India in South Africa

The bowling department is the only cause of concern as India go into their second match of the Standard Bank Triangular series in South Africa at Centurion on Wednesday.
In the first match the batting clicked well thanks to India's exciting opening pair, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.
The veteran bowlers Srinath and Prasad were guilty of loose bowling in the initial overs that took the initiative straight out of the Indians hands.
In a bid to bolster the bowling Harbhjan Singh is likely to be included in the line up despite the unfriendly pitches he is likely to encounter here.
Ganguly will be sorely missing the services of the lively Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra when his team braces up to the home side again.

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Skipper Sourav Ganguly who had yesterday minced no words against his bowlers who he felt let him down in the early overs of the South African batting reassured one and all that his bowlers were experienced and would surely come back strongly.
His said his batsmen too failed to pick up the advantage of a good start and 300 was a total that should have been achieved.

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The president of the BCCI Jagmohan Dalmiya said that no reinforcements had been requested by the Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly to be flown to South Africa.
Dalmiya was reacting to reports in the media that Ganguly had requested the BCCI chief to fly fast bowler Zaheer Khan to South Africa as soon as possible.
The Chairman of selectors Chandu Borde, who was not aware of the skippers request too expressed saying it should have come through a proper channel.
However Zhaeer Khan who is holidaying in his hometown of Srirampur in Maharashtra was visibly delighted with his skippers request for him.

England in Zimbabwe

England is likely to have a new captain for the fourth match of the five match one-day series between England and Zimbabwe to be played at Bulawayo today. Trescothick takes over the reins albeit temporarily due to an injury cloud hanging over Nasser Hussain.
Trescothink's name cropped up after Graham Thorpe reportedly expressed his inability to lead the side. Opening batsmen Alistair Campbell will lead Zimbabwe after Heath Streak will have to sit out yet again due to injury.

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Zimbabwe skipper Alistair Campbell criticised the England skipper Nasser Hussain on the eve of the fourth one-day international between the two teams at Bulawayo.
Ugly verbal confrontations between England keeper James Foster and Andy Flower marred the third match at Harare played a couple of days ago. Later Campbell said as the match ended Hussain ran of the field with out shaking hands with the home side players as is customary.
There has been a history of bad blood between the two teams due to various small incidents over the years, but Campbell insisted that in the 170 odd matches he has played in this was the first time, that the opposing captain did not bother to shake hands with his side.

Miscellaneous (International)

The English born South African resident coach of the Pakistan cricket team, Richard Pybus has declined to come to Pakistan and take charge of the training camp to be held prior to the Sharjah tournament owing to the political events going on in the country. The PCB are looking for a temporary replacement.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board has reacted cautiously to the International Cricket Council's suggestion that Pakistan's home matches would have to be played on foreign until the political situation in the country became stable.
The PCB had requested the ICC to come up with a plan to help curtail the huge losses it has been suffering due to cancellation of tours. The only doubt the PCB chairman raised over such a scenario was who would keep the revenues out of a Test played by Pakistan at a neutral venue.
The International Cricket Council reiterated that it was keen that Pakistan keep playing international cricket.

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Former Pakistan skipper Asif Iqbal said Bangladesh could help out Pakistan by hosting its matches for them.
He felt Dhaka would be an ideal venue to host Pakistan's matches until the political turmoil in the country settles down. He said he felt Dhaka would be the place nearest to home conditions and home advantage with India being totally out of the question.
But he felt the ICC was bound to compensate Pakistan financially for lost revenue.

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Players have reacted with stony silence to the ICC proposal to conduct lie detector tests on players every six months in an effort to stamp out match fixing.
Judge Edwin King first suggested the idea in his report on South Africa's match-fixing inquiry. The idea is still in the initial stages and needs to be discussed.
However David Graveney, joint chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations felt the very idea was unreasonable.

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The Sri Lankan Cricket Board has decided to appoint match referees in domestic matches from this season. To begin with they would be appointed for important matches only.
The idea was to try and bring in more seriousness and discipline into the domestic games. The referees, however will not be in a position to take immediate action against players who breach the code of conduct as is the case in international matches.
They will be reported to the BCCSL disciplinary committee for action.

Miscellaneous (National)

After being ousted from the ruling body of the BCCI in dramatic fashion by a single vote, The Baroda Cricket Association secretary JY Lele has been facing the music in his home association as well.
His two trusted lieutenants, secretary Pradeep Desai and treasurer Ramesh Dalvi, submitted their resignations following a stormy AGM on Monday and it is said that Lele toomay gave given in his resignation more to save himself the embarrassment of being ousted on a no confidence motion that will be moved on Sunday.
Lele has been involved with Baroda cricket for over three decades.

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The Irani Trophy tie between Ranji Champions Baroda and Rest Of India has been shifted to Nagpur following heavy rains in Pune.
Heavy rains have lashed Maharashtra over the past few days and have hampered pitch and ground preparations and hence the need to shift the venue.
The tie will now be played from 13-17 and will be telecast live on the Doordarshan Network.

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