Refusing to let the off-field controversy affect them the South Africans put on another professional display to beat the West Indies by 53 runs in the sixth one-day international at Port of Spain. A new look South African team defended a low total of 190 by dismissing the West Indies for a paltry 137.

Pakistan skipper Waqar Younis has decided to skip the last tour game against Kent before the first Test match complaining of a sore throat and fever. He is hopeful of being fit by Thursday when the first Test begins at Lord's.

Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar who failed to create much of an impression in the tour game against Derbyshire was left out of the squad that began a three-day game against Kent yesterday. He is struggling for fitness and is over weight resulting in the tour management chalking out a special training programme for him leading on to the first Test.

A strong batting display by Kent, especially by former England Under-19 opener Robert Key locked any chances Pakistan may have had of gaining the upper hand in the three-day match at Canterbury. At close on the first day, Key's 119 helped Kent declare at 313-5. The much talked about Pakistani attack was sorely found wanting except for pace bowler Mohammad Sami who took a couple of early wickets amongst a flood of no balls. Sami is in contention with Shoaib for a place in the Test eleven.
Scores: Kent 313-5 decl. v Pakistanis 41-0

The six-day coaching camp ahead of the Zimbabwe tour begins in Bangalore today. A squad of 17 for the tour will be picked from the 26 probables that will assemble at Bangalore from today. Notable among the omissions are wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia and pace bowler Venkatesh Prasad. Under the keen eye of coach, John Wright, the Indian team is expected to cover an in-depth exercise in redrafting India's overseas victory drought.
The probables who will assemble at Bangalore are:
Sourav Ganguly (capt, Bengal), Rahul Dravid (vice-capt., Karnataka), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai), VVS Laxman (Hyderabad), Hemang Badani (Tamil Nadu), Sadagopan Ramesh (Tamil Nadu), Shiv Sundar Das (Orissa), Mohammad Kaif (Uttat Pradesh), Yuvraj Singh (Punjab), Verendra Shewag (Delhi), Dinesh Mongia (Punjab), Sameer Dighe (wk, Mumbai), Ajay Ratra (wk, Haryana), Deep Dasgupta (wk, Bengal), Javagal Srinath (Karnataka), Ajit Agarkar (Mumbai), Zaheer Khan (Baroda), Harvinder Singh (Railways), Ashish Nehra (Delhi), Debashis Mohanty (Orissa), Rakesh Patel (Baroda), Reetinder Singh Sodhi (Punjab), Harbhajan Singh (Punjab), Sarandeep Singh (Punjab), Rahul Sanghvi (Delhi), and Sairaj Bahutule (Mumbai).

The Supreme Court has given Dayanand Narvekar & Vinod Phadke the president and the secretary of the Goa Cricket Association, a week's time to reply to a petition that was filed in the Bombay high court by the State of Goa challenging the anticipatory bail granted to them following the ticket scam in the recently concluded India-Australia one day match on April, 6. Earlier the duo, were refused bail by a Goa sessions court immediately after the scam broke out.

The BCCI will organise an inter-academy cricket tournament in August this year. The five zonal academies based at Mumbai, Kanpur, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai will play each other for the "Col. Hemu Adhikari Trophy", named after the former India captain and manager-coach. This tournament will be followed by a match between the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore and a combined zonal academy team.

Young Indian opening batsman SS Das was felicitated by a leading hotel chain in Bhubaneshwar, for his impressive performances in Test matches, so far. The hotel chain intends to organise similar felicitations for all budding sports-persons from the state of Orissa. Das was handed over a cheque of Rs. one lakh (approx. US$ 2200).

It is likely that the ICC's anti-corruption unit (ACU) will target the three English cricketers who were accused by their former team-mate Chris Lewis. Sir Paul Condon who heads the Unit said substantial evidence has been unearthed against them by the Scotland Yard detectives. Further the ACU has also suggested more punishment be meted out to former players, who are now banned for life - South African Hansie Cronje, India's Mohd. Azharuddin and Manoj Prabhakar and Pakistanis Salim Malik and Ata-ur Rehman. The ACU has also recommended that the records of these players be erased. This interim report by the ACU comes 12 months after it as first instituted by the ICC.

Indian umpire S Venkatraghavan has been named as one of the umpires for the third and fourth Ashes Tests at Nottingham and Leeds beginning on August 2 and 16 respectively. His partners will be John Hampshire and David Shepherd. The Aussies are due to arrive in England in the end of May. Meanwhile Pakistani Talat Ali has been named the match referee for the forthcoming Ashes series.

England pace bowler Andrew Caddick's ten wicket haul enabled Somerset beat Yorkshire by 161 runs at Leeds. With this Somerset top the Division One in the County Championships table. Caddick took five for 92 to add to his first-innings return of five for 81. He also took the vital wicket of Australian Darren Lehmann for 71. Scores: Somerset 257 & 327-8d. v Yorkshire 231 & 192

Stephen Fleming's maiden century (121 not out) for Middlesex gave the visitors a five-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Bristol. Thanks to his knock, Middlesex successfully reached 293 for five to record their first Championship victory after two draws, to top of Division Two in the County Championships. Fleming finished undefeated on 121 from 208 balls. Scores: Gloucestershire 272 & 265-4decl. v Middlesex 245 and 293-5

Thanks to Mal Loye's unbeaten 167, his first Championship hundred since 1998, helped Northamptonshire to draw against Surrey. Surrey had earlier made 607 runs to take a lead of 131 runs. Scores: Northamptonshire 476 & 304-1 v Surrey 607