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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.

Andrew Caddick, whose unbeaten 62 rescued England from the perils of 126 for eight against Western Australia, believes their top order has been struggling because they aren’t yet used to Australian conditions.”You have to remember we’re used to the wickets in England and we’ve been ontours to the sub-continent for the last 18 months,” Caddick said afterwards.”These wickets bounce a lot more than we’re used to the ball doing quite a bit this morning. They know their wickets a lot better than we do and I’m sure we’d have bowled if we’d have won the toss.”Due to the fact we’ve not bowled on the wickets before we didn’t score the runs we should have done and there’s not much juice in the wicket now, so we’llhave to work really hard tomorrow.”In these situations you need to work hard on flatter wickets and I’m lookingforward to that. We’ve come back from these positions before when we’ve takencriticism early on in the tour.”Caddick also insisted that nothing should be read into England’s one-day defeat at Lilac Hill in the opening match of the tour on Tuesday.”The fact that we lost that game is irrelevant,” he said. “The guys had a bit of a bat. Nasser got some runs under his belt. Robert Key got some runs under his belt. You have to take some positives out of that.”I thought in that game they shouldn’t have got 220, but thanks to one player they managed to pile on 300. Such is life. We have come back from these situations at the start of tours before, taken the criticism and bounced back well.”Meanwhile Callum Thorp, who took four wickets for Western Australia, believes the conditions early on played a major part in his bowling success.”It was a good little wicket,” Thorp said. “It was swinging around a bit. There was a beautiful little breeze for an outswing bowler today. The wicket was good, it had a bit of pace and it carried through just nicely.”It’s a pretty proud moment I guess. I didn’t expect to be playing in these games at this stage of the season. I’m very proud of what I’ve done today.Thorp singled out his captain, Michael Hussey, for the encouragement he provided both during this game and previously.”Huss was always having a chat with me. Giving me encouragement and telling me where the guys are playing their shots and that sort of thing.”I’ve been playing with Huss since I was twelve. We’ve grown up in the same teams through the years. To see his success has always been an inspiration to me. I am glad to be up here playng with him now.”

Hampshire’s Jason Laney is preparing himself for a testing afternoon at the crease when he opens the batting for Hungerford against the county’s Academy bowlers at the War Memorial Ground – weather and ground conditions permitting!Laney is averaging over 50 for his home town Berkshire club so far this season, but knows there are a host of his county 2nd XI team-mates eager to claim his scalp in the intriguing 50-over Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 fixture."Lawrie Prittipaul and James Schofield, in particular, are showing great interest in bowling at me, so you can anticipate how high my level of concentration will be if we play" he said. "If either of them gets me out, I’ve got the rest of the season to hear about it !"It’s a critical match for Hungerford, who are lagging behind top dogs United Services and Easton & Martyr Worthy."This league will go to the wire, with any of four of five sides capable of winning it, so beating the Academy is very important," added Laney who, like the rest of his Hungerford team-mates, is worried that heavy midweek rain could scupper the game altogether.Luke Merry is set to return to an otherwise unchanged Academy team, which got back to winning ways against Easton & Martyr Worthy last weekend.Leaders United Services go to Old Tauntonians & Romsey, with Easton back on familiar home soil for the visit of Winchester neighbours Sparsholt, who are minus USA-bound skipper Rob Savage.Winchester KS themselves travel to Lymington, eager to build on consecutive victories over Trojans and Rowledge. It’s touch and go whether Sussex pace bowler Billy Taylor will play a third successive game – he has a Norwich Union League game at Lord’s on Sunday.Inconsistent Lymington badly need some big scores from their power-packed top order.Trojans entertain bottom club Rowledge minus Jamie Donaldson and Jon Gillespie, but Paul Durand is fit to resume his middle-order batting role.Premier 3 pace-setters Purbrook visit Redlynch & Hale, whose opening bowler Steve Moody is following the World Cup in Japan.Second-placed Alton, two points behind, visit fourth-placed Hambledon, with St Cross Symondians anticipating the return of top run getter Mark Parker against out-of-sorts Paultons at the Royal Green Jackets Ground.Saints football skipper Jason Dodd returns for much changed Flamingo against Hartley Wintney, who have to contend with ten-wicket all-rounder Adie Heath, who is currently in the form of his life.Steve Taylor (broken hand) may return for New Milton at Portsmouth II, while lowly Gosport Borough, having sunk to second-from-bottom place, are in desperate need of a positive result against Hursley Park.It’s a vital day too for Waterlooville, who need to arrest a two-match losing sequence against Hook & Newnham Basics who broke their duck at Ventnor last week.The Islanders expect to be boosted by the return of Alex Baker at Havant II, while Leckford may have Australian Glen Richmond on duty against struggling Bashley (Rydal) II at Bakers Farm.

Bob Woolmer has confirmed his intention to stand down as Warwickshire’s first-team coach at the end of the season.Woolmer does not wish to extend his contract, and will finish his second stint in charge of the Bears in September.The former England batsman said a major reason for his decision was being away from his family and his Cape Town home for six months of each year.He has offered to maintain his links with Edgbaston on a part-time consultancy basis if required.Woolmer re-joined Warwickshire after a five-year stint as coach of the South Africa national team, and took them to promotion to Division One of the County Championship last season.Last month Warwickshire beat Essex in the last-ever final of the Benson and Hedges Cup at Lord’s. It was the club’s first one-day trophy since 1997.

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.”

For the first time in their long history, India registered a win at Kensington Oval in Barbados today.It took eight tours to the Caribbean and almost 50 years to happen, but the victory was a sweet one as India beat the West Indies by seven wickets to take a 1-0 lead in this five-match one-day series with two games to go.It was a solid all-round performance from the visitors. Good bowling saw to it that the West Indies did not make it even to the 200-mark, being dismissed for 186 in 43.5 overs.Medium-pacer Tinu Yohannan, on debut, and Ajit Agarkar scalped three wickets apiece, while Harbhajan Singh chipped in with the key wicket of Brian Lara.With a small total to chase, India hardly broke a sweat. Dinesh Mongia, who had spent nearly all tour on the sidelines, came good with a sparkling innings of 74 allowing India to canter to victory.The day began well for India when Sourav Ganguly won the toss and put the opposition in – a move that surprised a few, but one that paid off in the end.Yohannan made his mark quite early. Removing both openers in his first spell, the medium-pacer helped reduce the West Indies to 45 for two. The fact that Yohannan began his one-day international career with a maiden over helped him settle into a good rhythm and gain confidence, enough to try out a few slower balls early on. It was not the slower deliveries that troubled the batsmen though.Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds, in sparkling form from the Tests, began confidently. Although they were in no hurry, every delivery that was full was given the treatment. Whether it was drives over the covers or neat flicks through the on-side, there were runs to be had.Not if they played away from the body though, as Hinds was to learn. Driving half-cocked, the left-hander dragged one from Yohannan back onto his stumps in the 11th over of the day. Hinds (15) trudged back to the pavilion as Yohannan celebrated.And there was more reason to celebrate two overs later, when Gayle (16) whipped Yohannan around the corner to Dinesh Mongia at square-leg. The West Indies were 45 for two, and the crowd roared as Brian Lara walked out to the middle.It was the perfect chance for Lara to make up for his disappointing showing in the Test matches. It was the ideal opportunity to unfurl his dazzling array of strokes. Harbhajan Singh, however, had different ideas. Tempting a hesitant Lara down the track, the offie had him driving straight at short mid-wicket. Mohammad Kaif took a good catch low down, and Lara (5) was back in the hut.Then came the steadying influence of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Carl Hooper. Tucking the ball away superbly to the on-side for quick singles, the pair kept the fielders on their toes. As if to break the monotony, Hooper planted his foot down and swept Harbhajan Singh for a clean six over mid-wicket.After adding an invaluable 86 runs for the fourth wicket, Sarwan was undone by a good piece of captaincy from Sourav Ganguly. Bringing Virender Sehwag on to bowl in the 32nd over, the Indian captain met with success off just the fourth ball from the part-time offie. Walking across his stumps, Sarwan (44 runs, 69 balls, five fours) was bowled off his pads.Shivnarine Chanderpaul was then needlessly run out, Ryan Hinds stumped off a loose shot, and Ridley Jacobs adjudged caught behind as the wheels came off.And yet, in all this, Carl Hooper stood tall. Driving through the covers with precision and power, the West Indian captain led from the front. Scoring at a brisk pace, Hooper defied the Indian bowling. Pacing his innings perfectly, Hooper gave a sterling display of how a limited-overs knock ought to be played. Unbeaten on 76 (75 balls, six fours, two sixes), Hooper could only watch as Agarkar rapidly cleaned up the tail.Keeping it full and straight, Agarkar had Corey Colleymore trapped plumb in front and followed it up by uprooting Cameron Cuffy’s middle stump. Agarkar ended with figures of three for 36, while Yohannan scalped three for 33. The West Indies were all out for 186 in 44.5 overs.The Indian run-chase was, for the visitors, the proverbial walk in the park. The fact that Sehwag (21) and Ganguly (41) both lost their wickets completely against the run of play, when things looked good for the Indians, did nothing to change the course of the match.Mongia, in a positive frame of mind from the word go, was quick to size up the length of a delivery. When the ball was short, he was onto the back foot in a flash, pulling with ease to the mid-wicket region. The fuller stuff got the full treatment from the wrists, being whipped past or over mid-on.Even the fall of Mongia’s wicket late in the day did little to lift the spirits of the crowd at Barbados. A case of too little too late, really. Mongia, in fine fettle, helped himself to 74 (104 balls, nine fours) before throwing his wicket away when India were in sight of victory at 166 for three. A needless chip shot straight back over Ryan Hinds’ head and fell into the waiting hands of Chanderpaul at mid-off.An uncharacteristically quiet Sachin Tendulkar motored along sedately to reach 34 (45 balls, two fours) as India passed the West Indies total with more than four overs to spare. Rahul Dravid, fresh at the crease was unbeaten on nine.

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.”

All things considered, Australia could hardly have picked a better way to finish the match, clinch the series and retain the World Test Championship title. At one end was Shane Warne, playing his 100th Test and shortly to be named man of the match; at the other Ricky Ponting whose six off the last ball sealed Australia’s four-wicket victory and carried him to an unbeaten 100.Set 331 to win their fifth Test of the summer against South Africa, Steve Waugh’s Australians got home halfway between lunch and tea on the last day at Newlands on Tuesday.They had been given a blistering start on Monday evening by Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden and at least until lunch seem to be coasting to victory. Hayden missed his fifth century of the summer against South Africa by just four runs when for once his shot selection let him down and his was caught behind off Jacques Kallis and Mark Waugh was out on the stoke of lunch, also caught at the wicket, this time off Makhaya Ntini.But 251 for three, Australia were all but home until South Africa, who fought doggedly throughout the game, produced one last spurt. Paul Adams nipped out Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn in successive overs and it suddenly became just a little tighter, even more so when Adam Gilchrist got out for the first time in the series for 24 (to average 366).It was still Australia’s game to be won, but Warne had to cast aside the ice packs and see his side home. In what was to be the penultimate over, he hit Kallis twice through the off side to reduce the target to just three, apologising both times to Ponting who was stuck down at the other end on 94.He needn’t have worried. Adams produced a friendly long hop, Ponting hoisted him over the ropes and the Test, series and championship had been decided.It had been an excellent Test match with South Africa’s three new caps firing the side with fresh enthusiasm and fight and Adams coming back to complete 100 Test wickets. For once Australia had been challenged, as Steve Waugh readily admitted afterwards."It was certainly up there (among the best Test matches he has been involved in)," he said. "At the end of day three I thought South Africa were marginally on top. It was a very good performance. We hung in through the tough periods and those two run-outs probably swung the match for us."South African captain Mark Boucher had a slightly different take on it, citing the Hayden-Langer stand as having taken the match away from South Africa on the fourth evening. He conceded that on the last day he often found himself caught between wanting to attack and having to defend, but while he said he was disappointed to have lost, "I’m proud of the way the guys fought. We showed the sort of guts that have been missing for the past few games".In the end, though, Australia found match-winning performances from Warne – "He writes his own scripts," observed Waugh – who took six for 161 in an astonishing 70 overs, Gilchrist, who made a sublime 138 not out in the first innings, Ponting and, of course, Hayden."I didn’t see Bradman bat," said Waugh. "But he couldn’t have been much better than that."Given that South Africa were widely regarded as the only serious threat to Australia’s supremacy at the start of the summer, Steve Waugh’s team have now confirmed their standing as the best Test team in the world today. For once the South Africans found the stomach for a fight, but yet again Australia’s confidence, aggression and skill prevailed.Few will begrudge them this particular moment of triumph.

The last day of the Northern Districts-Otago Shell Trophy match descended into a revolving-door farce as bad light and drizzly rain – and Otago’s intention to use up every minute of the day in the search of victory – had the players on and off throughout the afternoon.However, the tone of the last day was set in the first hour. The Northern batsmen showed no inclination to go for runs while the Otago bowlers, Paul Wiseman apart, demonstrated limited ability to make the batsmen work to keep their wickets.A desultory morning session produced just 46 runs from 39 overs with Otago claiming the wickets of Hamish Marshall (four, no shot leg before) and Grant Bradburn (18, hanging the bat) more by the batsmen’s failings than the bowlers’ management. Northern, 61 for three and 22 behind overnight, were 107 for five at lunch, 44 ahead with Matthew Hart and Joseph Yovich demonstrating they were in for the long haul.Rain delayed the start after lunch and then sent the players off early for an extended tea break. In between times, the Otago bowlers failed to make the best use of the new ball, bowling both sides of the wicket as Hart and Yovich kept their bats well clear of anything not on line.The last session was similarly affected by rain, the players driven from the field five overs after the break but not before the Otago side had staged a mid-pitch display of displeasure at umpire Anderson’s rejection of a spirited demand for a caught behind off David Sewell’s bowling.They came back again with 20 overs scheduled to be bowled in what was left of the day but only four more were completed before bad light intervened for the last time, the umpires left lonely figures in the middle before the captains eventually decided to put the match to bed at four minutes past six.Northern were 149 for five when the curtain was drawn to little applause, the total having taken 100 overs. Hart batted 204 minutes and 135 balls for his 31 not out, Yovich 142 and 123 for his 30 not out. The Otago bowling figures, not surprisingly, looked impressively economic, Sewell two for 24 off 24, Scott two for 27 off 14 and Walmsley one for 36 off 16 the wicket-takers. But it was the off spin of Paul Wiseman, none for 23 off 31, that produced figures that reflected appropriate accuracy.Northern played as though they were looking ahead to the final-round match against Wellington, which has turned into a Trophy final – the two sides the only ones left who can take the championship. On the evidence in this match, a much improved all round performance will be necessary to stop Wellington taking the title – and extracting revenge for the two-day drubbing at Northern’s hands at the beginning of the month.

Shahzada Masoud, the advisor to the Afghanistan president on tribal affairs, has been named chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) for an indefinite term. He takes over from another political figure, Omar Zakhilwal, who resigned from the board due to his commitments as the country’s minister of finance.Masoud had a stint as the ACB president six years ago, and since then cricket has progressed significantly. The team has qualified for two World Twenty20 tournaments and has gained Affiliate status with the ICC. At a press conference at the ACB headquarters in Kabul, he emphasised the need to have a strong relationship with the ICC and improve the facilities around the country.”We are hoping to be promoted as an (ICC) Associate member soon and that will be a good boost for us,” Masoud said. “The Afghanistan cricket team currently has a good reputation and I have assured a good relationship with the staff and will work as a unit for the improvement of Afghanistan cricket.”Afghanistan has no lengthy history in cricket but the game has gained a lot of popularity and it’s growing significantly. What’s required in the country is more grounds and facilities like setting up a national academy. I wish to build a strong relationship with the world cricket body as well as the other boards. The team has gained a good reputation and the future of cricket looks bright.”