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Match Facts

Michael Hussey has opened the series with two half-centuries•Getty Images

Tuesday, March 9
Start time 1400 (0100 GMT)

The Big Picture

Chappell-Hadlee matches have a habit of being close and the opening two games of this series have been no exception. With a couple of overs remaining in each clash, either side could have won and a 1-1 scoreline is fitting. The Auckland encounter didn’t feature the heated mood that simmered over in Napier, when Mitchell Johnson and Scott Styris clashed, but there remains some tension and the crowds have been vocal in their feelings towards the Australians.Much of the focus for the New Zealand camp has been their injury worries, with James Franklin and Ross Taylor added to the casualty list on the weekend. They are already unable to pick Jesse Ryder, Grant Elliott, Kyle Mills, Ian Butler or Andy McKay due to injuries. It has left the team short and they would be keen for fringe players like Neil Broom and Peter Ingram to step up in the remaining games.”I’m happy but as a captain [you get] sick of having to test depth issues,” Vettori said. “We want our full team available as often as possible and it hurts you. But it’s created opportunities. You look at the likes of a Gareth Hopkins who has come in and performed very well on his few chances. Maybe there are opportunities there but I think it would be better if it was 15 fully-fit guys competing for places.”

Form guide (most recent first)

New Zealand LWWWW
Australia WLWNW

Watch out for…

Mr Cricket has become Mr Consistency over the past six months. Michael Hussey is sometimes overlooked amid discussions of Australia’s recent one-day success but it’s an unfair omission. He is the world’s No. 2 ranked ODI batsman and remarkably has reached double-figures in every one of his past 19 one-day international innings. In that time he has made eight half-centuries and is averaging 63.21. He has also carried the burden of often coming in when the top-order has stumbled and he has been under pressure to steady the innings.If Hussey is Mr Cricket, Daniel Vettori is Mr New Zealand Cricket. He is a man of many roles but the most crucial are the basics – No. 1 bowler and increasingly key batsman. In Auckland, his counter-attacking 70 nearly got New Zealand home after he had taken 2 for 43. Few players worldwide are more critical to their team’s success than Vettori, even if they did win without him in Napier.

Team news

Finding 11 fit players is half the battle for New Zealand. They lost Jacob Oram to a knee injury in the first game and on Saturday, Taylor didn’t play due to a leg problem and Franklin hobbled off with a hamstring injury. Taylor and Franklin are considered 50-50 chances for this game, although Franklin’s all-round requirements mean they could be more cautious in resting him. Vettori will play again despite his stiff neck and he could be joined by the uncapped batsman Shanan Stewart, who was called in to cover for Taylor. Gareth Hopkins will keep wickets again due to Brendon McCullum’s sore back.New Zealand (possible) 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Peter Ingram, 3 Martin Guptill, 4 Ross Taylor/Shanan Stewart, 5 Neil Broom, 6 Scott Styris, 7 Gareth Hopkins (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Daryl Tuffey, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Shane Bond.The Australians will be without their vice-captain Michael Clarke for an indefinite period, who’s returning home for personal reasons, which means Adam Voges will play. A possible change is the potential inclusion of the fast man Clint McKay. Following a boom home summer, Doug Bollinger has had a couple of busts in New Zealand and could sit out of this one.Australia (possible) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Adam Voges, 5 Cameron White, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 James Hopes, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Ryan Harris, 11 Clint McKay.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have an excellent record at Seddon Park, where they have won 10 of the 13 ODIs they have played. Australia have never beaten New Zealand at the venue
• Australia’s win on Saturday was their first victory in a Chappell-Hadlee Series match in New Zealand since December 2005
• The Australians have now won 30 of the 41 ODIs they have played over the past year. Nathan Hauritz has taken part in the most games, missing only one
• New Zealand have won 10 of 19 they have played in the same period. Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum are the only men to have taken part in every game
  

  Quotes

  “It’s probably the most important game of the series. The team that can go 2-1 up only needs to win one more to take out the series so we’re trying to put everything in to this game.”
  Daniel Vettori“A lot of us are getting 40s and 50s and some pretty good starts, and getting competitive totals like yesterday. But it’s pretty important we start putting some big scores together and start batting New Zealand out of the game.”
  Brad Haddin

David Stewart, the Surrey chairman, and Keith Bradshaw, the chief executive of MCC, believe that the franchise-based Twenty20 tournament that they proposed, in controversial circumstances, back in 2008 could well have been English cricket’s final opportunity for a sympathetic reform of its ancient county structure.Instead, two years on from a proposal that could have safeguarded the future of all 18 first-class counties, both men feel that the English game will now be forced to evolve to survive the IPL revolution. Hampshire’s alliance with the inaugural IPL champions, Rajasthan Royals, is the first hint as to the future direction of the game, and as the scramble intensifies to claim a share of the game’s new revenue streams, the prospect of all parties securing an equal say in their destiny is fast receding.”Our franchise proposal was devised with the future in mind, and unfortunately the future is hurtling towards us on an early train,” Bradshaw told Cricinfo. “The only place you could have realistically established a rival to the IPL was in the UK, because of timezones and marketability, but to a certain extent the timing and the opportunity has been lost. Right now the IPL is getting stronger and stronger, and there are already fewer and fewer opportunities for other competitions to establish themselves.”The Bradshaw-Stewart plan was drawn up as a discussion document in the months that followed the IPL’s successful first season in 2008. With support from Lancashire and Hampshire, the two men envisaged a nine-team English Premier League, comprising 57 matches over 25 days, the majority of which would have been staged at the nine Test-match grounds to maximise revenues, and contested at the height of the summer to avoid any clash with overseas schedules.It was a radical proposal but, because of the complex nature of the ECB constitution, it could not have gone ahead without the backing of at least 30 members of the board, including the Minor Counties. Therefore, a cut of the profits could have been secured at every professional level of the game. Nevertheless, the proposal was leaked to the press before it could even be looked at by the board, and was subsequently crushed, with Glamorgan’s chairman, Paul Russell, leading the attacks by deriding it as “bootleg and divisive”.”I think it scared people that it was representatives from Lord’s and The Oval who came up with a plan,” Stewart told Cricinfo. “They are the two strongest clubs in the country, because they have the London base. But we always saw our proposal as a partnership of the 18 counties. We didn’t see it as the nine big grounds going it alone and leaving the others deserted. But it was, let’s say, ahead of its time.”More to the point, England’s approach to Twenty20 cricket remains decidedly behind the times and, despite attracting some big-name players, this season’s new Friends Provident t20 is little more than an elongated version of the original Twenty20 Cup. By failing to mark their territory in the sort of no-nonsense terms proposed back in 2008, the counties left themselves open to the situation that arose this week, whereby the IPL commissioner, Lalit Modi, was able to park his tanks on their lawns, and demand an adjustment to the English season to accommodate the lucrative Champions League.Modi’s move followed hot on the heels of Hampshire’s decision to align itself to the new “Royals” franchise, and as the balance of power shifts from countries to clubs, there is a growing sense that the end-game will be the establishment of a global city-cricket tournament, with the biggest and best stadia across the world playing host to a range of super-franchises or major clubs. The gulf between the haves and the have-nots of county cricket is yawning wider than at any time in the game’s history.To that end, Surrey’s chief executive, Paul Sheldon, has been touting for business in India, while MCC is known to be mulling over proposals from the two new franchises that are being introduced to the IPL next season. “It has to be accepted that India is the powerhouse,” said Stewart. “It is the dominant country in cricket for financial reasons, and therefore any strategy that excludes them is doomed to failure.”Ironically, having failed to discuss the Bradshaw-Stewart proposal and hence passed up the chance to pool the profits from such a competition, the counties have still spent large chunks of their budgets attracting players of the highest calibre. But whereas 28,500 spectators will be able to watch Adam Gilchrist playing for Middlesex at Lord’s, less than a third of that number will be able to witness Kieron Pollard playing down at Somerset, or Brad Hodge at Leicestershire. “The big grounds are best placed to capitalise on this new system,” said Stewart. “But they will do so without having to pass any of the money over.England launched the first Twenty20 tournament back in 2003, but they failed to grasp the opportunities it presented•Nigel Stockley/Getty Images

“The financial situation of the 18 counties in 2010 is significantly worse than it was in 2008,” he added. “So significantly, in some cases, that you wonder if some might have a different view [of the proposal] now. But for others, they might well feel that the time has passed. It might be the case that we’re all on our own now – we’ll do what we can for our counties, and some will succeed and some won’t. I’m not sure we’ll see a genuine joint venture of that nature appearing now.””It’s true that counties without the same ground capacity were concerned by the proposal, but it should perhaps have been looked at more closely, and shown more respect,” said Kent’s acting chief executive, Jamie Clifford, who has been standing in since the resignation of Paul Millman last year. “But our membership is a traditional county club membership, and their primary interest is, of course, four-day cricket. If the members like a certain form of the game, but the game is moving in a different direction, the inevitable consequence is you are moving away from your market.”For the time being, that market remains the source of almost 90% of the ECB profits, and both Stewart and Bradshaw (who will be organising three Tests this summer) remain determined to support the traditional game as best they can. But ultimately they are businessmen in a rapidly changing world, and with rapidly expanding stadia to maintain, they recognise that there’s not much more money that can be squeezed out of an already over-stretched England team. The clamour, as it is, is already for less international cricket, not more, and that’s before the added threat of the delisting of the Ashes is taken into account.”The bulk of Surrey’s profits still come from our annual Test match, so the long form of the game – and that starts with the County Championship – is still hugely important to us and our members,” said Stewart. “But it could be that we have too many eggs in one basket. If, over a period of time, Test cricket struggles to maintain its success in this country, and follows the situation we’ve seen in other countries, we’ve got to find ways to diversify. If there is a development of international club cricket around the IPL-type model, as seems possible, we’re going to be interested. We have to be interested.”

A devastating spell of swing bowling by Kemar Roach handed Barbados an eight-wicket win over Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) in Charlestown. Roach took 7 for 23 in 13.5 overs to dismiss CCC for 187 before Barbados knocked off the required 100 to win. After the third day’s play was washed out, CCC started their second innings trailing by 88 and stumbled to 101 for 5 as Roach and Nikolai Charles struck. A stand of 79 for the sixth wicket between Chadwick Walton and Kevin McClean revived them. That was when Roach was taken out of the attack. But when he returned for a new spell after lunch, he responded by bowling Walton and McClean as the last five wickets fell for seven runs. Roach’s figures were his best in first-class cricket. Barbados had 28 overs to knock off the runs and they did so within 17 overs. The win pushed Barbados to second place at 15 points.A six-wicket haul by the legspinner Odean Brown overshadowed Runako Morton’s century as Jamaica coasted to a seven-wicket win over Leeward Islands at Warner Park. Morton celebrated his comeback to the West Indies one-day squad with 108 but it wasn’t enough to challenge Jamaica as they were set a target of only 26. Resuming on 62 for 2, the Leewards’ overnight pair of Morton and Steve Liburd extended their stand to 89 before Liburd shouldered arms to a googly by Brown. Tonito Willet shouldered arms to another Brown googly and when Omari Banks was caught at the cover boundary, Leewards had lost half their side for 162. Morton resisted and smashed 14 fours and a six in his knock before he was caught by the keeper off Nikita Miller. Jamaica had some anxious moments in their chase when they lost three wickets for eight runs. However, Donovan Pagon and Brendan Nash saw their team through.An attacking century by Narsingh Deonarine was the highlight of the final day of the drawn day-night fixture between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago at North Sound. Guyana were set a target of 343 and responded with 265 for 5, carried by a fourth-wicket stand of 131 between Deonarine and Sewnarine Chattergoon. Trinidad declared half an hour into the day’s play to set the opposition a challenging target. Deonarine walked in at 96 for 3 and played the role of the aggressor while Chattergoon played patiently. Deonarine reached his fifty off 44 balls and at tea time, there was a possibility of a Guyana win with the score at 203 for 3. But Trinidad set defensive fields in the final session. Deonarine reached his century with a pull for six. His innings included three sixes and ten fours. He remained unbeaten on 104 while Chattergoon made 73, hitting nine boundaries. Trinidad have a bit of catching up to do, with this draw leaving them at fifth place.

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, has said any penalty on the Feroz Shah Kotla for Sunday’s pitch fiasco that forced the abandonment of the fifth ODI between India and Sri Lanka will come only after completion of a thorough investigation and the prescribed monitoring process. Delhi, he said, can still retain hope of hosting the 2011 World Cup matches.”It is not fair to say it hangs in the balance because you cannot comment till you know what the facts are,” Lorgat told Cricinfo minutes after landing in New Delhi, where he will be presenting the ICC mace to the Indian captain MS Dhoni on Sunday evening for becoming the world’s No.1 Test team.Play was stopped after 23.3 overs into the Sri Lankan innings when the match referee Alan Hurst, in consultation with the on-field umpiring pair of Shahvir Tarapore and Marais Erasmus, deemed the pitch to be “dangerous” due to its “extremely variable bounce”. Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain, were involved in the lengthy discussions too, before the final decision was made.Lorgat said Hurst’s report will now be tabled as part of the pitch and outfield monitoring process. In the step-by-step guidelines provided by the ICC for pitch monitoring process, if the referee points out that the pitch and/or the outfield was substandard, the ICC will write to the concerned home board along with the referee’s report asking for a detailed explanation. This will be sent within five days of the ICC receiving the referee’s report, after which the home board has 14 days to reply.The referee’s report and the home board’s reply will then be passed to the ICC’s General Manager (Cricket) Dave Richardson and its Chief Referee Ranjan Madugalle. The duo will study the evidence, which would also include the video of the match. If they are convinced that the pitch and/or the outfield was substandard then they will impose the appropriate ban.”It is too early to conclude,” Lorgat told a press conference. “You must wait for the process to take its course. It will take five days for the match referee and the chief referee to discuss the issue and then BCCI would be given a notice to respond in 14 days. Then it depends on Madugalle to prepare the final report which would take about 10 to 14 days. So, it would be fair to say that it would take about a month’s time to complete the entire process. But his is not the final word on the time schedule for the process.”The range of penalty can vary from getting away with a warning, to withdrawal or suspension, for a period of time, of international match status from the venue for repeat offences. Surely, on the basis of the evidence today it is highly unlikely the matter would be treated leniently.Only recently, the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) was under fire for producing low-scoring pitches during the Champions Twenty20 League. In fact, if the pitch is deemed to be unfit then the ICC’s code of conduct for poor pitches states that a first such breach should be met with “a suspension of the venue’s international status for a period of between 12 and 24 months together with a directive for appropriate remedial action and the need for prior ICC re-accreditation as an international venue”.Delhi is scheduled to host four group games in the 2011 World Cup, and the authorities concerned, including the BCCI, will be embarrassed by today’s episode. In fact, realising the importance of the matter, in a swift action the BCCI dissolved the five-member Grounds and Pitches Committee, headed by Daljit Singh, with immediate effect. Dhiraj Parsana (West), TR Viswanathan (South), Rajiv Gokhale (Central) and Rutul Das (East) were the other members on the committee.Lorgat said it was too early to predict New Delhi’s fate for the World Cup. “We can’t jump to conclusions,” Lorgat said. “It would be inappropriate and unfair – we need to understand exactly what the fact of the matter is and then it must take its course.”The latest episode is another blotch on New Delhi’s reputation as a host of international sporting events. It was only a week ago when the Commonwealth Games chief said they could only pray that the venues would be ready in time for the games, between October 4-13 next year.

Dirk Nannes, the Dutch-Australian paceman, will join Nottinghamshire for next season’s Twenty20 Cup.Nannes is something of a cricket nomad having represented Delhi Daredevils in the IPL and Champions League, as well as spearheading Middlesex’s attack when they won the Twenty20 Cup in 2008 and, with Victoria Bushrangers, becoming the leading wicket taker in Australia’s domestic Twenty20 cricket.He was also part of the Netherlands team that beat England in the opening game of the ICC World Twenty20, before switching to his alternative nationality to make his ODI debut for Australia in their match against Scotland in August this year.Nottinghamshire failed to pass the group stages of last season’s Twenty20 Cup and suffer from a host of their bowling line-up, including Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and Ryan Sidebottom, being lost to England but Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire coach, feels that next season can be different.”I regard Dirk as the most effective Twenty20 bowler in the world and he will be a great addition to our attack given the wealth of experience he possesses,” said Newell.”The likes of Ali Brown, David Hussey, Samit Patel, Alex Hales and Chris Read will give provide good depth to our Twenty20 batting line-up, so bolstering the bowling unit was always going to be the priority when we were considering our recruitment plans.””Dirk has got good pace, he can bowl left-arm around the wicket and he bowls a good yorker which will come into play at the end of the innings. His achievements in the IPL underline his pedigree and we’re signing him at the peak of his powers.”Nannes is looking forward to linking up with fellow Victorian, Darren Pattinson at Trent Bridge. “I’m ecstatic to have the opportunity to come and play for Nottinghamshire next year and to have the familiar faces of past team mates Hussey and Pattinson lining up alongside me as well as respected former opposition.”Nottinghamshire is a proud club, and has been highly recommended to me by former players and opposition alike. I have no doubt it will be a great season, and I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to win another Twenty20 title.”

Stuart Broad is a doubt for the first ODI against South Africa at the Wanderers on Friday, after he was ruled out of Tuesday’s warm-up game against South Africa A with a shoulder injury.Broad already missed the Twenty20 series and has still not recovered, 11 days after incurring the damage in a practice match. England’s coach, Andy Flower, believes he could yet be fit enough to reinforce a thinly stretched bowling attack, but admits it could be touch and go.”He’s had a number of injections in the past few days and we are waiting to see the reaction to those injections, to see whether it settles,” Flower told reporters in Johannesburg. “The medics reckon it’s possible that those injections will settle things pretty quickly, so we’ve got to monitor it day by day.”He won’t play tomorrow, but if he did show significant improvement and then bowled Wednesday and Thursday, it’s possible that he would play on Friday.”Broad is one of four England players struggling for fitness at present. Paul Collingwood missed England’s mauling in the second Twenty20 match with a recurrence of his long-standing back problem, which Flower thinks will rule him out of Tuesday’s game as well.”Unless it loosens up a lot today I don’t think he will play in tomorrow’s game either,” said Flower.To compound England’s problems, Graeme Swann has a problem with an intercostal muscle and James Anderson, England’s senior paceman, has a knee injury. Both are unavailable for the warm-up match and England’s growing injury list could mean call up an extra pace bowler.”We’ve had it quite a lot, being such an early part of a tour,” said Flower. “We reckon they aren’t going to be medium-term injuries, and we’re hopeful they’ll clear up by Friday. Swann will be out of tomorrow’s game and so will Anderson, he’s got a little problem with his knee. He played with it yesterday but he wasn’t 100 percent fit.Graham Onions, who has only just recovered from injury himself, is now certain to have an opportunity to impress ahead of the opening one-day international on November 20, but the glut of injuries has led Flower to raise the possibility of squad rotation for future contests.”We had a very heavy summer, then three weeks off and then we started again with gusto in Bloemfontein,” he said. “I think in the future we are going to have to target certain periods for strengthening, conditioning programmes for some of these fast bowlers especially and for them to miss the odd international because of it.”

National Bank of Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Talha has set 50 wickets in the current Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and a role in Pakistan’s tour of Australia as his targets for the season.The 21-year-old from Faisalabad, who has represented Pakistan just once, in the ill-fated Test against Sri Lanka back in March, told he was happy with his form so far this season.”I’ve managed to take 17 wickets in the four matches that I have played so far and it’s been great bowling in tandem with Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer,” Talha said. “Asif is really helpful in providing advice on how to bowl to different batsmen and he really encourages me. It’s great having someone as experienced as Asif alongside me in the team.”Talha, who managed figures of 1 for 88 on Test debut, has been overlooked by the selectors since. However, he was happy with slight changes that had been made to his run-up recently and hoped to get a look-in for the tour of Australia.”I feel in good shape and am comfortable with my run up and action,” Talha said. “I hope I can continue to have a successful season with National Bank and make the Australia tour. For now, though, the most important thing is for me to concentrate on the match against Sui Southern Gas Corporation”.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsM Vijay scored a fluent century•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

On a slowish track, where dew played havoc in the chase, M Vijay unfurled a gorgeous hundred and shared a 155-run opening partnership with Shikhar Dhawan to charge India Red to the final. Red chased down the 224-run target within 40 overs to get the bonus point which has put them straight into the final.Vijay, who didn’t look fluent in the Irani Cup game but fought on hard to score 91, moved along in style today. He was particularly strong on the front foot, flicking and driving his way to a fourth List A hundred. There was one shot which caught his mood perfectly: L Balaji landed one full around the middle and off line and looked to curve it away when Vijay glided forward to flick it through midwicket. It oozed class and had a touch of impishness to it, and both those traits were seen right through his knock today. There were a few on-the-up punchy drives through the off side, several flick shots and a few nonchalant swings to the on side at the end as he upped the ante in pursuit of the bonus point.Dhawan provided Vijay solid support in an assured partnership that completely demoralised India green. If Vijay was fluent on the front foot Dhawan showed off his back-foot prowess. Not that he wasn’t good off the front – there were couple extra-cover drives off Dhawal Kulkarni and Balaji – but his back-foot play stood out today with couple of pull shots and crunchy punches to point boundary.The Green bowlers struggled with the dew and it won’t be a surprise if the captains who win the toss choose to bowl first for the remainder of this tournament. Though, admittedly, the conditions did affect Green, they lost the game with a below-par batting performance.Green meandered for a while before Sourabh Tiwary and Anirudha Srikkanth provided some impetus to push them to 223. The start of the innings was a little strange. Neither the bowlers nor the batsmen seemed to be in any flow, but Sudeep Tyagi broke through with a delivery that bounced at Parthiv Patel, who stabbed it to left of short gully where it was brilliantly held by a diving Dhawan. That turned the tide for Red, as Munaf and Tyagi tightened the leash with their disciplined lines and lengths. Munaf bounced out Ajinkya Rahane before Suresh Raina gifted his wicket, bowled by Munaf while attempting an awful swing across the line.Those early wickets put Green under immense pressure and Badrinath chose the opportunity to get in some tight overs of off spin from R Ashwin and himself. The runs came in a trickle in the middle overs and it took rearguard actions from Tiwary and Anirudha to get them out of a hole. Tiwary kept pushing the ball into gaps for singles but revealed his hitting prowess with the odd big hits. He broke free against Ashwin with a chipped six over long-on before he lofted and flat-batted Ravindra Jadeja to the straight boundary. He also cut and glanced Ishant for boundaries but fell, top edging a reverse sweep against Ashwin.Till then, Anirudha had done his job almost perfectly, concentrating on giving the strike back to Tiwary with his dabs and nudges. Post Tiwary’s exit, Anirudha took over with couple of big hits of his own: he opened his stance and swung Munaf and Ashwin to the long-on boundary and added some respectability to the score but it wasn’t enough to challenge Vijay and Dhawan.

The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has accepted the recommendations made by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to try and resolve the contracts dispute that has rocked West Indies cricket and said it will do all it can to ensure its implementation and restart negotiations under this process.On Friday, a meeting of political leaders in the Caribbean put forward a series of recommendations to WIPA and the West Indies Cricket Board. One of those recommendations was for players to make themselves available for selection in accordance with normal WICB requirements, in particular, participation in the regional tournaments. Another was for the WICB to agree to the television/image rights fees (sponsor’s fees) traditionally paid to players pending the special arbitration on this issue to facilitate the signing of retainer contracts by October 1 this year.”The West Indies players and their representative organisation WIPA are fully cognizant of cricket’s role in the Caribbean and want to state clearly our commitment to any process that seeks to return West Indies cricket to its prominent status in the world game and will do its utmost to make this possible,” the WIPA said in a statement.The recommendations arrive in the aftermath of failed negotiations between the WICB and the WIPA under the mediation of the CARICOM-appointed Sir Shridath Ramphal. The contracts crisis reached its height when senior West Indies players boycotted the home Test series against Bangladesh, and the WICB fielded a makeshift team which was also retained for the Champions Trophy.

The West Indies Cricket Board has proposed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which 99 regional cricketers will be awarded contracts. The WICB wants the new MoU, which also deals with player salaries, to be in place till September 2012. The board is still waiting for the WIPA, with whom it is involved in a bitter dispute, to respond to the new proposal.The decision to expand the pool of contracted cricketers was taken at the WICB’s annual general meeting in Antigua on Sunday. According to a WICB media release, 15 players will receive annual retainer contracts and an additional 84 players (14 players per WICB affiliate) will get newly introduced territorial contracts each year.The board said it had allocated US$800,000 for the regional contracts and added that non-contracted players will get a ‘pay for play’ contract.”We want this new agreement in effect by October 1 this year so that we can plan for the future,” WICB president Julian Hunte said. “We need to establish the framework for managing the relationship with WIPA and the players to ensure that we live up to our obligations and be able to manage the performance of players.”Hunte also said the WICB had worked on 45 of the 67 recommendations of the PJ Patterson report. One of its major recommendations was restructuring the WICB into a two-tiered structure, which Hunte did not accept. “I am still unable to see where is the inherent solution to all our problems in West Indies cricket by having a new layer at the top to own and oversee West Indies cricket,” he said.