April 8, 2001
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Its cricket time in the desert once again. However with India pulling out of the Sharjah tournament has definitely dampened the spirits of the huge expatriate population as well as the organizers and sponsors. Virtually second string teams from New Zealand and Pakistan take on a solid looking Sri Lankan side. In the first match of the tournament (all day/night matches) Pakistan will take on Sri Lanka today.  Zimbabwe showed what international experience can do as they bulldozed babes Bangladesh in the first one-day international at Harare yesterday. The home team won easily by 7 wickets. Batting first Bangladesh could manage on 151-8 in 50 overs with experienced Akram Khan (35) and Mushfiqur Rahman (31) being the only noteworthy contributors. At one stage the visitors had lost four wickets for just 15 runs. The Zimbabweans coasted to victory for the loss of just three wickets and with 6.5 overs to spare. Incidentally, Bangladesh was playing their first ODI match as a Test nation. Bangladesh pace bowler Mohammad Sharif, at 15 years 117 days, became the second youngest to appear in a ODI match when he made made his debut at Harare. Pakistani Hasan Raza, at 14 years 233 days - also against Zimbabwe at Quetta on October 30, 1996 still remains the youngest.
At close on the second day in the fourth Test match at St John's, the West Indies was struggling at 130-6 in reply to South Africa's total of 247. The last three South African wickets had added 99 runs thanks to skipper Shaun Pollock's unbeaten 48. Debutant spinner Neil McGarrell claimed four for 72 for the home team.
Former Pakistani captain and coach Javed Miandad revealed that the recent one-day series between Pakistan and New Zealand was deliberately lost by Pakistan. His fresh allegations came just a day prior to the start of the Sharjah tri-nation tournament where the two teams will meet yet again. Miandad claims that careful observations of the video footage of the last one-day match at Dunedin on February 28, will reveal everything. Pakistan had lost the match by four wickets despite scoring 285 thus allowing New Zealand win the five-match series 3-2. After keeping a few days of thoughtful silence the Pakistan Cricket Board released its first official statement on the sacking of coach Javed Miandad. The PCB chairman Lt. Gen Tauqir Zia issued a statement that Miandad had a contract with the Pakistan team as coach till 2003 but had been asked to be relieved on many occasions. Gen Zia said Miandad agreed to continue only at his insistence. On returning from New Zealand Miandad had informed the PCB that he had no interest in continuing as coach of the Pakistan team. However the PCB chief said Miandad will continue to serve as a member of the Pakistan Cricket Advisory Board. After Pakistan's recent disastrous tour of New Zealand not much has gone right for Pakistan cricket. In trying to rub salt into the wounds, former sports administrator Air Marshal (Retd) Nur Khan has come down heavily on the Pakistan Cricket Board and demanded the resignation of the PCB chief Tauqir Zia. He said when Pakistan cricket is dogged with problems of fitness, sickness, laziness and low team morale it was only right for the head of the institution to accept moral responsibility and resign. Air Marshall Nur Khan was the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board from 1980-84. He also held posts in the country's hockey administration set up with great distinction. Not much has been heard of Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar since he left for Australia after being called for a suspected bowling action in New Zealand. Akhtar has been working on his action at the University of Western Australia in Perth with a professor Bruce Elliot and fast bowler Dennis Lillee. Akhtar said he is keen to come back and make himself available for selection for Pakistan's tour of England in May. Both Professor Elliot and Lillee said they were satisfied with the progress Akhtar has made. Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) has expressed its disappointment at the India government's decision of not allowing the Indian cricket team to participate in Singapore. Anil Kalaver, the honorary secretary of the SCA, was surprised at this decision, since SCA is an associate member of the ICC and also the founder member of the Asian Cricket Council. He further added that he was disappointed since the SCA was to shortly finalise the 2001 tri-series in September involving India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. One of India's famous spin trio EAS Prasanna lamented the lack of right attitude of Indian spin bowlers that is necessary to make it big in international cricket. Prasanna was talking after his first day at the MRF pace Academy at Chennai where nine youngsters from Australia were sent to the academy to learn all about spin bowling. He said the enthusiasm shown by these youngsters were tremendous and that they were eager and willing to learn. He said this was in contrast to the local boys who never used to approach him much for tips and advise. It may be recalled that probably Matthew Hayden's success on the just complete Indian tour was because he had undertaken one such trip to India a couple of years ago to learn how to bat on spinning tracks. The result was there for the world to see.
Both Baroda and Railways are in very strong positions at the end of the third day of their semi-final match against Orissa and Punjab respectively. Baroda, with a first innings lead of 288, did not enforce a follow-on as they batted on to extend their lead to 357 for just one wicket in the second innings. Baroda are more-or-less assured of a berth in the final. In the other semi-final match Railways too are sitting pretty after taking a lead of 158 runs. Punjab will have to bat well in their second knock and the hope for a bowling miracle to progress further in the tournament.
Bangladesh: 151-8 in 50 overs (Akram Khan 35, Mushfiqur Rahman 31; BC Strang 2-25) Zimbabwe: 155-3 in 43.1 overs (SV Carlisle 40, A Flower 40 not out, G Flower 32 not out) Result: Zimbabwe won by 7 wickets (Zimbabwe lead the three match series 1-0) Man of the match: BC Strang (Zim)
South Africa: 247 (HH Gibbs 85, ND McKenzie 35, S Pollock 48 not out, N Boje 36; N McGarrell 4-72) West Indies: 130-6 (S Chanderpaul 40, RR Sarwan 25; JH Kallis 2-24, Justin Kemp 2-17) 1st semi-final at Baroda (3rd day) Baroda: 568 (Satyajit Parab 60, CC Williams 35, Nayan Mongia 181, Jacob Martin 86, TB Arothe 86, I Pathan 48 not out; DS Mohanty 3-110, Sanjay Raul 3-76) 69-1 (Satyajit Parab 46) Orissa: 280 (SS Das 54, RR Parida 94, P Jayachandra 48, SK Satpathy 30; Valmik Buch 4-82, Ajit Bhoite 3-32) 2nd semi-final at Mohali (3rd day) Punjab: 249 (Ravneet Ricky 33, Vikram Rathore 44, Ankur Kakkar 53; Harvinder Singh 5-66) 6-0 (RS Ricky 2 not out, Manish Sharma 0 not out) Railways: 407 (Sanjay Bangar 89, Abhay Sharma 53, SN Khanolkar 48, KS Karida 36 not out, Zakir Hussain 30; Babloo Kumar 3-48) Yesterday's News News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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