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The West Indies Cricket Board is to introduce a new system where in shabby cricket will result in deduction of match fees. Fines will be slapped on players for dropping a catch, failing to attempt to take a catch, giving one's wicket away with poor shot selection and mis-fielding. The poor performance of the West Indies in the current series has resulted in the Board deciding to take this extreme step. A 22 year-old left arm spinner Gulam Bodi from Natal has been called upon to replace the injured Nicky Boje in the South African team for the one-dayers against South Africa. Bodi is currently in England playing club cricket in the Lancashire league.
Zimbabwe are hoping to end their poor streak at Bulawayo when the first Test against minnows Bangladesh begins there today. The host is yet to win a match at this venue in seven Tests since 1994.
Tasmania's Daniel Marsh young all rounder claimed four quick wickets to wind up the innings of Loughborough UCCE and help his county Leicestershire to a 249-run win. Marsh, a left-arm spinner compensated his poor run with the bat by taking four quick wickets. Marsh is the son of former Australian wicket-keeper Rodney Marsh. England and Glamorgan off-spinner Robert Croft said it was time the ECB did away with the practice of hiring overseas cricketers for county cricket. He was reacting to the fact that this season most of the National Cricket Boards have not released their top players due to their international commitments. Croft felt as a result, this year's county season is filled with overseas players on the verge of making their international debut. Croft felt if overseas players were hired they should be the best or not hired at all, as most of the overseas players use county cricket as a "finishing school" and thus hindering the development of the young local cricketers. Spring snow denied Durham a victory over their neighbours Durham UCCE on the final day at Riverside. Overnight rain and snow allowed for only 21 overs to be bowled on the final day.
Australian skipper Steve Waugh defended the decision that his Ashes squad is too old. He said all the players selected are aware that failure to perform in England will result in sweeping changes to the side. The skipper of the squad that has been titled "Dads' Army" believes that there are plenty of players waiting in the fringe contrary to what has been reported. Incidentally this Australian team is the oldest in the last 50 years to undertake a tour.
A Western Australian state cricketer Duncan Spencer has been found guilty of a doping offence and is likely to face at least a two year suspension from the state and international cricket. The ASDA (Australian Sports Drug Testing Agency) which conducts a random unannounced drug-testing programme of state cricketers had Spencer tested after the Mercantile Mutual Cup final in which his state played against New South Wales on February 25. A decision about Spencer will be taken by the Australian Cricket Board shortly. The first hundred of the English cricket season went to Benjamin Hutton of Middlesex, the grandson of the great Sir Len Hutton of England and Yorkshire. 24 year old Ben made 133 against Oxford University. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa he is the eldest son of former England all-rounder Richard Hutton. The Goa police recovered about Rs. 4.0 lakhs (about US$ 8700.00) from the residence of former Goa Cricket Association treasurer Rama Shankardas. Shankardas was one of the accused in the fake ticket sale scam during the India-Australia one-dayer in Goa on April 6. The Cricket Club of India (CCI) has decided to honour former Pakistani captain Asif Iqbal and the chief of the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) Abdul Rehman Bukhatir with the honorary life memberships of the club. The Chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Raj Singh Dungarpur's decision to allot Mohali, Pune, Nagpur and CCI (Mumbai) as additional zonal centers has not gone well with the other members of the BCCI, including its Hon. Secretary Jaywant Lele. The proposal to set up the new academies at the above centers is likely to be challenged by Lele and others during the BCCI's next working committee meeting on April 24. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has invited former India captain and left-arm spinner Bishan Bedi to speak at a conference for coaches. The programme called 'Cricket Live 2001' will be attended by 4000 coaches from world over. The other cricketers invited to delivery lectures are: South African Barry Richards, Zimbabwean and now England coach, Duncan Fletcher, Englishmen Bob Cottam and Mike Gatting, Australian Ian Healy, Terry Jenner and Rodney Marsh and Pakistani Mushtaq Mohammad.
The Ranji Trophy final gets underway today at the Gujarat State Fertilizers Corporation (GSFC) Ground at Baroda today. The five-day final features two unlikely teams Baroda and Railways. Baroda was a force to reckon during the forties and fifties, last won the title in 1957-58. Meanwhile Railways reached their only final in 1987-88 when it lost to Tamil Nadu. Incidentally the two teams met twice before in 1996-97 and 1999-00 and on both occasions Baroda won on the first innings lead. However this clash promises to be more of a mental duel as both teams were confident after their good show in the early knockout rounds. The teams: Railways: Abhay Sharma (capt/wk), Sanjay Bangar, Murali Kartik, Amit Pagnis, Tejinder Palsingh, Yere Goud, Raja Ali, Shreyas Khanolkar, Santosh Sahu, Kulmani Parida, Zakir Hussain, Harvinder Singh, P S Rawat, Sudhir Wankhede and Dhiraj Sharma. 
Yesterday's News
News Roll archive
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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Allan Donald will return to the South African side for the fifth Test beginning from 19th April at Kingston, Jamaica after missing the fourth Test at St John's, Antigua. All-rounder Justin Kemp who replaced Donald for the fourth Test is likely to be retained while Paul Adams is likely to be left out. West Indies have chosen to retain the same side that lost the fourth Test at St John's, which will mean that young Jamaican Leon Garrick who made an unbeaten 174 against the tourists in a side game will have to wait in the wings. However one of the spinners left-armer Neil McGarrell or leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnaraine will be left out for fast bowler Cameroon Cuffy.
Fast bowler Courtney Walsh is likely to retire from Test cricket after the final Test against South Africa. He will be probably playing the last Test of his career in his home town Jamaica. Walsh said he would talk to the West Indies skipper Carl Hooper before he made his final decision. Walsh has a record tally of 513 wickets in 131 Test matches. 
Bangladesh made some sweeping changes to the structure of their team for their first ever Test match on foreign soil. The team is as follows: Naimur Rahman (Capt), Khaled Mashud (WK), Mehrab Hossain, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar, Aminul Islam, Akram Khan, Mohammad Rafique, Hasibul Hussain, Mohammed Sharif, Mushfiqur Rahman, Manjural Islam. If selected in the final eleven pace bowler Mohammad Sharif at 15 years 128 days will be the youngest player to represent Bangladesh in Tests and the third youngest in all Test cricket after Pakistani Hasan Raza (14 years 227 days) and Mushtaq Mohammad (15 years 124 days).
