Mark Chapman saw Hong Kong home with an unbeaten 70 in the tournament final © ICC/Cricket Europe

Mark Chapman's half-century powered Hong Kong to a four-wicket win over Papua New Guinea in the final of the ICC World Cricket League Division Three, at the Kowloon Cricket Club. The 16-year-old Chapman's unbeaten 70 anchored Hong Kong's chase after their bowlers, led by Najeeb Amar, restricted PNG to 202 for 9.

PNG chose to bat and got off to a steady start with their openers Tony Ura and Jack Vare putting on 77 runs in just under 21 overs. Amar picked up the first of his three wickets when he dismissed Ura for 51. Asad Vala was run out in the next over but Vare and Chris Amini batted solidly for a half-century stand to take PNG to 133 for 2. Aizaz Khan picked up Vare for 48 and the dismissal, in the 37th over, triggered a collapse. Nizakat Khan dismissed Kila Pala and Christopher Kent in the 38th over, and the slide continued as PNG lost seven wickets for 69 runs. Amini fell on the penultimate ball of the innings as PNG just managed to nudge past 200.

PNG needed a strong reply from their bowlers if they were to have any chances of defending their total. Hitolo Areni provided the first breakthrough when he had Courtney Kruger lbw in the sixth over. Roy Lamsam and Hussain Butt, who made a half-century when Hong King beat PNG in their final league game, batted solidly but Rarva Dikana struck to dismiss both of them in quick succession as Hong King looked in trouble at 60 for 3. However, Chapman played a determined knock, stringing together useful partnerships with Irfan Ahmed, Nizakat and Waqas Barkat, to wrest the advantage in Hong King's favour. Najeeb hit some big shots as his unbeaten 37-run partnership with Chapman carried Hong Kong home. Chapman was declared the Man of the Match.

"Today I feel like I'm flying, like I am sat on the moon," said a delighted Najeeb Amar. "I am so happy that we've won the tournament. I was delighted to score the winning the runs with Mark Chapman in front of our home crowd. Credit must not just go to the team but also our coach, Charlie Burke. He's unbelievable, he made my job easier, he gave us a simple task: don't panic and the results will come, which they did this week.

"Our team is full of surprises and talented guys, especially Mark Chapman among many others, they can prove themselves against any team and hopefully when we get to Dubai we can do the same. The teams in Division Two will be a tough task, but the way we perform and play and we can make it any level and we're confident."

"It's an amazing feeling to win in front of my family and home crowd and then take home the man of the match medal too," added Chapman. "I worked hard today to grind out the runs since I've not had a great run this tournament. I don't know much about Dubai and the sides we'll face, but I'm sure we'll be ready."

PNG head coach, Andy Bichel, was obviously disappointed about not taking home the trophy but drew positives from the tournament and the side's promotion to Division Two. "It's disappointing to lose in the final, but the plan was to win promotion to Division Two which we have done," he said. "We're a young squad and hopefully this experience will inspire them to play better in Dubai.

"We haven't looked forward to Division Two yet, but it's about being prepared to play at that one level up. Its about having plans for batsmen who will be of a higher standard, being in different conditions with different pitches. The higher standard you go, the better the wickets will get, the better the teams are and it will be a real test for us - we've got the players to do well, its now about preparing for the event."

An unbeaten century by Adnan Ilyas led Oman to third place, as they beat Italy by eight wickets at the Hong Kong Cricket Club. Ilyas scored 120 off 105 balls, and put together a 198-run partnership with Vaibhav Wategaonkar, who scored 87 not out, as Oman chased down Italy's 251 in just 41 overs. Italy had reached their score on the back of a quick 78 by wicketkeeper Hayden Patrizi and a measured 81 by captain Alessandro Bonora. The two put together 99 runs for the fifth wicket. Italy ended their innings on a high after smashing 51 runs off the last four overs, but the score proved to be an easy target for Oman.

"It's fantastic to win Player of the Tournament, but is somewhat bittersweet as we've not managed to win promotion this week," said Peter Petricola. "I wasn't able to play today as I've been suffering some soreness after bowling for the first time in a while for the side, but claiming those 11 wickets and scoring those runs for Italy has been worth it to see us stay in Division Three.

"I think this week has shown we have the ability to challenge the sides in Division Three and if things had gone our way we could've have made it up a division, but I'm happy we've maintained our position."

USA finished last after Denmark thumped them by 84 runs at the Mission Road Ground. Denmark's wicketkeeper Freddie Klokker set up the win with an unbeaten century that took his side to 240, seamer Basit Raja then ran through USA's top order, and some tight fielding from Denmark sealed the win. Three USA batsmen were run out as they crashed to 156 all out in 43 overs. Raja took 3 for 25 and his opening spell helped reduce USA to 48 for 4. They never recovered and were soon 105 for 9. Durale Forrest and Muhammad Ghous added 51 for the last wicket but it was little consolation for USA. They and Denmark will both be relegated to Division 4.

Hong Kong beat table-toppers Papua New Guinea by 93 runs at the Hong King Cricket Club to qualify for Friday's final in the ICC World Cricket League Division Three, where they will play PNG again. Hong Kong's win also mean they are guaranteed promotion to WCL Div. 2.

PNG, who chose to field, had Hong Kong in trouble early on as Rarva Dikana and Hitolo Areni picked up three wickets to reduce Hong Kong to 39 for 3 in the 11th over. However, Hussain Butt, who top-scored with 68 was involved in two crucial 40-plus stands with Irfan Ahmed (25) and Nizakat Khan (36) to take Hong Kong past 100. Areni struck to dismiss Nizakat and Waqas Barkat in quick succession but Butt and captain Najeeb Amar put on 53 runs in just under 10 overs to get the Hong Kong innings back on track. Butt was dismissed with the score on 196 but Nadeem Ahmed hit some big shots to take Hong King to 221 before they were bowled out.

Hong Kong's bowlers then defended the total, bowling PNG out cheaply. Tony Ura and Kila Pala were the only two batsmen who managed to get past 20, as PNG failed to string together any substantial partnerships and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Nadeem picked up three wickets as PNG were bowled out for 128 in just under 48 overs.

Two aggressive half-centuries from Hemin Desai and Vaibhav Wategaonkar carried Oman to a commanding four-wicket win over Denmark at the Kowloon Cricket Club, but it was not enough to allow Oman to qualify for the final.

Denmark were sent in to bat and got off to a shaky start, losing their openers with just 38 runs on the board. Carsten Pedersen and Rizwan Mahmood steadied the innings with a 66-run partnership but once Mahmood was dismissed with the score on 104, Denmark suffered a collapse. Rajesh Kumar and Khalid Rashid picked up three wickets apiece as Denmark slumped from 104 for 3 to 181 all out in just under 48 overs.

Oman needed to knock the runs off quickly if they were to keep their hopes of qualifying for the final alive. Desai and Zeeshan Siddiqui got them off to a rapid start, adding 34 runs in 2 overs before Siddiqui was dismissed. Desai and Wategaonkar then blasted 41 runs in 17 balls. Desai fell for 51 off just 17 balls with five fours and five sixes. Wategaonkar added another rapid 22 with Adnan Ilyas before Bashir Shah had Ilyas stumped. Oman seemed to lose momentum after his dismissal. Though they reached their target in just under 25 overs with Wategaonkar unbeaten on 54, Hong Kong went ahead of their run-rate by beating PNG to destroy Oman's hopes of qualifying for the final.

USA's hopes of qualifying for WCL Div. 2 were ended by Italy, who beat them by four wickets at the Mission Road Ground. Italy will now go on to play Oman in the third-place playoff while USA will play for fifth place against Denmark.

Italy got off to a shaky start in their chase of 223, slumping to 52 for 4, but a 102-run partnership between Peter Petricola and wicketkeeper Hayden Patrizi got them back into the game. After Patrizi was out for 50, Michael Raso came in and smashed 38 off 29 deliveries, and Italy got home with 18 balls to spare. Petricola was unbeaten on 69.

Petricola had also been Italy's most successful bowler, taking four wickets as Italy restricted USA to 222 for 8. USA captain Steve Massiah scored 52 and opener Sushil Nadkarni scored 47, but USA didn't get to a big enough total.

It is now more than two months since Don Lockerbie was dismissed as chief executive of the USA Cricket Association and still no details have been revealed about the reasons for the decision nor what steps are being taken to find a replacement.

As those who have followed US cricket have come to expect, Gladstone Dainty, the board's president, has resumed his favourite approach to communications, namely a complete wall of silence. Minutes for its board meetings, which for a time were posted on the site, have stopped being published, and no officials are willing to answer questions. USACA has scuttled back into its shell.

Insiders hint one of the reasons is that discussions between Lockerbie and USACA regarding the termination of his contract are ongoing and until those are resolved there can be no announcement.

But for the time being it’s Groundhog Day as US cricket is taken back to the dark period three or four years ago.

Rarva Dikana hits Rashard Marshall's stumps as USA collapsed © Getty Images

Papua New Guinea rolled United States of America over by seven wickets, with 44 overs to spare, in one of the most one-sided games in the tournament at the Hong Kong Cricket Club. PNG won the toss and had USA on the mat immediately, with Hitolo Areni sending Lennox Cush back for a duck. Steve Massiah seemed to be at ease with the conditions, stroking four boundaries in his 18, but things were about to fall apart spectacularly. Carl Wright succumbed against opening bowler Loa Nou, before Areni sent messiah back to reduce USA to 25 for 3. Six of the remaining eight batsmen failed to open their accounts as USA crumbled from a precarious 37 for 4 in bizarre fashion, to be bowled out for 44 in the 21st over. Seamer Rarva Dikana was the main tormentor, finishing with dream figures of 4 for 1 from 4.2 overs. PNG were in a rush to end the game, lashing boundaries and losing wickets, before Christopher Kent hit two sixes to seal PNG's third win in three games.

"We didn't expect to bowl the USA out so cheaply this morning and all credit has to go to our bowlers and the way they performed today," captain Dikana said after the game. "I don't think the USA batsmen played badly, I just think they didn't know how to read our bowlers and our fielding was particularly strong.

"A win is a win for us, but I would have liked it if we hadn't lost those three wickets to make it to the target. However, by losing those three wickets it means those batsmen have something to focus on in our next game - by improving their performances for us. We can't rest on our laurels though, we've another match tomorrow and we've got to focus on our own game and be ready for the next challenge."

Oman authored a major recovery from 63 for 6 to overhaul the target of 241 set by Italy with seven balls to spare at Kowloon Cricket Club. Italy's effort after electing to bat was guided by captain Alessandro Bonora's unbeaten 124, that included ten fours and four sixes. After the early loss of Andy Northcote, Bonora laid the platform in a 84-run second-wicket stand with Damian Fernando, off 22.1 overs. The middle order faltered after Fernando's exit for 46, but Bonora kept firing from one end to lift his side to a strong score.

Oman's chase was initially crippled by Italy's opening bowlers, Vince Pennazza and Gayashan Munasinghe, who ripped open the top order. Oman looked down and out when No. 8 Awal Khan joined Sultan Ahmed in the middle. The pair kick-started a resurgence with a 59-run stand in 11.3 overs. Sultan's exit did not allow Italy to run through the tail, as Amir Ali batted with rare composure for a No. 9 batsman. He added 99 with Awal and took Oman to the brink before Peter Petricola ended Awal's resistance for 81, at 221 for 8. Rajesh Kumar held his nerve to help Amir tie the scores before perishing, in what was the final twist in the riveting match. Amir, however, hit a boundary off the next ball to seal a memorable win for Oman.

"We've lost two games now, both of which were games that we could have won if we had applied ourselves better," a disappointed Bonora said. "We simply did not complete the basics - bowling, fielding and even batting. I may have scored 124 runs for our 240 but it was still not enough on this pitch. We need to regroup ahead of tomorrow's game against Hong Kong. We both have one win each and tomorrow's game is almost like a semi-final as whoever loses falls into the relegation battle."

On the other hand, Oman captain Hemal Mehta was thrilled with the result. "We were definitely the most challenged in this game - Italy didn't let us take wickets easily and credit has to go to Bonora for his knock," he said. "It was outstanding and if we'd got him out early then we would have seen a much lower score on the board."

"Sultan Ahmed and Awal Khan had a great partnership and after Sultan departed and Amir Ali and Awal paired up, their run partnerships really made the difference for us. We can't be complacent though, tomorrow we've got USA who we know will be wanting to bounce back after being bundled out for 44 so we need refocus to face them at HKCC."

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's bowlers sparked a dramatic collapse to set up a comfortable seven-wicket victory against Denmark at the Mission Road Ground.

Having worked their way to a respectable 71 for 2, Denmark lost eight wickets for 31 runs in 15.4 overs. Najeeb Amar made the key breakthrough removing Denmark captain Michael Pedersen for 34 and struck again four overs later to snare his brother Carsten for 6.
Amar broke the back of the top order when he dismissed Rizwan Mahmood for 24 and by that point the floodgates were open. No other batsman reached double figures as new-ball pair Irfan Ahmed and Aizaz Ahmed shared five more wickets - each bowled - to speed through the lower order.

The modest chase was never going to be too much of a bother and despite losing Roy Lamsam for 19, Hong Kong barely broke sweat. Coutney Kruger struck six boundaries in an unbeaten 40 and Mark Chapman hit a breezy 29 from 33 balls - with a six and two fours - to take the home side to the victory line. Chapman fell on the brink but with over half the innings left, it was never going to be costly.

"It's obviously great to finally get a win in the tournament and hopefully we can carry this momentum through to the next game against Italy," Irfan said. "I just seemed to be able to get things right for us when it came about to claiming the wickets with the ball moving easily in the conditions at Mission Road. We kept things tight and it paid off for us today and we showed what we are capable of doing as a side."

Oman fell short despite an unbeaten hundred from captain Hemal Mehta © ICC/Cricket Europe

United States of America got their Division Three campaign off to a winning start, a dominant batting performance sealing a seven-wicket win over hosts Hong Kong at Kowloon Cricket Club.

USA captain Steve Massiah was the chief architect of their win, contributing to his team's efforts at crucial times. His first success was to call correctly at the toss on a cold, grey morning. Seamer Kevin Darlington struck twice in his opening spell, removing Courtney Kruger and Hussain Butt inside the first 10 overs.

After a brief rally, 16-year-old Mark Chapman and Irfan Ahmed departed to leave Hong Kong tottering at 59 for 4 before opener Roy Lamsam and Nizakat Khan repaired the damage with a 99-run stand. Enter Massiah, swooping to run Lamsam out for 83. Despite a flurry of wickets, Hong Kong captain Najeeb Amar defied the Americans with a no-holds-barred 63 that included six sixes and carried his side to a competitive 256 for 9.

Massiah and wicketkeeper Carl Wright weathered the loss of Orlando Baker early in USA's chase to put together a decisive 109-run partnership in quick time. Massiah was content to play the anchor role in their stand, with Wright thrashing seven fours and six sixes in his 82 before offering legspinner Khan a caught-and-bowled chance in the 32nd over.

Massiah then stepped up the tempo significantly with Sushil Nadkarni his partner at the crease. With Nadkarni adding 38 at better than a-run-a-ball before he was dismissed, Massiah's well-paced innings couldn't quite reach three figures as he finished on 97 not out when victory was reached with an over and a half to spare.

"It's fantastic to start the tournament off with a victory and we had some solid batting performances today with Carl Wright and myself contributing to our victory," said Massiah, who was named Man of the Match. "However good it feels to start with a win we definitely cannot rest on our laurels. Tomorrow we're playing Denmark and they'll be looking for a win after losing to Italy today, we can't afford to lose focus."

Italy's batting performance against Denmark was similarly impressive, Peter Petricola putting in a match-winning all-round performance to set up a seven-wicket win for the Italians at Hong Kong Cricket Club.

Alessandro Bonora's side limited Denmark to 227, Petricola effecting a run out and picking up two wickets with his medium pace. Rizwan Mahmood's half-century formed the backbone of Denmark's innings, and although four of the top seven batsmen got starts none were able to really push on as Dilan Fernando's seamers also resulted in three wickets.

With the sun slowly beginning to break through a heavy bank of cloud as Italy began their chase, openers Andy Northcote and Damien Fernando combined to make 87 runs at a steady pace before Fernando was trapped in front of his stumps for 45. Denmark chipped away to reduce Italy to 130 for 3 but Petricola and Damien Crowley fought back in impressive style, both reaching unbeaten half-centuries to seal the result in the 45th over.

"It's obviously great to win on the opening day of the event and carry on the good form I had in Italy last summer," said Petricola. "We were a little bit scratchy to begin with but we stepped up to the plate with a few good performances to get us over the line but today was by no means a complete performance by us.

"The Danes are a solid side and are very competitive while also playing with good spirit. They definitely challenged us as a side. They were good but at the end of the day we gave a good enough performance to walk away with the important winning points on day one."

In the third game of the day, at Mission Road, Rarva Dikana's Papua New Guinea opened their tournament with a 39-run win over Oman despite a hard-fought century from Omani captain Hemal Mehta. His innings was not enough to help his side recover after Hitolo Areni knocked the stuffing out of their top order with an early hat-trick.

PNG had Chris Kent and Kila Pala to thank after their half-centuries prompted a recovery after a top-order collapse had reduced the side to 27 for 4, Hemin Desai's seamers doing the bulk of the damage as he ripped out three of the top four and eventually finished with figures of 4 for 50. Kent struck 68 before being caught and bowled by Mehta while Pala struck a run-a-ball 77 as PNG reached 248 for 9.

With a competitive total set, PNG set about dismissing the Omanis in style with Areni leading the way with a stellar performance. The 30-year-old fast bowler started by dismissing Deep Trivedi, with wicketkeeper Jack Vare snaffling a catch behind the stumps, while the second two wickets of Adnan Ilyas and Sultan Ahmed came from some nifty fielding at first slip by Dikana.

Mehta made a valiant effort in an attempt to save his side from defeat, striking the first century of the tournament, but his hard work was in vain as the side fell short of the target by 39 runs and PNG's bowlers cleaned up the tail.

"I'm really pleased to have taken a hat-trick today and to help my side to our first win of the tournament," said Areni. I've recently broken back into the national side and it feels good to see my hard work paying off today but it was very much a team effort today.

"We've another game tomorrow and we can't rest on today's win, we need make sure we carry this through and hopefully I can continue to contribute to help us win."

"We had a great start against PNG and then we dropped two catches in a span of three overs which made the difference in the first innings where they managed to get a long partnership in place," explained Mehta

"I have to say our bowlers did work hard today to try and limit the runs, with Desai and Ranpura our seamers taking four wickets to dismiss most of the top order. But we let things slip to allow them to set up their major partnership and wickets only began to fall again after our spinner Khalid Rashid stepped in.

"The partnership myself and Vaibhav Wategaonkar built was decent and if we'd had another two players contribute 30-odd runs each alongside myself things may have turned out differently. Areni put us on the back foot when he took three key wickets and unfortunately I couldn't steady the ship on my own."

The tournament continues on Sunday, with Oman playing Hong Kong at KCC, Italy facing PNG at HKCC and USA taking on Denmark at Mission Road.

Subash Modi, who recently retired from international umpiring, has been engaged by the ICC Africa regional office as an umpiring consultant until at least December 2012. Modi joined the Associate and Affiliate panel of umpires in 2006 and remains extensively involved in Kenya’s umpiring structures.

"It would be foolhardy for the ICC Africa region not to utilise the experience and knowledge of this wonderful umpire,” said Africa regional development manager Cassim Suliman. “We are hoping that Modi will be able to play a dual role in the Africa region, firstly as a match referee who will be able to pass on his immense amount of umpiring knowledge to the tournament umpires as well as ensuring the smooth running of the regional pathway tournaments.

“The second roll would be one as an umpire mentor. We hope that he'd be able to facilitate umpire development within the African continent. This should be through conducting regular umpire training courses in the Africa region as well as a continual monitoring of the ICC Africa A, B and emerging panels."

"I have enjoyed being in the panel from 2006 until now and am most grateful to ICC, ICC Africa, Africa Cricket Association and Cricket Kenya for all the valuable support and encouragement,” wrote Modi in his resignation letter. “I have enjoyed my involvement and experience of umpiring at the top level of the noble game. I have been sharing and will continue sharing my umpiring knowledge with the Kenya and regional umpires."

Modi's first official duties as a regional match referee will be in February, when he will be involved in the ICC Africa Twenty20 division three tournament in Accra. The competition will mark his first interaction with African umpires as a match referee and he will also have the opportunity to have a look at the ICC Africa emerging panel in action.

The Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) marked the 10-year anniversary of its inception with a gala dinner to raise funds for a new cricket ground. At the event, the Minister of Sport pledged that the government would support the endeavour to create a ground that could attract international matches to the country.

“We are all very proud of this accomplishment and we are grateful to our supporters who helped us get here,” said RCA president Charles Haba. “A decade after its founding, the Rwanda Cricket Association now boasts of over 1000 registered cricket players and 11 competitive clubs.”

He added that the progress of the development program has been very encouraging and pointed out that there are more than 15 secondary schools playing cricket, more tournaments being arranged and a tremendous improvement in the quality of cricket being played.

Rwanda’s main cricket ground at Kicukiro is undergoing a major facelift and Haba also strongly hinted that RCA was looking to expand its programmes.

“We intend to put up one new ground every year for the next two years. 2011 is going to be very busy with the introduction of an improved and more competitive senior women’s league and an annual tourney for the four universities that will spice up the already action-packed calendar.”

RCA was approved by the Ministry of Sport in December 2000 and Rwanda became an Affiliate member of the ICC in June 2003.

Steve Massiah will lead the USA side in the ICC World Cricket League Division 3 that starts on January 22 in Hong Kong © ICC

USA captain Steve Massiah believes his side's early arrival in Hong Kong for the ICC World Cricket League Division 3 tournament will help them gain promotion to Division 2. USA, who were in Division 5 at the beginning of 2010, will arrive in Hong Kong on January 15, and will play two practice games before the tournament starts on January 22.

"It's tough for us to get together ahead of the tournament with people spread out across the country, but we've all got training schedules to stick to and we will all definitely have the fitness levels needed ahead of the tournament," Massiah told the ICC.

The hosts Hong Kong's biggest advantage is that they have played plenty of cricket leading up to the tournament, their coach Charlie Burke said.

"We played in the Asian Games [in Novemer 2010], albeit in the shorter format, but the opposition we faced was strong, and playing on a big stage against the likes of Afghanistan has really helped us prepare for Division 3," Burke said. "We've just come back from a tour of Sri Lanka where we played three games against strong domestic teams and we won two out of three of those games. It's the first time we've had wins in Sri Lanka which to me is an extremely positive sign ahead of this tournament. We've also had turf practice-nets put down now in Hong Kong which has been a huge plus for us when it comes to training."

Hong Kong and USA will compete with Italy, Papa New Guinea, Oman and Denmark for two promotion spots to Division 2.

There are four uncapped players in USA's squad for the tournament - left-arm spinners Ryan Corns and Asif Khan, wicketkeeper Ritesh Kadu and seamer Durale Forrest - and Massiah said they have all settled into the side.

"Forrest, Corns and Kadu are all young, exciting prospects for us," Massiah said. "Forrest is a former West Indies Under-15 player, Corns has represented the USA at Under-19 level, while Kadu has been a consistent performer in his local league in Southern California. Asif Khan is also a positive addition for us as we've been in need of a left-arm spinner and Asif provides that along with bringing the experience he's had as a former first-class cricketer in Pakistan."

Hong Kong's squad for the tournament has an average age of 21 as compared to 29, which it was when Burke took over as coach in May 2010. "Our vice-captain Courtney Kruger, who is a right-hand batsman, is definitely one to watch for this tournament," Burke said. "Mark Chapman, who is just 17-years-old, was our highest run-scorer in Sri Lanka and is technically very sound for someone so young.

"Then when you look at our bowlers, the Ahmed brothers - Irfan and Nadeem - are the ones to watch in our side. Irfan is a great strike bowler, who knows how to bowl with great pace and can deliver yorkers. His brother Nadeem knows the conditions here and gets some good spin."

Burke said he has a good knowledge of all the teams competing, especially Papua New Guinea whom he worked with in his previous role as the ICC East Asia-Pacific development officer.

"I have a very good knowledge of the PNG side and in regards to planning for the other teams, I've seen recent footage of the USA and we've done our homework on Denmark too. I suppose Italy and Oman are the interesting teams as we don't know too much about them."

Since the USA only received promotion after winning the Division 4 tournament in Italy in August 2010, they have not faced many of the Division 3 teams in recent times, but Massiah is not too concerned by that. "We don't know all the teams particularly well apart from Italy who we played in August," he said. "I personally have played Oman, Denmark and Papa New Guinea before, but that was over ten years ago now so I'm sure the sides have changed. We'll be sure to do our research so that we can get on and execute our game on the day."

Cricket Kenya chief executive Tom Sears has told ESPNcricinfo that plans are progressing to introduce a new national tournament in the country with the aim of improving the domestic structure and helping bridge the current gulf between the local and international game.

At present, the Nairobi Provincial Cricket League is the country's main competition, but standards are widely regarded as being poor and not conducive to bringing on young players. An attempt by CK to start a provincial event in 2009 failed for a variety of reasons, but Sears believes now is the time to try again.

"We are looking at basing it around a club structure primarily in Nairobi. The plan is to have eight teams in two pools of four. Six would be Nairobi-based clubs and we would probably invite the top six teams from the Nairobi league and a combination side from the Rift and a combination side from the Coast … but this is just a proposal at the moment and has yet to be ratified. If it is, we would put the Coast and the Rift in opposite pools to limit the amount of travelling and the top two in each pool would go through in semi-finals and a final."

"It'll create an opportunity for our national players, best club players, and also we have a good clutch of Under-19s and Under-17s and it will give them the chance to play in good, hard cricket because the standard of league cricket here is just not good enough at the moment."

Sears wants this to start in 2010, and unlike other attempts, this will spread right down through the age groups and into the vital area of schools cricket.

"It's about development all the way up, particularly at schools level. At the moment you can have a 12 year-old kid in Nairobi playing a completely different format of the game to a 12 year-old in Nakuru, Mombasa or anywhere else. So what we are trying to do is standardise the format of cricket we are playing at various age groups and have a regional competition that feeds into regional teams that compete in a national competition. This will create opportunities for kids to play locally and the best of those will be creamed off into regional teams at all the age groups up until 17.

"And then four regions, which will possibly be a Coast, Rift and two Nairobi sides who will compete in a national competition. We are making sure the kids can play and then we are looking at the best of those kids with a view to selecting those national sides. And once we have selected those national sides, making sure they are playing meaningful fixtures."
Funding remains a major obstacle, but Sears says CK is "in discussions with broadcasters who have verbally committed to televising some of it" as well as speaking to a variety of commercial partners.

"We've got the ICCC, who provide the majority of our funding, onside and they are supportive of what we are trying to implement. If the ICC stipulate that this is a kind of structure they want to have in place, it adds a lot of weight to it. If we can't do all of it, certainly the senior men's league and some more structured junior competitions and that is what we have budgeted for."

Another issue historically has been the reluctance of clubs to agree to anything which dilutes their stranglehold on domestic cricket. "The provinces have their own leagues and place a lot of importance on them and that is fair enough," Sears said. "But any board member who sits on the board of a governing body has to look at the good of the game nationally as opposed to their own locality. I am sure there will be some interesting discussions but we are looking to implement something from the middle of the year onwards."

Although Taliban-led insurgency is going on unabated in the war-torn country, Afghan girls and women have been exercising their rights envisaged in the post-Taliban country's constitution.

"I want to be flag bearer in the upcoming competition due in February in Kuwait," said Noshin, a member of Afghan women cricket team.

An energetic Noshin, 19, like many Afghans, uses only one name and attired in sport costume, told Xinhua that "I don't want the conflicts to destroy my dreams and ruin my future. I hate the war."

Noshin like many others, looks ambitious and was playing cricket in Bagh-e-Zanana, the only women park in the capital city Kabul where women even could not go inside during Taliban regime which collapsed in late 2001 by the NATO-led military campaign.

Dozens of women cricket players were busy in playing the game in this January, and the best ones of them will form Women National Cricket Team to compete in Kuwait next month.

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Jason Anderson struck a composed 73 and Lionel Cann a blistering, unbeaten 46 as Bermuda opened their five-match tour of Dubai with a five-wicket victory over the United Arab Emirates Under-19s on Tuesday.

Chasing the UAE's 213 in a 50-over game at the ICC Global Cricket Academy, Bermuda were in trouble at 36 for 3 with Dion Stovall (13), skipper David Hemp (5) and Fiqre Crockwell (12) all falling cheaply. However, they were rescued by Anderson, who shared an important 123-run partnership with Chris Foggo (44) for the fourth wicket as the target was reached with more than three overs to spare. The 38-year-old Cann hurried the end by belting 46 from 29 balls to provide support.

Earlier, UAE suffered three run-outs which saw them collapse from 101 for 1 at one stage with Zamin Jaleel (67) and Dan D'Souza (42) the main run-getters. Fast bowler Stefan Kelly was the pick of Bermuda's bowlers, finishing with 3 for 37 from nine overs.