India's tour of West Indies

Mistakes by third umpires who are able to watch video replays from several angles are unacceptable, says Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly.

"One can understand mistakes made by the umpires in the middle, because they have a fraction of a second to decide, but not when you have 50 television replays for something that was so obvious," Ganguly said in his column published yesterday in the Hindustan Times.

He is of the opinion that a mistake by the third umpire during last week's third Test in Barbados helped West Indies captain Carl Hooper post a big score and shape his team win a ten-wicket victory.

Hooper was ruled not out by the third umpire - Billy Doctrove of the West Indies - when television replays showed him to be run out by a big margin. He was then on 15, but went on to score another 100 runs.

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India skipper Sourav Ganguly said Wednesday his aim was to lead his team to a rare away Test series win and to score a century in the West Indies.

"It's important for any batsman to score a hundred, especially against the West Indies," Ganguly said ahead of Friday's fourth Test against the hosts at the Antigua Recreation Ground. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, one short of his 100th Test wicket, is unlikely to complete his century.

"He'll probably be replaced with Anil Kumble," said Ganguly, one of the most consistent batsmen with two half-centuries in the last three Test innings to his credit.

"There're still two more matches to go and I'm looking forward to score my first century in the West Indies," said Ganguly, who failed to score even a half-century on the last tour in 1997.

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India are set to recall leg-spinner Anil Kumble for the fourth Test against West Indies in Antigua.

He was left out of the side for the two previous matches despite having taken 19 wickets on their last Caribbean tour in 1997, and more than 300 in his Test career overall.

It was a surprising decision and one they had cause to regret as they were comprehensively outplayed in Barbados when West Indies squared the series with a 10-wicket win.

Kumble is expected to return in place of off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, unless the tourists abandon their policy of including three seam bowlers in their attack.

Bomb blast in Pakistan

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said yesterday the Australian Cricket Board had no choice but to abandon the proposed tour of Pakistan this year in the wake of Wednesday's suicide bombing in Karachi.

Speaking in Singapore, Fleming described the horrific scenes. "When it went off, I heard the moans and cries from the direction where the bomb had gone off, and you could see the carnage from the door. I thought we'd copped it," Fleming said.

"My initial thoughts were that when we had only half the team in the car park we may have lost the other half. "It was one of the scariest moments of my life."

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Australia's cricketers will not compromise safety standards in deciding whether to tour Pakistan, players' spokesman Tim May said yesterday.

May, chief executive of the Australian Cricketers' Association, reaffirmed the ACA's commitment to player safety in the wake of the bomb blast in Karachi on Wednesday that forced the cancellation of the New Zealand tour.

The tour appears destined to be scrapped or rescheduled to a neutral venue such as Bangladesh or Sharjah.

The problem with Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates is that it comprises just one venue that is unappealing for a two or three-Test series.

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Mike Procter, who was acting as an International Cricket Council a match referee in the New Zealand-Pakistan Test series, was lucky to be in the bathroom of his Karachi hotel suite when a bomb exploded in the street outside, shattering the windows of his room.

When the former South Africa, Natal and Gloucestershire allrounder looked out of the window, he was shocked when he saw the carnage - including body parts - according to his wife, Maryna Procter, who spoke to him from Durban shortly after the incident.

Procter was in Pakistan to act as match referee in the Karachi Test.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sought the support of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its member countries on Thursday to ensure that Pakistan is not isolated as an international venue.

"I have spoken to the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed and our viewpoint was that the (ICC) member boards should hold on before giving any policy statements to allow the situation to settle down," PCB director Brigadier Munawwar Rana told Reuters.

New Zealand cut short their tour of Pakistan on Wednesday after a bomb blast outside their Karachi hotel shortly before the start of the second and final test.

Bangladesh to tour Sri Lanka

Bangladesh will take on Sri Lanka in a series starting in July.

Sri Lanka will host Bangladesh for two Tests and three limited-overs internationals. The Bangladeshi tour itinerary will also include warm-up matches against Sri Lanka A and a Sri Lankan cricket board's selection.

Mohsin Kamal will guide the tourists on his first assignment abroad since replacing Australian Trevor Chappell as coach.

Kamal, the fourth coach hired by Bangladesh in as many years, took 24 wickets in nine Tests and 21 wickets in 19 one-day internationals during the 1980s.

Miscellaneous

Former South African left arm spinner Omar Henry is set to become South Africa's national selector - if not the convenor of the new four man panel - after the recently formed National Cricket Committee met in Johannesburg on Thursday to discuss the 14 nominees for the streamlined selection team.

Henry has a long and distinguished history in the game becoming the first black man to represent South Africa in both Tests and one-dayers in the post isolation era and representing Free State at the highest level in the Castle Currie Cup right up until his 40th year.

His batting was as pugnacious and stubborn as his personality during his playing days and he was just as likely to get under the skin of opposition bowlers with gutsy innings of 80 batting at number eight as he was to infuriate a captain or administrator who felt they could dictate terms off the field to him.

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Test star Saqlain Mustaq will be available for his county side Surrey in June after being released by Pakistan from the one-day tournament in Australia.

Surrey had feared that they would lose the services of the off-spinner during the three limited-overs internationals that are due to take place between 12-19 June.

But the Pakistan Cricket Board have agreed to let Saqlain and Middlesex all-rounder Abdur Razzaq stay with their counties.

"The Board had given permission to me and Razzaq, who will play for Middlesex," Saqlain said.

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Award winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice said he is honoured to be the next president of the MCC. Sir Tim will succeed former England captain Ted Dexter in October and serve as president for 12 months.

He has been an MCC member for 10 years and been on the club's committee since 1999.

"It is a great honour and I am both thrilled and surprised to be elected as president," he said.

Match fixing

Ten months after the final report of the King Commission's inquiry into cricket match-fixing failed to make a decision on Hansie Cronje's indemnity from prosecution, it is still not clear when the matter will be resolved.

At the end of June last year Judge Edwin King said in his final report that he was not able to express an opinion on Cronje's indemnity.

The commission was ended mainly because of suggestions that its legality might be challenged in court.

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