All posts by csb10.top

What do you think? Send us your views

Kate Hoey, the former UK sports minister who is chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Zimbabwe, welcomed the news that John Howard had barred the Australian side from touring Zimbabwe in September.”It’s very good to hear the Australian government has given a clear moral lead and shown solidarity with those brave Zimbabweans who daily risk life and limb to free their country from the brutal dictatorship of Robert Mugabe,” Hoey said. “I was approached this week by cricket fans in Zimbabwe who asked me to help get the tour called off. They told me that they love their cricket and they love their country and were determined not to allow Mugabe to use the Australia tour to camouflage his oppression.”Mugabe has installed political commissars Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute to run the game; sport in Zimbabwe has been taken over by his regime for propaganda purposes to give a gloss of normality and divert attention from his murderous political oppression.

“Cricket fans in Zimbabwe despair at the supine complicity of ICC officials who allow themselves to be used as stooges for Mugabe’s grandstanding to the world. The rising generation who are Africa’s future feel utterly betrayed and disgusted by the short-sighted self-serving stupidity of these sports bureaucrats.”Hoey, who has been a vocal critic of the ICC’s treatment of the Zimbabwe situation, accused it of giving a message that “it couldn’t care less about dying Zimbabweans.” She continued: “It just wants to make sure it gets a few million dollars out of the tour to divvy up with Mugabe’s murderers – it is bloodstained money.”I share the view of Mary Robinson, the president of Oxfam and former UN high commissioner for human rights, that there should be a sporting boycott of Zimbabwe to bring an end to Mugabe’s reign of terror. I want the ICC to suspend Zimbabwe Cricket and to cancel all planned matches involving Zimbabwe.”Hoey has secretly visited Zimbabwe three times in the last four years and has seen first hand the problems facing the country.

Alviro Petersen continued his fine form in the Momentum One Day Cup, stroking his fifth century of the season to guide Lions to an eight-run win against Dolphins at Senwes Park. Petersen now has 594 runs from six innings, at an average of 118.80. Lions, after being inserted, rode on a 116-run partnership between Petersen and Temba Bavuma (42), which lifted the team to 276 for 7. Petersen hit seven fours and three sixes during his 92-ball 107; no other batsman managed a half-century.Dolphins were struggling at 56 for 3 in their chase before Ryan McLaren (62) and Kyle Nipper (55) led a recovery, sharing a 117-run partnership for the fourth wicket. However, both batsmen fell in the space of two overs, and despite an 18-ball 27 from Calvin Savage, Dolphins could only muster 268 for 7. Matt McGillivray was the pick of Lions’ bowlers, taking 4 for 49. Victory took Lions to second place in the table.Cape Cobras strengthened their position at the top of the table, cruising to a 113-run D/L win against Titans in Benoni. Cobras, batting first, lost two early wickets, but Omphile Ramela (53) and Justin Ontong (65) both hit fifties, and Dane Vilas provided a late surge, slamming a 23-ball 41 to take the team to 237 for 5 in 42 overs.Titans failed to gather any momentum in their chase, with only Graeme van Buuren (40) managing a score of note; nobody else made more than 14. Beuran Hendricks collected 5 for 31 to run through Titans’ line-up in 30.4 overs, as the team folded for 133.

Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of India’s selectors, has given the Indian board (BCCI) a “categorical assurance” that he will no longer write columns for any publication.The BCCI had decided to serve a show-cause notice on Vengsarkar for defying an official gag by continuing to write his weekly column and giving an interview to , a Mumbai-based newspaper, but will not take any action after Vengsarkar’s statement.The matter was resolved during the first day’s play of the Feroz Shah Kotla Test between India and Pakistan. “Vengsarkar had a long meeting with president Sharad Pawar and other top BCCI officials and he was now given a categorical assurance that he would no longer write columns,” Rajiv Shukla, a BCCI vice-president, told PTI.Initially, the BCCI had threatened to issue a show cause to the Vengsarkar for continuing to defy the ban as his columns appeared in a Marathi paper, , and Hindi daily, . There was speculation that Vengsarkar may even quit his post, but that is not the case now.

A second, even glitzier edition of the Stanford 20/20 tournament, to be seen by millions worldwide, gets underway under lights at billionaire organiser Allen Stanford’s cricket ground in Coolidge.The Cayman Islands, coached by former Trinidad and Tobago captain Theo Cuffy, and the fully-professional St Lucia side, prepared by former West Indies coach and player Roger Harper, will bowl off a five-week competition that comes in the midst of the regional first-class season.The Carib Beer Series has been suspended after three rounds to accommodate 20/20, a move which has been lamented by Colin Murray, Carib’s representative, and West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan. They argue that the timing is all wrong with Test series against Sri Lanka and Australia approaching.But the arguments against the timing are not being bought by two Windies legends. Andy Roberts, the former fast bowler and current selectors, says: “It is not a valid argument, it’s a cop-out.” Explaining his position, Roberts asked rhetorically: “Why is it that in the 70s and 80s West Indies dominated all forms of the game? Why is it Australia dominate both one-day and Test matches and nobody is saying the one-day form is having a problem with their Test cricket?”It all has to do with our thinking. And that’s what we need to develop in our players, the ability to think on their feet. It is an advantage that you are constantly playing cricket. You are playing every day, so you must psychologically become better at what you do.”Roberts’ old new ball partner, Michael Holding, also dismissed the opposition to the tournament’s timing. “One thing I will say about that, it’s not the first time, and I don’t think it will be the last time that it will be happening when you see one tournament starting, breaking and then resuming after a period of time, and I don’t want to start intimating why now we are getting complaints. But I will say again, it is not the first time it has happened and, more than likely, it won’t be the last.”Going further, Holding said the mixing of the longer and shorter formats of the game was not necessarily a bad thing. “What has happened in international cricket is what you would hope-they would play all limited overs cricket first and then Test cricket, or all Test cricket first and then limited overs cricket. When in an ideal world you can afford to do that, that is great, but if you cannot you afford to do that, things have to be changed a little bit, to suit one thing or the other. Cricketers should be able to adapt.”

Scorecard

Jamaica suffered a blow to their title ambitions as Barbados completed a 17-run win at Kensington Oval shortly before lunch on the fourth day. Jamaica, who led by 90 on the first innings, needed 201 but were bowled out for 183 after resuming on 133 for 4.Tamar Lambert (46) and Brendan Nash’s (37) fifth-wicket stand of 72 was ended in the third over when Nash was caught behind off a loose drive, the fourth of Pedro Collins’ five wickets, and he completed his five-for three overs later when Carlton Baugh Jr was given leg-before swinging across the line. In the next over, Dave Bernard Jr was also lbw playing back to left-arm slow bowler Sulieman Benn to leave Jamaica 147 for 7.While Lambert remained there was hope, but he was removed by Fidel Edwards, caught at slip chasing a wide one, and although Jerome Taylor helped inch towards the target, he too perished to Edwards. Man-of-the-Match Collins finished with match figures of 9 for 108.Chris Gayle, Jamaica’s captain, was deeply critical of the umpiring. “If you look at some of the decisions that went against us, it was really terrible for sports and the game, and it was just blatant,” he said. “It is not good for the game. It is also not good for people leaving this level and going to international cricket, and then it is something totally different, so we are not really happy about the outcome.”It cannot continue happening like this year in, year out. Jamaica always seem to have it tough, and decisions always seem to go against us. Basically, once we are playing away from home, it always seems to be tough for us, and it was the same thing last week when we played Trinidad & Tobago. We came out on top then, but this time, it was not in our favour.”
Scorecard
A sixth-wicket stand of 60 between Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin helped steer Trinidad & Tobago to a three-wicket victory over the Windward Islands. Chasing 185, T&T slid to 118 for 5 before the pair came together. Bravo hit three fours and a six, while Ramdin, who was out with seven needed, chipped in with four fours. With one run required, Reyad Emrit was caught behind but T&T crept across the finishing line. Shane Shillingford (2 for 58), NelonPascal (2 for 35) and Deighton Butler (2 for 35) did the early damage, while Amit Jaggernauth with his 12 for 133 in the game, was named Man of the Match.
Scorecard
Guyana had to settle for a draw after the last day of their game against Combined Campuses & Colleges was abandoned because of persistent rain. Not even the excellent drainage system at the National Stadium at Providence could help, and umpires and the two teams agreed to call off the game just after tea although the outfield showed few effects from the constant downpour.

The secret to understanding sport is examining a series of moments which explain how a game is won or lost. Take the first six overs of the T20 between South Africa and New Zealand, for example.In that period, the hosts were barely hanging on. They were still sussing out the early-season surface, which was not sprinkled with the usual spice of a South African strip. Their seamers steered away from a short-ball barrage and pitched it up instead. Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson took advantage of the fielding restrictions and the width on offer, and found the boundary 10 times in the Powerplay. New Zealand were stringing together what they thought would be the foundation of their success and AB de Villiers was unhappy with the lack of bite from his bowlers.

August pitch earns praise

South Africa had never played an international in August before Friday and they will be pleased to know pre-season is actually a perfect time to host cricket, at least in Durban where summer rainfall often pours a wet blanket on the action in the peak period. Both captains described the Kingsmead pitch as a “good wicket” with enough in it for both batsmen and bowlers. Kane Williamson went as far as to say it was “probably a 180 wicket” even though his team could only muster 151. AB de Villiers agreed but added that there was also some spice for the seamers and surprisingly, turn for the spinner, Aaron Phangiso, who also expressed surprise at the assistance he got. “I got value for shots,” de Villiers said. “But then the ball also beat the bat and that’s the kind of cricket you want to see: high scoring games but always something in it for the bowlers.”

“It’s an area we will discuss again – the first six overs because we are not as good as we wanted to be there. We wanted to be a little more aggressive,” de Villiers said. “A couple balls were maybe a little bit too full, which is not a bad thing, but you also want to see the aggression.”The game changed, however, in the moments after that. Immediately after the Powerplay, de Villiers gave the ball to left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso, his last hope in stemming the flow. Phangiso’s first over ended with the wicket of Williamson, who admitted he was hoping to take on the spinner but could not. “Phangiso bowled nicely and changed his pace. With the short boundaries, you think you can go after the spin but he controlled his length,” Williamson said.Phangiso, who finished with 2 for 29 in four overs, was also pleased with the show of confidence from his captain. “It was great to see the captain give me the ball under pressure,” Phangiso said. “All players want to succeed under pressure. I enjoyed the pressure and I enjoyed the confidence of the captain giving me the ball at that time.”The sequence of events that followed explain how South Africa went on to win the game. David Wiese took pace off the ball, Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel held back the lengths and Kyle Abbott mixed it up to keep New Zealand guessing, prompting de Villiers to call the team’s bowling comeback “near perfect”.”We slowed the game down and turned the momentum around and then ran with it,” de Villiers said. “All the seamers who came back for their second spells bowled really well. We mixed it up exceptionally well. The last 15 overs of our bowling performance was near perfect.The guys had really smart plans. When I spoke to them between balls, the guys knew exactly what they wanted to do. I saw all the variations from them: yorkers, good length balls and bouncers.”As much as South Africa applied the chokehold, New Zealand allowed themselves to be cornered. “We weren’t quite at our best in the last 10 overs. We know we have the firepower in that lower middle order to cash in on situations like that and we weren’t quite on top of things,” Williamson said.The collapse of 7 for 40 was partly due to no one in the middle order taking responsibility of the latter part of the innings and Williamson has challenged his team-mates to change that in the next match. “It’s a fine line when you lose wickets, and we lost two wickets in a row a couple of times which never helps but it takes one other bloke or two other blokes to get going and get the score moving.”

A group of cricketers banned from playing domestic cricket by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for having participated in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) will wait on a board committee’s decision before fighting the ban in court.Imran Farhat, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Taufiq Umar, Shabbir Ahmed and Azhar Mahmood were all banned by the board after they appeared for different teams late last year in the ICL. Of the group, however, Inzamam has retired while Azhar Mahmood is a regular performer in the English county season.Farhat and Umar are affected immediately, as they would in normal circumstances be appearing for Habib Bank (HBL) in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy final from Monday. “We filed a petition through our lawyer Imran Qureshi in the Lahore High Court to get a stay order against the decision because we wanted to play for HBL.”But after the judge deferred the decision till Monday, we reconsidered our option of going to court and decided to wait for the governing board’s decision,” Farhat told .”We can now afford to wait for the governing board’s decision regarding the matter as we also have enough time before the Pentangular Cup which is scheduled to start next month. Therefore we have advised our lawyer to act accordingly,” Farhat added.The Pakistan board had earlier referred its decision of banning the players to the governing board, which is expected to take up the matter in its next meeting on January 25 in Karachi.

Former Under-19 captain Sean Williams has been ruled out of action for six weeks because of a back injury. He is certain to miss the impending West Indies A tour of Zimbabwe if it goes ahead next month.Williams was sent by Zimbabwe Cricket to see a specialist in Johannesburg and was advised that he had aggravated an injury he suffered 2004. He had played with the pain but the discomfort became unbearable in April and forced him topull out of the Westerns’ last three matches in the Logan Cup. In the game he sis play he led Westerns to victory with some superb batting that saw him score a century and two fifties in four outings. His absence was felt as Westerns went on to lose their last two matches against eventual winners Easterns and Southerns, defeats that cost them the title.Sources close to the player have indicated that he might join the longlist of players who have walked out on their homeland because of the waythe game is being run by the Peter Chingoka led administration. He did turn his back once before but changed his mind and returned to the side.

Lalchand Rajput is not surprised that he has been appointed cricket manager of the Indian team for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship to be held in South Africa in September. “My name has been doing the rounds each time a coaching role in any capacity has been discussed in the recent past, but it is an honour to get this opportunity”, Rajput said from Kandy, where he is the coach of the India Under-19s, playing their second Test of the series.Though he was yet to officially receive the news from the BCCI, Rajput said he was looking forward to the challenge. “I’ve been doing very well as a coach,” said Rajput, whose name was doing the rounds when the board was thinking of appointing an understudy to the coach of the national team.With the board’s head-coach hunt yet to take full flight, and Chandu Borde, the current cricket manager in England, considered unsuitable for the fast-paced environment of Twenty20, there was not much competition for Rajput. The highly regarded Chandrakant Pandit is coach of the India A side currently touring Kenya but what might have turned the balance in Rajput’s favour would be his coaching pedigree, especially his success as the coach of the Under-19 team, with whom he is yet to lose a series. In the past year, since his appointment, the team have won in England (Test series 1-0, ODI series 3-0, Pakistan (Tests 2-0, ODIs 4-0), New Zealand (Tests 1-1, ODIs 2-1) and now Sri Lanka (the triangular one-day series featuring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh U-19s; they are leading 1-0 in the Tests).Rajput, a former India and Mumbai opener, has had coaching stints with Mumbai and Assam and is currently also the director of coaching at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. “I have had a good rapport with youngsters in my various coaching roles so that would help me blend in easily with the Indian team.”India are yet to pick up the nuts and bolts of Twenty20 cricket. That’s something Rajput acknowledges. “We have not played enough of Twenty20 but at the same time Indians are quick learners so that gives me the confidence.” Unlike during the World Cup in the Caribbean, where the Indians were among the favourites, Rajput and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was appointed India’s Twenty 20 captain, have to work their way up in South Africa.Though it’s a daunting task, Rajput has a clear vision. “It’s a different ball game; it is really for young legs and you have to be involved always as every ball is important, so the focus and intensity should be good all the time. That will be the most important aspect we need to work on.”Even if India lack Twenty20 specialists, unlike the other teams, Rajput feels it’s a balanced side. “It looks a good all-round team with the right blend of some seniors and juniors. We have good strikers and the right set of youngsters to face the demand of the game.”Rajput has faith in his captain, who, he feels, has the ability to bolster spirits with his own hard work. “Dhoni is honest [and] has a very good work ethic, which will be a factor from the team’s point of view. He is a strong-willed person who doesn’t give up easily and you can see that in his batting, which will help him lead by example.”With little over a month left before the start of the tournament, Rajput has already set his agenda: “Running between the wickets and fielding are two key areas that will form the focus of the training.”

Even after the debacle of the first ODI, following as it did hard on the heels of the 3-0 Test whitewash, Shaun Williams, Bangladesh’s coach, had refused to become despondent. “I think still there were lot of positive things for us as we dominated the match till 60 overs and our bowling was tremendous,” he said.However, the biggest question surrounding the Bangladesh team is whether, despite the obvious intent, they can avoid repeating the negatives. Throughout the summer, the batting has let them down and the first ODI had presented the same script.Unlike in the Tests, they had made a promising start and Sri Lanka’s 234 did not look too distant at 45 for 0 in 11 overs. But then came the familiar collapse as they slid to 56 for 5. The broadsheets back home in Bangladesh have not taken to it kindly. The Daily Star slammed Mohammad Ashraful’s tendency to play rash strokes with a headline, ‘A fatal illness!’Ashraful had swayed away from two bouncers but top edged the third to fine leg. “Believe me I went into the middle with a mind set of avoiding the pull shots, but I made the same mistake,” Ashraful said. “I am ready to accept all the blame. All the other batsmen have reasons for their dismissals but there was no excuse in my case. I can’t still believe that we lost the match. What a great opportunity we spoiled.””It was disappointing the way we lost the match because we were in a position to win it. But I don’t want to criticise any individual player because the whole squad is disappointed by the outcome,” said Williams. Tomorrow offers another opportunity at redemption.However, they would take heart from the bowling performance. Mashrafe Mortaza, who had looked listless in the Tests, came back up with an improved performance and Syed Rasel strangled with a nagging line and length.Sri Lanka do not have any such worries. “We want to have a clean sweep in the one-day series just like the Tests,” Mahela Jayawardene said on the eve of the ODI series. Although without Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas they have a strong bowling lineup in Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Farvez Maharoof. The batting, with the return of Sanath Jayasuriya, looks formidable and Jayawardene will be looking to seal the series tomorrow.