India's tour of England

India have announced they are to send two officials to England to check on security arrangements, ahead of their planned tour which begins in June.

In an unprecedented move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will send two representatives - BCCI joint-secretary Jyoti Bajpai and Amrit Mathur.

They will leave for England next week to meet England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) officials.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said: "They will inspect media arrangements in England - remember during the World Cup there were plenty of crowd invasions. "We want to avoid that and hence the concern over security."

Australia's tour of Zimbabwe

Australia have called off next month's proposed tour of Zimbabwe due to growing safety concerns.

The current world Test and one-day champions had been due to play a two-Test tour in the southern African country from 11 April.

But on Wednesday, Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Bob Merriman said the decision to drop the tour was based on the latest security reports.

"It is now clear that travelling to Zimbabwe will compromise their (the players) safety," Merriman said.

"The security of our people is our first priority."

Merriman said the ACB and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union had discussed the possibility of playing the matches on neutral soil, but that Zimbabwe had wanted the tour to take place at home.

Miscellaneous

England coach Duncan Fletcher says he faces a huge task lifting his squad for the final Test against Zimbabwe, following the tragic death of Ben Hollioake.

As captain Nasser Hussain prepared to attend the memorial service for the 24-year-old in Perth, the remaining players had their first day off since the tragedy occurred last Saturday.

The squad will return to work on Thursday for the first of two days' training before the start of the final Test at Eden Park on Saturday.

But Fletcher knows that their thoughts are still dominated by the loss of Hollioake. "It's pretty difficult to pick the team up," admitted Fletcher. "It's just hit me how difficult it's going to be to put together a plan.

"You're in a catch-22 situation where if you don't show emotion you're callous and if you do there is a chance of people finding holes in it.

"You just have to find a middle ground somewhere, get them motivated and make sure they keep thinking about the game in hand."

________________

South Africa will appoint a new selection panel after complaints from captain Shaun Pollock and coach Graham Ford that they have not been consulted.

The selectors had originally been appointed until the 2003 World Cup.

But the United Cricket Board of South Africa has decided to elect a new panel in August that will possibly be trimmed down from its current membership of six.

The selection of the South African team to face Australia for the third Test in Sydney in January descended into controversy when UCBSA president Percy Sonn insisted that Justin Ontong should play instead of Jacques Rudolph.

And this week Ford criticised the selectors of failing to consult with him or Pollock. "Right now the final team gets phoned through to Polly (Shaun Pollock) the day before a game," Ford told South Africa's The Star newspaper.

________________

Explosive opening batsman Adam Gilchrist admits he has been too aggressive at the crease as he tries to rediscover his best one-day form in South Africa.

Gilchrist has scored just 141 runs from eight innings this summer, continuing his moderate run when he was caught in the third over of Australia's 45-run victory at Centurion Park last Sunday.

The left-hander had batted in typically brisk fashion, taking half of the 14 runs from Makhaya Ntini's first over before the wayward shot.

"I went out there and although I only faced 11 balls it felt like I was fighting myself a little bit not to try something big right from ball one," Gilchrist said.

Yesterday's News .........................  News Roll archive