West Indies’ women’s cricket team will arrive in Sri Lanka on January 18 nextyear for a 13-day tour.During their stay in Sri Lanka the Caribbean women will play a four-day TestMatch and three One-Day Internationals with the Sri Lankan women’s team.The West Indian side will play its only four-day match at the ColtsCricket Ground, Colombo from January 20-23 before travelling to Kandy forthe first of three One-Day Internationals at the Asgiriya Internationalcricket stadium on January 26.They’ll be back in Colombo for the second and the third one-dayers onJanuary 28 and 30 at the Colts Ground. They will travel to Pakistan after the tour.The Sri Lankan contingent is already hard at practice at the SinhaleseSports Club grounds. The pool of 20, coached by Vanessa Bowen, will bepruned to 14 by mid-November

Paul Collingwood, Matthew Hoggard and Jeremy Snape have been rewarded for impressive performances on England’s successful tour of Zimbabwe with places in England’s squad for the one-day tournaments in India and New Zealand in January and February. Owais Shah, who faced only two balls in his solitary appearance on the Zimbabwe trip, has also been retainedBut Mark Ramprakash, formerly Shah’s captain at Middlesex and now at Surrey, has been omitted. Ramprakash made 26, 6 not out, 47, 17 and 0 in Zimbabwe, while Shah was out without scoring in the fourth match.”I enjoyed the Zimbabwe tour but I don’t think I did myself justice,” Ramprakash told Sky Sports.”In the fourth and fifth matches I had an opportunity to make some runs and Ididn’t do that and we will just have to see how this squad goes.”I didn’t really know the way that Nasser and Duncan are thinking aboutthis. Owais is a very talented player and he had good innings against Australianand Pakistan over the summer and I was surprised he didn’t get more of anopportunity in Zimbabwe, but he might on the India trip.”I suppose they’ve gone for more of a balance with young players. They’ve seen what I can do and I think now they trying some younger players.”I’m disappointed not to be in the squad, but I wish the squad well and I hope they get some good results.”Yorkshire’s Michael Vaughan is in the squad as cover opener as well as middle-order batsman, while Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick return, along with Craig White, who had to withdraw from the Zimbabwe squad.Ramprakash, Paul Grayson, James Kirtley, Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwoodare the members of the Zimbabwe squad to be omitted.Warwickshire slow left armer Ashley Giles, who missed much of last season following an Achilles tendon operation, is back in the fold, while Gloucestershire’s Jeremy Snape, who made his international debut in Zimbabwe, is retained for the two-nation trip.

The Kwekwe first team had a home game against Harare Sports Club..Kwekwe batted first and started off on a very quiet note, and then thanks to some very good batting by Terry Duffin and Dave Houghton the innings ended on 281 for six. Incidentally Duffin retired hurt during the fifth over after being hit on the head by a bouncer from Brighton Watambwa, but returned in the seventeenth over and played some fantastic shots which included a six and 10 fours. Houghton showed his vast skill and experience by also playing superbly and using all the shots in the book by hitting a six and seven fours.The Kwekwe score card was as follows: Top batsmen being Duffin with 104 not out and Houghton with 65. The middle order also contributed well to the final score, Brendan Vaughan-Davies scoring 29, John Vaughan-Davies 22 and Colin Delport 23. There were two partnerships of note between Duffin and Delport (56 runs off 61 balls in 37 minutes) and Duffin and Houghton (98 runs off 76 balls in 52 minutes). The best bowlers for Harare Sports Club were Bryan Strang with two for 21 off six overs and N. Bala two for 31 off eight overs.Harare Sports Club then batted after lunch and with some very impressive batting from Eddo Brandes, Don Campbell, J. Cornford and Brendan Taylor finished with 286 for seven after 49 overs.Harare Sports Club score was as follows, the top batsman being the old stalwart Brandes with 86 not out consisting of 4 sixes and 6 fours. Campbell scored 40 comprising 1 six and 4 fours, while J. Cornford and B. Taylor scored 33 and 32 respectively. Best bowlers for Kwekwe were C. Macmillan with two for 45 and Dave Houghton two for 57, each from their allotted 10 overs.As you can see by the scores, it was a very close game that could have gone either way. A crowd of faithful supporters gathered at the Sports Club once again and did their utmost to ensure a Sports Club Victory as they cheered every run that was scored and also every boundary that was hit. Harare Sports Club came out on top of this very close and entertaining encounter winners by three wickets.The Kwekwe second team should have travelled to Bulawayo the same day to play against the B.A.C. second team but the match was unfortunately postponed on Friday due to a waterlogged outfield.Kwekwe Queens Sports Club travelled to Shamva and won a very good match, T. Mukadam being the best batsman and J. Moosa the best bowler.Once again I have nothing to report from Gweru.Next week-end will be free as far as Castle Lager Games go in Kwekwe, but a fun day has been organised for Saturday 17 November 2001 with the ZCU Administrators taking on the ZCU Sponsors. It should be a very entertaining day’s cricket no matter what happens. I will give you a full report next week.

United Cricket Board chief executive Gerald Majola has denied saying that the third Test match between South Africa and India will go ahead on Friday on the basis of assurances given him by Indian cricket officials.India have threatened to boycott the match if ICC match referee Mike Denness is not replaced after finding Indian batting star Sachin Tendulkar guilty of ball tampering as well as imposing a variety of sentences on five other Indian players for excessive appealing. The harshest punishment dealt out was a one-Test ban for Virender Sehwag which would have prevented him playing in the third Test.Frantic negotiations have taken place since Tuesday between South African and Indian officials and the ICC in an effort to ensure that the match goes ahead, but, speaking on Thursday morning, Majola said he had not yet been given any assurance by the Indian governing body that the match would be played.A report on the BBC website claims that Majola had said that the Indian board had given assurances that the match would proceed. Majola said he had not spoken to anyone from the BBC.

Two umpiring mates, Brent Bowden and Tony Hill, chatted about their Christmas-present wish-list during the Auckland-Central Districts State Championship match at Eden Park Outer Oval last week.Both said that top of the present list would be a free five-day pass as umpires to a New Zealand Test match against the touring Bangladesh side.Yesterday Brian Aldridge, the New Zealand Cricket umpiring manager, changed into a red suit, donned the white whiskers and with a ho-ho-ho granted both their wishes.Hill, from Papakura and a staunch Counties and Northern Districts man, will stand in the first Bangladesh-New Zealand Test at Hamilton starting on December 18, and Bowden will be umpire for the second Test at the Basin Reserve starting on December 26.This will be Hill’s first Test, and Bowden’s second – he stood in the New Zealand-Australia Test at Eden Park in early 2000.”Billy” Bowden was delighted to be back in the Test lists, and especially pleased that Hill had won his first Test, after six years an umpire and seven One-Day Internationals.”This is a fantastic thing for Tony, he has earned it and now he will have the special pleasure of starting his Test career on his home ND ground at Hamilton,” said Bowden.”It will be good to have a Test at Hamilton, with ‘Turk’ (John Turkington, the ND chief executive) and my Northern Districts mates there,” said Hill.”I realised that this is the last year under the present Test umpiring appointment system, and next year the International Cricket Councill will change the system,” said Hill, “so I was rather hopeful that I could get a Test before the new scheme comes in.”And now it comes as a nicely wrapped Christmas present.”Bowden and the touring Bangladeshis will get a preview of each other’s Test form when the tourists start a three-day game against a New Zealand District Association XI at Wanganui tomorrow. Bowden and Dave Quested will be the umpires, Hill and David Orchard (South Africa) will handle the first Test and Bowden and Daryl Harper (Australia) will stand in the second.Barry Jarman of Australia will be the ICC match referee for both Tests.Trevor Chappell, the Bangladesh coach, had his team training this afternoon soon after arriving in Wanganui, and said he had been delighted at the quality of practice facilities offered his team.He expected to name his playing team after inspecting the Victoria Park pitch. It will be a journey into the unknown for Chappell – he does not have any knowledge of the ability or the form of the District Association XI.Teams:Bangladesh (from): Khaled Mashud (captain), Habibul Bashar, Aminul Islam, Javed Omar, Mohammad Ashraful, Al Sahariar, Enamul Haque, Hasibul Hossain, Mohammad Sharif, Khaled Mahmud, Fahim Muntasir, Tushar Imran, Mashrafe Mortaza, Sanwar Hossain.New Zealand District Association XI: Peter McGlashan, Tim Anderson, Simon Andrews, Peter Fulton, Jaden Hatwell, Peter Ingram, Harley James, Taraia Robin, Grant Robinson, Neil Rushton, Greg Todd, Scott Baldwin (12th man).

The similarities between Wellington’s two State Shield wins at the Basin Reserve this weekend, which gave them two bonus points, 10 points in all, and hurled them to the top of the Shield table, were various and unmistakable.Twice they lost the toss and were forced to bat and twice, in difficult or unproductive conditions, they achieved moderate but defensible totals. Twice they batted with a rich mixture of luck and application, enthusiasm and recklessness to create, through that goulash, an innings of some substance and merit.Then twice and without bowling as well as either of their performances implies, they dismissed their opponents for piecemeal totals and were able to walk away, not only with victories which were as comprehensive as they were improbable, but with the bonus points which are the final arbiters of merit.Yesterday, they made 168 in 50 overs and dismissed Central for 58 in 86 minutes – the lowest score by any New Zealand one-day side in domestic competition against another. Today, they made 206/9 in a match shortened to 42 overs per side by rain, which delayed the start by 90 minutes, and they bowled out Northern for 127 to win by 79 runs in the 37th over.Their 206 was founded on the innings of captain Matthew Bell who made 65, who threaded together a necklace of small performances to form a greater and more valuable whole and who batted all but five of the overs of the innings.Bell left Wellington 164/5 when he was out in the 37th over and was able to see them add another 42 runs at a cost of four wickets in a helter-skelter chase over those last five overs.Just as their 168 against Central had seemed vulnerable on Saturday, till Central’s reply gave it context, Wellington’s 206 today seemed achievable for a Northern side with a reasonable retinue of batting talent. But once again Northern’s reply gave Wellington’s innings lustre and, particularly, reflected credit on the performance of Bell.He glued together Wellington’s innings in a series of small partnerships, the largest of which was his 51 with Chris Nevin and the largest contribution towards which was Nevin’s 28 in 63 minutes. He put on an additional 43 for the second wicket with Richard Jones, who made 14, and 37 with Matthew Walker, who survived him and made 25.There were then, in the final overs, the scattergun contributions of Walker, of Mayu Pasupati who made 14 from nine balls and Mark Jefferson who made 13. These added up to something valuable though no-one matched Bell’s steadiness and application. The innings was weakened by three run outs, including Bell’s which brought his innings to a wasteful finish, and which mirrored the three run outs which blighted their innings of Central Districts.Bell’s 167-minute stay at the crease was almost two hours longer than the residence of any other batsman and he survived exacting spells from Daryl Tuffey, Ian Butler and Joseph Yovich.Butler, who bowls with surprising pace, had disconcerted Jones with a bouncer which struck him through his visor in the first over he received and which left his face raw and puffy through the remainder of the day.The opening salvo of Northern’s reply to Wellington’s 206 made it seem in an instant to shrink in scale. Simon Doull, promoted to open with James Marshall, took two fours and a six among 18 runs from the over from James Franklin – helping himself to 16 – and sending a thrill of nervous anticipation down the backs of the Wellington’s fieldsman.But Doull’s assault was short-lived – a storm which blew itself out too soon. He was out in only the second over of the innings when Northern were 22, when he was 18, and the innings then began to sag into an unseemly mass.Franklin returned determined and revitalised and, after Mark Gillespie had removed Doull and Marshall, claimed two wickets of his own to leave Northern 42/4 when drinks were taken after 14 overs. They had been 34/1 after the seventh over but they added only eight more runs at the cost of the wickets of Marshall, Mark Bailey and Matthew Hart before drinks.Wickets fell at 34, 35 and 36 and by drinks Franklin had 2-25 from seven overs, having bowled six overs for seven runs, and Gillespie had an opening spell of 2-14 from six overs.Walker then cut down the Northern middle order, removing Hamish Marshall and Grant Bradburn, both for six, to leave them 48/5 and 53/6. There was an uncanny rider to the match in the fact five Northern batsmen were out for six.Wellington had Northern 59/8 after 25 overs and were ready to read the last rites over the innings but the corpse was not yet lifeless.Robbie Hart, Northern’s captain, matched Bell by drawing together some shreds of lower order resistance and making them an effective, though finally futile rearguard action.He stayed at the wicket for 70 minutes to record the innings’ top score of 40 and she shared partnerships of 28 in 28 minutes with Tuffey, who made 17, and 40 in 24 minutes with Butler who had a six among his 10 runs.From that 59/8 at the end of the 25th over, Northern resisted a further 12 overs – for more than an hour – and added 68 runs for their last two wickets. There were only nine boundaries in the innings – eight fours and a six – and five of those were taken among those resilient late partnerships.The match should long since have been over. Wellington should have administered the coup de grace before the 30th over. Instead the match wandered on amid gathering gloom till Hart was out, bowled by Walker, in the 37th over and shortly after 8pm.Walker finished with 3-13 from 6.4 overs to complete a fine all-round performance.

Nepal made no race of their ICC Under-19 World Cup Plate Championship match against Canada at Colin Maiden Park in Auckland today.Canada won the toss and batted first, but were rarely comfortable against the useful Nepal attack.Only Jonathan Roberts batted with any confidence while scoring 47 off 89 balls in the middle-order for Canada as they were dismissed for 102 after 46.4 overs.Nepal captain Binod Das took three for 13 off 8.4 overs while Basant Regmi took three for 10 off 10 overs.Yashwant Subedi led the Nepal chase for the target of 103, scoring 41 not out off 57 balls while Bardan Chalise was 32 not out when the winning runs were scored in the 23rd over to give Nepal a nine wicket win.

Being back at home after the rigours of touring Australia, and the especially tough schedule of the last two weeks of the VB Series would help New Zealand in their preparation for the start of the National Bank One-Day International series against England in Christchurch tomorrow.New Zealand have lost their last five games in a row, including both finals in Australia, but now find themselves up against an England side who won their last two matches in India.New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said being at home was a big factor in turning performances around.”We’ve been looking forward to playing at home for awhile. We’re looking forward to showing what we’ve learnt on our development process and playing at home is always special.”Our last month of competition against two very good sides has given us a good indication of where we are and what we need to do for the World Cup so I think in 12 months time we will be a very good side. We learnt some good lessons and have got to put them into place straight away,” he said.Fleming said New Zealand would not be taking England for granted despite their comparative lack of exposure to ODI cricket. The English comeback in India had shown the side’s fortitude and the New Zealanders respect that, and respect all the English players.”We respect all of the players. If you start picking out one or two you forget the other nine and get yourself into trouble. Our preparation is based on thoroughness,” he said.While the call-up of young Northern Districts tearaway Ian Butler was the result of the disappointing loss of Shane Bond to injury, if there is one captain in international cricket who is used to introducing new bowlers to the game, it is Fleming. He has made it an art form.Fleming has not seen Butler bowl in a match.”He has got pace. He is raw but that can be exciting and it is a great opportunity for the young lad and I think it is a positive step looking forward to 12 months time.”We are going to learn something about a young player who could have a role in the World Cup. His job is to provide the strike power we will miss with Shane Bond and from all accounts he can do that,” he said.The loss of Bond was a blow to the side especially after the impact he created among New Zealanders watching the Australian series on television.”He played extremely well in Australia and got good results. He, out of anyone, was looking forward to coming home and starting at home. From a team perspective we are going to miss him, and miss him massively, but we also look forward to an opportunity for another young player.”We might unleash another Shane Bond and that is an exciting prospect to have two young guys with genuine pace with the new ball for the next 12-18 months.”The selection, I think, is a positive move to keep our tactics in place. While it will be seen as a gamble, and it is a gamble, but it is one that is calculated in a way that we think this is the way to play one-day cricket in the future and it is perhaps an indication of the way the one-day game will be played in South Africa.”I’ll have to do a lot of work with him today. I will give him the guidelines and go through the plans quite extensively this afternoon.”It doesn’t really change much from what he has been doing. He’s there to bowl fast, to express himself and he’s there to have fun. While it is a pressure-cooker situation the only thing we can do is, and Chris Cairns will handle that, getting the mental side of things right.”Fleming said he was happy with Cairns’ fitness, especially after the back problems he had in Australia. But he said by the end of the tour Cairns was coming back to full fitness.”I think he’s relished the opportunity to slide in behind two opening bowlers. As his career evolves further, he probably sees that as a good opportunity to finish his career. It’s good for him, it’s good on his body so that is a win-win situation from my position.”The trend of the tournament had been been that opening partnerships were not very high. New Zealand were still developing information on which combination was going to best suit it.”It was a problem for us in Australia and this combination [Nathan Astle-Chris Nevin] is another attempt for us to get it right.”I’m finding myself more stimulated by the one-day game, there is more opportunity to take wickets and the bowlers feel they are always in with a chance,” Fleming said.

An unhappy day for South African cricket ended in shameful fashion with three spectators arrested for spitting and throwing beer at Australian batsmen, two of the home team’s most senior players off the field with injuries and the tourists nicely placed at 331 for five in their first innings at stumps on the first day of the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match at the Wanderers.Already up against it even before the match with captain Shaun Pollock and Justin Ontong ruled out of the game with injuries, South Africa’s resources were further depleted when Gary Kirsten had to be helped off the field after being struck near the right eye by a powerful Mark Waugh pull while fielding at short leg while champion fast bowler Allan Donald went down in a heap with a hamstring strain towards the end of the day.Of the two, Donald seems to be the more serious. Kirsten has a small cut under the eye and an impressive shiner, but if the swelling around his leading eye subsides, he should be able to bat. There are fears, though, that Donald may have made his last appearance in the series and even, given his advancing years, Test cricket altogether.A gloomy position for the home team became even more depressing after stumps with the announcement that three spectators had been charged with crimen injuria, one for spitting at Australian captain Steve Waugh as he left the field after making 32 and the other two for throwing beer at Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist as they left the field at stumps. The charges have been laid by the Australian team management.The disgust felt by the Australians at this treatment will have been eased a little by their position. With South Africa now a bowler down a total beyond 500 is entirely possible on the second day and with the pitch already deteriorating according to centurion Matthew Hayden South Africa will not relish the prospect of batting last against Shane Warne.Hayden was the day’s outstanding figure, taking advantage of a life before he had scored to score 122, his fourth century in as many Tests against the South Africans. He was dropped by Jacques Kallis at second slip off Makhaya Ntini in the second over of the day and made South Africa pay dearly for this lapse. "I thought I was blessed," said Hayden, a deeply religious man, afterwards.Blessed or not, the secular side of his innings consisted of a succession of powerfully struck shots. Two off drives off Andre Nel in the afternoon could not have been bettered by any left-hander in any age while his pair of sixes of Nicky Boje were picked up with disdainful ease.The Australians will probably feel that more of their batsmen should have build on solid starts. Justin Langer’s 28 was the lowest score of the dismissed batsmen, but only Hayden and Mark Waugh (53) went beyond 50. Both fell to catches down the leg side while Ricky Ponting was unfortunate to be given out caught at the wicket when he seemed to miss the ball altogether and Steve Waugh was brilliantly caught at backward point by Herschelle Gibbs off a full-blooded cut off Kallis.In truth the South African bowling and approach was very ordinary on a day when they might have hoped to break free of the shackles imposed on them by Australia in Australia. Before his injury Donald was disappoint, Kallis largely ineffective and only Ntini really approached anything like his potential.They were led, it must be said, by a stand-in captain in the absence of Pollock and it would probably be unfair to be too critical of Mark Boucher’s captaincy on his first day in the job. What was disappointing, though, was the apparent lack of planning by the home team and the sense that rather than having a clear idea of what they hoped to achieve, they were able only to react to Australia’s initiatives.If this is the case, it could be a very long series for the South Africans.

Otago produced an emphatic performance to beat Auckland by seven wickets, with 10 overs to spare, in their State Shield match at Molyneux Park in Alexandra today.It was a result welcomed by long-suffering Otago fans and made up for the disappointments of the first round loss to Wellington.Both the State Otago Volts and State Auckland Aces were coming off first round defeats in the competition.The crowd were treated to a good batting display by both sides but Otago scored at a much faster clip and so won the match with plenty of overs up their sleeves.Temperatures were close to 30 degrees during the match which saw Auckland win the toss and bat first. It scored a highly-competitive 246 for seven wickets.Aaron Barnes top scored with 50 while Rob Nicol scored 41, Mark Richardson 30 and at the end Craig Pryor, playing against his old team-mates, was 30 not out. Three other players got into the 20s to demonstrate the quality of the batting conditions on offer.It is however relevant to mention that this score could, and should, have bigger but unfortunately Auckland experienced periods of languid batting against some tight but not venomous bowling from Warren McSkimming, Jeff Wilson and Kerry Walmsley.Wilson took three for 42, McSkimming one for 39 and Walmsley one for 40, but Shayne O’Connor would have been disappointed with his two for 62 which was too expensive.Setting out to chase the 247 required for victory, Otago began at a fast clip with Mohammad Wasim looking all class as he followed his 70 against Wellington with a fine 51.Andrew Hore was his usual cavalier self and smashed a quick 32.But it was captain Craig Cumming with a fine knock for 75 off 74 balls with 12 fours and Robbie Lawson’s 63 not out also off 74 balls, that saw their side home to victory with overs and wickets in hand aplenty. Adding to Otago’s delight was the fact it gained a batting bonus point.Auckland, in desperation, used eight bowlers but no-one really looked likely to halt the Otago batsmen. Richard Morgan with two for 29 from seven overs looked best but leg-spinner Brooke Walker never seemed to gather any momentum and paid the price with none for 35 from his five overs. Tama Canning had none for 56 from his seven overs while Pryor had figures of none for 45 from 5.4 overs.The pick of the bowlers, a point which will not have gone unnoticed from the national selectors, was Andre Adams who bowled six overs for one for 28 while Matt Horne demonstrated his bowling prowess with five overs that cost 25 runs.Auckland joins Canterbury at the bottom of the State Shield ladder with no points while Otago are in third place. Otago meet Central Districts at Pukekura Park in their next match on January 2 while Auckland play Canterbury on the Outer Oval at Eden Park.