India in South Africa

Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid has said that he will definitely play in the three match Test series against South Africa despite having a troublesome shoulder.
Dravid had a scan done in Cape Town that ruled out the need for any immediate surgery. Dravid is a key member of the current Indian side and his injury has come as a big worry for the beleaguered Indian camp leading up to the Test matches.

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The Indian teams hope of getting a sufficient warm up before the first Test math beginning over the week end suffered a big blow when the first day's play against South African Board President's XI at Chatsworth was completely washed out due to rain.
The match will now be played as a two-day game if rain permits, as the tourists have to reach Bloemfontein in another two days so as to get practice on the Test venue.
Play was officially called off after an inspection at noon with the outfield still very soggy. The Indians did not name a team for the match but were expected to try out their Test opening batting pair of Shiv Sunder Das and Connor Williams, who badly needed some batting practice in South African conditions.

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The president of the BCCI Jagmohan Dalmiya expressed serious concerns over the poor performance of the national team in South Africa.
He however, said the Board did not want to disturb the team now because it was still in the middle of the tour. He however said he would look into the matter once the team got back.
Dalmiya also divulged that coach John Wright and physio Andrew Leipus had responded to the letter he had sent to them as soon as he became Board President regarding the team's performance, but refused to divulge details regarding the contents.

The England tour

The BCCI has asked its counterparts in England to finalise the team for the tour of India by November 5 for administrative and logistic purposes. The Indian Board has told the ECB in no uncertain terms to stop worrying about security saying delaying decisions would not be acceptable. Dalmiya said he felt the delaying tactic by the players sent wrong signals from the country said it would not be possible to wait for much longer.

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In the meanwhile, India have threatened to pull out of the June 2002 tour of England if England do not tour India next month. England are due to leave on November 14 but five players from England's 16-strong squad, however, have asked more time to decide if they should travel. Mark Butcher, has suggested he might change his mind about the tour. The ECB have said they would replace any player opting out of tour adding that he would not be punished for deciding to stay back.

Khaleej Times Trophy, Sharjah

Zimbabwe face Sri Lanka in a must win match to stay in contention for a place in the final. Zimbabwe who have lost the last 14 one day matches they have played are desperate for a win after losing both their first round matches.
Another loss by them today will render the rest of the league matches redundant with Pakistan and Sri Lanka just bracing themselves up for the final.
This year's 250,000-dollar event has the organizers slightly worried as it has failed to generate the ususal enthusiasm among the cricket-crazy expatriates of the desert venue. None of the three matches played so far have had full houses.

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The ongoing tournament in Sharjah is being closely watched by the anti corruption investigators of the ICC. Sharjah is one neutral venues highlighted by the ICC as being particularly vulnerable to attempts to fix match results.
After the Sharjah tournament the ICC investigators will also be visiting New Delhi to meet up with security and law enforcement agencies in an effort to combat match-fixing leading up to the 2003 World Cup.

Miscellaneous

The packed 2002 schedule that awaits the Australians at home has resulted in the officials rethink about venues to host international matches.
Australia is scheduled to tour Pakistan in August-September next year, but if it does not materialize Australia may have to host Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka in 2002 and South Africa in the 2003-03 season.
The Northern Australian city of Darwin is being short-listed as one of the likely new venues to stage matches to ease the burden of a packed season.

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Pakistan cricket finds itself in trouble yet again. Leading players Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana have requested the Pakistan Board to get them released from their contracts with Coca-Cola.
The softdrink giant Coca-Cola through a private sport management company, Sports Unlimited had signed eight Pakistan players namely Waqar, Inzamam, Youhana, Saeed Anwar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Moin Khan, Azhar Mahmood and Mushtaq Ahmed for two years during which period these players are contracted to appear in commercials endorsing the drink.
Problems began a few months ago after majority of the players started avoiding to shoot more commercials for Coca-Cola. This change in behaviour came about after Pepsi who are the official Pakistan team objected to players appearing in the Cola commercial.
The PCB initially supported the players saying the Pepsi contract with was restricted to on the field and concerned the Pakistan team and the players individually had not violated any contract by appearing in Coca-Cola commercials.
Now they have belatedly realised that it is a conflict of interests. The problem facing the players now is that their contract with Coca-Cola through a private agency called Sports Unlimited is so airtight that any falling back on commitments may result in a big legal suit

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The coach of the National Cricket Academy in England, Rodney Marsh, takes the first batch of 16 hopeful young English cricketers on a tour of Australia.
He warned the youngsters that it would be no holiday and that if they did not toughen up they would be on the first plane back home.
The former Aussie stumper successfully headed the Australian Academy for 11 years and has been appointed by the ECB to spot and develop youngsters in England.
Marsh has also appointed two high profile Australian coaches to assist him in training in England.

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Former BCCI secretary JY Lele may be down but not out. Speaking to a popular newspaper in Sharjah Lele hit out at the selectors for not including the Baroda stumper Nayan Mongia for the Test matches in South Africa.
He alleged that Ganguly kept pressing the claims of youngster Yuvraj Singh more for selfish commercial gains (Ganguly and Yuvraj endorse the same soft drink) than for his talent.
He said it was outrage to have a keeper in the side and yet make Dravid keep wickets, and then keep Deep Dasgupta as second wicket keeper for the Tests.

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Former West Indies pace bowler Curtly Ambrose said none of the current crop of pace bowlers of his country could be compared even closely with him.
He said they still had a lot of work to doAmbrose who retired from Test cricket last year after taking 405 wickets said he rated David Boon, Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Graham Gooch as the best batsmen he ever bowled to.

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