Northern Districts’ Scott Styris is not the only New Zealander getting some early season cricket in Australia this summer.Styris has been playing for Gordon in the Sydney premier competition over the last three weekends.But Tama Canning, the Auckland all-rounder who was on the verge of New Zealand selection last summer, turned out for Fremantle in the Perth competition over the weekend.He played in a two-day game against Subiaco-Floreat and took two for 97 as Subiaco made 344/4. In Fremantle’s innings of 170, Canning scored 29 as the side was well beaten on the first innings.Canning was cleared by Auckland Cricket to play in Perth, where his family are based, en route to Auckland where he will play in the Labour Weekend club games.

Amit Pagnis, first-innings centurion for Railways in their Ranji tieagainst Rajasthan in Delhi, scored another hundred in their secondinnings, enabling his captain Abhay Sharma to effect a declaration andgiving his side a good chance at a second successive outright victory.Rajasthan’s innings ended without further fuss, closing at 175.Railways, however, made a bad start, losing both openers for 13.Pagnis and in-form Yere Goud then put up a 136-run partnership,repeating their fine collaborative effort from the first innings. Goudmade a steady 59 before he was caught and bowled by opposing captainPudiyangum Krishnakumar. Pagnis found more support from Sayed RazaAli, who scored a blistering 47 off just 45 balls. When Railwaysdeclared, Pagnis was unbeaten on 133.Facing a Himalayan target of 393 runs, Rajasthan look unlikely to winthis game; indeed, given their first innings collapse and MuraliKartik’s fine form, one would not be blamed for predicting an outrightwin for Railways.The Madhya Pradesh – Uttar Pradesh match at Indore was more keenlycontested; Uttar Pradesh, overnight on 164/5, were bowled out for 238.Rizwan Shamshad completed a stolid half-century, ensuring that hisside’s total was substantial; for Madhya Pradesh, Yogesh Golwalkarpicked up four wickets.Madhya Pradesh, thus, started their second innings looking to build ontheir lead and set their rivals a steep total. Former Indian one-daybat Amay Khurasiya top-scored for his side, hitting 54 off 96 balls.None of the other batsmen, however, could come up with substantialcontributions and Madhya Pradesh ended Day Three on 185/6, 262 runsahead of Uttar Pradesh.

Left-hand opener Chris Gayle powered his way towards a century, but rainintervened again on the second day of the West Indies last practice game atMatara on Friday.Dark clouds had skirted menacingly around this coastal ground all day beforefinally encircling during the tea interval and forcing the abandonment ofthe final session.West Indies, though disappointed to have missed two precious hours ofbatting practice, would have been delighted by what play there was.Sri Lanka A started the day on 216-5, but added only 53 more runs, asleg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine picked up three wickets, to finish with fourin the innings.Then, on a easy paced pitch, the West Indian openers, Gayle and Daren Ganga,provided fresh hope that they may be able to bridge the large void left bythe retirement of Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge, when they added 134runs for the first wicket.The pair, complimenting each other by their contrasting styles, hurtledalong at nearly five runs an over. Ganga was solid in defense, preferring towork singles and rotate the strike, whilst Gayle’s innings was ruthlesslyhigh-powered.Gayle, who has played 11 Tests to date at 36.35 and has lofty ambitions (hesaid recently that "breaking Lara’s Test record of 375 is my ultimate"), maylook slightly awkward because of his great height and hunched stance, butwith little flourish he hits the ball with thunderous power.He finished the day four runs short of his century having scored 96 off 92balls and hit 17 fours. Ganga, dismissed for a duck in the first warm-upgame, is on 27 off the same number of balls.The pair coped easily with a Sri Lankan bowling attack, which has beenpacked full of fast bowlers on a bland pitch that cried out for spinners.Sri Lanka A, though, were reluctant to give the West Indian batsmen exposureto spin before next weeks first Test and played just a solitary youngleg-spinner.So, although runs are runs and the manner in which they came were mightyimpressive, the satisfaction gained from this sturdy opening partnership bythe West Indies management should be tempered by the reality that the teamfaces very different challenges ahead.In the morning, the West Indian fast bowlers had operated in tandem with theleg-spin of Ramanarine and quickly moped up the Sri Lankan innings.Suresh Perera had batted with his captain, Hashan Tillakaratne, with unusualresponsibility and added 66 runs for the sixth wicket, but he couldn’tresist the slow bowling of Ramarine and was stumped for 27, as he danceddown the wicket in the wrist spinners first over of the day.Tillakaratne, 74 not out overnight, never regained the fluency of yesterdayand faced 75 balls his 12 runs today, before Reon King picked up his firstwicket of the match.Colin Stuart, who suffered from leg cramps in both legs after his 12 oversyesterday, did not bowl, but that was only because he had been off the fieldfor so long the previous day and he is not considered an injury concern.

The Islamabad Cricket Association (ICA) on Tuesday finaliseda list of 25 players to be submitted with the PakistanCricket Board for the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.Following two days of trials at the Fatima Jinnah Park, thechairman of ICA, Syed Mansur Ahmed announced the followingplayers:Bilal Asad, Irfan Bhatti, Azhar Mahmood, Ali Naqvi, NadeemHussain, Saeed Anwar Jnr, Saeed Ajmal, Stephen John, RaoIftikhar, Asif Ali Saeed, Ashar Zaidi, Tauseef Satti, NaseerAhmed, Ali Raza, Rauf Akbar, Anwarul Haq, Atif AshrafQureshi, Abdul Qayum, Shahid Iqbal, Ishtiaq Rabbani, WaseemAkhtar, Hashim Khan, M. Zahid, Sajid Mahmood, Yasir Javed.The chairman also named Qaiser Hussain, Mustafa Bashir andFazeel Ahmed as the reserves.The boys have been directed to report to ICA secretary IrfanManzur on Wednesday alongwith their photographs and theiridentity cards and a proof of their residence. Meanwhile, inaccordance with the new policy of the PCB that allows theassociations to include any under-19 player in the playingXI for the Quaid Trophy, the ICA named the followingyoungsters:Raheel Majeed, Farrukh Hayat, Rashid AMin Butt, MuhammadAltaf, Shakir Mahmood, Talat Hussain, Saifur rehman,Muhammad Shahzad, Jawad Hassan, Ameer Khan, Raja Kashif.The Rawalpindi Cricket Association (RCA) meanwhileshortlisted 52 players. Their team for the Quaid Trophy willbe announced after a series of matches.The probables: Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Waseem,Nasir Ahmed, Asif Mahmood, Shahid Javed, Arif Butt, PervezAziz, Mujahid Hameed, Tassawar Hussain, Babar Naeem, HashamIqbal, Nauman Aman, Shah Faisal, Waseem Ahmed, MaqsoodAslam, Muhammad Saleem, Mazhar Abbas, Raja Jahanzeb, ZahidKhan, Ehsan Khan, Makhdoom Shah, Ziaul Haq, M. Sultan,Sohail Nasir, M. Yaqoob.Fast bowlers: Shoaib Akhtar, Naeem Akhtar, YasirArafat, Azhar Bhatti, Muhammad Fayyaz, Shahid Mahmood,Zaheer Ahmed, Ziaul Haq, Zaheeruddin Babar, Sahd Altaf,Junaid Zia, Najaf Shah, Shakeel Nawaz, Tahawar, M. Afzal,Yasir Ashfaq.Spinners: Shakeel Ahmed, Jawad Hameed, Sheraz Khalid,Iftikhar Mahmood, Ayaz Akbar, Riasat Mahmood, Munir Ansari.Wicketkeepers: Nadeem Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair,Mehboob Rasheed, SM Suleman.

The face off between the BCCI and the ICC has come to a predictableend with the chiefs of both the governing bodies issuing a jointstatement. The telephone lines between India and London were busy, asthere was a deadline to be met in the case of Sehwag. The ICC tooksome time before comprehending the viewpoint of the BCCI. The BCCI wasnever for going against the apex international body but it wanted theICC to do something about the anomalies in the way the refereescarried out their duties. Finally, the ICC has shown the requiredunderstanding and agreed to look into the issues raised by the BCCIPresident, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya.The series between England and India will now get underway and all theundue importance given to the Denness episode will thankfully bepushed to the back burner. The Englishmen have been here and haveplayed themselves in, so to speak, on Indian pitches. The results theyhave had may not be flattering but it would be prudent not to take thevisitors lightly.

Nasser Hussain is on a mission in more ways than one and it would be areal test for his team. The Englishmen had done well in the subcontinent the last time they played against Pakistan and Sri Lanka,which would really make them fancy their chances. Of course, they aremissing the likes of Atherton and Stewart but they still have enoughstrength in their batting to combat the Indian attack. The fact thatthere is a lot of inexperience in the Indian medium-pace departmentand that coupled with the fact that the spinners Harbhajan Singh andAnil Kumble also are under pressure to perform would give greatcomfort to the visitors.

Saurav Ganguly’s love-hate affair with the Indian selection committeecontinues. The Indian captain has come out with a strong statementafter he was not consulted before being given the team for the firstTest at Mohali. The entire bunch of medium-pacers from the squad inSouth Africa have been sacked and younger bowlers have been draftedin. The inclusion of a third spinner also comes as a surprise becausethe chances of playing all of them are frail. The third seamer maywell be Bangar but Ganguly may rather take up that responsibility. Thelack of harmony between the think tank and the selection committee isevident and this may prove to be beneficial for the visitors.If the track at Mohali behaves as it normally does, then theEnglishmen would stand upto the hosts in a manner contrary to theexpectations of Indian fans. The visitors are no strangers to seamingsurfaces and the relatively inexperienced Indian pace attack wouldpose no great threat to the England side. Mark Butcher and MarcusTrescothick, the likely England openers, are capable of making bigscores. Their middle-order batsmen are also good players of spinbowling.Hussain, for his part, is a tough nut and quite obviously he knowswhat to expect in India. He is though without his two main wickettakers, Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick, which leaves him with CraigWhite as the spearhead. Ashley Giles can be a handful on turningtracks but he is coming back to international cricket after a longbreak owing to injury.Given the fact that the Indians are trying to recover from the SouthAfrican blues, the visitors have a realistic chance of turning thetables in Mohali. If they miss out there, then it will be tough forthem to beat the Indians either in Ahmedabad or Bangalore.

Despite having to make a long journey to the north west with his family later in the day to visit relatives for Christmas, Somerset all rounder Mike Burns was at the County Ground early on Friday morning.Mike, who will be thirty three in a couple of months time, enjoyed his best ever season in 2001 and played a major part in helping the Cidermen enjoy the most successful season in their history.Mike told me, “Following the end of the season I’ve had a couple of weeks off, but since then I’ve been training in the Academy Fitness Centre three or four times a week.”He went on, “I’ve just done a course so that I can use the heavier weights that we now have in our new fitness room. I want to stay ahead of the game.” Mike carried on, “Since the end of the season I’ve trained harder than ever using some of the new equipment that we have got and I’m fitter.”He continued, “All of the lads have been training very hard. Now that we have got to the heights we want to stay there, we won’t be sitting back on our laurels.Everyone is making an effort to stay on top.”What was 2002 going to hold for the club I asked him. “If we get Matt Bulbeck back then we will have three quality seamers. His return to full fitness is just what we are looking for, and he will help to make Keith Dutch more effective. The success of last season will help to make the fringe players want to try harder and become part of that winning team.”He went on, “If we can get up and be near the leaders of County Championship early on then hopefully we have got a chance of staying there and being there or thereabouts at the end of the season.” Mike told me that he felt that Somerset had their best chance in the Norwich Union League next season. “We’ve got to push hard in the N.U.L. because that is the one that I think we should win. We have had two lopsided seasons-in 2000 we started well and fell away badly, then last season we picked up well at the end and ended fourth place.”He continued, “In the cups you can always have an off day, but in the N.U.L. you should only lose 2 or 3 games.”When Mike returns, early in the New Year he has to undergo an operation on his ankle. “I was carrying an injury for the last month of the season,” he told me and continued,” I’ve been receiving treatment but it hasn’t responded so I will be going into the Nuffield in Taunton for the operation. I will have to rest my ankle for a couple of weeks, but it wont stop me coming into the gym!” After we spoke Mike disappeared into the “dungeon” as the new fitness room which is situated away from the Academy Centre has been nicknamed by the players, for his final work before the festive break.

The Busta Cup may be the most important first-class tournament in theCaribbean, but the 2002 edition will see few Test stars and fewerpromising juniors take the field. While the international playersdepart for Sharjah even as the competition begins, the under-19cricketers are already in New Zealand fighting it out for the juniorWorld Cup title.The absence of the leading lights, however, should not prevent the Cupfrom being a tight-fought contest, a forum for emerging players toestablish themselves and call the attention of national selectors tothemselves. Defending champions Barbados, for example, include ex-Testcricketers Philo Wallace, Floyd Reifer and Courtney Browne, all ofwhom will be looking to break into the national side once again.Following the unique inclusion of a non-regional side in thetournament last year, the cricket authorities are all set to try itagain. After England ‘A’ in 2001, it is the turn of the Bangladeshsecond-stringers to try their hand at some Caribbean cricket. This islikely to prove invaluable for Bangladesh cricket, for their Test andone-day performances at the international level thus far have shown aserious paucity of experience.The opening match will see Barbados take on runners-up Guyana at theKensington Oval. Guyana finished on the same number of points asBarbados but relinquished the trophy due to their fewer victories.Along with Jamaica, the winners of the inaugural Busta InternationalShield last year, Barbados and Guyana are the top contenders for thechampionship this year.A round-robin league competition will be followed by the first fourteams competing in two semi-finals for a right to play in the final…

The England coach, Duncan Fletcher, has declined to comment on suggestions that Darren Gough may be asked to stay in New Zealand for the forthcoming Test series.The Yorkshire fast bowler was left out of the Test squad for New Zealand, along with Surrey’s Alec Stewart, after both players had made themselves unavailable for the tour of India before Christmas.”It has not been discussed,” Fletcher told a news conference earlier today. “It’s a complex issue and any movement has got to come from the chairman of the selection committee, David Graveney.”Fletcher has expressed concern over the form of Andy Caddick, who has only taken one wicket on the tour so far at a cost of 155 runs in three one-day matches, including figures of nought for 51 off 7.3 overs in the first one-day international at Christchurch, which New Zealand won by four wickets.”Caddick is not bowling too well,” Fletcher said. “He’s lost some oomph and we have to look at that area. Andy had a break from cricket for six months and at 32 it can take a long time to get back and perform.”By contrast, Gough took four wickets in two overs as England almost managed to turn the Christchurch game on its head on Wednesday.

ADELAIDE, Dec 18 AAP – South Australia plans to play three spinners to cope with an expected heat wave and a very flat Adelaide Oval pitch in the Pura Cup cricket match against Western Australia starting here tomorrow.SA skipper Greg Blewett said all three slow bowlers in the Redbacks 12 – John Davison, Mark Higgs and Brad Young – were likely to be included in the final 11 tomorrow morning.”That’s a real possibility, we’ll make the final decision tomorrow when we have another look at the wicket,” Blewett said.”But with the weather that’s forecast, and as I can bowl a bit as well … that’s the way we’re probably leaning at this stage.”SA has also included debutant Shaun Tait, a 20-year-old fast bowler who is the leading wicket-taker in the Adelaide club competition, and whom Blewett said had the ability to bowl dangerously quick.”He’s given me a couple sore toes in the nets, especially last season I got a couple on the feet,” he said.”He’s sharp and he adds a new dimension to our bowling attack.”This year we’ve been quite steady and just tried to keep it at two or three runs per over, but certainly with him coming in he is just raw pace and really lets them go.”We’re aiming to bowl him in fairly short bursts and just tell him to bowl as quick as he can.”Fellow SA paceman Paul Rofe said he was looking forward to bowling with Tait.”He does bowl fast and he tries to scare a few blokes, so that should be exciting, I think,” Rofe said.But he said the pitch and weather conditions could make things difficult for pacemen.With Test opener Justin Langer in the WA side, Rofe said dismissing him quickly would be crucial to SA’s chances, as he has shown a strong liking for the Adelaide Oval pitch in the past.”Hopefully we can get him out so he doesn’t bat all day, because he can quite easily do that,” Rofe said.WA today lost Brad Hogg and Ryan Campbell, who were called up to the Australian one-day side, from its squad.All-rounder Kade Harvey is a late replacement for Hoggwhile youngster Luke Ronchi, who impressed in his Pura Cup debut last week by scoring 90 and 33 against Tasmania, will replace Campbell in the Warriors team.Teams:SA: Greg Blewett (captain), Chris Davies, John Davison, Shane Deitz, David Fitzgerald, Ben Higgins, Mark Higgs, Paul Rofe, Mike Smith, Shaun Tait, Jeff Vaughan, Brad Young (12th man to be named).WA: Justin Langer (c), Mike Hussey (VC), Jo Angel, Beau Casson, Michael Clark, Murray Goodwin, Kade Harvey, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi, Adam Voges, Brad Williams, Paul Wilson.

England are struggling to avoid a serious batting crisis going into the first Test of their three-match National Bank series with New Zealand.Two collapses suffered against State Championship minnows Otago, their late arrivals from England all struggling for form and time in the middle, their leading batsman on the last day of their game against Otago, Marcus Trescothick, complaining of concentration problems and the prospect of no respite against a stronger Canterbury team in their next game starting on Thursday at Hagley Oval.The only point in England’s favour going into the Test has to be that New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond is still on the injured list.Trescothick admitted after today’s drawn game with Otago that he was tired after having played all of England’s one-dayers against India and New Zealand and in most of the other games on the Test section of the Indian tour.He was hopeful that he might be spared duty when Nasser Hussain returns to lead the side against Canterbury.”I find I’m not mentally switched on when I’m going out to bat.”I found that in the last two or three one-day games,” he said.It was a problem that needed to be assessed as soon as it happened to find out what was going wrong and try hard to put it right.”I’ve found it very tough to concentrate. I’ve been going out and working really hard in the nets, almost twice as hard as I normally do, trying to get it right but the mental side of it has been the problem and being able to concentrate properly,” he said.Trescothick said he had a similar problem last summer when scoring five centuries in six innings just before the first Test against Australia. He took a week off before the second Test and scored a century in the second innings so on that occasion the break had worked.It was a fact with the amount of cricket being played that this sort of thing happened.”If anything I need a bit more of a break than the constant cricket,” he said.However, his innings of 68 today in England’s second innings had been of some comfort to him as he found his batting rhythm returning and he was pleased with his shot selection.His newly-arrived team-mates from England did struggle to make an impact however and it would be tough for them to be ready in time for the Test.”Two games to warm up is all right for those who were here for the one-day games, the rest of the guys, I don’t know. Having come from England where there was no outdoor practice, it will be tough for them,” he said.While not dominating Otago, England had managed to “cover” them, he said and there had been some good opportunities for the bowlers to have a good, long bowl.”We should have batted a lot better than we did, we still came out of it OK,” he said.Leading bowler Andy Caddick did pick up seven wickets during the game and he had a good work out.”He’s still got a little bit of work to do – his rhythms were coming back the more and more he bowled. He came back right at the end bowling five overs, sometimes I’ve seen him and that’s the best time he bowls, when he is quite tired. Sort of running him into the ground almost, as he tends to get a bit more rhythm,” Trescothick said.