All posts by csb10.top

New Zealand will be represented at the Hong Kong Sixes this year, and a strong team has been named. For those players on the fringe of selection for the tour of India and Pakistan, it gives them an early taste of the international scene, albeit in a restricted form of the game.Andre Adams, one of the surprise omissions from the one-day team for the tour, is included while Matthew Horne, the discarded opening batsman, will open the innings. Another player included is Aaron Barnes, who at the end of last season said he was severing his ties with New Zealand cricket to live in England. However, he decided to return after a successful season of league cricket. He has experience in the shorter versions of the game for New Zealand having earlier been a member of the New Zealand Super Max international side.Chris Nevin, who was dropped from the opening batting position for the tour, has also been included. Well-performed domestic players Matthew Walker, from Wellington, and Joseph Yovich from Northern Districts have also been included. The team leaves New Zealand on October 30 and returns on November 4.The team is: Matthew Horne (captain-Auckland), Tama Canning (Auckland). Andre Adams (Auckland), Aaron Barnes (Auckland), Chris Nevin (Wellington), Matthew Walker (Wellington), Joseph Yovich (Northern Districts).

New Zealand Cricket will be $US 500,000 better off after some of the money withheld by the International Cricket Council pending a claim by Global Cricket Corporation was made available today.The welcome news came from the meeting in Monaco yesterday of the ICC’s commercial arm.New Zealand orginally had $US 2.5 million withheld from its tournament payout for not playing their pool game in Kenya due to security fears.England, who refused to play in Zimbabwe had $US 3.5 million withheld and it will get $US 1.5 million back.Sri Lanka which had half a million United States dollars withheld will get all its money back.The return of cash followed an assessment and what the ICC called “an informed judgment” that the maximum claims against the three countries would not exceed the amounts withheld.India was in a different position, however, and no monies were returned to it.The ICC president, Ehsan Mani, said the specific nature of the issues relating to England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka allowed this decision to be made.”The nature of the claims allowed us to return money to three of our Boards,” he said.”In relation to the Indian Board, it is not possible at this stage to assess the likely maximum claims and all countries made the prudent financial decision to continue to withhold the Indian Board’s World Cup distribution at this stage.”

Organisers of the Bank Alfalah Cup have decided to play all the remainingmatches of tournament at Dambulla after heavy monsoon rain in Colombo.The last four games were scheduled to be played in Colombo, but prospects ofplay were remote considering the current cyclonic weather pattern.The dates of the matches have been changed as well, with the fourth, fifthand sixth games to be played on May 18, 19 and 20. The final, which was tohave been played under lights, will now be a day match.May 18 ­ Sri Lanka v Pakistan
May 19 ­ New Zealand v Sri Lanka
May 20 ­ Pakistan v New Zealand
May 23 ­ The final

Australia’s tour of South Africa squelched soggily to a halt in Potchefstroom on Monday with only 36 overs play possible on the second day of the three-day match against South Africa `A’. When play was abandoned for the day at 4.30pm, the tourists had lifted their overnight score from 218 for three to 351 for eight.The good news for Australia, though, was a century for Ricky Ponting and an unbeaten 91 for captain Steve Waugh. Given the conditions, this was probably about as much as the tourists could have hoped for ahead of the first Test match which starts at the Wanderers on Friday.There may be a chance for the Australian bowlers to have a run on Tuesday’s final day, provided the weather holds off. Ideally, Australia would have liked the chance for their attack to reacquaint themselves with the Highveld bounce, but in the circumstances it was obviously more important for their batsmen to spend time in the middle.Ponting spent most of it on Sunday, but he moved quickly to his hundred on Monday morning with a couple of cracking boundaries and then a single off Andre Nel, put on standby for Shaun Pollock in the Test squad.Ponting moved on to 120 before he fell, caught at the wicket cutting at left-arm wrist-spinner Gulam Bodi at 271 for four and Damien Martyn went soon afterwards for 1, top-edging a sweep against Claude Henderson.Adam Gilchrist could, perhaps, have done with runs ahead of the Test match, but he made only 16 before Andrew Hall had him caught at slip. Hall had taken the first two wickets to fall on Sunday and he proceeded to make it five for the innings by trapping Shane Warne leg before for a duck as he shouldered arms and then having Brett Lee caught at slip for 6.Lee’s wicket fell during a brief nine-over interlude after lunch and when the rain started falling again, the players disappeared for the rest of the afternoon.It has been a frustrating couple of days at one of South Africa’s best-equipped venues. There could still be time enough on the final day for the Australian bowlers to stretch themselves and, from a South African point of view, for the likes of Daryll Cullinan, Jacques Rudolph and Graeme Smith to make a point to the selectors. Any such point might be too late for the first Test, but it is a racing certainty that the 11 chosen by South Africa for first Test will not go unchanged throughout the series.

Kenya pulled off the shock of the tournament with a remarkable 53 runvictory against the Sri Lankans at Nairobi on Monday.Sri Lanka, firm favourites after three straight victories, were bundled outfor 157 in 45 overs chasing the 210 for nine scored by Kenya early in theday.Cheered on by a capacity partisan home crowd, the Kenya bowlers and fieldersproduced an electric display in the field, bowling tightly and fieldingbrilliantly.Leg-spinner Collins Obuya was adjudged man of the match for a superb spellof bowling, running through the Sri Lankan middle order to claim fivewickets for 24 from ten overs, the best ever figures by a Kenyan.Only Aravinda de Silva, who scored 41 from 53 deliveries, provided anyresistance on a slow pitch.Earlier, Kennedy Otieno smashed an entertaining 60 from 88 balls,hitting eight fours and two sixes as Kenya cobbled together their moderatetotal.It was Kenya’s first win against Sri Lanka, their tenth ODI victory, and their greatest day since they defeated West Indies at Poona in the 1996 World Cup.The win leaves Kenya, who picked up four points after New Zealand forfeitedtheir game for security reasons, with a good chance of qualifying for theSuper Sixes.They now move into second position in the table with two matches to play,one of which will be against the out-of-sorts Bangladeshis.Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign may not lie in tatters but they now face afight to qualify for the second round with difficult matches to be playedagainst West Indies and South Africa.Jayasuriya (3) failed for the second consecutive innings after chipping acatch to wide mid on.Marvan Atapattu (23) started the innings in glorious fashion with a brace ofboundaries but eventually came unstuck as he played onto his stumps to giftThomas Odoyo his 50th ODI wicket.Hashan Tillakaratne (23), dropped in the gully when he had made eight,looked to have settled during a 32 run partnership with veteran Aravinda deSilva before hoisting a catch into the deep off Obuya.De Silva counterattacked in characteristically positive fashion, pulling asix high over square leg.Mahela Jayawardene (5), desperately looking for form before key matchesagainst West Indies and South Africa, could have been run out early on wereit not for a fumble in the covers.But the rusty looking right-hander did not make Kenya pay for a rarefielding slip, poking a catch straight back to Obuya off a leading edge ashe tried to flick a full toss through the leg-side.Kumar Sangakkara (5) was then athletically caught by a tumbling Otienobehind the stumps and when De Silva was caught behind whilst trying to forceObuya through the off-side Sri Lanka were in dire straits on 112 for six.Russel Arnold (25*), the last remaining specialist batsman, struggled tohold the innings together but he was unable to claim back the initiative aswickets continued to fall.Vaas (4) was caught and bowled and then Prabath Nissanka (2) and MuttiahMuralitharan (10) were well-caught on the boundary edge of the skipper SteveTikolo.When Dilhara Fernando missed a reverse sweep and was bowled the Kenyan’svictory was complete and the wild celebrations commenced.Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka had elected to field first against theKenyans, a surprise decision on an excellent batting surface that promisedplenty of runs.The move looked to have been justified when Chaminda Vaas grabbed a secondball wicket, trapping Ravindu Shah lbw with a curving inswinger.But Otieno reacted aggressively to the early loss, swinging Vaas for twotowering sixes and a flurry of boundaries, dashing Sri Lankan hopes ofanother early finish.Nevertheless Sri Lanka made inroads: Brijal Patel (12) edged an off-cutterbehind and Muralitharan trapped star batsman Steve Tikolo (10) lbw with asharply turning off-break.When Otieno was snared in the deep the innings then lost momentum withHitesh Modi and former captain Maurice Odumbe struggling against the SriLankan spinners, adding 40 runs in 10 overs.The left-handed Modi, dropped at fine leg on nine and missed again bywicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara behind the stumps on 11, scored 26 from 56deliveries before being bowled as he tried to reverse sweep Muralitharan.Thomas Odoyo (6) was then caught behind off Vaas after the left-armer waspulled back into the attack for his second spell of the day.Vaas, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, finished with three for 41 fromhis ten overs.Odumbe (26) was brilliantly caught by Russel Arnold at mid-wicket and TonySuji was bowled by Muralitharan to leave Kenya in trouble on 178 for 8.However, Peter Ongondo then finished the innings with a flourish scoring 20from 18 balls and adding 32 in 4.1 overs with Collins Obuya (11*).It appeared that Sri Lanka would stroll to victory but no one hadanticipated such and electric display from the Kenyans in the field.

Victorian Cricket earlier this week lost a fine player and administrator with the passing of former Victorian and St Kilda batsman Gordon Tamblyn.Gordon, the father of current VCA Chairman and ACB Director Geoff Tamblyn (also a former Victorian and St Kilda representative) played 21 matches for Victoria, scoring 1324 runs at an average of 40.12 with 4 centuries (highest score 136 v QLD in 1940/41). For St Kilda, Gordon who was a fine opening batsman, scored 5504 runs @ 47.80 with 19 centuries.Gordon was also a former long serving Secretary of the St Kilda Cricket Club.

Sourav Ganguly is set to continue as the skipper of the Indian team for the home series against Zimbabwe, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has reported.The PTI quoted a highly-placed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) source as saying, “The team under Ganguly beat England 1-0 in the Test series and squared the six-match One-day series 3-3. He regained his batting form at the end of the series and he will be the right choice to lead against Zimbabwe.” This though isn’t the official announcement – that will be made only on February 14.Ganguly did do well in the recent one-day series but his form continued to be patchy in the Tests. He made just 68 runs in the three Tests at a very modest average of 22.66. This marks a continuation of very long and woeful run with the bat that has seen the Indian captain score just 874 runs in his last 21 Tests.Opposing bowlers have continued to exploit his weakness against the short ball with alarming regularity and consequently, it is a familiar sight these days to see a nervous Ganguly scrath around for runs.One of Ganguly’s earliest fans, the legendary Geoffery Boycott, recently joined the chorus of observers who feel that the Indian captain has a definite technical problem.”I have observed him closely of late and I am convinced that a few minor faults have crept into his technique. His wrist is not straight when he is meeting the ball and his right shoulder is falling forward”, Boycott wrote in a foreword to a book on the Indian captain – . “There is only one cure for his ailment. Practice, practice and more practice. He should spend hours before the mirror and in the nets ironing out these flaws. Watching videotapes of his earlier innings should also help.”What has saved Ganguly from facing the axe, despite his obvious failings as a Test batsman in recent times, has been his heroics in the one-day arena. It looks like his strong performances in the six one-dayers against England might bail him out yet again.

Significant changes to the International Cricket Council’s one-day international rankings list have occurred as the first year of results in the original calculation drop out.The refreshed table is based on the results of the last two years. Matches played in the last 12 months have a higher weighting in the calculation. They are worth two-thirds and the previous year has a one-third value, with matches played in the next year worth full value. An annual refresh of the table will be done on July 31.The new order is:

New Old Rating RankRating Rating Change Change1 Australia 134 132 +2 -2 South Africa 118 120 -2 -3 England 107 103 +4 up 44 West Indies 106 103 +3 up 25 New Zealand 106 101 +5 up 36 Sri Lanka 105 106 -1 down 27 Pakistan 105 108 -3 down 48 India 104 104 0 down 39 Zimbabwe 63 66 -3 -10 Kenya 28 28 0 -11 Bangladesh 3 4 -1 –

New Zealand has enjoyed the biggest jump, in terms of rating points, moving from eighth to fifth place, while England has leapt four places to No 3 and the West Indies have increased three places from seventh to fourth.The reasons for the marked change, and the way the system works this sort of upheaval could occur each year, are because the teams that have improved, have had bad seasons drop off their calculations. England lost a season in which it had two wins from 14 games, New Zealand lost a year in which they had 12 wins in 35 completed games, and the West Indies dropped a year in which they won only eight games of 23.The opportunity for fluctuation is high, and probably reflects the competitiveness of the teams concerned. Only three points separate third-placed England and eighth-placed India.It is so close that if a team like India won two or three games in a row against a top-ranked team like Australia or South Africa, they could almost immediately leap to third place. England had such a leap in its performance by beating South Africa three times out of four in their recent NatWest Series.The method of separating teams with equal ratings has also changed as the system has evolved. Previously the team with most matches got the higher rating, but now the rating is extended to three decimal places to resolve the issue. England, the West Indies and New Zealand are separated by only 0.826 rating points, and the West Indies and New Zealand by 0.174.The actual ratings for the three are: England 106.783, West Indies 106.130 and New Zealand 105.957.The change has also highlighted Australia’s increased dominance as the gap between it and second-placed South Africa has now extended from 12 to 16 points. Such has been world champion Australia’s dominance of the one-day game that it is going to have to suffer a massive turnaround in form to lose its hold on first place. Its last 12 months has been its most successful period to date, so that season will not fall out of calculations for another two years.Pakistan and Zimbabwe both paid the price for having good seasons drop off the calculation scale. Pakistan has had a poor last 12 months while Zimbabwe has suffered a more gradual decline over the last three years.ODI playing record in the new period of calculation (August 2001-July 2003):

P W L T NR %Australia 52 38 12 1 1 75.5%South Africa 64 40 21 2 1 65.1%England 47 23 22 – 2 51.1%West Indies 46 23 20 – 3 53.5%New Zealand 49 22 26 – 1 45.8%Sri Lanka 67 33 31 1 2 51.5%Pakistan 58 33 23 – 2 58.9%India 64 36 24 – 4 60.0%Zimbabwe 50 11 36 – 3 23.4%Kenya 29 4 24 – 1 14.3%Bangladesh 26 – 24 – 2 0.0%

These results can be broken down by each weighting period. Matches played in the last 12 months (Period Two) were formerly taken at face value, but are now dampened down to a weighting of two-thirds. Matches played in the 12 months prior to this (Period One) now carry a weighting of one-third.Period Two results (August 2002-July 2003):

P W L T NR %Australia 34 28 5 – 1 84.8%South Africa 37 24 11 1 1 68.1%England 24 10 13 – 1 43.5%West Indies 27 13 12 – 2 52.0%New Zealand 21 13 8 – – 61.9%Sri Lanka 44 21 20 1 2 51.2%Pakistan 36 16 18 – 2 47.1%India 33 18 12 – 3 60.0%Zimbabwe 26 5 18 – 3 21.7%Kenya 20 3 16 – 1 15.8%Bangladesh 20 – 18 – 2 0.0%

Period One results (August 2001-July 2002):

P W L T NR %Australia 18 10 7 1 – 58.3%South Africa 27 16 10 1 – 61.1%England 23 13 9 – 1 59.1%West Indies 19 10 8 – 1 55.6%New Zealand 28 9 18 – 1 33.3%Sri Lanka 23 12 11 – – 52.2%Pakistan 22 17 5 – – 77.3%India 31 18 12 – 1 60.0%Zimbabwe 24 6 18 – – 25.0%Kenya 9 1 8 – – 11.1%Bangladesh 6 – 6 – – 0.0%

Results removed from calculations (August 2000-July 2001):

P W L T NR %Australia 25 19 5 1 – 78.0%South Africa 27 19 6 1 1 75.0%England 14 2 12 – – 14.3%West Indies 23 8 15 – – 34.8%New Zealand 36 12 23 – 1 34.3%Sri Lanka 31 20 11 – – 64.5%Pakistan 24 15 9 – – 62.5%India 28 16 12 – – 57.1%Zimbabwe 31 9 22 – – 29.0%Kenya 1 – 1 – – 0.0%Bangladesh 4 – 4 – – 0.0%

Man of the match Jesse Ryder doesn’t normally do a lot of bowling but he proved the man for a crisis for New Zealand in its three-run win over England in the Super League round of the ICC Under-19 World Cup today.Ryder had earlier hit a whirlwind 54 for New Zealand, but was called into the attack in the 43rd over as England looked like knocking off the 206 required to win the game.However, Ryder and Iain Robertson, Richard Sherlock and Peter Borren bowled outstandingly at the death to have England 202/8 off the last ball of the game, three runs short of their target.”I wasn’t expecting to have to bowl. Our skipper was keeping us motivated and telling us to go hard until the last ball,” Ryder said.”I just wanted to get the ball up there and hoped to bowl to the field.”I did my little bit for the team,” he said.His ‘little bit’ earlier included his innings which he analysed as having started a little slowly and he had played ‘a few rash shots’.New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch admitted his side didn’t get enough runs and felt the side had been a little too quick with their decision-making when batting. Their bowling plan had centred on slowing things down.”England fought hard and got partnerships going. With 90 balls left and only 70 to get, it didn’t look good for us but I was pleased with the way the boys fought back.”These are death matches. You need to keep winning if you want to keep progressing through. If you lose games you have to fight back,” he said.Greatbatch said New Zealand captain Ross Taylor had changed his bowlers well in the last stages and it kept the English batsmen thinking when they saw different bowlers running in.He wasn’t surprised when Taylor threw the ball to Ryder to bowl.”He’s our option when things don’t go right, he’s got a bit of a Midas touch,” he said.Greatbatch had not sent messages out to the team during the tight finish.”The reality is they need to learn for themselves. As much as you would like to tell them that is what this tournament is about, learning from these situations,” he said.Greatbatch was also concerned with the number of wides bowled, 15 in total, but said there was a reason because the players had not had a lot of experience with the white ball.”They are still very young in that area, they are getting a bit better but the wides could have hurt us today,” he said.England coach Paul Farbrace said it was a strange thing after the team had not played well during the earlier stages of the tournament, they had played very well today and were that close to winning the game.”You have to say that they [New Zealand] bowled well at the end and credit to them.”It was a close game. It was pretty similar for both teams throughout,” he said.Both sides had lost wickets are regular intervals. It was difficult to praise a side after it had lost but he said considering the way England had played in this game it had been a phenomenal effort.”I still don’t think we are out of it,” he said.He was delighted with the way Mark Pettini batted, it was his first game of the tournament, and felt that the promotion of Samit Patel had been worthwhile and after the start he had he should have been able to go on and get 75 or 80 that could have won the game.”He’s a young man and will learn from this. He is eligible to play in the next (Under-19) World Cup and will learn. That is what it is all about,” he said.

Just minutes after leaving the field at Taunton, unbeaten after scoring his maiden century, Somerset opening batsman Matthew Wood told me, “I’m very happy to have scored my first century. It was a good wicket out there, and I felt comfortable after we had seen off the new ball.”What was it like batting with Jamie Cox I asked. Matthew told me, “Coxy was great to bat with. He was a great help to me. He carried me through and kept me going.”The twenty year old from Exmouth told me, “It was nice to get a ton against Northants, particularly after getting 90 odd up there earlier in the season.”What did he plan to do during the winter I asked. “I plan to go to Perth for some of the time, and will also go back to Exeter University to do another semester for my degree course.”