New Zealand in West Indies

First one-day international, Kingston:
New Zealand 176 all out v West Indies.

A heavy thunderstorm forced the abandonment of the one-day international between West Indies and New Zealand on Wednesday.

New Zealand batted first in Kingston and could only manage 176 all out in 49.4 overs. But a thunderstorm during the lunch break left the pitch waterlogged and umpires Asoka de Silva of Sri Lanka and Dominican Billy Doctrove eventually called off the match at 2100 GMT.

"It was unfortunate it rained. We were obviously in a better position, even though there was still a lot of cricket to be played," said West Indies captain Carl Hooper.

"We are under no illusions that this was New Zealand's first run-out for a while. It will be more difficult next game, as they slowly get acclimatised to the conditions."

Death of Hansie Cronje

Leading figures in South African cricket joined thousands of mourners in Bloemfontein for the funeral of Hansie Cronje.

The 32-year-old former captain of the national team died in a plane crash in mountains near the city of George on Saturday.

"All our hearts are aching," Pastor Dave Hooper told the mourners at a church in Grey College, Cronje's former school. "The world has lost a great cricketing hero."

More than 1,000 people filled the church and a large screen television and rows of seats were set up outside to accommodate an even larger number.

The national team, clad in blazers, stood behind captain Shaun Pollock as he spoke at the service.

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The country had forgiven Hansie Cronje long before he died - but it took his death for them to show this.

On Wednesday, his widow Bertha got the chance to tell the world what she had waited two years to say: "For the past two years I wanted to tell the world ... I wanted to shout it out and explain that even though Hansie made a mistake he was still the kind, caring person and loving husband and honourable man that he had always been.

"In the last couple of days, however, I realised that actually no one forgot those special qualities that I knew he had."

Pakistan in Australia

Pakistan captain Waqar Younis has said his side is fully capable of defeating the world champions Australia on their home ground.

"We are confident that we can beat them and our pace attack is our trump card," Waqar said before leaving for Australia on Tuesday.

The Pakistan skipper left separately along with his family from Lahore while 12 other players and five officials left Karachi for Melbourne.

Pakistan team is to play three one day games in Australia on 12, 15 and 19 June - two of them indoor at Melbourne's Colonial stadium.

Srinath retired

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly says he will try to persuade Javagal Srinath to make himself available for the tour of England this summer.

The 32-year-old new ball spearhead had announced his retirement from the Test scene last week to concentrate his on fitness and availability for next year's World Cup in South Africa.

Srinath's exit will leave India's pace attack badly depleted, and that's why Ganguly wants the experienced fast-medium bowler back in the Test squad.

"Srinath is our best bowler who can guide the youngsters," the Indian captain said after returning home from the team's Caribbean tour.

"I will speak to him as early as I can and ask him to reconsider his decision."

Miscellaneous

Ricky Ponting, Australia's one-day captain, has pledged to cut down on sledging by putting an end to personal verbal attacks on opposition players.

Australia are commonly regarded by other Test-playing nations as the worst offenders when it comes to seldging.

But Ponting, who took over the one-day captaincy in February after Steve Waugh was sacked, has now said that in future his players would only be dishing out "light-hearted" banter.

Ponting has arrived in Brisbane for a training camp ahead of next week's start of a three-match series against Pakistan.

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The national cricket committee has apparently recommended that Eric Simons, coach of Western Province for the past two seasons, take over from Graham Ford as national coach.

The executive board of the United Cricket Board of South Africa is expected to decide on the recommendation within the next two days and it would come as a surprise should they not rubber stamp the proposal.

There were six candidates for the job in Simons, Vincent Barnes (assistant Province coach), Eldine Baptiste (KwaZulu-Natal coach), Dave Nosworthy (Northerns coach), Kepler Wessels (coaching consultant at EP and former South African captain) and Corrie van Zyl (assistant SA coach).

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