All posts by csb10.top

With doubts lingering on whether Jagmohan Dalmiya, the new Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president, would attend the BCCI’s working committee meeting tomorrow, the focus now shifts to discussions on fresh qualification norms to pick the new selection panel.It’s learnt that Dalmiya, who staged a comeback to cricket administration with a West Bengal election win last month after being ousted from the BCCI in 2006, will send one of his joint secretaries instead. In the event, the new selection norms are expected to be the key subject of debate tomorrow, apart from a review of the Indian board’s accounts for the last calendar year, its budget for the next year, and the agenda and dates for its annual general meeting (AGM) next month.After the 2007 AGM, the board had decided to constitute a paid selection panel from September 2008. Some of the members’ term in the present selection panel, chaired by Dilip Vengsarkar, comes to end on September 30. Even then the working committee had debated on putting into place a centralised selection system where a selector needed to fulfill certain criteria.The proposal was that the senior selectors should have played at least five Tests or 50 first-class matches and the junior selectors a minimum of 25 first-class games and should not be members of any association’s managing committee. That proposal never got passed as the board decided to do away with the eligibility criteria and allowed the selectors to be part of the managing committees of their respective associations. It said that the working committee could lay down the criteria whenever it needed to without making it part of the constitution.In the past there was also a proposal to appoint a centralised selection panel comprising three selectors based on certain qualifications instead of picking one from each zone, but there was no consensus then and it seems highly unlikely that proposal will see the light of the day even now. But some of the members on the committee feel it is time to once again have a debate on the issue. “Without changing the original system of allowing one selector to be nominated from each of the five zones in the country the board wants to revamp the process by which a selector is picked”, a BCCI official pointed out.

Somerset Cricket Museum continued it’s close association with the famous I Zingari Cricket Club when the curator Tony Stedall announced that Charles Clive Ponsonby-Fane had agreed to become the new patron.Mr Ponsonby-Fane, who resides at Little Brympton near Yeovil will be well known in cricketing circles because it was his great great grandfather Sir Spencer Ponsonby- Fane who back in 1845 was joint founder of I Zingari, which is probably the most well known of all wandering cricket teams.Those who have visited the Somerset Cricket Museum will know that one of the most impressive exhibits which has pride of place is a display of I Zingari memorabilia.The I Zingari items on show at the museum consist of a remarkable collection of material relating to the club and were originally assembled by the new patron of the Somerset Cricket Museum at Brympton before being kindly loaned to the museum.Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane played most of his first class cricket for Surrey, but had a long association with Somerset County Cricket Club and between 1891 until he died in 1915 at the age of 91 he held the post of President of the club.Speaking for the museum Mr Stedall told me: "We are absolutely delighted that Mr Ponsonby-Fane has agreed to become our new patron."

Former Otago batsman Mark Parker has been named as New Zealand’s first confirmed victim of the Bali bombing atrocity, that killed nearly 200 people over the weekend.Parker, who was thought to be holidaying on the island while returning from a highly successful summer playing for St.Cross Symondians in the Southern Electric Premier Cricket League, was in the Kuta district of Bali when the bomb exploded.The news of the death of the 27-year-old son of New Zealand test player Murray Parker and nephew of the great John Parker, another Black Cap, has been taken particularly hard at his club, Onslow CC and in Hampshire, where he led his adopted team to promotion from the SPCL Division Three last season with 757 runs at an average of 84.11 – the best in any of the three divisions.It is believed that he suffered extensive injuries in the blast, according to Christchurch-based Daniel Whiston, who told New Zealand television station TV3 that “he tried to stop the bleeding and was conscious and talking before he died.”A close friend of All Black rugby captain Anton Oliver, he also led the New Zealand Under 20s side that contained current Black Cap international Jacob Oram and Joseph Yovich before playing three times for Otago in the Shell Trophy of 1996-97 alongside former England star Matthew Maynard and Kiwi off-spinner Paul Wiseman.John Morrison, the newly appointed ICC international panel match referee and friend of the family spoke of his disbelief while Gavin Larsen, the NZ medium-pace bowler said that Parker was “mega-talented and wanted to give first-class cricket another go with Wellington.””He was a great timer of the ball and should have played more first-class cricket.”The tragedy has rocked the Winchester-based cricket club in England where Parker had performed with great aplomb for the past three seasons, recording his best year in 2002 with two excellent centuries.An extremely popular figure with his team-mates at St.Cross, he was due to return for a fourth campaign with the club he helped secure promotion and second place in SPCL Division Three.All involved with the Southern Electric Premier Cricket League pass their condolences to his family and friends. A fine, talented young man so cruelly taken.

Today (Wednesday) marks exactly 249 days to go before the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2003 – a global sports event that will have a major music component throughout its 44 days’ duration.A committee set up to co-ordinate the big music component for the tournament has been hard at work in order to finalise among others, the theme song.Big names in South African music have been appointed to serve on the committee headed by playwright and chairman of the South African Music Awards, Duma ka Ndlovu. Members of the committee have been sourced from the government, musicians, recording companies and entertainment consultants.The ICC Cricket World Cup marketing director and member of the committee Ms Nomsa Chabeli said Monday that the committee has its work cut out in co-ordinating the huge music component that will keep the world on its feet as the 14-nations tournament gets underway.The World Cup starts on February 8 next year with a planned spectacular opening ceremony in Cape Town and the final will be played at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on March 23. For the first time in a World Cup, a closing ceremony will be held.The music committee is currently going through a selection process for the official theme song and an announcement is expected to be made soon.Commenting on the music component of the 44-day tournament, Ms Chabeli said: "We will have three usages for the theme song. There will be a ceremonial version to be performed during the opening ceremony, a commercially popular version and one for radio and television advertisements."We hope to involve as many South African musicians as possible. We must create a situation where we can celebrate our African culture, create excitement, fun and camaraderie among not only cricket lovers, but all South Africans and indeed the whole world since this is an international event," said Ms Chabeli.She also announced that a national music co-ordinator would be appointed towards the end of June. "This person will look after all our music-related activities, including 12 night-before-match concerts at various venues, 54 carnivals during each day of the tournament, "meet-and-greets" at airports and official hotels, the massive roadshow from Nairobi, Kenya to Cape Town and other live performances."Artists interested in taking part in these performances will be called for later in the year. Details will be announced in the media.In addition it was announced that for the first time at cricket matches in South Africa, no fewer than five languages – Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Afrikaans and English – will be used by PA announcers during the ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa next year.Twelve venues will host World Cup matches, and the predominant languages of the respective regions will be in use for all announcements in and around the grounds.For example, English and Zulu will be the order of the day at matches in Durban, English, Afrikaans and Xhosa at Port Elizabeth and East London, and English, Afrikaans and Sotho in Bloemfontein.Two PA announcers will be appointed at each venue.

TANGIER-With three innings of substance from the first four top orderbatsmen, Sri Lanka marched to their third win in four games withconsummate ease, reaching the target with six wickets to spare and eightof the regulation 50 overs remaining unconsumed.And while they were at it, they must have taught a thing or two toyesterday’s losers, Pakistan, about how to organise a chase.In a match that was of just academic interest, the Sri Lankan desire towin was palpably intense.Perhaps they wanted to use this opportunity to put South Africa in theirplace to score some psychological points before Wednesday’s final.The quicksilver innings by Sanath Jayasuriya (47, off 48 balls, 6 foursand 1 six) and Aravinda de Silva (unconquered 77, off 74 balls, 7 foursand 1 six) took the attack to Proteas. And a comparatively sedate knockby Kumar Sangakkara (57, off 90 balls, 4 fours) made sure that therenever were any hiccups.By the time, Sangakkara got himself run out, the third wicket stand wasworth 96, off 111 deliveries, and at 179 for three in the 35th over, SriLanka’s was never in doubt.Sanath Jayasuriya, adjudged Man of the Match in two previous games, wason top of the bowling from word go. He seemed all set to get to his 50thscore of 50-plus when he tried to cut Klusener to fine third man; it wastoo close to his body and the resulting edge was pouched by stand-inkeeper Boeta Dippenaar.Jayasuriya started off with a boundary at covers in the first ShaunPollock over, and another to square-leg in Telemachus’s next. He lostMarwan Atapattu (15, 19 balls, 2 fours) with the total at 40, and wasdropped by Paul Adams in the next over, but he kept batting in hischaracteristic cavalier style.He picked up a fancy for Roger Telemachus (5 for 41, for one wicket),and first he cut him to third man and then sent him for a six to square leg.His rapidfire innings had put Sri Lanka on the way to victory, as abelligerent de Silva maintained the pace that he had set. Aravinda tooka six and a four from the first two overs that he faced off MakhayaNtini and in between pulled Lance Klusener to square-leg fence. Havingdone this, he settled down to his trademark singles and twos, sprinklinga boundary here and there, never letting the bowlers breathe easy tillthe target was overhauled, though Mahela Jayawardene lost his wicketwith 11 runs to go.Lankans restrict Proteas:
Jacques Kallis led the way with 84 runs, and he, Lance Klusener andShaun Pollock hit four sixes between them as South Africa collected 67runs in the last 10 overs, to take the total to a respectable 220 for six.Having rested its quartet of main bowlers (with South Africans havingmade as many changes to their eleven as well), it was a commendableachievement for Sri Lanka to restrict Proteas to this total.Jayasuriya handled his limited bowling resources rather well. BuddhikaFernando provided two important wickets early on. But then Kallis andGraeme Smith, who had seen Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten fall toFernando within the first 25 deliveries, seemed to be scoring freely offthe medium pacers after 10 overs had yielded only 25 runs.Jayasuriya brought on the spinners, and had the gumption to bowl two ofthe last three overs. Though Pollock took two sixes off him as the lastover went for 15 runs, he got the wicket of Kallis (84, 125, 7 fours, 1six).Kallis, who held the innings together in two good partenerships for thethird and fourth wicket stands of 71 and 78 respectively with Smith andKlusener, should have been out at 59 off Aravinda de Silva. As thereplays showed, Buddhika ran and dived forward to scoop the ball withhis fingers clearly under it. But third umpire Daryl Harper thoughtotherwise.Anyway, once his two main medium pacers had bowled their spells,Jayasuriya totally relied on Upul Chandana, de Silva and himself, allthree consuming their full quota of overs. Chandana was the pick of thethree, taking three wickets for 32 runs that really stopped the flow ofruns and the momentum of the innings.Smith, clean bowled, was the first of Chandana’s three wickets. And hegot Boeta Dippenaar, after he had swatted de Silva for a six overlong-on, caught by Sangakkara when he tried to cut too close to hisbody, and Justin Ontong too was smartly stumped by Sangakkara.Sri Lanka may have rested the bowlers, but it had a full complement ofeight batsmen and all-rounders. Keeping that in view, 220 was not bigenough a total. The Lankans proved it by becoming the first side in thistournament to win batting second.

Somerset got off to a disappointing start in their quest to win the last-ever Benson and Hedges Cup, when they lost to Warwickshire at Edgbaston in a rain-affected match today.Somerset skipper Jamie Cox won the toss and invited the home side to bat first. In an innings reduced to 41 overs Warwickshire made 263 for 6 with Nick Knight making what turned out to be a match winning 126.Less than an over into the Cidermen’s innings the rain fell heavily and the players left the field yet again. When they returned the Somerset batsmen faced the daunting task of scoring 222 off 27 overs, a rate of just over 8 runs per over.From the start the home attack of Sean Pollock and Douggie Brown were quickly on top, and Warwickshire were aided by two fine catches, one by Trevor Penney to dismiss Peter Bowler, and the second by Nick Knight to dismiss Jamie Cox for 25.A further rain stoppage left Somerset chasing 173, and by the end of their 19 overs they had reached 77 for 5, with Keith Parsons unbeaten on 25, to leave Warwickshire the winners by 94 runs, by the Duckworth Lewis method.Somerset can justifiably feel that they fell foul of both the weather and the Duckworth Lewis method at Edgbaston today, and will already be looking forward to their next game in the competition that is against Glamorgan at Taunton on Tuesday.With four games left in the regional rounds of the Benson and Hedges Cup Somerset will be keen to put today’s disappointment behind them and get back to winning ways on Tuesday.

A key phase in England’s build-up to the World Cup begins in Nottingham this afternoon, as they meet Sri Lanka in a day-night match at Trent Bridge, the first of ten games in the NatWest triangular series which also involves India.This series will be followed by the ICC Champions Trophy in Colombo, and a triangular series in Australia before England’s World Cup campaign begins against Zimbabwe in Harare on February 13.Matthew Hoggard and James Kirtley are likely to share the new ball for England, while Alex Tudor is set to make his one-day international debut.”We’re missing our two best bowlers really, but Hoggard has come in and donereally well and James Kirtley’s done fantastically for Sussex and deserves hisopportunity,” Tudor said.”It’s our chance to show the future and what it may be like after Caddick andGough have gone – this is our big opportunity to show that given the chance wecan do it.””It’s a great challenge for me because some of the batsmen in this series are among the best strikers of a ball in the world. If you want to be successful at international one-day cricket you have to learn how to bowl to these guys – you can’t shy away from it.It’s not going to be easy and you have to try and get the ball in the rightarea because the margin for error is minimal.”Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s coach Dav Whatmore says the tourists have put the disappointing Test series firmly behind them.”We’re looking forward all the time to the one-day game where you get a result on that particular day,” Whatmore said.”It’s happened to us before, losing a Test series before a one-day tournament.We’ve been able to turn it around and that is our objective in this tournament as well.” Open an account now at bet365 to bet on the NatWest Series

There are few surprises in the Indian team to tour Zimbawe later this month. The team was announced at Bangalore on Thursday during the preparatory camp for the 26 probables.Following is the squad: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid (v-capt), Sadagopan Ramesh, Shiv Sundar Das, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sameer Dighe, Hemang Badani, Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Sairaj Bahutule, Debashish Mohanty and Ashish Nehra. Coach: John Wright, Manager: Chetan Chauhan.

Despite the last-minute fight back of their lower order, Barbados succumbed to the combined efforts of Guyana and suffered their first defeat in the 2002 Regional Under-15 cricket tournament yesterday.After suffering a middle order collapse, Barbados, chasing a target of 211 to secure their second consecutive victory, were struggling on 126 for eight at the Gilbert Park ground in central Trinidad.But intelligent and careful batting by their Nos. 9 and 10, Javon Searles and Gary Belle, gave them a temporary glimmer of hope.The pair added a valuable 47 for the ninth-wicket, but the task was always going to be a tough one.When Searles was stumped by the big and vociferous Guyanese wicket-keeper Tyrell Tull for 42, it was virtually over for the spirited Barbados team.Searles’ innings included five fours and a six.Last man Steve Pinder kept company with Belle until the completion of the 50 overs.Three of Barbados’ four batsmen made it to the 20s without going on to get a major score.Three sixesCaptain Nicholas Squires made 21 with three sixes and a four, while left-hander Omar Phillips, who hit 84 in Barbados’ 144-run win against Jamaica on Saturday, was run out for 32 that included four boundaries.Jed Yearwod, batting at No. 4, also chipped in with 22.Earlier, Guyana, having won the toss, reached 210 for eight with the help of some sloppy fielding by Barbados.Six chances went abegging after Guyana lost two early wickets.Off-spinner Belle and fast bowler Andre Gill bowled economically, but left-arm spinner Steve Pinder was lashed for 59 runs from his 10 overs.In another match, two-time defending champions Trinidad and Tobago defeated Jamaica by seven wickets at Monroe Road.It was the second successive victory for the hosts.Windward Islands registered their first win by defeating Leeward Islands by 62 runs at Barataria Oval.The tournament continues tomorrow after today’s rest day.

For the second successive year, Hampshire’s match at the Parks against the University (UCCE) has been abandoned due to inclement weather.In 2000, snow curtailed play on the first day, and heavy rain meant the players of both sides were sent home by lunch of the scheduled second day.On Wednesday it was hoped to make an after lunch start, with Hampshire captain Will Kendall returning to the fields where he learnt much of his cricket. However a torrential downpour put paid to that idea, and at 4pm, the captains and umpires had agreed that play was impossible.Sunshine greeted the players on Thursday morning, but not for long as a thunderstorm came across the ground, and the players went to the University gym for limbering up exercises.On the third and final day on Friday it was hoped to set up some sort of contest although parts of the outfield were muddy, both captains agreed that a start could be made. However umpires Vanburn Holder and Nigel Cowley intervened. There correct reasoning was that although both captains desperately needed outside practise, they felt that it would be too dangerous, and could not reasonably accept liability for any serious injury that could occur.After consultation, it was agreed between all parties that in hindsight there could be no play so the match, for the second successive year was abandoned at 10:00 am.