The Western Australia Cricket Association has announced a 29-man squad for the forthcoming season, with Justin Langer – when not on national duty – continuing to lead the side. Of the players chosen, six are on Cricket Australia contracts, 18 have full contracts with the state side, and five are rookies.Two rookies under the spotlight will be Sam Howman, a right-arm medium-pace bowler from Subiaco-Floreat, and Liam Davis, an aggressive opening batsman from Scarborough.Wayne Clark will continue as coach, having previously coached the team to two Sheffield Shield titles. New arrivals include Sean Irvine, the former Zimbabwe international, and Steve Magoffin from Queensland. Jo Angel and Paul Wilson, two stalwarts of the domestic scene over the past decade, have retired.Cricket Australia Contracted Players for 2004-05 Justin Langer (capt), Michael Hussey, Brad Hogg, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn and Brad Williams.Senior Contracted Players for 2004-05 Ryan Campbell, Beau Casson, Michael Clark, Ben Edmondson, Sean Ervine, Murray Goodwin, Kade Harvey, Sam Howman, Steve Magoffin, Shaun Marsh, Scott Meuleman, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi, Craig Simmons, Adam Voges, Darren Wates and Peter Worthington.Rookie Contracted Players for 2004-05 Justin Coetzee, Liam Davis, Aaron Heal, Steven Jacques and Andrew James.
On Pakistan’s bowling problems in the ODIs and the first Test We have had some problems with our bowling and we haven’t bowled well thus far. The discipline continues to be a bit weak. We improved on the second day considerably and I thought we were unlucky. The fielding has been poor in this game. A long bowl will help us in a way, because it gave the bowlers a chance to get their rhythm back. The Indians stuck to a line and length and they bowled well.On the pitch We want to play on positive, sporting pitches. These types of wickets do not suit us or help us to play positive cricket. Our attack consists of pace bowlers, not seamers, so we would like hard and bouncy pitches. There was communication between the team management and the curator as regards the pitch, but that type of wicket obviously couldn’t be produced.On the need for a bowling coach If spinners don’t bowl well, do we then need a spinning coach as well? How many coaches do we need? If a team doesn’t perform well once or twice, it doesn’t suddenly mean that we need all sorts of coaches.On saving the match It is difficult but if we continue to bat as we did today, when we were attacking, we can do it. There is still a lot of life in the match. Our batting has been good throughout the series and we performed well today – 364 for 6 isn’t such a bad score, it just seems small against a score of nearly 700. Razzaq, who batted well, is still there and Saqlain and Sami can bat. We need 111 runs to save the follow-on and if we bat like this tomorrow, I am confident we can save the match.On Yasir Hameed and the nervous nineties If he keeps getting nineties all the time, I won’t be too displeased. He played well today, but maybe he gets nervous when he gets close to the century. If so, then he needs to work on that.On debatable dismissals … like his and Yousuf Youhana’s All the batsmen were well set when they got out, so it was very disappointing. I can’t say anything about the dismissals, but you have all seen the TV replays so it is up to you to decide whether or not they were debatable.On Saqlain’s poor performance, and an extra spinner He has been out for some time but he tried very hard on a very flat pitch. Let’s see what happens in the remainder of the match. An extra spinner would not have made much of a difference on what is a batting paradise.On not congratulating Sehwag, and Tendulkar’s near-miss All the players did congratulate Sehwag on his effort, but I will do it now officially: Congratulations Virender Sehwag, on your magnificent triple-hundred! [Referring to Tendulkar:] Every team plays to its own plans. If someone was so close in my team, I would let them bat on for the double-century.
The 2003 World Cup finally gets underway on Saturday with the opening ceremony at Cape Town. This after all the uncertainly that seems to have gripped the game ever since the ICC Champions Trophy last September. Unfortunately, that element of uncertainty still continues with New Zealand’s reluctance to play in Kenya, and England’s confusion over playing in Zimbabwe.Despite all this, I don’t think that there will be another World Cup, which will be as hyped as the current one. In fact, all the controversies leading up to this World Cup – be it the one over the player’s contract or the morality behind playing in Zimbabwe – have only helped to sustain this unprecedented media hype. In hindsight, perhaps it is only a reflection of our times that such tangential things are made to sound more important than the real event – the game itself.
With such uncertainty surrounding this World Cup, it becomes extremely difficult to predict a front-runner who will go on to win the World Cup. Had this been a World Cup for Test Cricket, well, I wouldn’t have thought twice before saying Australia. But when it comes to the ODI World Cup, I have serious doubts about whether Ricky Ponting has it in him to pull off what Steve Waugh would have definitely delivered as a captain.As for hosts South Africa, their record of having choked on numerous vital occasions goes against them. No doubt they play brilliant cricket, but the South Africans are past masters in putting themselves under tremendous pressure even when the going is great. Add to that the pressure of expectations of being the host country and it is tough to be optimistic of their chances.When it comes to India, my heart will understandably always beat for them. As always the key to their success will lie in their ability to convert the surplus potential energy to kinetic. Their batting is the most potent in world cricket if it starts firing. But therein lies the whole problem – ‘if only India play well’.The Achilles heel of Sourav Ganguly’s men has always been their inability to play to a plan. Take the case of Sehwag for instance. There is no batsman in world cricket today who is as exhilarating as him; the fiery opener can win a match on his own with his batting. But the hit-or-miss element of his exuberant batting, and the woeful run of form of Ganguly, could expose India’s batting line-up to some world-class fast bowling during the course of the World Cup.As we all know, one-day cricket is more or less a batsman’s game. This being the case, a team like India just can’t plan to set a target or chase a total with their uncertain batting. If they are to win games against serious opponents in this World Cup, it would be thanks to the individual brilliance of a Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh or Sehwag. The confusion in the Indian team when it comes to planning can be easily made out from the fact that they are willing to sacrifice a bowler to pack in seven batsmen. So much so for a team that has a famed batting line-up.
And it is the lack of that one bowler, which worries me the most. Apart from Zaheer Khan, I just can’t see any other attacking bowler in the Indian line-up. Whether India will play Harbhajan Singh ahead of Anil Kumble also seems uncertain at the moment.If you ask me, the absence of a fifth bowler surely is the destabilising factor that India will have to deal with. In the circumstances, I reckon someone like Sehwag will have to play a crucial role as an off-spinner and claim wickets in the middle overs.A quality all-rounder would definitely have boosted India’s prospects in this World Cup. But let us face the truth; India does not have an all-rounder who can score runs when it matters and also claim crucial wickets. The all-rounder is the pivotal man, one who contributes to a team’s success when the going really gets tough. Look at someone like Brad Hogg who scored 70-odd runs when Australia were struggling against England in the VB Series final.On rational assessment, it is none of the above teams but New Zealand whom I rate as having a very good chance of winning this World Cup. It is quite another matter if the Kiwis decide to shoot themselves in the foot by not playing in Kenya. But if New Zealand qualify to the Super Sixes, they have the best chance of going the distance and taking the World Cup home. And Chris Cairns could well be their man of the tournament.
It certainly is not a wild guess that I am making. In Stephen Fleming, New Zealand have the best captain in the competition. In my book, he ranks just below Steve Waugh, who is arguably the best captain in world cricket today.As a team, New Zealand are super-efficient. Put in a thinking captain like Fleming, match-winners like Cairns and Nathan Astle, genuinely wicket-taking bowlers like Shane Bond, Daryl Tuffey, the best left-arm spinner in the world today, Daniel Vettori, that quintessential superman Chris Harris and you certainly have a team capable of winning the World Cup.My mind, then, says New Zealand, while my heart says India will win the World Cup. That said, whoever wins the tournament will certainly be a worthy champion.On a sad note, this World Cup will be the last one featuring Allan Donald, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan and others. But the beauty of the game of cricket is that worthy champions will emerge. Personally, I would advise you to keep an eye on this chap from West Indies – Marlon Samuels.
It wasn’t just that it was a century. Or that it was only the third three-figure score of the 2001 ICC Trophy tournament. Or even that it came at a ground that has tended to offer good encouragement to both fast and slow bowlers through most of the warmup and tournament matches to date.Instead, there were many things that were extraordinary about Kenneth Kamyuka’s score of 100 for Uganda in the crucial Division Two contest against Malaysia at Eglinton Flats today.When the powerfully built fast bowler took up his role as a number ten batsman thirty-five overs into the match, his team was in more than just an idle spot of bother. Eight wickets had just crashed for thirty-five runs and a great start from their upper order was being squandered by the Africans. Moreover, their dream of translating excellent lead-up form into a victory over the side expected to provide them with the main opposition in their group was rapidly turning sour.But, by the time that he left the crease just over an hour later, another 124 runs had been thunderously added in a liaison with Richard Mwami that completely changed the complexion of the game … and quite possibly Uganda’s entire tournament as well."I definitely had to go after the bowlers," said Kamyuka with a smile after his heroics."It wouldn’t have made any sense for me just to have stuck around for another fifteen overs just to score thirty runs or so."Defending 150 against such opposition would have been very very risky but 200-plus always gave us a good chance.By any measure, Kamyuka’s century was sensational. Achieved from only fifty-four deliveries – the fifty-fourth being the very last of the Ugandan innings itself – it was based on a phenomenal display of controlled hitting. Although the majority of his runs came from shots powered down the ground, his blows were littered to almost all of its parts. Just for good measure, several carried well out of the field of play itself, eight sixes complementing a quartet of fours."I’m not always comfortable against the medium pacers but I’m very happy looking the spinners."Although Richard is a senior player in our team, I asked him to give me the strike against the slow bowlers. He refused me initially but I insisted!"For his home club in Uganda, Kamyuka is used as a number six batsman in something of an all-rounder’s role. The presence within this current national team of an excellent array of strokemakers has, by necessity, forced him down the order for much of his representative career. But don’t expect him to be batting so low for too much longer.
Nottingham Forrest manager Steve Cooper must do everything he can to keep his £3.6m-rated gem at the City Ground.
What’s the story?
Forest are currently flying high in the Championship but they are in danger of losing some of their key players.
One of them includes 21-year-old loan midfielder James Garner.
He has impressed massively during his time at Nottingham Forest while enjoying a temporary stint away from Premier League giants Manchester United.
He has been described as “flying” by talkSPORT and in the summer it will be interesting to see if the Red Devils want to involve him in their first team.
Recent reports suggest that Forest are interested in signing Garner permanently should they secure promotion from the Championship.
Key to their success
Forest, and in particular, their boss Cooper, have been good at giving young players chances. He is the former manager of the England U17 side which triumphed at the World Cup back in 2017.
Garner has made 37 appearances in a Forest shirt this season and has tallied nine goal contributions proving key to the team’s turnaround in form when Cooper was appointed back in September.
His passing stats are good with the Englishman having an 80% pass success and making on average 1.8 key passes each game.
But it’s his defensive stats where he stands out, he averages 1.3 interceptions each game which is more than United midfielder Scott McTominay.
He also averages 0.9 blocks per game which is more than another United midfielder Fred.
Whilst Forest are making the most of his talents this season, the better he performs the more the Red Devils will want to keep hold of him, something that represents a bit of a disaster for the Championship side.
The managerial situation is up in arms at Old Trafford currently and any new arrival may want to take a look at all the players available to them including Garner.
He even earnt praise from former United captain and fellow midfielder Roy Keane, who described him as “very good” following his FA cup quarter-final performance against Liverpool.
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Garner himself may want to move back to the Theatre of Dreams and test himself against the rest of United’s squad. The Athletic’s Daniel Taylor certainly seems to think that is the case, saying that ‘it is very much his ambition’ to fight for a place.
It’s hardly ideal timing considering the attention Brennan Johnson is also capturing but they can afford to forget about him a little bit in a bid to secure the United loanee’s signature too.
Whatever happens, he will have played an important part in any promotion success that Forest are involved in this year, but he’ll be a big miss next season.
IN other news: Nottingham Forest loanee Davis likely to be available permanently…
The potential of an English Premier League to counter the dominance of its Indian counterpart may be gathering momentum, but already there is a split among the county chief executives.Last week Sean Morris, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, spoke candidly about his vision for the future and insisted that if England are to create a viable competition to the IPL, the 18 first-class counties must merge into six regional sides. Bold though the plan is, the counties are less certain.”My aim is to knock this idea on the head,” Richard Gould, the Somerset chief executive, told the BBC. “We are hugely against regionalising – that would lead, eventually, to the domestic game being reduced to eight regional franchises for all forms of the game.”I don’t have a problem with an EPL, as long as it involves the 18 counties. Otherwise it would drastically reduce the number of English-qualified players available. The Test-match playing grounds might benefit, because they would host the matches but the rest of county cricket would not.”Similarly, Neil Davidson, the Leicestershire chief executive, is concerned that the franchise system might threaten the game’s tradition.”Franchises would be a negative and could turn a lot of people off the game,” Davidson said. “As long as the idea is a revenue generator that favours the game as a whole, I’m in favour. But we need to think about everyone, the minor counties, grassroots cricket and the Test match grounds.”Lancashire’s Jim Cumbes, however, has greater confidence in the idea.”There’s really no need for us to merge, or Yorkshire or a number of other counties, but I think it could work in some areas of the country where the counties are pretty close together,” Cumbes said. “We should be seriously looking at setting up our own Premier League. I could envisage two divisions, with promotion and relegation between the two, like the football Premier League.”And I think it could happen as early as next year, with the top nine teams from our Twenty20 competition this year forming a Premier League.”
ScorecardPeter Borren struck his maiden first-class century as Netherlands staged an outstanding fightback against Canada in their Intercontinental Cup match in Toronto. With four wickets remaining, Netherlands’ lead stood at 98 but Borren and the lower order extended it to a healthy 270.Two early wickets from Henry Osinde plunged Netherlands into trouble on 66 for 5 before Borren, born and brought up in New Zealand, set about his recovery operation. He added 72 with Mudassar Bukhari and 73 with Jeron Smits, who faced 107 balls for his 8. Borren’s century included 17 fours and a six, but even when he and Smits fell within the space of three balls Canada couldn’t wrap up the innings.Mark Jonkman struck seven boundaries in his 43 as the last two wickets added a priceless 99 runs. However, Canada didn’t help themselves by dropping four catches and conceding 44 extras.Borren’s fine day continued when he removed Shahzad Khan early in Canada’s run chase, following Geoff Barnett’s run out for 0, leaving an intriguing final day in prospect as Canada search for a further 227 runs.
Monty Panesar might have attained a hero’s status after his matchwinning performance in the Old Trafford Test but Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, has said that Panesar must develop the other areas of his game before he can be assured a permanent spot in the team.Ashley Giles’s lengthy absence because of a hip injury allowed the 24-year-old Panesar a chance to show what he can do in international cricket. So far, Panesar, the first Sikh to play for England, has made an encouraging start with 25 wickets in his first eight Tests, including a superb matchwinning return of 5 for 72 in England’s crushing innings and 120-run victory over Pakistan in the second Test.Panesar’s return at Old Trafford, where England won inside three days to go 1-0 up in the four-match series, was especially impressive as he dismissed five of Pakistan’s top six including Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf – all noted players of spin. His attacking style has led many to suggest that Panesar should retain his place even if the more defensively-minded Giles, a valuable member of England’s Ashes-winning team last year, regains full fitness. But Fletcher said Panesar had to improve his batting and fielding, the latter a particular concern, to secure his place in the England team.”I think Monty is a very good bowler, but we have to produce 11 players who can produce two of the departments efficiently, whoever is playing for England,” said Fletcher. “I still have slight reservations about his batting and his fielding, but he’s an outstanding bowler and doing a job for us because there’s no-one else at the moment who can fulfill that role.”He needs to work hard at it because if you work hard at your fielding you can really improve that a great deal. It’s not easy to turn you into a No.6 batter, but I just think you need to work at those two areas.” Giles, capable of taking some sharp catches in the gully, had developed into a handy lower-order batsman with an average just over 20.Asked to identify England’s leading spinner, Fletcher said: “It will depend on when Ashley is going to be ready and how Monty bowls on other wickets and we’ll have to make a decision when Giles is ready. We’ll also have to look at the balance of the side. It was a good wicket for Monty to bowl on and he bowled damn well on it, but we’ve got to make sure in the future we get wickets that help our bowlers like that. Quite often when you get onto a wicket like that you can try too hard because you know it all depends on you, but he went out there and bowled a good line and length and spun the ball on occasions a great deal.”Meanwhile Giles, speaking on BBC Radio’s Sportsweek programme, admitted he had a fight on his hands. “Monty is the man in possession and I have to get my place back – that’s the danger if you do get injured. My recovery is going OK, it is just frustrating. I cannot bowl and cannot run but the rehab is going well. It is going to be another four or five weeks until we reach that point.”Giles also paid a generous tribute to Panesar, saying: “Monty is a brilliant technician and works extremely hard. He is able to land the ball in good areas and put batsmen under pressure.”England are due to announce their squad for the third Test at Headingley on Monday. However, Geraint Jones, who took the field at Old Trafford despite a fractured right ring finger, remains doubtful and his long-standing rival Chris Read, who played for England A against Pakistan earlier this season, could be called in as cover.
Ricky Ponting has avoided the need for surgery on his broken left thumb, and is hopeful of returning to action with Australia’s Test team as soon as possible.Ponting, who was due to lead Australia in their pursuit of a first series victory in India for 35 years, has already been ruled out of the first Test in Bangalore. He suffered the injury while dropping a slip catch during Australia’s Champions Trophy defeat against England at Edgbaston on Tuesday.He is unable to pick up a bat for two weeks, so there is still no guarantee that he will be match-fit in time for the second Test at Chennai, but the avoidance of an operation has boost his prospects. He was examined in Sydney on Saturday by a specialist, Dr Ian Hargreaves, who diagnosed a fracture to the distal phalanx of the left thumb.”After discussion with Ricky, we have decided he should rest for the next few days,” said Dr Trefor James, Cricket Australia’s medical advisor. “We will organise a re-examination for later next week to check his progress and better assess when he might be able to grip a bat and field.”Fortunately, the specialist has advised that the bones are sitting well and surgery will not be necessary, but it is difficult at this stage to assess how long will be needed before he can resume playing. While it is difficult to assess, it is highly unlikely he will be ready to play by the time of the first Test, which is due to start at Bangalore on October 6.”Ponting admitted he was “shattered” to have suffered the setback ahead of such a critical series for Australia. They have not won in India since Bill Lawry’s 3-1 victory in 1969-70, and on the last tour in 2000-01, they lost a thrilling series 2-1, in spite of leading after a handsome victory in the first Test at Mumbai.”We’ve been looking forward to the Indian tour for a long time, and for me personally, being captain of the side, I was pretty keen to get there and play well,” said Ponting. “Knowing what the build-up will be like in India, it’ll be huge over there … everything was pointing to the direction of it being a huge series. It’s just a real big blow for me and a big blow for the team. It’s going to be a frustrating couple of weeks.”
Dwayne Smith has been ruled out of West Indies’ first Test against England, which starts on Thursday in Jamaica. Smith dislocated a finger in his right hand while fielding in the nets.”It was a most unfortunate development for the young man,” Ricky Skerritt, the team manager, said. “But Dwayne has the right attitude towards situations likethis and there is no doubt he’ll be back stronger than ever.”The West Indian selectors have decided against naming a replacement for Smith, which means that Ricardo Powell or Ryan Hinds will take the No. 6 spot in the line-up. Dave Bernard has been added to the squad as an emergency fielder.