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Scotland have named Gavin Hamilton, their most experienced player, as the successor to Ryan Watson, the former captain who stepped down this week in the wake of his team's failure to qualify for the 2011 World Cup.

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Tunde Akinleye

The Iris Smart Technologies CCC Lagos League 2008-09 in Nigeria has finally drawn to a close with some interesting matches at the end. GCI Old Boys Cricket Club (GCIOB) came back strongly in the second half in Division 1 to qualify for the Super 4 Tournament. The rivalry between Ibeju-Lekki Cricket Club (ILCC) and Ogun Rocks Cricket (Rocks) persisted but Rocks finished rather weakly, leaving ILCC to top the league with a 12-point margin.

At the end of the league matches, the top four teams qualify for a knock-out tournament, the Super 4 Cup. In Division 2, the top four teams engage in a round-robin tournament.

This year the four teams that qualified for the Division 1 Super 4 Tournament were ILCC, Rocks, GCIOB and Howzat Pioneers (HZP). Foundation Cricket Club (FCC) were not able to sustain their past glory and finished fifth. Lagos-Asians Cricket Club (LACC) came last and will be relegated to Division 2 next season.

In the Super 4 Tournament, the rivalry between ILCC and Rocks continued as they met in a close and enthralling encounter to determine which one of them qualifies for the final. GCIOB faced up to HZP. ILCC again triumphed over Rocks whilst GCIOB saw off a close challenge from HZP which was affected by weather. ILCC and GCIOB qualified to meet in the final which traditionally marks the end of the Iris Smart Technologies CCC League season with presentations being made at the post-match event.

This has been a momentous week for English history. The selection of a Test squad that was both surprising and interesting seemed to have been consigned to the bulging dustbin of history when central contracts took hold. England team announcements had mostly become as predictable as the returning officer delivering the results of the latest North Korean elections (at which, incidentally, Darren Pattinson last summer won a seat as MP for Pyongyang West).

On Wednesday, however, coach Andy Flower and his selectorial compadres caught the media – and some of the centrally contracted players – unawares with a novel XII for the Lord’s Test against West Indies. There are two brand new bowlers fresh off the splutteringly inefficient production line of county cricket (Bresnan and Onions), a new No. 3 (Bopara, the first current Kings XI Punjab player to be picked for England in 132 years of Test cricket), and a marked failure to base selection on fading reputation.

This is a no-lose selection for England. Either they will unearth a couple of new gems to hurl at the unsuspecting Australians, or they will be able to recall and unleash a seething, jilted Harmison, Vaughan or Bell, or even a justifiably peeved Hoggard, bent on proving their worth one final time. In fact, the trickiest scenario may be that the new players do adequately in the Tests, and the old players do adequately for their counties, and England enter the Ashes still unsure of their best team.

Well done to the selectors for a choice that is both bold and sensible, and that has added further to the necessary competition for places. In the absence of many world-class performers, it makes sense to select the team with greater flexibility than of late. At times in England’s past, the selectors have given the impression that they would quite like to give WG Grace another crack, for old time’s sake, because there is no substitute for experience, and because they did not want to upset him.

Afghanistan, the newest ICC country to be inducted into their enjoyably competitive list of one-day nations, have won their first ODI. Well, sort of. That’s what the Afghans will tell you after thumping an English village XI containing names such as Matthew Fleming, the former Kent and England allrounder, and Jamie Theakston. Yes him, off the telly.

Ditchling Cricket Club, captained by Theakston, were walloped by 124 runs at a heavily-secured NATO base in Kabul on a humid and rainy Friday. Afghanistan, who recently and sensationally qualified as a one-day international nation, took great pleasure in smacking six after six out of the compound, as one journalist told Cricinfo. “There were sixes all over the shop,” said Leslie Knott, a film-producer covering Afghanistan’s rise from obscurity. “And then a giant storm came in and blew the tent down.”

Fleming, who was once an officer in the now-redundant Royal Green Jackets, is out in Afghanistan on behalf of MCC, unveiling pitches to local communities, as revealed in Cricinfo’s interview with him this week. "We believe that cricket can change people's lives,” he told AFP. “We just want to give the people who wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity, the opportunity. The challenge for them now is to become more experienced and harness that talent, and that intensity, and enthusiasm."

Theakston, who made 20 out of Ditchling’s thoroughly village 138 for 7, remained benevolent in spite of the hammering. "I think it is important for people to understand there isn't a suicide bomber on every corner... and that Afghans live their lives and do things like play cricket.”

For more information on Leslie Knott's work, and the documentary being made, click here

Kolkata captain Brendon McCullum gestures during their game against Mumbai. (AFP Photo)

The first time I began to understand the true significance of the term ‘momentum shift’ in cricket was the 1992 World Cup when Imran Khan used it to devastating effect. He picked the moment when he felt his ‘cornered tigers’ were ready to attack and set them loose. The sudden shift in gears when Inzamam and Imran were batting and his decision to unleash Wasim Akram at crucial times underscored his total mastery of the art of sensing momentum swings and then exploiting it with sudden, brutal aggression. It was great theatre.

What’s happened to Pakistan recently then? They seem to have lost that legacy that Imran handed down to them in the early 1990s.

When Shahid Afridi walked out to bat for the first time in a one-day international, against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996, the bat in his hands once belonged to someone who had played many memorable innings, and several of them against Pakistan. It had belonged to Sachin Tendulkar and found its way to Afridi via Waqar Younis, who said “it could prove lucky as it belonged to a great player”. It was lucky indeed for Afridi reeled off the fastest ODI century off 37 balls, a record that still stands.

“Waqar gave me the bat in Nairobi where I made my debut for Pakistan. He told me Tendulkar had given him the bat and asked him to make similar model bats from Sialkot,” Afridi told PTI. “That record [fastest hundred] still stands today and makes me proud. I also got other good scores with this particular bat so it is very valuable for me and I have no intention to auction it off to anyone.”

EAST LONDON, South Africa (Reuters) - The Mumbai Indians beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs in their Indian Premier League match at Buffalo Park on Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Paul Collingwood, who stepped down as England one-day captain last year, was named on Friday to lead the Twenty20 side in next month's World Cup.

DURBAN (Reuters) - A fine all-round performance by Yuvraj Singh was not enough to prevent Kings XI Punjab slumping to an eight-run loss against the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - A maiden five-wicket haul by Doug Bollinger and a century from captain Michael Clarke powered Australia to an eight-wicket win over Pakistan on Friday and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the one-day series.

Former captain Javed Miandad argued in International Cricket Council's recent meeting in Dubai that if Pakistan is unsafe to host 2011 World Cup matches, India is not a safe venue either. Sources privy to the meeting said Miandad made a strong plea that if the ICC has security concerns about having the World Cup matches in Pakistan, the situation in India and Bangladesh is also not encouraging.

Australia rode an unbeaten century from captain Michael Clarke and a five-wicket haul from Doug Bollinger to hand Pakistan an eight-wicket defeat and secure an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match one-day series.

Brad Hodge has starred again for Kolkata in the Indian Premier League making 73 runs off 60 balls and taking 1-13 but it wasn't enough as the Knight Riders lost to the Mumbai Indians by nine runs.

Skipper Michael Clarke praised his bowlers for their effort in difficult conditions after Australia took an unassailable 3-1 series lead against Pakistan with an eight-wicket victory in the fourth one-dayer in Abu Dhabi on Saturday morning.

Left-arm pacer Dirk Nannes, who had fine match in the six-wicket win over Deccan Chargers on Thursday, admitted that initially he was little nervous to replace the legendary Australian pacer in Delhi Daredevils' playing eleven.

Paul Collingwood, who stepped down as England one-day captain last year, was on Friday named to lead the Twenty20 side in next month's World Cup. Collingwood resigned the captaincy at the same time as Test skipper Michael Vaughan because he felt it was affecting his Test form. The tournament starts on June 5 and ends with the final at Lord's on July 21.

Rajasthan Royals pacer Kamran Khan has been reported for suspect bowling action and the team management and Technical Committee of the Indian Premier League informed about it. After Thursday's match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, on-field umpires Rudi Koertzen and Gary Baxter felt Kamran had a suspect bowling action on certain deliveries.

South Africa batsman J P Duminy's 52 off 37 deliveries proved crucial as Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs in the Indian Premier League match in East London, on Friday. Kolkata have now been consigned to the bottom of the table with just one victory in seven matches, while Mumbai Indians jumped to third with seven points from six matches.

Yuvraj Singh's heroics with bat and ball were in vain as Kings XI Punjab went down to Bangalore Royal Challengers by eights runs in the Indian Premier League match at Kingsmead, Durban, on Friday. The flambouyant all-rounder hammered a quickfire 50 off 34 deliveries (3 boundaries, 4 sixes) after performing the first hat-trick with the ball in the second edition of the tournament, but his team still ended up short.

A maiden five-wicket haul by Doug Bollinger and a century from captain Michael Clarke powered Australia to an eight-wicket win over Pakistan Friday and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the one-day series. Paceman Bollinger, in his second ODI, took five for 35 as Pakistan were bowled out for 197 in 48.4 overs after electing to bat first in the fourth game.