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Sir Allen Stanford, who declared earlier this year that Test cricket was “boring”, now says he believes that the oldest form of the game can peacefully co-exist alongside the newest. Speaking to BBC Radio ahead of the US$20 million winner-takes-all match between England and the Superstars in Antigua, Stanford also rubbished notions that he had been in complete control of the tournament negotiations with the England & Wales Cricket Board.”The foundation of the sport is Test cricket, the future of the game is Twenty20,” said Stanford. “Both can co-exist. Maybe one is more for the purist, maybe one is more for the younger, the ‘want to see it now, be entertained now’ crowd.”Like Lord’s is the foundation of cricket, it’s the beginning, it’s the holy grail of cricket,” he said. “You can no more do away with that which is Test cricket and replace it with Twenty20 than you can say that Test cricket is the only thing out there. [That] would be foolish because professional sport, unfortunately, is about money and Twenty20 is what is going to drive, commercially, the dollars in the door.”Stanford’s millions have brought about a revival of interest in cricket in the Caribbean, and have provided a counterpoint to the financial dominance that India has enjoyed since the onset of the IPL. After extensive talks with the ECB, the 20/20 for 20 format was unveiled at a glitzy ceremony at Lord’s in June, but Stanford was at pains to deny that David Collier and Giles Clarke had been “dancing to his tune” during the negotiations.”I think that is a ludicrous statement,” said Stanford. “The ECB had the best management structure in my estimation – you’ve got over two million involved in cricket in the UK all being managed under the ECB and they are not dancing to any tune I have laid out. I have a lot of respect for both Giles and David. We simply came to business terms and like most things in life it’s chemistry and how well you work with people and I have worked extremely well with them.Stanford added that Saturday’s big match represented an investment for the future. “Twenty million dollars is a lot of money but it’s not an enormous amount of money,” he said. “It is the single biggest pay day in the history of team sports but in relative terms for what we have envisioned in this multi-billion sport it is really just an investment in the future.”It’s part of the bigger plan and that plan is to get this game into a commercially viable foothold. For it will be successful and make money and allow the West Indies to regain their rightful spot as the best in the world. You have to make investments, that makes sense today and tomorrow, this puts us on the world stage. We’ll have at least 700million people watching this event globally on Saturday on live television, and the US$20million is what got us there.”

Sairaj Bahutule, the former India legspinner, has been named in this season’s Mumbai probables. Bahutule, 35, recently returned to his native team after a three-year stint with Maharashtra.”I am absolutely glad to be back in the Mumbai team where I have lived for more than 30 years,” Bahutule, a former Mumbai captain, told . “When I had left, there were only three youngsters and now they have become top players and more talented players have come up.”Bahutule said he and Nilesh Kulkarni, another Mumbai veteran, will help out young local spinners while playing for the side. “I had the opportunity to play with them [spinners] at the indoor nets. I found them very talented especially Iqbal [Abdulla], Ankeet [Chavan], Bhavesh [Patel]. I think they will do well in the future. And whenever they need my help, I will be there.”Bahutule, who moved to Maharashtra in 2005 after 15 years with Mumbai for better pay among other reasons, said he had wanted to return to his original team after a year with Maharashtra. “I wanted to come back immediately but I was contracted till August. I tried to return after one year but could not do so as I was given a show-cause notice and I did not want to get into legal complications.”Bahutule said he wasn’t expecting to be picked to the Mumbai squad automatically on the basis of his seniority and was prepared to play local tournaments in order to make the cut.

The uncertainty at Glamorgan following the departure of Mike Fatkin as chief executive last week continues with the news that Len Smith, the Sophia Gardens groundsman, has left.The news is a surprise given that the ground is about to undergo major drainage work costing £600,000 ahead of next year’s Ashes Test. Smith, who had been in the job since 1980, was named Groundsman of the Year in 2006.Fatkin’s departure is shrouded in mystery with all questions to the county being stonewalled. Smith’s exit is equally strange. The county said that he advised them he wished to take early retirement on Monday and left on Tuesday, in what was described in a press release as an “amicable” agreement.”Len has had a long and loyal association with Glamorgan cricket,” read the release. “His skills are universally recognised and acknowledged. He has won a number of awards including, last year, the prestigious Groundsman of the Year Award. The clear expertise he displayed in our presentation to the Inspection Group appointed by the ECB was one of the major factors which led to the award of an Ashes Test.”At the end of the season, and in conjunction with the ECB, we shall be conducting the search for a new head groundsman. In the meantime our deputy head groundsman will assume the role of acting head groundsman.”There is speculation that the two departures are in some way connected with the ODI at Cardiff earlier this month which was abandoned after three overs because of heavy rain. Last week’s Championship game against Worcestershire was completely washed out.

Yorkshire 409 for 7 (Rudolph 146) lead Kent 227 by 182 runs
ScorecardEverything went Yorkshire’s way on the second day of the Scarborough Festival – and in truth they deserved it, because they played much the better cricket. They batted well, led by a fine century from Jacques Rudolph, while Kent will have been disappointed by their mediocre bowling and fielding. Somebody will have to turn in a sterling performance for Kent if they are to escape this match with a draw.The day opened in bright sunshine and continued that way almost throughout, giving rise to veiled sniggers from the locals pretending sympathy for ‘poor old Blackpool’. With the pitch, as expected, now a beauty, it was to be a day of unremitting toil for the visitors. Anthony McGrath set the pattern with two of his favourite cover-driven boundaries in the third over, off the pacy, promising but erratic Robbie Joseph.His partner Rudolph took longer to get going, until after 15 minutes he got under way for the day with a perfectly timed straight drive for four off Ryan McLaren. He soon completed his 1000 championship runs for the season, in the course of taking two leg-side fours off Joseph, and ran to his fifty off 103 balls, leaving McGrath virtually becalmed in his wake. In fact McGrath was still only on 44 when his partner brought up three figures with a dab for two to third man; next ball Rudolph offered a fairly straightforward return catch – which was floored by the unfortunate James Tredwell.McGrath just reached his fifty by lunch, taking 165 balls over it. Afterwards he appeared to lose concentration, caught at second slip off McLaren with a loose shot for 52. It was a strangely laborious innings after such a good start to the day, but fortunately for Yorkshire it was not a serious problem with Rudolph going like a train at the other end.In the 76th over another fine cover-drive by Rudolph took Yorkshire into the lead, with seven wickets in hand. His new partner, Adam Lyth, was very wary at the start, but then two off-side boundaries finally got him going, and from then on he blossomed. He too is very strong through the covers, a favourite left-hander’s stroke. He finally lost Rudolph for 146, to a rather undignified dismissal: Joseph bowled a ball almost a yard outside the off stump, but Rudolph went for it and somehow still managed to drag it on to his stumps. Rarely is a batsman dismissed ‘bowled’ by a delivery that would almost have been called a wide! Still, he left Yorkshire at 273 for 4, a great deal better placed than he had found them.Gerard Brophy came and went, caught at second slip off the medium-paced Darren Stevens for 14, while Lyth continued to prosper. Unfortunately he has a habit that hopefully he will outgrow, that of throwing his wicket away when seemingly well set, and a wild slash off Martin Saggers to the keeper did for him when he had 68. His cover drive can bring back memories of David Gower; so too can some of his dismissals.Another to play a magnificent cover drive was Rana Naved, but he only managed one before, with 10 to his credit, he slashed at a ball from Amjad Khan and was superbly caught by Tredwell at first slip. This brought Darren Gough to the wicket, and was the signal for Adil Rashid to open up, with two quality boundaries off Tredwell. It appeared a good policy, as Gough was in all sorts of trouble against Khan, the best but least-used of Kent’s rather erratic seam attack, and twice offered difficult slip chances that went down. But he survived to the close with 12, Rashid on a precocious 43, and Kent still have three wickets to remove in the morning.Kent’s seam attack, generally speaking, was innocuous and often inaccurate, and the best bowling was done by Tredwell, who found little in the pitch to help him but kept the scoring in check by line, length and skill. Stevens, another bowler of no great speed, conceded just 16 runs off 10 overs, perhaps an indication of how this pitch is playing.

Ajit Wadekar, Mankad’s Test captain
Despite being in bad form during the England series in 1971, Mankad never lost his sense of humour. Over the course of the tour he had difficulties coming to terms with the conditions and the England bowlers with John Snow being his main nemesis. But each time Mankad would do one thing without fail: he would walk up to Snow and greet him “Good morning, sir. I’m Ashok Mankad. I hope I’ll get runs against you,” and he would get out early. He knew how to enjoy the game.He was very young to pass away so soon. He was a damn good player and a prolific scorer. He could have played more Tests for India if he had not been asked to change his role in the batting order so frequently. Never did he shirk responsibility – he was a typical Mumbai guy, always thinking, and playing for the team. He was very knowledgeable about the game, be it spotting talent, or discussing technique. He was a keen student and also liked to work on the psychology aspect of cricket. He knew exactly where and when to tap the player or needle the opponent’s weak point. All this made him an astute leader during his captaincy stint with Mumbai.Erapalli Prasanna, Mankad’s room-mate
It’s a personal loss, in a way, because he was my room-mate on several tours. The one thing that always impressed me about him was his attention to detail: he was precise even with the minor stuff. His cricket gear would always be spic and span, everything would be where it should be from his attire to his pads and gloves. He worshiped his kit. All this proved he was a committed cricketer. He was an illustrious son of an illustrious father. He had a wonderful cricket brain that, sadly, the administrators never utilised properly which was a great loss to Indian cricket. For example just look at the way he got Mumbai back from the dumps few years ago during their Ranji Trophy campaign.Dilip Vengsarkar, Mankad’s team-mate
He was one of the best batsmen of his era and had a very good cricket brain. A light-hearted man, he would always keep the dressing-room atmosphere lively with his banter and jokes. He was a very good team man. When I scored my maiden century in the Irani Trophy he was at the non-striker’s end. We were chasing a 200-plus target and I made the bulk of the runs. Mankad had made only a few but he stood there keeping the partnership intact. A man of integrity, he did yeoman’s service to Mumbai cricket, as a player, and as a captain.

Michael Clarke may have escaped with his unbeaten captaincy record intact following Australia’s last-gasp victory in the fourth ODI on Friday while he was deputising for the injured Ricky Ponting, but he couldn’t avoid a fine for a slow over-rate.He lost ten per cent of his match fee in his first ODI as captain, the third time he has skippered Australia having led them in two Twenty20s. His team-mates were each docked five per cent after Australia were ruled to be one over short of their target when time allowances were taken into consideration.The offence is contrary to Section J of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to slow over-rates. For such offences, the decision of the ICC match referee is final and binding.Australia won the match by one run to take a 4-0 lead in the five-match series. The final game between the two sides is also in St Kitts, on Sunday.

The Faithwear Cup was thrown wide open after the second round produced wins for Southerns and Northerns, who had both lost in the opening matches. The results leave Westerns as the only one of the five sides without a loss to their name.Defending champions Northerns bounced back from their defeat by Westerns to record a three-wicket win over Centrals at Harare Sports Club. Boosted by the return of Ray Price, who took 3 for 24, they restricted Centrals to 172, and even that represented a recovery as at one stage they had been teetering on 13 for 4. At 75 for 6, Northerns appeared to be heading for defeat but Price (38) and Graeme Cremer (54*) put on 83 for the seventh wicket to steer them to the brink of victory.Tendai Machiri’s 53 was the platform in Southerns’ 25-run defeat of Easterns at Harare Country Club. Southerns made 164 in a laboured innings, but even that modest score proved too much for a weak opposition who had Forster Mutizwa’s career-best 49 to thank for preventing a complete rout.