Australian leg spinner Stuart MacGill's trip to India seems to be in doubt as his finger injury has been described as chronic. He has been unable to bowl properly due to pain and swelling. His medical examination result is expected in a few days.
Geoff Marsh will meet BCCI secretary JY Lele and coach John Wright to discuss the future of Indian Cricket. His team of experts are due to arrive next month during the NCA coaching seminar and include former Test keepers Rodney Marsh and Brian Taber, wicket-keeper batsman Wayne Phillips and a doctor Stanley Gordon.
The PCB decided not to drop Moin Khan from the practice games at Peshawar and Rawalpindi citing that any drastic changes made now could affect the team's performance on the forthcoming tour of New Zealand. The PCB had earlier excluded Moin from the practice games as it was upset with Moin following reports that the skipper had leaked the story of the players not being happy with coach Javed Miandad's getting the lion's share of sponsorship money. It seems that the PCB was later convinced that Moin had not leaked the story.
The BCCI has received a proposal for an additional one-dayer to be played to collect funds for the Gujarat quake victims. The proceeds from the match (sponsorhip rights, TV rights money and sale of tickets) will be donated to the Prime Ministers Relief Fund. The vice-president of the BCCI, CK Khanna said since it was a noble cause he hoped the Australian Board would co-operate. The date and venue is yet to be decided.
Matthew Hayden is meticulously planning his preparation for Australia's tour of India, practicing on a pitch designed to mirror conditions on the subcontinent. Hayden has asked the curator at Brisbane's Allan Border Field to roll him a flat, turning wicket and a variety of promising spinners will bowl at him in the next fortnight. The Australian team is due to leave for India in two weeks.
Sourav Ganguly roped in Rs. 8 lakh in an auction of his memorabilia, which included his bats, his jersey and a bat that was gifted to him by Brian Lara on India's 1996-97 tour of the West Indies. The money was raised to help 11-year old Bidurin Chakraborty who is a leukaemia patient.
The English Cricket Board has decided it will take no action over match-fix allegations made by former Essex player Don Topley. Topley claimed the outcomes of two matches between Lancashire and Essex at Old Trafford in 1991 were fixed. The ECB said the matter was now closed following a report from Gerard Elias QC, which concluded that no disciplinary action should be taken. Elias, chairman of the ECB's discipline standing committee, said in a statement that Topley's allegations had not been corroborated and they had also been rebutted by a number of potential witnesses.
Eight of cricket's 10 Test captains have committed to a meeting to discuss the problems of match-fixing in the sport. The meeting will take place in Melbourne on 12 February. Only England captain Nasser Hussain and India's Sourav Ganguly, who both face tough series shortly, seem likely to miss the meet. The chief executive officer of the International Cricket Council, Australia's David Richards, will chair the discussions. Ten top players from eight countries are accused of having accepted money from Indian bookmakers in the biggest scandal to hit the sport.
Alec Stewart was in a confident mood as the England cricket team prepared to leave for a three-Test trip to Sri Lanka. But at the same time, he was clearly not taking England's recent progress for granted. "Sri Lanka is a very hard place to play cricket. We've got to work hard, battle for each other, keep trying to prove people wrong," said Stewart. In the meanwhile, Robert Croft who was tipped to retire from international cricket last year will now be flying out with England to Sri Lanka. He's likely to face a heavy workload during the tour.
Brian Lara has been made an offer to play village cricket in Kent this year, and the side is so confident of signing him, that the batsman has already been registered with the league. Multi-millionaire Simon Noble, managing director of the giant Caribbean-based Intertops internet gambling empire, has approached Lara in an attempt to persuade him to turn out for Maidstone club Lashings whom he sponsors. The club already boast the services of former West Indies Test stars Richie Richardson, Stuart Williams and Junior Murray, and in the past greats such as Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, South African opener Gary Kirsten and West Indian veteran Eldine Baptiste have turned out for the team. Noble's offer has reportedly been passed informally to Lara by his former captain Richardson, and backed up over the past few days by faxes sent to the West Indies tour hotels in Australia. Last year, the club announced that it hoped to sign disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje, but negotiations came to nothing.
Controversial former England all-rounder Chris Lewis has left Leicestershire for a Nottinghamshire club side. The Leicester Mercury states that Lewis has signed for West Indian Cavaliers who play in Nottinghamshire Cricket Board's Premier League. However with Lewis away in Australia the club is not yet in a position to confirm the reports. It's great news for us," Cavaliers' secretary Tyrone Brown told the Mercury "Chris came to us and asked to play. We did not approach him. He could earn big money in the Lancashire League but he wants to play for us."
The ICC has released details of the forthcoming ICC Trophy tournament to be held in Toronto, Canada from the June 28 to July 17, 2001. The event is the passport to the next World Cup, with three of the 24 ICC Associate member countries competing in the tournament gaining automatic entry to the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. These will include both finalists and the winner of the qualifying final. ICC Associates competing in the Trophy are:
Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, East & Central Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia), Fiji, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Holland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, USA and the West Africa Conference (Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone).
Scores at a glance…
1st ODI (Sri Lanka vs New Zealand)
At Napier
Sri Lanka: 213-8 in 50 overs (M Jayawardene 32, R Arnold 50, K Dharmasena 32; D Vettori 3-21)
New Zealand: 152 in 42.5 overs (CZ Harris 39 not out; E Upashantha 4-37, M Muralitharan 5-30)
Rssult: Sri Lanka won by 61 runs.
Man of the match: M Muralitharan (SL).
Yesterday's News
News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
