Ben Hollioake killed in car crash

England cricketer Ben Hollioake has been killed in a car crash in Australia.

He was driving a black Porsche 924 car which came off the road in the early hours of Saturday morning (1600 Friday GMT) in Perth, Western Australia.

Hollioake reportedly lost control of the Porsche as it came off a ramp on an expressway in the south of the city and the sports car hit a wall.

A 20-year-old female passenger is fighting for her life in a Perth hospital with serious head and chest injuries.

Inspector Greg Medhurst of Western Australia Police said: "The vehicle - a black 924 - spun out of control and hit a brick wall.

"There was no other vehicle involved.

"He died at the scene. The female passenger has head and chest injuries and has been taken to Royal Perth hospital.

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England coach Duncan Fletcher led the tributes to all-rounder Ben Hollioake, who has been killed in a car crash.

"Ben was a hugely-talented young cricketer, a popular member of the side, and he will be greatly missed by everyone in the England dressing room," Fletcher said.

"He was one of a number of young players that we were looking to take to the (2003) World Cup with the one-day squad next winter.

"And it's tragic that a young life has been lost in this way."

Australia in South Africa

One-day international, Johannesburg:
Australia 223-8 (50 overs) beat South Africa 204 all out (44.4 overs) by 19 runs.

Australia won the first one-day international against South Africa in Ricky Ponting's first match as captain, despite a brilliant 83 from Lance Klusener at Wanderers.

Klusener blasted two sixes and eight fours from just 77 balls, but was let down by the top order batsmen who crumbled in the face of an inspired spell of bowling by Jason Gillespie.

The fast bowler had Herschelle Gibbs caught at gully in his first over, claimed the wicket of Gary Kirsten in his next and then pinned Jacques Kallis lbw as South Africa's run chase got off to a bad start.

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Australian Test captain Steve Waugh said he is angered by mounting speculation that his international career may be over.

The 36-year-old hit back after facing a mountain of questions in recent weeks about his position in the Test side.

Waugh was dropped from the one-day side and replaced as captain by Ricky Ponting after Australia performed badly in the tri-nations series against South Africa and New Zealand in the winter.

"I find this pretty amazing today. We've just won the series 5-1 but no one's asked me about that. The priorities are wrong somewhere," Waugh said.

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Ricky Ponting wore a broad grin after leading Australia to a thrilling 19-run win over South Africa in his first game as one-day skipper.

But Ponting also had feelings of relief after seeing Lance Klusener threaten to snatch victory for the home side with a powerful 83 before perishing to a catch on the boundary.

"It was a bit nerve-wracking towards the end there when Lance started hitting all over the park, but at the end of the day it was a pretty good win for us," he said.

England in New Zealand

England opener Marcus Trescothick has no intention of abandoning his aggressive approach despite a disappointing dismissal in the second Test at Wellington.

The Somerset left-hander had made 37 when he top edged an attempted sweep to mid-wicket, but afterwards vowed to continue going for his shots.

"I played the shot the ball before and hit it well. The ball I got out to was in the same area and I'm not dwelling on it because mentally I was quite happy with what I was doing.

"It's happened all my career. I occasionally play a big shot and get myself caught at deep point or dep square leg, but that's the way I tend to play the game and nine times out of 10 it works well," he said.

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Former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm said he would have stopped New Zealand's double centurian Nathan Astle in his tracks if he had been playing the Christchurch Test.

Astle scored the fastest Test double ton of all time from just 153 deliveries, and went on to hammer 222 in the first match between New Zealand and England.

Malcolm criticised England's captan Nasser Hussain and his bowlers, led by Andrew Caddick, for failing to adapt to Astle's onslaught.

"There is no doubt that Hussain and Caddick and all the bowlers were thinking 'OK, he's going at it, but he can only hit a few fours and sixes and pretty soon he's going to sky one in the air and get out'.

"Unfortunately for them, the majority of the balls disappeared out of the park," Malcolm said.

Miscellaneous

England cricket bosses are bracing themselves for another round of lobbying against their scheduled matches against Zimbabwe after the country was suspended from the Commonwealth.

England open their World Cup campaign in Harare next February, and meet Stuart Carlisle's side in the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka in September.

But the Commonwealth on Tuesday suspended Zimbabwe from the organisation's councils for a year after concluding the recent presidential election had been marred by high levels of violence.

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