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Australia will go into their first Test against Bangladesh without a practice game or a training camp, and Steve Waugh has admitted that his team will beunderprepared at Darwin next month.Bangladesh will play three warm-up matches before the Darwin Test, but Waugh did not appear too worried about the lack of preparation. “I’m assuming the guyswho played both the Tests and the one-dayers in the West Indies won’t be picking up a bat or a ball until next week at least,” said Waugh. “I think we’ll be scratchy and not that well-prepared, but the guys are used to that now, and they know how to get themselves prepared.Waugh added: “It’s a pretty low-key preparation coming into a Test series – there’s no practice matches, there’s no camp – but it is difficult to keep having those things when the guys are away from home so much.”The series has already faced much criticism, with Dennis Lillee attacking the International Cricket Council (ICC) for organising such tours for televisionrevenue earnings. Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the ICC, has also broached the idea of a two-tier system, with promotions and demotions within the Test world.Speed’s suggestion did not find favour with Waugh. “I think that would be unfair,” he said. “How are you going to get the bottom sides to improve if they keep playing other weak sides? I’d like to think cricket is in a better state than that. I think that’s being too elitist.””They (Bangladesh) have got to learn and they’ve got to catch up. Sri Lanka proved they could do it; 10 years after being given Test status, they won theWorld Cup,” said Waugh. “So I think you’ve got to put more resources into these countries and help them out rather than say ‘you’re not good enough, we’ll see you in five years when you’ve improved’.”Waugh also denied that Australia were playing the one-sided series for financial benefit. “I don’t think it’s ever about money. I don’t think any of the guys have ever played cricket because of money. We’re going into the Bangladesh series to play for pride and respect,” said Waugh. “It’s a big honour to be playing for Australia, and a lot of other guys would love tobe playing in this series.”

THE Western Australian Cricket Selectors today announced a Western Warriors team to play Victoria in the Pura Cup match in Melbourne on March 6-9, 2003.The team is:
Justin Langer (Captain), Jo Angel, Beau Casson, Michael Clark, Murray Goodwin, Matthew Nicholson, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi, Adam Voges, Brad Williams and Peter Worthington.All-rounder Peter Worthington will make his first-class debut if he is selected in the final 11, on Thursday. The 12th man will be named on the morning of the match.The team includes pace bowler Brad Williams, who is recovering from an elbow injury which forced him to miss this week’s match against New South Wales.Three players, wicketkeeper-batsman Ryan Campbell, batsman Michael Hussey and swing bowler Callum Thorp were omitted from the Warriors team which lost its match to New South Wales at the WACA Ground yesterday.Chairman of selectors Mr Wayne Hill said with Warriors out of contention to play in this season’s Pura Cup Final, a team for the last qualifying match of the season was an opportunity to blood young players."We have lost our last two completed matches by close margins," Mr Hill said."It is the form of some of our senior players that has become questionable. We have decided to look at the potential of some of the state’s developing young players."Western Australian cricket is losing games and we have to look at ways to rectify that."

With a little more than four weeks to go until the start of the new cricket season one of Somerset’s closed season signings James Bryant is putting the finishing touches to his packing before leaving the sunshine of South Africa to fly back to the west country.The twenty seven year old batsman who has made his mark playing for Eastern Province told me: "I arrive in Somerset on the 21st March and expect the conditions to be a bit cold and wet to start with, but I’m sure I will get a few knocks in and get used to the conditions."He continued: " One of the main things that I am looking forward to incounty cricket is to play against top overseas professionals who we don’t really get to play against here."The domestic season in South Africa has been cut short to make way for the World Cup that has become the centre of attention for all cricket fans over the last few weeks.For some however the competition has ended in disappointment. The new Somerset recruit told me: "Both England and South Africa are out of the World Cup which is a great pity. No one here can figure out why Nasser Hussain bowled Anderson and not Caddick at the end of the Aussie game because they had it won! The majority of spectators here are English or South African so I hope attendance will still be good for the rest of the competition, but I’m sure they will."Before the start of the World Cup James Bryant played against England in one of the warm up matches. He said: "It was a good experience playing against the English side but just a pity that we didn’t bat at all well and were never really in the game. The best bit was Nantie Hayward getting fired up and sledging the England top order only to be sledged back even better by Michael Vaughan who hadn’t faced a ball yet, something that hasn’t happened in a while but should have."Talking about his own form in the match he said: "My innings was frustrating because I got out just when I had played myself in and received an off cutter from Andy Caddick which cut back and just clipped my gloves."Regarding the Somerset players he added: " Still at least it was one of my future team mates who got me out. Unfortunately I didn’t get to have a really good chat with the Somerset guys because everything was a bit rushed and hectic but I did get to introduce myself to Ian Blackwell."He concluded; "Somerset has given me a chance to play county cricket in England and my aim is to repay that by performing on the field."The young man from Eastern Province can rest assured that he will be given a warm reception by Somerset supporters at the County Ground some of whom will find it hard to resist comparing James Bryant with another `James’ from South Africa, Jimmy Cook who also arrived here as a virtual unknown but turned out to be very successful signing indeed for the Cidermen!

Making responsible fifties, Kiran Powar and Tanveer Jabbar saw Goa through to a four-wicket win in their Ranji one-day match against Andhra Pradesh at Visakhapatnam on Monday.Winning the toss, Andhra Pradesh opted to take first strike. None of their batsmen could make a significant score, however, and they found themselves bowled out for only 175 in 33 overs of a 35-over innings. Skipper MSK Prasad top-scored, making 37 off 35 balls. For Goa, SK Miskin took 4-46.Chasing 176, Goa got there comfortably in 31.2 overs. This was due largely to the fifties from Powar and Jabbar. Powar made 51 off 46 balls, while Jabbar scored 40 off 39. The openers – SV Kamat and SM Asnodkar – also contributed, making 33 and 27 respectively.

No other decision than that made today by the board of New Zealand Cricket regarding forfeiture of their World Cup match in Kenya was possible.New Zealand, more than any other country on the world scene, has been closer to serious injury and even death occurring from terrorist acts in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.New Zealand Cricket (NZC) could do nothing else.The decision of the International Cricket Council to stand by Kenya as a venue for the match may have been made for all the right cricketing reasons, but realistically the New Zealanders, who last year escaped horrendous consequences by good luck rather than good management, have a different view.The bomb that killed 11 French engineers in a bus outside theirs and the New Zealand team’s hotel in Karachi on the scheduled first morning of the second Test against Pakistan was the closest call yet for a team which had ended its tour of Sri Lanka in 1987 when a bomb exploded in a downtown Colombo bus deport.In 1992, an assassination by car bombing occurred right outside the team’s hotel and caused the immediate disintegration of the tour with five players and their coach opting to return home and New Zealand having to prop up their obligation to Sri Lanka by flying players out from New Zealand.No-one should doubt New Zealand’s commitment to cricket around the world.It has taken the risks and so far it has not had to pay any cost other than missing some cricket opportunities.Given the strength of the intelligence received by what can only be described as reasonable security investigation in Kenya, New Zealand had little other choice than to forfeit their game.That took strength because the points to be earned at Kenya’s expense may well determine where New Zealand ends up in the final scheme of things at the World Cup.But to have security information that came from American and Australian Embassy personnel, which was not sought by the ICC delegation on an official basis, and not put it to use would have been unfortunate in the extreme.Once again chief executive Martin Snedden has had to make a difficult call. It has been an extraordinary 18 months in his position with a tour to Pakistan having to be cancelled, its replacement called off after the Karachi bomb, the abandonment of a women’s tour to India because security was not available to an acceptable standard, a players’ strike that demanded careful handling and now this.These have not been easy times, but in a manner that has not often been demanded let alone seen by administrators in other positions in the game, Snedden has once again emerged triumphant.He has had the full backing of the NZC board on the matter after a full day meeting today.Extra security information was also presented to that meeting.The issue is not over yet.The ICC is clearly likely to be unimpressed and there could be monetary issues that come out of this and while a fine may be applied there could also be some fall out in the television revenues to be distributed after the World Cup.That has a compounding effect on the way NZC runs its game.But there will not be a New Zealander who doesn’t applaud the decision that has been taken.It has taken guts.Snedden, a former international, who won praise during his career for putting his hand up and doing the extraordinary for the good of his team, has also been exposed to the terrorist threat himself in 1987.However, even if New Zealanders did not back his move, he will have won the plaudits of his players and they surely have to be the final consideration.The reality is that the security risk is too high, despite the protestations out of Kenya, predictable as they may have been.New Zealand has carried the cricketing torch when others have dared not pick it up and this decision may yet be seen as the finest of them all as far as Snedden and NZC are concerned.

After taking five wickets in the first innings, Mohammad Faiq scalpedfour batsmen in Kerala’s second essay, giving Andhra Pradesh arealistic shot at victory in their Ranji Trophy league match at Cochinon Monday.Andhra Pradesh, overnight on 234/8, lost their last two wickets forthe addition of only 25 runs. Kerala, however, could not capitalise ontheir fine bowling effort. Apart from Sreekumar Nair, who made anunbeaten 46, none of the batsmen could stay at the crease long enoughto post a decent total.Wickets fell at regular intervals and, at the close of play, Keralawere 131/7, with Nair and KN Ananthapadmanabhan at the crease.

Agha Akbar: “By selecting Shoaib Akhtar for the tour of Bangladesh, the PCB is taking on the ICC. It would not have done so unless it was confident of a strong enough defence to get the tearaway speedster exonerated.”

The Pakistani selectors have included Shoaib Akhtar in the 16-member squad to visit Bangladesh for a short two-Test rubber against minnows Bangladesh. It is a daring step, considering that Shoaib has already been reported twice in less than a year. And if he is reported again, according to the ICC rules he would be automatically banned for a year. That could seriously harm the already much-chequered career of the dashing fast bowler who has barely worked his way back to full fitness.

Maybe the PCB felt emboldened after the Indian Board’s belligerent stance over the Sehwag affair forced the ICC into a compromise. Or perhaps the latest report from the University of Western Australia, reconfirming its position, has given the Board the confidence to dare the ICC to take precipitate action against Shoaib, and then face the consequences.The point to note here is that the PCB already had spurned, with unconcealed disdain, the ICC’s offer for correction measures, with Michael Holding standing watch. Some noises were even made to support Shoaib if he wished to sue the ICC for unfair treatment, even before Dalmiya’s histrionics and the University of Western Australia standing by its earlier verdict.
The argument for shunning Stage Two (the corrective measures) is that Shoaib action ‘cannot be modified’ due to excessive extension at at the forearm and the elbow joint.Logical course:Logically, the PCB perhaps already had a certain course of action in mind. Convinced that its stance was beyond reproach, and also that it had substantive evidence to have Shoaib acquitted for good, the PCB has decided to throw Akhtar in at the deep end to see whether the situation deteriorates further before the ICC Executive Board meeting in March. If it doesn’t, it would strengthen the hands of the PCB. If it does, and Shoaib is called again, the bull had to be taken by the horns in any case.In any event, the logical course is to get the issue resolved once and for all. A precedent exists in Muttiah Muralitharan who, once cleared, has not been hounded by umpires and referees around the world. Darrel Hair, the Aussie umpire who has questioned the actions of more than one Asian bowler, still thinks Murali’s action is “diabolical”. But despite penning such thoughts in his autobiography, he has desisted from raising a finger again. Meanwhile Murali has been allowed to ply his trade in peace, bagging a huge load of wickets at such a fabulous strike rate that he is likely to become the greatest spin bowler in game’s history.Double-standards: What has really been strange is the ICC’s attitude. The same evidence – the University of Western Australia’s opinion that an anatomical disorder made the bowler’s action seem illegal – which was enough to clear Muralitharan, is not being entertained in the case of Shoaib. It is a case of double standards, and is raising the hackles of PCB officials, making Chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia say in public that if Shoaib should want to sue the ICC, he would have the Board’s support.The Board has subsequently softened its rhetoric, not mentioning civil suits and court cases, but the issue will be up for discussion in the ICC Executive Board meeting in March. And it might be debated as heatedly as the Denness affair.The latest report (available with this scribe) of the three most authoritative voices of the University of Western Australia’s Department of Human Movement and Exercise Science on Shoaib Akhtar’s bowling reconfirms the conclusion reached in March this year. Both the earlier and the latest reports are with the ICC. But whether these will get Shoaib any permanent reprieve from the world body is a point of conjecture. This doubt and speculation is because the ICC, instead of opting for a logical course, has so far chosen to remain on the side of ambiguity while deciding on the issue. The sooner it decides to eschew from this policy the better it would for Shoaib, one of the few draw cards with the capacity to fill a stadium anywhere in the world, and for the game.

In an effort to revive truncated cricket ties with Pakistan, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has written to Atal Behari Vajpayee, India’s Prime Minister, requesting him for permission to play Pakistan at neutral venues. The Indian government is yet to officially respond.However, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, said that the revival of bilateral ties between the two countries would be delayed, despite the positive signals from the Indian government. He said: “It may take until early next year because of many reasons. Many of our cricketers are injured, while we have also allowed some of our players to play county cricket in England.”On Saturday Dalmiya met General Tauqir Zia, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), at an Asian Cricket Foundation meeting in Dubai. But Dalmiya admitted to the Times of India that the meeting failed to find a slot for the Asia Cup – the Test championship involving India Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – before next February.The Indian government had banned bilateral cricket with Pakistan in 2000. However, the Indian team is allowed to play Pakistan in multilateral events, as they did in the recently concluded World Cup. Direct sporting relations continue between India and Pakistan in other sports such as hockey.Earlier in March, the Indian government had overruled another request from the BCCI to resume bilateral matches with Pakistan. The BCCI claimed that it could be heavily penalized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for failing to fulfill commitments. In an embarrassing contradiction, the ICC promptly denied such a possibility, maintaining that it will not hold individual boards accountable for governmental decisions.But with big money at stake, both the Indian and Pakistani cricket boards have increased their lobbying with the Indian government. “We want to somehow resume bilateral cricket,” said Karunakaran Nair, the BCCI secretary. Nair said that senior board members would discuss the issue by the end of May.

West Indies secured a place in the LG Abans triangular series final afteranother poor performance by Zimbabwe’s batsmen and a pyrotechnic battingdisplay by Chris Gayle at Asgiriya International Stadium on Sunday.Beaten so convincingly by Sri Lanka on Saturday, West Indies won in anequally emphatic manner today, as they bowled out Zimbabwe for 154 and wonby eight-wickets, reaching their target with 16 overs to spareGayle started his tour of Sri Lanka with a brilliant unbeaten hundred inMatara in the second warm-up game, but flopped in the Test series, recordingthree ducks in his last three innings.The one-day series started badly too, with another duck in West Indies firstgame and a highest score of 21. But today, in front of a small Sunday crowd,he provided rich entertainment on an otherwise soporific days cricket.He started slowly, taking 15 balls to get off the mark, and scoring justnine runs in the first ten overs after losing his opening partner, DarenGanga, cheaply.But, from the 13th over, he went berserk, clattering the bowlers all roundthis small hill station stadium. Travis Friend was pummeled for 16 in theover and Henry Olonga for 20 in the next. He brought up his fifty with a sixoff Gray Brent’s first and last ball of the series, before smacking themedium pacer for four boundaries in his following over.Particularly ruthless square on the off-side, where he hit the ball withawesome power, Zimbabwe’s bowlers paid dearly for offering the left-handertoo much width.He added 106 runs for the second wicket with Ramnaresh Sarwan, who scoredjust 14 of them, before Olonga gained some revenge for his earlier bruisingwith a stinging catch in the covers.But, by then, West Indies were well ahead of the game and his dismissalsimply delayed the inevitable, as Sarwan (30 not out) and 20-year-olddebutante, Ryan Hinds (16 not out) sedately knocked off the remaining 35runs.During the morning, after Carl Hooper had won the toss and elected to bowlfirst, Zimbabwe’s top order had failed miserably, for the second time in theseries. For a while they looked unlikely to reach three figures, as theyslumped to 53 for seven.They had no one to blame but themselves after a succession of loose shots.Grant Flower (3) played down the wrong line, Stuart Carlisle (1) flashed ata wide delivery, Craig Wishart (6) was run out and Trevor Gripper (4),playing his first and last game of the series, wafted speculatively.Only Dion Ebrahim, trapped lbw by good ball from Corey Colleymore thatjagged back into the right-hander and Andy Flower, also trapped lbw, wereblameless.Medium pacer Darryl Brown, one of three changes to the side that lostyesterday, started his international career well with three for 21 in themiddle of the innings, capturing the key wicket of Flower.Heath Streak and Friend did show some belated resistance, as they added 60runs for the eighth wicket, with Streak scoring 57 before he holed out atlong off.West Indies now travel to Colombo to prepare for the final on Wednesdayagainst Sri Lanka. Hooper said afterwards he had a “strong feeling” that hisside could upset Sri Lanka.They will be without Brian Lara, who returned from the hospital to the teamhotel last evening after dislocating his elbow and will stay with the teamuntil the end of the tour. His arm will remain in a sling for two weeks andthe management is hopeful that he can be back playing in 5-6 weeks.Zimbabwe will now start preparations for a tough series against Sri Lanka,starting on 27 December. They have a three-day practice match starting 21December.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has appointed Nigel Laughton, who previously worked as ICC European Development Manager, as the new National Academy Manager. He started work in the ECB offices at Lord’s on Monday 9 July.John Abrahams, currently the ECB National Coach for the North West Region, has been appointed as the National Academy Assistant Coach. He will start this post in September.On Saturday 14 July, Hugh Morris, ECB Performance Director, NigelLaughton and John Abrahams travelled to the Australian National Academy inAdelaide, which will host the National Academy for the first year, tofinalise plans for this winter’s programme.Full details on the 2001-2 National Academy programme, as well as the identity of the National Academy Director, will be announced in due course.