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After days of scathing criticism and ceaseless innuendo, the penny finallydropped. “I gave extensive consideration to this,” said Brian Lara. “Iwant everybody to know that on Saturday I’ll be playing my lastinternational match. I’ve already spoken to the board and the playersabout this.” It was a fairly routine press conference at the end of ainsignificant game, but the answer to the last question caused even themost tired journalist to look up from his notepad.And with that, it was over. He stopped to sign a few autographs – jadedhacks too aren’t immune from the spell cast by his batting – and thenwalked away through the side door. Though there will be nothing at stakeon Saturday when two frankly mediocre teams play for nothing more thanpride, the stands could be packed as fans flock in to pay their owntributes to the prince among modern-day batsmen.Ever since West Indies were ruled out of semi-final contention earlier inthe week, speculation has been rife that Lara wouldn’t be part of the Testsquad to England. For a man who has carried the team piggyback for so muchof his career, it would have been an unkind cut, one that he was clearlyin no mood to take.When asked to rake over the pieces of yet another ill-fated World Cupcampaign, Lara refused to dwell on “spilt milk”. “We’ve got to move on andfocus on the future,” he said.His one-day career will end at 299 games, and he won’t now add to the 131Tests and 11,953 runs he scored in Test cricket. “I was very confidentthat I’d play my 300th game at the World Cup,” he said. “It wasn’t to be.So be it.”Though he will be remembered for two glorious centuries against SouthAfrica (1996 and 2003), Lara has little else to cherish as far as theWorld Cup is concerned. Winning the ICC Champions Trophy in the gloom atThe Oval in 2004 was a highlight, and he’ll hope for a reprise against theEnglish team that was beaten that day.”West Indies cricket is something I hold dearly to my own heart,” he saidwhen asked what his feelings would be as he donned the maroon colours forthe last time. “I’ve had a very good run, 299 one-day matches and 130-oddTests under my belt. That’s testimony to the fact that I’ve been out theretoiling for West Indies cricket. I’ve enjoyed every single day.”He leaves behind quite a legacy as a batsman. “I’ve come out there andtried to entertain,” he said, when asked how he’d like to be remembered.”You have to remember that people pay to come through the turnstiles.”Another thing that I’m proud of is that I’ve been knocked down so manytimes, both as a player and a person, and come back. I need to thank myparents for that, for being able to go out there in the face of adversityand perform. It’s a family trait.”

The Australians took another step in their preparation to regain the Ashes later this year when they appointed Mike Young, a former baseball coach from America, as a fielding consultant for the next year. Young will be a part-time consultant and will work with the Australian side over the next 12 months as they attempt to wrest back the Ashes at home and then win the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007.”Mike will be working across a number of programs within Australian cricket with his area of expertise in fielding and throwing,” Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s cricket operations general manager, was quoted as saying by AAP. “However his coaching background in baseball also adds much value in terms of his general coaching knowledge.” Young will be based at CA’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane.Australia’s poor catching was a huge factor in their losing the Ashes 2-1 in England last year. In all, they dropped 17 catches, the most significant being the let-off offered by Shane Warne to Kevin Pietersen in the last Test at The Oval. Pietersen, then on 15, went on to make 158 as England ended up saving the Test and sealing the series.Young, who had worked with the Australian one-day squads over the last six years, wasn’t around during the Ashes, but Cricket Australia denied that this move was atonement for past errors. “It’s not about looking back — we did that when we did the review of the Ashes program and made the changes we did,” Brown told The Age, an Australian daily – Australia appointed two assistant coaches and an IT analyst after the series. “It’s more about looking forward, how do we manage the requirements of our team given the uniqueness of the six or seven month period … You’ve got to remember during the Ashes we also had Jamie Siddons, who was probably one of the best fielders Australia has ever seen.”What we will do is use him [Young] a little bit more in the summer around the lead-in to the preparation for the Champions Trophy and the Ashes, and of course he’ll come back in for the VB Series and the World Cup.”

Chris Tremlett came as close as is humanly possible to a hat-trick on his international debut, when the crucial delivery – to Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladesh’s centurion against Australia on Saturday – bounced off the top of the bails and away to safety. But the reprieve galvanised Ashraful into some serious action. He brought up his half-century from a mere 21 balls, and had reached 94 from just 52 by the time he was bowled by a Paul Collingwood slower ball.Such a turn of events had seemed light-years away in the early stages of the innings. Tremlett, who was drafted into the squad as a replacement for the injured Simon Jones, took the new ball and immediately used his 6′ 7″ frame to extract good pace and leaping bounce to complement a tight line. He had conceded just six runs from his first four overs when he speared the second ball of his fifth through the defences of Shahriar Nafees, who could only deflect a rising ball onto his stumps.Tremlett struck again with his next delivery as Tushar Imran feathered a simple chance through to Geraint Jones, and he followed up with another arrow-straight rib-tickler that Ashraful struggled to control and chopped down into his crease. The ball bobbled up and landed smack on the top of middle stump, but amazingly, neither bail was moved.Ashraful was still shaking his head in disbelief as he faced up to his next delivery, and when he aimed an ugly heave at Steve Harmison’s first ball, it seemed he wouldn’t be around for long. But he clearly felt that his luck was in, and two pulled sixes and a hook for four later, Harmison’s first over had disappeared for 19 runs. But that was just the start of the fun.

Australia is the team that everyone country wants to beat and Sri Lanka are no exception. Sri Lanka’s Australian-born coach John Dyson thinks that his team have the ammunition to give Australia a good run in the one-day and Test series, if not beat them.”If everybody plays as well as they can on the day of the big game, the Sri Lanka team has the players and the experience to beat the Australians,” said Dyson, looking ahead at tomorrow’s five-match one-day international series and the three Tests to follow next month.”We have numerous world class players in the team. It’s a matter of the whole team clicking as a unit on the day and everyone performing to their ability. Our guys are prepared for the way the Australians play the game,” he said.”I’ve said throughout the last series that England didn’t try and win. The Australian team will try and win at all costs and at every opportunity. They will play far more positive cricket than the Englishmen. Going back to the Kandy Test, if we had set Australia 368 to win on that wicket with a day and a session to bat, I think they would have said `this is fairly easy’. They may or may not have got them but they would have definitely set after it.””The Australians bat a long way down the order and that makes it extremely difficult for the bowling team. The bowlers have to keep at the job the whole time as well. So have the fieldsmen. It’s just a very, very demanding game,” said Dyson.Dyson said that they had a look at the tapes of the VB one-day series between Australia and India and also the tapes of the last series between Sri Lanka and Australia five years ago.”We just tried to compare what’s happened with their side now and what happened the last time they were here. It was not all that necessary to look at the VB series hour after hour because the wickets Australia are going to encounter here will be vastly different to that they played at home,” said Dyson.”The Australians don’t like playing in Sri Lanka, nor do they like playing in India and Pakistan. The wickets are so different to what they are used to in Australia that they find it difficult. They are quite open in saying `the subcontinent is the last frontier we conquered in the cricket world.’ They’ve set that as an ambition to win in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. They’ll be out to do that. It is our job of course to play to our ability and make it extremely difficult for them, and hopefully beat them,” he said.Dyson said that Australia would certainly be thinking of their record in Sri Lanka and wish to change that. “They are not satisfied until they’ve achieved their objectives of winning. It is not good enough just to play well as far as they are concerned. You only play well when you want. That’s what they will set out to do during the series.””Given that, we know its our job to counter that with a similar attitude. We should, and play to win. One of our themes during the England series was that we would play our natural game. We must continue with that theme and extend it. We shouldn’t change our normal game because we are playing Australia. There’s not a lot of adapting needed because we are playing on our home wickets,” Dyson said.The present hot weather conditions, according to Dyson, will definitely be advantageous to Sri Lanka. Dyson added, “Australia has just come off a long season at home and although they are match-fit they must be starting to get physically tired from the amount of cricket that they’ve been playing. Obviously in hot weather it is more physically draining than in cooler weather. The other factors that may weigh against Australia are the lack of pace and bounce on the pitches here.”

Dyson admitted that in one-day cricket Australia have just continued winning.”Steve Waugh’s departure has made no difference to that team at all. It’s been a very smooth transition from his captaincy of the one-day side to Ricky Ponting’s. Ricky has shown that he was groomed for the job and handles that job extremely well.””In the Test arena we won’t know until they start playing Test cricket here. This will be viewed as a difficult series because of the reasons I have already stated. It will be a good test to see just how well Ricky handles the team in the Test arena and how the team responds to him. I expect this transition too will be extremely smooth.”The series against Australia is what Dyson has been longing to win ever since he was appointed coach of the national team six months ago. “Just because I am an Australian and I’ve played for Australia doesn’t mean that I don’t want to win the series. I am here as the Sri Lankan coach and I am working with the team. I wish to win the series. It’s not being disloyal to my country it’s just that I am a professional cricket coach and I am employed to do a job here,” he said.Dyson is extremely happy with how the team played against England and he expects them to lift their game a level or two higher against the Australians.”I think the players reacted well during the England series to a number of pressure situations. In each of the Tests there was probably an occasion where if we had crumbled, we could have been placed in a position to lose the Test match. But each time we fought out of that situation. It was different players throughout the series who fought it out.”In the England series, the batsmen to impress were Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayauriya, while the bowling was in the reliable hands of Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas.The one-day series against Australia commences at Dambulla tomorrow and the Test series starts at Galle on March 8.

POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa, Feb 19 AAP – Taciturn all-rounder Andrew Symonds may have silenced his critics with his match-winning century in Australia’s opening World Cup match but his new-found fame means he can’t escape the spotlight anymore.Symonds admits he’s shied away from attention in the past but these days he has to front up to the media and talk, not his favourite pastime.As Australia gears up for the next stage of the tournament, he said he was looking forward to being thrown into his next big test: combating batsmen certain to target his medium-pacers-cum-off-spinners as the weak link in the Australian attack.”That’s not a bad challenge,” he drawled, a toothpick between his teeth, every bit a country boy.If he wasn’t an international cricketer, Symonds said he would be a fisherman or a farmer.For a while, a few of his critics would rather have seen him in either of those roles.The number of knockers probably doubled with every poor outing but his blitzkrieg of an innings against Pakistan, 143 from 125 balls, proved he was ripe for the big time, and left everybody else with egg on their faces.”I’m never too worried about proving to people what I can and can’t do,” he said.”I’m not big on publicity – I don’t read the newspaper. If I see anything about myself, it’s on TV. People have probably been entitled to write what they have over the last year or so, but a player doesn’t get to defend himself.”Sometimes the media makes out that you’re not trying. I don’t go out there to shut people up in the press and media. You go out there to do it for your team, your country and yourself – getting the confidence and probably the belief in yourself that you can actually do it at this level.”I’m looking forward to my next important innings now to see how I’m going to approach it – I’m quite excited about it.”Symonds said the main satisfaction he gained from his first ton for Australia was derived from helping his team-mates out of a difficult situation, 4-86, and repaying the long-term support he had received from captain Ricky Ponting, who pushed hard for him in the World Cup selection room.”I’ve always had a good rapport with him and I can feel the confidence he has in me,” said Symonds, who shared a 87-ball, 60-run partnership with Ponting that swung momentum Australia’s way en route to an 82-run win.”He’s very keen for me to do well and contribute. Steve Waugh was the same when he was captain – when I first played he was throwing me in early a lot. Ricky was always coming down the pitch saying ‘next ball’ so we weren’t sitting there admiring our shots.”It was a satisfying innings because of the circumstances of the game. Ricky was under a lot of pressure too, because he was the last specialist batsman. I was determined we would post a total to defend.”Symonds’ troubles were frustrating for followers because all the tools – massive hitting, good technique, sound bowling, brilliant fielding – were going to waste. He kept getting out to loose strokes and being hit for boundaries. His lightning-fast work in the field, both catching and on the ground, was the only constantly positive contribution.It might be premature to call Symonds’ century a turning point because he hasn’t batted or bowled since, but his mood and demeanour at training, where he has been crunching everything thrown his way, indicates there are more good times ahead, more big innings.”Now I’ve got something there that’s concrete and I can refer back to that,” he said.”I guess now I’ve got the confidence because I know I can do it against the best teams in the world. I’ll use that. Whether you’d call it a turning point, I don’t know. Hopefully it is.”

The England Women lost the Second CricInfo Ashes Test by nine wickets at Headingley this afternoon.In a weekend when Australians crushed the Lions and the England men’s cricket team, Clare Connor’s players fought for most of the day to save the match against the efficient and talented tourists.It was enough to make Australia bat again, a minor triumph for an exuberant, but inexperienced England side.However, once Connor herself went, bowled second ball without offering a shot, England were doomed.But then, a thrilling fight back, led by centurion Claire Taylor, onEngland’s best day of the series, gave the home country great hope for the future.Australia equalled the record for Test wins at 5.21pm on the Third Day of this match, joining England with 16 victories. Two other women’s Test records were broken in this game. The highest individual score in Tests, a record that had lasted just a week since Australia’s Michelle Goszko equalled Kirsty Flavell’s 1996 innings of 204, was beaten by left-hander Karen Rolton, who made 209 not out. She helped set a new fourth wicket Test best stand of 253 with Louise Broadfoot.Appropriately, it was Rolton, who was the CricInfo Player of the Match, who hit the winning boundary.Australian captain Belinda Clark, Rolton’s partner at the finish, toldCricInfo, “We’re just thrilled with our performance. We came here to win both Tests and we’ve done that inside three days.”Taylor, a 25-year-old Oxford Mathematics graduate, with a previous Test best of 18, and an average of five, made a marvellous 137 to frustrate the Australian attack for 256 minutes today. Her century came up in 190 balls with a fifteenth four, this one driven sweetly through mid-on off Charmaine Mason.When she was last out, bowled by Mason, who took 4/66, Australia knocked off the seven required in 19 balls, for the loss of Lisa Keightley, bowled by Clare Taylor for a duck.Laura Harper, the youngest member of the England team, supported Taylor before she was caught at cover for 30, off 127 balls, after promising innings of 19, 20 and 31 in her first three Test knocks. From shortly after lunch until the third over after tea the pair were immovable, adding 81 for the sixth wicket.However, when Harper holed out to Julie Hayes at cover, Cathryn Fitzpatrick put an extra bit in for the next delivery and had Nicky Shaw caught behind by wicketkeeper Julia Price.With the score at 161/7, and a minimum of 22 overs remaining, the end was near for a valiant England team. But Dawn Holden (five) helped the now rampant Taylor put on 51 for the eighth wicket before lobbing to cover-point Hayes off Mason.While the Australian bowling star was again Fitzpatrick, who took 4/81 to end the series with 17 wickets, England wicketkeeper ‘Tails’ Taylor resisted for 232 balls to add a Test ton to her match-winning 137 not out, achieved at the 2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup against Sri Lanka.The systems analyst and former England age-group hockey player had Test scores of 11, nought, 18, six and 0 before going in today at 37/2.The Oxford cricket and hockey blue told CricInfo, “We valued our wickets much more today. It just goes to show what we can do in the future.”But it will be Australia who will be celebrating tonight, before completing their highly successful tour with a visit to Ireland later this week.

Decision of the dayWhen Daniel Vettori won the toss and chose to bowl first, opinion was divided as to the wisdom of his decision. Michael Vaughan claimed he would have done likewise, but by the time he and Alastair Cook had taken England to 79 for 0 at lunch, it’s fair to say he was revising his opinion. And then, out of the blue, but in that manner so familiar to England this series, their momentum shuddered to a halt. A hint of a cloud rolled across the Basin, and New Zealand’s seamers made the ball talk to the tune of five wickets in the session. And Vettori, quietly content by this stage, was happy to leave himself out of the attack until the 65th over.Innings of the dayWithout Ambrose’s initiative, England would have been deep – and possibly terminally – in the mire. They were in tatters at 136 for 5 when he came to the crease, and any more of that negative Hamilton mentality would have been an invitation for further disaster. Instead he fronted up with the fearlessness that had eluded his senior colleagues, never better exemplified than by the sizzling pull for six off Kyle Mills that carried him into the nineties.Over of the dayThere had been just ten balls of the day remaining when he played that shot, and most players in sight of a maiden hundred would have shut up shop for the night. Not a bit of it. A pull for three carried Ambrose to within a single blow, and he was desperate to go for it as well. Jacob Oram, more of whom later, was having none of it, however. Five jagging deliveries in a row kept the batsmen, fielders and spectators on tenterhooks right up to the bitter end, but Ambrose survived to carry his fight to another dayDouble act of the day 1Ambrose’s effort was magnificent, but it couldn’t have been achieved without the steadfast Paul Collingwood playing a vital anchor role. His doughtiness had been to England’s detriment at Hamilton, but this time he enabled his junior partner to carry the attack straight back to New Zealand. The pair performed a similar role in the first innings at Hamilton, where they added 90 for the sixth wicket, but without anything approaching the same intent. This time they brought up their 150 partnership from just 229 balls, at almost exactly twice the scoring rate.Miser of the dayEngland’s funereal run-rate at Hamilton was the root cause of all their problems, and no-one contributed more stingily to New Zealand’s cause than Oram, whose 25 overs cost a meagre 29 runs. Today, it was Oram who once again instigated the slide, in an incredible 14-over onslaught either side of lunch. By the time he took a blow with England reeling at 109 for 3, his cumulative series stats were an incredible 39-18-37-4.Shots of the dayOram positively leaked runs in his second spell, however – 13 of them in six overs, including the first boundary he’d conceded all day (and only his second of the entire series). And it was a superb strike too, a full stride to the pitch of the ball from Tim Ambrose, and a sweet drive through the line. One over later, and Ambrose was on the attack again, using his diminutive stature to carve a short ball from Oram up and over the slip cordon and away to the third-man rope. It was a perfectly safe shot, perfectly executed, and it took him to an invaluable half-century from a counterattacking 68 balls.Diminishing return of the dayOn the eve of the series, Daniel Vettori made a great song and dance about the fact that all of England’s top six averaged in excess of 40. That, however, is no longer the case. After falling for 8 during England’s post-lunch collapse, Andrew Strauss’s average has now dipped to 39.95, the lowest mark of his 45-Test career. And all the while, he’s extended that search for an 11th Test century to 28 innings and counting …Double act of the day 2What must Matthew Hoggard and Jeetan Patel have been thinking as they lugged the drinks out to their respective players at each and every interval? Only last week, both men were integral members of their teams, Hoggard the senior seamer and Patel the invaluable second spinner. Now they’ve both been cast out of the reckoning, although they bore the indignity with great resilience as they laughed and joked their way to the middle and back. Being dumped for no good reason is a great ice-breaker between rival 12th men.

Scorecard
A third polished bowling effort, and an effortless batting performance, enabled Sri Lanka A to complete a clean sweep of the series against Bangladesh A in Colombo. Having dismissed the tourists for 222, the hosts were set a Duckworth-Lewis reduced target of 157 from 34 overs, and cruised home with 58 balls to spare with Mahela Udawatte scoring an unbeaten 87.Tushar Imran, the Bangladesh captain, won his third toss in a row and made the same decision as he had all series – bat. However, in the face of a disciplined attack, Bangladesh could only muster 222 for 9, Nazimuddin’s 57 from 76 balls being the top score. Imran himself got a start, but failed to capitalise, falling to a run-out from Chamara Kapugedera on 44. Mahmudullah came back from his duck in the last game to remain unbeaten on 44, but received little support from the tail.From 156 for 4, Bangladesh lost their next five wicket for 42 runs. Dilruwan Perera, the offspinner, collected 2 for 26, Upul Chandana, apart from a run-out, finished with 1 for 43 from his quota, and Kaushal Lokuarachchi continued his good form with 2 for 48.In reply, Sri Lanka were given a good start from Udawatte, who opened got in place of the in-form Malinda Warnapura, and Dilruwan Perera (23) who added 83. After Perera fell to Farhad Reza, Udawatte and Warnapura knocked off the required runs with little fuss. Udawatte needed just 70 balls for his knock, which included 15 fours and a six, while Warnapure finished on a 40-ball 37.

The question is inevitable, the concern real. The world of cricket, not just the West Indies, is hopeful that both are premature.The startling slump that has overcome Brian Lara in the first two Tests of the series here prompted conjecture in today’s New Zealand press, as no doubt elsewhere, over whether the condition is terminal for the most compelling batsman of his era and the owner of most of the game’s available batting records.”Lara: Prince now the pauper”, read the headline in the . “Special powers desert ageing Lara,” proclaimed the . The comments follow Lara’s scores of 5, 0, 1 and 1 in his four innings, a total of seven runs from the 23 balls he has received.He fell in the first Test in Auckland to the only two balls he faced from Shane Bond, the spearhead of New Zealand’s attack and a high-class fast bowler. His first ball dismissal in the second innings, bowled leg-stump, was only his third such indignity in his 122 Tests. But Bond has been missing from the second Test at the Basin Reserve, eliminated on the morning of the match by a debilitating virus.Instead, Lara has gone to lesser combatants, to the left-arm swinger James Franklin fourth ball in the first innings and to the mild medium-pace of Nathan Astle sixth ball in the second. Both were to uncertain edged drives that yielded catches to slip and backward point. The esteem in which he is universally held was evident in the prolonged and generous ovation from all around the ground that accompanied him to the middle, both in Auckland and here.The general sense of disappointment at his early demise yesterday was palpable as he walked off, briefly raising his helmet and gloves in acknowledgement that it would be his last appearance in Wellington. “I tell you, there was an audible groan all around the room when he was out,” said Brian Hastings, the former New Zealand batsman who was in the members’ dining room along with several ex-Test players, among them Alan Davidson, Neil Harvey and Ashley Mallett of Australia.It was as if Pavrotti had suddenly lost his voice yet again during a major concert tour. The reservation, as with Lara, would be whether he would be the same again. Lara is approaching 37, a factor noted by Richard Boock in the . “It happened to the best of them, starting right back in the days of WG Grace,” he wrote. “Wilfred Rhodes eventually succumbed, Colin Cowdrey and Ian Botham tried to beat the odds and lost, even Viv Richards saw the writing on the wall.”Now it appears fate is poised to come calling for Brian Charles Lara,” he added. “Old Father Time makes exceptions for no one, it seems; not even a player who has rewritten the records in just about every genuine batting list, and has scored more runs than anyone else in the history of the game.”What Boock did not note was that Lara has been through such run droughts before and has followed them with familiar plenty and that he was in his usual heavy-scoring mode less than a year ago. His sequence of figures in Australia in 1997-98 were equally meager – 2 and 1 in Sydney, 2 and 2 in Melbourne, 9 in Adelaide. The first four times he was undone by Glenn McGrath, his traditional nemesis. Yet he recovered his composure and his form to round off the series with scores of 78 and 132.A year later, in South Africa, overburdened by the fallout from the preceding players’ strike and by Allan Donald’s pace, he had five scores under 20 and a highest of 79 in the five Tests. A few weeks later, he was reeling off his matchwinning 213 at Sabina Park and unbeaten 153 at Kensington against Australia.He was then appreciably younger but if age is a factor, it was not obvious in his eight Tests last year in which he accumulated scores of 196 and 176 against South Africa and 130 and 153 against Pakistan in the Caribbean and 226 against Australia in Australia. Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain and premier batsman, puts Lara’s problems down to his lack of preparation coming into the Tests. “New Zealand’s one of the most difficult places for batsmen to get acclimatised to,” he explained. “Even the greatest players, like Sobers and Viv Richards, couldn’t come to terms with conditions.”He recalled that he himself built up to his outstanding home series against the West Indies in 1987 with eight first-class matches in New Zealand’s domestic competition. Sir Garry’s highest score in seven Tests on two tours, in 1956 and 1969, was 39 and his average 13.10. Richards played only three Tests here, in 1987, with a highest score of 38.”As I recall it, Sobers (in 1969) and Richards came straight from a tour of Australia,” Crowe noted. “It’s not far away but the pitches and the overall conditions are like chalk and cheese.” Lara’s only hundred in five previous Tests in New Zealand-two in 1995, three in 2000-01-was 147 in Wellington when the West Indies amassed 650 for five declared.”I think Brian would have benefited from the five one-dayers,” Crowe said. “He’s come into Test cricket in New Zealand straight from the Caribbean and, as I understand it, hadn’t played any cricket for something like six weeks. Even from him, that was taking a chance.”Two more innings remain for Lara to prove that Old Father Time hasn’t yet caught up with him. The world waits.

New Zealanders might be gripped with rugby fever as winter descends, but an early decision by the New Zealand board in its search for new selectors has created an unseasonal stir on radio. The speed with which NZC rejected Martin Crowe’s application for a position on the four-man selection panel is the hot topic. There are two spots up for grabs after Ross Dykes and Brian McKecknie resigned.Crowe’s motivation for applying was simple; he wanted “to improve the decision making on selection leading into the 2007 World Cup”. Similarly, he states one of his key credentials as “knowing how to plan for World Cups”: New Zealand’s stunning run at home in the 1992 tournament under Crowe’s captaincy springs to mind. Crowe also says he knows New Zealand’s captain Stephen Fleming well, although that is more relevant to the position of coach than that of selector.Two factors count against Crowe becoming a national selector. The first is logical: his roles at Sky, as cricket producer and commentator, create a potential conflict of interest. The second is more petty: he does not get on with John Bracewell, the convenor of selectors and coach. For that matter Crowe reputedly does not see eye-to-eye with Glenn Turner, another panel candidate, either.But should an existing personality clash rule out an applicant with claims as sound as Crowe’s? The retired Test batsman Mark Richardson thought not. He told the newspaper that “Nowhere in the job description for a national selector do I see the need for a ‘must get on with John Bracewell’ clause”. He added: “I’d hope that the process for selecting a player is strong enough to overcome clashes of personality within the panel. But it obviously isn’t”.If would be extraordinary if Bracewell’s power was such that he could influence NZC’s recruitment process. If that was the case then he may as well pick his fellow selectors himself, as coaches of the All Blacks are able to do. Whether it’s happened directly or indirectly, the presence of Bracewell – and possibly Turner, too – appears to have stumped Crowe.Crowe says he subscribes to the school of thought that believes the role of selector is a professional one where any personal issues are left aside. But, he says, “[NZC] are obviously nervous about something”. Perhaps NZC is worried that Crowe’s desire to “keep Bracewell balanced and challenged” will result in the hot-headedness that Bracewell was noted for as a player emanating at selection meetings?Where the potential conflict of interest with Crowe’s roles at Sky is concerned, Richardson believes it is more likely that it is Sky – and not NZC – that would face any repercussions. In fact, as Richardson also points out, “it may even save NZC from some criticism over selection and tactics that they have taken over the course of the last year from various members of the Sky commentary team”.Crowe says that under his proposal he would retain his full-time producer role – the role of selector being a part-time position – but his commentary commitments would be kept to a minimum; they would be restricted to “calling the game” with less analysis. He would also forgo all writing – primarily his weekly column- and other media comment. He says Sky were happy with this. He would, however, want to be free to “comment on selection/player issues” during on Sky’s cricket coverage. That in itself should not be problematic for NZC as team selection is an everyday media question for Bracewell in his capacity as a selector. Were Crowe to over-step the mark and divulge sensitive matters on air, his days as a selector would be numbered. No problem there, either.NZC has had a panel of four selectors since Dykes, McKecknie and Sir Richard Hadlee were joined by Bracewell when he required the role of convenor as a pre-requisite to becoming coach. Under the revamped panel the curious position of Selection Manager was given to Hadlee, the previous convenor.An even-numbered panel poses the obvious problem of potential voting deadlocks and, with both Dykes and McKecknie departing, the time is ripe to revert back to a panel of three with Bracewell and Hadlee to be joined by one other. That person appears most likely to be Turner and, if chosen, the panel would be perfectly balanced, with a batsman, a quick bowler and a spinner. Unless NZC felt that combination lacked a key selection ingredient, there would be no point in having a fourth member.Turner is probably the most qualified of any New Zealand cricketer for the position of selector, with a distinguished Test career and two previous stints as national coach under his belt. However, he would not receive a unanimous welcome: Chris Cairns, for one, would be an interested observer.Cairns infamously walked out on his team-mates during New Zealand’s ill-fated tour of the West Indies in 1996, and Turner, who was coach at the time, was sacked shortly after. In his book , Turner’s descriptions of Cairns’ behaviour portrays a spoilt schoolkid rather than a professional cricketer.Nine years on, Cairns is in a position of unprecedented privilege where he is effectively able to pick and choose when he plays. He now participates in one-day internationals but little else. When the home ODIs ended in early March, so did Cairns’ season. When he should have been playing for his province or his club passing on his vast cricketing knowledge to others, he was instead sitting in the Sky commentary box. Would Turner be so accepting of this situation?Be it chatter over a pint at the local, radio talk-back or on an on-line cricket forum, team selection is a sure-fire topic of heated debate. Cricket fans can pick their best XI irrespective of whether they loathe or love their fellow would-be selectors. As such it is shameful that, given the privilege of being paid to pick their nation’s premier team, seasoned international players can’t do the same.