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The ICC has admitted that umpiring standards during the three Tests between Australia and West Indies slipped, but argued that the overall standard remained very high.Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager, said he was happy to acknowledge that errors were made. “There’s no point shying away from that,” he explained, “but having said that, we feel the overall standard of umpiring has improved in recent years, particularly with the advent of the elite panel.”The ICC maintains figures on every match, assessing the percentage of out and not-out decisions against each appeal deemed to be correct. Two seasons ago, when this scheme first started, the percentage was 90.9; last year, that rose to 94.8%. It is, however, unclear whether this includes the significant number of spurious appeals which are a feature of some games, or just the closer ones.”We expect the percentages [for the West Indies-Australia Tests] to be lower than those averages but for the first time we have the means now of providing the umpires with feedback and addressing that.” The West Indies board was so outraged with a series of poor decisions that it lodged a formal protest with the ICC.”We feel the overall standard of umpiring has improved in recent years,” Richardson added, “particularly with the advent of the elite panel.”The elite panel should number eight, but David Shepherd, who umpired his last Test in June, has yet to be replaced, adding to the burden on the others. In the last year, for example, Billy Bowden has stood in 12 Tests and 22 ODIs, a possible total of 82 days, discounting the time spent traveling and preparing. He has officiated in every major country except Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in that time. It is hardly surprising that the seven have begun to look jaded of late.Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, indicated that the elite panel might well be expanded, but it will not be easy to find more officials to stand up to the intense pressure and time away from home the job involves. Peter Willey, regarded as one of the best umpires, declined a place on the elite panel as it would have meant him spending too long away from his family.

Twenty fours and four sixes were struck between them, but “smart cricket” was the cornerstone of the searing opening stand between himself and Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson said.The pair hit a world record 171 in each other’s company, to make light work of Pakistan’s 168 for 7. Williamson said it had been he and his partner’s ability to account for the asymmetrical dimensions of the Hamilton ground, and the particular strengths of Pakistan’s bowlers, that allowed the stand to flourish.Damage to the Seddon Park square during the recent Test match featuring Sri Lanka had meant a surface towards the eastern end of the block had to be used for this T20. This in turn brought the eastern boundary to 52 metres, while the square boundary on the other side of the pitch was lengthened to 75 metres.Williamson in particular targeted the short side of the ground during his career-best 72 off 48 balls, memorably shuffling towards the off side to hit consecutive legside fours off Mohammad Amir, in the fifth over.”No T20 is the same, and here at Seddon Park you’re not just taking the opposition into account, you’re very much identifying the dimensions of the ground, the pitch and using that as part of your planning,” Williamson said. “That comes into your thinking as a bowling unit and a batting unit.”With one boundary very small, naturally there’s going to be the odd boundary hit there. Then there’s the wind going to the long boundary which also helps hit to that side of the ground.”New Zealand hit 59 from the Powerplay, but were unusually reticent against Shahid Afridi in that period, scoring only 11 off his two overs. Williamson said there had been purchase and turn for Afridi on the pitch. Afridi was also generating significant drift.”Afridi is a world class legspinner,” Williamson said. “Today on that surface it was holding and turning a little bit, so for us it was making sure that there’s smart cricket at times amongst Guptill’s sixes and fours.”All Pakistan’s bowlers are danger men – they are all very good bowlers. Depending on the surface, some more than others. It was important that Guptill and I communicated and played some smart cricket. I think we were a bit better at doing that today than we were in the last match.”Williamson and Guptill’s stand surpassed the 170 made by Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith against England. New Zealand’s highest T20 partnership before this game had been the 137 against Zimbabwe by the same pair in 2012.”Records are not something that we set out to do,” Williamson said. “We set out to lay a platform and play to the gameplan. If records come that’s nice, but more importantly, we got across the line to set up a nice finish to the T20 series.”Corey Anderson had played as a specialist batsman during the Sri Lanka series, as he continues to recover from a back injury. He has now begun bowling in matches, and was effective for New Zealand on Sunday, taking 1 for 26 from his four overs. He had been cheap with the new ball, conceding only 12 from his three Powerplay overs.”The likes of Corey standing up after not playing much cricket, and opening the bowling as well, was a superb effort from him,” Williamson said. “He bowled some tough overs at the top.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

For the clearest indication of just how schizophrenic Bangladesh’s World Cup has been, all you had to do was see the run-out of Tamim Iqbal and the shot of a Bangladeshi fan in the crowd, mouth cupped in shock even as tears ran down his cheeks, seconds after the madness. This was just the way it was for Bangladesh on an ultimately disappointing day that saw them win the toss, stifle an unmotivated West Indies to 67 for 3 after 25 overs, and then let a gettable target of 231 end in another batting disaster. It all added up to a 99-run loss to West Indies on a gorgeous afternoon at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, and a record of 9-4-6 in their greatest tournament, of any capacity, yet.As for the hosts this was their first win in the Super Eights, but many local fans would’ve shaken their heads in the first over. Corey Collymore got Tamim to stand and nick one to Brian Lara at second slip, who pouched it in his lap. He seemed to have full control of the ball but it slipped from his grasp as he turned to congratulate his bowler. The sight of an uncertain Lara, who picked up the ball and looked to the umpire with his arms raised in question wasn’t enough to convince anyone, and Tamim was called back.Tamim probably hasn’t read Horace, and so failed to seize the day. Javed Omar dabbed one to the off side and both batsmen set off. Dwayne Bravo swooped in from point; suddenly, Tamim froze and turned back. Omar continued with the run and passed Tamim as both batsmen were stuck at the non-striker’s end. Picture the shot of that poor fan again.West Indies cashed in on that break, and then made further inroads. Collymore dismissed Aftab Ahmed with one that lifted off a length, shaped away and drew the edge into Denesh Ramdin’s gloves. As Collymore celebrated with his signature three-fingered salute, Lara made sure he was the first man to reach him. It just got better for West Indies when Saqibul Hasan was dismissed for a duck at 23 for 3 after 11 overs.Mohammad Ashraful pulled Daren Powell to square leg, Omar edged him to Chris Gayle at first slip and at 35 for 5 the game was over as a contest. When Lara dropped Habibul Bashar at a wide slip – his third of the day – you had to wonder why there weren’t more slips in place. Two more were added and sure enough, Bravo plucked a sharp catch over his head at third slip to get rid of Bashar as Bangladesh slipped to 52 for 6. Bashar, undoubtedly due for a roasting from fans when he gets home, failed to end his tournament on a personal good note. Mushfiqur Rahim (38 not out) and Mashrafe Mortaza (37) delayed the inevitable with a 58-run seventh-wicket partnership, but did little to take the gloss off a poor day at the shop. Mohammad Rafique, nine years and two days to the match in which he scored Bangladesh’s first ODI half-century to set up their first win, fell for a duck and a much-needed West Indian victory was wrapped up soon after.The abysmal batting was in stark contrast to the way Bangladesh bowled. Mortaza and Syed Rasel, were brilliant after Bashar decided to field and once the openers were knocked off early, the spinners piled on the pressure as they quickly found assistance from the bare pitch. There was swing early for Mortaza, who adhered to a fabulous line, and there was evidence of the extra bounce as every batsman hopped up and lunged forward, played and missed and withdrew the bat. Devon Smith joined Chris Gayle up the order and made no impact. Against a controlled Mortaza, swinging it both ways, he got a fuller one that pitched on middle and off and moved away to remove his off stump.

At the other end Rasel kept it simple which was more than enough to keep the batsmen guessing. Doing a Nathan Bracken, Rasel pitched it on a good length, slanted it across the right-handers and dried up the runs. Of all the things West Indies anticipated for the World Cup, Gayle being so ineffective was nowhere on the list. The horrors continued today as Gayle, already undone by a bouncer from Mortaza, fell to one from Rasel that was full on pitching. As it straightened, it caught him lunging half-cock forward, and he was struck in front of off stump.The famed left-arm spin troika, Abdur Razzak, Rafique and Saqibul bowled well too, keeping it flat and quick, but were let down by Bashar’s field placings which, after three quickets before 25 overs, looked more like he was playing for damage control rather than ramming home the advantage.It was easy fodder for a hustling Ramnaresh Sarwan, the only batsman to show an appetite for a scrap. With Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who plodded along in what has become standard fashion to an 85-ball 50, Sarwan added 81 in 16.1 overs for the fourth wicket, his contribution being 46. Where the first 25 overs yielded just 67 runs, against a very disciplined new-ball attack, the last 25 brought 167, thanks to Sarwan and Lara’s enterprising 60-run fifth-wicket stand. It was a typical Sarwan innings, keeping with his tournament form. He struggled at the death due to exhaustion, but still ran the twos and found the gaps to finish unbeaten on 91 at better than a run-a-ball. With his imminent one-day international exit, and the rumours that that he will not be selected for the tour to England next month, Lara treated the partisan crowd to a 27-ball 33 cameo, with two fine sixes.In the end, it can be said that Bangladesh allowed West Indies to get too many. It can also be said that they were the second-best Asian side in the tournament, they carried that mantle with a respectable amount of professionalism and that they showed once and for all that they are minnows no more. West Indies have one game left, against another side already knocked out, but they have far less to take from a tournament billed as the greatest thing to happen to West Indian cricket than Bangladesh. It’s been that kind of World Cup for them.

In 2013, Australia won the Women’s World Cup. In 2014 they took out the Women’s World T20. Now they are hoping that 2015 brings them the other major piece of silverware available: the Women’s Ashes. It is a prize the Australians have barely laid hands on over the past decade, despite their success in the shorter formats.Captain Meg Lanning and her squad leave for England on Monday night with great expectations, although recent history will be against them. Not since 2001 under Belinda Clark’s captaincy have Australia won the Ashes in England, and only once in the past 10 years have they claimed the trophy anywhere, with victory at home in 2010-11.This will be the third Ashes campaign that incorporates ODIs and T20s as well as Test cricket, and the weighting of points given to the formats has now been adjusted to ensure the Test result does not effectively dictate the outcome of the series. Coach Matthew Mott, who joined the group earlier this year, said the time for Ashes success was now.”The team’s record speaks for itself over the last 10 years,” Mott said. “But the one thing that has eluded us is the Ashes. It was 2001 the last time the team won in England. There’s a lot of payback ready and the girls are really excited about this opportunity coming up.”A lot of teams will say they’re in rebuilding phases. This is the time for these girls to capitalise. They’ve played together for a long time, they’ve had success and they’re all at the peak of their careers. It should be an exciting couple of years.”The series begins with three ODIs, followed by the Test match in Canterbury, and then three T20s that complete the campaign. The Test is worth a maximum of four points and the shorter matches two each, which means that a team needs to perform consistently across at least two of the formats in order to claim the Ashes.The Australian women’s team prior to their departure to England•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

“Given that we’ve had success in both the World Cups recently in both the T20 and one-day formats it should bode well for us,” allrounder Ellyse Perry said. “But there’s not much margin for error in this series because you only play a few games in each format.”Perry was Player of the Match last time Australia played a Test, against England at the WACA in 2013-14, where she scored 71 and 31 and claimed eight wickets for the match. However, it was not enough to prevent England claiming victory.Test cricket is a rare sight in the women’s game these days, and generally only occurs for Australia when they take on England – since 1996 they have only once played a Test against another nation, when they beat India in Adelaide in 2006.”It’s truly wonderful, to be able to put on the baggy green is what most young cricketers look forward to doing,” Perry said. “We’re really thankful for the opportunity. It’s a true test of your skill and ability on the cricket field. Because you spend so much time in the field as a team it brings you closer together as well. Every time we play a Test together we learn a little bit more about our own games and about each other. I’m really excited to play again.”Departing for England will complete a busy few days in women’s cricket in Australia, after the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League was announced last week. The T20 tournament will mirror the men’s BBL with the same eight teams and the potential for international players to sign on. Perry said she had been pleased with the public interest surrounding the WBBL since its announcement.”It’s a huge step forward in terms of the development of the women’s game, not just in Australia but globally as well, with the chance for a lot of international players to come and play in what is probably going to be the premier tournament in the world,” she said. “The interest in it is really pleasing and a little bit surprising. A lot of people are anticipating the competition starting, and the fact that it’s integrated with the men’s competition is a really good development.””Things have been developing so quickly in the last five or six years. Even when I came into the team about eight years there were no contracts for players, it was just tours every now and then. Now there are full-time contracts for some of the top players in the country, we have a professional competition in the WBBL starting.”That’s testament to the huge amount of effort and investment that Cricket Australia have put into the women’s game here, and also there’s more interest from the public across all women’s sport in the last couple of years.”

Ireland are to tour Bangladesh for three one-dayers next March and April.Ireland, who in addition to beating Pakistan in that memorable World Cup match earlier in the year also defeated Bangladesh, will also play two four-day warm-ups against local teams.”As we are not yet in the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, we have to look for matches against the teams close to us in the ODI rankings, such as Zimbabwe, Kenya, West Indies and Bangladesh,” Warren Deutrom, the Ireland Cricket Union’s chief executive told .”Bangladesh are sending me an itinerary for the tri-series and after that they have also agreed to play us in three ODIs and a four-day game – an ideal pre-season programme for the coach and players.”The tour gets underway from March 16.

This is a clash of Pakistan flair versus Kiwi functionality. Although New Zealand have again more than held their own, they owe their passage to the semi-finals to India, whose 37-run win against South Africa dumped the home side out on net run-rate and allowed Daniel Vettori’s side to sneak in.”I didn’t actually watch any of it,” said Vettori. “I was trying to avoid it as much as possiblebecause we knew what it was going to be like.”Pakistan have reached the last four despite a stuttering display against Bangladesh, playing their typically aggressive cricket under the new coach, Geoff Lawson. Now Saturday’s matches offer various mouth-watering permutations for the final: a Trans-Tasman clash, a replay of the 1999 World Cup final or, the ultimate match-up, an India-Pakistan showdown.Bat play: Pakistan’s top order has failed to fire throughout the tournament; their first four matches brought scores of 50 for 3, 47 for 4, 33 for 3 and 46 for 4 before the middle order staged recoveries. Their best start came against Bangladesh when Shahid Afridi was finally promoted to opener but Shoaib Malik was keeping his cards close to his chest over Pakistan’s plans for Saturday. Salman Butt has laboured in every innings and his strike-rate is down to a paltry 70.New Zealand haven’t been blessed with a mountain of runs from the top four and their best start – 68 without loss – ended in defeat against South Africa. Craig McMillan has been their saviour with 44 off 23 against India and 57 off 31 against England. Scott Styris (52 runs) and Lou Vincent (89 runs) have both struggled and their scoring rates have barely crept above a run-a-ball.Wrecking ball: The leading wicket-takers for both teams are the spinners, Vettori and Afridi. Vettori is pushing to be bowler of the tournament after conceding a miserly 5.30 and should be a handful on a worn Newlands surface. However, he wasn’t making any early decisionson his team. “We saw Australia run through Sri Lanka with pace [at Newlands].” Jacob Oram hasn’t enjoyed Twenty20 with the ball, taking one wicket and going at nearly 11 an over.

Pakistan’s attack is packed with variety. Afridi has bagged the wickets but Sohail Tanvir has come from nowhere to create problems with the new ball alongside Mohammad Asif. Umar Gul’s yorkers, held back until the closing overs, have left the opposition struggling to accelerate late in their innings.Keep your eye on: The brewery. If Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq (hitter of the longest six in the tournament) or Oram get hold of a ball deep midwicket will need to be standing on the other side of the railway line.Shop talk: Although chasing has been the preferred route, Malik doesn’t think it’s the only way to go. “If you have a strong bowling line-up you can bat first and put pressure on the other side,” he said.Vettori believes it would have been harsh for New Zealand to miss out on the semi-finals. “Sometimes we have scraped through but this time I think we deserved it; luckily enough for us it worked out well. We make a lot of them [semi-finals], now it’s about kicking on.”Pitching it right: “It looks good,” Malik said after inspecting the surface. “But the outfield is heavy so 165-170 should be a good total.” The sunshine of recent days is also expected to be replaced by a greater cloud cover, offering more assistance for the bowlers.TeamsNew Zealand (probable) Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum (wk),Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram,Daniel Vettori (capt), Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan PatelPakistan (probable) Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, MohammadHafeez, Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq,Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir

Division One

3rd day
Not a great day for Chris Read nor for his county, Nottinghamshire, who slipped to a 41-run defeat against Sussex. After battling their way back into the game, Sussex went on to record a cracking victory set up by Rana Naved-ul-Hasan (4 for 29) and Jason Lewry (3 for 23). Mushtaq Ahmed also contributed 3 for 58 to bowl out Notts for 120 and consign the champions to what had seemed to be an unlikely defeat. Resuming on 111 for 3 this morning, Sussex made it to 247 thanks to a vital 42 from Matt Prior, leaving Nottinghamshire to chase 161. But their innings was in immediate disarray when Jason Gallian had to retire hurt on 10. As wickets tumbled he made a return to the crease, only to fall for 15 (148 for 7). A ninth-wicket stand of 68 between Ryan Sidebottom and Mark Ealham, who made 52, briefly gave Notts promise, but was not enough.Hampshire are strongly placed heading into the final day at Edgbaston, having bossed proceedings for another day. They set Warwickshire a mountainous 407 after racing to 218 for 6 declared with James Adams leading from the front – he made 85 in just 105 balls, including five fours and three sixes. By the close, Warwickshire had managed to crawl to 69 for 2, still 338 runs adrift. This morning, in their first innings, Warwickshire’s lower order subsided under the force of a Shane Warne assault, losing Dougie Brown early and then the last four wickets fell for just 13 runs. Warne ended with 5 for 52.2nd day
Darren Lehmann fell seven runs short of a double century as Yorkshire and Kent piled up the runs at Headingley. Yorkshire made 382. Undaunted, Kent’s Robert Key and David Fulton put on 153 in a commanding opening stand. They each made fifties, but Yorkshire took three quick wickets to leave Kent on 196 for 3 by the close.Graham Onions took 4 for 82 as Middlesex‘s batsmen failed to cut the mustard against Durham. Owais Shah topscored with 68 but Middlesex were bowled out for 242, handing Durham a first-innings advantage of 106. By the end of the day Durham had stretched their lead to 186 runs and, with eight wickets left, they will be confident of boosting that to well over 400.

Division Two

3rd day
Leicestershire continued to pile on the pain for Glamorgan, forcing them to follow on after bowling them out for 297 in reply to their 525. By the close Glamorgan had made 37 for 1 and still require a further 191 runs to take them to parity. Today it was Claude Henderson who did the damage, with 4 for 77. Daniel Cherry and Michael Powell made half-centuries for Glamorgan, but their team will need more strong batting performances tomorrow to save the game.2nd day
Four players recorded centuries on day two as Somerset and Essex piled on the runs in their match at Taunton. Keith Parsons (153) and Peter Trego (102) took their seventh-wicket stand to 202 before a late flurry of wickets. Somerset made 471. Andrew Caddick then placed Essex in danger of following-on by reducing the visitors to 80 for 3 in reply. But the experienced campaigners Andy Flower (104 not out) and Ronnie Irani (108 not out) steadied the ship in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 202 as Essex closed on 282 for 3.Northamptonshire must have wished that Jon Lewis had been called into the Test side as he wrecked their top order at Bristol with a thrilling 4 for 35 from 16 overs. Northamptonshire now have a lead of 100 runs but just one wicket in hand, and Gloucestershire will back themselves to register their second win of the season tomorrow.Derbyshire continued to go from strength-to-strength in their match against Worcestershire. They lost Steve Stubbings before the close but are still strongly placed, at 54 for 1, a lead of 114 runs. Vikram Solanki struck a century and Steven Davies made 49 to take Worcestershire to 278, a first-innings deficit of 60. Ian Hunter led the rallying call with 4 for 92, while Steffan Jones added 3 for 58 to hand Derbyshire the advantage.

Fears over the future of Clontarf, in Dublin, as a one-day international venue have been eased with confirmation that existing grounds which have been approved don’t come under the new rulings regarding boundary sizes.At the recent ICC meetings in London it was decided to set new minimum requirements for the boundaries of international grounds. The new requirement is 65 yards for square boundaries and a minimum straight boundary of 70 yards.Clontarf wouldn’t have been able to meet these new sizes, but an ICC spokesman said: “Whereas the boundary sizes have been increased existing grounds and grounds currently under construction, such as the Dubai Stadium, are exempt.”However, the new regulations would appear to rule out Eglinton as a future ODI venue, whose playing area is below the minimum requirements. Bready Cricket Club are currently developing a new ground which they hope will become the North West venue for hosting international games.

The sporadic downpours that have made the skies over Johannesburg greyremained the main concern for both teams as they headed into the openinggame of the five-match one-day series on Sunday. With rain lashing thecity in the morning, practice plans had to be altered, with South Africagoing up the road to SuperSport Park in Centurion and India opting for theindoor nets in the basement at the Wanderers.India, who have won only three matches here from 16 encounters againstSouth Africa dating back to 1992-93, go into the game on the back of adefeat against Rest of South Africa, but as Rahul Dravid pointed out atthe pre-match press conference, they aren’t the first team to start anaway tour indifferently.The fact that Virender Sehwag has recovered from his hand injury wellenough to come through a full batting session will no doubt encourage theside. Sehwag’s recent form hasn’t been the best, but he if needs anyinspiration he need only to replay tapes of that breakthrough innings onTest debut at Bloemfontein.Dravid suggested that India needed to be brave, and the team is almostcertain to play three pace bowlers and Irfan Pathan in addition toHarbhajan Singh. With Mahendra Singh Dhoni expected to move into the No.5slot vacated by Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Mongia will tusslefor the last batting place. Despite a catalogue of woe that dates back tothe West Indies tour, Raina is likely to be given fresh licence to go outand express himself.For Graeme Smith, there are few selection issues to deal with. LootsBosman did little wrong in his one Champions Trophy outing, and theinclement weather conditions should mean that either Charl Langeveldt orAndrew Hall get the nod ahead of Robin Peterson. Smith will be the loneslow-bowling option, though his offspin is hardly likely to terrorise theIndians.The surface to be used for Sunday’s game bears more than a littleresemblance to that on which South Africa and Australia combined for anincredible 872 runs in March, but with thunderstorms forecast for the day,the cloud cover should ensure that no bowler meets with the fate thatbefell Mick Lewis, whose 10 overs that day went for the small matter of113.The last time India played here, Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyneviscerated their World Cup dream with some of the finest batting everseen on the limited-overs stage. For some of the old boys, it was a red-letterday that went horribly wrong. The new ones, many of whom weren’t even inthe selection picture three years ago, have no such trauma to deal with,and it could be their ability to adapt, or not, that decides the fate ofthis series.South Africa (likely): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Loots Bosman, 3Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Mark Boucher (wk),7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Charl Langeveldt, 11Makhaya Ntini.India (likely): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 MohammadKaif, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 IrfanPathan, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Munaf Patel.

Brett Lee has pledged to put country ahead of family and will take the field for Australia in the first Ashes Test at Brisbane next month, even though his wife Liz is due to give birth to their first child on the eve of the match.”We’ve said right from the start, which is credit to the person that Liz is, I will definitely be playing,” said Lee. “I’m hoping and praying that it either comes early or late. To me, cricket is important, but family is the most important thing in my life. Hopefully I can be there for both.”Lee, who married Liz Kemp in June, turned down $A50,000 (£19,400) for exclusive photographs of his wedding and baby.