Right arm leg spinner Danish Kaneria, debutant Taufiq Umer and veteranSaeed Anwar shared limelight on the opening day as Bangladesh foundout the harsh realities of top level cricket in the Asian TestChampionship opener at the Multan Cricket Stadium Wednesday.Watched by around 12,000 spectators, the 20-year-old Danish, playinghis third Test, captured six for 42 – his Test best figures – to helpPakistan spin out Bangladesh for a paltry 134 some 40 minutes beforetea.Later, 20-year-old left-handed opener Taufiq Umer carried on his fineform by celebrating his Test debut with a strokeful and attractiveunbeaten 77 as Pakistan finished the opening day’s play at a healthy219 for two from 46 overs, a lead of 85 with eight wickets in hand.Veteran Saeed Anwar also had reasons to smile on a hot and humid daywhen he became the sixth Pakistan batsman to complete 4,000 Test runswhile reaching 49 on way to a scoring a fluent almost run-a-ball 101.It was his 11th century and first in 11 innings from seven Tests. Hislast was against Sri Lanka in Galle last year.Saeed, the 33-year-old playing his 55th Test, smashed 17 blisteringboundaries and a six before falling to 16-year-old Mohammad Sharif.Trying once too often to play his elegant wristy on-drive, theenigmatic former captain, was caught at square leg by Hasibul Hossain.Faisal Iqbal failed to take advantage of heaven sent opportunity ofgetting some runs under his belt. The 19-year-old was bowled by Sharifto a delivery that kept low and crashed onto the stumps after takingthe inside edge of the bat.Danish bowled exceptionally well and pushed the ball in the air whilepicking up his wickets in just 13 overs. He was devastating, mean andbowled with purpose.The leg spinner got the ideal start which a wrist spinner wants toapply the pressure and pick the line as early as possible. An overpitched delivery was belted by opener Mehrab Hossain but Faisal Iqbalpicked up an extraordinary reflex action catch at silly point. Catcheslike this are not seen too often and only shows the brilliant reflexesFaisal has.From then on, there was no stopping Danish as he mixed up hisdeliveries intelligently and spun the ball from the right areas.Danish, who also had a successful tour of Sri Lanka with Pakistan ‘A’in May-June, has the spark of becoming a successful wicket-taking legspinner. He, however, received support from over-ambitious and illplanned Bangladesh batsmen who looked in a hurry and decided to throwtheir wickets rather than making full use of batting first afterwinning the toss by keeping themselves cool and composed.Their batting display was a reflection of the bad habits they havecaught by playing 42 one-dayers against three Tests. But surely whenthey will play more longer duration of games, they will also learn theart of occupying the crease and punishing the loose balls.Off-spinner Shoaib Malik, who also earned a Test cap, picked up twocheap wickets while Waqar Younis who made the early breaks accountedfor two. Wasim Akram remained wicketless in his 10 overs but he shouldconsider himself unlucky when Saeed dropped a waist-high catch in thefirst slip. The former captain, who was as mean as ever, could havebeen a different bowler had Saeed not showed greasy palms.Taufiq Umer, who stroked a masterly 113 against the same side in thethree-dayer, matched Saeed Anwar with stroke by stroke.The trademark of Taufiq’s innings was his ability to stroke boundariesin front of the wickets. Bulk of his 11 boundaries were eitherstraight or through the covers as he fully cashed in on the halfvolleys and over-pitched stuff hurled by the tourists.Taufiq was as confident against pacers as against the slow bowlerswhen he worked them around to maintain the flow or runs. His alsodisplayed his hunger for big innings when he became cautious afterreaching his half century from 55 balls with nine boundaries. Atstumps, he had faced 123 deliveries and looks well poised to becomethe eighth Pakistani to score a century on debut.

Former New Zealand Test captain and coach Glenn Turner believes the answer to many problems being experienced by bowlers may lie in under-use rather than over-use.With New Zealand having suffered a remarkable string of bowlers suffering from stress-related back injuries in recent years, Turner has done some research looking at bowler workloads, as far back as the 1920s.”I went back that far to see what some of the workloads were, especially in county cricket in England.”Some of the old boys back then were bowling 2000 overs a year.”Blokes like Fred Trueman and Brian Statham were bowling 1200 overs a year in their prime.”In his busiest year Richard Hadlee bowled something like 1200 overs in the year,” he said.Turner compared that to a bowler like New Zealand left-arm medium-fast bowler Shayne O’Connor who last year, in one of his busiest seasons before injury, bowled only 450 overs.”What’s happened?” Turner asked.He believed that bowlers nowadays have not trained to cope with the workload required of them. Some bowlers also came back too quickly from injuries and other bowlers were just not capable of achieving the workload asked of them in bowling 25 overs in a day.Turner recounted his days at Worcestershire during the 1960s and 1970s when regular bowlers like Len Coldwell and Jack Flavell bowled 25 overs day in and day out, warmed up by bowling six bouncers in the morning and had six or seven pints of an evening after a day’s play.Turner wasn’t against players building their strength and conditioning in gymnasiums, there was a place for that but he felt that many could take on more bowling as part of their preparation.”The balance does have to be right,” he said.Turner also expressed reservations about the intrusion of biomechanics into bowling actions. He appreciated there were instances where change was good.But he also wondered whether much was known about the danger of changing people’s actions and the effects of different muscles being used.Having seen a bowler like South African Mike Procter in action so many times Turner could only wonder what might have happened to him had someone tried to make his wrong-footed action biomechanically correct.”If someone is breaking down often maybe you do have to make changes,” he said.”The other thing about those bowlers of earlier times was the rest they had. Invariably when they weren’t bowling they put their feet up and when they had a game off for bad weather they had total rest, and that is an important facet,” Turner said.Turner has taken up the coaching position of the Otago team this summer after last year’s coach Denis Aberhart was appointed to the New Zealand coaching position.

As metaphors go, they were pretty telling.In perfect sunshine at the ‘Gabba at the start of the second day of this tour match between Queensland and New Zealand, Nathan Astle (223) continued his near-remorseless assault on the home team’s bowlers.Yet, as a chain of storm clouds began to brew at the end of a steamy afternoon, so the murky problem that continues to plague the tourists reared its ugly head again.Astle remained a tower of strength in the morning session, not only outlasting Adam Parore (30) and Glen Sulzberger (0) at the other end but alsorearranging several individual and collective milestones.He steadily pushed his score into unchartered territory, rendering Martin Crowe’s hand of 188 in 1985-86 (previously the highest score by aNew Zealander at the ‘Gabba) the first major landmark to be overhauled.Astle’s domination of the attack had already extended into a seventh hour by the time that he then moved past both his own previous first-class best of191 and 6000 first-class runs in total.Just for good measure, he quickly proceeded to square cut the 333rd delivery of his innings, an off cutter from Michael Kasprowicz (0/118), to the point boundary to reach his first-ever double century at this level as well.But, where Astle’s voracious run scoring had given the Kiwis a position of early ascendancy, the tourists’ total of 9/444 – reached before amid-afternoon declaration – soon began to be placed in better context.Admittedly, there remained little on offer for bowlers in the pitch. But the sternest examination of the New Zealanders’ readiness for next week’sFirst Test against Australia was always likely to arrive when their attack swung into action. The Kiwis have so far been unable to take ten wickets inan innings at any stage of the tour and, in coming face-to-face with a talented batting line-up, the early results of this battle were not encouragingeither.Queensland openers Matthew Hayden (56*) and Jimmy Maher (47) were not discernibly bothered by anything offered to them in a 64-runassociation that spanned either side of the tea break, both defending and attacking with minimal risk.Maher, in particular, slaughtered loose deliveries. And such commodities seemed to be in ever-increasing supply once the shine started to disappearfrom the new ball. There was a classic cover drive at Chris Cairns (0/23); a thunderous hook and off drive at Chris Martin (0/35), and severalsuperb straight drives from the bowling of Shayne O’Connor (0/28).Even across an increasingly damp outfield, many of Hayden’s drives also showed few signs of slowing in their passage to the boundary.When Maher ultimately gifted away his wicket – charging, driving and missing as he attempted to smear a delivery from Sulzberger (1/52) to theboundary for the third time in the spinner’s opening over – it resembled something of an act of mercy.Martin Love (33*) quickly took up the slack upon replacing his teammate at the crease, albeit that his elegant approach was briefly curtailed by aflurry of rain that forced a five minute recess in the action.Matthew Bell had missed a tough, low chance at point as Maher (on 32) drove uppishly, and a shy at the stumps of the scurrying Love (on 13) flewwide when a minute window of a run out opportunity existed.Otherwise, there was not a single semblance of alarm for the batsmen. And even Astle couldn’t intervene this time, forced off the field as he was because of a minor groin strain.The Queenslanders still require a further 155 runs to avoid the follow-on when they resume in the morning. But either they would have to bat verypoorly, or New Zealand’s attack would have to produce a major reversal of form, to make the prospect of successive Queensland innings a reality.

*Powar livens up proceedingsA century from Kiran Powar brightened up the first day of play inTamil Nadu and Goa’s Ranji Trophy tie at Chennai.Winning the toss, Goa’s openers were separated early. One-down batsmanPowar, however, batted resolutely, shrugging off the regular loss ofpartners at the other end.Making 111 off 282 balls, with five fours and three sixes, Powar wasfinally out with the score on 206, being the fifth wicket to fall. Noother batsman really contributed to Goa’s total.At stumps, Goa were 217 for six, with Rajesh Naik (12*) and HAS Khalid(2*) at the crease.*Karnataka hold on for tepid drawA century from Karnataka middle-order batsman Thilak Naidu saw hisside hold on for a draw in the face of Hyderabad’s mammoth firstinnings total in their Ranji Trophy league match at Secunderabad.Batting first with Vijay Bharadwaj (76) and then with the lower order,Naidu became the eighth wicket to fall with the score on 390. Helpinghis side avoid not only the follow-on, but also a loss, Naidu’sinnings spanned 340 minutes and 225 balls, and contained 14 fours anda six.Bowled out finally for 416, Karnataka tried their best to liven upproceedings in a match that was always destined for a dull draw. DoddaGanesh picked two wickets in Hyderabad’s brief second innings, withmakeshift openers Vinay Kumar and Anirudh Singh both falling to him.At stumps on the final day, Hyderabad were 64/2. They picked up fivepoints from this match by virtue of their first-innings lead, whileKarnataka picked three points.*Kerala collapses on Day OneAndhra Pradesh, playing Kerala at Cochin in their Ranji Trophy leaguematch, bowled their opponents out on Day One and reached 49/1 at closeof play.Kerala, winning the toss, could not make the most of batting first.Although opener MP Sorab made a slow 49, none of the other batsmencould occupy the crease for any length of time. Sorab was dismissedwith the score on 113, and the rest of the batsmen fell quickly.Being bowled out for 176, Kerala must have looked for quick wickets togain some semblance of upper hand. But, even though opener PIS Reddyfell early, Andhra Pradesh consolidated and reached a score of 49/1 atstumps.*Match interestingly poised at KanpurAlthough Vidarbha gained a slender first-innings lead, Uttar Pradeshbatted resolutely to make for an interesting fourth-day’s play intheir Ranji Trophy league match at Kanpur.Overnight on 227/6, Vidarbha could only add 20 runs to that total. Thelast four wickets fell in a hurry and Vidarbha were bowled out for 247within a space of seven overs. For Uttar Pradesh, Ashish Winston Zaidipicked four wickets.Looking to erase the first-innings deficit and then build a sizeabletarget for Vidarbha to chase, Uttar Pradesh started with a solidopening stand of 61. And, although wickets fell at regular intervals,each batsman in the top order reached double digits.Mohammad Kaif top-scored with fifty, and Uttar Pradesh reached a totalof 194/5 at stumps, with Mohammad Saif and Nikhil Chopra at thecrease.

Growth in cricket in the primary/intermediate school area is reflected in participation numbers in the annual MILO Cup and Shield which reach their finals this week.The MILO Cup for boys will be played between Havelock North Intermediate, from Havelock North, in the Hawke’s Bay and Rosedale Intermediate from Invercargill.The MILO Shield for girls will be played between Viscount Navigator School in Auckland and the Woodend Primary School in North Canterbury.This year 165 schools played off in the Cup section while 84 schools played in the Shield section.Thursday’s finals at Fitzherbert Park in Palmerston North will cap this year’s event.The boys will play a 35-over game and the girls a 25-over game.New Zealand Cricket’s national development manager Alec Astle said entries for next year in the competition suggested that already, the numbers taking part will be greater than this year.Getting through to the finals is worthwhile. Teams have all their travel and accommodation paid while the winners receive $600 of cricket equipment and the losers $300 of cricket equipment.Astle said that this summer over 90 MILO summer squad cricket development officers were operating throughout New Zealand and visiting primary schools and recruiting children into the MILO programmes.There are 128 MILO Have-A-Go Cricket Centres catering for 4209 children and 32 MILO Kiwi Cricket Centres involving another 817 children.These centres are organised and run by more than 1000 parents and teaches who have all trained as coaches under the scheme.”It is New Zealand Cricket’s aim to have every child in the country able to try cricket, and to have the game played in every schoolground and backyard,” Astle said.

After rumours and speculation, it has finally been confirmed that Nasser Hussain will not necessarily stand down from the England captaincy at the end of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. If he can justify his place as a player, there is every reason to suggest he will continue with the captaincy.It was reported in a national newspaper that he had expressed the view that the tournament would mark the end of a four-year cycle and it would therefore be a good time to stand down. That elicited a response from ECB chief executive Tim Lamb in which he hoped that Hussain would at least listen to pleas to continue.Now Hussain has said that his original comments were misinterpreted. All he was trying to say was that he would review the situation once the World Cup campaign had ended. Chairman of selectors, David Graveney has put the record straight.”Like a lot of people of his age, they will look at their careers after theWorld Cup because it is likely to be the last one he plays in. He was both surprised and embarrassed about how the story was presented and in my last conversation with him he was very much playing down his retirement.”Nasser’s done a fantastic job for England since he took over as captain, and long may it continue. When he was first appointed he may not have been the most popular choice but he has more than justified his selection since.”Anyone who knows him will tell you that Nasser is not the type of person todrag it out,” added Graveney. “He will look at his contribution to the team, and if he is not justifying his place then I’m sure he will move on.”

The national cricket selectors have appointed Sri Lanka all-rounder Upul Chandana to lead Sri Lanka A in the unofficial three Tests and three one-day international series against Kenya who arrive on Wednesday for a seven-match tour.Chandana (29) is given the opportunity to captain the side in the hope thathe may, like his predecessor Tilan Samaraweera, successfully clinch a permanent place in the national team.Samaraweera got several opportunities to prove himself as an all-rounder when he captained Sri Lanka A teams against Zimbabwe and Pakistan. His performances in these games eventually saw him graduate into the national Test side where he has done extremely well, mainly as a batsman. It is hoped that Chandana would follow on the same lines.Being captain gives him a great opportunity to display his right-arm leg-spin in the series against the Kenyans. The national team is in dire need of a bowler of his type and Chandana, with his experience of six Tests and 81 one-day internationals, looks the best bet.Chandana was recalled to the national side for the final Test against Zimbabwe at Galle and distinguished himself with a Test-best score of 92. He has a Test bowling average of 32.06 for 16 wickets, and 31.08 in one-day internationals for 80 wickets. More than for his batting and bowling, Chandana is renowned for his outstanding fielding.The Sri Lanka A squad of 20 players are currently undergoing training under the watchful eyes of manager/head coach Roshan Mahanama and coach Hemantha Devapriya. The squad will be pruned down to around 13 players for the unofficial Test series.The first four-day ‘Test’ commences at the Sara Stadium on January 31. Kenya, led by World Cup captain Maurice Odumbe, open their tour with a two-day game against a Development Squad captained by Anushka Polonowita at the NCC grounds on January 27.

Konica Queensland Fire duo Julia Price and Sally Cooper have wonselection in the Australian women’s cricket team for the coming seriesagainst world champions New Zealand.Price, the most-capped Australian wicket-keeper, and Cooper, aleft-handed middle order bat, are the only Queenslanders in the12-player squad announced today for the series later this month inAustralia and next month in New Zealand.Both players were members of the undefeated Australian team that won theAshes on their tour of England and Ireland last year.The Southern Stars will play three One Day Internationals in Australia -two matches at the Adelaide Oval on February 20 and 21 including aday/night game and one at the MCG on February 23 – and three ODIs in NewZealand next month.The selectors have retained the option to add a player from theAustralian Youth team – the Shooting Stars – once they have finishedtheir series of matches against New Zealand ‘A’ next week.Queensland had four players named in the Youth team – pace bowler MeganWhite, opening bat Melissa Bulow and allrounders Tricia Brown andBelinda Matheson.New Zealand are the current world champions after defeating Australialast year in the Final of the World Cup.The Australian team will be captained by Belinda Clark.Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars v New Zealand: Belinda Clark (Captain)(VIC), Karen Rolton (Vice Captain) (SA), Sally Cooper (QLD), CathrynFitzpatrick (VIC), Michelle Goszko (NSW), Julie Hayes (NSW), MelanieJones (VIC), Lisa Keightley (NSW), Therese McGregor (NSW), Julia Price(QLD), Lisa Sthalekar (NSW), Emma Twining (NSW). Coach: Steve Jenkin(NSW).

February 4, 2002CANADA SQUAD FOR AMERICAS 2002 CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIPNicholas DeGROOT CaptainIshwar MARAJ V. CaptainAshish BAGAIIan BILLCLIFFDesmond CHUMNEYAustin CODRINGTONMelvin CRONINGMuneeb DIWANNicholas IFILLBarry SEEBARANSanjayan THURAISINGAMSukhinder RANAAbdul SAMADFazil SATTAURKaram GOPAULSINGH – ManagerJeff THOMAS – Coach

Twenty years ago one of the classic Test matches was played at the MCG. David Wiseman takes a look back in this four-part series which backgrounds the MCG, Boxing Day Tests, and the epic of 1982/83.Take a piece of grass. Mark out a 22-yard strip, the old-fashioned English chain, in the middle of it. Place three sticks at both ends of this strip and you already have something. Erect some grandstands and electricity starts to generate.That’s all a cricket ground is and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the grandest cathedral in the cricket world, is no exception. What began in the early 19th century as 10 acres of swamp in Yarra Park became the MCG in March 1856.Twenty-one years later, the MCG was host to cricket’s first Test match. Australia met England in March 1877. For Australia, Charles Bannerman was the hero with the bat, making an unbeaten 165, and Tom Kendall the hero with the ball after taking seven for 55 to bowl Australia to victory by 45 runs. Bannerman’s 165 was 67.35% of Australia’s 245 – surely one of the oldest of all world records in sport which still stands today.A great rivalry between England and Australia was formed, and the MCG came to host many other memorable cricket matches between the two sides.On New Year’s Day 1908, Australia met England at the MCG for the second Test, after Australia had won the first by two wickets in Sydney. A batting line-up stacked with immortal names such as Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney, Clem Hill, Monty Noble and Warwick Armstrong saw Australia bat first and make 269. England responded with 382, including 83 on debut from Jack Hobbs and 126 from Ken Hutchings. Australia was bowled out early on the fifth day for 397, a lead of 281.At stumps on the fifth day, the match was precariously placed with England 4/159. In this era of timeless Tests, the game would be played until a result came.When Armstrong had English wicket-keeper Joe Humphries trapped in front for 16, England required 39 to win with their No 11 and known bunny, Arthur Fielder, joining Syd Barnes at the crease. At the time, Barnes had a batting average of nine with a top score of 26 which he had made in his maiden Test innings.The English pair had scraped and nudged their way to level the scores. With one run needed for victory, a mix-up saw both at the same end. Gerry Hazlitt’s throw missed wicket-keeper Hanson Carter behind the stumps and the duo crossed for the winning single and the most unlikely of victories.For Australia, this was their second one-wicket loss in an Ashes match – the first being in the fifth Test at the Oval in 1902.Barnes was more accustomed to winning Test matches with the ball and not the bat, but striving to win an Ashes Test for his country brought out qualities in Barnes he never knew he had, just like it would bring out heroics in others down the track.The MCG has often been the venue for such heroics: Wilfred Rhodes taking 15/124 in 1904, England successfully chasing 331 in 1928/29 and Bob Cowper’s defiant 307 in 1965/66. And then, of course, there was the 1976/77 Centenary Test!There was no consistency with the scheduling of Tests at the MCG. With four Test venues in Australia, sometimes Sydney and Melbourne would host more than one Test in a summer. The dates moved around.In 1968, a tradition was born with Australia squaring off against the West Indies in the first Boxing Day Test match.After dropping the first Test in Brisbane by 125 runs, Australia bounced back the only way it knew how. Sending the West Indians in, Graham ‘Garth’ McKenzie captured eight for 71 to roll the West Indies for an even 200.After combining for a 217 run partnership in the First Test, Ian Chappell and skipper Bill Lawry put on 298 to bat the West Indies out of the game. Australia was bowled out for 510 late on the third day for a lead of 310, and Gleeson claimed his second five-wicket haul of the series to spin the hosts to an innings victory.Despite the success of this event, the Boxing Day Test wasn’t yet a permanent fixture. The next one was six years later in 1974. The split of World Series Cricket saw it put on the backburner for a number of years.But in the post-WSC era, a remarkable Test between Australia and the West Indies was to enshrine the Boxing Day Test in the Australian sporting landscape…