The International Cricket Council has delivered a rebuff to Kenya’s hopes of receiving Test status, telling them that they "must accelerate the pace of reform within Kenyan cricket before seriously considering applying".The announcement followed two days of meetings between the ICC and the Kenyan Cricket Association in Nairobi as part of the ICC’s African leg of its visit to member countries.Ehsan Mani, the ICC’s president, explained that the jump from ODI to Test status was huge and that the KCA needs to ensure that it has solid foundations in place before seeking to make the move."After Kenya’s strong showing in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, the ICC and the KCA mapped out a series of milestones that need to be passed before any consideration could be given to an application for Test status,” he said. “The ICC has committed $US 1 million through to 2005 to make this happen. Over the past two days we have been able to see first hand how the KCA is progressing in achieving these objectives. While things are moving forward, the pace of progress is too slow. Some deadlines have been missed and we have underlined the need for the KCA to commit to and deliver against the agreed plan.”The KCA has many critics within the country, and has been accused of not doing enough to promote cricket in Kenya, and of allowing the board’s finances to become a mess.The KCA complained that it was not being given enough one-day cricket to help them develop, and this was acknowledged by Mani. “All ICC Full Members have previously committed to provide regular international competition for Kenya but, for whatever reason, this has not happened,” he said. “The ICC and the KCA both recognise the importance of this type of competition for Kenyan cricket and we will be working together to try and put in place a more regular international calendar for the Kenyan team.”

ScorecardToday was a pleasing performance for Middlesex, who triumphed with the bat on a day that began so gloomily that most of the MCC members had retreated into thelong room, taking full advantage of their brand new see-through sightscreen.They finished with a first innings lead of 21, and five wickets still inhand.There was much unintentional comedy in the morning as bad light and drizzleplayed merry hell with the over count. At 11.45am the players and umpiresemerged from the pavilion, got as far as the gates, poked their headstentatively out from under the balcony then disappeared back inside. At12.40 they made it all the way to the middle, and Glen Chapple even bowledtwo balls before they beat another retreat; then at 2.25pm play restartedwith a wicket from Chapple’s fourth delivery, and the games began.The afternoon revolved around an ongoing confrontation between AndrewStrauss and the short ball. Chapple and Dominic Cork both dug the ball in to get themaximum effect out of the damp pitch and Strauss, perhaps still under theinfluence of the Caribbean, or the Caribbean rum, was keen to show off hispulling technique. Unfortunately it wasn’t much to shout about and Corkforced several miscues, none of which, unfortunately for him, went anywherenear a fielder.Still, Strauss proved that he is a master of the cut, slicing anything thatsat up outside off stump. And with Paul Weekes, his partner-in-arms, heneatly evaded the snorters of Sajid Mahmood et al; he even took a six off GaryKeedy over long-on and a century seemed certain, had it not been for thatdratted bad light. Chapple and Cork had to be content with only threewickets in return for their afternoon’s hostilities, Owais Shah defending poorly, Ed Joyce driving loosely, and Weekes pulling out of a hook shot prematurely, giving Carl Hooper the chance to show off his sprint with a running, diving catch behind the slips.

Simon Jones, who has been ruled out of the rest of England’s Tests against New Zealand with a stress fracture in his left foot, has pledged to be back and fit to play West Indies later this summer. He aggravated the injury, which he previously suffered in the 1998 season, during the first Test at Lord’s.Jones was sent for an MRI scan on Wednesday which revealed there was a chance he could develop his original stress fracture. As a result, the selectors decided not to risk him at Headingley or Trent Bridge.”It’s another setback in my career I know, but it’s not too bad,” Jones told The Western Mail. “I will be fit and ready for the start of the four-Test rubber against the West Indies which starts at the end of July. I wouldn’t want to miss that series after what the players achieved in the Caribbean in the winter.”Jones blamed the aggravation of the old injury in part to the amount of cricket he has played lately, saying: “First I went out to India with the academy and then there was that tough four-Test trip to the West Indies before what cricket I have got through this season. It takes its toll in the end and it’s just part of the downside of being a fast bowler.”But he was also quick to put the seriousness of the injury in perspective, adding, “You have to remember that I was out for 19 months and fought my way back from knee ligament problems. So, although this has put me back a bit, it is somewhat minor compared to what I have been through.”The injury is another blow to England’s fast-bowling brigade, with James Anderson nursing a bruised foot. Jones took four wickets in the first Test at Lord’s, and was arguably the pick of the England attack. He has been replaced by Martin Saggers, who played his first Test against Bangladesh last November.

George Headley and Michael Holding have been named among Jamaica’s five greatest cricketers of all time. The five players – Courtney Walsh, Lawrence Rowe and Jeff Dujon were the other three – were all honoured in the Scotiabank West Indian Cricket Jubilee function in Kingston.Headley, dubbed the Black Bradman because of his batting exploits, averaged 60.83 in the 22 Tests he played, with ten centuries. He was the first batsman to score a hundred in each innings of a Test at Lord’s, making 106 and 107 in 1939. Rowe, the only other batsman in the five-man list, finished with a modest average of just over 43, but began his Test career in sensational style, scoring 214 and 100 not out on debut against New Zealand at Kingston.Of the three others in the list, two are fast bowlers – Michael Holding, whose 60-Test career fetched him 249 wickets at less than 24 apiece, and Courtney Walsh, whose tally of 519 Test wickets was a record till Muttiah Muralitharan recently went past it. Dujon, who was the wicketkeeper in West Indies’ formidable line-up of the 1980s, scalped 272 victims from 81 matches, but made equally vital contributions in front of the wicket as well. He ended up with a batting average of less than 32, but in the early part of his career he was a huge asset at No. 7 – his highest score of 139 came at Perth against an Australian attack which included Geoff Lawson, Rodney Hogg, Terry Alderman and Carl Rackemann.Awards for best batting and bowling in a match were also handed out – Rowe’s 302 against England in Barbados in 1974 was adjudged the best batting performance, while Holding’s 14 for 149 against England at The Oval in 1976 won the corresponding award for bowling. Pattrick Patterson’s 6 for 29 against India at Nagpur in 1988 was named the best performance in a one-day international.Each West Indian territory will put forward a list of five players from the region, and the 30 players named will travel to Birmingham, where a special function will be held in July – when West Indies would be involved in a Test series in England – to name the five greatest West Indian cricketers.

ScorecardSri Lanka A trounced a strong Glamorgan outfit by 141 runs to record their fifth consecutive win of the tour. After winning the toss and opting to bat at Cardiff, Sri Lanka amassed 309 for 3, with Saman Jayantha following up his 147 against Worcestershire with an 83-ball 97. The middle order contributed handily too – Ian Daniel made 57 while Jehan Mubarak contributed an unbeaten 88. Glamorgan were never in the hunt, and folded up for just 168.The match also marked the returned of Simon Jones, who hadn’t played a first-class game since injuring his foot in the first Test against New Zealand in May. Despite returning modest figures – none for 67 from 10 overs – he bowled with good rhythm, and was unlucky to concede a number of runs by way of edges through the slips.The Sri Lankans have two more one-day matches scheduled – against Sussex and Kent – before playing a three-day match against the West Indians and two four-day games, against Glamorgan and Somerset.

In our globalised world we are not divided by international boundaries, but we are separated by language, which leads you to wonder just how Bob Woolmer and Inzamam-ul-Haq manage? At press conferences Woolmer fields the questions in English, followed by Inzamam who tackles the ones in Urdu.After Pakistan’s defeat of India I asked Woolmer why Pakistan were now more focused than a few months earlier against India. Woolmer diplomatically replied that he hadn’t been involved with the India series, so was unable to specify what had changed, but was satisfied with the commitment of his team. My attempts to subvert the process by asking Inzamam the same question in Urdu met a rather grumpy response. I was wrong, he suggested, to imply that Pakistan had found it hard to beat India in the home series and his team was as focused as ever.Inzamam, I’ve come to learn, is a man who defends his decisions and his behaviour as stoutly as he defends his wicket. This is an admirable trait in a captain – but so is a touch of contrition, and after the incredible decision to bat first at the Rose Bowl perhaps a spoonful of contrition would not have gone amiss.First, let’s be clear, there are certain signs that the team of Bob and Inzy is heading on an upward trajectory. Pakistan’s bowlers perform with a dash of discipline, the fielders have a swagger of professionalism, and the batsmen appear to have a plan. These developments are a miracle. But Pakistan cricket, and Bob and Inzy in particular, have much to consider, and the main points are these:

Handing someone an identity based on that of a predecessor is unfair, but Jacob Oram could easily belong to the Cairns clan. A rugged physique, wavy on top and an ability to muscle sixes were characteristics of both Lance and Chris Cairns, and Oram showed off the same qualities as he rescued New Zealand with a mature century.Chris Cairns walked out of Test cricket in England during the winter after 62 matches, leaving large openings with bat and ball. Oram is a gigantic 26-year-old allrounder with a still-growing reputation. Chosen to captain the touring side against New South Wales, he is someone to get excited about.Three sixes iced his innings as he celebrated his second hundred in his 16th Test. Two came off consecutive Michael Kasprowicz deliveries, while his pull over midwicket from Jason Gillespie was pure power. While they were blows that either Cairns could have claimed, Oram’s innings was more important for its poise than its power. “Circumstances dictated [the hitting],” he said. “Chris Cairns would have hit from ball one. Cairns is just an explosive player and can blow a game open in a session: as you saw with me it took about three sessions. I don’t see myself as a natural hitter.”Like his first century against South Africa last summer, Oram arrived at 5 for 138 with New Zealand in need of a push. Although they fulfilled their promise to take time over their runs, the batsmen’s inability to convert starts threatened to result in a small total. With Oram in charge he started steadily and steered them to a dreamy position with the help of an obliging tail.Twice before he had been stuck in the nineties, and the same was expected as the rabbit Chris Martin strolled out. “I’ve got to be honest, I got a little bit nervous then,” he said. Touch and placement were responsible for him moving to three figures as Ricky Ponting scattered his fielders around the boundary.”This century means a lot more to me that my first,” he said. “Today there were a lot of factors: Australia are the best team in the world, it was the first Test of the series, the first innings of the series for me, and when I went in we were in a spot of bother.” Oram’s parents were in the stands, and he celebrated with a look to the sky to remember his grandfather, who died of cancer three months ago.As his innings progressed, Oram was unmoved by numerous disruptive tactics, including two short balls from Shane Warne. It was easy to see why he has been mooted as an eventual replacement for Stephen Fleming. “I have seen Warne on TV bowling bouncers so I knew it was in his repertoire,” said Oram, “but I didn’t see the first one and it nearly hit me on the head.”One aspect where Oram is unlikely to match Cairns is with his bowling, which is more stock than strike. A batsman who added medium-pace to his resume four years ago, he took at least one wicket in his first 12 Test innings, and claimed Sachin Tendulkar on debut in 2002. He will do hours of unfashionable work at around 130kph, but he can make the ball rise sharply, and surprised both Ponting and Damien Martyn.Oram doesn’t like or believe the comparisons with Cairns, but they are inevitable. More performances like today’s will help forge an identity away from the father and son.Peter English is Australasian editor of Wisden Cricinfo.