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India will tour Sri Lanka from mid July to participate in a tri-nation tournament along with New Zealand and will later play three Test matches against the home side. India has not won a Test in Sri Lanka since 1993. The venues for the matches have not been finalised. The triangular will be played from July 18 to August 4 and the Tests will be played from 13-17 August (1st Test), 12-25 August (2nd Test) and 29 August-3 September (3rd Test).
India are yet to confirm their participation in the one-day series to be held in Melbourne's Colonial Stadium. This will be the second in the series of one-day matches that this indoor venue has hosted. Australia played South Africa last year in a tied series. India's tight international schedule is stated to be the reason for the delay in confirmation. The second batch of trainees entered the one-year old National Cricket Academy, Bangalore. Over this past year the NCA has set up five zonal academies in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Nagpur. The second batch of trainees consists of 20 boys in the age group 19-23. The trainees are: Vinayak Mane (Mumbai), Y Gnaneswara Rao (Andhra Pradesh), Gautam Gambhir (Delhi), Ishan Ganda (Haryana), Kashinath Khadkikar (Maharashtra), Gaganinder Singh (Punjab), Arindam Das (Bengal), Arjun Yadav (Hyderabad), Ajay Ratra (Haryana), Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (Tamil Nadu), Raja Ali (Railways), Uday Karkera (Maharashtra), Salil Yadav (Gujarat), Mulewa Dharmichand (Karnataka), Swapnil Hazare (Mumbai), L Balaji (Tamil Nadu), Maninder Singh (Madhya Pradesh), Shalabh Srivastava (Uttar Pradesh), Parthiv Patel (Gujarat) and Deep Dasgupta (Bengal).
From the above players wicket-keepers Ajay Ratra and Deep Dasgupta are also in the list of probables for the forthcoming Zimbabwe tour. Meanwhile, most of the above players will be prepared for the next Under-19 World Cup. India incidentally won the last tournament in Sri Lanka in 2000. The BCCI and NCA will be also starting a tournament to be played between the zonal academies. The tournament will be sponsored by Wisden India.
Ajit Wadekar, the former chairman of selectors of the Mumbai Cricket Association who resigned from his post two days ago said he resigned to take the blame for Mumbai's poor show in this year's Ranji Trophy. With this resignation he has probably severed his last link with Mumbai cricket. It may be recalled that he lost out to Sharad Pawar in this year race for the post of MCA president.
Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar suffers from a condition called hypermobility that created the distortion in his bowling action. A report compiled by the experts from the University of Western Australia in Perth, say that the hypermobile shoulder and elbow joint combined with an abducted forearm caused concern to umpires viewing his action. The report states further that Akhtar was unable to avoid hypermobility in his bowling action and that should not be labeled as throwing as it was caused by abnormal anatomical characteristics.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that it will give a reply shortly to the statement made by the Indian Sports Minister Ms Uma Bharati that India would play Pakistan only in bilateral series and not at any non-cricketing venues. The PCB have made note of the minister's statement and would shortly be giving their reply after consultations with their government. The statements made by both the BCCI president AC Muthiah and the sport minister were given wide coverage in the Pakistani press with special emphasis on the former BCCI chief Raj Singh Dungarpur criticising the government's decision not to send its team to Sharjah. The ICC it appears is going slow on India's inability to stage the ICC knockout tournament in 2002. An ICC spokesman clarified that alternate plans have been made but would not be revealed until India confirms its stand on the issue of playing Pakistan. The BCCI is currently involved in a verbal duel with the government over the policy of playing Pakistan. An Afghan national cricket team will tour Pakistan next month on a goodwill mission. Matches have been scheduled at Peshawar and Rawalpindi. The tour hosted by the PCB is purely a goodwill gesture aimed at promoting cricketing ties between the two countries England left-arm spinner Ashley Giles should be fit in time for the first Test against Pakistan. The only spinner in this year's list of contracted players with the ECB, Giles has been bothered for a while now by an Achilles tendon problem. He played in Sri Lanka despite being in pain. However his county Warwickshire are sure he will be fit to play a few matches for the county before the Pakistan tour begins. The racial comments made by South African cricketers against South African coloured players in the local cricket league has prompted authorities to take strict action. In future, any player found guilty could even face a life ban. Several incidents have been reported, with the clubs of the offenders taking little or no action against them. A representative of the KwaZulu Natal Cricket Union welcomed the move saying it was a step in the right direction for the development of South African cricket that has always been divided along racial lines.
Yorkshire beat Derbyshire by five wickets at Leeds, thanks to a 103 by Australian Darren Lehmann. Nottinghamshire won easily by eight wickets and with nearly 20 overs to spare against Leicestershire at Nottingham.
Meanwhile from the next season onwards, English cricket county clubs will be allowed to two sign two overseas players. With international cricket being played all round the year, many foreign players are unable to play a full season with the county sides because of international commitments.
2nd Test:
Bangladesh: 266 (Javed Omar 43, Al Shariar Rokon 68, Habibul Bashar 76, Akram Khan 31, Naimur Rahman 36; RW Price 3-94, BT Watambwa 4-64)
Zimbabwe: 100-2 (GJ Whittall 60) Result: Zimbabwe won by 8 wickets (Zimbabwe won the 2 Test series 2-0) Man of the match: GJ Whittall (Zim) Man of the series: HH Streak (Zim)
Yesterday's News
News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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A second consecutive half century by the Zimbabwe opener Guy Whittall (60) helped Zimbabwe coast to victory by eight wickets in the second Test of the two-match series at Harare. Bangladesh resuming their innings on the final day were bowled out for the addition of only 47 runs leaving the host to score just 100 runs for victory. Zimbabwe thus completed a clean sweep by winning in the one-day internationals 3-0 and the Tests 2-0. 
Sir Paul Condon head of the ICC's anti corruption unit has submitted his first report. Taking a rather pessimistic view Condon says that the match fixing evil is still very much prevailing in the cricket world, despite the close watch that is being kept on cricket activities these days after the Hansie Cronje episode last year. Sir Condon said he felt that a couple of matches in recent series could have been fixed and showed concern that the bookies have been targeting young cricketers. Without directly naming any individual country Sir Condon has expressed his concern over the recently held Pakistan-New Zealand series in New Zealand. Sir Condon's report will be sent to Lord Griffiths who is the head of the code of conduct committee of the ICC.
Australian pace bowler Andy Bichel put up a grand performance for Worcestershire when his team beat Northamptonshire by 96 runs at Kidderminster. Bichel made 29 runs in 23 balls and also claimed three wickets.
