April 1, 2001
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Speculations are on in the subcontinent regarding the formation of the Asian Cricket League, which will be on similar lines of the European Football League. The league will consist of city teams playing against each other. Players will be free to have a contract with any team. Many cities in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Singapore and Hong Kong have been contacted to participate in the league. 
New Zealand has named a 13-man squad for Sharjah tri-nation tournament beginning on April 8. New Zealand have confirmed participation after India backed out of the tournament. The team will be lead by Craig McMillan. The other members include Chris Harris, Mathew Sinclair, Matthew Bell, Andre Adams, Grant Bradburn, Kyle Mills, Chris Nevin (wicket-keeper), Daryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent, Brooke Walker, Jacob Oram and James Franklin.
India took a 2-1 lead in the five-match one-day series against Australia at Indore by winning by a convincing margin of 118 runs. The highlight of the day being Sachin Tendulkar becoming the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in the shorter version of the game. Left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi will be replaced by Punjab off-spinner Sarandeep Singh for the next two one-dayers against Australia at Vizag and Goa.
A partnership of 116 between Brian Lara and Carl Hooper at Bridgetown helped salvage some respect to the West Indies who looked in danger of being bowled out for a small total. Hooper (74 not out) and Lara (83) took the score to 252-5 at close on the third day in reply to South Africa's first innings total of 454. The home team still require two runs to avoid the follow-on. The recent eruptions in controversy regarding umpiring decisions and on-field behaviour of players has set the authorities of the game thinking and the initial moves have been made to evolve a card system similar to what is used in football. Two yellow cards will be shown initially to the players when the umpire feels a player has broken the limits of the ICC code of conduct. The red card will mean that a player has to leave the field immediately. The match referee will then impose penalties and fines based on the nature of the offence. The new system is likely to be put into use from the next season. Ajay Jadeja banned from cricket after his involvement with bookies and match fixing, began a new innings off-field with childhood sweet-heart Aditi. The wedding ceremony was solemnized at a private funtion in New Delhi away from the media glare. Invitees to the wedding included Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh, cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad, Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar, Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit and classical dancer Sonal Mansingh. Aditi is the daughter of Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley and Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary Ashok Jaitley.
Justin Langer ran into form as he made a hundred to help his state side Western Australia beat Indian champs Mumbai by seven wickets at Perth in the second match of the Champions Cup. The Mumbai total of 231-8 was easily overhauled by the host team at they coasted to 234-3 in only 46 overs.
Speculations are on in the subcontinent regarding the formation of the Asian Cricket League, which will be on similar lines of the European Football League. The league will consist of city teams playing against each other. Players will be free to have a contract with any team. Many cities in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Singapore and Hong Kong have been contacted to participate in the league. The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) is looking to put up a proposal to reduce the number of Test match playing days from five to four. This decision follows the recent spate of matches being completed within 4 days. The ICC are also considering many revisions to the one-day version of the game that include more flexible fielding restrictions, bonus runs to scoring boundaries between the 15 and 40 over and many others. The Australian cricket team is not very keen on playing the next one-day series against India in September at the Colonial indoor stadium at Melbourne. Skipper Steve Waugh was of the opinion that the players would have just completed a long grueling season and may not be in a proper physical and mental state to play these matches. The Australians will be touring England this summer for the Ashes series. Last August, the South Africans had played a three-match series at the Colonial Stadium. The home team had lost the series 1-2. Chennai and Bangalore are likely to be the venues of the third ICC-Knock out tournament, which is likely to be held in India in September 2002. The community of Chatsworth in Durban which has a population of 300,00 people of Indian origin have raised a protest with the United Cricket Board of South Africa and sports minister Ngconde Balfour against the decision of the organizers of the 2003 World Cup to exclude the venue catering mostly to people of Indian origin from the list of venues for the World Cup. Earlier it was announced that the Chatsworth Oval would not be included as a venue since it was not up to the international standard. However the locals, while condemning the decision, feel the venue was victimized under apartheid and was also seen as a racist policy adopted by the World Cup organizing committee, headed by former South African captain Dr Ali Bacher. India vs Australia 3rd One day international at Nehru Stadium, Indore India: 299-8 in 50 overs (SR Tendulkar 139, VVS Laxman 83; G McGrath 3-52) Australia: 181 in 35.5 overs (AC Gilchrist 63; AB Agarkar 3-38, Harbhajan Singh 3-37) Result: India won by 118 runs (India lead the 5 match series2-1) Man of the match: SR Tendulkar (Ind) SOUTH AFRICA IN WEST INDIES 3rd Test at Bridgetown (day 3) South Africa: 454 (HH Gibbs 34, D Cullinan 134, ND McKenzie 72, N Boje 34, SM Pollock 109 not out; M Dillon 4-154, CA Walsh 3-87) West Indies: 252-5 (CH Gayle 40, BC Lara 83, C Hooper 74 not out, RD Jacobs 14 not out; JH Kallis 3-53) PERTH CHAMPIONS CUP 2nd match: At Perth, Australia Western Australia vs KwaZulu-Natal W Australia: 270-4 in 50 overs (RJ Campbell 42, SM Katich 68, MW Goodwin 69, ME Hussey 62 not out; WR Wingfield 2-42) KwaZulu-Natal: 189 in 47 overs (A Mall 44, ANW Tweedie 70 not out; DJ Wates 3-27) Result: Western Australia won by 81 runs. Man of the match: ME Hussey (WA) Points table
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Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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