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The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the following two teams to participate in trial matches being held at Anzac Park, Lindisfarne on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September 2002.Ramshaw’s team: Sean Clingeleffer, Luke Williams, Graeme Cunningham, Daniel Marsh, T Scott, Dane Anderson, Shannon Tubb, David Saker, Gerard Denton, Adam Griffith, Matthew Pascoe.McFadyen’s team: Michael Dighton, Scott Mason, Brett Thomas, George Bailey, Adam Polkinghorne, Shane McDermott, Brett Geeves, Xaver Doherty, Shane Jurgensen, Andrew Downton.The matches will be one-day fixtures and the hours of play are:

Friday 13th September 2002 11.30pm – 5.00pm
Saturday 14th September 2002 11.30am – 5.00pm
Sunday 15th September 2002 11.30am – 5.00pm

This will be the first opportunity for the media to see, in action, members of the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers including new recruit Luke Williams.Scott Kremerskothen, Ben Oliver and Ben Hilfenhaus are unavailable, recovering from injury, while, Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Luke Butterworth, Dene Hills, Chris Bassano, Jamie Cox, Michael DiVenuto and Damien Wright are all still overseas, in England or representing Australia.Captaincy will be shared over the three days with six players taking this responsibility.These matches take place following a successful seven-day game and development camp in Sydney. The Cascade Tasmanian Tigers played two One-Day games against New Zealand and a twoday game against New South Wales as well as a series of conditioning, recovery, fielding and net sessions.On the playing side of the trip, much was gained by the squad during the three games. Luke Williams, Graeme Cunningham and Michael Dighton all scored centuries whilst other batsmen displayed some excellent form.With the ball, Gerard Denton bowled with good pace and looks to be in career best form, following a spate of injuries. David Saker and Shane Jurgensen impressed with their control and rhythm while spinners Tubb and Doherty lived up to their reputations as two of the highest ranked young spinners in the country.Cascade Tasmanian Tigers Coach, Brian McFadyen said: "The outstanding development was the overall performance of the team and individuals following limited outdoor cricket preparation."He added: "From this, our self belief will continue to develop from the latter part of last season."

Rob Nichol, leading spokesman for the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association (NZCPA), opened a press conference in Auckland today with the genial promise that, given the right support from New Zealand Cricket, all the NZCPA members would return to playing action within a fortnight.The players’ association would also invite NZC to address players directly on the issues under negotiation.However, this amiable tone at the start of the conference soon gave way to bitter criticism of the way NZC had conducted earlier negotiations since the players’ association called a month-long strike during October from Nichol and his colleagues Heath Mills, one of the players’ association founders, and Dion Nash, the former New Zealand player.In his opening statement Nichol rejected the NZC final payment offer made last week and which ran until 4pm today. This NZC offer included a further increase in player payments but if the players’ association did not accept the new offer NZC would break off the negotiations and approach the players individually.Nichol said the decision not to accept the final NZC offer was guided by advice from its accountants and lawyers. The accountants said the NZCPA needed further financial forecasts from NZC before it could agree with future payment plans for the players. The lawyers said the NZC settlement offer contained uncertain terms, with unknown consequences.The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), containing several players’ associations from overseas countries, also advised the New Zealanders not to sign the current player terms on the same basis.As the press conference proceeded, the NZCPA criticism of NZC and its negotiation methods drew strong criticism from the three players’ spokesmen.Nichol claimed that NZC released details of the negotiations and its payment offers in an attempt to sway public opinion against the players’ plans. Nichol did not agree that the players’ association had opened up the issue to the public, and that NZC was merely giving its side of the argument in reply.Nichol also claimed that two NZC offers had been made public before he had received them. NZC had, said Nichol, released information in an attempt to shore up public opinion against the players, and to attempt to break the players’ unity.The players had remained unified, said Nichol, and not long before the press conference two players had been contacted with offers by NZC. Neither player had accepted the offers, said Nichol. Later Martin Snedden, the NZC chief executive, denied that the national body had approached any players.Nichol chose not to name the players. Rather than cause friction Nichol said the players’ association had tried to play a part in forming a controlled environment for future negotations, and these could only be conducted round a conference table.A later question revealed that the players’ association contained 128 members, who paid an annual subscription of $100, starting in June of last year. It appeared that of the three representatives at the press conference today Nash and Mills were working in an honorary capacity.

Somerset Second’s had the better of the final day of their championship match against Gloucestershire that ended yesterday.Starting the day with a first innings lead of 4 runs, Somerset lost early wickets and seamed in danger of being dismissed cheaply until Scott Cunningham hit an impressive unbeaten 110 supported by triallist Rob Sloley who scored 55 to allow the Cidermen to declare on 263 for 9.Batting for a second time Gloucestershire had reached 56 for 1 before the game was called off as a draw.Somerset take 10 points and Gloucestershire 7 points.The Seconds are next in action on Wednesday when they travel to Knowle and Dorridge Cricket Club near Solihull to take on Warwickshire in a 3 day championship match.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming heads to Sri Lanka and the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in a rare position – defending champion.The TelstraClear Black Caps’ success in Kenya two years ago was the first, and so far only, occasion a New Zealand team had won an international tournament.And while the nature of the tournament may have changed, the New Zealanders are looking forward to their defence.”We have good memories from the last tournament and there are financial rewards available but we do go into it with pride as the defending champions. It is a different format, and it is do-or-die with having to play Australia first up.”The pressure will be on from ball one,” he said.Fleming admitted the weeks since the end of the West Indies tour did not really feel like a complete break from the game but said the team has been targeting their defence of the title for some time.”We saw the West Indies tour as the last step in a big programme over the 18 months and we wanted to finish with some good results. The win over England in Auckland was a good effort as much for the personal feelings for us as for the public perception,” he said.The winning of the West Indies Test series had been the perfect way to finish that phase of the team’s development.Players have been using their spare time of recent weeks to do fitness work and to rebuild their strength while also focusing on what lies ahead for the side.Fleming said the emergence of more players of international quality had been important during the past season because, for a country with fewer resources than the majority of opponents, New Zealand needed to have more players who were playing well.It was important to the team, and to New Zealand cricket overall, to have a solid core of players capable of performing on the international stage.Shane Bond’s emergence as a fast bowler of genuine class, the investment in Ian Butler who had a huge future, and the development of Scott Styris and Robbie Hart in the West Indies were among the most important things to have come out of the season.In regard to his personal play, Fleming said he thoroughly enjoyed the Australian series. It was what he had spent six months with Middlesex for and the team’s performance and his own batting were the highlight of his career so far.It had been disappointing not to get over South Africa as much as was wanted in the one-day series but it was a successful venture to lose just the one game in the whole season to the Australians, and that only as the result of a spectacular Michael Bevan innings.New Zealand’s one-day game still had a lot of room for improvement but it was developing and there was still time before the World Cup to get it right.”We are very close to the playing combinations we want.”Game plan wise, we have it in place and are implementing it.”But for it to succeed we need to have the senior players being more consistent. When that happens you will see the game plan coming into effect,” he said.It needed six to eight of the older hands in the side achieving that consistency.Fleming didn’t see the two Test matches against India at Christmas as an impediment to the one-day development.”We love Test cricket and that is something for us to look forward to in the overall programme.”Not surprisingly, Fleming said that if he could have a wish list for the World Cup it would be to have an injury free squad, and that was at the top of everyone’s list.Chris Cairns was part of that, while having Bond and Daniel Vettori in good shape was also important not only because of their contribution to the side but also because of the competition it created.Fleming said the way players like Styris and Hart stood up in the West Indies had been evidence that the return to a double round of State Championship play was starting to pay dividends.New Zealand Cricket re-introduced the double round two summers ago and its worth has been apparent when players are called into international play.The domestic competition needed to be strong and to be producing players who were giving consistently high performances across a season.”It is still not enough. A while back it was a case of players having a couple of good performances and being touted as New Zealand players. But now they have to be much more consistent across an entire season and that gives us a much better product when they step up,” he said.

The Logan Cup in Harare has finally reached the 20th century, although perhaps not the 21st! For the first time at Harare Sports Club, during the match between Mashonaland and Mashonaland A, the big scoreboard was in full operation, giving details of individual scores, bowling figures and most of the information that had hitherto been available only at international matches.Congratulations to the Mashonaland Cricket Association and Gavin Johnstone-Robertson in particular for organizing that. The players were most appreciative of being kept aware of their statistics, and there were a few spectators who responded positively as well – there would no doubt have been more had the match been properly advertised. The local press is very negligent with regard to Logan Cup cricket, but the local authorities must also bear responsibility for the failure to advertise first-class domestic cricket adequately.But at least a properly functioning scoreboard is a big step forward, and Harare has now caught up with Kwekwe and Mutare. I have no news as to whether Bulawayo has yet reached the 20th century by using their main scoreboard for Logan Cup matches, but last season they did not.In this issue, as the current Zimbabwe season sadly fades away with a whimper, courtesy of the Australian let-down, we have new biographies of Academy players Glenn Goosen and Piet Rinke, and an updated biography of Nyasha Chari. Besides our provincial reports, we include an interview with Grant Flower after his return from India and his double-century against Mashonaland.Mashonaland have again shot into the Logan Cup lead with yet another outright victory, beating Mashonaland A easily by seven wickets, thanks to twin centuries in the match by Andy Flower and a very accommodating declaration that left them 340 to win in a full day’s play on a batting paradise. Midlands, who had hopes of winning the Logan Cup after a fine season, could be excused for feeling bitter at Mashonaland A’s declaration, especially since last season they were similarly helpful to their sister team, forfeiting their entire first innings so as to force a result in a rain-affected match.Mashonaland are undoubtedly the premier province, and the country’s cricketing strength plays here. It is not good for cricket that they should win so easily so often, though, especially as at times they appear over-confident and arrogant. The attitude of other teams, including Mashonaland A, should be to give them nothing and make them fight all the way for their success. Manicaland, still without a win, have been the only team to come close to beating Mashonaland in the past two seasons, and they have done it twice. They too must be unhappy at seeing the other Mashonaland side hand them easy victories.

England’s Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough must now be among the most devastating opening partnerships in world cricket.After the innings defeat of Pakistan, the pair could be entitled to put their feet up after uprooting 16 batsmen between them.The visitors simply had no answer to the different styles of the two pacemen. Caddick, tall and angular with an action that owes not a little to Sir Richard Hadlee, found bounce and movement off the wicket, while Gough, pitching the ball up further than his opening partner, was more reliant on speed and swing.The Yorkshireman, who took his 200th wicket during the game, was delighted to pick up his first five-wicket return at headquarters and so get his name on the Lord’s honours board.”The main one was to get up on the board. I knew I had only one ballto do it because Caddy was on at the other end, and I’m sure he would havestopped me again.”That five means more to me than 200 wickets – that’s on the board and thereforever. I’d have got the 200 at some stage.”I expected us to bowl them out, whether we made them follow on I didn’tknow. Once we made them follow on it was a case of just keeping going, but ithelps when you knock the first two over early.”It was a great atmosphere. Lately we’ve started to play well at Lord’s andthe crowd have got behind us.”We are playing well, we are on top of our game and we got the result. Soonenough we’ll be playing the best side in the world in Australia.”What the public wants is to see us compete with Australia. The people willbe happy if they see England fighting in a competitive close series.”Caddick added: “The two of us use the new ball well because we capitalise ontaking early wickets, that helps. You’ve got to make the most of it and it seemsthat in the last 18 months, myself and Darren have made the most of the new ballcombination.”This win was very crucial for us; the batters did their job in getting 391after being put in, and the bowlers had to do ours, and in the end we did oursas well.”Central contracts have allowed us to have the rest periods we need. If wecan keep on this roller-coaster and keep going I think it’s a better learning curve than losing and trying to come back from it. We’ve done the job and the basics well in this Test.”Captain Nasser Hussain could only watch the drama from the dressing room balcony where he was nursing his fractured thumb but he was quick to pay tribute to his pacemen’s heroics.He said: “A lot of things went our way today; the catching was phenomenal,Caddick’s spell, Gough’s spell.”Gough and Caddick are a pleasure to captain and their attitude is great.”But Hussain threw in a word of caution. “Pakistan at Old Trafford will be a different side, the wicket there will suit them more than it suited them here. They will be a real contest.”The aim for us now is those five days because we want to win five series ina row.”

Adam Gilchrist has terrorised South African cricket fans in the last seven weeks with his explosive batting but the Australian vice-captain finally has good news for the Proteas.They can wave him off at Johannesburg airport next week when Australia finishes its tour, thrilled that the most destructive force in international cricket is finally leaving their shores.Gilchrist’s reputation has boomed in South Africa – so far he’s smashed 744 runs in all matches on this tour, including 105 from 104 balls last night as Australia claimed the one-day series with an eight-wicket win at Kingsmead.But the Proteas won’t have long before the wicketkeeper returns in 10 months for the World Cup defence in a nation starting to question the claims of its own team after a miserable summer against Australia.The Proteas let Gilchrist sneak out of trouble again last night, dropping him twice and missing a run out before he hit top gear for his seventh one-day international century and his first in more than two years.That drought is lost amid Gilchrist’s flurry of Test runs, including 204 not out, 138 not out and 91 since arriving in South Africa.But the 30-year-old knew he was due for a score in one-day matches.”A lot of people may not have realised that but it was something I was churning over and I’m very satisfied to get that little monkey off my back,” Gilchrist said.”Not getting a hundred for two years was starting to play on my mind a little bit, as if I was letting the team down.”That was the luckiest innings I’ve ever had up to 50 – I think I’ve seen luckier first 50s but I just can’t remember them.”After that I seemed to get things together and I was really happy with how I batted.”It was Gilchrist’s first half-century in 11 one-day innings, pushing his career record to 4,144 runs at the remarkable strike-rate of 89.2 runs per 100 deliveries.He reeled off 12 boundaries and a six over the mid-wicket fence from spinner Nicky Boje, who let out a cry of “catch” before realising he was talking to the fans in the seventh row.Gilchrist’s partnership with Matthew Hayden realised 170 runs – the highest opening stand in Australia-South Africa matches – establishing the left-handers as a sound combination following the sacking of Mark Waugh.”It was pleasing to get control of (my innings) after a while and that’s where Matty helps out. I’ve really enjoyed it every time on this trip,” Gilchrist said.”He talks a lot, he gets down out of the crease from the other end and has a good chat. It’s very relaxing, the same way as batting with Junior (Waugh).”Opening in the one-day game is where I like to bat and where I’m best suited for the balance of the side.”

North Zone, who need a win to make sure of winning the Duleep Trophy irrespective of the results of matches to be played in the final round, took the first step on Thursday when they rattled up 391 for four wickets off 90 overs on the opening day of the match against Central Zone at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds in New Delhi.Openers Vijay Dahiya and Vikram Rathour laid the foundation for the imposing score by putting on 188 runs off 44 overs. Put into bat, Dahiya and Rathour batted with a degree of comfort and also scored runs at a good rate. Both however fell within the space of nine runs. First Rathour was out for 94. In a three hour stay, the North Zone captain faced 130 balls and hit 19 boundaries.Then Dahiya fell for 81. In a stay of 200 minutes, he faced 153 balls and hit 15 of them to the ropes.Yuvraj Singh dominated a third wicket partnership of 38 runs off 8.5 overs with Dinesh Mongia. Yuvraj Singh scored 34 of the runs before he was bowled by Rahul Kanwat. He faced 42 balls and hit eight fours. The good work was then carried on by Mongia and Virender Shewag who added 78 runs for the fourth wicket off 12.5 overs. The in form Shewag hit 43 off 48 balls with eight hits tothe fence.There was still no respite for the Central Zone bowlers as Mongia and Reetinder Sodhi added 87 runs off 21.1 overs for the unbroken fifth wicket. At close, Mongia was batting with 78 off 123 balls with 12 boundary hits while Sodhi was unbeaten with 34 off 68 balls with five hits to the ropes. The Central Zonebowlers toiled hard without much reward on a good batting track.

Sir Paul Condon’s corruption busters have finally rolled into Colombo, but it remains to be seen whether they can hasten the sluggish cricket board match fixing inquiry, a process which has been shrouded in secrecy, towards its successful completion.The Sri Lanka board first announced that it was going to launch an independent inquiry in June last year, but waited until the publication of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report, which named several international cricketers within it, including former Sri Lankan captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, and Aravinda de Silva, before officially launching an internal investigation.The Sri Lankan cricket board appointed Desmond Fernando, a Presidential Counsel, to investigate the allegations made by Mukesh Gupta, the now infamous bookie. Fernando was given 30-days to report back to the board, but five-months later there is still no report on the table.Fernando has travelled far and wide to gather information, accompanying theICC’s Anti Corruption unit to India and England, but struggled to obtain formal written submissions from the two players, even though they both publicly promised their cooperation after steadfastly proclaiming their innocence, forcing Sir Paul Condon’s planned visit to Sri Lanka in March to be postponed.Finally, however, Fernando has gathered the submissions and the first members of the five-man Anti-Corruption Unit arrived last week, raising hopes that the inquiry may, belatedly, gather some momentum.Condon came to Sri Lanka ostensibly to meet cricket officials and politicians. He will leave Colombo tomorrow after talks with both the Sports Minister and cricket board Chairman, leaving the planned player interviews later this week to Desmond Fernando and his senior Scotland Yard detectives.It is unclear, however, whether a meeting with De Silva will materialise after all, as he is believed to be departing for India tomorrow, where he will be a playing a series of exibition matches. Sir Paul Condon – who consistently declined to discuss specific details on the Sri Lankan inquiry, which he stressed was the responsibility of the Sri Lankan board, at a media briefing today – refused to comment on the possibility of De Silva’s interview being postponed once again.When contacted this evening, Desmond Fernando declined, as he has done throughout the inquiry, to speak to the media, stating to a respected cricket journalist that, “He was too busy to talk.”No-one expects Fernando to reveal all his cards before the action getsinteresting, but nor should the public have been denied answers to innocuousquestions such as the date of scheduled appointments or to general queriesabout the progress of the inquiry and it’s expected date of completion.Moreover, the drawn-out nature of the inquiry was always likely, but wouldhave been far easier to bear if one was convinced that a proper inquiry wasactually in full swing. These are important times for Sri Lankan cricket andone wouldn’t expect allegations against national heroes to be treated trivially, but, as Condon said tonight: “The match fixing scandal is a cloudhanging over cricket. The quicker we draw a line under it and move on thebetter.”In fact, the recently appointed Sri Lankan Interim Board met with DesmondFernando last week and was briefed about the current situation. They have made no formal statement on the current state of the inquiry so far, but Malalsekera said tonight that: “Everything is in the hands of Desmond Fernando and we are awaiting his report. We hope that it will be submitted within the next two weeks.”Once the report has been submitted, assuming, wishfully perhaps, that it is the final one and not an Interim report, then the Sri Lankan board will then examine the findings and take the action it deems necessary. The ICC’s Code of Conduct Commission, headed by Lord Hugh Griffiths, will then review the board’s action to ensure that it is both sufficient and fair.Malalsekera stressed that no action would be taken without consultation withthe ICC: “We want to be in sync with the ICC on this issue. The decisions wemake could have a bearing on other countries and we have to ensure that weclean up the game.”Whether the tainted game can truly be cleansed remains to seen. Sir Paul Condon, more like a soothsaying diplomat now than the hardnosed British bobby, who walked the streets during the time of the Kray Brothers, believes it can and that the Anti Corruption Unit was already producing results.”We have already seen a reduction in the amount of corruption within thegame during the course of our investigations,” he said. “I think we can makematch fixing so difficult that it is not worth the risk and help draw a lineunder the past.””I have completed a major 70-page report last week, which will go to the ICCExecutive in for their meeting in June,” he revealed. “It contains 25 commonsense, but radical recommendations that will help world cricket face thefuture with confidence.”

The second day’s play of the four-day match between Bangladesh A and the West Indies’ Sagicor High Performance Centre has been suspended due to a daylong strike in Dhaka on Sunday. “We have made this decision [to postpone] after discussing with both teams. There is a political programme tomorrow [Sunday], so the local police will not be available for security cover,” BCB’s acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said.The first day’s play ended with the West Indies side on 13 for no loss after they bundled out Bangladesh A for 199 runs in the first innings in Mirpur. Left-arm fast bowler Sheldon Cotterrell was the most successful bowler with four wickets while Mominul Haque was the top-scorer with 50 off 80 balls.