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Greg Maybury, a promising 14-year-old swing bowler, has become the second young Bermuda player to enrol at Oakham School near Peterborough in England, and is to further his cricketing career by attending a University Centre of Cricketing Excellence (UCCE).”I am really looking for to this challenge,” Maybury told . “They [Oakham] have great coaches with good philosophies and excellent facilities. I can only get better in the sport as well as in academics, so there is no better place to do these two than in England.”Like Stefan Kelly, who joined Oakham in 2003 and is now studying for his A-Levels, Maybury’s further education in England is sponsored by the Bank of Bermuda Foundation, and he was given financial support by the government last week who pledged $4,000 to aid his training and development.”I would like to thank the Bank of Bermuda and the Bermuda Cricket Board for giving me this opportunity and I want to tell players behind me that there are great opportunities out there for them and they can succeed and do even better then me,” he said. “There is no pressure from the expectations placed on me. I am looking forward to the challenge and the experience I will gain from this exposure.”I can end up at one of the UCCEs and continue to be a professional cricketer or succeed in the office, whichever I chose.”

Peter Chingoka may have eased his way past the potential problems posed by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s AGM, where the board’s hardline majority retained control, but according to a report in a local paper, his troubles are far from over.An article in The Zimbabwe Independent claims that while Chingoka retains control, he stands accused of intimidation and manipulation in his attempts to stay in charge.Chingoka blithely dismissed the claims – little else could really be expected from a man who described the last year in Zimbabwe cricket as “exciting and challenging” – and claimed that there was a “third force working to destroy Zimbabwe’s cricket, which has an external element”.Ray Gripper, until recently a leading administrator in the game, accused Chingoka of manipulating the system to safeguard not only his own position but also those of his associates. He added that Chingoka had used intimidation and manipulation to block constitutional amendments from the provinces.”I feel it is now time for this to come out,” Gripper told The Independent. “I have been keeping quiet all along because I feared it could affect the career of my son, Trevor. We, as a group calling itself Concerned Cricket Lovers, had challenged the board on the constitution. However, a man who claimed to have been sent from the president’s office came to us and said that he had come to deliver President Mugabe’s message that Chingoka had to remain in power and that we had to stop our actions. It however later emerged that the person didn’t work for the president’s office but had been hired to perform this duty.”Gripper’s allegation was supported by Wellington Marowa, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Cricket Pioneers Association. “We met this guy and Chingoka was also in attendance. The guy claimed that he was coming from the president’s office but failed to produce his credentials. We later tried to check with the president’s office but it later emerged that he wasn’t a genuine government official.”The guy said to us that he was strictly instructed by President Mugabe that Chingoka had to remain in office. He said that we had to stop our calls for leadership renewal as well as challenges to the constitution.”Chingoka denied the accusations, claiming that the police had investigated the incident and that it was not “worth commenting about now”.Further criticism came from Charley Robertson, the chairman of Mashonaland Country Districts, who said that Chingoka and his board made an amendment to a clause in the ZCU constitution that effectively ensured the existing board could not be challenged. “Clause 18 of the constitution used to give powers to provincial chairmen to change the board,” he told the newspaper. “But it was changed two years ago to give the powers to the board only. Some of us only learnt about the change recently. This means that the current board has entrenched itself such that no one can challenge it. The system has been manipulated to retain the same people on the board but nobody on the current board has first-class cricket experience.”Again, Chingoka dismissed the charges. “There is no manipulating the whole system,” he said. “You have to understand the whole process from provincial structures. The seven provincial structures all asked me to stand. How can you have seven provinces nominating you when there is an intention to pass a vote of no-confidence in you?”But despite Chingoka’s insistence that he has the full backing of the provinces, the article reports that three of them – Mashonaland Country Districts, Midlands and Matebeleland – have discussed tabling a formal challenge to the constitution.

Ravi Rampaul, the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and West Indies fast bowler, has been awarded a cricket scholarship by John Michell, Australia’s High Commissioner to T&T. The nomination for Rampaul, who has played seventeen one-day internationals for West Indies, follows consultation between the Australia High Commission and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).Rampaul, 21, will spend four weeks at Cricket Australia’s Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, and will be taught the intricate nuances of fast bowling under the guidance of Australia’s top cricket coaches.The scholarship is being funded by the Australian Sports Outreach Programme (ASOP), which Michell launched in the Caribbean on June 23. The Australian High Commission believes the awarding of a young Caribbean cricketers’ scholarship is an important step in building stronger relations between Australia and the Caribbean region. The ASOP is a five-year programme running from July 2006 to June 2011.Rampaul made his international debut against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 2003, and has taken 11 wickets at 49.45. He has not represented West Indies for two seasons.

Sachin Tendulkar has been all but ruled out of the first Test between Indiaand Australia starting in Bangalore tomorrow. Tendulkar, recovering from apainful tennis elbow which has kept him out of cricket since August, arrivedin Bangalore on Wednesday morning, but Andrew Leipus, the Indian team’s physio, said that he was “very doubtful” for the Test.Tendulkar has been included in the Indian squad for the first two Testsdespite not having had a net session for six weeks. Leipus, who checked himyesterday, said there had been much improvement. Sourav Ganguly, the Indiancaptain, however, was hoping against hope. “You, me, all of us are hopeful,”he was quoted as saying in the Times of India, “that¹s what I can say.”Tendulkar¹s absence clears one issue for the Indian team, though. Barring drastic measures, it is now almost certain that Aakash Chopra, whose stolidresistance laid the foundation for many huge Indian totals in Australia,will open with Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh, who scored an electrifyingcentury against Pakistan at Lahore, will bat at No. 6. VVS Laxman, who the Australians fear even more than Tendulkar, is likely to take the No. 4 position.

Chandu Sarwate, a former Indian Test player and national selector, has died in Indore following a protracted illness. Sarwate, 83, represented India in nine Tests, scoring 208 runs and taking three wickets.His international record was modest, but Sarwate’s first-class record was superb: over a career spanning 32 years and 171 matches – most of them for Holkar – he took 494 wickets with his mix of offspin and legspin bowling at an average of 23, while scoring 7430 runs at a shade under 33.Sarwate’s best moments came when the Indians toured England in 1946. Playing a match against Surrey at The Oval, Sarwate, who normally batted in the middle order, came in at No. 10 and added 249 for the last wicket with Shute Banerjee, the No. 11. Both batsmen hit centuries – the only instance in first-class cricket when the No. 10 and No. 11 scored hundreds – as India recovered from 205 for 9 to 454. Not satisfied with that effort, Sarwate went on to take 5 for 54 in Surrey’s second innings as the Indians wrapped up a nine-wicket win.A fingerprint expert by profession, Sarwate was also a national selector for three seasons, from 1980-81 to 1982-83.

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

The Pakistani gladiators Saeed Anwar (77) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (79) literally mauled England’s bowling to raise Pakistan to an indomitable position for victory. We saw, for a change, the Pakistan team in high spirits and tremendous form placing a target of 274 on the board, not easy for England to grab.

During England’s innings a drama full of thrills was enacted. Pakistan bowlers, for once, supported by top class alert and agile fielding demolished England to clinch a stunning victory by 108 runs. Except for Nick Knight who played a defiant innings of 59 not out, the remaining batsmen fell like ninepins. The triumph takes Pakistan to its encounter against Australia at Cardiff, with spirits high and full trust in their prowess.

Edgbaston was the venue of the NatWest Series curtain raiser where Pakistan won the toss and took the obvious choice of batting first. Pakistan included Shahid Afridi, one of the 3 players called in for this tournament, to face the new ball with Saeed Afridi. But England made 5 changes from their test squad, the most important being of Alan Mullally invited to launch the attack in place of Andy Caddick, down with injury.Shahid Afridi started with his traditional hurricane hitting to score 25 off 24 balls with 4 hits to the boundary. Not able to resist his impulse of playing high shots, he holed out to Mark Ealham at long on off Alan Mullally. Certainly not an impressive start, losing the 1st wicket at 34.The 2nd wicket went at 55 when Abdur Razzaq made a quick exit after being run out. Some tight fielding by England temporarily restricted the scoring, from 31 in the first 5 overs it dropped to 79 in 20 overs. Saeed Anwar was joined by Inzamam and he gave it a boost by hitting Mark Ealham for a mighty 6 followed by a blistering 4 in the 23rd over. With a tantalizing sweep to fine leg Saeed hoisted his 50 of the innings.

Pakistan’s 100 came in the 25th over and with two superstars on a hitting spree now, the score stormed upwards. In the 31st over Saeed delighted the crowd by hitting Ealham over the long on boundary for his 2nd six. The 100 run partnership came up in 106 balls when Inzamam had hit a sparkling 50.Climbing to a run rate of 5, the pair raised the total to 200 in the 40th over and provided the large crowd a feast of entertainment by playing thrilling shots all over the field. In full command of the game they carried on punishing the bowlers to the crowd’s delight.

Just as the 150 partnership off 157 balls came about, England struck back and ousted this dangerous pair. The paid for trying to slog for quick runs and made their way to the pavilion one after the other. Both Saeed (77) and Inzamam (79) did give the fans an exhibition of exhilarating batsmanship and with their departure Pakistan was 207 for 4.The batsmen who followed played with the sole object of providing Pakistan an impressive total and had raised it to 273 for 6 when 50 overs were up. Azhar Mahmood remained not out with an invaluable 38 scored with the help of 4 fours and a towering six, setting England a challenging target of 274 to win.Losing the opening pair of Marcus Trescothick (28) and Ally Brown (6) at only 48 England too made a depressing start but the run rate of 4.8 was quite impressive. It now was up to the rest to do what Pakistan had done but it came down drastically with the new batsmen taking the crease.Encouraged by early success, Waqar and Azhar Mahmood bowled a devastating spell. Alec Stewart (10) and Michael Vaughan (5) were the victims of spectacular catches taken by substitute Shoaib Malik and Saeed Anwar off a deadly Azhar Mahmood and England slumped to 86 for 4.Putting on more pressure, the bowlers continued to take their toll. Paul Collingwood (2) and Ben Hollioake (6) were the next to depart, bringing England down to 108 for 6. I have never seen Pakistan fielders as brilliant, sharp and agile as in this game.It simply was not England’s day. The procession continued with Dominic Cork bowled by Shahid Afridi, a stock bowler who bowls fastish leg breaks on the very first ball he delivered and England on a miserable 135 for 7. On his heels followed Marl Ealham and Darren Gough putting England down to 147 for 9.With only the last wicket to fall, the writing was on the wall. The partisan crowd full of Pakistan supporters invaded the ground and delayed the inevitable by over 35 minutes with the security personnel chasing them around and even the Pakistan skipper was called out for help. When play resumed for the final rites, Nick Knight had scored a heroic half-century but was unable to rescue his team and ran out of partners. England was at last out for 165 runs in 47.2 overs. Nick Knight remained unbeaten with a gallant 59.Pakistan won by 108 runs and Shahid Afridi with 3 wickets and Waqar Younis, Azhar Mahmood and Saqlain Mushtaq with 2 apiece were the bowlers who did the damage. Pakistan will now take on Australia at Cardiff on Saturday with renewed vigour and confidence, another thrill in store.

Global news and photograph agencies will carry out their threat to boycott coverage of the Indian Premier League because of the restrictions on the distribution of photographs. Agencies are prohibited from providing photographs of the Twenty20 tournament to cricket-specific websites.The News Media Coalition (NMC), the umbrella body that comprises global news and photograph agencies Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Getty Images, called the restrictions “discriminatory”.”It is discriminatory for the accreditation terms to prohibit international news agencies from being able to serve a specific group of users, such as cricket websites,” the NMC said in a statement. “The interests of the IPL are protected by the fact that its accreditation terms limit news content generated by the news agencies to be used for editorial purposes only. The NMC calls upon the IPL to remove remaining obstacles in the way of full editorial coverage of the tournament.”The Editors Guild of India also called for the withdrawal of “unacceptable conditions” while the Press Trust of India, India’s leading news agency, had said it would cover the event “under protest”.The tournament’s initial media guidelines which, among other constraints, gave the IPL the right to use all pictures taken at its grounds for free and without restrictions, had met with severe criticism from media bodies. The IPL then removed some of the limitations imposed but news agencies, stand-alone cricket websites and news channels were still unhappy. News channels dropped their boycott threat after their two main issues – accreditation and access to match footage – were resolved.

Maninder Singh, the former Indian left-arm spinner, was granted bail on Wednesday by a Delhi court for allegedly being in possession of 1.5 grammes of cocaine, an offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.On Tuesday, the narcotics branch of the Delhi police brought in Maninder for questioning after raiding his residence. “Maninder has confessed that he was a drug addict and consumed drugs to deal with family problems. He first took drugs 10 years ago in Holland,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Narcotics) AS Cheema told Indo-Asian News Service. The bail was granted on a personal surety of Rs.50,000 (approximately $ 1160).An Associated Press report quoted police spokesman Rajan Bhagat as saying that local club cricketer Sayyam Siddique, who was with Maninder when police raided his apartment, was arrested for carrying 100 grams of contraband “charas” [hashish]. “They were arrested while exchanging the drugs. Maninder told us that he used to procure drugs from Siddiqui, who purchased them from a south Delhi based drug peddler,” Cheema said.The amount allegedly found in Singh’s residence is less than a “commercial quantity” and puts the case in the category of possession of a banned substance for personal use, thereby increasing his chances of being granted bail. However, Bhagat said police were investigating whether Maninder kept the cocaine for his personal use or was involved in the drug trade.Maninder, who played 35 Tests for India between 1982 and 1993, surged intoprominence when only 17 years old. His prodigious talent promptedcomparisons to Bishan Bedi, but consistency was to elude Maninder. Heenjoyed tremendous success on India’s tour of England in 1986, and thenpicked up a bagful of wickets against Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, butsoon after the wheels came off. Maninder had problems with discipline,lost the loop and control that were his strengths and was dropped from theteam. He attempted more than one comeback but met with limited success.Since retiring from cricket Maninder has been involved with the game as acoach in Delhi, where he lives, and as a television commentator. WhileManinder is often remembered as a cricketer who promised much and lost hisway, the one thing that he is most famous for was being the last Indianvictim – given out lbw to Greg Matthews by umpire Vikram Raju – in thetied Test against Australia at Chennai in 1986-87.Chetan Chauhan, the former India opener and Maninder’s Delhi team-mate, told Indian news channel : “I am completely surprised. I have played with him for Delhi, for two or three seasons. I had no inkling of any previous instances involving him. I can’t believe this. “

Steve Waugh has sent out a message to the ageing members of the current Australian side to retire when they feel it’s best for each of them, rather than getting caught in unnecessary media publicity.”It’s a high-profile sport. As a player, you can make the decision and let everyone know and then get on with it,” Waugh told the . “Just go ahead and do it, if that’s your plan.”Waugh’s comments follow Justin Langer’s, who hinted that he may retire after the Ashes series early next year. Langer cautioned other players of announcing their decision too early, as it would be a huge distraction and that it was up to each individual to decide how much attention they wished to attract.Waugh was speaking out of personal experience. He went public with his retirement plans before the 2003-04 home series against India. Waugh also pointed out that such a situation could put a lot of pressure on the new captain.”It’s different when you’re a captain compared to being a player,” Waugh said. “As captain, you get all the talk about who is going to be the next guy in charge.”We were able to deal with that. Ricky [Ponting] was given the job almost straight away so that was taken care of. People had been talking about whether I was going to stop playing for so long and I wanted to put an end to it.”With these guys, if a few of them are leaving, there won’t be just one bloke caught up in it. Ideally, you probably want to leave the game without all the fuss. That would be perfect, but it can’t work that way.”The Australian side has quite a few players in their mid to late 30s, including Matthew Hayden, Langer, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn and Stuart MacGill. With next year’s Test tour of Zimbabwe in doubt, Australia’s next Test series after the Ashes probably won’t be until 2007-08.”Most of us have already been on our last overseas Test tour together,” MacGill said. “I’m not saying it’s impossible to be playing the next Test series but, realistically, that’s a long way away. I wouldn’t count on myself being a definite starter and you’ll find a lot of players my age are in the same boat.”MacGill added that the Australian public ought to know if they were seeing the greats of the game for the last time. “It’s not just Australia versus England next summer and it’s not just Australia trying to get back the Ashes,” he said. “It’s the last time most Australian crowds are going to see a lot of these players.”