The chinks that had appeared in the Indian armour during the Harare Test, widened slightly today when Sourav Ganguly and John Wright pinpointed different reasons for their shock defeat. While Ganguly blamed the batsmen for the poor show in Harare, coach Wright had a word or two for the bowlers. Meanwhile, Wright accepted full responsibility in sending both Badani and Dighe to open the innings with Das.

For the first time in his international career that began in February 1992, during the World Cup, Andy Flower may miss a game for Zimbabwe because of a thumb injury. Since then in nine years he had appeared in 172 one-day internationals and 52 Test matches in a row, without ever missing a single match for his country. If Flower is unable to play in the first game of the tri-series, which begins on Saturday, then 18-year old Tatenda Taibu will take his place.
The Zimbabwean team for the tri-series:
HH Streak (Capt), G Whittall (V Capt), A Blignaut, A Campbell, S Carlisle, D Ebrahim, G Flower, A Flower (wk), T Friend, B Murphy, M Nkala, D Viljoen, D Mutendera. Tatenda Taibu is the reserve wicket-keeper.

The news of Ashish Nehra being retained in the one-day squad for the triangular tournament has brought a much needed cheer to the glum Indian camp. The Indians however, spent the day at the ground not practicing, but photo shooting for Sahara India, the new sponsors of the team. The Indian team sponsorship with Sahara India begins with the tri-nation series that will begin from Saturday, June 23.

A confident performance by the Pakistan team handed Australia their first defeat in the NatWest Triangular at Nottingham yesterday. A thorough batting performance saw a total of 290 being raised when Pakistan batted first.
Australia was straight away put on the back foot by the swing of skipper Waqar Younis when he took the first three wickets for just 35 runs. By then, it was too late for Gilchrist (70) and S Waugh (56) to put things back on track, as Australia folded up for 254, 36 runs short of the Pakistan total. Waqar, after his seven-wicket haul in the previous match against England, captured six wickets, to become the first bowler in ODIs to claim 13 wickets in successive matches.

Crowd trouble once again threatened to spoil the game at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, when crackers and bottles were thrown on to the ground in celebration when Pakistan reached 250. Steve Waugh, immediately led his men off the field and threatened not to come back if any further problems arose. Meanwhile, the presentation ceremony was held indoors and not on the ground, and the spectators were able to view it on the giant replay screen on the ground.

Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said he could not handle the pressure of the expectations that were on him during the tour of England. Akhtar has now decided to take time off from international cricket in order to rebuild his physical and mental form. He will however, meanwhile appear for Lashings, a village cricket team in Kent, who are reported to be paying Shoaib much more that what he would have got if he was now appearing for Pakistan.

The British sports minister Richard Caborn, has refused to withdraw the legislation proposed against pitch invaders and is in total support for cricket's emergency crowd control measures. The minister was present for the first hour of play of yesterday's match at Nottingham but left much before the trouble, which began when some Pakistani supporters threw a fire- cracker on to the ground.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's ICC match referee Brian Hastings could come under fire for not using the special powers he had to call the players off the field in case he suspects of any crowd trouble.
It seems, the ECB's event coordinator David Clarke reminded Hastings of the available option about three overs prior to the trouble that began at Leeds, but Hastings did not act on time. The ECB, after the incident at Birmingham had issued special powers to Hastings to call the players off the field if he suspected that the spectators would run on to the field.

Stephen Speight, the English steward who was injured during the pitch invasion that took place at Headingley, Leeds, a few days ago said he was kicked by the crowd around like a football. Speight, who suffered injuries on to his face and ribs said he felt like a football.

The English Cricket Board (ECB) has come out in support of their current skipper Alec Stewart after the ICC's Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) accused him of being non-cooperative. The ECB clarified that Stewart in no way has tried to avoid the meeting between him and the ACU.
Stewart was reportedly furious with the ACU for having issued a statement that he was attempting to avoid questioning. However if the chief witness Indian bookie Mukesh Gupta decides not to provide formal evidence there is a likely hood that the cases against Alec Stewart, Brian Lara and many other international cricketers may be dropped.
Gupta, in the meanwhile has been given an ultimatum and has been told to appear before the ACU by July 1, by Sir Paul Condon. The ACU is also likely to seek the help of the Indian CBI in tracing the elusive Gupta who has been in hiding since he gave evidence to the ACU in March last. Condon has this time offered to give Gupta protection if he agrees to give formal evidence.

The non-availability of train tickets due to the summer rush has resulted in Kunal Lal, Kuldeep Rawat, Gursharan Singh and Mahender Sharma missing an opportunity to train under Dennis Lillee at the MRF pace foundation in Delhi.
The four boys from the North Zone cricket academy were selected to train at Chennai but could not do so because the North Zone Academy failed to get them confirmed tickets. The NZ Academy's chief coach Yashpal Sharma said the boys were given the option of taking a flight to Chennai if they paid the difference in fare, but the boys could not do so.
Incidentally Kunal Lal, is the son of national selector Madan Lal. At Lillie's camp in Chennai, boys from the NCA Bangalore, West, South and Central Zones were undergoing training while representatives from North and East were missing.

The BCCI has filed an affidavit against Mumbai based Gayatri Arts who had registered a case of sponsorship violation against the BCCI. The BCCI termed the charges raised by Gayatri Arts as misconceived and vague.

Three youths reportedly from Bihar were arrested after they allegedly tried to assault Ajit, the elder brother of Sachin Tendulkar. The youths were demanding a guest entry into the MIG Club close to the Tendulkar residence in Bandra, north Mumbai. Ajit's refusal precipitated the attack.

A Sri Lankan court has ruled that four former members of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board (BCCSL) are likely to face criminal investigation over financial mismanagement.
A five member committee that was appointed to look into the Board affairs by the sports minister released their report last week reporting that the sacked BCCSL members, headed by Thilanga Sumathipala, were engaged in acts of malpractice, corruption, misuse, and abuse of power, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds.
Sumathipala, was also the person behind in the construction of the Dambulla Stadium, the country's newest international venue, which has also come under some legal problems.

India's ICC umpire AV Jayaprakash will be one of the panel umpires for the forthcoming ICC Trophy tournament, for non-Test playing nations, to be held at Toronto, Canada from June 28 to 17 July.

Queensland's and Australia's pace bowler Andy Bichel may grab an opportunity to play another season with his current county Worcestershire. With Glenn McGrath, who was the county's last year's overseas player, unlikely to make a comeback next season because of a packed international schedule, Bichel, may continue to play for Worcestershire in 2002 as well. There is also a good chance Bichel, may be called for the Ashes series in case of any injures.

Sri Lanka's cricket administration crisis continues with the ruling party legislators demanding a parliamentary probe into the affairs of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board (BCCSL). A resolution to this effect was passed by the ruling People's Alliance calling for a financial probe into the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL).
The resolutions stated that the issues have become a matter of public concern and people have a right to know if finances of the said board have been mismanaged. A probe panel is yet to be named.

Afghanistan and Tanzania were admitted as associate members of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Afganistan's admission was proposed by Pakistan. The application of the Cayman Islands was rejected, while Nigeria a potential applicant chose not to apply.
Incidentally, Tanzania became the 25th Associate member of the ICC. The membership of the ICC now stands at 72 following the acceptance of membership applications of 10 countries (proposing member in brackets):
Afghanistan (Pakistan), Bahrain (United Arab Emirates), Botswana (Zimbabwe), Bhutan (Nepal), Croatia (England), Indonesia (Australia), Lesotho (Zimbabwe), Maldives (Sri Lanka), St Helena (Zimbabwe) & South Korea (Australia). All of the new Affiliate members except St.Helena have been active in the ICC's development process in the last couple of years.

The ICC has announced the appointment of an elite professional eight-man umpiring panel and a support panel of 25 at its meeting at London. The 33 umpires will be contracted by the ICC for two years from April 2002, when two neutral umpires will stand in all Test matches and one neutral and one home umpire in every one-day international.
Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief and Sunil Gavaskar (chairman of cricket affairs) will select the panel. A monthly retainer will be paid to the umpires based on the cost of living in their respective countries, which means David Shepherd will earn more than S Venkataraghvan, although their match fees will remain the same. The umpires will also be subject to regular medicals and eye-sight and hearing tests.

Sunil Gavaskar has been re-appointed chairman of the ICC's executive committee. The BCCI's treasurer Kishore Rungta has been elected member of the ICC's marketing and finance committee.