With the storm of the contracts crisis still hanging over the heads of the Indian cricketers, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced that the national selection committee has selected the Indian squad of 15 to travel to South Africa for the World Cup in February 2003.The talking point was the omission of VVS Laxman, who was replaced by Dinesh Mongia. This comes in the wake of widespread speculation that Mongia would in fact pip Laxman at the post for a place, thanks to his sharper skills in the field. Mongia was not selected in the 16-member squad that is currently playing a seven-match one-day series in New Zealand.Laxman has scored 1240 runs at an average of just 27.55 in the 50 one-dayers he has played so far, scoring just one century. His strike rate, a mere 67.02 runs per hundred balls, has also gone against him.As expected, young stumper Parthiv Patel has been selected as wicket-keeping cover for Rahul Dravid, who is expected to don the gloves in a majority of the games to enable the team to field an extra bowler or batsman as required. Dravid had a disappointing game behind the stumps against New Zealand at Napier recently and the selectors would have taken this into consideration in naming Patel as a reserve stumper.Veteran campaigners Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath will also heave a sigh of relief when they find their names on the list of 15 for the World Cup.However, none of these players has signed the Participating Nations Agreement (PNA) and cannot take part in the World Cup unless they do so within the stipulated time limit. If any player fails to sign the agreement, the selectors will be forced to name a replacement.Squad: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif.

Coach of the West Indies cricket team, Roger Harper is confident that his charges can go very far in the upcoming 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.Speaking during a press conference earlier today, Harper said that “once the team played consistent cricket throughout the World Cup campaign” that the West Indies “can go very far.”

As for his expectations for the West Indies team, Harper said that they were going to “take it one game at a time,” and that “the West Indies can beat any team on any given day.”Asked whether the inclusion of Brian Lara, who was absent from the recent tour of India and subsequent tour of Bangladesh, would upset the chemistry of the team, Harper said that “Brian will boost the performance of the team.” Harper expressed his satisfaction with the way the camp has been going and would like his players to remain focussed ahead of the biggest competition of their sport — the ICC Cricket World Cup.Meanwhile, trainer Ronald Rogers said that the past week was spent on strength, endurance, flexibility, speed and agility. He emphasized the need for all the players to be in peek physical condition ahead of, and during the World Cup. Rogers said that all the players cleared physicals following the Christmas break.Ricky Skerritt, manager of the West Indies cricket team was also in attendance and he too expressed his satisfaction with the way the preparatory camp was going. Skerritt said that the focus of the camp was to achieve optimum fitness and to enhance the players’ performances.Two warm-up day/night matches have been arranged for the team ahead of the departure from the Caribbean. The first match will be played on Thursday, 23rd January, while the other will be played on Sunday, 26th January, 2003. Both matches will be played at the Stanford Cricket Grounds and begin at 2:00pm. Two other warm-up matches have been arranged for the team in South Africa — both against First Class oppositions.

PORT ELIZABETH – A reversion to the old, annoying carelessness they had seemingly expunged cost West Indies a guaranteed place in the World Cup’s Super Six round yesterday and presented New Zealand with a lifeline to remain in the tournament.They were beaten by 20 runs by opponents whose spirit, intensity and athleticism they were unable to match or contain.The fervour of New Zealand’s effort was personified by an ebullient all-rounder who, but for his parents’ wanderlust, might have been on the West Indies side.Andre Adams, born in Auckland of a Vincentian father and Guyanese mother 27 years ago, thumped two sixes in an unbeaten 35 off 24 balls in a final flourish that brought New Zealand 53 decisive runs off 43 balls in partnership with wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum.It pushed their 50-overs total to 241 for seven after Carl Hooper sent them in, and it was always going to be enough once West Indies lost five wickets for 12 from 30 balls in half-hour of rank slackness that left them 46 for five.His batting mayhem over, Adams returned with his energetic medium-pace to share the new ball with the fiery Shane Bond and, after a pounding of three consecutive fours in his fourth over from Chris Gayle, claimed three of the wickets in the top-order meltdown.As Ramnaresh Sarwan, calm and collected, mounted a recovery from the despair of 46 for five in the 15th over, briefly with Ricardo Powell and then for 33.2 overs in a stand of 97 with the doughty Ridley Jacobs, Adams was one of the standouts in his team’s dazzling exhibition of fielding.Identified afterwards by captain Stephen Fleming as the difference between the teams, it accounted for the prized wicket of Brian Lara off his fourth ball and prevented a host of boundaries with acrobatic saves.The New Zealanders, their effort concentrated by the certainty of an exit ticket defeat would bring, never allowed Sarwan and Jacobs to convert their consolidation into acceleration.The game was up when Sarwan was bowled by left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori for 75 (seven fours, 98 balls) half-way through the 44th over with 63 still required.Jacobs followed 13 runs later, snared for 50 (one six, three fours, 73 balls) by Jacob Oram’s spectacular, diving catch at third man.Nixon McLean’s miserable return to international cricket was quickly ended by a farcical run out, and Adams appropriately completed New Zealand’s triumph with his fourth wicket, bowling Merv Dillon with the second ball of the final over.Beaten by Sri Lanka in their opening match and told, by their national board, to stay away from next week’s scheduled match against Kenya in Nairobi because of documented threats of terrorism, the New Zealanders would have been effectively eliminated by another loss.It would have ensured West Indies their passage without having the worry of a slip-up against any of the minor sides, Bangladesh, Canada and Kenya, or the more daunting Test against Sri Lanka."This is a huge relief," Fleming said afterwards."The tension and anxiety was visibly showing and it was very much a case of hanging tough."Hooper, as he would, rejected the notion of complacency as a factor in the loss. But there is a fine line between complacency and the wastefulness clearly evident in a crucial missed catch and in early batting.New Zealand’s total was an unsatisfactory 213 for seven in the 46th over when Adams hoisted Chris Gayle for a six over long-on one ball, and the next high to square-leg. Marlon Samuels, on as substitute for Dillon, approached the swirling catch in his typically casual way – and it spilled from both hands.The miss cost a further 28 as Adams and McCallum took 23 off Gayle’s final two overs. In the end, it amounted to the margin of defeat.It was no wonder Fleming credited the victory mainly to fielding.Nothing was more brilliant or critical than the run out of Lara.The linchpin of the West Indies batting, primed for commanding centre stage by his 116 in Sunday’s stunning win over South Africa, eased Adams off his legs towards the mid-wicket boundary and completed two to get off the mark.As he turned for a third, Lou Vincent slid, picked up the ball and, in a tactic diligently practiced by the New Zealanders, rapidly relayed it 20 yards away to Chris Cairns. His throw was fast and deadly accurate, shattering the one stump at which he had to aim with Lara a yard short of his crease.Minutes earlier, West Indies were getting into stride as Gayle and Wavell Hinds, the unlikely bowling champion earlier, put on 34 in 9.2 overs.Suddenly, Gayle slashed Adams to slip, Lara was run out, Hinds precisely picked out short extra-cover and Hooper, as he has so often down, hooked into long-leg’s lap, both off Adams.When Shivnarine Chanderpaul was lbw to the giant medium-pacer Jacob Oram four balls later, West Indies were 46 for five and, in spite of Sarwan’s calm orthodoxy and his partnership with Jacobs, the required rate gradually mounted to more than ten an over.But they were kept in check by the gravity of the situation, tight bowling and, above all, the sensational fielding.

JOHANNESBURG-Disappointing in the extreme as it was, the defeat against India at Centurion on Saturday is just the latest of setbacks for Pakistan. Having lost all three of their important games, they flew off to Bulawayo with long faces Sunday morning, hoping to muster a huge win against Zimbabwe to somehow grab the last Super Sixes slot from Group A.Leaving it to the last, and then qualifying through the net-run rate was what captain Waqar Younis eschewed. He did want to make it to the Super Sixes fair and square, all wrapped in glory by beating India after lacklustre displays against Australia and England. But making it through the `back door’ (as Waqar had described it before the Indian encounter), howsoever less palatable, is the only option left open to him now.And that too, if Australia retains its exalted status as the only team unbeaten so far in this World Cup against England on Sunday. When one wrote these lines, the match was on, and England after a bright start had faltered to 170-odd for six with seven overs remaining.So Australia was on course to full 24 points, and India was right behind them at 20 – both having made it to the next round. The scramble was now between England, Zimbabwe and Pakistan – the first two with 12 points, with Pakistan at eight.But victory against Zimbabwe, and four points emanating from it, would make it likely for Pakistan to edge the other contestants out. More so as Pakistan’s last game of the pool, would allow them to know exactly what was required while batting and bowling. But whether this Pakistan outfit is capable of achieving precise results is a point of conjecture.The ability surely is there – it is the execution and the mindset to perform against the odds which is in question.Only about four months ago, Pakistan had blanked Zimbabwe in all five games there, scoring above 300 runs in three matches. Though they would hope to put up a similarly emphatic performance in their last league game, who knows what is in store for them now. That series in any case seems to have taken place ages ago.Since then Pakistan has under-performed like never before, losing seven of their 10 matches. What is worse, their performance against minnows Namibia and Canada too has been at best scrappy, in one department or another. For instance, even Zimbabwe managed well over 300 runs against Namibia and Netherlands, while Pakistan could only make 250-odd apiece against both. Then the bowling has allowed the opposition off the hook on all occasions except India – when it received a spanking from the word go, allowing India to more or less finish the game by the 12th over by conceding 100 runs. Waqar had a two-wicket burst, and Afridi and Akhtar got a wicket apiece, but by then the horses had already bolted.The defeat against India has made one thing quite evident: Pakistan badly requires rethinking and regrouping. That is if they want to salvage a measure of pride, and go any further than the Super Sixes, if they reach there at all, that too with points in the bank against other qualifiers showing a blob.Coming back to the match against India, there is no denying that Sachin Tendulkar was in sublime form. But the fact of the matter is that the Pakistani bowlers bowled to his strengths, feeding him short and wide ball on both sides of the stumps and a string of half volleys. The Shoaib Akhtar delivery that bowled Tendulkar was the only one that ripped into his body, and the bowler was instantly rewarded with the wicket. Virender Sehwag has a known weakness against deliveries rearing off a length and aiming towards his rib cage. He didn’t get any until Waqar got lucky with him as he slashed on yet another wide one.That Waqar and Akhtar bowled poorly was understandable, but Akram, though he was more economical than the above mentioned duo, bowling with such singular lack of discipline was mind-boggling.Not that his admission is any consolation, but Waqar later admitted that the bowlers didn’t bowl according to the plan. For one over or two, that is understandable, but for the entire first half of the match? And what good is a plan that is forgotten the moment your key bowlers, the so-called match-winners, step on to the field.So far, there seemed to be little method in what Pakistan has done in this World Cup. There have been some individual performances that have stood out, none more than Saeed Anwar’s remarkable ton against India. But Pakistan has filed to fire as a team, in every department of the game.They need to get their act together to sustain them from now on. But would they?

New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre turf manager Karl Johnson is to spend a week in India looking to assist with pitch development at a cricket academy in Pune.The trip has been arranged with former New Zealand team coach David Trist who does coaching work at the academy.Johnson, who looks after three grounds and two lots of practice facilities at the New Zealand Cricket complex at Lincoln University, is having a look at what the Indians want to do at the ground and assessing what can be done to help.”What they want to do is create more pace and bounce in their pitches and I’m going to have a look to see what we can do to help.”There are a whole lot of things to look at: the local soils, the weather, the heat, the grasses and the pitch preparation they do to name a few,” he said.Johnson said there is the possibility of an ongoing relationship with the Pune academy and, given the state of pitches in New Zealand this summer for the New Zealand-India series he said he is looking forward to discussing New Zealand pitches with the Indians.He has also been liaising with the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute which has done work in India in the past.

Adaptability has become a byword for New Zealand teams over the last 10 years, and it will be required again of the side captain Stephen Fleming leads into the first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo.For a country, headed only by Zimbabwe as the least-resourced in terms of player numbers in the cricket world, New Zealand have had to demonstrate their quick-fix, or in the local vernacular, their No 8 wire mentality where doing things on the cheap has become an art form, time and again.Injuries hit a country like New Zealand hard. When they involve key players, they are a double loss – not only for their own value for their contribution of skill and experience but also because their replacements tend to be still finding their feet while attempting to learn their craft at international level.The absence of key players has been probably the one constant in Fleming’s 49-Test career as captain.He’s learned how to cope and even if he doesn’t enjoy not having his first choice firepower to call on, he at least understands the problems his newer charges are having.So it is again, as New Zealand go into a match, in the tough conditions expected in Sri Lanka at this time of year, without Chris Cairns, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan – only the latter missing on matters of form rather than injury.For all that, the use of stand-ins over the years has given New Zealand a wider pool of players to have at least experienced more than a few Tests, and it is drawing on this resource to get results that will determine the fate of Fleming’s men in this series.In all respects, runs are the greatest requirement, and they have been the most inconsistent aspect of New Zealand’s play throughout their Test history.Nothing has changed. Fleming needs to continue on the scoring spate that has marked his play of the past summer. Mark Richardson needs to maintain his Test average of 47.17, if not improve on it. Matt Horne needs to regain the touch of a few years ago when at least one century a Test series was not too much to ask. Mathew Sinclair needs to remind his side’s supporters why he has scored two double centuries in Tests.To do that in Sri Lanka means coming to grips with spin challenge that will be mounted by the home team with Muttiah Muralitharan leading the way. In recent times, New Zealand have done better against spin bowling than might earlier have been the case in its history. Doing it again will be a key again this time around.The bowling attack is possibly stronger than has been fielded in Sri Lanka since the days of Richard Hadlee and his supporting metronome in Ewen Chatfield.Shane Bond gives Fleming an artillery barrage considerably more powerful than in recent times. Whether Ian Butler gets the chance to support him, and to build on his still developing international stature, will be determined on the choice of bowling attack for the match.It is certain that Daryl Tuffey will open with Bond, and probably fit more into the support-type role for the fast man that was so successful for Hadlee and Chatfield.Daniel Vettori has already shown his appetite for the action that will make his tour and he should offer New Zealand the chance to at least gain some semblance of parity in the spin-bowling stakes.Paul Wiseman may partner him with his off-spin if Butler is not chosen. Should Wiseman get his chance, it may well be a career-defining opportunity for him.The New Zealanders know they are unfashionable on the world Test front, and they know their status as third-ranked side on the International Cricket Council Test Championship table is under-rated by many.Fleming is especially conscious of this. But at the same time, he knows New Zealand have gained results worthy of that standing. They have been unbeaten in a Test series in Australia, they have beaten the West Indies away, they have beaten England and Zimbawe away. They have beaten India and the West Indies at home and they have shared series with England and Pakistan at home.If they can win the first Test of this series, they will have enhanced their position on the Test ladder.Most countries would be fearing the worst with players like Cairns, Astle and McMillan missing, but New Zealand go into the first Test far from an already beaten unit.

Alec Stewart has criticised the decision to allow county teams to pick two overseas players each, saying that England’s chances of international success had been damaged”We’ve got two top-class overseas internationals at Surrey this year in [Pakistanis] Azhar Mahmood and Saqlain Mushtaq,” Stewart told Monday’s edition of the London Evening Standard. “But for the good of English cricket I would like only one per team, especially when you consider some counties already have several players who can earn a living here because they hold European passports but are noteligible for our England teams.”Stewart, England’s most-capped player in both Test (126 matches) andone-day internationals (170 matches), said the situation had changedradically since he was a young player at The Oval, 22 seasons ago.”When I started out, counties could have two overseas players. But we’re talking about some of the greats, such as Malcolm Marshall and Gordon Greenidge at Hampshire and Viv Richards and Joel Garner with Somerset. Now there are not 36 top-class star players available to the 18 counties because of the amount of international cricket being played around the world all year round.””So people are simply signing players for the sake of signing them. What they should be saying is `let’s get the best available and then try to turn a promising English player into a very good player’. We are the only country that imports really. All I want is for us to be the best and I don’t think we should be helping other countries too much atour expense.”Stewart’s England place has been up for discussion ahead of next week’sfirst Test against Zimbabwe at Lord’s. Some pundits have suggested that now is the moment to end Stewart’s long international career, with Chris Read and James Foster the favourites to take his place.But Stewart is well-used to being written off: “England should now look to the future for the one-dayers. But as for the Tests, pick me.”The squad is due to be announced on Saturday.

Imraan Khan, an allrounder of Indian origin who plays for KwaZulu-Natal, will captain South Africa’s under-19 team on their tour of England next month.Imraan, who is yet to play a first-class fixture, averages 19 with the bat in four limited-overs matches for his province. His record as an offbreak bowler is equally sketchy, with only one wicket to his name.”It’s going be a tough tour, but with the solid preparations we have had I think when we get there our guys will be ready for the battle.”Imraan, currently a student of media studies at the University of South Africa, was a member of the under-19 squad during the World Cup in New Zealand last year. South Africa lost to Australia in the final, and Imraan collected 10 runs from three innings and four wickets from five matches.

Much as Bangladesh would prefer it otherwise, the attention of the cricket world is going to be focussed on their performance against Australia for all the wrong reasons, when the first Test begins at Darwin tomorrow.Questions like “How quickly can Australia win?” and “What records will they break?” are generating the only interest in this out-of-season fixture in Australia’s far north. The world’s newest Test venue – cricket’s 89th, and only the 11th to acquire first-class status with a Test – is going to be the scene for the most searching study yet of Bangladesh’s membership into the game’s elite club.It would hence be of little comfort that the pitch for the game will be different in nature to the one on which Bangladesh beat the region’s Chief Minister’s XI last weekend. That was a low and slow pitch of sandy nature, but the portable pitch that has been dropped into the middle of the Marrara Oval has a concrete base and is made of local clay.The only possible impediment – and a remote one at that – to a dominating Australian performance will be the fact that the home players have not had the benefit of recent play in their preparation for the match. But it was only six weeks ago that they were in the West Indies, so technique and confidence should not have evaporated in that time, especially in an outfit as competitive as Australia have consistently shown themselves to be.The match is just reward for the long-serving administrators of the Northern Territory, who would never have dreamed that they would be hosting a Test match, let alone the agreed four in the next five years. NT chief executive Jim Ford said that Bangladesh’s participation in Darwin’s first Test had not precluded keen interest in the game. The locals will get a chance to be part of history by attending the match and seeing their own team in the flesh.Ford confidently expects that the audience numbers on Friday or Saturday will give the ground capacity of 13,000 a nudge. “Our administrators started out wanting to foster this part of the world as a winter haven for cricket. We have hosted pre-season camps and have had New Zealand’s team and the Academy side here, and that has helped promote awareness of us and what we have to offer. The ground is looking an absolute treat and there will be quite a carnival atmosphere,” he said.It’s the last week of school holidays, and local schoolchildren and cricket fans have been making good use of the Australian team being in town at a variety of functions that have been taking place.Having already admitted that they might struggle to focus to perform against Bangladesh, it is not hard to imagine the effort that has been going into preparation by coach John Buchanan and captain Steve Waugh. For those players who need a focus, there are some individual milestones worth keeping in mind.Adam Gilchrist is sitting on 2897 runs, at 59.12, and 183 dismissals. Matthew Hayden is set to crack the 3500 mark on 3475. Ricky Ponting, on 4787, has a chance to go past 5000 in the series, while Waugh’s accumulation of runs beyond his 10,265 will give him a shot at getting his average back over 50 and his total nearer Allan Border’s world record mark of 11,174. If he reaches three figures, Waugh will also have scored a century against every Test-playing nation.Apart from the vast reserves of experience the Australians can call on, the Bangladesh’s biggest problem will be that which has dogged their tenure in international cricket – a lack of application. With a background of poor exposure to first-class cricket, the tourists struggle to withstand the pressures of international play for long periods. It would surprise no-one if they struggle even more in Australia, playing as they will be under the shadow of being the weaker team in what is being called the biggest mismatch in Test cricket history.Teams:Australia (from): 1 Steve Waugh (capt), 2 Ricky Ponting, 3 Andy Bichel, 4 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 5 Jason Gillespie, 6 Matthew Hayden, 7 Brad Hogg, 8 Justin Langer, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Darren Lehmann, 11 Martin Love, 12 Stuart MacGill, 13 Glenn McGrathBangladesh (from): Khaled Mahmud (capt), Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique, Hannan Sarker, Mohammad Ashraful, Al-Sahariar, Manjural Islam, Alok Kapali, Sanwar Hossain, Tareq Aziz, Tapash Baisya, Anwar Hossain Monir, Mashrafe MortazaUmpires: Rudi Koertzen, David Shepherd, Simon Taufel (3rd), Steve Davis (4th)Match referee: Mike Procter

The Lord’s Taverners, cricket’s official charity, officially launchedtheir 50th Anniversary Coaching Scheme in London today.The project is designed to support and improve the quality and deliveryof coaching throughout the game, particularly at grass-roots level, andinvolves sending qualified coaches on overseas scholarships, under theauspices of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), to study coachingmethods and delivery. Lessons learnt overseas are then fed back into thecoaching system in this country, to the benefit of youth cricket and thegame as a whole.Funding for the scheme comes from a special grant of £240,000 earmarkedfrom the Taverners’ successful 50th-anniversary fundraising efforts in2000. Some £50,000 of this has already been spent, on sending four coachscholars to Australia and New Zealand last winter.Over the next three years further scholars will visit India, Sri Lankaand South Africa to study their coaching methods. Another will visit theUSA to study coaching in baseball. And a parallel review of the impactof this programme on coaching practice in this country will be conductedin conjunction with the ECB.Tim Lamb, the ECB’s chief executive, said: “This is a fantasticinitiative by the Lord’s Taverners. The scholarship programme and thelessons learnt from it should have a major impact on our coachingpractice at the grass roots of the game and more widely. The bestcoaching at grass-roots level is an essential prerequisite to asuccessful England team.”And Richard Stilgoe, the president of the Lord’s Taverners, added: “Ourefforts to encourage young people to play in teams rather than in gangswill be complemented by this innovative programme. Coaching needs to befun as well as well structured, and I am sure that thousands of kids inyears to come will be the better for this initiative.”The Lord’s Taverners is a celebrity sporting club and charity, whosestated objective is to “give young people, particularly those withspecial needs, a sporting chance” by providing incentives to playcricket in schools and clubs, enabling young people with special needsto participate in sporting activities, supplying minibuses to specialneeds organisations, and creating recreational facilities in conjunctionwith the National Playing Fields’ Association.