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North Zone 35 for 1 trail Central Zone 154 (Joginder 3-16, Bhandari 3-56) by 119 runs
Scorecard
Gagan Khoda, the Central Zone captain, must have regretted his decision to bat first as his team were skittled out for only 154 on the first day at Gurgaon. Khoda’s 46 saved his team further embarrassment that Central looked to be heading for when they were 64 for 5. Vineet Saxena (26) and Naman Ojha (25) prevent a complete disaster with their 43-run stand. Joginder Sharma, the medium pacer from Haryana, took 3 for 16 from his 14 overs and picked up the important wickets of Khoda (46) and Jai Prakash Yadav (3). Amit Bhandari, the medium pacer from Delhi, also picked up three wickets. North ended the day at 35 for 1, with Gautam Gambhir being the only casualty. He was bowled by Yadav after taking more than an hour to reach 4. Aakash Chopra and Yuvraj Singh were at the crease when stumps were drawn.

New Zealand are determined to make a clean sweep of Bangladesh when the two sides meet for the third and final one-day international at the Queenstown Events Centre. Inclement summer weather disrupted practice on the eve of the game and more is forecast on game day, but the mood remained upbeat in the home camp.The hosts go into the clash having already clinched the series 2-0 courtesy a 102-run D/L method win in Napier but John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, hoped to build on two wins against Bangladesh after disappointing tours to South Africa and Australia.”Rhythm, momentum going into the Test series, the goal is to continue building confidence and lift of our performance from the other two games – setting the bar a little bit higher each time,” he told the . “For us, confidence and self-assessment is extremely important. It’s not necessarily important what the opposition is doing, it’s what we’re doing and I think we can still lift the bar.”After struggling in their last two series, New Zealand’s batsman put up runs – albeit expectedly – against Bangladesh, chasing 202 with six wickets left and posting 335 for 5. The bowlers were unable to dismiss an out-of-form Bangladesh batting line-up in Napier but Bracewell put faith in his opening pair, Kyle Mills and Chris Martin. Mills has seven wickets in two games, including 4 for 40 in Napier and Martin has conceded less than three runs an over despite not having taken a wicket.”I’ve been pleased with the heat with which Chris has bowled. Without Shane Bond, he’s our go-to player, and he’s still learning the skills [of one-day bowling],” said Bracewell. “He’s only played 11 or 12 one-day games [since his debut in 1999] so he’s still making the adjustment from that continual line and length at test-match level.”Mark Gillespie, the right-arm medium-pacer, remains a doubt after aggravating his left shoulder in Napier and will be assessed before the match. Michael Mason could get a game on a track that traditionally favours seam bowling. It is unlikely that offspinner Jeetan Patel will play.A loss to Bangladesh would send New Zealand from third to fourth place on the International Cricket Council’s ODI rankings.Bracewell’s opposite number, Jamie Siddons, said his side had no pretensions about upstaging their opposition. “We don’t pretend that we’re going to compete with New Zealand on a regular basis at this point in time. We are learning, but it’s going to take time. They’re young players, some are only playing their first or second game of their lives at this level.”There’s a learning curve they have to go through and we’re going to suffer some pain. We’re suffering that pain now – there’s no way around it.”Only Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed and Tamim Iqbal have scored fifties in the series and the middle order has generally come a cropper against seam bowling. With two Tests looming, Bangladesh need to pick up their game.Teams (likely)New Zealand: 1 Jamie How, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Peter Fulton, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Mathew Sinclair, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Michael Mason, 11 Chris Martin.Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Junaid Siddique, 3 Aftab Ahmed, 4 Mohammad Ashraful, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mehrab Hossain Jnr, 7 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Farhad Reza, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Shahadat Hossain.

Pakistan’s plans to adopt a ground rotation policy for next month’s home series against Zimbabwe suffered a minor setback after Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot was declared dangerous for spectators.A PCB official told that the idea of holding an ODI at Jinnah Stadium was dropped after it was discovered that one of the pavilions at the stadium was in “pretty bad shape”.”It would have been risky to stage a match in Sialkot because of that particular pavilion,” the official said. “Also the road leading to the stadium is in a shambles. We will now host an international match in Sialkot sometime later.”Sialkot hasn’t hosted an international match for over ten years. A Quaid-e-Azam trophy first-round match between National Bank of Pakistan and Sialkot was abandoned due to unplayable pitch conditions in October.Zimbabwe arrive in Pakistan on January 12 for a series of five ODIs and a three-day and four-day game.

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, has said it was tremendous beating South Africa on their home soil, especially so with a relatively young and inexperienced side. “It was really pleasing to see how we operated under pressure,” Gayle told the . “We just have to try and keep on improving and maintaining the discipline.”Gayle said West Indies now have to focus on improving on their performance in Port Elizabeth where they won their first away Test against a sizeable opposition since June 2000 when they beat England in Birmingham. “This is a different challenge. We usually win Test matches at the end of the series when it’s already lost. Now, we are one-up at the start of a series so we’ll see how we cope with it for the next couple of days. We know what we’re here for so we’re not going to be complacent.”Though he admitted that leadership was important, Gayle insisted that every player must be given the chance to prove himself. “Sometimes too much is expected of them too soon. You have to give them time to develop as persons and as cricketers as well.”Of his own style of captaincy, Gayle said he tells it like it is. “I’m not going to lie or anything like that. It’s not for you to take what I say personally, whatever the situation, but to understand and look into yourself to see where improvements can be made.”Looking forward to the second Test, Gayle said West Indies expected South Africa to come back strong and hard at them. “We’ll be prepared for it,” he countered. “We’re looking for the fight. Challenges are what we expect, so we’ll try to cope with it. Cape Town is always a good wicket so hopefully we can put up an even better performance there than we did in this game.”Graeme Smith, the South African captain, said South Africa were better individually and as a team than they had shown the four days in Port Elizabeth and promised they would rebound in the next Test. He said the three days of rain preceding the match had hampered South Africa’s preparations but refused to use it as an excuse for the defeat.The second Test will start on January 2, followed by the third and final one in Durban on January 10.

Pakistan’s joy at reaching the final of the VB Series has been tempered by the news that Rana Naved-ul-Hasan’s father has died. Rana Mehdi Hasan, 60, had been suffering from a lung infection and passed away during the match.It is the second time in as many matches for Pakistan that one of the squad has suffered in this way – after Sunday’s victory over Australia, Younis Khan flew home to attend the funeral of his father, and was said to be “shattered” as he departed from Perth Airport.A spokesman for the Pakistan Cricket Board expressed his condolences in a statement. “We realize that you were far away on national duty on the tragic day and fully share your grief. May Allah Almighty bless the departed soul and give you and your family the strength to bear this loss.”The burial will take place on Wednesday in his home town of Sheikhupura. Naved’s mother has asked her son not to return home, but to continue on the tour and take part in the finals.

Ideal location for a wedding reception – 2003 dates availableJoin GCCC for our annual golf day and play with a cricketer!! Friday 13June – book your place now!!Book your Christmas Party now to secure preferred date.Check out the Conference facilties by clicking hereContact the Events Office on 0117 910 8025 or email: [email protected]

To say that cricket in this country tends to be a bit wary of change is to make one of the great understatements of all time. However, from the organisation of the national team down to grass roots level, changes are being made. One of the most radical is taking place on the south coast, where Hampshire are in the process of launching a public offer for investment in the company that operates its new ground – the Hampshire Rose Bowl.Chief executive Graham Walker feels that the investment opportunity will appeal to a wide spectrum from the hard-nosed businessman to the Hampshire cricket enthusiast who wants to take an active role in helping the club achieve it’s ambitions.”We know from talking to our own members that there is a significant level of interest in investing in the club,” he said. “Each of our existing 4,839 members is now a shareholder, but there is a preparedness by both existing members and potentially new members to become significant investors in the business going forward.”The actual investment will be in Rose Bowl PLC, of which Hampshire cricket is but one part. The business is more than just cricket, however. It includes the golf course, driving range, fitness centre, as well as a hospitality and outdoor event catering business which has just been acquired. The whole site consists of 150 acres, with some 40 acres available for additional commercial development, so it does have prospects.Walker is not looking for a bit of loose change here. “We’re hoping to raise £5 million, with a minimum of £2.4 million. We obviously did this after a great deal of consideration and we think it is the way forward. It allows us to accelerate our plans in terms of the development of the site as an international venue, and allows us to finish the job.”When the time is right, the company is likely to be floated. That will be a first for cricket, for although Durham formed as a limited company, like Hampshire, they are essentially a cricket club whereas Rose Bowl PLC will offer a much wider portfolio of interests. They are talking about a major leisure and entertainment venue with many attendant opportunities at the one venue.”Rose Bowl is more robust from that point of view, with the catering interest as well. That has already written a million pounds worth of business outside of the Rose Bowl complex at places like the Southampton Boat Show, polo at Windsor, rugby at Twickenham where we provide catering services.”One thing investors will be interested in as the background of those involved, and Walker is proud of a c.v. that includes ten years running the commercial marketing operation with the Football League, and more recently chief executive of Sale Sharks – the rugby club that he sold to new investors, and was commercial marketing director of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. So he is not exactly wanting in a track record.Coupled with chairman Rod Bransgrove’s successful business background, everything appears to be in place to give the project a good start. Certainly the confidence is there, and there is no consideration of failure. It is just that the success of this public offer will determine the pace at which the Rose Bowl project can be completed. Not whether it will or it won’t be completed, just when. It is the sort of confidence that should rub off on English cricket as a whole.The offer opens at 10 am on Monday, 4th March and is open until 31st March. For a prospectus and further details, contact Graham Walker at The Hampshire Rose Bowl, Botley Road, West End, Southampton SO30 3XH or telephone 023 8047 2002.

Wisden Asia CricketBrian Close (England, 1976)
So much for respecting your elders. With England about to front up to West Indies’ all-new four-pronged pace attack, there was only one man to call – the masochistic Yorkshireman, Close, who was still up for a bit of rough and tumble at 45. Nine years after his last Test appearance, and a staggering 27 after his first, Close took one hell of a beating as Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Co got stuck in. It would’ve been sickening if Close didn’t seem to be relishing it so much: he took to chesting short balls down like a centre-back. One gruesome evening at Old Trafford in particular, the Windies quicks painted Close’s body all the colours of the rainbow. And black.Wayne Larkins (England, 1989-90)
No more than a decent, if occasionally devastating, county batsman to most, Larkins had not played for England for over eight years and 85 Tests when Graham Gooch hand-picked him on his first tour as captain, to play against West Indies in their prime. In a rich, pre-Atherton era of duff England openers, it was still a major surprise: Ned Flanders seemed to have as good a chance as Larkins. Gooch said it was because Larkins had always been impressive against his county, Essex; closer inspection showed that Larkins had hardly scored a run against them. No matter, it worked: Larkins hit the winning runs in England’s historic victory in the first Test – their first against the West Indies in 16 yearsColin Cowdrey (England, 1974-75)
At the age of 42, and after 109 Tests of outstanding service, Cowdrey had earned the right to put his feet up. But when English fingers starting snapping and crackling like Rice Krispies in Australia, Cowdrey was flown down in an emergency. Four days later he was facing Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson at their most rampant on the Perth trampoline. Cowdrey couldn’t turn a tide that was already swimming violently against England – they were battered 4-1 – but as always he got in line and hung around, courageous to the last.Younis Ahmed (Pakistan, 1986-87)
Nobody has missed more consecutive Tests between appearances: 104, over a whopping 17 years spent serving a ban for touring South Africa. At 39, Younis came back into the hottest kitchen of all – Pakistan against India, in India. He lasted only two Tests. During the second, at Ahmedabad, he complained of back trouble, but instead of resting made his way to a discotheque. Imran Khan, the captain, made sure that it was his last game.Cyril Washbrook (England, 1956)
It was just another day at the office. But then Cyril Washbrook’s fellow England selectors asked him to leave the room. When Washbrook, aged 41 and out of Test cricket for over five years, returned, they asked him to return to the side for the third Test against Australia at Headingley following England’s defeat at Lord’s. He did, and coming to the crease at 17 for 3, struck a splendid 98, with England going on to an innings-victory.Bob Simpson (Australia, 1977-78)
At the age of 41, 10 years after his last Test appearance and nine years after he had retired from first-class cricket, Simpson was invited to captain, coach and cajole a young, Packer-gutted Australian side against India and West Indies. He thwacked 176 in his second Test back, and played spin as imperiously as ever, though his team went down in the Caribbean. Being a father figure to a group of young Aussies was good practice for Simpson: 10 years later he coached them to World Cup glory on the subcontinent.Carl Hooper (West Indies, 2000-2001)
Unlikely on any number of counts. First, that he’d quit international cricket two years earlier on the eve of the World Cup, when he was roundly castigated for leaving his country in the lurch. Second, that this most laconic, laissez-faire of men, once seemingly the antithesis of a team player, should return as captain. Yet for a time it worked: it was under Hooper that West Indies first saw light at the end of the tunnel. And it was telling that such an eternal underachiever should average 46 as captain as against 34 when not. Fate had another card left to play, however: the 2003 World Cup campaign, in which Hooper did very little wrong apart from lose the odd toss and fail to control the weather, turned out to be his last.Simon O’Donnell (Australia, 1988-89)
Most comebacks are dependent on selectorial whim. For O’Donnell, it was more serious than that. As a hard-hitting batsman and hard-to-hit death bowler he was a key member of Australia’s 1987 World Cup-winning squad. But after the tournament O’Donnell, in his mid-20s and in peak physical condition – he had earlier been offered professional terms to play Australian Rules football – was diagnosed with a cancerous lump on his ribs. Yet within a year he was back under the Baggy Green, and soon carting 74 off 29 balls in an Austral-Asia Cup semi-final. The cliché of the brave innings never seemed quite the same again.Fred Titmus (England, 1974-75)
Many cricketers have got down on one knee to slog-sweep; quite a few have played on one leg. But one toe? Titmus did. Aged 42, and seven years after he lost four toes in a sickening boating accident in the Caribbean – his left foot got stuck in a propeller – Titmus was recalled for his third Ashes tour. And though his offspin wasn’t especially successful, he stood up to Lillee and Thomson and crashed England’s highest score, 61, on the same Perth flyer that greeted Cowdrey, in his first Test back.Srinivas Venkataraghavan (India, 1982-83)
Dumped after the series against Australia in 1979-80, having gone nearly a decade without a Test five-for, it was a major surprise when Venkat returned, at 37, for a trip to the West Indies, partnering bowlers (Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Maninder Singh) who hadn’t even been born when he made his Test debut. Venkat’s last five-for had been in the Caribbean, in 1970-71; this time around he offered control, as always, but struggled for penetration. The following winter he drifted off towards a successful umpiring career.Aasif Karim (Kenya, 2002-03)
Karim retired after captaining Kenya in their disappointing 1999 World Cup campaign, and as his insurance business took off he hardly touched a bat or ball for four years. But he was whistled up, Roger Milla-style, for the 2003 World Cup to give Kenya a bit of experience, and despite a portly, balding figure that was a picture of innocuousness, gave the otherwise omnipotent Australians the heebie-jeebies with a surreal spell of 3 for 7 off 8.2 overs in the Super Six match at Durban. They were the last wickets of his career; as Verbal Kint said of Keyser Soze, “Like that, he’s gone”. But Karim had had his 50 balls of fame, and when the romance of the World Cup is on the agenda, he will not be forgotten.The ExtrasBob Taylor (England, 1986)
Having retired from first-class cricket two years earlier Taylor was at Lord’s for the first Test against New Zealand, as host for the sponsors Cornhill. On the second day, however, he found himself keeping wicket at the age of 45 as a substitute for the injured Bruce French.Ian Bishop (West Indies, 1992-93 & 1995)
It got him in the end – ending a career of ridiculous promise at 30 – but Bishop overcame serious back trouble to come back twice, each time with a serious bang, first in the crunch series Down Under in 1992-93 and then in England in 1995.

Despite having a huge total to chase, the Indians made a fist of it till the last 10. At the 40-over stage, India were 250 for 4, compared to Australia’s 245 for 2. Where Australia took it away was in the last 10, when they scored 102 runs. A look at the Indian bowling during that stage of the innings indicates where Zaheer Khan and co. went wrong: there were plenty of attempts to bowl the yorker, but the results were either full tosses or half volleys. The Australians took full toll, creaming 23 such deliveries for 35 runs.

There was little to cheer for the Indians in the field, but one bowler who did his reputation no harm was Murali Kartik. His battle with Ricky Ponting was especially fascinating: till his last over, Kartik had bowled 32 balls to Ponting, and conceded just 13 runs, a scoring rate of less than two-and-a-half an over, in a match where most other bowlers were disappearing for well over six. Two sixes in that last over spoiled Kartik’s figures somewhat, but it was still an effort to be proud of.The key to Kartik’s success was the length he bowled to Ponting: 34 out of 37 balls landed on a good length, with two more pitching just short. Of the 33 dot balls Kartik bowled, 25 were to Ponting, who struggled to read the variations in flight and pace – of the 37 balls he faced, Ponting was in control of just 27 (72.97%). Kartik didn’t have quite as much success against Adam Gilchrist, who picked off 23 from the 19 balls he faced off Kartik. Gilchrist’s in-control percent was much higher too.

After the 491-run hammering that Pakistan were subjected to in Perth, Bob Woolmer suggested that mental fragility had been the reason for the debacle. And the former Australian captain Greg Chappell, for one, believes that Pakistan need to adopt a far more postive approach if they are even to contemplate competing on an even keel with Australia.A report in the newspaper quoted Chappell as saying: “I think Pakistan has a similar problem that New Zealand had and many other sides have had against Australia in recent times. They [the Pakistanis] are going out there with the wrong mindset. They are going out there to survive, rather than prosper. The survival mentality is a negative mentality.”Chappell reckoned that Pakistan would do well to learn from India’s performances in Australia a year ago, when they ruined Steve Waugh’s farewell with a 1-1 draw. “The only team that have played Australia positively in recent times has been India and they actually performed quite well,” he said, before mentioning the famous case of Daryll Cullinan, an otherwise fine batsman who was reduced to an inept wreck by Shane Warne.”Cullinan was a very good player but he was reduced to looking like a schoolboy every time he batted against Warne because of what he was thinking about.”The technical frailties of the Pakistani batsmen were ruthlessly exposed by Glenn McGrath, who picked up the eye-popping figures of 8 for 24 as Pakistan subsided for just 72 in a truly abysmal second-innings display. Chappell, though, was of the opinion that excising fear from their minds would go a long way towards combatting a formidable bowling line-up.”If they go out with a positive approach to actually trying to score some runs, then they may find improvement in their techniques,” he said. “If they are thinking positively, they are more likely to move positively.”Pakistan haven’t won a Test match against Australia for nine years, and have now lost seven on the bounce to them. Even if they heed Chappell’s advice, it will take a minor miracle to prevent that unwelcome run stretching to eight.