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Canterbury were put through their paces today at Jade Stadium in fitness tests, in one of the few summer-like days of the season to date.A full programme over the next fortnight has been set up for the under-performing side of the last couple of seasons, and with the prospect of having international players available for the start of the summer, and perhaps later, coach Michael Sharpe is keen to have the side hitting the State Championship running and ready to take every opportunity they can.Early points may well be vital with so much international cricket on later in the summer.After their full training session today, the players were being given tomorrow off as it is a public holiday in Canterbury. They will have club cricket on Saturday and then a two-day trial match at Hagley Park on Sunday and Monday.Tuesday has been set aside for pool rehabilitation and peripheral activities with sports psychology and nutrition on the agenda.The selectors are looking to name their team on November 22.Sharpe said there is good all-round strength in the region this year and after the good first seasons last year for Wade Cornelius, Michael Papps, Shanan Stewart and Peter Fulton, he is looking for them to build on that and to benefit from having the international players for the first two matches of the year.”They always add something to the team and it is good for the young players to rub shoulders with them,” Sharpe said.”It is very, very good to have them for some of our play and when they move into the internationals it gives others chances.”The recent good form shown by Canterbury sides in the national age-group competitions was starting to bear fruit by strengthening up the next tier of the game.Players had enjoyed a lot of club cricket on grass so far this summer, especially when compared to other regions and it was a case of everyone getting into the groove and going forward together he said.

Dale Steyn, the fast bowler who was named South Africa’s Cricketer of the Year, has attributed his excellent season in Tests to improved ball-control. In the four months of Test cricket South Africa have played this year, Steyn picked up 44 wickets at 15.29 from seven matches.”My control has definitely improved and it’s like anything: once you enjoy a bit of success, you feel confident you can do it again and again and you get on a roll,” Steyn said after winning in all four categories that he was nominated for in South Africa’s annual cricket awards. He said his career was greatly influenced by Shaun Pollock. “I really put a guy like ‘Polly’ up on a podium because for him it wasn’t the awards or the acclaim that he was after. He only cared about results and whether the team was winning,”South Africa have two big tours this year – to England this month and Australia in December – and Steyn was upbeat about his side’s chances of winning. “I would really like to have a go at them and I’ll be hoping to perform at my best against them and help the team to beat them.”Steyn compared his bowling style to that of James Anderson, the England right-arm fast bowler, who picked up 19 wickets in the three-Test series against New Zealand, including a career-best 7 for 43 in the first innings at Trent Bridge. “The way conditions have suited him [Anderson] and the way he’s been blasting through batsmen are very encouraging,” said Steyn, who will be making his first tour to England. He was also looking forward to bowling with the Duke ball. “Obviously the pitches are important over there, but the Duke ball has a prouder seam and once you get the lacquer off, you can really get it swinging.”South Africa begin their tour of England at the end of June, with the first of four Tests starting on July 10 at Lord’s.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was left in a catch-22 situation as the team’s consistent poor performance has opened up a debate and has led to severe public outcry.The PCB chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia summoned his cabinet in Rawalpindi Saturday morning for an emergency meeting “to analyze the recent performance of the team and management”.The meeting will be attended by chairman of selectors Wasim Bari, general manager cricket operations Zakir Khan and director Chisty Mujahid.The pundits of the game were anticipating sweeping changes and their predictions were being vehemently supported by the cricket crazy followers.A survey conducted revealed that nearly 84 per cent of the cricket enthusiasts wanted the team management and the top notches to be fired. However, 11 per cent demanded the sacking of the team management and retaining the side while the rest were not bothered.The initial feedback from the PCB quarters was that changes would be made in the Pakistan team setup with the management and some players likely to get the axe. However, the changes at this time might prove disastrous as despite being all but eliminated from the ICC Champions Trophy, the team is still on tour andunlikely to return.”The Pakistan team will remain the guest of the ICC until Sept 24 because it is committed to attend several official functions. And with the first Test against Australia beginning from Oct 3, there is a possibility that the team might not return to Pakistan at all,” Chisty Mujahid said from Lahore.In this background, it would be unwise if the PCB goes for an overhaul and make the team management and senior boys face further humiliation by sacking them while they are on tour.Secondly, the PCB has not yet managed to get hold of a foreign coach but Chisty said he would be much better placed to answer this question only Saturday evening. He, nevertheless, maintained that the PCB had not contacted anyforeigners.Thirdly, skipper Waqar Younis was being tipped to be replaced as search for a scapegoat continues. But fact of the matter is that Waqar holds an excellent record as captain. He has an impressive 63.8% success rate in 47 one-day games while he has an 80% success rate in Tests.Even if the PCB is contemplating a change, there seems to be no available choice available, except recalling Moin Khan. But then recalling the wicketkeeper would mean dismissal of Rashid Latif who has done a brilliant job since his return last May.Nevertheless, the followers of the game were not in a compromising mood and have demanded that heads should roll.”If we have to lose by 224 runs, then by eight wickets and again by eight wickets, why play with aging and veteran cricketers. Why not inject new blood and lose,” argued 28-year-old Fawad Mustafa.Mustafa Kamal, a banker working in Kuwait, sent an email saying: “Our big guns are now working on ad hoc basis.”Another 23-year-old fan Nauman-ul-Haq slammedthe team saying: “If the cricketers have any grace left,they should start packing their bags and plan to do something else.”Khawaja Fariduddin, a cricket fanatic, believed it was a conspiracy against Waqar. He said he couldn’t understand why a winning team turned into the whipping boys, adding he was sensing something serious was boiling in the dressing room.If there was harsh criticism on the team, some took a more sympathetic course.”I believe, the PCB are to be blamed for the scenario because they made the players to compete in avoidable off-shore venues. Instead of curtailing their schedule, they made the players play all over the world,” Aftab Ahmad, 48-year-old engineer, said.”The boys are clearly drained, mentally and physically, and that’s showing in their performance. They need a well deserved rest so that they can recharge their batteries and get back to business,” Raheel Shamsi, an automobile engineer, observed.Fawad Lodhi, a merchant Navy officer, said: “I don’t think there is any need to press the panic button because when you play non-stop cricket, the performance of the team and the players is bound to slump and that’s what has happened to the Pakistan team.”Ali Ahmad, a businessman, noted: “The worst part was that all the players were out of form at the same time. But I still have confidence in these players and only minor problems need to be tackled instead of making sweeping changes.”

Glen Chapple was announced as Lancashire’s LBM Player of the Year in an award ceremony at Old Trafford last night. He was presented the award by Paul Beck, Managing Director of the Club’s Official Sponsor, LBM Solutions. Holding the trophy a delighted Chapple commented . Chapple’s award follows hot on the heels of his announcement as the Frizzell County Championship Player of the Month for August.Mark Chilton, Alec Swann, Chris Schofield and David Byas also received their county caps in a surprise announcement. The presentation was made by the Club President, Joe Blackledge and Cricket Committee Chairman, Geoff Ogden. This makes Byas the only player to have scored a century and be capped for both Lancashire and Yorkshire.Neil Fairbrother and Graham Lloyd were both honoured too in a presentation by the Lancashire Chairman, Jack Simmons, each player receiving a commemorative engraved silver plate from the Club in recognition of their services to the county.Young pace bowler, James Anderson also received honours when he was announced as LBM’s Player of the Month for August

Dissatisfied with information they received during the final stages of the decisive fifth Cable & Wireless One-Day International, New Zealand have filed a formal complaint to vent their feelings.The confusion surfaced over the number of overs fast bowler Paul Hitchcock had towards the end of the tense match on Sunday at the Arnos Vale Playing Field which West Indies won by four wickets off the final ball to clinch the series 3-1.The ‘Black Caps’ captain, Stephen Fleming, originally wanted Hitchcock to bowl the final over, but had to resort to Daryl Tuffey after it was belatedly discovered the count on Hitchcock’s tally of overs was not accurate.It has cost us the match and the series. Both umpires pretty much admitted that they made a mistake, a dejected Fleming said. The match referee agrees with me.According to Fleming, the on-field umpires told him Hitchcock had three overs remaining to complete his full quota of ten at the start of the 42nd over in which he struck a vital blow by removing West Indies skipper Carl Hooper.The New Zealand captain said the umpires told him about two or three overs later Hitchcock had only one over remaining.On at least four occasions, Fleming said he asked for a clarification on the number of overs bowled by Hitchcock and it became evident the information given by the official scorers and also posted on the scoreboard on the ground was not corresponding with information by scorers in the television and radio commentary booths.We had a meeting with the umpires in terms of our disgust at their performance. The match referee will deal with it accordingly and I think he shares the same view, Fleming said.The bottom-line is that it has hurt us and it has left more of a sad taste than what’s already there.Fleming said the defeat, the third for New Zealand in the five-match series in which the opening game was abandoned because of rain, had left them devastated.Amidst all the uncertainty, Fleming was asked if he considered stopping play to get the accurate position from the match referee.The umpires keep bowling lists, which they just tick off. It’s just a case of going up and getting that information, he saidThe information that we got was that Hitchcock had three (overs) to bowl, which was fine. He bowled his eighth – two to go – and then they came and said, no, he’s got one.Clarification came somewhere perhaps down the road that he only had one to go. You can’t argue with that on the spot.With Hitchcock not at New Zealand’s disposal, Fleming turned to Tuffey, a relatively inexperienced fast bowler who turned 24 last Tuesday.His control was sadly lacking and West Indies knocked off the 16 runs they needed from the final six balls.Hitchcock is the perfect finisher, but the information was such that we had to turn to Tuffey. He is the other man who is trained to do this job, Fleming said.We could have gone to Scottie Styris, but the medium-pacers we have found on these wickets are not ideal to finish the innings off.West Indies skipper Carl Hooper wasn’t too concerned over New Zealand’s problems.I suppose at the end of the day you can look back at a lot of `ifs’ and `buts’. Tuffey had to bowl the last over and Chanderpaul played well, Hooper said.He, however, recognises that scoreboards like the one at Arnos Vale can pose problems at times.It’s not an electronic scoreboard, so as a result, you probably might miss an over short from a bowler or something like that, he said.But, I think the way to do it is to keep in touch with the umpires just find out how many overs have gone, how many are left and which particular bowler. That is the way I do it.

It took 13 balls on the final morning of this Test for Nasser Hussain to reach his twelfth Test century, his fifth as England captain and his fourth against India as he led England’s resistance at Headingley. However, once he was out for 110, that resistance crumbled and India swept to a convincing win by an innings and 46 runs to level the series with one match to play.Hussain started on his way by driving the fifth ball of the day handsomely through the covers for four. He pulled a thunderous four to bring up the century partnership with Alec Stewart, and then nudged a two square on the leg side to reach a hundred off 184 balls with one six and 16 boundaries.At the other end, Stewart was looking far less certain, playing and missing and generally failing to locate the middle of the bat, but hanging on resolutely. As so often happens when one batsman is struggling, it is the other who falls first. Anil Kumble came on from the football stand end and, with his sixth ball, had Hussain pushing forward and edging to bat/pad where Virender Sehwag swooped for a very good one-handed catch.Stewart took a single off the second ball of Zaheer Khan’s next over, new batsman Andrew Flintoff got a no ball first up before edging the next to Rahul Dravid at slip. It was his fourth Test innings on this ground and his fourth nought. He has survived for a grand total of 11 balls.Stewart had faced 135 in this innings alone when Kumble spun one past his forward defensive push and the ball was edged to Dravid at slip. Stewart was out for 47, and England had lost three wickets for two runs in ten balls.Ashley Giles and Alex Tudor made a decent fist of defiance for nine overs and had even played some cultured strokes when self-inflicted disaster struck. Tudor pushed a ball from Harbhajan Singh just to Sourav Ganguly’s left at mid-on. For some reason known only to Giles himself and one that he will always regret, he set off for a single. Realising that Tudor was not interested, his attempt to turn and regain his ground was totally inadequate.Tudor himself followed eight runs later when he was taken at bat/pad by Sehwag, before Andrew Caddick edged Kumble to gully where Ganguly took the catch and India had completed their victory in only 153 balls on the final morning and, once Hussain had gone, only 78 minutes passed before the match was over and India were heading to The Oval at one-all in the series and their spirits sky high.

RAWALPINDI, April 23: Shoaib Akhtar returns to his hometown at the top of his bowling form as Pakistan aim to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead over an injury-plagued New Zealand in the second One-day International at Pindi Cricket Stadium Wednesday.Shoaib, who ripped the heart out of New Zealand batting with career-best six for 16 in Karachi Sunday in Pakistan’s 153-run victory, promised to further entertain his home crowd. “Obviously I am bowling well and would certainly like to repeat a similar performance before my home crowd,” he said Tuesday.”I think it’s the dream of every player to give his best in front of his local supporters. I am no different. I have nice memories of the venue and public that has backed me during my difficult period. I think it is the right time to give them back something,” he said, adding: “Although it doesn’t bother me but yes, it is great to return to my city as the world’s fastest bowler.”Shoaib, who has certainly left a lot of terror in New Zealand minds, has done excellently against the tourists. His previous best of five for 19 was also against the Black Caps at Auckland last year.”It gives one added encouragement when you play against a team against whom you have done well. My confidence is high. But the biggest thing in my mind is that Pakistan should win. There is no greater feeling than being part of a winning squad,” he said.New Zealand has problems of their own and the return to form of Shoaib must have left them uneasy. The visitors arrived here without Chris Cairns, Shane Bond, Dion Nash and Daniel Vettori and now they have skipper Stephen Fleming, Scott Styris, Robbie Hart and Chris Nevin down with food poisoning and injuries.New Zealand manager Ross Dykes said that the decision to include them would not be taken before the start of the match.”We didn’t practice with Stephen and Robbie this morning as they are down with stomach bugs and feeling weak. Scott and Chris were there and looked all right. but the physiotherapist will assess their fitness tomorrow afternoon,” Dykes said.Fleming’s absence is a body blow to the tourists whose best batsman Nathan Astle has shown glimpses of brilliance but has yet to deliver the goods.Dykes admitted that Shoaib was quick and was at the peak of his form. But he stressed that his side lost the initiative in the first match on two occasions. “It’s a matter of taking the initiative and holding on to it. We had the initiative on two occasions and we gave it away. So we should concentrate on holding the advantage once we have it,” Dykes said. “Every game is different so we start from the scratch and hope the boys will come good,” he said.Pakistan are likely to field an unchanged side. And if that happens, it would be the sixth straight match with the same side, something very unusual in Pakistan cricket. “It’s a winning combination so I don’t think there will be any changes. Until we seal the series, we will try to restrain from making changes,” Pakistan coach Mudassar Nazar said.If Pakistan can’t be more pleased with the winning streak and the consistency of Shoaib Akhtar, Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan, they would be worried with the repeated failures of Inzamam-ul-Haq. The burly batsman has scored only 254 runs from his last 12 matches with just one half century.Naturally pressure will once again be on Pakistan vice-captain. But with the amount of cricket he has played, he knows how to come out of a lean patch. “It is just a matter of getting one big score. I am timing the ball nicely but somehow lose the initiative. I have to hang in and runs will automatically come,” Inzamam hoped.The weather in the twin city is excellent as there is thick cloud cover and also it rained Monday evening and Tuesday morning. There was forecast for thunderstorm late Tuesday but MET office says it will be a fine on the match day.Teams:PAKISTAN (likely): Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis (captain), Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar. Reserves: Shoaib Malik, Faisal Iqbal, Mohammad Sami, Yasir Arafat, Misbah-ul-Haq.NEW ZEALAND (from): Nathan Astle, Matthew Horne, Lou Vincent, Craig McMillan, Stephen Fleming (captain), Chris Harris, Andre Adams, Ian Butler, Jacob Oram, Robbie Hart, Brooke Walker, Daryl Tuffey, Scott Styris, James Franklin.UMPIRES: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Aleem Dar (Pakistan).TV UMPIRE: Asad Rauf.RESERVE UMPIRE: Zafar Iqbal Pasha.Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa).

The recent revelations of marijuana-use by five of South Africa’splayers should in no way diminish the success of their Caribbean trip.Captain Shaun Pollock said yesterday that it was an internal matterthat had not overshadowed his team’s capture of the Vivian Richardsand Cable & Wireless Trophies. It hasn’t tarnished the win. We’ve putit behind us, Pollock said.It was an in-house thing that happened and you’re going to have thosesort of things in teams. I think we have dealt with it properly andwe’re not really worried about it.Pollock was speaking a day after the United Cricket Board of SouthAfrica issued a statement in which it was revealed that HershelleGibbs, Paul Adams, Roger Telemachus, Andre Nel, Justin Kemp andphysiotherapist Craig Smith were fined 10 000 rand (BDS$2 500) andseverely reprimanded for smoking marijuana in a hotel room in Antiguaon April 10.It was just after South Africa had clinched the Test series againstthe West Indies.It’s something that we dealt with as a team a month ago, Pollock said.The actual fact that it came out wasn’t going to rock the side becausewe knew about it and we dealt with it. Just the fact that it was outback home, maybe there might be a few comments flying around, but theguys were motivated to come out and play well.He was making reference to their emphatic victory by 53 runs in thesixth One-Day International at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday.It was yet another typically clinical performance from the SouthAfricans, who lead the One-Day series 5-1 following their 2-1 Testseries triumph.It’s been a brilliant effort by the guys on the tour and that’s all wewere concentrating on to come here and win the One-Day series and theTest series, the South Africa captain said.That’s never been done before. I think we did it in good style andplayed some great cricket.

ScorecardIndia A squandered a solid start to hand the initiative to New Zealand A at the end of a rain-affected first day of the first unofficial Test against New Zealand A in Lincoln.India were sent into bat and started strongly through their openers Unmukt Chand and captain Abhinav Mukund. The duo put on 50 runs in 11 overs and added 87 runs for the first wicket before Mukund (42) was dismissed. Anustup Majumdar followed soon after but Chand held firm to carry India from 87 for 2 to 118 for 2. However Chand fell soon after reaching his half-century and New Zealand struck once again before bad light halted play to reduce India to 136 for 4. Only 36.4 overs had been bowled at that stage, but rain meant no further play was possible.

England Under-19s could afford to sleep well tonight. They have hadthe best day of the tour so far. Nicky Peng with a brilliant hundredled the English counter attack against the spin attack of VidyuthSivaramakrishnan and co. who had spun them to defeat in the firstTest. At close of play on Saturday in the second Test match againstthe Indian colts at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai,England colts were 286/3 in 95 overs.England made three changes to their team from the one that played inthe first ‘Test’. Kadeer Ali, Kyle Hogg and Robert Ferley gave way toGordon Muchall, Chris Tremlett and John Sadler. India made no changeto their playing eleven.On a clear sunny morning, English captain Ian Bell did his team morethan a big favour by winning the toss and electing to bat. Left handedJohn Sadler who had missed out on the first Test and Nicky Peng sawthrough the opening spell from the medium pacers with ease.The introduction of Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan did not trouble theEnglish batsmen, Peng playing a glorious cover drive off him for four.Sadler and Peng had taken the score to 57 in the 24th over, whentragedy struck the English boys. Peng drove Dharmichand straight backat the bowler in the air; the catch was dropped and the ball disturbedthe stumps at the non-striking end. Sadler was found to be short ofhis crease backing up and was given run out. Sadler made 22 runs off77 balls before his unfortunate dismissal.Peng suddenly changed gears to step out and hit Dharmichand for acouple of huge sixes. Ian Bell was lucky to survive as Vinayak Manedropped him at second slip off the bowling of Trivedi in the 31stover. Peng reached his well-deserved fifty off 92 balls, in the 33rdover bowled by Trivedi. Peng struck hard, hitting Trivedi for threeconsecutive fours in the over. A couple of overs later Peng steppedout to loft him over long on for a huge six.Soon after lunch, Bell got into his elements, two fierce square cutsoff Sivaramakrishnan to the point fence raised the tempo a bit. Pengwas more than lucky to be dropped twice in a span of three overs. Thesloppy fielding and missed catches were to haunt the Indian side asPeng unleashed strokes all around the field. He was tied down for awhile in the nineties, but let the world know that he is a young manwith a lot of courage by playing an on-drive for four and then loftinga huge six off Dharmichand to reach his hundred.Bell and Peng shared a second wicket partnership of 142 runs in 34.5overs. When all seemed to be lost for the Indians, Bell tried a bigshot over the covers and gave a soft catch to the cover fielderDharmichand off the bowling of Ishan Ganda. Bell never looked to be introuble as he carried on with his good form. His innings of 67 cameoff 114 balls and included 11 well timed boundaries.The post tea session saw the loss of Nicky Peng for 132. Ishan Gandacaught him at short fine leg when he tried to go for a sweep shot offthe bowling of Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan. Peng was the third wicket tofall at 251 in the 80th over. His innings was decorated with 11boundaries and 5 sixes. Peng was at the crease for 290 minutes andfaced 240 balls to play one of the best innings of the tour.Though the new ball was taken in the 91st over, it did not trouble theEnglish batsmen. Gary Pratt played a wonderful pull shot off thebowling of Aggarwal that illustrated the domination of the Englishbatting. At close of play Pratt was unbeaten on 39 with Gordon Muchallon 14.