Cricket: Middlesex captain to step aside for good of team

MARK RAMPRAKASH has announced he will be standing down as captain of Middlesex at the end of this campaign. Next season will be his benefit year and he says he wants to step back into the ranks in the interests of the club.

Ramprakash, omitted from the England side to tour South Africa this winter, believes a captain should be appointed who will have more time to devote to the team effort.

"Middlesex are a very young side who require total commitment to their development," Ramprakash said on the county's website. "At the present time I believe that someone who can dedicate themselves 100 per cent to the club captaincy is the right way forward. Captaining the club has been a great honour, and I very much hope I can be considered for the position at some stage in the future."

An umpire for the final of last week's Singapore International Challenge between India and West Indies was contacted before the game in an apparent attempt at match-fixing. The United Cricket Board of South Africa's managing director, Ali Bacher, said yesterday that the umpire Rudi Koertzen had been approached on the eve of the final. "He was called by somebody who said he wanted to meet him and that he was a bookmaker," Bacher said. "He got such a fright that he hung up on the man immediately. He immediately reported the matter to [chief executive] David Richards at the ICC [International Cricket Council]."

The revelations follow claims that there was an attempt to influence the result of the recent third Test between England and New Zealand. West Indies won the Singapore final by four wickets.

Chris Schofield, the 20-year-old Lancashire spin bowler selected for England A's winter tour, has been fined pounds 100 for abusing an umpire and warned about his future conduct by a central Lancashire league disciplinary hearing.