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The first Test between the West Indies and England was abandoned in Kingston, Jamaica, yesterday after an hour’s play on the opening day when the pitch was deemed dangerous.After 10.1 overs, England, who chose to bat first, had crumbled to 17 for three as fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh took advantage of an newly laid pitch which provided plenty of pace but hugely variable bounce.One full-length delivery to Alec Stewart leapt high over wicketkeeper David Williams’s head for four byes. The next, off a similar length, barely got above ankle height.The difficult conditions were eventually deemed dangerous after England physiotherapist Wayne Morton had been forced to go on to the field six times to treat injuries, mainly to the batsman’s fingers.”There was a bit of war out there and you always fear for a batsman’s safety,” he said. “You don’t often see too many apologies from West Indian fast bowlers but they seemed pretty embarrassed by it.”As early as the third over, one of the umpires, Srin Venkataraghavan, got in touch with match referee Barry Jarman to alert him to the dangers.England captain Mike Atherton, who had already been dismissed, went out to join his opposite number Brian Lara and the umpires at a drinks break.Jarman, who later described the pitch as “horrific”‘, joined them in the middle before everyone left the field and the International Cricket Council in London were contacted.”The pitch is unfit and dangerous to the players, it was unfit for play,” said Pat Rousseau, president of the West Indies Cricket Board, at a hastily arranged press conference.It was the first time that such action has been taken in the 121-year history of Test cricket.England opener Alec Stewart put a brave face on events. “A couple of pieces came out of the wicket and we took a few blows but that’s part of cricket. We just had to cope as best we could,” he said.Former England all-rounder Ian Botham was more forceful in his condemnation of the pitch. “I was fearful that someone would be killed out there,” he told reporters.Rousseau said efforts would be made to try to rearrange England’s tour in order to accommodate the Test at another venue.Lara was also hopeful that the Test could be rescheduled. “Cricket has to be played on a fair surface,” he said.Former Test fast bowler Michael Holding said: “I’ve never seen a pitch as dangerous as that. The people responsible should be brought to task.”Those people are presumably groundsman Charlie Joseph and Jamaican chief executive George Prescod, who supervised the preparation of the relaid pitch.Balls spat and shot off the cracked and spiteful surface, and, propelled at blinding pace by Walsh and Ambrose, batting soon became a dangerous exercise.Stewart and Graham Thorpe had seen enough when Thorpe was hit for the second time. He went off for an X-ray on the middle finger of his left hand, with England 17 for 3 and one ball of the 10th over delivered.Atherton knew the pitch would be poor, but not that poor. “It was dangerous. It was clear before the match that the pitch had been laid unevenly. That’s why we saw the unevenness of the bounce,” said Atherton.Jarman said: “The reason for the delay in calling it off was because of the many English fans who had come to watch the Test. They’ll be terribly disappointed – and so are the players, but the last thing they want is to wind up in hospital.”Stewart had made nine in 26 balls and Thorpe had not scored off 10 deliveries before the abandonment. Stewart spoke to umpire Bucknor and Lara between overs on the shambles unfolding before his eyes. Then Thorpe threw away his bat in pain and disgust after another ball from Walsh hit him on the gloves, Morton came back on and during the break Stewart summoned Atherton.Atherton said: “Both captains agreed that the pitch was not suitable for first-class cricket, both umpires agreed and so did the match referee, so we decided to abandon the game. The pitch was dangerous and the safety of the players was paramount. Conditions were unfit and during the game umpire ‘Venkat’ was in constant touch on a walkie-talkie with the match referee.”Alec called me on and we had a chat with Brian Lara. Both umpires asked what we thought the conditions were like. I don’t want to get into things like worst, but safety remains important. It was when Alec called me on to the field that I had to consider the safety of the players. Everyone was in agreement.”Morton’s day began with him having to rule out wicketkeeper Jack Russell because of a stomach upset. Soon, though, it was England’s batsmen who were sickened by the wicked bounce, with some balls rearing and some shooting through low.”It was a war out there,” said Morton. “There are medals for bravery to be taken, but I don’t want players getting fractured digits. There is still a long tour ahead of us. There are a few bruises. Stewart was hit on forearm, finger, the back of his hand and the top of both hands.”Lara was upset by the outcome, but agreed that the safety of the players had to be a priority. Lara said: “It was the last thing I wanted to happen and I’m very disappointed for the fans and the players. But I believe the umpires have made the right decision. It was obvious that the pitch was dangerous.”

Amid the lack of runs, the calls for his sacking and the support from team-mates, Matthew Hayden knew it was time to go when he was picking tomatoes with his daughter Grace on Saturday. Hayden, Australia’s most successful opening batsman, stepped down after a dire home Test campaign to end his chances of bowing out at the Ashes and deny his six-year-old girl’s request for “one more Christmas” in Melbourne.In the Champions Room at the Gabba, a ground as familiar to Hayden as his backyard, he tried not to cry, but stumbled a few times as he read his retirement speech. With Ricky Ponting by his side – he gave encouragement when his friend stalled while talking of his love of playing for his state and country – Hayden spoke for more than half an hour about his past and his future.He remains determined to contribute more to the game than 103 Tests, 30 hundreds and 8625 runs at 50.73. “Importantly for me today, I’m retiring from cricket, not from life,” he said. “I want to explore my other passions of fishing, boating, cooking and outdoors.”At the start of the Australian summer the selectors wanted Hayden to continue to the Ashes, but his Test career was in severe danger when he was dropped from the limited-overs squads last Thursday. He went home to Brisbane after celebrating the victory at the SCG, where he squirmed over 31 and 39, and thought about his future before choosing to exit instead of being pushed out.”I wanted to step out of the bubble of international cricket,” he said. “There were a lot of moments where I was tossing and turning over what I wanted to do. My true intention was to look at the face of adversity again, and discuss with [his wife] Kel what I wanted to do with a new and invigorated game plan. Just giving myself that chance.”As his youngest boy Thomas interrupted to climb on his dad’s lap, Hayden, now 37, said the couple of days he spent with his wife and three children convinced him to go. “At one stage on Saturday I was picking a crazy bush of wild tomatoes and talking with Grace, as dad and daughter do,” he said. “I said: ‘Darling, I think I’ve had enough, I want to be here. ‘Oh, Daddy, one more Christmas.’ She loved the Boxing Day Test. I said: ‘No, darling, this is time.'”He was given a public farewell at Tuesday’s Twenty20 international at the Gabba, where he was driven around the ground on the back of a car during the innings break. The scoreboard said “Thanks Matt”, the crowd roared throughout the slow lap and Mark Boucher and Neil McKenzie joined in the waving goodbye.Hayden said his retirement was from all representative teams, but he will honour his Indian Premier League commitment with the Chennai Super Kings. “There’s absolutely zero fear,” Hayden said when asked about the rest of his life. “I’ve got zero regrets. I’ve tried to, rightly or wrongly, extract every ounce of whatever ability that I’ve been given and turn it into performance.”Asked if his original plan was to go on until after the Ashes he said: “If it was, I believe I would be going on that tour. This is the point where I want to step off.”Hayden had a difficult summer and managed only 149 runs at 16.55 from five Tests while hearing pleas for a significantly younger player to replace him. He was hindered by a heel injury in the off-season and never regained his spark, which was a shame considering his major contribution to the game in Australia over the past decade.The first of Hayden’s Tests came in South Africa in 1993-94, when he replaced the injured Mark Taylor, but it was not until 2000 that he was finally able to secure a regular spot in the national side. He went to India in 2001 and scored an Australian-record 549 runs in three matches and his place was not in danger until the 2005 Ashes tour. Ending that series with a century at The Oval, he produced four hundreds in consecutive games for the second occasion.”Maybe this is the seventh or eighth time I’ve been at the crossroads in my career, whether that be in one-day international or Test match cricket,” he said. “On reflection, I’ve made the correct decision for the boys moving forward.”He said the highlights were “the absolute highs of winning series” with Australia and combining with Ponting and Adam Gilchrist in the one-day team and Justin Langer in Tests. “They have been significant partnerships of life,” he said. “They’ve taught me the value of great character of strength and companionship.”No Australian opener has scored more Test runs than Hayden and he is behind only Ponting and Steve Waugh on the local hundreds’ list. The final time he reached three figures was against India in Adelaide 12 months ago. In the one-day arena there were 161 matches, 6133 runs, 10 hundreds and two World Cups.As Hayden made his announcement he was watched by the Australian Twenty20 squad, which lost him from its ranks last week, and at the end he shook their hands and hugged them. The former Queensland captain Jimmy Maher, Cricket Australia’s general manager of cricket Michael Brown and the rugby union international David Croft were also there along with Hayden’s parents, Laurie and Moya.”I’ve loved so much playing cricket,” he said. “I will never forget the experiences of 20 years as a professional cricketer. I’m looking forward to the next stage of my life.”He plans to work on finding indigenous cricketers for the national team – his former team-mate Jason Gillespie is the only recognised Test player with Aboriginal origins – and “wants to help Australian families reconnect with our great country by taking the time to get outside”. There will also be time spent with the McGrath Foundation and the Australian Cricketers’ Association, which is negotiating its next agreement with Cricket Australia.

The Cricket NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert has urged players not to let the high-value contracts offered by IPL franchises affect the team’s performance. His comments follow the signing by Kolkata Knight Riders of the allrounder Moises Henriques, 21, for a reported US$300,000.Two other young players from New South Wales, the batsman David Warner and allrounder Steven Smith, have also been linked to the Twenty20 competition, even though Warner hasn’t made his first-class debut and Smith has played only five matches. “During the pre-season I addressed the entire squad and told them what I thought would happen in terms of contracts in India,” Gilbert told the .”I warned them not to let IPL jealousies get in the way of our team or our objectives. We don’t want a situation where one player earns X and another earns Y and there are problems. At the moment we have not seen this thing fully play out. I don’t think anyone yet really understands the ramifications of what we are seeing.”He felt Henriques’ case “might just be the beginning” of teams targeting lesser-known players instead of shelling out big money for internationals who have national team commitments. Gilbert said Warner, who hit a New South Wales record 165 off 112 balls in his seventh domestic one-day game last month, could be “the Kolpak player of Australian cricket”.”He could be the guy who becomes the first player to put the realities of Twenty20 into focus,” he said. “He is making large strides in the game and generating a lot of excitement without having played a first-class game.”You can’t blame him [from looking to the IPL]. He is a state-contracted player earning a modest income and for a 22-year-old, some of the figures that are being tossed around must be mind blowing. We have no issues at all with him [negotiating with IPL franchises] … We just don’t want it to impact on our own domestic leagues.”The recent interest shown in New South Wales players had also brought into question the role of the coach Matthew Mott, who is also an assistant coach to John Buchanan in the Kolkata-based team. Mott, though, felt the contracts would aid New South Wales in the long run.”I think the IPL will be of enormous benefit to these guys, it is a great opportunity to play with the best players in the world,” he said. “Sometimes you have to pinch yourself when you look around the room. These are players that really made their mark in international cricket. You can’t really get a more contracted bunch of players of that calibre together in one competition anywhere else.”Greg Shipperd, the Victoria coach, is hoping to sign a few players for Delhi Daredevils, the IPL franchise he also looks after. “The franchises have realised there is perhaps more value for money in some of our state players, you don’t have to be a super name – you just need an opportunity,” Shipperd said. “I certainly hope a number of Victorian guys get the chance to play. [Delhi] are nibbling around and formulating, we’re just going through the set-up of the draft and player exchange and doing our homework.”

ScorecardCanterbury’s title defence got away to a poor start as they lost the opening State Championship match of the season, never recovering from Auckland’s powerful first-day batting effort. Canterbury were set a fourth-innings target of 405 and despite the best efforts of Corey Anderson, who struck a career-best unbeaten 88 in quick time, they fell 73 short.Auckland’s dominance began with twin centuries in the first innings to Tim McIntosh, who made 140, and Reece Young (100). Their 197-run partnership was a record second-wicket stand for Auckland against Canterbury and it made Kruger van Wyk’s decision to send Auckland in appear questionable.The pair set up an imposing total of 398 and when Andy McKay picked up four wickets as Canterbury were bundled out for 169 the game looked even more one-sided. But batting became difficult for Auckland in the second innings and Brandon Hiini’s 4 for 47 restricted them to 175.It seemed certain to be sufficient, although when Peter Fulton (64) and Johann Myburgh (67) guided the score to 178 for 2 there was a glimmer of hope for Canterbury. But they stumbled to 221 for 7 and only Anderson’s late fight kept the game alive, until the final wicket fell with the score on 331.

Scorecard

Luke Pomersbach and Shaun Marsh got Western Australia away to the perfect start in the Sheffield Shield as they cruised to an eight-wicket win over the reigning champions New South Wales. Chasing 224 on the final day at the WACA, the Warriors made the target look easy thanks to a 112-run second-wicket stand from Marsh and Pomersbach.The men have become an almost inseparable duo over the past year, during which they have been suspended by Western Australia due to missing a team curfew, recruited by Kings XI Punjab in the IPL, and built some important partnerships for the Warriors. Both men also made their debuts for Australia over the past 12 months and the Western Australia top order is looming as a dangerous line-up this year.The Warriors began the day at 0 for 52 and the early loss of Liam Davis, who was lbw to Grant Lambert for 41, gave the Blues a sniff. They were then on the wrong end of a powerful display from Pomersbach, who struck four sixes and nine fours in his 74-ball stay, which ended with victory in sight when he was caught for 78.Marcus North joined Marsh, who finished unbeaten on 74, as Western Australia made what should have been a strong New South Wales attack look distinctly unthreatening. The Blues were not helped by a minor knee injury to Beau Casson, who bowled only one over in the second innings.

South Africa’s move to bring Kent allrounder Ryan McLaren into the national side has failed after the county did not release him from his three-year contract. McLaren, who’s on a Kolpak deal until 2010, has withdrawn from the ODI squad to face Kenya and Bangladesh.”We are obviously disappointed that Ryan has had to withdraw,” Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola said, “but there is nothing more that we can do about it”.McLaren, along with Rory Kleinveldt – another Kolpak player – was one of the new names in South Africa’s squad for the upcoming home series.”We are not going to replace him in the ODI squad for the two matches against Kenya as 13 players should be sufficient,” Majola said. “We will re-assess the position before the ODI series against Bangladesh by which time we will have had a good look at the additional players who will be joining our training camp in Kimberley.”South Africa’s recent ODI debacle in England – they lost 4-0 – prompted coach Mickey Arthur to suggest they would try and lure back Kolpaks. McLaren was the prime target, with his all-round skills making him an ideal player in the shorter formats of the game.However, Kent are keen to keep McLaren at the county, especially with their relegation in the County Championship. Under the Kolpak ruling, South Africans can play for English counties as though they are European Union citizens, but the same does not apply to players turning out for the national team, which means Kent would have had to release McLaren.”We fully appreciate and understand Ryan’s request to be released by Kent for the remainder of his contract to play for South Africa, but we are not in a position to agree to his request for numerous reasons,” Paul Millman, the Kent chief executive, said. “The main reason being that Ryan is a key player and Kent have built the team around him. This has become even more relevant because of our demotion to the second division of the County Championship.”A disappointed McLaren thanked the national selectors for picking him in the team, but said he would respect Kent’s decision. McLaren will turn out for the Eagles in South Africa’s domestic one-day and Twenty20 competitions.South Africa play two ODIs against Kenya, starting October 31, before facing Bangladesh for two Tests, three ODIs and a one-off Twenty20 international from November 5-30.

The date for the player auction of the next edition of the IPL has been tentatively fixed for January 29, 2009. Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and commissioner, said the current US$5 million cap on teams for players’ salaries could be increased for the forthcoming season, but only after it is approved by the IPL governing council, which meets in Goa from October 16-18.A significant development in the IPL’s second edition is that the eight franchises can trade players, and Modi announced a one-month transfer window before the auction gets underway. “The players’ transfer window will be between December 15, 2008 and January 15, 2009.”Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural winners, will have the right to decide on the venue for the 2009 final while runners-up Chennai Super Kings get to decide on the venues for the two semi-finals. Mumbai hosted the semi-finals and the final of the 2008 edition as they were the most expensive franchise, valued at $111.9 million.The second season of the IPL is scheduled between April 10 and May 29 next year.

Match abandoned without a ball being bowled
ScorecardThe one-off Twenty20 international between England and India at Taunton was abandoned without a ball being bowled.Overnight rain ruled out the possibility of play and the umpires called off the game at 12.30pm. England went into the contest having already won the five-match ODI series 3-0. The hosts have been unbeaten at home this year, and will look to extend their dominance in the fourth ODI on Sunday at Arundel Castle.

The first ODI between Bermuda and Netherlands in Amstelveen was abandoned after heavy rain ruled out any chance of play. The second and final match is scheduled for Friday.Earlier this week the two sides had participated in the ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers in Belfast, where Netherlands reached the final and qualified for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup while Bermuda finished last after losing to Canada in the fifth-place play-off.

Ireland will head into the third and final one-dayer looking to square the series after the second ODI in Dublin was washed out without a ball being bowled. West Indies won the rain-affected opener – their first ODI in three years – with a host of their debutantes impressing. The second one-dayer, which was to have been played back-to-back, couldn’t even get off the ground.Before the two sides meet for the third match on Sunday, the two sides meet for a Twenty20 on Friday. It will be West Indies’ first dart at the shortest form of the game and will generate much-needed practice given they had automatically qualified for the tournament through qualifying for the 50-over Women’s World Cup in Australia next year.