India in England

One-day match, Canterbury:
Kent 284 all out (50 overs) beat India 263 all out (48.5 overs) by 21 runs.

An inspired mid-innings spell by seamer James Golding snatched victory for Kent after India looked on course for victory at Canterbury.

Cruising on 166 for two and well ahead of schedule, India lost three wickets for 13 runs - all to Golding - and never recovered, falling 21 runs short when dismissed in the 49th over. Golding finished with figures of four for 42, crucially snaring the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar for 15 to force India back into their shell.

Mark Ealham also played a defining hand, racing through the tail to finish with four wickets after earlier hitting a fiery 74 not out.

Golding was the first to strike for Kent, removing the dangerous Virender Sehwag for a run-a-ball 45 after India's first wicket had realised 85 runs.

Fellow opener and captain Sourav Ganguly looked in fine touch in reaching 64, but his needless run out brought Tendulkar to the crease and signalled something of a turning point in the game.

New Zealand in West Indies

First Test, Barbados:
West Indies 107 & 269 lost to New Zealand 337 & 243 by 204 runs.

New Zealand romped to a 204-run victory over the West Indies to clinch their first-ever Test win in the Caribbean.

Set a massive 474 to win, the West Indies collapsed in the final session to lose the first Test with a day to spare.

The hosts were bowled out for 269, with pace bowler Shane Bond taking five for 79 to add to the brace he took in the first innings, when the West Indies crumbled to 107 all out.

Only Brian Lara, with a classy 73, and Chris Gayle, who made the same score, offered any resistance.

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New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said his team's historic Test victory over the West Indies was especially satisfying given their lack of success on three previous tours.

The win was New Zealand's first ever in the West Indies after 11 Tests produced three losses and eight draws.

"I rate it highly because of where we are," Fleming said after the Black Caps sealed a comprehensive 204-run win in the opening Test late on the fourth day.

"There's been a lot of New Zealand teams that have been battered and bruised at this ground and in the West Indies before," Fleming said. "That provides motivation."

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West Indies coach Roger Harper defended Ramnaresh Sarwan after the number three batsman was guilty of twice throwing his wicket away in New Zealand's historic 204-run Test win at the Kensington Oval.

Sarwan's reckless attempts at pull shots led to a first-ball dismissal in the first innings and unhinged the West Indies' second innings reply at a time when the Kiwi bowlers seemed to be running out of ideas.

"They were two horrible errors there is no doubt about that. But sometimes we ask too much of players. I do not think that dropping Sarwan would be the right way to go," Harper said.

The West Indies defeat was the first in the Caribbean in 12 Test matches spanning three previous Kiwi tours.

Ponting undergoes surgery

Australia's one-day captain Ricky Ponting, who had foot surgery, said he would resume full training in a month and be available to tour Pakistan in September.

Ponting flew back to Sydney after having surgery in a Melbourne hospital. The 27-year-old is on crutches after having a pin inserted in his left foot to help heal a stress fracture which troubled him in Australia's 2-1 series loss to Pakistan earlier this month.

"Apparently it all went pretty well and I should be on these things (crutches) for a week and then hopefully back in full training in a month," Ponting told reporters at Sydney airport.

Ponting married law student Rianna Cantor in Sydney. "All it means is the honeymoon is put back about a week," he said.

World record bat for auction

The bat Englishman Walter Hammond used to score part of his then world record 336 not out against New Zealand in the second Test at Eden Park, Auckland, in 1933 will be auctioned in London next month.

The bat is expected to fetch up to $10,486 at Sothebys on July 11. Hammond hit his unbeaten 336 in just 318 minutes, his innings including 10 sixes, another Test record, and 34 fours.

The match ended in a draw, abandoned because of bad weather. In the first Test Hammond scored 227 and the 336 he made in the second gave him an average of 563.0, also a record for a Test series.

During the course of his record innings the blade of his bat broke and Hammond borrowed another from team-mate Gubby Allen to complete the big knock.

The damaged bat has remained until now in New Zealand but who owns it is not known.

Miscellaneous

The dominance of Australia and Sri Lanka in Test cricket over the last year has led to two players from each country gaining nominations for the International Player of the Year award.

Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and batsman Mahela Jayawardene are among the nominees as well as Adam Gilchrist and opener Matthew Hayden from Australia.

Before their 2-0 Test series defeat in England, Sri Lanka won nine consecutive Test matches during the Southern Hemisphere season, moving to third in the ICC Test Championship.

Australia dominated what was billed as a clash for top spot in the rankings, winning five of six Tests against South Africa.

The four are joined by Indian great Sachin Tendulkar and South Africa's Jacques Kallis. The annual award, made by the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA), will be handed out at a star-studded dinner in London on 10 July.

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The International Cricket Council (ICC) will hold its second executive board meeting of the year in London this week.

And top of the agenda will be how to deal with recent political and terrorist events that have left fixture lists in chaos.

New Zealand were forced home early from their tour of Pakistan in May when a bomb killed 14 people outside their hotel.

And Pakistan hope to use the meetings to convince Australia that it is safe to go ahead with their planned tour later this year.

Australia also cancelled their scheduled tour of Zimbabwe in April because of safety worries following the controversial re-election of President Robert Mugabe.

"In recent months international cricket has suffered a number of telling setbacks, which have all contributed to this current state of uncertainty," said ICC chief executive Malcolm Gray.

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