The Interim Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka(BCCSL) has cancelled the Under 23 Division Three cricket tournament thatwas introduced last year.Speaking to CricInfo the chairman of the Tournament Committee, ShriyanSamararatne, pointed out that the benefits of the tournament to Sri Lankancricket were outweighed by the significant costs, believed to be threemillion rupees (USD $ 30,000).Twenty sides mainly from outstation areas had participated in thetournament, which had been won by Guesto Sports Club.Meanwhile, the remaining two-division Under 23 tournament gets underway nextweek.

With Boeta Dippenaar at last running into form, South Africa sauntered to a seven-wicket victory over Zimbabwe ‘A’ in a one-day warmup match in Bulawayo on Friday.Dippenaar took just 55 balls to make his 60, helping himself to eight fours and towo sixes along the way as the tourists took just a ball more than 20 overs to pass the modest 128 made by the home team earlier in the day.There were contributions of 28 from Herschelle Gibbs and 24 from Mark Boucher before Jonty Rhodes, who flew up to Zimbabwe this week for the one-day series which starts in Bulawayo on Sunday, hit the winning runs.The South African victory had been set up by fast bowler Andre Nel who claimed five for 11 in the morning as the Zimbabwe ‘A’ top order melted away.At one point the Zimbabweans had crumbled to 26 for five before young Tatenda Taibu offered some resistance with a dogged 21 and Paul Strang (45 not out) helped the tail take the score into three figures to give Zimbabwe ‘A’ a semblance of respectability.

India’s three-day match against a President’s XI at the Chatsworth Oval was officially abandoned on Tuesday morning, throwing the tourists’ preparations for the first Test against South Africa which starts in Bloemfontein on Saturday into disarray.After another inspection of the outfield on Tuesday it was eventually decided that the soggy outfield would not dry sufficiently and the fixture was officially called off.The irony is that for the past three days the sun has shone in Durban and there has been little, if any, overnight rain. Club matches in and around Durban took place on Sunday, but because of poor drainage at Chatsworth, by Tuesday cricket was still not possible.The fact is that the facilities and the expertise at Chatsworth are not up to first-class standard. Blame for the fiasco has been tossed fairly freely around, but umpire Wilf Diedricks made a telling point when he said: “There is clearly a drainage problem, but it would help if they cut the outfield every now and then. The grass is just too thick and it soaks up water like a sponge.”Efforts to have the match shifted to another venue proved futile. The most obvious other ground in Durban, Kingsmead, is unavailable because the pitch is being prepared for a provincial match at the weekend.The Indians, therefore, have been left to fit in what training they can ahead of the Test match. They are unable to travel to Bloemfontein ahead of schedule because no flights are available and in any case, net facilities at Goodyear Park will only be ready on Thursday.The allocation of this fixture to Chatsworth was a sop to the community who, earlier in the year, threatened protest marches and formed action committees when it became apparent that no World Cup fixture was going to be played at the ground. In view of what has now happened, the World Cup organisers may well heave a sigh of relief.It is also apparent, however, that the practice of asking touring sides to play tour matches at unsatisfactory venues must be revisited by the United Cricket Board. Last year New Zealand had to play a one-day in Alice on a pitch that, in all honesty, was not fit for a junior school game.India now have to pick a Test side which almost certainly include players who have not had a serious bat or bowl in South African conditions. The only consolation for the tourists, for what it’s worth, is that the majority of the South African Test team will not have played first-class cricket since the second Test in Bulawayo in mid-September.

Gloucestershire CCC have secured the signing of Craig Spearman, the former New Zealand opener.Spearman has played 19 Test Matches and over 50 one-day internationals and brings a wealth of experience with him. This inevitably will strengthen the team in an area that historically has caused concern.Craig was born in Auckland but holds a British Passport through parentage and had decided to live here to pursue a career in finance.Gloucestershire CCC’s captain, Mark Alleyne confirmed: “I have come across Craig before and he is a quality performer. The timing is absolutely perfect for us as we look to extend on recent successes.”Gloucestershire coach John Bracewell added: “Craig and I go back to my first representative coaching appointment, Auckland Under-19s. He captained the side and represented the Auckland senior side the following year.”At the time I felt Craig was the closest cricketer I had seen to the style and grace of Mark Waugh. He certainly has the same timing and power through the ball.”At 29, Craig has his best years ahead of him and I expect his international experience will be invaluable in our line up. It will be interesting (no safer for you the spectator) to watch Craig and Ian batting together – Guy Fawkes’ Day.”Craig is relishing the opportunity of playing in England and entertaining with his swashbuckling style.Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s Chief Executive, added: “Craig is the sort of cricketer to make a significant difference. We look forward to starting the season at full strength with Craig on board as we attack the four major trophies.”

Andhra Pradesh had Goa against the wall at the end of Day Three oftheir Ranji Trophy league match at Vijayawada on Tuesday.Already in a position of strength when they resumed at 184/1, AndhraPradesh made a consistent string of scores all the way down theirbatting order. Skipper MSK Prasad made 96 off 233 balls before beingdismissed with the score on 221. Thereafter, IG Srinivas (52) and RVCPrasad (62) took the attack to the Goa bowling.Declaring at 373/9, Andhra Pradesh then blasted away Goa’s top order.Six wickets had fallen by the close of play, but the scoreboard readonly 57. RVC Prasad returned particularly fine figures of 7-4-8-3, andGoa were facing the spectre of an innings defeat on Day Four.

*Mithun Manhas continues fine formMithun Manhas starred in Delhi’s batting performance on Day One oftheir Ranji Trophy league match against Punjab at Amritsar.On being asked to bat, Delhi lost Gautam Gambhir early, but minipartnerships helped the side to a total of 70/3. There then followed a63-run stand between Manhas and Sohail Rauf before the latter fell,having made a slow 11.Manhas then found good support in Pradeep Chawla (63) whounfortunately had to withdraw at 197/4 after being struck on thefinger. Manhas went on to complete his century and was unbeaten on 112at the close of play, with skipper Vijay Dahiya also at the crease on10.*Himachal Pradesh bats steadilyCentury partnerships for the first and third wickets gave HimachalPradesh a solid start against Haryana on the opening day of theirRanji Trophy league match at the Maharaja Aggarsain Stadium in Rohtak.Himachal Pradesh won the toss and opted to bat first on a wicket thatoffered nothing to the bowlers. The opening pair of Nischal Gaur andSandeep Sharma added exactly 100 runs for the first wicket, in 123minutes and off 182 balls. Sharma made 61 off 86 balls and was thefirst to fall. After the dismissal of Gaur (45) for an addition ofjust 19 runs, the in-form Rajiv Nayyar and Sangram Singh put on 113runs without being separated until the close of play.At stumps, Sangram Singh was unbeaten with 71, and Rajiv Nayyar wasbatting on 47, playing slower than his partner. For Haryana, SumitNarwal and Amit Mishra captured one wicket each. Himachal Pradeshended the day on 232 for 2.*Kavaljit Singh inspires Jammu & KashmirHaving shown glimpses of fine form in his previous match, Jammu &Kashmir batsman Kavaljit Singh translated it into a big knock againstServices on Day One of their Ranji Trophy league match at Delhi.Winning the toss, Jammu & Kashmir opted to bat, a departure from thepolicy they have being following of late. They were rewarded for thisexperiment, however, as Sabir Kanth and Kavaljit batted resolutely toreach a score of 237/1 by stumps.Although opener Raju Sharma departed early, Kanth and Kavaljit put on217 runs for the second wicket. Kanth, the slower of the two, wasunbeaten n 69 off 268 balls, while Kavaljit had made more than doublethat score. He was on 148 off 254 balls at the close of play.*Chetan Sachdev holds Tripura togetherThe innings held together largely by Chetan Sachdev, Tripura reached atotal of 266/6 by the close of play on Day One of their Ranji Trophyleague match against Bihar at Agartala.Winning the toss, Tripura elected to bat but found themselves reelingat 63/4. A small partnership then developed between Timir Chanda andSachdev before the former departed at 116, having made 44.Sachdev was then joined by Abdul Sattar, and the two put on 134 runsbefore Sattar was dismissed for 63. At the close of play, Sachdev wasunbeaten on 99 off 209 balls, and Rajib Dutta (8*) was also at thecrease.*Bengal restrict Assam on Day OneBengal restricted Assam to a total of 214/7 on Day One of their RanjiTrophy league match at Calcutta on Friday.Winning the toss, Assam opted to bat and started off well, withopeners Parag Das and Subhrajit Saikia putting on 62 runs for thefirst wicket. Despite the fall of Saikia, Das went on to make 59 offjust 58 balls before being dismissed with the score on 90.Thereafter, although Syed Zuffri made a slow 69 off 205 balls, none ofthe other batsmen could support him, and wickets tumbled. Zuffri wasthe sixth wicket to fall with the score on 207. At the close of play,Nishanta Bordoloi (3*) and Sukhvinder Singh (3*) were at the crease.*Saurashtra batsmen dominate GujaratSaurashtra, aided by two centuries from its batsmen, put up 434 forthe first innings and then had Gujarat at 141/3 by the close of playon Day Two of their Ranji Trophy league match at Rajkot.Winning the toss, Saurashtra made maximam use of batting first. OpenerSujith Somasunder hit a fine 119 off 302 balls at the very top of theorder, stroking 17 fours and two sixes. He also put on 166 runs forthe fourth wicket with the other centurion, Feroz Bhambhaniya.Bhambhaniya made 109 off 258 balls, hitting 12 fours. He shared a goodstand with wicket-keeper Reuben Paul, who hit 74 off just 89 balls.Gujarat bowled their rivals out for 434, with off-spinner Bhavin Mehtataking three wickets.In reply to Saurashtra’s large first-innings score, Gujarat reached141/3 by close on Day Two, with Niraj Patel striking an unbeaten 89off 120 balls. He was accompanied at stumps by Tejas Varsani, who wasunbeaten on 2.

A staunch hundred from Abhijit Kale could not prevent Maharashtra from crashing to a six-wicket loss against Baroda in their Ranji Trophy league match at Pune on Tuesday.Overnight on 224/3, Maharashtra had given themselves a good chance of achieving at least a draw, if not an outright win. The last seven wickets, however, fell for 64 runs, giving Baroda the upper hand in the match.KD Aphale was the first of the overnight pair to go, making 71 off 106 balls. Kale, his partner, stayed until he was the ninth wicket to fall, but he did not receive any support from the lower order. He made 115 off 204 balls, hitting six fours and one six in his knock. The main destroyer for Baroda was Zaheer Khan, who picked up five wickets.Set a target of 230 for victory, Baroda made short work of it. A 99 from opener Connor Williams, to go with his first innings century, saw Baroda off to a good start. With SS Parab scoring 53, the first-wicket stand of 125 off 30.4 overs almost sealed the game for Baroda.Jacob Martin made an unbeaten 32 and Atul Bedade hit a whirlwind 24 off six balls to take Baroda to their six-wicket win, achieveing their target for the loss of four wickets in 57 overs.

Both the Auckland and Otago sides probably watched their State Shield one-day cricket hopes being washed down the drain at Eden Park Outer Oval today.The game started 30 minutes late under lowering skies, and was finished at 4.51pm when yet another dose of Auckland’s wet summer left the game as a damp no-result.This meant two points for both teams, which meant Otago went up to 12 points and Auckland to 10, still in the second half of the ladder and drifting further and further behind the three front-runners – and likely play-off teams – Wellington, Northern Districts and Canterbury.Otago would have every reason to be twice as annoyed by the sudden end, for they had had their best one-day innings of the season at 275 whereas Auckland had scored 67 for three wickets from 13.5 overs – and the odds were very much on an Otago win if the game had run its full course.Glenn Turner, the Otago coach, spoke before the game of the steady improvement of his team, especially when they realised that teamwork and consistent effort were essential assets of a successful team.Within an hour or so Turner’s men were showing they had learned their lessons. They lost Andrew Hore at 32 and Craig Cumming at 35 as Chris Drum and Tama Canning extracted some life and movement with the new ball.But from that point onward the Otago men settled comfortably and confidently into the Turner plan. Robbie Lawson, the slim opening batsman, showed amazing power, especially when he was driving, in his 49 from 88 balls.Lawson was involved in a 49-run stand for the third wicket with Chris Gaffaney, and then 42 for the fourth wicket with Craig Pryor.This carried Otago to 126 for four wickets after 28.5 overs, and to the critical point of the innings. Recently Otago have reached such a level of apparent comfort, but then let the chance of a big score slip away, and with it the winning initiative.This time Pryor, not averse to showing off his form to his old Auckland team-mates, and Lee Germon, relishing his first feel of batting confidence for the season, used the position to launch a winning effort.Between the 29th and 44th overs Pryor (91) and Germon (52) scored 104 for the fifth wicket in a little over an hour. It was magical batting, Pryor starting quietly, Germon opening with a flurry of boundaries. The first 50 of their stand came in 49 balls, the second 50 took only 34 balls.The Auckland bowlers took on the roles of spectators as Germon and Pryor kept the runs flooding in, with strong drives and clever use of the short side boundary on the Sandringham Road side of the ground.Germon was first to go at 230 for six, skying a catch from Brooke Walker which Terry Crabb caught. Germon had scored his 52 from 51 balls, with seven fours and had showed sparkling stroke play.Then it became a matter whether Pryor could race to his century as the overs, and partners, began to disappear. He was nine runs short with 13 balls to go when he launched into a quite magnificent slog-sweep at a ball from Drum.The ball went from the middle of the bat on a low, fast arc and it was a toss-up whether it would carry over the line for a six, or bounce away for a four. Instead Llorne Howell sprinted into the line of the ball and dived for a magnificent catch perhaps a half-metre from the ground.It was a marvellous catch, a fitting end, really, to Pryor’s superbly stylish innings which had five fours, four sixes and any number of classically designed drives.Amid the flow of runs Canning kept afloat with three wickets for 50, and Drum had a wicket at the start, middle and end of the innings at the very reasonable cost of 36 runs.The unlikely prospect of Auckland scoring 276 to win with the light likely to fade diminished further quite quickly. Matt Horne, Auckland’s star batsman this summer, was cleverly caught by Germon from James McMillan’s bowling before he had scored.Howell, a heavy scorer for Auckland in their last two games was second out at 48 after a hearty innings of 25. Crabb had become McMillan’s third victim (for 30 runs) when he was out at 54, and Auckland scrambled along to 67 before the rain had the final say.

Sean Doherty was a proud man today at Somerset Cricket Club after announcing that his wife Rachel had given birth to their son Ronan.Sean has become a popular figure with members and guests in the Colin Atkinson Pavilion where he has worked behind the bar for a number of years.Baby Ronan was born on Wednesday February 20th at 10 o’clock in the morning and weighed in at 8 lbs 1 oz – what a bouncer!Congratulations to Sean and Rachel and best wishes to all three from everyone at the club and from all website readers.

Every Indian tour of New Zealand has been affected by rain andbad light, and the last trip there in 1998-99 was no different.In fact, the scheduled three-Test series got reduced to two asthe first match at Dunedin was abandoned because of a downpour.There was never really any chance of play, and the umpiresformally abandoned the game on the third day. Of the tworemaining Tests, New Zealand won one and the other was drawn,which meant that the hosts had lost only one series to India insix contests at home ­ the first one, played way back in 1967-68.

It was essentially a battle between a team made up of severalstars and another constituting essentially of journeymen. But thehome team proved to be fitter and more committed and resilient.India’s stars performed only in fits and starts, and consistencywas sadly lacking. They suffered a setback in the opening firstclass fixture of the tour when they lost to Central Districts byseven wickets. Although they recovered to defeat Wellington byeight wickets in the only other firstclass game before the Testseries, the portents of defeat were all too apparent, especiallygiven their none-too-convincing record in New Zealand.The wash-out of the first Test was more a handicap to the Indiansthan the New Zealanders, and the visitors must have approachedthe swirling conditions in Wellington with some apprehension.When Simon Doull had the Indians at 16 for four on the firstmorning, the match was virtually decided. Navjot Sidhu, RahulDravid and Nayan Mongia all failed to score, and it took a braveunbeaten 103 by Mohammad Azharuddin to get India to 208. TheIndian captain’s 21st Test century was made in the face of someinspired bowling by Doull, who kept an admirable line and lengthand used the wind to swing the ball menacingly. He finished withseven for 65, the fourth-best figures for New Zealand in Testcricket.The Indian bowlers fought back, and New Zealand lost sevenwickets in catching up with India’s moderate total. But a recordeighth-wicket partnership of 137 between Dion Nash and DanielVettori helped them wrest back the initiative. A lead of 144 wasalways going to be handy, even if the Indians did much better inthe second innings, posting a total of 356. Sachin Tendulkar topscored with 113 and the New Zealanders were left a victory targetof 213.Again India’s bowlers did very well, and at the end of the fourthday, New Zealand were 73 for four ­ effectively five, as NathanAstle had retired after having his hand fractured by a deliveryfrom Javagal Srinath. A fifth wicket fell at 74, but then CraigMcMillian (74 not out) and Chris Cairns (61) quashed Indian hopesof a victory by adding 137 runs for the sixth wicket. Cairns gotout trying to hit the winning stroke, and that honour fittinglywent to Nash.India never really had a chance to square the series in the finalTest at Hamilton. The pitch was too good, as symbolised by thefour centuries and as many as eight other scores over the halfcentury mark being notched up. The one consolation was that Indiahad the Man of the Match in Dravid, who became only the thirdplayer from the country to get a hundred in each innings of aTest after Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar (who performed thefeat three times).New Zealand led off with 366, to which the Indians replied with416. This represented a pretty good recovery, for at one stagethey were 211 for seven. Dravid and Srinath added 144 runs forthe eighth wicket, with the fast bowler getting a career-best 76.Then Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad (30) carried India’s total pastNew Zealand’s with a ninth-wicket association of 61. Dravid wasfinally out for 190 after having batted for more than eight hoursand hitting 31 fours.The first-innings lead of 50 seemed to be valuable when NewZealand were 85 for four in the second knock. Thereafter, though,India’s bowling ran out of steam, and McMillan (84), Adam Parore(50), Cairns (126), Nash (63) and Daniel Vettori (43 not out) allmade merry. Stephen Fleming delayed the declaration ­ at 464 foreight ­ until after lunch, and in the remaining time, Dravid hithis second century (103 not out) while Sourav Ganguly too got anunbeaten 101 as the Indians closed at 249 for two. Incidentallythis was Sidhu’s 51st and last Test.The five-match series of one-day internationals was keenlyfought, and fittingly it ended with each side winning two matchesand the third game at Wellington being declared a no-result. NewZealand won the first by five wickets on the Duckworth-Lewissystem, while India hit back by taking the second by two wickets.India maintained the momentum with a five-wicket victory in thefourth ODI, only for New Zealand to draw level with a 70-run winin the final game.