Bobby Refaie has reacted to the decision at the weekend to suspend him as secretary of the USA Cricket Association with a stinging attack on Gladstone Dainty, the USACA’s president, as well as a refusal to accept the action. If the USACA is trying to show the world just how divided and bitter it has become ahead of this week’s crucial ICC meeting, it could not have done a better job.In a move Refaie claimed was a thinly-disguised attempt to influence the elections, Dainty announced on Sunday that the executive had suspended Refaie and three candidates in the board’s elections.In an e-mail to Dainty, Refaie made his position quite clear. “I know that you are a desperate man,” he wrote, “however I am surprised about your ignorance after receiving your e-mail regarding my suspension. It is quite obvious again that you have not cared to read the constitution because you have no intentions of following it.”In the end it is pitiful that you have orchestrated this shameless act and you have been a party to such unconstitutional actions. It shows the sorry state of affairs that USACA is currently in, due to your leadership.”Just in case this had been missed by the ICC, Chai Gadde, a USACA vice-president, wrote to Matthew Kennedy, the ICC’s global development officer, insisting that Dainty’s action was unconstitutional. He stated: “Please be advised that Gladstone’s e-mail, or the so called board’s decision, is arbitrary and is unconstitutional, as the board’s term expired as of January 2005 (as per the USACA constitution) and they cannot pass any resolution, especially when they have a conflict.” The mail concluded with a request for the ICC to investigate “illegal actions and mishandling of the electoral process.”But Dainty told Cricinfo that the meeting did have seven directors present and the intention had been to hold it earlier but that had been blocked by some directors who had insisted on the requisite 14-days notice being given. “Decisions made were consistent with the board’s desire to conduct fair elections,” Dainty explained. “What is most important to us is the rights of individuals. It is the law.”All these events do is tend to confirm that the ICC was right to suspend Project USA and that Malcolm Speed’s criticism of the USACA executive hit the nail on the head. Once again, the only losers are likely to be the grassroots players and supporters inside the US.
The experienced allrounder Neil McGarrell has been appointed as captain of Guyana for the first three matches of the 2004 Carib Beer Series. The selectors have also named a predictable 13-man squad for the three matches, that will all be played away from home.McGarrell also led Guyana last year in the absence of Carl Hooper, who was leading West Indies in the World Cup in southern Africa at the time.Shivnarine Chanderpaul captained Guyana in the Red Stripe Bowl last October, but both he and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the current West Indies vice-captain, are unavailable for Guyana’s early matches as they are with the Test team in South Africa.McGarrell, a left-arm spinner and solid lower-order batsman, has represented the West Indies in four Tests and 17 one-dayers. The legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo, another player with international experience, is McGarrell’s vice-captain.Guyana’s first match is at Bridgetown from January 9 to 12. They then play Jamaica at Kingston (Jan 16-19), and the Windward Islands at Roseau (Jan 23-26).Guyana squad Neil McGarrell (capt), Sewnarine Chattergoon, Azeemul Haniff, Krishna Arjune, Lennox Cush, Travis Dowlin, Narsingh Deonarine, Vishal Nagamootoo, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Rayon Griffith, Rayon Thomas, Esaun Crandon, Andre Percival.
Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Zimbabwe threatened to make good their skipper’s threat of putting a 450-plus score on the board. However, a threat alone, without a show of force, is never worth much. Just when the support cast decided to click, the lead actor dropped out. Without a big knock from Andy Flower, it was evident that there was no way Zimbabwe would do better than their eventual 248/8. No disrespect at all to Stuart Carlisle and his fighting 77, though; he did his bit admirably.Zaheer Khan, fresh from his consecutive 10-wicket hauls in domestic cricket, generated good pace on a wicket that is better suited to a game of clay-court tennis than three seamers charging in and trying to snuff out defensive batsmen. Flat, dry, and with cracks that threaten to open up and beckon to the tweakers from as early as the morning of the third day, this is a standard Nagpur wicket.To his credit, the Baroda left-arm seamer made the best use of what little movement there was early on before using the old ball to reverse-swing prodigiously. Bowling from over the wicket to the right-handers, Zaheer Khan managed to get a good angle going away from the batsmen, ending the day with figures of 3/45. Anil Kumble, a bit lucky at times, backed up well, taking 3/72.Nasser Hussain, in England’s recent tour of India warned of “turgid cricket.” Carlisle has said to the press that he wanted to “attack like the English.” He means it. Despite a lot of people writing off Zimbabwe, Carlisle the batsman took his job very seriously indeed. Maybe there were no flashing drives, no powerful horizontal bat shots, and the spectators may have been less than thrilled with Carlisle’s approach, but it did the visitors a world of good.Carlisle, living upto the new-found responsibility of being captain, showed that he was not overawed by the reputation of India being tigers at home, and he certainly is not alone in that respect in this Zimbabwean team. The Royal Bengal, thus, looks to be highly endangered, struggling to survive these days. Hitting tweaker Harbhajan Singh over long-on for a six was only the icing on the cake – a wholesome, sumptuous one, rather than the rich kind associated with flat batting wickets.Keen to stick around in the middle, Carlisle negotiated the swinging old ball with care until a comedy of errors sorted him out. The visiting captain edged an off-break from Harbhajan Singh, only for keeper Deep Dasgupta to grass the catch. The batsmen should never have contemplated a single. Never run off a misfield, they say; but perhaps in Zimbabwe, they do not have any old sayings about running off dropped catches. Before Carlisle could make the 22 yards to safety at the bowler’s end, Shiv Sunder Das had fired the ball across for the bowler to whip off the bails, saving his East Zone colleague the blushes. A captain’s knock of 77 (204 b, 10×4, 1×6) came to a sorry end.Aside from Carlisle’s knock, there were two events that Zimbabwean scribes can write home about. Depending on whom you support, and whether you want the good news or the bad news first, here they are.”Flower blooms,” “Andy blossoms,” “Indian bowlers wilt” and similar horticultural headlines were dashed by a searing in-swinging yorker from Zaheer Khan. Andy Flower’s 3 will please the Indians no end. Nightmares of the last series, when Flower averaged an uber-Bramanesque 270, will slowly recede into the background.The good news for Zimbabwe was the tidy half-century that Alistair Campbell helped himself to. Batting with elan, the tall left-hander timed the ball sweetly to the fence on nine occasions. On 57, Campbell must have had visions of another century at Nagpur. After scoring a boundary and a brace, with the adrenaline running high, Campbell slapped a cover drive to VVS Laxman at short cover. The sharp catch was held, and Zimbabwe had lost their second wicket.That apart, the batting card did not make healthy reading Trevor Gripper, Gavin Rennie, Grant Flower, Heath Streak and Tatenda Taibu all failed to reach even 25.Travis Friend provided some welcome entertainment towards the end, thrashing the ball around to all parts to reach 33 off just 31 balls with six hits to the fence. In doing so, he injected some life into Zimbabwe’s batting display. That might have brought a smile to the Zimbabwe camp, but it will not be enough to take the visitors to a comfortable score in this Test match.
After the drama and pantomime of the Northern Districts v Wellington game on Friday, Blake Park in Mount Maunganui witnessed an altogether more sedate affair today.Northern Districts defeated Otago by four wickets with more than three overs to spare. Northern go above their opponents to the top of the Shell Cup table after six rounds. Barring disasters, they should finish in the top three to qualify for the knockout stage. The team that wins the league goes straight through to the best of three final.A number of squalls passed close to the ground, but it was a tornado named Doull that swept through at the start of the Northern innings that was the decisive difference. He scored 45 of the 51 runs made while he was in. His innings included six fours, a five and a six.Doull has entered into the spirit of pinch hitting with abandon and can target an edge with the precision of a guided missile.Otago should have known that it was not their day when a perfectly good over from Kerry Walmsley – the fifth of the innings – went for 13, including two edged fours and four overthrows.Doull enabled the remaining batsmen to have the space to build their innings, though not all of them took it. James Marshall looked fluent before holing out to a Forde long hop and it was left to Neal Parlane and Grant Bradburn to guide the home team to victory with a sixth wicket partnership of 69. Without this, things might have been very tight.Parlane finished the game with a huge six over cover.Off-spinner Simon Forde had the best figures for Otago (10-0-27-3).Otago fell at least twenty short of setting Northern a decent target. They got off to a good enough start, with Hore and Gaffeney putting on 44 for the second wicket. Gaffeney top scored for Otago with 47Wickets fell regularly thereafter, with later batsmen unable to produce acceleration in the closing stages. The last boundary of the innings was hit as early as the forty-third over. Craig Pryor scored 39 from 64 balls without ever looking in touch.It was a good all round bowling performance from Northern, only Alex Tait being wayward early on. Slow left-armer Bruce Martin was outstanding, with figures of 10-0-28-3. Tuffey was almost as good, with 8-0-27-2.Northern’s fielding was a factor too. James Marshall was outstanding, both in the circle and in the deep. There was as much as 20 runs difference in the runs saved by the two sides in the field. Otago suffered from too many misfields and loose returns.Transport problems prevented Otago’s three Black Caps, Horne, Wiseman and O’Connor, from being here. They were much missed.The Shell Trophy returns on Tuesday, with Northern travelling to Auckland, while Otago entertain Canterbury.
Wolves have another Premier League fixture ahead of them this evening with a clash against relegation strugglers Watford at Molineux.
Having lost their three previous league games with just one goal scored and five conceded, Bruno Lage’s side will be desperate to put this poor run of form behind them and grab a much-needed victory to reignite their chances of securing European football for next season.
On the chalkboard
One figure that has not started the Old Gold’s two previous league games that should make a return to the side on this occasion is striker Raul Jimenez.
Since arriving at Molineux back in the 2018 summer transfer window on loan from Benfica before signing on a permanent deal a year later, the 30-year-old, who has been described as a “special” player in the past by former Old Gold boss Nuno Santo, has scored 53 goals in 122 appearances across all competitions, showing how prominent he has been for his team in front of goal.
Taking into account how the Midlands club have failed to score a goal in the two games that the Mexican has started on the bench, this should persuade the Wolves boss to put the £100k-per-week striker back in to see if he can start firing again for his side, which is what they badly need at the moment.
With Watford having conceded 27 more league goals than the Old Gold this season with 50 in total, perhaps this is the exact sort of opposition that Jimenez can reignite his prowess against after not managing to find the back of the net since Wolves’ 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur almost a month ago.
With Hwang Hee-chan only managing to have three shots at goal in the two previous league games that he started against West Ham United and Crystal Palace, this will surely give Lage an easy decision as to who he could take out of the team to make way for the £19.8m-rated centre-forward.
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Whether the former Benfica manager decides to bring the striker back into the starting XI tonight or not, this will still be a massive game for the home side and their season, as anything other than a win would surely be seen as another huge disappointment for the club.
In other news: Wolves may unearth the “next Iniesta” as Lage plots bid for £8.1m-rated Moutinho heir
Nisal Senaratne’s death on Sunday at the age of 75 robbed Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) of one of its most ardent officials.Senaratne had the unique distinction of holding the post of secretary of the Boardof Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) when they were first admitted as anAssociate Member of the ICC in 1964 and 17 years later as a Full Member of the ICC. He was also board secretary from 1976 to 1978 and secretary of Moratuwa SC from 1973 to 1981 as well as a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).”He was one of the few people who was responsible for arranging bilateral tours for usduring the pre-Test era,” Duleep Mendis, former Sri Lanka captain, said. “He could always be relied upon to do a proper job. He was a thorough gent.”A wicket-keeper/batsman at Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa, Senaratne was picked to play forCombined Colleges against All-India in 1949 and went onto to play division I Sara trophy cricket for Moratuwa SC and SSC. He was also asked to manage the Ceylon team under Michael Tissera that toured India in 1964 and made history by recording their first unofficial Test victory at Ahmedabad. He later managed the Sri Lankan team to England in 1981when Sri Lanka was granted Test status. He was also their manager at the 1987 World Cup.
South Africa’s batting collapse in both its warm-up matches is not a cause for panic, says coach Mickey Arthur. South Africa were bowled out for 192 in their 35-run victory over Ireland and then for 199 in their seven-wicket loss to Pakistan.”Had the coin had fallen the other way and had we bowled first, it would have been different,” Arthur told the AFP about the match against Pakistan. “Our bowlers had a decent workout, but the only concern is that the top order still needs some runs.”The game was held up during South Africa’s innings as the batsmen complained about the pitch surface. Arthur said that it took the team 10 overs after the break to get back the intensity but denied that they had given up.”The last thing we wanted was to lose a player like Jacques Kallis [on an unpredictable pitch] as he is obviously crucial to our preparations. We were five down early and wanted 220, but ended up shorter than that.” Arthur also said he didn’t think that matches in the main competition would be played on such pitches.”I think it’s certainly going to be a bowl-first competition, but the toss is not going to be as crucial as it was today,” he said.Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, agreed that the conditions were difficult when South Africa batted and there had been some concern. But on being asked if the pitches would favour subcontinental sides, Inzamam said that it was the quality of cricket and not the state of the pitches that mattered.Inzamam was happy with the team’s performance, however, and picked out Mohammad Hafeez, the opener, for special mention. “Hafeez is in form and he is a key member of the team,” said Inzamam. “He is now looking forward to the main competition. It always helps when a top-order batsman scores briskly.”Hafeez scored 49 against South Africa and added 74 runs for the second wicket along with Younis Khan. “There is a lot of confidence in the team and they are looking forward to the main tournament after morale-boosting performances,” Inzamam added. He also agreed that since people did not have high expectations of Pakistan winning, there was less pressure on the side.Bob Wooolmer, the Pakistan coach, said that all the players had got the much-needed practice. “All top six batsmen have got good practice,” Woolmer said. “As far as the win goes, since it was 13-a-side match, we do take it with a pinch of salt. We now need to win the main matches.”Pakistan’s first match of the World Cup is on the opening day of the tournament, against West Indies at Sabina Park in Jamaica, while South Africa’s first match is against Netherlands at Warner Park in St Kitts on March 16.
Parthiv Patel, the wicketkeeper-batsman, who has opened for India several times including the Rawalpindi Test last year in which he made 65, said he preferred the opening position. “Opening gives me confidence,” said the diminutive player who made 47 as an opener for Gujarat in their Elite Division Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai at Ahmedabad on Wednesday.”I was batting confidently. I am a bit disappointed about the manner in which I got out,” Parthiv said, adding that he was able to successfully negotiate the seaming ball on a green track.”The ball was seaming in the morning and I had planned to get a big score under my belt which would have given me added confidence before the tour of Pakistan,” Parthiv told mediapersons. He said he was under no pressure when he was about to reach his 50. Parthiv fell at 47 off Ramesh Powar.He said he was well aware that he was touring Pakistan as a second wicketkeeper but was “ready to grab any opportunity” during the Test series and make the most of it.
Shaun Pollock has failed to recover from a long-term ankle injury, and will not participate in the second one-day international against Zimbabwe in Durban on Sunday. Pollock, who also missed the first match at The Wanderers, is likely to be replaced by Charl Langeveldt.”It’s an opportunity to give Shaun more time to recover, and to bring back Charl after his injury,” Gerald De Kock, South Africa’s media manager told Reuters. He also said that South Africa can rest Graeme Smith, the captain, for the next game and Makhaya Ntini for the third one-dayer in Port Elizabeth.Langeveldt, who had fractured his hand in the Cape Town Test against England, will be back in the side after making an impressive Test debut. He played an important role in South Africa’s win in the third Test at Cape Town.South Africa won the first match by 165 runs and lead the three-match series 1-0.
In our new series, My Australia tour, Indian cricketers of the past describe their experiences while touring Australia. In our second instalment, Venkatapathy Raju speaks to Siddhartha Vaidyanathan about the 1991-92 tour.
My first visit to Australia was in 1986-87 when I was part of the under-19 squad for the youth World Cup. So when I went with the Indian team in 1991-92 I had a pretty good idea of the country.The tour was a lengthy one since it involved the Test matches, the one-day tri-series and continued through to the World Cup. There was hardly any rest in between and the travelling took a lot out of us. The grounds in Australia are much bigger than you can imagine and it demands a very high level of physical fitness to play there. We came very close to winning the tri-series final and that was the highpoint of the summer. The Australians were too good for us in the Test matches and the World Cup was also a disappointing affair.It is very difficult to bowl against such an aggressive team. They have a fixed plan to score at a very fast rate and have the ability to convert good balls into boundaries. The Kookaburra ball that is used there does not have as prominent a seam as the SG ball that we use in India. The SG ball has a bigger and harder seam and it is tough to get used to the Kookaburra.Apart from the intense cricket on the field there were several other factors that worked against us on that tour. The media were particularly intent on putting us down. I remember an instance when Azhar got a hundred in a tour game but the newspapers showed a picture of him getting bowled. They never wrote about a good bowling performance from our side. The present Indian side will do well to ignore the media completely and just get on with their game.Sledging and mind games are part of the Australian team’s gameplan. It is very common in their domestic cricket and it carries on into the higher level also. You have to completely isolate yourself from the verbal games.Having studied in a boarding school I have always loved to mingle with people from different cultures. Geoff Marsh and Merv Hughes were very good friends of mine and I remember the delicious barbecue that we had in Marsh’s house in Western Australia. I also remember taking long walks on the streets of Melbourne with Javagal Srinath. It is a very beautiful country for a tourist but due to our hectic schedule there was very little time to go around.I remember batting in Melbourne when Hughes was pitching it short and I got hit on the helmet a couple of times. He was constantly growling at me when I reached the non-striker’s end. After the game we met on the flight and I told him, “Big fellow, I don’t like your moustache” and gave it a hard pull. The entire Australian team was in complete splits to see a tiny guy like me pulling Big Merv’s moustache. That is one moment I will treasure always.