Stewart finds form under weight of captaincy

LONDON, May 16: No job in English sport ages its incumbent more than managing the national soccer team.

Leading the country’s cricket side comes a close second, though.

After a year in the job, Alec Stewart’s face is noticeably more lined and his relationship with the media markedly more testy than when he was Michael Atherton’s right-hand man.

On the eve of England’s opening World Cup match against Sri Lanka, Stewart refused to express concern about a lack of batting form that England supporters put down to the surrey man having to open the innings, keep wicket and captain the side.

After England beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets, their path to the second round was clearer and Stewart had been named man of the match.

But Stewart, aware of the long World Cup road ahead and England’s patchy record in the event, remained determinedly downbeat despite three catches and an assured innings of 88.

We are just taking each game as it comes, he said, perhaps parodying his reputation for speaking in cliches. "We’ve won one game and that’s a very good start".

It was a very good performance. Obviously a good toss to win, the ball did move about in both innings.

When we came to bat it was a very good solid performance. It was a pleasing win and a very good professional performance.

In conditions ideally suited to their battery of seam bowlers, england were certainly professional and efficient at lord’s. (REUTERS)

Spring weather should suit New Zealand

LONDON, May 16: Any team condemned to play regularly in Dunedin have nothing to fear from an English spring.

Based partly on their familiarity with cool, damp weather, the New Zealanders, who open their World Cup campaign against Bangladesh at Chelmsford tomorrow, are considered a good outside bet at 20-1.

Dunedin, the scots settlement in the South of the South island, can be a grim place to play any sport. At one World Cup match in 1992 spectators lit fires to keep warm.

New Zealand have yet to experience weather that cold this may and, in fact, have been lucky with the weather while winning each of their three warm-up matches.

Captain Stephen Fleming agrees that the weather in the South island comes close to replicating an english spring. We are obviously more suited to playing in these conditions than perhaps the teams from the sub-continent, he said.

Twenty to one is a pretty good bet but we have got a lot of work to do, the other teams are playing very well.

New Zealand, a far more competitive team in the one-day game than the five-day, have genuine cause for optimism in the weaker of the two groups.

They start with Bangladesh, finish with Scotland, and need to beat one of Australia, West Indies or Pakistan, to grab a second round berth.

There’s no way we just target one game, Fleming said. A lot of people are talking about the West Indies but you get a green, seaming pitch and you lose the toss and all of a sudden the opportunity is gone. (REUTERS)

ICC clears Murali

COLOMBO, May 16: Sri Lankan off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan has been cleared by the International Cricket Council (ICC) of charges of ‘chucking’ after he was no-balled for throwing during his team’s tour to Australia last winter, media reports here said.

Fresh scrutiny of video footage of Muralitharan’s bowling action has not shown any evidence of throwing, ‘the Sunday Times’ quoted ICC Disciplinary Committee member Sir Clyde Walcott as saying.

Murali has been studied again since Adelaide and still there is no evidence that he is transgressing the law as it stands, former ICC chairman Sir Clyde told the weekend paper.

Reacting to the news of ICC clearance, Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga said as far as we are concerned Murali has always been clean. But the announcement that the panel still sees nothing wrong with his bowling action could not have come at a better time.

Ranatunga told the paper that the ICC decision would remove the whispering campaign against Muralitharan.

He said the off spinner was no under much pressure now as he was not being targeted by the english crowds unlike the Australian fans. Crowd chanted Chucker Every time he bowled in Australia last winter. (PTI)

Vishal Club lifts 2nd Rajinder Memorial Cricket Cup

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 16: Superb three-wicket haul by Surinder Singh Bagal helped Vishal Cricket Club (VCC) to take home the 2nd Rajinder Memorial Cricket Cup beating Kishan Chand Cricket Club (KCCC) by seven wickets in the final which held at Parade Ground, here today.

KCCC, who won the toss and decided to bat were bowled out by VCC at a low score of 138 with left-arm medium pacer Surinder Singh, who is main Ranji Trophy bowler of J&K claiming three wickets for 24 off 5.4 overs.

Surinder was fully supported by David, another right-arm medium pacer in his attack, who took two wickets for two off two overs including a maiden over.

Rajesh Gill and Rohit Mattoo, Ranji players then opened the innings, but could not make much runs, when Rajesh (5) was bowled by Ashok Gupta when score on board was 33.

Then Tariq joined Mattoo to chase the easy target and they brought the total to 57 when Mattoo was trapped before the wicket by Shashi. Mattoo scored 26 runs.

Thereafter, Tariq and Rajesh Koul added 30 more runs to the total bringing the score nearer to the victory. The winning boundary ultimately came from the bat of Vivek Sharma, who remained not out at 19. While, Tariq contributed highest unbeaten 30 runs including four boundaries.

However, it took VCC 2.1 overs to hit the winning stroke after they equalised the total.

For KCCC, Ashok Gupta took one wicket for 30 off 5 overs, while another wicket was claimed by Shashi Kumar for 29 off 6 overs.

Earlier, KCCC could not play complete 30 overs when they lost their remaining four wickets adding only 11 runs with 3.2 overs yet to be bowled.

Accept fifth wicket partnership of 46 runs between Shashi (39) and Subash (22), besides a 34 runs opening stand by Rajat (13) and Rajinder (4), other batsmen gave dismal performance.

Surinder Singh Bagal was declared man of the match, while the man of the series award went to KCCC all-rounder Shashi Kumar.

Last year, both the finalists had lost in the semi-final stage.

Mr Kuldeep Kuda, IGP, Jammu Range was the chief guest, who also distributed prizes among the winners and runners-up, besides presented mementos to distinguished guests, who contributed for the success of the tournament.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kuda lauded the efforts of the Balwinder Cricket Club, who is organising this tournament every year for the promotion of cricket in Jammu.

He further stressed that big entrepreneurs of the state should come forward for sponsoring such tournaments, which help in exploiting the hidden talent.

Later, a memento was presented to the chief guest by Gourav and Anuj, sons of Rajinder in whose memory the tournament was organised.

While presenting vote of thanks, the organizers of the tournament, Mr Rajesh Sharma and Sudhir Singh of Balwinder Cricket Club expressed their gratitude to all those, who helped in one or the other way, especially the Manager Stadium, Mr Ajit Singh and Administrator Jammu Municipality in making the tournament a success.

The tournament which was begun on April 25 was organised by the Balwinder Cricket Club, Jammu. In all, 16 teams of different cricket clubs of Jammu participated in the 22-day event.

The tournament is being organised every year in memory of late Rajinder, who was an brilliant player of Balwinder Club. He died at a young age of 38 years due to Jaundice. He held a higher post in MRF group and was incharge of Jammu depot at the time of his death.

Tough tie against S Africa should help, says Azhar

LEICESTER, May 16: Indian skipper Mohd Azharuddin today defended his electing to bat first against South Africa though his team fell short of a big total, but felt the World Cup opener had toughened up the Indians despite the four-wicket defeat at Hove.

‘I think ideally we should have had a 270-plus total. We did fall 20-30 runs short of an ideal total,’ the Indian skipper said as the team moved here for the second tie against Zimbabwe on May 19 at the Grace Road venue.

‘Hopefully we have learnt our lessons. South Africa paced their innings and never gave up. That’s the way good teams play.

‘I get the feeling this match toughened us up. We knew this was going to be the most difficult game, and although we lost i though we came out of it pretty well,’ Azhar was quoted by AFP as saying.

But the skipper said a re-think on Indian bowling in the slog overs was required. ‘We need a re-think about the final overs. But the fact remains that 250 would be a winning score against most teams,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Azhar backed his decision to bat first. ‘We had practised on adjoining squares for two days before the match and it was flat enough to prompt our decision,’ he said.

After the tie brought out India’s strength of batting to their optimum and deficiency of indisciplined bowling and poor running between wickets, they will have their work cut out against the African team which has been boosted by a sound five-wicket win over kenya yesterday at Taunton. (PTI)

Indians seek to shrug off defeat

LEICESTER, May 16: India will have two full days to analyse the positive and negative aspects from their opening Cricket World Cup group ‘A’ tie defeat against favourites South Africa at Hove yesterday.

The Indian team arrived here today ahead of their second league clash against Zimbabwe, looking to quickly shrug off the reversal in their toughest outing in the league phase.

The 1983 champions returned to familiar surroundings, having made leicester the base during their acclimatisation period, ahead of their May 19 clash against Zimbabwe.

The African side’s confidence has been boosted by their solid five-wicket win over lowly Kenya in their opening tie yesterday.

The only previous international tie held at the grace road venue involved these two countries - a group match of the 1983 edition which India had won by five wickets.

The Indian management had much work at hand as the defeat brought their strengths and deficiencies into sharp focus.

The Hove tie clearly showed batting was their strength if performed at optimum level while indisciplined bowling and poor running between wickets which cost the team crucial runs stood out as the inadequacies. (PTI)

India can take heart from fighting performance

From Sanjay Manjrekar

HOVE, May 16: India did not make many mistakes in their nerve-wracking first match of the 1999 World Cup against South Africa and must take heart from that performance for the battles ahead.

The Indians lost a golden opportunity to upset the rusty South African outfit yesterday, but they played well before being undone by the absence of an effective fifth bowler.

Jacques Kallis is the emerging star of the South African side. After that maiden test hundred against the Australians, the young batsman from cape town has made steady and sure progress at the international level. Yesterday he looked a potentially great batsman.

Kallis happened to be playing for South Africa here at Hove so his was the team that emerged victorious from this big opener for both teams.

The Indians came to the ground to find bright sunshine welcoming them. The wicket also gave them a reason to smile for not often does one see a white dry wicket this time of the year in England.

The outfield was nice and quick. Everything very much like back home. The Indians could not have asked for better cricketing conditions going into their first game in the tournament in England.

The moral of the whole exercise to me was India played extremely well. The South Africans did not play to their potential but still won comfortably in the end.

That just goes to show the relative strengths of the two teams. Everybody who wanted the South Africans to play at Sussex’s lovely ground got to see the reason why this team is looked at as the favourites for this tournament.

They saw a team playing way below their best but still getting the better of a competent side like India. South Africa are bound to improve from here. I leave it to your imagination what they will achieve when that happens.

India ended up on the losing side having failed to cash in on a golden opportunity to upset a rusty South African outfit, but I am sure the Indian coach won’t have too many harsh words to say to his team.

India played well in a nerve-wracking first game of a mega contest. He would look at the positive outcome of the match - the success of his opening pair Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly who came together after a while.

Any uncertainty about their batting positions would have vanished. Both had good starts. Ganguly managed to go a distance but failed to achieve what would have been his most deserved hundred because of the brilliance of Jonty Rhodes.

Dravid carried on with his form on the trip. Azhar looked out of touch to start with but managed a decent outing in the end.

The Indian batting was generally good and if an ideal score of 275 was not achieved, it was due to the batsmen’s inability to convert the ones into twos. This will always be a handicap for the Indians when they play strong teams.

The bowling unfortunately was not equal to the task. The Indians were searching for the fifth bowler in Robin Singh, Ganguly and Tendulkar. They could not find him today and that ultimately proved fatal.

As for the crucial question of fifth bowler, I don’t think India should be experimenting too much at this stage. There is no reason the team should be chopped and changed only because we lost to South Africa.

In all, it was a tacky performance by both sides playing their first game. Both teams were good in patches, but to beat a team that kept throwing in dangerous batsmen one after the other was always going to be a tall order for the opponent.

The gain from the match was when the Indians play any other side in the World Cup, they all know now that it will not be as tough a task.

Now, coming to our next game against Zimbabwe at Leicester on Wednesday, India start as favourites, especially given the way they performed against the proteas.

Leicester, it must also be remembered, was the ‘Home’ for the Indians during their acclimatisation period of three weeks before the start of the World Cup. There is a first hand understanding of the conditions and the team has familiarised itself well and that should come handy.

The ‘ear piece’ issue unfolded quite dramatically. It was quite prominent, more so since the TV cameras are so good and don’t miss anything these days.

It appeared something like plaster that cricketers carry on their faces and you tend to ignore such things. But once the suspicion was raised and later confirmed, everyone was taken aback, including me.

Obviously, there is nothing in the rules book which stops you from doing it, but the authorities took the right decision under the circumstances since the World Cup is no place for such innovations.

It is a long step forward and the authorities need good time to discuss and understand its implications before passing their stand on it.

Still, it is something about which cricket world should prepare itself. It is a long step forward as far as cricket is concerned.

Since their entry into the international arena, south africans have been experimenting and introducing new ideas. Now this is only the latest measure to have been introduced by them. (PTI)

Aussies made to work by debutants Scotland

WORCESTER, May 16: World Cup hopefuls Australia launched their campaign in lacklustre fashion as debutants Scotland made the former champions work hard for a win in their opening group ‘B’ match by six wickets here today.

The Scots, who boast of just two professional players in their ranks, frustrated the Australian applecart by playing all 50 overs to score 181-7 and then enthralled home crowd by making the Kangroos struggle for the win.

Australian skipper Steve Waugh sparkled with the bat smashing unbeaten 49 runs to steer his team to a six wicket victory after two quick dismissals had made them see red.

Steve Waugh and one-day specialist Michael Bevan (11 not out) cantered the required runs to see Australia through with 5.1 overs to spare.

Chasing a meagre target, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann all failed to impress with the bat, but thanks to opener Mark Waugh’s (67), the uninspiring Australians were always out of danger.

Mark Waugh lost his opening partner Gilchrist (6) early on but added 84 runs with Ponting (33) for the second wicket before the Aussies, from 101-1, were put into embarrassing position to 101-3.

A 1000-1 rank outsiders Scotland were never in the game but they fought well and avoided being humilated by the far superior rivals.

Put in to bat, all-rounders Gavin Hamilton and James Brinkley shared a 62-run sixth wicket stand and almost succeeded in rattling a big total against their much-vaunted opponents. (PTI)

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