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July 14, 2001
Cricket |
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The Ashes Test series
Australia's tear away fast bowler Bret Lee was left out of the squad that began a three day match against Somerset at Taunton yesterday. The Australian management said it was a minor problem and Lee was being rested just as a precautionary measure. Australia also rested skipper Steve Waugh and their main bowlers McGrath, Gillespie and Warne.
India touring Sri Lanka
The Sports Ministry of Sri Lanka gave its approval to the 15-man cricket team, named to play the triangular one day series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Sports Minister Lakshman Kiriella had expressed his unhappiness over the non inclusion of off-spinner Thilan Samaraweera after the youngster performed impressively in the A teams series against Pakistan recently. Kiriella said his only concern was, if ignoring impressive performances of youngsters would demoralize them, but decided that interfering in selection procedures would create a bad precedent. The team for the one-day series is as follows. The 55-year old joint secretary of the Maharashtra Cricket Association Anant Mate was appointed administrative manager for the Indian team's tour of Sri Lanka. He replaces Chetan Chauhan, who was the manager for the home series against Australia as well as the tour of Zimbabwe. Mate who was given half and hour to accept the appointment runs a truck transport business in Pune. He will leave to Chennai on the way to Sri Lanka on Sunday.
The ICC Trophy Netherlands and Namibia have qualified to participate in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. The two teams are assured participation by virtue of qualifying for the finals of the ICC Trophy currently being played at Toronto, Canada. The final will be played on July 17th. The play off for the third place will be between Scotland and hosts Canada. The top three teams qualify to play the 2003 World Cup. An Irish journalist covering the ICC Trophy in Canada ended up playing for Ireland after injuries struck the team leaving them short of players. James Fitzgerald a journalist who plays club cricket in Dublin was brought in after a spate of injuries struck the Irish squad. They eventually lost the game against Holland by two runs. Ireland were earlier struck a crucial blow when their vice captain Decker Curry returned home in a huff following a disagreement with New Zealand coach Ken Rutherford over the batting order.
Miscellaneous : Sri Lankan cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva have been cleared by the investigator appointed by the Sri Lankan Board. The two cricketers were given the clean chit after Desmond Fernando the Board appointed anti-corruption commissioner could not find any concrete proof. With Bookie Mukesh Gupta failing to appear before the ICC the Sri Lankan duo, like Stewart were cleared. Apart from paying the two money for under performing on their tour of India in 1994 Gupta is also alleged to have paid Aravinda $60,000 towards the upkeep of his Australian girlfriend and their child. A student who was assaulted by the Ranatunga family, outside their household in early March this year had to be admitted to a mental hospital. The injured a student of the Ashoka Vidyalaya was admitted after he began pretending to be a member of the Ranatunga family. Australia's Malcolm Speed took over as the Chief Executive Officer o the International Cricket Council yesterday. He takes over from David Richards. Zahid Noorani, chief executive of the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series in Sharjah announced that Pakistan and Sri Lanka have agreed to participate in one-day tournaments in Sharjah for the next three years. Cricket in Sharjah suffered a big blow last year when the Indian government banned the national team for participating in CBFS tournaments due to the cloud of matchfixing allegations hanging over the desert venue. Zimbabwe will be the third team in the next tournament that is to be held in the last week of October with the winner taking away a whooping $120,000 prize.
Of Ashes and Captains! In the fourth Ashes Test at Leeds in 1968 both captains were leading their country for the first and the eventually the last time in their respective careers. Barry Jarman (Australia) and Tom Graveny (England) filled in for Bill Lawry (Australia) and Colin Cowdrey (England) who were both injured. Jarman also had the distinction of becoming Australia's first wicket keeper batsman since 1894-95. The match was drawn. Yesterday's News ......................... News Roll archive |
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With the captaincy issue out of the way the English selectors are now faced with yet another dilemma and that is to find a suitable substitute for injured skipper Nasser Hussain in the batting order. Surrey's Mark Ramprakash is the most likely candidate to take his place. Ramprakash who was included in the squad for the first Test was forced to pull out in the last minute due to a hamstring strain. He is however scheduled to represent his county today in the final of the Benson & Hedges competition against Gloucestershire and that will be a true test of his fitness.