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Derbyshire v Glamorgan at Derby
Derbyshire retained their second place despite having lost their first game of the season Derbyshire will be delighted if they are able to field their captain and leading wicket taker Dominic Cork for this game, his absence might have cost them win number four earlier in the week. Corks supporting cast of bowlers though have all been in the wickets in the early season and will be seeking to repeat the earlier success. Leading batsman Michael Di Venuto will be hoping to continue his form.Glamorgan for their part have succeeded in securing two victories in their four games despite a severe shortage of first innings runs, opening bowlers Thomas and Jones have been their most effective weapons while only Powell and James have achieved any kind of consistency with the bat. Importantly though their lesser batsmen do not roll over.A superior pace attack and greater batting consistency than their visitors make Derbyshire favourites to repeat their round one away victory over the welsh county.Gloucestershire v Worcestershire at Bristol
Just one point separates these sides in fourth and fifth, but they have gained them in different ways, Gloucestershire lead with the ball and Worcester with the bat – but, that said, it is Worcestershire who have lost two of their four games coming into this west country derby. Those defeats – in their last two games – may have shaken the side who won against the same opposition earlier in the summer.Graham Hick and Gareth Batty have failed, thus far in the season, to produce the runs that would be expected of them for Worcestershire, but, the collapse against John Stephenson of Essex aside the team have batted solidly to date – if these two can contribute more they can post a big total and do so swiftly.For Gloucestershire it has always been the way that the bits and pieces players, such as skipper Mark Alleyne and the wonderful Jack Russell contribute that has been the key, this has made them a highly successful one day side, but an erratic first class one. If Harvey and Lewis can apply pressure with the ball the home team could prosper, but as both of these sides can get both their runs and their wickets from various sources, and local pride is at stake it is hard pick a winner.Middlesex v Durham at Lord’s
Thanks to Derbyshire’s defeat in grey of Chelmsford earlier in the week Middlesex bring the championship’s only perfect record to this game. They will be expected to continue it against a Durham side that they totally outclassed at the Riverside in April, although, to be fair Durham had poor luck losing two players injured in that game.Although Middlesex’s batsmen have scored comparatively few runs this has not been down to the low cost of their wickets, but to the cheapness with which Noffke, Cooke and their supporting cast have claimed those of their opponents on the way to on ten wicket and two innings victories.Durham’s hopes lie in the improved grit shown by their own batting in the twelve-point draw, and near victory at riverside against Gloucestershire. In their 470 for 8 declared everyone fought for their runs and if that lesson remains learned then they will be far less easy meat than in the opening game of the seasonNorthamptonshire v Essex at Northampton
Both of these sides’ batsmen will welcome the opportunity to play on the placid surface at Northampton having faced some bowler friendly conditions in their last matches. It seems certain that Ronnie Irani’s side come into this game as favourites having pulled off their second win of the season. Irani’s performance was, as in so many of Essex’s better results in recent years the key to victory, however the lack of pace in their bowling attack could seriously hamper chances on this ground.That said though, the dependence of Northants on runs from Hussey and Loye means the home side cannot rest easily. They will, though, be please with the form of Tony Penberthy Essex lad Adrian Rollins showed scoring 106 and 60 in the defeat at Nottingham. There is also an unknown in the potential greeting that Essex may receive from Ricky Anderson who left that county at the end of last season, leading wicket taker Carl Greenidge will also pose a threat.

P   W  L  D  Bat Bowl Deduct PointsMiddlesex                 3   3  0  0  13    9   0.00   58.00Derbyshire                4   3  1  0   8   12   0.25   55.75Essex                     4   2  1  1   8   12   0.50   47.50Gloucestershire           4   1  1  2   9   11   0.00   40.00Worcestershire            4   1  2  1  14    9   0.00   39.00Nottinghamshire           4   2  2  0   2   12   0.50   37.50Glamorgan                 3   2  1  0   3    9   0.00   36.00Durham                    4   0  3  1   7   12   0.00   23.00Northamptonshire          4   0  3  1   9    9   0.50   21.50

The Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) is pleased to announce that Noel Knight has today been appointed full-time Assistant Coach of the Western Warriors for three years.Last season Knight was Western Warriors Assistant Coach on a part-time basis, having been appointed after the position became vacant following Geoff Marsh s appointment as Zimbabwe National Coach.The Western Warriors Assistant Coach s position was up-graded from part-time to full-time in order to maintain pace with the increasing demands placed on the modern game across all levels.As well as providing invaluable support to current Warriors Coach Michael Veletta, Knight s duties will also include;

• Coaching WA A in the ACB Cup
• Working with Coaches from U/17 to Warriors level
• Liaising with WACA Club Coaches to assist in the development and implementation of talent identification programs

Knight has forged an enviable record at WACA 1st Grade level (Sunsmart league) over the past decade.Most recently Knight has taken Subiaco-Floreat to Back2Back 1st Grade Premierships, after winning titles with Scarborough (1994/95) and Bayswater Morley (1998/99).As an indication of his ability to achieve broad levels of success, Knight has also coached each of his clubs to win the WACA Club Championship award, including Back2Back at Subiaco-Floreat from the past two seasons.

Leicestershire, having been put in to bat, made good progress as openers Robert Cunliffe and Ian Flanagan put on 162 for the first wicket off 34 overs.Richard Howitt applied the brakes , taking 3 quick wickets which helped to restrict the home side to 245.MCCA made a slow start to their innings against some accurate seam bowling. The tempo increased when Richard Howitt came to the crease. He batted in assured style scoring an excellent 85 and in partnerships with Andrew Hall (21) and wicketkeeper Nick Wilton (33) kept the Minors in the hunt. When Howitt sliced a drive to cover and Wilton was run out the target proved just beyond reach.

KARACHI, July 7: Former captain Javed Miandad has declined to take up a 15-day assignment at the regional academies. “I received a letter last week but I have conveyed that I am not free. I have pressing domestic commitments,” Javed said.Javed was `directed’ by Ramiz Raja to give batting tips to youngsters at Muridke (July 15 to 22) and Rawalpindi (July 22 to 29) for which he would be paid Rs50,000 weekly.”It is not that I think I have been offered nothing as compared to my stature. Its simple that I am not free,” Javed said. He added: “Before offering the job, the PCB should have first sought my availability.”Zaheer Abbas and Hanif Mohammad have been offered identical assignments by the PCB. Zaheer will take over the regional academy at Peshawar while Hanif will take charge at Karachi from Monday.Ironically, Englishman Geoffrey Boycott last year was hired for 15 days at 30,000 pounds sterling at 2,000 pounds sterling a day.The deal was negotiated by Ramiz Raja who now is trying to save PCB funds by getting Pakistan legends Miandad and Hanif who were far better cricketers than Boycott at a throw-away price.

During the premier league match between Jinnah CC andHermes DVS on Sunday, 18th August 2002 serious riotsoccured, which where reported upon extensively in variousmedia.In response to these events, the KNCB board arrangedan urgent meeting, to form an opinion on theincident and backgrounds, and to take the requiredmeasures.After careful deliberation the board took the followingmeasures:1. Jinnah CC is expelled from KNCB membership forthwith.2. Jinnah CC is fined the maximum fine of EUR 150 forabandoning the match.3. The board will deduct two match points for Jinnah.4. The board declares the match Jinnah CC – Hermes DVSto be assumed to be won by Hermes DVS and lost byJinnah.5. As a result of the decision taken in 1. the finalpremier league match between Jinnah and VRA, originallyscheduled for Sunday, 25th August, will be cancelled.Also, all remaining matches of Jinnah 2nd XI will becancelled.6. As a result of the expulsion of Jinnah CC, and theconsequent removal of Jinnah CC from the premier league,no team will relegate to the first division this season.The first division champion will, as usual, play in thepremier league next season.7. The board will put charges against individual Jinnah CCmembers before the judicial committee.The KNCB board is fully aware that a heavy penalty isimposed on the club and is saddened that such a penaltywill also harm good willed members of Jinnah CC.But the seriousness of the incidents and the fact thatthe sport of cricket in the Netherlands has been discredited,made the board feel decisive actions were required, andeverything possible should be done to make clear that recurrenceof these excesses in Dutch cricket will not be tolerated.Amstelveen, 20 August 2002

Tomorrow an estimated nine thousand Somerset supporters will converge on Lord’s Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood, North London in a show of loyal support for their beloved Cidermen.They will travel by coach, by car and by train, and the demand for travel from the west country has been so great that coaches have been brought out of mothballs to make the trip up the M4,and Great Western Trains have laid on extra services to cope.Queuing up to walk through the Grace Gates and enter into the headquarters of the English summer game will be just like being in Taunton market on Saturday morning, there will be so many familiar faces and voices all around.This year there seems to have been even more interest in the final, and Somerset’s allocation of just 4500 tickets were all sold in the space of just a few days and almost as many fans again will have got their tickets direct from Lord’s.Despite Somerset’s disappointing form in other competitions they have played their hearts out in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, and after the breathtaking semi final at Taunton when they snatched victory from defeat, you almost wonder whether the name of Somerset isn’t already engraved on the cup for 2002.Over the years a visit to Lord’s for a Somerset final has been the highlight of many supporters summers, and those who made the trip on September 1st 2001 were left with a lasting memory as the Cidermen ended their eighteen year trophy famine with a comfortable victory over Leicestershire to win the first ever Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.The occasion was made doubly memorable for those who follow the winter game when England trounced Germany 5-0 in the World Cup qualifier later on that same evening.I was reminded recently of a `good samaritan’ story from the first final in 1967 that will be jog a few memories for the parties who were involved.During the match a fair amount of bonhomie had taken place involving no doubt the consumption of large amounts of local cider that had been transported to Lord’s in wooden barrels, which I suspect would not be allowed inside the ground nowadays.After the match had finished a group of well meaning Somerset supporters discovered a fellow west countryman who had over indulged and who was blissfully unaware of what was going on anymore, so decided to take him into their care.The well meaning Somerset supporters searched the fellows jacket pockets to ascertain where he came from and discovered that he was from Taunton, so lifted him gently onto their coach and gave him a lift back to his home town.During the journey the involuntary passenger slept like a baby, but woke with a start when the coach pulled up in Taunton.Far from being grateful for their act of kindness, the extra passenger told his fellow travellers that he would be in deep trouble and that he had to make his way back to London as soon as possible because he was on his honeymoon and his new wife would be far from happy to discover that he was missing!I wonder if that involuntary passenger of thirty five years ago managed to get back to London without landing in too much trouble, and whether or not he will be making the return journey tomorrow!

Somerset have confirmed that young fast bowler Joe Tucker will not be given a first class playing contract for next season because at the moment he is suffering from a recurrence of a major back injury which has rendered him unfit to play first class cricket.Mr Anderson told me that the club is going to continue to support the twenty three year old with the cost of his rehabilitation programme even though nobody knows whether or not he will ever be fit enough to resume his first class playing career.What the former England Under 19 player hopes to do when he has recovered is to go back in the leagues and if his fitness and performance warrants it he will try to play Somerset Second XI cricket to see how it goes.Regarding Joe Tucker the Somerset chief executive told me: "We have a duty to ensure that our players leaving the game do so relatively injury free. It is right and proper that we help a young player like Joe in the way that we are."

Adam Sanford isn’t exactly your typically menacing fast bowler.He doesn’t have the build of a Wes Hall, the speed of a Malcolm Marshall, the swing of an Imran Khan or the accuracy of a Curtly Ambrose.But the Dominica-born Sanford has surely brought something refreshing to the local club scene.The first ever Carib descendant to represent the West Indies, Sanford, now a resident of Antigua, made his Division 1 debut for ICB Empire last weekend and wasted no time in making an impact.His opening day performance on Saturday was up and down, but he created a stir on Sunday evening with a six-wicket second innings haul in the local derby against Big B Spartan.Presented with the usual tinge of green at the Bank Hall ground, he generated discomforting bounce that undid Spartan batsmen without much of a fight.It created a buzz around the ground, but Sanford admitted that he wasn’t even at full stretch."I am still rusty. I haven’t been playing cricket for some time. I am trying to get back into it and things just worked out," he told .In this case, he heaped praise on some of his teammates who hauled in catches close to the wicket that were offered by batsmen who could not handle him.The only Spartan batsman who showed any resistance was gutsy 16-year-old Kevin Stoute, who batted solidly for a courageous, unbeaten 33."It was built on teamwork. At the end of the day, the players helped me out by taking the catches," Sanford said.His display on Sunday was in sharp contrast to his opening spell the previous day when he conceded 27 runs from his first five overs.He came back in later spells to tidy up and took three wickets. "My last game before this was in the Red Stripe Bowl [in September]," he said. "When I was home, I did a little practice, but nothing too serious. The muscles were tight and I was trying to get loose."The Bank Hall pitch had its usual grass, but Sanford said it wasn’t exactly a fast bowler’s delight. "In the first innings, the wicket was a bit soft. There was moisture in it, but when you hit the ball on the deck, it wasn’t doing much. "It was seaming a bit, but there was no extra pace on the Saturday morning. During the afternoon, it was picking up."After his exploits on Sunday evening, Sanford rushed off to the "hot pot" at the Brighton beach. "It’s a very good way to cool down," he said. "There were some aches and pains in the muscles and I wanted to go there and cool down. I spent about 20 minutes."Sanford was prompted to come to Barbados mainly to regain fitness because of a lack of serious activity in Antigua and the opportunity was created for him by Barbados Cricket Association board member Bobby Goodman. His ultimate aim is to regain the place he earned in the West Indies team after missing out on selection for the current tour of India."I was rather disappointed, but there is nothing I can do about it. It has happened. It is life. I didn’t do enough to impress the selectors. Next time around, I’ve got to work on certain areas of my game and hopefully I’ll get recalled," he said.His progress this year was rapid. Prior to this season, he had played just a solitary first-class match for the Windward Islands, but got the opportunity to represent the Leeward Islands after impressive performances for Antigua, where he is a policeman. During this year’s Busta Series, he claimed 41 wickets – the most by a fast bowler – and followed up with 20 wickets in the seven Test matches against India and New Zealand.

Every time the rain-gods put in a little overtime, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis are invoked for their system of modifying the parameters of the one-day international to get past the interruption. But the Duckworth-Lewis rules are applicable for more than just rain-breaks; any interruption, however bizarre, falls under their purview. Indeed, if a giant foot were to descend Python-like onto the playing area, it would be Duckworth and Lewis, rather than Terry Gilliam, who would be called in to decide how the match would change because of all the rough created by the footmark.The application of the Duckworth-Lewis method to crowd trouble, however, as was done during the recent Rajkot one-dayer between India and the West Indies, sets a dicey precedent. The arguments for it, of course, will cite it as just another interruption – which, technically, it is – and point out that a system already exists for exactly such an eventuality, so why not use it?But when the rules were drawn up, neither Duckworth nor Lewis could have had serious crowd trouble in mind, for it differs from other interruptions in that it is of a man-made nature and should therefore be controllable. More importantly, the crowd trouble often stems directly from events on the field, and in such a scenario, one has to look beyond merely awarding the match to the team ahead.The nub of the problem lies in identification. In the packed stadiums that are the norm in India, it is incredibly difficult – even by freeze-framing closed-circuit camera feed – to point out a single bottle-thrower. To make matters worse, a natural desire to avoid getting enmeshed in the bureaucracies of the law leads to an obdurately uncooperative crowd, and under these constraints the onus then shifts onto the authorities to avoid the incidents, rather than merely identify and punish the culprits.The one sure way – beyond nets, tightened security and closed-circuit cameras – to deter the crowd is to demonstrate that drastic consequences will ensue, and little could be more drastic than awarding the match to the visiting team. They may or may not deserve it, but setting an example is, in the larger interests of the game, much more important.Admittedly, it is hard on the hosts if they are dominating the game at that stage, and sympathies will undoubtedly lie with them. At Rajkot, for example, with India almost cantering to a win and Virender Sehwag on fire, only the most hard-hearted could have failed to feel sorry for them if the match had been awarded to the West Indies. But keeping the bigger picture in mind, it must be done; the reward – a crowd that understands that it could cost its side the game, rather than merely end it sooner – is well worth it.Dissenters also contend that such a policy sets up a situation whereby tourists from abroad could create a ruckus to see the match ceded to their side. It is a less probable evil; not only are tourists extremely wary of falling afoul of the law outside their own country, but they are marginally easier to pick out in a crowd, if only by giant kangaroos, Union Jacks or other such paraphernalia.Rajkot happened in part because no firm action was taken at either Jamshedpur or Nagpur. There was no precedent set; that must not occur again. Once an example is made of such a case – and once it has been made clear that firm action will be taken unhesitatingly – we may not have to look beyond one such match to ensure that Rajkot – or Jamshedpur or Nagpur, for that matter – does not recur.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 ticketing computer is currently busyprocessing applications for individual match tickets on the Ticket Windowrandom draw system.The Ticket Window was open between October 8-November 22, during which thepublic was invited to make application for 100 000 tickets available forindividual CWC matches.The computer is now randomly drawing applications and the process is beingmonitored by auditors Deloitte & Touche.Towards the end of next week, applicants will be contacted via email toinform them of their success or otherwise.No tickets will be on sale to anyone other than those who are notified oftheir success in the Ticket Window.Successful applicants will be sent a Transaction Reference number and maythen purchase their tickets through any of the following mechanisms:

The ICC CWC 2003 Website: www.cricketworldcup.com.

The ICC CWC 2003 Call Centre – 083 123 2003 (International +27 83 123 2003).

Any of the ICC CWC 2003 Stadiums in South Africa.The recommended method of purchasing the tickets is either through thewebsite or the call centre. Payment can be made by credit card, and ticketswill be delivered to the physical address specified by the applicant, freeof charge anywhere in South Africa.A delivery charge of R120 is levied for international deliveries.Successful applicants may choose to collect their tickets at any of theStadiums, but must take their Transaction Reference number and ID documentor passport along when doing so.If successful applicants contact the the call centre or go to any of thestadiums, they must have their ID or passport ready.Tickets must be purchased on or before 10 January 2003, otherwise thereservation will be released.