On the pressure of playing Test cricket after a long break
I don’t think that’s a problem. Its good that all the guys are in good form, having played domestic cricket. So it helps picking up an eleven that suits the conditions.On starting as favourites
Although we beat them in Pakistan 2004, that was a year back. This time around they will be a young competitive team and we’ll have to play to our potential to win the series.On whether his squad is a balanced one
It’s a very balanced side, having been together for quite some time. Almost all the cricketers in this squad are at the peak of their game, but at the same time this game is never played on paper; its how we turn into perfomances in the next three Test matches which would decide the outcome of the series.On the team for the Test
We have picked out twelve – Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra were left out – and tomorrow morning we will decide the final eleven.On not making a big score for a long time
I haven’t got a hundred from the last one in Brisbane on the 2003-04 Australian tour, but I still averaged over 50. But, yes, it’s a criteria to get a Test hundred; I was close a few times – the next time when I get near to a hundred, I will try and convert it into a big score.On the hype of an Indo-Pak series
India-Pakistan series is big and that was the case in the past and that will continue to be in the future. In terms of attention, in terms of people turning out and in term of people follwing the sries, its probably bigger than the Ashes contests between Australia and England.On Test matches becoming more result-oriented
Cricket has changed over the past four years with lot of results in Test matches which has got to do a lot with one-day cricket that is played a lot. The game is being played at a faster rate in the longer version, too, which helps in the decision-making. When the captains walk into a Test they know there’s going to be a result unless you play on an an absolute flat belter. There is no point playing for a draw.On the role of Bob Woolmer, with whom Pakistan have the last four one-dayers against India
That was one-day cricket. In the one-day series in Pakistan, when Javed Miandad was the coach, it was pretty close: we were 2-1 down and came back to win the series 3-2. Test cricket will be different. We do understand that Bob is a very capable coach, but it depends on the players what they do in the middle.On strategies lined up for the oppositon
I watched them in Australia and saw a few overs of the Dharamsala game. And having played them last year we have taken our points that we will work out during the game.On his captaincy after he had said last year that it was going through a difficult phase when India were losing the one-dayers
I said that during the one-day series as we were losing quite a few one-dayers. I have been in difficult situations in the past – the 2003 World Cup, the away tour to Australia series and the 2004 Pakistan tour. Those tours were much tougher. They will help in lifting our confidence. As for my status as the captain I’ve been appointed as skipper for the series, so I will take it as it comes.

Matthew Elliott has applied for a surprise transfer from Victoria, his state of 12 years, to South Australia next season. The discussions with the South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) began last month and Elliott, who is contracted to Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria until June, must wait seven days before the move is finalised.Elliott lodged the request today and said he was excited by the Redbacks’ young talent. "I look forward to relocating to Adelaide when my family and I return from the UK later this year," Elliott, who is currently with the county side Glamorgan, said.Harvey Jolly, the SACA general manager of cricket, said Elliott would be an outstanding asset. "Matthew is one of the country’s finest batsmen and will bring enormous talent and experience to our young side," he said. "We see Matthew as someone who not only strengthens our batting, but also gives support to Greg [Blewett] and Darren [Lehmann] in the top order. The three of them will be the perfect mentors for our young up-and-coming batsmen."Elliott, 33, has played 183 first-class matches with an average of 49.82 since his Victoria debut in 1992-93. He has represented Australia in 21 Tests, scoring 1172 runs at 33.48, and his last appearance came against Sri Lanka at Darwin in 2004.

Division One

Gloucestershire 178 for 9 (Windows 39, Fisher 39) v Kent at Maidstone
Scorecard
Gloucestershire’s lower-order salvaged some pride on a desperate first day at Maidstone, and rescued their innings from the depths of 92 for 7 to 178 for 9 at stumps. Ian Fisher and Matt Windows top-scored with 39, while the No. 10, Carl Greenidge, was 23 not out at the close. Gloucestershire’s total was far from being riches, but after the start that they endured it was as good as they could have hoped for. After being asked to bat first, they slumped to 54 for 5, in the face of good bowling from Amjad Khan, Andrew Hall and Simon Cook, who finished with three wickets.Surrey 214 for 4 (Clinton 84) v Warwickshire at Whitgift School in Croydon
Scorecard
Richard Clinton top-scored with 84, his second half-century of the season, as Surrey prospered in the 58 overs available to them on a damp day in Croydon. After winning the toss and batting first, Surrey lost the in-form Scott Newman for 4 to Heath Streak, but Clinton and Mark Ramprakash added 112 for the second wicket to balance the books. Ramprakash was bowled by Neil Carter for 39 to trigger a slump of 3 for 34, but Jon Batty and Ali Brown were making serene progress by the close.Nottinghamshire v Hampshire at Trent Bridge
No play due to rain.Glamorgan v Sussex at Swansea
No play due to rain.

Division Two

Derbyshire 246 for 5 (Stubbings 92) Essex v at Chelmsford
Scorecard
Stephen Stubbings was run out eight short of his first century of the season, as Derbyshire made Essex work hard for their wickets at Chelmsford. After winning the toss and bowling first, both Essex spearheads, Darren Gough and Dale Steyn, went wicketless and it was left to Ravinder Bopara to make the breakthrough, as Michael di Venuto fell for 23. Ben France, Derbyshire’s Brunei-born middle-order batsman, chipped in with 42.Lancashire v Northamptonshire at Old Trafford
No play due to rain.Leicestershire v Somerset at Oakham School
No play due to rain.Worcestershire v Durham at Worcester
No play due to rain.

The West Indian board has decided to pick a second-string squad to tour Sri Lanka, leaving out a number of top players, including Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle, owing to the contracts dispute between the board and the West Indian Players Association (WIPA).Shivnarine Chanderpaul will lead the 14-member squad, scheduled to play two Tests against Sri Lanka apart from a one-day tri-series, also involving India. Eight of the players invited are in Sri Lanka with the West Indies A team while two others are playing in England.A similar situation had cropped up before the series against South Africa earlier this year when a new-look side was picked for the first Test in Guyana before the dispute was temporarily sorted out and West Indies were back to full-strength for the rest of the season. However, Roger Brathwaite, the chief executive officer of the WICB, said that the board couldn’t afford the latest demands by the WIPA as they were too unreasonable.”The board had indicated to WIPA last October, at the time of the discussions prior to the VB Series in Australia, that its demands in relation to sponsorship fees were highly unreasonable and unsustainable given the level of sponsorship which the board has with Digicel,” Brathwaite was quoted as saying in a media release. “The board cannot afford this latest demand by WIPA for US$150,000 given the level of sponsorship fees already paid for this year with the VB Series and the Digicel Home Series and with another tour to Australia scheduled for later this year.”Brathwaite went on to outline the payments that the players will get on the forthcoming Sri Lankan tour. He said with the US$50,000 offered by the board for the Sri Lanka tour, the sponsorship fees so far for the players, with one tour still to come, would already amount to more than 18% of the net annual sponsorship figure of US$3.375 million that the Board was scheduled to receive from Digicel. Further, he said the team could earn as much as US$300,000 for this tour from sponsorship payments alone. He added that it was imperative that a mechanism be put in place through which a fixed percentage of the net annual sponsorship fee would be paid to the players through the life of the five-year contract.Brathwaite also reiterated that the board had agreed to an adjudication on the issue of Clause 5 as well as the intervention of a professional mediator as suggested by Justice Adrian Saunders to the two parties at a meeting on June 17. The board had given its consent to this suggestion earlier, but the WIPA only agreed to the idea recently.”The board has no problem with a binding arbitration on the issues,” he added. “It is more than strange that these proposals come now from WIPA for instant settlement, six months after repeated calls to meet bore no fruit. Clause 5 of our Match/Tour Contract does not stop players from having individual endorsement contracts and the insertion of Clause 5b in our view makes this even clearer. All the clause seeks to do is to put order in the process and protect both the player, the board and the major sponsor.”Squad
Xavier Marshall, Ryan Ramdass, Runako Morton, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Sylvester Joseph, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Narsingh Deonarine, Dwayne Smith, Daren Powell, Omari Banks, Kerry Jeremy, Deighton Butler, Tino Best, Jermaine Lawson.

Taj Television, who own the broadcasting rights for international cricket matches played in Sri Lanka, have decided not to make any comments at this stage on the upcoming Test and one-day triangular series involving hosts Sri Lanka, West Indies and India.The series has become a somewhat low-key affair after the West Indies board left out such top-class cricketers as Brian Lara, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan because of the latest contract dispute and then named instead a second-string team under the captaincy of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The team comprises eight players from the West Indies A team who are currently touring Sri Lanka.Taj’s director of sales and marketing, Jude de Vallier, said that this is not the appropriate time to make any comments with regard to the series, but added that they would review the situation and issue a statement if it is necessary. In January, Taj Television, the holding company of the Dubai-based sports broadcaster Ten Sports, signed a US$ 50 million broadcasting rights deal with Sri Lanka Cricket for three years.But now it seems that the television company is going to make a rather inauspicious start in trying to sell TV rights for the two-Test series and the seven-match one-day triangular tournament. The first Test begins on July 13.

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s provincial development manager for Mashonaland, Dawson Mutsekwa, has died. He passed away yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa, where he had gone for specialist attention after lapsing into a coma in the Avenues Clinic in Harare following an operation. He was 62 years old.Mutsekwa joined the ZCU as facilities coordinator in June 2000, after a lengthy career with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture, which culminated in his appointment as headmaster of Churchill High School in Harare.He promoted the playing of cricket at the school, and Churchill became a centre of excellence, and one of the strongest cricketing schools in the country, where several promising cricketers were awarded ZCU scholarships. Among the players to have passed through the school are Tatenda Taibu, the current national captain, Douglas Hondo, Alester Maregwede, Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Vusumuzi Sibanda and Elton Chigumbura.Mutsekwa was also instrumental in the setting up of Takashinga Cricket Club, and their Winter Cricket League has a trophy in his honour. He is survived by a wife.

Greg Matthews believes Matthew Hayden has lost his dominant aura, but don’t expect him to be dropped. Matthews told The Sunday Mail Hayden, who made a second-innings 31, had lost his “strut” during 25 innings without a hundred.”My big worry about Matthew is … he’s a superstar, great bloke, great player, Christian, all that ‘you-beaut’ stuff, but his body language is just not what it was,” Matthews, the former allrounder, told the paper. “It’s not as powerful, it’s not as prominent. He’s not out there. That is my real worry, the strut isn’t there, the look in his eyes. I don’t feel his aura at the moment.”Hayden tried to be more patient as Australia chased 282 for victory at Edgbaston last night, but he was undone by Simon Jones and a brilliant catch from Marcus Trescothick. Matthews said Hayden’s record since the Sri Lanka series in July last year was a worry, but he would be “shocked” if he was dropped.”It’s a hell of a trot, he’d be conscious of it and certainly not happy about it,” Matthews said. “It’s my sincere hope that Matt gets some runs soon. Sometimes it’s just one shot and, bang, he could be away again.”Mark Taylor, who went 21 innings without a half-century in a streak ending at Edgbaston in 1997, said Hayden wasn’t badly out of form. “It’s not like he’s out there scratching around and looking terrible,” he said. “He just needs to be a bit more patient to build on the starts he’s getting. The selectors should not even be contemplating dropping Matthew … all he needs is one big knock.”

After being reappointed Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that there are no fissures in the side, and certainly no personality clash with Rahul Dravid, who had led the side while he served out a four-match suspension. While admitting that the team’s performance had declined over the past season, Ganguly categorically denied that different camps had sprung up within the squad.”I want to make it very clear that there is no rift, no trouble, no problem between us [himself and Dravid],” he said, in an interview with . “Rahul has also made that very clear. We know each other for a long time, we know how things work here. We’ve had a great working relationship, and we hope to continue our partnership.”Ganguly was also loathe to compare Dravid’s style of leadership with his own. “Basically, every captain has his own way,” he said. “We have different styles but any two people will have different styles of leading a team. We may react differently to the same situation. “I’m not going to comment of which style is better because it is a very relative thing.”The debacle in the tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka continued India’s miserable run in one-day internationals since the team led by Ganguly lost the World Cup final to Australia in 2003. Admitting that the slump was a matter of concern, Ganguly said:”Winning is a habit and we’ve got out of that habit. We just need to get a few wins under our belt, and then everything will get back in order.”When we were losing last time in 2002, we got a few wins in the West Indies and that sparked off a great run, starting from England right to the Pakistan series last year. We just need to make something like that happen again.”There were plenty of frayed tempers on show in Sri Lanka, but Ganguly brusquely refuted suggestions that it had become every-man-for-himself. “No, I don’t believe that,” he said, when asked whether it was true that the team had become faction-ridden. “But if anyone does this kind of stuff, they will themselves suffer. The most important thing is to have a winning team.”If you’re part of a side that’s losing, whatever you do, all 16 members of the team will be shaky and unsteady. Scoring big runs or taking lots of wickets doesn’t help anyone’s cause if the team is losing.”Having gone through a wretched run of form at the end of last season, Ganguly accepted that there would be pressure on him the next time he walked to the crease. “I just got into a very bad patch during that [Pakistan] series. I was in bad form, and I’m not trying to make excuses, I didn’t play well. If you don’t play well, you will get under pressure.”However, he pooh-poohed notions that his perceived frailty against the short ball had been his undoing of late. “If I genuinely had a problem against short bowling, I wouldn’t have scored runs in international cricket for the last nine years,” he said. “People would have figured me out long back. You can take a look at the stats, it’s just a monkey that’s riding on my back. Some people keep writing about it, that’s all.”Ganguly, who scored a brilliant century at Brisbane in December 2003 after being greeted with headlines about “chin music” buttressed his argument by pointing out the case of his old adversary. “Steve Waugh always looked uncomfortable against the rising ball, but look at how well he did. It’s not about how you look, it’s about how many runs you score.”

Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, has said that he was pleased with his county stint after he captained Nottinghamshire to win the county chamionship.Fleming was happy to have returned to form during the English summer where he scored 908 runs in 11 matches at an average of 60.53. “On a personal front, the batting side went really well, so I’m feeling pretty confident about my game again,” Fleming was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz. “But winning the championship was an enormous thrill. No side has ever won the first division a year after winning the second so that is something I will never forget. I actually found it quite hard at the start walking into a successful and experienced side and that was a great challenge for my leadership skills.”Nottinghamshire’s county championship win came under much criticism from Shane Warne, the Hampshire captain and Chris Adams, the Sussex captain. While playing Kent, Fleming had an arrangement with David Fulton, the Kent captain, by which Fulton agreed to declare Kent’s innings in return for Fleming not enforcing the follow on.The arrangement was that Nottinghamshire would set Kent a target to chase, albeit a virtually impossible one of 420 runs in 70 overs, and Kent fed them runs to speed up the process. In the end Kent fell well short, being bowled out for 205 giving Nottinghamshire the county championship. “Neither of those blokes [Warne and Adams] are exactly quiet types,” said Fleming. There was some flak and we accept that but the bottom line is we were the best team and no one disputes that.”Fleming was enthralled by the Ashes series that England won 2-1. “England were able to stay at full strength till the last game whereas Australia didn’t have McGrath for a fair bit,” said Fleming. “You need your best team on the park and that is something we continually battle with by having to fire on three cylinders rather than six.”Fleming will captain New Zealand on their tour of South Africa in October 2005 to play five one-day matches. “I support any move that will have Chris [Cairns] at full fitness for the World Cup [in March 2007 in the West Indies],” said Fleming after Cairns was left out of the team for the South Africa tour. He termed Cairns’ omission as disappointing but added that he understood the selectors’ thinking.

Derbyshire 216 and 523 drew with Yorkshire 520 and 114 for 6
Scorecard
Points TableYorkshire secured the draw they needed to gain them promotion, but they had to survive a remarkable turnaround in a match they had seemed on course to win by an innings.Derbyshire, without a Championship victory all season, started their second innings 304 in arrears, and when they slipped to 233 for 7 on the third afternoon the game was almost over. But Ant Botha, with a career-best 156, marshalled the last three wickets brilliantly, adding 290 to leave Yorkshire with a tricky target of 220 runs at four an over. Nick Walker took the attack to Yorkshire’s bowlers clubbing 79 in 88 balls as Yorkshire fell apart in the field. But, with an eye on the future of England’s spin bowling, the innings was wrapped up my Mark Lawson who claimed 5 for 155 with his legspin.Yorkshire never looked comfortable as they chased, with Matthew Wood and Anthony McGrath soon out pulling at the new ball. When Michael Lumb followed lbw to the last ball before tea, the Yorkshire balcony looked decidedly nervous, and a clatter of wickets soon after the resumption left them teetering on 82 for 6. It took a tenacious and fortuitous fifty from Joe Sayers – in which he was dropped four times – to see them to safety.Botha followed his heroics with the bat with a continuous 23-over spell of slow left-arm, finishing with 2 for 20.