Paine century drives Australia A to series win

Australia A 316 for 5 (Paine 134, Ferguson 48) beat Pakistan A 301 (Latif 100, Ghani 53, Bollinger 3-53) by 15 runsScorecard
Tim Paine smashed 13 fours and five sixes © Getty Images
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Players/Officials: Khalid Latif Tim Paine
Matches: Australia A v Pakistan A at Brisbane
Series/Tournaments: Pakistan A tour of Australia
Teams: Australia Pakistan
Australia edged ahead of Pakistan in a high-scorer at the Allan Border Field to take the one-day series 2-1. Opener Tim Paine cracked 134 to steer his team to an imposing 316 before his counterpart Khalid Latif responded with an exact 100, which wasn't enough as Pakistan fell short by 15 runs.
Pakistan's decision to send the home team to bat backfired as the first two partnerships cost 66 and 108 runs respectively. Callum Ferguson supported Paine in the second-wicket stand with 48. Paine's century came off 124 balls, smashing 13 fours and five huge sixes before being dismissed by Fahad Masood. The Australian innings got a real boost between the 34th and 40th overs when Paine and Adam Voges added 69. Moises Henriques and Jason Krejza then pushed the score past 300 with cameos towards the end.
Pakistan got off to a quick start but lost two wickets before the fifth over. Two half-century partnerships, driven by Latif, put Pakistan on track but the chase lost momentum when Latif fell in the 33rd over to the left-arm spinner Jon Holland. Latif scored at more than a run-a-ball and his knock included ten fours and two sixes. Sheharyar Ghani made 53 before falling in the 40th over, but the steady fall of wickets hurt Pakistan's efforts in keeping with the asking rate.
Paine said he expected a high-scoring encounter. "I enjoyed batting today and it was good to put on some solid partnerships, firstly with David Warner and then with Ferg (Callum Ferguson) after that," Paine said after the match. "I thought 316 was a good score but we knew they would come at us hard, and we're just happy to come away with the win."
He also praised Latif's knock. "His (Khalid Latif) innings was first-class and really helped them through that middle part of the game and they got some momentum up so it was great when Dutchy (Jon Holland) was able to pick him up."
Pakistan round off their tour with a Twenty20 game at the same venue on Saturday.

WIPA asks national governments to step in

The West Indian players currently boycotting the series against Bangladesh have asked the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) to help solve the impasse with the WICB over player contracts. The West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) hopes that Guyana president Bharat Jagdeo, the current chairman of CARICOM's heads of government, will be able to intervene and resolve the dispute.
"We at WIPA are fully conscious of the importance of cricket to the economy and unity of the region, and the psyche of its peoples - matters in which you and other Heads of Governments are continuously and intrinsically involved," WIPA chief executive Dinanath Ramnarine wrote in a letter to Jagdeo. "Our players are deeply mindful of this responsibility they shoulder on behalf of this important group of stakeholders. It is, therefore, in this context that we at WIPA wish to have a speedy resolution to these issues."
A meeting between all three parties has reportedly been suggested though it is unclear whether the board has agreed.
CARICOM - a nodal organisation of the region's national governments - has in the past played a leading role in similar disputes, particularly when Keith Mitchell, the former Prime Minister of Grenada, was the chairman of the Heads' sub-committee on cricket.
Meanwhile, the WICB said it would start paying the players for the England tour and the home series against India according to agreements it believed it had already established. Although there are no contracts in place, payments will be made on the basis of verbal agreements and written undertakings the board had with WIPA.
"At present, the situation remains the same," WICB vice-president Dave Cameron told the Caribbean Media Corporation. "We are not going to negotiate under duress and that is final. What we have done, however, is to make arrangements to pay players for their services. Presently, the wages for the England tour and the India tour are being processed and we will get it to the players as soon as possible."
Cameron said payments for the ICC World Twenty20 would be made when the WICB received its money from the ICC. The next ICC event is the Champions Trophy in September, for which the selectors are due to pick a provisional squad of 30 soon.

Vaughan expected to announce retirement

Michael Vaughan, the man who led England to more Test victories than any other captain, is expected to announce his retirement from all cricket this week. A press conference has been scheduled for 11.30am at Edgbaston on Tuesday, at which it is widely anticipated that he will call time on his 16-year first-class career.

Vaughan has struggled with injuries to his right knee which kept him out of cricket for over a year between November 2005 and May 2007. In January, he withdrew from the IPL auction to concentrate on getting back into the Test side in time for the Ashes, but still lost out on a place in the 16-man pre-Ashes squad.

It had been speculated that Vaughan's final appearance for Yorkshire would take place in Sunday's Twenty20 Cup fixture against Derbyshire at Headingley, but he was omitted from the starting line-up for that match. According to Stewart Regan, Yorkshire's chief executive, any official announcement is on hold until Vaughan has met with the ECB, to whom he is still centrally contracted.

"There is a meeting between Michael and the ECB scheduled for tomorrow, and after that it will be up to the ECB to make any formal announcement," Regan told Cricinfo. "Michael has obviously not been selected in the squad today, his place has been taken by Anthony McGrath, and we are very much concentrating on what is a very important game for Yorkshire." An ECB official dismissed the presumed content of the meeting as "speculation".

Vaughan, 34, captained England in 51 of his 82 Tests, and won a record 26 of these, including most famously the two matches that enabled England to regain the Ashes in 2005. But he hasn't played international cricket since stepping down from the captaincy during the home series against South Africa last year, and this season he has made only 159 runs at 19.88 for Yorkshire. The last time he scored a century in a competitive match was for Yorkshire in a 50-over game against Surrey in Abu Dhabi this March.

Aside from the growing acceptance that he will never play international cricket again, not least since Ravi Bopara burst onto the scene at the beginning of the season to nail down the No. 3 slot, Vaughan is believed to be wary of hampering the opportunities of young talent at Yorkshire - among them Jonathan Bairstow, the 19-year-old son of the former England wicketkeeper, David, who made his debut this season.

"If Vaughan really is packing it in I can understand his decision, though it's a sad day for all of us who played in 2005," Steve Harmison told The Mail on Sunday. "He was a great leader on the field. He knew how to get the best out of me, by telling me I was the best bowler in the world. Maybe he was lying, maybe it was kidology but he knew how to press the buttons and we all wanted to play for him."

Vaughan scored three centuries out of a tally of 633 runs in the 2002-03 Ashes that preceded his 2005 triumph, and was one of the few English cricketers whom Australia hold in the highest regard. "I was slightly shocked about Vaughan not getting the inclusion [in the current Ashes squad]," said Brett Lee last week, "more so from what he's done against us in the past, he's got the utmost respect from all our players."

If, as expected, he does call it quits this week, the timing of Vaughan's retirement will serve to spare the current Ashes team endless speculation about his chances of a recall, should early results against Australia go against them. One of his finest achievements as captain was to shield the side against panic in 2005, after a heavy defeat in the first Test at Lord's. The same side was retained for each of the first four matches of the series.

Vaughan is highly likely to remain close to the action this summer, however, as he is sure to be welcomed straight into the Sky commentary box, alongside his former team-mates and fellow England captains, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, and his most formidable Ashes foe, Shane Warne.