he is the logical choice to drop down whenever a middle-order space appears. After starting with seven fifties and a century in his first eight matches as opener, Watson’s life has become tougher and he is less comfortable when the new ball swings, which is something England do well.Hilditch is reluctant to shuffle the order, even though he sees Phillip Hughes as a long-term opener, but is confident a double switch to the top six can be done smoothly – if absolutely necessary. “You can make changes, I don’t think you need to go away and say you can’t,” he said. “But the reality is we don’t see changes being made. Shane Watson has been extremely successful at the top of order, he averages very close to 50 opening, which is a marked increase of where he was down the order.”Hilditch also does not want to break up Watson’s partnership with Simon Katich. The pair averages 54.95 runs an innings, which currently places them behind only the Lawry-Simpson and Brown-Fingleton combinations in Australia’s history. “It’s been a very good partnership,” Hilditch said. “Obviously Shane can bat anywhere in the order, but he certainly seems to be grabbing the opening spot.”One person returning after a long-lay who has a place waiting for him is Peter Siddle. Siddle has not played since a stress fracture was diagnosed in his back in February and is planning to return with Victoria at the Champions League in September. If that goes smoothly he will be expected to face England at the Gabba on November 25.”He’s certainly part of our Ashes plans, and has been since the last Ashes,” Hilditch said. “He’s got to be back bowling well and performing, nobody automatically comes back in. Certainly fully fit, we see him in the top echelon of fast bowlers.” This is a panel that keeps faith in those who have served them ably in wins and losses.

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Leicestershire and Durham saw their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident t20 washed away as their penultimate game at Grace Road was abandoned due to rain.Umpires Trevor Jesty and Tim Robinson called off the match without a ball being bowled after two inspections following heavy downpours during the evening.That meant both sides picked up a point, leaving them with only the slimmest of chances of making the knockout stages and having to rely on other results to do so.

Trent Johnston will captain Ireland for the two one-day matches against West Indies A later this month and the World Cricket League Division One one-dayers between July 1 and 10. The selectors announced the squads for the two series and the key players missing are current captain William Porterfield, wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien and fast bowler Boyd Rankin.All three have been omitted because they have county commitments. The new faces in the squad are Albert van der Merwe, the offspinning allrounder, and Sussex fast bowler Craig Young. Andrew Poynter, who’s in both squads, has been rewarded for his impressive start to the season for both his club, Clontarf, and Ireland A.”The county players have one and four-day games over the period, so we have to plan without them. It’s always a balancing act with the counties, and we’ve got bigger games ahead,” Ireland coach Phil Simmons said. “We’re looking at alternatives in the bowling. The quick bowling is our weakest area, so it’s a chance for us to try out Craig Young to see what he can do, and also Phil Eaglestone, who has been on the periphery now for a few seasons. In the spin department, Albert van der Merwe has started the season well with his club, so he’ll get his opportunity. It’ll be a chance too for me to see Rory McCann with Niall [O’Brien] unavailable.”While I agree it doesn’t look the strongest squad at first glance, don’t forget there are still eight or nine of the team who started the games in the ICC World Twenty20. In a way, it might be a good thing that these guys aren’t available, as it gives those drafted in a great chance to force their way into the reckoning for the World Cup next year.”Ireland’s games against West Indies A are at Stormont on June 23 and 25.Squad for WCL: Trent Johnston (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Phil Eaglestone, Nigel Jones, Rory McCann, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Andrew Poynter, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Andrew White, Gary Wilson, Craig Young.Squad for West Indies A : Trent Johnston (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Phil Eaglestone, Nigel Jones, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Andrew Poynter, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Andrew White, Gary Wilson

ScorecardJames Taylor hit a brilliant double century and Australian Andrew McDonald a career best 176 in a record fourth-wicket partnership as Leicestershire took control of their County Championship game against Middlesex at Grace Road. Taylor and McDonald smashed 360 runs off 73 overs to take Leicestershire to an imposing 464 for 3 declared and earn the home side five batting bonus points for the first time this season.Taylor finished on 206 not out off 271 balls while McDonald’s 218-ball innings beat his previous best of 150 not out for Victoria against New South Wales three years ago. Middlesex then faced an awkward seven overs before the close following Matthew Hoggard’s declaration but reached 19 without loss to trail by 445 at the end of the second day.It was the fourth century of 20-year-old Taylor’s career but his first at Grace Road, while for McDonald it was his second in consecutive Championship matches. Their fourth-wicket partnership beat the previous best of 290 between Peter Willey and Tim Boon – the current Leicestershire coach – against Warwickshire in 1984.Leicestershire’s performance was in stark contrast to their efforts in the last match against Glamorgan a few days ago when they were bowled out for 71 in their second innings. They had begun the second day of this match looking in some trouble on an overnight 23 for 2 but then proceeded to score 441 runs off 88 overs for the loss of just one wicket.Middlesex toiled to make any impact with the ball and were not helped by some sloppy fielding throughout the day and the absence after lunch of seamer Iain O’Brien, who was unable to return to the field because of a suspected thigh muscle injury.The only wicket claimed by Middlesex was that of opener Matthew Boyce, who was beaten and bowled by a perfect yorker from Gareth Berg an hour into the morning’s play. Boyce was out for 42 but from that point on Taylor and McDonald dominated the day. Runs flowed at around four an over as the fourth-wicket pair flayed the Middlesex attack with the boundary count piling up.Taylor, who shot to stardom last season scoring his maiden century against Middlesex at Southgate, clearly loves playing against them. He reached his century this time with a boundary off Shaun Udal – his 15th at that stage – off 138 balls. McDonald was equally severe with some glorious drives both sides of the wicket and despite using eight bowlers Udal was unable to prevent Leicestershire’s march towards the 400-plus total.McDonald reached his century off 158 balls with 13 fours and Taylor’s double century arrived off 267 balls with 27 fours. Soon after that Hoggard called a halt with Taylor on 206 having faced 271 balls and hit 28 fours and McDonald on 176, which included 22 boundaries. It was a magnificent effort from the home side and the partnership was the fourth highest for any wicket for them in a Championship match.

Ajmal Shahzad could be in line to make his Test debut against Bangladesh at Old Trafford on Friday, following the foot injury to Tim Bresnan that ruled him out of the reckoning and created a fast-bowling vacancy in the side that won the first Test at Lord’s by eight wickets on Monday.Shahzad faces competition from Ryan Sidebottom, who was called into the squad following the announcement of Bresnan’s stress fracture on Tuesday, but having toured Bangladesh without being given an opportunity to play in either of the Tests at Dhaka or Chittagong, Shahzad is hopeful that this time he’ll get his chance to impress.”I’m ready to go, if the nod is given to me. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Shahzad told reporters at Old Trafford. “I hadn’t been involved with the England circuit at all, apart from with the performance programme in South Africa, so it was a big hit for me [to be picked to go to Bangladesh last winter] – and I really enjoyed it out there.”It was difficult conditions and made me wake up and think ‘not all wickets are going to be bouncy, quick – and it’s not always going to swing and seam’. You have to put some hard graft in and work at other areas of your game. I’ve learned a lot from being there and in the West Indies. I’ve got stronger shoulders from carrying drinks – but I’ve learned a lot ‘up here’.”If he does get to play, Shahzad is aware that all the focus will be on his colleague, Steven Finn, who ripped through Bangladesh with nine wickets at Lord’s, and seems sure to be promoted to take the new ball alongside James Anderson.”Finny’s come on the scene and performed superbly well,” said Shahzad. “Obviously, with his extra height, he’s got something to offer that Andy [Flower] likes. I’ve seen the boys progress, and what it takes at international level. So I know what I need to do. I think the only way I can really do that is out there on the pitch.”With the notable exception of Finn, Flower was critical of the performance of England’s bowlers at Lord’s, but seeing as many of the squad went into the match straight off the back of their successful World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean, a bit of five-day rustiness was inevitable.”We have just come off the back of a one-day competition so it will always be difficult to adjust,” said Shahzad. “There has not been a lot of red ball practice, but we saw Jimmy [Anderson] coming into a rhythm at the end of the first innings at Lord’s and Finny [Steven Finn] burst on to the scene and did very well. Bresnan had a bit of trouble but when he comes back from his injury he will be better for the experience.”One of Shahzad’s early challenges could well be to keep Tamim Iqbal under control, after he lit up Lord’s with a thrilling 94-ball hundred during Bangladesh’s second innings. Shahzad has previous in that regard, having bagged Tamim for a first-over duck during his ODI debut at Chittagong in March, but is under no illusions about the task that could await him.”I like the way he plays, and I would prefer someone to play like that rather than block against me,” he said. “It was nice to sit at home and watch him play. If I get the nod hopefully I can get him out early doors.”Tamim, for his part, credited his coach, Jamie Siddons, for giving him the licence and the confidence to bat in his own unfettered style. “When I started playing Test cricket I was in two minds whether to go slow or go fast – and originally I decided to go slow,” he said.”It was not working for me. My first 10 Tests were not good – I think I only got two fifties. The coaches said to play like I do in the ODIs and enjoy my batting – ‘We will not say anything to you’. I know the way I bat sometimes looks fantastic, and sometimes looks ugly, but I am happy with the way I play my natural game.”

ScorecardPeter Trego rode his luck to record the quickest first-class century of the season so far•Getty Images

The career paths of cricketers do not always run along predictable lines and it is fair to say that Peter Trego’s is unique.Born in Weston-super-Mare, he made his first-class debut for Somerset at 18 and went to Sri Lanka with England’s under-19s the following winter but from there things rather petered out. Somerset let him go and a move to Kent came to nothing and for a while he was out of the game, supplementing his income from a variety of jobs by playing non-League football. He was a goalkeeper, at which his claims to fame were an appearance on Match of the Day playing for Chippenham and scoring a goal in the Conference for Margate, from a free-kick in his own half.Maybe this is why he plays cricket with the air of a man who knows he has been lucky to have a second chance, as Somerset gave him when they engaged him again in 2006. When he hits a cricket ball – and he gives it a hefty thump – you imagine he is doing so out of the joy of being on the field.Not that his ambitions are modest. He still wants to play for a senior England side and in that respect he advertised his credentials impressively enough on the third day here, hitting the fastest century of the season so far in a manner that was typical – bold, risky, fortunate and, so far as Lancashire were concerned, painfully effective.Reaching three figures in just 83 balls – his second 50 coming off a mere 26 – he set the pace in a scorching partnership with James Hildreth that has given Somerset the upper hand, even though, thanks to the gloomy weather here, time is working against a positive result.The experience was all the more difficult to stomach for Lancashire in that they dropped Trego not once but twice before he had completed his first 50. He should have gone at 22, when an ugly pull went straight to Glen Chapple, the captain, at mid on only to end up on the floor. Daren Powell was the bowler and it was not his best delivery but he did produce a much better one to find the edge when Trego was on 40. This time Paul Horton, at first slip, seemed to have the ball in his hands but again it spilled out.With those escapes behind him, Trego really let loose, doubling his boundary count to 16 as he rushed to his hundred, his first away from Somerset, all of the others having come at Taunton or Bath, including that astonishing effort of just 54 deliveries against Yorkshire last season as Somerset chased down an improbable 476 to win.Powell got him in the end, picking up his first first-class wicket for Lancashire as Trego attempted another pull through mid-wicket but miscued the ball to mid-off instead. Chapple held it safely this time, to the relief and amusement of his teammates.The partnership with Hildreth added 186 in just 32 overs. “I’ve still got ambitions to play for England in some format this summer,” Trego said afterwards.Up on the balcony, Peter Moores, the Lancashire coach, may have been less inclined to chuckle, not least because by then Hildreth had also been dropped twice, if somewhat more forgivably. Second slip got his fingertips to a chance when the batsman was on 62 and there was another half-chance on 78 to square leg, where the substitute fielder, Luke Procter, flung out a hand but could not manage to hold on.The cost was not quite so heavy this time but Hildreth nonetheless moved to 99 before missing out on a hundred to enormous frustration, when he seemed to think about running the ball down to third man off Chapple’s bowling, then appeared to change his mind not quite decisively enough, consequently getting a nick that Luke Sutton pouched behind the stumps.The last three wickets did not add significantly to the total but the damage was largely done as Somerset advanced to a lead of 97 on first innings and Lancashire reflected on bowling figures that had taken a hefty hit, the price for offering too much width on a pitch that offered the batsmen a chance when the bowler strayed off line. Kyle Hogg, who had looked sharp and mean the day before and was 3 for 44 from 20 overs overnight, finished with 4 for 96 from 30.2. Chapple’s three wickets cost 146. Saj Mahmood, still off the field with a sore calf, would have got good bounce, you fancy, and been a handful if he had his direction right.Sutton, after his first-innings hundred, kept his place at the top of the Lancashire order despite 102 overs in the field but bad light hindered the home side as they set about trimming the arrears and a draw looks the likeliest outcome.

Mark Cosgrove, who played for Australia in 2006, has missed out on a contract with South Australia to end an eventful eight years with the state. A gifted left-hander, Cosgrove has often struggled with the demands of first-class cricket, with his weight and fitness analysed as closely as his batting average.While still only 25, Cosgrove has been over-looked because Jamie Cox, the state’s director of cricket, said he had not fulfilled his potential. “Mark has made a valuable contribution to South Australian cricket over many years, and I certainly hope there are other opportunities out there for him,” Cox said. “We have worked hard with him during this time, but the unfortunate reality is that we were unable to help him fulfil his full potential.”The decision comes after Cosgrove scored 511 first-class runs in 2009-10, including two hundreds, and also averaged more than 40 in the one-day competition. He contributed as South Australia progressed to the Twenty20 domestic final, but will not be part of the squad for the lucrative Champions League later in the year. The good news for Cosgrove, who appeared in three ODIs in 2006, is he has interest from two other states.

Sarah Andrews, the Australian fast bowler, has announced her retirement from all forms of cricket. Andrews, 28, has departed after a career of three Tests, 39 one-day internationals and 16 Twenty20 internationals.Andrews was a member of the squad that recently returned from New Zealand with the Rose Bowl trophy and she was part of Australia’s 2008-09 World Cup group. She has also been a key player for the New South Wales Brakers during a dominant era for the team.”I’ve been playing representative cricket for the last 10 years and have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has been a big part of my life so this was always going to be a very tough decision,” Andrews said. “I am going to miss it a lot, especially my team mates and all the characters within the game. I’ve have a lot of fond memories of cricket and it’s been great to be part of so many successful teams.”Andrews leaves the game with 54 one-day international wickets at 21.14, placing her equal ninth on Australia’s all-time list. She also claimed four Test wickets at 33.75 and 10 Twenty20 victims at 36.80.