Joey Carew, convenor of the West Indies selection panel, says “a different spirit that emanated from the players” was the key to Brian Lara’s team winning the five-match one-day international series against favourites India. And he has described Lara, now leading the side for an unprecedented third time, as being “very much committed” and “more mature” at the age of 37.After narrowly losing the opening match in Jamaica on May 18, West Indies bounced back to capture the series 4-1. “I have enjoyed the series, of course, being the winner of the series encourages me for that,” Carew said on the CMC CricketPlus programme. “But, more so, I find that there was a different spirit that emanated from the players and I think that was the secret of their success. It proved in every game and I am looking forward to more improvement as we go into the Test [series].”Carew, a former West Indies opening batsman, reckoned that the 5-0 triumph in the preceding seven-match home series against minnows Zimbabwe (two matches were abandoned because of rain) was a solid foundation for the resurgent West Indies to build on. “Most definitely, but also the match practice that we got. It’s a bit different outside there than in the nets and we got the match practice that we needed. So we didn’t come into the India series stale as such. We came in fresh and victorious and I think that helped a lot,” he said.With regard to Lara, Carew remarked: “He is very committed but Brian has always been committed. But somewhere along the line, maybe at 37, he is more mature and the players have matured themselves and I think the team is led properly and they are all pulling their weight. I don’t see much of a difference in Brian Lara’s tactical approach yesteryear to what it is now,” Carew added.Prior to the series, India were ranked No.3 in the world behind Australia and South Africa, compared to West Indies at No 8. But Rahul Dravid’s men have now slipped to No.5. West Indies have remained in eighth place but have gained seven rating points because of the 4-1 series win. It means they are now just five points behind seventh-placed England.The first match in the four-Test series starts on Friday at the Antigua Recreation Ground.

The first women’sTwenty20 international in Australia will take place this October at Brisbane when the home side take on New Zealand. The game will be followed by five one-day internationals, all to be played at the same venue.Australia have previously played a Twenty20 match, at Taunton in September 2005. Karen Rolton, the current captain, scored an unbeaten 96 off 53 balls and took two wickets in a seven-wicket victory over England.The Rose Bowl trophy that the two teams are contesting will be the first women’s international played at Brisbane since Australia and England played a Test there as part of the Ashes in February 2003.Out of the 75 ODIs that Australia and New Zealand have contested, Australia have won 54. Australia will next tour India for a four-nation one-day tournament in February 2007.

It’s a measure of how formidable Sri Lanka are on their own turf that Mark Boucher, leading South Africa in this Unitech Cup, felt compelled to resort to flippancy when asked how the hosts could be stopped. “If you have any suggestions, please tell me,” he said, perhaps aware that South Africa have not won a one-day match on the island since the far-off days of 1993.India too have been indifferent performers in Sri Lanka, with their batsmen stymied by the sluggish pitches and Sri Lanka’s multitude of slow-bowling options. Having beaten India in a low-scoring match in the Asia Cup final two seasons ago, they handed out three defeats in the triangular last year, Greg Chappell’s first assignment in charge of the team.Having pulverised England 5-0 in the old country, Sri Lanka have every reason to feel that this Cup too is theirs for the taking. Sanath Jayasuriya, seemingly consigned to the fringes after his failures in India last year, is once again batting with the power and confidence that characterised his salad years in the late 1990s, and in Upul Tharanga he has found a free-stroking accomplice infinitely more accomplished than biff-bang merchants like Avishka Gunawardene.And though Marvan Atapattu is missing, Mahela Jayawardene, who appears to add layers to his accomplishment with each game in charge, and Kumar Sangakkara form a potent second line of attack. Factor in Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Kapugadera, and you realise just why Sri Lanka are expected to carry on their proud record of 88 wins against 35 defeats on home soil.An astonishing 41 of those wins have come at the Premadasa Stadium, formerly a swamp. The most famous of those was probably the rout of Australia in the Champions Trophy semi-final of 2002, when a blistering Australian start gave way to utter confusion and self-destruction once Aravinda de Silva came on to bowl his innocuous offbreaks.Men like Dilshan, who bowls in similar fashion, and the ever-unpredictable Lasith Malinga give Sri Lanka a bowling X-factor to supplement bonafide legends like Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas. The spectre of Murali has such a debilitating effect on the psyche of opposing teams that they often try to tweak their tactics with a view to neutralising his threat. Already, there are rumours that India may save Virender Sehwag for the middle order, just so that too much momentum won’t be lost once Murali comes on to apply his wicket-taking tourniquet with the softer white ball.

India have a few wild cards of their own though. Their batting, with Tendulkar back to reinforce it, is grisly strong, and when they get it right – as they did against Sri Lanka at home and Pakistan away – no target is safe. Yuvraj Singh has become a master of the one-day game, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni provides an unorthodox big-hitting option not seen since the days of Kapil Dev.Munaf Patel and S Sreesanth – only one of whom is likely to play if Irfan Pathan is persisted with – can give as good as they get in the pace stakes, and RP Singh with his skiddy medium pace could also be an option on slow pitches. Most crucial though will be the spin component led by Harbhajan Singh. Sehwag has been in superb bowling form of late, and Yuvraj and Tendulkar, shoulder willing, will be other options if the need of the hour is to take the pace off the ball.South Africa don’t have such a luxury, and must depend instead on their pace bowlers to hit the right areas on pitches not really suited to their brand of bowling. With the canny Charl Langeveldt missing, and Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock both struggling with niggles, the likes of Andre Nel and Johan van der Wath will have to step up if South Africa are to change their dismal fortunes on these shores.van der Wath, the so-called new kid on the block, is already 29, but as his thrilling 16-ball 36 in one-dayer at Johannesburg showed, he doesn’t shy away from the big occasion. Neither does Herschelle Gibbs, whose withdrawal with cramps after a scintillating century prompted that astonishing capitulation against India in the Champions Trophy semi-final of 2002. But with no Smith, no Kallis and no Kemp to provide some pizzazz, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the final on August 29 will be a South Asian affair. With so much wet weather around, one can only hope that it will be decided by events on the field, and not by rain-rules and charts that few can fathom.

Division One

Day oneNick Knight struck a fine 123 for Warwickshire on the first day of their match against Sussex at Edgbaston, as the home side reached 329 for 7. Warwickshire were reduced to 89 for 4 before Knight and Michael Powell put on 126 for the fifth wicket. Though Knight fell to James Kirtley, Tim Ambrose struck a resilient 63 and remains unbeaten going into day two.Day twoGraham Onions’s first five-for rocked Middlesex who put in another pathetic display with the bat, stumbling to 176 all out to stare defeat in the face against Durham at Lord’s. Only Nick Compton (56) showed any sort of application as Onions brought tears to the loyal Lord’s supporters. Durham enforced the follow-on, rightly so, and Onions continued his fine bowling to remove Ed Smith for just 10. They trail by 221 runs.Michael Carberry fell one short of a deserved hundred, but John Crawley made up for it with a super 173 as Hampshire gained a 298-run lead over Yorkshire at Southampton. Though Chris Benham struck a useful fifty, there was little else from Hampshire’s batsmen who were indebted to Crawley’s appetite for big hundreds. Jason Gillespie eventually made the breakthrough and Hampshire’s tail subsided quickly. However, after his six wickets to demolish Yorkshire yesterday, Dimitri Mascarenhas trapped Craig White in front for a golden duck as Yorkshire ended in the perilous position of 2 for 1.A slick bowling performance from Nottinghamshire limited Lancashire to 200 on the second day at Trent Bridge before Lancashire’s seamers hit back to reduce the home side to 94 for 5. Ryan Sidebottom and Andrew Harris each took three wickets in Lancashire’s first innings, Glen Chapple top-scoring with a typically pugnacious 39. And it was Chapple to the fore again, this time with the ball, ripping out three Nottinghamshire batsmen as Notts were reduced to 94 for 5, holding a lead of 291. During the day Chris Read was forced to make a dash to one of the toilets underneath the stands when he was caught short during Lancashire’s innings.

Division Two

A fine 140 from Vikram Solanki took Worcestershire up to and beyond Derbyshire’s first innings total of 151 on the second day at Chesterfield. After losing Lou Vincent for just 14, Worcestershire fought back with Stephen Moore (63) and Solanki putting on 120 for the second wicket. Moore fell to Ant Botha, who bowled well for his 2 for 67, but Solanki was in no mood to be dictated to, creaming 28 fours and lofting one over the boundary. He finally fell to Steffan Jones – and was shown the way to the pavilion by several Derbyshire fielders – but Stephen Davies (59*) and Gareth Batty (35*) gave Worcestershire the slender lead of 33 runs as they went to stumps on 384 for 5.Michael Powell fell one short of his first triple hundred as Glamorgan finally declared on a massive 647 for 7 on the second day against a struggling Gloucestershire at Cheltenham. He shared in a superb fifth-wicket partnership of 188 with James Franklin (94) and eventually fell to Ian Fisher’s slow-left-arm having stuck 38 four and 2 sixes in an innings spanning 11 hours. To cap off a dreadful day for Gloucestershire, they then lost Phil Weston for 18 – brilliantly caught at short midwicket – and trail by 525 runs although Brendan McCullum showed batting was still comfortable.

Peter Chingoka is set to be re-elected as chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket at the end of the month, despite serious allegations made against him over the last year by some of the country’s most senior stakeholders.Under a controversial new constitution, sport minister Aeneas Chigwedere will hand-pick seven of the 12 board members, with the remaining five being nominated by the 10 newly-created provincial associations.Chigwedere has not hinted on his choices yet, but the Zimbabwe-based Independent said Chingoka was “very much in the picture”.Chingoka, who has headed ZC since 1992, has been at the helm throughout the chaos of the last three years which has seen the game in the country brought to its knees. Despite this, he retains considerable support among the ICC’s executive board, where he has established powerful allies and he is also believed to be close to Percy Sonn, the new ICC president. Those connections have been crucial in enabling him and his board to weather a series of internal crises.It is, however, rumoured that Chingoka’s role as head of the Africa Cricket Association could be in jeopardy, with senior figures in the body of the view that his presence is not necessarily helpful to it. Other African administrators are understood to have been approached with a view to replacing him.Lovemore Banda, ZC’s media manager, told the newspaper that Chingoka would be “honoured to accept the call” if he was reappointed. “We are reluctant to pre-judge how the minister will use his prerogative but suffice it to say that should he see it fit to appoint him onto the new ZC board, Mr Chingoka, indeed like any other Zimbabwean called up for national duty, will be honoured to accept the call, and put to the continued benefit of the sport all the experience and contacts he has garnered over the years.”Chingoka, if reappointed, will have far less internal opposition than of late. All those who challenged his position last year have been removed from office, and the new constitution makes it impossible for any stakeholders to oppose the board. Like much of Zimbabwe, it is democracy in name only.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

India Blue suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of India Red, failing by 21 runs to chase down the target of 281 in the opening match of the Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy. A solid score – thanks mainly to 110 from Gautam Gambhir and a half-century from Y Venugopala Rao – followed up by a thoughtful and incisive bowling display from VRV Singh and Murali Kartik sealed the deal for India Red.It was always going to be a tricky chase – 280 was a good score on a pitch characterised by decent bounce and good carry – but India Blue slipped into a familiar trend, starting well, faltering, and failing to apply themselves in the face of some sensible bowling. The manner in which Sachin Tendulkar began suggested to the 5000-plus crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium that 280- might just not be enough. Tendulkar, was in one of moods, and seemed destined for a big one. He played straight, leaning nicely into drives, punching rather than hammering the ball, but he too was not averse to unfurling the big hit when the bowlers erred in length, as Sreesanth did twice. The first was deftly pulled for six over deep backward square-leg, the second slapped back over the bowler’s head even as the little master gave charge.There was some drama as Sehwag seemed to twist his ankle when turning for a second run, but after much medical assistance, continued, without a runner, but visibly in discomfort. Sehwag should have gone just after, on 27, when he launched into a huge hit towards long-on, and the ball hung in the air for an eternity before it landed in, and popped out, of VRV Singh’s hands.The whole momentum of the innings shifted, though, as Rao brought on the spinners as early as the 11th over. Murali Kartik bowled beautifully, teasing the batsmen, hanging the ball in the air and using the extra bounce in the pitch to defeat the stroke. The runs stopped coming as freely as they had when the fast men were on, but it was a run-out that brought the first breakthrough, as Sehwag was slow to get back for a second, and the direct hit from the deep by Sreesanth from short fine-leg. Sehwag had made 28.Tendulkar pushed on, past the half-century mark, and it was a bit of clever captaincy, packing the off-side field and bowling a length just a touch short for the drive, that led to his downfall. Tendulkar punched Zaheer towards off, but was well caught by Rao at short cover, and was gone for 61.Then came the familiar middle-order story. Rahul Dravid missed an incutter that stayed a touch low and was out lbw, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, after one superb cut for four, flashed outside off and edged to the keeper. VRV Singh had two quick wickets, and India Blue were 110 for 4Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Mongia then put up a last-ditch effort that could have saved the day. They were still well within striking distance of the total, but it needed one or both to bat out till the end, and neither was able to do so. After a tight comeback spell from Zaheer, Rao once again tossed the ball to Kartik, and he snuffed out what life remained in the game.Mongia was the first to fall, teased out by a floating delivery, and his attempted big hit over the on side only got as far as VRV Singh. Yuvraj continued as best as he could, but when the runs became hard to come by, and he started playing the sweep as a get-out-of-jail shot, you sensed that the end might be near. It came when Yuvraj tried to break the shackles by whacking one over the leg side, but could not clear the infield, and was caught by Uthappa at midwicket.By the time the top was gone, the required rate had crept up sufficiently to take the task past even the ever optimistic whirling blade of Harbhajan Singh. He took his team desperately close, but 21 runs separated the teams when the last wicket fell, quite predictably Harbhajan holing out to midwicket attempting to hit the ball out of the ground.There are some players who need the biggest stage to thrive, and there are some who are comfortable at a certain middle-run, and succeed at every opportunity. Gambhir and Rao may have struggled at the international level because bowlers have exploited their weaknesses relentlessly, and denied them their favourite scoring shots. In the absence of bowlers of this calibre, though, they thrive, and that was very much the case here.India’s best bowlers were simply not disciplined enough, and a reprieve – Dravid dropped a sitter at second slip when Gambhir was on 8 – was all the Reds needed to capitalise. Gambhir began as shakily as ever, squeezing and slashing runs through gully and third-man, but once he settled, in the company of Rao, who was aggressively looking to keep the scoreboard ticking over, Gambhir unfurled some pleasing shots. Of particular beauty were his two controlled lofts over midwicket off the left-arm spin of Mongia, where he came down the pitch and did not hit, so much as coax the ball to the fence.Rao, for his part, was industrious and opportunistic, cashing in when the fast men offered width – cutting and square-driving – and when the spinners were too straight, sweeping hard. But Rao holed out to long-off on 67, when he could so easily have had more, and soon after Gambhir ran himself out for 110. But by then, with Rohit Sharma applying the finishing touches before the tail collapsed, India Red had managed to push the score on to a healthy 280. And in the end that proved more than enough.

India RedRobin Uthappa c Patel b Pathan 10 (15 for 1)
S Badrinath c Jadeja b Pathan 15 (44 for 2)
Y Venugopala Rao c Mongia b Pathan 67 (189 for 3)
Gautam Gambhir run out 110 (227 for 4)
Dinesh Karthik c Harbhajan b Agarkar 11 (244 for 5)
Ramesh Powar b Patel 0 (249 for 6)
Rohit Sharma c Tendulkar b Patel 33 (266 for 7)
Zaheer Khan c Tendulkar b Agarkar 5 (274 for 8)
Murali Kartik c Sehwag b Patel 12 (275 for 9)
VRV Singh run out 2 (280 for 10)
India BlueVirender Sehwag run out (Sreesanth) 28 (96 for 1)
Sachin Tendulkar c Rao b Khan 61 (102 for 2)
Rahul Dravid lbw b VRV Singh 1 (102 for 3)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Karthik b VRV Singh 6 (110 for 4)
Dinesh Mongia c VRV Singh b Kartik 26 (189 for 5)
Yuvraj Singh c Uthappa b Kartik 53 (209 for 6)
Irfan Pathan run out (Kartik) 19 (227 for 7)
Ajit Agarkar c Uthappa b VRV Singh 6 (236 for 9)
Ravinder Jadeja run out 11 (247 for 9)
Harbhajan Singh c VRV Singh b Zaheer 15 (259 for 10)

It should have been the dodo among dead rubbers. On Saturday West Indies, who havealready qualified for the semifinals of the Champions Trophy, take onEngland, who have no chance of qualifying to the next round. The onlything to consider was what position West Indies would qualify in, but nowthe game, which will be played at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium inMotera has piqued interest, as there’s a chancethe Andrew Flintoff will bowl for the first time since he suffered anankle injury.”There is a possibility, yes,” said Flintoff at a pre-match pressconference after a practice session, when asked whether he intended tobowl in the forthcoming match. “I have bowled in the nets over the pasttwo weeks or so, and the ankle has responded well to it. I have just done15-20 minutes, and if I don’t react to anything and I am fine, the chancesare I will bowl.”Flintoff the bowler has been one of the most imaginative and powerfulbowlers in the world in recent times. His deceptively quick deliveries,rearing into the rib-cage have posed problems for all sorts of batsmen,including the Australians. And so, whentalk of him returning to bowling does the rounds the excitement isunderstandable, and perhaps it got to one journalist, who asked ifFlintoff would go the whole hog and bowl ten overs if he picked up fivewickets in his first few overs. “I have no intentions of bowling my fullquota,” came the speedy reply, “under any circumstances.”Often, in recent times, you’ve heard the word pride being bandied aboutwhenever the West Indies come to town. For once, though, it was theopposition who had to think along those lines, as West Indies come intothe game with not just solid wins under their belt, but virtually everyplayer in good form. “We know this is a team that can fight back. AgainstPakistan in the summer in England, we came back from 2-0 down to draw2-2,” said Flintoff. “So the team does fight and has got lot of character.They also have a lot of pride and we will trying our damndest to win thegame, and take a win out of this tournament.”We obviously want to finish the tournament with a win,” Flintoffcontinued. “We have been beaten twice and we are playing for pride, andpride is a strong thing to play for. We want to win a game of cricket inIndia. The West Indies may be through and we may be going home, but westill want to put up a good show. We want to perform and want to go homewith a win.”When they do go home, though, don’t expect the English public to burneffigies of Flintoff and Duncan Fletcher and tar their homes just becausethey failed completely in a one-day tournament. That sort of thing happensonly in India and Pakistan. For most of England, little matters but theAshes, and naturally, that came up for discussion. “We have got a gameagainst the West Indies, which we are taking as an important game for usin our development,” said Flintoff, pausing for a moment at the presentbefore turning his attention back to the future. “Then we will make surewe go home and spend time with our families. Then when we get on the plane[to Australia], then obviously my attention will be focused on Australia.”The talk then shifted from England to West Indies, and inevitably it wentto Brian Lara. “He is up there, isn’t he? He is a fantastic player. Wehave been at the wrong end of Lara a couple of times,” said Flintoff. “Hedoes things that us mortals can’t. When he gets 400 at Antigua, makes mewish I could actually bat like him. He is one of the greats that the gamehas produced along with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh andobviously going back to the days gone by. He is someone we respect becausehe is a fine player.”Who knows, with his back still nowhere near 100% strong, Lara might justchoose to sit out the game against England. If he does, it will be adisappointment for the fans, but England won’t mind at all. The last timethese two teams played each other in a one-dayer, it was in the final ofthis very tournament, two years ago at The Oval, and in the dying light ona gloomy September evening, the horns of Brixton trilled in unbridled joyas Courtney Brown and Ian Bradshaw steered West Indies to a stunning win.And now here we go again, on a lesser stage, almost certainly without thesame ambience, but it’s the same two teams, and who knows, we could be infor another cracker.

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has said Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are unlikely to make a rapid return to the team despite having their drug bans overturned this week.Both pace bowlers trained with the Pakistan squad ahead of the third one-day international against West Indies in Lahore, but Woolmer is playing down thoughts of them lining up in any of the last three matches.”Of course their return is good for the team and I hope everything goes well for them. I don’t see them playing in this West Indies series because they need match practice, but you never know.”Akhtar told me he needs a month and Asif too needs time so they must play some domestic matches. Their return will certainly boost our bowling.”Akthar and Asif, banned for two years and one year respectively in November after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone, won their appeals against the punishments on Tuesday. The decision prompted criticism from ICC, but Woolmer said he was satisfied.”I read a lot of reaction on the judgment, most of which was uninformed. Both the commissions did the right thing and if you read the appeal committee’s judgment, you would be satisfied like I am.”

Even on his big day, someone who wasn’t even playing grabbed much of the attention.It just seems so typical of the understated career of Shivnarine Chanderpaul that as he walked onto the field in Multan yesterday for his 100th Test match for West Indies, many eyes were focused on the dressing room, where vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan sat after being dropped for the second Test against Pakistan.Yet that might have been just the way Chanderpaul would have liked it, because there are few cricketers of such longevity who shun the spotlight as much as him.From the time he first fell in love with the game playing it in the fields of Unity Village, all Chanderpaul has ever wanted to do was bat. It doesn’t matter if the bowler is a pre-teen schoolboy or Shane Warne, if the field is shared by cows and goats or surrounded by towering stands packed to the rafters. The attitude is essentially the same: to bat and bat and bat – and then bat some more.As just the eighth West Indian to reach the plateau of 100 Tests, he has broken the mould, not merely as the first of East Indian descent to reach that landmark, but for the fact that his demeanour and stature in the global context of the game is so very different from the others who have completed three figures wearing the burgundy cap.The previous seven – Courtney Walsh, Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge and Carl Hooper – are all players fashioned from a template that is so typically West Indian: exciting, brilliant, spectacular, domineering and devastating. Then there is Chanderpaul. He has filled out quite a bit in the nearly 13 years since he made his Test debut as a scrawny 19-year-old, but he is still physically frail, as evidenced by the frequency with which he has been struck down by any number of ailments, ranging from injury to cramps to food poisoning.Unlike the others in the 100-Test club from the Caribbean, his is not a physically commanding presence, nor does he breathe fire and brimstone in the general direction of his immediate opponent in the heat of battle. No sir, for him it is about getting out there and getting the job done with a minimum of gallerying, something he has been quite effective at as his impressive tally of 6617 runs (average 44.70) with 14 hundreds and 39 fifties confirms.It is known that he hates the description of his batting style as “crab-like”, but what else can you say about someone who shuffles across the crease the way he does? Only recently has he reversed a process of becoming exaggeratingly square-on in his batting stance, and heading into this 100th Test, he hadn’t raised his bat in acknowledgement of a hundred for 14 matches.

Yet there is little chance of the 32-year-old Chanderpaul being dropped on form in the near future as there are very few of his kind in contemporary West Indies cricket, the kind who are prepared to do whatever is necessary for the cause of the team.He is not a natural leader, but did not shirk the responsibility of captaincy last year in the midst of the destabilising sponsorship row, even if it contributed to a dramatic decline in his batting form. At the start of the current Asian campaign, he admitted to not being too comfortable opening the batting in one-dayers. However his partnership with Chris Gayle at the top of the order in ODIs has proven so productive that there is really no chance of it being broken up heading into the 2007 World Cup.As quiet and reserved as he appears, Chanderpaul is no shrinking Ti-Marie when a contest is at its most intense. It was on his first tour of Australia in 1996-97, at the age of 22, that he took on the challenge of the number three spot in the batting order as Lara laboured against the threat of Glenn McGrath. The Aussies love to get under the skin of their opponents, but most know they are wasting their time when it comes to Chanderpaul, simply because he is hardly ever put-off by their insults.Their respect for the Guyanese batsman is understandable. On that debut tour Down Under, he tore into Warne and company on a turning pitch in Sydney and got to 71 on the last morning before being conquered by an outrageous delivery from Warne. On his home ground at Bourda three years ago, he plundered the third fastest Test hundred – off 69 balls – of all time and then closed off the series with another century that helped West Indies reach a world record target of 418 in Antigua and avoid the humiliation of a series whitewash.Their careers have followed very different paths, but he will forever be associated with Brian Lara for his role in partnering him to his first world Test record of 375 at the ARG in 1994.No doubt the captaincy issue and sponsorship rift must have created some tension between them, but at the end of the day, Lara would be among the first to acknowledge that hardly anyone has shown the level of commitment to the cause of West Indies cricket at this very difficult time than the “Tiger” from Unity.

Stuart Clark’s stunning returns in the Ashes series have not surprised Michael Hussey, who has been regularly troubled by his current team-mate’s accuracy and bounce. Hussey said Clark, the right-arm fast bowler, has always been able to hit difficult spots for batsmen early in his spell and the threat has proved especially tricky for England.Clark has often chipped in after Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee have taken the new ball and he will start his first home Test at the SCG on Tuesday with 21 wickets at 16.76 from the series. “I’ve often had battles with him while playing for Western Australia and in the nets and I wish I had a dollar for every time he went past my edge because I’d probably have an island somewhere,” Hussey said. “He’s been a very fine bowler for a long time and he knows his game very well. I was confident that once he got a game for Australia he’d be successful.”McGrath’s withdrawal from the South Africa tour in March gave Clark an opening and his performances have been so spectacular that his New South Wales team-mate’s upcoming retirement is no longer as frightening for Australia. Clark was Man of the Series in South Africa and he is the equal leading wicket-taker in the Ashes with Shane Warne.”He’s experienced and unflappable,” Hussey said. “He’s not affected by pressure too much and has a clear mind about what he’s trying to do. His job is to keep chucking it into that area and he’s getting the right results.”