March 5, 2001
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Sourav Ganguly will become only the second Indian captain to lead a Board President's XI against a touring side. Mohammad Azharuddin in 1995 had led a BP XI in a match against the touring New Zealand side. The current skipper however is desperately searching for some batting form prior to the second Test at his home ground where he hopes to make amends for a lackadaisical performance in Mumbai Brad Haddin the New South Wales wicketkeeper will replace Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist for the three-day tour match against the Board President's XI in Delhi. He flies in because Gilchrist strained his hip while training. Haddin, recently made his one-day international debut against Zimbabwe at Hobart on January 30, will fly out, missing the final day of the Pura Cup game against Queensland at Sydney. Michael Slater's outburst against umpires S Venkatraghavan & Rahul Dravid has come under fire by the Australian media. Many of them have said his behaviour was "ugly, hypocritical, downright embarrassing and madness." Some of the Australian scribes have been trying to read what could have been the root cause of such an outburst. Apart from the fact that he has not had a very satisfying start to the Indian tour, Slater is also said to be having problems with his marital life having developed differences with his wife and childhood sweetheart Stephanie with whom he grew up in Wagga Wagga, a small town on the New South Wales-Victoria border. The decision of ICC match referee Cammie Smith to let go Slater with just a warning was also critisised by the Australian media. Meanwhile, ICC match referee Cammie Smith will leave for Sri Lanka on Monday and will return to Kalkota just before the second Test. Smith has been asked by the ICC to inspect a new ground at Damboola, near Kandy. Javagal Srinath is confident that he will be able to play the second Test at Kolkata despite sustaining a fracture in his bowling hand at Mumbai. Srinath had broken his index finger while fending off a ball from Jason Gillespie. The last time India played Australia at Kolkata, Srinath grabbed 6 wickets to seal India's victory by an innings and 219 runs. In fact he had taken two Australian wickets in his very first over of the Test match. According to a leading betting shop in Sydney, the recently concluded Mumbai Test match was one of the biggest betting Test matches as far as money transactions went. A spokesman for the Centerbet, a leading betting shop in Australia said a number of Australian bookies played money on India but soon after the news of Don Bradman's death, hundreds of bets backing Australia came in.  The agony doesn't seem to end for Pakistan on their current tour of New Zealand. With defeat staring in the face, it will take a good solid performance from one of the players to save them from further embarrassment against a New Zealand-A side at Christchurch. The tourists reached 108 for four at close on the second day on in their second innings, still 70 runs behind. The Pakistanis were dismissed for a paltry 100 in the first innings and in reply the A side made 278. Pakistani coach Javed Miandad finds coaching a hard job. He feels unlike other sports, cricket coaches can only be of help off the field and when the players are on the field it is up to them to perform. According to Miandad in other sports like soccer, hockey, tennis or basketball the coaches can get involved during a game, which is not possible in a cricket match. "Despite having a game plan you can't do anything about it and will have to wait for the two-hour break. But by then its too late. While the players on the field, I am totally powerless" he said. The coach of the Colts XI will consult the Sri Lankan Cricket Board before deciding whether to seek action against England pace bowler Darren Gough. Gough was involved in a confrontation with batsman Indika de Saram and later with umpire M Samrasinghe during the visitor's one-day tour match at Kurunegala. Gough, however, felt that the batsman had tried to obstruct him as he attempted to run him out on his follow through. The Colts XI coach Hemantha Devpriya is yet to decide whether to let the matter rest. Incidentally, earlier in the tour Devpriya had considered reporting Gough for verbally abusing players from another local team. Meanwhile England captain Nasser Hussain has defended his bowler Darren Gough. He said as far as he was concerned there was no major incident and was surprised by the statement of the Colts XI coach. Hussain appeared to have send Gough after the incident to the dressing room to cool off. However Hussain claimed that Gough wanted to leave the field at the end of that over for treatment on a stiff back as he was unhappy with bowling into the wind, and strongly dismissed suggestions that the incident was a repeat of Gough's infamous barging incident with Roshan Mahanama during a one-day international match in Adelaide two years ago.
A determined Allan Donald wants to take the Man of the series title in the forthcoming Test series between South Africa and West Indies in the Caribbean. The veteran fast bowler feels he owes a lot to people back home and at the same time also wants to prove few people wrong. Donald, 34, is the only surviving player from South Africa's first and only tour of the West Indies in 1992. With 311 wickets he is by far the highest wicket taker for South Africa in Tests. During the past one year he has been plagued by injuries due to which he was sidelined for most of the international matches. After being appointed captain of West Indies, Carl Hooper shrugged off criticism that he was not truly committed to Caribbean cricket saying the commitment was there before and now. He was criticised for his decision to retire from West Indian cricket to play club cricket in Australia. Hooper said he is the same person but now a little older and wiser than before. Incidentally Hopper playing for Guyana in the Busta Cup competition this season has been in excellent form - scoring 889 runs and taking 24 wickets.
Ajay Jadeja who has been banned for five years following match-fixing allegations said he has dismissed hopes of making it back to the national squad. He said he saw slim chances of his playing again for the country following the five-year ban. He criticised the speculative comments by the media on the private life of players saying it was not fair to link the off field private life of the cricketers to their on-field performances. Income-tax authorities have issued notices to all bookies involved in the match-fixing scandal including Mukesh Gupta. Necessary action would be taken after the assessing officer compares their returns with those of the assessment made by the income-tax department. Help for the earthquake ravished state of Gujarat has been flowing in. This time former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga helped unite Kenya's squabbling cricketers in a charity match for victims of the earthquake. Ranatunga now retired from international cricket showed flashes of his old form when he hit a century for his side in a game played at Nairobi. Kenya's old and current players had formed two teams for the match. Money raised will go to victims of the earthquake. The match was organised by Kenya's former skipper Asif Karim and Ranatunga was a special invitee. The match attracted members of the national team, including those sacked by the Kenya Cricket Association for alleged indiscipline in February. It was the first time that the team had got together since being sacked early last month. Four students from Asoka College were hospitalised after being beaten by Arjuna Ranatunga's brothers and security guards at their home. A schoolteacher Lalith Amarasekara said that the local police had to intervene to free the students who were being held by guards from the Ranatunga household. The clash had erupted after the students played their ball into the house of the Ranatungas. Arjuna Ranatunga was unavailable for comment as he was away in Kenya playing a charity match. In the recently concluded three-day coaching seminar conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at Bangalore two women cricketers also participated - former India captain and Arjuna Awardee Shubangi Kulkarni and former India player Sudha Shah. They both expressed happiness with the way the seminar turned out and especially being educated on the new methods of training. They both would be trying out these methods during the forthcoming national tournament. Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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