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Ken Gordon, the president of the West Indies board, has highlighted the captaincy of Brian Lara as one of the key factors in the recent success of the West Indies.Gordon told CMC’s Cricket Plus, “I think we have a team that is playing with new vigour. I think they are being well led. I am seeing ongoing improvements in the bowling. There is much for us to be pleased about and I think on all fronts we have gone forward positively.”He added, “As far as the reasons for this, I think people have a sense of things settling down and I believe these things always start from the top and, for whatever reason, I think now that we have been able to settle the issue of the captaincy, I think many things have flowed from this and I hope they will continue to flow and develop.”Lara was re-appointed captain for the third time in his career in April, just before the start of a seven-match ODI series against Zimbabwe. He took over from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who failed to win a Test or ODI series since he took over last year.Since he has taken over, Lara has led his side to nine wins, including an expected 5-0 thumping of Zimbabwe (two matches were rained off) and an unexpected 4-1 triumph over an in-form Indian side. Lara’s appointment has been the subject of some criticism from ex-players, including Viv Richards who suggested the move was made with commercial objectives in mind given that the World Cup was round the corner. Others have said the move is borne of short-term vision and have raised questions about whether Lara enjoys full support from the younger members of the team.The win against India was the West Indies first over established opposition (other than Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) since 2002 in a bilateral series. They are currently ranked no. 8 in the world ODI rankings, only above Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya.

Michael Clarke is unlikely to be available for Australia’s match against Bangladesh, at Old Trafford, tomorrow. Clarke has been struggling with a back injury, which forced him to miss the game against England on Thursday.He watched Australia’s 57-run win from his hotel bed and only went to The Riverside to receive treatment from Errol Alcott, the Australian physio. “He is improving and responding favourably to treatment, but it is unlikely that he will be available tomorrow,” said Alcott. “We will continue to monitor his progress over the next couple of days.Clarke had shown some good form in the early stages of the NatWest Series, making 54 against Bangladesh at Cardiff and 45 against England at Bristol, but Australia’s middle-order is now well-stocked after the return of Andrew Symonds.

Hampshire take 12 to Canterbury for the Easter friendlies against Kent. The two day affair is on Easter Sunday and Monday.Wicket-keeper Tom Burrows is given a match in place of Nic Pothas, as the side will look to build on their excellent practise results so far this pre-season.The Hampshire 12 is: Derek Kenway, Michael Brown, Will Kendall, John Crawley, Lawrence Prittipaul, James Hamblin, Shaun Udal, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Chris Tremlett, Tom Burrows, James Tomlinson, Alan Mullally.

LOGAN CUP POINTS SYSTEMI was wondering if there is either anything at the ZCU site, or if you could explain how the Logan Cup points system works. I noticed that for the first half of the season, some games have the points each team received in the scorecard, but some don’t.I assume that an outright win is 12 points and a draw of any kind is three points. But I don’t know how batting and bowling points are allocated, nor do I know how penalty points are allocated.I’m trying to put together a LC "race" chart, as per the ones I’ve done for other domestic competitions at:https://domcricket.0catch.com/but without a knowledge of the point system, or the points allocated for the games played Oct. 18-21, I cannot do that. Plus I’d like a better knowledge of how your tournament works.Thanks very much in advance for any information you can provide.Jack Solock (Madison, Wisconsin, US)P.S. I always enjoy reading your development newsletter. Though I am a West Indies supporter, I always enjoy reading your concise, informative newsletters. They are my guide to Zimbabwe cricket.Reply: The points system is adapted from that for the English county championship, with bonus points awarded in the first 120 overs of the first innings. Up to four points are awarded for batting for every 50 runs, starting at 200, and for three, five, seven and nine wickets taken. Penalty points are deducted for poor over rates, but I don’t have details for that – life is complicated enough as it is!TRIBUTE TO CAMPBELLHis journey from the commentator box to cricket pitch was amazing. And when he was sure to open against Kenya my own mind flew on the wings of fantasies – I dreamt of Campbell scoring his eighth hundred and at the Man of the Match ceremony dedicating the gold watch to his cancer-filled father Iain – "I did it for you, Dad!"But I was jolted out of the reverie rather quickly. I was a fool as I thought that the on-going scenario would not affect player performances. It was a pity that politics again has a say in the premature retirement of another Zimbabwean legend.The exuberant youth was visible in Kamba’s sensational assault at Rawalpindi and during his 131* against Sri Lanka. But soon the talented Zimbabwe’sGower become the victim of growing expectations but he was never short of flamboyance. A classic was his late heart-stopping surge at the finish against Australia at Ahmedabad. The hundred by captain courageous in extremely hot conditions is unrivalled in splendour.The "murder" of England, the away Test series win against Pakistan under his captaincy, his Test hundred to save the Nagpur Test and his bringing on of Olonga in the penultimate over against India in the World Cup are a few highlights of his illustrious career.The aura associated with his batting, his ability gracefully to accept his mistakes, his downright honesty, his clarity of thoughts as evident in his Campbell’s Diary and his fluent commentary all have no parallels. He once said, "I believe that once I’m finished with cricket, I can give something back to the game, something every cricketer must do in order to keep this great game alive."What noble thoughts! Cricket is bound to get poor without charismatic players like Flower, Campbell and Olonga.Dr Situ Phalswal (India)UNPROFESSIONAL?Does the Zimbabwe Cricket Team like to look like ‘unprofessionals’? Every Zimbabwe bowler, minus the captain (Streak), has his shirt untucked. That is not even club cricket standard.R Mirjah (unknown)Reply: Agreed – it doesn’t look good, but perhaps the manufacturers are also at fault for supplying shirts that are too short!

It’s four months since Sri Lanka last played a Test match and we arelooking forward to proving that this side can replicate its one-daysuccess in the longer version of the game. We may not have won a Testseries for over a year, but I firmly believe that this side is muchstronger than those statistics suggest.Since beating Pakistan in March last year, we have lost series againstPakistan, South Africa and England, but you need to bear in mind twothings: firstly, international cricket is very competitive nowadaysand that the margins between sides are smaller and, secondly, that wecame so close to winning two of those four series.Against South Africa and England we failed to win the series afternail biting matches in Kandy and in both games we lost despite havingestablished winning positions. Unfortunately, we slipped up at crucialtimes and let the opposition back into the match. We failed tomaintain our intensity and concentration throughout the game and paidthe ultimate penalty. You have to remember though that this is still ayoung side and their inexperience probably told on those twooccasions.Indeed, there is now the basis of a very strong Sri Lankan Test teamand I don’t even believe that the players themselves really understandhow good they can be.The team has a good balance now. There is a talented batting line-upwith a good mix of youth and experience, the strongest pace attackthat we have had for some time, and probably the best spinner in theworld today. With a little more self-belief I have no doubt whatsoeverthat the building blocks for sustained success are there.Hopefully, we will take the confidence gained from three successiveone-day tournament victories (England, ARY Gold Cup and Coca-Cola Cup)into the Test matches. It’s also useful to be playing against a sidethat we so defeated so convincingly in a one-day final. Sure, it’s adifferent game, but psychologically it should give us a boost.India are missing a few key players because of injury (SachinTendulkar, VVS. Laxman, Anil Kumble and Ashish Nehra) and on papertheir side contains young players still learning about the game. Thatdoesn’t mean we can take them lightly though. They too have talent andwhen the game begins we can expect a tough fight.We have therefore focused preparations on our own performance. Oneneeds to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals onthe opposition, but you must then turn your attention to the processesnecessary to achieving success. We work on the basis that if we all doour jobs correctly then it’s going to make life very difficult for anyopposition.This series is going to be a really tough one for all the players. Wewill be playing 15 days of Test cricket in just 20 days, which will bestretching the human mind and body to the limit. Physically it’s goingto be a real challenge and player fitness will be an important factor.The short recovery time between games also heightens the value of agood start. After losing that tension draining Test match againstEngland in Kandy we only had two days to recover before the third Testmatch and I believe that made it really hard for the Sri Lankanplayers to bounce back. The team that loses the first game in thisseries will also have just two days to recover and they will reallyhave their backs to the wall.The contest between Harbhajan Singh and Muttiah Muralitharan is goingto be fascinating. Both are world-class bowlers and they have manysimilarities, especially in their wholesome approach to the game. Bothpossess a strong desire to succeed and to bowl long spells. They arenaturally aggressive and expect a wicket with every delivery. Muralispins the ball more and has more variations, which is understandableconsidering his extra experience, whilst Harbhajan has excellentcontrol and is a canny operator.One key feature of the series is going to be the pace bowling. WithMurali and Harbhajan participating you naturally cannot discount thespinners, but I feel that the side with the better fast bowling attackhas a great chance of winning, especially if it is backed up with finefielding.This will give us confidence because we now have two world-class fastbowlers in Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando and have a lot of depthin our fast bowling reserves, with all three of the other fast bowlersin the 16-man squad being excellent bowlers.

The Punjab Under-14 team scored a overwhelming innings and 224-runvictory over Jammu and Kashmir on the third and final day of theirNorth Zone league match at the Dhruv Pandove Stadium in Patiala onMonday.J&K were shot out for just 43 runs. Punjab’s opening bowlersHardavindar Singh (4 for 15) and Rattan Brichar (4 for 18) ran throughthe J&K lineup. In reply, Punjab declared at 325 for nine. AshishVinayak (62) and Tavish Gupta (45) added 94 runs for the second wicketoff 25.1 overs. Then Ankur Jund (87) forged useful partnerships withthe lower order batsmen to boost the total.In arrears by 282 runs, J&K fared little better the second time aroundand were skittled out for 58. This time Tavesh Gupta was the pick ofthe bowlers, finishing with figures of 5 for 20 in his 7.5 overs. Onlythree batsmen, opener Ian Chauhan (20 not out), Quyam Hassan (14) andKaran Kochhar (12) managed to reach double figures.

Lights out in BangaloreThe Bangalore Royal Challengers’ home match against the Deccan Chargers yesterday was interrupted for close to six minutes when the lights on the western tower of the Chinnaswamy Stadium went off. But the situation was quickly resolved and the game resumed. According to a report in the , the Karnataka State Cricket Association has only about 500 replacement bulbs left, since the company that used to provide them, has closed.Yousuf’s wait continuesMohammad Yousuf will continue to be barred from the IPL after the arbiter hearing the case filed against him by the Indian Cricket League, filed an interim order to that effect. Hitesh Jain, the ICL’s lawyer, said that arbiter’s final order is expected in July. With his IPL hopes in limbo, Yousuf has signed with Lancashire as a short-term replacement for Brad Hodge, who has joined the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The West Indies selectors today named the replacements for the West Indies B team, as well as a new captain and vice captain for the remainder of the Carib Beer Series.Shawn Findlay, from Jamaica, Austin Richards, Jr, from the Leeward Islands, and Patrick Brown and Ryan Austin from Barbados, are the four replacements. They come in for Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Assad Fudadin and Mervin Matthew for the match against the Leeward Islands in Nevis, on January 23, 2004.Meanwhile, Jason Haynes has been named to take over the captaincy from Ramdin, who will be playing in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. Haynes’s deputy will be Jason Bennett.The West Indies B team, fresh from their win over Kenya in the Carib Beer Cup, face Trinidad this weekend.

Kiran More, India’s chairman of selectors, categorically said that it was premature to say whether Sachin Tendulkar would be available or not for the four-Test series against West Indies.”It’s too early to say anything on Sachin’s fitness,” More told repoters in Mumbai. “It’s for team physio John Gloster and Sachin to judge. He’s already started light workouts. His cricketing ability is not in doubt and we will give him the opportunity to test his fitness. But I cannot say more.”Tendulkar is recuperating from a shoulder operation he underwent towards the end of May and was not available for the five-match ODI series in the Caribbean starting on May 18.More said, “I am constantly being updated about his progress by Gloster, every two days. I hope to get a report by the 20th or 21st of this month before we sit to choose the Test team, in all likelihood on the 22nd before the third ODI [at St Kitts on May 23].”Wasim Jaffer is also making good progress. Ashish Nehra has started bowling, I am told, while L Balaji is also on the way back to fitness. All in all it’s a good sign, with Zaheer Khan also playing in England.”More said ideally the selectors were looking towards a pool of eight to nine fast bowlers to cope with the cricket in store for the senior team. More was also happy that the Indian board has decided to have constant A team tours as well.”We need to have backups for each fast bowler. The ideal way is to get an A tour on when the India team is playing a series so that whenever a replacement is needed for some reason the available player is match-fit and ready to step in like it was the case with England.”More was referring to opener Alastair Cook and fast bowler James Anderson stepping in straight from an A team tour in the West Indies to fill in the gap left by the absence of key players when England visited India recently.”I was happy to see the way the A team performed in Abu Dhabi”, he added. “The youngsters are really coming up. They could have done well in the final. They could not finish off a fine tournament, but overall I am very happy with the way the youngsters performed.”More indicated that a second wicketkeeper is expected to be chosen for the Test series in addition to first choice Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He said that though the team had performed exceptionally well in one-day cricket, a lot of work remained to be done before the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies next year to make India a formidable outfit.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has hinted that Shahid Afridi may bat down the order in the second Test at Kingston as Pakistan attempt to bounce back from a heavy defeat in the first Test at Barbados. Inzamam, who missed the first Test as he was serving a suspension, added that there will be two changes to the side with him and Shoaib Malik returning to the fray.”Afridi will bat as per the requirement of the team but most probably down the order in the Kingston Test,” Inzamam was quoted as saying in , a Pakistan-based daily. “He scored a hundred batting at No. 5 [sic].” Afridi had been involved in a dressing-room altercation during the first Test, along Younis Khan, the captain for the game, when he showed his displeasure at being asked to open the batting in Pakistan’s first innings. Inzamam then joined in the argument and supposedly exchanged heated words with Younis before the other players intervened. Afridi batted at No. 6 in the second innings of the game and hammered a blistering hundred but his record is much better when he has opened the innings, when he averages 37.16 and has set the tempo for many a Pakistan charge.Inzamam added that the team failed to adjust themselves for the first Test, after whitewashing West Indies in the one-dayers, but felt that his players were capable of squaring the series. “Our batting flopped in the first innings of the Barbados Test,” he said, “and that made the difference in the end.”Inzamam added that the team would miss the experience of Yousuf Youhana, who decided to return home after his father was diagnosed with a kidney ailment, but added that it provided a chance for other players to show their worth. While criticising his batsmen for playing some loose shots in the first Test, when they collapsed for 144 in the first innings, Inzamam said spending more time at the crease would be crucial.The home team are facing a few injury problems as well. After the injury to Fidel Edwards, Bennett King, the West Indies coach, informed that Dwayne Bravo has failed to recover fully from his ankle injury and was unlikely to play the second Test.”Dwayne’s struggling at the moment,” King was quoted by The Trinidad Express. “Again, we’re gonna look in the morning. But at this stage, we’re not very hopeful. But he’s done everything that we’ve asked of him and worked really hard. He’s been getting two to three sessions daily. He’s done everything in his power to try and make things work.”King also insisted that West Indies would try to end their season on a high note. “We go out there to win every game … and we’re not going to change our strategy,” King continued. “You don’t believe that we’ve got the quality but I think we do. It’s a shame that you say things like that because what it indicates to me is that you don’t trust us.”But for me, certainly, I certainly go out there having put full faith in the players knowing that the side that we put out on the field is the best West Indies has got and also that it gives us the best chance of winning every match.”