Incessant rain at Hobart forced the umpires to call off the ING Cup match between Tasmania and New South Wales. The result gave both teams two points, leaving Tasmania in second place with 24, and NSW languishing on just 9.5. Queensland lead the table with 35 points, and are assured of a place in the finals.
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Kent are to replace the famous lime tree within the playing area at their ground in Canterbury, after the original blew down in strong winds last week. The short ceremony will take place at 11am on Tuesday, March 8.Carl Openshaw, Kent’s chairman, said: “There has been a lime tree on the boundary’s edge for as long as cricket has been played on the St Lawrence Ground. In 1999, when the future of the original tree was first in doubt, it was decided to plant a replacement tree so that this tradition could be preserved. We have received overwhelming support and interest from within Kent and from far afield, and we propose to stage a formal planting ceremony in March.”Kent are also hoping to make a range of mementos from the wood of the original tree, which was over 200 years old.
Hampshire Cricket will leave their final selection for the opening Frizzell Championship Division Two match until the morning of the game, starting on Friday (16th April) against Durham.The have chosen a squad of 13 players, as manager Paul Terry and new captain Shane Warne will decide the final eleven after inspecting the pitch.Michael Brown, Hampshire’s new opening batsman from Middlesex, Michael Clarke the exiting young Australian and Billy Taylor who returned to Hampshire from Sussex are all hoping to make their first-class debut for Hampshire.The Hampshire 13 are: Michael Brown, Derek Kenway, John Crawley, Michael Clarke, Will Kendall, Nic Pothas )wicket-keeper), Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shane Warne (captain), Shaun Udal, Chris Tremlett, James Tomlinson, Billy Taylor and Alan Mullally.
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On a day when Bangladesh toasted their first Nobel Prize winner, thecricket team provided them with more good news, signing out of theChampions Trophy with a convincing win. Looked at in a certain manner, there is more than coincidence here. Muhammad Yunus, an economist, set up Grameen Bank and transformed his nation’s countryside. As for the Bangladesh side they are sponsored byGrameen Phone, a sister concern to the Grameen Bank. Talk of how better infrastructure and corporate sponsorship impacts performance.Shahriar Nafees, the architect of the win, batted like one inspired. He’spart of the upbeat and more confident generation who face teams head on.Just 28 one-dayers old and he’s already crossed fifty on five occasionsand made two hundreds, unlike any other Bangladeshi. Added to that is aTest hundred against the mighty Australians.Dav Whatmore had no doubt that the current crop came with a moreaggressive outlook, more fearless attitude. “It’s not a criticism of theolder guys,” he said at the end of the day, “they’ve done a lot forBangladesh cricket. But the younger guys seem to play with a lot lesspressure. They play for the day; they have some skill and a strong desire.They now have to show they can do it against the bigger teams.”Shahriar doesn’t seem to come to the crease with any sort of baggage.Against West Indies, he slapped the first ball for four, square-cutting itwith some venom. Such an approach has caused his downfall at times but ifyou’re instincts are to whack, you might as well go for it. Today henearly fell before scoring, surviving a dropped chance at cover afterscooping at a wide one, but cashed in by gritting it out. For the nexthour, it appeared as if he was atoning for that early indiscretion -grafting to his fifty off 92 balls.”It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on,” Shahriar said, “and I just wanted tomake sure I batted for as long as possible. It would not have been easyfor a new batsman to get set and score immediately.” Soon he began toexpress himself. The next 73 came off 69, with Prosper Utseya being tonkedalong the way. There weren’t any half measures – down the track, dash;back-foot, punch; inside out, whack; through the line, pelt. He cramped uptowards the end but hobbled on, smashed a few more fours and ended notout.A student of Business Management, Shahriar’s development as a cricketer isa tribute to the junior system in Bangladesh. He’s someone who was spottedearly – in fact, he and Ashraful attended the same talent-spotting camp -and was nursed into international cricket. “He’s enjoyed the opportunityto tour other countries before he got the chance with the national team,”Whatmore added, “and has received valuable instructions at theacademy and A levels.”Shahriar and gang are just the early products of Bangladesh’s professionalsystem. It may not be too long before a tap is opened and if a bit ofsteel is added to the abundance of talent, Bangladesh may well be on theright track.
Close England XI 152 for 2 (Vaughan 66, Hussain 76*) lead University of West Indies Vice-Chancellor’s XI 119 (Haynes 45, Harmison 4-17, Jones 3-40) by 33 runs
Scorecard
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England’s bowlers enjoyed a comfortable warm-up on the opening day of their match at the Mona Oval in Kingston. Playing their likely team for next week’s first Test at Sabina Park, England ended proceedings in total control against the inexperienced Vice-Chancellor’s XI. Steve Harmison impressed with 4 for 17, and Simon Jones weighed in with three wickets on his return in a meagre total of 119. Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain then piled on 149, and England ended the day 33 in frontAfter much debate, the game was given first-class status after all, withboth sides allowed to field only 11 men. The big bonus for England was that Jones came through 10.2 overs unscathed, and with some wickets, but the bad news was that Graham Thorpe missed the start of play with a back strain. As a result of that, and Mark Butcher’s twisted ankle, Andrew Strauss will fly out this Sunday as cover for the first Test only.A preview of the match in today’s trumpeted that this “should be a real tester” for England, as the Vice-Chancellor’s outfitincluded “some of the region’s most-talented young cricketers”. It didn’tturn out that way, by any stretch of the imagination.Jason Haynes, the home captain, who is also in charge of West Indies B, did make the bowlers work early on, but that was about it. He batted throughout the morning session, smacking Matthew Hoggard for six over long-on, and later driving and cutting Jones to the boundary from successive balls. That was in Jones’s eagerly awaited – and expensive – first over back in full England colours, but he got his revenge soon after lunch, when Haynes shuffled too far across his stumps and lost his leg peg.That wicket sparked off a major collapse in the Vice-Chancellor’s ranksafter they had made a solid start to reach 72 for 2 at lunch. After Haynes departed for 45, the Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo, who scored a stylish 23, was trapped in front by Harmison (90 for 4), then David Bernard was rather unfortunate to be caught by Chris Read after the ball rebounded off Paul Collingwood at short leg (93 for 5). It was a lucky break for Ashley Giles, the bowler, but a deserved one after his tireless efforts wheeling away into the strong wind – his first ten overs cost only 16.Next to go was Tonito Willett, whose father played for West Indies in the 1970s. He slogged Giles to Hussain at midwicket for 2 (94 for 6), and in the following over Harmison clean-bowled Ryan Nurse to leave the Vice-Chancellor’s team blowing away with the strong Kingston breeze at 94 for 7. Things then got even worse for them soon after, when Jason Bennett was caught by Marcus Trescothick at first slip off Harmison (95 for 8).Ryan Cunningham and Darren Sammy stopped the rot with a gritty stand of 24, which was broken by Jones, back for a second spell. He got one to keep low and shoot under Cunningham’s bat. Jermaine Lawson was cleaned up first ball, leaving Jones on a hat-trick in the second innings.However, Lawson made an immediate impact in England’s reply after tea, bowling Trescothick with the first ball of the innings with a full delivery. Buoyed on by the small crowd, Lawson cranked up the pace, but Vaughan and Hussain were equal to it. Hussain, in particular, was in aggressive form, cutting and pulling anything off line. Vaughan, dropped at first slip off Nurse when he had made 44, was also in fine fettle until he was controversially given out caught at first slip off the left-arm spin of Cunningham shortly before the belated close – he felt the ball had only taken his pad.”Hopefully we’ve given the public a snapshot of what we can do,” Harmison said afterwards. “All the hype about Simon was understandable, considering he’s probably our fastest bowler through the air. Once he settled down, he did really well. It’s exciting to be part of this pace attack. Even though we’re competing for places, Simon and I are the best of mates. Hats off to him for the way he’s come back from that injury.”
The Rose Bowl will host the final of the ECB 2nd XI Trophy on Monday 8th September (reserve day 9th September) where Hampshire 2nd XI will play Warwickshire 2nd XI starting at 11:00 am.The match is a 50 overs a side contest, played under similar rules to the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy.Admission is free and the club hope that as many spectators as possible will be there to support the future of the club.Hampshire qualified by winning all their eight qualifying group matches then defeating Sussex in the semi-final at The Rose Bowl.Warwickshire reached the semi-final after winning 5 out of 6 matches, with two rain abandoned. They then defeated Derbyshire in the knock-out stage.
If ever there was a good time to be a first-class cricketer in India, itis now. In a mood to do the right things for the game, the Indian board summoned up 36 probables to train together at Bangalore. Almost everyone who was anyone rubbed shoulders with the big names, and trained under John Wright. From the training camp on to the real show. The four-match Challenger Series kicks off at Bangalore tomorrow, amid expectations that several promising cricketers will get a chance to showcase their talent.Sourav Ganguly, leading the India Seniors team, has a talented lot athis disposal, retaining VVS Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Parthiv Patel andZaheer Khan from the national side. Ambati Rayudu has made waves with his batting over the last year and he will be watched closely. In addition, Ganguly also has the best spin attack in the tournament – Murali Kartik, Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan was earlier being rested so as to give him time to recover from his finger injury, but he was so keen to play that the selectors had to induct him. Sarandeep Singh was shifted to India B to accomodate him.For India A, Anil Kumble will bank on Sachin Tendulkar to do the bulk of thescoring. Mohammad Kaif is the other member from the Indian team to makethe side. Mithun Manhas, a dangerous striker of the ball, and RameshPowar, who played a big role in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy success, will aimto catch the eye of the national selectors.Without doubt, India B are the weakest of the three teams. Rahul Dravidleads a side short on stars – Yuvraj Singh is the only other big name in the squad. In Shiv Sunder Das and Satyajit Parab the batting has solidity if notstyle. The bowling looks sharp with Aavishkar Salvi and Irfan Pathancompeting to make an impact, and Sarandeep yearning to prove a point or two.It’s going to be hard for the players to make a big impression over justfour days. Yet, the Challenger series has always evoked plenty ofexcitement. After all, it’s not every day that the cream of the talentin the country is on display. Under lights, competing for the few slotsvacant in the Indian team, there just might be a few standoutperformances.India Seniors
Sourav Ganguly (capt), VVS Laxman, Hemang Badani, Ambati Rayudu, SanjayBangar, Parthiv Patel (wk), Amit Mishra, Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh,Zaheer Khan, L Balaji, Reetinder Sodhi, Akash Chopra.India A
Anil Kumble (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohan Gavaskar,Mohammad Kaif, Wasim Jaffer, Sridharan Sriram, Ajay Ratra (wk), IrfanPathan, Ajit Agarkar, Mithun Manhas, Ramesh Powar.India B
Rahul Dravid (capt), Shiv Sunder Das, Satyajit Parab, Vijay Bharadwaj,Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Thilak Naidu (wk), Jai P Yadav, AavishkarSalvi, Siddharth Trivedi, Sairaj Bahutule, Amit Bhandari, Sarandeep Singh.Schedule
September 10 India Sr v India A
September 11 India Sr v India B
September 13 India A v India B
September 14 Final
The authorities at the MCG have vowed to clamp down on members after reports that Indian supporters were racially abused during last Friday’s VB Series match against Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) said that any members found guilty of such behaviour faced suspension or expulsion.The problems came in the southern stand – where members are temporarily housed during the extensive building works taking place at the ground – with several supporters reporting being subjected to abuse.Stephen Gough, chief executive of the MCC, confirmed that the club had received written complaints about racial abuse, drunkenness and bad language. “We just have to be vigilant about these things,” he said. “As difficult as it is due to the relocation, there is no excuse for poor behaviour, so we’ll be monitoring not only our members, but the public and others as part of that.”There were five arrests for drunkenness during the match, and a further 130 people were ejected from the ground.
Billed as `twice the action; half the time’, the new Twenty20 Cup cricket competition being launched at The Rose Bowl appears to be an appealing concept as over one thousand tickets have already been booked within the first week of sales.At 5.30pm on Friday, 13th June, the Hampshire Cricket team will face the Sussex squad for two hours and 45 minutes of fast-forward cricket that should produce a summer’s evening full of high scores and fast action. Following on from the cricket action, The Rose Bowl will also be hosting a live concert starring both Mis-Teeq and D’Side plus additional supporting acts.With all seating around The Rose Bowl being allocated, the Hampshire Cricket membership and ticket office has been inundated with enquiries and bookings for the reserved seating, car park spaces and new park & ride facility."The telephone has just not stopped ringing." said membership and ticketing manager, Jill Smithers. "There has obviously been incredible interest from our members, but interestingly, the fast action concept and the after-match concert are proving a big hit with a much wider audience, including office and business social groups planning a great Friday night out, school parties and many people who would not normally be attracted to a standard cricket match. They are all anticipating a really great atmosphere around the ground."The Rose Bowl has also had considerable interest for the special `hospitality’ package that provides a hot supper and complimentary bar of beer, house wine and soft drinks for £60 per person.The Twenty20 Cup is the first brand new competition for county cricket for almost 30 years.Tickets covering both the cricket match and the concert are £15 for adults and £10 for under sixteens and senior citizens Further information and advance tickets can be obtained on 0870 243 0291.EndsIssued by: Hampshire CricketPress Contact: Jane Kerr 07976 549705Simon DalySales Manager – The Rose BowlTel. 023 8047 2002Fax. 023 8047 2122Mob. 07766 505794