It is crunch time for the Indian team, as they get ready to take on Zimbabwe at Harare in what must be a do-or-die game for them. They have not had an auspicious start to their World Cup, with the batsmen failing against the Dutch and Aussies. But I am confident that there must have been some sort of soul-searching in the Indian camp, as they try to re-launch their already faltering World Cup campaign.The bowlers have always been the whipping boys of Indian cricket; they take a lot of blame for not making up for the batsmen’s mistakes. But not anymore; if the batsmen can just stay in there and bat through the 50 overs, winning won’t remain a distant dream.The willow-wielders simply have no more chance of making any excuses. The wickets were damp in New Zealand, the track in Paarl was too slow… But then what about the one at Centurion? Truly, if the Indian batsmen are going to perform as they did against Australia at Centurion, then we might as well big good-bye to this World Cup.The batsmen will have to show more application, spend time in the middle when the going gets tough and then wait for the loose deliveries to punish. Playing too many ambitious shots will not get them anywhere. They must understand that the margin for error against world-class bowlers at this level is too narrow, and the only mantra is to work hard for the runs.I would like to see Ganguly drop down to the middle order where he has a far better chance of smacking the slower bowlers. Ganguly has had good success as an opener in the past, but then, World Cup is definitely not the stage to hope to rekindle your lost form. India cannot afford to experiment anymore, now that all their cards have been laid on the table – they have to go for broke.There is no other batsman in the squad capable of making a strong claim for a spot. What India might do is to play Sanjay Bangar as an opening batsman, hoping that he will hold up one end as he did in England. Now that we hear Zimbabwe will go for a fast and seaming track at Harare, it is quite important that someone actually takes the pressure off the middle-order batsmen. Bangar’s inclusion could also strengthen the seam-bowling department.It must really hurt the Indian players that their performance has not been up to the mark until now. This crucial game against Zimbabwe, then, is one that they can’t afford to lose. No matter whether it is green, damp, slow or fast at Harare, India will have to win this game. All it takes is some self-belief and one outstanding performance to lift the spirit of the team. They have the talent and ability to do the job, and I hope they don’t let themselves down again.

Pakistan conceded 40 extras in Holland’s innings while the highest score by a batsman was 31 by DLS van Bunge. This is the 20th occasion that extras has been the highest scorer in a completed (i.e. all out) ODI innings. Interestingly, this is the second time in consecutive matches against Holland that Pakistan have conceded extras as the highest scorer, having done this in the ICC Champions Trophy last year.Extras as highest scorer

Score Extras Highest For Against Venue Season116 13 13 New Zealand Sri Lanka Moratuwa 1983/84 *163 28 20 Zimbabwe South Africa Canberra 1991/92166 42 42 New Zealand Pakistan Christchurch 1991/92 *98 24 20 Sri Lanka South Africa Colombo-RPS 1993/94166 37 29 Kenya West Indies Pune 1995/96161 25 23 India Pakistan Toronto 1996120 28 24 Australia Pakistan Hobart 1996/97100 19 16 Bangladesh Kenya Nairobi-AK 1997/98115 34 21 Bangladesh India Mumbai 1997/98161 29 29 Pakistan Bangladesh Northampton 1999 *132 25 22 Pakistan Australia Lord’s 1999120 26 25 India West Indies Toronto 1999161 37 32 West Indies Pakistan Toronto 1999100 32 22 India Australia Sydney 1999/00111 24 16 England South Africa Johannesburg 1999/00123 25 24 West Indies Australia Adelaide 2000/0176 20 15 Bangladesh Sri Lanka Colombo-SSC 2002136 33 32 Holland Pakistan Colombo-SSC 2002/03108 22 20 India New Zealand Christchurch 2002/03156 40 31 Holland Pakistan Paarl 2002/03* Extras was joint highest scorer with one or more batsman.

Feiko Kloppenburg became the 6th player to score a century and take 4 wickets in the same Limited Overs International when he scored 121 and took 4-42 for Netherlands against Namibia in Bloemfontein.Century and 4 wickets in an innings in a Limited Overs International

Name For Against Venue Season Runs BowlingIVA Richards West Indies New Zealand Dunedin 1986/87 119 5-41NJ Astle New Zealand Pakistan Mohali 1996/97 117 4-43SR Tendulkar India Australia Dhaka 1998/99 141 4-38SC Ganguly India Sri Lanka Nagpur 1998/99 130* 4-21ST Jayasuriya Sri Lanka Australia Sydney 2002/03 122 4-39JF Kloppenburg Netherlands Namibia Bloemfontein 2002/03 121 4-42

Viv Richards is the only player to score a century and take 5 wickets in an innings in the same match.

In a move that could let Ajay Jadeja play competitive cricket, the Delhi High Court has directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to consider him for selection in Ranji Trophy matches, India’s premier domestic tournament. The BCCI had banned Jadeja for match fixing.The decision answered a petition filed by Jadeja after the board delayed implementing a court-appointed arbitrator’s decision, three months ago, to overturn the five-year ban imposed on him.On January 27, Justice JK Mehra, the arbitrator, had ruled that the inquiry commission to investigate whether Jadeja was involved in match fixing had not followed proper legal procedure. The arbitrator had been appointed after a few hearings in the High Court case that Jadeja filed challenging the ban on him.The next day after the arbitrator’s decision, Jadeja was stopped from playing for a Delhi Club and the match cancelled after the Indian board intervened. Jadeja filed another petition in the Delhi High CourtThe recent court award is to become final and binding on April 27. The court has asked the BCCI to respond to the ruling, and fixed the next hearing for May 19.

The formal announcement is pending, but indications are that Javagal Srinath might have played his last Test for India. Speaking to Wisden Cricinfo from England, Srinath refused to confirm an earlier news story announcing his retirement from first-class cricket, but said that he was “thinking about it.””Officially, I haven’t retired,” he said, “I’ll have to think over it and I’ll come back and do it from India.” He was playing his last match for the English county, Durham, at the Stockton ground.The possibility of Srinath’s retirement had gained currency from new reports a few days earlier that he had signed a playing and coaching contract with South African club Gauteng. Since the South African session ran from September to April, it would have ruled him out for the India’s Test series against New Zealand and Australia.Though the signing has already announced by Gauteng officials, Srinath said he was “still in the talking stages. Nothing much is firmed up there.”Retirement is a subject Srinath has wrestled with for a while now. Tired and disgruntled after India’s tour to West Indies in 2001-02, he announced his retirement from Test matches, saying that he would continue playing one-day international cricket. He was coaxed out of retirement by India’s captain, Sourav Ganguly, and played a vital role in mentoring India’s young fast bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

Cricket has joined a much more lucrative club as a result of its financial arrangements with the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC). The amount distributed to the members after the 2003 World Cup was US$143 million more than that distributed after the 1999 edition.A total of US$194 million has been budgeted for paying out this year, compared to US$51 million in 1999.Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), commented in the ICC annual report: “In past years, cricket has been criticised because it has not taken full advantage of its commercial power. This year was the first in which the full effect of the ‘bundling of rights’ under the Global Cricket Corporation agreement has been experienced.”The ICC’s motivation in negotiating and delivering revenue-driving deals is its commitment to the support and development of cricket around the world.”Speed said a study of the ICC’s accounts showed that 89% of the organisation’s expenses were monies paid directly to members.In the overall financial performance, the ICC returned a net profit of US$10,632,000 this year compared to a loss of US$4,791,000 last year.Revenue went up from US$9.7 million last year to US$224.7 million this year. The cash flow at year’s end was US$51.2 million compared to US$47.7 million last year.Salaries and allowances for the year increased from US$1.3 million last year to US$2.7 million this year. Significant cost increases occurred in the funding of the Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) which spent an extra US$501,000 this year, while the implementation of the umpires and referees panels cost US$344,000.The ICC television costs went up from nothing last year to US$1.263 million this year. The cost of the annual conference and reporting more than doubled from US$64,000 last year to US$142,000 this year.Out of the ICC’s total core operational expense base of US$22 million, 26% was spent on cricket events and 27% on development. The remainder was involved in the commercial programme, the ACU, the umpires and referees’ panels and the central administration costs.Contractural disputes still dog the ICC, however, and Speed said it was regrettable that a compromise reached with Indian players before their participation in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament had to be taken further before the World Cup.”This was achieved on the basis that the ICC will initiate legal proceedings in the form of arbitration between the ICC and the BCCI.”He also defended the ICC stance on the Zimbabwe issue and said that after considering the matter the ICC board resolved that the only factors in moving World Cup matches from their designated venues would be safety and security.”Considerable pressure was imposed on the ICC from many quarters, including governments, to change this view and to take a moral stand against the Zimbabwe regime.”Throughout the debate, the ICC was prepared to articulate its view and it did this consistently and forcefully. There are many people who hold contrary views to that taken by the ICC board. We respect their right to express those views and hope that they respect the ICC’s right to focus on cricket issues to the exclusion of political issues.”

What’s in a name? Plenty according to Australian cricket administrators who tomorrow introduce their third name change in 98 years when their institution becomes Cricket Australia. But fear not, the baggy green cap will remain the untouched icon of the Australian game.When consultation was done, across the various parties involved in the governance of the Australian game, it was agreed that whatever changes were made, the cap should be untouched. So it will remain the only link with the past, the unmistakable mark of the Australian international. All other equipment and kit will feature the more modern logo featuring the traditional kangaroo and emu, and the Southern Cross, illuminated by a sunburst.Cricket Australia’s chief executive officer James Sutherland believes the new name will be more timeless than the previous ones. Since becoming the controlling body of the game in Australia in 1905, the national body was known as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket, and then in 1973 it became the Australian Cricket Board.Nothing is forever it seems, unless you are the Marylebone Cricket Club, although its functions have diminished as change has occurred in the game, and even cricket’s ruling institution, the International Cricket Council has had name changes, from its days as the Imperial Cricket Conference and the International Cricket Conference.As part of its bid to give cricket, across the board, a co-ordinated approach in Australia, the name change had been agreed, and accepted by all the parties concerned and those states who haven’t already fallen in behind the national body are being invited to follow suit. Already there are Cricket New South Wales, Cricket Victoria and Queensland Cricket.The new logo will also integrate more seamlessly with the new logos for the three-Test series, the VB Series, the Pura Cup and the ING logos. Mixed messages had been presented to the public in the branding of trademarks and advertising material in the past and the collective view was that the Cricket Australia option offered a better way or co-ordinating these.The Australian public will have their first real chance to assess the changes being made to the side’s international presentation in the forthcoming first Test against Bangladesh in Darwin, starting on July 18. Sutherland said he was thrilled with the way the new logo had come up and it was something that people could read into what they liked but it was representative of how Cricket Australia saw themselves.”Our logos and branding are going to change, we’re not going to see a significant in our behaviour. The one-day uniform will not change, apart from the different logo,” Sutherland said.And after all, cricket is merely catching up with a number of other Australian sporting institutions, like Basketball Australia, Athletics Australia, Australian Swimming, Soccer Australia et al.While the timing was coincidental, the recent agreement by Australia’s women’s cricket body to integrate with the men’s administration, has already seen the new name of Cricket Australia show its inclusive appeal. The women’s changeover also occurs at midnight today.

Pakistan supporters awoke from this year’s World Cup with a giant-sizedhangover: a thumping headache and overpowering nausea without much sense of when those horrible feelings would give way to normality. They knew for sure that the traditionally extreme highs and lows of following Pakistan were infinitely preferable to the insipid ennui that Waqar Younis’s team had delivered in its final months. They were less sure what the new axis of Rashid Latif, Javed Miandad, and Aamir Sohail would deliver. A likely scenario was that a team devoid of its best players would crumble in the way that an experimental Pakistan side did against Australia in Sharjah.Instead Pakistan’s planners will look back at these first few months with quiet satisfaction — and so they should. Here’s why:1 An early win at Sharjah followed by defeats in Sri Lanka and Englandmight not sound great but Pakistan played exciting, competitive cricket in each tournament. They could have won all three had it not been for Shoaib Akhtar’s ball scratching in Sri Lanka and some bad luck at Lord’s. It is probably better for a new team to sniff victory and lose rather than become overconfident.2 Pakistani players traditionally take several weeks to acclimatise to an English summer and it was a surprise that they ran England so close. The Pakistani camp had concerns about the batting at the start of the tour, and although the batsmen did struggle to stay in each game there were some success stories: primarily the pukka allrounders (no bits and pieces here, thank you) Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, the revival of Abdul Razzaq, and a hint of something better from Imran Nazir. Nonetheless, this is a Pakistani batting line-up screaming for the return of the lean, mean, run-scoring machine – aka Inzi.3 Pakistan’s pace attack has recovered surprisingly easily from the loss of its illustrious opening pair, so easily that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami should have been given the responsibility at least twelve months earlier. While Sami has secretly turned himself into a mature fast bowler, Akhtar showed that, given the right management environment, he too can play with responsibility. His ten-over spell at Lord’s was one of the best, albeit unluckiest, of his career. He could have taken five wickets. That he ended up with none was no fault of his. Bad umpiring and spilled chances did for him. The good news does not end there. Umar Gul and Shabbir Ahmed offer youthful support and variety.4 Some critics were sceptical about Rashid Latif’s appointment as captain, myself included. Is he just too quiet to inspire a new generation, I wondered? But Latif has proved us doubters wrong, which is welcome because Latif is sincere and amenable. The sudden change in attitude in Pakistan’s players — from sullen disinterest to enthusiastic competitiveness — must in large part be down to him. His captaincy style is quiet but authoritative and generally he gets it right. At Lord’s he missed a trick by not having a slip fielder at crucial times in the final overs. But despite his 35 years Latif is still new to captaincy and will learn much this year. One of his strongest attributes is that he is highly self-critical, a better path to improvement than the self-righteousness of his predecessors.5 Finally, a word for Javed Miandad. Pakistan’s finest batsman lookscomfortable as coach, shepherding this young flock with a captain who will listen. As his recent autobiography reveals, there was just too much painful history between Miandad and the dearly departed. The new team certainly bears the tenacity and ingenuity of Miandad’s influence. Thus far, Pakistan are rebuilding nicely but there is a danger in complacency. Latif and Miandad share a philosophy that rewards performance and shuns hierarchy. This is not only a novel concept in Pakistan cricket but also Pakistani society at large. The question is whether or not they can maintain this bold stance and cohesion once the honeymoon period of their partnership is over? That test will arrive on Pakistani soil with the South African tourists. Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore, brought up in Rotherham, is deputy editor of the British Medical Journal.

Day 1 ReportFrizzell County Championship Division OneSussex 362 for 4 v Surrey at Hove
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Sussex justified their position of second in the table with a commanding display against leaders Surrey. Sussex are currently five points off the top and they certainly took all the honours in the first day of this crucial top-of-the-table clash. Chris Adams made a return to form with an unbeaten 107 including 11 fours, his first century of the season. Richard Montgomerie and Murray Goodwin had earlier made a superb start for Sussex with 149 for the first wicket. Goodwin was eventually bowled by Jimmy Ormond for 75, and when Tony Cottee was out for 1, Surrey threatened to undermine Sussex’s good early work. However, Montgomerie rolled his sleeves up and battled out a gutsy 90, and Tim Ambrose chipped in with 43 to increase the pressure on the Surrey bowlers. Saqlain Mushtaq wheeled through 36 overs for 1 for 84, while Ian Salisbury picked up 2 for 42.Kent 189 v Essex 164 for 7 at Canterbury
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17 wickets fell in the first day’s play between Kent and Essex, and surprisingly, Kent’s Championship debutant, Muttiah Muralitharan, didn’t take any of them. Rather than a spinner’s paradise, it was a swinger’s delight considering the overcast atmosphere. However, Kent’s man of the moment, Ed Smith, defied the pitch and conditions with his sixth championship hundred in as many games. Smith hit a stylish 108 from 118 balls as only two other batsmen made double figures. But while It was no great surprise Smith again excelled, Essex threw up a relatively unknown hero in Antonio Palladino. Exploiting the swinging conditions, Palladino took a career-best 6 for 41 in his second Championship match, including the prize wicket of Smith. However, Essex still ended the day 25 runs in arrears and seven wickets down, despite the efforts of Andy Flower (39) and Ronnie Irani (52).Leicestershire 259 v Lancashire 28 for 2 at Leicester
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The two old warhorses Philip DeFreitas and Devon Malcolm ensured the day ended honours even with a wicket each to leave Lancashire on a prickly 28 for 2 after Leicestershire were bowled out for 259. DeFreitas top-scored with 57 in Leicestershire’s mediocre score, while Darren Stevens hit 54 in an innings which never got going. Lancashire’s Gary Keedy picked up 4 for 17, and John Wood 3 for 59, but those two late wickets heightened Leicestershire’s spirits as they still search for their first win.Nottinghamshire 249 for 9 v Middlesex at Nottingham
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Ashley Noffke took 5 for 50 to put Middlesex on top against Notts. Kevin Pietersen provided the bulk of Notts’s resistance with 67, but when he was one of Noffke’s victims, the score crashed to 188 for 6. Chris Read (26), Paul Franks (28) and Greg Smith (27) provided a late recovery of sorts before rain stopped play in the 79th over with Middlesex in charge.Frizzell County Championship Division TwoGloucestershire 33 for 2 v Yorkshire at Cheltenham
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Only 11.1 overs were possible at the College Ground due to heavy showers which checked Yorkshire’s progress against Gloucestershire. Openers Craig Spearman and Phil Weston were both out for nought before Tim Hancock and Matt Windows steadied the score to 33 for 2 when rain stopped play.Durham 164 for 5 v Somerset at Chester-le-Street
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Three late wickets gave Somerset the edge against Durham in a rain-affected day at Chester-le-Street. After Gordon Muchall (65) and Gary Pratt (51) put on an 88-run partnership, Durham lost three wickets for five runs to splutter to 146 to 5. Steffan Jones took two of those wickets and ended with 2 for 44, while Richard Johnson returned with 1 for 54 before rain and bad light stopped play after 52.5 overs.

In the light of the recent bomb blasts in Mumbai, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has verified that it has adequate security arrangements in place for New Zealand’s forthcoming tour of India.New Zealand, while they have not yet asked for any reassurance, will have reason to feel queasy – they returned midway from their tour of Pakistan last year because of a bomb blast outside their hotel, and almost did the same in Sri Lanka in 1992 after bombs went off outside their hotel. They have since been apprehensive about terrorist threats, and withdrew from their match in Kenya in this year’s World Cup for just that reason.SK Nair, the BCCI’s secretary, said: "We have issued directions to all the staging associations to ensure trouble-free conduct of matches during the two series and have asked all the associations to adhere to the ICC guidelines on security. We will not adopt a soft approach at all. We will be very strict because even one incident can tarnish the country’s image."Nair emphasized that the BCCI was taking the matter seriously. "Although New Zealand Cricket has not approached us so far expressing their concern over security measures," he said, "we are prepared for the worst."Meanwhile Martin Snedden, NZC’s chief executive, has said that NZC were waiting to hear from India, and that there would be no knee-jerk reaction at their end.