Surrey's Australian manager says: ``I find it quite difficult to believe that under-19 cricket takes preference over first-class cricket. People come at you with all this bull about playing for your country but that carries no weight with me.
``It's fine if it doesn't interfere with first-class cricket. First-class cricket is in the annals of history . . . under-19 cricket will come and go with the tide and is soon forgotten.''
Surrey stand to lose Ben Hollioake and Alex Tudor - though the county are not involved in the set of championship games which coincide with the one-dayers - and there is more widespread concern about the disruption which will be caused by selection for the three four-day Tests.
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THE chairman of the William Younger North Lancashire League has resigned after admitting that he got a Pakistani to play for his club, Furness, despite being aware that he did not have a work permit.
Robin Dunn, the chairman of Furness, originally denied to a disciplinary meeting that he knew Pervez Shah was ineligible. The club were fined £200.
Dunn says he was subjected to abusive telephone calls at work and at home about what became known locally as ``Shahgate'' before coming clean and submitting his resignation in a letter to the league's management committee.
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GLAMORGAN may lose first place in the championship as a result of their absence from the current round of championship games, but they are certain to remain top of the lunch table as far as the Australians are concerned.
The touring side's management were so impressed by the Cardiff fare during the match which finished yesterday that they photographed some of the culinary gems and they will be relayed back to the team's dietician in Australia as an example of what can be achieved in the field of healthy eating.
County caterers have been given a breakdown of requirements - low fat, high fibre and not a chip in sight.
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THERE will be an engaging symmetry as 66-year-old Jim Parks makes his final appearance on a cricket field next month.
Parks, who retires as Sussex's marketing manager at the end of the season, will turn out for an Old England XI at Haywards Heath, who are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. It will also be 50 years since Parks played his first match for the club in the long hot summer of 1947.
The Parks family are very much linked with the history of Haywards Heath. Grandfather Charlie, Jim snr (the only man to score 3,000 runs and take 100 wickets in a season) and two uncles all preceded Jim jnr into the side.
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THE suspicion that Kent have developed an uncanny talent for extracting themselves from sizeable holes this season is borne out by the figures. In the 14 championship innings in which they have lost nine or all 10 wickets, the second five have outscored the first five on nine occasions.
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A TRIPLE hundred by Marcus Trescothick left Somerset 2nd XI just seven runs short of an improbable victory target of 612 against Warwickshire yesterday. Trescothick made 322, including 54 fours and three sixes, before being the last Somerset man to go . . .run out.
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