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The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers squad to play the Western Warriors in the Day-Night ING Cup match on Friday 6th December, 2002 at the WACA Ground in Perth.CASCADE TASMANIAN TIGERS

Ricky PONTING (Captain)
Sean CLINGELEFFER
Jamie COX
Graeme CUNNINGHAM
Brett GEEVES
Michael DIGHTON
Michael Di VENUTO
Xavier DOHERTY
Adam GRIFFITH
Daniel MARSH
Scott KREMERSKOTHEN
Shane WATSON
Damien WRIGHT

The 13th man will be announced on the morning of the match.There is only one change to the team that defeated the Southern Redbacks in Adelaide last Friday night. George Bailey makes way for Captain Ricky Ponting who is available for this match.

World-class New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns told the audience at the launch of his book ‘Chris Cairns’ last night that he regards bowling as his trade, and batting as his enjoyment.Speaking at the function organised at the Christchurch Casino, Cairns said getting a five-wicket haul when bowling was the most satisfying aspect of the game.Cairns, who missed the last part of New Zealand’s international season when needing more surgery on his troublesome knees, said he was feeling very good.”My rehabilitation has gone well but it is all in the lap of the cricketing gods,” he said.Cairns said he wasn’t motivated by statistics in the way that Sir Richard Hadlee had been during his career, nor was he blessed with the superb bowling action that Hadlee enjoyed.”I have to work harder on my bowling, I’m not as gifted with my action as he was,” he said.A video presentation of some of the highlights of his career was shown during the evening and inevitably resulted in questions to him about some of the notable moments. He recalled the occasion in 2000 when hitting Australian fast bowler Brett Lee out of the Basin Reserve in the second Test of the series.The Australians had been getting frustrated with the way New Zealand were batting when Lee bowled a short ball to Cairns which he swung at, although his eyes were closed when he connected with the ball, which he hooked over fine leg and into the gardens outside the ground.”I walked down the pitch and Flem [Stephen Fleming] said to me ‘What have you done?’ and I said ‘I just wanted to have a whack at it.’ Flem described it as ‘a moment of clarity.'”Cairns did say that managing to get Australia’s leg-spinning maestro Shane Warne away at times during the last few years had been satisfying.”Warnie made me look so stupid during the first part of my career.”For me to have played alongside a bloke like that was a privilege. I remember at one stage during the Test in Hamilton I took a single with a hit to long off and as I ran by him I heard Warnie say: ‘Thank God for that’, and that was one of the highlights of my career to hear that he was pleased I was down the other end, because so often I had been trying to get down to get away from him in the past.”Asked who were some of the hardest bowlers to hit, Cairns said Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan was ‘quite hard’ to hit, as were bowlers who didn’t put any pace on the ball.Among the speakers at the function were his New Zealand team-mates Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan who poked fun at Cairns over some of their experiences with him during their careers.Others to speak were former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe and former chief executive of New Zealand Cricket Christopher Doig.Crowe recalled the morning of Cairns’ first Test, against Australia at Perth in 1989, when he travelled down in the hotel lift with Cairns.”He was white with fear, a broken man, he was too young at 19 and suffered a stress fracture to his back in that game.”But I also remember when he came back and took a six-for against England and then he went through the most hopeless cricket regime I’ve ever seen in 1995/96.”It took an Aussie, finally, after seven years to sort him out,” he said.Steve Rixon had told Cairns to go out and express himself and as a result for the last five years he had blessed New Zealand with his skill and had made commentary for Crowe a great joy.Crowe said that Cairns’ feats with bat and ball put him in a statistical club whose only other members were Keith Miller, Gary Sobers, Ian Botham and Imran Khan.Doig said it was fair to say that there was nobody who had given him more pleasure, nor greater concern, than Cairns.But there had been no doubt that the “Black Caps walked a little taller, played with greater self-respect when a fully-fit, focused and fizzing Chris Cairns walked onto the paddock with them.”Doig said when a fully-fit Dion Nash was also available the pair were formidable, bringing out the best in their respective games.”It was one of the great tragedies that it was so infrequently that they played together.”Chris had a fierce individual determination to carve out his niche in New Zealand cricket. He was passionate about doing well, and New Zealand cricket doing well,” he said.There were times when his frustrations would boil over and end up inappropriately in the media but he had grown to understand the processes needed to advance his own, and New Zealand’s game.”He emerged from the shadow of his father [Lance] and was the greatest all-rounder in cricket today,” Doig said and it was with huge satisfaction that Cairns had matured into an outstanding individual in his own right.

Otago Cricket’s sponsors’ golf day looks set to be a bonanza for those lucky enough to be playing.Dedicated exclusively for sponsors of Otago Cricket the Anngow Motors $50,000 Golf Classic will offer a prize list like no other seen in the area.Top billing goes to a 2.3 litre Mazda6 Sport, valued at $47,000, and supplied by Anngow Motors in Dunedin. This will be on offer as a hole-in-one prize on the St Clair course’s tough fourth hole, a par three with an unforgiving reputation.However, a significant number of aces have been scored at the hole in recent years and Otago Cricket’s Events and Fund Raising manager Steve Davie is hoping the car will be won.”Our sponsors are vital to Otago Cricket’s continued progress and it’s exciting we’ve been able to organise this tournament for them,” Davie said.”It would be great to see the car go.”If the Mazda6, which won’t be launched internationally until late-August, early-September, isn’t won a $1000 cash prize will go to the closest to the pin.The other par threes will also attract plenty of interest with golf clubs and air travel to be won by those finishing closest to the pin. In total more than $55,000 worth of prizes will be on offer.A number of holes have already been sold for the tournament, to be played on November 15, and Davie expects a sell-out by the end of July. Hole sponsors will have automatic entry rights.

The County are also pleased to announce the Award of the Holsten NUL EssexPlayer of the Match in the recent floodlit game against Middlesex Crusaders as James Middlebrook. This is James’ consecutive award, achieved by bowling figures of 3-40 in the defeat against the Crusaders.James will be presented his award at Essex Eagles v NorthamptonshireSteelbacks at the Colchester Festival on Sunday 25th August.

As fleetingly as the English resistance appeared, it went away just asquickly. Unable to build on the foundation, Michael Vaughan had laid forthem, a score of 342 had to be settled for after 450 had seemed a possibility.Losing seven wickets for 47 didn’t do anything to dispel the perception of a brittle Englishlower-order line-up. Warne and Gillespie ripped through them without too muchfuss.There is not enough consistency for England if they wish to compete againstAustralia. They require sustained periods of excellence both with bat andball. Not glimpses of it.Vaughan basically played a lone hand as no other English player passed 50.Are England playing like the West Indies were a few years ago when all youhad to do was dismiss Brian Lara and the innings would unravel before youreyes?Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer knocked off 100 runs in the blink of an eyewith 342 looking more inadequate by the second.England can still lose this game by an innings. Something which lookedhighly unlikely when they were 2/240, but cricket is a game made up ofperformances by individuals within the fabric of a team.Superb efforts by Warne, Gillespie and McGrath dragged Australia back intothe game. They bowled tirelessly to restrict the Englishman and after thebreakthrough was made, homed in on the lengthy English tail.There is no doubt that cricket is a batsman’s game but it is the differencein class between the bowlers of the two sides which will decide this series,England do not have the same resources in the field that Steve Waugh cancall on. Not one of the English bowlers looks as though he is a constantthreat of taking wickets. They wait or pray for an Australian mistake asopposed to being able to force one.Losing three of their starting bowlers from the original tour party hasn’thelped matters either. The field placings must pay some attention to savingruns which allows the Australian batsmen even more freedom.The shortcomings of the bowlers comes back onto the English batsmen. Theyare then required to bat out long periods of time or do somethingextraordinary if England are to hope to have even a modicum chance ofsuccess.Different times to when England could boast class bowlers such as John Snow,Bob Willis, Derek Underwood, Ian Botham, Graham Dilley, John Emburey and Phil Edmonds.Facing bowlers such as these, the Australians didn’t have the carte blanchethey seem to have done.So where to for England from here? -Defeat in Adelaide means basically theend of the series and another long summer with the only point of interest beingwhether England can snatch a win in a dead rubber like they have on their last twotrips down under.

England are hoping that Mark Butcher will be able to play in the final Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford. Butcher wore heavy strapping on his left knee when England trained today, but came through without apparent discomfort.”The news about Butcher is encouraging,” said an England spokesman. “We will reassess the situation in the morning.”If Butcher doesn’t make it, England have a tailor-made replacement in John Crawley, who’s used to batting at number three and is an accomplished player of spin bowling.”I am obviously desperate to play,” Crawley said today. “It has always been a dream since March when things turned round for me to come back here and play a Test match.”After making the decision in the winter that I could not play here any more,I still had plenty of ambitions and dreams to come back here. At the start of the season that was just to come back here with Hampshire, but things have moved on a lot quicker than that.”Although it took Crawley months to extricate himself from his Lancashire contract following his replacement as captain over the winter, eventually joining Hampshire, he bears no ill-will towards his old club and hopes to have some support on his old ground.”During my time here I had a lot of support from players and members, so itwill be a little bit emotional for me if I do stride out here,” he said. “It is an opportunity for the crowd here to see my play again and for my family to see me play up here again as well.””My dad is the only one who is still in this area, but whether he will comealong or not is up to him,” said Crawley. “I think he was a bit shaken up about what happened in the winter. It is worse in a way because he could not actually put himself in a position to do anything.””The problems I have had here have stemmed from a very small minority ofpeople. It is a big ground, and I hope I will not come across those people.”I don’t really know what to expect. All I can say is I had many good memories here and many good years and I am very much looking forward to going out there and playing a Test match.”

Hampshire Under-16 prospect David Wheeler played the star role as New Milton pipped Southern Electric Premier League Division 3 neighbours by three wickets at Ashley.Wheeler grabbed 3-42 as Bashley reached 198-7 and then struck a superb 79 to set up New Milton’s penultimate-over victory.Woolston schoolteacher Shane Merkel celebrated his Flamingos debut with an undefeated 134 as last year’s Hampshire League champions began Premier 3 life with a 97-run win over Paultons at The Holt.Merkel, introduced to Flamingos by Hampshire batsman Jason Laney, plays Surburban Turf League cricket in Perth, Western Australia.He struck 20 boundaries in his 134 not out, which dominated Flamingos’ 261-4.Andrew Collins hit 52 in Paultons’ 164 all out – Adie Heath (3-26) and Stuart Shapland (3-40) doing the damage.Hampshire’s Jimmy Adams showed his pace bowling process with a 4-27 return in St Cross Symondians’ nine-wicket triumph over Hursley Park.Only John Harris (36) made an impact as Hursley lurched to 110 all out – a total St Cross polished off with Graham Barrett notching a half-century.Alton bagged a second consecutive win, scoring 181-9 before dismissing much fancied Purbrook for 129.Evergreen Keith Lovelock hit 101 and shared a thumping 165-run partnership with South African Janish Kominsky (80) as Hook & Newnham Basics totalled 218-4 to overhaul United Services’ 213-5.Matt Gover crakced a quick-fire 61 as newly promoted Havant II raced past Leckford’s 170 all out.Army all-rounder Andrew Hole took 3-19 for Havant before hitting an unbeaten 63 in a comfortable seven-wicket win.A half-century by Jimmy Taylor (50) and a four-wicket burst by Raj Naik, which culminated in a hat-trick, eased Winchester KS to an easy 106-run win at struggling Waterlooville, who were bowled out for 58.Peter Tapper starred with figures of 3-17 and a blistering 52 (off 27 balls) as Lymington II scrambled a nervous two-wicket win at Rowledge.

Who would have imagined that our national side would be leading the one-day series – against India in India, of all places – by two victories to one? It seems almost unbelievable, and their victory in the third match of the series was most convincing.It must be admitted that India were without their best batsman and bowler, in Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, respectively, as both are nursing niggling injuries in the effort to get fully fit for their coming tour of West Indies. Their absence would certainly have given Zimbabwe a great psychological boost, and we may well not have won the first match, at least, had either or both been present. It also appeared that India in this series have at times been suffering from overconfidence and have not played with the necessary discipline.Having said that, our most recent victory was won without Andy Flower, resting a thigh injury – the first official international match we have won without him since we beat Australia in the World Cup of 1983, if we want to check the records! The series has also come at a time when we would expect the team to feel distracted by the controversial elections going on back home, where their families were. In view of the results announced by the government, several of the players may well be thinking over their futures.And we did play with the discipline that India lacked, if we overlook the 14 wides bowled in the third match. We can now begin to suspect, with guarded optimism, that Geoff Marsh’s influence is beginning to pay off and the revival of spirit on a more regular basis is returning. One victory in the next two matches would see us win the series, an almost inconceivable thought, and on past experience that pressure may well be too much for our players to handle easily. But even if they are up to it mentally, the odds are still against them, because India have vast resources of talent and they will take the last two matches very, very seriously. Unless, in fact, their nerve has been broken, which would be a surprising state of affairs.It was great also to see two newcomers to the side play such a significant part in our victory. Pommie Mbangwa was playing his first international match for well over a year, and as usual bowled his accurate medium-paced line and length, a style which is at its most effective when the opening bowlers have made an initial breakthrough. And this had indeed been the case, the hero and Man of the Match being Douglas Hondo.Douggie has played one Test and one one-day international before, but on both occasions looked totally unready for it, pushed into international cricket by over-enthusiastic selectors. He had the talent, but it was still too raw. He has spent most of the past season playing club cricket in Australia, and we have published a couple of good reports in ZCO about his progress. On Wednesday’s showing he looked an unrecognizably better bowler.We have had players in the past who have surprised us with a remarkably good performance and then lapsed into anonymity again, but a first time always shows that the ability really is there and gives rise for hope.In this issue we are able to include some more articles by Trishna Bose on Zimbabwe in India, and also the updating of records. We have the new set of records for Zimbabwe v India in Test cricket and also the detailed Test career records of all the Zimbabwean players who took part in the recent Test series.Included also are biographies for three of the Academy players: Andre Hoffman, Innocent Chinyoka and Jordane Nicolle.

South Zone fought hard but a gallant 89 by Indian opening batsman Shiv Sundar Das proved to be the vital contribution as East Zone won their Duleep Trophy match at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala on Saturday by four wickets. The victory, which came in the first over after lunch, took East Zone’s tally to 13 points from three matches. South Zone stayed on eight pointsfrom the same number of games.East Zone, who required only 96 runs with eight wickets in hand, were favoured to win when play resumed this morning. But South Zone came strongly into the picture with some quick blows. First, Venkatesh Prasad had Sanjay Raul leg before for 18 with the total on 76. In the next over Rohan Gavaskar was caught by Vijay Bhardwaj off Srinath for one. And in the very next over, SZ Zuffri was leg before to Prasad for one to leave East Zone in a shaky position at78 for five.Young wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta joined Das and the two put East Zone back on the rails with a sixth wicket partnership of 45 runs off 15.2 overs. Das who dominated the scoring was finally out for 79, caught by VVS Laxman off Sunil Joshi. The East Zone captain batted four hours, faced 183 balls and hit eleven fours in his invaluable knock.South Zone had a chance with Das’ dismissal for East Zone still required 44 runs for victory. But Dasgupta and Sukhbinder Singh made light of the task and steered their side to victory with an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 47 runs off 13.4 overs. For his timely unbeaten 32, Dagupta faced 65 balls and hit four of them to the ropes. Sukbhinder, who had bagged six wickets in the South Zone second innings was unbeaten with 22 off 49 balls with three boundaryhits.

Like any keen follower of the game, I have always understood that Lord’s is a very special cricket ground ever since I first came across the name some forty years ago. It was the headquarters of cricket, the hallowed turf, the ground among grounds and many other such exalted and reverant titles. And like any other cricket lover, I longed to pay a visit to Lord’s.In succeeding years, however I heard less complimentary things about the game’s holy of holies. Fellow journalists told me that the ground was uninspiring, others wondered what the ballyhoo was all about. Sunil Gavaskar of course had a few unkind words to say about Lord’s and this was even before his well publicised misunderstanding with a gateman at the entrance. The ground had no special atmosphere, it was alleged and the common complaint was that the members were stuffy and the staff high handed. Of course, over the same period, I also heard from visitors that Lord’s was indeed something special, that therewas a special aura about it, and its bond with history and tradition had earned for it the sacred place it has acquired in the game.These contrasting opinions did not in any way diminish my desire to visit Lord’s and see a day’s cricket. For all the opinions expressed by others, I wished to make my own judgement and last week I finally achieved a lifelong ambition. A personal trip to London could only mean that a visit to Lord’s was on top of the agenda. Of course, I planned to go to the Oval too but that remained second on the agenda.The first time I saw Lord’s was from the outside when my host drove me past the ground. The one obvious structure that one could see from a passing car was `the spaceship’ – the press box constructed for the 1999 World Cup. A few days later, I finally entered the ground thanks to the initiative taken by a member. I gingerly took my first steps past the WG Grace Gates after having taken a long and close look at it. My host graciously took me around and I finally saw the museum, the shop, the committee room, the pavilion, the administrative area, the lounge and the bars, the library, the dressing rooms and the one place I wanted to see above all – the Long Room. It was all what I had expected. Swathed in history and tradition and full of the kind ofmemorabilia that one rarely comes across, I understood why it is a room quite unlike any other anywhere. I went around the various stands – the mound stand, the grand stand, the Compton and Edrich stand and all along my mind was full of rushed vignettes depicting the great deeds enacted and the great matches played on the ground. I stayed there for long, looking at the image of Father Time and soaking in the unique atmosphere. And to complete the happy picture, I found much to my surprise – considering what I had heard and read – that the membersand staff were pleasant and even gracious. With a ready smile, they provided information and some even helped me in taking photographs at various places.Unfortunately it was not a totally happy picture. For the fickle English weather did not allow me the opportunity to see a day’s cricket on the hallowed turf. As I was making my tour of the ground, the skies were grey following rain in the morning. And with no improvement in the weather, the umpires called off play in the scheduled one day game between Middlesex and Durham at 1 pm.All good things have to come to an end and I had to tear myself away from Lord’s because of a prior engagement. And shortly after 2 pm, I reluctantly passed through the Grace Cates and suddenly found myself in the rather mundane area of St John’s Wood, staring at a residential building appropriately called Lord’s View.Whatever Gavaskar and others of his ilk might say, Lord’s has everything – a unique atmosphere, a lush green outfield, the very epitome of neatness and cleanliness, a structure gold rich in tradition and history and an aura of style, taste and elegance in the furniture. One visit and anyone would be quickly aware of being in the game’s headquarters, a very special ground and a venue quite unlike any other in cricket history. What more can one ask for?