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Eastern Province kept alive their faint hopes of making the final of the Supersport Series with a nine-wicket win over North West at St George’s Park on Sunday.North West scored 227 in their second innings which left the home team requiring a moderate score of 121 to claim victory in the first round of theSuper Eight phase.Eastern Province ended on 123 for one, with opener Mark Benfield unbeaten on 66.North West resumed the final day on 83 for five and posted a useful total, which came thanks only to an 86-run 10th wicket stand between Alphonso Thomas and Jannie Dreyer.It could have ended sooner but Nantie Hayward put down a routine catch with the total on 151 and Dreyer on three, which proved to be costly, but not terminal.The home team scored the required runs with little fuss in 32.3 overs with Benfield and James Bryant (19) unbeaten after Benfield and Umar Abrahams had put on a brisk 81 for the first wicket.Earlier in the match Justin Kemp scored a career-best 188, which turned the tide of a match seriously in danger of heading for a draw.His brilliant innings included one over where he smashed hapless off-spinner Morne Strydom for five sixes in one over. It justifiably earned him the man of the match award.

Looking to leave behind a period of uncertainty and turmoil and aiming for their fourth straight Test series triumph, the Pakistan cricket outfit departed for England from Lahore on Wednesday (May 2). The slight disappointment was that ace, albeit injury prone speedster Shoaib Akhtar, had to be left behind.Akhtar is said to be suffering from stomach ailments and a touch of fever, which was why he couldn’t complete his set of fitness tests. “There is no point in taking along a player whose fitness is in doubt. But I believe that Akhtar in due course would prove his fitness and would soon join the team”, said Yawar Saeed, the Pakistan manager, while talking to CricInfo.Waqar Younis, the Pakistan captain on his third and last tour of England, for his part sounded quite upbeat about his team’s prospects. “The entire team is all motivated to do well in England. We have a nice blend of experience and youth. The good thing is that the youngsters are very talented and keen to make their mark. I am really positive that we would do well in England”.The captain, of course, has personal reasons to be well-motivated as well. The shelf life of Pakistan captains has not been all that long throughout the ’90s and the post-Imran era has seen nearly a dozen changes at the helm. In that backdrop, the series could be considered an acid test for Younis.Younis, however, would be drawing inspiration from his previous outings in England, the victorious campaigns of 1992 and 1996, when he did exceptionally well, taking 22 and 16 wickets respectively.At the airport, Younis also dispelled any impression of his lingering feud with his partner-in-pace, Wasim Akram. Perhaps in a bid to bury the hatchet, he talked warmly of his former close friend and profusely welcomed his presence in the side. This change of heart was probably brought about in a meeting arranged by the PCB Chairman, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia.If the two of them could do as well as they did while spearheading the Pakistan attack in 1992 and 1996 (Wasim Akram 23 and 11 wickets respectively), England’s dream run of four series victories on the trot may not endure.The team, which was seen off by Brig Munawar Rana, PCB’s Director and other Board officials, will commence its tour with a three-day outing against British Universities at Nottingham from Friday. This is the first of a trio of three-day affairs that lead up to the first Test, at Lord’s on May 17. The second Test of the series starts on May 31, and afterwards Pakistan take part in a 3-Nation limited-overs tournament starting with a day/night affair at Edgbaston on June 7.Pakistan squad: Waqar Younis (captain), Saeed Anwar, Mohammad Wasim, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdur Razzaq, Mohammad Sami, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Azhar Mahmood, Imran Farhat, Saleem Elahi.
Manager: Yawar Saeed
Coach: Richard Pybus
Bowling coach: Daryl Foster.

Yorkshire Phoenix gained an easy five-wicket win with ten overs to spare in their first Norwich Union National League Division One match of the season against Somerset Sabres at Headingley.On an awkward pitch, run scoring was difficult until Anthony McGrath joined Yorkshire captain David Byas in a hard-hitting stand of 72 in 15 overs for the second wicket which moved Yorkshire swiftly towards their modest target of 155.Both batsmen played some powerful shots, Byas twice driving spinner Keith Dutch for big sixes and McGrath produced some wonderful ground strokes that brought him seven fours in his first 32 runs.Byas fell for 48 attempting another big blow off Dutch but McGrath went smoothly on to 58 when he cut Ian Blackwell into his stumps, having faced 84 balls and cracked 11 boundaries.Yorkshire lost Darren Lehman and Gary Fellows either side of McGrath’s dismissal but young Michael Lumb won them the match with an enormous six off Blackwell.Somerset were clearly handicapped by losing opening bowler Graham Rose with a knee strain at the end of his first over and it was Rose who had earlier provided the only real threat to Yorkshire’s keen attack after Somerset had won the toss.Rose, coming in at a difficult 25 for two, played well for his half-century but when he had scored 58 off 99 balls with four boundaries he pulled spinner James Middlebrook and was caught on the mid-wicket fence by competition debutant Tom Baker.Matthew Hoggard and Paul Hutchison both did well with the new ball but it was the spin of Middlebrook and Darren Lehmann that really stopped Somerset in their tracks in the middle of the innings, each bowler picking up a couple of wickets.Yorkshire were also without Darren Gough, Craig White and Michael Vaughan while Marcus Trescothick and Andy Caddick were forced to sit it out for Somerset.

All-rounder Tilan Samaraweera is expected to be named as captain of the Sri Lanka A team for next month’s three-match unofficial Test series against Pakistan A.Samaraweera has represented Sri Lanka in seven One-Day Internationals and last year led Sri Lanka A to series victories in both unofficial Test and One-Day Internationals against Zimbabwe A at home.Pakistan A arrive on June 10 and open their six-match tour with the first unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A at the NCC grounds on June 13.A 27-man squad is presently in training preparing to receive Pakistan A.Two two-day practice matches among the squad players will be played next week.The Sri Lanka A squad will also be pitted against the national squad in a few one-day practice games.The national squad is preparing to receive New Zealand and India initially in a one-day triangular series starting on July 18 and later meets India in a series of three Tests.

Wellington’s weather, wet and windy, will have both the New Zealand and England camps pondering their options before play starts in the second National Bank Series Test at the Basin Reserve.Just when the Test will start is another matter of conjecture.Both teams were forced inside to complete their preparations before the scheduled start time of 10.30am tomorrow but rain is forecast for tomorrow, and even heavier rain in the long range forecast for Friday.The Basin pitch, which is a shadow of its former self, a tired, and prospectively slow and turning deck, is the only natural wicket in the series. It has provided several outright results in the local domestic competition, the State Championship.New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said the knowledge of how the pitch plays would be the closest thing to home advantage in the series and while a wind would blow it was just as difficult for New Zealand to cope with as it was for opposing teams, the only benefit for New Zealand being its bowlers knew what to expect.”We’ve played on this wicket whereas at Jade Stadium we hadn’t played on that one.”But we know how this one, pretty much, will perform on the way the results have gone this summer and most players have played here this summer. It’s pretty much as home as it gets. This is our home of cricket,” he said.Just what the into-the-wind options would be were not definitely revealed by Fleming but he did say: “It depends which way the wind blows. It has suited Dan [Vettori] here, the amount of drift he can get in the last few Test matches but Nathan [Astle] also can do a job, but Chris Drum with the new ball will probably have that role.”Meanwhile, the match represents, much more than the first Test, a return to the bad old days of injury concerns with Chris Cairns out, Vettori under pressure with his back and now Fleming himself suffering after dislocating a finger at fielding training yesterday.The absence of Cairns has not made preparing for the match harder, and Fleming said if anything it had steeled the side up.”I’ve got a group of players that I believe can win the Test match and I believe, and openly said it in the first Test, that might not be the way to go, apparently, I still believe nothing’s changed and we’ll be playing the same type of cricket looking to win the Test match and the series.”Chris Cairns is a world-class player and we will miss him but often that puts responsibility on other people’s shoulders and they step up and that’s what I’m asking them to do.”Not having the first choice attack is a big disappointment because when they’re on song it is a very good Test attack.”We’ve been in this situation before and the players that have come into the side have performed for me in Test cricket in the past, last season against Pakistan, and I have confidence they will do it again.”They’re not probably as dynamic as some of the players we’ve lost but they bring strengths and qualities as well and that’s what I’ll tap into and that’s what they’ll tap into,” he said.New Zealand had absorbed the lessons from the first Test defeat.”There has been a look at the way we played the game.The side had fumbled through the first three and a half days and were disappointed in one of their areas of pride, their fielding. So they have been working on sharpening that area.”If we had taken our chances, [Nasser] Hussain in the first innings and [Graham] Thorpe in the second then the Test could quite easily have been a different scenario.”I’ve always found Jade Stadium a hard place to catch.”I’ve dropped two catches there that 90% of the time I would expect myself to catch and Nate [Astle] said the same.”It was one of those games that was tense also and you knew every ball had a significant outcome and I guess sometimes that frame of mind can get a little bit nervous and a little bit tighter in the hands.”Twelve months ago we had the same scenario and we’ve introduced some players who have Test experience and we can call on them now with them having the knowledge of what they need to do.”There are some qualities these players bring into the side that may be very important on this type of wicket,” he said.Fleming also commented on the heart surgery Lou Vincent had before the first Test.”That was a bit of a shock, Louie has had a bit of a racing heart for a while and he’s pretty active as it is. The ins and outs of the surgery were that it went well and his heart beat is back to normal.”It did seem rather dramatic when I heard Lou was going to be delayed coming to Christchurch because he was having heart surgery.”I knew the games were close but not like that. He seems fine, it went well,” he said.

A rampant Carl Hooper stroked a masterly unbeaten hundred to gain his team a 77-run first innings lead on the third day of their Busta International Shield final against Jamaica at Sabina Park on Saturday. Before stumps were drawn, Jamaica wiped off the deficit and gained a 25-run lead with eight second innings wickets in hand. However, with only the final day’s play left, it almost seems certain that their attempts to complete the Cup and Shield double will be thwarted this season.Guyana, who began the morning at 149 for four, moved on to 170 before a struggling Ally-Haniff was finally snared by Jamaican off-spinner Gareth Breese. At that stage, the hosts looked all set to claim the first-innings lead.But Hooper, who arrived next, took command immediately. The West Indian skipper telegraphed his intentions loud and clear when he hit Breese well beyond the long-off boundary. Even the dismissal of Ramnaresh Sarwan (40) with the score on 190 could not stifle him on a day that was to see him at his regal best.He reached his 50 off 61 balls with a boundary. Neil McGarrell, who had replaced Sarwan, provided him good company during the period, adding 66 runs for the seventh wicket, before falling for 23.Next man Mahendra Nagamootoo might have made just one, but he provided valuable support to Hooper, helping his captain add another 30 runs to their team’s total. But with Hooper on the verge of a well-deserved hundred, Nagamootoo was dismissed thanks to an outstanding catch by Leon Garrick at square-leg.Hooper, though, brought up his hundred in the company of No. 9 Colin Stuart. With the century in the bag, he decided to unleash his strokes and secure his team a healthy first-innings lead.He hit four more sixes and three more boundaries on his way to an unbeaten 149 off 155 balls, putting Guyana in the box seat by the time they were dismissed for 354 in their first innings.For Jamaica, Breese was the most successful bowler claiming four for 90. Left-arm spinner Ryan Cunningham too had his share of the spoils, claiming three for 59.With an outright win needed to secure the Shield, opener Chris Gayle got the home team’s second innings off to a whirlwind start, making 54 off 73 balls and helping his team reach 96 for one before falling to Nagamooto’s leg-spin. Wavell Hinds and Ryan Cunningham were the two not out batsmen when stumps were drawn.Jamaica are now faced with the unenviable task of securing an improbable win on the final day. No wonder, then, that Hooper, despite nursing a slight finger injury, seemed quietly confident of his team’s chances of lifting the Shield at the end of the day’s play.

It has been confirmed that Ian Harvey has sustained a broken finger in thematch against Hampshire and he will be out of action for three weeks.Squad for the County Championship match against Nottinghamshire to start onWednesday 15th May.

MW AlleyneJMM AverisMCJ BallKJ BarnettID FisherBW GannonJ LewisRC RussellJN SnapeCM SpearmanCG TaylorMGN Windows

Revd. Wesley Hall, WICB President, heads the list of speakers at the CCAM Development Symposium. Register now & share in this exciting venture. The venue and playing fields are wonderful.The Cricket Council of the Americas (CCAM) is the regional ICC authority for cricket development from Canada in the North to Argentina in the South. The West Indies Cricket Board, the only Full Member country, leads it.Canada, Bermuda, USA, Argentina are Associates with Cayman Islands, Belize and the Bahamas leading the list of Affiliate countries like Brazil, Turks and Caicos etc.The United States has long been recognised as the land of opportunity, the country where people are willing to take a risk in order to make dreams come true. This spirit of endeavour is very evident as the Cricket Council of Americas (CCAM) prepares to host the first ever Global Cricket Development Symposium at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.Cricket is played in the United States, but you wouldn’t know it if you asked the average American. It is certainly a minority sport and most it’s following comes from the American immigrant populations from Asia and the Caribbean. These communities have flourished by establishing club competitions in a number of centres on both coasts. With over 400 registered clubs, the USA is in fact one of the largest Associate Members of the International Cricket Council.The Cricket Council of the Americas (CCAM) is an organisation that was formed by the cricket playing countries in the region to promote cricket within the region. One of the first initiatives planned by CCAM was a Global Cricket Development Symposium to provide focal point for development in the region, and at the same time provide a global forum for discussion of development issues.The symposium is scheduled for July 28th – 31st and will be staged at the Hotel Royal Plaza in Orlando, Florida. The organisers have attracted an impressive array of development experts from around the world while Reverend Wes Hall, the great fast bowler and current President of the West Indies Cricket Board, will oversee proceedings. Key note speakers include Andrew Eade (ICC Global Development Manager), Peter Ackerley (England and Wales Cricket Board Director of Development) and Ross Turner (Australian Cricket Board General Manager Game Development).”We see the symposium as a fantastic opportunity to share knowledge and best practice regarding the development of our wonderful game”, said Americas Regional Development Manager Robert Weekes. ” We expect the majority of people attending to come from the United States, but are also relying on good support from the Caribbean and indeed all cricket playing countries. It is always a challenge to stage an event such as this for the first time, but we are confident that the symposium will become a regular event on the global cricket calendar.”In addition to the guest speakers the symposium will feature a range of workshops, display stands and a gala dinner. Cricket enthusiasts who attend will also get the added bonus of a tour of Disney World and the chance to enjoy a wonderful holiday in Orlando.The symposium is open to the general public and represents a fantastic opportunity for anyone involved in cricket development of coaching to learn from the leading professionals in that field. Registration information and forms can be found on the CCAM website at www.cricamericas.com, on the CCA website Canada.cricket.org, or by phone from Irene Hanley, Hanley & Pertierra at + 1 910 215 0607.

The Eastern Cape Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa inGrahamstown granted an application today by the United Cricket Board to havethe Eastern Province Cricket Board placed under provisional judicialmanagement.The Master of the Court will appoint a judicial manager shortly.The return date of the order is 1 August 2002, when the court will considerwhether to make the order final.

New Zealand’s fighting defiance to create history at the end of today’s drawn second Test with the West Indies at Grenada won the admiration of New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive Martin Snedden.A first series victory in the West Indies had been well taken by the TelstraClear Black Caps and Snedden said it was an outstanding effort by relative newcomers to the side, Scott Styris and Robbie Hart, to help secure the draw.”It is much more satisfying to fight your way out of trouble than being saved by the weather,” Snedden told CricInfo today.”I have admiration for the way they fought themselves out of a hole today.”It has been a huge achievement to win a first Test series in the West Indies. While any overseas Test victory is a significant effort, this was especially satisfying,” he said.People of an older age would recall the days, not so long ago, when the West Indies caused havoc in world cricket and it was nice now to have a New Zealand team returning the favour, he said.From a New Zealand point of view the tour had been significant for the way the side was consolidating itself.”For the first time we absolutely deserve our third position on the ICC Test Championship,” he said.New Zealand had been performing more consistently than any other side in the world other than Australia and South Africa. It would possibly have struggled against Pakistan in the recently abandoned second Test, but then so would most other teams with Shoaib Akhtar in his menacing form.The performances of Styris and Hart had been good to see and underlined the greater depth of players that was emerging.It was also a good sign for domestic cricket that players did have the ability to step up.”Both players are products of our domestic cricket rather than our elite programme.”The sharp return of Shane Bond has shown how useful it is to have a top-class fast bowler with the ability to rattle batsmen.”He has a tidier, more sustainable bowling action and that is fantastic to see,” he said.Snedden was full of admiration for Stephen Fleming’s captaincy and said day one of the first Test had been the most crucial part of the series and Fleming’s performance in scoring a century, and taking control, had inspired the side to a Test, and series, win.Fleming continued to grow in the captaincy and his batting was improving.”Captaincy at such a young age was a huge burden for Stephen. It was too early and there was too much pressure especially when at that stage he was not a totally established Test batsman. Some of the criticism he received would have been hard to take.”But he coped with that and continued fighting rather than throwing in the towel,” Snedden said.There was a significant development of leadership potential in the side with Craig McMillan and Daniel Vettori both possible future leaders while Hart, with his extensive first-class captaincy experience, was another who could help the leadership in the side.And Snedden said when Chris Cairns was in the side he also offered significant leadership back-up for Fleming.As well as providing Bond with good preparation for the West Indies tour, the exercise of taking players to Darwin to prepare for the Test side of the tour had also been worthwhile.”Mark Richardson showed that he is a class Test opener and like Hart, and Chris Martin who didn’t get the chance to show it, they showed the benefits of that.”And that second innings partnership between Richardson and Lou Vincent was also crucial, there was a bit of pressure on them when nearly 100 runs behind,” he said.