All posts by csb10.top

When you approached the Chinnaswamy Stadium from the south in the afternoon, you saw a sea of people dressed in white – sporting bright green scarves – milling around Mahatma Gandhi Park. They were farmers protesting against the SM Krishna government’s “anti-farmer” policies, though you could also glimpse the odd billboard that said, very dramatically, “Kill the WTO”. While the fat cats in their Saville Row suits divide up the world-trade pie in Cancun, the little man’s voice continues to be heard above the din the world over.One or two of the younger ones seemed a little bored, glancing wistfully in the direction of the stadium. The older bunch contented themselves with peanuts and snoozing, interrupted by the sporadic slogan. In any event, the atmosphere there was a great deal more lively than what you found inside the stadium itself.The smattering of supporters were spread over three stands, and they roused themselves only when a certain Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar started putting bat to ball after a hesitant start. There was also applause for Wasim Jaffer, who started off-driving like a dream, and then went for one too many. The main topic of discussion in the stands then was the “no-ball” with which Lakshmipathy Balaji had made a mess of Tendulkar’s stumps. More than the five wickets he took, bowling with great verve, accuracy and discipline, it was that delivery that made the spectators sit up and take notice of Balaji – who is a far better bowler than his one-day debut against West Indies suggested.Zaheer Khan, by contrast, was all over the place. It should surprise no-one that the key performers in this match were all part of the India A team that toured England. While their senior colleagues appeared woefully short of match practice – even Tendulkar was a pale shadow of his usually authoritative self – the likes of Balaji, Rohan Gavaskar, Sridharan Sriram and Irfan Pathan were in fine fettle. So much for those who write off the Challenger as a waste of time. Imagine India’s plight if its finest had gone into the series against New Zealand on the back of just one Irani Trophy game.The other welcome thing about today was the absence of the M word, Munaf to those of you that have been deprived of news over the past fortnight. If you read some of the reports, you might have been convinced that Munaf Patel was a combination of Dennis Lillee, Jesus Christ, Moses and Harry Houdini, the “secret weapon” who would irreparably scar the Australian psyche this winter.Did we miss something? Munaf has yet to play a first-class game, and already the hype machine suggests that he’s the man to stymie Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist, who only comprise the best batting line-up on the planet. Figures like 150 kmph – only Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar clock that with any consistency – are freely bandied about. But who has put a radar gun on him? The media?To add some weight to flimsy arguments, they quote his coaches at MRF, who are hardly likely to give him anything but favourable press, come to think of it. You can almost understand why Sourav Ganguly, who knows a thing or two about earning the India cap, brushed off the hullabaloo by saying that it would be best to wait until he had actually shown his stuff in the middle. Like some of us, he can remember names like Iqbal Siddiqui and Tinu Yohannan, who aren’t even Challengers anymore. Munaf should forget about the elevator and take the stairs just like everyone else. The thing is, men like Aavishkar Salvi, Balaji and Pathan are already a couple of flights ahead.
Munaf Patel – The whirlwind from Gujarat

Mike Burns and his Somerset team were thwarted by the rain at Derby on Friday as they attempted to win their second successive championship match of the season, and will hope for better weather when they resume at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning.Despite the umpires making three separate inspections during the early part of the afternoon any hopes were abandoned when play was eventually called off by umpires Mark Benson and Allan Jones just after three o’clock.Back at the County Ground in Taunton, chief executive Peter Anderson reflected on the Cidermen’s season so far. He told me: "Some people have expressed disappointment following the team’s defeat by eight runs in the championship match at Bristol, and our National Cricket League defeat when we played Durham last weekend. We were pretty poor against Durham make no mistakes about it, but our bowlers who were criticised did have a wet ball to contend with."He continued: "There are several very pleasing signs however from the season already. Our quick bowlers are bowling sides out in sixty overs, and that is a vindication of coach Kevin Shines tactics of putting a strong bowling side out because to win matches you have to take twenty wickets, especially in Division Two.""The batting is coming together now and it is pleasing to see Jamie Cox scoring runs. Peter Bowler and newcomer James Bryant put together a gutsy performance against Durham in the championship when the pressure was on us, laying the foundation for a good win, and our newcomers are also beginning to find their feet in this team."He went on: "The young players at the club are a great value to us and there are several of them waiting in the wings ready to make their mark. Players like our rising star Gareth Andrew, Michael Parsons, Robert Woodman, Steven Wheeler, James Hilditch and Richard Timms all show great potential, not forgetting Tom Webley and Cornishman Michael Munday who are both playing first class cricket for Cambridge UCCE and Oxford UCCE respectively.""Again this is a vindication of our coaches Kevin Shine and Mark Garaway who have worked hard in the development field with these promising young players, and down through the age groups there are some lovely little gems waiting for their chances," he added.Regarding the current crop of injuries at the club the Somerset boss said: " Early season injuries started with Matt Wood who was hospitalised after contracting a virus at Southampton. That affected his availability to play, and has set him back, however thankfully he has now fully recovered and is playing again.""Matt Bulbeck having had a history of back injury has had to rest from bowling for three weeks because of a suspected stress fracture of the back, and Neil Edwards who had such a successful tour to Australia with England at Under 19 level has been suffering from glandular fever, but is now thankfully ready to resume light training."The chief concluded: "The whole of our pre season was upset by the virus that several of the players contracted at Southampton which is why we often had to use fifteen or sixteen players in the warm up matches."

John Emburey, Former England Captain and current Middlesex Coach backs Ladbrokes sponsorship of the Middlesex County Cricket League and Youth Academy.This is a new and innovative sponsorship for Ladbrokes; combining support for the league and the academy and for the first time Ladbrokes is launching their highly successful `Fair Play’ scheme into league cricket.John Emburey Fair Play Ambassador commented, "This is an opportunity for Umpires to strike back, it’s a great initiative and a fantastic opportunity to penalise players for sledging and bad sportsmanship on the field. It will improve standards of behaviour and uphold the traditions of the game. We are thrilled to be involved with such an enlightened approach".The scheme rewards one club in each 1st XI side that finishes top of the Fair Play league in each of the 3 divisions considered by the umpires to have achieved the highest standards in Fair Play through the season.In assessing teams for Fair Play umpires will consider three broad criteria, which are based on `The Spirit of Cricket’. The criteria for Umpires are:

• Spirit of Cricket on the Field
• Courtesy towards umpires and opponents
• Acceptance of decisions

Ladbrokes, sponsors of this years Middlesex Cricket League is officially launching the partnership at The Cricketers Club of London, 71 Blandford Street, London W1U 1AB, on Tuesday 8th April at 7pm.Dominic Harrison, Ladbrokes Commercial Director said "Ladbrokes recognises the importance of supporting grass roots sports and is delighted to be sponsoring the Middlesex League, we are looking forward to a successful and enjoyable relationship"Vinny Codrington, Chief Executive of Middlesex, was delighted to have secured such a sponsorship. "To be able to support league cricket in the county, and help with the development of players through the academy is a major step forward for cricket in Middlesex, and we are delighted to be involved with Ladbrokes."

Even as victory for England over New Zealand became assured last night in Auckland, captain Nasser Hussain wasn’t prepared to disregard the threat as New Zealand were required to score around 12 runs an over.”New Zealand were always in the game.”They keep coming at you, they keep hitting ball out the ground. Even [Daniel] Vettori can bat at No 10,” he said.Hussain described the side’s victory as a good effort but there was still work to do before the series could be wrapped up in his side’s favour.”We regrouped after Wellington. We played some good cricket in India, and some good cricket in Christchurch and had a chat in Wellington and put things right for two games.”As I’ve said many times, it doesn’t mean we’re World Cup favourites all of a sudden. We’ve done it for a couple of games. Now we’ve got a final in Dunedin. We’ve got to get back together, have a bit more team spirit, team bonding and play like we can.”We played well for large parts of today and for New Zealand to be still in that game, you just look at their batting line-up,” he said.”It was not over till the death.”Batting and bowling had been good on the day but the fielding had too many extremes, he said.The batsmen had done well with the ball doing a bit and the side had recovered well from the loss of Marcus Trescothick off the third ball.The bowlers also had to do their bit and put the ball in the right spot.”Rain is no good for anyone and the Duckworth/Lewis system is probably the fairest system we have played under so far, but rain doesn’t help anyone,” he said.”If we do all our disciplines well we can beat New Zealand. Because we are a young side, we are still a little bit clumsy at times.”When you have to be really good to beat sides you can’t afford that. We have to get that clumsiness out of our cricket still,” he said.”But there is talent in that dressing room and if we can put it all together in the next year then we will progress. It’s a long, long way away, we’ve just got to put it together for Dunedin,” he said.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 has noted with distress recent media reports claiming that the Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) funded the opening ceremony of the cricket spectacle to the tune of R3-million.Earlier this week, the IFP Youth Brigade, and later the PAC and the UDM, were reported to have criticised the UYF for granting the ICC CWC 2003 the money, saying the funds should have been used to benefit the youth of this country.”It is extremely unfortunate that the media actually ran with the story without familiarising themselves with the true facts,” said the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 Volunteers 2003 programme manager Herman Beetge.”The fact is that the youth fund pledged R2-million to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, but this money is envisaged to cover various costs of the Volunteers 2003 programme. At no stage was the money earmarked for the opening ceremony as that event had its own budget and separately organised volunteers,” said Beetge.”We are currently running a huge Volunteers 2003 programme at the stadiums where World Cup matches are being played, and so far we have received nothing but praise from members of the public for the role played by these purple-shirted volunteers. The success of this programme is based among others on contributions like those made by the UYF and we commend for this. It is unfortunate that instead of running a positive story about the volunteers, we are having to deal with false claims about the opening ceremony which was a huge success in its own right.”Beetge said the breakdown for the UYF grant was expected to be used as follows

Training Materials 389,676Trainer & Co-ordinator workshop 29,089Costs associated with processing of applications 103,000Initial contact with trainees 37,597Trainers’ costs 153,154Pilot projects 271,811Meals & refreshments during training process(shared 50/50 with ICC CWC 2003) 514,039Contribution towards transportation of trainees duringtraining programme (shared 50/50 with ICC CWC 2003) 514,039Total 2,012,405

“As can be seen from these figures, this was a highly involved programme and those who have been attending the matches can attest to the quality of our volunteers. They received high quality training and it is important that we look after them well with decent refreshments, transports and uniform to allow them to perform their duties with dignity and with their morale high.”Also, the training the Volunteers 2003 received will benefit the youth who make up 90% of all volunteers and in all 35% of our volunteers are unemployed.”We hope this puts the whole issue into perspective and that misperception created are corrected.”

Queensland’s bowlers have continued to maintain an advantage for their team through the second session of play of today’s National Under-19 Championship Final against New South Wales in Newcastle. By tea on the match’s opening day, the Blues have been reduced to a score of 7/155 at the Number 1 Sportsground.The New South Welshmen had resumed after lunch at a score of 4/57 and matters weren’t quick to improve.Only another 12 runs had been added to the total when Brett Eriksson (2) brushed at a ball aimed at his hip by paceman John Loader (2/27) to feather a low, leg side catch to wicketkeeper Murray Bragg.Steve Karam (29) had been playing a brave innings in the circumstances but was soon forced to join the growing list of casualties in the pavilion when he outside edged a delivery of excellent length from Loader to present Bragg with his third dismissal of the innings.All-rounder Brad Roworth (37) opted upon a different approach, sensibly interspersing defence with some terrific attacking strokes whenever the bowlers erred in line. Several meaty shots featured in a 40-ball innings which yielded the top individual score of the day, none better than a gloriously struck six over square leg shortly after the drinks break.But the counter-attack came to a disappointing end as well, when he was deceived by a flighted delivery from off spinner Aaron Maynard and drove a catch to Queensland captain Craig Phillipson at extra cover.The Queenslanders were cock-a-hoop by this stage and visions of back-to-back titles were coming sharply into focus.It was only when Daniel Christian (24*) and Gary Geise (12*) combined in a gritty unbroken stand for the eighth wicket in the lead-up to tea that the Blues’ fortunes genuinely took a turn for the better.

The match looked to be heading for a draw before a combination of decent spin bowling, woeful batting, sharp catching and a dash of misfortune all conspired to send Kenya tumbling to defeat in the first unofficial Test at P.Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.Kenya, on 31 for one overnight, still 91 runs in arrears after Sri Lanka A had scored 414 in their first innings, were bowled out for 150, leaving Sri Lanka’s openers with a 29 run target. The game was won with ten wickets to spare shortly after the luncheon interval.Steve Tikolo, arguably the best batsman to not be playing Test cricket at the moment, provided the only resistance with an entertaining 65 from 106 balls that included 10 boundaries.But when he was brilliantly caught by an airborne Tillakaratne Dilshan at backward point, Kenya betrayed their inexperience in the first class game, losing their last seven wickets for 39 runs.The day, which had begun early to make up for time lost on the second afternoon, started with an early wicket as left-arm fast bowler Ruchira Perera trapped Ravindu Shah (19) lbw.Thereafter it was the spinners that did the damage, but not before Tikolo and Kenyan skipper Maurice Odumbe had laid the foundations for a game saving partnership. The pair added 38 runs and looked comfortable at the crease.But they were separated when Odumbe was fingered by umpire T.H. Wijewardene as he went onto the back foot to an off-break from Muthumudalige Pushpakumara (77 for three).Pushpakumara went onto to take four wickets in the innings, but it was leg-spinner Upul Chandana who then took the crucial wicket of Tikolo (111 for four).With Tikolo back in the dressing room the innings went into freefall: Thomas Odoyo was caught behind off Chandana; Pushpakumara bowled Hitesh Modi after an ugly heave across the line; AO Suji gifted Dilshan a wicket with his part-time off-breaks and Collins Obuya was unfortunate to be caught at short leg when he cracked a short ball into Chamara Silva’s armpit; Mohammad Sheikh was stumped and Martin Suji was last man out when he nibbled at a leg-spinner.Pushpakumara finished with four wickets for 43, whilst Chandana picked up three for 36.Sri Lanka A thus took a one-nil lead in the three-match series. The second game is to be played in Matara starting next Thursday.

Nicky Boje has undergone surgery after fracturing his left fibula while fielding in the NatWest Series one-day international against England at Edgbaston on July 8. Boje, who was substituting for Martin van Jaarsveld, also suffered medial-ligament damage in his ankle, and is expected to be out of action for at least four months.Boje had come onto the field at the drinks break and was fielding at extra cover. His immediate reaction was one of pain as he screamed to the dressing-rooms for assistance, and, after a swift assessment by the physiotherapist, he was carried from the field by his team-mates before being taken by ambulance to the Selly Oak West Midlands hospital.South Africa’s coach Eric Simons reflected the feelings of the tightly knit squad: “I feel desperately sorry for Nicky. He has had injury problems before with his shoulder, and now this. I just hope he will recover quickly, as he has made a positive impact on the squad both on and off the field.”And what was the injury to van Jaarsveld that necessitated the substitution that brought Boje on to field? Gerald de Kock, South Africa’s media spokesman, put it this way: “van Jaarsveld got hit in the box before play and during his innings and that got more and more painful.”Well, at least his fibula’s still all right.

Run machine Matthew Hayden will again force Australian selectors to split stable openers Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh when the triangular one-day series begins on Friday.Chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns confirmed Hayden would be used in the opening role and elsewhere in the batting order as the Australians rotate their best players through the series against New Zealand and South Africa.”We’ll probably rest a batsman from time to time as we have done previously and then the batting order is shuffled around,” Hohns said.”You’ll see (Hayden opening) at some stage but any decisions will be made by the selectors in conjunction with the captain.”It was a predictable step after Hayden unleashed the most lucrative calendar year of any Australian Test batsman, hitting 1391 runs at an average of 66.23.Captain Steve Waugh declared he could not “imagine anyone playing any better than that” after Hayden began the New Year with another Test century in the whitewash against South Africa.But the aggressive Queenslander hasn’t earned the same reputation in the one-day arena despite averaging 34.26 at a respectable clip in his 27 matches.Gilchrist and Mark Waugh are the greatest opening pair in Australian one-day history but the door remains ajar for Hayden if selectors opt for a settled combination for the World Cup in South Africa in 13 months.Hayden opened twice in the Australia’s most recent one-day outings against Pakistan and England seven months ago after opening in four of the five clashes with India on the sub-continent in March and April.The left-hander smashed more than 2000 runs in domestic one-day matches for Queensland before replenishing his international reputation in New Zealand two years ago.Despite his outstanding summer, Hayden is no certainty to play in the opening tri-series match on Friday when Australia meets New Zealand at the MCG.Hohns said selectors were looking towards the World Cup defence but he said the championship was “too far away to speculate” on any personnel changes.”There is a lot of water to flow under the bridge before that,” Hohns said.”We’re always looking towards it but plenty can happen in that time and this series is another in which we want to build the winning momentum.”Hohns said the 14-man Australian squad for the tri-series had not beenselected for a particular number of matches. That leaves Jason Gillespie with a chance of returning if he can prove his fitness when he resumes from injury for Australia A against New Zealand at the Gabba tomorrow.”He has two matches with Australia A to show us that he is fully fit andthen we would have to reassess it from there,” Hohns said.

Prolonged and steady overnight and morning rain prevented any play duringthe second day of the Second Test match between Zimbabwe and South Africa atQueens Sports Club in Bulawayo. Zimbabwe were 154 for two wickets at theclose of the first day.The rain finally stopped in mid-morning, but extensive mopping-up operationswere required and the sky remained heavily overcast. The umpires eventuallydecided that there was no alternative but to abandon play for the day and,if possible, to extend the hours of the subsequent days as provided for inthe laws of the game.A result would now appear difficult to achieve on a good, if slow, battingpitch. Zimbabwe’s bowling does not appear to have the firepower necessaryto bowl out South Africa twice in the time remaining, even if the batsmenshould get enough runs. South Africa would have a better chance if theywere able to break through the Zimbabwe batting quickly on the third day,which should prove crucial.