The Indian coach John Wright was reportedly unhappy with the Indian win in Wednesday's match at Bulawayo against Zimbabwe. Wright was upset that the Indians made heavy weather chasing a target that they were cruising towards and made it with just four balls to spare in the end when they should have won comfortably. The coach was upset at the way the Indians gave away four wickets to Grant Flower in the late overs and nearly threw the game away. He further added that the team has to be more competitive against the West Indies.

England's hopes of making an impression in the Ashes series that begin next week suffered one more setback when star batsman Graham Thorpe was forced to pull out of his county's (Surrey) match against Lancashire, due to an injury. Thorpe has been the mainstay of the England batting for a while now and has played major roles in England's recent victories against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Hopefully Thorpe and skipper Nasser Hussain will be fit for the first Test that begins on July 5 at Birmingham.

Injuries have also plagued the Australian side as well with top-order batsman Justin Langer unlikely to be fit for Australia's warm-up game against Essex. Langer was hit on the wrist while fielding, by a shot hit by Jimmy Adams in the game against the MCC at Arundel. He had also failed with the bat in both the innings.

Four Indian Test players, Vinod Kambli, Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Robin Singh will represent India in three-day ZEE International Double Wicket Cricket Championship in Jersey City, near New York, USA from July 13-15. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the West Indies will be other teams participating in this tournament. Two players from England are also likely to take part in this international event. The other players who have confirmed their participation are Wasim Akram, Shahid Afridi, Abdur Razzaq and Ijaz Ahmed (Pakistan); Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda deSilva (Sri Lanka); Aminul Islam and Akram Khan (Bangladesh); Jimmy Adams and Phil Simmons (West Indies). The event is organised by promoters Sports Worldwide Inc., while CinéMaya media, Inc. are the producers. The latter has produced in the past some of the biggest events ever in the USA, namely: The Zee Gold Bollywood Awards, 2000; Miss India Worldwide, 1999; The Music Festival of India, 1997.

Although Pakistan's eventful tour of England has come to an end, it is still dogged by media attention. The Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed has lashed out against the British media for its biased coverage of the tour. The manager said it was hardly their fault that four of the English batsmen got out to no-balls, three of which were not read by English umpire David Shepherd and one by the West Indian Eddie Nicholls. Yawar felt outraged that one newspaper had even questioned the fact that Wasim Akram may have taken many of his 400 wickets off no-balls. The Pakistan manager said the main positive to come out of the tour was the way Waqar Younis led the side and unified it into a fighting unit.

Manoj Prabhakar, is said to have been interviewed by the ICC's Anti Corruption Unit (ACU). Two members of the ACU team who were in Delhi last week have spoken to Prabhakar and his lawyer. The ACU team has also met K Madhavan, the BCCI's anti-corruption commissioner. Howeer, nothing has been revealed about the contents of the meetings.

Although the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) has confirmed the tour of India for the three match one-day series to be held in Australia in September, the BCCI has still not confirmed the team's participation. The tour is yet to be cleared by the working committee of the Board, the meeting of which will be held in the first week of July. The BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele said he had requested his Australian counterparts for a change in dates of the one-day series as it would clash with the Asian Test Championships and the ACB has obliged. The three matches will now be held on September 21 and 23 at the Colonial Indoor Stadium in Melbourne and September 26 at the Gabba in Brisbane.

Justice Malik Mohammed Qayyum, who conducted the inquiry into match fixing in Pakistan is said to have requested for an early retirement. He still has five and a half years of service in him as he was scheduled to retire in 2006 at the age of 62. The judge offered no reasons for his early retirement, although it seems significant that he made the announcement just after General Pervez Musharraf took over as the president of Pakistan. Judge Qayyum had come into prominence when he had recommended life-bans on Salim Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman, and had imposed heavy penalties on few Pakistani players including ex-captain Wasim Akram.

As a part of Nottinghamshire's Weekend of Legends at Nottingham a match between the Sir Garfield Sobers XI and the Sir Richard Hadlee XI will be played. Many top cricketing stars will participate in this match this Saturday. Former Test captains Pakistani Wasim Akram and West Indian Jimmy Adams will replace injured South African batsman Daryll Cullinan and Pakistan's Ijaz Ahmed, who has been forced to pull out for personal reasons.

India will participate in the eighth Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan in August next year. A confirmation to this effect was sent to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) by the BCCI. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong will participate in the next year's tournament along with Pakistan and India. Pakistan had won the seventh edition of the Asia Cup held in Bangladesh last year beating Sri Lanka. The six teams will be divided into two groups and the top two will qualify for the semi-finals.

South Africa have announced the official hotels, travel agents, emergency medical providers and wine suppliers for the 2003 Cricket World Cup to be held in South Africa and Zimbabwe. They are Southern Sun Hotels, Rennies Travel, Connex Travel, Netcare 911, Afrox Healthcare, and Bellingham Wines respectively. The official hosts will be permitted to use the logo and the mascot of the World Cup. The logo and mascot will be unveiled in October this year.

The International Cricket Council's CEO, David Richards on July 4 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, a day before the opening of the Ashes Test series, will present Steve Waugh and his Australian team with the first ICC Test Championship Trophy. The trophy, made of sliver and gold and has the logos of all Test playing countries is valued at £30,000 and has been commissioned from Asprey & Garrard in London.

Australian cricketer Brendon Julian is to retire from first class cricket. The left-arm pace bowler is looking to establish a career in television. Julian who recently underwent a knee surgery has been contemplating retirement for a while now. Julian has appeared in seven Test matches from 1993 to 1995, while scoring 128 runs (avg. 16.00) and has captured 15 wickets (avg. 39.93). He has also appeared in 25 ODI matches from 1993 to the 1999 World Cup. He has taken 22 wickets (avg. 45.32).

Lahore will be the venue of the historic Asian Test Championship match between India and Pakistan from 13-17 September. Lahore got the nod over Karachi as it is the headquarters of cricket in Pakistan. Meanwhile Multan will stage the game between Pakistan and Bangladesh from 1-5 September.

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