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Auckland coach Mark O’Donnell could not be more aware of the differences between his home of 17 years in South Africa, and his new home in New Zealand.For a start there’s the rain. Auckland welcomed him with 12 days in a row, which was only a fraction of the true amount the Queen City endured.But that rain highlighted one adaptation O’Donnell, 40 and originally from Christchurch, is going to have to make.Most of his pre-season work with the Auckland side is going to have to be done indoors.The days of doing all the winter and pre-season training outdoors on grass pitches in South Africa are gone.O’Donnell meets with the Auckland squad for the first time this evening, although he has met with most of the individuals who made up the inaugural winners of the State Championship last season, on a one-on-one basis.His return to New Zealand completes a cycle which saw him move to Eastern Province where fellow New Zealander David Trist had taken on a coaching role. O’Donnell, who played cricket for Burnside West in the Christchurch competition, had gone to England the winter before and had met up with Trist in the Netherlands.Trist encouraged him to try his luck in South Africa, and having done that, O’Donnell married a South African and ended up staying, initially with Eastern Province but latterly for Gauteng.His experiences have been mixed.From the earliest years he was there, South Africa was still in isolation due to the apartheid policies of the National Government. Because of that he was able to witness and experience the incredible strength of club and first-class cricket.International players playing at those levels was a rarity in the rest of the cricket world, and since the re-entry into the normal realm of things in 1992, it has also become a rarity in South Africa.However, normalisation in sport has brought its own problems and it has been especially severe on the administration of the game.O’Donnell reflected on how easily a very strong structure in Gauteng had fallen apart as the results of inefficiencies in administration and pressures of advancement of black players had taken their toll.Gauteng had won the South African championship in 2000 in spite of the administrative collapse the side endured. Six of the side departed, only one of them – Ken Rutherford – to retirement, before the start of the next season.O’Donnell said there was a problem that was symptomatic with the next generation of South African players. Because so many of them now hold European Union passports they are transferring their playing allegiances to Europe, in the same way that rugby players have done.”They are getting out because they can earn more money and they are out of the political problems,” he said.Maintaining the strength of the side of the moment is going to be the real challenge for South Africa, he said.The transformation process would work eventually in South Africa, but it would take time, he said.Bowlers would come through the system quicker, and that has already been seen, but it would be tougher for batsmen to emerge and they would take longer.The situation was not helped by the system at the moment which has lowered the standard of first-class cricket by promoting players of colour ahead of players who are better skilled. It was difficult all round because the players knew themselves there were better players, while it was some of these players in the second-tier of the game who were seeking their opportunities elsewhere.”I am looking forward to working with Auckland. I can concentrate on actual cricket decisions. I wasn’t able to have a balanced side over the last five years,” he said.O’Donnell, who was last in Auckland in 1981, couldn’t help but notice the changes in the city, even at Eden Park where the only familiar sight was the terracing at the eastern end of the ground.”But it has been useful being here at this time because I attended a Level III coaching workshop in Christchurch and met quite of a few of the guys and was able to make some observations, and there has been a coaching programme in Auckland this week.”The competition involves about the same amount of cricket as South Africa, although the difference here is that it is squeezed into a much tighter time frame.”That puts demands on strength and skills of players in the squad and those just beneath them because you are only as good as your support players,” he said.”There are some very talented cricketers here and the talent is similar to South Africa although the average age of players is younger here. Clearly it is a lot harder to live on earnings as a first-class cricketer here,” he said.Each of the 11 first-class sides in South Africa has 17 contracted players.The latest phase of his coaching career will provide different challenges for O’Donnell. The lack of hard, fast tracks in the early part of the summer requires different thinking while there is that concentration of play which can be just as demanding organisation-wise as the playing out in the middle.

On Saturday, Enoch Nkwe became the 13th player to score a century on his first-class debut for Gauteng. Of these, nine had played first-class cricket previously, so Nkwe is the fourth to make a first-class debut century while playing for Gauteng.The following players scored centuries on their first-class debuts for Gauteng (Transvaal). Those marked with an asterisk were also making their overall first-class debut.MP Bowden 126* vs Griqualand West Kimberley 1889/90
F Mitchell 102 vs Griqualand West Port Elizabeth 1902/03
CN Frank * 108 vs Aus Imp Forces Johannesburg 1919/20
WFE Marx * 240 vs Griqualand West Johannesburg 1920/21
HG Deane 165 vs Orange Free State Benoni 1923/24
AW Nourse 204 vs Griqualand West Johannesburg 1925/26
KG Viljoen 124 vs Natal Johannesburg 1936/37
HS Lacey * 102 vs Rhodesia Salisbury 1945/46
BL Irvine 138* vs Eastern Province Johannesburg 1969/70
BA Richards 140 vs Rest of SA Cape Town 1970/71
SB Smith 115 vs Boland Vereeniging 1989/90
ND McKenzie 128 vs Zimbabwe A Johannesburg 1995/96
E Nkwe * 106 vs Easterns Johannesburg 2002/03
Note also the RB Kanhai scored 134 on his first-class debut for the Transvaal SACBOC team vs Natal SACBOC at Lenasia in 1974/75.

Somerset fast bowler Richard Johnson, who has been missing from the scene for several weeks through injury,is looking well set to make his first team return for the county in their next NUL Division One National League match against Warwickshire on Sunday June 9th.When I spoke to Richard at the County Ground he told me: "I’m very hopeful for the game at Edgbaston on June 9th, and the way that my recovery programme is progressing I can’t see any reason why I won’t be playing."The former Middlesex man, who was the leading county championship wicket taker for the Cidermen in 2001 continued: "I’m bowling two times everyday in the nets and now I am incorporating some longer spells. Everything is geared up for me to return at Edgbaston.Meanwhile Somerset chief executive Peter Anderson has confirmed that Somerset will play Hampshire in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy on Wednesday June 19th at the County Ground.The Somerset boss told me earlier today: "We were relieved to win our match against the Yorkshire Board XI, which was a potential banana skin for us, to earn a home tie with Hampshire in the next round which will be played on June 19th. Lets hope that what happened at this stage of the competition in 2001 happens again this year and that we can get back to our winning one day form."

Hampshire will leave the naming of their final 11 until shortly before the start of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy Fourth Round clash at Taunton against Somerset, to allow two key players extra time to recover.There are doubts over captain Robin Smith, who despite extensive treatment on his back since the injury curtailed his involvement at Bath last week, is still rated as doubtful.The other worry is on all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, who has picked up an infected top on his right foot. Both will be put through their paces in the morning to test their fitness.Laurie Prittipaul stands by for Smith, while James Hamblin keeps his place in the squad and will play if Mascarenhas does not recover in time.Alan Mullally, who missed last Sunday’s National League defeat to Surrey with a rib tear, is back and will play.Hampshire 13: James Hamblin, Neil Johnson, Derek Kenway, John Crawley, Laurie Prittipaul, Robin Smith (capt), Nic Pothas (w-k), Giles White, Will Kendall, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Udal, Chris Tremlett, Alan Mullally.

BCCI technical committee member not in favour of graded systemA member of the technical committee and Punjab Cricket Association secretary MP Pandove on Sunday said in Mohali said that the graded system of payment linked with seniority of players is not feasible and has ‘certain complications’. PTI quotes Pandove as saying that “this system which is likely to be implemented after thorough deliberations at the next meeting of the board would force players to declare themselves professionals.” He added “No player would like to declare himself professional due to the obvious reason of taxation,” he said.Pandove also felt that this system would lower the morale of the young players and this would ultimately would affect team spirit. “I personally think that this system cannot be effective in this part of the world.” Five Indian players last week pressed the BCCI to have a contract system for greater security and graded system of payment linked to seniority and performance.PCA launches coaching scheme for upcoming playersThe Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) on Sunday launched a coaching scheme for upcoming youngsters across the state. Briefing newsmen after the executive meeting of the PCA in Mohali, PCA secretary MP Pandove said under the scheme six regional coaching centres of the PCA would be created in Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Patiala, Amritsar, Mohali and Jalandhar for providing training.Pandove added that the PCA would provide 12 dozen cricket balls each, aid for installing an irrigation system and 50 per cent reimbursement of coaching fee at these centres. The PCA had approved a budget of Rs 25 lakh to create these coaching centres, he said adding that from such centres a total of 20 players below the age of 19 would be selected. The chosen players would be brought to the PCA for advanced training under psychologists, doctors and super speciality video-tape guidance, he said. He said that the executive has decided to rewardsuitably one cricketer each under the age group of 14, 16, 19 and a senior cricketer each year.The PCA had also decided to honour Test cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Navjot Singh, besides four players who represented the victorious Indian Under-19 team in Sri Lanka, Yuvraj Singh, Reetinder Sodhi, Ravneet Ricky and Munish Sharma. Pandove said the PCA would host the first Test match between England and India during the 2001-2002 season.Assam Assn. to start academyThe Assam Cricket Association will soon open an academy at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. The venue will be shifted to the proposed new stadium at Hengrabari when the stadium gets ready. The decision was taken at the governing body meeting of the ACA last week. The academy will start functioning from June 1 with a trial camp for the U-14 cricketers of the State for 21 days, according to ACA secretary Nandan Bezbaruah. Thereafter, a trial camp of the same duration will be held for U-16 and U-19 players. At least three camps would be held in a year and the State U-14, U-16 and U-19 teams would be selected as aresult.For the inaugural camp at the Academy, 25 players from all over the state would be selected. In this regard, the ACA has instructed all the affiliated districts to send two players from their district to the Nehru Stadium. After four days of training by Manoj Bhagawati and Mukut Das, 25 players will be selected for the training camp. To run this academy, a committee has been set up comprising the president, secretary and treasurer. Apart from this, one representative from six zones of the State will be included in the committee. Four coaches have been selected for conducting the camp at the academy. The chief coach is Kamal Das.Another important decision taken at the meeting was to have an advanced training session for coaches. In this regard, two coaches from each district will be asked to attend the session.Laloo Prasad elected BCA president unopposedThe former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav on Sunday was elected unopposed as the president of the Bihar Cricket Association in Jamshedpur. The formal announcement was made yesterday as he was the lone candidate for the post.Ajay Narain Sharma was elected the secretary while Ravi Shankar Prasad, Satish Singh and Ram Kumar were elected as members of the executive committee.

Three weeks today at the County Ground in Taunton Somerset will mark the Queens Golden Jubilee with their own day of celebration and with the new season almost underway in earnest the thoughts of Somerset Chief Executive are turning to this special occasion.Out on the field Somerset Sabres will be taking on Yorkshire Phoenix who are likely to be out to seek revenge for the defeat they suffered at Bath last season, but events off the field are also likely to be of considerable interest to the significant numbers who are anticipated to turn up for what will be another special day for Somerset cricket.Mr Anderson paid tribute to the `heroes of Somerset cricket’ who will be presented with Golden Jubilee Awards during the tea interval on that day.The Chief Executive told me: "Fifty years of service to your country is a tremendous achievement that we need to mark in a special way, which is why we designated fifty Golden Jubilee Awards. We have sought to award the medals to the unsung heroes who have kept their local cricket clubs going, many for at least fifty years some for a good deal longer.”In the morning the club’s Annual Church Service will take place at St James Church, when the guest preacher will be former Sussex all rounder John Barclay .Later in the day the new Sir Vivian Richards gates at the Priory Road entrance to the ground will be officially opened by the great man himself, and during the tea interval the Golden Jubilee Awards will be presented.Mr Anderson concluded: "This will be a special day for the club, and we are hoping that our supporters will come along in force to help make this a really memorable occasion."

It wasn’t so long ago that Tasmania was reputed to possess the best fourth day batting side in the country. The Tigers have surrendered that hard-won reputation in theintervening period but today showed that they might be somewhere on the way back to reclaiming the title with a plucky display on the final day of the drawn PuraCup match against New South Wales here in Sydney.The pitch was ultimately the winner in this match, for it consistently played in favour of the batsmen. Yet the Blues still entered the last day with genuine claims on anoutright victory and, as the action began, the Tasmanians still had a tremendous amount of work ahead of them to stave off that prospect. They quickly lost openerDene Hills (28) to an edged drive at a wide Stuart MacGill (5/125) leg break to confirm that it would not resemble anything short of a struggle.To the Blues’ two other wrist spinners, Mark Higgs (1/26) and Michael Bevan (2/23), the visitors also watched Michael DiVenuto (0) and Shane Watson (14) maketheir exits before lunch. DiVenuto was dismissed inside the first hour of play when brilliantly caught and bowled high and hard to Higgs’ right, and Watson fell on thestroke of lunch when he mysteriously chose to shoulder arms at a conventional Bevan leg break that pitched marginally outside the line of off stump and turned back into him.But another expression from Hills’ opening partner, Jamie Cox (81), of his insatiable appetite for runs served the twin purpose of eating up time and slowly eradicatingthe deficit. Steadfast in defence and stylish in attack, Cox was on the verge of notching up the possibly unprecedented distinction of scoring a century in each of hisfour first-class innings against New South Wales for the summer when he was finally defeated.He fell at the start of a disastrous half hour for the visitors shortly after lunch which looked to have all but killed the Tasmanians’ hopes of staving off a loss. After hehad feathered an attempted cover drive at Nathan Bracken (2/66), the experienced Shaun Young (8) pushed forward meekly at MacGill to offer a bat-pad catch andDaniel Marsh (13) was caught in spectacular reflex fashion at waist level by short leg fieldsman Brett van Deinsen.Such an assessment failed, though, to take account of the steely resistance that was to follow. Two particularly stubborn partnerships – one of fifty runs for the seventhwicket between Scott Kremerskothen (64) and Sean Clingeleffer (7) and another of sixty-three for the last between the belligerent Shannon Tubb (42) and DavidSaker (20*) – reversed the trend and whisked the match away from the Blues’ clutches.A missed catch at mid off by Michael Clarke, as he attempted to hold a Kremerskothen off drive at MacGill when the Tasmanian all-rounder had only thirteen runsalongside his name, probably proved crucial in the final analysis.Despite MacGill’s unstinting efforts on the way to his five wicket haul, some tidy bowling from paceman Bracken and a pair of strikes from Bevan, it all left thehome team ultimately needing a preposterous 146 runs off nine overs to win. For reasons best known to the Blues themselves, they actually decided to attempt it. But,once a lusty endeavour from Don Nash (2) to put the second ball of the innings into Sydney Harbour saw him lose his middle stump, there was little chance that suchaspirations would be entertained much longer. Only thirteen runs were scored in total by the time that the pin was finally pulled.After dominating for large periods of the match, the Blues can arguably consider themselves unlucky to have walked away with no more than their two first inningspoints. It was a particularly cruel result given that they urgently needed six points to put further pressure on second-placed Victoria on the Pura Cup table. With anadvantage of four points and the luxury of a game in hand, the Bushrangers now appear to have close to a decisive break on the New South Welshmen.

Gloucestershire start their Benson and Hedges quarter-final against Durham as clear favourites and buoyed by the return of all-rounder Ian Harvey to their side.The undisputed masters of domestic one-day cricket are seeking to retain the cup that they won as part of a one-day treble last season, but with several key players such as ‘Jack’ Russell and Mike Smith missing early-season games, and Harvey withdrawn from the Norwich Union League game against Yorkshire at the weekend, some members were worried that their side would go into the quarter-final with some inexperienced faces, but Bracewell was taking no chances.”It was just a precautionary thing that Ian didn’t play. He’s just had a bit of a strain behind the knee,” Bracewell explained. “But we will see how the pitch looks on the day before we pick the side, because it will depend on whether we want to bat or bowl.Bracewell is taking nothing for granted despite his team’s great performances in the last two-years.”We played Durham earlier in the season,” he said. “We had a good look at them and they had a good look at us. They are not going to be pushovers by any means and it is going to need a workmanlike performance.”Paul Collingwood would appear to be the key for the visitors. He has been in the runs consistently this season, and has often held the Durham batting together.The other three games are on Wednesday: Somerset v Yorkshire; Sussex v Surrey and Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire.

Sussex have re-signed Scott Styris as an overseas player for the 2013 Friends Life t20 season.Styris, the 37-year-old former New Zealand international, who has previously had spells in county cricket with Middlesex, Durham and Essex, enjoyed an impressive season with Sussex in 2012. Most eye-catching was the 37-ball century against Gloucestershire in the quarter-final which included five fours and nine sixes and equalled the third fastest century in global Twenty20 cricket. The innings not only won Styris the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century in an English season, but helped Sussex reach T20 finals day.Styris retired from international cricket soon after the 2011 World Cup, ending a New Zealand career that spanned 188 ODIs and 31 Twenty20 internationals. He also played 29 Tests, the last of them in 2007. Since then he has become one of the first T20 specialists, though he has continued to play the occasional List A game. He has represented sides in the IPL, the Bangladesh Premier League, the Sri Lanka Premier League and in English and New Zealand domestic T20 competitions.”I’m delighted to sign this contract with Sussex,” Styris said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the team this year and feel we have unfinished business in this competition. I want to contribute next season so we can go all the way to securing the silverware.””We are all delighted at the prospect of having Scott back,” Mark Robinson, the Sussex cricket manager, said. “His performances on and off the pitch obviously made him not only a crowd favourite but one within the whole club.”

Man of the match, man of the series, winning captain – about the only accolade Shaun Pollock was missing at the conclusion of the third Castle Lager/MTN Test match was man of the century, and it’s a fair bet that if a vote was taken now for the honour he’d be up there among the contenders.Not that he doesn’t deserve the plaudits: South Africa’s innings and seven runs victory over Sri Lanka at SuperSport on Monday completed a magnificent season for the home team. South Africa won four out of six home Test matches this summer, with the two missing matches both suffering from interference from the weather, and 10 out of 11 one-day internationals.This is an impressive record, whichever way you look at it, and the quality of the cricket played by the South Africans, particularly in the last two Test matches as Sri Lanka were crushed by an innings, has done much to help the country consign Hansie Cronje to his unfortunate place in history.For Pollock, the Sri Lankan series was an almost uninterrupted triumph. He took his 200th Test wicket in the first Test in Durban, claimed six for 30 to blast Sri Lanka out for 95 in the first innings at Newlands and then hammered out a maiden Test century at better than a run a ball – after South Africa had been 204 for seven – at SuperSport Park.He has now established himself as one of the world’s leading all-rounders, an adventurous captain and a leader able to inspire both the youngsters and veterans in his side. It has been a remarkable learning curve for the 27-year-old.The outcome at SuperSport Park on Monday amounted to little more than a formality. The only real ambition remaining for the Sri Lankans, 184 for three overnight, was to reach 259 and make South Africa bat again.They failed by seven runs, but perhaps more disappointing for all concerned, came when Kumar Sangakkara was denied a century and a rare opportunity to carry his bat through an innings.He was last man out for 98 after batting for 10 minutes less than six hours and it is doubtful that even the South Africans would have begrudged him his hundred. To make matters worse for the young man, his LBW decision, claimed by Makhaya Ntini and given by Peter Willey, looked a bit iffy.But Sangakkara (and Russel Arnold on Sunday) was about all Sri Lanka had to take from the match. They were handicapped by the absence of Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, but in truth it was their batting rather than their bowling that let them down, in this match and throughout their tour.At the start of the tour Sanath Jayasuriya had expressed concern about the lack of preparation his batsmen would have on South African pitches and he made the point again at the end of if.He did single out Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene as batsmen who had moved forward on the tour, and said that Muralitharan had bowled magnificently. But he had to concede that the batsmen had let the side down.There are quite clear lessons for the Sri Lankan management and administration from this tour. If they are not absorbed, the next side to tour here will suffer a similar fate.But it has been South Africa’s, and Pollock’s, match and series. Pollock singled out the performances of others as the high points of the summer – Neil McKenzie’s maiden Test century in Port Elizabeth and Ntini’s bowling in Bloemfontein – but everyone else will remember him scything through the Sri Lankan batting in Cape Town and thrashing the bowling all over Centurion. This particular series has been coloured with a ginger rinse.