With Manicaland’s first-league season due to start in the next few weeks, most of the young coaching professionals have returned from their U.K. winter employment. Alec Taylor, Kingsley Went, Richie Sims and Neil Ferreira will join new academy graduates Justin Lewis, Ian Coulson and Leon Soma in a tighter than normal fight for first team places. Missing from last season will be Patrick Gada (emigrated to the U.S.A.) and Jason Young (future undecided – awaiting developments in the U.K.).Mutare Sports Club was the venue last weekend for the second annual winter districts cricket festival. The five teams that normally contest the social winter districts league come together for four 10-over matches culminating in a plate and final on Sunday afternoon. The teams were made up mostly of farmers and farming evictees from Odzi, Old Umtali, Upper Bvumba and Burma Valley, together with a Hillcrest College Old Boys side.The emphasis was on fun and forgetting the dire state of farming and Zimbabwe’s problems. Sponsors had stuck Z$70 000 (about U.S.$235) behind the bar and the amount remained unbeaten after two days – a sure sign that Zimbabwe’s currency will continue to attract the international bargain-hunters. Performances ranged from a top end of awful with jeering wives, girlfriends and fellow-contestants applauding every mishap and shortcoming. Eventual winners Hillcrest Old Boys were booed every step of the way for taking themselves and their cricket too seriously during a boring victory over fellow finalists Burma Valley.The previous weekend I had an opportunity to experience firsthand the results of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s pilot project for black cricket advancement at the (soon to be renamed) Churchill high school in Harare. Promising black cricketers discovered at coaching clinics around the country are found places at Churchill where a cricket culture is fostered. Pupils receive coaching at the CFX Academy, which is a short distance down the road.Travelling from Mutare as umpire/coach with Hillcrest College’s under-16 side, our team was given a taste of the uncompromising future of Zimbabwe cricket. Churchill’s new black professionals destroyed all four (mostly white) Mutare teams in humiliating and soulless fashion.Over lunch after watching Churchill race to 268 for three in 35 overs, my fellow umpire (a Churchill teacher) confessed the school has too many players and too few coaches. Each age group have four teams vying for promotion, with highly visible classmates Tatenda Taibu and Hamilton Masakadza as role models spurring them on. One gets the sensation of Mike Tyson goes to Lord’s watching these `out the ghetto’ no-prisoners road warriors. Results and personal statistics take precedence over everything as potential future contracts are eyed. Umpiring decisions are routinely disputed and umpires derided in an atmosphere reminiscent of Lord of the Flies. The teachers are ill-equipped to moderate excessive behaviour, being at best first-generation cricket watchers themselves.Whilst it is exciting watching the emerging talent of this new breed of Zimbabwe player, one can’t help but recall Don Bradman’s words that "young players are the trustees of the game". The Z.C.U.’s problems are about to get bigger.

Less than 24 hours after Brian Lara passed a medical test and West Indieslooked set to take a full strength squad to Sri Lanka key middle orderbatsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been ruled out with a back injury.Chanderpaul had been given the all clear earlier in the week after an MRIscan, but as the West Indies training camp in Jamaicia drew to a close, hesuffered from back spasms.Team manager Ricky Skerritt admitted to BBC Online that the left-handerwould be forced out of the seven-week long Asian tour.”He has been ruled out due to back spasms that have been bothering since hearrived here for the Red Stripe Bowl,” Skerritt said.No replacement has so far been named, but fellow left-hander, Wavell Hinds,who was drafted into the squad as cover for Lara, is expected to take hisplace.Chanderpaul, like Lara, has been dogged by injury for over a year, havingmissed four Tests in England last year with an elbow injury.He only played one Test match in Australia too after suffering a stressfracture of the right foot.The Sri Lanka tour begins on November 4 and the West Indies are scheduled toplay three Test matches against Sri Lanka and in a tri-nation one-daytournament against the host team and Zimbabwe in December.

The names of 21 probables were announced from which the Pakistanjunior team will be selected during the five one-day matches homeseries against Sri Lankan Junior , starting with the first match atthe National Stadium, Karachi from Nov 18.The Sri Lankan team is arriving in Karachi on Nov 15.The national junior selection committee headed by Zaheer Abbas pickedthe probables by short listing 30 players who were attending atraining camp at the Gaddafi Stadium.The name of captain and vice-captain will be announced, later, a PCBspokesman said on Wednesday.Following are the probables: Salman Butt, Khaqan Arsal, Asim MunirButt, Mohammad Fayyaz, KamranYounis, Saqib Zia, Arsalan Mir,Kamran Sajid, Irfan-ud-Din, Azam Husain, Azhar Ali, Junaid Zia, UmerGul,NajafShah, Aminur Rehman,Yasir Shah, ZulqarnainHaider, Salman Qadir,Mohammad Khalil, Atiqur Rehman and Ariz Kamal.

India seem to be hurtling towards yet another defeat at St. George’sPark in Port Elizabeth. A pathetic batting display in our firstinnings has meant that we will require a herculean effort from ourbatsmen in the final innings to save this Test. But knowing the team,I doubt if that will happen.The game slipped from India’s hands on the second day. With SouthAfrica 237 for five, we needed to clean up the South African inningsas early as possible. And it was not that we didn’t have our chance.After Srinath dismissed Shaun Pollock, Harbhajan foxed Mark Boucherinto hitting a ball up in the air. It was a dolly but Rahul Dravid infirst slip made a hash of the chance. Boucher went on to make 68 andguided South Africa to 362, a very good total considering the pitch.

Before I move on, a few words about Herschelle Gibbs’ innings. Afteran explosive start, the young South African opener put his head downand played very responsibly. Gibbs’ knock showed that he, a dasher byinstinct both on and off the field, has finally put his callow daysbehind him. His precious 196 which though was not without its luckymoments, also marks him out as one of the potentially great players.The Indians did not help their cause by starting off on the wrongfoot. On a seamer-friendly track they decided to go in with just twoquicks. I simply could not comprehend the rationale behind leaving outVenkatesh Prasad in conditions that would have been very favourable tohim.

As I said in my previous column, Prasad knows all about bowling onSouth African pitches. He is, to quote the record, the only Indianbowler to claim ten wickets in a Test against the Proteas, a feat heachieved during the last tour. It cannot also be his current form thatis keeping him away from the side as he was our most successful bowlerin the previous Test series against Sri Lanka. Add to all this thefact that Prasad and Srinath have always done well when they havebowled in tandem. Why in heaven’s name then was Prasad left out?Srinath, for his part, bowled brilliantly maintaining an almostimpeccable line and length. I must confess that it was probably thefinest display of controlled bowling that I have seen from him. But helacked support from the other end. It is here that Prasad’s presencewould have made a crucial difference. I have but the highest regardfor Anil Kumble. This was though one Test where, I felt, he shouldhave been asked to make way for his statemate because of the pitch andthe overhead conditions.As for the Indian batting, the less said the better. With theexception of VVS Laxman, none of the others applied themselves. Therash strokes that many of them played left me squirming in my seat.Their lack of application becomes all the more glaring on consideringthe nature of the pitch and the class of the opposing bowling attack.All the Indians had to do was to negotiate Pollock successfully andthere were runs for the taking. But three top-order batsmen, includingSachin Tendulkar, succumbed to the masterful bowler in his openingspell and that meant India were fighting to save their collective hidefrom thereon.

Pollock, to reiterate, was outstanding. He kept the ball in the`corridor of uncertainty’ and reaped handsome rewards. The SouthAfrican captain, who has claimed fifteen wickets in this series untilnow, has almost single-handedly bowled his side to a series victoryand that underlines his greatness as a bowler.The gritty stand between Laxman and Kumble, meanwhile, showed the toporder up for their lack of effort. Laxman, who came down the order inthis match, at last converted a promising start into a significantinnings. It saved India the blushes and ensured that South Africa willhave to set a target for the Indians in the final innings.Now is the time for the Indians to show spunk. Only a fighting sidecan conjure a miracle and, if you were to ask me, barring a miracle,or rain, we are doomed.

A humdrum one-day jamboree has already been lost, but Zimbabwe wouldwillingly trade that for a successful Test series. But, to do so against aresurgent Sri Lankan side, the tourists quickly need to find their feet intheir solitary practice game before the first Test at P.SaravanamuttuStadium in Colombo on Friday.During the one-day series the Zimbabwean top order looked chronically shortof confidence. With Andy Flower’s batting form have dipped below itssuperhuman norm, the onus has fallen on the others, with some playerslooking out of their depth.Their failure so far in Sri Lanka (six games, five losses) makes the absenceof experienced players such as Alistair Campbell and Andy Whittallperplexing. Campbell may only average 26 in Test cricket, but such a modestaverage is not be scoffed at when the pool of talent is limited. Whittallhas scored two double centuries in Test cricket and suggestions that he istoo old at 29 are simply absurd.No, these are not easy days to be a Zimbabwean cricketer. Strangeselections, made worse by an informal but official racial quota system thatno matter how well meaning, is a burden for both black and white and asource of unnecessary friction in the team. A meritocracy seems the onlyrealistic long-term solution, but the crude quota system has some strongsupporters.One only had to watch Tatenda Taibu during the one-day series to realise thedangers of pushing someone above their station. The 18-year-old is a nimbleand very promising wicket-keeper, but the presence of Andy Flower, the bestwicket-keeper all-rounder in the world, obviously restricts hisopportunities. But Taibu is black, so he had to play, and was selected as abatsman instead. Three games later his confidence is in tatters after threeconsecutive ducks.But the present team, currently being led by Stuart Carlisle, are powerlessto change off-field policies and during the next fours weeks they have totry to push such disruptive influences to the back of their minds, as theywork out how to keep Sri Lanka’s spinners at bay on slow turning wickets.Work starts on Friday, as Zimbabwe takes on a talented Sri Lankan Board XI,which includes six players with international experience, including both thespinners, left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and leg-spinner Malinga Bandara.On a traditionally lively pitch, that used to be by far the quickest in SriLanka, the tourists will also have to contend with a strong pace attack,including the experienced Ravindra Pushpakumara, Dinusha Fernando, apromising swing bowl who uprooted Mike Atherton’s stumps on three separateoccasions during the England tour earlier this year, and Prabath Nissanka, apotentially lethal fast bowler if he manages to locate his radar early on.The Board XI batting, led by the prolific opener Pradeep Hewage, who hasbeen repeatedly written off by the selectors despite scoring a mountain ofruns in domestic cricket each year, is though inexperienced.Zimbabwe will be looking to play as close to their Test side as possiblewith leg-spinner Brian Murphy and teenage star Hamilton Masakadza, who wereadded to the squad this week, both likely to play.Zimbabwe:Stuart Carlisle (Capt), Heath Streak, Grant Flower, Andy Flower, DionEbrahim, Trevor Gripper, Hamilton Masakadza, Craig Wishart, DouglasMarillier, Tatenda Taibu, Mluleki Nkala, Gary Brent, Travis Friend, BrianMurphy, Henry OlongaBoard XI:Pradeep Hewage (Captain), Ian Daniel, Chamara Silva, Anushka Polonnowita,Jeevantha Mendis, Prasanna Jayawardene, Malinga Bandara, Rangana Herath,Ravindra Pushpakumara, Prabath Nissanka, Dinusha Fernando (Reserves: M.PushpakumaraGayan Wijekoon)

Sukhvinder Singh hit a sparkling century to give Assam the decisive upper hand in their Ranji Trophy league match against Tripura at Guwahati on Wednesday.Unbeaten on 65 overnight, Sukhvinder converted his fifty into a responsible hundred. Putting on 180 runs for the sixth wicket with SR Das (67, 174 balls), Sukhvinder hit 15 fours in his knock of 118 off 199 balls. He was the seventh wicket to fall, with the score on 325.A fifty (52 off 65 balls) from J Gokulakrishnan and some spirited cameos from the tail saw Assam past the 400-run mark. The home side were bowled out for 411 in 136.2 overs, with J Debnath taking 5-79 for Tripura.In their second innings, Tripura were 80/1 at the close of play. Opener Rasudeb Dutta was unbeaten on 27, while SD Chowdhury was not out on 4. The lone wicket to fall was that of skipper S Dasgupta, who made 41 off 91 balls.

Scores after the latest round of games in the National Under-17 tournament at Nelson Park in Napier today were:Northern Districts 228 (K Read 86, P Carey 33; B Newton 4-29) beat Canterbury 219 (D Crosbie 42, M Ling 40; J Morgan 5-35, K Goble 2-31) by 9 runs.Otago 209/8 (T McLean 37, J Pyle 34 not out, W Henry 34, C Smith 32; A Corliss 2-26) beat Wellington 169 (S McLaughlan 32, M Martin 31, J Newdick 29; M McLean 4-29) by 40 runs.Central Districts 198 (T Shurr 59, T Gillespie 42, H Beaumont 32); C McDowell 5-34; S McKay 2-29) beat Auckland 61 (D Bolstan 3-13, D MacDonald 3-31, S Wheeler 3-16) by 137 runs.Points after Round three are: Central Districts 10, Wellington 8, Northern Districts 6, Auckland 4, Otago 2, Canterbury 0.

England’s chairman of selectors, David Graveney, has confirmed that Darren Goughwill not be selected for the forthcoming Test series in New Zealand.Gough was omitted from the squad for the three-match series along with Surrey’s Alec Stewart after both players decided to miss the first part of the winter programme in India.Gough’s recent good form in India and New Zealand had led to speculation that England might ask him to stay on.”The players were offered a contract that encompassed two Test series in India and New Zealand,” Graveney said.”Darren decided he wanted a rest and that’s up to him. Therefore the squadswere chosen without him playing Test match cricket. He is an important guy but we have to stick to decisions that we have made.”There could be extreme circumstances with injuries or whatever – situationscould change. But at the present stage I am happy to let Duncan and Nasser get on with the cricket. Our situation hasn’t changed, whatever speculation there has been.”

The West Indies returned home yesterday from another catastrophic overseas tour singing the usual upbeat tune.There is still hope . . . . Give it a couple of years’ time and we’ll turn it around, said captain Carl Hooper.There was an echo from coach Roger Harper.I can see the improvements. It is slow in coming, but it’s coming.Their comments came in the aftermath of yet another overseas debacle in which the Caribbean side lost both Tests against Pakistan and managed to save some face with a consolation victory in the last of the three One-Day Internationals in Sharjah.Their recent overseas record now reads an abysmal 24 defeats in 27 Tests.If you are losing, people are going to think you are not making any headway whatsoever, Hooper said.Since I have taken over the job, I’ve seen improvements, maybe not as fast as I’d like to see, but I’ve certainly seen improvements.The West Indies captain, however, admits that it is not going to be easy to convince fans.The average cricket follower will probably disagree with me because he basically will see winning and losing, simple, straightforward.Being among the guys, I’ve seen a change in attitude. I’ve seen guys a bit more determined. I’ve seen a lot of preparation mental and physical.Harper was probably spot-on in assessing why the West Indies were inconsistent in batting, ordinary in bowling and woeful in the field.It’s one thing doing it in the classroom and another thing going into the job situation and executing, the West Indies coach said.That’s why we are having problems.Harper is not one who is usually at a loss for words. But he stuttered a bit when asked if the persistent disappointing results had ever frustrated him to the extent that he might consider packing it in.FrustratingIt is frustrating, yes, but at the same time . . . you know . . . you know, you don’t just turn . . . you just don’t turn things around instantaneously like that.It takes time. It is a process that has to be undergone. It is comment we have been hearing for a few years.We’ve been going through this process from since 1993/94, Hooper added.We haven’t really got the facilities or the money to set up the infrastructure to start rectifying some of the problems that we have.If we had come back winning 2-0, people would say that we had swung the corner, but to get back to where we want to be, you’ve got to play consistently good cricket for years. It’s not going to be one good year or two good years.Harper also admitted the quality of the players wasn’t as high as when West Indies were ruling the world stage in the 1980s.And he believed the lack of experience was a problem in spite of the fact that a number of the players had been in the international game for a few years.We have young players and they are in the process of learning, he said.Unfortunately, for a lot of them, they are learning at this level, but it’s taking a lot longer than we would like.

The 2003 edition of the Deodhar Trophy kicks off on January 3, with West Zone and East Zone facing off in Chennai, while South Zone and Central Zone take the field at Hyderabad.West Zone, led by Hrishikesh Kanitkar, boast a potentially explosive batting line-up, but the likes of Vinayak Mane will only be helped by the steady batting of Connor Williams and Abhijit Kale at the other end. Figuring importantly in their plans will be Mumbai leggie Sairaj Bahutule, both for his abilities with the ball as well as his batting skills lower down the order.East Zone, however, are no pushovers. Led by Bengal skipper Rohan Gavaskar, they seem solid rather than flashy. Steady bats like Shiv Sunder Das and Sanjay Raul are complemented nicely by the experienced Utpal Chatterjee and Debashish Mohanty.West Zone Squad: HH Kanitkar (captain), SV Bahutule, NA Godbole, CC Williams, VR Mane, AV Kale, KD Damani, SK Trivedi, IK Pathan, JP Jobanputra, RF Morris, RR Powar, AA Merchant, MP Mewada, RV DhurvEast Zone Squad: RS Gavaskar (captain), DS Mohanty, U Chatterjee, SS Das, SG Das, PM Mullick, SD Chowdhury, MS Dhoni, Javed Zaman, DJ Gandhi, PR Mohapatra, RR Parida, SS Raul, AA Ranade