South Africa in Zimbabwe

No play was possible on the second day of the second Test at Bulawayo yesterday after overnight rain left the outfield totally wet.
A decision was taken to abandon play after lunch as the umpires felt that the condition of the ground was not not good despite the fact that the rain had stopped by the schedule start of play.
Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak expressed his disappointment at the loss of a day's play as his team had made a reasonably good start and was looking to consolidate on the second day.
Zimbabwe were 154 for two in their first innings when bad light stopped play after 86.1 overs on the first day.

News from England

The England and Wales Cricket Board said it had no plans to call off its tours to Zimbabwe and India in the aftermath of the attacks on the United States and the prevailing political situation around the world. The England team is scheduled to leave for Zimbabwe on September 26 and arrive in India mid November.

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The Kent skipper Matthew Fleming came out strongly against the England team selected to tour Zimbabwe for five one-day international matches.
Fleming said he was sore about the selectors excluding players from the National League's leading sides for the tour. He added that it was clear that the selectors did not obviously think much about their own domestic competition.
Essex, which lies third from the bottom of the table has three representatives in the national side ((Nasser Hussain, James Foster and Paul Grayson), while top teams like Leicestershire (James Ormond) and Warwickshire (Nick Knight) have only one player in.
His own county Kent has no representation. The full team is as follows:
Nasser Hussain (captain), Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, James Foster, Paul Grayson, Matthew Hoggard, Ben Hollioake, James Kirtley, Nick Knight, Mark Ramprakash, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Jeremy Snape, Marcus Trescothick, Craig White.

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The England and Wales Cricket Board meanwhile announced that James Ormond has been forced to withdraw from the forthcoming tour to Zimbabwe through injury. He has been suffering from patellar tendonitis to his right knee during the latter part of this season and he has been advised to have a period of rest and rehabilitation prior to the Test Match tour to India in November. The announcement of his replacement will be made on Monday.

Miscellaneous

Former president of Board of Control for Cricket in India Raj Singh Dungarpur once again reiterated the demand for sacking Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and replacing him with Rahul Dravid. Speaking at a function of the press club of Mumbai on Friday, Dungarpur said Ganguly gives the impression of an isolated figure on the field. Moreover he is not a good fielder, neither a good student of the game nor is he in good batting form. Hence, India will be better off by appointing Dravid, he opined.

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New Zealand Cricket Council will seek additional games at the start of their Australian tour to compensate for the loss of the Pakistan tour. The NZCC will request for two extra state games to help the team prepare for the onerous Australian tour after it was recalled from the tour of Pakistan.

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The following teams - Sussex (the Division Two champions), Hampshire and Warwickshire have been promoted to Division One for the next season's English county championships, while Northamptonshire, Glamorgan and Essex have been relegated to Division Two.

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The CBFS has decided to go ahead with tri-nation tournament at Sharjah scheduled in November despite the uncertain political situation prevailing in the Middle-East after the recent terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

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Kumal More's unbeaten 101 enabled Mumbai beat Baroda once again in the triangular tournament in Nairobi. Mumbai won by six wickets. Baroda batting first made 238-8 in their 50 overs. Openers Connor Williams (65 in 79 balls, 8 fours) and Satyajit Parab (41 off 60 balls, seven fours) were the main scorers. Mumbai skipper and pace bowler Paras Mhambrey and leg-spinner Siaraj Bahutule took two wickets each.

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The world's richest cricket board, the BCCI, has made a profit of Rs. 38 crores (about US$ 8 million) for the period April 2000 to March 2001 despite India not undertaking any off-shore cricket tours to Sharjah, Toronto and Singapore. Last year the Board made a profit of 26. crores (about US$ 5.5 million).

Scores at a Glance

Zimbabwe vs South Africa (2nd Test)
Played at Bulawayo (2nd day)
Toss: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe: 154-2 (A Campbell 77, D Ebrahim 71;
L Klusner 1-31, C Henderson 1-44)

Note: No play possible on the second day due to rain.

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