Mumbai were in a position of considerable strength at stumps on thethird day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match againstRajasthan at the Wankhede stadium on Monday. Ahead by 107 runs on thefirst innings, Mumbai declared their second innings at 285 forfive. Requiring 393 runs for victory, Rajasthan were 26 for one atclose.Rajasthan, 224 for nine overnight, were all out for the addition ofonly five runs. Mumbai then spent almost the rest of the dayconsolidating their position. Skipper Sameer Dighe (64) and AmitPagnis (19) put on 53 runs for the first wicket off 16.2 overs. ThenDighe and Jatin Paranjpe maintained the momentum by adding 91 runs forthe second wicket off 26 overs. While Dighe faced 116 balls and hitnine fours, Paranjpe faced 114 balls and hit eight of them to theropes. Finally, Amol Muzumdar (63 not out) and Sushant Manjrekar (61)added 117 runs for the fifth wicket off 22.2 overs. While Muzumdarfaced 95 balls and hit six fours, the more aggressive Manjrekar facedonly 77 balls and hit ten fours and a six.

Air India completed a 70-run victory against North Zone in theCricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy for women (50 overs) at the CentralPolytechnic ground in Chennai on Sunday. North suffered a doublesetback with their captain, Richa Dubey, sent to hospital with aligament tear in her knee, which might put her out of the rest of thetournament.Set to score 196, North Zone made a sedate start with openers Gulshanand Jaya Sharma adding only 19 runs before Gulshan, looking tentativewas caught in the slips off the bowling of Smita for 11 of 28balls. Air India’s Smita and Kusumlatha pegged North Zone further onthe back foot with some good bowling especially by the former who keptpegging away at the batswoman’s off stump but failed to find the edge.The 14th over saw the off spinner Seema Pujari replacing Kusumlathaand she immediately struck a good line and length. After Richa hadtwisted her knee in the field, the 15th over witnessed the secondcasuality of the day when Mamta Maben dislocated her shoulder tryingto dive and field the ball at mid wicket. Immediately after theincident, Jaya Sharma (13 runs off 41 balls) was stumped off thebowling of Seema Pujari with only 39 on the board. The start of the22nd over saw Seema grass a second caught and bowled chance, but sheimmediately struck back in three balls, having M Raji caught at midwicket,trying to get on with the scoring.In the same over Seema again picked up a wicket with the last ball.Beating the batswomen through the air she bowled Reema Malhotrawithout troubling the scorers. The match shifted well and truly infavour of Air India as a reault of that single over. Seema went on tocontain the newcomers Gurdeep Kaur and Seema Wadwa and in an eightover spell she gave away only 15 runs.The North Zone innings lay inshambles and even a valiant effort of 40 runs by B Rajini could notcome to their rescue as she quickly ran out of partners. The next fivewickets fell with only 65 more runs being added to the total.Earlier put into bat, Air India openers Anju Jain and Anjum Chopramade an earnest start adding 87 runs in 23.2 overs. Both Anju Jain andAnjum Chopra mixed caution with agression as they picked easy singlesand never failed to despatch the loose balls to the boundary.The session after the first drinks saw the first bowling change withoff spinner Anjuman Bassi replacing Asha Jain in the 20thover. Anjuman struck immediately in her second over when she had AnjumChopra (38 runs of 71 balls) caught behind at the score of 87 in the24th over of the match. Then Mithali Raj joined Anju Jain who wasgrowing in confidence with every over.In the ensuing overs, Anju and Mithali played the North Zone bowlingwith aplomb as they churned Anjuman Bassi and leg spinner RimaMalhotra for some easy pickings. And in the course of the partnership,Anju Jain reached a sedate half century after facing 80 balls.The end of the 35th over saw Air India at 139 for the loss of onlyAnjum. But the drinks break saw the luck changing in North Zone’sfavour as Anju Jain was dismissed immediately, stumped of the bowlingof Anjuman Bassi, adding one more to the total. This brought captainPurnima Rau to the crease but some disciplined bowling from ReemaMalhotra saw her early exit after scoring only eight runs in 19balls. The introduction of Reecha Dubey (5/24 in six overs) proved tobe a big boon as she managed to pick up Mithali Raj (40 runs of 82balls). She then sent back Smitha (1), Kusumlatha (5) and Sunaina fora duck. Air India thus failed to capitalise on the good start andmanaged to put up only 195 for eight wickets on the board.

Queensland defeated New Zealand today in the second and last of the Black Caps’ warmup games at Allan Border Field, Brisbane, before playing in the Singapore triseries against Pakistan and South Africa beginning Sunday.Seven New Zealand bowlers took wickets in this practice game as Queensland, batting first after Jimmy Maher won the toss, recovered from 4/28 to finish with 9/191 in their fifty overs. James Hopes (37) and Scott Prestwidge (29) restored some order before Lee Carseldine added 42. BrendanCreevey (36*) hit three sixes in his 34-ball cameo at the end of theinnings.Geoff Allott took two wickets in one over, being NZ’s only multiple-wicket taker of the innings. Bowling practice was the order of the day for New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.After Monday’s onslaught, when they amassed 321 in fifty overs, today’s effort in chasing 192 was a big anticlimax. A tenacious Queensland attack had the complete top half of the New Zealand batting order back in the pavilion before the sixteenth over was finished, the score being 5/52.The experiment of opening the batting with both Daniel Vettori and Scott Styris was a double failure. Vettori made a second-ball duck, and Styris was out for 4. Both fell victim to Scott Muller. Chris Cairns, batting at first drop, struck two sixes off Muller before edging a catch to Wade Seccombe off Carseldine. Cairns made 13.Matthew Pascoe took two wickets in three balls, separated by only a no-ball, to put the Black Caps into a humilating position at 7/74 at the end of the twentieth over. Craig McMillan, who scored a century yesterday, shared a fifty-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Paul Wiseman before hitting a return catch to Dale Turner after he had made 39.Sixty-eight to win in nineteen overs is a friendly enough run-rate, except when there are only two wickets left and no recognised batsmen. Wiseman (38) and Shayne O’Connor (25*), for a time, made it look like the unlikely could happen, but they departed within five balls of each other and New Zealand were all out for 168 in 44.1 overs.Lee Carseldine had a fine all-round day for the Queenslanders, top scoring with 42 and then taking 2/13 from his seven overs. Pascoe finished with 3/18 from five, however Scott Muller (2/51 from eight) proved yet again to be expensive after his early successes.Adam Parore kept wicket for New Zealand today, having flown into Brisbane this morning to replace the injured Chris Nevin, who is returning home with a tendon strain and will miss the Singapore tour.For Queensland it was an upbeat end to four games in five days as sparring partners for both the Australians and the New Zealanders, who were looking for match practice before embarking on their next international ventures.

At best, the cynics said, Bangladesh can only bat. They don’t have thebowling and fielding to do well in a Test match. Well, over the firsttwo days of the inaugural Test against India at the Bangabandhustadium in Dhaka, the batsmen proved the critics wrong, those who saidthat Bangladesh players could bat only for 30 overs and not for sixand seven hours. And on Sunday, the bowlers and fielders made thecynics eat their words. In fact for long periods, Bangladesh seemed tohave mighty India in a spot of bother and it was only a seventh wicketpartnership of 121 runs between Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Joshi whichsaved the visitors the blushes.The Ganguly-Joshi stand helped India recover a lot of ground and endthe third day of the Test at 366 for seven off 116 overs. With Indiaonly 34 runs behind, an interesting two days lie ahead. There is theprospect of a keen fight for the first innings lead. And whatever thelead and whichever team gets it, there is still plenty left to playfor both teams in the match. And whoever thought such a scenario wouldbe possible midway through this Test match? The pitch is still playingwell except for the inevitable wear and tear and almost any resultlooks possible.And for the match to have reached this stage, all credit must go toBangladesh. This was to be the day when Indian batsmanship would breaknew records and reach new heights, or so was commonly believed. Ascore of something in the region of 400 for four wickets was widelypredicted. But by their resilient qualities, Bangladesh not only keptthe famed Indian batting line up in check but they also took wicketsat regular intervals. And symbolising this fighting spirit was NaimurRahman. The 26-year-old captain led from the front in taking fivewickets for 110 off 40 overs with his off spinners. His scalpsincluded Tendulkar and Ganguly.And yet when Sadagopan Ramesh and Murali Kartik started theproceedings confidently enough, the stage did seem set for a massiveIndian reply. The first inclination that all would not go India’s waycame when Ramesh was bowled by Ranjan Das. The 18-year-old left armmedium pacer, yet to play a ODI, was pushed into the Test team and thegamble paid off when the left handed Ramesh, playing forward, wasbeaten by the pace and bounce and the ball brushed his bat on the wayto hitting the off and middle stumps. Ramesh’s 58 was compiled off 92balls and he hit six fours.Nightwatchman Murali Kartik doggedly held on and Rahul Dravid startedin fluent fashion. However on 28, Dravid was caught at short leg by AlShahriar off Naimur Rahman. But even though India were now 155 forthree, with Tendulkar and Ganguly to come, there was no need forpanic.The small crowd gave Tendulkar a big cheer but he did not last long.He was declared out by umpire Steve Bucknor, caught at short leg bysubstitute fielder Rajin Saleh off Naimur. The substitute wasnecessitated following an injury to wicketkeeper Khaled Masud who washit on the knee as a ball from Hasibul Hussein beat Ramesh. ShahriarHoosein took over the duty behind the wickets. With Murali Karthikhaving gone just before this, also dismissed by the same combination,India were now 190 for five and suddenly in a spot of bother.The rescue act was initiated by Ganguly and Saba Karim. The two added46 runs for the sixth wicket off 15.3 overs and looked good for manymore when the wicketkeeper was out in strange circumstances. He wentforward to Naimur Rahman and the next thing everyone saw were thestumps being disturbed. Even as excited shouts of ‘bowled’ echoed allover the ground, it was quickly apparent that the ball had come offShahriar Hoosain’s pads and then hit the stumps. Unsure of whatexactly had happened, umpires Shepherd and Bucknor referred the matterto the third umpire. TV replays confirmed that the ball had indeedricocheted off Hoosain’s pads but more importantly, at the moment theball had hit the stumps, Karim’s foot was just outside the crease.After an agonizingly long wait when match referee Raman Subba Row wasseen talking on the walkie talkie to the umpires, the red light cameon signalling Karim’s exit. A bit unfortunate to be stumped this way,Karim was out under law 39-2 (a) which states ”the batsman is outstumped if the ball rebounds on to the stumps from any part of thewicketkeeper’s person or equipment other than a protective helmet.”With six down for 236, the repair work had to start all over again.Ganguly’s graceful batting continued to provide a ray of sunshine andnow he found an able partner in Sunil Joshi. Coming together justbefore tea, the two proceeded to wrest the initiative. Despite thegrim situation, both went for their strokes. Joshi matched his moreillustrious partner with some bold lofted shots, while Gangulyremained elegance personified. They even caused the removal of NaimurRahman from the attack. He had an unchanged spell of 27-3-89-3 todayand he was easily the best bowler on view. Joshi now pressed on theaccelerator and took ten runs off three deliveries from HabibulBashar. In the first hour after the break, India scored 59 runs from14 overs, the brightest phase of the innings.Joshi pulled left arm spinner Rafique to the mid wicket fence to reachhis maiden half century in Tests. By now the 31-year-old all rounderfrom Karnataka was outscoring Ganguly as the partnership became thehighest of the innings and proceeded merrily towards the three figuremark which was duly reached off 138 balls. Runs came freely now as ifto mock at the earlier batsmen. The siege had been lifted and thecounter attack had commenced. Under its influence, the bowling becamewayward and the fielding wilted.The 350 came up and suddenly the Bangladesh total of 400 had comewithin sight. Interest now shifted on whether the Indian captain wouldreach his hundred before stumps and whether the two batsmen would comein unbeaten. But in the last half hour, Ganguly and Joshi put up theshutters, hoping to carry on their good work tomorrow. That was not tobe for Ganguly suddenly got a rush of blood, jumped out to NaimurRahman, who had returned to the attack, and holed out to Al Shahriarat long on. Ganguly’s 84 was compiled off 153 balls and he hit fiveboundaries. Like the seventh wicket partnership which realised 121runs off 32.3 overs, Ganguly’s was an invaluable knock.The light by now was murky but Ajit Agarkar and Joshi played out thelast few overs. No praise can be too high for Joshi who by stumps hadhit eight fours in his 71 for which he faced 112 balls. One must notforget he already has a five wicket haul in this match.

James Franklin, with the exuberance of youth, and Roger Twose, with impatience which may be the by-product of experience, respectively bowled and batted Wellington to a first innings lead over Central Districts on the first day of their Shell Trophy match at the Basin Reserve today.Franklin took 5-39 from 20 overs, the best return of his formative Trophy career, as Wellington impressed Central into batting, then rolled them for 111. And Twose, seemingly reluctant to dally at the crease – batting like a man with a pressing appointment – took 57 from 46 balls as it reached 153-3 by stumps in reply.Their joint efforts and the patient unbeaten innings of Wellington captain Matthew Bell, who was 71 at stumps, left Wellington in firm, satisfied control of the match with three full days still yawning before them.But the efforts of the batsmen, who enforced Wellington’s superiority this afternoon, can be considered secondary to those of Franklin and his fellow bowlers who so forcefully supported Bell’s decision to field on winning the toss.Offered the new ball in the absence of Carl Bulfin and Mark Gillespie, the spearheads of Wellington’s attack who are absent through injury, Franklin nipped the top from Central’s order then returned after lunch to shiver their innings totally.He took 2-22 in his first spell of eight overs, claiming his and Central’s first wicket with the first ball of the third over, bowled Ben Smith to leave Central 12-2 and bowed briefly out of the attack when they were three wickets down after 15 overs.He strongly embellished that first spell with another prior to lunch and a third in the afternoon session that returned 3-8 from seven overs. Two of his victims – Smith and Martin Sigley – were bowled and three more fell lbw as he first disconcerted batsmen with bounce and pace then worked them out with fuller and seaming deliveries.Sigley’s dismissal was a classic case in point: he was struck on the helmet ducking a sharply rising ball in the 41st over then bowled leg stump next ball as he hovered, hesitantly between the front and back foot.Franklin found some movement in the air, more off the pitch and kept an intense pressure on the batsmen with his control of bounce and line from his left-armer’s point of release close to the wicket. No-one played him with authority and there has hardly been a better recent example from a young Wellington bowler of the art of exploiting favourable conditions, by craft rather than passion.Iain O’Brien chimed in, as Franklin’s opening partner, with the early wicket of Mark Douglas and added the last wicket of the innings, which ended in the 53rd over. He finished with 2-14 from 10.3 overs and Matthew Walker, with subtler but demanding medium pace, with 2-10 from 11 overs.David Kelly, opening with Hill, was a bewildered spectator as three Central wickets fell for 23 runs in the first 10 overs, with each batsman making only six. He was still four not out when the third wicket fell and had batted watchfully for 93 minutes for 11 runs when he was out in the 24th over when Central was 56-4.Jamie How, the young Manawatu batsman making his debut, added 33 with Kelly in 57 minuts for the fourth wicket and 20 with Jacob Oram for the fifth before becoming the sixth man out for 28 when Central was 80. He was Franklin’s third victim, fallen after defying the Wellington bowlers for 106 minutes.Greg Todd, 17, was similarly a close witness to the dismisssals of How, Sigley, Hamish Morgan, Ewan Thompson and Michael Mason, stranded on 16 not out after batting through the last hour of the innings.His 16, How’s 28, Kelly’s 11, Thompson’s 10 were faintly luminous points in a lustreless innings. Four batsmen were out for six and Wellington’s 21 extras were the innings’ second highest score.Wellington’s position at stumps might have been more formidable but for the almost extravagant waste of the wickets of Richard Jones and Jason Wells as they mounted their reply. Jones was out for 9 in the 12th over when Wellington was 26, pulling an undistinguished delivery from Oram to square leg. And Wells simply directed another short ball from Oram to Mark Douglas at second slip when he had spent 32 minutes making one run. Wellington was 44 for two.Twose was not prepared to brook such timidity. He strode to the wicket with the demeanour of a man impatient with proceedings and after watching long enough to be certain the wicket held terrors only for the infirm he set about Central’s bowling with dismissive authority.He flicked a six, almost disdainfully, over square leg from Oram, threw another over long-on then dismissed nine deliveries to the boundary, peremptorily and with almost callous disapproval that they had been served him in the first place.He played at times from his crease, fetching half volleys to the point and cover boundaries, then stepped emphtically down the wicket and drove straight, thunderously and with the full face of the bat.Twose surpasseed in eight overs, after arriving at the crease in the 20th over, the score Bell had dallied over for 28 overs. He reached his half century in 33 minutes from as many balls and departed 13 balls later, when his captain was yet only 43.Bell, whose innings mixed stout defence with a series of almost ballistic pulls through square leg, went on to his own half century in 140 minutes and had batted more than three hours when stumps were drawn minutes after 6pm.Wellington resume tomorrow with Bell not out 71, Selwyn Blackmore 13 not out, on a wicket becoming hard and true and with a large amount of batting still to come.

The Sri Lankan cricket board has revealed that the number of teams in the Premier League – the flagship domestic competition in Sri Lanka – is to be reduced to 16. It’s only a reduction of two, but if this is the prelude to a radical restructuring of the first class game then this represents a momentous occasion for Sri Lankan cricket.More noteworthy than the construction of grandiose cricket stadiums and high technology training centers. More important than the controversial employment of foreign batting coaches and far more significant than the fanciful development of fast bouncy pitches in the backyard of Premadasa International Stadium.Sri Lanka is blessed with rich, almost embarrassing, reserves of cricketing talent. Moreover because the game is followed with such enthusiasm, Sri Lankan youngsters develop sound technical skills at an early age. Compare the best eight-year-old in Manchester or Sydney and he will not be able to match the technical prowess of the best eight-year-old in Colombo.Surely, if a combination of natural talent and technical skill were sufficient to ensure international success then Sri Lanka, India or Pakistan would be perched on the top of Wisden’s world table. Unfortunately they are not sufficient and Sri Lanka is not riding roughshod over the rest of the cricketing world.The single most important reason for this is, without doubt, the present state of first class cricket in Sri Lanka. It should pit the best players in the land against each other, it should be a finishing school that polishes the technical skills of the young, and it should wed mental substance to natural talent, ensuring that each player has the necessary tools to perform whilst under pressure. It fails miserably in all these departments and by doing so it robs a cricket loving people of their rightful success.In general, the Premier League produces middling cricket played out at an easygoing pace. There is too little at stake and far too many teams. This year, 18 teams and approximately 250 players participated. What is more, the best players in the land don’t play – national squad players missed most of the season and others opted instead to play club cricket in Australia rather than Sri Lanka.With the exception of a handful of games in the final stages of the Super Eight competition, the standard is not high enough to test the best players and not high enough to sharpen the skills of the youngsters coming through. The disparity in talent, both within and between teams, is alarming. Moreover the intensity of the games are more akin to the low tempo affairs played out each weekend on the sleepy village greens of England.Small wonder then that the likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Indika de Saram, Avishka Gunawardene and Chamara Silva have struggled to bridge the gap between first class and international cricket. Although no one who has seen Dilshan in full flow doubts he that he has the talent to take on the world’s best, he lacks the precious experience of playing tough hard cricket and has therefore failed to deliver on the international stage thus far.It’s a problem not faced by Australian cricketers, who have been brought up in the harsher environs of grade and shield cricket. Their youngsters experience hard-nosed cricket from an early age and, when the talented ones slip on the baggy green cap, they have a greater chance of early success. There is just simply no comparison between Australian Sheffield Shield cricket and the Sri Lankan Premier League. Even the County Championship in England, a bastion of mediocrity for so long, provides a superior apprenticeship.The Sri Lankan players themselves have long argued that the structure of the domestic competition needs to be changed and members of the Players Association can be heard enthusing about the merits of an eight team competition, in which the best players are pitted against worthy adversaries on a weekly basis – a competition that produces high quality cricket in a high tempo atmosphere.The facilities do matter – especially the pitches, which have deteriorated in recent years – but not as much as the standard of the first game. Moreover, better first class cricket will help provide the necessary facilities by attracting greater sponsorship and possible television revenues. The fact that there is no sponsor for the Premier League speaks volumes for the competition’s irrelevance.If Sri Lanka truly wants to regularly re-visit the glories of the 1996 World Cup triumph and if the cricket board is serious about making Sri Lanka the best Test nation in the world, then the standard of first class cricket has to be raised. It’s too late for 2003 – success there is dependent upon the meticulous preparations of Dav Whatmore and his growing backroom staff, who have been rebuilding the side now for 2 years, but will still need every one of the next 18-months to go on to transform a talented young team into a consistently competitive unit. If they do succeed then it will be despite not because of the health of domestic cricket in Sri Lanka.Raising the standard – a term coined by the ECB as they tried to persuade the English counties to accept two-division cricket – will not be easy of course. The belief that change is necessary is not uncommon, but so are the low expectations of real change. Administrators of all factions acknowledge the problem – it’s just that some are scared of the implications of implementing it.The constitutional structure of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka provides a formidable impediment to progress. The voting procedures and the electoral system encourage unashamed populism and to gain office one simply must curry favour with the clubs. Restructuring the game, possibly by creating two divisions in the Premier League, would mean overnight relegation for some clubs and only the most brave or foolhardy office bearers would believe that they could propose a reduction of the Premier League to eight sides and still expect to win office the following year.There were structural impediments to change in England too, but eventually change was affected, as the clubs were persuaded that a successful national side ultimately meant more money; enough money to secure their financial security, regardless of whether they were in Division One or Two. The same holds true in Sri Lanka. The value of Sri Lankan cricket is ultimately bound up with the performance of the national side. Quite simply, the more successful Sanath Jayasuriya’s team is, the more television companies and sponsors will be willing to cough up.The Interim Committee now has an opportunity, a chance that Sri Lankan cricket needs them to grasp. They have been given a mandate by Sports Minister to affect change and they are not constrained by old board’s bogus constitution. They have to persuade others of the urgent need for change. The board’s constitution must be refashioned and the Premier League must be transformed.Hiring coaches, buying software, importing Australian clay and building player dormitories will not secure the future health of the Sri Lankan game. Raising the standard of first class cricket will and if, when this caretaker’s administration has finally ended, they leave in their wake a competitive domestic game, then they will have contributed something truly significant to Sri Lankan cricket.

England still have a couple of NatWest Series matches left but few could blame the players if their minds are already turning to the Ashes series.England have been outclassed in the triangular one-day competition by Pakistan and Australia, losing all four of their games so far. This renders their two remaining games meaningless as it will be the tourists who will contest the final.There is a worry that any psychological scars picked up during the NatWest Series could be carried over into the Tests but England paceman Darren Gough dispelled such concerns.”It will be a totally different side that will turn up at Edgbaston for theFirst Test,” he said. “We’ve got three days’ preparation, you’ll see a hard-working unit who will not be thinking about what happened in the one-day games.”We are a side who have come off a good trot; we got outplayed at OldTrafford, we had a couple of spells which cost us the game, but we’ve playedsome great cricket over the last 18 months and we are confident we can put up agood show against them.”As soon as I arrive at Edgbaston on the Monday before the Test. I won’t havemy blue kit any more – that’s gone for another six months. They are favourites,but if we play like we did at Lord’s, like we did in the winter, we can win it,and we all believe we can.”I’ve got my theories about Australia; all you do is find out the strengthsand try to keep away from them. They’ve got some great batsman – you have to beup for it, and don’t get down.”There will be days when you get none for a hundred, but there are days whenyou can really believe as a bowling partnership you can bowl them out. If we cando that in two Tests and win two, we’ve a chance of winning the series.”There are two good bowling attacks; it’s going to be the team that bats thebest that wins the series. We’ve got some experienced players to come back inHussain, Thorpe and White.”Looking beyond the Ashes series and towards 2003, the year of the next World Cup, Gough is optimistic about England’s chances despite the current run of nine consecutive one-day defeats.”The last two World Cups have been disasters,” he said. “We won the gamesleading up to them, but as soon as we got to a World Cup, we didn’t play verywell. There are young players coming in now and when we bring back men who areimportant to us such as White, Hussain, Giles and Thorpe and we’ve a good sidewith experience and youth.”It is disappointing when we keep losing, but these guys are getting capsunder their belts and when we go into the next World Cup we need everyone inthe squad to have played around 30 One-Day Internationals.”Owais Shah has come in and showed skill, and the fielding in the last threegames has been the best I’ve been part of. We’ve got something to work on. Iwouldn’t judge it until we get the team all playing together.”This one-day series was always going to be hard with the injuries we’ve had.We’ve missed Hussain and Thorpe, he’s our finisher, our Michael Bevan. All weneed is experience in playing more games.”

Waqar Younis, the Pakistan captain, talks about his experiences in England.Why is it that the Pakistani batsmen freeze whenever there is a crunch game?
‘Well, this is the second time it has happened while I have been the captain (the first time in the ARY Cup final at Sharjah and the second at Lord’s in the NatWest Series final). We probably take a bit more pressure than we should, our batsmen are more tense on big occasions. That’s why we lose wickets early on, and then keep on losing them. The same happened in the NatWest final. I would want to work on this aspect, and I hope that in future things would improve and we would be mentally tougher than we have so far been.’

Are you happy with the way the combinations developed during this tour? Where do you feel the improvements are needed?
‘Well, generally speaking, it was a good tour, and apart from Lord’s and in the NatWest final, most of the youngsters and experienced hands combined well. But we definitely need to improve, and for this I think it is imperative to bring in some young guns, some fresh legs. In my opinion, a lot of work needs to be done in the fielding area. That is one segment of the game where we are well below the international standards.’How big a problem is it that the opening slots remain unsettled, and the one permanent opener, Saeed Anwar, never really comes good in big matches?
‘I think you’re right in pointing out the problem of the openers. That has really bugged us for a while. Partnering Saeed Anwar, Saleem Elahi did reasonably well in the latter part of the NatWest series (he actually scored 70-odd in one game and nothing much in the final). Mohammad Wasim was actually very disappointing and Shahid Afridi too was not getting the runs.As far as Saeed Anwar is concerned, I believe he has played well. Probably he has been unlucky in the finals or maybe he is getting good balls. But he is an asset and can be of real good value to the country in the next two to three years. Hence, he should not be talked about in disparaging terms.I suppose we would all be working on our weaknesses in the break that we’ve got before the Asian Test Championship. There is also a month of camp training prior to that, and it would be a definite help in doing away with the chinks and generally improving our cricket.’

But as far as the NatWest Trophy was concerned, Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir were sent as openers. Imran Nazir never got a game. Not playing him was a bit unfair on the youngster and detrimental to the cause of the team. Don’t you think that logically, if Afridi was not delivering, Nazir should have been tried?
‘Well, I concede that we need to work on Imran Nazir and some other youngsters, such as Imran Farhat. Nazir, we thought, was a little too young for big-time cricket. But Nazir and Farhat are the two future prospects, and we have to stick to them till they are mature enough.’Under pressure all the time, how did you feel about captaining an unpredictable team in a high-profile England season? And wasn’t the finale hugely disappointing?
‘WeIl, losing the First Test inside three days, and then coming back into the series was not easy. It really took some doing, and I really appreciate everybody keeping their heads down and lifting their game to a level where we could wrest back the initiative and draw the series. Trust me, it wasn’t easy. Once we had squared the series we took our form to the one-dayers and I was very pleased with our performance other than the final. In the final, had we scored as many as 230-odd we may have put up a good fight; 150 was just not good enough. It was really very disappointing…’Would it have been slightly better had the team gone over to England a trifle earlier than it did to acclimatise better?
‘Yeah, it may have helped; we were there in the wetter part of the summer, in May. It’s never easy in those parts at that time of the year. If we had some more practice, it may have made a difference in the Lord’s Test. But I suppose that we’ve done well despite the odds being rather tall. When we started the tour the English press was mostly talking about us only being there to provide them with some warm-up for the Ashes. By the time we were through with them we had silenced our critics by proving to them that we still were one of the best sides in the world.’

And the number of injuries too was pretty high, wasn’t it?
‘Yes, it was, but that somehow has been the case for the previous few tours. I suppose the incidence of too many injuries also had an impact.’Are you still looking forward to continuing as a player and captain till the 2003 World Cup?:
‘Well, I’ve got no idea for the moment… I really don’t know. I’ve not spoken to the PCB Chairman, Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia and I would be leaving for Australia to be with my wife who is expecting our first-born. So hopefully things would be clearer once I come back and have a talk with him.’Thirteen wickets in two matches must have been a great morale booster…?
‘Yes, of course. As a captain it is always important to lead from the front, and provide the team with crucial wickets. As a fast bowler too, it was very satisfying. I think I really bowled well both in the Test Matches and the one-dayers. I am very pleased with the way I’m bowling these days. I just hope and wish to continue like this.’Do you feel the pressures of captaincy have had any effect on your performance as a bowler?
‘Well, on the contrary, my individual performance has picked up. After all, I was named Man of the Series in the NatWest Trophy. In my own assessment, I think I’ve done quite well as a bowler while as a captain, given the circumstances, my performance has been quite good.’Do you believe the crowd behaviour took a considerable bit of gloss off your better displays?
‘Of course, it did. But what could we have done about it? We tried to communicate as much as we possibly could to avert such incidents. I suppose there has to be greater awareness about such things amongst the expatriate Pakistanis. While we greatly value their support, when they indulge in such activities it only ends up giving us a bad name and puts us under unnecessary pressure.’What are your thoughts on the next home season, which is a bit heavy in terms of schedule, as the Test Championship is scheduled in September, followed by home series against New Zealand and the West Indies, and also a quadrangular. Would you demand from the PCB that it make, unlike the previous season, wickets that are livelier?
‘As I told you, we have a month-long camp before the Asian Championship. If I stay on as captain, we would assess where our strengths and weaknesses lie, and also those of our opponents and then decide what our requirements are and take it from there.’

The Goa police on Thursday filed a chargesheet against the Goa CricketAssociation (GCA) president, Dayanand Narvekar and eight others in thecourt in connection with the `fake’ ticket scam under various sectionsof the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy, policesources said.The names of GCA secretary Vinod Phadke, former treasurer RamaShankardas, ticket contractor Chinmay Fallari and his brother DevduttFallari, also figure in the chargesheet filed in the court of JudicialMagistrate First Class, Margao, they said.Eknath Naik, brother-in-law of GCA president, Gangaram Bishe,Venkatesh Desai and Joaquim Pires were the other four charged underdifferent sections of the IPC, including printing and sale of faketickets, criminal conspiracy and cheating the public, police sourcessaid, adding, the different IPC sections slapped against them were461, 465, 468, 471, 201 and 120 (b).About 200 persons, including those chargesheeted in the case had beeninterrogated since the police launched investigations about threemonths back into allegations of printing and sale of fake tickets forthe India-Australia One Day International on April 6 last in Goa. TheBCCI executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar had also appeared before theinvestigating team, police added.This was the second chargesheet into the developments related to theODI after the one filed by the police yesterday under section 336 ofthe IPC. The chargesheet filed yesterday also in the court of JMFC,Margao, charged Narvekar, a former deputy chief minister, Phadke,Shankardas and a GCA member, Vivek Pednekar, with lapses on their partto `undertake measures for the safety of public, endangering humanlives and with failure to verify between genuine and fake ticketholders.’

Shivnarine Chanderpaul guided West Indies out of a crisis to enable the tourists to go 2-0 up in the three-match One-Day International series in Kenya.He cracked an unbeaten 87 to lead his side to a six-wicket win after Kenya had set the West Indies a winning target of 193. Carl Hooper’s side reached that mark with four overs remaining.When Chanderpaul came to the crease the West Indies were 17 for three. Martin Suji, a 30-year-old medium-fast bowler, had dismissed Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga and Wavell Hinds to finish with the figures of three for 23.But he lacked any support from the rest of the bowling attack and Chanderpaul soon started to take control. He and Marlon Samuels took the score to 108 before Collins Otieno bowled Samuels for 46.Hooper then combined with Chanderpaul for a match-winning 85-runpartnership and finished unbeaten on 33.Earlier the Kenyans had rallied from 101 for eight to 192 all out, with James Kamande hitting an undefeated 32 and number 11 batsman Peter Ochieng scoring 36 before they were dismissed with five balls left. Reon King took four for 32 for the West Indies.