All posts by csb10.top

Somerset coach Kevin Shine has some early season injury headaches with Rob Turner still suffering from a persistent foot injury, Joe Tucker who has a stress fracture and had his left ankle put in plaster, and now Steffan Jones who injured his ankle before the start of play at Millfield today.Regarding Steffan Jones the coach told me: "Steffan suffered an ankle injury, but he should be fit to play in the first championship match of the season at Hove next week against Sussex."Earlier this evening wicket-keeper batsman Rob Turner the 2002 beneficiary, who has missed out of the early season friendlies told me: "Hopefully I should be fit to play in the one day friendly against Hampshire at Taunton on Wednesday."

Aftab Habib has received a reprimand under the ECB’s new discipline codefollowing an incident during Essex’s Frizzell County Championship DivisionTwo fixture with Glamorgan at Swansea on 5th July.Habib was reported by the umpires Mervyn Kitchen and Vanburn Holder for aLevel One breach of the new code (abuse of cricket ground, equipment orfixtures/fittings).The penalty remains in force for a period of 12 months. Any further Level 1breach will result in an automatic imposition of three penalty points.The ECB’s new discipline code came into force at the start of this season.

The XXXX Queensland Bulls will lend their support to another Queensland success story this cricket season following the recruitment of EMU sportswear as the team’s training and merchandise supplier for 2002-03.The Townsville-based company has reached an agreement to supply all Queensland Cricket elite teams with training apparel, as well produce a range of licensed supporters’ merchandise for retail.New Bulls coach Terry Oliver was pleased to welcome the company to the Bulls’ circle of support."The Bulls are a proud Queensland team and we’re delighted to have formed an association with another strong local product in the shape of EMU sportswear,” he said.EMU sportswear, a component of Fourex Clothing Pty Ltd, already offers ranges in Rugby League’s State of Origin, NRL and NBL and believes the new Bulls merchandise apparel will fit neatly in the summer market.Fourex Clothing Manager John Short said: "This move will have obvious advantages for both EMU Sportswear and the Bulls, enabling more regional Bulls fans to show their supporter colours."Short, whose family owns and operates Fourex Clothing, said: "Our family has always been cricket people and my brother David was in the Bulls squad the year they won for the first time"."This relationship is very exciting for my family and very important to our staff. The Bulls captain Jimmy Maher is a North Queenslander and I’d like to think all of Queensland, including the regional areas, can get behind their team."David Short was an off-spinner who played with Wynnum-Manly and Souths and was in the Bulls squad in 1993-94 and 1994-95.Fourex Clothing is based in Townsville with distribution channels throughout Australia, New Zealand, Japan and UK and currently employs 40 people. The company started out more then 30 years ago, manufacturing work and school wear.Emu provide apparel for the North Queensland Cowboys and are a licensed supplier of supporter-wear for all teams in the National Basketball League and the National Rugby League.In addition to being on sale through retail outlets throughout Queensland, the new range of Bulls supporters’ wear will be available through the Bulls e-store on bulls.com.au nearer to the start of the season.

Please find below the names of the Sri Lanka ‘A’ Team squad selected by the Natioanal Selectors.The Players listed below are requested to contact Mr. Hemantha Devapriya, the Natioanl Coach of the BCCSL with regard to practices on Mobile No. 0777-4188421. Tilan Samaraweera
2. Michael Van Dort
3. Naveen Nawaz
4. Jeevan Mendis
5. Prasanna Jayawardane
6. Charitha Sylvester
7. Avishka Gunawardena
8. Kaushal Lokuarachchi
9. Nisitha Rupasinghe
10. Tharanga Lakshitha
11. Sujeewa de Silva
12. Thilina Thushara
13. Chamila Gamage
14. Malinda Warnapura
15. Anushka Polonowita
16. Dilruwan Perera
17. Ian Daniel
18. N. Ranjith
19. Dilhara Lokuhettige
20. Kaushal Weeraratne
21. Charitha Buddhika

We meet again: After India’s premature exit at last year’s WorldCup, few would have thought Glenn McGrath and Sachin Tendulkar wouldmeet again on a cricket field. But at the Feroz Shah Kotla, it happened, andTendulkar said hello in the best possible fashion. A bit of width outsideoff stump, a small step forward and just a gentle push through the coversfor four. Almost perfect.One for the album: No matter how long or distinguished a career YoMahesh has, he’ll always remember this Saturday night. A delivery slanting intothe batsman’s pad, an awkward stroke across the line, and the leg stumpknocked back. Not an especially unusual dismissal, but when the batsman’sname is Tendulkar, no 20-year-old bowler is going to forget it.Sputnik Sweetheart: When Amit Mishra flighted one a little, SanathJayasuriya launched himself at it so violently that the ball went in toorbit, eventually landing on an elevated stage which had a DelhiDaredevils billboard behind it. Talk about hitting someone where it hurts.Oriental Shuffle: Is a Django Reinhardt classic, but not reallyrecommended when facing a bowler who knows your game better than most.Facing Ashish Nehra, a team-mate in the Indian and Delhi Ranji Trophyteams, Virender Sehwag went too far across in an attempt to play the cutshot down to fine leg. Leg stump out of the ground, fans silent andMumbai’s hideously dressed cheerleaders on their feet.Welcome to the IPL: When Gautam Gambhir cut him for four and sixover point, Andre Nel looked like he might burst a blood vessel. Evenbefore the second stroke had sailed over the rope, Nel was ineffing-and-blinding mode, and the adrenaline levels soared even higherthree balls later when he had Gambhir caught in the deep. At this rate, yogic deep breathing may be needed.Spoke too soon, son?: On Saturday, Robin Uthappa offered somepearls of wisdom on what it takes to succeed in one-day cricket. “Franklyspeaking, fielding plays a very integral part in ODIs these days,” he wasquoted as saying. “The younger legs make a huge difference.” After he madean embarrassing mess of a simple stop at cover off Jayasuriya, soon to be39, you could only hope that his team-mate hadn’t read it.

The Sri Lankan celebrations were short-lived last night with the cricketers aware that they only had 36 hours of recovery time before the final of the ICC Champions Trophy, a match that will require a new strategy against theirAsian neighbours India.Australia’s relative weakness against spin was brutally exposed by Sri Lanka’s five slow bowlers on Friday night, but India’s batsmen cannot be expected to capitulate so lamely. Their top seven is not only outrageously talentedbut also very experienced when it comes to playing on the slow, low, turning pitch that can be expected on Sunday night.Thus Sri Lanka are considering further changes, primarily the re-introduction of pace bowler Dilhara Fernando, who has a good record against the Indians having taken 12 wickets in seven matches at 21.91. His extra pace and well-disguised slower ball will provide Sanath Jayasuriya with extra attacking options.Fellow fast bowler Pulasthi Gunaratne appeared nervous in the semi-final but the management will hope that he learns from the experience of playing two matches in front of sell-out crowds. Although under-used on Friday, he cantake the new ball and offers options later in the innings. He is thus likely to be retained.The choice then comes down to whom to drop: leg-spinner Upul Chandana or off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena. Chandana offers extra variety considering that Aravinda de Silva and Russel Arnold can both bowl off-breaks, whilstDharmasena can bowl with a newish ball – potentially important when you are looking to control the likes of Virender Sehwag and company.Indeed, coach Dav Whatmore is concerned about the early overs: “India don’t have the firepower in the bowling department that Australia possess but they certainly have a similarly aggressive opening combination when they bat ­- we are going to have to pay a lot of attention to that.””They have Sehwag, Ganguly, Laxman, Tendulkar, Dravid… the list just goes on and on. We are going to have to be at the top of our game if we’re going to be successful. It’s going to be 100 overs of really hard work.”But Whatmore is confident that his side will rise to the occasion, like they have done during both the Pakistan and Australian games. He’s quick to point to India’s poor record in one-day finals.”They have a powerful batting line-up but as we saw the other night against Zimbabwe they can also lose early wickets,” he said.”In my experience the semi-finals are the hardest games,” he added. “In the finals anything can happen and it is all about holding your nerve. And, remember, India don’t have a particularly good record in finals in recent times.”Sri Lanka have won all three of their matches in the tournament easily, the disadvantage of which is that their lower middle order has yet to be tested. Indeed, number six Russel Arnold has only batted once and that was a gentle unbeaten 22 against the Netherlands.But Whatmore claimed to be unconcerned: “We are not worried about that. The wicket will be good and we know these conditions. The guys are in good form… it’s just that they have not had a chance to prove it.”Sri Lanka (From):Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Aravinda de Silva, Russel Arnold, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Chandana, Kumar Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Hasantha Fernando, DilharaFernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pulasthi Gunaratne.

England pulled off a convincing win over Sri Lanka in the NatWest Series opener at Trent Bridge. After losing four wickets in the first 19 overs, a blitzed fifty from Andrew Flintoff and an innings of 83 from Alec Stewart took them to a total that was beyond Sri Lanka’s reach. England eventually won by 44 runs, with the assistance of some brilliant catching.Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight started the innings brightly enough after what is becoming a habit for Nasser Hussain – winning the toss. They took the scoring rate above six an over. They were not alone, however, in getting set and then getting out.Knight was first to go, falling lbw to Nuwan Zoysa after an enterprising innings of 20 from just 18 balls. It was a good ball that undid him, whereas Trescothick’s shot was one that should only be seen in this form of the game, and then only when there are 300 on the board. Trying to drive straight, he did not hit straight through the line and the leading edge sent the ball over the covers where Kumar Sangakkara ran backwards to take a superb catch coming down over his head as he ran towards the boundary.Hussain and Graham Thorpe shared and enterprising half-century partnership, Thorpe greeting Dilhara Fernando into the attack with some rasping off-side strokes. They appeared untroubled until Hussain was beaten by some movement away from the bat as he stretched forward for the ball to just clip the top of off stump and, three balls later, Thorpe dragged a very wide ball down onto his wicket.It was left to Stewart and Ronnie Irani to try to rebuild the innings against, at this stage, a keen attack that was backed by some exciting fielding. The batsmen set about their task with some sensible batting that involved a minimum of risks but keeping the score ticking along. It is the essence of one-day cricket after the fall of early wickets.Stewart reached his fifty from 67 balls with five fours, while Ronnie Irani, perhaps conscious of the criticism surrounding his selection, played with extreme caution in that he only reached the boundary once in his innings. He was a little unfortunate in that, having restrained his natural tendencies for so long, he eventually allowed himself to have a go at the bowling of Russel Arnold. He lifted a ball out towards deep mid-wicket where Mahela Jayawardene was able to take the catch and balance within the boundary. The batsman was visibly annoyed with himself for falling in that manner after such hard work.The arrival of Flintoff galvanised Stewart into playing more expansive strokes while Flintoff himself was at his bullying best. He simply savaged the bowling as he brought up his fifty from 28 balls with five fours and two enormous sixes. It was hitting of the highest calibre and exactly what was required in the circumstances.It was impossible not to feel sympathy for the bowlers whose job, it seemed, was merely to deliver up the balls for him to hit. Length and direction made no difference, apart from the sector of the ground – or crowd – into which the ball was clubbed.Stewart made room to be bowled in the final over after an innings of immense value to his side. Paul Collingwood came in to strike what looks like a football formation – four, two, four from the three balls he faced and England should have been very satisfied with the eventual total of 293 for six.The Sri Lankan reply was just beginning to take shape when the first wicket fell. Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana were sizing up the opening attack of Matthew Hoggard and James Kirtley when Hoggard bowled something recognisable as a half-volley to the Sri Lankan captain who rarely looks twice at such offerings before hammering them away. This time he hit it slightly uppishly but with great power through the covers for Hussain to take off and hold a quite stunning catch at full length.Kaluwitharana was joined by Marvan Atapattu and this pair were going along nicely, unperturbed by the asking rate that they knew was well within the range of this batting line-up. However, when the total was nine runs short of the hundred, Atapattu drove Flintoff towards mid-off where Irani went low to his left to hold a very good two-handed catch.England were ringing the changes with their attack in an effort to prevent the batsmen settling against a particular bowler. But Kaluwitharana went serenely to his fifty from 61 balls with a six and five fours, and found a willing partner in Jayawardene so that, by the halfway point in their innings, Sri Lanka had 134 for two whereas England’s total at the same stage was 129 for four.It was at this point that Collingwood came into the attack with immediate effect. Kaluwitharana flicked him towards mid-wicket where Thorpe dived to his right to hold yet another outstanding catch. In his next over, Collingwood uprooted Jayawardene’s middle stump to claim the remarkable figures of two for four from his two overs.Arnold was as sound as ever, providing stability for the stroke makers around him, until he was run out in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Sangakkara drove Hoggard sweetly back down the pitch. Hoggard deflected it onto the stumps with his finger tips and Arnold was unable to re-make his ground.Flintoff came back into the attack to have Upul Chandana caught at mid-off and Naveed Nawaz taken off a mis-pull at mid-wicket and, with the required rate reaching a thoroughly unlikely figure, it was a question of going through the motions to the finish.Kirtley took a closer interest than most by bowling Vaas and Zoysa in consecutive balls, and then saw Fernando drag the next ball from outside off stump past leg. Even in these times of ultra-professionalism, when it was still just mathematically possible for Sri Lanka to win, it should have been possible to spare a few close-catchers for the hat-trick ball.There had been some doubt earlier whether the lights could be raised to their full height in a gusting wind, but it fell below the safety limit of 25 mph and so the lights could illuminate Sri Lanka denying Flintoff another wicket in the final over. They could not deny him the man-of-the-match award.

An unknown England line-up, and unknown Indian frame of mind and an unknown pitch quality make just a little difficult to predict the outcome of the third npower Test starting in Leeds tomorrow. However, Headingley has proved to be a happy hunting ground for England in recent years and with a win at Lord’s and the better of the draw at Trent Bridge, there is every indication that the home side might be able to force home their advantage to secure the series before going to The Oval for the final Test of a long summer.In the past, there has been little doubt about what to do about selection for a Headingley Test. Pack the side with seamers, pay close attention to the weather forecast and try to win the match while cloud cover makes the ball do extraordinary things on a pitch not noted for its good behaviour in such conditions. Those plans can sometimes go awry when the sun shines, the surface becomes totally benign and the ball races over a quick outfield to all parts. You do not often get boring cricket at Headingley.There is a suggestion that the square has been playing a bit differently this year and the old propensity for uneven bounce has been eliminated. Whether this new-found quality extends to the Test strip has yet to be discovered, as even chairman of selectors David Graveney admitted when announcing the 13-man squad.”Although we have talked to counties who have played at Headingley this summer, we don’t yet have an inkling as to what sort of surface has been prepared for this Test match. We will have to assess the wicket and think about what impact it will have on our selection.”There is growing speculation that left-arm spinner Ashley Giles might reverse the trend of recent history by being included in the final eleven. He was left out at Trent Bridge in favour of five seamers, leaving only the occasional off-spin of Michael Vaughan to exploit the turn that was evident in Nottingham. Giles can put a brake on scoring, especially on a ground where a little nudge against the quicker bowlers can and usually does result in four runs down the hill.Andrew Caddick will return to the side after injury and to the scene of his remarkable triumph against the West Indies two years ago when his four wickets in an over wrapped it all up in a couple of days. Matthew Hoggard will open the bowling, with Caddick, on his home ground but after that it all becomes a little problematical. Steve Harmison might be retained after a no more than promising debut at Trent Bridge. In the absence of the injured Craig White, Alex Tudor might be preferred for his extra batting potential as well as his bowling ability, while the hernia injury under which Andrew Flintoff is labouring could open the door for yet another chance for Dominic Cork.In the batting department, England are unlikely to make changes with another opportunity for Robert Key to open the batting with the in-form Vaughan, allowing Mark Butcher to bat at three on the ground where he played such a memorable match-winning innings against Australia last year. With Nasser Hussain at four, John Crawley at five, probably Flintoff at six and then Alec Stewart, there is a settled solidity. This all assumes that Flintoff is going to be fit enough to play, albeit as merely a batsman.Despite all the forecasts and fanfares for the Indian batting, it has not performed consistently as a cohesive unit in the series so far. Shiv Sunder Das did his chances of replacing Wasim Jaffer as an opener no harm with an innings of 250 against Essex in the last tour match at Chelmsford. Virender Sehwag got a substantial hundred in that match as well, but it will need the big guns of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman to all fire to give the captain a chance of manipulating his bowling resources to full effect.That is another area for interesting speculation. If Anil Kumble is fit, will he come into the side to partner Harbhajan Singh? Or to replace him? Will India give a chance to Tinu Yohannan? Might he replace Ashish Nehra or supplement him? Will Ajit Agarkar’s batting insulate him from the axe that his bowling might have attracted? And while we are asking questions that time alone will answer, did young Parthiv Patel do enough at Trent Bridge to retain the wicket-keeping spot in front of fit again Ajay Ratra?There is another question mark lurking around the Indian dressing room. That comes in the form of the distraction from the job in hand that might have resulted from the ongoing contracts row concerning the ICC Champions Trophy tournament and then the World Cup. The players have expressed the view that they are unable to agree to the terms of the contracts and therefore could drop out of the Indian squad for the tournament. Other sides, including England, are involved, but the focus of attention has centred on the Indians.They will, of course, vehemently deny that this sideshow has any bearing on their preparations for the Test. However, these are intelligent men who will have realised that what they are talking about here is the possibility of a serious breach in the unity of world cricket. It would be asking a lot of them to be able to put it all to the back of their minds and, one-nil down and a long way from home at the end of an arduous tour, simply concentrate on preparing for a crucial Test.

BRISBANE, Nov 16 AAP – Defending champion Queensland flexed its Pura Cup muscle today while Test paceman Andy Bichel showed off his bowling brawn as the Bulls scored a five wicket win over Tasmania at the Gabba.Bichel, who is vying with NSW speedster Brett Lee for a starting spot in the second Ashes Test against England starting in Adelaide on Thursday, finished with match figures of 9-92, including a second innings haul of 5-46.The Bulls, who reached 5-116 chasing a modest 113, took less than three days to repeat last year’s Pura Cup final win over the Tigers, giving long-serving bowler Michael Kasprowicz a memorable victory in his first game as captain.Queensland was missing five regulars for the match – captain Jimmy Maher, specialist No.3 bat Martin Love and bowlers Ashley Noffke and Nathan Hauritz, who played for Australia A in Hobart.Opening batsman Matthew Hayden was rested with a foot injury.The Bulls had a few anxious moments when they stumbled to 4-67 today, chasing 113 in humid and showery conditions which favoured the bowlers in every session.But allrounder Andrew Symonds steadied the ship with 38 not out to see Queensland home.Earlier the home side knocked over Tasmania for 159, the visitors again suffering a post lunch collapse by losing five wickets for 28.It was a similar scenario on the first day when the Tigers coasted to 0-98 before losing 6-57 in the session between lunch and tea.Allrounder Shane Watson (57) and the versatile Scott Kremerskothen (39) provided some resistance to Bichel and Kasprowicz after the Tigers had collapsed to be 4-9 yesterday afternoon.But when Kremerskothen provided Bulls keeper Wade Seccombe with his 400th first class catch with the total at 126, the fightback petered out with Sean Clingeleffer (1) and Damien Wright (0) both following in quick succession.Kasprowicz joined Jeff Thomson as Queensland’s second most successful domestic bowler behind Carl Rackemann (383 wickets) when he had Clingeleffer caught behind and then moved past the former Bulls captain when Wright became his 329th victim.Kasprowicz rated the win highly, given Queensland’s missing personnel.”I think the fact that we had five of our full strength players not playing was very pleasing,” he said.”We are always backing ourselves and that is one of the strengths of our side.”National one day captain Ricky Ponting, who was dismissed cheaply in both innings for the Tigers, said his side would have to lift significantly in the batting department to register its first win of the competition this season.The Bulls’ win lifted then to third on the Pura Cup ladder.

Bangladesh Biman mangled Young Pegasus, the weakest among the teams in Super Six, by a massive margin of 102 runs in a low scoring one-sided match of GrameenPhone Premier League held in Fotullah Stadium today. Responding to Biman’s meager 168, Pegasus were bundled out for 66, so far their lowest total in this tournament.Biman embarked on with the loss of two openers early, but came back into the game with a partnership built by Imran Farhat and Aminul Islam. Farhat scored a blitzing 50 off 49 balls that had six fours and a couple of sixes in it, while Aminul Islam made 33.Hasanuzzaman, another notable scorer, contributed with a sturdy 34 off 55 balls, but a horrible collapse in the tail restricted Biman’s progress, as they had to content with 168 all out in 42.1 overs. Kamrul Hasan Jhoney pulled off with a haul of 4 wickets for Pegasus giving away 23 runs.Al-Amin, the medium pacer, mauled the Pegasus top order by removing three batsmen early. To add insult to injury, Anisur Rahman, Imran Farhat and skipper Khaled Mahmud battered the rest of the order within a very short time. They all claimed two wickets each while Pegasus were wrapped up with the total on 66. Faisal Hossain (13) was the leading scorer for the club and turned out to be the only man to reach the double figure.There was no question on Imran Farhat’s being the man-of-the-match for his all round performance (50 runs & 2 wickets).