India in South Africa

A rare sunny day at Port Elizabeth was put to the maximum use by the Indian cricket team yesterday. The entire squad underwent a rigorous practice session to try and get themselves fit enough and sort out the various batting and bowling problems ahead of the first Test beginning tomorrow. The Indians practiced with simulated match conditions that saw Dravid opening with Das. However it is most likely that captain Sourav Ganguly would be tried as opener for the second Test along with the Orissa youngster.
The Indian coach John Wright spent a while at St George's Park, the venue of the second Test, with the bowlers Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar and keeper Deep Dasgupta in a separate workout before he returned to the venue of the practice session the Grey High School ground.

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Jacques Rudolph an exciting new batting prospect for South Africa has been included in the home team for the second Test against India. The 20 year old if at all he plays is likely to take the place of Boeta Dippenaar in the upper middle order. It may be recalled that Rudolf slammed a century against India in the only practice mat they have been able to play so far on the tour. He scored 109 when his team Nicky Oppenheimer's XI at Randjesfontein in a one day encounter in October prior to the one day series.

West Indies in Sri Lanka

West Indies progressed to 448 assisted by superb 167 by Brian Lara. A batting collapse after lunch triggered by none other than Murali saw the Sri Lankan’s heave a sigh of relief. West Indies went into lunch at 409-4 looking ready to bat out the entire second day as well. After Lara’s departure at number 5 none of the other batsmen did much. At stumps Sri Lanka were 103-1, having lost the skipper who made a quick fire 25 of 19 balls with the score at 37.

England in India

The teams for the Board President's Eleven and India A that are to play England will be selected today. The games are to be played at Hyderabad (November 22-24) and Jaipur (November 27-29). England opens the tour with a two day game against the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) President's XI at Mumbai on November 18 and 19.
The England side: The team: Nasser Hussain (Capt), Usman Afzaal, Martyn Ball, Mark Butcher, Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe, Michael Vaughan, Mark Ramprakash, Richard Dawson, James Foster, Ashley Giles, Warren Hegg, Richard Johnson, Matthew Hoggard, James Ormond, Craig White.

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Matthew Kilbride one of the security officials who arrived in India ahead of the Indian team expressed satisfaction at the security arrangements for the team so far at the hotel and at the Wankhede Stadium. Kilbride is to visit all the other venues where the English team will be playing during their India tour. Police have clarified that elaborate arrangements had been made in Mumbai for the smooth conduct of the match.
Musical instruments, cameras, crackers, plastic bottles, match boxes, lighters and cellular phones will not be allowed inside the stadium. Water and food will be allowed in transparent polythene pouches or made available inside the stadium. The ECB as per players' demands, had decided to have a security officer accompany the team through out its tour of India as well as have a senior member of the ECB also be present with the team throughout the tour.

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Arriving in the early hours of Diwali day in India the England cricketers chose to rest in their rooms and take things easy after a long flight, on an arduous tour. The team plays three Test matches before taking a break for Christmas and coming back for the one dayers in January.

Miscellaneous

Stuart Carlisle will lead Zimbabwe in the second Test that begins in Chittagong today. Carlisle replaces Brian Murphy who twisted his wrist during the course of the first Test. The first Test played at Dhaka ended in a draw after rain ruined most of the playtime.

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The English county Yorkshire’s top officials are to meet their bubbly fast bowler Darren Gough who is looking to leave the county. Gough reportedly was unhappy with a few officials who he said were keen to see him out of the county side. These officials claim Gough has played just a couple of matches for the county and availed of a tax-free benefit last season. It is still unknown which county he is likely to join. Yorkshire officials however were confident they could persuade Gough to stay on.

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Australian Test cricketer Darren Lehmann has been named captain of Yorkshire. He has made history by becoming the fist non-Yorkshire cricketer to captain the county that has followed rich traditions. He replaces left-handed batsman David Byas who stepped down for unknown reasons.

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Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh said he might extend his career a little while beyond the 2003 World Cup to fulfill a lifetime ambition of leading an Australian side to a Test win in India. Waugh apparently still is to recover from the sobering defeat to India in a hard fought exciting Test series earlier this year. Australia is next scheduled to tour India in 2004.

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The International Cricket Council have said that they would not be treating Shoaib Akhtar as a special case after he was called a suspect action for the third time in his career and the second time this year. Umpires Rudi Koertzen and George Sharp during the Sharjah tournament just completed last month recently reported Akhtar as still having a suspect action. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director Brig. Munawar Ahmed Rana defending the fast bowler said that there was no need for further analysis of Akhtar's action other than what was done last year by the University of Western Australia. Their report had concluded that his action was legal and any appearance of throwing was caused by a physical characteristic called hyper-mobility, in the shoulder and elbow joints.

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The picturesque English county ground at Durham of Chester-le-Street has been granted test match status. After hosting a number of one day matches the ground becomes England’s latest Test venue. England will now have eight Test centers.

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West Indian all-rounder Gary Sobers said he felt the spirit of the game of cricket had been spoiled by the introduction of rules to limit the impact of quick bowlers. Sobers said he felt the game was more competitive in his time when he could bowl as many bouncers in an over as he liked. The eighties saw the introduction of the front foot rule, restriction of fielders in one day matches and the number of bouncers in an over. He said in his days he could bowl what he liked and set fields the way he liked.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka v West Indies (Day 2)
Galle International Stadium
Toss: West Indies

West Indies 448: (D Ganga 47, RR Sarwan 88, BC Lara 178, CL Hooper 69; Vaas 4-95, Muralitharan 6-126)

Sri Lanka 103-1: (M Atapattu 46 not out, K Sangakara 27 not out)

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