India in South Africa

The Indian team management in South Africa has a lot to worry about with just a day to go before the important first Test at Bloemfontein. The coach John Wright felt that the team had to have five bowlers to even attempt to win a Test in South Africa.

________________

The South African coach, Graham Ford, is reportedly unhappy with the local authorities or not ensuring that the pitch for the first Test had the home teams interests in mind.
The Bloemfontein pitch has a reputation of being batsman friendly and Ford did not want to take the risk of producing a beauty of a track that would bring out the best of the strong Indian batting line up.
Ford was also reportedly unhappy over the venue for the first Test as he would have liked to start of on the lively Durban wicket.

________________

Former England captain Mike Denness has been appointed the ICC match referee for the three-match Test series between India and South Africa that begins on Friday.
Asoka deSilva of Sri Lanka, Russel Tiffin of Zimbabwe and George Sharp of England will be the three ICC appointed umpires for the three Tests.

Khaleej Times Trophy, Sharjah

Sri Lanka plays Pakistan in an inconsequential league match in Sharjah. With the two teams battering Zimabwe out of the tournament, today's match will just be a dress rehearsal for the final with both the teams looking for a win to gain the psychological advantage before the final. Sri Lanka won the previous encounter against Pakistan quite easily by 7 wickets.

________________

Deserted by India and hit by the global recession the CBFS in Sharjah is reportedly staring at huge losses for the first time since cricket was introduced in Sharjah way back in 1981.
The absence of the big India-Pakistan matches is an obvious factor in the rather dismal spectatorship of this tournament. The CBFS only managed to rake in the sponsor for the tournament in the very last minute The CBFS CEO Zahid Noorani said they had not thought about the hosting of the next event.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been signed by the CBFS to play in Sharjah for three years, but the big fish is obviously India.

________________

The young Zimbabwe opening batsman Dion Ebrahim has been fined 25 percent of his match fee for displaying a logo on his bat that is bigger that the ICC prescribed rules.
The ICC match referee for the tournament DT Lindsay said the batsman had been warned about the size of his logo in Zimbabwe's just concluded series against England and yet again in Sharjah.

________________

The head of the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit, Sir Paul Condon has called off his proposed visit to the Sharjah Champions trophy on health grounds.
Condon was to inspect the venue to see how the ICC recommendations were being implemented, but a back injury has forced him to cancel the trip.

Miscellaneous

The England cricket officials (a three member team) are visiting India to review and study security arrangements ahead of the teams visit.
The team after talks with the BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya said the team was happy with the arrangements made so far. Dalmiya stated that the BCCI pressed the delegation to finalise their squad as soon as possible for logistic and administrative reasons.
Until now 14 players have confirmed availability with only two, Andrew Caddick and Robert Croft pulling out of the squad due to security fears.

________________

Discarded opening batsman Michael Slater has been told that he may have tattooed himself with the wrong player number.
Slater was led to believe he was the 356th player to represent Australia and had the number tattooed on himself and also had a special number plate made featuring the number for his brand new Ferrari.
He has however been told now by the ACB statistician Ross Dundass that he may be in fact player number 357 behind Brendon Julion.
Slater assumed he was 356 considering he batted higher up in the order but was told player numbers were assigned on alphabetic order.

________________

The ECB team now in India including John Carr, Director of Cricket Operations, Tim O'Gorman, England Players representative and Peter Holland the first secretary at the British High Commission are likely to have a meeting with the Indian government officials today to discuss and review security arrangements for the tour in November/December.
The BCCI spokesman said the tour would go on as per schedule with a few minor changes in the dates or venues of the one-day matches.
The Tests will be played at Mohali, Ahmedabad and Bangalore, while the one-dayers will be played at Chennai, Kolkata, Kanpur, Delhi and Mumbai.

________________

The West Indies cricket team arrived in Colombo amidst airtight security, probably the most extensive given to any cricket side touring the island nation.
The county is gripped by the election fever, with elections to be held on December 5. West Indies manager Ricky Skerrit, who met with officials of the Sri Lankan Board, said he was satisfied with the security arrangements.

________________

The Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation that is heading the Indian probe into the match fixing affairs has been given the additional charge of heading the Multi Discplinary Monitoring Agency, set up to probe the tips given by the Jain Commission regarding the conspiracy angle of the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Sawani, successfully led the probe against the match-fixing menace in cricket and was recently awarded this year's President's Police Medal for distinguished services.
A 1977 IPS officer from Tamil Nadu cadre, Sawani was selected for this honour for his distinguished services during the entire gamut of match-fixing which won international laurels for the Indian agency.

Yesterday's News .........................  News Roll archive