India in South Africa

An encouraging batting display by the young guns of the Indian team helped the visitors win their day night practice encounter against a reasonably strong South African A side at Benoni on Wednesday.
Batting first the hosts put on 241-6 in 50 overs, with good contributions coming from G Dros (85) & vaan Jaarsveld (69) and Ajit Agarkar claiming 3-46 of his 10 overs.
Chasing the home teams target the Indians began in brisk fashion and continued in that manner till the end of the innings.

Jacob Martin (54), Dravid (35), Yuvraj Singh (46 not out) and a quick fire 49 of 43 balls by Ajit Agarkar helped achieve the target. India reached 245-7 with 5 balls to spare.

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Indian middle order batsman VVS Laxman has said that he has recovered completely from his knee injury and will be fit and ready to play the Test series in South Africa.

Laxman was under treatment for a ligament tear that he suffered in Sri Lanka. He has been undergoing treatment in Australia and has been training with the New South Wales team since the past two weeks under the watchful eye of their team physio Patrik Farrar. He plans to play league cricket in Hyderabad from next week.

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Fast bowlers Makhaya Ntini and Mfuneko Ngam have become the first South African black players to be named 'cricketers of the year'. Ntini and Ngam were among the five cricketers announced for the award at Johannesburg a few days ago The others named for this years awards are skipper Shaun Pollock, Nicky Boje, and Neil McKenzie. Pollock has won this award previously in the years 1996 &1998 as well.

England in Zimbabwe

England finally put an end to their dismal run of losses in the one day game with a convincing 5 wicket win over Zimbabwe in the first of five one day internationals at Harare yesterday.
Batting first the home team could only muster 206 in 49.1 overs and England reached the target in the 47th over. Skipper Nasser Hussain top scored with 73. England had last won a one-day international on 22-7-00 at Lords in the final of the Natwest Trophy ironically against Zimbabwe.

Miscellaneous

Pakistan fast bowler Fazl-e-Akbar made history of sorts when he claimed 4 wickets in 4 balls for PIA against Habib Bank in Pakistan's domestic tournament.
Akbar took 7 wickets for 13 runs in 7.5 overs, while former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram claimed the other 3 wickets. Three of his four victims were caught while one was out lbw.
Akbars fiery spell resulted in Habib bank being bowled out for 27, the second lowest total in first class history in Pakistan.

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The Pakistan cricket Board (PCB) has formed a National Umpiring Council (NUC) to try and improve upon the image and performance of Pakistani umpires. Former Test umpire Mehboob Shah will head the NUC. It was felt Pakistan lacked quality umpires that reflected in their poor ratings by the ICC. The idea behind setting up the NUC is to improve the standard of umpiring in the country and produce umpires of international quality.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board will be undertaking development work in six grounds within Karachi. An approximate one million rupees will be invested in the project. The development will be in the areas of the outfield and players dressing rooms besides other basic infrastructure.

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Justice Karamat Bhandari today summoned Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, Zafar Altaf, Khalid Mahmood and Col Iftikhar Ahmad for the hearing on the 1999 World Cup enquiry. The five have been asked to appear on October13.
The five are said to be key witnesses to the events during the World Cup under scrutiny. Pakistan has been accused of throwing away their matches against Bangladesh and India in the 199 World Cup held in England.

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The Australian Cricket Board has decided to stop the use of television replays on ruling catches in all their domestic matches from the coming season. This has been done following complaints from many players.
It was felt that in some instances where television footage was inconclusive the benefit of the doubt was given to the batsmen that has almost always left the fielding side at a disadvantage.
Last years Pura Cup final between Victoria and Queensland was also marred by one such controversial decision, where the Queensland skipper Stuart Law who was ruled not out and went on to play a crucial match winning innings. The losing Victorian side first initiated the complaint to the ACB on this matter

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Australian Test opening batsman Michael Slater said he was unhappy that people were making vague assumptions on his life based on hearsay.
Slater's marital problems and his poor off-field attitude have been much publicised in the press as the reasons for his poor form, contributing to his demotion in favour of Justin Langer.
Langer made the most of the opportunity presented to him to cement his place in the side. The Australian Cricket Board and team management have offered to help him sort out his problems.

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The Australian skipper Steve Waugh has finally admitted that he is undergoing treatment for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) also adding that his case was not serious.
Waugh's agent had previously been denying the same. The skipper is said to be under treatment and hopes to be fit for the series against New Zealand beginning early November.
DVT, normally occurs due to the patients continuous association with long-distance air travel, and is potentially fatal if not treated immediately.

Miscellaneous (National news)

The newly elected members of the BCCI have formed a special committee to oversee the conduct of domestic matches in Bihar and Jharkhand for 2001-2002.
The CAJ President Amitabh Chowdhury said his association already had all the facilities and infrastructure and hence formal affiliation would not be a problem.
Chowdhury also said the threat by the President of Bihar Cricket Association (BCA), Laloo Prasad Yadav to seek legal options in the event of de-recognition of his association, would not affect the prospects of CAJ's affiliation.

Brief Scores

ENGLAND IN ZIMBABWE
At Harare (1st ODI)
Toss: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe: 206 in 49.1 overs (A Flower 59, S Carlisle 37DD Ebrahim 42; M Ramprakash3-28)
England: 210-5 in 46.4 overs (N Knight 50, N Hussain 73, M Ramprakash 35; D Viljoen 2-44)
Result: England won by 5 wickets.

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