All posts by csb10.top

Sri Lanka offspinner Sachithra Senanayake and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson have been cleared to resume bowling in international cricket by the ICC.Senanayake, who was reported for a suspect action during Sri Lanka’s tour of England, was suspended from bowling in July 2014. After having his bowling action remodelled, he was re-tested officially at an ICC-accredited facility in Chennai last month. Williamson, also underwent testing at the Chennai facility. suspended in July. The ICC said the results for both bowlers showed that the level of elbow extension for all deliveries was within the prescribed 15-degree limit.”It’s nice to be cleared and to have the opportunity to bowl again,” Williamson said. “I could become an option for Brendon.”It’s a good process to go through. It’s a good initiative by the ICC. I enjoyed working on my bowling more, something I had not done in the past. That’s probably why my action lost itself a bit. Now I am coming with a straighter arm and pursuing a new path with my bowling.”The ICC rules also state that if a bowler is cleared to play international cricket again, and is once more reported and found guilty of contravening the legal limits of flexion within two years of his original suspension, he will be suspended from bowling in international cricket for a minimum of one year.Senanayake bowled each of his four variations during the Chennai Test, and will now be allowed deliver his full repertoire in internationals, a senior SLC coach said. The stock offbreak had given Senanayake most grief – the flex was over 40 degrees when delivering it during the Test that saw him banned – but the carrom ball, seam-up slider and the inswinger have also been worked on, and have been brought to within the legal limits.”I’m very happy to be cleared, and I’m thankful to the board officials who helped me during this time,” Senanayake told . “I’m also very grateful for the coaches who worked with me, and the selectors, who picked me in the preliminary World Cup squad, before the ICC report came.”His action was initially remodelled during a 10-day stint with human movement specialist Daryl Foster in Perth. Senanayake then continued his remedial work under the supervision of local coaches. He was allowed to play in Sri Lanka’s Mercantile Cricket Association in August as part of the remedial process, and has more recently played for Sinhalese Sports Club in a club tournament in Singapore, as well as the Premier Limited Overs tournament in Sri Lanka.Senanayake had been instrumental to Sri Lanka’s limited overs success in 2014, and had been particularly effective in the World T20 and the ODI series in England. He will now be considered for World Cup selection, having been named in Sri Lanka’s preliminary squad for the tournament.

If spunk is what Sri Lanka pride themselves on, the first two days of the Christchurch Test brought little to crow about. The visitors were put under pressure by an exceptional Brendon McCullum innings and outstanding new-ball spells from Trent Boult and Tim Southee, but did not emerge from either period of play with credit. They dropped three catches while McCullum was at the crease, plus another soon after he was out, and the batsmen showed poor application the following day.But though Sri Lanka lost inside four days by eight wickets, they will take some confidence into the Wellington Test, Angelo Mathews said. Having given up a first-innings deficit of 303, Sri Lanka made 407 following on, while the pitch still had plenty of movement in it. The last-wicket pair also put on 59 to leave the opposition with a target of 104, which was then earnestly defended, though only two wickets came.

Herath a chance for second Test

Rangana Herath may play in the New Year Test, as long as he has sufficiently recovered from a tear to his left hamstring. Herath was ruled out of the first Test, but will join the team in New Zealand over the next three days, after which he will be assessed by the team physio.
“Hopefully he will be fit,” Mathews said. “I haven’t had a chat with the physio, but hopefully he will come good for the second Test. He’s one of the most experienced guys in the team. Even though the conditions won’t suit him much, he knows how to bowl on these tracks – he’s been here before. I’m sure he’ll help us get 20 wickets.”
The team manager also said Herath has already had some bowling work in Sri Lanka, but “on a light scale”.

“The way all the batters showed their character in the second innings is the positive,” Mathews said. “Even the last pair put on a fifty-run partnership and it was crucial. Our first-innings batting was very poor. I thought we kicked ourselves out of the game by batting poorly. It was too much to ask from the batsmen in the second innings, but the way we fought was good.””In the second innings, I also thought our bowlers did really well. They did it quite accurately and consistently. In the first innings, I thought we were a little bit wayward in the first fifty overs.”The batsmen had rallied around Dimuth Karunaratne’s 152 in the second innings, which came from 363 deliveries, in over eight hours in the middle. Karunaratne had been dropped following the tour of England after a string of mediocre scores. On that tour he had had scores of 38, 16, 28 and 45.”For Dimuth to get his first century against a really good bowling attack is sensational,” Mathews said. “He stuck there, and was trying to build partnerships with the guys at the other end. I’m sure he must have got a lot of confidence by scoring that big 150. We were disappointed as well with him getting 30s and 40s. We knew the talent that he had and he’s a really good player when he gets going. He’s a brilliant batsman to watch and hopefully he goes from strength to strength and scores a big one in Wellington as well.”The Test was a baptism by fire for 21-year-old offspinner Tharindu Kaushal, who bore the brunt of a Brendon McCullum onslaught on day one, ending with figures of 1 for 159. He bowled 22 overs – the most in the attack – on a green pitch in that first innings, and also opened the bowling in the second dig, finishing that innings with 1 for 48. Sri Lanka had preferred to play him in this Test over Dilruwan Perera, who is viewed as a steadier, but less attacking option.”You’ve got to bite the bullet sometimes. We needed someone who is attacking, if you’re only playing one spinner,” Mathews said. “He is quite unique. He’s not a conventional offspinner, and he’s got a doosra as well. With that chance I thought he’d come good, but it’s his first game and everyone has a bit of nerves in their first match. I thought he bowled pretty well in the second innings.”Mathews also had high praise for McCullum’s 134-ball 195, which swayed the match emphatically in New Zealand’s favour, after Sri Lanka had put the hosts in to bat.”It was one of the best I’ve seen,” Mathews said. “He was playing like a Twenty20. It was just going all over the park and whoever came his way went for a lot of runs. That’s one of those innings where he just had a lot of fun, you’d have thought.”

Group I

A hundred from Faisal Athar and an unbeaten 44-ball 63 from Shoaib Laghari confirmed a knockout berth for Hyderabad Hawks with a last-over four-wicket win against Quetta Bears. Hyderabad chased down 311 with three balls to spare for their third successive win and finished on top of Group I.The chase was led initially by Zeeshan Gul’s 96 after they were reeling at 26 for 3. Gul and Athar put on 170 runs, and Athar and Laghari combined to score 101 runs together. Athar’s career-best 129 featured 13 fours and a six and no other batsman apart from Gul, Athar and Laghari scored in double digits.Earlier, Quetta Bears were asked to bat and several batsmen got starts but only three scored fifties. Opener Zubair Khan scored a run-a-ball 54 and middle-order batsmen Mirwais Tareen and Rameez Raja scored 51 and 53 respectively. Late contributions from their lower order propelled them to 309 for 9 as offspinner Nasir Awais finished with 4 for 57.Pakistan International Airlines‘ six-wicket win over United Bank Limited was not enough to take them to the next round as they finished second with two wins from three matches. After dismissing United Bank for 180, PIA chased down the target with fifties from Sheharyar Ghani (63) and Fahad Iqbal (51*).United Bank could not capitalise on their decision, being reduced to 41 for 3 and 125 for 6 later on. Only No. 4 Saeed Bin Nasir could resist with a 81-ball 71 as left-arm spinner Rafaiy Safdar took 5 for 38, his maiden five-for in List A matches, which helped bowl out United Bank in 41.4 overs. In reply, solid contributions from Ghani, Kamran Sajid (43) and Fahad meant PIA hardly stuttered in their chase to wrap up the win in under 30 overs.

Group II

A second List A century from Iftikhar Ahmed built on a six-wicket haul from Zulfiqar Babar as Water and Power Development Authority cruised to a six-wicket win and remained unbeaten in the opening round of the President’s Silver Cup One Day tournament. Habib Bank Limited, despite the loss, progress to the next round along with WAPDA.Put in to bat, Habib Bank got off to a good start with a 93-run opening stand, Imran Farhat made a rapid 70 off 68 balls, which included six fours and two sixes. However, Habib Bank’s middle and lower orders collapsed to Babar’s left-arm spin as he picked up 6 for 57. It was Asad Shafiq’s unbeaten 81 off 84 that helped Habib Bank reach 268.The WAPDA batsmen scored at a brisk rate and reached the target with seven balls to spare. Iftikhar remained unbeaten on 118 off 135 balls, with 10 fours and four sixes while Rafatullah Mohamand’s 55 from 61 and Mohammad Fayyaz 49 off 56 were other notable contributions.Imranullah Aslam cracked a rapid fifty as Bahawalpur Stags held on for a one-wicket victory over Sialkot Stallions. The victory moved them to four points, joined with Habib Bank Limited and Abbottabad Falcons. but Bahwalpur were knocked out as Habib Bank had a better net run rate.In pursuit of 218, Bahawalpur stumbled to 149 for 6 as offspinner Bilal Asif tripped up the middle-order with career-best figures of 4 for 40. Imranullah then took charge with 60 off 49 deliveries and was key in a last-wicket partnership worth 43 runs as Bahawalpur wrapped up the chase with 25 balls to spare.Sialkot ended up winless and would rue their top-order’s failure in the morning. Faisal Khan launched a middle-order revival, making 71 off 86 balls and despite some late impetus from Bilal Asif and Faisal Rasheed Siakot could only reach 217. Afraseem Hussain collected three wickets while Ali Ahmed accounted for two.

Group III

Faisalabad Wolves secured a comfortable 60-run win and progressed into the next round through allrounder Jahandad Khan’s maiden five-for and a collective batting performance. Lahore Eagles, though, exit from the tournament with a solitary win in four matches.Invited to bat, Hamza Zaheer was removed by Ahmed Bashir for 1. However, a 46-run partnership for the second wicket between Iftikhar Ahmed and Ali Shan, and four twenty-plus scores from Nos. 7 to 10 steered Faisalabad to 256. Bashir was the most successful bowler with figures of 3 for 36.In reply, Lahore’s only saving grace was a 77-run association for the second wicket between Tayyab Tahir and Mohammad Waheed as they sunk to 196 all out in 45 overs. Waheed progressed to his third List-A fifty but it had very little impact against Jahanand’s 5 for 46.Pakistan Television missed out on moving to the next round despite their five-wicket win against Sui Southern Gas Corporation, as their net run rate of 0.160 was marginally behind Faisalabad Wolves’ 0.466, with both teams on six points. PTV tried hard to qualify by dismissing SSGC for 216 and then chasing it down in 42 overs, but it wasn’t enough.SSGC were asked to bat and struggled throughout their innings after Mohammad Sami struck early. No. 3 Awais Zia struck a hundred, his fourth in List A, which led them to a respectable score despite a lower-order collapse of losing six wickets for 18 runs. Sami finished with 5 for 35, not letting any other batsman score 20.PTV’s openers could not score any runs but the trio of Hasan Raza (78), Nawaz Ahmed (69) and Zeeshan Mushtaq (41) counterattacked to deliver a comfortable win.

4lb 4 1 6 1 6 6 2 4 . 6 4 2That was Andre Russell’s performance in the 13 balls he faced at the end of the West Indies innings in Christchurch. Had he got a tickle on those four leg byes, and had the dot been called a wide as it might well have been – it was a high bouncer – he might have been on track for the fastest fifty in ODI history.As it was, he had to settle for an unbeaten 42 off 13 balls as West Indies plundered 89 in their final six overs. Russell followed that up with three wickets in his team’s record 150-run victory over Pakistan, and not surprisingly, he was named Man of the Match for the fifth time in his 45-match one-day international career.”It’s a very good feeling to contribute big to the team and getting the Man-of-the-Match award,” Russell said after the match. “At the end of the day, it’s the other contributions from the other guys. The way we batted we didn’t get the start we wanted.”But the guys in the middle kept it together and set the innings perfect for me to come and do my thing. It just goes to show we’re a good team, and playing as a team you’re always going to get the job done if everyone contributes.”Pakistan’s bowlers had no way of restricting Russell, whose four sixes flew off the bat at serious speed, and a flat crunch down the ground for four off Wahab Riaz was also struck fiercely. When he came in, West Indies were 259 for 5; when he finished they were 310 for 6. Russell said the circumstances were almost ideal for his style.”It has a lot to do with the situation,” Russell said. “I can bat if there’s 20 overs still left to go, but I think I really enjoy when there’s five overs or 10 overs left. I can come out and just play my natural game. It’s not like I have to be cagey. Especially being over 250 runs. I can just come and play my natural game from there.”The win has placed West Indies in a much stronger position after losing their opening game to Ireland, and they will hope to build their confidence further when they take on Zimbabwe in Canberra on Tuesday. Russell said the mood in the camp was encouraging after their first win of the tournament.”It’s very good. Everyone is laughing, happy,” he said. “It’s just always a fun dressing room, and I think from the last game things didn’t go well for us, and we just turned up today and wanted to show the world that we are not just a pushover. We are always a good team and we can fight. It happened today, so it was a very good performance.”

ScorecardFile photo: Tom Cooper struck 83 off 121 balls to drive South Australia•Getty Images

A collective batting effort built on three fifties and two hundred-plus stands steered South Australia to 6 for 306 at Gliderol Stadium in Adelaide.Electing to bat, South Australia had a fine start, courtesy Kelvin Smith (56) and Mark Cosgrove (74). They added 112 for the opening partnership, before Smith became Tom Beaton’s second first-class wicket. Tom Cooper (83) then registered his 20th first-class fifty and shared 102 for the fifth wicket with Alex Ross (45) to fortify South Australia. They perished in successive overs, just before stumps, but the first day belonged to South Australia.Ashton Agar took three wickets in 25 overs, but went at 3.64 runs an over.

Misbah-ul-Haq labelled Pakistan’s fitness, fielding and batting substandard, as he bows out of ODI cricket and his team exits the World Cup. Opener Sarfraz Ahmed was the only Pakistan batsman to hit a hundred in the tournament, and though Wahab Riaz claimed 16 wickets, no fewer than six catches were dropped off his bowling, including two against Australia.”We need to improve our batting,” Misbah said. “This has been now a problem for almost three, four years. We are not up to international standards. And also fielding is another aspect where all the other international teams are really going up to a higher level, and that comes with fitness.”A lot of steps have been taken by the cricket board to try to develop a fitness culture in Pakistani domestic cricket. But still, we are not there. If we don’t improve, we’re going to suffer in the future.”Though Wahab bowled one of the greatest spells in World Cup history early in Australia’s chase, Pakistan suffered from having made only 213 themselves. Their innings was characterised by middling scores from the top seven, and the lack of substantial partnerships. Their largest stand was for the third wicket – a 73-run association between Misbah and Haris Sohail.”We were really going well at one stage, but after 20, 23 overs, suddenly we just keep losing wickets. That’s been the trend throughout the World Cup. We are getting starts but we are not converting that into bigger scores. After six batsmen keep doing that, it’s really difficult for your bowling lineup to defend totals like that every day – especially on batting pitches like we were playing on today.”We need to really learn about this. We’ve got only one hundred throughout the tournament, and this is not how you win tournaments like the World Cup. You need batsmen who will score hundreds, and I think we as a batting unit failed to do that.”The quarter-final was also Shahid Afridi’s last in ODI cricket, if he adheres to his current retirement plans. Misbah spoke of the outstanding Pakistan players both he and Afridi have played with in their time.”It was really an honour for me to just represent my country, and I really enjoyed my cricket. I’ve given everything and so has Afridi. He put in a lot of effort for Pakistan and we really enjoyed that.”The message for the youngsters is that if you really want to compete in the world, you have to really work hard. That’s what our seniors did. That’s what we learned from all our greats. I really enjoyed playing cricket with some of the greats like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis. The kind of fighting spirit I’ve seen in them – I think we need to just take that as an example. This is the only way.”

Chaminda Vaas will not continue as Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach, after his contract lapsed at the end of April, Sri Lanka Cricket has said. The board acknowledged the work Vaas had done with Sri Lanka’s burgeoning battery of pace bowlers, but negotiations between the board and coach did not result in a fresh contract.”Chaminda Vaas’ contract lapsed today 30th of April 2015, and on a mutual agreement it was decided not to go for an extension of the said contract,” an official release said.Vaas had been appointed fast bowling coach in early 2013, and has overseen a World T20 victory and a Test series win in England during his tenure, with Sri Lanka’s quicks having played a significant role in both those results. The seamers had been underwhelming in recent limited overs tours, however, including in the World Cup.For his part, Vaas had also appeared somewhat disillusioned with his role during Sri Lanka’s recent stretch in Australia and New Zealand. In March he had suggested he would not continue as coach after the World Cup.SLC is aiming to have a new fast-bowling coach in place well before Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka begins in mid-June. Champaka Ramanayake, who was the national team’s fast-bowling coach before Vaas, is favoured to reprise his role, only, his family situation has prevented him from touring over the past year. As Sri Lanka’s next three assignments are at home, however, there is a chance Ramanayake will be appointed fast-bowling coach on a temporary basis, to begin with.Vaas is Sri Lanka’s most successful seamer, with 355 Test scalps to his name. The likes of Shaminda Eranga, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep had appeared to make significant advances over the past two years, but Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara have also been less effective recently, during Vaas’ watch.

ScorecardGordon Muchall made a useful contribution with the bat•Getty Images

Durham christened their new floodlights with an exciting six-run win over previously unbeaten Yorkshire in the NatWest T20 Blast.The hosts made 182 for 4 batting first with four of their top six scoring in the 30s, and then limited Yorkshire to 176 for 8 in reply as Keaton Jennings starred with the ball.Jennings finished with figures of 4 for 37 with his occasional medium pace, including the key scalps of Jonny Bairstow and Glenn Maxwell.The victory leaves Durham at the top of the North Group with three wins from four matches, two points ahead of second-placed Yorkshire.

Insights

Durham won the match in the final five overs of their innings in which they scored 76 for 1, taking 17, 13, 11, 14 and 21 off overs from Maxwell, Plunkett, Bresnan and Fisher. For the second consecutive day Gordon Muchall and John Hastings finished not out at the end of Durham’s innings. Having scored 31* (27) and 21* (13) respectively against Leicestershire, the pair managed 34* (24) and 37* (16) against Yorkshire. With this duo batting below Stoneman, Mustard, MacLeod and Collingwood, Durham have a formidable batting order.
Freddie Wilde

The attendance was 5,539 for the first match played under the new permanent floodlights at Chester-le-Street, with hopes of attracting the ground’s record crowd for a county match not helped by the weather and the Headingley Test.Rain delayed the 7pm start by 25 minutes, after which the sun shone throughout Durham’s innings after they were put in.Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard got the hosts off to a flying start with a stand of 30 in 3.2 overs, and Paul Collingwood, Gordon Muchall and John Hastings made sure that was not wasted.Hastings provided the late momentum as he hit Tim Bresnan’s last four balls for three fours and a six as 21 came off the over.In a quirk of fate, Yorkshire also needed 21 runs off their final – bowled by Hastings – to snatch the victory.Bresnan had his chance of revenge with 12 needed off the last two to tie, but he missed the first before hitting the last high over the mid-wicket boundary. It left him unbeaten on 36, but scarcely atoned for his figures of none for 51 with the ball. While it was left to Hastings to finish things off, it was Jennings who did the damage earlier on.Jennings is Durham’s four-day opening batsman and had bowled only one over in the three previous T20 matches. But with skilful variations of pace he persuaded Bairstow and Maxwell to play across the line of straight balls, while he also sent back Jack Leaning and Rich Pyrah as Durham claimed the points.

List of contracted players

Suzie Bates (Otago Sparks), Erin Bermingham (Canterbury Magicians), Sophie Devine (Wellington Blaze), Sara McGlashan (Auckland Hearts), Morna Nielsen (Otago Sparks), Anna Peterson (Auckland Hearts), Katie Perkins (Auckland Hearts), Rachel Priest (Wellington Blaze), Amy Satterthwaite (Canterbury Magicians), Lea Tahuhu (Canterbury Magicians)

Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu, Erin Bermingham and Anna Peterson have all been added to the list of centrally-contracted New Zealand women’s cricketers for 2015-16. Gone from last year’s 10-player squad are Sophie Curtis, Holly Huddleston, Hayley Jensen and Felicity Leydon-Davis.This is the second year in which a group of 10 women’s cricketers have been retained on annual contracts under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between New Zealand Cricket and the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association. Coach Haidee Tiffen said the list reflected the likely core of the team for the next 12 months.”These players have all shown they have what it takes it to perform at the top level and we expect them to make a significant contribution over the next 12 months,” Tiffen said. “The likes of Suzie, Sophie and Rachel have continued to lead the way for us and will remain key figures going forward.”Amy and Lea have forced their way back into the side over the last 12 months and been really impressive for us. Anna has been in and out of the side in recent years, but is an exciting batsman and fielder, and took some big strides forward in the recent tour of India.”The team’s recent performances have been encouraging and it’s important that we continue to build on that – we think these are the right group of players to help us do that.”New Zealand will host Australia and Sri Lanka in the ICC Women’s Championship this summer, before competing in the World Twenty20 in India next March.

Despite the prospect of a 10-team World Cup being confirmed at the end of this week’s ICC Annual Conference, Tim Anderson, the ICC head of global development, says Associate cricket overall is “in a much better place now than say it was six or 12 months ago”.In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, Anderson said Associates had gained increased respect from Full Members after what he characterised as the best ever performance by Associates in a World Cup. The ICC administrator said that even though there was no guarantee that Associates would be part of a 10-team World Cup for 2019, it would be unfair to criticise the decision to downsize the tournament without considering moves that he felt had opened up other opportunities for Associates.”One of the things that I think is a bit unfair in the analysis of all of this is that the World Cup is only one of a number of ICC events that take place over a four-year cycle,” Anderson told ESPNcricinfo. “Within the same period of time that the World Cup was decided to be smaller, which happened in 2013, the World Cup Qualifier will now include Full Members. That’s a significant shift in the structure of the ICC, that a Full Member has to qualify for the World Cup.”There are more teams in the World Twenty20, going from 12 to 16 which is great. The pathway to Test cricket through the Intercontinental Cup, so that’s great. The last decision which was quite recent was having Ireland and Afghanistan on the ODI rankings table for the purposes of qualifying for the World Cup. So effectively they are now part of the ODI FTP. Now I understand the counter-arguments to some of those, that they are not guaranteed games and yes we understand that but the fact that they are part of that family of 12 countries now, I think that’s a really important step in the right direction. So I guess the bottom line for me is that even though the World Cup and the reduction of teams is a very emotive issue, there are some other good things that have happened at the same time that may have been slipped over.”Despite his admission that Ireland and Afghanistan’s inclusion in the ODI rankings table was no guarantee for securing additional matches against Full Members, Anderson said he had observed more communication between the two Associates and Full Member boards since the conclusion of the World Cup. He attributed an increased interest in Associate cricket in general from Full Members due to greater Full Member representation on the ICC development committee.”We have four Full Member directors including the chairman and the CEO on the development committee of the ICC,” Anderson said. “That has never happened before. If you look at it from region to region, Cricket Australia and Papua New Guinea have links. Cricket Australia have just been to Nepal. India [hosted a training camp for] Nepal since the earthquake. These sort of things haven’t happened before. Afghanistan played in the Asia Cup and now they are talking about having a qualification event into the Asia Cup moving forward.”England obviously continue to be supportive. I think [ECB chief executive] Tom Harrison has a very global perspective about developing the game and I think therefore that he will look at things maybe a little bit differently. In Africa, we’ve just had an announcement that Cricket South Africa is playing an African T20 competition with Kenya and Namibia. The West Indies have great interest obviously in the USA and by extension Canada and the ICC Americas Region and they’re doing a lot of stuff. So there’s a lot of things that are happening here.”Anderson said the World Cricket League Championship had been a tremendous success for the ICC and envisioned more exposure, either through video webcasts or full-fledged TV productions, similar to what occurred during the first edition from 2011 to 2013. He said the World Cricket League promotion and relegation structure, which has seen teams like Afghanistan and Nepal rise from Division Five all the way to World Cup and World T20 qualification, highlighted the strength of meritocratic structures in Associate cricket. When asked why Full Members don’t apply the same standard to themselves, Anderson said it comes down to “membership benefits”.”I think there’s a lot of respect in the Full Member world, at least at our board table, of the merit-based systems that happen in the Associate world,” Anderson said. “I think there’s a desire to try to… you can’t necessarily replicate them directly but at least take that philosophy and try to put it into more Full Member activities that the ICC is involved in, be it funding or events or whatever. But changes don’t just happen like that. It’s a fair question and my view is that the ball is turning, maybe not as fast as some people would want but it is turning.”The controversial aspect of that is that ‘You’re just telling us that you’re doing all these things at this level – events, competition and all of that – well what about the Full Members?’ I think that’s relevant. But I suppose what do I concentrate on? I concentrate on the stuff that I can control and that is creating the very best systems that we can have at a development level for our countries to get better. We are very proud of those, be it our events, be it our funding models, we think that because those are in place, the standard of our members is getting better which is what we’re about.”