Star batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will be rested for the second match of the tour against the CFX Academy beginning today. Ajit Agarkar and Javagal Srinath who sat out of the game at Mutare will also play. The hosts are fielding a full strength team including Mluleki Nkala, Dion Ebrahim and Gary Brent, all of whom have appeared in international cricket and are trainees at the Zimbabwean Cricket Academy.

Former South African keeper-batsman Dennis Lindsay has been appointed match referee for the Test and one-day internationals between India and Zimbabwe. The umpires for the first Test will be Australia's Daryl Harper & Russell Tiffin (home umpire) in the first Test at Bulawayo while Sri Lanka's Asoka deSilva and Ian Robinson (home umpire) will officiate in the second Test at Harare.

After an early hiccup Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan put on a stubborn 189 run partnership to rescue England from 15-2 to 204-2. Thorpe is unbeaten on 98 and while Vaughan is on 84. Rain ended play early on the second day with England still 199 runs behind Pakistan's first innings total of 403.

Australia raced to 351 amid a flurry of runs and wickets in their opening match of the tour against Worcestershire. It took a century from Damien Martyn to rescue the tourists as wickets fell as quickly as the runs. Martyn made 108 and found a stable partner in leg-spinner Shane Warne, as the two put on 148 for the seventh wicket after which the tourists lost their last four wickets for just 25 runs. In all 53 fours and three sixes came on the opening day.

The Bombay High Court yesterday rejected an application for ad-interim relief to restrain the BCCI from awarding the Indian team sponsorship rights to any other agency than Gayatri Arts. The company had moved the high court, when the BCCI had awarded the sponsorship rights to IMG-TWI, saying that the BCCI, vide a letter from its secretary had awarded the rights to it. Justice DK Deshmukh, who heard the case rejected the application while observing that the letter from the BCCI secretary was only to clarify certain points and cannot be construed as a contract.

Former ICC President Jagmohan Dalmiya today released to the press, the copies of the communication between the BCCI President AC Muthiah and the Sports Ministry. He reaffirmed that the Asian Cricket Council had worked out the Asian Test championship fixtures after receiving the clarification from the BCCI on its government policies regarding cricketing ties with Pakistan. So there was no question of the BCCI not taking prior permission from the government regarding the tour of Pakistan. India will definitely play Pakistan in Karachi from September 13-17 this year, he added.

India's injured leg-spinner Anil Kumble, is reported to have turned down a highly lucrative offer to become a television commentator during the forthcoming India-Zimbabwe Test series and the Triangular series between the two countries and the West Indies. Kumble it seems had been given the offer a few days back to join Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri as a member of the commentary team. However, he declined the offer as he had some prior commitments. He is currently busy shooting for some advertisements and is also preparing to appear in a feature film.

The controversial former chief minister of the state of Bihar and now the new president of the Bihar Cricket Association, Laloo Prasad Yadav, will be visiting Kolkata next week to hold discussions with his counterpart in Bengal, Jagmohan Dalmiya. Yadav, who took over the post recently, is determined to improve the state of the game in Bihar. He also keen of holding a one-day international match between India and Pakistan at Patna.

A five-day long workshop for young and emerging bowlers began at the Dhanmondi Club ground in Dhaka under the supervision of former Indian fast bowler TA Sekhar, currently the chief coach of the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. Sekhar hoped to recommend eight to ten bowlers to the Bangladesh Board for further long-term training. Sekhar also hopes to select at least four boys for a month's training at the MRF Pace Foundation.

The Emirates Cricket Board's (ECB) three-man commission - comprising Sir George Staple (former chief of Anti-Feud bureau in the United Kingdom), former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd and Brig. Al Moalla Mohammed Alif have interviewed former BCCI president IS Bindra in London to clarify on his statements some time ago on the issue of betting in some of the matches at Sharjah. According to Bindra the interview was initially scheduled to be held in a hotel, but was later shifted to Sir George Staple's office, near London museum. Bindra, however declined to disclose the contents of his meeting, although he clarified that the interview went on for two hours and was an in-camera session, with a steno was taking the minutes of the meeting. The ECB had appointed this commission in order to clear Sharjah's name from the match-fixing crisis.

Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva, has not been offered a contract by the Sri Lankan Cricket Board. It seems his name was not submitted to the Board by the national selection committee who drew up the list of 13 players contracted for the next 12 months.

Meanwhile former Sri Lankan Cricket Board president Thilanga Sumathipala said that he had no confidence in the probe committee appointed by Sports Minister Lakshman Kiriella to investigate alleged misdeeds and financial malpractices during his term of office. "We have been unfairly accused of financial mismanagement in the last few months. This is a plot to fix us," he said.