India in South Africa

The Australian Prime minister John Howard, a keen cricket follower has supported the decision of the International Cricket Council to declare the third Test match beginning at Centurion as unofficial. He termed the development of events over the past few days as "terrible" and agreed that a bad precedent had been set in the game of cricket.

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A former match referee and Pakistan skipper Asif Iqbal came out in support of the unjust treatment that was handed out to the Indian players on the fourth day of the second Test at Port Elizabeth.
He stressed the need to make changes in the rules and scrap the appointment of match referees. He also backed India's demands to replace Mike Denness as match referee for the third Test.
He said the ICC rules were vague and pointless and the confusion arose because of that.

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The Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has told Steve Waugh, his counterpart from Australia to "shut up" and concentrate on Australian cricket instead. Ganguly was responding to comments made by the senior Waugh over the Port Elizabeth incidents where he said if wrong was done it had to be punished.

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The events over the past couple of days may have done a lot of good to the delicate relationship between the Indian and Pakistan Cricket Boards.
The unfortunate punishments given to 6 Indian players have only served to bring the neighboring Boards closer together. The Pakistan Cricket Board declined to officially react to the controversy. PCB Chief Lt Gen Tauqir Zia however said that he had a lengthy telephonic talk with President of the Board of Cricket Control of India Jagmohan Dalmiya yesterday.
The PCB Chief has promised all help to the BCCI on this issue. He said the players of Asian nations have suffered long and silently due to this biased and unreasonable attitude of the ICC.

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The English match referee has been prohibited from entering the stadium at Johannesburg the venue of the third and final Test match to be played between India and South Africa. Denness though disappointed with the decision said he would stay away to avoid any confrontation and embarrassment.

New Zealand in Australia

Rain also held up play on the second day of the second cricket Test match between Australia and New Zealand at Hobart today.
Australia were 488-7 helped by centuries from Langer 123 and Ponting (127 not out). For the visitors Daniel Vettori was the most successful bowler claiming 4-109.

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New Zealand cricketer Craig McMillan also handled the ball in a manner similar to that of Tendulkar. The close ups showed McMillan seemingly pulling away bits of grass and running his hands over the seam of the ball. The TV channel however said it was unclear if the Macmillan had sought the permission of the umpire before doing so.

West Indies in Sri Lanka

Rain ruined most of the play time possible on the second day of the second Test between Sri Lanka and West Indies. The new ball helped the visitors with the hosts slipping from 193-5 to 273-8.
All three wickets fell at the score of 249 just after the new ball was taken The rain however ruled out possibility of play after lunch and play was called of for the day after the umpires felt it was not possible to continue play any further

Miscellaneous

The Bangladesh Cricket Board have confirmed that wicket keeper Khaled Masud will be retained as skipper for the teams tour of New Zealand that has been scheduled for next month. The team is scheduled to leave for New Zealand end of this month. Bangladesh meet Zimbabwe at Dhaka today for the first of three one day matches.

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Test discard Debasish Mohanty narrowly missed taking a hat-trick in Ranji Trophy. He however claimed 4 wickets in one over in the Ranji Trophy East Zone match for Orissa against Tripura at Bhawanipatna yesterday.
Mohanty trapped 4 batsmen lbw in his 9th over. After he had dismissed Timir Chanda for 2 Mohanty scalped Chetan Sachdev, Subhal Choudhury and Rajib Dutta all for no score.
He picked up his wickets of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th balls of his 9th over narrowly missing a hat-trick.

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The newly formed English Cricket Academy won their first match of the tour when they defeated a Tasmania second XI by 73 runs in a game at Adelaide.
For the visitors Owais Shah was the top scorer with 73. The Academy side batting first made 294-7 in 50 overs and the Tasmanians were bowled out for just 221 in 45 overs.
The next match will be played against the South Australian Cricket Academy next week. The team meanwhile is undergoing a 12-hours a-day fitness training and tactical theory training under former Australian wicket-keeper Rodney Marsh

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Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will visit the University of Western Australia in an attempt to clear his name of the controversy of chucking. Akhtar was called for the second time this year in Sharjah in October. Akhtar is leaving for Australia to play for a Sydney club side Mosman. He is likely to fly down to Perth for a work-out with the experts after they view his footage. Akhtar is the second high-profile cricketer, after Sri Lanka's Muthiah Muralitharan to be scrutinised by the UWA team.

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The family of late Sir Don Bradman says they are upset over articles that have been appearing in newspapers about the personal and business dealings of the world's greatest cricket ever.
The articles stated that Bradman had cut himself off from his parents, siblings and their children and also that he had been party to fraudulent dealings at the Adelaide stockbrokers where he was employed from 1935 until it was bankrupted by financial scandal in 1945.
The Bradman Foundation said they were such allegations coming up after the death of the man that were clearly defamatory. By publishing them after his death he has been deprived of a chance to reply to them and clear his name an upset nephew Paul Bradman said.

SCORES AT A GLANCE

West Indies vs Sri Lanka (2nd Test, Day 2)
Played at Kandy
Toss: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: 273-8 (M Jayawardene 88, H Tillekeratne 87; S Collins 3-73, D Ramnaraine 3-75)

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Australia vs New Zealand (2nd Test day 2)
Played at Hobart
Toss: New Zealand

Australia: 488-7 (J Langer 123, M Hayden 91,Ponting not out 127, A Gilchrist 39, SK Warne 70; D Vettori 4-109)

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