Bangladesh wasted no time in racing to a seven wicket victory overNamibia in the Plate Championship of the under-19 World Cup at theUyanwatte stadium in Matara on Wednesday.Namibia were plainly outplayed. Put in to bat, they were shot out for57 in 28.3 overs. The fact that extras with 22 provided the top scoretells the sad tale of the Namibia innings. None of the batsmen reacheddouble digits with S Gericke top scoring with eight. Interestinglyenough, they were no ducks in the innings, Hannan Sarker was quiteunplayable as his final figures of 10-4-15-5 will illustrate.Bangladesh reached their easy target in only 11.1 overs as probablythe most lop sided encounter in the tournament came to a quick end.

On an extremely hot and humid day at welegedara stadium inkurunegala sri lanka’s opening batsmen responded to thezimbabwean first innings score of 306 in emphatic fashion,reaching 231for the loss of just one wicket at the close. Thehighlight of the innings being a magnificent 129 off 193 balls byavishka gunawardena.This was a frustrating day for this young zimbabwean side. Notonly did their opening bowler have retire to the dressing roomfor treatment of a back strain after just five overs, but theyappeared unlucky to have three confident appeals turned down byumpire b.c. Cooray during the afternoon session. So convincedwere the fielding side that hewage had touched the deliveriesfrom matambanadzo and price, that for the first time in theseries, frustrations threatened to boil over.When umpire, b.c. Cooray, refused to uphold their appeal theirwas visible disbelief on the faces of the fielders and a delay inplay as they took time to register their feelings. Words wereexchanged from various quarters and the tension eventuallycompelled cooray to speak to gus mackay.Whether cooray’s decision was correct or not the real root of thezimbabwean’s frustration was undoubtedly the fine batting of thesri lankan openers and their own inability to maintain a tightline and length. The sri lankan’s scored their runs at nearlyfour runs an over. Whilst praising the quality of the batsmen’sstrokeplay, kevin curran pointed to the lack of concentrationshown by the bowlers.”The guys lack experience of this type of cricket and this makesit difficult for them to concentrate like they should. We bowledtoo many bad balls and gave the batsmen too much width. Going fornearly 4 runs an over you are never going to be able to controlthe opposition.”This does not take anything away from the quality of avishkagunawardena’s exhilarating innings. He batted quite superbly. Asper usual he started like a wild buffalo, smashing the openingbowlers through the covers and over mid-on. However when thespinners were introduced in the 10th over of the innings hetempered his aggression and played in a much more calculatedmanner. Despite there being something of a `crash bang’ labelattached to this young batsmen, one cannot ignore the ease withwhich he middles the ball and an important ability to hitstraight. There appears to be a sound technical foundation to hisexplosive style.His partner, pradeep hewage (81*), was far more cautious early onbut gradually grew in confidence, especially against thespinners. Possessing a very closed stance his batting style isascetically quite awkward but extremely workmanlike, even if hewas lucky to not have been adjudged lbw.In the morning session zimbabwe added 62 runs in 21 overs beforethey were bowled out. They reached the 300 mark thanks to ablistering innings by their experienced captain, gus mackay, whoscored 35 of 48 balls. Hi undefeated innings combined a mixtureof bold offence and patient defence. A naturally aggressivebatsmen he was prepared to hit anything loose.

By the time Aftab Habib was dismissed the game was almost out of the reachof Lancashire. The partnership of 111 between Habib and Defreitas sawLeicestershire through to a well deserved draw.Lancashire by failing to win this game, have missed the opportunity to joinSurrey at the top of Division One in the PPP Healthcare County Championship.Time ran out for Lancashire in this game and the question must be asked asto their reasons for a very slow run rate on the third day of the game.Ganguly scored only 8 runs in the first 80 minutes of day 3 which really setthe tone for the rest of the day.Leicestershire will feel pleased to have drawn this game considering theamount of injuries they suffered throughout this match. The graft anddetermination of their batsmen was abley supported by the allrounder PhilDefreitas who had a magnificent match with scores of 97 in the first inningsfollowed by a century in the second. This following his mammoth bowlingspell of 47 overs in Lancashires first innings.

Western Province took firm control of their four-day Supersport Series matchagainst Border in East London on Saturday reducing their hosts to 182 for seven, needing a further 18 runs to avoid the follow-on.Earlier, Western Province resumed their first innings on 286 for five anddeclared half an hour before lunch with the score on 350 for nine.Ashwell Prince and Alan Dawson came out in the morning, but Dawson was soonon his way back to the pavilion when he edged the second ball of the day – aquick Vasbert Drakes delivery – to Wayne Wiblin at second slip withoutadding to his overnight score of 14.Thami Tsolekile was trapped leg before by Tyron Henderson and ClaudeHenderson aided Prince in a 39-run stand for the seventh wicket. Hendersonwas caught behind by Mitchell of left-arm seamer Lance Graham for 14 andPaul Adams fell to the same bowler for seven. Captain HD Ackerman decidednot to dally and declared rather than expose number 11 Charl Willoughby todanger.Border openers Craig Sugden and Dumisa Makalima scored 16 and 18respectively and were dismissed in identical fashion as they bat-paddedcatches to Graeme Smith at silly point off of Claude Henderson’s slowleft-arm spin.Steven Pope departed for just seven which left the Border on 43 for threebut Pieter Strydom and Wiblin were able to put on 47 for the fourth wicket.Strydom was his usual exciting self and scored 32 rapidly while Wiblin heldup his end.Strydom became the first of Paul Adams’ three victims edging one toTsolekile behind the stumps. Adams struck again soon after as Laden Gamietskied a ball to Neil Johnson at mid-on who made a running catch.Ian Mitchell came to the crease and watched as Wiblin went to his fifty andthen promptly went out with his score on 51. He was caught behind byTsolekile off Willoughby. Drakes then played all around an Adams deliveryand headed back to the pavilion for one.Mitchell and Geoff Love saw the hosts through to the close with a 39-runpartnership. The match resumes on Sunday.

Wellington knitted a collection of small and isolated fragments of play into an impressive patchwork on the third day of their Shell Trophy match against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve today.They wove series of multicoloured strips, mostly grays and blacks, assembled between lunch and tea, another bright strip tacked on between tea and early stumps, into a seamless cloth which expressed their overwhelming control of a match which has only a day remaining.From the threads and patches of the second session – three snatched fragments of play of respectively 10, 22, and 47 minutes, they advanced their overnight score of 297-5 to 369-7. And from the castoffs of the final session – snippets of 33 and 23 minutes – they reduced Central to 47-2.The brightly coloured segments which stood out against the dull gray background of the day were the achievements of Chris Nevin, who moved his overnight score from 52 to 82 – within sight of his second Trophy century – before his progress was halted by an early declaration.And James Franklin, who had seized his first five-wicket bag in Trophy cricket during Central’s first innings, took wickets with the first and fifth balls of their second innings to make the quilt Wellington had embroidered from such unpromising resources more complete.There had been no play before lunch as drifting rain brushed the Basin Reserve with an unyielding film of moisture, setting the tone for the day and exacerbating the dampening effect of the stubborn showers of the early morning.The umpires Robert Anderson and Gary Baxter, whose position has been made invidious over the past two days by the changing nature of the weather, made a ground inspection at noon, pronounced lunch at 12.30 and hoped for a start of play at 1.10pm. The groundstaff worked feverishly during the lunch break to prepare the pitch and its surrounds for play and the first ball of the day was finally bowled, thanks to their efforts, only slightly late, at 1.16pm.But the players were on the field for only 10 minutes and Wellington had added one run at the cost of Franklin’s wicket at his overnight score of 23, when they were chased from the field by returning showers.They were back after 20 minutes but played only 22 minutes more before the next and briefer interuption, when Wellington was 319-6. At their third attempt, the teams achieved 47 minutes of play – Wellington lost the wicket of Matthew Walker for 20 at 333 – and Nevin and Regan West quickly added 36 before they were bested again by the returning damp and gloom.Wellington made its declaration at that point, at 3.10pm and in frustrated response to the continuing loss of time. Nevin had then batted 149 minutes, faced 100 balls and hit 12 fours to be denied a century only by the weight of necessity. West had added a breezy unbeaten 19.Central’s second innings began at 3.30 and though Wellington’s 258-run lead was less than they had first expected, it was made imposing when Franklin removed Kelly and Hill with his first and fifth balls, their departures separated only by a leg bye. Central were suddenly 1-2.Both batsmen were out to the first balls they faced and both were trapped lbw, caught on the creaseline by full and swinging deliveries from the tall left-armer.But Central were carried on to 27-2 in the 33 minutes before tea by senior batsman Mark Douglas and the Leicestershire professional Ben Smith. Then, in the last 23 minutes of this patchwork day, between tea and the next telling showers of rain, Smith moved on to 26, Douglas to 16 and Central were 47-2.The players were finally chased to their dressing rooms by fresh showers at 4.45pm and stumps were drawn at 6.04 with no sign of an improvement.

England’s middle-order mainstay, Graham Thorpe, will not return to the one-day side at least until the final NatWest Series qualifying match against Australia at The Oval on June 21.The Surrey left-hander has been ruled out for a further week after failing to recover from calf trouble.He has so far missed all three of England’s one-day defeats after sustaining the injury in the warm-up to the opening game against Pakistan at Edgbaston last Thursday.It had been hoped that Thorpe would recover in time to face Australia intomorrow’s day-night match at Old Trafford, but with half an eye on the Ashes series England will not want to take any risks with him.If England fail to win tomorrow they will already have been ruled out of the June 23 final at Lord’s.

There is a new row brewing at the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) surrounding the unauthorised investment of US$3 million on the stock market. It appears that Chief Financial Officer, Richard Jodhan, along with Executive Secretary, Andrew Sealy, last year signed documents with a Wall Street brokerage company and invested the sum of money in high risk equity stocks without the board’s authority.A select committee, which was headed by Antiguan banker and former Leeward Islands batsman Enoch Lewis, reported to the WICB’s board that “after reviewing the documents provided by Merrill Lynch… we found no evidence of such authority and power being vested in these officers.”Former WICB president Pat Rousseau, in a statement last week, said: “I consider the appointment of Mr. Jodhan (to the interim management committee) improper and irregular.” In his statement Rousseau also suggested that action should be taken against Sealy, for allegedly “signing documents without authority for the investment of the money with Merrill Lynch”.The Lewis Committee document confirmed that both officers signed documents to Merrill Lynch and that the pair claimed they had full power and authority to enter this agreement.Former WICB vice-president Clarvis Joseph, speaking last night on State radio, confirmed that the WICB lost US$286,000 from these investments. Joseph said that in addition to not being authorised to play the equities market last year, it was a well-known fact that the stock market was very unpredictable ahead of presidential elections in the United States. Joseph, however, does not believe that the CFO acted to defraud the board, and said that even if the investment had paid dividends, it also would have been wrong, because the investment was not authorised by the board.Joseph said he found it strange that the board re-instated West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt, because they “acted without the board’s authority and had exceeded their own authority”, but were not equally concerned about the investment of US$3 million without the said board’s permission.In a report dated 15 May, the Lewis Committee urged the WICB to “pull the plug on the investment and put its money into safer short-term instruments that made sense, given the Board’s cash-flow problems”. The report further went on to state “that the WICB borrowed US$2 million from the Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch against the investment portfolio”.Rousseau in his statement revealed that the executive committee in October 1999 received a proposal from Jodhan to invest US$100,000.00 with Merrill Lynch. But, Rousseau continues, “the recollection of the vice-president and myself is that the request was refused”. Rousseau goes on to say that “the Minutes of that meeting have not been produced”. Instead, the former WICB president claims that Jodhan invested US $496,000 with the Wall Street bank.In a budget proposal for the 2000 financial year, Rousseau said, Jodhan in May last year indicated an intention to invest US$3 million with Merrill Lynch “but makes it clear that he will seek the approval of the executive committee”. Rousseau insists that the approval was not sought, but the investment made.The Lewis Committee which also included Clarvis Joseph, Val Banks and Stephen Alleyne, reported that they found out that the fund in which the WICB had invested was for a long-term growth strategy, in which 65 per cent to 85 per cent of the exposure is in equities, thus carrying high risks. The report continues: “Given the potential high level of equity exposure and the specific nature for which the funds were acquired (i.e., reported coverage of short-term cash flow needs), this committee is of the opinion that the investment was ill-advised.”The Lewis Committee further concluded: “In reviewing the Merrill Lynch statements, we discovered that as at February 28 …WICB also has a current liability of US$2 million. We understand that these funds were borrowed and leveraged against the value of the portfolio to cover cash and understand that these funds borrowed leveraged against the value of the portfolio to cover cashflow shortfall arising from difficulties experienced in collecting funds from the Australia tour.”Jodhan has since verbally tendered verbally his resignation to the board at its recently concluded AGM, but did not offer any further details. Meanwhile Sealy, as part of the board’s restructuring process, will be leaving office at the end of June. His position with the board was made redundant along with the Director of Coaching, Reg Scarlett, in January.

1st day of 3High Wycombe:
Buckinghamshire 191 (S Chapman 4-36)
Northumberland 76-1Truro:
Oxfordshire 100 (CE Shreck 4-47; JCJ Stevens 6-23)
Cornwall 144-6Bury St Edmunds:
Staffordshire 315-4 (L Potter 158*, PF Shaw 95)
SuffolkCardiff:
Wales Minor Counties 293-9 dec (JPJ Sylvester 87, JH Langworth 54no)
Devon 7-1

As most of you probably have gathered, our participation in the Coca-Cola triangular tournament is now at an end. What a disappointment and anticlimax it has turned out to be! Our first tournament on home soil and we lose every game and fail to make the final, not exactly what was meant to happen.However, misfortune, lack of focus on the field and general chaos and disharmony off it meant that this was one of the toughest and saddest periods in my career and indeed probably Zimbabwean cricket’s life thus far.After a magnificent Test win, everything pointed to a solid showing in the Triangular Tournament, a berth in the finals and if we played well maybe even a victory.However on the morning of the first game Heath Streak resigned as captain, citing untenable conditions with the selectors. The team in general also had little faith in the selectors and we played under protest with Grant Flower as captain. Heath was reinstated as captain the following morning and was made a selector along with the coach, which brought a modicum of sanity to proceedings. However since then the issues have continued to manifest themselves in the form of selectors resigning because they feel the players have too much power, and defamatory newspaper articles leaked by devious individuals within the cricket fraternity.As professional players we are expected to play the game, however I tell you under these conditions it is nigh on impossible to fully focus on the job at hand. The courage, commitment and passion that are hallmarks of a Zimbabwe cricketer are being severely tested at this juncture. I can only hope that in this, Zimbabwean cricket’s toughest hour, people will realise that cricket is bigger than any one person or group and that we have a duty to uphold the traditions and preserve this wonderful game.Common ground must be found on a way forward for cricket in this country, involving the input of the key stakeholders. People must put aside their personal agendas and do what is best for cricket. All cricket lovers can ask for is that common sense prevails.

Like last year, the MRF sponsored Buchi Babu all India invitationtournament to be held in Chennai from August 12 to 30 will have aninternational flavour. And again this will be provided by the presenceof the New Zealand Cricket Academy.The popular annual tournament this year will have 14 teams and thepresence of some strong teams is bound to add spice to the contests.Last year’s winners National Cricket Academy and runners-up Oil andNatural Gas Commission have drawn byes into the quarterfinals.The tournament commences with two matches with Indian Railwwaysmeeting Maharashtra Cricket Association and All India Associate Banksclashing with Tamil Nadu Districts XI. These matches are scheduled tobe played from August 12 to 14.The other four first round matches will be played from August 16 to18. These pit MRF against Hyderabad Cricket Association, MumbaiCricket Association against New Zealand Cricket Academy, IndianAirlines against Jolly Rovers and MAC-TNCA XI against Karnataka StateCricket Association (KSCA).ONGC await the winners of the match between MAC-TNCA XI and KSCA whileNCA meet the winners of the game between Indian Railways andMaharashtra. The four quarter-finals will be played from August 20 to22. The semifinals are slated to be held from August 24 to 26 and thefinal will be played at the MA Chidambaram stadium from August 28 to30.