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Kerry Walmsley tries to take a spectacular catch off his bowling © Getty Images

New Zealand Cricket Players Association (NZCPA) Masters XI eased to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over New Zealand Under-19s in the first of the World Vision Cyclone Relief Fund Twenty20 matches in Hamilton. After limiting the U-19s to 103, NZCPA Masters XI knocked off the runs with more than three overs to spare.The U-19s won the toss and opted to bat, but started poorly, losing Michael Bracewell in the second over. Jeet Raval hit a couple of boundaries and a six before falling to Kerry Walmsley. Kane Williamson (18) and Corey Anderson (14) also got starts, but a middle-order collapse left the U-19s tottering at 59 for 6. An unbeaten run-a-ball 22 from Greg Morgan lifted them past the 100-run mark.The NZCPA Masters XI, comprising mainly former New Zealand internationals, got off to a rapid start, with openers Matt Horne and Mark Bailey plundering 64 runs in the first seven overs. Both fell in quick succession but Andrew Jones and Justin Vaughan played steady knocks to ensure the NZCPA side coasted to victory.The match was one of two fixtures to raise money for people affected by Cyclone Sidr which devastated Bangladesh in November. The touring Bangladesh team take on a New Zealand Cricket XI in a day-night Twenty20 match later today.

Stuart Clark has been given the green light to go to the Caribbean © Getty Images

Stuart Clark has been cleared by the ICC to play in the World Cup after being picked as Brett Lee’s replacement for the tournament starting on March 11. The ICC’s World Cup technical committee has also received a request from the Pakistan board to switch the allrounder Azhar Mahmood for Abdul Razzaq after he suffered a knee injury that ruled him out of the contest.Clark was added to the 15-man squad last Friday subject to the approval of the committee and he will leave for the Caribbean with the outfit today. “Clark is the first replacement player called up for the tournament after each of the 16 teams taking part nominated their final squads,” an ICC spokesman said. Lee suffered the ankle injury before the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in New Zealand and the problem did not improve over the next week.David Richardson, the senior ICC official, will also chair the committee when it rules on Mahmood’s case. The ICC spokesman said the application would be “considered in the very near future”.

Adam Voges was disciplined for missing a compulsory training session © Getty Images

A suspension to Adam Voges has given Liam Davis the chance to become Western Australia’s sixth debutant of the summer in the one-day game against South Australia at the WACA on Wednesday. Voges missed a compulsory squad session last week and was banned for one match.Davis, a hard-hitting batsman from Scarborough, is in his second year with the state squad and is one of two changes to the side that beat Queensland. Marcus North also comes in for Shawn Gillies after recovering from a broken finger.Grant Roden, the Western Suburbs fast bowler, will replace Grant Lambert in the New South Wales squad to play Tasmania in the ING Cup match at Hobart on Wednesday. Roden is the leading wicket-taker in the Cricket Australia Cup with 25 at 13.88 this season, and he joins an attack including Matthew Nicholson, Doug Bollinger and Stuart MacGill. New South Wales enter the match on top of the table with 25 points and are looking to extend their advantage against the defending champions.Dane Anderson, the Tasmania opening batsman, injured his right shoulder during fielding training on Monday and has been ruled out. Rhett Lockyear has been recalled from the Cricket Australia Cup team playing in Perth and is expected to make his one-day debut.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Craig Simmons, Dominic Thornely, Aaron O’Brien, Brad Haddin (capt, wk), Matthew Phelps, Corey Richards, Grant Roden, Aaron Bird, Doug Bollinger, Stuart MacGill, Matthew Nicholson.Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto (capt), Travis Birt, Rhett Lockyer, Michael Bevan, George Bailey, Luke Butterworth, Adam Griffith, Tim Paine (wk), Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Ben Hilfenhaus, Adam Polkinghorne.Western Australia squad Justin Langer (capt), Luke Ronchi (wk), Liam Davis, Marcus North, Shaun Marsh, Chris Rogers, Peter Worthington, Beau Casson, Steve Magoffin, Matthew Petrie, Ben Edmondson and David Bandy.

ScorecardLeeward Islands continued to build a lead after dismissing Windward Islands for 268. The Windwards, who resumed on 171 for 4, made their way to 251 before another wicket fell. It was the beginning of a severe collapse, with Carl Simon and Omari Banks sharing dismissing six batsmen for only 17. Leewards’ lead surged to 323 by the end of the day. Stuart Williams led the way in their second innings with his boundary-filled 76. He shared a stand of 107 with Sylvester Joseph (49). However, wickets fell regularly and the Leewards found themselves at 214 for 7, but in a position to take control of the match.
ScorecardAfter conceding the first innnings lead to Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago rode on the back of a double-hundred by Lendl Simmons. Simmons scored his 200 off 290 balls and hit 19 fours and four sixes as T&T reached 392 for 9 in their second innings, gaining a lead of 359. It was a monumental effort, especially as batsmen fell around him cheaply at the start. After T&T stuttered to 103 for 4, Simmons and Denesh Ramdin put up 168 for the fifth wicket. Ramdin’s 60 was a patient effort, in contrast to the innings by Richard Kelly, whose 62 came off 76 balls and dominated a stand of 94 with Simmons. Jerome Taylor was the bowler of the day for Jamaica with 3 for 62.
ScorecardAfter two days of rain effectively put paid to any chances of a result favourable to either team, Ryan Ramdass lit up the third day at Guyana with 142 – his third hundred of the season – as Guyana scored 367 for 7 in 104 overs. Ramdas and Sewnarine Chattergoon (77) made Courtney Browne repent his decision to put Guyana in, for the two openers put on 185 as the sun beat down and dried the moisture in the pitch. After the quick loss of Chattergoon and Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine added 96 with Ramdass and watched as Ramdass became the first of four batsmen to fall to Ryan Hinds (4 for 143).

Murray Goodwin records his maiden triple-century to put the icing on a wonderful day for Sussex

County Championship round-upWhen you’ve got a maiden Championship title at stake, there’s nothing quite like sealing it in style. And in Mushtaq Ahmed and Murray Goodwin, Sussex found two players with the perfect sense of occasion.On the first day, Mushtaq became the first bowler for five years to take 100 wickets in a County Championship season. He reached the landmark with his first wicket, that of Leicestershire’s Brad Hodge with the last ball before lunch, on his way to 4 for 71.The last bowlers to take 100 wickets in a season were Andrew Caddick for Somerset and Courtney Walsh for Gloucestershire in 1998. The last spinner to reach 100 was Northamptonshire’s Anil Kumble in 1995.Mushtaq’s efforts put the destiny of the Championship beyond reasonable doubt, but it took a supreme innings from Goodwin to set the champagne corks a-popping. When Chris Adams finally declared at 614 for 4, Goodwin had lamped a wonderful 335 not out. It was the first triple-century of his career, and appropriately enough for such an historic day, the highest first-class score in Sussex’s history. The previous record of 333 had belonged to KS Duleepsinhji, set against Northants at Hove in 1930.At Headingley there’s plenty at stake as well, with Yorkshire needing a victory to secure promotion to the first division. Damien Martyn duly followed up the fastest first-class century of the season by reaching 200 in record time against Gloucestershire. Martyn’s hundred came off 65 balls, with 15 fours and four sixes, beating the previous-fastest, Bilal Shafayat’s 100 in 73 balls for Nottinghamshire against Durham UCCE on the second day of the season.Martyn’s innings looks likely to secure him AON’s £5000 prize and the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the season’s fastest hundred. If so, it will be the first time in the history of a competition which started in 1934 that the winning innings has been scored at Headingley.Martyn’s double-hundred took only 128 balls (including 32 fours and seven sixes). Again, it was the fastest of the season, beating the previous best of 134 balls, set only last week by Ian Blackwell for Somerset against Derbyshire.

Tamil Nadu restricted Hyderabad to just 199 on Day One of their Ranji Trophy league match at Chennai.Winning the toss, Hyderabad opted to bat first. Wickets fell fast, and four batsmen were back in the pavilion with just 64 on the board. There followed a slow partnership between D Vinay Kumar and Arjun Yadav. Yadav made 71 off 176 balls, with nine fours and a six, and was the top-scorer of the innings.Yadav fell just before the close of play. At stumps, Hyderabad were 199 for five, with Vinay Kumar unbeaten on 56 off 176 balls, and M Srinivas on 0 off three balls. For the home side, skipper Robin Singh bowled impressively, returning figures of 14-8-12-2.

India seamer Zaheer Khan has announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket. He will, however, continue to play in the IPL for one more season.With 610 international wickets, Zaheer finishes as one of India’s most successful bowlers, being the fourth-highest wicket-taker for India across formats. He has the second-highest wickets tally – 311 – for an India seamer in Tests, behind Kapil Dev’s 434. Zaheer, though, played few international matches in recent years after being dogged by injuries. An injury he sustained to his bowling arm in May 2014 had put him out of action for a long time, although he managed to play seven games in this year’s IPL.While his final Test was against New Zealand in Wellington early last year, his last ODI was more than three years ago, against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. He ends his international career with 92 Tests, 200 ODIs and 17 T20Is to his name.In a statement, Zaheer thanked his team-mates in the various sides he played for, and said his greatest moment was winning the World Cup in 2011. “Cricket has been my only life over the past two decades and is in fact the only thing I know well. Cricket has made me the individual that I am, giving me everything in life and much more. I walk away with fantastic memories, life-defining experiences and great friendships. My mother summarised it well in reaction to my decision: ” (fair enough, I had a wonderful journey).He traced his journey “as a kid from the small town of Shrirampur (Maharashtra)” to his stint at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in 1996 and at the MRF Pace Academy to his eventual debut for India in 2000. Referring to a favourite newspaper headline, he hinted at his future plans, saying, “Zak is back’ is perhaps a headline that may come my way again as I have every intention of giving back to this game.”Zaheer finishes his Test career with an average of 32.94 and ODI career with 282 wickets at 29.43. After his international debut in 2000, his most prominent performance in Tests came on the England tour of 2007 when he finished with 18 wickets at an average of 20.33. In ODIs, he played a vital role as the leader of the pace attack during India’s victorious 2011 World Cup campaign with 21 wickets to finish as the join-highest wicket-taker.”He feels with a hurt shoulder he cannot bowl at his best for him to perform at international level consistently, so he has decided to call it a day,” Zaheer’s mentor Sudhir Naik told ESPNcricinfo.”He served Indian cricket with remarkable passion and commitment,” BCCI preisdent Shashank Manohar said in a release. “Being a fast bowler in the Indian sub continent is challenging but he led the bowling attack with distinction and contributed significantly to the success of Indian cricket .I wish him all the best for the future.”

Newcastle fans aren’t too sure what to make of this week’s striker links, after the club has been linked to both Fernando Torres and Bas Dost.

It seems like the Magpies have been linked to Bas Dost about a hundred times now, but they do say there’s no smoke without fire.

This time, it’s Portuguese outlet Record (via TalkSport) that are claiming Dost is open to leaving Portugal this summer, after grabbing an incredible 24 goals in 24 league starts.

The towering striker was reportedly the subject of a huge bid from Newcastle last summer, so fans have been here before and aren’t all that convinced by the fresh links.

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Fans are however getting very excited about the prospect of signing Fernando Torres.

After being linked with a move for the 34 year-old Spaniard in January, the Magpies have this week been moved into 6/1 favourites to sign Torres when his contract runs out this summer.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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The Atletico Madrid legend has managed seven goals in nine starts this season, and fans love the idea of teaming him up with Rafael Benitez again, who brought him to Liverpool back in 2007.

Some of the best Twitter reactions can be found below…

Andrew Strauss’s arrival in New Zealand has been delayed after flight problems at Johannesburg airport. He was due to make his debut for the Northern Knights on Wednesday, but that has now been pushed back to the clash against Otago on Sunday.Strauss had been on a family holiday in South Africa but after boarding his plane the main door would not close properly. The subsequent delay meant that he was unable to make it to New Zealand in time for the match against Canterbury.The stint in New Zealand, where Strauss will play in the State Shield and Twenty20 tournaments, had been organised with the aim of pushing for an England recall. That has now already happened after he was named in the 16-man Test squad for the tour of New Zealand in March, so his domestic stint is a chance for him to acclimatise before joining up with the squad.

Brad Hodge will replace Ricky Ponting at No. 3 © Getty Images

At the start of the CB Series there were mutterings about Australia’s outfit being so dominant – and the opposition so poor – that they would quickly regain the world record one-day score. While part of the belief is Australian chest-beating after the Ashes cleansweep and a strong limited-overs start, Adam Gilchrist insists scores of 400-plus will become more common as a flow-on effect from Twenty20.Gilchrist, who will lead the side against England in Brisbane on Friday, is likely to have a strong say in any massive Australian total and is convinced they will get bigger. “I do believe 400s are going to become parts of the game,” he said. “Slowly but surely they may become the norm, but they’re a little way off yet.”Batsmen are power hitting earlier and Twenty20 is going to show teams how expansive they can be.” However, he does not expect too many repeats of Australia’s mind-blowing game against South Africa last year when 872 runs were scored in 99.5 overs and Australia held the world mark for only an innings.As Gilchrist talked in the Gabba gym he was asked by Angus Fraser, the former England seamer, whether it was a good thing for the game if the batsman had an unequal advantage. “I can’t see why bowlers have got such a raw deal,” Gilchrist said. “The powerplay changes it a lot, but there was always an overs restriction. The bowlers will adapt and they are adapting. Looking at bowling now in one-day cricket compared to 20 years ago, they are smarter about it.”Australia will regain two of their most knowledgeable fast men for Friday’s match with Glenn McGrath cleared of a groin problem and Brett Lee recovering from a chest infection that ruled him out of the first two games. The pair’s inclusion forces Ben Hilfenhaus out of the squad – he will play for Tasmania in the Pura Cup game against Queensland in Hobart – and Stuart Clark and Brad Hogg will also be missing.

Brett Lee has recovered from a chest infection © Getty Images

McGrath was rested for the 105-run win over New Zealand in Hobart on Sunday and did not bowl in the nets today. “They are just managing his workload and monitoring him closely,” Gilchrist said. “We’re sure he’s 100% fit.”Gilchrist will captain Australia for the 14th time in one-day games as he replaces the resting Ricky Ponting, and he downplayed the prospect of the side’s invincibility. “There’s every chance we could lose a game to England or New Zealand,” Gilchrist, who will play his 250th ODI, said. “It’s the nature of one-day cricket. That’s what we’re trying to guard against.”Not for a minute are we thinking we have wrapped up this tournament. Far from it. But if we maintain the standard and keep progressing we shouldn’t lose too many.”Australia 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt, wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Cameron White, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Nathan Bracken, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Glenn McGrath.