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South Africa are expected to name a full-strength squad for the three-match ODI series against India starting in June, with all players with county commitments set to be released for national duty. South Africa will also play a one-off match against Ireland at Belfast on June 24.”The matches against India are official ODIs,” Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa’s chief executive, told . “So the team will be at full strength and those players taking part in the County Championship will be expected to return to duty.”The series is part of India’s off-shore commitments in neutral venues, for which the Board of Control for Cricket in India sold the telecast rights last year to a sports channel to broadcast a minimum of 25 matches between April 2006 and March 2011. The Ireland tour will be South Africa’s first international series since the World Cup, though a few players will represent a combined African XI for the Afro-Asia Cup to be held in India early June.The three-match series will be held on June 26, 29 and July 1.

Brian Lara believes that the youngsters in West Indian cricket need to be made aware of their rich cricketing legacy if the team is to regain its lost pride. Talking about the 2007 World Cup, Lara said the event was important to “ensure we will have players for the future” and added that the current crop of talent should be handled with patience.”You have to realise that we have a bunch of young guys who are learning to play at the international level, which is never the best thing,” he told while in Chennai. “We’ll have to be patient and see this period through.”Lara, Test cricket’s highest run-getter, spoke passionately about restoring pride in a side having a rich cricketing past. “Anybody who has been part of the success we had in the past should pass it along because we’ve got a young team, some of who have played 10-11 Tests without a win,” he said. “That’s my motivation so late in my career, to try and get West Indies to the top, well if not quite the top, to make us a very competitive team.” He added that it was imperative that youngsters in the West Indian ranks should be made aware of the feats of “some of the greatest cricketers — George Headley, the three Ws [Worrell, Weekes, Walcott], Sir Garry [Sobers], Viv Richards”.Lara also admitted that scoring runs in losing causes was very difficult. “There was this press conference at Adelaide after I went past Border’s record [for most runs in Tests] and scored a double-hundred and I was asked how it felt to make a double-hundred and end up losing for the third time. To be asked something like that with the match still not over was a significant indicator of where our cricket is,” he said. “Lengthening my career is not something in my hands, it’s up to the selectors. But, I’d like to continue till I’m an asset, the moment I become a liability, I’ll give it up. As long as I feel I’m mentally and physically ready, I will go along.”Lara also backed Sachin Tendulkar – his “best friend in the Indian team” and “most favourite batsman in the world” – to overcome his current slump and shoulder injury. “Form is temporary, class is permanent. He is my favourite batsman in the world, as I’m sure he is of many others,” he said. “He’s a class act and he’ll come through.”

Charlie Marshall, Bermuda’s 44-year-old batsman, has been kicked out of the squad for next month’s ICC Trophy.Local papers report that Marshall was removed on disciplinary grounds following a report of a training-ground quarrel with Clay Smith, Bermuda’s captain, last week.The incident was reported to the selectors by Gus Logie, the former West Indies international who now coaches Bermuda, and sources claim that the decision was taken because of Marshall’s “consistent, disturbing, disruptive behaviour.”Logie admitted that Marshall’s absence would be a blow, but stressed that “no one player is greater than the team.” He added: “We want people to conform to the team norms and ideals and if people are not willing to do that obviously they will have to face the consequences. Every action has a reaction. At the end of the day this may not be what we would want but, obviously, discipline must reign.”There was further bad news when it was revealed that Kevin Hurdle, a frontline bowler, had also been ruled out because of a hamstring injury. Chris Foggo, and opening batsman, and Wendell White, an allrounder, have been added to the squad.

New Zealand A 224 for 9 (How 53) beat Sri Lanka A 178 (Mills 4-23) by 46 runs
Scorecard
Kyle Mills broke the backbone of the Sri Lanka A batting line-up, as New Zealand A coasted to a 46-run win in the first match at Lincoln. Chasing 225, the Sri Lankan batsmen couldn’t stitch up any sizeable partnerships as Mills pegged them back with four crucial wickets. They were bowled out for 178, with Bruce Martin and Chris Harris cleaning up the tail.The match was also noteworthy for the return of Shane Bond. Bond, who is recovering from a back injury, sent down nine overs, which included three no-balls and a wide, but couldn’t pick up any wickets.After winning the toss New Zealand A did not put up an imposing total, as they had done with regularity in the five-day games. Jamie How, the opener, anchored the innings with a steady 53, but wickets fell at regular intervals and the New Zealanders were shakily placed at 134 for 5. That was when Chris Harris and Gareth Hopkins put on 58 and lifted them to a competetive 224. In the end, it turned out to be a winning total.

MELBOURNE, Feb 19 AAP – Shane Warne’s drugs case hearing is set to go ahead by the end of the week after his B sample result was given to the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) today.Australian Sports and Drug Agency (ASDA) spokesman Shawn Winnett said Warne had waived his right to lodge a technical complaint against its testing system, and the test result had now been passed on to the ACB.Warne was informed of his B sample result several days ago after initially testing positive to the banned diuretics hydrochlorthiazide and amiloride on January 22.But his lawyers had been considering a challenge to the validity of the testing procedure.”The process is now wrapped up from our end and it’s now with the sport,” Winnett said.”It’s up to the ACB now to convene its hearing.”The athlete has seven days to make a submission if he has any concerns about the testing process.”They can waive the right and it then moves on to the next step, which it has in this case.”ACB spokesman Peter Young confirmed the board had received Warne’s B sample result and a hearing date was almost certain to be set by the end of today.”We’re now moving towards setting up a hearing as soon as we can,” Young said.”That could happen as early as the end of the week.”But we do have some practical issues to work through, which could mean the hearing being held early next week.”We hope to know by the end of the day when exactly the hearing will be.”Meanwhile, a newspaper reports claims that Warne’s positive drug test indicated the presence of more than one banned diuretic tablet.The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a source close to the investigation as saying Warne’s drug test showed a result that reflected the use of more than one diuretic tablet.”Warne must have taken more than one tablet to get the effect he has registered,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying.That would contradict statements by Warne that he took just one banned diuretic tablet, given to him by his mother, Brigitte.

• It was the 1549th Test match in cricket history.
• It was India’s 341st and Zimbabwe’s 52nd Test match – seventh betweenthese two sides.
• It was the 28th Test match on Zimbabwean soilfourth between thesetwo sides.
• Umpire Ian Robinson was officiating in his 25th Test match. He becamefirst Zimbabwean and 31st umpire in Test annals to reach thislandmark. The other umpire Asoka de Silva was standing in his thirdTest.
• Hemang Badani and Travis Friend became the 237th and 51st player torepresent India and Zimbabwe respectively. By an odd coincidence boththese players have appeared in 13 matches each for their respectivesides.
• Grant Flower was playing his 50th Test match. He became thirdZimbabwean after brother Andy and Alistair Campbell (52) and 171stplayer in all to have reached this milestone.
• Rahul Dravid on 25 in first innings became the highest run-scoreragainst Zimbabwe in Tests moving ahead of New Zealander Nathan Astlewho has an aggregate of 662 runs from 9 Tests and 15 innings. At theend of this match Dravid has scored 732 runs from five Tests and 8innings. Tendulkar with 664 runs from 7 Tests and 11 innings has movedto second place behind Dravid.
• Andy Blignaut’s three catches in first innings equalled the bestperformance by a Zimbabwean in the field in an innings against India.Guy Whittall had also taken three catches in the first innings of theBulawayo Test just a week ago.
• Andy Flower completed his 1000 Test runs against India when his scorereached 18 in first innings. He became first Zimbabwean and 22ndbatsman in all to have accomplished this feat. At the end of thismatch Andy has taken his aggregate to 1043 runs from 14 innings ofseven Tests against India. Flower The accompanying table lists thebatsman with 1000 runs in a career against India. It might be notedthat Andy’s average of 128.37 is the highest among this elite band.

Batsmen with a career aggregate of 1000 runs against India :

• The remarkable thing about Andy’s feat is that he needed only sevenTests to complete his 1000 runs.Flower now shares the record ofcompleting 1000 runs in a career against India in least Test matcheswith West Indian Everton Weekes. Weekes, however, is the fastest interms of innings as he accomplished this feat in four innings lesserthan Andy.
• Andy is now jointly placed second among the batsmen reaching 1000 runsin a career against a particular country in least matches alongwithWest Indian Everton Weekes, Australia’s Don Bradman and Doug Walterswith West Indian Viv Richards heading the table. Richards took onlysix Tests to achieve a runaggregate of 1000 against England. AnotherWest Indian Weekes holds the world record of being the fastest inleast innings as he took only nine inning to complete his 1000 runsagainst India. The details:

Fastest to complete 1000 test runs against a specific country :

• Heath Streak,on 11 in first innings,completed his 1000 runs in 40thTest. He became seventh Zimbabwean and 363rd batsman in Test annals toreach this landmark. The batsman with a career aggregate of 1000 runsfor Zimbabwe are :Andy Flower (3908 runs in 52 Tests), Grant Flower(2812 runs in 50 Tests), Alistair Campbell (2307 runs in 52 Tests),GuyWhittall (2056 runs in 41 Tests), Dave Houghton (1464 runs in 22Tests),Murray Goodwin (1414 runs in 19 Tests) and Heath Streak (1037runs in 40 Tests).
• With this, Streak also completed the coveted double of 1000 runs and100 wickets, becoming the first Zimbabwean and 36th allrounder to doso.
• Grant Flower,on 10 in first innings, became only the second batsmanafter brother Andy to reach 1000 runs at Harare Sports Club Ground. Atthe end of this Test,Grant has an aggregate of 1079 runs from 17 Testsafter Andy’s 1098 runs from 18 Tests.
• Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra by returning the figures of four for71 and four for 72 achieved the two best figures by an Indian bowlerin Zimbabwe. Anil Kumble had figures of four for 87 at this same venuein 1998-99.
• Sachin Tendulkar,on 19 in second innings,became the second highestrun-getter for India in Tests. He surpassed Dilip Vengsarkar’s tallyof 6868 runs from 116 matches and 185 innings. Tendulkar overhauledVengsarkar’s aggregate in 32 Tests and 50 innings lesser. Now onlySunil Gavaskar with 10122 runs in 125 Tests and 214 innings is aheadof Tendulkar. Tendulkar,with 6919 runs at the end of this Test,isplaced 23rd in the list of leading Test batsmen.It is interesting tonote that Tendulkar’s average of 57.18 is second only to Don Bradman’s99.94.
• Tendulkar now has 53 scores of fifty plus on this name including 25hundreds which takes him past Vengsarkar who has 52 such scores (17hundreds and 35 fifties) to his credit. Only Gavaskar has more fiftyplus scores 79 (34+45) among Indian batsmen.
• Tendulkar now has aggregated 2004 runs in 25 Tests (ave 40.08) in thematches lost by India . He became second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar(2314 runs in 34 Tests) and 11th batsman in all to aggregate 2000 runsin the `lost’ matches. For the record Australia’s Allan Border has themaximum run aggregate of 2771 runs (ave.33.39) in 46 Tests lost byAustralia. The accompanying tables have details.

Most runs in `lost’ matches

• The duck in second innings was eighth for Ajit Agarkar in his tenthTest and 16th innings. Agarkar’s duck frequency of 50 % is the highestin Test cricket by a batsman aggregating atleast five ducks in acareer. The details :

Highest duck percentage in a career(Min 5 ducks)

• Ashish Nehra became 27th Indian to bag a Test match pair (i.e. duck inboth innings) on 36th occasion. He also achieved the dubiousdistinction of becoming the first Indian to suffer this ignominyagainst Zimbabwe. The other batsmen to do so against Zimbabwe arePakistan’s Manzoor Elahi (1994-95) and Mushtaq Ahmed (1997-98),WestIndian Adrian Griffith (1999-00) and Bangladesh’s Manjural Islam andMohammad Sharif (2000-01).
• Blignaut (5-74) became the third Zimbabwean to take a five wicket haulagainst India. Interestingly all three have performed this feat thissame ground. John Traicos (5-86) in 1992-93 and Henry Olonga (5-70)are the others to do so.
• Javagal Srinath now has taken 192 wickets in 52 Tests which puts himahead of Erapally Prasanna who had 189 wickets from 49 Tests to hiscredit. Now only Kapil Dev (434 wickets in 131 Tests), Anil Kumble(276 in 61), Bishan Singh Bedi (266 in 67) and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar(242 in 58) are ahead of Srinath for India.
• With the series tied at 1-1,India now has still not won a Test seriesoutside the sub-continent since 1986 when it defeated England by 2-0margin.
• The win was Zimbabwe’s sixth in 52 matches. Interestingly Zimbabwe hasnow beaten three neighbouring countries India, Pakistan and Bangladeshon two occasions each.
• The defeat was India’s 71st in 159th Test on foreign soil and secondin four Tests in Zimbabwe.
• At the end of this series :
• India’s overall Test record :played 341,won 66,lost 114,drawn 160 andtied one.
• Zimbabwe’s overall Test record:played 52,won 6,lost 26 and drawn 20.
• Saurav Ganguly’s captaincy record :played 8,won 5,lost 2 and drawnone.
• Heath Streak’s captaincy record :played 9,won 3,lost 4 and drawn 2.
  

New South Wales 3 for 172 (Katich 86*, Hughes 73) trail Tasmania 398 (Di Venuto 144, Paine 72, Krejza 65) by 226 runs
Scorecard

The captain Simon Katich led from the front again as New South Wales chased two first-innings points that could prove vital for hosting the Pura Cup final. With two rounds to go the Blues need more points than Victoria, who share the lead on 33, and Katich gave them hope of moving ahead with an unbeaten 86 against Tasmania.New South Wales were 3 for 172 at stumps on day two and require another 227 to overhaul the home side’s first innings. Katich entered at the difficulty of 2 for 27, but he steadied the situation with the opener Phillip Hughes, who returned from Australia’s Under-19 World Cup campaign after they lost in the quarter-finals. It was a successful decision as Hughes reached 73, his highest first-class score, before edging Brett Geeves to Tim Paine.Paine had a successful day with bat and gloves, accepting the early catches of Phil Jaques (4) and Peter Forrest (8), but the Tigers could not remove Katich. His pulling was strong during his stay of 123 balls and he picked up 11 fours. He has the double incentive of points for his team and improving his chances of posting a domestic record after reaching 1245 runs for the season, 219 short of the mark held by Michael Bevan.The morning started with Paine and Jason Krejza combining in an important stand of 129 after resuming at 6 for 291. The partnership was a great help to Tasmania and Paine was rewarded with 72 – he went to a run-out from Forrest – while Krejza scored 65 before he became the second of Dominic Thornely’s two wickets. Mark Cameron finished the innings on 398 and collected 3 for 111.

Glenn McGrath believes Australia should defeat England comfortably when the teams meet in their Super Eights match in Antigua on Sunday. However, Australia will need to keep their momentum up after an eight-day break between games, which McGrath said was “too long”.McGrath has faced England in 32 ODIs and 30 Tests but Sunday’s game will be his last encounter against his old rivals unless the two sides meet in the semi-finals or final. Following on from his correct tip that Australia would win the Ashes 5-0, McGrath said Australia deserved to be favourites in Antigua.”The way England have been playing and the way we have been playing, we should win this game pretty well,” McGrath told . Australia are unbeaten from five games in the West Indies, while England have lost to New Zealand and enjoyed less-than-convincing victories over Canada, Kenya and Ireland.McGrath said England’s surprise win in the CB Series in February meant little as lifting the World Cup was the ultimate goal. “They played well to finish off the summer in Australia, we probably let our guard down a bit,” McGrath said. “Since we’ve been over here we’ve prepared exactly the way we wanted to prepare and we’ve played some awesome cricket. To be honest, no team has really got close to us.”I have always enjoyed playing England. Potentially, it could be the last time I come up against these guys before I hang the boots up so it would be nice to finish on a good note.”McGrath is Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 12 and has also broken Wasim Akram’s record for the most victims in World Cups. However, he might require extra focus to keep up that form as Australia’s last match was on Saturday, meaning by the time they face England they will have had more than a week off.”It’s good you can get around the islands and have a bit of a break,” McGrath said. “But when you are in a tournament like this and playing well, you want to keep the momentum up. Eight days off in between games, that’s probably a bit too long.”After the England clash, Australia will have four days’ rest before taking on Ireland in Barbados. They then travel to Grenada and wrap up their Super Eights campaign against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Roger Brathwaite, CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday announced he will be leaving the position effective April 28.On making the announcement Brathwaite said: “I am extremely happy with the contribution I have made to the Board and to West Indies cricket on a whole during my tenure with the WICB. The Board, over this period has been able to generate a profit of US$1.3 million in 2003 and US$ 3.6 million in 2004, stemming three years of losses. The recent securing of a multi million dollar loan facility for the Board to assist with its cash flow crisis will allow it to operate the day to day business of the Board through until March 2007.”The past four years have been quite challenging, and now I leave having done the best I could within the organisation framework. I received outstanding support from my staff and management team, directors and committee members, both past and present for which I will always be grateful,” he added.Brathwaite took up the post of Chief Marketing Executive with the Board in May 2002 and was later promoted to the position of CEO in April 2003.Commenting on Brathwaite’s decision, Ken Gordon, the WICB president said: “The Board recognises Roger’s contribution first as Chief Marketing Executive and then as CEO. I have relied on his sound knowledge of the business of cricket, his absolute integrity and his tireless commitment to West Indies cricket. As he moves on to a further phase of his career we wish him well. In fact there are avenues in which we may well continue to work together to assist in the resurgence of West Indies cricket.”The Board thanks Roger for his contribution and the commitment he has demonstrated to the organisation.”

What was an excellent season on the field for Tama Canning was spoilt after a late-night drinking session left him red-faced and out of pocket.Canning allegedly urinated over a bar in an Auckland nightclub last week. He told an Auckland Cricket Association (ACA) meeting that he had no recollection of the incident, but accepted that his behaviour at the bar was inappropriate due to his heavy consumption of alcohol on the night.After discussion of the alleged incident Canning acknowledged he was in breach of his Domestic Playing Agreement, and that his actions were clearly not in the best interests of the ACA or himself.As a result, he was fined an undisclosed amount by the ACA, while a support programme will be put in place to ensure there is no repetition of the incident.”This is an extremely unfortunate incident that reflects very badly on Tama after he had enjoyed a successful season on the field,” said Andrew Eade, the ACA’s chief executive. “He deeply regrets his behaviour and understands that it is totally unacceptable if he wishes to remain part of Auckland cricket in the future.”Canning and the ACA have both apologised to the nightclub.