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Bangladesh made a reasonable start to their first Test on foreign soil at Bulawayo by ending the first day at 256-9. After losing quick wickets early on a seaming pitch, half centuries by Javed Omar and Aminul Islam helped Bangladesh recover. Aminul Islam who had made 145 on his debut against India at Dhaka in November once again top-scored for 84. For Zimbabwe, debutant Andy Blignaut's claimed 4-72, apart from taking a catch and engineering a run out.
The final of the ARY Gold Cup between Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be played at Sharjah today. Although Sri Lankans have lost all their league matches to Pakistan and also their last match to New Zealand, skipper Waqar Younis will not be taking it easy as he felt that the Lankans are perfectly capable of turning the tables on this side.
The first day's honours went to Railways, as the home team, Baroda was dismissed for 243. In reply Railways made 91 for 
the loss of one wicket. Baroda began badly by losing a wicket of the very first ball of the match. They soon slumped to three for 30, before Connor Williams and Tushar Arothe rescued them. Later in the innings Ajit Bhoite made 57. Pace bowlers Harvinder Singh (4-59) and Sanjay Bangar (3-55) was the main wicket-takers for Railways.
CricInfo, an internet company will be the new sponsor of the English County Championships with immediate effect. The deal is effective for this season only. The format of the tournament will remain unchanged. Western Australian pace bowler Duncan Spencer has been banned for 18 months after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid. Spencer claimed innocence saying his doctor prescribed him a medicine for chronic back pain. Incidentally the 29 year old Spencer is born in Lancashire in England and has also represented Kent from 1993 to 1995.
The search is going on for the five young Indian cricketers, from the Karavalli Cricket Club affiliated to the Karnataka State Cricket Association, who have been missing since they landed at the Adelaide airport on March 25. PV Mohan, brother of former Karnataka opening batsman and captain PV Shashikanth, runs the club at Mangalore. Mohan said each of the five boys had to pay US$1000 that included their boarding and lodging and also completed their visa formalities for which he charged them Rs.5000 each. He accompanied them to Mumbai and saw them off by a Singapore Airlines flight. The five boys are said to have cleared immigration at the Adelaide airport before they mysteriously disappeared. The boys - MA Biju, MO Siju, Jofy, UE Shabi and VJ Thomas - all hail from the Trissur district in Kerala and are not more than 25 years old. They are said to have been carrying travellers cheques worth US$3000. Mohan washed his hands off the entire episode saying his responsibility ended once he had seen off the boys at Mumbai airport. Former Australian keeper-batsman Wayne Phillips, deputy coach of the Australian Cricket Academy, where the boys were due to be staying, was totally flummoxed by the incident as he was at the airport to receive the boys. Immigration authorities however confirmed that their papers and visas were in order. There is a theory going around in England that former players make better umpires. Apart from knowledge of the laws, former players turned umpires are able to handle pressure better and identify the gamesmanship most of current teams engage in. Bill Athey, Tim Robinson and Richard Illingworth are some former Test cricketers who are now preparing to become umpires. One of the finest players of his era, Bert Sutcliffe of New Zealand passed away yesterday in Auckland. He was 77. He had been diagnosed as suffering from cancer. New Zealand had honoured his services to the country by naming the ground at its cricket academy as the Bert Sutcliffe Oval. Sutcliffe, a left-handed batsman, appeared in 42 Test matches from 1947 to 1965, scoring 2727 runs (avg. 40.10) with five hundreds. His highest score was the unbeaten 230 against India at Delhi in December 1955, which incidentally was the first Test double hundred by a visiting batsman in India. He also led New Zealand in four Test matches from 1952 to 1954. India's sports minister Ms Uma Bharati disclosed that some of the senior cricketers too were very much against India playing Pakistan at this juncture. The minister stressed that the majority view of all concerned was taken in this regard. Meanwhile, Ms Bharati has also appealed to Pakistan not to take steps that will endanger Indo-Pak cricket as India's stand is linked only to the cross border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan and once that is stopped India would be willing to resume cricketing ties
Former England fast bowler Frank Tyson has been called on to work with the Mumbai bowlers. Tyson was largely responsible for the success the Mumbai bowlers like Abey Kuruvilla, Paras Mhambrey and leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule enjoyed in the nineties through the MCA-Mafatlal bowling scheme. Tyson would be giving a pep talk to the Mumbai boys as a first step to improve their overall game. This season Mumbai lost at home in the quarterfinal stage of the Ranji Trophy and then lost all their games in Australia in the Champions Cup.
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET 5th Test: West Indies vs South Africa at Kingston (1st day) West Indies: 214-9 (BC Lara 81; A Donald 4-47, S Pollock 4-24)
1st Test: Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh at Bulawayo (1st day)
DOMESTIC CRICKET
Yesterday's News
News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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West Indies struggled to reach 214-9 on the first day on the fifth and final Test at Kingston, Jamaica after they had won the toss and decided to bat. Allan Donald who was forced out of the fourth Test due to injury took 4-47 using the early morning advantage. Newcomer Leon Garrick who had impressed in the tour match against the tourists and a last minute inclusion in the side suffered the ignominy of a first ball duck on debut - off the first ball of the Test match from Donald. Skipper Shaun Pollock claimed 4-24, as Brain Lara top-scored with 81.
The current coach of Kent, Australian Daryl Foster has rejected the offer to coach the Pakistan cricket team. Foster had earlier helped Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar to remodel his action after he was called for throwing. His handling of the fast bowler has impressed the PCB bigwigs who offered him the post as national coach. With Foster being ruled out, former all-rounder Mudassar Nazar, who is now the chief coach of the PCB Cricket Academy seems the most likely candidate, although former England batsman Geoff Boycott will continue as a consultant.
