Standard Bank Triangular series in South Africa

Kenya go into their match against South Africa on a confident note after their surprise victory over India.
The South Africans, however, will show no mercy as they will know that a better fight is expected this time around.
After suffering heavy losses in the first two matches of the tournament, Kenya have been helped out in strategy and planning by, the ICC high performance manager, Bob Woolmer.
The Kenyan skipper Maurice Odumbe sits out of this match too after he was handed a two-match ban

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The International Cricket Council is reported to have asked for the tapes of India's surprise defeat against Kenya in South Africa.
The match was coincidently played on the day Hansie Cronje's appeal was upheld in Pretoria. The ICC's ACU investigators who were in South Africa, checking out arrangements for the World Cup at the time also reportedly spoke to the match referee of the tournament Justice AM Ebrahim who maintained that India lost because they fielded a second string team.

England tour hangs in delicate balance

Former Test cricketer and commentator Ian Botham said he strongly believed that England should pull out of their tour of India.
Botham said he just felt the sub-continent was too dangerous place a play in at the moment. Botham toured India only once as a player in 1981-82 and was to visit India this time as a commentator.

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A divided England squad met the England and Wales Cricket Board officials to decide on whether they should go ahead with the tour of India.
Senior players like Andrew Caddick, Ashley Giles and Craig White, were vehement in their refusal to make the tour.
Others like Mark Ramprakash, Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher said they would be willing to abide by what the foreign office says.
Skipper Nasser Hussain had said last week that he would leave it to each member of his side to decided if they wanted to make the tour or not.

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The England and Wales Cricket Board are faced with a tough situation if they decide to pull out of the Indian tour. A bill of £7 million stares ECB in the face if they decide to pull out.
The ICC introduced new legislation at its executive board meeting last week to punish any country pulling out of a tour without valid reason.
The fine includes a $2m (£1.39m) penalty, plus the awarding of two Test Championship points to the home nation with offending nation forced to pay for the lost revenue from the tour.
That figure could also escalate further if India retaliates by pulling out from their reciprocal tour of England next summer

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The English Cricket Officials have received a go ahead on the tour of India by their foreign office. Neutral Test venues how ever have not been ruled out.
Officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board met officials from the foreign Office a few days ago and have been told that the foreign office no reason why the tour should not go ahead.

Miscellaneous

The ICC has softly snubbed Pakistan by not even considering it as one of the possible venues to host the next ICC knock-out tournament.
While the PCB had been gearing up to host the next tournament the ICC announced that India was the preferred venue to host the next event in 2002.
If India is unable Sri Lanka, UAE and Australia were named as alternatives. England have confirmed to host the 2006 event.

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Australian skipper Steve Waugh will play a club match to test his fitness ahead of the first Test against New Zealand beginning on November 8.
Waugh was injured in the third Test against England. He missed the fourth but hobbled to a century in the final Test only to return home and find more complications in the form of deep vein thrombosis has affected him. He has been undergoing treatment and has recovered.

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The legal advisor of the PCB has requested Justice Karamat Bhandari of the World Cup inquiry commission to allow him to cross examine former fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz.
He will be questioning Sarfaraz against the allegations made against Ehsan Mani who is Pakistan's permanent member in the ICC. Sarfaraz had questioned Mani's monination for the post of PCB president saying he was not a Pakistani national.

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Former South African captain Hansie Cronje's planned return to sport has been met with stiff resistance by the sporting fraternity in South Africa.
Officials from South Africa's athletic federations and the Rugby Football Union felt Cronje had cheated badly and hence had no role to play in sport further.
Others felt it would take a while before people began to trust him again. A spokesman from the Grey College in Bloemfontein, where Cronje studied, said it would not employ him as a coach ever.

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New Zealand strike bowler Daniel Vettori has not broken his ankle despite having an awkward fall when fielding off his own bowling in New Zealand's match against and ACT Invitation XI. The ankle appears sprained and will require a period of rest.

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