March 29, 2001
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With the uncertainty over the India-Pakistan cricketing relations, the ICC may play safe and shift the next ICC Knockout tournament to Australia. In fact, the Australia Cricket Board is also keen to hold this tournament at the indoor Colonial Stadium in Melbourne. 
Rain continued to thwart play in the third Test between Pakistan and New Zealand at Hamilton. Almost three hours of play were lost on the third day as play began shortly after lunch. News update (3rd day): At tea: New Zealand 211-1 (Matthew Bell (105), Mark Richardson 77 not out, Mathew Sinclair 17 not out) Australia won the second one-day international at Pune quite comfortably by eight wickets and with 29 balls to spare to level the five match series one-all. India had posted 248-9 with the help of a gritty maiden hundred by south paw Hemang Badani. Mark Waugh's classy unbeaten 133 made it look easy for the tourists on a wicket that was supposed to take spin by the second innings. Indore, the headquarters of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association is the venue of the third one-day international between India and Australia on Sataurday. A spokesman of the MPCA said that going by the recent performance of the Indian team, ticket sales in the city have touched Rs 40 lakhs (approx. US$ 85, 0000). The MPCA has issued special tickets at concessional rates for students. Moreover, Indore is hosting its first international match since December 25 1997, when the match against Sri Lanka had to be abandoned after less than five overs were bowled as the pitch was considered to dangerous to play on. Indore was then banned from hosting any matches. The ban however was recently revoked after the ICC observer Ranjan Madugalle visited the ground and inspected the wicket.
West Indies are looking to salvage a win and level the series as the third Test begins in Kensington Oval, Bridgetown at Barbados, today. Off spinner Dave Mohammad will be looking to make his debut, while left-handed batsman Shivnaraine Chanderpaul will be striving to force a comeback. The New Zealand Cricket Board said it would decide by Friday if it should send its team to Sharjah or not following India backing out of the tournament. The NZ Cricket Board however felt that New Zealand's participation in previous tournaments in Sharjah only served to be an extra burden on the players, who are just at the end of a long and hectic season. Interestingly, New Zealand has been invited by the Pakistan Cricket Board, and not by the hosts CBFS, to play at this year's tourney after India backed out. The president of the ICC Malcolm Gray confirmed that it was not possible for the ICC to impose sanctions on India for not participating in the Sharjah tournament as it falls outside the ICC's international tours programe. India is bound to play in Sharjah by a private agreement and it is a matter for the BCCI to deal with. The ICC confirmed its stand on India's non-participation after Pakistan called upon the ICC to impose sanctions on India. Former Pakistan skipper turned politician Imran Khan said the future of cricket in Asia was in jeopardy following India's continued refusal to play with Pakistan. He appealed to the Indian government to save cricket in Asia from falling to pieces.
The English cricket team is back home after a rather successful tour of Sri Lanka where the Test series was won 2-1, after the team had lost the first. As the team prepare for the Ashes battle, the list of player contracts for next season are likely to see some changes. Mark Ramprakash, Dean Headley (now retired) and Andrew Flintoff who have been plagued by injury problems are unlikely to have their contracts renewed. Leg-spinning all-rounder Chris Schofield and Graeme Hick also are not likely to have their contracts renewed after a not so impressive season. The 12-man contract squad for the coming season by made on Friday. The contracts are reported to be worth between £40,000 to £90,000 Acting England captain Graham Thorpe said that the thrashing they received from Sri Lanka in the just concluded one-day series may actually be a blessing in disguise. He said England were inexperienced in playing one day matches abroad and their loss showed the many weaknesses they have in this form of the game.
With the uncertainty over the India-Pakistan cricketing relations, the ICC may play safe and shift the next ICC Knockout tournament to Australia. In fact, the Australia Cricket Board is also keen to hold this tournament at the indoor Colonial Stadium in Melbourne. The Australian cricket team has been nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards, 2001. They have been nominated in the category of the "best team of the year" along with the New York Yankees baseball team, France men's football team, Cameroon's men's Olympic football team and the Real Madrid football club. The Laureus World Sports Awards are in their second year and are sponsored by Daimler-Chrysler and Richemont to honor the achievements of sports men and women on an annual basis. Nominations for the awards are submitted by a group of journalists from 75 countries and are collated by an independent auditing firm and then submitted to the World Sports Academy who then elects the winners by a secret ballot. The nominations for this year were announced in a Berlin Hotel by the founder members of the Laureus World Sports Academy that include among others Boris Becker, Dawn Fraser, Mark Spitz and Nadia Commaneci. The sports minister of Sri Lanka has sacked the entire Cricket Board of Sri Lanka following violations by the BCCSL of the sports laws of the country. The minister Lakshman Kiriella said an interim panel would be appointed to run affairs in the mean time. The interim panel will consist of competent representatives of all political parties. The BCCSL was to hold its annual General Body meeting this weekend. The director of the Bradman Foundation has confirmed that the ashes of the late Sir Donald Bradman would be sprinkled over the town of Bowral, the place where Sir Don spent his childhood. This would however be a private ceremony. The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has rejected the resignation of the former India skipper Sunil Gavaaskar from the NCA committee. Gavaskar had resigned from the NCA after a fall out with the Chairman of the Academy Raj Singh Dungarpur a couple of months ago. However the two had managed to resolve their differences. The revival of Indian cricket with the Test series win against the powerful Aussies has sparked off new interest in the game in the corporate world. The latest to join the bids for the team sponsorship are the House of Tatas, one of India's leading corporate giants. This follows the back out of Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) due to government regulations against tobacco sponsorship of sporting events. The current sponsorship deal is said to be worth Rs 50 crores (approx. US$ 1.6 million). The conservative offer from the Tata group came as a surprise to many, but a spokesman of Tata said that they had a long history of association with cricket as many past and present cricketers were employees of Tata, including the current skipper Sourav Ganguly. Mumbai Ranji Trophy vice-captain and batsman Amol Muzumdar who was dropped from the Mumbai team to play the Provincial tournament at Perth on disciplinary reasons said he was not aware of what the charges against him were apart from the fact that he did not wear the sponsors shirt as he went out for the toss in the quarter-final match against Punjab last week He further explained that he always had maintained good dressing room relations with all his team mates and was surprised that any one of them could have complained against him. In rather dramatic fashion, Muzumdar had to return his kit and blazer that was given to him for the Australian tour, at the airport just before the team departed. The Mumbai CA officials informed him of his being dropped due to disciplinary reasons at the very last minute. In fact the day he got the sack, he was busy with his engagement ceremony. 2nd One day international at Nehru Stadium, Pune India: 248-9 in 50 overs (SR Tendulkar 32, VVS Laxman 51, H Badani 100) Australia: 249-2 in 45.1 overs (ME Waugh 133 not out, ML Hayden 57) Result: Australia won by 8 wickets (The 5 match series is tied 1-1) Man of the match: ME Waugh (Australia) PAKISTAN IN NEW ZEALAND 3rd Test at Hamilton (day 2 - no play due to rain) Pakistan: 104 (Younis Khan 36, Humayun Farhat 28, Daryl Tuffy 4-39, Chris Martin 4-52) New Zealand: 171-0 (Mark Richardson 64 not out, Matthew Bell 96 not out).  Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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