The reactions to Dean Jones’s ‘terrorist’ remark towards Hashim Amla have come thick and fast not only from South African fans, but from the commentators’ box as well. Various experts and media personalities – including former cricketers – agreed that commentators must always be accountable for their comments.Harsha Bhogle, a prominent broadcaster with ESPN Star Sports, pointed out that commentators have to always be on their guard. “We work in a news room or commentary box, so we have to be careful of what we say,” he told . “You have to assume that the microphone is always on. There will be some network somewhere who will be on live even when there is a break. We have directorial microphones too, so we have to be very careful. Sometimes producers do tell us that it is leaking, be careful. I have made up my mind not to swear even when not on air.”Syed Saba Karim, the former Indian wicketkeeper-turned-commentator, did not condone Jones but believed it could have been an honest mistake. “We do chat off camera and off air but I have never experienced anything like this. Nowadays with the ICC being strict with what comes on air, strong action has already taken place,” he said. “Dean Jones is popular with so many cricketers, maybe it came out inadvertently. He must be given a chance to explain his stand.”Madan Lal, the former Indian allrounder, termed it a mistake that could have been avoided. “You have to take precautions while you are on air,” he stated. “You should make no personal comments, especially against religion. Producers anyway warn us from making comments against individuals. I haven’t made or heard such remarks from my co-commentators. However, mistakes do happen and some pay a big price for it, like Jones.”Similiarly, Arun Lal, the former Indian batsman and prominent commentator, maintained that it was a bad mistake. “It’s a very unfortunate incident. Just one of those things, when he has probably tried to sound witty. Knowing the gentleman I am sure he did not mean it. It was just a mistake, nothing else. An apology would have been fine, because as a sportsman you never in indulge in racism. I am sure Deano himself would have been embarrassed with what has happened.”There were others who saw the incident as more than a goof-up. Kirti Azad, the former Indian offspinner, called it “derogatory” and far from a joke. “Jones has been tarnished forever, now no channel would want his services,” he said. Vijay Amritraj, the former Indian tennis player who has been a commentator for various channels, said it was up to the individual to be careful. “Such kind of comments and remarks cannot be allowed for commentators and there is no way what Jones said can be condoned,” he said. “But every individual has a standard of ethics and it is up to every channel to decide one for itself. I do not think that there is any need for a code of conduct in this regard.”
Two sensational hundreds, two sensational balls, and a thoroughly ruthless and professional performance helped Australia assume control on the second day of the first Test at Bangalore. With their miracle workers gone, India found themselves staring at defeat, 324 runs behind with only four wickets left.It was a perfect day for Australia. Adam Gilchrist andMichael Clarke dominated the first three hours withsparkling footwork and spanking drives, and then theirbowlers coaxed life out of what had seemed afeatherbed pitch till then. Glenn McGrath showed whatAustralia had missed during their home series lastyear by winkling out two wickets in his first twoovers and Michael Kasprowicz, who won Australia aTest at this ground in 1998, showed how to bowl on aslow pitch by striking two vital blows after India hadsteadied themselves through an enterprisingpartnership between Virender Sehwag and SouravGanguly. Shane Warne then capped a great day for Australia by claiming VVS Laxman with a ball he willcherish: it drifted in, pitched on a perfect spot onleg, and beat Laxman’s prodding bat with sharp turn tohit off.The hope for India lay in an early breakthrough – but itdidn’t come until the last ball before lunch. In thosetwo hours, Gilchrist left the Indian spinners cluelessas he struck a fine balance between caution andattack. He scored quickly, but differently to his usual approach, choosingto go down the ground instead of behind square ashas been his custom. He carted bothAnil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh straight for sixes intheir first overs, and then opened up the field and pushedaround for easy runs. All through the morning, theIndians posted two men on the fence for thesweep, but unlike Matthew Hayden yesterday, Gilchrist didn’tfall for the trap.His first sweep didn’t come until he had 87, a controlled four tolong leg, and his century came up a couple of overslater, with two successive cover-driven fours thatbeat long-off. It wasn’t his usual swashbucklingstyle, but the hundred still came off 103 balls and theIndians just didn’t know where to bowl to him. He fellon the stroke of lunch, to a brilliant return catch,as Harbhajan dived full-length to his right to latchon to one that skimmed inches above the ground (5 for 423).
Gilchrist also played a crucial part in guiding Clarketo his hundred. With three figures in sight, Clarke wasa bundle of nerves early in the day. His first two fourscame through edges, before he survived a hugeleg-before shout against Kumble. With a seven-twofield against bowling that was directed outside off, Clarke swished and missed, changed his gloves,and made frequent forays to square leg between balls.But as soon as he traded his helmet for a baggy greencap, Clarke got to the landmark with a clipped two tomidwicket, becoming the first Australian since GregBlewett in 1994-95 to score a century on Test debut. Thenext 50 runs were made in unfettered style, and hesprayed the bowling to all parts as India’s slowbowlers, especially Kumble, were found wanting.Just after lunch, Kumble was thumped for two fours anda six over midwicket, as Clarke moved his feet withballet-like precision.He fell immediately after reaching his 150 as anattempted cover-drive off Zaheer Khan took the edge andwent straight through to Parthiv Patel (8 for 471). Harbhajan mopped up the tail in next to notime to finish with an expensive five-for – but by then, India were already requiring a mighty turnaround.McGrath struck with the fourth ball of the Indianinnings as Aakash Chopra shouldered arms to one thatdarted back in. Replays showed that the ball might havegone just over the stumps (1 for 0). But the body blowcame in McGrath’s second over as a peach of delivery,pitched outside off and cutting in, sneaked throughRahul Dravid’s defence to crash into the stumps (2 for 4). McGrath had struck twice in six balls, and Dravidleft to a stunned silence at his home ground.Ganguly scythed through that tension with two gorgeouscover-drives that had everyone gasping. He didn’t hold backwhen the ball was dug in short, and rolled his wristswhile executing the pull. At the other end, Sehwag letrip as the cover fielders chased some lashed drives.After bowling one over before tea, Warne returned in the 20th over of the innings. Sehwag immediately made room for himself and the ball teasedthe fielder at short extra cover before escaping thegrasp of the one at mid-off.But the introduction of Kasprowicz provided Australia with the double break. Gangulywas cut in half in Kasprowicz’s first over, as heintelligently varied the pace of delivery as well asthe extent of seam movement. Sehwag chipped a straightone uppishly to midwicket, where Justin Langer leapt up and latched on (3 for 87). And then Ganguly was done in by abrute of a cutter, and only managed to edge it toGilchrist (4 for 98).Until he received that Warne Special Delivery, Laxman looked inregal touch, with a couple of sublime flicks of McGrath andKasprowicz. It took a ripping, accurate legbreak toget him out and India finished the day seeking amiracle of Kolkata ’01 proportions.
The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers team to play the Queensland Bulls in the ING Cup Twighlight match at the Bellerive Oval in on Monday 26th January 2004.
CASCADE TASMANIAN TIGERS
Daniel MARSH (Captain)
Shane WATSON (Vice-Captain)
Xavier DOHERTY
George BAILEY
Michael DIGHTON
Michael DiVENUTO
Sean CLINGELEFFER
Damien WRIGHT
Shannon TUBB
Adam GRIFFITH
Luke BUTTERWORTH
Scott KREMERSKOTHEN
The 12th man will be named on the morning of the match.Selectors have made two changes to the team that played in Adelaide on 9th January.Michael DiVenuto returns to the team after injury and Luke Butterworth will make his debut for the Tigers.Travis Birt and Gerard Denton have been omitted.Butterworth (20 years of age), a Rookie contracted all-rounder from the Glenorchy Cricket Club makes his debut for the Tigers. Luke was a full time scholar at the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy in 2003 and has represented Tasmania at an Under 19 level and in the Cricket Australia Cup over the past two seasons.The Tasmanian Cricket Association would like to remind Patrons and Media this will be a twighlight match and play will commence at 12 noon with gates open at 11.00 am.During the match patrons will have the chance to win a set of keys to the Ford Focus competition by supporting the Tigers and bringing their entry form from the Mercury Newspaper and placing it in the entry box provided at the ground.
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.
Rangers are among the clubs in the race to sign an England international goalkeeper this summer, according to The Daily Mail.
The lowdown
The £32,500-per-week contract of West Brom netminder Sam Johnstone runs until the end of June, at which point he will be free to choose his next club.
The Englishman was the Baggies’ first-choice ‘keeper in the Premier League last season and wound up staying put despite their demotion to the Championship. He’s made 34 league appearances for Steve Bruce’s side, who sit 12th in the table.
Rangers may need a new goalkeeper for next season, with 40-year-old veteran Allan McGregor also out of contract over the summer.
The latest
The Daily Mail’s Simon Jones and Sam May wrote that Rangers have ‘expressed an interest’ in signing Johnstone, having identified him as a potential replacement for McGregor. However, they face competition from at least four clubs south of the border.
Tottenham Hotspur, who apparently looked poised to sign him at one point in January, want him to provide cover and competition for Hugo Lloris, while recruitment staff at Newcastle United, West Ham United and Southampton have all discussed making a move for the 29-year-old ‘in recent months’ as well.
The verdict
Johnstone would be an excellent signing for Rangers.
He was unfortunate not to get a move last summer, having been a shining light in an otherwise dour to-flight campaign for West Brom. Johnstone was among the nine best shot-stoppers in the division (‘preventing’ 4.4 goals) and was named Player of the Season by both his team-mates and the club’s supporters.
Even after the Baggies’ relegation, the £7.2m-rated stopper earned call-ups for the first three international windows of the 2021/22 season during the autumn. He has won three caps for Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions up to this point, underlining his pedigree.
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He may be seen not only as a successor to – but also an upgrade on – McGregor, who was questioned for his role in Celtic’s equaliser in Sunday’s Old Firm defeat. Ibrox legend Ally McCoist said that the £13,000-per-week veteran ought to have parried Reo Hatate’s strike ‘wider’, duly allowing Tom Rogic to convert the rebound.
Would Johnstone pick Rangers over Spurs? The Daily Mail’s report noted the 29-year-old’s ambition to make the England squad for the World Cup at the end of the year, and you could argue that he would be better served playing weekly at Ibrox than his likely destiny as Hugo Lloris’ little-used understudy if he goes to north London, where the Frenchman is virtually undroppable.
Steve Harmison has said he is likely to quit cricket if he fails to win back his England place.Writing in his column in the Mail on Sunday, Harmison said that without the lure of international cricket, he could see no point in continuing.”The prospect of playing for England is what drives me and if I felt my chance of doing that was gone the probability is I’d retire from first-class cricket altogether. This is not an ultimatum or me trying to impose conditions on anyone. But I am 29 now and if I felt my England career was over I would be tempted to say I want to do something different with my life.”I am absolutely determined to show I have something to offer England,” he continued. “I certainly do not believe I am finished. After a terrible year for me on the field with injuries, operations and so little cricket it is ridiculous, my aim is to bowl fast, take wickets and give the selectors something to think about.”I have spoken informally to the skipper, Michael Vaughan, and the coach, Peter Moores, and stressed that I still want to play Test cricket and they were pretty positive that both Matthew [Hoggard] and I remain in their plans.”
The West Indies Players’ Association has lashed out at the non-selection of Brian Lara and six other leading players who have signed personal endorsement contracts with Cable & Wireless, accusing the West Indies Cricket Board of acting as "judge, jury and executioner" in the matter.On Sunday, the West Indies squad for the first Digicel-sponsored Test against South Africa was announced, and though Lara’s name was officially omitted, with the captaincy passing to Shivnarine Chanderpaul, he was nonetheless offered an invitation to join the squad, which Lara – bound as he is by contractual obligations – was reported to have neither accepted nor declined.In a press release, the WIPA president, Dinanath Ramnarine, was extremely critical of the course of action that the board had taken. "It is clear that as soon as the players cross one hurdle, another is erected in its place, until we have reached the stage where the board has exposed itself as judge, jury and executioner," he wrote. "And all the while, it bold-facedly maintains that it respects the binding decision of Justice Saunders regarding the players’ rights to enter into personal endorsement contracts.”The players and their careers, and the hopes and aspirations of Caribbean people, should not be made scapegoats in this issue," added Ramnarine. "WIPA strongly deprecates the manner in which the Board issued an invitation to Mr Brian Lara to make himself available for selection to the squad for the first Test match. WIPA wishes to strongly record its wholehearted support for the position which Mr Lara has taken in response to the Board.In summary, the WIPA proposed that, in order to ensure the best available side to take on South Africa on March 31, "the status quo achieved for the VB Series in Australia … be maintained." This, they added, would be in the best commercial interests of the two competing companies, and was the desired resolution as voiced "by the overwhelming majority of the Caribbean people." Nevertheless, the WIPA warned that, if such a course of action was not taken, they would be left with "no other alternative but to take such actions as may be necessary to protect our members’ rights and the interest of West Indies cricket”.West Indies squad Wavell Hinds, Devon Smith, Donavon Pagon, Daren Ganga, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Narsingh Deonarine, Ryan Hinds, Courtney Browne (wk, vice-capt), Corey Collymore, Pedro Collins, Dwight Washington, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Reon King.
Bruce Reid, the former bowling consultant for the Indian team, feels that a reason for India’s poor bowling performance in West Indies is the inability of the bowlers to put enough pressure while bowling in the fourth innings.”The wickets in West Indies can be really dead,” Reid told . “You need bowlers who can bowl something at 90 mph or probably some luck. There is a lot of difference in bowling in the first innings and bowling in the last innings.”On Anil Kumble, who has taken 13 wickets in the two Tests, at an average of 26.76, Reid said, “It is logical to believe that the conditions weren’t close to what Kumble would like to have. The reason why he has succeeded so much on the sub-continent wickets is precisely because the he’s got the much needed help from tracks that are sharp and turn viciously.”Reid, who is now the bowling coach for Hampshire, added that Irfan Pathan has progressed with every series and has developed into a very smart bowler. “But the rest of the attack is very young, very clueless about what is expected of them. You need to give them time, mate.”The third Test between India and West Indies begins on June 22 at St Kitts. It will be the first Test that the island has ever hosted.
Joey Carew, convenor of the West Indies selection panel, does not believe dropped West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Courtney Browne deserves the criticism he has been receiving. Browne, was not among the 13 players invited by the West Indies Cricket Board to sign match/tour contracts for the senior Sri Lanka tour. He was repleaced by Denesh Ramdin.Carew, a former Trinidad and Tobago captain and West Indies batsman, said that Browne had become the scapegoat for West Indies’ dismal performances in the recent home series against South Africa and Pakistan. “He dropped some very important catches during the course of the series, but his performance was no worst, and I shouldn’t use worst, than anyone else,” Carew told the Superior Saturday Sports programme on Q-FM. “I mean Ramnaresh Sarwan’s performance with the bat was atrocious at times, while Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds did not bat consistently either. The point is that the top six batsmen are not doing what they are supposed to do and that is a problem. Whenever we lose, people tend to look for scapegoats. If Browne had taken some of the crucial catches, we could have won.”Carew is excited by the potential of Carlton Baugh, Jr, who has played a few Tests and one-day internationals, and Ramdin but he believes both need to work a little harder at their games. “They need a little bit more preparation and a little bit more coaching, and this leads me to make the point that the territories are not doing enough work with their cricketers,” Carew said. “Baugh should be much more advanced, particularly with Jeffrey Dujon and Jackie Hendriks from his native Jamaica as top-class examples of West Indies wicketkeepers, and in Trinidad, Ramdin should be getting extensive coaching from David Williams, who was very competent, but there is the problem and the answer.”Carew described the captaincy of Shivnarine Chanderpaul as “encouraging, encouraging”. “Any time you start a job like West Indies captain, you may start tentatively, but you are expected to grow in confidence,” he said. “I think he is starting to do this. He carries a tremendous burden with the batting because whenever he went in to bat, we were three wickets down for under 100 runs, and he carried that burden well. I think he is learning well.”Carew also praised new West Indies coach Bennett King for the work ethic that he has been able to instill in the team. “I have always complained that we needed to improve the standard of our practice, and that has to be handed down to the territories,” he said. “All in all, I think under Bennett we have taken a small step forward, and now let’s hope that we can stride out.”Carew is not turned off by the criticisms that have been levelled at him and his fellow selectors because he felt that showed there was still interest in the game in the Caribbean. “Nobody likes a loser,” he said. “We all like winners. We all want to win. We all want to see the West Indies win, and then we will also start to see the crowds returning to the games.”