Young New South Wales wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is all set to replace Adam Gilchrist in the Australian team to play Zimbabwe on Tuesday. The 23-year-old will take over the gloves for the match after captain Steve Waugh opted to extend his side's rotational policy to include his vice-captain. Waugh described Haddin as a mixture of Ian Healy and Gilchrist and said he was the natural successor to Gilchrist. "He can play the shots that Adam Gilchrist plays and he's got that toughness about him that Ian Healy had. Potentially, he's an excellent player." However Gilchrist returns for the February 4 match in Perth against Zimbabwe, the final game of the preliminary rounds.

Sachin Tendulkar who had opted out of the first three Duleep Trophy ties, will come back to lead West Zone in last match to be played against East Zone at Pune. The West Zone side includes pace bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar.

The prostitutes of Sydney have united together in questioning the claims of former Pakistani batsman Qasim Omar that Australian sex workers were involved in match fixing by corrupt bookmakers. They are not likely to co-operate with the on-going enquiries. Lobbyist Robbie Swan who leads a foundation of sex workers said "why should they be treated like criminals, they have done nothing wrong". The ICC, however is not likely to give high priorities to Omar's story because these incidents took place nearly 15 years ago and also because Omar has of late built up a reputation of being a kind of "whistle-blower" who was prepared to sell stories to the highest bidder.
Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne has again landed himself in trouble, this time with television viewers who complained about obscenities heard over the stump microphone during Australia's last Carlton Series victory over Zimbabwe at Sydney on Sunday. Australia's Nine Network had to apologise to its viewers after Warne uttered a string of obscenities at Zimbabwean batsman Stuart Carlisle after the latter had twice hit Warne for sixes. The remark was picked up by a stump microphone and broadcast live and the station's switchboard lit up as irate viewers called to protest. Channel-Nine sport director Gary Burns said the incident was ``unfortunate'' and the network was sorry the comment had got to air. However, Burns said the network would continue to use the stump microphones and would take no disciplinary action over the incident. Incidentally, Warne is on a contract with Channel Nine and has done television commentary of international matches when not playing. In the meanwhile Australian coach John Buchanan said the incident was regrettable but understandable given the pressure on players and the scrutiny on the field with cameras and microphones in every conceivable position. However the batsman Carlisle said he had not even heard the comment, adding: ``It might be disturbing for the public, but not for me personally. I think it's part of the game.'' Interestingly no comments have come forth from the ICC match referee South African Dennis Lindsay.

England A batsman Chris Schofield will not face action after he was jeered by the crowd at Bridgetown, Barbados for angrily querying a decision. The controversy happened when Schofield was given out caught behind after the umpires conferred in the Busta Cup match. The Lancashire leg-spinner brandished his helmet at Barbados wicketkeeper Courtney Browne before running off the field to boos from the crowd in the Kensington stand. It was the second time that an England A batsman had reacted to a decision. Earlier, Ian Ward declined to acknowledge the crowd applause when he was caught behind for 137. Coach Peter Moores said the response had been the result of competitive instinct. But he insisted no action would be taken by match referee Dennis Depeiza who had looked at the evidence and decided the behaviour did not warrant any disciplinary action.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation West Indian batsman Brian Lara has admitted that he would seek inspiration from India's Sachin Tendulkar to improve his sagging form. "Even if he doesn't get big scores, he is always scoring useful 30's and 40's." he said. His confession however does not include any change in his batting style. Lara also said he would hate to leave West Indies cricket in the state in which it is now, and stressed that he would like to be a part of the rebuilding process.

The prize money dispute between Pakistani players and team coach surfaced again over the Rs 1.7 million paid to Javed Miandad from the cricket sponsorships share. But the former player claimed from Lahore that he got only Rs 1.2 million from the Pepsi logo deal that was worth Rs. 1.3 million. Each player was supposedly docked Rs. 100,000 from the deal. While regular team members wore the Pepsi logo on their shirt and kit Miandad wore it on his shirt, and is obviously confined to the dressing room unlike the players. Senior cricketers, Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam ul Haq are said to be aggrieved as this year they had also fines deducted from their income as recommended by Justice Qayoom. The Pakistan team had faced a similar situation after the ICC knock out tournament in Kenya, and and the crisis deepened when some players reportedly refused to play the home series against England under Miandad. In the meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board chief Tauqir Zia has warned the players making trouble over prize money and said they would be sacked if they disturbed the team cohesion during next month's New Zealand tour.

Former England opener Geoff Boycott will begin his coaching camp at Lahore on February 5th. A PCB spokesman said that Boycott will be arriving in Pakistan on February 3rd.

The newly elected managing committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has decided to issue a show cause notice to its Ranji Trophy team coach Ashok Mankad. Mankad had in a recent outburst criticised the functioning of the MCA. Mankad had spoken about the selection committees, lack of coordination, and the lack of practice facilities as well as his remuneration. Those at the receiving end of Mankad's outburt feel he is no less guilty and that they have been targeted for no reason.

Former Australian Test fast bowler and current Western Australian coach Wayne Clark has accepted an offer to coach the English county side Yorkshire from the start of this English season. The Western Australian Cricket Association confirmed that Clark, 47, who played in 10 Tests in the late 1970s, would take up the Yorkshire position on completion of the Australian season at the end of March. Clark will take over the Yorkshire job from former England batsman Martyn Moxon, who is to coach Durham. Clark will have about a month to prepare Yorkshire for the season starting April 25. An amiable former schoolteacher, Clark has had considerable success in his Western Australian coaching role over the past six seasons, guiding the State to the Sheffield Shield wins in 1997-98 and 1998-99. It has been speculated he will be paid up to A$ 200,000 (US$ 130,000) by Yorkshire CC, considerably more than what his is paid by Western Australia. Clark becomes the latest of a procession of high-profile Western Australians to take up important posts in English cricket. Current Western Australian captain Tom Moody will coach Worcestershire this year, while a former Western Australian captain, John Inverarity, will take the coaching reins at Kent, replacing Indian cricket coach New Zealander John Wright. Moody and Inverarity are both former Australian Test batsmen. Inverarity is headmaster at Hale School, an exclusive boys' school in Perth. He will do the Kent coaching job during his long-service leave.

Scores at a glance…

At Sydney (Australia vs Zimbabwe)
Australia won by 86 runs.
Australia:291-6 in 50 overs (A Gilchrist 63, M Waugh 36, S Waugh 36, M Bevan 74 not out; D Viljoen 3-62)
Zimbabwe:205 in 47.5 overs (S Carlisle 44, A Flower 39, G Flower 30, D Viljoen 31).
Man of the match:M Bevan. (Aus)
Australia enter the finals of the Carlton series

Duleep Trophy (4th & final day)

At Delhi
North Zone: 690-8 decl. (V Dahiya 81, V Rathore 94, Yuvraj Singh 34, D Mongia 208, V Shewag 43, RS Sodhi 137, Harbhajan Singh 42; DS Bundela 3-108, R Kanwat 3-122) & 233-8 (Yuvraj Singh 130; S Srivastava 3-50)
Central Zone: 439 (Jai Prakash Yadav 78, AR Khurasiya 51, M Kaif 61, Yere Gowda 107 not out; RL Sanghvi 4-77, Harbhajan Singh 3-126)
Result: Match Drawn

POINTS TABLE AFTER 8 MATCHES
Team	Mts	Pts
North Zone	4	23
East Zone	3	13
Central Zone	3	11
West Zone	3	9
South Zone	3	8

3rd Un-official Test (2nd day):
At Hyderabad (India U-19 v England U-19)
England U-19: 316 (IR Bell 46, GJ Pratt 114, GJ Muchall 36; N Agarwal 4-50, A Mishra 4-96)
India U-19: 220-3 (G Gambhir 65, V Mane 114 not out)


Yesterday's News

Compiled by: Mohandas Menon