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Somerset Seconds have enjoyed a successful season in 2002, having won two out of their ten championship matches, to end in twelfth place in the championship table, an improvement of three places on last year. They won their opening match against Worcestershire and crushed Kent inside two days in the final game, as well as beating Gloucestershire in a three day friendly.Mark Garaway, who joined the club in November 2001 as Director of the South West Regional Academy and assistant coach in charge of the second team told me: " This has been a very enjoyable season for everyone, which is halfway towards achieving my initial objective, and because we have got a small staff at the club we have had to recruit from the Academy and from triallists."He continued: "One of the biggest compliments I had all season came from Scott Cunningham who played six games for us and scored some good runs. He said he felt very comfortable at the club because there was a good atmosphere in the dressing room, which he hadn’t found to always be the case at other clubs."Whilst Mark has been delighted with the results of the team, when he took over he didn’t expect to win too many matches because that wasn’t his main objective. "Second team cricket is a learning ground for young players and a stepping stone towards first team cricket. It’s about processing and learning, and the proof that has been Arul Suppiah who went out for Somerset Sabres up at Durham in his first game and did the business, which was very pleasing."The young players who have made up the side have given a good account of themselves. The coach continued: "Our biggest loss of the season was up at Warwickshire where both young James Hildreth and leg spinner Michael Munday played well against very experienced opposition. Faced with that situation they did let themselves down, and as a result the spin off has been the success of our Under 19’s side who won the ECB two day competition recently. The youngsters have grown up during the season and it has been fantastic for me to see them doing so well."Mark Garaway paid tribute to three of the players who have played such a major part in the teams success Graham Rose, Joe Tucker and Tom Webley. Regarding his senior player he told me: " Graham has been absolutely brilliant, and has willingly taken on the mentoring role for the younger players. It was good to see him do so well in the last game at Kent when he was returning from injury."I asked the coach to identify some of the young players who he felt had particularly impressed him this season. He told me:"Arul Suppiah is a serious talent who is desperate to play first team cricket. Michael Munday is a wholehearted leg spinner who has worked very hard on his batting and fielding this season He will shortly be spending sometime in the winter with Terry Jenner in Australia. Neil Edwards has come a long way this summer and has just been selected for the England Under 19 party for Australia. Gareth Andrew has had a good year and Michael Parsons has done well in his first year at the Academy. James Hildreth has looked very comfortable playing at Under 17 and second team level as has sixteen year old Richard Timms who scored 69 against Gloucestershire, he is very talented."The most pleasing aspect is that the sides that have been fielded by Somerset Seconds have been very young this season which is all looking very encouraging for the future of the club.

You know the English are getting desperate when they bring Kylie Minogue into an argument about cricket.That’s what Martin Samuel did in The Times today when he argued that England could have a better chance of beating Australia if they looked at other areas where their country was superior.Displaying the typical English knowledge of Australian culture that starts with Rolf Harris and ends at “Home and Away”, Samuel ignored chart-toppers like The Avalanches and The Vines to declare that English pop music was better.”Believe it or not, there are still some things the English do better than the Australians. Pop music, for instance,” he wrote.”Sure, that Kylie tune from a year back was catchy … It was No.1 for longer than Darren Gough’s been injured.”Anyway, the point is, who wrote it? Cathy Dennis. As English as they come. All the best stuff is ours. That’s why the Aussies spend so much time bragging about sports. Take it away and what else is there?”Warming to his theme, Samuel cites Men At Work as the other great example of Australian pop and “Aussie Aussie Aussie oi-oi-oi” as Antipodean lyrical genius.Samuel concedes that Australia has a great team.But he says English captain Nasser Hussain and his men should be focussing on the Australian weaknesses rather than behaving as if it was an honour simply to be on the same pitch as them.”Here’s the alternative view,” he said.”Justin Langer is a highly ordinary opening batsman carried along by an exceptional partner.”Darren Lehmann is no great shakes as a middle-order batsman and Andy Bichel, the first-change bowler, took two tailend wickets for plenty on his own Queensland turf.”As for his possible replacement, Brett Lee, if he’s so hot, how come he spent the weekend shaping up for New South Wales against Tasmania?”

Cricket World Cup office – Zimbabwe
e-mail [email protected]
Phone: 263-4-791289
Fax: 263-4-791282
Physical address:
Ground Floor
Bowls Pavilion
ZCU Headquarters
Harare Sports Club
Cnre 5th / Josiah Tongogara Avenue
Harare
ZimbabwePostal Address:
PO Box 2739
Harare
Zimbabwe

NAIROBI, Aug 28 AAP – A fitter, stronger Shane Warne is ready to go “berserk” and recapture some of his best form, according to stand-in Australian coach Allan Border.Border said the slim, gym-going Warne was in the right physical and mental shape to start wreaking havoc in Test cricket.”I’ve just got a feeling in my gut that he might just surge again and have a period when he just goes berserk,” Border said.It’s a far cry from 18 months ago when Warne was at one of the lowest points of his career – struggling to take wickets in India and subject to public criticism from coach John Buchanan about his lack of physical fitness.”He’s on fire, Warney,” Border said when the team arrived in Nairobi for the triangular series against Pakistan and Kenya.”Whether he’s thought to himself ‘I’ve got to an age when I really need to take stock’ or maybe initially there was a bet and he said “bugger you, I can lose five kilos’.”He’s that sort of guy, once he sets his mind to something he’s pretty good.”Border, filling in for the injured Buchanan in Nairobi, was the national selector on duty in South Africa and said the transformation in Warne on that tour alone “was just incredible”.”It’s up around 12 or 13 kilos that he’s lost and you can tell that he feels his career has had a bit of a trough and now he’s ready for another up-surge,” said Border.”That’s what it looks like from the way he’s bowling, his attitude, his body language – the whole thing is really positive.”Border couldn’t say whether Warne – ravaged by injuries to his shoulder and fingers over the years – would regain the ability to super-spin the ball.”But he’s given himself every chance in the world that he might get some of that rotation back – only time will tell – but he can’t do any more in terms of getting back in shape for it.”

Practise and training, training and practise – that’s the recipe for Jeff Wilson over the next six months as he prepares to resume his cricketing career.Wilson retired last week from all rugby having played 60 test matches for New Zealand and 230 first-class games. He is the leading try scorer in tests for the All Blacks with 44 and touched down 151 times during his decade in the game.Now with a view to playing cricket again at the highest level, Wilson has discussed a winter training regime with State Otago Volts coach Glenn Turner and has already enjoyed an informal practise session at Otago Cricket’s high performance centre in Dunedin.Turner said working with Wilson will be an interesting exercise.”I’m looking forward to learning how rugby operates in areas of commonality and what might be useful for us to incorporate into our work,” he said, clearly referring to attitude and professionalism.Otago Cricket’s chief executive Graeme Elliott also met Wilson this week where he was able to discuss what requirements the former One-Day International player had for the winter. Elliott reinforced Otago Cricket’s delight in having a player of Wilson’s calibre again available to the association’s selectors.”Jeff is exceptionally keen to be involved,” Elliott said.”It will be a tough process for him, getting his body into cricket shape again after so long away from the game. But it’s a challenge he’s set himself and Glenn and he have already confirmed a schedule.”We’ve told Jeff we will do everything we can to ensure his return to the game is as smooth as possible and I know New Zealand Cricket feels the same way,” he said.Wilson represented New Zealand as a 19-year-old in the home one-day series against Australia in the 1992/93 season, several months before his All Black debut. He is the only one of the seven ‘double’ All Blacks to have achieved that feat while a teenager.

A tournament that has been racked by the monsoons and marred by the unavailability of national players now moves into its final stages when both Mercantile Cricket Association Division A semi-finals are played this weekend.Hatton National Bank, who didn’t lose a game in the group stages and remain firm favourites for the title, will play third placed Janashakthi, whilst runners up East West take on Sampath Bank.Seylan Bank, normally one of the most competitive teams, and Commercial Bank were both humiliated after failing to win a single game in the league stage .If they progress to the final, Hatton National Bank, although possessing a star studded squad full of international experience, will be hit by the loss of Avishka Gunawardene and Akalanka Ganegama, both of who will soon join the national squad in England.

Former Australian wicket-keeping great Rodney Marsh said today in Kolkata that both Deep Dasgupta and Ajay Ratra had the potential to play for India. Marsh, who was in the city to watch the trainees at the Eastern Wing of the National Cricket Academy run by the BCCI told reporters that he had been impressed with both at the NCA in Bangalore. “However, I told them that wicket-keeping should be their first priority. They can think about their batting only after they have sharpened their keeping skills.”The burly Australian spent close to two hours with the boys of the Academy. He told them, “You have got to learn to dream as dreaming will make you more ambitious and propel you to greater heights. At the same time, you will also will have to work hard.” He offered himself as an example. “I was called iron gloves at the beginning of my career. That made me all the more determined to succeed. So I dreamt of success and worked hard and was rewarded for it.”Marsh also expressed his satisfaction at the way the camp was being run. He also had a detailed discussion with the chief coach Arun Lal and the assistant coaches, Barun Burman, Randhir Singh and Jimut Mohanty as to how the camp should be conducted. “I just gave them suggestions. Now they will decide what is better for the boys,” said Marsh. “However, I have asked them to monitor the off-season programme chart that has been provided to the cricketers.”Marsh, who had developed a notable partnership with the great Dennis Lillee said that there was plenty of talent in India. “Give them a chance to come up,” he said. When asked as to why India was not producing another Kapil Dev, Marsh snapped back, “Has Australia produced another Dennis Lillee? They are genius who come once in a while. India now has Sachin Tendulkar. Now after his retirement, if somebody asks why isn’t another Tendulkar being produced, it will be a difficult question to answer.”Later, talking to the aspiring talents, Marsh said, “Always see to it that the basics are right. Without that, nobody can succeed.” When Bengal’s under-19 wicket-keeper Ritesh Jaiswal asked Marsh as to how one should concentrate between overs, the latter said, “Between overs take off the gloves and flex your fingers continuously. That will keep your hands from getting tired.” He also corrected the bowling and batting techniques of a few others. Overall, it was a two-hour session that the students of the Academy will cherish for a long time.

At the start of another bright sunny morning at the County Ground in Taunton, Somerset Head Groundsman Phil Frost was working hard alongside his team to make sure that the ground is in peak condition for the first home match of the season against Glamorgan in the Benson and Hedges Cup on April 30th.Phil, who won the coveted Groundsman of the Year Award for a record breaking number of times in 2001 told me: "It’s all looking very good at the moment. The early season net wickets and the wickets out in the middle have all played well, but it is always so much easier when it is dry. We have been very lucky with the weather this season so far."Phil Frost continued: "The pitch for the Glamorgan game in a fortnight is virtually ready, and we are now keeping it dry. It should be a typical Taunton wicket, and after the Hampshire friendly match on Wednesday we will put the main covers over it."

Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis batted with ruthless efficiency to putSouth Africa in control of the first Test against the West Indies at theBourda on Saturday with the tourists closing day two on 130-1 in reply tothe home side’s first innings score of 304.Kirsten has built an enduring and widely respected reputation on hisability to anchor an innings and rotate the strike with a series of nudgesand nurdles but his Dr Jekyll side made an unexpected appearance as he droveand cut savagely at any width offered by the pacemen and then slog-sweptimpressive leg spinner Dinanath Ramnarine for a glorious six over midwicket.Kallis, too, began to use his feet against the three spinners used by the West Indies hitting Carl Hooper for a one-bounce boundary straight back over his head and reaching a rock solid 39 not out at the close.Kirsten’s life-long ambition has been to tour the Caribbean and he seemsintent on making the best possible start. He enjoyed one moment of luck, on53, when a classic googly from Ramnarine fizzed onto his glove but took aslight deflection off his pad preventing Ridley Jacobs from accepting thechance. His unbeaten 80 at the close had come from 175 balls and containednine fours and the six.Herschelle Gibbs (8) became the only casualty of the South African reply when a Merv Dillon delivery skidded nastily towards the base of leg stump and snuck through his defences. He was on the back foot, however, and should have been playing forward.If South Africa dominated the final two sessions, however, then the opposite was true for two hours in the morning after the home side resumed on 232-7. Despite the almost immediate loss of Ramnarine to a silly run out error which allowed Gibbs to run in from cover and remove the bails, Hooper guided his fragile team through to lunch at an impressive 300-8.Then unsung hero in a ninth wicket partnership of 62 was Dillon (9) who showed huge character to defend for almost two hours and 86 balls while Hooper advanced his overnight score from 12 to 67 at lunch.The controversially appointed new West Indian captain displayed what Sir Vivian Richards said everyone knew he had – “genuine class”. Driving and wristily flicking the seamers, sweeping spinner Nicky Boje and, most elegantly, late-cutting anybody to the fine third man boundary, Hooper went a long way towards winning over the critics who said he lacked commitment and the heart for a fight.

Sussex pace bowler Billy Taylor will miss the first two weeks of theseason after fracturing the little finger on his right hand in two places. He sustained the injury in his first training session after recovering from an ankle operation.