A Pakistani civil court has summoned former South African cricket chief Ali Bacher to appear next month in a £1.1 million libel suit filed by former umpire Javed Akhtar, court sources said. Bacher, now head of South Africa's 2003 World Cup committee, made a number of allegations against Pakistani cricketers at the King Commission of inquiry in June last year. Among others, he reportedly said he had been informed that Akhtar took money from a bookie to influence a Test between England and South Africa at Leeds in 1998. He said Akhtar took money to give eight leg before decisions. South Africa lost the Test and with it the series.
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly feels that his presence at the Chennai preparatory camp is more important than the ICC convened captain's meet at Melbourne on February 12. He said the matter has been discussed with the BCCI officials and a letter in this regard has been sent to the ICC.
The Australian Cricket Board has ruled out the possibility of a charity cricket match between India and Australia to raise funds for the Gujarat Quake victims. The ACB Public relations manager Brendan McClements said that the Australians would find other ways to help the victims of the quake, from a range of international charity organizations. The ACB said the Australian team was keen to help. He also added that the ACB was not worried about the health or safety of the players on the Indian tour.
The BCCI pitch committee has asked the Mumbai Cricket Association to prepare a flat pitch helpful to the batsman for the first Test to be held in Mumbai from February 27 to March 3. This decision was made after pitch committee members G Kasturirangan and Dhiraj Parsana met with chairman of selectors Chandu Borde and coach John Wright. The flat pitch will counter the visitor's supremacy in both the spin and pace department.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh could be coming together on the cricket field for a noble cause. The Asian Cricket Foundation has plans to host a charity tri-nation series between the three countries in Sharjah between February 8-11. The CBFS has committed to raise funds to the tune of 20 crore. If the tour materialises the Challenger Trophy at Chennai will stand cancelled. However the ball now lies with the Indian government, since they had disapproved cricketing relations with Pakistan, ever since the 1999 Kargil war. The Union minister of Sports Ms Uma Bharati could not be contacted for a reaction as she was away in Rameshwaram.
Nagpur will host Australia's three-day tour opener against India A from February 17. The match was originally scheduled to be held at Baroda. However due to the earthquake in Gujarat the BCCI was forced to shift the venue.
Former England skipper and popular commentator Tony Greig would sign the certificates of blood donors on the occasion of the 73rd foundation of the Cricket Association of Bengal on February 3rd. The voluntary blood donation camp is an annual feature of the CAB foundation day. It is also observed as Sir Frank Worrell day for the last 21 years in memory of the late West Indian skipper who gave his blood to save the life of the Indian captain Nari Contractor on India's tour of the West Indies in 1962.
Former England all-rounder Chris Lewis has decided to retire from first-class cricket. One of the most naturally gifted players of his generation the Guyanese born Lewis has of late been in the news more for his off-field events. In 1998 he angered many of his teammates by directly implicating them of match fixing, although he never revealed a name in public. Lewis, however will continue playing club cricket.
Former Test cricketer Hanumant Singh has been appointed match referee for the forthcoming England-Sri Lanka Test and one-day series. This will be his fifth assignment as match referee.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Tauqir Zia is unhappy with pace bowler Shoaib Akthar having played only one of the five trial matches held prior to the tour of New Zealand. Sources say the selectors too were not happy with Shoaib not playing the second and third match after he bowled just eight overs in the first match and went off with a hamstring problem. The fast-bowler however insisted he was 100% fit and was not playing on the advise of his doctor. The selectors however feel it was not possible to judge his fitness unless he played consistently.
A West Indies loss to Zimbabwe in the Carlton one-day match to be played in Perth today could mean an early trip back home. Victory for Zimbabwe would put them into the finals, in spite of having the same number of points as the West Indies, on the virtue of their superior run rate.
England's tour of Sri Lanka has been hit by controversy just hours after the squad arrived with criticism of some of the team on their own website. After completing their first training session the tourists learnt that players including captain Nasser Hussain have been criticised on the England and Wales Cricket Board's official website. The criticisms were contained inside the players' personal profiles, articles which have since been removed also allowed harsh criticisms of Robert Croft, Marcus Trescothick and Graeme Hick to slip through. The squad will need to try and banish thoughts of the contents of the site and focus on their opening two-day warm-up match against a Sri Lankan Board Academy XI in Moratuwa beginning on Monday. In a statement, the ECB said: "We will be discussing this matter with site authorities at the earliest opportunity.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Board are busy attempting to seal a TV agreement for the forthcoming Test and one-day series which will enable the matches to be shown around the world. An agreement was struck up between the World Sports Group-Nimbus, suppliers of pictures for Sky and the board. But since the original deal was made, the board were replaced and the new board have dismissed the validity of the existing agreement. "We are free to negotiate with anybody," insisted board President Thilanga Sumathipala. "WSG were given an opportunity to come forward and that deadline has now passed and we are negotiating with three different companies."
Fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee urged the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) to demand the removal of on-field microphones of the type that landed controversial leg-spinner Shane Warne in hot water last weekend. "The ACB must now demand the insidious stump microphones be removed for all time," the retired Lillee said. Warne was called before the ACB to explain himself after expletives uttered by him to batsman Stuart Carlisle in last Sunday's tri-nations series one-day match in Sydney against Zimbabwe were picked up by a stump microphone and relayed to thousands of people in their homes.
Two of Australia's finest wicketkeepers, Ian Healy and Rod Marsh, and former Test spin bowler Terry Jenner, will assist with training two thousand of the world's cricket coaches at a two-day camp in England later this year. The trio will join England head coach Duncan Fletcher at the England and Wales Cricket Board's World Cricket Coaches Conference and Exhibition on May 1-2. Healy will speak about expertise behind the stumps while Jenner and India's Bishen Bedi will teach the art of bowling spin and South African Barry Richards will lecture on how to bat against spin bowling. Marsh will join Mushtaq Mohammed, Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting in a series of workshops dealing with coaching issues from mental preparation to opening the batting. More than two thousand coaches from 32 countries attended the first conference in 1999, the largest cricket coach education event ever staged
Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak was diplomatic about the standard of umpiring during his team's tri-nation one-day series in Australia. Zimbabwe appears to have been on the receiving end of a number of doubtful decisions including of Andrew Symonds of the very first ball of the Australian innings at Hobart where Zimbabwe were in a strong position. Streak said umpiring and the use of television replay technology to aid umpires would be on the agenda of the captains meet scheduled to be held at Melbourne next month.
Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar is to make a belated appearance at Trent Bridge, Nottingham after injury prevented him playing for Nottinghamshire last summer. He has agreed to take part in a star-studded invitation match on 30 June which is part of a 'Weekend of Legends' event being organised with the aim of raising £500,000 towards the club's Pavilion. The game will feature sides managed by cricketing knights Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Richard Hadlee, who both played for Notts during their careers. Other players involved in the Trent Bridge event include Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes of South Africa, and Shoaib's Pakistani teammates Saaed Anwar, Abdur Razzaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi. The Hadlee v Sobers match will be followed by an England Masters v Australia Masters game on 1 July.
Scores at a glance…
Duleep Trophy (1st day)
At Pune (West Zone vs East Zone)
West Zone: 384-4 (HH Kanitkar 42, SR Tendulkar 199, VG Kambli 105 not out)
At Panaji (South Zone vs Central Zone)
South Zone:141 (V Bharadwaj 50; DS Bundela 4-58, Jai Prakash Yadav 3-46)
Central Zone:178-2 (G Khoda 87 not out, A Khurasiya 51)
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Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
