The ICC is anxiously awaiting word from Sourav Ganguly regarding the captains meeting to be held in Melbourne of February 12. Captains of all Test playing nations are scheduled to meet and discuss the future of the game in the wake of the match fixing controversy. Chances are that Ganguly may opt out in order to prepare for the upcoming Australian home series. Steve Waugh, Heath Streak, Jimmy Adams, Moin Khan, Stephen Fleming, Shaun Pollock, Sanat Jayasuriya and Naimur Rahman are certain to attend the meeting.
The Hyderabad City Civil Court on Tuesday served notices on the Board of Control for cricket in India (BCCI), its president AC Muthiah and former CBI joint director K Madhavan, on a suit filed by former captain Mohammed Azharuddin, to file their counter affidavits by February 14. The second additional chief judge J Shyamsundar Rao issued notices to the three respondents in response to the plea made by the advocate of Azahruddin, who moved the court on Monday challenging the life ban imposed on him by the BCCI and maintained that the appointment of Madhavan as enquiry commissioner was not in accordance with the BCCI rules. In a 17-page original suit filed in the court in Hyderabad, appealed to the court to declare as null and void the life ban imposed on him, and the findings of Madhavan Committee report on match fixing.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India ruled out conducting an enquiry against former opener Sunil Gavaskar and star batsman Sachin Tendulkar in the wake of reported remarks on them by former Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin. BCCI President AC Muthiah said in Bangalore that there was no mention of it (Azharuddin's remarks) in the CBI report, and also that there were no official complaints made to the BCCI against Gavaskar and Tendulkar. Asked if he ruled out the possibility of any enquiry against Gavaskar and Tendulkar, he reiterated: "It is not in the CBI report. There were no complaints officially made to us. I don't think we will make an such enquiry now." Azharuddin had in an interview recently to a national news magazine said cricketers from Mumbai have been able to get away with their wrong doings without being "investigated properly".
Former Pakistan offspinner Tauseef Ahmed has said the punishment given to Indian players Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja for their alleged involvement in match-fixing practices, was not fair. "I think the punishment handed down to India's Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja is really unfair as the two could not have gone on and on to fix matches on their own," Tauseef said in Dubai. Tauseef, said he found it difficult to believe that one or two players could fix matches but if that was true, match-fixing was going to stay forever. "I still do not think that anything like match-fixing happens because for me it is hard to believe that one or two players can change the outcome of the game," Tauseef said. "But if these things are really happening then I would say that match-fixing is here to stay forever, no matter what you do," he said.
The revival of the England team has left the Australians unimpressed. With an Ashes summer coming up and the England team having just secured their third successive series win, the Australians should be preparing for a close fought encounter with the old enemy. But Australia's top two players, Captain Steve Waugh and fast-bowler Glenn McGrath, have both spoken of their supreme confidence in advance of the encounter, and have even suggested the possibility of a whitewash. "For England to match us they have got to play exceptional, aggressive cricket," said pace bowler McGrath. "What I saw in Pakistan was not that. The Ashes are ours for the keeping. A 5-0 win is our goal."
Steve Waugh recently referred to England's performance in Pakistan as "the most boring cricket I've ever seen." He has few doubts that any one can stop his record-breaking team. "When you are on a roll then you do not expect any result other than victory," he told a newspaper "Our confidence now is as high as ever. We will certainly be going out to win every match and it will take something special to stop us." The last time the two teams met in England, the home side went down 2-3 with victories in the first and last games of the six match series.
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly feels that the probables for the conditioning camp are the best possible cricketers available in the country at present. At the same time, however, he is quick to point out that some other promising cricketers have been left out simply because the present probables are only for the Test series. "Like Yuvraj Singh," he said. "He does not figure in the list of probables for the conditioning camp simply because we are concentrating on the Test series initially." Ganguly, who had attended the recent selection committee meeting also said that India will have to possibly depend on a spin-oriented attack against the powerful Australians. "That will be our main strength," he said. It may be recalled that the Indian captain had wanted spinning tracks in the recently concluded series against Zimbabwe. He however did not get it. Ganguly also feels that the present conditioning camp will be an ideal opportunity to watch some of the promising cricketers. "I have heard that both Surinder Singh and Balaji Rao are good bowlers. One is a fast bowler while the other is a leg spinner. The camp will give me a chance of viewing them from close quarters and judging them myself."
The Umpires of the Cricket Association of Bengal felicitated the Indian captain at a gathering at the YMCA ceremony hall in Kolkata on Tuesday. Ganguly was presented with a silver plaque and a shawl. Speaking on the occasion, the 28-year-old stylish left-hander said, "Any honour from Calcutta is always dear to me, especially as I have grown up in this city."
Doctors have eased the fears of South African fast bowler Mfuneko Ngam about the possible implications of a broken thigh bone. Ngam will miss the team's first tour of the West Indies due to the injury. It is the third stress fracture he has suffered in as many years and team physio Craig Smith feared Ngam's "skeletal strength" was lacking due to a "dietary or genetic in-sufficiency". Blood tests were ordered and Dr Andre Killian, a member of the United Cricket Board's medical committee, says there is no sign of inherent weakness in his bone structure. "We did a bone density test, which showed all his bones to be of normal density, as well as various blood tests which all came up normal. The injury has been caused by over-exertion," he felt. It could take up to 12 weeks more to heal and he will then need several weeks of rehabilitation and training to regain fitness. "Ngam has a long career ahead of him. It is not worth rushing him back for this tour," Dr Killian said. The selectors will name South Africa's tour squad on 17 February. They will play five Tests and seven one-day internationals in the Caribbean between March and May.
Asian countries will jointly appeal to India to restore its cricketing ties with Pakistan at the Asian Cricket Foundation meet in Lahore on February 3, according to reports from Dubai. However, former International Cricket Council chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, who chairs the meeting, was noncommittal about the issue. Dalmiya said the topic did not come up for discussion at the Asian Cricket Development Committee meeting held on January 26 in Kolkata. "The topic was not raised as the meeting was called only to discuss the future development of cricket in Asian countries," he said. The decision to bring all the Asian countries to Pakistan itself is being seen as a move pointing towards this objective and the organisation of Asian Test championship will be another major item to be discussed at Lahore.
Kenyan players have threatened to go on strike if claims for a ten-fold wage increase are not met. Kenya Cricket Association chairman, Jimmy Rayani confirmed this but declined to comment further, saying that the situation was very delicate that the KCA were working to resolve it. On the eve of the Kenya's first one-day match against the touring Sri Lankan A side earlier this month at the Mombasa Sports Club, the players threatened not to play, demanding a raise in their fee per match from the present Sh 3,000 (US$ 38) to as much as Sh 30,000 (US$ 381) for the internationals. They are also demanding special allowances for playing away from Nairobi and demanding a 25 per cent raise in their salaries. The players are also believed to have demanded increased medical insurance, a daily travelling allowance of Sh 3,500, an annual revision of their salaries by between 15 and 25 percent and a minimum monthly salary of Sh 35,000 (US$ 445). A KCA official felt it was unfair for the players to make demands for more money now that the KCA was trying to get its cricket development programme set up. The KCA are likely to meet for further talks with the players. However, this is not the first time the KCA has been threatened by the players. Each time in the past the KCA has caved in. If a strike were to rule out senior players, the KCA may appoint a non-Kenyan, Ravindu Shah to lead the depleted side.
Hansie Cronje has been announced as the joint winner of the Pretoria Press Club's award as Newsmaker of the Year 2000, along with the South African Air Force. A statement released by the press club said that Cronje shares the award with the South African Air Force members who were involved in flood rescue operations in South Africa and in Mozambique. The Press Club's chairman, Yusuf Abramjee, said Cronje and the SAAF pilots are deserving recipients of the award. "They made headlines in the year 2000, and their actions dominated the pages of our newspapers and airtime on radio and television for some time. The Hansie story on cricket match fixing, and the life saving mission by the pilots made international news," he said. Abramjee said newspaper circulation increased significantly during the Hansiegate saga. The SAAF rescue operations also generated substantial newspaper coverage, with dramatic pictures of pilots airlifting victims of the floods. Abramjee pointed out that the award does not in any way imply approval of Cronje's actions. "This award simply recognises his prominence in the media and the impact it had on cricket." The recipients would receive their awards at a gala event either in April or May this year. Previous recipients of this award include South Africa's current President Thabo Mbeki, and former presidents Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk.
Stuart Carlisle, who was at the receiving end of a frustrated Shane Warne's obscenities in a Carlton Series match, says he did not hear what Warne was shouting, and he considers such behaviour as part of the game. He went further, and said that he considers the Kiwis to be more lethal sledgers than the Australians, who are, ironically enough, the inventors of the term. The current Australian team is considered, by many to be something of a Brat Pack. Carisle said he considered the sledging by the Australian team to be "not so bad".
An entrepreneur Michael Watt is set to donate another one million New Zealand dollars (430,000 US dollars) for youth development, providing his name is not incorporated in the academy's title. Watt, a former New Zealander now based in Britain and the United States, has already donated one million New Zealand dollars to the Christchurch-based New Zealand Cricket Acadamy. He is about to make a second donation, but is resisting attempts by New Zealand cricket officials Chris Doig and John Anderson to put his name to the academy. Phil Lenton, who is in charge of Watt's philanthropic international donations, said: "The New Zealand Cricket Council have to understand his policy, maintained over the last 12 years, of keeping his name off title packages. "True philanthropists do not attach their name to the donations." Watt wants the academy to be named after former New Zealand Test star Bert Sutcliffe, who was voted one of Wisden's Cricketer of the year in 1950. Watt, has also supported cricket projects in South African townships among other causes, is due to attend a press conference at the Academy next Monday and an under-19 New Zealand v South Africa match.
Scores at a glance…
CARLTON SERIES
At Hobart
Zimbabwe: 279-6 in 50 overs (ADR Campbell 124, GJ Whittall 36, SV Carlisle 36, A Flower 51)
Australia: 282-4 in 44 overs (A Sydmonds 60, ME Waugh 102 not out, SR Waugh 79; BA Murphy 3-52)
Result: Australia won by six wickets and with six overs to spare.
Man of the match: ADR Campbell (Zim)
3rd Un-official Test (4th day & final 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) & 279-8 (N Peng 72, IR Bell 61, R Ferley 37 not out)
IndiaU-19: 492 (G Gambhir 65, V Mane 135, A Ratra 141, S Vidyut 38, M Dharmichand 33; J Bishop 5-64, R Ferley 3-139)
Result: Match Drawn (India win the three match Test series 1-0)
Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
