STEVE Massiah made his United States debut with a rapid century against a Minor Counties XI at Stone in Staffordshire in 2000 before climbing the ladder to the captaincy. So this week's news of his arrest and charge in New York with an alleged £32,000 mortgage fraud has stunned the American cricket community.

Massiah, 32, was one of three men accused of defrauding banks and mortgage companies through loan applications. An alleged co-conspirator was Ed Ahmad, a cricket enthusiast who sponsored the Ed Ahmad Caribbean Cup, New York's premier tournament for four years to 2008. The Minor Counties XI, captained by Bryan Jones, would remember Massiah very well, as the former Guyana Under-19 batsman smashed a defiant 116 in 105 balls in a seven-run defeat at Stone. He could now miss the United States attempt to qualify for the World Twenty20 in Arab Emirates next March.

It is more than four years since the former England batsman Wayne Larkins was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence at Taunton Crown Court for his part in a £155,000 mortgage fraud involving the purchase of a holiday home in France.

FORMER England captains Nasser Hussain and Graham Gooch are to appear in an Indian-made film with a cricket background due for release this week as the 2011 World Cup approaches.

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ANOTHER cricket club has had its pavilion seriously damaged by fire, with arson being suspected. Riddlesden CC, in Bradford, face the prospect of rebuilding after Keighley and Bingley fire fighters fought a blaze for an hour on Monday mornin.

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A YOUNG club cricketer was found hanging from a tree in Sheffield early on Saturday morning on Sept 18 after his best season with the bat for Bawtry.

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THE Essex club Orsett has had its pitches spoilt by holes dug with garden tools probably stolen from a nearby school shed, the Thurrock Gazette has reported.

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THE cricket square of a club in Northern Ireland has been destroyed by vandals with dire financial consequences. Limavady CC, in County Londonderry, will be unable to host matches this summer after weedkiller was poured on to their pitches, killing all the grass.

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THE Gloucestershire and former England seam-bowler Jon Lewis has criticised in a radio interview the "madness" of the structure of the FP Twenty20 competition this summer.

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INTERPOL, the international policing organisation, have offered to help the ICC by taking steps to prevent organised crime from infiltrating cricket. This follows hard on the warning by the ECB this week that the domestic game in England remains vulnerable to corruption.

A cold draught has been blowing into the game since the Pakistan corruption case at Southwark Crown Court in November, when one half-expected giant screens to flash up "guilty" like a third umpire's verdict. Reality is very much upon us.

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THE Sussex captain Michael Yardy has disclosed he has been suffering from depression, a condition that led to his withdrawal from England's World Cup campaign before the quarter-final against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

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THE Skipton brewery Copper Dragon are producing another real ale brand with a cricket theme to build on the popularity of Fred Trueman Ale, named in the memory of the England fast bowler and launched a year ago in the north and midlands.

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THE futility of Ricky Ponting's argument with the umpires on the second day of the fourth Test in Melbourne was clear. Australia's captain did not seem to know that the burden of proof rested with the referring party for the third umpire to overturn an on-field decison.

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THE difference between the two Ashes sides was never as wide as the chasm suggested by Australia's trouncing at Adelaide. In the Pom euphoria it was forgotten that England's suspect batting had flopped in the opening Test at Brisbane in the crucial first innings.

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ENGLAND have announced a Lions party to tour the West Indies for two months as part of the first class championship after a gap of exactly 10 years, when Peter Moores was the coach.

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THERE is nothing that legislation or equipment can do to prevent serious accidents in the deep field. Kyle Wilson has become the latest player to suffer at first class level, breaking his leg during a one-day match in Johannesburg.

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AN anonymous buyer has paid a stunning £151,250 for a single edition of William Epps’s Cricket. A Collection of All the Grand Matches played in England from 1771 to 1791 . The price, a record for one cricket book, more than doubled the experts' prediction when the tome was auctioned at Christie's on November 17.

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