Bennett King has resigned as West Indies coach after their failure to reach the World Cup semi-finals, according to the West Indies Cricket Board director Jackie Hendriks. The Jamaica Gleaner also reported Hendriks confirming Ian Bradshaw, the left-arm fast bowler, had followed Brian Lara into international retirement.”The West Indies Cricket Board [WICB] has accepted with regret the resignation of coach, Bennett King,” said a WICB statement. “Mr King, in his resignation, offered to remain in office until May 31 to facilitate the establishment of the regional cricket academy. Mr King was responsible for establishing and managing the Australian academy and developed the basic plan for a WICB academy structure.”His presence during the month of May will provide us with an opportunity to better understand the challenges facing the board as it implements the new structure. Mr. King will not accompany the team on the England tour and the board will subsequently announce the management team, including the coach, for that tour.”King moved from the Australian Academy to West Indies in 2005 but has been unable to reverse the side’s inconsistent form. “I have heard that he recommended his assistant David Moore to take the team to England,” Hendriks told the paper. The tour is due to start next month.King has continued the trend of coaches leaving after the World Cup. Greg Chappell, Duncan Fletcher and Dav Whatmore have resigned while John Buchanan will walk away when the tournament ends.Bradshaw, 32, played only three matches during the World Cup and his last appearance was in the loss to South Africa on April 10. He appeared in five Tests and 62 ODIs, taking 78 wickets at 29.47.

Zimbabwe’s Graeme Cremer has been slammed by an Oxfordshire club side after he failed to honour an agreement to play for them this summer.According to the Oxford Mail, Cremer had signed a contract to play and coach at Aston Rowant and was due to make his debut this weekend. But when club officials tried to contact him to confirm travel arrangements, they received a text message from Cremer saying he was no longer coming.Paul Humphreys, Aston Rowant’s captain, told the newspaper that the club was considering writing to the ICC for advice. “I’ve been told that there is no point in going to Zimbabwe Cricket because we won’t get anything out of them,” said Humphreys. “We could take it up with him because he has already broken his contract. We are out of pocket as a club and it is hugely frustrating for us.”It’s a bit of a muddle. We’ve been trying to get to the bottom of it. Two weeks ago he was selected to play for Zimbabwe A after being out of favour for a couple of years. Because he had already signed for us, he said it would be beneficial for him to play in the UK.”But Zimbabwe Cricket is blocking its cricketers from playing abroad, and all those who took part in the World Cup were forced to sign contracts agreeing not to seek overseas employment or they would have been dropped. Last summer several players, including Terry Duffin and Ed Rainsford, played for UK clubs.Cremer did not sign such a contract, but it seems he changed his mind about playing for Aston Rowant once he was picked to represent Zimbabwe A against a touring Kenya Select XI. It is reported that he was told in no uncertain terms by Ozias Bvute, ZC’s managing director, that if he joined an English club then he was finished as far as Zimbabwe cricket was concerned.However, Cricinfo has learned that Cremer failed to advise the club even though he knew he would not be coming more than a week before he texted them. “I just checked with him on Wednesday that he was OK,” Humphreys said. “He sent me a text message saying ‘no I’m not coming, I thought you had already been told this’. But when I contacted his agent, he had no idea about this and thought he was going to honour his contract.”

After weeks without a coach, Canada have suddenly appointed two of them. One will work with the national squad, and another will assist a Canadian invitational XI scheduled to play UAE in two one-day matches in Toronto. Both appointments are on a temporary basis.Pubudu Dassanayake, an ex-Sri Lanka Test player and a recent previous member of the Canadian team, will coach Canada for their Intercontinental Cup games against Holland and UAE, plus the ODIs against Holland on July 3 and 4.In addition, Courtenay Gonsalves will coach the Invitational XI against UAE in the one-day games which also take place on July 3 and 4. Now resident in Canada, Gonsalves has played for Guyana, and has acted as a national selector in Guyana. He also holds coaching qualifications from the West Indies Cricket Board.The need for a second coach arose from a clash of matches – Canada and their invitational XI, who are effectively an A side, have to play at the same time in July following a scheduling change by the visiting UAE side.Both appointments relate to the specific games in question and are made pending the appointment of a full-time national coach in Canada.On a different subject, the CCA has announced that the hiring process is now underway for their first-ever full-time CEO.

Geoff Lawson delivered a strong message to the Pakistan squad about the hard work needed to make the team successful when he was interviewed for the coach’s job. Lawson believes Dav Whatmore, the former Bangladesh mentor, is the favouite for the position, which is also being chased by Richard Done.”I won’t be surprised if I get it, I won’t be surprised if I miss out,” Lawson said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “I wouldn’t have gone for the interview if I wasn’t keen. It would be a terrific challenge. Dav is obviously the front-runner, but I told [the players] about the hard work that has to be done to make the team successful.”I think they appreciate how the Australian approach to playing cricket is a successful one and that’s what they’re trying to tap into. I didn’t chase the job, so there isn’t much to lose if I don’t get it.”Lawson said he was waiting to hear from the Pakistan Cricket Board about the appointment. When he went for the interview last month the players were at a training camp and Lawson was impressed with what he saw.”Those internal games can sometimes be played at, how would you say, less than full intensity, but they were having a go,” he said. “My impressions were very good. They were playing hard and they were playing with attitude. There’s a lot of talent there to work with. It’s an exciting prospect.”

Talat Ali, the Pakistan manager, soothed fears over Shoaib Akhtar’s fitness after the bowler caused a minor stir by walking off the field in a practice match between Pakistan probables at a camp being held at the National Stadium Karachi.Shoaib bowled three unsuccessful overs in the searing afternoon heat before going off. He returned later for another bowl, this time completing his four-over quota, though he was given some rough treatment by Salman Butt and Imran Nazir.Talat said the absence was due to dehydration and nothing else. “It was hot, very humid and he got dehydrated. We gave him water and time to recover. He was a little dizzy because of the dehydration but he was fine after a cold shower and lots of water.”Shoaib took the field initially with strapping on his left knee and, coupled with his absence from practice matches yesterday, led some to suggest he was carrying an injury. “It’s nothing serious,” Talat said. “The strapping was only for support and nothing major. He was working out before as well and with the heat and the fact that he bowls so fast, it can happen. It’s not a fitness issue at all. In our Abbottabad training camp [in June] he was the fittest guy there.”Since the beginning of 2006, Shoaib has suffered from serious injuries to both knees and his ankle. Along with the doping scandal, it has resulted in him playing four ODIs and one Test in that time. It has led to calls that Shoaib be used selectively in future to prolong his career, though Talat would only acknowledge that the board will have to nurse him along.”We will use him whenever he is required. We have to look after him and nurse him along,” he said. “He has just come back from a long gap out and anyway we can’t expect him to bowl 100mph every match.”The arrival of Geoff Lawson as Pakistan’s new coach will also play a role. “He was a good fast bowler so he will be able to work closely with Shoaib and plan with him. It’s a joint thing and the management and Shoaib have to work together on it. He is our star bowler and he wins us matches.”

ScorecardSouth Africa A eased to an eight-wicket win over Zimbabwe Select at the Harare Sports Club, taking a little over an hour to score the 88 runs they needed to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.Zimbabwe’s only hope was to make early breakthroughs, and those did not come as Morne van Wyk and Paul Harris extended their second-innings stand to 82 before Harris holed out in the deep off Stuart Matsikenyeri. But van Wyk and Hashim Amla knocked off the remaining 14 needed with no alarms.Zimbabwe will take heart from this performance in which they held their own in the first innings, but they are still struggling in terms of technique with their batting and consistency in their bowling. It should also be noted that despite the team’s name, this is almost a full Zimbabwe XI and almost all of the side will face a full-strength South Africa in three ODIs later this month.Brendan Taylor should return from his self-imposed exile for the second match with starts at Bulawayo on Monday, and Terry Duffin may also get his chance after yet another failure at the top of the order by Tino Mawoyo.

The throb of African drums will herald the start of the ICC World Twenty20 at a sold-out Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg next Tuesday.More than 35,000 excited spectators – 20,000 of them armed with a pair of inflatable plastic “bang sticks” – will hammer out rhythms conducted by professional drummers on the field.”We are not calling it an opening ceremony but an opening celebration,” said Cricket South Africa’s marketing manager Ros Goldin. “It will be a musical celebration of South Africa and Twenty20 cricket.”Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s president, is likely to be on hand to open the event amid rivers of vibrant colour that will flow fast enough to make a chameleon’s head spin.Then South Africa and West Indies will try to match the razzmatazz in the first game of the tournament, which culminates in the final at the Wanderers on September 24.No closing ceremony has been scheduled. Instead, the winners of the inaugural international tournament in this format will enjoy an extended bask in the limelight in what has been billed as a “high-profile presentation”.If it isn’t obvious by now, South Africans take their 20-over cricket seriously. So much so that families arrived with beach umbrellas, deck chairs and picnic hampers just to watch Graeme Smith’s T20 squad put 120 children through their paces in a coaching clinic on the beach in Durban on Sunday.A gormless MC interrupted the booming music to interview Brody, aged 12, and asked whether she “specialised in batting, bowling or fielding”. Perhaps that wasn’t such a silly question in Jonty Rhodes’ backyard.Brody “really didn’t know” how she came to be chosen to be a part of the clinic, but she sure knew who her favourite player was: “AB! AB! AB!”.It’s hardly surprising, then, that the “house full” signs have long been posted for several matches in the tournament. Low ticket prices have done their bit in that regard, but there is also a refreshing departure from other ICC events in that spectators will be allowed to bring umbrellas, folding chairs, cooler bags and their own food through the turnstiles.The first few thousand through the gates will be handed builders’ hard-hats – plenty of balls flying into the crowd … geddit?South Africans will make up a far larger chunk of the crowds than they have in other major international events that have been staged in their country, but tour operators have indicated that significant numbers of tourists are on their way.The teams have started arriving, and the atmosphere is building in cricket circles. Part of the growing excitement is due to the novelty of having big cricket to watch in September, which is normally the preserve of the most low-key of pre-season friendlies.Another aspect is the prestige that comes with hosting the first world championship in this format. Then there’s the prospect of, perchance, seeing someone besides Australia win a championship.Will anyone besides Mark Boucher miss Jacques Kallis? Only if South Africa start losing.

Mumbai’s Abhishek Nayar did not get a chance to impress in an unofficial one-day series against South Africa A last month, what with two of the three games washed out, but pitted against his team-mates from that series, he showed his talent.Nayar, a left-hand middle-order batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler, walked in when his side were threatening to collapse from 164 for 4 on a good batting surface. He didn’t curb his natural instincts, instead trusting his attacking method. Neither did he let the Rest of India bowlers hit with any sort of rhythm, taking Mumbai towards a competitive total with 118 off 108 balls, including 20 fours and a six.Nayar later said that his second first-class century, coming as it did against mostly the same team, was special. “At this level, at this point of my career, this innings is important. I was in the A side, but didn’t get to play. I had got a hundred before that, and to get another now is special.”That hundred was a 162-ball 152 against Karachi Urban last month which helped seal the Mohammad Nissar Trophy for Mumbai. But Nayar rates this a lot higher “because it came at a more crucial juncture”. “At that point I wasn’t thinking about India A and all, but now I am.”What satisfied him most, though, was that the situation was tough and he still managed with his natural game. “I rate it as a good knock because of the situation. We were on the back foot and I got my team into a better position. It’s not because of the quality of the opposition, but because the situation demanded a lot out of me. That’s why it was satisfactory.”If a situation demands something, it’s not necessary to change your game. And if I get out after changing my game, I would come back unhappy that I didn’t do what I do best. I did what I do best and it worked for me.”It is not usually that a team rattles up close to 400 on the first day of a big match in Indian domestic cricket, but thanks to Nayar’s aggressive batting Mumbai managed 385 in 86 overs. The pace at which the runs were scored will prevent this game from degenerating into a first-innings affair as happens with high-scoring domestic games. Being a five-day match and given the strength of ROI’s batting and the quality of the surface, Mumbai would have wanted more, as Nayar’s fellow centurion Sahil Kukreja agreed.

Morne Morkel, the South African fast bowler, is being sent home from Pakistan after fresh X-rays revealed a fractured left foot. The selectors will meet later today to decide whether a replacement is needed.Morkel injured his left foot while bowling on the third day of their tour match against Patron’s XI and only bowled five overs before being taken off.”We were not happy with Morne’s condition and decided to have fresh X-rays this morning,” Micheal Owen-Smith, the team’s media manager, announced. “The reports revealed that he has fractured his fourth metatarsal in his left foot and will be sent back to South Africa.”Morkel underwent a fitness test on Monday morning, which he failed, before the team was announced for the first Test. Morkel’s injury could keep him away from cricket for the next six to eight weeks

A court in Hyderabad has ordered an FIR to be lodged against Sharad Pawar, the Indian board president, and the secretary, Nirajan Shah, among others, for alleged misappropriation of funds from tickets sold for the recent ODI between Australia and India in the city.The third metropolitan magistrate of Cyberabad issued the order, acting on a complaint from a former member of the Rajya Sabha, P Radhakrishna. He contended that 24,000 tickets had been sold at a premium while 15,000 had been made available to the general public and that Rs 12 crore (approximately US$3,000,000) had been misappropriated in the process.Besides Pawar and Shah, the court ordered FIRs against G Vinod and Shivlal Yadav, the president and secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.Australia won the match, played on October 5 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, by 47 runs.