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Rob Turner will stay with Somerset for at least one more year© Getty Images

Rob Turner, the wicketkeeper, has signed a new one-year contract with Somerset.Turner, who turns 37 later this month, joined Somerset in 1991 after having captained both Cambridge and British Universities.His opportunities at Somerset were initially limited as Neil Burns was the first-team wicketkeeper, but a patient Turner bided his time. And when the chance came, he took it. In 1994 he won his county cap, and has been a regular ever since. The last County Championship match he missed for them was in 1998, before the advent of two-division domestic cricket.”I am delighted to have agreed a new deal,” he said “and [I] will be looking to continue my playing career with Somerset for the foreseeable future.”In addition to his 659 dismissals for Somerset, which places him fourth on their all-time list, Turner has so far scored more than 9,000 first-class runs, and passed 1000 in the 1997 and 1999 seasons.

Streak – Warwickshire’s matchwinner against Northants© Getty Images

Heath Streak, who took 13 wickets against Northamptonshire last week in the County Championship, will be out of action for three weeks with a pulled stomach muscle. Dewald Pretorius, who was Warwickshire’s overseas player before Streak’s arrival, has been recalled, as has Alan Richardson.”It’s a real shame because Heath played so well last week in his first game for us,” said John Inverarity, Warwickshire’s coach. “We’re very pleased to be at the top of the table. I’m not sure whether the fact that most of the pressure has been on the likes of Lancashire and Surrey has helped us. We’ve just played some good cricket and our players have performed so far this season.”Warwickshire, currently at the top of Division One in the County Championship, face Lancashire this weekend, at Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Bath Cricket Festival gets underway this coming Wednesday with a four-day championship match against Worcestershire, followed by a National Cricket League match on Sunday June 8th against Northamptonshire.Preparations for the Bath Cricket Festival start almost before the previous year’s programme is complete, and once again the Bath Area chairman Robert Appleyard and his hard working committee have worked tirelessly through the winter to try to ensure that everything is in place ready for the first day’s play.In addition to the preparations on the field at the Rec, the Bath Area Committee also arrange a busy programme of events off the field for cricket followers who stay in the city for the duration of the festival.The events get underway on Tuesday June 3rd with a tour of the new Bath Spa Project that will include refreshments, followed on the opening evening of the festival by a General Knowledge Quiz.After the close of play on Thursday a Cheese and Wine Party with invited dignitaries and the players will take place in the Friends of Bath Marquee.The following day the Festival Dinner will take place at Bath Cricket Club, where Lord King, formerly Tom King, who was the Bridgwater M.P will be the guest speaker. The final event takes place on the Saturday evening when a Barbeque is planned.Normally all of the events that have been arranged are well supported, and those who are intending to go along to any of those that have been arranged, in particular the dinner are advised to book in advance by telephoning 01823 313906.The Somerset Wyverns will also be hosting a day on June 4th, when members and their guests will be able to make use of the facilities of their tent and partake of a buffet lunch.The Bath Festival of fifty years ago has become part of the folk history of Somerset cricket after the first match of the week against Lancashire was completed inside one day. The match was deemed to be long serving player Bertie Buse’s Benefit match so from both the players and the county perspective the game was disaster.Brian Langford who was a seventeen year old off spinner from Bridgwater made his debut in the disastrous Lancashire match, and bowled tidily enough, but it was in the following match against Kent he made his name. Langford opened the bowling and almost single handed ran through the visitors to end with the remarkable figures of 41 overs, 12 maidens, 8 wickets for 96 runs.Second time around Kent also fell foul of the young of spinner who had figures of 6 for 60 and a match return of 14 for 156.Brian Langford added a further 11 wickets from the third match at Bath against Leicestershire to end the festival with 26 wickets to his name.

Hampshire go into their last CricInfo Championship match of the season, when they travel to Trent Bridge for Wednesday’s match with Nottinghamshire, with promotion firmly in their sights, they require just three points to secure a return to Division I after a one year absence.The Drawn match between Sussex and Warwickshire leaves them tantalisingly close to their promotion target.Sussex meet fellow promotion hopefulls Gloucestershire, and any slip up could also let Hampshire push for the title and the £40,000, prize. Prize for Second Place is £25,000.

The current state at the top of CricInfo 2nd Division is as shown:M  W  L  D  Bt  Bo   Forf   TotalSussex                    15  8  3  4  38  39   0.00  189.00Hampshire                 15  7  2  6  32  41   0.00  183.00Gloucestershire           15  5  4  6  45  40   0.00  169.00Middlesex                 15  4  3  8  43  39   0.00  162.00Warwickshire              15  4  1 10  41  37   0.25  164.75

Hampshire stick to the side that defeated Middlesex at West End last week, with Chris Trmlett added to the squad.Hampshire 12: Giles White, Derek Kenway, Will Kendall, Robin Smith (captain) Neil Johnson, John Francis, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Adi Aymes (wicket keeper), Shaun Udal, Alex Morris, Alan Mullally, Chris Tremlett.

Senior batsman Michael Papps has been named captain of Wellington in all formats. Papps will replace allrounder James Franklin, who is currently unavailable with a back injury.Papps, 36, said he “accepted straight away” the offer by new coach Bruce Edgar to captain the team. “It was something that I maybe felt was in the pipeline and there was a chance I might be offered the role, and I thought about it over the winter,” Papps told .”At this stage of my career it’s something I’m really eager to have a go at and I feel I’ve got something to offer. It’s exciting, and an honour to be appointed.”Papps has been prolific with the bat for Wellington since moving Canterbury, and was confident that captaincy wouldn’t affect his batting. He also hoped to continue keeping wicket in T20s.”The times I have done it I feel the captaincy has helped my batting. I’m looking forward to getting back to my usual high standards.”

	The six existing franchises will compete again in 2008-09 © Getty Images

South Africa’s existing franchises will remain in place for at least one more season after Cricket South Africa (CSA) decided to postpone an evaluation of the system. CSA had asked a committee to assess the franchise system in time to implement any changes before the 2008-09 season.However, the committee said it could not submit its full report until August, meaning any alterations would not take place until 2009-10. The six current franchises replaced the previous provincial teams in 2004-05, with the aim of strengthening the top tier of cricket in South Africa.The committee was to investigate several facets of the system, including whether the standard of domestic cricket in the country had improved. The interim report from the committee to CSA’s general council said the substantial presentations from various stakeholders meant more time was required to make a full assessment.”The committee decided, after hearing the presentations and studying the written submissions, that it would need more time for further consideration of the written and oral representations,” the report said. “It was also decided by the committee that to do justice to the submissions, it would be necessary to inspect some of the facilities.”

Gautam Gambhir shrugged off the early loss of Sachin Tendulkar and played a composed innings to lead India to a nine-wicket win © Getty Images

Opening the batting in temperatures that barely made it to double figuresand with rain never far away it isn’t an easy task even for the mostexperienced players. Gautam Gambhir had been expected to open thebatting for India at Stormont so, when he came in at No.3 followingSachin Tendulkar’s dismissal for 4, he could have been forgiven for afew nerves. But he responded with a calm and composed unbeaten 80, which ledhis team to a nine-wicket win as they opened their two-and-half-monthtour of the UK in positive style.”It will be a long tour so it’s important to start off well. For anycricketer, not just me, it’s nice to start well and I’m pleased I gotthe runs,” said Gambhir after he’d collected the Man-of-the-Matchaward. “It’s not like in India where you can just go out there andplay through the line of the ball. Sometimes you have to be a bit morepatient and work the ball into the gaps in these conditions.”After missing out on the World Cup, Gambhir returned to Indian colourswith 21 and 101 against Bangladesh before backing those scores up withtoday’s unbeaten 80. “At this level it’s all about being consistentand that’s what I was lacking in the past and it’s very important forme.”And previous experience of English conditions played a valuable partin his innings. “I toured England with India A so I know somethingabout batting on these types of tracks. You want to start off a seasonon a high note and I’m happy about the way it’s begun.”Gambhir’s match-winning stand of 162 with Sourav Ganguly followed atidy display in the field, with Piyush Chawla leading the way withthree wickets. Some smart catches were also taken and Robin Singh, the fielding coach, said this was an important area they wereworking on.”We did a lot of work in Bangalore on the fitness,” he said. “Thefitter the guys the better they will field. These conditions werepretty cold but we fielded well in patches today, some didn’t do sowell, but overall some very good catches were taken.”We have ensured we have worked on the fielding because it’s a crucialarea in one-day cricket. I think you’ll see an improvement especiallywith the younger guys in the side. As long as the senior guys keepthemselves fit they know what to do, but the emphasis is on theyounger guys.”Trent Johnston had less to be pleased with as his young side weregiven a tough lesson. His team did well to recover and post 193,thanks to a half-century from Niall O’Brien and some effective hittingfrom the captain himself before some wayward bowling let them down.”When we asked questions we were in with a show but we just didn’t dothat often enough, we bowled too many four balls,” he said. “Webowled two sides of the wicket, we were bowling short, we were bowlingfull and you wouldn’t be able to get away with that in club cricket,let alone bowling to a guy that’s got 10,000 ODI runs.After Roger Whelan struck in his first over thoughts did turn back toa few of those memorable days in the World Cup. “Getting Tendulkar outfirst over, I thought something might happen here,” said Johnston. “Ireally did believe we had enough runs to do that but we just didn’task enough questions and that was the disappointing thing.”They had a young spinner but a good spinner and that’s been our majorproblem, spin bowling. It’s something we’ve got to work on but it’sonly playing games like this that’s going to bring us along.” Theirnext chance comes immediately as they take on South Africa on Sunday.

Nottinghamshire 111 for 2 trail West Indies A 211 (Footitt 5-45) by 100 runs
ScorecardMark Footitt, the England Under-19 left-arm seamer, produced the best display of his fledgling first-class career to put the skids under West Indies A in their tour match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.Footitt took 5 for 45 in 12 incisive overs, surpassing his previous best figures of 4 for 45, which he took on debut against Glamorgan at the end of last season. He was ably supported by his seam-bowling colleagues, Andy Harris, Paul Franks and Gareth Clough, who shared the other five West Indian wickets.It was a fine way to bounce back from their disappointment in the Twenty20 final on Sunday, when they were pipped to the post on home ground by Leicestershire. For West Indies, only Devon Smith at the top of the order produced an innings of any substance. He made 51, but was the third man out at 126 when he was caught by Will Smith off Clough.At 169 for 3, West Indies seemed on course for a competitive total, but they lost their last seven wickets for 42, with Footitt needing no assistance from his fielders at all – all five of his wickets were either bowled or lbw.In reply, Nottinghamshire were given a flying start by Jason Gallian, who made exactly 50 out of an opening stand of 73 with Darren Bicknell, before Darren Sammy made an overdue breakthrough for West Indies.

Sean Ervine and Ray Price: both bound for county cricket© Getty Images

The 21-year-old allrounder, Sean Ervine, has become the fourth Zimbabwean rebel cricketer to join the county circuit, after completing a two-year deal with Hampshire.Ervine, who quit international cricket earlier this year, joined Western Australia in June and intends to build a new life Down Under. But he is keen to spend his summers in England and told Hampshire’s official website that he was thrilled by the new challenge.”This is a challenge I relish,” he said. “I want to develop my career with Hampshire.” In spite of this week’s ECB moves to clamp down on overseas imports, Ervine will be registered at the club as a non-overseas player, under the provisions of the Kolpak ruling, which allows free movement of players with EU passports.Ervine played 42 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe, scoring 698 runs at an average of 25.85, with his highest score of 100 coming against India at the Adelaide Oval in last season’s VB Series. He took 41 wickets at an average of 39.07. He also played five Tests in his short career, averaging 32 with the bat and 43 with the ball.Ervine joins his fellow rebels, Heath Streak (Warwickshire), Grant Flower (Essex) and Ray Price (Worcestershire) on the county circuit, and he is Hampshire’s second signing of the week, following the arrival of the seam bowler, Richard Logan, earlier this week. The newly qualified England batsman, Kevin Pietersen, may soon be joining the pair at Hampshire, after rejecting a new contract at Nottinghamshire.

Having experienced a harrowing few months, the verdict is finally out on Abhijit Kale. The disciplinary committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India has ruled that he cannot play domestic cricket until the end of this year. Kale, though, hasn’t given up hope and still harbours his chances of playing for India. He spoke to Wisden Cricinfo shortly after the ruling.

Abhijit Kale: ‘This ban is a severe blow to my career’© Cricinfo

What is your reaction to the ban?
Actually I have not received the official copy of the judgement, so I cannot say too much. But I will be missing two months of the next Ranji Trophy season and that is disappointing.If the itinerary is the same as last season, you will miss all the league matches …
That is very disappointing. I was hoping I will be able to play from the start of this season. Because I have already missed the whole of last season. I was hoping to play this season from the start. This is definitely a severe blow to my career.What about the apology letter that you submitted to the BCCI earlier?
From the start I have been saying that I have never offered any bribe to any selector. Yes … I gave an apology letter, but that was only for trying to influence the selectors in their decision. There was no money involved.Do you realistically think you have a chance of playing for India in the future?
I have not lost hope to make it to the national side. I’ve been playing for the last ten years and I have to work really hard now and try to get good scores in the domestic matches. But if you concentrate on the domestic season, there is definitely a chance to get back into the Indian team.What about the Maharashtra Cricket Association?
The MCA is definitely supporting me. [The chairman of the MCA, Dynaeshwar Agashe, had termed the decision ‘harsh’]Do you feel the selectors have been let off easily?
You should know better …