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The future of Headingley has again been thrown into doubt after the local council unexpectedly stalled on financing Yorkshire’s planned purchase of the ground, just two weeks after appearing to come to an agreement.The county has agreed to buy the venue for £12million to comply with one of the ECB’s requirements for grounds wishing to host England matches. But the move depends on Leeds City Council providing a loan of £9million.The financing was expected to be rubber-stamped this week but the council’s executive board has decided it needs stronger guarantees on repayment. Mark Harris, the council leader, said: “It is public funds we are talking about and it would be irresponsible for us to accept what is currently on the table.”In a statement Yorkshire said: “This is a position which the club understands and we shall therefore employ every endeavour on our side to ensure that agreement is reached in the course of the days ahead. Since we have already reached agreement on all matters of principle, the club believes that the remaining points of detail can be resolved quickly and without difficulty.”Yorkshire now face a race against time to secure the financing and complete the purchase of Headingley, which is currently rented from the owners of the adjacent rugby club, by the end of the year. If they do not they will invalidate an agreement with the ECB under which Headingley was assured of the right to host England matches for the next 15 years, provided they took ownership of the ground by 2006. Yorkshire plan to increase the ground’s capacity from 17,000 to 20,000 with significant developments of the Grandstand and Kirkstall Lane ends.

Sales of Pakistan’s one-day strip from the 2003 World Cup are expected to reach £1million following some unexpected exposure from British comedian Peter Kay on Channel 4’s comedy show according to newspaper. Kay wore the shirt in all six episodes of the series, which finished last Friday.The World Cricket Store, which holds the UK licence to make the shirts, has been overwhelmed by the demand. It outsells England strips. A few months ago, the shirt was proving so unpopular that the line was dropped. “We’ve been inundated,” Mark Whitehead, the firm’s managing director, told chortle.co.uk. “It’s amazing the effect a TV show as popular as Peter’s can have. He’s made our Christmas.”The sitcom sees two ex-bouncers take the road in a motor home, but it hasn’t yet been made clear why Kay’s character wears the shirt.

Wisden CricInfo’s writers comment on cricket’s latest inventionSteven Lynch
I have been pleasantly surprised by the crowds, the obvious fun, and the way the players have tucked in (maybe the promise of meeting Atomic Kitten at Trent Bridge has something to do with that). It’s fast-food cricket, and a couple of hours after the match most people have forgotten almost everything about it – but that doesn’t matter much as long as people turn up. The TV chats with the captain are sometimes very interesting, but I do feel sorry for anyone who has to bowl in it, and I also have a suspicion that the novelty might wear off. But it has been a good start, blessed with fine weather, and judging by England’s express-style one-day demolition of Pakistan at The Oval, the lessons are already rubbing off at a higher level.Martin Williamson
I was initially sceptical about a product which appeared to owe more to marketing meetings than the game itself, but that evaporated on the first night as the crowds flocked to grounds and the matches were not the farces that many feared. However, a trip to leafy Imber Court to watch Surrey play Sussex left me with mixed feelings. The crowd was good, and importantly the mix of the spectators was far more diverse than usual. But the game itself was not particularly exciting, and there was little feeling that people really cared what was going on in the middle. They basked in the sun, chatted and drank, while the many children raced round playing impromptu games of cricket. Being positive, at least they were there, which is what really matters. I think the future of Twenty20 is to take games to new grounds where there is an untapped audience. Playing them on the same old grounds will, once the novelty has worn off, result in the same old spectator apathy.Andrew Miller
I wasn’t a fan of Twenty20 cricket when the idea was first publicised. My objections were twofold. First the fear of failure: English cricket and gimmickry has a sad and dysfunctional relationship, and I still wince at the memory of the 1999 World Cup opening ceremony, the dampest squib ever to exist outside the realm of metaphor. My second objection, perhaps perversely, was a fear of success. If the crowds did indeed flood through the turnstiles, what next? Test cricket remains the only form of the game that truly and consistently gets my pulse racing, and this seemed so far removed from that as to be a dangerous, almost immoral, experiment. But then, one sunny Friday afternoon, with a day’s work behind me and three hours to kill before a friend’s birthday party, I allowed my guard to drop and my eyes were opened – I found myself part of a packed and knowledgable Oval crowd, all revelling in a rare opportunity to watch a live cricket match from start to finish. Purity is not the issue, and nor are the face-painters and jacuzzis. It’s all about the cricket, stupid!Freddie Auld
We were promised a new form of fast, fun and funky cricket to attract a new crowd to the game – and, after my initial reservations, I haven’t been disappointed. However, this is purely as a TV viewer. My studious nature has meant that I haven’t yet managed to join the throng live and let my hair down. But I plan to do so before long, with a group of my non-cricketing friends. And, the ECB will be pleased to hear, that even includes some girls. Watching on the box, admittedly without all the pitch-side distractions, I’ve enjoyed the immediate assaults and run-chases. That may not be an ideal way to hone a high straight elbow and an immaculate front-foot defensive, but we get enough of that in Tests. And cricket’s not just about that any more – it’s about entertainment and moving with the times.Ralph Dellor
All congratulations to those concerned for introducing Twenty20 into the English game. To get as many people as they have to go to any cricket-related event is an exceptional achievement. Only time will tell whether it is the novelty of the concept that brings the people flocking to previously deserted county grounds, or whether there is a lasting interest that will even convert the new followers to watch first one-day cricket and then go to a Championship match. However, bearing in mind that the idea is to establish the product in its own right, could I make a few suggestions that might make it even more appealing? Like using a bright orange ball instead of what starts out as a white one but soon becomes a mucky grey. And ensuring that both sides do not wear black as the basic shade of their coloured clothing. And – if this reactionary traditionalist is going to throw off all his conservative inhibitions! – reduce the teams to eight a side and bring in the boundaries so that there are more runs. Store these ideas away for when the novelty starts to fade.Sambit Bal
When I first heard about Twenty20, my spontaneous reaction was, “Ah, here we go again.” I have never been a fan of the variants – the Super Six, Max Cricket – anything that seeks to subvert the fundamentals of the game. After watching a few games on television, I wouldn’t say I am a convert yet, but I don’t mind it. What I like about it is that the game has been crunched without tampering with the essentials. At three hours, it’s only twice the size of a football match and roughly the same as a five-setter at the French Open. In theory, it is a combination of the first 15 and the last 10 of a 50-over match, and, to an extent, it works. What I don’t like about it is that it blurs the line between the highly skilled and the plain biffers. Big hits are spectacular, but continuous slogging is ugly. With wickets becoming inconsequential, the licence to hit comes with no price at all, and the bowler is degraded further. But still, if it can attract English kids to a game of cricket, who am I to complain?Raja M
Twenty20 celebrates cricket’s core charm. Forget goals and statistics, targets and tactics. Each match is a highlights package, each ball a story. Creativity is unleashed, and it’s liberation from the copybook. Yet cricket’s precious essence is not just retained but enhanced: beautifully hit straight sixes, spectacular fielding, spinners on duty. This is cricket back to its primeval spirit, the simplicity of purpose that drove men like Gilbert Jessop, Victor Trumper, Viv Richards and the young Sachin Tendulkar: the ball is there to thumped. With teams bowled out in 20 overs, it’s not a bowler’s nightmare either. A true master will conquer any challenge. A Twenty20 World Cup soon? Two matches a day at the same venue, a tournament lasting a week … Fear no changes, don’t sneer at evolution. That’s what one-day cricket taught us in the mid-1970s, and one-day cricket now funds the game. Twenty20 will do the same: it will help cricket flourish in a new millennium, in new frontiers like America.

Gloucestershire wicket-keeper Stephen Pope has been selected to representthe England Under 19 side in the 2002 ICC World Cup in New Zealand. Thesquad will depart for acclimatisation in Australia on December 27 beforetravelling to New Zealand in the New Year. The competition begins onSaturday 19 January with the final played on Saturday 9 February.

ScorecardCharlotte Edwards congratulates Sarah Taylor on a matchwinning fifty•Stephen Pond/Getty Images

A fresh – if familiar – format, some new colours, a couple of new faces and a return to a favourite old venue was all it took to freshen England up and keep the Ashes alive.After a torrid Test match that saw little go right for England, there was still the chance of winning the Ashes overall in a series where they are decided by virtue of points gained in all three formats.Charlotte Edwards’ side ticked boxes aplenty: their fielding – with three sharp run outs, a series of fine dives in the deep, and some excellent catching – returned to the spectacular level achieved in the series opener at Taunton, Edwards was more tactically astute, and, crucially, Sarah Taylor – fresh from a pair in the Test match at Canterbury – enjoyed a timely return to form with the bat, that characteristic insouciance and those rubbery wrists back as she notched a nonchalant half-century.Even the promotion of the brutalist Katherine Brunt to No 5 worked, as she boshed 12 from Ellyse Perry’s final over to help England home with 15 balls to spare; her 21 from 10 balls was just her third double-figure score in twenty T20I innings.This bumptious Australian side – whose run of 16 consecutive T20I victories comes to an end with this defeat – seldom seem cowed. But with a partisan packed house cheering the hosts on, they were unable to recover from a sluggish start having been inserted.Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole were immediately into their groove, and England were particularly lively in the field, with both Danielles – Wyatt and Hazell – making impressive early contributions. But Australia were passive in the opening powerplay, which included 22 dot balls for the loss of Elyse Villani, whose leading edge off Shrubsole’s fifth ball – a slower one – fell simply back to the bowler.Australia’s start was slow, but their two strongest batsmen, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning, were set. As if to demonstrate that point, Lanning swept Jenny Gunn’s first delivery – the first after the powerplay – for six. The introduction of Hazell, however, tied the pair down. Her first over went for one, before Lanning drove straight and hit Hazell square on the leg, and two dot balls later she slogged a rank full toss to deep square-leg, where Lydia Greenway took a sharp catch.Gunn failed to pick up a Perry miscue off Hazell’s next over and shelled the catch, but the drop was worth just a slogged four to cow and a single, as Nat Sciver’s first ball saw Perry bowled off the pad by a full one.Wickets fell steadily from that point. Canterbury hero Jess Jonassen was deceived by Sciver’s slower ball, and then, as Australia took on risky singles, the run outs began. Youngster Grace Harris was dismissed by a direct hit when backing up, Alyssa Healy by a fired up Brunt, and Erin Osborne by sharp work from Greenway. Between times, Alex Blackwell lofted Gunn’s first ball back to cover, and tight bowling meant runs were hard to come by.A target of 123 was underpar, but with a dewy outfield, a quality attack, and an English order prone to indecision, was eminently defendable. But Australia – particularly in the middle overs – bowled an ugly set of half-trackers and full tosses, and dropped both Edwards and Taylor, who shared 77 after Perry had Lauren Winfield caught at mid-on in her second over.The pair bristled with intent in the powerplay, as Megan Schutt once again made the ball talk. Taylor unleashed her ramp to Perry and used her feet to Sarah Coyte’s seam, while Edwards showed off that classical cover drive and flick to midwicket out, too. Australia had their chances, with Villani dropping Edwards on 19 at mid-off, and Coyte shelling a low caught and bowled off Taylor on 34.Both batsmen were eventually stumped by Healy, Edwards sharply and Taylor easily, but by then the damage was done, as hard-hitting cameos from Sciver and Brunt ensured victory. England must do this twice more, of course, and if the Ashes are to be retained, they will have to do it away from their happy hunting ground, where they have now won six from six.

Scorecard

Simon Katich struck form at the right time, but he was unable to seal his return to national colours with a century as he fell three runs short on the second day of the tour match against a Jamaica XI. With Michael Clarke missing the first Test due to family reasons, Katich confirmed his place as the Australians completed a strong warm-up by posting 396.Katich took his time once he resumed on 35 and kept the innings together after losing Phil Jaques for 48, Ricky Ponting for 17 and Michael Hussey for 19. While Ponting and Hussey missed out on long stays, Andrew Symonds and Brad Haddin took advantage of the conditions with half-centuries in an energetic 145-run stand.Symonds collected 86 while Haddin, who will make his Test debut at Sabina Park on Thursday, picked up a confidence-boosting 64. However, the day was most important for Katich, especially after Brad Hodge, the other contender to replace Clarke, did not make a major impact.Katich seemed set for three figures, but he missed the milestone when aiming the spinner Lorenzo Ingram towards midwicket, where Xavier Marshall collected a fine diving take in the outfield. Donovan Sinclair was the most successful bowler, finishing off the innings with 3 for 14, while Andre Russell and Nikita Miller picked up two each.Katich was pleased to make use of his only opportunity to get used to the Caribbean conditions before the first Test. “It was just nice to get out there and play some cricket, get a few runs and spend some time out in the middle,” Katich told .”It’s always disappointing not to get a hundred, but that’s the way it goes, and at the end of the day, it was nice to spend some time out of the middle and get a few runs, so I can’t complain too much. It’s just nice to be able to go out there and know I’m playing well and have confidence in my game.”The hosts reached 11 for 0 at the close, and in their brief stint in the field the Australians wore their baggy green caps after being criticised for having a sponsor’s hat on during the first innings. Cricket Australia said that because Haddin did not yet have a baggy green – he will receive it on the first morning of the Kingston Test – the team decided in the interests of uniformity to wear their blue training caps, which bear the sponsor’s logo.But following some media criticism the board said in the future a ‘fitted green’ cap may be developed so that players who have not yet represented Australia in Test cricket can have a similar look to their Test counterparts. Haddin wore a white hat on the second day.

Shane Warne, Brian Lara and Glenn McGrath starred for the All Stars team on the opening day of the Hong Kong Sixes at the tiny and picturesque Kowloon Cricket Club to make them firm favourites for the title.The All Stars cruised past Australia, Bangladesh and last year’s winners, South Africa, to top the Sobers group and move into tomorrow’s quarter-finals. And although Lara played his part, crunching four fours and lifting two huge sixes into the stands, the unlikely batting highlight came from McGrath who smashed his first ball for six before attempting an audacious reverse sweep.”It has been over six months since I last picked up a bat, so maybe that was the secret,” McGrath said. “I think I have only hit the one six [in internationals], when I got my Test 61 [against New Zealand in 2004]. That was my first ‘Sixes six’ and my first in any format of the one-day game.”It has been a very a good day for us. We started off a bit rusty in that first game, but the way we batted and bowled in the last two games were exceptional.”[Against South Africa] we were going along well and we did not need too many more runs, so Warney and Brian and a few of the boys said to get in there and have a bit of fun. It came off for me perfectly.”This year’s event features eight leading cricketing nations, including defending champions South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and England, plus hosts Hong Kong and, for the first time, an All Stars team.

England women have begun their training for the quadrangular series in India in February. The one-day tournament will also feature New Zealand and the world champions Australia, and is expected to be held in Chennai for two weeks – although these dates are subject to change, given the tightness of the itinerary.Training for the women as a group kicked off at Loughborough at the weekend, which focussed on bowling, and Ottis Gibson provided expert advice. There are three more camps planned over the winter, which will all be held at the Academy.Three England players are playing domestic cricket in Australia this winter, which will help them to be match-fit, should they be selected for the tournament. Rosalie Birch, Jenny Gunn and Beth Morgan are competing in Brisbane before heading back to England at the end of January.

Brad Hodge, the Victoria batsman, has said that there is no one more deserving to play for Australia than him. Hodge has replaced Simon Katich in the squad and is expected to make his Test debut in the second Test against West Indies at Hobart on November 17.”It has been extremely hard work and … dedication, it has been a long, hard road and I honestly believe if there is anyone that deserves to play cricket for Australia, it is me,” Hodge told AFP. “Having put the work in and the time, and the dedication and certainly the ambition and drive have been there for a long time, it is just a case of honing your skills. You can’t replace years and years of experience at the first-class level, you get to develop your game and know exactly what you are trying to achieve in the sport.”Hodge has played 167 first-class games and only Michael Hussey (176), who made his Test debut in the first Test against West Indies at Brisbane, has played more first-class matches before being handed a Test cap.”I know how hard it is to get in the side, it has taken me a long, long time and if I get my chance I certainly am not going to be giving it up easily,” said Hodge. “I guess there are a lot of guys in [Sheffield] Shield cricket who want to play for Australia and if they do it as tough as I have done, then they deserve to play for Australia.” Though Australia haven’t named their team for the Hobart Test, Hodge said that he thought it “unimaginable” that the selectors would give him a call-up and name him 12th man. ”I’d be surprised if he [Hodge] didn’t play,” Ricky Ponting told Reuters. ”We haven’t picked the team yet but I’d imagine he’d be a straight replacement for Simon Katich.”Hodge disagreed with all the focus on Australia’s ageing team. “I am only 30. I don’t know why this age bracket seems to be a problem because most of the good players who have played for Australia dominated at 30. Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann and also Matthew Hayden got back in at the age of 30 and dominated so if I can do anything half of what they have done, I will be very happy.”

The ECB is holding urgent talks with the authorities in Zimbabwe after a number of journalists were denied entry to Zimbabwe to cover England’s forthcoming five-match one-day series, which is scheduled to start later this week.The Zimbabwe government has denied entry to journalists from , , and , and their Sunday stable-mates, as well as the BBC. However, those from the , the , and , and agency reporters from the Press Association and Reuters, will be allowed in. Visa applications and requests for press accreditation were made through the cricket boards of both England and Zimbabwe two months ago.Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, indicated that they only became aware of the decision late this afternoon, and it remained unclear on what basis it had been taken. Mani has been in talks with Peter Chingoka, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, and David Morgan, his counterpart at the ECB, and also the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.”The ICC looks to get a clear understanding of what has taken place, and the reasons for it,” Mani said. “At this time, until we have received clarification on this issue, it is difficult for us to comment further on what has happened today.”As far as Chingoka is concerned, it’s nothing to do with his cricket board: “I have no say whatsoever in accreditation. Government officials are the ones who handle that. I have just passed on my information to the ECB and my dealings are with them.”Morgan, who is still in England before flying to Zimbabwe for the series, told BBC Radio Five Live that there was no way out of the tour: “The England cricket team is committed to appear in Zimbabwe for the future tours programme which is a regulation of the International Cricket Council. I expect the tour to proceed despite the unfortunate situation regarding media accreditation. It’s unfortunate and embarrassing, and something that we will be pursuing on arrival there with the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket.”Meanwhile, Andrew Walpole, the ECB’s media relations manager, who is currently with the England side in Namibia, told Wisden Cricinfo: “This is an evolving situation and we’re taking it hour by hour. We’re currently holding urgent talks with the authorities in Zimbabwe, and it’s too early to speculate on what the outcome of those talks will be.”England are scheduled to travel to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, and the first one-day international is set for Harare on Friday.