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Hampshire’s 2nd XI will contest the ECB Second XI Trophy Final against Kent 2nd XI at The Rose Bowl on Monday 9th September 2002. 11:00am start, 50 overs per side.Coach Tony Middleton retains the eleven that defeated Yorkshire in the Semi-Final.Playing in there third final in the past four years and fourth in all, Hampshire will be looking to avenge their defeat at Canterbury in 1999.In 1987 Hampshire lost to Derbyshire at The County Ground, followed by defeat against Kent. Hampshire then lost to Leicestershire at The County Ground in 2000.Live scores throughout the day will be shown on the Hampshire Web site.John Carr, the ECB Cricket Operations Manager will present the trophy at the end of the day.Team: Jason Laney, Jimmy Adams, Alex Morris, Lawrence Prittipaul, John Francis, James Hamblin, Chris Benham, Iain Brunnschweiler, Irfan Shah, James Tomlinson, James Schofield.

PERTH’S new-look WACA Ground is on course to host record Test Match attendances against England on Friday.Australia’s World Champion Test side could retain the Ashes with a third successive win over England in Perth’s Test. Even a draw would be sufficient to guarantee that Steve Waugh’s team retain the coveted Urn for a record eighth successive series.Perth’s 30th Test could surpass all previous attendance records, including opening day crowds of the first two Ashes Tests staged at the ground on December 1970 and four years later.A WACA first day record attendance could be more than 22,000 on Friday. The final figure will depend on Membership attendance.Perth’s first Test attracted 15,840 to the opening day’s play on December 11, 1970.The WACA Ground’s biggest first day attendance (16,894) was recorded on December 1, 2000 when Australia confronted the West Indies.Other big first day crowds include:

December 13, 1974, against England 16,381November 12, 1982 against England 16,276November 28, 1998 against England 16,788December 12, 1975 against West Indies 15,482The WACA’s biggest second day crowd is 22,680 on December 14, 1974, against England.The WACA’s biggest third day figure is 24,151 on December 15, 1974 against England.The WACA’s biggest fourth day attendance is 19,808 on December 15, 1975, against the West Indies.The WACA’s Five Biggest overall Test attendances:December 11-16, 1970 against England 84,142December 13-17, 1974 against England 75,196February 3-7, 1995, against England 71,679

With such a rush of sales in recent weeks, prospects of record first, second and third day attendances are mounting.On the strength of such enthusiastic sales, WACA Chief Executive Mrs Kath White advised all cricket fans to purchase tickets well before Perth’s Third Orange Test."The rate of pre-sales for a Test Match, exceeds the rate of pre-sales at all previous Test matches held at the WACA," said Mrs White."We expect most seating for the first three days could be sold prior to the Test match starting."Mrs White said that recently installed Perimeter seating, with its enhanced comfort levels and extensive public and member interest in the recently completed $12million refurbishment of the WACA had heightened interest in Perth’s Test.She said that sales for Perth’s One Day Internationals in December (Friday Dec 20 and Sunday Dec 22) are also selling rapidly.

James Foster’s second misfortune with injury this season has ruled him out of the remainder of England’s Test series against India.The 22-year-old Essex wicket-keeper broke his left thumb while keeping wicket to John Stephenson in the current Frizzell County Championship match against Glamorgan at Chelmsford. He is expected to be out of action for between four and six weeks.Foster said: “This is a huge blow for me coming so soon after breaking my arm earlier in the season. The early indications are that I could be out for a while, but we will have a clearer idea once I have seen the specialist tomorrow.”Foster, who was given a central contract by England in the spring, was playing in only his third game for Essex this season, after breaking his arm in the nets in April.The injury forced him to miss England’s Test series against Sri Lanka, as well as the recent NatWest triangular series, allowing Surrey’s Alec Stewart to return to England colours. Stewart today made his 119th Test appearance, breaking Graham Gooch’s record as England’s most-capped player.Foster’s latest setback means he will have precious little cricket before England announce their squads for the ICC Champions’ trophy and the Ashes tour of Australia that follows.Foster was the guest on CricInfo’s Norwich Union League live chat feature onTuesday, when he was asked how his arm was feeling. He replied: “It’s prettymuch recovered. In the last championship and one-day game the arm was a bitsore. It’s good enough to play and it’s not ‘end of the world’ pain. I don’talways feel it, and it comes on just through tiredness or weakness in the arm.”It was obviously a huge disappointment breaking it, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I missed out on all the good Essex matches like the B&H final, and I missed the chance of playing with England at start of the season. It’s been a tough ten weeks out of action, but now I’m raring to go.”Asked if he felt he was close to getting back into the England set-up for the tour to Australia this winter, he said: “At the moment I’m just trying to do well for Essex and I can’t afford to look too far ahead into the future. If I do well for Essex I hope that people will take notice and I can get back into contention for England again.”Obviously an Ashes tour would be marvellous but I can’t be wrapped up in that – I’ve just got to concentrate on each performance now rather than letting that cloud the issue.”

TANGIERS, Aug 17: A top Indian government and cricket board official Saturday said situation was ideal for its team to resume cricketing relations with neighbors Pakistan.Rajeev Shukla, member of the Indian Parliament and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), further said if touring each other’s country was out of question, the resumption should be from a neutral venue.”The resumption of cricket relations is extremely essential. As I see things, the tension is easing out and if cricket is resumed, it would further help the two countries to come close to each other,” he told Dawn.India is scheduled to tour Pakistan next year in April and May for three Tests and five one-day internationals. But that tour is subject to New Delhi’s approval that has slapped a ban on any bilateral series.”The BCCI president (Jaghmohan Dalmiya) had a discussion with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who gave a very patient hearing. Besides other issues, Dalmiya also argued that if a ban has to be slapped, it should be on all sports. The BCCI has received a very encouraging response from the Prime Minister.”I agree that the sports minister has clamped the ban, but if the Prime Minister wants, he can reverse the decision,” Shukla said.India has not played a Test series in Pakistan since 1988-89 though they crossed border in 1997 to participate in the Pakistan’s Golden Jubilee three-match series. Pakistan, on the contrary, played three Tests and a tri-nation one-day series in early 1999.”The general feeling within the BCCI is that cricket between the two countries should resume. After all, we are playing at junior level, aren’t we?”For the ICC Champions Trophy and next year’s World Cup, the government has given its clearance to play Pakistan. So there is no problem on that front,” he said.Shukla said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should send a fresh invitation to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BBCI) suggesting for the series to be played at a neutral venue.”The objective should be to break the ice instead of pressing for the series to be played in Pakistan. If we go to a neutral venue, things would start tonormalize and eventually one day, India would tour Pakistan.”The irony is that by not playing against each other, the rest of the countries are getting an excuse. The Australians refusal to tour Pakistan was certainly a setback and has left, at least, India on a backfoot since we can’t press them to tour Pakistan as we have ourselves not toured that country,” Shukla said.When pointed out New Delhi has banned its team playing in Sharjah, one of the possible venues for the Test series, Shukla said it was because of the investigations that were going on in the aftermath of Hansiegate scandal. “But we have other options available,”he said.The PCB played its home series against West Indies in Sharjah earlier this year while the desert city along with Colombo are likely to be the venues of the home series against Australia.Last week, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC) had also indicated that Pakistan and India could lock horns on neutral territory. He had got the feedback from Dalmiya who met Prime Minister Monday last.”Naturally if there is players security, the BCCI will have to seek clearance from the foreign office. But why jump to conclusions. Let the PCB first send a fresh invitation to the BCCI so that it can present it before the sports ministry and the Prime Minister,” the MP said.He admitted that the BCCI feared isolation and suspension from the ICC if it continued to cancel bilateral series with Pakistan.”We can cancel a series once or twice. But eventually, the excuse will become lame and might lead to complications. The BCCI is aware of that fact and that’s why it is seriously interested in revival of cricket between the two boards,” Shukla said.

Mike Findlay and his fellow selectors should have a relatively simple task when they sit down tomorrow to pick the West Indies team for the opening Cable & Wireless Test against India.Providing that Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan are recovered and ready to return, five of the top six places are settled Chris Gayle, Sarwan, Lara, captain Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.The wicket-keeping slot, if barely, should go to the incumbent Ridley Jacobs. It is evident that Jacobs’ keeping has been on the decline and his reliability as a No.7 batsman is also under the microscope, but his overall record and his known qualities as a fighter should be enough for him to retain a place.Two of the fast bowling places are also straightforward, with the new ball going to Mervyn Dillon and Cameron Cuffy.So Findlay and company are essentially only trying to fill the missing link of three players.The existing vacancies are the second opening batsman, the third fast bowler and the individual identified as the fourth specialist bowler.Two weeks ago, I gave you chapter and verse of why we should not revert to Stuart Williams in spite of his record-breaking runs in the Busta Series.It leaves Daren Ganga and Devon Smith as those vying to partner Gayle.Smith has done all that has been asked of him his season, but Ganga, who is yet to transform his seemingly solid technique into significant runs in 15 Tests, which have been spread over three years in six countries, at least deserves a chance to fail at home.Based on what our fast bowlers did in Sharjah and Sri Lanka, one might want to suggest we place some names in a hat and pull one. Whether we tried Pedro Collins, Colin Stuart, Marlon Black, the results were very much the same.Collins and Black are again in contention and are joined by the uncapped Darren Powell and Adam Sanford. Powell, spoken highly of by Andy Roberts, brings a breath of freshness and should strongly challenge Collins for the place.Under normal circumstances, leg-spinner Din-anath Ramnarine should be the preferred choice as the fourth specialist bowler. But, as we saw in Sharjah, the selectors were prepared to leave him out for the first Test and instead opt for a batsman who could bowl to fill the No. 7 slot ahead of Jacobs.The same policy should be applied here.The first name that comes to mind for that position is Ryan Hinds, who in fact, filled the role for his debut Test in Sharjah. As a batsman, Hinds performed with supreme aplomb in his first taste of Test cricket and deserves to be retained. But the fact of the matter is that as long as Lara and Sarwan are back, there is no place from him in the top six.The person coming in at No. 7 is intended to be one who is good enough to play as the fourth bowler. Hinds is a more than useful left-arm spinner for Barbados in regional competitions.I distinctly get the impression, however, that Hooper doesn’t have much faith in him as a bowler and the statistics can back up the point. In his two Tests, he has been given only 21 overs and in five One-Day Internationals he has had 18 overs.Here is where the name of the uncapped Gareth Breese comes into the picture. He is a well-organised batsman with a first-class hundred and his off-spin bowling has been a revelation over the last two seasons.This year, the 26-year-old Jamaican has performed the phenomenal feat of winning four successive Man-of-the-match awards in the Busta Series and his 377 runs (ave. 41.88) and 40 wickets (ave. 19.67) should not go unrecognised.My 13 (with the starting 11 mentioned first), therefore, is: Gayle, Ganga, Sarwan, Lara, Hooper, Chanderpaul, Breese, Jacobs, Dillon, Cuffy, Collins, Powell, and Ryan Hinds.

The Queen’s Park Oval at Trinidad might be one of India’s favouriteaway grounds but that did not save them from a thrashing at the handsof the West Indians on Saturday.The game began on a sombre note with the players observing a minute’ssilence in memory of the recently departed Subhash Gupte, whom Iconsider to be the greatest leg-spinner the game has seen, and HansieCronje.I feel sorry for the present generation of cricket lovers who neversaw the great Gupte in action. He was a genius in the true sense ofthe word and could work magic on any wicket and against any batsman. Iwould venture to say that if he were playing now, he would haveclaimed 500 Test wickets with ease, considering the high quality offielding support that he would be getting.I still cherish the memory of playing against the great man in aCentral Zone v South Zone encounter at Bangalore. In the course of aface-saving partnership for South which I forged in the company of thelate Kripal Singh, I picked up various nuances of the art of spinbowling from the maestro. Truly, it was a blessed moment for me.Naturally, at the start of the match, I then thought that the Indians,after electing to bat, would spare no effort in earning a win thatthey could subsequently dedicate to memory of the late genius. But therain seemed to have played spoilsport as far as they were concerned.They clearly seemed to lack a gameplan to tackle the contingency ofbatting first in a contest truncated to a 25-over-a-side affair.Batsman after batsman started going for quick runs, as the touristsplayed into the hands of the West Indies side who bundled them out for123 runs. The home side were favourites from thereon and the only hopethe Indians lay in the prospect of another shower washing out thematch before the West Indies reached the modest victory target.A shower did come early on in the West Indies innings but it was anunwelcome sight for the Indians. In the seventh over of the hometeam’s innings bowled by Tinu Yohanan it rained boundaries as WestIndies opener Chris Gayle, who had begun middling the ball well,opened his broad shoulders and plundered 25 runs. The savage attackeffectively sealed the fate of the match.Gayle and his partner Wavell Hinds went on to add 117 runs at wellover a run a ball and this meant that the West Indies easily achievedthe series-leveling win that they had been seeking at the start of thematch.The home team proved that they were ready to take the bull by thehorns in a must-win encounter and their aggressive approach paid richdividends indeed. Now, with the series hanging in the balance, it isup to the Indians to prove that they can bounce back and at least winthe one-day series before leaving the Caribbean.

With only their pride to play for, the West Indies selectors have made one change to the team which lost to South Africa in Trinidad by 53 runs on Saturday. The tourists currently embroiled in controversy surrounding off the field celebrations in Antigua, hold an unassailable 5-1 lead in the seven game series.Guyanese left-arm spinner, Neil McGarrell, returns to the line up in place of Dinanath Ramnarine. Make shift opener, Ricardo Powell still can’t find a place in the final eleven.The West Indies team for the final Cable & Wireless One-Day International against South Africa tomorrow at Arnos Vale Playing Field in St. Vincent is as follows:Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, ShivnarineChanderpaul, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Neil McGarrell,Cameron Cuffy, Kerry Jeremy and Corey Collymore.EMERGENCY FIELDERS:Mervyn Dillon, Dinanath Ramnarine and Ricardo Powell.

The interim committee running the affairs of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) decided to resign on Wednesday night.Vijaya Malalsekara, the chairman of the interim committee, announced the decision at a BCCSL management meeting and also briefed the Sri Lankan team.The interim committee will offer a formal letter of resignation to the Minister of Sports, Johnston Fernando, shortly, which will take effect from April 1.According to BCCSL sources, the reason for the committee’s resignation was a prior verbal agreement between Malasekara and the government that the interim committee stands down after a year in office.Fernando will now be required to decide to call fresh BCCSL elections or appoint a fresh interim committee.The government’s fear of factionalism in the Sri Lanka’s highest profile sports body, in a year that will see the country host the ICC Champions Trophy, suggests that elections will be avoided for the time being.Malalsekera has indicated a desire to return to focus on his own business interests and Hemaka Amarasuriya, the chairman of Singer, is tipped to take charge of a new committee.

The English and Indian Under-19s teams are here in Hyderabad for the thirdand final ‘Test’ match. Hyderabad and Secunderabad are one of the few twincities of the world divided by an imaginary line that runs along thebeautiful Hussain Sagar Lake. This city is at an altitude of 536 metres andthe temperature at this time of the year is in mid thirties, promising fourdays of good cricket.Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, the Fifth king of Golconda, founded this city in1591 by laying the foundation of the famous monument ‘Charminar’ as thecentre of the city. The English has had long association with the city ofHyderabad. In 1798, an area north of Hussain Sagar Lake was made acantonment. This was the result of an alliance signed between the Nizam andthe East India Company for military and political co-operation. Thecantonment was named Secunderabad after the then Nizam Sikander Jah.The visitors did have a taste of Hyderabad as they visited the Charminar(The four graceful minarets from which ‘Charminar’ derives its name,literally meaning ‘Four Minars’ soar to a height of 48.7m each above theground). They have had the opportunity to visit Salarjung Museum, locatedon the banks of the river Musi that flows through the heart of the city. Itboasts of the ‘largest one man collection of antiques in the world,’ Theartefact on display are unique and range through varied periods of time andplaces in the world.There is much more to Hyderabad than the Golconda fort, the bangles, theNizams and the Nawabs, for this city is steeped in history. Incidentallythe pearl craftsmanship of the Hyderabadis is famous, making this is thecity of pearls. Hyderabad to its credit has some cricketing pearls too.Ghulam Ahmed, Nawab of Pataudi Jr, ML Jaisimha, AbbasAli Baig, Abid Ali and Mohd Azharuddin are a few of the pearls produced inthe ‘maidans’ of this beautiful city. One and all remember Jaisimha, whopassed away in 1999, as a graceful sportsman who played the game in thetrue spirit of the game. One look at the above mentioned names bringsmemories of the subtle artistry they brought into the beloved game.Cricket and Hyderabad have lived together for ages. This is the centennialyear of the match played between the visiting ‘Oxford Authentics’ and theHyderabad XI in 1901. History is not a thing of the past in this warm andhospitable city; it is a living process. Ian Bell and his boys would know,that they are to be a part of the Hyderabadi history, come Saturday.It was in 1911 the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Invitation Tournament (namedafter the prominent king Nizam) that came about to be synonymous withHyderabad. Maharajah Sir Kishen Prashad Bahadur was a great patron of thistournament, which was of much significance as it served as thepreliminaries for the India selection.Cricket was played here between teams made on the basis of their faith. TheHindus, Moslems, Parsis and Europeans drawn from the 7th Dragon Regiment,constituted the four main teams. In 1920 there was an inter communal matchbetween the Hindus and the Moslems. Those days there wasn’t even a whisperof communal tension. The ritual of the inter-communal cricket came to anend, when Mahatma Gandhi requested for it to be stopped.Time has had its say with Hyderabad too. These days Hyderabad is the’Cyberabad’ the Silicon Valley of India. It is all about Software,Technology and the Internet. Make no mistake; cricket is still a passion,though it hurts the man in the street, when talking about their fallen sonand match fixing. They still do enjoy this game as much as they enjoy thewonderful Hyderabadi cuisine. You haven’t seen Hyderabad if you haven’tbeen to `Patther Gatti’, the street of pearl shops and you haven’t had thetaste of Hyderabad, if you haven’t tasted the ‘Hyderabadi Biriyani’.

Sri Lanka’s full membership status of the ICC is not threatened by theongoing cricket board crisis according to a report in the Daily Mirrortoday.There had been speculation that Sri Lanka’s ICC status had been jeopardisedby the Sports Ministers decision to dissolve the Board of Control forCricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) and appoint an Interim Committee.Mark Harrison, however, stated yesterday that: “I can confirm that Sri Lankahas not been suspended by the ICC. The governance of Sri Lankan cricket is adomestic matter.”Nevertheless, Harmission admitted that the ICC is seeking legal advice, mostprobably with regard to the status of Thilanga Sumithapala, the head of thedissolved cricket board, who still remains an Executive Director of the ICC.According to the Articles and Memorandum of Association Executive Director’scan only be removed from the board if they resign or are removed by the bodythat appointed them, in this case the BCCSL, which is no longer functioning.Harrison said: “The situation is currently under legal consideration and theICC is unable to comment any further.”