The West Indies who are on a roll after their back to back wins in the Test and one-day international - both at Kingston - against the visiting South Africans, have made two changes to the squad for the second one-day international to be played today at St John's, Antigua. Injured Powell makes way for Shivnaraine Chanderpaul and Kerry Jeremy will be replaced by Nixon McLean. The team: Carl Hooper (captain), Ridley Jacobs (wk), Chris Gayle, Leon Garrick, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Mervyn Dillon, Cameron Cuffy and Nixon McLean, Neil McGarrell.

One of the disappointments, in the otherwise successful tour of the Caribbean for the South Africans, have been the batting form of dashing all-rounder Lance Klusener. The player of the tournament of the 1999 World Cup in England was out first ball in the first one day international, and had managed only 75 runs in the five-match Test series. Skipper Shaun Pollock however is backing his all-rounder to regain his explosive form in the course of the next six one-day matches.

The Pakistan cricket team finally has a coach. England born South African Richard Pybus, who was Pakistan's cricket coach during 1999, before he was replaced by Javed Miandad, will join the Pakistan team in London. He will begin his task with the team by studying and analyzing the recent performances of the England team in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan cricket team will arrive in London today for a month and a half long English summer tour. Led by fast bowler Waqar Younis, the team has not lost a Test series in England since 1982. Pakistan won the Test series on their last three tours to England under the leadership of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram - in 1987: 1-0; in 1992: 2-1 & in 1996: 2-0. However the home side had won the last series in Pakistan in December. Pakistan start their tour with a warm-up match against the British Universities at Nottingham from May 4.

Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar had an unlikely supporter in the form of England skipper Nasser Hussain. Hussain who will be at the receiving end of Akhtar's thunderbolts, came out in support of the fast bowler saying its time Shoaib be allowed to get on with his career as he has been now cleared of chucking action for a second time.

The English players who will be appearing against Pakistan in the first Test beginning on May 17 have been worried over the lack of first-class match practice, following a very wet summer the country has been facing. Many of the contracted players had their county matches washed out. However the consolation for the Englishmen is that the Pakistanis too will also be faced with a similar situation and may be restricted during their warm-up matches leading to the first Test at Lord's, London.

An under-16 school cricketer, Zaheer Abbas from Hyderabad who was in Bangalore to participate in the all-India Schools championship died after battling for life for five days. Abbas was put on a ventilator after he was found lying unconscious at the Karnataka State Cricket Association swimming pool five days ago. Incidentally this is the venue of BCCI's National Cricket Academy (NCA).

The proposed series of matches between left-handers and right-handers, featuring many international stars during the first week of May at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai has been called off. The decision of the television company Set-Max not to sponsor and telecast the event has resulted in the cancellation. The matches was to be held on May 3, 5 and 6 and would have featured many top Indian players and along with players from Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
The proposed teams:
Right-handers: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Aravinda De Silva, Adam Bacher, Javagal Srinath, Paul Reiffel, Marvan Atapattu, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Harbhajan Singh and Nikhil Chopra.
Left-handers: Sourav Ganguly, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chris Harris, Roger Twose, Robin Singh, Russel Arnold, Hashan Tillakaratne, Yuvraj Singh, Chaminda Vaas, Sunil Joshi, Nuwan Zoysa, Zaheer Khan and Kumara Sangakkara.

Batting sensation Sachin Tendulkar was conferred Maharashtra's highest civilian award the "Maharashtra Bhushan Puruskar" (the Pride of Maharashtra award) at a special ceremony in Mumbai yesterday. Tendulkar received the award from the state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, which includes a scroll, a memento and Rs. 5 lakhs (approx US$ 10,500). Tendulkar said he owed what he is today to his late father and his elder brother Ajit. He also thanked his coach Ramakant Achrekar, Sunil Gavaskar and family members for all their support.

Former president of the BCCI IS Bindra has been asked to appear before an inquiry commission in London in mid May for his allegations on the cricket match fixing at Sharjah. Bindra will appear before the CBFS formed committee headed by former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd, to explain his allegations that one of the matches at Sharjah between India and New Zealand was fixed.

ICC's anti corruption chief Sir Paul Condon and his team arrived in Colombo to meet prominent politicians and cricket officials. However Condon will not be meeting the accused players Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda deSilva, who have been named in the Indian CBI report. Meanwhile, Desmond Fernando, the Sri Lankan investigator and the other members of the ICC anti corruption team will meet the Ranatunga and deSilva.

The English umpires now have a new and unlikely sponsor. A two-year deal has been finalised with the British Post Office and umpires will now wear coats with the post office logo. Meanwhile, the new sponsor will also help the Umpires Association to develop a grading system along with the ECB thereby raising the standard of umpiring in the country.

The Australian Cricket Board has announced a list of 25 contracted players for the next one year. The ACB chief Malcolm Speed said the 25 players were chosen based on their form and their possible selection to the Australian squad within the next 12 months. Each contract is believed to be worth A$ 100,000. The selected 25 are.
Michael Bevan, Greg Blewett, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Shane Lee, Darren Lehmann, Martin Love, Damien Martyn, Stuart MacGill, Glenn McGrath, Colin Miller, Ashley Noffke, Ricky Ponting, Michael Slater Andrew Symonds Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh. Among the players not considered are former Test bowler Michael Kasprowicz and batsman Matthew Elliott.

Chris Taylor's last ball four helped Gloucestershire scamper to a win over Warwickshire in the B&H one-day championships. Needing ten runs of the last over bowled by West Indian Vasbert Drakes, Gloucestershire made it despite losing Mark Alleyene in the fourth ball of the over.

England's left-handed opener Marcus Trescothick continued his good form with another hundred for Somerset against Glamorgan at Cardiff, as his team won the match by 6 wickets.

Durham surprised Lancashire with a win by 54 runs after an inspired bowling spell by Neil Killeen (4-18) at Liverpool. Killeen's victims included the prize scalp of the English opener Michael Atherton. Lancashire were bundled out for 139 while chasing 193.

Playing for his new county, Surrey, Mark Ramprakash could only manage 27 before rain intervened in the tie against his former county Middlesex. Both teams were awarded 1 point each as the match had to be abandoned.

The match between Sussex and Essex also had to be abandoned due to rain.

A benefit during the 2002 season has been awarded to the Glamorgan vice captain Adrian Dale. Since he made his debut in 1989, the 32 year old Dale has scored just under 10,000 runs and has taken nearly 200 wickets with his medium pace bowling. He was part of the side that won the championships in 1997. Though he never made it to the England side, Dale has toured South Africa with an England A side some seven year ago.

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