March 9, 2001
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Back to back hundreds for Ricky Ponting and a good day's batting practice for the Australians who seem to be running into top gear with every match they play were the highlights of their drawn three-day match against Board Presidents XI in New Delhi. Mark Waugh too got a big hundred (164) while Ponting remained unbeaten with 102. The Australians said they had achieved their objective of not giving Sourav Ganguly any batting practice before the first Test. The Indian cricketers arrived in Kolkata after a short break and had a strenuous work out under coach John Wright. Sourav Ganguly, Nayan Mongia, Sarandeep Singh (who played for the Board President's XI) and Venkatapathy Raju had not reached but were expected later, on completion of the Delhi match. The trend of the ticket sales last week after India's poor show in the Mumbai Test had the officials at Kolkata worried, but with just three days to go the ticket sales have picked up. Long queues were seen in front of the ticket selling counters giving hope to the organisers of a good crowd. Meanwhile police personnel will throng the terraces of the Eden Gardens to try and prevent any crowd disturbances. A crowd strength of 80,000 is expected to turn up in the 1,00,000 capacity stadium. ICC match referee Cammie Smith is in Kolkata for the third time. His first trip to Kolkata was in 1993 when India played England, which incidentally was his debut Test as a referee. The second however was a controversial one during the 1999 Asian Test championships against Pakistan, when the match ended in front of an empty stadium, after crowd violence had erupted. Australian skipper Steve Waugh in a television interview has announced his plans to retire after the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. Replying to a query, Waugh was of the opinion that Sachin Tendulkar has a better technique than West Indian Brian Lara and the latter is no match. However he felt that Lara has his own strong points.  Grabbing four quick wickets for just 24 runs New Zealand had Pakistan pegged back at 294-8 on the second morning of the first Test match at Auckland. However only 7.5 overs of play were possible in the second session as rain delayed the start of play and then came down again forcing an early lunch. Injured batsman Saeed Anwar was ordered to fly back home from New Zealand by the PCB. Anwar, who has suffered a groin injury is expected to be fit in time for the second Test which begins from March 15 at Christchurch.
England skipper Nasser Hussain led his team's fight back as England ended the second day on 249-5 in reply to Sri Lanka's 297. Hussain's hundred must have been more special for him as it followed a dry run of scores. He last got a hundred more than a year ago in 1999 against South Africa in Durban. Hussain who has been at the receiving end of many questionable umpiring decisions during this lean period had the benefit of the doubt on two occasions yesterday. The Sri Lankan umpire, BC Cooray turned down two close bat-pad catches. Hussain's joy on reaching his hundred over flowed as he ran towards the player's dressing room holding his bat aloft. Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara was let off with a severe reprimand for showing dissent when he was dismissed on the first day of the ongoing Kandy Test match by ICC match referee Hanumant Singh. West Indies go into the first Test match at Georgetown against the South African's with an awesome record to defend. In the last 25 years only Mark Taylor's Australian's in 1995 have won a Test series in the West Indies. The new skipper of the side Carl Hooper will be desperate to see that the record does not get tainted. However the performance record of the side in the past one year will hardly be inspiring for the new captain who will be on a mission with a point to prove to himself and his detractors. Meanwhile, Hooper had a lone supporter in former West Indian captain Vivian Richards. While former Test players Michael Holding & Gary Sobers had come down heavily on the selectors for picking Hooper as the captain, Richards although accepting that Hooper's appointment as captain was debatable, disagreed with Sobers and Holding who questioned Hooper's commitment to the team after he quit the team just prior to the World Cup in 1999. Former England captain and batsman Mike Denness will be the ICC appointed match referee for the West Indies-South Africa Test series. New Zealand's John Reid will take over as match referee for the seven one-day internationals after the Test series. Indian umpire S Venkatraghavan is to officiate in the fourth and fifth Tests at St John's and Kingston respectively. The other ICC umpires who will officiate in the Test series are: John Hampshire (England) - 1st Test and Darrell Hair (Australia) - 2nd and 3rd Tests. BCCI secretary JY Lele has denied that the Board has sought explanation from the Mumbai Cricket Association and Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on the pitch tampering issue before the first Test in Mumbai. Lele denied reports in the media that the curator of Wankhede Stadium, Nadeem Memon will be questioned. Lele also denied that the BCCI was planning to take action against the Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly for pressurising the curator to shave off the grass and prepare a spinner friendly track. There were reports in the media that chairman of the pitch committee G Kasturirangan had sent a report to the BCCI that Ganguly had interfered with the preparation of the Wankhede pitch. Organising chairman of the Sharjah Cricket Series Abdul Rehman Bukhatir denied that his trip to India was to meet Sports Minister Uma Barathi to push for India's participation in the April tournament. He said he had been to Mumbai to witness the first Test match against Australia. However he was confident that India would participate at Sharjah. Speaking out for the first time after his return from New Zealand where his action was questioned for the second time in his career, Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said he would be ready for the Sharjah tournament in April. He said he was confident as he was cleared by Australian experts before and would be cleared again. The three members of Pakistan's review panel Abdul Qadir, Ijaz Faqih and Mohsin Kamal would first take up the review process as soon as they receive the footage of Shoaib's action from the ICC. The PCB chairman Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia said Akhtar's arm is bent 28 degrees more than normal as it is a genetic problem and Pakistan would be looking to solve this issue the same way the Muralitharan issue was solved. Former Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga has been warned to behave by the local magistrate and that his act was unbecoming of a celebrity of his status. Ranatunga was forced to appear in a local police station after allegations of his and his family's assault on some college students. The students are still in hospital. Meanwhile Ranatunga insisted that this was an organised effort to spoil his image especially when the English Cricket team was in Sri Lanka. The skipper who led Sri Lanka to the World Cup win in 1996 felt there were some people who were worried that he would become the president of the ICC after his retirement. With the political crisis blowing over in Zimbabwe, rumours were doing rounds that the Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak had been abducted, which has been denied by his father, Denis. However, his father confirmed that their farmhouse, some 40 miles north of Bulawayo, that has been managed by the family since four generations, was attacked by some gun-wielding war veterans. They soon changed their mind then they saw Heath Steak wearing a green Zimbabwean shirt. When they realised who it was they wanted to shake Heath's hands and left without causing any damage. Former Australian and Indian Test cricketers will appear in a charity golf competition in Mumbai from March 12. The Australian team of 1986 (of the famous tied Test series) who are here in India to play a charity cricket match at Chennai comprises of Allan Border, David Boon, Geoff Marsh, Dean Jones, Ray Bright, Greg Ritchie, Craig McDermott, Bruce Reid and Tim Zoehrer. Former Indian Test players Karsan Ghavri, Ashok Mankad and Yajurvindra Singh will also participate in the golf competition. Meanwhile Ravi Shastri will lead the Indian team against the Australians in the replay match of the 1986 Tied Test match at Chennai on March 17. Kapil Dev who led the Indian team in the historic tie in 1986 has refused to participate in the match, which will be on a limited-over basis. The managing committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association has decided to donate Rs.15 lakhs towards the Gujarat Relief Fund. The donation came from the ticket sales of the first Test at Mumbai. The money would be handed over to a NGO group for their school project in the quake-affected village in Gujarat. England in Sri Lanka 2nd Test at Kandy (2nd day) Sri Lanka: 297 (M Jayawardena 101, R Arnold 65, T Dilshan 36; D Gough 4-73, A Caddick 4-55) England: 249-5 (N Hussain 109, G Thorpe 59; Muralitharan 2-85) Pakistan in New Zealand 1st Test at Auckland (1st day) Pakistan: 270-4 (Yousuf Youhana 51, Younis Khan 91 not out, Faisal Iqbal 42 not out; C Martin 2-72) Australia in India (tour match) Australians vs Board Presidents XI at New Delhi (3rd & final day) Australia: 413-8 (M Hayden 31, M Waugh 62, S Waugh 109, R Ponting 102, M Kasprowicz 35; Sarandeep Singh 5-114). 461-7 (M Waugh 164, D Martyn 54, R Ponting 102 not out; N Hirwani 5-168) BP XI : 221 (M Kaif 33, S Ganguly 40, D Mongia 66; M Kasprowicz 3-68) Ricky Ponting (102 & 102 not out) became the second Australian and ninth visiting batsman to record hundreds in each innings of a first-class match in India. The first batsman to achieve this feat was Lindsay Hassett for an Australian Services team in 1945-46. The full list. 187 & 124* Lindsay Hassett for Australian Services v Princes XI at Delhi, 1945-46 162 & 101 Everton Weekes for West Indies v India at Calcutta, 1948-49 121 & 109* Hanif Mohd. for Pakistanis v North Zone at Amristsar, 1952-53 153 & 120 Tom Graveney for CG Howard's XI v Board President's XI at Bombay, 1956-57 106 & 135* Seymour Nurse for EW Swanton's XI v Indian XI at Calcutta, 1963-64 105 & 105 Duleep Mendis for Sri Lanka v India at Madras, 1982-83 102 & 122 Gary Kirsten for South Africans v India at Calcutta, 1996-97 200* & 171 Herschelle Gibbs for South Africans v India A at Nagpur, 1996-97 102 & 102* Ricky Ponting for Australians v Board President's XI at New Delhi, 2000-01 Yesterday's News News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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