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We meet once or twice a year for drinks.'Mr Portillo's leaked letter, sent when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury before last month's reshuffle, gave Mr Heseltine a dressing-down for failing to consider big cuts in his review of expenditure. The tone in which Mr Portillo lectured his more senior colleague surprised politicians. In a fiercely ideological letter he wrote: 'Nowhere in your department's report is it suggested that the best help we can give business is to get taxes down or to control public spending.'The Treasury has set up an inquiry into the leak. But neither man will be damaged in the eyes of his supporters: Mr Portillo, darling of the Thatcherite right, is happy to look tough on public spending, while Mr Heseltine likes to be seen as the champion of government help for industry. Some will see the meeting as evidence of links between the men, both potential contenders in any battle to succeed Mr Major.It is unclear whether Mr Heseltine knew of the meeting, although he is aware that Mr Portillo and Ms Caines see each other socially.(Photograph omitted). CRICKET'S ruling body has called in a scientist from Nasa, the American space agency, to help resolve the game's ball-tampering controversy. Professor Rabi Mehta, an aerodynamics expert based at a Nasa research centre in Stanford, California, met officials at Lord's for four hours last week, discussing possible changes to cricket's laws. During the First Test against South Africa at Lord's, Michael Atherton, the England captain, was filmed taking his hand out of his pocket and then rubbing the ball.Atherton later admitted that he had dirt in his pocket but the match referee said the laws had not been broken.Professor Mehta talked to Alan Smith, the Test and County Cricket Board's chief executive, and Ossie Wheatley, who is the chairman of the cricket committee.He explained the scientific principles that would allow bowlers to make a cricket ball swing by altering its surface.'It probably would be helpful to everyone to have the rules more tightly defined,' Mr Wheatley said after the meeting.

'You have to be very precise in how you frame the laws now because players go right up to the line.'Professor Mehta - who used to open the bowling with Imran Khan for the Royal Grammar School in Worcester - gave a warning that bowlers have yet to learn fully how to exploit ball-tampering.'There are more forms of ball-tampering than most bowlers dream of,' he said. 'Some of it is virtually undetectable.'For example, a bowler can gain considerable advantage by sticking dirt or sawdust to one side of the ball - but the evidence of tampering would disappear as soon as the ball hit a bat or a wicket.The present rules restrict alterations to the seam of the ball, but not to the rest of the surface.'One could be more specific in saying scratching is not allowed,' Mr Wheatley said.He added that, if ball-tampering spread, the balance of power in the game would shift decisively against batsmen, reducing scores and shortening matches 'The governing bodies have to be absolutely clear. Five-day Test matches could become three-day Test matches.'The Atherton affair is only the latest in several ball-tampering controversies that have hit cricket.Several former professional players have admitted using objects such as bottle-tops to roughen the surface of the ball.A guide to swing, page 19Headingley Test, Sport. THE NAME of Tom Chandos is better known in the world of merchant banking than in politics.

In the early 1980s, however, this hereditary peer enjoyed a fleeting moment of fame by becoming the first member of the House of Lords to join Roy Jenkins' Social Democratic Party. This weekend, Lord Chandos is at his Hampshire home pondering another portentous move. He is planning a letter to the Labour Party's Chief Whip in the Lords, which will ask if he can serve Tony Blair's new-look party. As in the 1980s, he may not be the only one - politician or voter - who is thinking such thoughts. For in the past couple of months, while all eyes have been on Labour's election contest and on the Cabinet reshuffle, a minor earthquake has shaken the political centre ground.

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