Tax defaulters

Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly is among 33 players who have defaulted on tax payments, the government has said.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha told the upper house of Parliament, or Rajya Sabha, that the cricketers owed the government a combined total of nearly 800,000 dollars (£530,000).

The issue relating to cricketers' earnings came up for a brief discussion in the Indian parliament as members demanded to know details of their tax payments.

Several of the country's prominent former and current cricket stars are on a defaulters' list.

New Zealand in Pakistan

New Zealand have cancelled the rest of their cricket tour of Pakistan following a suicide bomb attack outside the team hotel in Karachi. The blast occurred shortly before the second Test was due to get under way on Wednesday.

Eleven people, including nine French workers, travelling on a hotel bus were killed in the explosion.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief Martin Snedden said the safety of his players was paramount and that the Pakistan Cricket Board accepted New Zealand's decision to withdraw.

Sri Lanka in England

It is looking increasingly unlikely that Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will play a part in the forthcoming series against England before the third Test at Old Trafford.

Muralitharan has been receiving treatment in Australia after suffering a slight dislocation and torn ligaments in his left shoulder during the recent Sharjah Cup one-day tournament.

It was initially hoped that he would only miss next week's opening Test match at Lord's.

But he is still wearing a special brace and is rated doubtful for the second game at Edgbaston, which starts on 30 May.

"He is very determined, but it's unlikely he will play in the second Test," Sri Lankan Cricket Board secretary Kushil Gunasekera admitted.

World Cup 2003

The KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union has awarded a R10,7-million tender for the upgrading of Kingsmead Stadium for next season's World Cup to Durban company Tekweni Building Projects.

The company will begin work this week and is scheduled to finish phase one of construction by September 7.

Work is set to be completed by the end of October, six weeks into the new season.

Tekweni will be building new media facilities, a VIP area, a dining room for the players and an extension to the players' changing room. There will also be a redesign of sections of the administration block in the north stand, including a lift up to the VIP area.

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English cricket fans are unlikely to be able to watch the forthcoming Ashes series, or the World Cup next February, on terrestrial television. Satellite broadcaster Sky holds the rights to cover both tournaments live, and no terrestrial broadcaster plans to show highlights.

Both Channel Four, which televises the majority of England's home Tests, and the BBC, which broadcasts radio commentary, have declined to carry coverage of either series.

And neither of the other two broadcasters, ITV and Channel Five, are interested in televising cricket.

Miscellaneous

After five months on the sidelines, Saeed Anwar is ready to make his comeback to Test cricket.

Anwar, now a devout Muslim with a long beard, has recovered from a fractured wrist fracture and is set to play against New Zealand in Karachi. "Turning to religion doesn't mean I can't play cricket," he said.

"I am ready to strike a balance between the game and religion and want to play at least until next year's World Cup," he said.

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Steve Waugh says he has embarked on a punishing training course to further his ambitions of a recall to the Australian one-day side. "You've got to be fit, you've got to be ready and I want to be considered if someone gets injured or the form of another player drops," Waugh said.

The batsman was replaced as skipper and dropped from the side in February after the home side failed to make the finals of the triangular series against South Africa and New Zealand.

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Desmond Haynes is targeting regional cricket authorities for ending his career and that of his former long-standing opening partner Gordon Greenidge “without any reason”.

“I wanted to score more than 8 032 Test runs and also score two more centuries in Test cricket to have 20 hundreds beside my name,” Haynes told the CricInfo website.

“I could have retired without any regret. But the cricket board ... for which I played no less than 116 Test matches didn’t give me the opportunity to do so.”

Haynes, who was ruled ineligible from playing in the 1995 home series against Australia, said he also had other goals.

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