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Bennett King, the West Indies coach, reposes more faith in his unproven bowling attack than in the team’s batting. King believes it will be the Australian bowlers who will turn on the pressure on the West Indies in the three-Test series that begins in Brisbane on November 3.”We have the bowling that can unsettle the Australian batsmen,” King was reported as saying in the . “History shows they have two of the best bowlers in the world, so batting is in for a tough time, I guess.”King regards Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne as the prime threats to a star-studded batting lineup that includes Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle, all of whom have played over 50 Tests. Lara averages 53.75 with the bat, Chanderpaul 47.41, Sarwan 40.87 and Gayle 39.38, but King feels that they have their task cut out for them.The West Indies squad to Australia includes six fast bowlers, none of whom has played more than 17 Tests. Jermaine Lawson, whose action has been scrutinised in the past, is the only fast bowler who averages less than 30 with the ball. King believes all six have the necesssary pace and fire to succeed, and cited their good showing in Sri Lanka in July. “We didn’t get enough runs in Sri Lanka on very good batting decks but we certainly got very good players out,” King said. “We know we can get good players out. We have to make sure we get runs as well.”King’s claims come a day after his bowlers, led by Daren Powell (4 for 58), bowled out Queensland for 323 in a warm-up game ahead of the Test series. Lawson, Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore were all rested but are expected to come into contention for the first Test.

South African cricket is going through a period of transition, and Gerald Majola, the chief executive of the United Cricket Board, is at the helm of the transformation process. He spoke to the media during the first Test at Kanpur.

On the reasoning behind such an inexperienced squad
As far as we are concerned, this is the best team for South Africa, as selected by our standards. We outlined those standards at the beginning of the season, and every player here has been selected on form. If you look at their statistics, they stand out.On the policy of including five or six black players in the squad, and whether that puts pressure on his selectors
I was asked this question in Parliament. A day earlier, at the selectors’ meeting, they had all agreed to pick the team based on form and not by any other qualification. But the selectors know about our transformation policy and they understand it.On the importance of the policy, given the controversies with the rugby team last year
Transformation in South Africa is very important, not only for cricket but for the entire country. We have to transform and know where we are coming from. South Africa suffered under apartheid for decades and transformation is something that doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a process. In 1998, the United Cricket Board started its own transformation chapter without any external pressure, because we understand that we have to transform the sport.Cricket is part of South Africa and we have set ourselves targets that we must achieve, which is why you now see black players being picked on merit. We have recently reduced our provincial teams from 11 to six, and the number of black players playing there is almost 50 percent. They are all coming through on merit and many of those performing well are also black. They are being selected on form and not because they are black. Thami Tsolekile, Alfonso Thomas and Charl Langeveldt, who is not here, are some of those players doing well.Is the emphasis on long-term planning or short-term goals?
It’s a long-term process and not a matter of numbers.Will you be distracted from this path if you lose a couple of series?
No, definitely not.How about the white players who feel they are being ignored?
No one is being ignored because everyone is selected on merit. So, any white player who performs will be selected.On including former players like Barry Richards in the development programme
You can’t force someone to do something they don’t want do. Barry Richards has chosen to be a commentator and that’s his field. You have others like [Ray] Jennings who are still involved in the system and therefore being used by it.Any special plans for the development programme?
Everyone has to have access to the sport. Previously some of us did not have access to the same facilities that our white colleagues did.On Mark Boucher being dropped
He was out of form.

Duncan Fletcher will continue to combine his role of head coach with that of tour manager in all of England’s overseas series.Following a report from the ECB on the 2002/03 Ashes series, the proposal for a separate tour manager was rejected.Dennis Amiss, the International Teams Management Group (ITMG) chairman, produced the report which also recommended measures to be taken to improve day-to-day communications on tour. As a result, Fletcher will report directly to John Carr, the ECB’s director of cricket operations, rather than to the chief executive.Carr is to receive a daily bulletin from Phil Neale, the team operations manager, and new protocols are to be put in place to ensure the management, ECB personnel and the Professional Cricketers Association are appropriately updated on administration and injury news.

Gaining respect from other states is at the top of the South Australian cricket team’s “to do” list as it attempts to erase the memory of a lacklustre last season.State cricket manager Greg Chappell laid down the law to his squad after it took the Pura Cup four day tournament’s wooden spoon and narrowly missed the final of the one-day competition in 2000-01.”At the moment South Australian cricket has very little respect,” Chappell told AAP.”We’ve had little blips on the radar where we’ve produced a group of players who have been good enough and desperate enough to win the competition.”But by and large, if you took a straw poll within the competition, we don’t have much respect and we never have.”The former Australian captain said his players needed to display the desire to be successful as well as good form.”If they meet that, they’ll be chosen, if they don’t, then they better start thinking about another career,” he said.”I don’t have any set ideas on who our first side is going to be.”Form is obviously going to count but commitment is also going to count.”As part of its mental preparation for the coming season, the Redbacks squad will take part in a training camp in Victoria on Wednesday and Thursday.The camp, conducted in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park near Mildura, will focus on goal setting and team building.It will be the second year in a row the squad has taken part in the camp.The Redbacks have also called in a sports psychologist, who will be available to work with players throughout their season, which starts with a day-night limited overs match against Western Australia in Perth on October 12.Chappell said he had also spoken to players about publicity surrounding his contract negotiations earlier this year.”Within our group, it’s never been a huge issue,” Chappell said.After negotiations were resolved in May, SA Cricket Association chief executive Michael Deare said this summer would more than likely be Chappell’s last in charge of the Redbacks.Deare said due to other business interests, Chappell wanted to live in the eastern states this summer and commute to Adelaide to coach the Redbacks but the SACA found the proposal “totally unacceptable”.Chappell’s current contract expires at the end of March next year.

Ravi Shastri, India’s team director, has thrown his weight behind his batsmen and has asked the bowlers to learn their lessons. India have scored 309, 308 and 295 in the first three ODIs of the series against Australia, but have failed to defend any of those totals. In particular, Shastri has defended the batsmen against charges of selfishness.India have so far scored 67, 67 and 60 from overs 31 to 40. These have been the overs when their set batsmen have approached their hundreds. In Perth, Rohit Sharma took 24 balls from 83 at the start of the 31st over to reach his hundred. Similarly in Brisbane, between the 30th and the 40th overs, Rohit took 21 balls to move from 86 to 100. Virat Kohli took 15 balls to score the last 16 runs of his century between the 38th and 43rd overs in Melbourne.This has reignited a belief held by some Australians that Indian batsmen slow down near a milestone, costing their team crucial runs. Matthew Hayden said so 10 years ago, and it has begun resonating in the Australian media again.MS Dhoni calmly said “no” when asked if he thought Indian batsmen were milestone-driven, but Shastri had a more colourful answer. “If they were focusing on milestones, Virat Kohli wouldn’t have been the fastest to 7000 runs; he would have taken another 100 games. If that was the case, Rohit Sharma would not be having two double hundreds, and a score of 264.”Shastri also said there wasn’t much more the batsmen could have done even though they were playing probably a third-choice Australian bowling attack. “I don’t think so,” Shastri said. “If you look at the skills of those bowlers, there is skill there. You might say inexperience. They have played a lot of cricket, a lot of domestic T20s, a lot of one-days. So the skill factor is very good.”The Indian attack is far more experienced, but a mix of conditions and poor bowling has let them down. Shastri said the bowlers needed to learn fast. “Finishing touch is better bowling, and being more consistent as a bowling unit. As MS mentioned, there were too many easy boundaries. It is not like the batsmen had to earn it, they were given. That should be eliminated. Even if you cut that by 60%, we will have tighter games. Those are the areas. Attention to basics. If we do that right, who knows…”With the series lost and expectation reduced, Shastri said he wanted the bowlers to show him they had learned their lesson. “What you want to see is the bowlers learning from what has happened in the first three games,” he said. “If that happens, that will be the biggest plus irrespective of the result. That is what I said last year when we played cricket in Australia. We might have lost the series 2-0, but deep inside I knew the way the boys played there was only going to be improvement.”Shastri did mention the tough schedule and injuries (one, to Mohammed Shami) as a mitigating factor. “It is a young side, there have been three debutants, we have been plagued by injuries,” Shastri said. “No excuses, I am not giving any excuses here, but it is an opportunity for the youngsters to learn. In Australia nothing comes easy. It’s one of the hardest places to play. You are playing against the world champions. The fact that you are competing, and they have competed right through this one-day series, is very good.”We need bench strength, this is one of the toughest tours. And I have been to Australia many many times. I tell you why. Because if you look at the last six days we have been in three time zones. It is not often you go through that. You play in Perth, get on a flight to Brisbane where the time is different, then to Melbourne where the time is different. All in a matter of six days. When you consider all that, I think the boys have done extremely well.”Shastri said he will ask the BCCI to send a 16-member squad for such tours.

After four-and-a-half hours of waiting, Chris Adams punched the air with delight as Dominic Cork was bowled 60 miles away at The Oval. Sussex had won their third title in five years in what he described as “the best County Championship season ever”.Talking to Sky Sports, Adams said: “I’m just overwhelmed. We started the day needing five wickets, we got them and then we had to watch that. I’d say to Lancashire ‘you played well, you had a hard season, there’s no shame in your performance and you nearly did it’.”It’s been the most excruciating afternoon. We were panicking like hell in there. My team have been brilliant. They’ve been awesome on and off the field. The test of a true team is if you retain your trophy and we did it. You play 16 games of four-day cricket so the best team has to win, we proved that but only by the slimmest of margins. We got there by the skin of our teeth.”At The Oval, Mark Chilton, Lancashire’s captain, was in tears as he admitted that he had “never seen a changing room like it in my life.”I’m extremely proud of what our guys have achieved though. As captain I’m privileged to have seen the efforts they have put in. To get close to our target was a phenomenal effort but the lads are just broken. Our players have risen to an almighty challenge and to come so close is an enormous effort.”Mushtaq Ahmed, who took 13 wickets in the match and whose 90 wickets in the season were again instrumental in Sussex’s success, said: “I had an extra pray and asked Allah to give us another Championship. If you give 100% then Allah will always favour you.

“The people here are so kind and lovely. It’s a family club and I’d like to thank them. But you have to give 100% and the players cheer each other up and are united – when people are not doing well we back them up. You have to stay together when there are ups and downs. It’s a very special moment for Sussex but we’ve had to work hard for our win.”Adams singled out Mushtaq for praise. “He’s been bowled into the ground … not that he’ll mind. It’s not only his ability, it’s his commitment, his desire to keep bowling overs. He just turns up and keeps churning out the overs and waning to take wickets. He’s a fabulous character and he inspires so many of the other players. It’ll be a sad day when he goes.”

Jon Lewis has extended his contract with Gloucestershire and will have a benefit next year, too. Lewis, who captains the side, will be in his 12th year at Bristol.This is the latest heartening news for Lewis, who earlier this year made his Test debut at the age of the 30, and has been named in England’s Champions Trophy squad for the tournament this month.I have always felt really proud to be a Gloucestershire player,” Lewis said, “and am looking forward to leading the team to more success on the field.”I wish to thank everyone for their continued support and am already looking forward to next season.”

Although South African cricket has largely left the troubles of the Hansie Cronje era behind, there is still a fascination surrounding the whole matchfixing controversy if the sales of a new book are any indication. “The Hansie Cronje story: an authorised biography,” by Garth King is racing off bookshelves around the country.It was published on July 22 and rushed to the top of the non-fiction bestseller list in South Africa. In Bloemfontein, Cronje’s hometown, the book reportedly outsold Harry Potter during the first week.By the end of the first month it had sold 12,000 copies – unusual for a South African sports book – and at the end of this week 17,000 had left the shelves, prompting an extra print run of 8000.Esme Britz of the Cape Town-based publishers, Global Creative Studios, told Reuters: “When I arrived at my desk today I had another order for 300 copies waiting. Every day we get enquiries from the UK asking where they can buy the book, but it’s not available overseas yet. We’re trying to get someone over there to warehouse copies of the book for us before we sell it there.”However, despite the interest from the public, the South African cricket hierarchy are not racing to pick up their copies. Ali Bacher, who was the managing director of the United Cricket Board (UCB) when the Cronje story broke in 2000, said: “I have a copy, but I haven’t read it, I will one day.”Percy Sonn, who was UCB president at the time, told Reuters he had no interest in reading the book. Most of Cronje’s former team mates have said they haven’t read the book, except for Jonty Rhodes, who is a long-time supporter of Cronje’s.”After the first day of the King commission (the South African investigation into Cronje’s conduct) I couldn’t watch the rest,” Rhodes told Reuters. “So, while I was familiar with the ground covered in the rest of the book, I found that section interesting. I thought the book gave Hansie’s life a broad background, and the key for Frans [Cronje’s brother] and the rest of the family are the lessons of Hansie’s life.”

Steve Tikolo, who led Kenya in the Champions Trophy, has said that he intends to resign from the captaincy following his side’s seven-wicket defeat against Pakistan at Edgbaston. Tikolo, 33, felt that it was time to move on and hand over the mantle to someone else while he remained in the team as a player.Kenya, a semi-finalist at last year’s World Cup, were bowled out for just 94 before Pakistan cruised to a seven wicket victory. The defeat meant that Kenya lost both their group matches, having succumbed by 98 runs against India last Saturday.Up until the match against India, Kenya had not played a one-dayer for 18 months and after today’s loss Tikolo said that the team was not due to play one of cricket’s leading nations again until the 2006 Champions Trophy.”I spoke to the selectors back at home and they said we’ll let the case rest until I get back home. I think there are other players who are capable of stepping into the captain’s shoes. I’ll be around. I’m not totally retiring from cricket. I’m still around. Immediately we get back home I’ll have another meeting with the selectors again.”Kenya’s next match is in the Inter-Continental Cup, a four-day competition for teams outside the elite Test nations, against Namibia in October. If they win that, they would qualify for the semi-finals in Sharjah.But a downcast Tikolo added, “With the scenario we have in Kenya, with a lack of games, we can’t feel optimistic anymore.”

Somerset Sabres are off the mark in National Cricket League Division Two after they beat Nottinghamshire Outlaws by 49 runs(Duckworth Lewis method)to give their supporters something to cheer about in the 45 over game.After being put into bat the Sabres at last found their Sunday batting form when they posted an enormous 293 for 4 from 35 overs, after the game had been shortened because of the rain, thanks to a fine century from Jamie Cox and valuable fifties from debutant Carl Gazzard and new boy James Bryant.The Sabres innings got off to a flying start with makeshift opener Gazzard, who was playing in place Aaron Laraman and Cox taking runs with ease. However after putting on 131in the 16th over Gazzard gave a catch to wicket-keeper Chris Read off his fellow Cornishman Charlie Shreck and was out for 58, which contained one magnificent six off Aussie Test bowler Stuart MacGill and nine fours.Keith Dutch bought up the 150 with a leg glance off Gareth Clough, and added a bright and breezy 26, before the players left the field for rain. First ball back after the break MacGill tempted Dutch to a give a catch to the wicket-keeper.New batsman James Bryant stood and watched as Cox hit MacGill for a six and a four over square leg and then saw his partner bring up the 200 in the next over.The Tasmanian went to his century in some style when he hit MacGill over the Ridley Stand into the St James Churchyard and had moved onto 110 to equal his National League highest when he went down the wicket to Clough to became another victim for wicket keeper Read. As he walked back to the pavilion he received a standing ovation from the good sized crowd.Bryant and Ian Blackwell added a swift 45, the left hander contributing 23 including six into the churchyard before he was bowled by Smith. Bryant went to his fifty with the first ball of the final over, by the end of which the Sabres had reached 293 for 4, by far their Sunday best so far this season.Chasing a revised total of 315 under the Duckworth Lewis method the Outlaws appeared to be cruising towards an unlikely victory as Jason Gallian (69) and Usman Afzaal (105) put on 161 in 17 overs for the third wicket. Gallian then fell to a superb catch by Simon Francis at long on who appeared almost from nowhere to take the chance.However from 201 for 3 the Outlaws collapsed to 265 all out, with Gareth Andrew and Francis ending with three wickets apiece to see the Sabres home to their first NCL victory of the season.At the end of the game coach Kevin Shine told me: ” After today’s match you have to say that the game is pushing the boundaries out, and you are left wondering what is a safe score to defend.”He continued: “However we did mount some scoreboard pressure after posting our total, which was not easy for our batters after the interruptions that there were in our innings.””Carl Gazzard had a fine debut, and took his chance when it came along which is what it is all about. It was great to see Jamie Cox back in that sort of form, and there were some responsible contributions from several of the others to set them a big total to chase. Then when we fielded we dealt with the pressure and took some vital catches,” he concluded.Regarding his first appearance for the county at this level Gazzard told me: “It was amazing really, and I must admit that I felt a bit nervous to start with, but I soon put that behind me. I only knew that I was playing late in the morning when Aaron Laraman dropped out, so I didn’t have much time to think about it.”He continued: “We had such a good start and Jamie was a great help to me, he kept me going. I tried to treat every ball on it’s merits, it didn’t matter to me who was bowling it , even though they had Test bowlers like Australian MacGill and South African Steven Elworthy.playing for them.””It was just a perfect start for me, and having got to where I did I would have liked to have gone on and got a hundred! However tomorrow I will be playing for the Seconds in a two day match at Bristol, and I will have another chance to score some more runs,” the youngster said.