March 27, 2001
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Sanath Jayasuriya who was hit on the knee during the third Test is unlikely to play the third and final one-day international today against England. The injury was aggravated during the second one-dayer where Sri Lanka took an unbeatable two-nil lead in the three match series. The Sri Lankan management has still not confirmed the name of the player who will replace him. The series in Sri Lanka is all but over, but the bad blood and controversy that have prevailed through out still continues. England off-spinner Robert Croft was reprimanded by match referee Hanumant Singh for colliding with Chaminda Vaas during England's innings at Colombo during the second one day international at Colombo. Croft was attempting a single when he barged into Vaas who had stood his ground on his follow through. The referee called a meeting of the two after television replays drew his attention to the incident. He let off both the players with a severe warning. The final match of the three match one-day series will be played at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground at Colombo today. Considering that England has already conceded the series, players like Nick Night, Mark Alleyene and Mark Ealham who only played in the side games are likely to be given a chance. Meanwhile, England coach Duncan Fletcher said he would like one-day tours to be segregated from Test tours so that the members of the different teams would get time to be together for a decent length of time.  The injury woes are not over for Pakistan on their tour of New Zealand. The latest casualty is the skipper himself. Moin Khan who has been carrying the injury on his right knee for a while now said it flared up during the drawn second Test at Christchurch. Moin said he was disappointed he would not be able to lead his side to a possible series victory. Inzamam-ul Haq will skipper the side in his absence and young Humayun Farhat will be the new keeper for Pakistan. Fleming meanwhile said he would be glad if he could wind up the series with a win and tie the series. The third and final Test of the series begins in Hamilton on . News flash… Pakistan has been dismissed for just 104 in the first innings of the third and final Test match at Hamilton. New Zealand in reply was 78-0 at tea interval. Australian pace bowler Jason Gillespie has returned back home to Australia. The Australian team management decided to rest Gillespie ahead of the crucial Ashes series and hence decided not to play him in the one-dayers against India. Gillespie had injured his left hamstring tendon before the tour began and it aggravated after the Mumbai Test. With the sufficient rest he will be getting Gillespie believes he will be fit and ready for England. Man of the match of the first one-dayer in Bangalore Virender Shewag has been ruled out of the Pune one-dayer to be played tomorrow. The Delhi batsman injured his thumb while fielding in the moist outfield at Bangalore and has been advised rest. The BCCI has been trying to trace young Punjab batsman Yuvraj Singh, who was however not contactable as yet.
Buoyant after their win in the second Test of the series South Africa put up a professional display in their three day match against a reasonable strong West Indies' Board XI team. The home team were limited to 186 in their first innings and South Africa at close were 29-0 in the second innings after making 271 in the first. In a decision that drew much flak from many quarters the West Indies Cricket Board prior to this series had appointed Carl Hooper as skipper in place of Jimmy Adams. Hooper, who had migrated to Australia in early 1999 to play club cricket there made his comeback to the Caribbean, but was seen by many as a deserter of West Indian cricket. Michael Holding, the former fast bowler resigned his job as television commentator in protest of the decision to make Hooper the captain. However, Hooper has an unlikely supporter in former West Indian batting great Everton Weekes, who said whatever may be Hooper's wrong doings in the past he should be forgiven, as we all have done something in our past which we would not be proud today. Weekes made these comments on his way to Australia to attend the memorial service for Sir Don Bradman. The BCCI secretary JY Lele reacting to the Pakistan Cricket Board's statement that it would not play India anywhere said there was nothing that could be done about it since the decision not to play in Sharjah was taken by the Indian Government and the BCCI are helpless in this matter. Meanwhile, reports have now come in that Pakistan is not averse to playing the ICC knockout tournament if it is hosted in India. Pakistani cricket chief Tauqir Zia had earlier made a statement that Pakistan will not participate in the next ICC Trophy if held in India. Javed Miandad, the coach of the Pakistan team now in New Zealand has reacted angrily to reports that India has backed out of the Sharjah tri-series. He appealed to the ICC to impose sanctions on India said it was necessary for the rest of the cricket community to unite in taking a decision against India who have let down Pakistan very badly in recent years. Dhammika Ranatunga, the elder brother of former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, has been replaced by Anura Tennakoon as the new CEO of the Board of Control of Cricket in Sri Lanka. The BCCSL president Tilanga Sumathipala said there were about five charges against Ranatunga some of which were financial in nature, without going into details. Former England batsman and now match referee Raman Subba Row has been asked by the ICC to help draft a new set of proposals for the training and recruitment of umpires. The current ICC panel is made up of 20 umpires from all Test playing nations, except Bangladesh. The ICC however wishes to form an elite panel of 8 umpires and 8 match referees who would officiate in most of the Test matches all over the world. Appointments to this elite group would be purely on merit. A support group of about 25-30 would also be set up from emerging umpires who would be then trained and groomed to join this elite panel. Amol Muzumdar, the vice-captain of the Mumbai team who are due to fly tonight to Perth for a four nation tournament of national domestic champions has been sacked for alleged misbehaviour. Muzumdar has already been warned on a couple of earlier occasions for misbehaviour with his teammates and officials. However the last straw came when he refused to wear the shirt with the team sponsors logo while going out for the toss during the Ranji Trophy quarter-final match against Punjab last week. The managing committee of the MCA met and unanimously agreed that Muzumdar should be dropped. Ranji Trophy round-up Madhya Pradesh v Orissa 3rd quarter-final at Gwalior (5th day) MP: 437 (HS Sodhi 57, DS Bundela 78; Jai P Yadav 64, Rajesh Chauhan 36, Y Golwalkar 41 not out; P Mullick 3-45) 233 (S Abbas Ali 37, Jai Prakash Yadav 46; CS pandit 50; P Mullick 3-63) Orissa: 479 (Suresh Kumar 35, RR Parida 162; SS Raul 40, P Mullick 51, P Jaichandra 40, Gautam Gopal 63 not out; Jai Prakash Yadav 3-112, N Hirwani 3-121) 192-3 (RR Parida 64 not out, P Mullick 74 not out; ND Hirwani 2-50) Result:Orissa won by 7 wickets. (Orissa advance to the semi-final). Railways v Karnataka 4th quarter-final at Delhi (5th day) Railways: 451 (Sanjay Bangar 46, TP Singh 80, SN Khanolkar 64, Santosh Sahu 122, KS Parida 48; SK Vadiaraj 4-94, Vijay Bharadwaj 3-44). 418(Amit Pagnis 68, Sanjay Bangar 59, Yere Gowda 92, S Khanolkar 90; D Ganesh 3-63, Vijay Bharadwaj 3-77) Karnataka: 237 (J Arun Kumar 55, BR Rowland 35, VST Naidu 46; TP Singh 4-64, KS Parida 4-62) 279 (BM Rowland 100 not out, Vijay Bharadwaj 43, VST Naidu 46; RR Parida 2-46). Result:Match Drawn (Railways advance to the Semi-final) The Ranji semi-final line up is: Orissa vs Baroda at Baroda 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 April, 2001 Railways vs Punjab at Delhi 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 April, 2001  Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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