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September 24, 2002
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News Roll
  ICC Champions Trophy
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly is concerned about his pace bowlers' heavy workload, but realizes there is no easy solution.

"Our pace bowlers are under pressure . . being asked to bowl day in and day out," Ganguly said on Monday. "But I don't have the choice of resting them.

"We don't have an adequate bench strength to rotate our top bowlers. If I rest them, then who bowls in their place?" India has been on a hot streak, winning the one-day series against the West Indies and the triangular series in England that also featured Sri Lanka.

Beating England by eight wickets on Sunday, India now takes on South Africa in the Champions Trophy semifinals on Wednesday.

Ganguly said the lack of top-class bench strength was a worrying factor as India has a crowded schedule up to next year's World Cup. The Indian team has been on the road since March with drawn-out tours to the West Indies and England, before coming to Colombo for the Champions Trophy.


Indian police have arrested 13 bookmakers for betting on Sunday's Champions Trophy match in Colombo where India crushed England to storm into the semi-finals.

Public betting is banned in India and, since a match-fixing scandal rocked national cricket in 2000, authorities have taken sweeping precautions against clandestine betting on international cricket matches.

Police here said the bookies were arrested while they were raking in bets worth millions of dollars on thes game in which Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly smashed centuries to rout England.

Police stormed the bookies' office in the northern city of Jodhpur on Sunday night and siezed computers, mobile telephones, cameras and other gadgets used to monitor and record the match in Colombo, the officials said.

India, who won the day-night match in style with 10.3 overs to spare, will now meet South Africa in the first semi-final tomorrow.


Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak has been hurt in a road accident in Sri Lanka.

Fast bowler Streak has been taken to hospital in Colombo with a suspected dislocated collar bone.

It is thought that he was travelling as a passenger in a three-wheeler taxi when it collided with a van in the city's Cinnamon Gardens area and overturned.

"We provide security for the entire team, but in this case he had left the hotel without informing our people," the Agence France Presse quoted a police spokesman as saying.


The England and Wales Cricket Board is likely to press for improvements in the scheduling before they stage the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004.

This year's event in Sri Lanka guaranteed that all sides would play at least two matches, after some teams travelled to Kenya for the ICC Knockout in 2000 and were eliminated after one game.

But with the 12 teams divided into four pools of three, it still meant that two of the qualifiers for the semi-finals were effectively decided by the result of a single match.

The opening game, for example, featured Sri Lanka and Pakistan was decisive in Pool Four with Holland unable to mount a challenge against either.


West Indies manager Rickey Skerritt has accused Sri Lankan police bodyguards of "high-handed and authoritative" behaviour after a move to crack down on women entering hotel rooms of players.

Skerritt's lawyers, in a letter to a local newspaper which published a report of a police complaint, said that "interested parties" were trying to "sully the good name of our client".

Police had said in a letter to the International Cricket Council that three women were found in the rooms of Skerritt and his computer operator, Garfield Smith, in violation of the strict ICC access control rules.

The ICC sought police protection for the Champions Trophy tournament, not so much to protect players, but to make sure they don't get up to dirty tricks.

The tight regulations were aimed at preventing bookmakers or their agents coming into contact with the players taking part in the mini-world cup tournament.


New Zealand 244-9 (50 overs) beat Bangladesh 77 (19.2 overs) by 167 runs

A destructive new ball spell by New Zealand paceman Shane Bond wrecked Bangladesh's hopes of an upset victory at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

Bond had Al Sahariar lbw in his oepning over and took four for 15 in his initial spell before skipper Stephen Fleming withdrew him from the attack.

He returned for one more over before the close, but could not manage a fifth wicket and it was spinner Daniel Vettori who ended the contest by bowling Manjurul Islam for 10.

At 19 for five, Bangladesh looked in danger of their lowest one-day score in 55 matches, but just managed to overhaul their 76 all out against Sri Lanka at the same ground last month.

They did well to restrict New Zealand to under 250 after Khaled Mashud won the toss, with leg-spinner Mohammed Ashraful taking three for 26.

  • Scorecard | Match report | Images | Statistics
  •   West Indies tour of India
    West Indies selectors have called up Daren Ganga to replace Brian Lara for next month's tour of India.

    Ganga, 23, a right-handed opening batsman, has played 12 Tests scoring 563 runs at an average of 20.85.

    He was captain of the West Indies A-team that recently toured England and Canada. West Indies play three Tests and seven limited-overs internationals in India.

    Lara was hospitalised for "suspected hepatitis" after scoring 111 against Kenya in a Champions Trophy one-day tournament match in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last week.

      Ashes series
    Graham Thorpe has completed a u-turn by telling the England management he will be unavailable for this winter's Ashes series.

    Thorpe was picked for the tour earlier this month after convincing the selectors he was in the right frame of mind to undertake the trip Down Under despite his recent marital problems.

    But late on Monday the Surrey star re-contacted the management team - currently in Colombo where England have just been knocked out of the ICC Champions Trophy - to say he will not be touring after all.

    Thorpe, who has a chequered recent history with regard to availability for tours, retired from one-day international cricket this summer in order to devote more time to his children.

    The 33-year-old left-hander's absence this winter leaves a middle-order batting spot up for grabs with no obvious candidate to replace him.

    At the time of his inclusion in the squad, chairman of selectors David Graveney said: "Graham Thorpe has had to cope with a difficult period in his personal life.


    England all-rounder Ian Blackwell hopes success in Australia can help him clinch a place in the World Cup squad.

    Following the team's elimination from the Champions Trophy event in Sri Lanka, he will now head for Adelaide to work on his fitness with the England Academy squad.

    And he will be on the spot for a call-up when England take on Australia and Sri Lanka in the VB Series, which is slotted in around the Ashes Tests.

    Blackwell hit 82 off 68 balls against India on Sunday, and also picked up the wicket of Virender Sehwag with his left-arm spin.

    The 24-year-old admitted that he now saw a trip to the World Cup as a realistic possibility.

    "I thought it came around a little too soon, but given a chance in this event, that is obviously an aim for me now," he said.

      Australia-Pakistan Test series
    Justin Langer has warned his Australian teammates to beware Pakistan's unpredictability in the forthcoming three-Test series.

    The matches will be played at neutral venues with the first Test taking place in Colombo where Australia's one-day squad are currently competing in the Champions Trophy.

    "They are, besides us, the team with the most naturally talented cricketers, so you always have to be on your guard," Langer said at Perth airport.

    "What team turns up and what coach turns up, you are never going to know."

    Pakistan recently sacked coach Mudassar Nazar as coach after a sequence of six defeats in their last ten one-day internationals.

    Captain Waqar Younis retained his role but will be unable to call on the services of key batsmen Saeed Anwar, Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul Haq.

    His fellow paceman Wasim Akram is also out of the squad after deciding to concentrate on one-day cricket with the World Cup looming.

      Miscellaneous
    England batsman Michael Vaughan has been named Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year after his golden international summer.

    The Yorkshire opener was awarded the prize at this year's ceremony at the Grosvenor Park Hotel in London.

    Vaughan scored 900 runs in Tests against Sri Lanka and India this summer, including four centuries.

    He twice narrowly missed out on reaching a maiden double-century as he and Indian batsman Rahul Dravid fought to be the top run scorer in the four match series.

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