After seeing Division One strugglers end the day with nearly four hundred runs on the board after being put into bat, Somerset Coach Kevin Shine told me, “It’s been a hard slog out there today for the boys. We need to try to get points on the board.”I asked him if the intention was always going to be to ask Northants to bat if Somerset won the toss. He told me “The conditions just before the captains tossed up became very overcast, in fact it looked like the end of the world, and that changed the decision and we put them in.”He went on “We’ve bowled and fielded better, but it hasn’t been a bad display out there by the team. It’s been a slog on an excellent wicket with pace but no swing. Now we have to work hard and get as many points on the board as we can before the 130 overs.”When he heard that the weather forecast was’nt looking all that good for the next few days the coach said,”If the game is called off because of the weather we will get five points which is what we need. However we didn’t go into this game thinking that we only needed five points we went into this one to win it to make sure of the runner’s up spot.”

Mangala Samaraweera has been appointed as the new Minister of Sports in theProbationary Government, which the People’s Alliance and Janatha VimukthiPeramuna (JVP) have formed.President Chandrika Kumaratunga announced the shortened 20 ministers of thecabinet in a ceremony held this morning at the Temple Trees.Samaraweera, a leading minister of the ruling Peoples Alliance governmentheld the post of Urban Development, construction and Public Utilitiespreviously.He replaces Lakshman Kiriella who was instrumental in forming the presentInterim Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan cricket board ended fears of a television black out duringthe West Indies tour of Sri Lanka when they announced on Saturday thattelevision, radio and selected sponsorship rights have been awarded to TajTelevision for the next three-years.The BCCSL terminated an existing USD 27.1 million deal with WSG Nimbus 18days ago, complaining of a breakdown in the working relations and WSG Nimbus’s frequent failure to meet payment deadlines. The BCCSL, backed by theAttorney General and seemingly protected by a High Court injunction orderagainst WSG Nimbus interference, immediately initiated a fresh tenderprocess.Bids were opened on 29 October and according to a BCCSL media release: “Anevaluation was carried out by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, who then recommendedTaj Television, who are covering the ongoing Champions Trophy in Sharjah.”The recently formed Dubai based Taj Television, owned by Arab business tycoon Abdul Rahman Bukthatir, the founder of the CBFS Series cricket in Sharjah, beat offers from Trans World International (TWI), who had been tipped as favourites having just missed out to WSG Nimbus in the original tender process last December, and SET India, who held Sri Lankan cricket rights for 18-months from 1999-2000.Only a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the two partiesso far, but a full contract is to be signed shortly.The final amount paid the BCCSL was not disclosed, but board sourcesmaintain that “this is a better deal for Sri Lankan cricket” arguing thatthe deal is financially better, with the BCCSL not having to share production costs and retaining all revenue from team sponsorship deal struck with Dilmah Tea earlier this month, but also less restrictive than the WSG Nimbus contract.”Against all the odds, having been forced to take action, the BCCSL is veryhappy with the new deal,” said the spokesman. “We are confident ofestablishing a sound working relationship with Taj Television that will beto the benefit of both parties.””The previous agreement impinged too much on the rights of the board, theplayers and third parties. This agreement, however, is clearly defined andaffects four areas: television, radio, title sponsorship and a specifiednumber of ground runners.”The legal dispute between the BCCSL and WSG Nimbus is, however, by no meansfinished. WSG Nimbus have resigned themselves to not covering the WestIndies tour, having cancelled hotel reservations and proposed contracts withlocal employees, but still maintain that the “termination” was unlawful andare contesting the boards actions in court, both in Sri Lanka and Singapore

Worcestershire’s director of cricket Tom Moody has made another signing in his bid to re-shape the county’s playing resources for the 2002 season. After signing the established Leicestershire batsman Ben Smith last month, he has now secured the services of Surrey off-spinner Gareth Batty on a three-year contract.The 24 year-old Batty, born in Bradford, made his first-class debut for Yorkshire in 1997 after playing for the England Under 19 team. He left Yorkshire to move to Surrey for the 1998 season, but found little opportunity to play first-class cricket. Nevertheless, he was named as the ECB Second XI cricketer of the year last season.Moody said: “Gareth is a very talented cricketer and he’s had invaluable experience at Surrey under the likes of Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury. We are lucky to get him at this point in his career because he is ripe for the picking. It was only the lack of first-class opportunity that made him think twice about where he was in his career.”Batty’s elder brother, Jeremy, was also an off-spinner and useful batsman. He appeared for England Under 19s and Yorkshire before moving to Somerset, but is no longer playing first-class cricket.

Sri Lanka’s selectors made three changes to the squad that lost in Sharjahlast October when they picked a 15-man squad for the LG Abans Triangular ODISeries starting Saturday.Fast-bowling allrounder Suresh Perera comes back into the squad after hisbowling action, reported for being suspect by umpire Steve Bucknor in August,was cleared by a BCCSL panel of experts. He is set to be slotted into thenumber seven slot, providing Sri Lanka with greater dynamism in themiddle-order.Fast-bowler Nuwan Zoysa returns to one-day cricket following his fullrecovery from an ankle injury. He will be competing with Charitha BuddikaFernando and Prabath Nissanka for the third seamers spot.Leg-spinning allrounder Upul Chandana is the final change, drafted in tobolster the teams spinning options on the slow turning wickets expectedduring the tournament.The selectors decided not to pick a replacement wicket-keeper following afinger injury sustained by Romesh Kaluwitharana in Sharjah. Kumar Sangakkarawill keep wicket throughout the tournament and is expected to bat at numbersix.Strike bowler Dilhara Fernando was unavailable for selection because of thestress fracture identified in his back, which kept him out of the Sharjahfinal, whilst allrounder Dulip Liyanage has been dropped.Sri Lanka will play Zimbabwe, who lost both their practice games againstdevelopment sides, on Saturday at the Sinhalese Sports Club.Full squad:Sanath Jayasuriya (Capt), Marvan Atapattu, Avishka Gunawardene, MahelaJayawardene, Russel Arnold, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Suresh Perera,Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan,Charitha Buddika Fernando, Nuwan Zoysa, Prabath Nissanka

Like Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer before him, Australia’s Damien Martyn knows the experience of having plumbed the depths of an international cricket career. Quite fitting toward the end of this world championship battle, then, that it should be those three players who have again helped Australia to stand tall by the end of the second day of the Third Test against South Africa in Sydney.After the twin left handers had held court yesterday, it was the turn of right handed batsman Martyn (117) to dominate today in seamlessly transforming a vigilant innings into a flashy century. With South Africa reduced to 4/93 by stumps as it pursues Australia’s monstrous first innings total of 554, the effect of his fourth Test ton is already manifest.Hayden, Langer and Martyn have all been left to fight their way back into this side after incurring the wrath of the national selection panel at various stages of their careers. And yet, after Martyn’s clinical disassembly of the South African attack today, few players in the world are closer to the top of the game right now.Laced by ongoing controversy about the inclusion of Justin Ontong in its eleven, it was meanwhile a cheerless day for the Proteas.Martyn started nervously as Australia resumed at 5/308, playing and missing a number of times and also skying a pull off the bowling of Shaun Pollock (3/109). Further difficulties were posed by the thought that this ground had previously yielded only two half-centuries for him in 11 years of first-class cricket, and the notion that he was burdened with the responsibility of rebuilding Australia’s innings after a mini-collapse.Not to mention the fact that his previous Test innings at the SCG – also against South Africa – was his last at the level for six years.But none of it mattered.He was initially slow to accumulate runs and not all of his strokes were cultured, yet his batting was so controlled that the match became a net session. Confidence translated itself into an exotic mix of attacking shots. Serial use of the reverse sweep even featured – the shot played impulsively at first but then expertly as the South African spinners insisted on bowling to vacant acreage behind point.His cutting was deft and his cover driving was also outstanding in the face of both slow and fast bowling. To loud acclamation from a good-natured (though far from overflowing) crowd, it was fitting that his century was raised with a neat late cut. It was as if revenge, the exorcism of a past demon, and mastery of the attack was bound together in every stroke.On an truly-paced pitch, the bowling meanwhile reverted to generous instead of perilous. There were no easy ways through as Shane Warne (37), Adam Gilchrist (34), Brett Lee (29) and Stuart MacGill (20) all added further weight to Martyn’s runs. Albeit that there was appropriate reward for Nicky Boje (4/63), four of the five Australian wickets to fall – eventually – were the result of miscued attacking strokes rather than outright victories for the bowlers.The same could not be said when the South African upper order arrived.Openers Herschelle Gibbs (32) and Gary Kirsten (18) tried to inject conviction with a stand that generated 37 stubborn runs. It wasn’t too long, though, before Glenn McGrath (2/25) maintained his excellent record against the latter by forcing the ball to spear high to third slip off the shoulder of the bat.Captain Steve Waugh delayed the introduction of Warne (0/18) into the attack, pairing McGrath with the team’s other leg break bowler in MacGill (2/30) on a pitch suddenly looking far more receptive to spin.It proved a masterstroke.Boeta Dippenaar (3) wisely elected not to hit a single shot in the air but continued his horror series anyway, playing all around a seaming ball from McGrath to be bowled.Then MacGill gained not only his first Test scalp in 12 months but also the one that the Australian side as a whole has struggled to collect for the entirety of the series. Jacques Kallis (4) was confronted by a wicked delivery, stabbing indecisively at a perfectly-pitched and menacingly-ripping leg break to thin edge to Gilchrist behind the stumps.When Gibbs drove extravagantly at MacGill to send a comfortable catch to slip, the scoreline had plunged to a disastrous 4/77. It was looking like the series could end tomorrow.Just as well that Ontong (8*) – with men clustered around the bat – showed more starch than many of his teammates, joining with Neil McKenzie (20*) in a survival act in the shadows of stumps.In extreme heat, the South Africans were under extreme pressure. Again.

Nepalese vice-captain Bardan Chalise’s dominating innings of 69 set his side up for a 10-run victory over Namibia in their Plate Championship match at the ICC Under-19 World Cup match at North Harbour Stadium at Auckland today.Nepal scored only 137 runs, of which 15 were extras, and the only other double figure score on the card was 13 by Kanishka Chaugai.As reflected in the scorecard all the Namibian bowling was tight but the real destroyer of the Nepal innings was the run out curse which has probably been the prevailing problem for most sides at the tournament. Four run outs occurred in the innings, three of them in the top order.Paul Steyn, the left-arm spin bowler, took two wickets for 23 runs from his 10 overs.Namibia got off to a good start but at 86/2, the rot set in well and truly and the next eight wickets fell for only 41 runs, and the last six wickets fell for 14 runs.Hugo Ludik, the Namibian No 3 batsman top scored with 33 runs but Binod Das and Lakpha Lama tore through the innings taking three wickets each, Das for 21 runs and Lama for 23.

India plays host to the visiting Zimbabweans and the capital of the citrus fruit is the first venue for the Test match. For reasons beyond one’s comprehension the BCCI have allotted the same venues for the Tests as the previous year when the Zimbabweans visited India. So once again Nagpur, the Orange city, and New Delhi will witness the two teams as they fight it out on the 22-yard pitch.As the month of the Pisceans begins, Zimbabwe will be looking to swim out of the still waters that they are in at the present moment. After an educative tour of Sri Lanka, they would have sharpened their skills. Whether theory can be put into practice – time will tell.The Indians are fresh from a relatively satisfactory home series with the English. There will always be room for improvement. There are youngsters in the team who need to be nurtured, who need to be told that the art of performing on the international stage requires a resolute mind. There has to be constant interaction with the senior, more settled, players and the results will show automatically.Zimbabwe have their share of insecurities. A crucial election is just around the corner for them. The result of the national election could decide the fate of many of the national cricketers. Therefore to be playing a series away from home for them must be unsettling. But the fact of the matter is that the show goes on and cricket has no season any more. The games must be played and the series will go on, and matters of the mind must not matter.The Vidarbha Cricket Association pitch will be the stage for the next five days. Batsman will try to get the better of the bowlers and vice versa. Will the Sachins and the Souravs got on a run blitz? Or will the Flower brothers bloom and the Streaks strike the Indian batting? Questions that will be answered over the next few days.Andy Flower and Sachin Tendulkar have feasted on runs in Nagpur as both have scored double hundreds at this ground. Expectations run high, and so will the runs that will flow from the willow. So what if the oranges are not feasted on instead?

South Africa’s greatest fast bowler, Allan Donald, has announced his retirement from Test cricket. Donald, who turns 36 this year, will continue to play one-day international cricket.Donald’s decision to quit the Test scene comes after he broke down with a hamstring strain during the first day of the first Test match against Australia at the Wanderers on Friday.”I have reached a stage where I am tired of letting myself, my team and my country down with my injuries,” Donald said in Bloemfontein on Monday.His retirement is not unexpected. At the beginning of last year he indicated that he wished to step down from Test cricket, but the prospect of playing against Australia one last time persuaded him to make himself available for South Africa’s tour of Australia and for the first Test of the current series.Donald has been plagued by a variety of injuries over the past two years, and has struggled to finish an entire series in one piece despite his natural suppleness and athleticism. When he went down in a heap at the Wanderers on Friday there was a sense that he was being seen on a Test match field for the last time.Donald started his career while South Africa was still isolated from international cricket as a fiery, but somewhat wayward fast bowler for Free State. He made his first-class debut against Transvaal in November 1985, taking his first wicket in his second over when he had Jimmy Cook caught at the wicket.He made his county debut for Warwickshire in 1987, but before that he had represented South Africa in an unofficial Test match against Kim Hughes’ rebel Australian team.In 1992 he tasted official Test cricket for the first time against the West Indies in Bridgetown, after South Africa was readmitted to international cricket and, when fit, has been an automatic choice ever since.Donald took his 300th Test wicket in his home town of Bloemfontein against New Zealand at the end of 2000, and he retires with 72 Test caps and 330 wickets at 22.25.”I would like to thank everyone who has supported me throughout my Test career. It has been a privilege to represent South Africa in Test cricket,” he said.Donald will not be lost to international cricket, however. He hopes to play in next year’s World Cup in South Africa.”Allan has been a great servant of the game and we hope he will continue toshine in one-day international cricket,” said United Cricket Board chief executive Gerald Majola. “We accept Allan’s decision and his current contract, which expires in April, remains intact.”

MELBOURNE, Dec 30 AAP – Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath is a shock withdrawal from this week’s fifth Ashes Test against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground because of a side strain.West Australian paceman Brad Williams will join Australia’s suddenly injury-struck squad as Steve Waugh’s men attempt to secure the first 5-0 Ashes clean sweep since 1920-21.McGrath joins batsman Darren Lehmann and leg spinner Shane Warne on the injured list.Lehmann is recovering from a severe infection in his right leg while Warne will miss the rest of the Australian summer because of a dislocated shoulder.McGrath’s disappointment at missing his hometown Test is compounded by the fact he will be on the sidelines when his skipper and good friend Waugh plays what may be his last Test in Australia.McGrath expressed disappointment at ending his run of 54 consecutive Tests, stretching back to the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in October, 1998.”I knew I was a chance of not playing but once you find out you won’t play it hits you harder than you realise,” McGrath said in a statement.”I guess it’s a question of looking at the bigger picture as I did something similar in 1992, played on with it, and reckon I was eventually sidelined for three or four months.”It’s now a case of getting things right for the rest of the summer as we’ve plenty of cricket left to play.”I’ve always prided myself on my longevity and I would have liked to have played more Tests in a row but the number of successive matches I’ve managed isn’t bad for a fast bowler and to play one match for Australia is a huge honour.”Western Australian fast bowler Brad Williams has been drafted into the squad for the Sydney Test, starting on January 2.McGrath suffered the injury to his left side during the fourth day of the fourth Test in Melbourne on Sunday and was unable to take the field after tea.Australian team physiotherapist Errol Alcott said it was prudent for McGrath to miss the next Test match.”It is a soft tissue injury and we are confident it will resolve over the short term,” Alcott said in a statement.McGrath’s fitness will be reviewed at the end of the fifth Test with a view to his availability for the resumption of the one-day series on January 9, when Australia takes on Sri Lanka in Sydney.Williams will be replaced in the Australia A squad for matches against Sri Lanka on January 1 and 7 in Adelaide by NSW left-arm fast bowler Nathan Bracken.