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South African left-arm spinner Paul Adams currently in South Africa with the Test team has been named as replacement for the one-day series for Gulam Bodi, who had injured himself in the Lancashire league and was unable to make it to the West Indies and replace the other injured player - Nicky Boje. Adams was to return home after the Test series, but will now stay back.
England's one-day batting all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, on this occasion with the ball helped his county Lancashire to an innings victory over Somerset. Flintoff was responsible in breaking a stubborn seventh wicket partnership to enable Lancashire to race to the top of the table in Division one. Worcestershire's first home county match against Sussex this season is likely to be put on hold after excessive rain and consequent flooding of the area. Part of the outfield had to be completely re-turfed last week. However the groundsman are hopeful things will be ready for this week's game against Sussex. Durham go into the final day in a strong position against Gloucester at Riverside after a fine half century from Paul Collingwood (59). Durham lead Gloucester by 276 runs in a match that has been hampered by constant drizzle. Former West Indian fast bowler Vasbert Drakes helped Warwickshire to reach a strong position against Hampshire in the second division match of the county championship. Drakes took two wickets in Hampshire's innings of 170 and another wicket as they struggled in their follow on, nearly 285 runs behind. Rain prevented further wickets during the Hampshire innings as they still need 171 to make Warwickshire bat again.
Sri Lankan off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan left Sri Lanka for England where he will play in the English County Championships for the Lancashire county. In 1999, just after the World Cup, Murali had spun his web claiming 66 wickets in only 6 first-class games for the county. He however, will return home when India and New Zealand play Sri Lanka in a triangular one-day series before the Test series against India. Interestingly, Murali has been advised to cut down his cricket by the team physio after he suffered a groin injury during the recently concluded series against England.
On his triumphant return to Sri Lanka after winning the ARY Gold Cup in Sharjah defeating Pakistan, skipper Sanath Jayasuriya distanced himself from the administrative crisis that has struck the country's cricket board. He insisted that players have been concentrating on cricketing matters and that changes in the Board would not affect them. Sri Lanka have a break till July before they host a triangular one-day series against New Zealand and India and a Test series against India. Sri Lanka's Premier League suffered a big blow when its main players refused to turn up for their club sides. They instead participated in the Mercantile six-a-side cricket tournament mainly because most of the Mercantile teams are the employers of the players and provide monetary support. There was an outrage over how senior Sri Lankan cricketers could miss a crucial three-day game for a six-a-side tournament as many of the big clubs like Sinhalese Sports Club and the Tamil Union lost many of their leading players and thus lost their Premier League match. Some more skeletons fall out of the Pakistani cricket closet as it is reported that all-rounder Abdur Razzaq was declared unfit by a panel of doctors to participate in the recently concluded Sharjah tri nation tournament. A doctor who is in the panel of PCB's medical advisers, on condition of anonymity, claimed that his advise was ignored by the selectors. South African based Richard Pybus is most likely to be appointed coach of the Pakistan cricket team. Pybus was Mushtaq Mohammed's assistant during the 1999 World Cup and later during the tour of Australia. He was sacked soon after when the Pakistan Board then felt he was a fitness trainer and was not qualified to do the job of a cricket coach. However, the PCB has now gone back to the 36-year old coach, since most of former cricketers are not keen to be involved as coach of the talented but controversial Pakistan cricket team.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) categorically denied reports that it was targeting international umpires during its investigations into match fixing. Earlier a source claiming that the ICC's anti-corruption unit's preliminary report would include a prima facie case against certain individuals, that included umpires. The ICC has however denied this report. The hero of the recent home series against Australia, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was felicitated in Lucknow by the Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee. He was presented with a Siropa (a sword) by the President of the committee. Harbhajan was in Lucknow to play for his employers the Indian Airlines in the Sheesh Mahal cricket tournament. Senior BCCI officials have begun to arrive at New Delhi for the crucial working committee meeting, which will be held today. Sponsorship of the team, appointment of manager for the Zimbabwe tour, and inclusion of some senior managers in the BCCI administration are some of the items on the agenda. The most important item will be the team sponsorship. Some months ago the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) withdrew its sponsorship of the "Wills Cricket Team" following the government's ban on tobacco companies being involved in sport. The house of Tata, Reliance Industries and Hero Honda are some of the big corporate names who are keen on being involved with the Indian cricket team. The Tatas seem to have a better grip on the team with the skipper Sourav Ganguly being on their pay rolls. The issue will be decided at the working committee meeting beginning today when the bids will be opened. With India's amazing win over Australia in the recently concluded Test series, cricket has captured the imagination of the business world. It has been learnt that skipper Sourav Ganguly has been signed up with an international software company to endorse their product. Under a new US$ 16.6 million three-year agreement between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Cable & Wireless, the team will receive $100,000 for every Test win at home and $200,000 for a series win. The new deal that runs from 2002 till 2004 offers the team benefits up to nearly US$1 million annually. These incentives have been offered to improve the performance of West Indies cricket in general. The team sponsorship has been made performance based instead of awarding player fees based on the matches played by them. The Karavali Cricket Academy in Mangalore is contemplating legal action against the five "missing" boys, who disappeared after landing at Adelaide airport. The boys were sent by the Mangalore based academy to the Australian Cricket Academy (ACA) for coaching, but it now seems they were only interested in finding jobs in Australia and settle down there. Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble, whose name does not figure in list of probables for the Zimbabwe tour is now in Johannesburg to consult Dr Mark Fergusson, the reputed South African shoulder specialist. Kumble will spent some time with the doctor.
Baroda won the 67th edition of the Ranji Trophy after a gap of 43 years by defeating Railways by 21 runs in a gripping final at the GSFC ground at Baroda. It needed an outstanding spell from India's left-arm pace bowler Zaheer Khan (5-43) to ensure the victory. The Railways at one stage looked set to reach the target of 223 runs wilted under the pressure only to be bowled out for 201. It must also be mentioned that Baroda were the beneficiaries of some dubious umpiring decisions at crucial moments on the last day. Meanwhile, the skipper of the Railways Abhay Sharma has blamed the umpires SK Tarapore and Jasbir Singh for the team's loss in the Ranji Trophy final. In his post match interview, Sharma said "Everybody agrees that the better team normally wins, but this time it was not like that. If there was fair umpiring we would have won." The Railways team management had also lodged a protest with the match referee, Rakesh Shukla, against the 'controversial' umpiring decisions during the final. Baroda, incidentally became the only fifth team after Hyderabad, Bengal, Bombay and Karnataka to win a final match despite conceding a first innings lead. In fact, Baroda's deficit of 151 runs against the Railways was the largest conceded by any winning team in a Ranji final. The first team was Hyderabad who won the 1937-38 Ranji Trophy title by one wicket despite conceding a lead of 39 runs to Nawanagar at the Brabourne Stadium, Bombay. In the very next season in 1938-39 it was Bengal's turn to win by 178 runs after Southern Punjab took a lead of 106 runs at the Eden Gardens, Calcutta. Forty-six later, Bombay won the title in 1984-85 by 90 runs, after yielding a lead of 65 runs to Delhi at the Wankhede Stadium. Karnataka was the last team before Baroda, to win a Ranji title when it beat Madhya Pradesh by 96 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore after conceding a lead of 75 runs in the 1998-99 final. Meanwhile, Jacob Martin became the fourth Baroda captain to lift the Ranji Trophy after WN Ghorpade (in 1942-43 against Mysore), RB Nimbalkar (1946-47 and 1949-50 both against Holkar) and DK Gaekwad (1957-58 against Services). For the Railways, it was a case of 'so-near and yet-so-far' for the second time for they had lost the 1987-88 final to Tamil Nadu by an innings and 144 runs at Madras.
The updated tally of Ranji Trophy winners since 1934-35 are as follows:
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET 5th Test: West Indies vs South Africa at Kingston (5th day)
West Indies: 225 (BC Lara 81, D Ramnaraine 35 not out; A Donald 4-54, S Pollock 5-28)
Result: West Indies won by 130 runs (South Africa won the five match Test series 2-1)
DOMESTIC CRICKET
Baroda: 243 (CC Williams 65, TB Arothe 52, AP Bhoite 57; Harvinder Singh 4-59, S Bangar 3-55)
Result: Baroda won by 21 runs
Yesterday's News
News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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West Indies won the fifth and final Test at Kingston by defeating South Africa by 130 runs before tea on the final day. Needing 386 runs to win, the visitors collapsed for 255 after being 209 for four at one stage at lunch. Despite the loss South Africa won the five-match Test series 2-1. This was West Indies' first win since June 2000 when they beat England at Birmingham by an innings and 93 runs. Since then in 13 Test matches the West Indies had lost 10 Test matches and drawn three.
Former Pakistan skipper and wicket keeper Moin Khan was given a clean chit of health by the PCB panel of doctors. In the meanwhile Moin Khan played in two domestic matches for his team, PIA, was told he could resume his cricket. The Pakistan team to England is due to be selected shortly.
