West Indies has claimed four Australian wickets for just twenty-nine runs late on day three to leave the Third Test hanging in the balance at the Adelaide Oval.Courtney Walsh (2/73), Nixon McLean (2/69), and Mervyn Dillon (2/84) each snared wickets in the final session to leave Australia at 9/409 before rain stoppedplay. The home team leads by twelve runs – with Damien Martyn (46*) and Glenn McGrath (1*) at the crease.The mini-collapse began seven overs into the final session, when Ricky Ponting’s fine innings came to an end an agonising eight runs short of his eighth Test century.After almost four hours, ninety-two runs, ten cracking boundaries and one life, the tourists finally removed the Australian vice-captain with a beautiful leg-cutter fromWalsh. The veteran paceman had the ball nipping in towards the batsman and Ponting duly edged it behind to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs. This was the third time inhis thirty-seven-Test career that the Tasmanian had been dismissed in the nineties.This brought Australia’s forty-first Test captain to the crease in front of an expectant audience eagerly awaiting the next chapter of this remarkable cricketer’s fairytale life. Having made eighty-one on debut and struck a match-winning 149* by the end of his fourth Test, Adam Gilchrist, as much as anyone, would have hopedfor another magical innings here today.His team was at the proverbial fork in the road – a good score from him could see it build a solid lead over the tourists and snuff them out of the game while a failurewould invite an even contest, dangerous in any situation, least of all against a desperate team suddenly revived by its greatest star.Unfortunately for Gilchrist and the Australians, the sparkling innings did not come today, McLean claiming the 29-year-old for just nine runs. Caught behindwhile trying to cut, Gilchrist was out for his fifth single-figure score in twelve Tests.Spinners Stuart MacGill (6) and Colin Miller (1) also failed to make any impact, with MacGill’s dismissal proving controversial. He was given out caught behind byUmpire Steve Davis; however, replays suggested the Dillon delivery may only have made contact with his helmet as he tried to evade the bouncer. Clearly unhappywith the decision, MacGill did not leave the ground immediately, and later clashed with Windies twelfth man Ramnaresh Sarwan on his way to the dressing room.At the other end and edging towards his sixth Test half-century, Martyn could only watch on as he ran out of partners. Having returned to the Test team for the firsttime after his bright performance in New Zealand earlier in the year, Martyn played a composed innings as wickets tumbled around him.The Western Australian shared in a valuable fifty-nine run partnership with Ponting earlier in the day, and brought up Australia’s four hundred with a lovely loftedboundary off McLean.In the second session, Mark Waugh’s delightful innings came to an end on sixty-three when he was trapped in front by Dillon. Playing in his 111th Test match,Waugh had struck six boundaries in his stay of more than three hours. He was only one of two Australian wickets to fall in the first two sessions, after nightwatchmanJason Gillespie (4) succumbed in the fifth over of the day.

Incoming chief executive for New Zealand Cricket Martin Snedden heads to London this week and into the biggest issue facing the world game, match-fixing.Not that he will be involved in any of the decision-making on the recommendations in Sir Paul Condon’s report. That is being left to the executive committee of the International Cricket Council where New Zealand will be represented by Sir John Anderson.Snedden will be meeting with other chief executives from around the cricket world on the first occasion he will have had to rub shoulders with them. Clearly, an early contact will be with Australia’s newly-appointed CEO James Sutherland.Snedden did say that he expected the Executive Board would decide on Condon’s recommendations and how many of them they could support.Condon provided a list of 24 but Snedden said that from what he understood the practical application of the recommendations had to be considered.And the Board would have to consider what could be put in place to prevent the same sort of thing happening in the future.”New Zealand Cricket will have to do something fairly promptly afterwards and implementing that will have to be one of my first priorities,” he said.Snedden, while not officially starting in his new role until July 30, said he is already spending half of his day on cricket matters which had two benefits. It allowed him time for the winding down of his role in his legal firm while it also allowed him to build up for his new role.On his immediate agenda in London will be matters relating to New Zealand’s staging of the Under-19 World Cup this summer and the full World Cup to be held in South Africa in February-March 2003.He also expected some discussion on the new one-day laws approved by the cricket committee although any disagreement would be largely irrelevant as the decisions of the committee were binding.Snedden may also be making some inquiries about the international players’ association that is slowly developing.He is an advocate of player representation, being a players’ advocate himself when playing in the 1980s, and he believes it would be a good idea if New Zealand’s players got something up and running in the same way as is done in other countries, most notably Australia.”I do believe in strong players’ representation. Any way that makes it easier to communicate the players’ point of view has got to be good.”It is good for the players to be organised. There are a lot of things that might be raised by players that would not be thought of by administrators,” he said.Snedden added that the Employment Relations Act favoured that sort of approach and there were different times when issues could be resolved when working sensibly with people.

When the national selectors appointed Sanath Jayasuriya as the Sri Lankancaptain ahead of senior players such as Aravinda de Silva, Roshan Mahanamaand Hashan Tillakratne, there were some who had reservations about thedecision. Today, however, nearly two years on, most of those critics willhave been even silenced.But if you ask the modest man from the coastal town of Matara whether heever dreamt of becoming the national captain, he’ll give you that familiarbroad smile and tell you modestly that he never dreamt of becoming thecaptain of his country; all what he wanted was to represent Sri Lanka at thehighest level.”You can dream to play for your country, but you can’t dream to become thecaptain,” said Jayasuriya. “You need a bit of luck. But I tell you, I neverdreamt of captaining the country.”Jayasuriya was handed the captaincy at a crucial stage. Sri Lanka playedpoorly in the 1999 World Cup in England and the selectors decided to sackArjuna Ranatunga, a hugely respected figure and the captain when Jayasuriyamade his international debut.Jayasuriya admits to feeling “a bit frightened” when he was first given thejob. “The question I asked myself was whether I can do this job,” hereveals. “I had played cricket at that time for about 10 years, but Arjunawas captaining for 14 years and lot of senior players were around that time.I was thinking about lot of things, but in the end I thought to myself: Ihave played enough international cricket and I can do this job.”Looking back at the two years since, Jayasuriya says: “The first year wasthe toughest. It was not easy because Sri Lankan cricket was in a bad shape:we had lost the World Cup and straight after that they had changed thecaptaincy.””When I got the job I asked the boys for their fullest support. I told them:’we have to play as a team’ and asked for their support since I had neverdone the job before. When the players support you it makes your work mucheasier.”Jayasuriya started off well by beating Australia, the world champions, in athree-match test series at home. He then went from strength-to-strength,beating both Zimbabwe and Pakistan away from home. Since then, however, SriLanka has not recorded a test series victory, losing to Pakistan and Englandat home and in South Africa.The side lost games from winning positions. Against South Africa and Englandthe side recorded innings victories in the first tests, both of which wereplayed in Galle, only for the tourists to bounce back in Kandy.Jayasuriya believes that the fault for this lies at the feet of the batsmen:”The batsman didn’t score enough runs. You need batsman to put a minimum of350 to 400 runs on the board. When they don’t it’s very difficult for thebowlers to bowl. Basically the batsman didn’t perform wellenough, although luck didn’t favour us much either.”However Jayasuriya’s side has performed admirably in the shorter version ofthe game. In the new captains very first assignment, the Aiwa Cup, Sri Lankadefeated India and the mighty Australians. They then defeated Zimbabwe andPakistan convincingly away from home, New Zealand away, England at home, andhave won three of their last four triangular tournaments. The only set backin the shorter version was the recent 5-1 thrashing by the hands of Proteasand an early exit from the ICC KnockOut last October.”If you take a look at our performances you can obviously see that we havedone well in one-day cricket,” he said. “But the team is keen to do well in testcricket as well and want to be a better team than we are at the moment. I amparticularly disappointed about the last test series against England, whichwe should have won easily.”Jayasuriya says he concentrates on each series as they come and feels prettyconfident about the 2003 World Cup, although historically Sri Lanka have notdone well on South African soil. He hopes certain recent moves by theInterim Committee will help his side to do better this time around.”We have planned few things: we are preparing fast practice tracks atPremadasa Stadium and we are also trying to bring down some experts likeBarry Richards, to get some tips. He has come here earlier, and I hope that will help us,” says Jayasuriya.He warns his critics to not write him off yet. The proud winner of the mostvaluable player award of the 1996 World Cup is looking forward to anotherchance to grab the limelight, this time as the leader.

Zimbabwe cricket did very well indeed at the annual Zimbabwe Sportsmen of the Year awards ceremony held last night. In front of guests of honour Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, Zimbabwe cricket picked up three of the five major awards. Andy Flower won the Sportman of the Year Award, the Zimbabwe cricket team Team of the Year award, and Mluleki Nklala Junior Sportsman of the Year award. Congratualtions to all on their fine acheivement.

Only the intervention of rain spared Nottinghamshire the embarrassment of losing inside three days to Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.When rain came there were two overs left and with Hampshire captain Robin Smith about to claim the extra half hour. At that stage Nottinghamshire were a wretched 113 for seven chasing a victory target of 491.Smith might even now be regretting his decision to bat on deep into the afternoon session before declaring his side’s second innings at 352 for eight.Derek Kenway scored a career-best 166 on a blameless wicket with a six and 26 fours as Hampshire built hungrily on their first innings lead of 138. Kenway batted for five hours before getting under a delivery from Richard Stemp to be caught at the wicket.Nottinghamshire had no answer to Kenway or to Neil Johnson who shared in a stand of 153 for the fourth wicket. Johnson, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Adrian Aymes all took advantage of a Nottinghamshire attack which appeared to be playing for the declaration.Any hopes Nottinghamshire supporters had of their side repeating the heroics against Worcestershire earlier this summer when they overhauled a target of 458 quickly disappeared.At nine for three and then 39 for five defeat became inevitable. Alan Mullally did much of the damage with figures of four for 48 but there was some indifferent batting and some great catching, not least by man-of-the-day Kenway in the slips to send back Kevin Pietersen.

Middlesex batsman Owais Shah, who made his debut for England this summer in the NatWest series, has beaten seven rivals to win the prestigious Cricket Writers’ Young Player of the Year award.Shah, who made five appearances for England in the one-day triangular tournament, will receive the trophy at an annual dinner in Londonon August 31.Yorkshire off-spinner Richard Dawson was also nominated as well as highly-ratedDurham batsman Nicky Peng and Essex pair Will Jefferson and wicket-keeper JamieFoster.Ian Bell of Warwickshire, Kent’s Robert Key and Ian Blackwell of Somersetwere also on the list of candidates. Players had to be under 23 on May 1and eligible for England to qualify for the award.

India’s surprise series leveling victory in Kandy has forced a radicalre-think by the Sri Lankan selectors, who are set to make three changes forthe crucial final Test in Colombo, as the home side looks to end a 16-monthspell without a series win, whilst India set their sights on their firstoverseas Test series triumph since 1993..Sri Lanka will retain the same formation of six batsmen, one all rounder andfour frontline bowlers, but will drop 34-year-old batsman HashanTillakaratne, fast bowling allrounder Suresh Perera and left arm pace bowlerRuchira Perera.Off spinning allrounder Thilan Samaraweera, who has captained Sri Lanka A inthree successive series, will make his debut alongside top order batsmanMichael Vandort, who scored a century for a Sri Lankan board XI in India’sonly warm-up game.Dulip Liyanage has been chosen in place of Ruchira Perera, surprisingly leftout of the final 14-man squad after two modest, but by no means poor,performances in Galle and Kandy. The 29-year-old Liyanage, however, whoplayed the last of his eight Tests way back in 1993/94 in Lucknow, has beenconsistently impressive in the practice nets and will also strengthen thelower order.Such wholesale changes after their seven-wicket defeat in the second Testcould easily be interpreted as a sign of panic, but, in fact, it’s probablymore an admission that the wrong side had been selected in Kandy.Suresh Perera looked short of confidence after being reported by umpireSteve Bucknor in Galle for having a suspect action and bowled just twelveovers in the game. With hindsight he should have been rested until thedoubts over his action had been eased.With the batting having been pinpointed as the primary reason for Sri Lanka’s defeat the 21-year-old Vandort was always likely to play in Colombo and isexpected to bat at number three, forcing Kumar Sangakkara to drop down tonumber five.The choice then came down to Tillakaratne and Samaraweera for the numberseven slot. Though an extra batsman would have been comforting, theselectors settled for the positive option of an allrounder, which gives themgreater options in the field, but does not significantly weaken the batting,as Samaraweera is renowned to be a tenacious and solid batter.Sanath Jayasuriya, speaking after the team’s final practice, called for histeam to play positive cricket: “We didn’t play well in Kandy, but that ishistory now. This is a fresh game and the team must think positively and notput themselves under pressure. The players must relax and enjoy themselves.”He, though, stressed once again that the batsmen have to show greaterresponsibility: “The batsmen are in good form, but they have been gettingout in the 30’s and 40’s. When we get set we have to go on to make a bigscore.”Coach Dav Whatmore pointed out that the failure of the batsmen in Kandyrevolved around the mental approach of the individuals concerned: “There isno technique problem. We have shown that we can score heavily. However, itseems to me that we can win by a large margin, but when it gets close, wefind it difficult. Sometimes we suffer from a rush of blood.””The players have to give 100 per cent and be totally committed,” he warned.”They must adopt that attitude that ‘everything depends on me’ not on anyoneelse.”India, initially disappointed by their boards refusal to send Ajit Agarkar,which was confirmed by the Indian captain today, may now be somewhatrelieved, as they are considering playing 28-year-old Bombay legspinnerSairaj Bahutule, as the fourth bowler in place of Harvinder Singh.India, it seems, believe that the ball will turn appreciably. Sourav Gangulycommented that: “This does not look to be the normal bouncy SSC wicket and Ithink it will turn by day three.”India are therefore expected to bat first if they win the toss. “We willhave a look in the morning and see how damp it is, but right now it lookslike a bat first wicket,” said Ganguly.The curator Ranil Abeynaike, though, was singing a different song, promisingplenty of “pace and bounce” throughout the game with the prospect of lateralmovement for the fast bowlers on day one.Jayasuriya also commented that there was more grass on the wicket than therehad been in the last game England, when the ball turned sideways, and heexpects there to be plenty of encouragement for the pace bowlers. Sri Lankaare expected to field first if they win the toss.Ganguly pointed out that: “The mood within the side is good, but there wasno chance of complacency after the Kandy Test. We just want play goodcricket here. If we play well and take it session by session then the resultshould take care of itself.”He defended the decision to retain Hemang Badani after three failures so farin the series: "Hemang deserves another opportunity. He is struggling a bitand not playing like he did in Zimbabwe, but it’s not right to drop abatsman after two games. Hemang has potential and maybe he will make a markin this Test."India have not won a Test series overseas since 1993 when MohammadAzharuddin’s side defeated Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club to win theseries 1-0. There have been two matches since between India and Sri Lanka atSSC, both of which have been drawn.

November 2001Sun 18-Mon 19 MCA President’s XI v England (2 days)Mumbai (Bombay)Thu 22-Sat 24 Board President’s XI v England (3 days)HyderabadTue 27-Thu 29 India ‘A’ v England (3 days)JaipurDecember 2001Mon 3-Fri 7 FIRST TEST MATCHIndia v EnglandMohali (Chandigarh)Tue 11-Sat 15 SECOND TEST MATCHIndia v EnglandAhmedabadWed 19-Sun 23 THIRD TEST MATCHIndia v EnglandBangaloreJanuary 2002Thu 17 1st practice One day matchMumbai (Bombay)Sat 19 (D/N) 2nd practice One day matchMumbai (Bombay)Tue 22 (D/N) FIRST ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL Chennai (Madras)Fri 25 (D/N) SECOND ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL Kolkata (Calcutta)Mon 28 THIRD ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL KanpurThu 31 FOURTH ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL New DelhiFebruary 2002Sun 3 (D/N) FIFTH ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL Mumbai (Bombay)N.B. D/N denotes day/night match

Kapil Dev Nikhanj just cannot keep away from the game.Despite teary avowals and firm pronouncements to never involvehimself in cricket again, Kapil Dev was seen at Delhi’sFerozeshah Kotla ground on Tuesday, addressing young hopefulsat a conditioning camp.”I never said I wouldn’t help a cricketer if he approachesme,” he said. “If I can teach cricket overseas, why wouldn’t Ido so in my own country?” he asked, referring to his visit toNorthern Ireland on behalf of the Laureus Sport for GoodFoundation.The former Indian coach, requested for help by left-arm seamerAshish Nehra, made some technical adjustments in his ward’saction on Saturday before reluctantly agreeing to appear atthe Kotla for another session. “I couldn’t have madesuggestions without watching him in action,” he said.That session never materialised as Kapil Dev’s time washijacked by the media, Bishan Singh Bedi, and a band of youngcricketers, all armed with questions for the great allrounder. Bedi, Kapil Dev’s first captain in internationalcricket, acted as spokesperson for the youngsters, phrasingtheir questions and explaining Kapil Dev’s answers.Bedi’s presence provided Kapil Dev with his most inspiringanecdotes and advice. Hard work, he said, was everything. “Wewere always told that Bedi used to bowl alone, at a singlewicket. We would wonder if the Sardar had gone mad. But thatwas the kind of commitment we all strove to achieve in ourplaying days,” said Kapil Dev.He also used Sunil Gavaskar’s example to demonstrate theenormous difference that can be made by supplementing skillwith sweat, citing that factor as instrumental in transformingGavaskar into a champion batsman. “If you begin to drinkalone, you come to be known as an alcoholic. But if youpractice alone, you become a champion,” said Kapil Dev,further illustrating his point.Technical advice also flowed freely. To the medium-pacersamong the youngsters in particular, Kapil Dev said “Learn tobowl to your strength and to your field.” He emphasised theimportance of fitness and off-season training, and thenpromptly proceeded to put words into action by bowling to afew of the young batsmen in the nets.Nehra, for the evening, was sidelined, but Kapil Dev enjoyedthe time spent at the Kotla. “How can I forget my roots? Itwould have been an insult to my association with the game if Ihad refused to help someone sort his problems out. I reaped somuch from this ground,” he said.Coaching may still stir his heart, but Kapil Dev no longerbears animosity for being forced out of his position of Indianteam coach. “I was bitter when I left the job,” he said. “Butnot now.”

It is not often that Barbados cricket selectors are praised.Especially from someone who was axed from the national teamwhile he was on a high.But these days, Stanton Proverbs has nothing but admirationfor the men responsible for picking the Barbados team. Andafter he became the first player this season to complete thecricketing double of 50 wickets and 500 runs in the 2001Courts/Suzuki Division 1 competition, the Police captain isinstead bemoaning the attitude of the youngsters.Proverbs has so far yielded 52 wickets from his off-spin and582 runs from his blade in ten matches.Nearing the end of his career for Barbados he produced ascintillating 112 as he led the charge for victory overTrinidad and Tobago, but ever since, he has been aspectator. However, he is far from bitter.The 33-year-old’s maturity and mode suggests that the moreolder you grow, the wiser you get, as he discussed thedifficult role selectors face because of impressiveperformances from senior players in Division 1 cricket,against some patchy periods from the younger brigade.Proverbs says that some young players need to reallychallenge the older ones for a play in the squad. He says itirks him when people cry down the Barbados CricketAssociation (BCA) for not developing cricket, or not doingenough to encourage young people into playing.I think the BCA is doing a lot. They have coaches spread outin the country. Good coaches, like George Linton, ThelstonPayne and those guys working with the youngsters at everylevel. So I think they are doing all they can.The problem to me is that the youngsters don’t seem to bededicated enough to the sport. We can’t blame the selectorsor the BCA, I think they are doing their part. Youngstersneed to understand that they can make a living out ofplaying cricket and once they are involved they have to keepworking at their fitness and continually working at theirgame.Proverbs, who also a superb volleyballer before embarking ona cricket career, has adopted a totally unselfish attitudeto playing cricket again for Barbados. Instead, he wants tobe part of a team that can in anyway help to develop andbuild the character of younger players.The way I see life is that people will give way to you andat times you have to give way to others. It’s never an easyjob for the selectors. I think they are trying to give theyoungsters an opportunity to come through and play for theWest Indies.But at the same time there are looking to give some of theguys who have played for the West Indies a second chance, soyou have to appreciate that it’s a difficult job to get theright mix and the right blend.Regardless of what they do, you have to support them.Whether you are outside or inside the team.There is another thing he remains passionate about on thecricket field. That is, his commitment to Police and thetime he is devoting to continuing his success.After all, 50 wickets and 500 runs don’t come easy.The achievement is one I would say was never beyond me. Forthe last couple of seasons I have been getting 38, 40wickets and scoring over 500 runs. Because of the coveredwickets I’ve had the opportunity to bowl a bit more thisseason.If you think Proverbs has achieved his goal, guess again.When you check the statistics by the end of this year, don’tbe surprised if you see Stanton Proverbs in the 700-runcolumn and 70-wicket club.After all, he’s already ahead of the pack.