Since appearing at the 2007 World Cup, Bermuda's cricket has slipped backwards. They failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, lost their ODI status and are now joint bottom of ICC World Cricket League Division 2.

They are preparing for the start of the qualifying campaign in UAE for the 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka but face a tough task as only two teams will win a place in the main tournament.

Janeiro Tucker has come out of retirement after quitting international cricket in 2009 due to a persistent knee injury. “I’m out at training and seeing how it goes,” Tucker told the Bermuda Sun. “I’m seeing if I can get into better shape and see how it goes from there. Overall my knee is about 85-90%.”

“I’m going to train and if the coach (David Moore) is satisfied with what I’m doing in training and how I’m progressing then it will be up to the coach’s discretion,” said Tucker. “I’m going to do what I can, and if it works out, I’ll be there. There’s no guarantee I’ll make the squad. I have to put in the work just like everybody else.”

Banke in Nepal is all set to get its own cricket ground with Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announcing to fund the building of cricket field in Kohalpur.

Cricket Association of Nepal spokesman Binod Mainali said that they had been planning to build cricket ground for the past six years and everyone is delighted with the ACC´s announcement to fund the project.

Banke has produced a number of national and international players for the nation. The players of Banke practice cricket on the premises of Mangal Prasad School.

The ACC has also supported construction of cricket grounds in Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Mulpani and Jhapa. Mainali informed that the first phase amount will be invested in building iron fence and a small cottage for guards.

Cricket Kenya has been forced to further postpone the finals of the East Africa Premier League and East African Cup due to the prolonged rains in Nairobi.

Rwenzori Warriors were due take on the Nile Knights in the final of the EAPL on December 3 while the Knights were scheduled to meet Kongonis in the EAC final a day later. Both games were set to be played at Nairobi Gymkhana Club. Torrential rain led to the initial postponement of both matches in October and now an extended period of exceptionally wet weather has resulted in a further delay to the finals.

Cricket Kenya carried out a ground inspection over the weekend and found the Nairobi Gymkhana ground completely waterlogged. Alternative venues were discussed but with more wet weather expected this week, the decision to postpone once more was taken.

Cricket Kenya Chief Executive Tom Sears said: "Obviously we are extremely disappointed that we are going to have a further delay but there was no chance the finals could have been played next weekend. We have had around six weeks of exceptionally wet weather and that has taken its toll.

"We have consulted with key stakeholders and agreed to look at re-scheduling the finals early in the New Year. As we said previously it is very important we do play the finals and bring to a conclusion what has been a very successful inaugural year of the East African Cricket competitions."

Pre-tournament favourites Afghanistan will open their ACC Twenty20 Cup campaign with a tough match against Hong Kong on December 3, according to fixtures announced by the Asian Cricket Council.

Group A consists of Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Oman, Kuwait and Maldives, while Group B features the fancied Nepal side along with Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Bhutan and Saudi Arabia.

The tournament forms part of the qualifying process for ICC World Twenty20 2012 in Sri Lanka. The top three teams from this competition, in addition to Afghanistan who have pre-qualified, join the Associate teams with ODI in the 16-team ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier to be played in the UAE in early 2012.

The other regional teams in the qualifier will come from Europe (2), Africa (2), Americas (2) and East Asia - Pacific (1).

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Heilongjiang is the ninth province in China to play cricket © ACC

Daqing, a city in north-east China, is the latest in the People’s Republic to take to cricket. About as far away as you can be from any Test-playing country without being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Daqing is the significant step in the evolution of China’s cricket. “We’re very impressed by their enthusiasm and welcome to cricket,” says Chinese Cricket Association’s Deputy Secretary General Zhang Tian.

The city in north-eastern Heilongjiang province, bordering Russia and Mongolia, is under snow for four and a half months of the year, so cricket, as with other sports relying on turf, is not easy to play. Nevertheless, spurred by the fact that an overwhelming percentage of China’s gold-medal winners have traditionally come from the north-east (“They are tall and with good stamina,” says Zhang Tian) the CCA very much wanted to bring cricket to the region. The success of Shenyang Sport University from neighbouring Liaoning province in China’s national championships has led to Daqing’s sporting authorities taking an interest in cricket. A number of university and high-school coaches were invited to Level I coaching courses in China who then took the game back to Daqing.

© ACC

Daqing Normal University (as in not a specialist Science or Sport University) is the centre of Daqing’s cricket. With a high-school and primary school aligned to it, it is able to have cricket running throughout its sporting curriculum. Former Bangladesh international Manjurul Islam is coaching there now, assisted by women's national team player Sun Mengyao. They will be in Daqing until the arrival of the first frosts in mid-October. They have already unearthed a left-arm spinner, (“left-arm spin is a very useful weapon,” says the left-arm pace bowler) who Manjurul reckons has every chance of playing for China in the years ahead.

© ACC

Brunei have struggled in recent years. The seniors are undoubted seniors, with youngsters playing cricket in such few numbers that the Brunei Cricket Association have been unable to field a team in the most recent ACC U-16 Challenge Cup. And they still have no women’s team. “Brunei realise things have got to change if they have any chance of being better than the lowest team in the ACC rankings at present. They want to change. They are making a change,” says ACC Development Officer for Brunei Aminul Islam.

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The USA Cricket Association has announced that national elections will be held in December, with the results announced on December 21, in keeping with ICC compliance regulations. The decision was taken at a board meeting over the weekend, at which it was also decided to complete by that time all regional elections and also a compliance review by an independent auditor.

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